Our very organized movie maven—we'll call her Ines—insisted on a carpool and meet up at her house in Venice at 6 p.m. sharp. This, despite the fact that the movie itself started at 8:30. She had prepared at least a half dozen salads, and her friends brought another 10 dishes. By the time we piled the food into the car, you would have thought we were going camping for 10 days, not going to a two-hour movie.

But, as we were soon to understand, sustenance is key. The line to drive into the cemetery was already blocking traffic at 7. The suckers on foot were snaked around like they were waiting for a Disneyland ride. And we were the first ones in.


We walked past some pretty groovy graves that made me reconsider getting a burial plot when that day is upon me.

Once inside, it was like a hipster parade—otherwise known as a fashion show. It was as if everyone under 29 and in possession of Samantha Ronson-esque fedoras had been lured to one place at the same time.


We were all there to witness the wonder that is Barbarella; the 1960s version of a so-bad-it's-good-movie, rivaled only during our time by Showgirls.

During the hour and half run up to the movie itself, everyone gorged themselves on their picnics (and I assure you, we had the best spread), and the air quickly filled with a fragrant smell that was not incense. DJ Jun spun tunes appropriate to the era—we heard "Walk on the Wild Side"—as the screen flashed old movie posters featuring Audrey Hepburn and Bridget Bardot. The Fonda images scrolled by, and the one of her in her '80s workout gear got the biggest response.

Having never seen Barbarella, I was shocked at the burlesque-like opening sequence where Fonda strips out of her space suit. I was also very jealous of her flat stomach and her perky breasts, but that is a conversation for another time.

Watching a movie such as this with a few hundred, or thousand, of your closest non-friends is especially fun. During her first conquest (I counted four, if you include the sex machine at the end) with the hairy guy, wolf whistles and shouts abounded.

The entire thing is so amazing from start to finish, you can't believe it actually got made. And I was horrified to learn that they are planning on remaking it with Robert Rodriguez as the director and Rose McGowan in the lead (that is, until they supposedly broke up in July). Though McGowan insists that she's not been replaced, other names like Kate Beckinsale, Sienna Miller, and—just shoot me—Jessica Alba, have been mentioned. The Movie Nazi thought that if such a perfect movie must be tinkered with, it must feature Lindsay Lohan. C'mon, you know you wanna see that.

I'll end by quoting Barbarella's commander when he tells her—as she stands before the prompter taking orders naked—"Thank you and love. One day we must meet in the flesh."

Next week: OMG! Super hot Jake in Sixteen Candles.

And Dennings's smitten blog post from May about her "redonkulous superhuman" director (excerpted after the jump)? That's probably just a genuine gesture of professional respect:

I must note that I'm in Texas at the moment, filming a movie with redonkulous superhuman Robert Rodriguez. And as I tilted my head to look at the pavement tonight while we were talking I felt the ground give way beneath me and I've been a peanut butter person ever since. Holla

Holla! Of course, in the same breath she demands "the guys from the BBC's Top Gear to go with me everywhere," so maybe she's just friendly like that. Anyway, neither Dennings nor reps for Rodriguez have responded to our requests for comment, so we'll just wish them well and caution Dennings against going public with that Women in Chains! starring role Rodriguez promised her after McGowan suddenly became, ahem, unavailable last week.

• Evil Bread II [Kat Dennings]

Sources say the couple, who we reported last October were engaged, have split, partly over the problems Rodriguez had finding financing for "Barbarella" - the 1968 cult classic in which Jane Fonda played a sexy space adven- turess - with McGowan in the title role.

"Too bad 'Grindhouse' didn't gross $100 million. Then, maybe, 'Barbarella' would have gotten the green light," said one source. "Instead, the moguls were saying, 'We need a bigger star, a bigger name.' " Jessica Alba has been touted as a possible replacement.

Let us be the first to say good riddance to the former Mrs. Marilyn Manson, whose appeal and subsequent career success has always been a bit of a mystery for us. While we would never (never!) wish ill-will upon a budding couple, this relationship seemed to be standing in the way of the career prospects of one of our favorite directorial guilty pleasures (the Spy Kids franchise aside, obvs). Now we're not saying that McGowan is talentless, it's more that her days as a viable big screen sexbomb expired sometime around the time of Jawbreaker. They say love is blind, but clearly, big studio heads are not. When you're trying to appease a cult of twentysomething fanboys (Rodriguez's primary audience), the name Rose McGowan does about as much to get their horndog motors running as the name Bea Arthur. While we're not clamoring to see vapid actresses like Jessica Alba or Jessica Simpson fill the iconic spacesuit that Jane Fonda wore, there is one actress out there who possesses the requisite amount of sex appeal and bouncy hair who could get us to pre-order tix for the Barbarella remake stat. Just take our word for it, Robert, and have your people get in touch with Kate Beckinsale's people. You can thank us later.

• H'WOOD SPLIT GOOD FOR JESSICA [Page Six]

Director Robert Rodriguez is shopping around Women in Chains! a violent drama set at a woman's prison starring his fiancee, Rose McGowan. ...

McGowan is set to play one of five chained women at the center of the show, which Rodriguez is expected to direct. The two first worked together on last year's Planet Terror, Rodriguez's homage to 1970s exploitation flicks.

The new show also is rumored to be fashioned with a 1970s exploitation sensibility, with such staples like mud wrestling.

We're told there are scripts circulating — with dialogue and exposition in actual English — at networks including NBC and FX, where the market for prime-time exploitation dramas apparently surged when we weren't looking. We didn't think anything could shake McGowan from her single-minded alien ambitions from a month ago, but! Seeing as those Barbarella spaceships are only half-built and she can make a mud pit in about 15 minutes flat, we can't really blame her for compromising. A woman — even one in chains — has gotta eat, right?

• Robert Rodriguez shops prison series [THR]

McGowan, for one, can't wait to step into those knee-high boots, calling herself a big "fan of the original." Any pressure to live up to the legend?

"The original doesn't have a lot to go on plot-wise. It's one thing to do a remake of something that could have been much better storywise even if it was fantastic visually. It's another thing to remake something flawless," McGowan said. "That way if yours isn't that good at least yours is better than that one."

Having sufficiently lowered expectations for whatever slight audience this film had in the first place, the shrewd McGowan also gushed about all the work apparently in progress: sets, costumes, even "part of a spaceship built for me!" Her most important point, however, that SAG's looming June 30 strike deadline will forestall production — that dodgy part where movies are actually filmed, with scripts and budgets and other actors — for at least another three months means we can count on her next reassurance right around the low ebb of the summer news cycle. God forbid we'll be waiting.

• Rose McGowan Says She's Still 'Barbarella' [MTV]