Morgan Spurlock, the documentarian who famously ate an inordinate amount of fast food to prove that it was, in fact, bad for you, is bringing his mustachioed brand of filmmaking into the boudoir of none other than Paul Rudd, who will figure as the handsomest mug in a new documentary about the shadowy world of male grooming habits. Mansome, which is scheduled to premiere at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21 and then in a megalopolis near you on May 18, purports to investigate the grooming habits of the American dude with wit, insight, probably some gross shaving stuff, and commentary from Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Zach Galifinakis, Adam Carolla, Judd Apatow, and sundry experts on men's grooming. Oh, and Paul Rudd features prominently because his picture pops up with pretty much every press release morsel about this movie.
Arnett and Bateman share their first executive producing credits, and Spurlock makes another bid to attract a wide audience to his endearing "average dude" documentary style, but the subject matter seems a little past due. Aren't we beyond the whole "manscaping" phenomenon yet? Hasn't the fact that men groom themselves with all the assiduousness of especially hygienic primates been more or less common knowledge since college-age men started falling victim by the busloads to Axe's not-so-subtle brand of redolence=sex advertising and dousing themselves in cleverly branded perfume? Didn't Queer Eye end in 2007? As much as we all welcome the opportunity to see Paul Rudd's boyish face break into a huge grin, or watch his sea-green eyes glimmer in the light of an especially astute lighting technician, a whole movie about men combing their hair or getting pedicures seems boring. Is it still revelatory information that men groom themselves or are audiences going to laugh at tales of Judd Apatow's adventures in nose-hair-trimming for the sheer novelty that he even knows how to use a pair of grooming scissors? I'd much rather watch another half hour of Ralph Nader putting hiking shoes on his feet, walking them over a table, and muttering the existentially brilliant observation, "It's hard to find shoes that fit," over and over again, a moment, for the three other people who saw Spurlock's last semi-widely distributed movie, that pretty much validates voting for Ralph Nader (twice). [Talk Movies]
A comprehensive list of pop singers as ranked by the net worth of their immortal souls has been compiled and the big surprise is that the late Michael Jackson is still near the top of it, with a net worth of $600 million. If, however, you wanted some evidence to show that the patriarchy could be declining, look no further than Madonna's net worth, which tops all big-ticket performers at $650 million. Mariah Carey isn't far behind with $500 million, and Cher also has a lot of money, though perusing this list will test your prejudices about what amount of money constitutes actual wealth. For instance, would anyone else be surprised to learn that Ke$ha, of the currency symbol Ke$has, has only $8.5 million, or that you would ever find yourself uttering the phrase "only $8.5 million"? It'd be really funny if Madonna, Cher, and Mariah Carey all got together regularly to have tea and bemoan the influx of "new money" into their social circle, and even funnier if Prince, who's worth a middling $250 million, was their butler. [ONTD]
If you're bedridden with a nasty spring flu (they're allergies, just get some Zyrtec and admit how weak your nasal passages are) and being nursed back to health by your attentive rescue mink, you probably have two pretty good reasons to be angry with Kanye West, whose new single "Theraflu" has attracted angry responses from both the kindly old English couple that makes Theraflu and PETA, who this week responded to the song's lyric, "Tell PETA my mink is draggin' on the floor," with the following statement:
What's draggin' on the floor is Kanye's reputation as a man with no empathy for animals or human beings. He's a great musician but doesn't seem to have the fashion sense to design anything more than caveman costumes. We keep hoping that one day he'll find his heart and join evolved style icons-including Russell Simmons, Pink and Natalie Portman-who have dropped animal skins.
Leave it to PETA to take all the glamor out of murdering animals for fashion. What is Kanye supposed to do when it's cold, wear North Face or something, like an eighth grader? [E]
Meanwhile, that hickey on Kim Kardashian's neck has been confirmed by TMZ as a hickey that "originated from Kanye West's mouth," which makes it sound like Kanye West does not give hickeys so much as dispense them like a dispenser of Pez. [TMZ]
Snooki is taking an entrepreneurial approach to her pregnancy and creating a line of children's slippers that will retail for $15, proving that she is precisely the sort of person that Mitt Romney's talking about whenever he references America's spirit of innovation. [E!]
The publishing world is abuzz with news that LeAnn Rimes could hire a ghost writer to pen an "honest book" about the break-up of her first marriage as a result of an affair with now-husband Eddie Cibrian. [E!]
Eddie Vedder has been forced to postpone his 15-city U.S. solo tour because of nerve damage in his right arm stemming from a back injury. This is what encroaching middle age feels like, Generation X — mildly disappointing and inevitable. [E!]
Vanessa Williams, who I most remember from the Pocahontas soundtrack and The Odyssey teleplay, has written a new memoir called You Don't Know, in which she reveals that she was molested as a child by the 18-year-old daughter of visiting family friends. [E!].
Even though Levi Johnston is supposed to pay $1,750 a month in child support, the Bristol Palin squad of publicists and legal eagles claims that Johnston hasn't made a payment since June 2010, saddling him with a 22-month outstanding balance of $38,000. Palin's attorneys haven't yet tried to enforce the child support order through wage garnishment (what does Levi Johnston do for a living anyway?) because they worry that such measures will further strain the parents' already tense relationship. Can you picture Levi Johnston and his stubble working three jobs so he can selflessly support his son, or is it easier to imagine him sitting in a Los Angeles bar twenty years from now, regaling the afternoon regulars about the time he was pretty much Vice President of America? [TMZ]
On the latest installment of 20/20, Donald Trump speculated that if you were making an awful word jumble with judiciously chosen letters from the unfairly disqualified and subsequently reinstated transgender Miss Universe Canada contestant Jenna Talackova's name, you can phonetically spell the actual word "genital," "jennatal." Coincidence? Not to the Donald, whose linguistic contortionist act prompted Gloria Allred, who represents Talackova, to say, "With all due respect to Mr. Trump, he really needs to stop being focused on genitals, his or anyone else's. This world does not revolve around his penis or anyone else's genitalia." She's right, of course — just repeating the phrase "Donald Trump's genital" is enough to curdle anyone's breakfast cereal. [E!]
Potential jurors in the case about the murders of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother, and nephew are being asked questions about their American Idol viewership to determine how familiar they already are with the singer, a practice that is SOP in high-profile cases where people bring all sorts of tangential prejudices that the founding fathers might have considered if they'd been as forward-thinking as everyone thought they were. [AP]
On a sad note, painter of idyllic Disney scenes Thomas Kinkade died at 54 from what appeared to be natural causes. His lingering ghost would prefer that you not make any pretentious remarks about his commercially successful brushwork. [AP]