HOLLYWOOD

Sophia Loren

With Elizabeth Taylor, often called the last living superstar, now gone, the new question is are there any living superstars left? The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences — the Oscar people — have scheduled a tribute to who they think is the last living superstar — Sophia Loren. On May 4, the Academy will honor her body of work and her Oscar-winning performance in “Two Women” (1961). Film clips and personal remarks from her friends and colleagues will honor Sophia, who will attend the tribute! Once when Sophia arrived at Kennedy Airport, I shot a photo of her that looks like we were alone in the TWA terminal, However, there were 200 people standing behind me … staring at her beauty!

Look out, Disney! There’s a new Snow White in town, and she is Lily Collins, daughter of musician Phil Collins. The film has no title yet (How about “Snow White and Those 7 Little People” to be politically correct?). However, it does have Julia Roberts as the evil queen and “Social Network’s” Armie Hammer as the prince. Lily Collins was Sandra Bullock’s daughter in “The Blind Side” and will be in Taylor Lautner’s new thriller “Abduction.”
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In 2009, the Farrelly Brothers cast two-time Oscar-winner Sean Penn as Larry Fine, Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro as Moe Howard and Jim Carrey as Curly, aka The Three Stooges. Were they serious? The trio are great talents, but to do funny, physical slapstick as The Three Stooges? In 2000, Mel Gibson exec-produced a TV movie about The Three Stooges that featured “The Shield” star Michael Chiklis as Curly. Reviews were lukewarm, but Stooges fans loved it.

Now the Farrelly brothers have revived the project and signed “Will and Grace” Emmy winner Sean Hayes as Larry Fine, and five-year “Mad TV” alum Will Sasso — currently on William Shatner’s show “$#! My Father Says” — to play Curly. Richard Jenkins, Oscar nominated as best actor in ’08 for “The Visitor,” and a frequent collaborator with the Farrelly brothers is first listed as a cast member without a character name. He could be playing Moe Howard or famed Columbia Pictures Studio head Harry Cohn.

The lives of the Three Stooges (actually there were five of them: Moe’s brother Shemp was an original Stooge and Curly Joe was replacement for Curly) were a double-edged sword. Their story is both magic and tragic and very difficult to play when an audience is expecting it to be hilariously funny, thus the reason serious actors were first cast. Casting Hayes and Sasso is very smart, both are very adept at playing comedy and pathos. How did Johnny Depp miss out on this one?

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