Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh and others were on hand last night at Rose Hall for the NYC premiere of their new movie Valkyrie, which tells the story of the failed assassination attempt of a few German soldiers on Adolph Hitler. Despite a barrage of negative reviews in the past few weeks, I suppose the show must go on as the film is set for premiere in theaters on December 25. Here are a few pics from the red carpet arrivals last night:

Tom Cruise knows just what fans want for Christmas. “You want to see Hitler killed on Christmas,” the star said at the premiere of Valkyrie. In the film, opening Dec. 25, Cruise plays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a German army officer who plots and attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. The film is directed by Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men). “I just set out to make the best film I could possibly make,” Cruise said. “It’s a timeless thriller. It’s man against tremendous odds.” Is Cruise anywhere near as brave as von Stauffenberg? Would he also have spoken out? “All of us would like to think we would do that,” he said. “I would like to think I would.” Cruise’s wife, Katie Holmes, who is starring in All My Sons on Broadway, didn’t walk the red carpet with the actor: “She’s inside the theater. When her play opened, I was the host. It’s teamwork.” Carice van Houten, Cruise’s on-screen wife, reminisced fondly about shooting the film. “He’s very goofy. We had dancing lessons, and we couldn’t stop laughing.” The film also stars Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson.

I’d say it’s pretty risky to open a Nazi film on Xmas day — I’m not sure too many people are gonna be in the mood to watch a movie with this sort of subject matter on such a special holiday — but you gotta give it up to Cruise and Singer for giving it a try. Unfortch, the movie cannot even deliver on the desire for the audience to see Hilter assassinated because the attempt was not successful. So basically, the plan is to try and get folks into theaters on Xmas day to watch a movie about a group of Nazis who unsuccessfully try to kill the most evil man who ever lived … yeah, sounds like fine holiday family fare to me. Personally, I might have a hard time believing Tom Cruise in a role like this so I’m not sure I’m gonna take the risk to check out this film but … there has to be a market out there for it, right? Right?

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

Here are a few cute pics of Rocco Ritchie having himself a grand ol’ time enjoying the pool at his hotel in Rio de Janeiro with his bodyguard yesterday afternoon …

… hee hee, by the looks of how much fun Rocco is having you’d think it was him winning a $76 – $92 million settlement rather than his father Guy Ritchie. As I’ve said before, I hope the Madonna/Guy divorce isn’t too hard on the kids (especially since child custody has yet to be determined) but something tells me that they are going to be just fine in the long run. Despite the drama going on with his family right now, it looks like life is still very good for Rocco Ritchie.

[Photo credit: INFdaily]

Here are a few red carpet photos of Abbie Cornish and Ryan Phillippe down under on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, Australia last night (today?) for a Calvin Klein promo event that she hosted. Rabbie were on hand for the launch of the Calvin Klein Spring ‘09 Collection proving that the couple that promos together, stays together. The New York Post is reporting that the couple will remain in Oz thru the holidays so that Ryan can meet Abbie’s family:

RYAN Phillippe has gone Down Under for Christmas and New Year’s. He landed in Australia on Sunday with his love, Abbie Cornish, whom he met on the set of “Stop-Loss” while he was still married to Reese Witherspoon. They’ll be on Cockatoo Island for a … party today before heading to Lochinvar to meet Cornish’s extended family. It’s the first time Phillippe, who spent Thanksgiving with Cornish and his children, Deacon and Ava, in the US, has been to Australia. His kids will be with Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal in LA and Tennessee.

HMMM … sounds like things are getting pret-ty serious for these two. It’s a big step to meet the extended family … it’s an even bigger step to meet them over the holidays. Rabbie is showing no signs of slowing down … to me, it looks like the couple are on the path to marriagehood. Irregardless of what you think about how the couple got together, I suppose it’s a good thing that they are so committed to one another and they look like they’re gonna be together for a long time. Tho, that’s what I thought about the Witherppe marriage and, well … yeah. In any event, here’s hoping the happy couple enjoys their time down in Australia and that Ryan won’t have to face any awkward questions about how he and Abbie ended up together. Ah, don’tcha just love the holidays?

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

On Sunday we learned that Naomi Watts gave birth to her second child, a boy, with babydaddy Liev Schreiber but at that time no real information was made available … we knew nothing other than the fact that the baby was the couple’s second child. Today we learn that the newborn has been named and we also learn how much he weighed at birth. Here are a couple pics of Liev with firstborn son Alexander Pete as they arrived at their NYC home after spending the day with mommy Naomi and little Samuel at the hospital:

Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber have revealed more details about their newborn son, starting with his name: Samuel Kai Schreiber. Samuel – the couple’s second child after year-old son Alexander Pete Schreiber – was born Saturday and weighed 7 lbs., 13 oz, the couple’s rep tells PEOPLE. “Both mom and baby are doing great,” the rep says.

The fiercely private couple are keeping as much information to themselves as possible but it’s nice that they deemed it appropriate to announce the baby’s name. I suspect it will be a very long time before we see the little guy out and about with his family but it is my sincere hope that mother and child are happy, healthy and will be able to go home as soon as possible. It really sounds like the Watts-Schreiber family are in for a very Merry Xmas this year as they’ve already received the best gift they could hope for. Congrats again!!

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

Now that the biz of selecting a new director for the Twilight movie sequel has been settled, the next step is to go about the biz of casting New Moon. With a new director comes the feasibility that character roles may be recast and actors who were hired to play a role in one movie may be axed from playing that same role in the next movie. Specifically, the role of Jacob Black — who undergoes a lot of change from Twilight to New Moon and plays a very significant role in the sequel — is, apparently, up for grabs as new chatter suggests that Taylor Lautner (the actor who portrayed the young Jacob in Twilight) may be replaced by a different actor. Enter Michael Copon, a beefy-looking actor best known from the film Scorpion King 2, who is said to be up for the role of Jacob Black which would thereby leave Lautner out in the cold. Additionally, Ben Barnes (who played Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia sequel) is said to be interested in playing a member of the powerful vampire “family” the Volturi. It sounds like production on New Moon is already getting into full swing and these decisions are likely to be made very soon:

Following last week’s dismissal and replacement of Catherine Hardwicke, this weekend began with a press release from Summit Entertainment officially appointing “New Moon” director Chris Weitz to the job. Suspicious in its omission of Taylor Lautner, the release seemed to all but confirm Twilighter whispers that Hardwicke won’t be the last “Twilight” talent replaced before the sequel. So where does the series go from here? MTV News can confirm that 26-year-old “Scorpion King 2″ actor Michael Copon [pronounced "COPE-on"] is one of several actors Weitz is considering to play the new, larger Jacob Black. A representative for Copon told us that they’re making a full effort to land the high-profile gig. And in a bit of 21st-century self-publicity, the actor has even recently updated his Facebook status with messages like: “Michael Copon [is] in a Twilight Zone!” and “Michael Copon is the older Jacob Black!” Copon’s representative confirmed to MTV News that the Facebook page is run by the actor himself and that those are indeed his words. Approached for comment on Lautner’s omission from the “New Moon” press release, Summit confirmed that it was not a typographical error. “The casting decision in regards to the character Jacob Black has yet to be made,” a representative told MTV News.

But even once Copon (or whoever else) is officially announced as the new Jacob, Weitz still has many other key casting decisions to make and an extremely brief amount of time in which to make them. With barely 12 weeks until cameras are due to begin rolling, the “Golden Compass” filmmaker needs to find faces to portray several key characters — including the peace-keeping, Italian vampires known as the Volturi. With the buzz building for these roles, MTV News has confirmed that 27-year-old “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” heartthrob Ben Barnes is throwing his hat into the ring. The actor is already quite popular with the “Twilight” fanbase and shares the same manager as both Copon and “Twilight” star Cam Gigandet. Barnes is believed to be campaigning for the role of Aro, a mind-reading vampire whose “New Moon” encounter with Edward and Bella helps shape their destiny together.

I mean, I get that sometimes characters have to be recast but something about giving Taylor Lautner the shaft and bringing in a new person kinda irks me. I really think that Taylor can do the job of playing Jacob in New Moon and I would love to see him be allowed to continue playing the part. That being said, I think his Michael Copon guy looks like he would make a pretty good older Jacob Black — in fact, he looks very much like an older and muscly version of Taylor Lautner himself. I would bet money that Ben Barnes will get the role of Aro and I’m sure we’ll be hearing very soon who else is up for playing other Volturi characters. New Moon is still about a year away from hitting theaters and the drama is already in full swing. What do y’all think … should Copon be cast as the new Jacob? Do y’all think that his Facebook announcement is pretty much proof that he already got the part?

[Source]

Earlier this month we learned that Britney Spears taped a fun holiday segment for air on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and last week we got our first peek at a portion of the segment when a teaser video of Brit and Ellen singing the Xmas carol Silent Night was released to the Interweb. The whole segment airs today on The Ellen DeGeneres Show … or you can watch it in full here on the blog. Here are a few screencaps from the 2-part holiday segment that is scheduled to air on national television today:

OMG! LOL!!! You know anytime that Ellen is involved with a pre-taped skit, it’s gonna be funny as hell … throw in Britney Spears and you’ve got comic gold. Britney teams up with Ellen to do a bit of Xmas caroling in one SoCal neighborhood and they bring mirth, merriment, a few free Xmas trees and one Aretha Franklin to the folks they find at home. After the jump watch Parts 1 and 2 of the segment which are scheduled to air on The Ellen DeGeneres Show today …

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