Emma Thompson

If you think transferring to a new school is hard, try doing it when tragic accidents and death seem to follow you everywhere you go. That's the case for Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) in the big-screen adaptation of bestselling young adult novel Beautiful Creatures. The broody teen is on her fourth school, and with her 16th birthday looming, she must decide whether or not to "go dark" and use her inherited sorcery powers for evil. Of course, she must do this all while juggling a romance with an understanding peer (Alden Ehrenreich) and facing an entire town that has turned against her. Talk about pressure.

If you've read the book, you know that Lena is a "caster," but that's not exactly clear in the trailer; she comes across as a kind of generically magic person. Emmy Rossum looks great as Lena's cousin, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Viola Davis, but I'm holding my breath on whether or not this supernatural story will be the next Twilight saga. The movie will be released on Feb. 13 of next year, but you can watch the trailer when you read more.

I saw the original Men in Black movie so long ago that my memories of the film might as well have been zapped with a neuralyzer (that's the memory-erasing device the guys use in the movie, for those of you who are also having trouble recalling the original). What I did retain is that the film was funny, fresh, and silly and that it didn't hold up very well for the 2002 sequel. With that in mind, I had low expectations for Men in Black 3, but the newest installment is just as much fun as the original, and it actually benefits from the 15-year time lapse.

The script for the film is one of its biggest assets and truly sets Men in Black 3 apart from its predecessors. The aliens are still alive and ickier than ever now that they're in 3D, but the story is more focused on the friendship between J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) and how it has evolved over the years. We learn early on that K has been keeping a secret from J all these years, and the mystery drives a wedge between the partners. Meanwhile, a treacherous alien named Boris the Animal (played to hilarious perfection by Flight of the Conchords's Jemaine Clement) breaks out of maximum-security prison and goes back in time to get revenge on K, who arrested him back in the '60s. The day that K had Boris locked up is the key to K's secret, so J heads on a mission back in time to save K and learn the truth.

To see why Men in Black 3 is so much fun, just read more

• Matthew McConaughey joins Magic Mike (aka the male-stripper movie) — Moviefone
• Meet Tom Cruise's new leading lady — The Hollywood Reporter
• See who will play Andy's parents on The Office — Zap2It
• Dakota Fanning and Emma Thompson are teaming up — /Film
• Get the latest update on the new season of Dancing With the Stars —Aol TV
• Check out Rose McGowan's favorite films — Rotten Tomatoes
• Find out what kind of over-the-top spaces you can expect to see on the DIY network's new show — CasaSugar
• The creepiest images from the latest trailer of Daniel Radcliffe's new movie — Movieline
• Adam Scott lands a leading film role — Cinema Blend

• Mia Maestro, Christian Camargo, Casey LaBow, and MyAnna Buring will portray the Denali coven in Breaking Dawn — MTV.com
• Justin Bieber's video for "U Smile" — Vulture
• Matthew McConaughey joins Richard Linklater's Bernie — PopWatch
• Which Fall show will be canceled next? — TV.com
• Zach Galifianakis spoofs The Social Network trailer — Funny or Die
• Emma Thompson joins Men in Black 3 — Slash Film
• The year's best movies that weren't on the big screen — Moviefone
• New music video for Eminem's "No Love" feat. Lil Wayne — HitFix
• Maggie Q talks fight scenes — Movieline
• Which Justin Timberlake is hotter? — TrèsSugar

Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep were among those who dressed up last night to honor the career of legendary director Mike Nichols. The women were joined by stars from many of Mike's famous films like Dustin Hoffman, who starred in The Graduate, Emma Thompson, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hanks. Julia took the stage to toast Mike, saying, "Mike is one of the few people in the world who's an 'EGOT' — it means he's won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony." She mingled with Oprah Winfrey afterward to catch up since their last chat about Eat, Pray, Love. Harrison Ford also shared kind words about Mike, but he spent most of the evening cuddling up to longtime love Calista Flockhart. The evening was notable for another reason — John Goodman finally showed off his dramatic weight loss, and he made the rounds chatting with Hollywood veterans like Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.

To see more from the big night, just read more

I'm loving this houndstooth cape that Emma Thompson is sporting in Pirate Radio. Houndstooth, which is characterized by a duotone textile pattern comprised of broken checks, is traditionally seen in black and white, but other color patterns are also common.

Inspired by Emma's fab cape, I looked for more housewares-oriented houndstooth. One of my favorites is this Houndstooth Accent Chair (on sale for $749). Its sleek black arms are a great accent to the nubbier pattern of the fabric.

For even more houndstooth finds, check out the widget.

Academy-award winning actress Emma Thompson was so moved by the plight of a Moldovan woman who survived being trafficked for sex, she decided to create an art installation that would help viewers to put themselves in Elena's shoes and bring attention to this growing problem.

"Journey," which will be exhibited in New York City Nov. 10 to 16 in Washington Square Park, tells the story of Elena, a woman from the Eastern European republic of Moldova who, at age 18, was promised a secretarial job in England. Instead, once she got there, her passport was confiscated and she was forced into prostitution.

"Journey" consists of seven shipping containers. Each has a keyhole through which the viewer can peer to see a chronology of Elena's story. The first shipping container depicts Elena's childhood and the loss of her father. In another, the viewer can see Elena approached in a Moldovan marketplace and offered work.

Thompson personally curated one of the more disturbing of the shipping containers which depicts Elena's forced prostitution in England. She had Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell design the clothes she was forced to wear, and when the viewer looks into the keyhole, she sees her face superimposed onto the body of a woman in prostitute's clothing. They wanted the viewer to have an experience of what it meant to lose one's identity. Thompson said that even men "didn't laugh or find it funny. They understood absolutely what it meant."

Thompson met Elena while doing work with UNODC (United Nations Office on Drug and Crime) to help raise awareness about the practice of trafficking women, and it sounds as if she's not only telling her plight, she's giving Elena the voice that was taken away from her. In the last shipping container, Elena tells her story on tape.

The description for An Education goes like this: "A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age." And the new trailer for the movie, written by Nick Hornby, shows just that. In fact, the whole movie seems to unfold within this trailer, and yet, I still really, really want to see the movie. In a rare occurrence, I'm anxious to find out what happens in between all the scenes we see in the preview. This is largely due to the engaging cast, which includes Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina and Rosamund Pike. Carey Mulligan, as the young woman at the center of the story, is particularly riveting, a spirited pixie with a sharp mind and the sweetest, most innocent face in the world.

An Education opens in limited release here in the U.S. Oct. 9. To watch the trailer, read more