Peter Facinelli Compares 'Twilight' Patriarch Carlisle Cullen To His Breakthrough Role In 'Can't Hardly Wait'

Check out Peter Facinelli's message board on IMDb, and one of the first headlines you'll see is "Mike Dexter cannot play Carlisle!" But, believe it or not, Facinelli is an actor, and he firmly believes that his iconic jerk from "Can't Hardly Wait" and the sensitive, kind Carlisle Cullen can share the same body.

Now, a decade after he burst onto the scene as a jerky jock in the film that launched the careers of everyone from Seth Green to Jaime Pressly to Jason Segel and Selma Blair, "Can't Hardly Wait" is back for a 10th-anniversary DVD. Looking back on the role that started it all, and ahead to the "Twilight" movie that will take his career to the next level November 21, the affable actor spoke with us recently about locking himself in a tool shed, buying off the "Twilight" director for 30 bucks, and what would happen if Mike and Carlisle were to meet.

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Stars Remember Paul Newman: 'He's What You Aspire To Be,' Leonardo DiCaprio Says

BEVERLY HILLS, California — Hollywood was respectfully quiet this weekend as word spread of the passing of legendary actor and philanthropist Paul Newman. While Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott got together to promote their upcoming film "Body of Lies," the topic couldn't help but turn to the Oscar-winning star of such classics as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,""Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "The Verdict."

"We were just talking about [our favorite Newman films]," Crowe said. "It's a body of work, for me ... between the late '60s and the mid '70s, which would probably encapsulate 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Butch and Sundance,' 'The Sting.' There are commercial aspects to what you're doing, but you're also pushing forward naturalistic performance in the cinema that will inform it for the next four decades. I wouldn't want to pick any one performance, I'd just like to say the whole body of work, the whole chunk of it is Paul Newman."

"It was incredible, I agree," added DiCaprio. "He was the great role model for anyone in this industry, in the [way] that he conducted his life. Look at him, and look at the man's work. As an actor, he was part of the definitive group of actors who really shaped what modern acting is. Yet, at the same time, he was a normal family man, and extremely philanthropic. His foundation will continue to do great things for children all around the world. He is really the role model; he's what you want to aspire to be in this industry, both professionally and personally."

Scott, who co-produced one of Newman's final films, 2000's "Where the Money Is," remembered the actor for remaining feisty even into his final years. "I was producing ['Money'] at an arm's length, and Mark Kanievska, who's one of [my production company's] guys, was directing it. And so I went and visited them in Montreal, and had the pleasure of meeting Paul. In fact, we sat for awhile afterwards and got totally plastered!

"He likes his beer, and I like my beer, so that was good," Scott grinned. "I got to know him; I was never able to work with him, unfortunately."

"All his films [influenced me]; they're all classic films," added Scott, director of such films as "Blade Runner" and "Gladiator." "But I go all the way back to 'Hud,' though. 'Hud' is amazing how it still stands up, and does not look like an old movie. There he was. He never seemed to change. 'Hud' is a beautifully shot film."

"I just think he was, by all accounts, a great fellow," marveled Crowe. "He certainly had his priorities in line; family first and the business a distant second, while at the same time putting on screen some of the best performances of his lifetime and any other."

"Thank you very much for everything you did, man," Crowe added, addressing Newman. "Because it's been fantastic."

Tributes to the actor continued to pour in throughout the weekend. Robert Redford, who co-starred with Newman in "The Sting" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," said, "There is a point where feelings go beyond words. I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it."

Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement: "Paul was an American icon, philanthropist and champion for children. We will miss our dear friend, whose continued support always meant the world to us. Our prayers and thoughts are with Joan and the Newman family and the many people who Paul impacted through his endless kindness and generosity."

Newman's daughters issued a statement Saturday that reads:

"Paul Newman played many unforgettable roles. But the ones for which he was proudest never had top billing on the marquee: Devoted husband. Loving father. Adoring grandfather. Dedicated philanthropist. Our father was a rare symbol of selfless humility, the last to acknowledge what he was doing was special. Intensely private, he quietly succeeded beyond measure in impacting the lives of so many with his generosity. Always and to the end, Dad was incredibly grateful for his good fortune. In his own words: 'It's been a privilege to be here.' He will be profoundly missed by those whose lives he touched, but he leaves us with extraordinary inspiration to draw upon. During this difficult time, we ask for privacy for our family."

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'Towelhead': Girl Trouble, By Kurt Loder

Thirteen-year-old Jasira Maroun (Summer Bishil) has been going through a bad patch lately. First came the arrival of menstruation (thanks, God), then the discovery of masturbation (no, really, thank you), then (are you still there, God?) a particularly icky episode of statutory rape at the hands — well, the hand — of Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart), the creepy dad next door. Jasira is one of life's punching bags at the moment, and life is clearly going for a knockout.

If there were more to this teenage Candide than the sum of the nasty things that are done to her, "Towelhead" might have been as entrancing a movie as "American Beauty," which also examined a grown man's sexual obsession with a young girl. But Alan Ball, who scripted that film and directs from his own script here, seems more concerned with pushing buttons than with any sort of contemplative inquiry; and Jasira is such a passive lump (she has the feisty spirit of a shower towel) that there are times you want to reach out and give her a swat yourself.

The movie opens in 1990, on the eve of the first Gulf War. Jasira is living in Syracuse with her whack-job mother, Gail (Maria Bello), and has just received a nice pubic-hair trim from her mom's skeezy live-in boyfriend. Gail blows up when she learns about this, angry not with the boyfriend but with Jasira herself, whom she berates as an unknowing temptress. So the girl is dispatched to Houston to live with her Lebanese father, Rifat (the excellent Peter Macdissi), a cold, pompous prig who works for NASA and is quick to take offense with anyone who mistakes him for a Muslim Arab when in fact he's a Christian and can't wait for U.S. forces to invade Iraq and kick Saddam Hussein's butt.

Rifat is every girl's nightmare dad. He flips out when Jasira fails to wear a bra under a T-shirt, is infuriated by her desire to buy tampons and appalled by her friendship with a new schoolmate named Thomas (Eugene Jones) — not because Thomas is black, of course, but because of what her connection to him might do to her "reputation." Jasira manages to get away from her father's judgmental glowering occasionally to babysit the little Vuoso boy next door, who introduces her to his own father's collection of skin mags. We can tell she finds these exciting because she keeps rubbing her thighs together and, in one of the movie's several cringe-inducing sequences, fantasizes herself as the sexy star of a Playboy-style photo shoot. (Bishil was 18 at the time of filming, but she plays 13 very convincingly.)

Soon enough she meets Mr. Vuoso, and in a scene that might have been guest-directed by Larry Clark, inadvertently loses her virginity to him. Thus awakened, she proceeds to offer herself up to the more age-appropriate Thomas, who's only too happy to be of service. (In the afterglow of their first grapple he asks, "Do you feel like a woman?" Men, what pigs.)

Fortunately, Jasira's other next-door neighbors, the Hines family, are a model of domestic perfection. Husband Gil (Matt Letscher) is a sensitive Peace Corps veteran who happens to speak Arabic (which comes in really handy at a key point in the plot), and pregnant mom Melina (Toni Collette) is a beacon of maternal warmth who's happy to snuggle Jasira in under her capacious wing.

The movie takes as its subject grown-ups' incomprehension of adolescent sexuality, but tells us nothing really new about it — the picture seems rather uncomprehending itself. We're meant to be witnessing a girl's hit-and-miss sexual awakening, but Jasira never seems anything other than half-asleep. The sex scenes aren't visually graphic — not quite — but they have an emotional explicitness which is nearly as disturbing. Unlike "American Beauty," in which Kevin Spacey's lust for a girl in her late teens was at least understandable, Eckhart's fixation on a 13-year-old here — despite the actor's best efforts to illuminate the character's torment — is fundamentally repellent. We want Jasira's sexual travails to stop, and we wish she felt the same way. But she just keeps sticking her chin out for another punch.

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'Eagle Eye': Flight Control, By Kurt Loder

"Eagle Eye" is yet another action movie aimed at people unfamiliar with the tremendous strides made in special effects over the last 15 years. People of, say, seven or so.

The story — a crumb of inspiration flicked off the lapel of executive producer Steven Spielberg some years back — is intriguing, if hardly fresh. Stubbly slacker Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) checks into his undernourished ATM account one day and discovers that it suddenly contains $750,000. Proceeding on to his ratty apartment, he finds it stacked to the rafters with high-tech weaponry and serious explosives. His cell phone rings. A woman's voice tells him to run — the FBI is on the way. Jerry, slow on the uptake, is still processing this command when the FBI does in fact charge in, more riotously than one might think necessary. He's dragged off to headquarters, where an agent named Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) says he knows Jerry's a terrorist. Jerry is given his requisite one phone call. When he picks up the receiver, he hears the mysterious woman's voice on the line again, informing him he's about to be busted out. You can see this sequence in the movie's trailer. But then you can see most of its niftier sequences in the trailer.

Meanwhile, a divorced mom named Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) is putting her eight-year-old son on a train to D.C., where he'll be playing the trumpet with his school band at some Kennedy Center wingding. (This later turns out to be relevant, in a ridiculous way.) Soon, Rachel gets a call on her cell, with the same woman telling her to get moving or her son's train will be derailed. Rachel gets moving.

Meanwhile (this is a movie with many meanwhiles — it seems to have been edited with a hand grenade), Jerry continues to receive travel instructions from the omniscient voice — on his cell phone, on the cell phone of somebody sitting next to him, on digital train-station signs and store-window TV sets. Finally, he's told to hop into a nearby Porsche, and who should be driving it but — Rachel. Vrooom!

They bicker nonstop, of course, while the voice — which sounds like an overbearing dashboard GPS unit — keeps issuing perplexing commands. ("Get in the crate!" "Go to Macy's!") There are detours to Chicago and Indianapolis, through an unflagging storm of gunfire and explosions. Are there still people who'll goggle with incredulous delight at the sight of a jet plane chasing a car through a tunnel? Or even an out-of-control 18-wheeler doing somersaults down a street? And while I don't believe I've ever seen a bullet-fueled chase along a serpentine cargo conveyer belt, and I'm sure it was tricky to stage, it's oddly monotonous.

LaBeouf and Monaghan are fine actors, of course, and you can feel the film's four screenwriters trying to shoehorn occasional non-explosive moments into the script in which they can develop their characters. (Rachel's ex was a bad dad; Jerry is estranged from his father; guess where this is going.) But no sooner do these few attempts to actually tell a story begin than another round of ka-booming ensues, thunder drums rear up on the soundtrack, and the peculiar tedium of pyrotechnic overload envelops us once again.

Which at least gives us time to glumly ponder the plot's many improbabilities. How likely is it, for example, that when Jerry and Rachel are in desperate need of a getaway, a bus full of Japanese tourists would suddenly pull up and offer them a lift? For that matter, why have these two inconsequential individuals been chosen to foment a gynormous governmental melt-down when the all-powerful force that's pulling their strings could clearly do that fomenting itself? (The identity of this sinister agency will be intuited by Stanley Kubrick adepts long before its formal revelation, in much the same way that admirers of Alfred Hitchcock will instantly recognize the source of the movie's big Kennedy Center sequence.)

That director D.J. Caruso is a talented filmmaker was clear in his last picture, the compact thriller "Disturbia" (which also starred LaBeouf). Here, though, he seems to have lost his way amid the big bucks of a blockbuster budget, which is too bad. Hell-raising action is one of the many pleasures that movies can offer. "Eagle Eye" is an unintended demonstration of why it shouldn't be the only one.

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'Choke': Addicted To Love, By Kurt Loder

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) isn't getting a lot out of his sex-addict therapy group — he keeps sneaking off to the loo to boff an equally unreformed and unmistakably eager fellow addict. We understand. At his job in a faux "colonial village," where he must parade among the tourists wearing a pigtailed peruke and ye olde colonial garments (" 'Groundhog Day' in hell," he calls it), Victor can't get any action at all from the zingy village "milk maid" (Bijou Phillips).

Meanwhile, Victor's mother (Anjelica Huston), a retired grifter who dragged him all around the country pursuing various cons when he was a boy, is now installed in a local mental bin and no longer recognizes her son, who must pretend to be other people she does recall just to get her attention. There's also a pretty doctor (Kelly Macdonald) at this sanitarium, though, and naturally Victor comes on to her. Her name is Paige, and she's surprisingly agreeable to Victor's offer of carnal interaction — but only in the name of science: She wants his stem cells ("I simply need your seed") to brew up an experimental potion to restore his mother's fading brain. Strange. But hey, she's hot.

"Choke" is based on a book by Chuck Palahniuk ("Fight Club"), that laureate of low urges and heightened dialogue. It's a digital-video indie with a skuzzy, festering charm that almost papers over the chinks in its shambolic plot. Victor is a complete sleaze, and Sam Rockwell doesn't sweeten him much, which makes the character all the more hilarious. Rockwell is one of the best under-acclaimed actors in movies right now, and he's fascinating to watch as he attempts to deal with such rude perplexities as the accidental internalization of a sex-play bead, an imperious woman who ropes him into donning a black head stocking to take part in one of her elaborate rape scenarios (true nasty fun), or the invitingly naked lady he encounters in an airplane toilet who's part of an international mile-high club.

There's no moral lesson being peddled here, which is kind of refreshing, and after a while we find ourselves being seduced into Victor's grubby worldview. Even when he salutes "meaningless sex with strangers" as "perfect, beautiful nothing," we think, "Well, maybe ... "

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Sacha Baron Cohen Detained By Italian Authorities After Crashing Catwalk

Comedic actor Sacha Baron Cohen — best known for portraying a crude journalist from Kazakhstan in the 2006 film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" — was detained by police in Milan, Italy, on Thursday after storming a runway during a fashion show by designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada as Brьno, his flamboyant Austrian fashionista alter ego.

According to the comedian's publicist, Matt Labov, Cohen was not charged with a crime by the Italian authorities but was detained and released within the same hour. Labov would neither confirm nor deny reports that Cohen's catwalk crash was filmed for inclusion in his forthcoming film, which centers around his Brьno character. Reports suggest the film's working title is "Brьno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt."

In video shot during the incident, Cohen — wearing a blond wig — can be seen rushing the catwalk dressed in a Velcro suit and black cloak, adorned with handbags, boots and other accoutrements. Security attempted to remove him from the runway, but Cohen — who didn't break character — evaded them as he continued to strut down the catwalk. Police were called when Cohen refused to leave.

Later in the video, he's seen being led away from the fashion show by police, and he attempts to shield his face as he is escorted into a police car.

According to The Huffington Post, Cohen was not carrying identification with him at the time of his detainment and asked authorities if he could use the phone. It was the second instance in which the actor disrupted an event during Milan's fashion week. He also crashed Italian designer Iceberg's show, but security guards managed to catch him before he made it to the runway.

Cohen's presence in Milan has forced several fashion houses to beef up their security details.

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'The Midnight Meat Train': Blood On The Tracks, By Kurt Loder

Well, here it is, the little movie that Lionsgate dumped unheralded into about a hundred second-run theatres last month, consigning it to the trash heap of horror history — or so a legion of ticked-off Clive Barker fans feared. The Midnight Meat Train,"" based on one of Barker's 1984 "Books of Blood" stories, is now scheduled to make a proper debut on the FearNet channel on October 1, and on the channel's Web site on October 30. I'd suggest not missing it.

Unexpectedly — or unexpected by me, anyway — "MMT" is not a gore movie. Not in the way that most brain-dead blood feasts are, at least. True, there are some savage attacks, some queasy dismemberments, and a meat-mallet head-bash that knocks a victim's eyeball straight out at the camera. But these are surprisingly fleeting, for the most part. Japanese cult director Ryuhei Kitamura maintains impressive control of the story, ratcheting up tension along the way toward well-prepared and startling bursts of terror.

The story seems simple, at first — I say seems. Struggling photographer Leon Kauffman (Bradley Cooper, the obnoxious fiancйe in "Wedding Crashers") is determined to penetrate deep into the nighttime heart of the big city (unspecified, but actually L.A., rarely scarier). One night, down in the subway, he sees a young Asian woman being harassed by thugs. He drives them away, and she gratefully boards her train — never to be seen again. (Although we see what happens to her — not pretty, of course.) Before long, Leon is on the trail of a strange, wordless figure in a too-tight suit and a tie, carrying a large satchel. This, we learn much later, is a character called Mahogany (Vinnie Jones), and the train he rides on a regular basis is a very special one — not just because of the gleaming blood lakes that slick its floors, but because of a very special stop it makes. As Leon draws closer to penetrating this mystery — and seriously alarming his girlfriend, Maya (Leslie Bibb, of "Iron Man"), in the process — the story opens up into something I wasn't anticipating, and won't even hint at here.

Kitamura bathes the movie in rich washes of light — not just the septic blues and greens of most contemporary horror flicks, but dustier hues that enhance the film's feeling of enclosure and entrapment. The cast, which also includes Roger Bart ("Hostel: Part II") and Peter Jacobson ("House"), is stronger than most movies of this sort ever deserve; and Vinnie Jones, with his big bullet head, grim visage and case full of fearsome implements, is a monster for the ages — well, for the immediate future, anyway. I don't want to curse this extraordinary movie by calling it a classic, but see no alternative to doing so. Horror fans really have to experience it. Company recommended.

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Miley Cyrus Unveils New Song From 'Hannah Montana' Movie At Disney Event

HOLLYWOOD — As anyone who has been to a Disney theme park can tell you, the Mouse House knows how to throw one hell of a party. That point was reinforced further Wednesday, as its movie studio invaded Kodak Theatre with everyone from Miley Cyrus to Johnny Depp to the cast of "High School Musical" in tow.

Thousands of VIPs packed in to get a sneak peek of every Disney film between now and 2012. MTV News was in attendance and live-blogged such big stories as Depp's surprise appearance, Oprah's newest role and Pixar's "Cars 2" plans over on the Movies Blog.

But the rest of the day was stolen away by soon-to-be-16-year-old Miley.

Just days after Disney's announcement that her "Hannah Montana: The Movie" would get an earlier release date, Cyrus and her father were introduced onstage by Walt Disney Pictures Chairman Dick Cook. During a brief interview, Miley spoke about the movie, as well as her November 23 birthday.

"I think what the movie shows is that it's really hard to stay grounded [when you become famous], because everybody's saying, 'Yes, yes, yes,' " she explained. "Your real friends are the people who say 'no' sometimes."

Cyrus could barely contain her excitement over plans to host a massive Sweet 16 party at Disneyland, revealing she had picked out her dress and tiara on Tuesday. "I've never had a parade before for my birthday, so that'll be cool," she grinned, saying all she wants for a gift is her own car. Dad Billy Ray then replied, "She can buy her own car, so we're thinking about buying her a dealership."

Moments later, the curtains pulled back to reveal a 25-piece orchestra, and Cyrus unveiled a new song from her April 10 film. As she belted out the tune live, a huge screen showed never-before-seen clips from the movie that had her swinging from a rope in front of a waterfall, feeding chickens on a ranch, falling off a horse and dodging a runaway ostrich and exploding birthday cake.

"I can almost see it/ That dream I'm dreaming/ But there's a voice inside saying, 'You'll never make it,' " she sang before hitting the song's uplifting chorus. "There's always gonna be another mountain/ I'm always gonna want to make it move/ There's always gonna be an uphill battle/ Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose."

Earlier in the morning's festivities, Cook brought "HSM" stars Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens and others out onstage to show a trailer from October's "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," then awkwardly ushered them offstage without so much as a single question. Other previews included "Tron," "Prince of Persia" and "Bedtime Stories," the latter featuring a bizarre video clip that had Cook dressed as a child in bed wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas, while Adam Sandler told him the once-upon-a-time story of a studio that "made loads and loads of moolah."

Before being treated to a 3-D screening of November's "Bolt," the audience also got a peek at November 2009's "Old Dogs" (think "Wild Hogs" meets "Father's Day"). Stars Robin Williams and (a goateed) John Travolta unveiled a trailer that included Williams taking a soccer ball to the face, the duo being overmatched by Matt Dillon in a game of Ultimate Frisbee and Seth Green singing Air Supply's "All Out of Love" to a gorilla preparing to do unspeakable things to him. By this reporter's count, the ill-fortuned "Robot Chicken" mastermind was also hit in the crotch at least twice during the trailer.

The "Old Dogs" stars also unveiled a completed scene that had the duo at a golf course on a day they'd accidentally switched their medications — Williams was hallucinating, while Travolta's character suffered bizarre facial twitches that left his heavily CGI'd face with a creepy Joker smile and permanently arched eyebrow.

The rest of the afternoon featured "Toy Story" soldiers descending from the rafters, rock/blues legend Dr. John performing a song from "The Princess and the Frog" and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson unveiling an exclusive trailer from March's "Race to Witch Mountain," which Cook mistakenly introduced as "Return to Witch Mountain."

"Um, hi, Dick," the Rock teased his boss. "You greenlit the movie!"

The trailer felt much darker than expected, with an emphasis on the film's science-fiction elements. Opening with a dark road, ominous voice-over and black helicopters, the film features a stubble-faced Rock as a surly taxi driver. Soon enough, the audience caught glimpses of superpowered kids, spaceships, black-clad super-soldiers and Garry Marshall imploring: "If you're planning on visiting Witch Mountain, don't! This place is fortified up the ying-yang!"

Ironically enough, the movie-within-a-movie spoof "Bolt" pokes fun at the very same black-clad villains, space invaders and explosions that were featured throughout the "Witch Mountain" trailer.

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'Harry Potter' Goes To College: Students Study The Books Seriously In New Courses

SWARTHMORE, Pennsylvania — "I don't know if it went past everybody," began Professor Melinda Finberg, "but what happens when Hermione deceives Umbridge, and she takes her to the Forbidden Forest?"

"Hermione puts Umbridge in a horrible situation," a perky blonde named Bess Matlock offered.

"Yes, but what happens?" Finberg asked. After receiving blank stares, she continued. "What in mythology are centaurs?" More blank stares. "They become what they are in mythology. They abduct the female and carry her off. They rape her," Finberg declared, to the students' shock.

"What?!" one student gasped.

"Whoa," another muttered.

"But," one protested.

"Harry Potter!" a couple of girls interject, as if the name itself is a talisman to keep innocents from harm.

Innocent no more, the students in Swarthmore College's "Battling Against Voldemort" class are learning to look at their favorite children's series with adult eyes. Finberg teaches "Harry Potter" (along with the "Lord of the Rings" and "His Dark Materials" series) as a bridge to get students to grasp basic concepts of literary theory and step up their writing skills.

"I thought, 'What are the kids reading this summer? "Harry Potter"!' " Finberg said. "This group of students is the 'Harry Potter' generation."

This is one of several "Harry Potter"-themed courses being taught on a collegiate level throughout the country — and not all of them are in English departments. Yale has one that uses "Harry Potter" as a prism for theology. Georgetown uses the story to look at international relations. Frostburg State University in Maryland employs the series to teach Physical Science 100. And more classes just keep popping up.

At Swarthmore, "Battling Against Voldemort" remains one of the most popular freshman seminars, and a lottery determines who gets one of the 12 seats.

"It was one of the classes that everybody was talking about," student Thomas Soares said. "It had the coolest name."

Even though the majority of the students in the class have read "Harry Potter" at least once, the seminar teaches them to read it in a new way.

"We're looking at the subtleties," Soares explained. They analyze each book, looking at themes and metaphors, reading up on scholarly perspectives, going over Jungian archetypes. For a discussion of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," they were guided by a critical essay by Veronica Schanoes, called "Cruel Heroes and Treacherous Texts," to explore the ambiguities in the constructions of good and evil and the unreliable narratives of Harry's world. It made students understand that even Harry himself can be an unreliable narrator.

"We see the world through Harry's eyes," Finberg said, but since Harry starts off as a child who sees the world in black and white, she explained, he doesn't always pick up on ambiguities.

"[In 'Order of the Phoenix,'] we see him wondering about Voldemort, about himself, and he's realizing there's a lot more gray area," Matlock said.

"Haven't we been led to believe that the difference between Death Eaters and those who are not is the use of the Unforgivable Curses?" Finberg asked the class when the discussion turned to Harry's usage of the torturing Cruciatus curse.

"He uses it on Bellatrix; he uses it on Carrow," Hannah Edelman observed. "He also uses the [controlling] Imperius curse."

"He is just really upset when he uses that curse on Bellatrix," Matlock said. "I don't think that means he's a bad person. It just means he's more human."

"Do you think J.K. Rowling is playing with us?" Matt Bowers asked. "Do you think she's telling us, 'Look, you thought Harry was a good guy, but what if this were from the point of view of Draco?' "

"But Harry would never use [the killing curse] Avada Kedavra," Soares argued. "This is really dorky, but a hero, like Superman would never kill Lex Luther." The class laughed.

Not all comparisons are made in geek-speak. References to "Crime and Punishment," "1984," Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the French Revolution come up in this hour-and-a-half class.

"We're not just reading Harry Potter and giggling," Matlock said. Still, she has to admit, along with her fellow students, it's her most fun course.

"This is by far my coolest class," agreed Jeff Davidson.

"I'm reading 'Harry Potter,' and [a fellow student] is reading Plato's 'Republic,' " Edelman said, adding with a touch of glee, "It felt a little unfair."

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Megan Fox, Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron And More Make Moviefone's 'Hottest Young Stars' List

They're young, they're attractive and, according to this year's "25 Under 25: Hollywood's Hottest Young Stars" list, they are the hottest young things in Hollywood.

This year's list includes bombshell beauties Megan Fox, 22, and Scarlett Johansson, 23, and acknowledges the new wave of adorably dorky comedians like Michael Cera, 20, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (a.k.a. McLovin), 19. Household names like Miley Cyrus, 15, "High School Musical" star Zac Efron, 20, and "Gossip Girl" Blake Lively, 21, round out the list.

"There are several returning people, but what's really exciting is there's this whole new crop coming up," Moviefone Editor in Chief Scott Robson told Reuters. "We look at what they've done in the past, but we're mostly concerned with what they have coming over the course of the next year and where it positions them," he added.

Emma Watson, 18, is on the list, as well as Dakota Fanning, 14, who's been making headlines for her role in the dark indie flick "Hounddog." Also making the cut is former "Mean Girl" Amanda Seyfried, 23. Along with her role in the HBO series "Big Love" and her recent star turn in "Mamma Mia!," Seyfried also has a few movies lined up, including one with fellow list-maker Fox.

Burgeoning action stud Shia LaBeouf, 22, charted again after making his first appearance on the list last year. Also returning to the list are British actors Keira Knightley, 23, and Daniel Radcliffe, 19.

Other stars worthy of the "Hottest Under 25" title include "Twilight" actress Kristen Stewart, 18; Oscar-nominated "Juno" lead Ellen Page, 21; and fellow Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, 14, who received a nod for her role in "Atonement."

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Shia LaBeouf, 'Eagle Eye' Co-Stars Remind Us That We're All Being Watched

Nearly every article about "Eagle Eye" prominently mentions the fact that the original idea for the project was developed by Steven Spielberg. And as a result, readers probably assume the movie is going to be something like, say, "War of the Worlds,""Minority Report" or even "A.I." — a paranoid, dystopian flick from cinema's preeminent futurist.

But the central conceit of "Eagle Eye," that someone, somewhere is watching you, listening to you and tracking your every movement, isn't a far-flung flight of fancy — it's a reality, castmembers told MTV News.

And it's about time to start getting really afraid.

"There was a CIA agent who was working on the movie with us, and [he] told me all this insane stuff, [like that] one in five phone calls is recorded and documented," star Shia LaBeouf recalled. "To that I was laughing. And then he said, 'No, really,' and proceeded to play for me a phone call I had made two years prior to signing on to the film. It's pretty terrifying.

"This isn't a sci-fi fantasy thing. This is a very real world we made this movie in," he added. "The film, and the idea behind it, is all very tangible."

In the movie, LaBeouf's character finds himself the target of a federal manhunt when he's framed for the crime of treason. His only help is an ever-present voice at the other end of a telephone that gives him instructions and seems to control every electronic device in the country.

While part of the fun of the movie is finding out who or what the voice is, it's clear very early on that someone or something has hacked into the country's own surveillance grid, making it impossible for Shia's character to escape.

It's the stuff of nightmares. The irony is that each and every one of us is signing up for it willingly, observed Rosario Dawson, who plays a special agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigation.

"We've allowed this to happen. We want people to hit our blogs all the time and see our MySpace. Suddenly there's a line that's crossed, and how do you uncross it?" she asked rhetorically, knowing it's nearly impossible to go off the grid these days. "You're going to walk out of here really going, 'Wow, I hadn't really though about Big Brother in that way.'"

She means that we — the ordinary citizens who bank online, shop online, text, Twitter, blog and update our Facebook status three times a day — have become Big Brother. (Even a vice-presidential candidate isn't immune.) Everything about us is has been converted to bits and bytes of information.

"Everybody's on the Internet, and everyone's texting and calling each other on cell phones and wearing those things in their ears," said co-star Billy Bob Thornton, an FBI agent in the movie. "I think everyone in town is in the CIA now!"

The real problem is if that power ever falls into the wrong hands.

"ADT security boxes and microphones can be activated and used for any number of reasons," LaBeouf said. "OnStar in your car — somebody in Arizona could shut off your car if you're in Washington with the click of a button. There's a lot of power in it, and it's a very real thing."

"It's like fire," Michael Chiklis (who plays the secretary of defense) echoed. "It's our friend; it's a great tool — but you got to respect it."

But we don't respect it now and never have, Thornton insisted, and it's already too late to change. "Well, we could, but we don't have any rabble-rousers any more, so it's hard to. People are too comfortable. People are very lazy," he sighed. "And they don't really want to change anything."

"Eagle Eye" opens Friday.

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Shia LaBeouf Defends ‘Nuking The Fridge’ And Other Fantastical ‘Indy 4′ Moments

'Twilight' Stars Kristen Stewart, Nikki Reed, Taylor Lautner Get Cagey About Reshoots

HOLLYWOOD — As fans from Boston to Bombay now know, the stars of "Twilight" recently reunited to shoot some additional scenes for director Catherine Hardwicke. Although MTV uncovered some of the new info when we caught up with the stars at the VMAs and other events around Hollywood, many details remain a mystery.

At the party to celebrate Teen Vogue's Young Hollywood issue, we spoke with stars Kristen Stewart (Bella), Nikki Reed (Rosalie) and Taylor Lautner (Jacob). They had new details to reveal about the multiple scenes they just shot — as well as their rapidly accelerating level of fame building up to the movie's November 21 release.

"What are we allowed to say?" Reed wondered aloud, teasing us while she thought back to the top-secret shoot. "I think all we can say is, there were a few days when there were some weather issues [during the original shoot earlier this year] and some time issues, and a few things that could have been done better. And they were."

To get an idea of the extreme Portland weather to which Reed referred, look no further than this clip MTV captured on the "Twilight" set. That popping noise you hear is golf-ball-size hail pounding against the roof of the greenhouse in which they were filming.

"There were a lot of additional scenes," Reed explained. "I think when they saw the film, I mean this is kind of a guess, but I think that they realized that it could use a little bit more of the old element, so I think the flashbacks focused on that."

Reed seemed to think they needed to keep this intel a secret, but Robert Pattinson (Edward), Peter Facinelli (Carlisle) and Kellan Lutz (Emmett) have already revealed that the new shoots included a scene establishing the history of the Cullens. To show when Carlisle and his family made a treaty with the Quileute Indian tribe, the actors dressed in pegged pants and old-timey caps. Facinelli even had to speak to the tribe leaders in their language.

"I'm a vampire, so I'm in the flashbacks," Reed said of the scene. "But this one here [pointing to Stewart] is still — how old is Bella — 16, 17?"

"She's 17," Stewart said.

"Yeah," Reed continued, "so she's in modern time only."

Sure enough, some scenes did take place in modern time, and Stewart was called back for those, including a reworking (with better weather) of Edward and Bella's encounter in the meadow.

And though weeks ago, Lautner told MTV News that they were adding him to the prom sequence, he decided he had to be vague about it this time around.

"[The new scenes are] just a little backstory," Lautner said. "I'm not sure if I can say what I did, or I might not be walking tomorrow! It definitely improved the movie. They did three scenes, and it really has an impact on the film.

"Kristen was in [a scene] with me. Rob was. It was a fun scene," he added. "It was good to see everyone again, because I hadn't seen them in like three months. We reunited, and it was a lot of fun."

The 16-year-old actor also marveled over the fact that the "Twilight" movie has become so big that simple reshoots could capture the attention of devoted fans all over the world.

"The fans are just — well, it's always been insane, so I don't know if I can tell if it's gotten bigger," he laughed. "Everywhere you go there are 'Twilight' fans. It's amazing. We show up at the VMAs and step out of our car, and there are 'Twilight' fans surrounding us like crazy! It's pretty insane how the fans are the driving force of this thing. And I'm really excited to be a part of it."

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'Harry Potter' Gets Love From Robert Pattinson, Lupe Fiasco, Keira Knightley And More Celeb Fans

Harry Potter has his 10-year "birthday" this week, but it's not just the fantasy crowd that's celebrating (either with wizard-rock shows or readathons).

We checked in with a variety of musicians and actors (some from the films, some not) to see what they thought about the boy wizard and how he's impacted their lives. We thought we might get laughed at — after all, a lot of these folks were walking the red carpet at the VMAs and probably had something far more glamorous to attend to. But mention Harry Potter, and some people just light up.

Here are a few of them:

Keira Knightley: "I've read all the books. I haven't seen the films, except the first one. What's the alley where they get the wands from? [Diagon Alley.] That's an amazing image. Harry, he's pretty cool. He's got a good scar."

Jeremy Davis (Paramore): "Hell, yeah, I love 'Harry Potter'! I feel like 'Harry Potter,' the books and the movies, went above and beyond any other series. It would be a tough series to compete with. I would hate to try to compete against it."

Kellan Lutz ("Twilight"): "I love 'Harry Potter.' I actually wanted 'Harry Potter' as competition for 'Twilight,' because you'd be seeing the wizard side of fantasy and then jumping into the vampire life. Everyone I talk to is so obsessed with it. I always wished I had powers. I always wished I had a stick and a broom! It's a great story. It's so well-written. I think 'Harry Potter' hit everything. It set the precedent, that peak of Mount Everest, and we all want to climb that mountain. I just wish there were as many books to make movies of in 'Twilight' as there are in 'Harry Potter.' "

Robert Pattinson (Cedric in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," Edward in "Twilight"): "Does it make me a traitor? 'Harry Potter' was what made me become an actor. I credit 'Harry Potter' with everything else that's come since for me. I didn't know what I was doing before that. I hadn't read the books before doing the movie, so at first I read it just as an acting exercise. But I really enjoyed it! But I think Edward would kick Cedric's ass, to be honest."

Lupe Fiasco: "I'm a spectator of the entire phenomenon, you know what I'm saying? The entire phenomenon inspires me. I love Harry Potter [he points to his own specs] because of the glasses."

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'Twilight' Tuesday: Kellan Lutz Recalls How He Almost Wasn't Cast As Belligerent 'Goofball' Emmett

PORTLAND, Oregon — When it comes to "Twilight" Tuesday here at MTV, we try to operate on one simple motto: Ask, and ye shall receive.

In virtually every article we've written covering the upcoming "Twilight" movie, there's one comment we can count on receiving: "Give us more Kellan Lutz!" And although the 23-year-old actor isn't a household name, a quick search of sites like Kellmett Happens and the Twilight Lexicon Forum show the type of love that has had Twilighters sending gift baskets to Lutz ever since he landed the role of burly teddy bear Emmett Cullen. (Lutz expresses his genuine appreciation of enthusiastic "Twilight" fans in the MTV Movies blog.)

As you'll see from this on-set interview with MTV, Lutz (who's also on the new "90210" this fall) is an endearingly normal guy who nevertheless takes his acting — and Stephenie Meyer's vampire series — very seriously. As he reveals a love for "Bill & Ted," the missing "Twilight" moment he's eager to shoot and the circumstances that nearly made him miss the gig, something tells us the Twilighters will suck this up like fresh blood.

MTV: Give us your take on Emmett.

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Charlize Theron Wonders Why 'The Hills' Is A Hit, Raves About 'Riding The Will Smith Train'

Charlize Theron has a lot on her plate at the moment, but she really just wants you to know she's not "a nana."

After a whirlwind summer tour around the world to promote the Will Smith blockbuster "Hancock," she's back in the public eye to promote a much different kind of project, "Battle in Seattle," helmed and written by her boyfriend, Stuart Townsend. Theron headlines an ensemble cast — including Woody Harrelson, Michelle Rodriguez and Andrй Benjamin — that dramatizes the 1999 protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization.

But Theron had other less weighty matters on the brain when MTV News caught up with her and co-star Martin Henderson. Foremost in her thoughts? MTV's past conversations with her about "The Hills" and her apparent ignorance on the pop-culture phenomenon. This time, the Oscar winner was ready to put the subject to rest once and for all.

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Have You Found A 'Flint'? 'Harry Potter' Editor On How Fans Shaped The Series

It's been 10 years since the first "Harry Potter" book hit stores in the U.S. as of Tuesday (September 23), but J.K. Rowling didn't make this journey all on her own. Just like her boy wizard, she's had help along the way.

The author's team of editors, both in the U.K. and the U.S., kept watch on the seven-book series so nothing too big or small went unnoticed — and on the off chance something did slip through, her readers were even more vigilant.

"Marcus Flint, who is the Slytherin Quidditch captain in books one and two, appears again in book three," said Cheryl Klein, a senior editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, the Scholastic imprint that publishes the "Harry Potter" series in the U.S. "But he was said to be a sixth-year student in book one, which meant he should have graduated by book three. So that gave rise to this entire category of what we call 'Flints,' when fans find continuity errors after the fact."

Klein is what is known as a "continuity editor." It's her job to keep track of everything that happens in the series, to make sure things are consistent and the details are right. But the letters she gets from the fans sometimes help.

"It's like having 6 million copy editors checking your work," Klein said. "We really handle everything on a case-by-case basis, and we ask, for every letter, 'Have we dealt with this before? Is this a valid concern?' And some we fix ourselves, and others we talk to our British colleagues and J.K. Rowling."

Some "mistakes" are just cases of British-to-American English translations — like how in the U.K. version, there can be both a ground floor as well as a first floor for the Ministry of Magic, as opposed to the U.S. version, in which the first floor opens out into the street. "At first, we changed a lot, because people didn't know what was British versus just the magical world," Klein said. "So as they got more and more familiar with it, we didn't need to worry about that as much."

Some letters are more about concerns of usage versus actual mistakes. "This one woman I met, her daughter had a cleft palate," Klein said. "And in book two, Gilderoy Lockhart referred to doing something with a 'hag with a harelip.' J.K. Rowling was using that phrase to indicate Gilderoy's insensitivity, because he doesn't really think about anybody besides himself, but when she realized that it's a phrase that some people think is less than acceptable for people with cleft palates, she changed it to a 'hag with a hairy chin.' "

Another phrase that brought complaints was from book five, when Hagrid told Harry and Ron — to encourage them — "Keep your peckers up." "We couldn't keep that in," Klein laughed. "So we changed that to 'Keep your chins up.' "

That doesn't mean Rowling's editors change every questionable phrase once they get a letter of complaint — far from it. "At one point, Uncle Vernon was speaking, and so the text said, 'Uncle Vernon ejaculated,' " Klein recalled. "That's actually a good speech verb. It means you spit something out very fast. People wrote to us and asked us to change that, but I don't think we did."

Fans also asked about the timeline, since at one point, Dudley gets a PlayStation. "It didn't come out until later, if you date the series chronologically. If you say Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday celebration is in 1992 ... ," Klein stopped herself and laughed. "This is really dorky stuff."

So dorky that fellow (albeit self-appointed) keepers of the "Potter" continuity like to tease Klein about mistakes made in the books that may not have actually been made, just to watch her head spin. John Noe, from the Leaky Cauldron, for instance, likes to tease her that the plural of Horcrux was stated once as Horcrii — "and I'm like, 'No, no, we didn't!' " she said, imitating panic in her voice. "But then I checked with J.K. Rowling, and she assured me, 'No, no, they're Horcruxes.' "

And all was right with the "Potter" world once more.


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‘Harry Potter’-Inspired Wizard-Rock Movement Captured On Film For ‘Rockumentary’

'Harry Potter'-Inspired Wizard-Rock Movement Captured On Film For 'Rockumentary'

It's one thing to do a news piece on wizard rock — it's quite another to devote your life to documenting it. But that's what 23-year-old twin sisters Megan and Mallory Schuyler of Spokane, Washington, have done with "The Wizard Rockumentary: A Movie About Rocking and Rowling."

For the past two years, Megan and Mallory have been shooting, editing and promoting their 90-minute film, which explores how bands inspired by Harry Potter became an indie-rock movement, even a subculture. "It's one thing to go into a documentary with an agenda or trying to push a certain story," Megan Schuyler said. "But we didn't even know what the story was going to be. Literally, we shot up through the release of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' not knowing what the ending would be."

When the sisters started in July 2006, wizard rock was in its infancy. There were only about 30 bands that based their songs on singing from the perspective of characters from the Harry Potter series. Most didn't have enough material to put out an album or play live, let alone tour. One girl, Grace Kendall from the band Snidget, hadn't even admitted to her mother that she had a band at all. Perhaps you really couldn't even call most of them "bands," based on that criteria.

But as the sisters watched, cameras in hand, 30 bands grew to 300 in the space of one year, then nearly doubled over the course of the next. Inspired by Harry and the Potters, the bands started recording albums. Playing shows. Touring. And Grace — who had never performed before — was at Terminus in Chicago in August, dancing her heart out onstage and selling CDs and T-shirts offstage. The sisters knew they were on to something.

"By the time we finished, there were 500 bands," Mallory Schuyler said. "They'd been on MTV. Multiple bands were going on national tours. There were hundreds of CDs released. They'd raised thousands of dollars for charities. I mean, it was just incredible. We couldn't have captured a better story."

Since the release of the DVD, the sisters Schuyler have taken their production on the screening circuit, exhibiting the documentary in more than a dozen states at independent theaters, libraries and Harry Potter conventions (film festivals are next). Said Mallory, "We had people crying at Portus," a Harry Potter symposium in Dallas in July, "telling us, 'This captured my experience perfectly. I can show this to my friends who don't understand!' "

"To share it with the people who are involved and also those who are entirely ignorant of the movement, and to have a similar positive reaction, has just been so rewarding," Megan said. "And it's fun to get the reaction of some of the academics who come to these conventions and things and hear them say, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you documented this moment in time from an academic perspective.' That's really neat, because we didn't think about it like that going into it. We just thought it was fun, but it is a revolutionary movement. It's the first time a book has been appreciated to this depth and this breadth of expression."

"You don't see this stuff happening very often," Mallory said. "It is magical."

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'Lakeview Terrace' Reigns Over Slow Box-Office Weekend

The Box-Office Top Five

#1 "Lakeview Terrace" ($15.6 million)
#2 "Burn After Reading" ($11.3 million)
#3 "My Best Friend's Girl" ($8.3 million)
#4 "Igor" ($8 million)
#5 "Righteous Kill" ($7.7 million)

Even the biggest, baddest motherfarker on the block doesn't have much to crow about this week. "Lakeview Terrace," the new domestic thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Wilson as warring neighbors, won the weekend in convincing, if not spectacular, fashion, making $15.6 million in the United States and What (which ain't no country I ever heard of). Sure, Jackson gets the crown against the field, but isn't that a little like being valedictorian of summer school? I mean, is $15.6 million anything to brag about? OK, OK, Sam. You're the champ. Now enough with the yelling. (Seriously, though, enough with the yelling. You're almost 60 years old, dude. Calm down.)

In second place, "Burn After Reading" notched another $11.3 million in its second week, bringing its overall total to a healthy $36.4 million. Nothing snarky to say here: Star Brad Pitt recently donated a hefty sum to support gay marriage. Good on him.

"My Best Friend's Girl," starring Kate Hudson, Dane Cook and Jason Biggs, followed in third place, earning $8.3 million in its debut frame. All fine and good, but here's my question: Movie Web site Cinematical.com — which is owned by AOL, which is itself owned by Time Warner Inc., which is the largest media company in the world — used the word "douche" three times in their review of the film? When did that word become acceptable to use in public forums? And why didn't I get the memo?

The animated film "Igor," featuring the voice talents of John Cusack and Molly Shannon, scared up $8 million to finish in fourth place. With $7.7 million, "Righteous Kill," starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, rounded out the top five. Forget "Righteous Kill" — how about a "Mercy Kill" for my memory of these two acting giants? (Am I right or am I right?)

Among other new releases, "Ghost Town" tanked, earning just $5.2 million to come in eighth place, at long last answering the question: What happens when you pair the world's funniest man (Ricky Gervais) with the guy who wrote the nuking-the-fridge scene in "Indiana Jones"?

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What Do 'Sex And The City' Stars Want From A Sequel? 'Lots More Men'

NEW YORK — On a gorgeous fall night, stars from this summer's smash hit, "Sex and the City: The Movie," walked a hot-pink carpet to celebrate Tuesday's release of the DVD.

The carpet was laid out in front of the New York Public Library, otherwise known as the scene of the crime: where Big left Carrie at the altar. While there was no Big in sight, Carrie, Samantha and Miranda were all on hand — Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon — along with Willie Garson, Mario Cantone and writer/director Michael Patrick King.

Of the DVD — which features an "extended cut" of the film — Parker said, "There's pieces that didn't make it into the movie. ... There's great conversations with all sorts of wonderful designers. And Michael Patrick just talks a lot about his storytelling."

Cattrall added: "I think the movie, when it was first cut, was just over three hours, and we released it at two hours, 20 minutes, so there were a lot of really great scenes that didn't get into the movie. So they have another life. They're not just on the cutting-room floor. People can experience more."

"I pulled a couple of gems out, so I put them back in," King said. "Two and a half hours is a long time, but I really gotta watch those bathroom breaks. I can't really torture people."

"There's a great sequence in the movie where Carrie tries on some of her old clothes from the '80s. But what we filmed was the other girls in some really bad clothes from the '80s. So you get to see the girls in some ways you've never seen them."

And with rumors of a sequel being fast-tracked, we had to ask what they'd like to see more of. This was easy, according to Cattrall: "Lots more men," she laughed. "I think that Samantha dating, it really allows the writers, me and the director to have a lot of fun. I mean, it was so interesting to see her try to be monogamous and ... now she's free."

"It's very easy to make a sequel," Parker pointed out. "Everybody's ready, and obviously the studio is excited about it, which is very flattering to us, but you can't just do it for that reason. You have to tell a good story. It really begs the question: 'What is the story, and how do we do it well, and how do we serve the audience?' Because without that ... you feel low."

"I've gotta go home and start writing," King joked, going on to discuss how someone makes an interesting sequel when the first one ended with most characters finding happiness and stability — two things that don't exactly spell cliffhanger. "The first pass would be to create a story that the audience is waiting for. I still have to figure out what that is. But even in marriage and relationships, there's drama and there's embarrassment and drama and humanity. And everyone who's in a relationship knows every day isn't a movie-perfect day.

"With these actresses, I can probably come up with something they can play," he added sarcastically.

The party was on the heels of the announcement that original "Sex and the City" author Candace Bushnell would be penning two books based on Carrie Bradshaw set during her high school years.

While Bushnell remained tight-lipped about her ideas for a teenage Carrie — "Talk to me in a year!," she sighed — Parker gushed about the books. "I heard about this and I thought, 'It's so smart of her!' " the actress said. "And honestly, there was a big part of myself and Michael Patrick that really didn't think about her past. We didn't talk about her family, parents, siblings, so I don't know anything about her in a way. I have ideas about her adolescence, but Candace is a really, really good storyteller, and I'm just really excited to see: Who was Carrie? And she'll do it well."

The idea of following around a young fashion-icon-in-training seems to draw obvious comparisons to "Gossip Girl," but Parker thinks Carrie wouldn't bear much resemblance to Serena van der Woodsen. "The thing I think that will distinguish this, not in a better or worse way, if Candace is writing about Carrie, it's going to be a period piece. It'll be in the '70s and '80s, and I think culturally we were very different [back then]."

Probably no OMFGs, one can assume.

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‘Hamlet 2′: The Play’s The Thing, By Kurt Loder

'Hounddog': Woof, By Kurt Loder

Possibly you've heard about "Hounddog," — "the Dakota Fanning rape movie," the scandal of Sundance 2007, whatever. Now it's finally being released, in a very minor way, and we can see, if not understand, what all the commotion was about.

There is a rape scene that involves Fanning, who was 12 years old at the time the picture was filmed, but it lasts less than 30 seconds. It's not at all explicit, but it's devastating nevertheless because of the way this uncannily resourceful actress conveys the horror of her character's violation using little more than the terror in her eyes. It should also be noted that the movie is beautifully filmed — veteran cinematographers Jim Denault and Edward Lachman shot the bulk of it, with gaffer Stephen Thompson stepping in toward the end, and they've captured a vibrant array of cornfield greens and loamy woodland browns and the look of mellow sunlight streaming through cheap curtains. There are also some very fine actors in the cast, among them Robin Wright Penn, David Morse and Afemo Omilami. Unfortunately, the movie in which they are marooned is dreadful in just about every other way.

The story is a Southern Gothic gumbo of surpassing gaudiness. The time is the late 1950s, the place some especially benighted part of the South. (The movie was shot in North Carolina.) Little Lewellen (Fanning) is a bored country girl with an abusive father (Morse) and an Elvis fixation. (She breaks into pelvis-twisting renditions of "Hound Dog" much more often than can possibly be good for her, or, after a while, interesting to anyone else.) Also on hand is Lewellen's Bible-clutching, whiskey-sippin' Grammie (Piper Laurie) and a strange lady identified in the credits as "Stranger Lady" (Penn).

David Morse, an actor of unusual emotional range, is here limited to two expressive modes. When we first meet him, he's a clichй backwoods brute ("Grab your daddy a beer"); later, after he's been knocked off his tractor by a bolt of lightning, he's a moon-faced simpleton, devoid of any further interest. Penn, for her part, pines and sighs and bruises easily, and is compelled to intone some very silly dialogue: Looking out a window at the collection of clapped-out cars that Daddy has left to rust away in a field, she sighs and says, "Emptiness pilin' on emptiness. What can he possibly do with all that emptiness?"

The movie is also inhabited by a passel of happy black folks — of a happiness, in fact, not seen since the heyday of D.W. Griffith. One of these grin-prone characters, a man named Charles (Omilami), befriends little Lewellen, and tells her things like, "Missy, you goan fall outta that tree an' bust yo behind." Charles is into snakes — but then the whole movie is into snakes, to an extent that could fairly be described as insane. They slither along branches and through tall grass, and occasionally rise up in phallic majesty. Charles milks snakes and eats snakes, and he seems to think that Lewellen has some special relationship to snakes, too. It's not clear what Lewellen thinks about this. And by the end of the film, after she has been robbed of her virginity and is lying in bed on a hot summer night and a whole herd of snakes come eeling in through her window to gently arrange themselves on and around her body, we don't know what to think, either. Our minds have shut down in troubled disbelief.

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'Twilight' Exclusive: Paramore To Contribute Two New Songs To Film's Soundtrack

Paramore's Hayley Williams has made no secret about her love for all things "Twilight,"posting photos of herself clutching the book and showing off fan-made T-shirts on the band's official Web site. And "Twilight" stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Cam Gigandet and Taylor Lautner got to introduce the band (sort of) at this year's VMAs.

Now, she's taking that love to the next level.

Last week, Williams mentioned in a blog post that she and her bandmates were in a Nashville studio working on some tunes that had a "possible shot" at ending up on the "Twilight" soundtrack — and now, MTV News can confirm that the possibility has become a reality.

According to a spokesperson for their label, Paramore will have a pair of brand-new songs — "Decode" and a still-untitled second song — on the film's soundtrack, which hits stores on November 4. Back in July, director Catherine Hardwicke revealed that a song from Muse (author Stephenie Meyer's favorite band) will also be included.

" 'Twilight' is the first series of books I've ever read. I didn't get into the 'Harry Potter' series, even though I love the movies," Williams said in a statement. " 'Twilight' really caught my attention and held it. I'm really excited to see the book adapted to film and excited that our band gets to be a part of the phenomenon."

"Decode" is slated to be the first single from the soundtrack — which will be released on "Gossip Girl" music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas' Chop Shop label, in conjunction with Atlantic Records — and the band will shoot a video for it next month. According to Williams, the song details the inner workings of the love affair between the series' protagonists, Bella and Edward.

"I chose the title 'Decode' because the song is about the building tension, awkwardness, anger and confusion between Bella and Edward," she said. "Bella is the only mind Edward can't read, and I feel like that's a big part of the first book and one of the obstacles for them to overcome. It's one added tension that makes the story even better."

The "Decode" video is scheduled to premiere in early November.

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'Igor': Calling All Monsters, By Kurt Loder

The new animated feature "Igor" lacks the hipster twists and candy-coated sheen of such Pixar classics as "The Incredibles" — which is to say that non-kids may not find a lot to really love about it. This may be irrelevant, however. At the screening I attended, two 10-year-olds sitting nearby cackled and hooted through most of the movie, and actually danced in their seats as the lengthy end credits unrolled. I'm not sure what I can add to a review like that, but I'll try.

The picture is a tribute to the Universal monster movies of the 1930s and '40s. It's set in the sere and sunless kingdom of Malaria, whose only industry is Evil Inventions and only income the money it extorts from other nations with its offer not to unleash those inventions on the world. The inventions are cooked up by the king's 13 Evil Scientists, some of whom are more gifted than others. (One recent entry in the annual Evil Science Fair was an Evil Lasagna.)

Each of the Evil Scientists is attended by a hunchbacked lab assistant called an Igor, a member of a blighted tribe that's trained to respond with alacrity to such tremulous commands as "Pull the switch!" The Igor of our story (voiced by John Cusack) labors in the service of the bumbling Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese). This Igor has creative aspirations of his own. He's already fabricated an immortal rabbit called Scamper (Steve Buscemi), who keeps trying and failing to kill himself, and a low-IQ brain-in-a-jar called, well, Brain (Sean Hayes). When Glickenstein snuffs himself in a typically idiotic lab accident, Igor, assisted by his two hench-creatures, embarks on a big-budget experiment of his own and manages to create — life!

(If I may digress into irrelevance for a moment, the first hunchbacked lackey in the Universal horror world, played by master sniveler Dwight Frye in the 1931 "Frankenstein," was actually named Fritz. The second such figure, again played by Frye, in the 1935 "Bride of Frankenstein," wasn't actually a hunchback; nor was the first known Igor (or "Ygor," as the name was spelled), who appeared out of nowhere in the 1939 "Son of Frankenstein," and was played by Bela Lugosi — who had turned down the monster role in the first "Frankenstein" film, to his bitter and lasting regret.)

Getting word of Igor's breakthrough invention, Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard), the evilest of the kingdom's mad scientists, determines to steal it for his own entry in the upcoming Science Fair. Little does he know that what the monster Igor has fabricated — a medley of mismatched body parts called Eva (Molly Shannon) — is anything but evil. In fact, she's quite sweet. Oddly, she also has a built-in ambition to get into show business, and soon starts twittering about her need for headshots and a bigger trailer, and her desire to "adopt children from all over the world" and "become an environmentalist but still fly private." Eva's prospects in the cutthroat Science Fair, to be held in the royal Killiseum, seem unpromising.

The movie certainly has its own look — its palette has largely been drained down to dun colors, and its characters have a wooden-eyed, toy-like aspect. (Although it was written and directed by Americans — Chris McKenna and Anthony Leondis, respectively — it's a French production, as was the 2003 "Triplets of Belleville," a film that this one somewhat resembles.) From a grownup's perspective, the picture suffers from a humor deficit. The fact that the jar in which Brain resides is mislabeled "Brian" is not hilarious; nor is a strained butt-scratching gag involving an invisible talk-show host. And what's with all the Louis Prima music?

But the target audience for this movie isn't inclined toward such nitpicking quibbles; and as long as their parents come across with the ticket money, its success may rely only on them.

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‘Death Race’: Bad Max, By Kurt Loder

'Ghost Town': The Go-Between, By Kurt Loder

With his fishbelly pallor, lumpy physique and deeply unadventurous hair, Ricky Gervais — the creator and star of the original BBC version of "The Office" — seems an unlikely candidate for the lead role in a romantic comedy. And yet in "Ghost Town," constructing a character out of the most whimsical materials, he becomes oddly plausible. The picture is as programmatic as you'd expect; there are no real surprises. But the incomparable Gervais, buoyed by a sharp supporting cast, lends the potentially cloying story a nice vinegary tang.

He plays Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic New York dentist who dislikes other people in all their infinite variety. ("It's not so much crowds," he says, in the midst of a rush-hour rush, "as the individuals in the crowds.") The thing he most enjoys about being a dentist, in fact, is the opportunity it affords him to stick clamps and drains in their mouths and shut them up.

Pincus' life is radically re-routed when he develops a gastric affliction that requires a trip to the hospital for minor surgery. During this procedure, unfortunately, he flat-lines for seven minutes — or as his lawsuit-shy surgeon (the superb Kristin Wiig) delicately puts it, "You died. A little bit." After leaving the hospital, Pincus finds himself being accosted in the street by people who died a lot — completely, in fact. These are the ghosts of dead New Yorkers — spectral cops, construction workers, little old ladies — who have unfinished business with the friends and loved ones they've left behind, but with whom they can no longer communicate. Pincus, having dipped a toe into the dead pool, so to speak, can now see these otherwise-invisible ghosts (no one else with a pulse can) and act as their emissary among the living if he so chooses.

He does not so choose: the dead annoy Pincus as much as the living. But one defunctee — a well-to-do womanizer named Frank Herlihy (reliably charming Greg Kinnear) — is especially persistent. He wants Pincus to contact his widow, Gwen (Tйa Leoni) — a woman he cheated on in life — and prevent her from marrying a man named Richard (Billy Campbell), whom Frank portrays as a pompous cad. Gwen is a beautiful Egyptologist employed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Leoni plays her with splendid comic assurance (especially whenever the character's giddy interest in mummy phalluses causes her to break out in a startling noise that's somewhere between a snort and a squeak). Gwen's a knockout, and Pincus is instantly — and, it would seem, hopelessly — smitten.

Scholars of this film genre will know that Pincus is fated to fall in love with Gwen, and she with him (sort of), but that something unpleasant will happen that will turn her totally against him, until something nice happens that will turn her back again, facing them both in the direction of a happy ending. This sort of story is always in danger of sinking into a puddle of narrative gloop, and director David Koepp (who wrote the sweet script with John Kamps) does get a little sticky. Was it really necessary to embed a dubious Einstein quote ("Only a life lived for others is worth living") in one scene? And, more distressingly, where is it written that every romantic comedy must ooze soothing acoustic-guitar ballads?

No matter. Gervais' Pincus, with his spiraling verbal tangents and grotesque attempts at "dental humor," resists most of the script's soft-focus inclinations, and happily snaps up the occasional barbs it offers. Asked to dedicate his dental talents to working among the poor in India, Pincus regrets that he doesn't function well in such "humid-y" places. "What're the teeth like in Palm Springs?" he asks brightly.

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'Mean Girls,' 'Naked Gun' Sequels Will Prove Direct-To-DVD Movies Aren't Automatically Bad, Exec Insists

All sequels are, to some extent, about cash grabs; about exploiting existing characters and properties and creating opportunities for continued financial windfalls. Ask most fanboys, though, and they'll tell you that in the best of all possible worlds, the need to tell an extended story should come first — that when a sequel hits on all cylinders, like "The Dark Knight," for instance, it feels somehow necessary. It had a story that had to be told.

When Paramount Famous, a new division of the entertainment giant (which, like MTV, is owned by Viacom), announced made-for-home-entertainment (direct-to-DVD) sequels of films like "Bad News Bears," "Mean Girls," "The Naked Gun" and "Grease," however, hate spread like wildfire across the Internet, a bunch of bloggers and industry writers (like this and this and this) accusing division head Louis Feola of looking at films as brands rather than films that deserve more stories.

Speaking exclusively with MTV News, Feola said, "I tend to look at properties as brands and try and figure out the essence of the brand. What comes first is an analysis of the property by trying to figure out what the brand is, and the story follows from there," he said of the process his company employs to figure out which films to sequelize. "We look at if the film was written for theatrical release, and in all those instances they were. We look at how it's performed theatrically. We look at how it's performed internationally. This gives us a sense of the movie's staying power. Then we also look at the video performance in exactly the same fashion.

"And then I go through the process and I ask, 'Can I duplicate this experience, and deliver on it?" he concluded.

Feola and Paramount Famous aim to release six of these films a year, beginning with "Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling" in early 2009. By 2010, sequels to "Grease," "Bad News Bears," "Naked Gun," "Mean Girls" and "Road Trip" will follow.

(Click on over to the MTV Movies Blog to find out what these movies will be about.)

But, even given Feola's admission that story comes second, the pervasive presumption that all these films will be bad is simply untrue, he insisted. How does he know? Because the marketplace is the final arbiter of quality, he said, and the marketplace shows that these things sell like hotcakes.

"[The idea that direct-to-DVD entertainment is bad] is based on reality, to a degree, but it's also a very old point of view," he said. "In people's minds they still put it in [the dumping ground], but it's actually not, if you look at the quality level of production.

"Most of the time these people are talking in a vacuum," he continued. "They haven't actually seen anything that's been made yet and they just automatically presume that it's not going to be a great experience. It is a judgment that many times was gotten without any evidence. They just assume it's going to be a bad movie," Feola continued. "Having said that, the business at retail, that's about $2.5 to $3 billion in the U.S. So someone is having a good time ... go back and look at 'American Pie: Band Camp,' and 'American Pie: Naked Mile,' and you look at 'Bring It on Again,' or 'Bring It On: All or Nothing,' and you look at the animation movies, the 'Land Before Time's — those are pretty good experiences as a viewer. And the telling tale there is, I think, if they don't work then you don't keep making them. Someone is having a good time."

To help make sure you're that someone, Feola said he was reaching out to the creative team responsible for each of the original properties — Tina Fey and Linsday Lohan in the case of "Mean Girls," for instance, or Leslie Nielsen in the case of "Naked Gun."

"Each one is on a case-by-case basis and it also depends on what they have going on. In the case of Leslie Nielsen, we have written it for him to play a part in the movie. Whether or not he wants to, we don't know yet, because we haven't gone out to him yet," Feola said. "[But] we try to make the best quality product that we can make at the price that we can make it for. We work on very, very fast time lines [so we can't necessarily wait]."

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Jesse McCartney Finally Hits Big Screen In 'Keith' -- But Is He 'The Next Leonardo DiCaprio'?

The new film "Keith" is one best enjoyed by those who know nothing about the plot. The movie's characters experience twists and turns, flavored with adversity and triumph, that often leave their future in doubt.

It seems only appropriate, then, that Jesse McCartney's long-awaited film debut should finally emerge after nearly a half-decade of similar uncertainty.

"Making an independent film is a slow process," writer/director Todd Kessler said while speaking with MTV News this week, remembering the film's lengthy birthing process. "You have to pull in all your favors. You have to wait for free equipment to be available and this and that, and you just do it one step at a time."

Three years ago, we visited the Southern California set of the independent teen drama and found a hard-nosed heartthrob eager to prove that he had the chops to follow in the footsteps of heroes Robert De Niro and Edward Norton. At the time, the film had already gone through a long period of so-called "production hell," and McCartney had been selected for the in-demand script over a throng of similar up-and-comers.

"We had Shia LaBeouf attached to it before Jesse, but Miramax didn't feel like he was going to be a big enough star," Kessler laughed. (Lindsay Lohan and Kristen Stewart were also considered for the film's female lead at one point.) "Companies like Miramax were afraid that we could never pull it off, and they wanted us to make [the character of] Keith nicer and quirkier and cuter. We finally wrestled it back out after being theirs twice. It was a long, complicated process, but when they ran into their problems with Disney, I was able to get the project back independently, although on a very small budget, and get it made the way I always wanted to make it."

The onscreen tale that survived was recently screened for us, and the result is a refreshingly unique teen-targeted film unlike anything most studios would be brave enough to release. In essence, the film is about a regimented high school princess (Elisabeth Harnois of "One Tree Hill") with her mind on tennis scholarships and AP classes who falls for mysterious, free-spirited slacker Keith (McCartney) — but that's only where the story begins.

"Every teenager today has seen the John Hughes movies of the '80s," Kessler said of his tone. "There's still a need for those kinds of dramas, but somehow the film industry hasn't found the key to meeting that need."

The centerpiece of the film is undoubtedly McCartney, whose role calls for him to be smart-alecky, endearing, enigmatic and a complete jerk, often all at once. It's the kind of complexity that, if not handled properly, could crush an actor. And although he has appeared onstage and in TV shows and loaned his voice to films like "Alvin & the Chipmunks," this film is a major step forward in his acting career.

"He prepared intensively. When he was on tour [with his music], I understand that he spent hours in front of the mirror in hotel rooms working on his character, working on his stance — even little details, like how he puts his hands in the pocket of his jacket," Kessler marveled. "Everybody who sees the movie now is impressed, and the buzz is happening from those who think he's the next Leonardo DiCaprio."

It's that sort of warm reception that has kept the actor and director working hard on their little film as the years have gone by — coupled with the support of fans who have propelled tracks like McCartney's "Leavin' " to the top of the charts. "There's a young woman in Florida who started an online petition to get the movie in theaters," Kessler said. "Jesse's tremendously popular in Italy. I get a lot of e-mails from Italy. Somebody posted the movie [illegally] on the Internet for download yesterday, and they had to shut them down. I suddenly got e-mailed on Facebook — e-mails from as far-flung as Slovakia, Malaysia and Denmark yesterday — saying, 'I watched the movie three times, and it's better each time I see it!' "

Now, after touring various film festivals, "Keith" finally makes its theatrical debut this weekend. "Gray Area Entertainment is doing a test release in Vegas starting on Friday," Kessler said. "Depending on how that does, hopefully it will platform from there to other markets and around the world.

"Jesse did take a risk when he decided that he wanted to do this role," the director said in praise of his leading man's unorthodox journey to the big screen. "I'm sure not everyone advised him to do it, because it was a risk. But he pulled it off — and he did a fantastic job."

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