For those of you who rushed out to see the movie during its big city engagement before it opens wide on Christmas day will know, Up in the Air is the story of Ryan Bingham, a man who travels around the country firing people who have been downsized by their respective companies. Rich thinks this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, if we could all still afford a loaf of bread or a knife to cut it with.

Here is an America whose battered inhabitants realize that the economic deck is stacked against them, gamed by distant, powerful figures they can't see or know. Up in the Air may be a glossy production sprinkled with laughter and sex, but it captures the distinctive topography of our Great Recession as vividly as a far more dour Hollywood product of 70 years ago, The Grapes of Wrath, did the vastly different landscape of the Great Depression.

Steinbeck did actually tell the story of Up in the Air in The Grapes of Wrath. Early in the novel, he gives a few pages to the bank men who came to kick farmers off their land:

Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid, and some worshiped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling. If a bank or a finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank or the Companyneedswantsinsistsmust have as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time. Some of the owner men were a little proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters. The owner men sat in the cars and explained. You know the land is poor. You've scrabbled at it long enough, God knows.

And then Steinbeck moved on to the true characters, the Joads and their trek west, full of empty dreams and shattered promises. The only way this movie — that tries to humanize the corporate hatchet man — could be anything like The Grapes of Wrath is if John Steinback came back from the dead and rewrote it so that it focused on and humanized the men who show up at the Joad's house to tack a foreclosure notice on the front door. But he didn't because his tale is about the people whose livelihood was lost due to natural and financial disaster and who subsequently wander around doing anything just to survive. Through it we can sympathize with the once-proud people who have been laid low by the Great Depression.

Up in the Air, on the other hand, is a film about the man who flies around in first class collecting frequent flier miles for sport and still has a job, an expense account, an apartment, and so many hotel key cards that he doesn't even need to pony up for a night at the Milwaukee Hilton unless he wants to. After a peek into his luxe lifestyle, it asks us to feel sorry for him, because his job firing people is so hard and he doesn't have a life outside of work. He's lonely. Sad face.

While director Jason Reitman uses "real people" who lost their jobs as the sorry spectres loosed from this employment coil by Ryan, how do you think watching this movie must feel for someone who has met the Brooks Brothers-clad grim reaper in a beige conference room in their very own workplace? They're intended to muster up even the slightest bit of sympathy for this dude, who still gets a paycheck, because he doesn't have a life? Yeah, that's not salve we're putting on that wound, Frank, it's salt.

After a long season of caped-superheroes and cars smashing into things, its probably only fair that we should then eat our vegetables and be forced to sit through a few month of loving portrayals of war, disease, genocide, aging, divorce, poverty and Hitler.

And there is nothing that gets development execs more excited than a torn-from-the-headlines bummer; after all, events like the Iraq War or the Economic Collapse have built in name recognition...and people have proven they are interested by living in a world dominated by them without killing themselves.

The problem, as Hollywood perpetually discovers, when it seeks to market its latest Iraq film for instance, is that when people look for entertainment (the condition they still amazingly associate with their visits to the multi-plex) they don't think of it in terms of shelling out a week's pay to be bludgeoned for two hours by a big screen version of the same hopeless depressing mess they've been forced to hear about all day on their cable news.

In the case of Up In the Air, the about to be released Oscar darling starring George Clooney as a downsizing specialist, the LA Times documents today the challenge facing the Paramount marketing department, as they attempt to get folks to come out of their homes to enjoy a fun-filled romp through the world of mass lay-offs. Apparently, the marketeers job has been made all the more interesting by director Jason Reitman's decision to tie the film directly to current conditions by cutting in clips of real-life laid-off people talking about their real life lay-offs. Now who wouldn't call that an evening of family fun?

Well, if you are a marketeer, wondering, how do I sell that, the answer is apparently, you don't. Despite a bunch of assurances in the piece that the film resonates well with grown-up serious people, the Paramount marketing department decided not even to try to sell that line to the public. The piece reports:

But the marketing doesn't dwell on the pain of layoffs. The theatrical trailer includes only a few quick glimpses of job-loss scenes. And the teaser trailer and two clips on the movie's website include no references to unemployment whatsoever. Instead, in selling the movie, Paramount is emphasizing Bingham's journey of self-discovery, his existential isolation as a corporate consultant who lives out of his suitcase and off an expense account.

"At its heart, the movie is about making human connections," said Josh Greenstein, Paramount's co-president of marketing. "That's so relevant in the world we live in today, where, with Twitter and e-mail, people communicate without being face-to-face." To make that point, the poster for the movie features Clooney standing at an airport terminal staring out the window, with the tag line: "The story of a man ready to make a connection."

Now if only they could find a way to make clear that all these Iraq films are not about guns, or killing, or the eternal quagmire of the Middle East but about, you know, guys hanging out and talking about guy stuff, really no different than any run-of-the-mill Judd Apatow film, then theyy'd really be onto a forumla for success.

Posting his chart on twitter, Reitman breaks down all the questions he's been asked in his Up In the Air press appearances. Shown in full the chart demonstrates first of all what a deadening experience it must be, sitting in junkets and having to answer, by his count, a full 111 times, "What's it like working with George Clooney?"

However, pulling up the number two slot, the world's entertainment journalists, sparked by the big contemporary issues raised by Up in The Air, asked Reitman 96 times about the economy. No doubt these were probing questions posed by the hard-nosed financial analysts of Ok! and Hello! to the director of Juno; questions we imagine along the lines of "So the economy,...isn't that just awful?" and "What does George think of the economy?" and "If the Federal Reserve were an ice cream store, what would be its most popular flavor?"

But hey, maybe those are just the sort of questions we need to be asking if this nation is ever going to think its way out of this mess.

Since losing their brand, life hasn't been right for the Brothers Weinstein. Could a name change though really bring back that magical English Patient era?

• Their company may be ailing, but Weinsteins are ready to make a play to get their name back. The Wrap reports that Harvey and Bob are preparing a pitch to Robert Iger to buy back their old Miramax brand now that Disney has all but shuttered the division. When they left Disney, The Wrap reports, Michael Eisner refused out of spite to let them take the name — which is a hybrid of the Weinsteins' parent's names - with them. But with Disney now under less vengeance driven management the Weinsteins hope is that the time be be ripe for an historic reunion . [The Wrap]

• George Clooney is reportedly "circling the lead" role in the long awaited new film by Sideways and Election director Alexander Payne, a family drama/comedy entitled The Descendents. [Variety]

• Suggesting that Oscar's new producers may be taking a step away from from the Hugh Jackman mold, Nikki Finke reports that the hosting job has been offered to and turned down by both Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. Which means there is only one Tropic Thunder star left to host...Jack Black, your day of destiny has arrived. [Deadline]

• Hollywood is saved! In earnings season, Viacom reported "better-than-expected third-quarter profit gains thanks to improved theatrical film and TV advertising trends, as well as cost controls." Marvel however, ruined the party by reporting lower profits in Q3, as they had no theatrical releases last quarter. Thanks for nothing Marvel. [Hollywood Reporter]

• Sony Classics has picked up the US rights to Mother and Child a drama about three women and their children, which received gushing reviews when it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September. [Variety]

• Diversity is at last coming to late night TV. Fifteen years after Arsenio Hall went off the air, the next few weeks will see the debuts of talk shows built around George Lopez (TBS), Wanda Sykes (Fox) and Mo'Nique (BET). [The Wrap]

• The Atrios are in! The casting society of America handed out their annual awards at a banquet last night, giving top honors to Star Trek, Mad Men, Up and Milk. Kath and Kim's John Michael Higgins hosted the fete. [Hollywood Reporter]

• Most brilliantly understated headline of the morning: "Paranormal Activity sequel a possibility. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman reveals Tuesday." Yes, well there is always that chance that Viacom has decided they've made enough money this decade. [Hollywood Reporter]

• The unsinkable Jim Belushi juggernaut rolls on. The According to Jim vet has signed up with Diane English and Barry Levinson to create a courtroom TV drama based on famed defense attorney Mickey Sherman. [Variety]

• No big deal has yet come out of the acquisitions market at the Toronto International Film Festival, but buyers are said to be circling a fairly large number of films, including the one outings from indie darling directors Atom Egoyan, Todd Solondz and Werner Herzog. The Israeli film Lebanon which took the top prize last week in Venice is said to be the subject of intense jockeying. [Variety, THR]

• Meanwhile the star wattage has burned bright. The weekend belonged to George Clooney who as anticipated, sent the press into a titter supporting his pair of new films. Next up: Drew Barrymore with her directorial debut Whip It and Mariah Carey and Oprah supporting perhaps the most buzzed about film of the fest, Precious. [The Wrap]

• At the Toronto International Film Festival to promote his new film, The Informant, Steven Soderberg has sold the financing for his next film, to be entitled Knockout from Lion's Gate and Relativity Media. [Variety]

• Knockout may, however, prove to be the last Steven Soderbergh film ever. Speaking to The Daily Beast about his plans to retire from directing and take up painting, the director said of The Informant and his desire to go out on top, "If everyone in America will go see it, and make it a hit, then I PROMISE I will retire." [The Daily Beast]

• As expected, the box office weekend belonged to Tyler Perry, America's most reliable deliverer of 20 million dollarish opening weekends . I Can Do Bad All By Myself was Perry's third highest opener taking in an estimated $24 million. The animated 9 took in $10.9 in a smaller release. America, clearly turning its back on quality in entertainment, passed on Sorority Row which earned a mere $5.3. [Box Office Mojo]

• All eyes are tuned on NBC's ratings tonight, after the bow of the new Jay Leno show, with seemingly all of Hollywood praying for disaster. [THR]

Classic movie star looking, quip-shooting, cause-mongering, caring deeply about the arts, a star who actually writes... Mr. Clooney's status as Hollywood's dream man has survived unscathed through uneven — at best — box office and so-so at best pet projects.

Moviegoers may not be head over in heels in love with him (no film he has made that did not also star Brad Pitt has gone over 50 million since 2000's Perfect Storm) , critics can often take or leave his films, but Clooney still soars like an eagle above the film world, unsullied by setbacks which would have brought low a dozen lesser men of the screen.

And so when Mr. Clooney arrives in Toronto, it is not as a man desperate for a comeback, but as the reining King, bringing along with him two major films with Golden Globe written all over them.

The knight of the cinema arrives direct from the Venice Festival, where the salivating of one TV reporter over George caused Indiewire to explode,

why are the journalists at film festivals so goddamned STUPID? Their questions tend to the dimmer side of sub-normal-barely one step up from "If you could be any kind of tree, what tree would you be?" — and their behaviour is either boorish, or breathtakingly ignorant, or both. Sure enough, at the end of the session, in another monotonous ritual, they rushed the stage to beg for autographs, presumably in the belief that they hadn't yet demeaned themselves or their profession enough.

The Clooney mambo train kicks off in Toronto Saturday night with the premiere of Up In The Air, a film so dripping with understated prestigeyness, you'll want to put on a tux just to watch the trailer. Directed by Jason Reitman — auteur of Oscar's beloved Juno! Based on a novel by celebrated literati Walter Kirn! About a downsizing expert, it deals with contemporary issues! And it comes certified by Telluride where it received "kudo heat" according to Variety.

The second Clooney onslaught comes with The Men Who Stare at Goats. Produced by George, directed by his long-time collaborator Grant Heslov, the film once again takes Clooney into his favorite world of national security — with a wacky twist — telling the story of a secret Defense Department psychic ops unit. The film is already being described as an "Oscar Wildcard."

Poor Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany, however, did not sweep into Toronto under a blanket of goodwill, affection and hero worship. After opening the festival with their Charles Darwin biopic Creation they are all but being run out of Canada. Anne Thompson wrote, "This movie bears all the earmarks of a group of people trying not to churn out yet another biopic, desperately searching for drama and conjuring up nothing but flapping boredom."

And Movieline declared of the plot:

their heavy investment in that father-daughter dynamic yields the stuff of exposition, not drama, and Darwin the scientist (and the husband) is reduced to a brooding, whimpering intellectual parody who wouldn't be so out of place in a Woody Allen movie.

Sucks not to be George Clooney around here.

•The Toronto International Film Festival, the traditional start to the Oscar race, opened last night with the premiere of Creation, a Charles Darwin biopic starring Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany. The debut was marred by protesters angered by the festival's decision to use its "city spotlight" feature to focus on Tel Aviv. The protesters have not called for a boycott of the festival, although one Canadian documentarian withdrew his film. Among the TIFF's most anticipated films, the Ivan Reitman directed Up In the Air starring George Clooney which premieres tomorrow night. [Variety]

•Hopes may be high for Monday's debut of the primetime Jay Leno show but rates are low. Advertisers can buy a slot on Leno's show for about half what they would generally pay for a drama at the same hour. [WSJ]

• Tyler Perry looks to continue his box office stranglehold this weekend. His new film I Can Do Bad All By Myself faces off against the animated 9 Projections place Perry raking in around 20 million before Monday. [LAT]

•Producer/former studio chief John Calley will receive the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences honorary Thalberg Award this year. Special awards will also be given the Lauren Bacall, cinematogapher Gordon Willis and Roger Corman. The awards will not, however, be presented at the big show in March but at a special luncheon, safely off the primetime airwaves. [Variety]

• NBC has denied reports that SNL star Casey Wilson was fired for being overweight. E!Online had reported that producer Lorne Michaels had demanded Wilson lose 30 pounds and dismissed her when she failed to meet his goal. [TheWrap]

• Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and Liv Tyler have singed on for Super, a superhero genre spoof. [Variety]

Anderson recruited George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Bill Murray to voice the characters from Roald Dahl's cherished kids' story. Though it looks a little jerky, there are some lush visuals. Take a look!

Ok, time for some real talk! With Aquatic Life and Darjeeling Anderson's once precious characters became irritating because they lost their spontaneity — whimsy is not a substitute for insight, you guys. But maybe Fantastic Mr. Fox will force Anderson away from the smug hipster trope and we'll be able to fall in love with him again. Unless of course, there is a romantic subplot involving a pan-ethnic possum who shows Mr. Fox the true beauty in an mundane life. Booo!

ABC has officially announced its new schedule. Mondays are basically the same. Tuesdays will feature new reality show Shark Tank, plus Dancing with the Stars results shows (to be replaced by Better Off Ted and Scrubs once the Dancing season ends) and The Forgotten, a new Jerry Bruckheimer crime type drama that features a guy I know. So, congrats Anthony! Wednesday night will be a big ol' comedy block of new sitcoms (including the Courteney Cox vehicle Cougar Town—which features Dan Byrd from Aliens in America and, um, A Cinderella Story). Buzzed-about Flash Forward replaces Ugly Betty in the Thursday 8pm slot. That gay fantasia on fashional themes has moved to Friday 10pm. [Variety]

NBC has yet to formally announce their new season, but Law & Order has already been renewed for a big-time 20th season. Let's put that this way: babies that were born when the show started are now going to be juniors in college. Hooftie! Time! [THR]

DreamWorks has gone and bought the rights to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and will produce a biopic about him. And, actually, forget that George Clooney whispering. We hear that Johnny Depp is in talks to play the civil rights martyr. [Variety]

At Cannes, two George Clooney projects are all the buzz! Oooo! First his Men Who Stare at Goats (costarring Jeff Bridges, Ewan MacGregor, and Kevin Spacey) has been picked up by Overture. Clooney also inked a deal to star in the movie adaptation of Martin Booth's novel A Very Private Gentleman, about a quiet Englishman named Mr. Butterfly who lives in Italy and secretly makes weapons for assassins. So it's The Jackal meets Under the Tuscan Sun. Terrific. [Variety]

Finally, Lars von Trier is still an asshole. [THR]

Oops—we meant Life & Style magazine:

The duo were joined for dinner by a group that included director Ridley Scott, Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel and Brittany Flickinger, the winner of Paris' BFF reality show. [...]

But it wasn't the first time the heartthrob and the heiress had been out together. Life & Style has learned exclusively that the night before, George, 47, and Paris, 27, had a far more intimate meeting at the Whiskey Bar at the Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood.

Before losing our heads over this, we thought we should at least try to talk out what could possibly have led to this unholy intermingling of two of the world's most recognizable pop culture top- and bottom-feeders.

Possibility One: They Are Working on a Project Together
This seems to us the most likely scenario, and yet the imagination reels at what project would incorporate Clooney, Hilton, Marvel, Scott, and Paris's reality show-winning cohort. A Scott-helmed The Adventures of the Toxic Heiress and BFF Girl, "from the mind that brought you Leatherheads," seems to us rather far-fetched.

Possibility Two: The Two Met to Discuss Their Combine Efforts to Raise Afro-Asiatic Awareness
It's well known that both Clooney and Hilton have done much to use their celebrity to divert the world's attention to the horrors of Darfur—Clooney by touring the region and addressing the U.N. on what he saw, Hilton by distributing nutritious headshots to the starving Darfrican orphans who need them most. Their Whiskey Bar tete-a-tete, then, might have been a sharing of ideas on how best to get Hilton's stalled charity-mission reality show back into production, which brings us back to Possibility One.

Possibility Three: They Are Doing It
The possibility with the lowest odds, yet the gravest consequences, is that Clooney has finally opened his heart after ending his affair with an increasingly spotlight-hungry Sarah Larson, and has fallen under Hilton's spell.

Which brings us back to here.

• Paris gets cozy with George [lifeandstylemag.com]

First, DeGeneres pleaded with Pitt to give her some sort of idea how to lure the long-absent George Clooney onto her set, prompting Pitt to detail an unorthodox trap involving speedos, greased pecs, and peroxided hair. Then, the talk show host thanked Pitt for contributing "to Proposition 8" (actually, he contributed against it, but y'know, whatevs!), a good deed that Pitt attributed to shoring up his base "an issue of equality." Clip above.

• Ellen

• First Look: Clooney In Goats [thebadandugly.com]

While sunning himself on a chaise longue, the actor suddenly succumbed to a common moustache-newbie syndrome, in which the overstimulated follicles suddenly seize up—rendering the wearer physically immobile, yet in a tremendous amount of pain. Luckily, a team of cabana boys familiar with the condition arrived on the scene almost immediately, and went right about the process of massaging cocoa butter into Clooney's stiffened maw. Before long, the Clooney Smile™ had returned, and he soon went back to the business of committing dialogue to memory.

• George Clooney is a Shirtless Man Who Stares at Goats [Just Jared]

After the jump: Clooney gets air!

• George Clooney with porn stache playing basketball [ONTD]

Meanwhile, Tim Roth is hoping the grass — or at least the money — is greener at Fox, where he's aboard Brian Grazer's Lie to Me, about a FBI-recruited scientist "with the innate ability to read whether people are telling the truth":

Net has officially picked up a 13-episode order. Roth stars as Dr. Cal Lightman, a specialist who can read the human face, body and voice and determine, more accurately than any polygraph, whether the person in front of him is lying. [...]

Imagine TV and 20th Century Fox TV are behind the show, which is loosely based on the real-life exploits of psychologist Paul Ekman, who's considered an expert in the science of facial micro-expressions.

Brian Grazer said he's been fascinated by Ekman since reading about his work. Baum, meanwhile, had also been doing his own research about so-called human lie detectors.

That's... it? No chain-smoking, ad-selling prowess or terminally ill meth manufacturing? Where's the show? Still, we're optimists; here's hoping Roth falls on the right side of the crossover spectrum, more Alec Baldwin than Christian Slater, more Martin Sheen than James Woods. And that the door swings back the other way — may Roth, too, someday have the opportunity to reject his tired old terrain of "human lie detecting." Seriously, that shit will never beat James Spader.

• Clooney and 'ER' return? [Reuters]
• Fox Ready to 'Lie' With Tim Roth [Variety]

1. Lakeview Terrace — $15.6 million

Well, we nailed this one, finally locking down the complex Audience Demand Formula™ for Lakeview's known quantities: Samuel Jackson as a bad guy multiplied by interracial lust, raised to the negative power of Neil LaBute's post-Wicker Man directorial efforts, and that total divided by R-rated date-movie competition from Dane Cook. You try it!

2. Burn After Reading — $11.3 million

The Coens' latest dropped barely 40% in its second week, forcing hive-mind Clooney haters to spike their semi-annual "George can't open!" pieces for at least two years until he returns in the admittedly challenging Men Who Stare At Goats. At which time all bets are off, even ours.

3. My Best Friend's Girl — $8.3 million

Or about $5 million less than tracking indicated. Maybe Dane Cook was right — his vagina-like face doesn't sell tickets after all.

4. Igor — $8 million

All over America, families warmed to the story of a hunchback pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a second-rate bit of animation left to dangle in the marketplace by Harvey Weinstein to the tune of $3400 per screen.

5. Righteous Kill — $7.7 million.

Go ahead — insert your "De Niro and Pacino kept it up for a whole week" jokes here.

Boomp3.com

Never one to miss an opportunity to sing in public, superstar George Clooney picked up the nearest megaphone and began to croon the afternoon away. Clooney started off with a selection of songs made popular by his aunt, Rosemary Clooney, before transitioning into a jubilant medley of Rudy Valle and Frank Sinatra tunes. One female onlooker was quoted as saying that his appeal was due to the fact that "he's got the voice of the Velvet Fog, the charm of Dean Martin and the sex appeal of all three Jonas Brothers."

[Photo Credit: Flynet]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

· The Guardian uses the word "triumph" and gives it four stars out of five, calling it "a tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy that couldn't be in bigger contrast" to No Country for Old Men, but that the Coens film it most closely resembles is "the divorce-lawyer comedy Intolerable Cruelty." Everyone gets a chance to shine comically, but "Pitt, in fact, gets the best of the funny stuff, [though] has by some way the least screen time of all the principal cast." [The Guardian]

· Counterpoint! Variety hated it. Calling it a "dark goofball comedy about assorted doofuses in Washington, D.C.," Burn "tries to mate sex farce with a satire of a paranoid political thriller," with "with arch and ungainly results." Further, a "seriously talented cast" has been "asked to act like cartoon characters," with everything turned up to a "grotesquely exaggerated extent." [Variety]
· Yeesh. That last one didn't go so well. Let's go back to loving it again! The Times Online also gives it four stars. Noting it's the first Coen-penned screenplay since 2001's The Man Who Wasn’t There, they compare it to Raising Arizona and Fargo (yay!) in its "savagely comic taste for creative violence and a slightly mocking eye for detail." Carter Burwell’s score is a "brilliant...paranoid piece of film music," though if the movie lacks for anything, it's "warmth." [Times Online]