Sarah Ball

In his Washington Post column today, Tom Shales profiles Conan O'Brien -- heir to Jay Leno's Tonight Show throne as of Monday -- and begs the flame-haired jester this loaded question: What about the fact that, at 11:35 p.m, you'll now be competing against your longtime comedy idol, David Letterman?

Man Sues Chris Brown for Personal Injury.  Chris Brown is back in the headlines after his bodyguard was accused of assault -- and Brown himself sued for personal injury.  Allegedly, Robert Rosen snapped a photo of Brown playing basketball at an L.A.

With , the studio once again shows how little things can make a very big movie.

Ever since the heyday of Fred Astaire, dance movies have captivated audiences around the world. Here's why the genre has endured for almost eight decades.

Will Gokey's Fans Break for Lambert? As Simon seems sure that American Idol finalist Adam Lambert will take the title home tonight, fans are both recalling last season -- a surprise David Cook victory, even as Simon nearly assured David Archuleta he'd win -- and speculating as to where the passionate Danny Gokey fans are disembarking.

Piggybacking on its theater review from yesterday's print edition, The New York Times' news blog has two fascinating dispatches from Germans who've just seen Mel Brooks' "The Producers" -- centered around a mocking, Hitler-themed musical -- in Berlin.  Check it out here.

King Story to Come to Big Screen.  Stephen Spielberg will produce a Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic, Dreamworks announced, in the first ever King biopic to be authorized by the King Estate.  The film's makers will thus be allowed to cull from King's papers, speeches, video and personal belongings.   [Variety]Allen Settles With American Apparel.  The clothing company that used a still of director Woody Allen from "Annie Hall" without his permission will settle out of court for $5 million, it...

  Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden, welcome to the limelight.  Gruden was just announced as the new color guy after its other star -- D.C. sports pundit and former columnist Tony Kornheiser, who also co-helms -- stepped down, saying that he was too overcome with a fear of flying to continue jetting around the country every Sunday.

Check out the trailer for Lars von Trier's Antichrist, above.  The film is responsible for the the biggest splash to-date at Cannes -- Reuters ticks off the various audience reactions from last night's premiere, including, but not limited tocheersjeers"derisive" laughterscreamsapplause"loud" boosSeems there's some graphic sexual mutilation, talking forest creatures, drill-boring through appendages, spraying blood and more.  The 53-year-old Danish director, meanwhile, calls the film "the most...

It's either refreshing, or a sad, telling state of affairs when a newly signed reality TV star -- former Laguna Beach babe Kristin Cavallari -- says of her new gig, essentially, "Thank God I can act."  Or verbatim: The goal for me is to get my fans excited about me again.

"Angels & Demons" vs. "Star Trek" -- Neither Here Nor There.  The world is split -- overseas, people are rushing to see Da Vinci Code follow-up Angels & Demons (the film had a $104 million worldwide take this weekend).  But domestically, the film barely edged out Star Trek's second weekend -- A&D netted $48 million while the sci-fi reboot took $43 million, a less than 50 percent drop from its opening weekend and a figure that moves the film's total,10-day domestic take to nearly $148 million....

In that invigorating, just-went-through-a-haunted-house, "that was AAAWESOME!" kind of way.  Proceed for spinal chills:The new trailer for the movie adaptation of the grim Cormac McCarthy novel has been roundly deemed both "bleak" and "cooool" by the blogosphere.  What do you think?

So it's come to this.  We've admired and loved Steve Zahn for over a decade--maybe since That Thing You Do!, in which he played a delightfully goofy member of one-hit phenom rock band The Oneders Wonders.  Today, after years of being the screwy sidekick, Zahn is finally opening his first major studio comedy as number-one lead guy, opposite Jennifer Aniston in.

The two young stars who kept us riveted through Y Tu Mamá También are back acting together in the directorial debut of that film's writer, Carlos Cuaron -- also the brother of established Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron. Their new flick, Rudo y Cursi, is both a lighthearted soccer comedy and a probing meditation on the state of Mexico and the crippling effects of narcotics. Click the player above to hear the pair talk about their movie, American Idol and what they've been up to since Y Tu...

  If the sight of Leo in Revolutionary Road is any indication--the period fedoras, the stream of martinis, the Sinatra-esque, slicked-back hair--we think he'll (potentially) do just fine.

The Maxim Hot 100--and it's No. 1 hottest female--were just announced, and joining the bootylicious ranks of Scarlett Johansson, Megan Fox and Jessica Biel is ...

Happy Cannes Day!  It's opening day for the Festival de Cannes, the most exclusive and luxe film festival in the world, held for its 62nd year in the French Riviera.  And for the first time ever, an animated film will launch the festivities -- Up, Pixar's latest project (and first 3-D venture).

A mild silver lining of the cool economic climes is watching the preposterously overpriced -- the diamond tennis bracelets, the beachfront mansionettes -- throttle back earthward in value.

And King Trump ascended to the seat of sovereignty, wielding his scepter microphone, and for all the world to hear, declared a crucifix-wearing Carrie Prejean the rightful Miss California USA.  The pitchfork-wielding populace press, meanwhile, peppered the King and the doyenne of Cali with questions.

Spurned William Shatner's Scene Revealed.  Star Trek writers/producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman revealed the details behind a failed William Shatner plot in J.J.

The prognosis ranges from "still in the game" to grim to completely, totally, utterly unlikely for the 1980s-set spinoff, still unnamed despite having a full cast and promotional photos. The show is centered on a backtrack to the teenage years of mom Lily van der Woodsen (a Benatar-ed Brittany Snow) and the sister that we never knew she had, who sort of reminds us of a brunette Cynthia Benson (Tom Hanks's crush in ).

There Will Be Cliches, Part II:Remember how much we hated the "There Will Be [Noun]" headlines back in early '08, along with the "No Country for Old [Noun]" variants?  Yeah, so, these days, it's Star Trek and "beaming" that's getting on our last nerve.  If one more headline trumpets the sci-fi flick's "beaming up" of a boatload of cash this weekend, we're going to set our phasers to stun, or something else really bad.Star Trek Beams to Top of Chart, BBC News Star Trek Beams Up $76.5 Million...

Earlier this morning, Sony Pictures' home entertainment division announced that the complete fourth season of Charlie's Angels -- the show that launched the fame of headline fixture Farrah Fawcett -- will hit your megamall on July 21.  Why the announcement today, of all days?  We can only speculate -- forgive us for doing what comes naturally to blogs -- that it's because interest in the show and its biggest veteran hasn't been this high in years.  Fawcett didn't even figure into the fourth...

Box-Office Boom for J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek." Star Trek had a successful weekend -- $76.5 million from Thursday to Sunday nights -- but didn't catch Wolverine to nab the best opening of the year.  Still, Paramount points to an upswing in attendance over the course of the weekend (it's usually the reverse) as a sign that good word-of-mouth is promoting the film.  They expect to see more big numbers next weekend -- unlike the X-Men film, which plummeted nearly 70& after its opening weekend....

Our chat with Star Trek stars Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto -- click the player to view!

Big Drop for CBS.  CBS posted a $55 million lost yesterday -- that's up against last year's profit of $244 million.  The corporation credits a tremendous slide in ad revenue.  Like the other networks, however, the company was remiss to cite too much gloom ahead of their big line-up presentation, later this month. [Variety]Jack Bauer Goes to Jail? "24" star Kiefer Sutherland has been charged with assault since he turned himself in to police; it was revealed Tuesday morning that he allegedly...

On some parts of this planet, Star Trek is now playing.  In case you've somehow missed the deluge of Trek content on this site and others over the past few MONTHS, here's a primer of the notables:The trailer -- or see below for YouTube version"We're All Trekkies Now," Steve Daly for NEWSWEEK (cover story)"Confessions of a Star Trek Writer," Leonard Mlodinow for NEWSWEEK (cover story)NEWSWEEK gallery of famous guest stars on Star TrekNEWSWEEK snaps of an early Trek convention, in the '70s"Has...

We can't embed the player from FunnyOrDie 'cause our site's old-school, but a new "Between Two Ferns" interview with Natalie Portman just went up, courtesy of Zach Galifianakis.  Which is totally timely, because we were just thinking about how great the fuzzy comedian is in "The Hangover."  Check out the clip here, but be warned, it's NSFW-ish.

Not only am I a smidge on the young side to have been a "Star Trek" devotee--even for "Next Generation," of which I've only seen about one-tenth of an episode--but I also actively dislike space.

Cleveland's Big Breakout Gets Second Helping.  Before the premiere has even aired, Fox has already ordered a second season of "Cleveland," the "Family Guy" spinoff that follows the family of Peter's friend Cleveland Brown.  All you need to know right now is that Arianna Huffington has a recurring role.  The show debuts sometime this fall.  [The Hollywood Reporter]"Idol" Enters Finale Week of 2009.  It's down to the final three on "American Idol" -- an all-male finale cast will include Adam...