Brigitte gets some Oscar buzz, Meryl gets Teased, Buddies get Ann-Margret, Broadway gets 007 & Wolverine, and Jodie gets Mel (maybe)

BUDDY BUDDY: Best Buddies, the non-profit organization that has helped thousands of individuals with intellectual disabilities become more inclusive in everyday life, has put smiles on thousands of faces — but this week it’s Best

ANN-MARGRET: Buddies system

Buddies Canada co-founder Danny Greenglass who’s all smiles. Why? Because bonafide screen legend Ann-Margret is coming to town. One of Hollywood’s last great triple-threat performers, she made her movie debut almost five, count ’em, five decades ago and has never stopped working. Ask her about her favourite leading men and she’ll tell you about every male movie idol from Steve McQueen to Jack Nicholson to John Wayne to Elvis. And when she isn’t tackling the gritty roles that won her all those Oscar and Emmy nominbations — she already owns five Golden Globes  —  she’s still kicking up her heels (and those still fabled gams) in her SRO stage shows. Following in Shirley MacLaiue’s footsteps last year, Ann-Margret will jet here next week with her producer husband Roger Smith to celebrate Best Buddies 15th anniversary at a gala evening at the Four Seasons in her honour. And that’s truly something to smile about.

STREEP TEASE: Yes, the American Council on Science and Health is mad at her for saying that Julia Child‘s cuisine was not exactly cholesterol-free. But Meryl Streep is so popular again — and you know how these things come and go

STREEP; comedy Tease

— that an irreverent group of guys are giving her a stand-up comedy salute this weekend in Hollywood.  Called Streep Tease, the event is the brainchild of actor-comedian Roy Cruz, who is producing and performing in the show with fellow thesps Taylor Negron, Sam Pancake, Steve Hasley,  Eddie Sanchez, Mike Rose, Trent Walker and David Dean Bottrell (Boston Legal.) All of them will try to find their inner Streep in a live stage tribute re-creating her greatest screen monologues, including memorable speeches from such Streep mega-hits as The Devil Wears Prada and The Bridges of Madison County. Bottrell chose a monologue from Out of Africa because he loves the Danish accent. Pancake chose Postcards From the Edge, and Negron is doing Sophie’s Choice. And no, I’m not making this up. The curtain lifts on this theatrical show at bang.studio in Los Angeles on Saturday, but if you’re on the east coast you can watch it from  the theater’s webcam at 11 p.m. Just don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: Screen lions Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman will show up together on Broadway this fall in Keith Huff’s new

FOSTER: busy Beaver

stage play A Heavy Rain. A deal to adapt the play as a feature, to star the same duo, is now in the works … Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are teaming up for Love and Other Drugs … Camilla Belle will play Kevin Spacey‘s daughter in his upcoming flick Father Of Invention …  and Jodie Foster will direct and co-star in The Beaver, about a man who has an unusual relationship with a beaver handpuppet. (And no, I’m not making this up.) Not only that, Jodie’s Maverick troubled but gifted co-star, Mel Gibson, is in negotiations to play the lead. So there!

PLAYBOY OF THE EASTERN FILMFEST: Only a few people have actually seen it so far, but Oscar buzz has already started for Brigitte Berman’s eye-

BERMAN: Oscar buzz

popping new screen biography of Hugh Hefner, which premieres at TIFF next week and reveals his next-to-forgotten life as a champion  of women and a supporter of gay rights at a time when the concept was nearly unheard of in mainstream America.

Berman, of course, already owns one Academy Award, which she won for her stunning profile of American music legend Artie Shaw.  And she admits she had some trepidation when she finally showed her film to Hefner and some of his friends in mid-July. Much to her surprise, and delight, and relief, Hefner was moved to tears at the end of the screening.  “It was,” she confides, “an extraordinary moment.” No wonder Hefner, now 83, is hoping to jet here for the Saturday Sept. 12 premiere.

TOMORROW:

Broadway’s most honoured hoofer hits the road again,

Lindsay Lohan gets a gig, Oprah packs for Toronto, and more.

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Julia gets Javier, Joan gets a rich idea, Anna gets to play house, & U.S. viewers finally get to see US!

 

BARDEM: with Julia?

 

FLICKERS: Oscar winner Javier Bardem will join Oscar winner Julia Roberts and recent Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins in Ryan Murphy’s big-screen adaptation of the bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love.  According to my sometimes reliable sources, Bardem will play Felipe, “the exotic, deeply spiritual foreigner Roberts falls in love with towards the end of her journey, who rocks her world by introducing her to the wonders of the multiple-orgasm and expensive Spanish goat’s milk cheeses.” Well okay then! … Ed Zwick hopes to reunite Brokeback Mountain lovers Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway this fall in Love and Other Drugs, based on the nonfiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman (no, I’m not making this up) …  she’s

GYLLENHAAL: with Anne?

still working on a final cut, but word is out that Oscar winner Brigitte Berman has done it again with her new candid study of Playboy personified Hugh Hefner … Neil Patrick Harris, so good at holding the Tony Awards together last Sunday, will star in The Best And The Brightest, an indie about New York’s cutthroat world of private kindergarten … in Paul Bettany’s next film, a horror western called Priest, he’ll play a warrior priest who turns against the church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece. Oh sure, same old, same old … add one more thriller to your summer movie Must List: Kari Skogland’s 50 Dead Men Walking. And you can sneak preview it by clicking right here.

FARIS: short role

GLOBAL’S GOT IT: Global’s fall line-up includes my favourite show of the new season so far – Glee, a series about a vibrant group of geeky misfits and the resurgence of their high school’s unpopular glee club. The pilot was exceptionally entertaining … say, is that U.S. or … US? Oh – it’s us! Get ready to see a lot more Canada Post mailboxes on screen on U.S. television. Home-grown series Flashpoint and The Listener, and still to be seen police series Copper and The Bridge, are all set in Toronto. Filmed in Toronto, yes, but actually set in Toronto. I ask you, what is this world coming to! … and let’s enjoy it while it lasts … and Anna Faris (House Bunny, Observe & Report) plays a suburban mom who dreams of being an actress in Legally Blonde screenwriter Kirsten Smith’s directorial debut The Spleenectomy at next week’s CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival.  

RIVERS: rich?

HOW’D YOU GET THAT IDEA? Her new series, How’d You Get So Rich? starts in August on the U.S. cable channel TV Land, and Joan Rivers couldn’t be happier. “The premise for the show came to me while I was on the road and driving through neighborhoods across America. Suddenly there would be a humungous mansion and I’d ask, ‘Who the hell lives there? How’d they get so rich?’ And then I’d wonder, ‘Is it a single, Jewish man?’

“How’d You Get So Rich? goes inside the doors of these opulent homes where we meet real go-getter Americans who have made their fortunes doing some incredible things.” 

For a sneak preview, just click here.

 

KIRSTIE: root beer floats?

 

U ARE WOT U EAT:  “Sonic is doing free root bewer floats today,” Kirstie Alley swoons on Twitter. “I can’t believe I am missing out on Sonic root beer floats … I REALLY WANT ONE … I am having Fing nectarines … I hate being fat.” Given her too-celebrated roller coaster diets, you might think that Kirstie is the only Tweeter obsessed with food. Wrong. We all are, apparently. Before signing off a few nights ago screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) informed us that she was “going outside for a

COUPLAND: cereal killer?

swim.” Why?  “Just ate two bowls of pasta and want to see if I float.” And author Doug Coupland (JPod, Souvenir Of Canada,) who seems like the least likely suspect, is constantly keep us in the loop about what he’s eating and when he’s eating it. “Through a chain of circumstances too complex to explain here I ended up eating just three hotdogs and five vanilla sugar cookies for dinner.” And: “Crazy summer heat …” (Yes, he lives in Vancouver.) “… Had to force myself to eat a bowl of Lucky Charms and Vitamin D milk.” And: “Breakfast is for losers.” And: “Brunch is the worst idea for a meal.” In short, not yer average ham ‘n’ eggs kind o’ guy.

 

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