JILL JACKSON’S HOLLYWOOD
By Jill Jackson
HOLLYWOOD … Looks like Julia Roberts will forsake full-time mommyhood to make a movie. This being the screen adaptation of the best-selling book “Eat, Pray, Love,” about a married woman who realizes she’s not living life to its fullest. So she divorces her husband and sets out on a trip around the world. At the moment, Miss Julia’s hair is long, long, straight, straight and very, very blonde — giving her an entirely new look.
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Of great interest to me is news of a pilot for a TV series titled “Treme.” It’s about a certain area in New Orleans around a street named Treme, completely devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and its comeback told through the eyes of local musicians. Too bad Louis Armstrong isn’t around to give his version. I was lucky enough to have interviewed Louis when I was on radio, and I still have the tape. Nobody could say the word “Jill” like “ole Satchmo.”
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Madonna will perform 25 shows in the United Kingdom come summer, which will make her the top-grossing female artist and solo singer. Freshly divorced from British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, Madonna showed off her new boy toy, 22-year-old Brazilian model Jesus Luz, during Oscar weekend.
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Ellen Barkin is not only a rich society matron, she’s also keeping her acting career in motion with a psychological thriller titled “The Chameleon.” Also in the cast are Famke Janssen and Marc-Andre Grondin, a French-Canadian star making his English-language debut. It’s the story of a young man reunited with his family after being identified in an unsolved missing-person case. The reunion turns bittersweet when suspicions arise that he is not really their son. Ellen plays the mom.
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Still more casting, and thank heaven for some action. Dave Annable (“Brothers and Sisters”) has been cast in a romantic comedy titled “Wedlocked” that looks to be fun. Dave plays a pet photographer who gets mixed up with a mobster and his daughter. They wed (Dave and the daughter) and things go absolutely berserk on their honeymoon. This shoots in Hawaii while Dave is on hiatus from his TV show.
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It was all pink at the premiere of “The Pink Panther 2” in Germany. Everything anywhere around the theater was pink, from the carpet to the curtains. All the ladies wore pink. The gentlemen sported pink ties, and then the crowd was visited by the Pink Panther in person. P.S. And the crowning delicacies were delicious pink cupcakes and pink candies. Needless to add that the wine was a rosŽ.
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Again a bunch of showbiz writers at lunch, discussing the business, of course. This time the subject was the best actress on the screen today. It finally boiled down to Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep. Then it finally turned out to be Streep, and in my mind no doubt about it. Just look at her two most recent performances. Singing and dancing in “Mamma Mia,” and her fantastic rendition in “Doubt.”
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BITS ’N’ PIECES: Paris celebrated her 28th birthday with a lovely party at her Beverly Hills digs. No incidents. Looks like a whole different Miss Hilton. … All four principals — Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon — have signed on for the “Sex and the City” movie sequel, set for release in 2010.
© 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.