Ben Affleck Wins the Year
Entertainment Weekly has named Forces of Nature star Ben Affleck its Entertainer of the Year. No, it's not 1999. It's 2012! You see, the Bounce actor is a real respectable director now, and made one of this year's most well-reviewed movies. His Argo, in which he also starred, was good and did well and so Entertainment Weekly has handed him their crown. He joins other notables like Ricky Martin and Bart Simpson in the EotY ranks, so things will be pretty different for him from here on out. He'll be getting offers to direct things and star in things and he won't have to live on Matt Damon's couch anymore. Jennifer might let him see the kids, and once he's done at the Lopez house, maybe he can go peer in Jennifer Garner's windows and wave the magazine cover at her. Things are gonna start looking up for ol' Ben Affleck, just you wait and see. No more dark days for the comer from Cambridge. [Entertainment Weekly]
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The Sundance Film Festival has announced its next slate of films, as the annual Utah festivities are set to get underway in Park City early next year. Some highlights of the films in competition include Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg (a gay!), Keri Russell as a lady obsessed with Jane Austen to a kind of crazy degree (so basically half of all English majors), and a movie that stars Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer and four-time Teen Choice Award-winner Chard Michael Murray. So that's going to be funny! Sundance is an exciting time for movie fans, as the year's indie agenda is set and the first ridiculous whiffs of Oscar buzz waft over from the Rockies before last year's Oscars have even been handed out. The scene on the ground in Park City sounds like an unholy nightmare, but the movies are always interesting. So go watch the screenings in Salt Lake City instead. [Deadline]
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Wow. Never thought I would say this, but... speaking of Chad Michael Murray, the former One Tree Hill actor, who has been nominated for a total of 13 Teen Choice Awards over his illustrious career (all but one came in the same three-year span), has been cast in a recurring role on the good but overlooked TNT cop drama Southland. Murray will be playing "a likable cop who is a bit of a loose cannon" who is something of a bad influence on Ben McKenzie's character. An interesting fact that TV Line points out is that Murray turned down the role that Ben McKenzie later took on The O.C. in favor of doing One Tree Hill, and while OTH certainly ran longer and may have made Murray more money, he's now guest-starring on a show that McKenzie is the arguable lead of. So who really won in the end? Well, eh, probably the guy with more money. We're not talking Tom Selleck not getting to do Raiders of the Lost Ark because of Magnum, P.I. here. [TV Line]
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While on the topic of roles that coulda been, David O. Russell says that he originally wanted to cast Zooey Deschanel in Silver Linings Playbook instead of Jennifer Lawrence. Which, oh good grief. That would have been an unmitigated disaster. Although, in some ways if the movie was really bad it would have maybe spared us from everyone freaking out about it and way overpraising it and jawing on endlessly about how it could win all the Oscars. (It will not win all the Oscars, though it could win a few.) Ah, well. I wonder if Zooey Deschanel is upset that she didn't do the movie. Probably. I mean, she's currently the least amusing thing on a show that she's the star of, so that can't be that fun. Is New Girl her Magnum, P.I.? [Vulture]
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Who are the most powerful authors in Hollywood? None of them? Well, yeah, kinda, but there are actually 25 book writers who do make money in Tinseltown and The Hollywood Reporter has rounded them up. Among the worthy listees are Gone Girl phenom (and former Entertainment Weekly TV critic) Gillian Flynn and master of the crime genre Elmore Leonard. Also on the list? Well, ugh. The lady what done wrote 50 Shades of Grey, Twilight menace Stephenie Meyer, and book monster James Patterson. So, some good, and a whole lotta bad. But are any of them more powerful than these writers? Well, yes. Absolutely yes. No question. Not remotely a question at all. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Oh, dear god. The nefarious devils over at MTV's shamefully addictive Teen Wolf really are trying to get us sent to creepy creepster jail. They've just cast Desperate Housewives twink twins Charlie and Max Carver on the upcoming season. They'll be playing twin werewolves who, in theory, do not wear shirts a lot. I guess the thinking that two of them might help make up for the loss of one Colton Haynes. I'm not sure if that's quite true, but it's a start. You hear me, you disgusting monsters? It's a start. [Deadline]
