Garry Marshall

Just after the box office success of He's Just Not That Into You around Valentine's Day this year, Garry Marshall announced that he's working on a similar movie — intersecting love lives of a whole slew of people, this time set in LA — to open Valentine's Day weekend next year. The title? Valentine's Day. Now the project has a bunch of big names attached, including Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper, and Ashton Kutcher. The Hollywood Reporter breaks down the many roles:

— Roberts is an army officer on leave from Iraq on a flight to L.A. Cooper, on the same flight, is a gay man whose lover is a closeted football player.

— Kutcher is an owner of a flower shop who proposes to his girlfriend (Alba), only to realize he is in love with his close friend, played by Garner, who discovers her boyfriend is married.

— MacLaine plays Roberts' mother, a happy retiree who reveals to her husband a long-ago affair.

— Hathaway is an assistant working at the biggest talent agency in town and dating a mailroom assistant; Biel is a publicist unlucky in love (is there any other kind?) who has no date on Valentine's Day.

Major roles still to be cast are the gay football player, MacLaine's husband, the mailroom worker, a talent agent and a young boy looking to give his crush some flowers.

I adore this ensemble cast (there's a little Alias reunion!) and I can't wait to see how they all work together. I just hope this cast gets something better to work with than He's Just Not That Into You. Maybe it'll turn out to be more like Love Actually. One thing's for sure: New Line Cinema sure knows how to lure women to the theaters on Valentine's Day weekend. What do you think about this cast?

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Remember Garry Marshall? Director of some beloved flicks like Pretty Woman and Beaches (and some others like Runaway Bride and Raising Helen)? Regardless of the fact that his last directorial project was that Lindsay Lohan thing, Georgia Rule, he's still one of the bigger directors in this genre. So why is he doing a movie that sounds a lot like He's Just Not That Into You?

Titled Valentine's Day, the movie is "a comedy about 10 people in Los Angeles whose lives intersect on the romantic holiday." He's Just Not That Into You follows a bunch of people in Baltimore whose romantic lives overlap. The script for Valentine's Day was even rewritten by the same people who wrote the script for HJNTIY.

Anyway. I hope Marshall can make this project fun. Surely we'll hear all about the casting for this as each of the 10 roles are filled. The multiple storylines thing can be entertaining, but sometimes it's hard to care much about any of them if there are too many. Do you like movies like this that include many intersecting stories, or would you rather concentrate on one or two characters in a film?

Source and heart image from HJNTIY one-sheet courtesy of Warner Bros.

Last night was the LA premiere of Paris Hilton's new movie, The Hottie and The Nottie. We've been seeing her make the promotional rounds including a night out with her co-star, Christine Lakin, in full costume with her not hot makeup. Christine finally got to come out of character last night and one up Paris - she looks amazing in her bright shiny satin dress. Hilton on the other hand, well let's just say we would have worn this look differently, but she did score the hunk so who am I to talk. Paris got a huge hug from her documentary BFF Adrian Grenier but the real test will be at the box office this weekend. Unfortunately for Paris, based on the 100 screen distribution deal we're pretty sure this won't crack the top 10.

For lots more of Paris, Adrian, Christine, and many more just read more

"On the Lot" has been quite the slog this summer, it's true, but this week's episode was the one that I figured would make it all worthwhile. Three not-that-bad directors were going to pull out all the stops to make the best final films they could, Garry Marshall was going to utter more crazy talk, and Adrianna Costa was going to barely wear clothing. Right?

Wrong. Well, the last two were true, but instead of getting three new films, we got what was essentially a recap. The final three — Jason, Will and Adam — were asked to pick their two favorite films from the season. And then we watched them. Again. With absolutely nothing new except for Adrianna's blabber in between.

I shouldn't be surprised; it's my fault for getting my hopes up about anything having to do with "On the Lot." After all, my whole experience of watching this show has been a lesson in setting my expectations lower. But "rewarding" the, I dunno, 25 of us who are still watching with a finale filled with films we'd already seen is just offensive. All I can figure is that the show ran out of money.

Enough venting. To read about what actually happened and see my pick to win, read more

This week's episode of "On the Lot" started with a somewhat shocking elimination: Zach, the director who honestly seemed most likely to win from the very first week of the competition, was eliminated after last week's vote. Yes, I said his movie last week was one of my least-favorites, and I think Zach made a strategic mistake by making a not-great sequel to an even worse original film. On the other hand, I think he's one of only a couple of the "On the Lot" contestants who I think could actually have a career in Hollywood, and it's unfortunate that he won't be there at the end.

The remaining four guys were tasked with making a film based on a logline submitted through the logline challenge the show has been running all season: a guy wakes up wearing a dress with no memory of the night before. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of films that came from the logline; I think all four directors realized they needed to move beyond "hey, it's a dude in a dress!" and actually give us a story. The guest judge, by the way, was F. Gary Gray of Friday and The Italian Job. As for the contestants' films:

• Will started off the night with The Yes Men. He said he wanted to focus more on the people around the man in the dress and go for something Coen Brothers-esque. I did get a little Hudsucker Proxy out of it, and there definitely was a man in a dress, but he really didn't deal with the second part of the challenge (about the guy not remembering what happened the night before) at all. Still, it had a cool screwball feeling to it. Carrie liked the dialogue and the fact that Will didn't feminize the man in the dress; F. Gary said it was well-designed and funny but he wanted a little more punch at the end; Garry said everyone was funny, from the lead to the supporting players, and that's a compliment to the director.
• Sam followed up with Dress for Success. His interpretation featured a bunch of women getting revenge on their sexist, sexually harassing boss by making him wear a dress and heels while performing menial office tasks and, for some reason, walking on a treadmill while getting smacked on the butt. He emerges having been taught a lesson ... except then he suddenly starts sexually harassing guys instead. Something just felt off about the film, whether it was the pace or the tone, and I think he tried to hard for his big punchline at the end. Carrie said it wasn't original enough to separate it from other office films; F. Gary said the torture scenes and office scenes felt like two different movies, and Garry liked it fine but said it probably needed to be a bit better at this stage of the competition.

Two more films, so read more

Did anybody else notice how many times Adrianna Costa mentioned during this week's "On the Lot" that the winner would be crowned "in just three weeks"? Three weeks! Almost done!

We now know two more people who won't be walking away with the $1 million development deal: Mateen and Kenny, just as I'd suspected. All six remaining directors showed their films tonight, which once again were short comedies. (I guess we're not doing drama on this show?) Joining the judges was Brad Silberling, director of City of Angels, Moonlight Mile and the Lemony Snicket movie. As for this week's crop of movies:

• Zach was up first with The Bonus Feature, about a guy who buys a car with a DVD player that transports him an dhis girlfriend into various scenes from classic movies. Basically, it's the plot of the animated "No Time for Nuts" short, mixed with a Disney ride and a healthy dose of Spielberg. Carrie and Brad thought it needed more story; Garry said Zach might have sucked up too much Spielberg but he should be able to continue in the competition.
• Adam followed that up with Girl Trouble, about a highly unusual one-night stand. And by "unusual," I mean "cross-dressing." The plot basically centered on one guy trying to convince his roommate that the "date" he'd brought home was gorgeous, and the roommate had none of it — the kicker being that the roommate's fiance was also a cross-dressing guy. Sound funny? Yeah, exactly. Also, it ripped off both American Beauty and The Graduate. Carrie and Garry liked it, but Brad thought it was too over-the-top and didn't really kill.

Four more, so read more