'Curb Your Enthusiasm': Meg Ryan to guest along with 'Seinfeld' cast, but there's a catch
We're just three months away from the seventh season debut of Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and the anticipation continues to build as the show has just added another big name guest star to their roster.
EW.com reports that America's rom com queen of yesteryear, Ms. Meg Ryan, will appear in an episode.
The cast of "Seinfeld," Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, have also signed on to play themselves in a storyline that will span several eps.
This news was first reported by EW.com back in March, and was touted as the first time that all four actors will appear together in a scripted TV show since "Seinfeld" took its final bow more than a decade ago.
I am told that there is, however, a catch.
A source close to "Curb" says there isn't a single scene in the "Seinfeld" cast's entire "Curb" arc in which all four actors appear together.
So, yeah, that's not exactly the "reunion" we were expecting, is it?
Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus and Alexander have all made individual appearances on "Curb" -- which, of course, was created by and stars "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David -- in the past.
"Transformers" director rips studio in leaked memo
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Powerhouse Hollywood director Michael Bay, who returns to theaters worldwide on Wednesday with a "Transformers" sequel, has blasted the marketing efforts of the film's studio, Paramount Pictures.
In a memo sent last month to top brass at the Viacom Inc unit, and published on Sunday by celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, Bay complained there was no buzz surrounding "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
"Right now we are not an event. We are just a sequel, which is very different. There is no anticipation. Remember back to 'Spider-Man 2' -- it was everywhere," he wrote.
Bay added that advance word on the $200 million robot extravaganza in publications like Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times had been an "abject failure," and he described as "lame" a plan for him to preview a small clip at the MTV Movie Awards this month.
"I cannot figure if this is a cash issue with your company? Is there some clever idea why we are not spending? I'm not sure," he said. "I'm sure though the movie will do fine, but not to your internal expectations because right now we are fooling ourselves by being cocky."
But in a second e-mail, sent June 6, Bay compared Paramount to a family and thanked the executives for "busting your butts and bringing your 'A game' for the release of Transformers."
A Paramount spokeswoman declined to comment other than to point out that the latter e-mail "clearly speaks to a differing stance than the former." Two of the top production executives on Bay's e-mail list were coincidentally ousted on Friday amid a failure to speed up production of in-house movies.
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is the follow-up to "Transformers," which earned $708 million worldwide in 2007. Bay, 44, recently told Forbes magazine that he earned $80 million from that film.
Early reviews of the latest film have been unfavorable. In Britain, where the film debuted at No. 1 this weekend, The Guardian newspaper said the 150-minute movie was "like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan."
Bullock's 'Proposal' woos date crowds with $34.1M
LOS ANGELES – Movie audiences accepted a proposal from Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, who scored the summer's first big romantic comedy hit.
Bullock and Reynolds' "The Proposal" took in $34.1 million to open as the weekend's No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Disney flick delivered the biggest opening ever for Bullock, nearly double that of her previous best of $17.6 million for the 2007 paranormal thriller "Premonition."
Bullock stars as a ruthless publishing executive who coerces her put-upon assistant (Reynolds) into a fake marriage so she can avoid deportation back to her native Canada.
"I think the market was ready for a really fun, broad romantic comedy," said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion-picture group.
"The Proposal" took over the top spot from the Warner Bros. bachelor-party comedy "The Hangover," which slipped to second place with $26.9 million. A surprise smash hit, "The Hangover" raised its total to $152.9 million.
Disney's animated adventure "Up" was No. 3 with $21.3 million, lifting its total to $224.1 million and following Paramount's "Star Trek" as the second movie of 2009 to cross the $200 million mark.
Debuting in the fourth spot with $20.2 million was Sony's caveman comedy "Year One," starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as Neanderthals on a road trip after they are banished from their village.
It was summer's second big-name comedy set in prehistoric times to take a back seat to a wedding-themed romp. Will Ferrell's "Land of the Lost" opened at No. 3 in early June, the same weekend "The Hangover" pulled off a No. 1 upset.
"June is officially comedy month at the theaters. Comedy is really ruling things," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.
Woody Allen's latest comedy, "Whatever Works," had a strong start in limited release, hauling in $280,720 in nine theaters for an average of $31,191 a cinema. That compares to an average of $11,163 in 3,056 theaters for "The Proposal" and $6,684 in 3,022 cinemas for "Year One."
Released by Sony Pictures Classics, "Whatever Works" stars Larry David as a misanthropic New Yorker who forges unlikely relationships with a conservative Southern family (Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr.).
While some of June's comedies performed well, the month generally has been a downer for Hollywood, which tore through the first part of the year with a record box-office pace.
Revenues this weekend were up slightly compared to the same period a year ago, but that followed three straight weekends of declining box-office receipts.
For the year, revenue remains up a solid 10 percent, though summer ticket sales are dead even with last year's, Dergarabedian said.
That should turn around this coming weekend with the debut of the blockbuster sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which industry analysts say could deliver the year's first $100 million opening.
Paramount's "Transformers" sequel got off to a big start in Great Britain and Japan, where it opened this weekend in advance of its U.S. debut Wednesday, pulling in $14.1 million in Britain and $5.8 million in Japan.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Proposal," $34.1 million.
2. "The Hangover," $26.9 million.
3. "Up," $21.3 million.
3. "Year One," $20.2 million.
5. "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," $11.3 million.
6. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," $7.3 million.
7. "Star Trek," $4.7 million.
8. "Land of the Lost," $4 million.
9. "Imagine That," $3.1 million.
10. "Terminator Salvation," $3.07 million.