Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, in their roles as Batman and The Joker, are featured on the cover and in the pages of this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly … here is the magazine cover and an excerpt from the coverstory that contains no spoilers but gives you a good understanding of what the article is all about:

With The Dark Knight, Nolan and Bale return to Gotham City for a second, even moodier and more savage installment of the superhero franchise they revamped in 2005 with Batman Begins. The movie delivers on its promise, pitting Batman against the freaky new fiend in psychotic cosmetics who robs banks and blows up hospitals for the sheer anarchic kick of it. Most of the familiar faces (and one new Two-Face) are on board, including wry butler Alfred (Michael Caine), stalwart police detective Gordon (Gary Oldman), and lawyer-slash-love interest Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, taking over the role from Katie Holmes), as well as a new crusading district attorney named Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). The Dark Knight has everything fans expect from the series: gizmos like a sleek new ”Bat Pod” motorcycle, eye-popping stunts (most performed the old-fashioned way, with real stuntmen and real explosions), and, of course, the brooding Bale, arguably the best, certainly the most serious actor ever to growl under the cowl. Still, when the film opens July 18, Ledger will be Topic A. His turn in The Dark Knight would have been widely talked about this summer even if the 28-year-old actor hadn’t died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose last January. It might have even earned him another Oscar nomination (it still could, posthumously). Now the performance is shrouded in tragedy, though, and may well be Ledger’s last cinematic testament (it’s unclear what Terry Gilliam will, or can, do with the actor’s unfinished footage from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus). And that loads The Dark Knight with a poignancy its creators never anticipated. Certainly one they never desired. Along with the grief it caused friends and family, Ledger’s death cast a shadow of uncertainty over the film. It had Warner Bros. reexamining its entire marketing plans for the movie, conducting taste tests on the appropriateness of Ledger’s clown face on publicity stills and in trailers. Hardly the way the studio had hoped it would be launching its biggest summer thrill ride.

To be honest, I haven’t even read the entire coverstory for fear of reading too much about the movie that is still over a week away from release. If you are so inclined, you can read the article online HERE and risk the spoilers for yourself (a new trailer for The Dark Knight ran in front of Hancock last night and I tried to cover my eyes … there’s just so much TDK stuff out there that I don’t want to see any more until the movie comes out on the 18th). Even still … there is a lot of cool stuff that I think we can see safely, without fear of spoiling the movie. After the jump, check out a photo of Heath Ledger wearing The Joker prosthetics on his face but without make-up … it’s kind of an eerie thing to see …

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After spending some time in Spain, Jennifer Lopez and hubby Marc Anthony have made their way to Portofino, Italy to spend some time with their friends Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana … here are a couple pics of J. Lo and her corpsey hubby kissing as she swims and he chills on the deck of the Dolce & Gabbana yacht:

I believe that Marc Anthony is not allowed to get his pallid skin wet because it might dissolve and fall completely off his already frail frame … but it was good sporting of him to tempt fate and head out onto the open seas with his wife and their friends. He sure is a lucky man to have scored a fine woman like La Diva Latina. I hope he gets down on his knees daily and thanks the heavens above that she loves him. They look happy … good for them :)

[Photo credit: INFdaily]

BOOOOOOOOOOOO! It is my sad duty to Peace the Spork Out the rumors that the cast of Friends will be reuniting for a movie on the big screen. This past Wednesday, new rumors starting going around that the long-awaited, much-anticipated Friends Movie might finally be made in the wake of the huge success enjoyed by the Sex and the City Movie. It was speculated that production on the new Friends Movie might get underway “within the next 18 months”. Today, representatives for both Warner Bros. and a couple of the principal stars themselves are shooting down those rumors, essentially killing all hope for a Friends Movie at all:

A representative for Warner Bros film studio has quashed speculation of a Friends reunion movie … It was rumoured earlier this week that Cox and Aniston were keen to reprise their roles for a movie version of the show, as long as the story was right. They were alleged to have been inspired by the massive box office success of Sex and the City: The Movie, which was turned from a TV series into a big-screen film earlier this year. But the claims have been refuted by executives at Warner Bros, the studio behind Friends. Jayne Trotman, Warner’s director of publicity in the U.K., says, “(There’s) no truth in the story.” And publicists for both Cox and Perry have also stepped in to deny the rumours. Perry’s spokeswoman, Lisa Kasteler, adds, “Nothing is happening in this regard, so the rumour is false.”

Well ain’t this just a big ol’ steaming order of Poop Sandwich? I think it is such a mistake to keep stalling on making this movie. To be honest, I think they might even be too late to make a good enough Friends Movie as it stands … continuing to delay any potential movie is just a bad idea. I’m all about striking while the iron is hot … SaTC really proved that a TV show of such popularity can make a successful transition to the big screen. I realize that fans really have no say in such matters as these but I really wish the executives and the actors we love (loved?) so much would really reconsider. Further delay will only further damn any chances of a successful Friends Movie will ever be made. Again, I say, Boo!

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Woot! Happy Independence Day, y’all!! As you can prolly surmise, I’m treating today like a weekend … that is, I allowed myself to sleep in and the the day’s post count my be a touch shorter than usual but I’m pretty sure that a great many of you, here in the US at least, are out enjoying your various days off and aren’t prolly chained to a computer … er, like I am. But, we do what we must to get thru the day …

… in whatever way we can ;)

Last night, Kirsten, Darion and I got together for a little anniversary dinner together (we met just about a year ago this week) and we decided to convene at a new place in the Century City shopping center called Rock Sugar. Other members of Le Gang^TM have already frequented this place before but I had, thus far, been unable to attend … last night was my night and it was deffo worth the wait. The atmosphere is really swank and the food was really good but, for me, it’s always about the company you’re with. I really feel very lucky to have Kirsten and Darion in my life … they are really amazing friends.

After dinner, the 3 of us decided to go see the new Will Smith movie, Hancock. And for the record, it was Darion’s pick:

In all honesty, I didn’t really hate the movie right off the bat. It had a great start and looked like it was going to turn out to be a decent film … but as it continued, it got worse and worse and worse. By the time that the movie revealed [CAREFUL THIS MIGHT BE A SPOILER SO LOOK AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW] another “superhero” character and the history between the two of them, well, I was ready to commit hara-kiri (unfortch, I was short one samurai sword). I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Charlize Theron would choose to be in a movie like this? The plot is just stupid! The overall premise was interesting but once you found out what was going on … ugh, it’s just insanely dumb. My guess is that Charlize has already won two Academy Awards and is prolly trying to win two Razzie Awards in one fell swoop with this movie. I will say, it was a nice try … but the movie was just bad — not the worst thing ever but not good at all.

Anyways … here is the anniversary dinner picture that we took at Rock Sugar last night and a pic we snapped after the movie showing our displeasure in front of a giant Hancock banner (which you can’t really see very well):

We had a blast tho, no question. I think we’re getting together again today … not sure what is going on … we’re treating today as a lazy day … so …. yeah. Happy 4th!

• Eminem gets sued.
• John Mayer thinks he’s really funny, Jennifer Aniston has prolly been lying to him ;)
• Katie Holmes’s Broadway debut isn’t pre-selling well.
• Jay-Z confesses that he would work with the Gallagher brothers.
• The new way to subscribe to magazines?
• The Bachelor wishes you a Happy 4th of July.
• Halle Berry gets her bikini bod back.
• Newly single Mandy Moore takes on the wind in NYC.
• Reese Witherspoon celebrates the US Independence Day in the UK.
• McDreamy looks like a McWrap.
• Geraldo Rivera is 65, Neil Simon & Gina Lollobrigida are 81 and Eva Marie Saint is 84 years old today. Click HERE to see who else is celebrating a birthday today.
• A US court orders Google to hand over You Tube user info.
• Peace out Bozo the Clown, Former Sen. Jesse Helms.

Amy Winehouse spent another day doing her Amy Winehouse best to keep her record of public craziness totally intact. Yesterday, she paid a visit to a kosher shop in the Golders Green area of London to do pretty much everything but shop for food:

I’m just amazed that this crazy lady is allowed to roam the streets of a civilized city like London when she should prolly be locked up somewhere for her own good. I suppose it has been a few weeks since we last saw the poor girl roaming the streets … bloodied, crying and wailing into the night. That’s some bit of progress, yes? If the worst thing she’s putting in her mouth these days is a pickle, I’d say she’s made a whole lotta progress.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

There’s been a lot of buzz going around this week surrounding the new Beverly Hills, 90210 spin-off TV series that is set to debut on The CW this Fall. Once the first rumblings started up that Shannen Doherty would be reprising her role as Brenda Walsh on the show things hit a fever pitch as excitement over the show took off. Then we got our first look at what the newly remodeled Peach Pit diner will look like and, well, it’s been a crazy week for fans of BH, 90210. We know that Tori Spelling will also be reprising her role as Donna Martin on the new 90210 but it was announced that her debut on the show would be pushed back into the season due to her recuperation period caused by the recent birth of her baby Stella. And so, let’s take a closer look at the little doll who may be effing with Tori’s career plans but is still cute as a button in her very first OK! magazine photospread:

Almost one year to the day their son Liam was born, Tori Spelling and hubby Dean McDermott got the surprise of their lives when they discovered they were expecting baby number two! Even more exciting, the couple … found out they were having a little girl, something that Tori says she thought she would never experience. Now the couple is talking only to OK! with an exclusive interview about their joyful journey. “She’s a miracle,” Spelling tells OK!. “I was on one pill and wasn’t feeling well, so I went off of it. Two days later, the doctor put me on another, and on that one day, we conceived. It was meant to be!” As OK! exclusively reported, the couple welcomed daughter Stella Doreen into the world on June 9. The infant weighed in at a dainty 6 lbs. 11 oz. and had a full head of beautiful black hair. “My first thought was, ‘My god, she’s so beautiful,’” Tori gushes. “My second thought was, ‘Oh my god, she has black hair! Where did that come from?’ [laughs] Liam has blonde hair and is very fair. She was born with black hair, very tan.” Tori continues, “I never thought I’d have a daughter. Dean’s first child [Jack] is a boy and then we had Liam and I thought, ‘Because I’m so girly-girly, I’ll have all boys.’ ” Dean agrees, adding, “When I saw Stella for the first time, I just bawled my face off out of pure joy. I’ve always heard that there’s nothing like that bond between father and daughter. There is nothing like it — you feel it that moment. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Little boys are awesome. They’re just like a little you. But having a little girl is something else. As a man, you just lose it.”

AWWW … they do make a cute little family (tho, it’s interesting about that baby girl being born with dark hair … HMMM). While I’m not at all interested in any of the reality shows that Tori and Dean have got going on on Oxygen, I am very excited about Tori’s return to 90210. I am very intrigued by what they are going to do with her character … will Brian Austin Green be reprising his role as David Silver, Donna Martin’s main man? Of all of the BH, 90210 men, he’s the one I see most prolly making a return to the show (who knows if Luke Perry, Jason Priestley or Ian Ziering were even asked?). In any event, I hope that Tori enjoys her recuperation time with her newborn daughter Stella … and that she gets back to work soon, this 90210 thing is a priority!

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