Big Rundown: Today's Top Hollywood Headlines

1. Four time Oscar-nominee and WWII veteran (The Mighty) Mickey Rooney celebrates his 90th birthday today.

—–

2. Lame Celebrity Tweet of the Day: Seth MacFarlane:

I wonder if anyone called him “Andrew Breitfart” in high school.

MacFarlane, radio host actress Amy Holmes, and Breitbart will meet this Friday night at the roundtable on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”

—–

3. Fugitive child rapist attracts A-list cast

—–

4. “International human rights and climate change advocate” Bianca Jagger wants Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to stop an execution. I’d listen to her. She is a international human rights and climate change advocate.

—–

5. The most rewatchable movie ever “Goodfellas” is 20 years old today and might become a television series. GQ takes a look back with the cast and crew, including director Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro and Ray Liotta:

“Do I Amuse You?” and Other Happy Accidents

Schoonmaker: [editor] Scorsese wanted to show that as [Joe] Pesci gets angrier and angrier, the men around him and Ray [Liotta] stop laughing, and you see the look of dread come on their faces. The key moment was how long we waited before Ray says, “Get the fuck outta here, Tommy,” in an attempt to break it. We kept screening it over and over again to get just the right beat for that one incredible moment where Ray knows if he doesn’t make this work, he’s going to get shot. [laughs]

Liotta: It was supposed to end when I say, “Get the fuck outta here, Tommy.” But you let it breathe, just to see what happens. And for some reason I said, “You really are a funny guy!” and he gets the gun. We made that up in the moment, literally.

—–

6. More details on the ‘Matrix’ Filmmakers’ Gay Iraq War romance complete with assassination plot targeting George W. Bush:

The heroes are indeed a gay American soldier named (with little irony) “Butch” and an Iraqi soldier turned militant. Butch is endearing, young, and a ravishingly handsome Marine. Our spies tell us that he “just wants to fuck and kill everything” in Iraq — until, that is, he falls in love with the Iraqi. …

[T]ragedy radicalizes the pair and they become convinced that the only way to rid the world of evil is to kill the architect of the invasion, the then-president of the United States, George W. Bush. And so, during one of the president’s secret sorties to Iraq, they attempt to assassinate him.

Set in the future and told partly in flashback, the $20 million production is called “Cobalt Neural 9.” Both Arianna Huffington and Jesse Ventura will appear in the film. No one knows if it will really get made but the Wachowskis certainly have the cash to do it on their own.

—–

7. The new “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I” trailer:

“Harry Potter 7” hits theatres November 19th.

—–

8. Interview with Tom Selleck about his new television series “Blue Bloods”:

“When I first saw the script, written by these terrific writers, Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green (“The Sopranos”), I felt New York could be a central character; the streets, the neighborhoods, things we don’t often see in a television series.”

—–

9. Turner Classic Movies weekend host Ben Mankiewicz counts down his top 25 favorite Bruce Springsteen songs and some bad choices are made due to their shared Bush Derangement Syndrome.

—–

10. Coming Soon: “Crazy Heart” with a sex change.

—–

11. Below are the trailers for the films the “Smart Set” in the critical community have thus far chosen as this year’s top Oscar contenders:

“The King’s Speech” is scheduled for a November 26th release date.

—–

“The Social Network” hits theatres October 1.