Okay, we don't want to get our hopes up....but this Tim Burton-directed Alice in Wonderland which will combine live action with performance-capture "technology" (meep!) is beginning to sound kinda awesome. In addition to Mia Wasikowska (from HBO's In Treatment) being cast as Alice, and Johnny Depp signing on as the Mad Hatter, The Hollywood Reporter reports today that Anne Hathaway, fresh off all her good reviews for Rachel Getting Married, has signed on to play the White Queen while Helena Bonham Carter will play the Red Queen. Good for Anne Hathaway! Not only has she handled a difficult time in her personal life with grace and aplomb in interviews, but she's doing the smartest thing possible: making good movies for people to talk about instead (it worked for Nicole Kidman, too). As for Mr. Burton's new production, we eagerly await casting news on who will play the Cheshire Cat. Is Jack Nicholson available?

Rachel Getting Married
Running time 113 minutes
Written by Jenny Lumet
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Starring Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger, Bill Irwin

Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married, from a screenplay by Jenny Lumet, is said to have been inspired by Robert Altman’s satirically free-wheeling A Wedding (1978), and probably by Ms. Lumet’s own experiences in an interracial family. As far as I’m concerned, weddings in movies tend to be guilty until proven innocent or even intelligent. Ever since the old Production Code was scrapped to allow last-minute mischief at the altar, as in Mike Nichols’ The Graduate (1967) and P.  read more »

Rachel Getting Married
Running Time 114 minutes
Written By Jenny Lumet
Directed By Jonathan Demme
Starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Mather Zickel, Debra Winger

After dazzling tough film festival audiences in Venice and Toronto, Jonathan Demme’s pulsating new film Rachel Getting Married has arrived on the fall movie scene to remind me what real movies are still all about. Up to my eyeballs in draggy, shapeless amateur junk, I am genuinely thrilled to welcome a film this colorful, artistically realized and wonderfully alive. Steeped in the tradition of sound narrative form yet scrappy and unpredictable, acted and written with enormous style but with front and back doors open to experiment and surprise, it’s a film that challenges you to keep a jogger’s pace to keep up with it, then leaves you breathless.  read more »

This year’s New York Film Festival opened Friday night with a screening of French director Laurent Cantet’s The Class.

The film, which has already won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, focuses on a multicultural classroom in Paris’ rapidly gentrifying 20th Arrondissement. With the exception of the role of the teacher, who is played by the author of the memoir that inspired the movie, the cast is made up of a group of amateur teenage actors, most of whom had traveled to New York for the festival.

Maybe it was the serious, relatively low-profile film—The Darjeeling Limited was last year's selection, and The Queen opened the year before that—or the rain or the presidential debates on TV, but the red carpet was particularly quiet.  read more »

Meghan McCain was overheard discussing new tattoo options with the editor of her new children's book, Mark Mcveigh, though she wants to wait until "after the election in November." [P6]

Paris Hilton has said, "Some celebrities become famous and they forget who they are or where they came from and they hide out like some recluse. I'm not going to do that." It's true, Hilton would really have to lose touch with her roots to become a recluse. [US Weekly]

Anne Hathaway was quoted as saying, "I'm not the sort of girl that will throw up on a short skirt and tease her hair up." Neither are we! [NYDN]

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Sarah Palin's people "do not want the American public to know that [she] is using stylists or that she is paying for expensive clothes this early in the campaign." We definitely did not know. [P6] 

The Obama campaign rebuffed newly minted political blogger Lindsay Lohan's offer to host "a series of events for younger voters," reportedly saying that she is "not exactly the kind of high-profile star who would be positive for us." [TMZ] 

Socialite and jewelry designer Genevieve Jones is dating Oscar de la Renta's 24-year-old son Moises. [Paper]

Jennifer Lopez threw husband Marc Anthony a surprise "1940's Cuban nightclub themed" birthday party at the Bowery Hotel the same day she finished fifth in the "celebrity women's category" (which apparently exists!) in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon. [People]  read more »

Columbia students have been harassing James Franco, who's enrolled in an MFA program in writing. [P6]

Mary-Kate Olsen forced organizers of at the Rock and Republic show to re-seat her in between Gossip Girl stars Chace Crawford and Jessica Szohr, though she later obliged them by "[smiling] in the front row." [NYDN]

Sean 'Diddy' Combs totally lied about having a private jet!  [Palm Beach Post]

For those who don't know their Hamish Bowles from their Michael Roberts: The good people at Cityfile have put together an illustrated guide to prominent fashion week faces. [Cityfile]    read more »

Unless you're like the Comic Book Guy, you probably don't even realize The Simpsons is still on the air. That's okay we barely remembered either! It's not that we aren't fans; when push comes to shove, we'd still say we love The Simpsons. It's just that but we haven't watched a new episode in eight years. Did we say "new" episode? Let's rephrase that. Any episode. When you've seen every episode ten times over, from elementary school all the way through college, it's understandable to take a break.

For those of you who are still watching, though, the new season kicks off on September 28th, and Entertainment Weekly has already confirmed two of the guest voices for the 20th season (20th season! We are old!)  read more »

Last night the much-discussed Hollywood contingent here in Denver, who have been lending their "visibility" to myriad events and causes all over town, congregated in the V.I.P. section of the Black Eyed Peas concert. Members of the Creative Coalition's hard-working band of entertainers—Alan Cumming, Tim Daly, Anne Hathaway, Spike Lee, Barry Levinson, Josh Lucas, Matthew Modine, Susan Sarandon—were joined by various showbiz colleagues including Jessica Alba and Hayden Panettiere in the balcony area at the Fillmore Auditorium, as Fergie & Co. shook their rumps on stage below.

Meanwhile, local nightclub impresario Jesse Morreale wondered if the glamorous crowd would have enough energy to return for another after after party at the Rockbar.  read more »

DENVER—After hosting a lunch in support of helping diabetes patients at the restaurant Panzano, the Creative Coalition gathered its merry band of New York-based celebrities into a back section of the restaurant to get on with the showbiz-oriented non-profit's lesser known agenda this year: a documentary, called Poliwood, featuring their historic voyage to the Democratic National Convention, directed by Barry Levinson.

The scene in the backroom featured a pep talk from a frumpy looking guy with a bad toupee on refining the rhetoric of Democratic talking points, followed by a Q&A among the actors in attendance, including Susan Sarandon, Anne Hathaway, Josh Lucas, Richard Schiff, Giancarlo Esposito and others.  read more »