Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin
Julianne Hough continued her Ryan Seacrest-funded St. Barts vacation. Such activities from a sugar daddy all expenses paid vacation include hanging out on the yacht with some jet skiing and staying in a private secluded villa. We’re definitely assuming that Julianne’s paycheck from Footloose didn’t contibute considering Seacrest earns an estimated $55 million a year, $15 million/year for American Idol.
The 11th season of American Idol premieres on January 18th on FOX.
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NBC’s The Voice earned bragging rights tonight as all 4 of its musician coaches received Grammy nominations: 4 for Cee Lo Green, 2 each for Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera and one for Adam Levine’s band Maroon 5 (it is for the group’s collaboration with Aguilera Moves Like Jagger). In contrast, none of the judges of the other signing competition series, including The Voice‘s main rivals American Idol and The X Factor, landed a single nomination. The recent crop of American Idol contestants also failed to earn recognition though the series’ 2 best-selling alums, Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson earned a nom each, as did another star of a reality competition, Susan Boyle of Simon Cowell’s Britain’s Got Talent. 
path for Summit Entertainment’s holdover Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 to win the weekend derby. Hollywood will have hissy fits if the North American box office slump keeps continuing. The good news is that critics are bestowing good reviews and audiences are giving great CinemaScores to today’s opening pics: Disney’s rebooted The Muppets earned an ‘A’, and Sony Pictures’ Arthur Christmas an ‘A-’. But the big news Thursday was the $2.3M made by Martin Scorsese’s 3D film Hugo that’s playing on 2,000 less screens than all the competition. Paramount is gleefully estimating $14M for its first 5 days on just 1,277 screens and noting its 97% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. But I’m still going to wait until Friday night to draw any major conclusions about this weekend’s grosses. Meanwhile, … Read More 
Submarine Entertainment and HanWay Films are promoting Robert B. Weide’s Woody Allen: A Documentary to international buyers at the American Film Market this week in Santa Monica. Various North American rights have already sold. It will air in two parts November 20-21 on PBS’ American Masters. The documentary features clips of Allen’s movies including his most commercially successful Midnight in Paris. Emmy-winning and Oscar nominated Weide examines Allen’s life and creative process, from his childhood and early career to the present. Weide had extensive access to observe Allen’s writing habits, casting, directing, editing and relationship with his actors. Interviews of actors too numerous to list cover his whole career from Louise Lasser, Tony Roberts, Dianne Wiest, Diane Keaton all the way to Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Naomi Watts and Owen Wilson. Writing collaborators Marshall Brickman, Mickey Rose and Doug McGrath weigh in along with cinematographers Gordon Willis and Vilmos Zsigmond along with producing partner Letty Aronson, producers Robert Greenhut and Stephen Tenenbaum and longtime managers Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe plus Martin Scorsese among many others. 
EXCLUSIVE: Welcome back Nadia! Shannon Elizabeth, who had been one of the last holdouts from the original American Pie cast, has signed on to appear in the upcoming Universal-produced fourquel, American Reunion. She will join her co-stars Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Chris Klein, Eugene Levy, Tara Reid, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Jennifer Coolidge and Mena Suvari who are all set to return. Elizabeth will reprise her role as Czech exchange student Nadia, which she played in the first and second American Pie movies. She is slated to start next week in Atlanta where the movie will be filmed. Harold & Kumar writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg penned the script and are directing American Reunion, which will feature the gang returning to East Great Falls for their high-school reunion. Craig Perry, Chris Moore and Warren Zide are producing, with Chris and Paul Weitz exec producing. That ’70s Show alumna Elizabeth is with Buchwald/Fortitude and Steve Greener.
Alyson Hannigan has signed to reprise her role in American Reunion, the Universal film that brings back the cast of the raunchy American Pie franchise. Hannigan was the question mark among the original cast when stories about the sequel began popping up. She had the leverage for a nice piece of the pie because the story revolves around her marriage and child with Jason Biggs’ character. Hannigan will work in the film before she returns to the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. She’