We've seen this sort of behavior before, most notably with people like Jude Law and Colin Farrell, guys who were made into leading men before they had time to prove that they had the chops for such a responsibility. Let lessons be learned from the past and let's put Butler on probation.

Why does this misbehaving star deserve to be grounded? Well, after some early success in a Tomb Raider movie and the title role in the abysmal film adaptation of Phantom of the Opera, Butler and his abs starred in the surprise hit 300, grossing half a billion worldwide and making a legion of fanboys, ladies, and gay men very happy in the process. Because of this crossover appeal, his handlers thought that he could simultaneously dabble in both action and romantic comedy. That could be true, but he hasn't bothered to be in a good movie since 300. Crappy movies are crappy in any genre.

With P.S. I Love You and The Ugly Truth, his rom-coms with Hilary Swank and Katherine Heigl respectively, were both box office flops and critical duds. Gamer, released last month to deafening silence, has barely made a mark and struggled to get past the $20 million mark. It has been a series of missteps for this Scotsman. Citizen, which costars Jamie Foxx, had a good showing at the box office, but critics lit into it, which means that it probably won't rally much more in coming weeks.

While not as bad as Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr or professional bad decision makers Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, Butler is headed down that path if we don't intervene. If he can't pull out a decent project or two then he will be banned from all movies, tabloids, red carpet affairs, awards ceremonies, and celebrity relationships. If he can stay out of the press for three years, he may be rewarded with the starring role on a CBS procedural. This is your punishment Butler, so you better shape up.

Next year's Jennifer Aniston comedy The Bounty could go either way. Aniston was in The Break Up, the best romantic comedy of the decade, but the quality probably had more to do with the writing and direction than her abilities. It better work out, because if not, Butler is well on his way to being an over-valued, over-paid star who can't open anything bigger than a cereal box. If it does, along with maybe a prestige picture or a great cameo in a smaller film, then we will reinstate him into our good grace. Until them, he's in a professional time out.

[Image via Getty]

His song "Every Girl" was an odd choice to close the show that was more of a tribute to Michael Jackson than an awards ceremony. Everyone had MJ on the brain, whether it was in their acceptance speeches or conveyed in their outfits. (Host Jamie Foxx wore a succession of Michael's most famous costumes.) Artists like Ne-Yo and Ciara sang Michael's songs, and Beyoncé performed "Ave Maria" and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" in memory of the King of Pop.

So it was weird that Lil Wayne—along with Drake and Young Money—didn't go the same route. However, it was more of an, "It's not right, but it's OK" kind of thing. Well, at least, it would've been, if he hadn't had a group of pre-teen girls dancing on stage. Take a look at the lyrics:

I like a long haired thick red bone
Open up her legs then filet Mignon that pussy
Ima get in and on that pussy
If she let me in Ima own that pussy
Gon' throw it back and bust it open like you posed' to
Girl I got that dope dick
Now come here let me dope you
You gon' be a dope fiend
Your friends should call you dopey
Tell em' keep my name out they mouth if they don't know me
Huh
But you can't call me tunecha
I'll fuck the whole group
Baby I'm a groupie
My sex game is stupid
My head is the dumbest
I promise
I should be hooked on phonics
haha

But anyway I think you're bionic
And I don't think you're beautiful
I think you're beyond it
And I just wanna get behind it
and watch you

(back it up and dump it back-
back it up and dump it back)

[CHORUS:]
Cause' we like her
And we like her too
And we like her
And we like her too
And we like her
And we like her too
And we like her
And she like us too

I wish I could fuck every girl in the world
I wish I could fuck every girl in the world
I wish I could fuck every girl in the world

[Drake:]
yea
alright
(ohh ohhh)
She be jumpin up and down
Tryna fit that ass in
Took her half an hour
Just to get that belt to fasten
All they want to talk about is partyin' and fashion
Every single night I have a dream that I am smashin
Them all
Young Money man this shit so timeless
And I'm in the mood to get faded so please bring your finest
And what are all your names again we drunk remind us
Are any y'all into girls like I am (lesbian)honest

She wants me she wants me
Cause' I got it all shawty tell me what you don't see
I will fuck with all y'all
All y'all are beautiful
I just cant pick one so you can never say I'm choosing hoes
And Wayne say pussy pussy pussy
And weed and alcohol seem to satisfy us all
Damn
And every time I think of staying with her
She bring that friend around that make a nigga reconsider man

CHORUS

[Jae Millz:]
I aint being disrespectful baby I'm just being Millz
And I don't know how fake feels so I gotta keep it real
I just wanna fuck every girl in the world
Every model every singer every actress every diva
Every high saddity chick every college girl every skeezer
Stripper and every desperate housewife that resemble eva
My role model was wilt
So married woman or milf
It don't matter who you is miss
You can get the business
Haaaa

[Gudda Gudda:]
These hoes is gods gift like Christmas
I like em caramel skin long hair thick ass
And I swear I'm feelin all y'all
I'm scrollin down my call log
And Ima call all y'all
My butter pecan Puerto Rican
She screamin out papi every time a nigga deep in
And I'm about to get my Bill Clinton on
And Hilary can Ride em' too boy I gets my pimpin on

[Mack Maine:]
And bitch Im Mack Maine -aine -aine -aine
Sanaa Lathan
Meagan Good
Angelina Jolie
Hah
D Woods
For free suites Id give Paris Hilton all-nighters
In about 3 years, holla at me Miley Cyrus
I don't discriminate, no not at all

The girls may have been family friends, or huge fans of his that he allowed on stage. I'm sure there was some kind of cognitive dissonance going on with that (there had to be!), but it was not exactly the best way to "celebrate" a man so closely associated with inappropriate relationships with children during the last two decades of his life.

But maybe Weezy was just robo tripping. That's his thing. It certainly seemed like that was the case at the opening of the show.

Oh, and what's up with Jamie Foxx hating Tyra? His looked like he wanted to puke when she hugged him.

More baffling was Tyra's weave/wig. It was waxy and weird and totally uncharacteristic of her. I think somebody needs a MAKEOVERRRRRRRRR!!!!

Beyoncé was working some different looks. She had Dynasty-sized shoulder pads:

And, mid-performance, changed into a bridal outfit:

It looked like one of those food protection tents:

While her performance was a tribute to MJ, her shoes were a tribute to Stevie Wonder's hair.

Best jewelry of the night goes to T-Pain.

Worst comeback of the night goes to all of New Edition, but specifically, Bah-bay:

It appears that the Daily Express heard from an "inside source" (who we suspect either doesn't exist or reads Gawker) that the Ray Oscar winner was in the running for the role, because of his innate abilities:

Magnificent singing voice, totally convincing acting ability, like Frank himself, born the wrong side of the tracks, rags to riches, makes it big against the odds, has his brushes with authority. The guy's a gift.

So giddy with this bizarre news were other tabloids that they ran with it, even though the whole thing is obviously bollocks. But try telling that to publications like the Telegraph, who heralded the "colour-blind casting" rumor with abandon, and to Brit-in-exile Tina Brown, whose Daily Beast website posted the news this morning.

But yeah, we bet you quid to quinces that someone's just having a laugh. Though who knows! I mean, guys, we have a black president. Anything can happen! Racially speaking!

The good people over at Vulture (butNikki Finke told us first!!!!) tell us that Universal wants to cast Johnny Depp, though Scorsese would rather go with his beautiful blonde boyfriend who he kisses all the time, Leonardo DiCaprio. If this is an origin story, though, then isn't Depp a little too old?

Meanwhile the Observer suggests four actors: James Franco, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Simon Baker, and Jon Hamm. Any of those could work, we guess, though probably the best course of action is to find some unknown, like from the world of theater or something. The actor doesn't have to sing—Universal got the song rights and will use the original tracks in the film—but he does have to look like he knows how to perform on a musical stage.

But, all things considered, we think it should go to the reigning king of music biopics. Jamie Foxx, whaddaya say?

Who do you think would be good?

1) Star Trek — $72.5 million
Yes, that intro was belabored. But Star Trek did do well, despite the wold's most important critic, me, finding it a bit underwhelming. While not matching or besting the awful Wolverine's numbers last weekend, Trek did manage to improve on its franchise's last best debut, First Contact's $30 million thirteen years ago, by more than double. Good work everyone! But mostly good work J.J. Abrams, who is basically made of gold at this point. People just love him. And people just love the movie. It got a rock solid A from CinemaScore, which ought to mean good word-of-mouth ticket sales in the weeks to come. Unlike...

2) Wolverine — $27 million
Nobody liked Wolverine. Not even Wolverine liked Wolverine. Jean Grey called it "middling" then enclosed herself in her mind bubble. Professor X awkwardly twiddled his thumbs and then slowly backed his magic wheelchair out of the room. Gambit explosively charged his cell phone and was all "Uh, I gotta get that..." and ran away. Jubilee didn't say anything because no one cares what Jubilee has to say. Cyclops chuckled softly to himself, his visor glowing the ruby red of satisfaction. Psylocke cut a hole in the wall with her telekinetic hand blade and slipped away into the night. And Beast quietly pooped in a corner, reading Chaucer. The movie dropped a steep 68% from last week, because nerds told other nerds who told sorta regular people who told the normals "wait for the DVD." This is bad news for everyone except for me, who is maliciously happy that Taylor Kitsch shan't be as big a star as some predicted.

3) Ghosts of Girlfriends Past — $10.4 million
Speaking of pooping in a corner, Matthew McConaughey's little ghostly romantic comedy about Jennifer Garner paying her Violet bills and Emma Stone trying to get famous and Michael Douglas doing a sad little softshoe while mumbling "see Kitty, I'm not old..." fared just aight in its second weekend. The Dudester can usually go bigger than this, but summer romantic counterprogramming really only works effectively when the lynchpin upon which the whole thing hinges hasn't been sun griddled down to a mostly useless mound of drawling tanned hide.

4) Obsessed — $6.6 million
Boncee, Boncee! She's still got it. Her thriller about killing white ladies while Stringer Bell watches, helplessly aroused, has thrown $56.2 million's worth of blonde bitches down the stairs in three weeks. Which is significant considering the movie only cost about $20 million to make. So expect Boncee to feature in some more thrillers, like The Hand that Rocks the Crib and a remake of A Stranger Among Us, about the Destiny's Child singer moving to Boca.

7) The Soloist — $3.6 million
Jamie Foxx sitting in a dark room, muttering to himself. Yes, that's the plot of the movie. But it's also what happened this weekend, when the actor wrote the AMC in Century City a check for $3.6 million, got some Butterfinger bites, and sat by his lonesome in the theater, trying to figure out what went wrong.

The music video they appear in is the Hype Williams-directed "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx, who is now firmly at the "Waiting for Tonight" phase of his Jennifer Lopez-emulating career (and now you know why he was so determined to appear on In Living Color). Sure, we can understand the cameos from Forest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson, and even the dapper Gyllenhaal. But Ron Howard, raising a glass of champers amidst video hos? Somewhere at Imagine, a jealous Brian Grazer is frantically dialing Lil' Wayne while assuring Howard, "No, it's OK. I got next." The clip is below.

• Jamie Foxx (Feat. T-Pain) - Blame It [World Star Hip-Hop]

Appearing this month on Big Boy's radio show, Foxx sought the opportunity to escalate a feud started by his former Ray costar, who had once critiqued Foxx's music career in the press (no doubt saying "Jamie, Jamie, you don't need to do this. You have an Oscar" like the rest of America). Claiming Howard played the same fey, quavery character in every movie, Foxx then launched into an extended impression of the actor that sadly culminated before he could reenact Howard's musical tribute to the colorblind love shown by Project Runway hostesses. Don Cheadle, we love you, but we're beginning our own fanboy campaign: Jamie Foxx as Terrence Howard as War Machine in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2! [Big Boy]

Sort of. After all, can DreamWorks or CAA ever really find consolation in a Tropic Thunder campaign pushing Downey as Best Supporting Actor? They'd better — neither Downey nor Foxx had a shot at Best Actor anyway with Sean Penn (Milk), Josh Brolin (W.), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) and Brad Pitt widely foreseen to hold down four of the five slots, and the latter star's Curious Case of Benjamin Button (not to mention, to a lesser degree, Downey's Iron Man performance) already drawing from Paramount's awards war chest.

DreamWorks insiders are still griping over some perceived revenge from Paramount, but even they'd acknowledge that The Soloist is better off with spring prestige all to itself. And that a nominated blackface performance is no doubt one of the least controversial ways to revive public interest in the Oscars. We're pulling for you, RDJ.

• 'Soloist' won't play holiday [Variety]

• 2008 Oscar race turned 'upside-down' [THR]

So who's in and who's out?

· The Soloist: OUT. The move to March 13 stings for everyone, especially with millions in marketing dollars already being spent ahead of the Jamie Foxx/Robert Downey Jr. drama's Nov. 21 release. Both men were on the bubble for actor nominations — Foxx as a schizophrenic cellist and RDJ as the journalist who chronicles his feel-good recovery journey — but Paramount's new conservatism (i.e. an intern hiding Brad Grey's checkbook) means it only has so many in-house resources to lend to its fall releases. The studio's semi-official insistence that the shifts have nothing to do with the film's quality or favoring its homegrown Benjamin Button and Scott Rudin/DreamWorks offering Revolutionary Road, but that's bullshit. It's not 2006 anymore; nobody can afford all this prestige at once.

· Defiance: IN. Barely. Paramount inherited the WWII-era Daniel Craig drama from its lopped-off Vantage arm; but unlike The Soloist, the studio didn't have it on its Oscar-season books until earlier this year. Pushed back from Dec. 12, it'll still get a qualifying run in New York and L.A. before opening wide on Jan. 16 — sort of an afterthought treatment that won't likely sit well with director/producer and biennial Oscar bridesmaid Ed Zwick, but hey: There's always the ShowEast Kodak Award. Congrats again, Ed!

And while we're at it, let's not forget the neglected Weinstein and MGM family:

· The Road: OUT. As noted yesterday, the Weinsteins took it back from MGM only to nudge it from Nov. 14 to an undisclosed release date in December. It's not finished, and the Weinsteins can't promote it; we foresee this one left wailing on someone's doorstep in a basket some time in mid-2009.

· The Reader: IN. It's apparently back on the Weinstein Web site, and Bob Weinstein thinks it's "terrific"! And now without Defiance to contend with, Harvey's Folly may actually have a shot at an audience on Dec. 12. Oscars, though? We're not so sure.

· Valkyrie: IN. Even the MGM Tower receptionist is pulling her weight on the campaign these days. If gold had a smell, Valkyrie would reek.

· Jamie Foxx and pap-busting Spartan Gerard Butler will star in Law Abiding Citizen, appropriately enough about a regular Joe who takes the law into his own hands. [THR]
· The newly sovereign, India-based DreamWorks has decided to put off its big Wall Street pitch until the market decides to crawl back out of Satan's anus. [THR]
· Mark Burnett will produce an updated version of This Is Your Life, except every week it's going to be Donald Trump's life we're reliving. (And he'll never fail to act surprised.) [TV Week]

· Hugh Hefner donates $2 million to USC Film School, part of which will be earmarked for an intramural search for the talent needed for his planned "Naughtiest Young Filmmakers In Southern California Colleges" issue of Playboy magazine. [Variety]
· The DGA may begin contract talks of its own with the AMPTP next month, leaving the Writers Guild to hope their colleagues don't set a bad pattern-bargaining precedent by accepting the first "you'll get .3% internet residuals and like it" proposal laid on the table. [THR]
· John C. Reilly as a vampire. Yeah, we could be into that. [Variety]

· Smelling Oscar, Jamie Foxx will star in DreamWorks' adaptation of the book The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness and Civil Rights, playing one of "trailblazing black detectives who set out to solve a series of racially motivated serial killings that rocked San Francisco in the fall and winter of 1973-74." It's a serial killer flick! It's a socially conscious civil rights tale! Academy voters are already fantasizing about checking off Foxx's name on their ballots. [Variety]
· The Red Sox's World Series-opening rout of the Rockies gives Fox nearly as big a Nieslen win over its network rivals. Also: Bionic Woman (see above for fun behind-the-scenes news!) dropped off 23 percent from its previous averages. [THR]
· Demonstrating that Hollywood Cares About The Wildfires, Disney kicks in $2 million in relief. [Variety]
· Michael Mann is making plans to butch up a gone-too-soft Robert De Niro. [Variety]

• Previously: Informal Polling Reveals Kanye West Outpacing 50 Cent In Local Sales Race [Defamer]

The place was packed and security was tight but it was worth it. I saw several Oscars floating around the party.

Leonardo DiCaprio made the rounds with Bar in tow. He donned his usual ball cap. He's a really gracious person. He recognized us and said hello. Just a brief encounter.

Martin Scorsese made a quick appearance.

Djimon Hounsou as sprawled out on a chair drinking a beer, meeting a girl.

Live action short film Oscar winner Ari Sandel celebrating the night away. I got to hold his Oscar (they really are heavy) while he was congratulated by Vince Vaughn. Ari directed Vince's comedy show documentary. Vince posed for photos with our group. He arrived at the party in the wee morning hours and stayed for a few hours. He spent most of the time chain smoking and talking to a buddy. He seemed to practically avoid women at the party.

I found my self sandwiched between Jamie Foxx and Forest Whitaker. I congratulated Mr. Whitaker and as humble as usual he turns my attention back to Foxx. Jamie introduced himself and we chatted briefly about Texas as we're both from the same area. Foxx was definitely on the prowl. He tried to chat up my Paris Hilton-look-alike friend but she was having none of that.

As we make our way back to the shuttles we saw Forest again. His crew was loaded into a shuttle with Carmen Electra and friend.

The rag mags' favorite party crew was there too: Nicole Richie lounging and snuggling with her boy (Joel right?). She was drinking and having a good time. She even chowed down a plate from the buffet with Mischa Barton. Paris Hilton was looking very out of it, talking on her cell. We talked to her a bit. (One of the girls in our group looks like her twin.) Later saw her arguing with Stavros. He looked like he was "over" her. He kept trying to walk away and she kept pulling him in. There was an obvious disagreement. It ended with Paris running into the bathroom. Nicky Hilton was around too. She was hanging with some guy, looked like a boyfriend.

Lindsay Lohan was looking sober and chatting to a male friend. She wasn't the crazy party girl I've read about.

Other sightings ...

Jessica Biel still in her Oscar attire. No sign of Justin in sight.
Kirsten Dunst looking a bit out of it.
Reggie Miller looking - well — tall.
Cameron Diaz. I didn't see her talk to anyone significant.
Rosario Dawson in a long white coat.
Amy Smart
Naomi Campbell was there. She looked amazing, as a model should. Hung out with some girlfriends. Didn't seem to be with a guy.
Stacy Keibler and boyfriend. They danced the night away. She was *super* social. Seemed to talk to everyone.
X men guy ... James Marsden partied to the wee hours. He's single and was lookin'.
Adam Brody looking dapper in a 3-piece suit.
Scott Speedman (I noticed him because I just think he so cute. No one in my group knew who he was.)

People that made me think hmmm ...

Dog the Bounty Hunter was there.
Courtney Love (she looks like she looks in every picture I've seen of her. A mess. Her boobs were falling out of her dress - no surprise there.)

The music world represented ... besides Courtney:

James Blunt and girlfriend (what's her name? She was stunning looking.)
Jon Bon Jovi - he was very nice.
Kid Rock - I don't know who he is with but that woman had some BIG teased-out hair. They kept to themselves.
Danced to the tunes of DJ AM but no signs of Mandy Moore. If she was there I didn't notice. (By the way, he's dance mix lived up to the hype.)

• Complete Oscars Coverage [Defamer]

It's too bad that Foxx the comedian can't watch Foxx the singer because he would be able to garner some amusing material. His stand-up segment is almost entirely focused on celebrity foibles, skewering such figures as Michael Richards, O.J., Oprah, Prince and Britney — the latter in a truly hilarious bit in which he does a physical imitation of her private parts or, as he calls it, her "cootenanny."

But his comic irony seemed to desert him in the concert segment, when he dons a white suit and shades and becomes the prototypical R&B wooer. "Fellas, you could stick around if you want to, but this is for the ladies," he accurately informed us. A photo montage detailed his accomplishments, including his many magazine covers.

Sporting a voice with a fair amount of range and a more than decent falsetto, he proceeded to deliver such hits as "Three Letter Word" (you can probably guess what it is), "Storm (Forcass)," Love Changes" and "DJ Play a Love Song." These were accompanied by gimmicky bits of staging, including one of the dancers writhing suggestively on a couch, another doing a pole dance and, for "Get This Money," fake bills showering on the crowd. [...]

The schizophrenic nature of the show, while it admittedly succeeded in spotlighting his considerable range of talents, ultimately proved too disconcerting to be successful.

We're sure that Foxx will quickly internalize the note on the "schizophrenic nature of the show" and make immediate improvements for future performances, perhaps by condensing its comedy and musical portions into a single act in which he offers his hilarious impression of Britney Spear's vagina entirely in song, showering his fans in that fake money just to remind them that even though he's altering things slightly in the name of coherence, he's still committed to keeping things classy.

• Jamie Foxx mixes comedy, music on tour [THR/Reuters via TVGasm]

· Pictured: At this morning's Oscar nominations announcement, Salma Hayek is thrilled to learn that Academy president Sid Ganis was just kidding when he told her that part of her duty as co-presenter was to give him a topless hot-oil massage at the conclusion of the press conference.
· While everyone's in an uproar over the Dakota Fanning rape movie at Sundance, no one's said anything about the one where Fanning rapes Rainn Wilson, a truly disturbing double-standard.
· Anna Nicole Smith is exactly as literate as you'd suspected.
· Jamie Foxx is exactly as classy as you'd suspected.
· It might be time for DreamWorks to cut down on that Dreamgirls For Your Consideration budget.
· Quickly, before he takes the podium: Here's your State of the Union drinking game.

[Photo: Getty Images]

It was me and about 1,000 of Hollywood's finest D-bags at the Miami Vice premiere last night.

Some observations:

—The roughly 25% of the audience bedecked in their coolest 1980s white suits, neon shirts, fedoras and chest hair all hoping to savor somethrowback action South Florida buddy-cop action. The letdown was intense when it was clear after about 1 hour and 58 minutes into the two hour flick that this was a serious (and seriously depressing) Colombian-Haitian-Feds vs. local cops—border/culture-bending lovemaking-graphically violent effort of auteur filmmaking, and not a Starksy and Hutchesque joke-a-minute-when-we're-not-banging- Miami-Beach-club- skanks-and-playfully-arresting-pimps-and cigar rollers-kind of movie.
Not one piece of stray neon, hair product or goofy Don-Johnson replica smile made it into the movie.

—Eager fauxtuer Brett Ratner standing by the sink in the men's room waiting for his +1 to finish up at the urinal. The +1 was old and stooped and a guy, but it wasnt Robert [Evans.]

— Batshit-crazy Michelle Rodriguez looking extremely hot heading for the men's room before realizing the line of 10 dudes out the door meant it was probably the wrong place for her. She was probably hammered.

— Shaq standing tall and looking sharp. To any person of color who greeted him, a hearty fist bump, smile and quasi hug/chest bump in the finest hip-hop fashion.
To any douchebag white hollywood type attempting to connect on the "I feel you man, I'm a baller too, on weekends at Spectrum or SportsClubLA AND I watch the conference finals on my 95" flat screen AND know how it feels when you're grinding it out on the court because I watch you at Staples: No smile; no hug; no chest bump. But a quick flick of the eyes and a halfhearted fist bump (points to Shaq for not completely ignoring them with the luxury afforded to anyone who's 7-feet tall).

—Emmanuelle Chriqui from Entourage....smoking hot.

—After-party was on the uneven surface of a neighboring parking lot in Westwood (always seemed like you were walking up or down an asphalt slope). "Party under the stars"="Party in a parking lot next to Dede Reese in Westwood Village". Plenty of food and drink (Mojitos for everyone!). Only major misstep were the dozen or so dancers who were dressed in shimmering metallic miniskirts and tops and goofy looking masks. They were a cross between the Gimp in Pulp Fiction and Catwoman if she was white and wearing silver.

Other sightings: Josh Duhamel, Colin Farrell ducking into the after-party, Jamie Foxx holding court at the party and a few others who I'm sure will be dutifully reported by other secret correspondents.