This weekend, I almost missed my subway stop reading a New Yorker article about elevators. Yes, elevators. What made it so interesting was that it included the story of Nicholas White, a Newsweek reporter who was working late one night in Manhattan’s McGraw-Hill building and got trapped in an elevator while on his way down […]

Hate to hear that your favorite book of all time is being turned into a movie—starring the latest bad actor that Hollywood’s trying to cram down your throat? Me too. Check out my list of people I’m sick of seeing onscreen and a few others that I would love to see more of. Add your […]

When they’re not directing really good movies or planning their takeover of Hollywood, Mexican directors Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu and Alfonso Cuaron direct anti-drug PSAs and politically incendiary short films that will make your freaking hair stand on end.
The latest: Iñarritu directed three 30-second TV ads for The Meth Project, a non-profit trying to reduce first-time […]

So George Clooney, in London for the premiere of Leatherheads, squeezed in a visit with British prime minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing Darfur genocide crisis and the possibility of buying peacekeeping helicopters (probably through Clooney’s Not On Our Watch organization, which he started with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don […]

After La Misma Luna broke opening-weekend records for a Spanish-language movie, making $2.8 million at just 266 theaters, I thought it would be great to publish an interview I had with the movie’s Mexican director, Patricia Riggen. She had some surprising things to say about the movie, her career, motherhood, and pitching movie ideas to […]

Fidel Castro—who will be portrayed in three upcoming movies— is already a movie star, kinda. While he’s been featured in archival footage used in many a documentary—everything from Looking for Fidel (2006) to The Fog of War (2003), he has never been portrayed by an actor, which is weird, considering he’s one of the most […]

As a big Dune fan, I’m guardedly excited about the news that we’re getting a new movie version of the classic sci-fi book, directed by Peter Berg (The Kingdom, Friday Night Lights).
On one hand, the book seems more relevant than ever: it has a lot to say about ecology and the environment and the main […]

Caught the new trailer for the new Incredible Hulk yet? Check it out here.
Looks better than the Eric Bana/Ang Lee version, but still kinda dumb. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl, but I never understood the appeal of the Hulk, basically a dude in ugly shorts who is forced to show his emotions only when […]

So word has gotten out that Brian Grazer, one of the most successful producers in Hollywood (A Beautiful Mind, American Gangster, The DaVinci Code), is looking for a new “cultural attache” — someone hired to satisfy his every intellectual whim and curiosity. This person schools him on everything from molecular biology to the stock market, […]

Think you know all about Latinos in Hollywood? Bwa ha ha, smarty pants! I defy you to test yourself with my new Latino Movie Pop Quiz, designed to give your brain a run for its money. Look for it every once in a while right here in this blog. Write your answers in the comments […]