Our other star who has taken the e-cigarette habit and has been spotted numerous times smoking these products on the regular is Model Kate Moss. Lately we have even seen Charlie Sheen,our favourite “Two and a half men” star, working on an endorsing of an E-Cig company advertised as the ‘The Winning E-Cigarette Sheen Safe Smoke.’ From its portrayal it is understood that Sheen has also become one of several partners in the E-Cigarette company.

Amongst other the well-known Hollywood star, Jenny McCarthy, “The View” co-host, have been encouraging the use of Electronic cigarettes against traditional cigarettes. She has also endorsed the e-cigarette brand Blu and can be seen in its commercials. She explains that, now her mouth doesn’t taste like an ashtray, her love life has improved and she feels better about herself. The e-cigs have provided her with a way to smoke without making her feel like a social outcast. This year we even saw Leonardo DiCaprio and Julia Louis-Dreyfus smoking e-cigarettes at the honourable Golden Globe Award ceremony.

E-cigarette is one of the best nicotine replacement products as it has lesser toxic effects than traditional cigarettes. Studies reveal that e-cigarettes are one of the best aid for smoking cessation. It is more effective than traditional pharmacotherapy, mostly because puffing on the e-cigarette gives a more traditional feel and is more effective in dealing with as well as improving short term cravings. Read here for more on Ecigarette review.

2.7% of U.S adults have tried electronic cigarettes and a staggering 31% of those who have tried e-cigs ended up quitting tobacco based cigarettes within a 3 month period. Estimates are that 45 million people smoke traditional tobacco cigarettes and today the number of electronic cigarette smokers are well above 2.5 and rising.Recently we have also seen, Lindsay Lohan, using the electronic replacement for cigarettes, which we presume is aimed at her smoking cessation.

Other prominent Hollywood celebrities like Simon Cowell, Katherine Heigl, Courtney Love, Bradley Cooper, Robert Pattison, have also been spotted using e-cigs. Read more about Ecigarette here.

Since Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” gets alluded to above, this mash-up from the film about the celebrity photographer character from the film, Papparazzo (Walter Santesso), seems apt. Really, celebrity today is really only different by a matter of degree from the celebrity of yesterday.

* The big story today is that a lot of people have sussed out the the 23rd James Bond movie is, according to the possibly not-so-super reliable UK tabloid “canned.” Obviously, the same fiscal black hole at the once mighty MGM that is screwing things up royally for “The Hobbit” is also at least delaying the latest entry in what has to be the longest-running franchise in movie history.

He may be a bit emotional, but it’s hard to disagree with the passion of Harry Knowles on this, while Kevin Jagernauth provides some necessary background to the story. I agree that it’s a bummer this is happening during the era of Daniel Craig. As far as I’m concerned, Craig is easily the best Bond since Connery.

* There’s been a bit of a debate on Facebook about the appropriateness of some people’s more humorous/snarky reactions to the news that Lindsay Lohan is going back to jail for ninety days for parole violations. I’m of two or three minds on this, but I think the bottom line is that of course these things are tragedy but that, as we all know, comedy is tragedy in longshot. Also, I think some of the derision is based on Lohan’s reputation for not always acting like a particularly gracious person, to put it mildly, and also her getting some unusually open criticism from some highly venerated costars.

Of course, being nice to people isn’t always easy to do when you stoned out of your mind and being a good coworker is all that much harder. On the other hand, there’s never an excuse to be cruel and Hollywood has plenty of schadenfreude already. In fact, I’d like to call a permanent moratorium on it.

I will say that Robert Downey, Jr. — despite being quite well liked in Hollywood and one of the best actors of his generation — took his share of lumps from late night comics and others for his years long drug related problems. Whether or not it’s right to make fun of Lohan for her troubles, practically speaking, she would be well-advised to develop a thicker skin and a sense of humor about all of it the way Downey did, assuming she can stay alive of course.

In any case, her speech to the court was a good one. Aside from staying clean and sober, what she really needs to do when she gets out is to knock everyone’s socks off with some really good performances.

* I can almost feel the cinephile backlash building as it eventually did — to a limited degree — for “The Dark Knight,” but the early — somewhat geek heavy — reviews for “Inception” are looking extremely good. You might expect someone like AICN’s Mr. Beaks to have a cineorgasm over the film from geekdom’s favorite director, but the geek friendly but nevertheless discerning and cinephile-esque Anne Thompson dares to call it a “Kubrickian masterpiece.” I like Nolan’s films overall quite a bit, but he’s lost me before (“The Prestige” did nothing for me) and I don’t really consider him a great even in the making, but we’ll just have to see.

* The pulse-pounding women-in-prison spectacle of all time, “Sugarboxx,” which includes yours truly as a featured extra who meets an unpleasant end at the hand of rampaging female convicts and features exactly one line co-written by me with auteur Cody Jarrett, is available on demand on several cable systems including — though not limited to — Time Warner, Cox Cable, Bright House Networks and Charter Cable for just a couple more weeks — and then, that’s it, at least for now. I’m going to start reminding you about this again, so be prepared.

* Speaking of movies made for budgets that wouldn’t cover the coffee budget on a standard Hollywood film, Anne Thompson has a much needed update on Insurge, the micro-budget division that Paramount set up some time ago, with the idea of giving out $100,000 for edgy projects. There have been some roadblocks because the unions and guilds won’t stand for Paramount trying to get all the perks of being an impoverished indie producer, which I think is only fair. Still, doing a lot more films for vastly smaller budgets is a great idea and I hope they figure this thing out.

* Memo to Nikki Finke: The recent college grad son of a powerful and respected Hollywood player gets a job in the mailroom of a management company and it’s news? On the other hand, I’m glad Sam Grey is a Preston Sturges fan. Way to get on my good side. And, yes, I’m convinced Hollywood would be a better place and make better movies if more people would watch films made before 1980. Or 1960. Or 1940. Or…

* Returning to the topic of “Inception,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt is apparently the film’s action-star in terms of having to do some pretty complicated and apparently quite painful stunts. This Details profile cover story, which got e-mailed to me by someone there, makes him sound like somewhere between a blissed out cartoon character, a pot-appreciative Jimmy Stewart, and an interesting, manic, guy who gleefully subjected himself to all kinds of punishment while working on Nolan’s film. Also, apparently he likes to be called “Joe,” which, as a Bob, and never a Robert, I can appreciate.

]]> https://www.premiumhollywood.com/2010/05/05/happy-cinco-de-mayo-kind-of-from-machete/ Wed, 05 May 2010 20:09:57 +0000 https://www.premiumhollywood.com/?p=23452 Residents of a certain southwestern state take note…

This is obviously a newly recut trailer with that special message from the awesome Danny Trejo — not, I admit, nearly as funny/cool as the one in “Grindhouse.” On the other hand, we now have glimpses of Robert De Niro doing exploitation for pretty much the first time in his career, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, the great Cheech Marin, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan (on the comeback trail?), and “introducing Don Johnson.” Heh.

H/t Topless Robot.

* I don’t know whether there’s some sort of game of managing expectations going on or if interest really is limited to younger males and no one else, but I’m starting to hear rumblings that “Kick-Ass” is not expected to kick ass do hugely well at the box office this Friday. If so, then Matthew Vaughn has got to be one of the least lucky talented mainstream directors ever after generating so much excitement with his film, at least in the fanboy realms.

My main rumbling comes via this Playlist piece which alleges that nothing has been done to expand the interest in the film beyond those who’ve never heard of the comic book.  Literally speaking, that’s not true because I’d never heard of the comic book before hearing about Vaughn’s film of it, though I am certainly a member of the Geek American community. The main thrust of the piece itself is actually on the possibly stronger hopes for “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” which, as a commenter offers, does seem to have more cross-gender appeal. It also has a well known star and the comic genius Edgar Wright going for it. We’ll see.

In any case, Vaughn appears to be doing what all prudent directors do before their next big film comes out, lining up the next gig just in case the current film really does tank. This story is a glorified rumor, but it does look possible that Vaughn’s next gig might involve a gangster/science fiction vampire comic book written by, of all people, controversial English talk show host and film geek, Jonathan Ross who is leaving the BBC because of a scandal caused, I kid you not, by tasteless prank phone calls. Here, he’d get a promotion. In any case, I’ll always remember him for “The Incredibly Strange Film Show.”

* Never fear, however, “Iron Man 2” will be here in 26 days. Of course it’ll do ridiculously well, but I remember some naysayers just before the first movie came out. Seems all those good reviews were a bit worrisome and even smart people like Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott, if memory serves, were worried the movie was a little too good to make monster bucks.

* The biggest news in my personal movie world is word via the Los Angeles Times of the resurrection of the statue that classic-era superstar Myrna Loy (“The Thin Man,” “The Best Years of Our Lives”) posed for when she was just a young student and which graced the front of my alma mater for decades. As the News Editor of the Venice High Oarsman (“Rowing, Not Drifting”) back in the pre-pre-pre-pre MySpace era, I was on the Myrna-vandalism beat. This gladdens my heart. A picture, however, would have been nice. Maybe I’ll get to work on that a bit later.

* If you were already fantasizing about someday buying Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern get-up via E-bay, you’re out of luck unless you were playing on buying some software. It’s going to be a CGI suit.

* Sharon Waxman thinks the Weinstein brothers may be in the lead to buy back their old company.

* Merrick at AICN has some details on the new Jack Ryan non-novel-based reboot or prequel or whatever it is. It’s plot, we’re told, will involve terrorists and a plan to destroy the economy. Cyber-terrorism? If so, they’ll have their work cut out for them making it cinematic. I guess they’ll just wind up nuking another American city half-way through the film and then expect us to buy a happy ending when it’s all over.

* I thought for sure the story/rumor/probable b.s. about Quentin Tarantino reviving Lindsay Lohan’s career would turn out to be today’s weirdest item. Then I came across the one about what we’re told is Chris Rock‘s latest writing gig. The first weird bit is that he’s purportedly taking over a script last worked on by David Mamet. Now, I’m a pretty big Rock fan — I even kinda sorta liked “Head of State” — but I’m also a Mamet fan, and let’s just say that I don’t often mention them in the same breath.

It gets weirder still because the movie in question is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic, “High and Low,” which was originally going to be directed by Martin Scorsese but is now going in a very different and less promising directorial direction with Mike Nichols. Kurosawa and Chris Rock, also not people I would ordinarily put together. As Beaks points out, however, this whole business of making ridiculous comparisons could be avoiding by simply going back to the original source material of “High and Low,” Ed McBain’s police procedural/business thriller, “King’s Ransom.” It’s similar but also very different than the Kurosawa movie in a way that tells you something about the differences between the Japanese and American cultures, and in some respects more relevant now than it’s been in some time.

I still can’t quite imagine Rock writing it, but you never know, I guess. Also, I give him credit for having interesting taste, assuming there’s a word of truth in any of this.

* The weekend box office “actuals” are finally in after the weekend confusion about which film came out on top. “Clash of the Titans” earned $26.6 miillion while “Date Night” was over-estimated by nearly $2 million and got a still very healthy $25.2 million.

* I don’t think there’s any way you can make me care about who’s writing the He-Man movie.

* If you’re in the mood for some real critical inside baseball and controversy. Glenn Kenny picks another fight, this time over age and ethics in this post and the ensuing comments. Personally, I like it better when Kenny writes about movies. I get enough meta at the DailyKos diaries. On the other hand, the Gang of Four clip is way cool.