• Did Madonna collapse twice during her show in Sofia, Bulgaria?

In the video at the link, you can see her lean on her backup dancer — then he asks her if she is okay. But would you call it a "collapse"? [The Sun]

• Jesus Luz doesn't just play a DJ in Madonna's new video, he is a DJ. But at a gig in Brazil, "the dancefloor was almost empty," says a source. [Page Six]
• Madonna wants Cate Blanchett to star in her new musical movie about the life of Wallis Simpson, who Britain's King Edward VIII gave up the throne to marry. [Sydney Morning Herald]
• Speaking of Cate Blanchett, was she injured on stage during A Streetcar Named Desire a few hours ago? The audience was "evacuated" from the theater, and "everyone is speculating Cate is hurt." [Sydney Morning Herald]
• UPDATE: Cate Blanchett was "left bleeding from the head" when a fight scene "went badly wrong." An actor hit her in the head with a prop '60s style radio. [SMH]
• Angelina Jolie is "furious" that Brad Pitt has been boozing and smoking weed and has "exploded." She said: "Stop boozing and smoking drugs or check into rehab!" According to insiders, that is. As always, consider the source on this. [News.com.au via National Enquirer]
• Here's another clip from Chris Brown's Larry King interview. He says he's "ashamed" and "really regrets" punching and biting Rihanna. He wishes he could take it back. [TMZ]
• Good news for Rihanna: She will be one of Glamour's Woman Of The Year. [WWD]
• Nicole Kidman has "abandoned" her older kids, Isabella (16) and Connor (14), whom she brought up during her marriage to Tom Cruise. They reportedly don't call her mom, they call her Nicole; she didn't go to the premiere of Seven Pounds, which Connor was in; she hasn't been seen in public with either kid since May 2007. [News.com.au via In Touch]
• Lindsay Lohan is moving out of her Hollywood Hills house, but neighbors claim they've spoken to the owner of the place, who says she's breaking her lease and owes about $50,000. [RadarOnline]
• Nicole Richie "almost collapsed in grief" when she heard the news of DJ AM's death. "She said she felt like her heart stopped for a few minutes."
  The two were involved — and engaged in 2005. They were both recovering addicts, and a source says: "Adam was the one who got her to straighten up. She never thought he'd come to this. She's horrified and regrets that she didn't reach out and help him." [Star]
• Blink 182 will reschedule two concerts because Travis Barker needs "time to mourn" DJ AM's death. [TMZ]
• Authorities say that DJ AM had eight undigested OxyContin pills in his stomach and a ninth in his mouth. A source says: "He wanted to die." [People]
• DJ AM's memorial will be "in the style of an open 12-step meeting." [People]
• Getting divorced: LeAnn Rimes. Was it just five months ago that she was "caught in an affair"? [Michael Jackson's death certificate has been amended, now listing his fatal injury as ""intravenous injection by another." [TMZ]
• Katherine Jackson has filed papers to try and get Michael Jackson's estate to pay for his burial. [TMZ]
• Kate Hudson is "hearing wedding bells." She's always at A-Rod's apartment, yadda yadda yadda. [MSNBC]
• Alec Baldwin met some of the Real Housewives of New York City, who were fighting over time with him, but he only wanted to meet Bethenny Frankel, who didn't show up to the event. A source spills: "He said he really wanted to meet her and even complained that, of course, the one woman he wanted to meet wasn't coming. He wasn't even being discreet about how interested he was." [Gatecrasher]
• Behold: Jon Hamm, astride a motorcycle — and cuddling a dog — in the new Rolling Stone. [ONTD]
• While preparing for his Broadway play, A Steady Rain, Daniel Craig has demanded personal security be available to shadow him at all times. Costar Hugh Jackman? Hasn't asked for any protection. [Page Six]
• Whitney Houston was hoarse during her free concert in Central Park yesterday. [Page Six]
• Guy Ritchie's pub, The Punchbowl, is being investigated for being too noisy. [Independent]
• Joe Francis claims three of his "most trusted" employees "misused their positions" and funneled cash out from his business. He' suing, of course. [TMZ]
• In a poll, only 16% of people who saw the new Transformers movie said it was worth their money, but 55% called Megan Fox the "summer's sexiest babe." Also, The Hangover was named "most worth" the price of admission, even though the cast was "largely unknown." Jack Black's Year One and Will Ferrell's Land Of The Lost scored low. Lesson: Fans favored flicks with fresh faces. [Reuters]
• Natalie Portman's new "rustic, castle-like" house in L.A. looks pretty amazing, and that fireplace makes me think of the fireplace scene in Garden State. [ONTD via In Touch]
• In this column, Kevin Federline is described as "Britney Spears' bloated ex-husband." [Page Six]
• Look for David Beckham to star in an ad for the California Travel and Tourism Commission, kicking soccer balls into the ocean. [Mirror]
• DVR alert: Kermit The Frog and Miss Piggy will "perform" on America's Got Talent tomorrow! Also there to judge: Curmudgeons Statler and Waldorf. [UPI]
• The Black Eyed Peas are being sued by a woman who attended a concert rehearsal and fell through some stairs. [TMZ]
• Audrina Patridge is insisting on being a producer on her new reality show, The Audrina Show, so that she won't be portrayed as an airhead, the way she was on The Hills. [Page Six]
• Emily Blunt's dad approves of her wedding to John Krasinski, even though they've only been together for eight months. [Daily Express]
• Phil Spector's being moved to a different prison, where he'll be in a "sensitive needs yard." [AP]
• Tippi Hedren's L.A. animal sanctuary is threatened by wildfire! "Nobody wants lions and tigers going down the road," Melanie Griffith's mom says. "I'm knocking on wood right now." [MSNBC]
• "I love Zooey, she's one of my favourite people in the world — we've been friends for a long time actually. We did a movie together called Manic a long time ago, and we've stayed friends since. So, to come to work every day with somebody that I like and trust and care about, I think it was really key in making the movie work. I think Zooey is similar to Summer in that they are both very honest. They are not afraid to tell you what they think and what they feel. But Summer is quite different from Zooey in a lot of ways also. I think Summer, in certain ways, doesn't quite know exactly what she wants out of life and Zooey definitely does - she is very on the ball, one of the many things that I admire about her, that she's making movies, writing songs and releasing albums." — Joseph Gordon-Levitt. [Mirror]
• "If it's nudity just because they want you to get naked in a movie, then I'm kind of like, 'You know what? No.' But if it's kind of pivotal, and it helps move the story along then yeah, sure I'll do it. I can't imagine being like, 'Hey Dad, wanna come?' I'll just have to wait for it to come out on DVD so I can fast forward through those scenes." — Rumer Willis. [E!]
• "I just sort of dork out and want to hang out with cool, good people. I want to be one of the cool kids at the party. You know: lay my outfit out the night before and show up. Sure, it's nice if a script is good, but a bad script can be fixed by really good directing and decent acting. So, it's more about the people… Obviously, I couldn't be more grateful. This is all I know how to do. If Arrested Development didn't come along, I don't know what I would be doing. I don't have anything else to fall back on. It was nice to get a new tank of gas with that show. Now my job is not to screw it up; the goal is longevity." — Jason Bateman. [USA Today]
• "I basically read every book ever written about Marilyn Monroe. I could end up like that because I constantly struggle with the idea that I think I'm a borderline personality — or that I have bouts of mild schizophrenia. I definitely have some kind of mental problem and I haven't pinpointed what it is." — Megan Fox. [WENN]

Although several plot points will be glossed over or withheld, and most of what I'm writing about is in the trailer, this could get a little spoilery, so be warned.

The premise: Four guys travel to Las Vegas for a Bachelor weekend; three wake up in a hotel with no memory of what happened, but there's a tiger — and a baby — in the room.

The guys are all jerks, pretty much: Bradley Cooper's character, Phil, is the biggest, and, in an early scene, he calls Ed Helms' character — who is a dentist — "Dr. Faggot." Lots of laughs in the theater, but not from me. Zach Galifianakis — playing Alan, a guy who is "not right" in the head, is amazing, and funny, and really the breakout star of the film. But many of the supporting roles are tired clichés. The one black guy — besides Mike Tyson — is a drug dealer. There's an Asian gangster-type, who minces and lisps and generally embarrasses both Asians and gays. And then there are the women.

Ed Helms' character, Stu, is living with a woman played by bespectacled Rachel Harris. She is brunette, and looks Liz Lemony — brainy, successful — so naturally, she is a shrill, cold, shrew who nags and berates him into submission. Once he's in Vegas, Stu's character ends up marrying the blonde, wide-eyed Jade — played by Heather Graham — a hooker with a heart of gold.

Of course, you don't go to this kind of film looking for depth and complexity. It's a roller-coaster ride of smart and darkly funny entertainment. But with such great casting, some excellent jokes and thrilling action, why rest on lame brunette vs. blonde, frigid bitch vs. whore stereotypes?

The other question is this: If it's cool to laugh at these bad boys, does that make it cool to also laugh at calling wimpy dudes "faggots"?

That's my take; here's what the critics are saying:

NPR:

The Hangover, Hollywood's most destructive stag-party trip to Las Vegas since 1998's Very Bad Things, works backward from a morning-after shambles that's amusingly surreal. But this bad-boy comedy runs out of laughs long before it's reconstructed the things its four protagonists shouldn't have done during the night they can't remember.

Time:

Unless your definition of pure perversity includes the portrayal of a convicted pedophile ("I'm not supposed to be within 200 feet of a school," says Alan, "or a Chuck-E Cheese") who's given weekend custody of a baby; or if your idea of the decade's funniest movie would contain a scene where our heroes get repeatedly tasered before a class of cheering children. You'll also need an indulgence for racial (Asian) and sexual (gay) stereotyping, and the sight of inappropriate gentlemen with their pants off. […] Virtually every joke either is visible long before it arrives or extends way past its expiration date.[…] This is a bromance so primitive it's practically Bro-Magnon.

Salon:

Crude, audacious and anarchic… And yet "The Hangover" is a cut above the typical contemporary guy-friendship comedy […] It builds in us an increasingly squirrelly sense of anxiety, a mounting certainty that none of this is going to turn out OK.

Slate:

The setups are funnier than the follow-through… The movie loses momentum rather than picking it up. This kind of "one crazy night" tale relies on drum-tight structure to work. Without it, The Hangover sputters to a sentimental halt…

Still, it's worth staying for the closing credits, in which an outrageous photo montage finally reveals what transpired during the boys' collective blackout.

NY Times:

The Hangover peaks early and runs out of steam long before the end.
Still, there are some moments of dizzying, demented lunacy, most of them immune to being spoiled by mere verbal description.
But true to its title, "The Hangover" goes down smoothly enough and then kicks you in the head later on, when you start to examine the sources of your laughter. There's the easy, lazy trafficking in broad ethnic caricature - Mike Epps as a black drug dealer, Ken Jeong as a prancing, lisping Asian gangster known as Mr. Chow - which is decked out in flimsy air quotes to make it seem as if the movie is making fun of racism.

The Hangover opens today



The Hangover [Trailer Addict]
Earlier: What's So Funny About A Man With A Baby?

The Good: Lurve Kristen Bell's soft - but modern! - silhouette, obviously the best costume for a shitty premiere.


Le Silk Sak: Aw, Ashley Olsen looks so pretty when she smiles and stands up straight! (Eating spinach is also a good idea!)


The Inevitable Bandage: Cheryl Hines always looks the proverbial million bucks, but one has to wonder sometimes about Leger's chef d'ouevre: does it look flattering, or just like you're strapped in really, really tight?


Lady in Red: Does it seem like we've seen Heather Graham wear this (many times) before? And if so, is that a problem? Thinking caps, kids.


The Cocktail: Ooh, Angela Kinsey looks like she's about to break into a sultry rendition of "Black Coffee." (My fantasy world involves a lot of karaoke.)


Hills Are Alive: What's with this cast's obsession with silk charmeuse? Don't they understand that 85% of the time it looks cheap and crummy? No? Okay, then.


The Glasses Question: May I just say: I wish Rachael Harris didn't remove her glasses, always, for formal dos, because she looks smashing in them, and is a good spectacle ambassador, and glasses aren't a sometimes treat!


Picture Worth At Least A Thousand Words. Not a thousand good words, more things like "rth5" and "mjl;[" and "t/,;erlkwf!!!!!"


What Say You about Sasha Barrese's sweet sixteen special?


Not to suggest that we'd call a person's physiognomy good, bad, or ugly!


So why is this here? Hmm...hard to say...

[Images via Getty]

Last night I saw new dick flick The Hangover, from the guy who brought us Road Trip and Old School. There will be more about the film at a later date; but for now, let's just focus on the parts that included a baby. See, the gist of the movie is this: Four guys go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, and when they wake up in the morning, they can't remember any of the last 24 hours — but there's a baby (and a tiger) in their hotel suite. At a Q&A last night, director Todd Phillips said, "We tried to think, okay, you wake up, what's the worst thing you could see?" Hence the baby. (And the tiger.)

But about the baby: Of the three men who find the kid, only one is actually a father, and he is the least interested in the child's welfare. The baby gets hit with a car door, left in a parked car — in Las Vegas, in the desert sun — there's even a sex joke made. About a baby. Yes, it's a comedy, and the moments get big laughs — the guys are clearly being idiots — but would people laugh at women who did the same things? (Oh, that's right: bad mother's don't get laughs. They get misdemeanor charges, and sometimes book deals.) But men and babies: Why is that funny? What is the root of the humor? That men just aren't "cut out" to be nurturing?

These same thoughts came up while watching the latest "Guide To Man Style", in which comedy duo Gabe And Max give "advice" to new fathers, like clean your baby in the shower and give it Red Bull bottles.

Where do we get this idea that men are wackily unfit to be around infants and kids? And shouldn't we have left it behind years ago, when Mr. Mom and Three Men And A Baby came out?

Gabe And Max Are Your Baby Daddies [Videogum]
Related: A Stand-Up Gets His Close Up [WSJ]
Related, sorta: The Cult Of The Bad Mother: When Everyone Is A "Bad parent," Is Anyone? [Babble]