Jennifer Jason Leigh

• Elizabeth Banks and Leslie Mann will topline What Was I Thinking, a comedy that follows four female friends who take a hedonistic ski trip after one of the women gets dumped. — Zap2It
• YouTube has a new special section for TV episodes and movies. — LA Times
• Fox Searchlight has acquired screen rights to Jen Sacks's darkly humorous book Nice, which will be developed as a potential star vehicle for Reese Witherspoon. — Variety
• Melanie Griffith will play Kimber's mom on Nip/Tuck. — TV Guide
• Jennifer Jason Leigh will play Nancy's estranged sister on Weeds. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Not surprisingly, The Amazing Race has been renewed. — TV.com
• Thomas Dekker is reportedly in final negotiations to play the role of Jesse in director Samuel Bayer's A Nightmare on Elm Street. — ComingSoon
• Fantasia Barrino and DJ AM both landed reality TV series. — The Hollywood Reporter
• The Golden Girls will be remade — in Turkey! — Variety

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Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, has been generating positive buzz ever since it premiered at Cannes this year. Time Magazine calls it "A miracle movie," while Variety claims it is "a wildly ambitious and gravely serious contemplation of life. The picture exerts power and artistic mystery." If this new trailer is any indication, I am starting to see what all the fuss is about.

Philip Seymour Hoffman leads a hugely talented cast (including Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis and many more) in this story in which "[a] theater director (Hoffman) struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play."

Synecdoche, New York will start with a limited release on Oct. 24. To check out the trailer, read more

Tina Fey will host the first post-strike episode of Saturday Night Live on Feb. 23, and Ellen Page will follow the next week, writes The New York Times.
• John Legend and Isaac Hayes have joined the cast of the comedy Soul Men, which includes Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac, writes Billboard.
• ComingSoon has news that Wes Craven's first horror project since 1994 will be 25/8, based on the 1972 George Romero film.
• Benjamin Bratt will star in a new series for A&E about an interventionist, while Timothy Hutton will portray a modern-day Robin Hood in the TNT series Leverage; details on both are at The Futon Critic.
• Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Jason Leigh will star together in the indie sex comedy titled Spread, reports Variety.
• Aretha Franklin is not pleased with Beyonce after Beyonce's Grammy intro referred to Tina Turner, not Franklin, as "the queen," the Associated Press reports.
• Zap2It writes that Joel Surnow, co-creator of 24, is leaving the show to pursue other projects.
• According to Billboard, this summer's tour will be the last for The Police.
• Fox is remaking a Japanese TV show in which people must fit into shapes like human Tetris pieces, according to Variety.

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The Vanity Fair annual Hollywood Issue photo shoot is especially cool this year as a whole slew of famous actors posed to recreate classic shots from Alfred Hitchcock movies. Some of my personal favorites include Seth Rogan doing North by Northwest Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. in To Catch A Thief and the Scarlett Johansson/Javier Bardem duo doing Rear Window. Also, doesn't Renee Zellweger look a lot like Meryl Streep posing in Vertigo? Check out some behind the scenes video of all the shoots, so serious. Which shots are your favorites?

To see more from the shoot just read more

At the end of writer/director Noah Baumbach's 2005 film The Squid and the Whale, I felt exhausted — but not in a bad way. That slice-of-life film focusing on a Brooklyn family in the midst of the parents' separation is at times depressing and hard to watch. At the end, however, there's a moment that feels redemptive and almost hopeful. Margot at the Wedding marks Baumbach's follow-up to Squid in the Whale and has extremely similar themes and characters with one key difference: there is no real redemption to this movie.

Nicole Kidman plays Margot, a Manhattan author and mother to a teenage boy named Claude (Zane Pais). Margot and Claude travel together to Margot's childhood home where her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) now lives and where she's about to marry the schlubby Malcolm (Jack Black). Once they're together again, the movie mostly centers on Margot and Pauline's relationship, Margot and Claude's relationship and Margot's strained relationship with her husband — and her relationship to men in general. That's basically it for plot, but there is still more to talk about so read more

Fresh off her hot night at the CMAs Nicole Kidman looked kinda freezing (not to be confused with frigid) at the NYC premiere of Margot at the Wedding last night. No wonder why she didn't take off her coat. Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Adrian Grenier were similarly bundled up, but not Helena Christensen. Because supermodels do not feel cold, obviously. Also, rewinding for a second, Adrian looks a little, shall we say, squinty eyed in his white pants. Methinks he was really enjoying himself at the premiere. Good times.

To see more of the premiere including Howard Stern, Katie Lee Joel, Noah Baumbach and others just read more

Nicole hit the red carpet solo for the premiere of Margot at the Wedding, but Keith was back by her side to walk her around NYC this weekend. He looks all cleaned up since his motorcycle accident (certainly in better shape than post-crash Clooney), but maybe that's because the incident wasn't as bad as it seemed. Nicole claims the whole thing was blown out of proportion, saying, “He didn’t really have an accident at all. That was a bit of an exaggeration. It was a little mishap. He’s safe and sound.” Whatever the case may be, we're just happy to see that Keith didn't suffer any serious injuries.

Lots more pics including Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming so just read more

Every Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

Fast Times at Ridgemont High was one of the many great suggestions you gave me back when I asked for recast suggestions, and I think it's "high" time we got to recasting this awesome '80s teen movie!

If you could recast the movie with new actors, who would you pick for Stacy and her best friend, the, um, mature-for-her-age Linda? Who else could play the dazed and confused Spicoli? What about Stacy's hapless brother Brad, the nerdy Mark "Rat" Ratner and the shady Mike? Finally, of course, there's the hilariously named Mr. Hand to recast.

Leave your entry in the comment section below, and I'll pick one winner to feature Tuesday, October 2, complete with a "new" cast photo.

To see a list of characters to recast and a photo of the BuzzSugar t-shirt, read more

Noah Baumbach is the young director whose indie film The Squid and the Whale (starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney) was weirdly fascinating. Embracing the look and feel of Brooklyn in the 1980s, it was a difficult family drama that often made me laugh or feel uncomfortable (or, at times, accomplished both those things at the same time). Baumbach's latest venture, Margot at the Wedding, appears to have precisely the same style and feeling as Squid, and again deals with strained familial relationships.

Nicole Kidman plays Margot whose sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is marrying the slightly schlubby Malcolm (Jack Black, curiously trying his hand at a dramatic role). Margot, clearly not enjoying a smooth relationship with her sister, has some reservations about this union.

Margot at the Wedding opens October 19. To see the trailer (in which Kidman is back to her beautiful redheaded self), read more