New on DVD: Zeéeeee, Tron, Jack, and Swans Hangin' On

Just out on DVD: Casino Jack, Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I Love You Philip Morris, Little Fockers, The Tacqwacores, Tron Legacy and the final season of Friday Night Lights (yes! can't wait).

Which went on your queue immediately?

And finally, I kid you not, "The Renée Zellweger Collection" has hit stores. I always find these three-pack "collections" so bizarre as they're usually highly unrepresentative of someone's career. The films featured in this one are ME MYSELF AND IRENE, DOWN WITH LOVE, and MY ONE AND ONLY. I guess Down With Love is totally "a Renée Zelwegger picture" but the other two? Well, I haven't seen My One and Only so I shouldn't say that. Have you?

P.S. I like Down With Love. Fun movie. I like Peyton Reed so much but his career doesn't seem to be happening in the way I'd hoped post Bring It On (2000). Sigh.

Meanwhile, Black Swan which came out last week on DVD is still trying to hold on to our collective psyche by launching midnight screenings hosted by famous queens.

Shequida and Manila Luzon (one of my favorite girls on RuPaul's Drag Race) hosted the event which got the crowd dancing here in NYC.

Events were hosted at midnight in Los Angeles (there's the wonderful "Chloe" to your far left -- her YouTube videos sending up Chloë Sevigny as fashion hipster icon are a treat -- with "Rhea Litre"), Chicago (that's Frida Lay as the Black Swan and "Mercedes" as the White Swan) and San Francisco (Heklina and Sister Roma hosted).

Attendees were encouraged to dress up of course.

I totally considered going as my girl Winona in a silver X dress with a nail file protuding from my cheek but alas... my ideas are always bigger than time and my budget can account for.

Gotta Link!

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BIG SCREEN
MUBI Farley Granger gorgeous star of Rope and Strangers on a Train has died at 85. RIP
Cinema Blend Our friend Katey is vlogging from Cinema Con in Vegas.
Antagony & Ecstacy has an amusing April movie preview.
IndieWire limits it to 8 limited release films that you must see.

SMALL SCREEN
Basket of Kisses is in tight with Matthew Weiner of Mad Men creation fame. I know because I went to a viewing party they threw in which he showed up! He spoke to them about what's going on with the show in light of all the negotiations and the dread news that we won't get the show again until 2012.
Basket of Kisses and here's some dire speculation about the cast cutting. Seriously, how on earth would they cut some of the headliners and still have the show?
The Daily Blam looks like they've already adjusted Wonder Woman's costume (previously discussed) to get rid of that vinyl shine on the pants.
A Socialite's Life Shangela from RuPaul's Drag Race got cast in a pilot for a hairdressing show starring Don Johnson. Kind of funny if you stop to think about it since Shangela was the one queen who couldn't style a wig for shit.
Pajiba lists the worst TV theme songs currently on the air.

How on earth do you cut this cast way down? They make the show!

OFF SCREEN
La Daily Musto Can this be true? Scissor Sisters asked to tone down their sparkle when opening for Lady Gaga. Boo! Never tell that awesome band to tone it down.
Cheyenne Jackson in the dentists chair. Hee. Truly nothing is private anymore. (thx)

TV at the Movies: "They're All Going to Laugh at You!"

Shall we have a small screen comment diversion? There are two things in particular that are urging this post on. One: Gwyneth Paltrow as "Holly Holiday" wisecracking sexed up substitute teacher on Glee and Raja's increasingly commendable and now movie-spoofing creativity on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Let's take Raja first. Rita Rudner, who was the guest judge and comedy coach for this week's challenge (developing a comedy routine), was worried that people wouldn't have seen Carrie (1976) "I haven't seen it in 40 years" and therefore wouldn't get Raja's references. Oh Rita; the gays have seen Carrie! It's maybe not as obsessively worshipped as Baby Jane but it's up there. Raja came out wearing this.

Raja as Carrie, Raja as Herself

They're all going to laugh at you! (On purpose.)

I don't want to stress how much I love Raja and did long before he started referencing great movies like Heathers and Carrie verbally or with inspired visual gags. Basically when I love a contestant on any show they are doomed to come in second (or less) to someone hugely inferior. (I knew this was coming last season when Raven, who I was already crushing hard on, referenced Michelle Pfeiffer of all people. I was done!) I have the same weird mutant power to curse great actresses with my fandom, my love being the anti-Oscar. Do you have this power? Maybe it's our combined love that curses them? I'd prefer to share blame -- please, take some of it. Tell me someone you've cursed by loving them.  Only a lucky few escape this particular curse  -- Kidman, Winslet -- and then usually only by denying someone else that I'd rather call an Oscar winner! I'm sorry I/we did this to you Bening, Pfeiffer, Close, Turner, Moore, etcetera!

Speaking of Oscar winners, Gwyneth Paltrow revived some fan love when she absolutely killed in her guest spot on Glee months ago as the Lindsay Lohan mocking, Cee Lo singing, substitute Spanish teacher. Last night she was back to reprise the role, this time offering up some sex ed. Her first scene involving a cucumber and a condom was quite hilarious but she peaked early. The rest of the episode was an uncomfortable preachy weirdly discombobulated mess. Just like every other episode.

Let us fantasize about having so many musical-fix options available on TV and at the movies that we need have no great love for it. Yet we do. Gwyneth's voice is emotionally expressive and can flip from exuberant to sad and is really quite beautiful so the internet nastiness about her possible new record deal is just the typical hatesnark that ever plagues the great Web. If you can listen to her cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide", or rather her cover of the Dixie Chicks cover of that song,  and think that she doesn't have musical chops, you should probably see an Otologist. Salon thinks Gwynnie's character, or at least what she's emblematic of, is ruining Glee. I get the argument but it's really hard to single out one troublesome element since Glee is quite obviously, emphatically and even proudly the Worst "Best" show on television.

To borrow from RuPaul herself, "Can I get an 'amen'"?

Or a second opinion?

Lypsinka Linka

Fandor a preview of a conversation between Nick and I. This is Nick's brilliant observation that 2009 and 2010's best picture lineups have more than a little in common.
Cinematical Did you hear about this shooting at a Black Swan screening. I'm still confused about what actually happened given the way these posts are written and updated.
Scott Feinberg "Deep Vote" reveals his final Oscar ballot
Black Voices 20 Questions for Anika Noni Rose. Turns out she's really fond of the movie Mother & Child. And really glad to have been Disney's first black princess and loves the fan response.

I actually got a video from a little boy. He was three and he was bouncing on his bed singing 'All The Stars Up There' and telling his mommy, "She is my favorite princess. I'm going to marry her."

Let's wrap up.

I am a huge fan of Lypsinka and I kept meaning to mention her in connection with Black Swan. So it was really fun to read The Daily Beast's interview with John Epperson (aka Lypsinka's "hideous maid") who plays "Jaded Piano Player" in Darren Aronofsky's Best Picture nominee. Seeing Lypsinka live is SO incredible. If you ever see an advertisement for a Lypsinka show in your city you'd be wise to buy tickets. The amount of sheer mnemonic and physical skill required for her act is unreal. Imagine memorizing hours worth of dialogue that's totally unconnected to context and schizophrenically shoved together. Here's a sampling of her inimitable way with Old Hollywood sound clips.

One of my many dreams in life is to host fabulous A list Oscar parties in which I could enlist true Divas to perform. Imagine Lypsinka doing a delicious glamour-fit mix of all the diva lines (and there are lots of them this year) from Black Swan, Animal Kingdom and The Fighter! "You've done some bad things Sweetie!"

TV @ The Movies: "Meryl Streep Realness"

TV @ The Movies is a series that came to life because we always perk up when movies or movie actors are name-checked on the small screen. Who and what fillters into pop culture? And in what form?

Are any of you watching RuPaul's Drag Race Season 3? In the latest episode The Supermodel of The World gave her competing "gurls" scripts to film a movie trailer "Drag Queens in Outer Space: Return to Uranus". The acting in the final trailers was so hideous I didn't even remotely wish the fake movie was real and given that it was called "Drag Queens in Outer Space: Return to Uranus,"  that's a fail.

Shangela & Mimi discuss their upcoming performances

Shangela and Mimi Imfurst already hate each other and have become immediate rivals. This is because they're both crafty disingenuous camera hogs and nothing drives people crazier than seeing their unflattering traits reflected in other people. They're both continually making trouble (Shangela) or breaking down (Mimi) so as to log more camera time. Essentially, this is a fail safe ploy in the reality TV format: I already know their names and faces and the other queens are still bleeding together after two regular episodes. Mimi brags about her acting experience and on the read-through of the script, they have this exchange:

Shangela: You better get that Oscar, bitch.
Mimi Imfurst: I'm bringing Meryl Streep Realness. You gotta get ugly to win the gold.

As quotes go it's no "I was giving Michelle Pfeiffer bitch" uttered magnificently in season 2 by Raven (It's all downhill from Raven. Sigh). Meryl Streep Realness and the tried and trued De-Glam Oscar trick both make sense on their own but putting them together is like talking in gibberish. Streep has never had to downplay her beauty for Oscar's attention. In fact, her Best Actress Oscar went to arguably one of her most glamorous performances in Sophie's Choice. Yes, yes, she also deglams within the same film in flashbacks. But that's Meryl; she does it all. Except for maybe camp.

Okay, okay. That's not exactly true.

Mimi ended up going for full Leigh Bowery Artifice, Meryl Streep Realness never entering the picture.

But the queens weren't done paying homage/defaming the prestige screen divas. Later Stacy Lane Matthew's performance as "Lady Tata" in the sci-fi trailers prompted comparisons to none other than Dame Judi Dench.

Stacy: Honey, I don't know who in the hell I was.
Shangela: Girl, you were some British bitch.
Mimi: You were Judi Dench giving us Shakespeare.
Shangela: Where in the hell did you get that accent Miss Back Swamp North Carolina? Next thing you turn around you're a British bitch.
Stacy: Bitch, I was thinking Julia Child.

[Ahem]. Speaking of Streep Realness/Camp.

For reasons that are still unclear Lily Tomlin was a guest judge. (Sci-fi plus Lily? Why?) Strangely, she didn't say much and only made one funny.

If you were starring in "Drag Queens From Outer Space," which legendary actress would you be using for inspiration? Would you be okay with Lily Tomlin judging you?

RuPaul's Drag Race is available to watch online. If you dare.