Gillian Anderson, Summer Glau, Jessica Alba, Camryn Manheim and Olivia Wilde lead this installment of the Hollywood Trade Roundup, a collection of hotties making headlines in The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety.
The Fame remake doesn't look likely to live forever as it failed to make a splash at the boxoffice in its debut, finishing a disappointing third with a $10 million gross. The 3D animated Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs repeated as the weekend's boxoffice champ, collecting $24.6 million. Bruce Willis' sci-fi action film Surrogates came in second, while Diablo Cody's Megan Fox-Amanda Seyfried starrer Jennifer's Body fell further off the radar, slipping to eighth place in its second week of release.
Former X-Files hottie Gillian Anderson has joined William Hurt and Ethan Hawke in the made-for-TV movie Moby Dick. She will play Capt. Ahab's (Hurt) wife, Elizabeth. Production is under way in Canada.
House hottie Olivia Wilde has joined The Next Three Days, Paul Haggis' thriller that revolves around a woman imprisoned for a murder she didn't commit (to be played by Elizabeth Banks). Wilde will play a young mother who befriends the jailed woman's husband (Russell Crowe).
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Summer Glau is continuing to fill up her time. In addition to guest starring on Fox's Dollhouse, Glau has been cast in Lifetime's Deadly Honeymoon. She'll play newlywed Lindsey whose husband mysteriously disappears during their honeymoon cruise.
Jessica Alba is in talks to join the comedy Little Fockers, where she would play a pharmaceutical rep that wreaks havoc on men in the Ben Stiller-Robert De Niro sequel that picks up when Stiller's Gaylord Focker and Teri Polo's Pamela Byrnes are having a child.
Camryn Manheim has joined the cast of Lifetime's Pregnancy Pact. In the telefilm, inspired by the true events of a group of high school teens who agree to get pregnant at the same time, Manheim will play the nurse who alerts the school of the increasing numbers of pregnancies and who offers contraceptives to those who aren't with child.
It's a split decision for ABC's V remake, starring Elizabeth Mitchell. The sci-fi drama will be split in two, with the first four episodes launching Nov. 3, then going on hiatus and likely returning in March to air its remaining nine episodes. Could be a smart move as the Winter Olympics and a little show called American Idol are likely to stand in V's way to ratings success.
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Monitoring the ratings for the new fall TV season, rookie FlashForward drew nearly 13 million viewers to its premiere on ABC, while the sixth season bow of Grey's Anatomy collected a massive 17 million viewers. Meanwhile, the second season premiere of Fox's Dollhouse — and its entire Friday night lineup — proved disappointing, drawing 2.6 million and finishing behind repeats of ABC rookies FlashForward, Modern Family, Cougar Town. … Jennifer Carpenter, Julie Benz and Michael C. Hall invaded nearly 2 million homes when Showtime's Dexter returned for its Season 4 premiere.
Looking to the Billboard charts, Pearl Jam's "Backspacer" tops the albums chart, with Whitney Houston's "I Look To You" sliding two spots to No. 4, Miley Cyrus' "The Time of Our Lives" holding steady at No. 5 and Lady GaGa's "The Fame" slips from No. 12 to No. 20.
Amelia, the biopic of doomed pilot Amelia Earhart starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere and directed by Mira Nair, has been selected to be the opening-night film of the Dhoa Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar. Meanwhile, director Kathryn Bieglow will be honored with the Hollywood Director Award at the 13th annual Hollywood Film Festival later this month.
Three films open in wide release this weekend at the boxoffice, starting with Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It, starring Juno's Ellen Page. The roller derby film goes head to head with Ricky Gervais-Jennifer Garner's comedy The Invention of Lying and the horror comedy Zombieland, starring Woody Harrelson and Emma Stone.
Check back next Friday to see if Whip It successfully whipped around moviegoers!
Find past Weekly Casting Couch posts and other entertainment features from Lesley here!