Susan Sarandon, Mary-Louise Parker, Rachel Weisz, Minka Kelly and Andrea Anderslead this installment of the Hollywood Trade Roundup, a collection of hotties making headlines in The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety.
Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum's abs in Dear John proved strong enough to topple James Cameron's Avatar, ending its run atop the boxoffice with a whopping $32.4 million first-weekend take. Avatar finished in second place, with a total cume to date of $630.1 million. Not bad for 7-foot-tall Smurfs!
Susan Sarandon and Mary-Louise Parker have joined Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito in Solitary Man, a feature about a car magnate (Douglas) whose life is turned upside down because of his business and romantic indiscretions.
Sarandon also is in talks to take on the role once played by Barbara Stanwyck as the matriarch of a ranching family in 1870s San Joaquin Valley in The Big Valley, a Western TV series created by her late father, producer Louis F. Edelman, and writer A.I. Bezzerides.
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Rachel Weisz has signed on to star opposite Naomi Watts and Daniel Craig in Dream House, a thriller that would see her play the wife of a publishing executive (Craigh) who relocates his family to a quaint New England town only to discover that their new home is the murder scene of a mother and her two children.
Better Off Ted star Andrea Anders will star opposite Matthew Perry in ABC's comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine, which follows Perry as Ben, the manager of an aging San Diego stadium. Anders will play the tomboyish Alice, who has a friends with benefits type of relationship with Ben. That's right, tomboyish! I sense a new heartthrob for lesbian audiences if the pilot advances to series stage!
Friday Night Lights babe Minka Kelly will play the lead on CBS' comedy pilot True Love, where she'll play Kate, one of four friends in New York who are looking for love. Her character falls in love with one of the three other friends at the top of the Empire State Building.
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Former L Word whacko Papi, oops, Janina Gavankar,has been cast in ABC's supernatural drama The Gates, where she joins Chandra West. She'll play a local cop with a dark secret. Ohhhhhh! Sounds like Gavankar and Rose Rollins can continue to kick it in primetime!
Hottie Lucy Punch will star opposite Cameron Diaz in the black comedy Bad Teacher, which revolves around Elizabeth (Diaz), a foul-mouthed, conniving, seventh-grade teacher who pursues a colleague after being dumped by her sugar daddy. The romantic interest ignites a conflict with the school's model teacher, Amy Squirrel (Punch). Punch will next be seen in Dinner for Schmucks in July.
Awards season continued its march toward the Oscars, with the Annie Awards tapping Pixar's Up as its best picture of the year. Disney's The Princess and the Frog, which revolves around the first African-American Disney princess, collected three awards.
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Meanwhile, the Scripters, which award the author and scribes of a produced literary-to-script adaptation, awarded Up in the Air's Walter Kirn, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for their George Clooney, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga starrer.
In TV ratings, Super Bowl XLIV has become the most-watched TV program in U.S. history, eclipsing the 1983 finale of M*A*S*H as more than 106 million people tuned in to see the Saints upset the Colts, 31-17.
Starz's Spartacus: Blood and Sand was up 10 percent last week, while Syfy's Battlestar prequel Caprica slipped in the ratings.
In movie distribution news, Universal will distribute the Tom Hanks-Julia Roberts starrer Larry Crowne, while Mandate has picked up rights to the untitled Seth Rogen/James McAvoy cancer movie co-starring Anna Kendrick and Bryce Dallas Howard.
Twilight fans, prepare to head to Wal-Mart: The big-box retailer has landed exclusive rights to a special two-disc "fan edition" release of the Kristen Stewart-Robert Pattinson sequel New Moon. The Twilight Saga:New Moon Ultimate Fan Edition arrives in stores March 20, but the fan edition will include a special seven-minute feature on the upcoming third installment, Eclipse.
Frameline and TLA Video are uniting to offer more than 60 short films on LGBT topics as streaming rentals on TLA's site.
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Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins, Jamie Bell and Imogen Poots are in talks to be in Jane Eyre, an adaptation of the classic Charlote Bronte classic starring Mia Wasikowska.
Shailene Woodley is going from The Secret Life of the American Teen to co-starring opposite George Clooney in the upcoming The Decendants. She'll play Clooney's eldest daughter.
On the music charts, Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" maintains its rank at the top of the chart, while Lady Gaga's "The Fame" slipped a notch to No. 3 and Taylor Swift's "Fearless" climbed back into the top 10, finishing at No. 7 for the frame.
Looking to the weekend at the boxoffice, Warner Bros. hopes you'll spend part of your romantic weekend with the all-star ensemble Valentine's Day. Featuring everyone from Julia Roberts to Taylor Lautner (Gasp! He's 18 now!), the romantic comedy has a date in more than 3,600 theaters this weekend. It takes on counter-programming in the form of Universal's horror The Wolfman, no not Taylor Lautner's biopic, but the remake starring Benico Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt. For fantasy fans, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief offers a middle-ground between horror and romance.
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