There is a 3 minute sex scene set to Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' during the climax of Warner Bro's The Watchmen. Warner Bros. has just announced that they've reach their own climax: the 1 Billion dollar mark in domestic grosses this year. Movies like 17 Again, Friday the 13th, Gran Torino, The Hangover, He's Just Not That Into You and Watchmen and uh, some wizard movie have added to the cash orgy. [ Variety ]

NBC Universal lost 41% in profits last quarter. Execs claim the brutal economic downturn has slashed advertising. Three months ago, in the previous round of earnings, some execs said they thought the ad market had hit bottom. Industrytes point to the a certain lanky, ginger-haired late night host for their reduction in eyeballs and therefore ad revenue. The worst may not be over, yet guys! [ Variety ]

Trucks that do things! Humans that love them! Aliens who fear them! Coming up next in your dreary Hollywood adaptation: Voltron. [THR]

Twilight news that doesn't involve the dreamy undead! Billion-Dollar-Having Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way are moving ahead on a Twilight Zone movie, hiring Rand Ravich to pen a script based on the iconic Twilight Zone TV series. [ Variety ]

Silky-voiced actor Morgan Freeman is "in talks" alongside shiny-headed Bruce Willis to star in Summit Entertainment's espionage thriller "Red," based on the WildStorm/DC Comic. [Variety]

Alert your fellow book club members! Tell your spiritually starved mother! Alert your knitting circle! Casting for the movie adaptation of Eat, Pray, Love is almost complete. So far we have Julia Roberts, Viola Davis, and Richard Jenkins. [ THR ]

Reports The Envelope:

After a call to police last night from her home, she's been placed under an involuntary psychiatric hold (also known as a 5150) by the Los Angeles Police Department and is currently at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, reports Access Hollywood.

Barton was put under Section 5150 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code by police and transported to Cedars-Sinai. This code gives authorities the power to hold a person if he or she is gravely disabled or suffers from a mental disorder.

The Homecoming, the trailer to which she posted to her blog recently, was supposed to be her big comeback. So much for that.

Mischa Barton Pulls a Britney, Is Placed in Involuntary Psychiatric Hold [The Envelope]

"She was so freaked out, her eyes welled up, and she actually bit her nails at one point," says the spy. "When someone pretended to dump Estelle Getty's ashes on [30 Rock star] Jack McBrayer's head, Brooke got up and walked offstage."

"She watched the rest of the show from behind a curtain backstage, with a grimace."

Shields' spokesman said she left to talk to the writers before she was about to go on.

Content that her concerns were heard, Shields returned to the panel, only to once again storm off when a simple improv exercise solicited the suggestion of, "You're a frequent narrator! And you're in a 1997 Nissan Maxima!"

• Brooke Shields balks at 'dead' gag [NY Daily News]

Strange how many Billy Bob Thornton co-stars have died prematurely (Ritter, Bernie Mac, J.T. Walsh, Heath Ledger). Thank goodness Morgan Freeman (Levity) and Shia (Eagle Eye) survived their crashes and Patrick Swayze (Waking Up in Reno) is coming back from cancer or we'd be talking about the Billy Bob Curse. Not trying to make light, just think it's eerie.

And don't forget Jim Varney, whose final role before dying at 50 was Thornton's film Daddy and Them. Eerie, indeed — and we're not afraid to call it the curse that it is. So please see above for Defamer's unsettling reference to doomed and/or endangered Thornton castmates. And be careful, Hollywood!

• Bernie's Out [Hollywood Elsewhere]

"[They] are involved in a divorce action,” the actor’s Mississippi-based attorney and business partner Bill Luckett told Access Hollywood.

“And for legal and practical purposes, [Freeman and Colley-Lee] have been separated since December of 2007.”

That's an eight month severance—plenty of time for the actor to pursue a 2 Fast 2 Freeman lifestyle with a far more compliant mistress in a tricked-out '97 Nissan with gull-wing doors and a rear-spoiler the size of a humpback whale's tail. We imagine it's only a matter of time before he's pried out from the twisted wreckage of his marriage with the Jaws of Alimony.

• Morgan Freeman & Wife Divorcing After 24 Years Of Marriage [Access Hollywood]

As for the cause of the accident, officials have concluded that Freeman was completely sober at the time. Bill Rogers, a retired cop at the scene, told the AP that the roads were slick from a recent rainstorm, and that Freeman mentioned that "he may have gone to sleep but he wasn't sure.'' There's another likely factor, however: That Freeman—an unabashed speed freak—was gunning it when the car careened off the road and flipped twice before landing in a ditch. Consider this 2004 interview with Indy500.com, the year he was invited to drive the Indy 500 pace car:

Q: Morgan, you said a while ago that speed comes to you like a duck, or you do drive fast. What kind of cars do you own and what's the fastest you have driven competition-wise or anything else?

FREEMAN: OK. I have a Toyota Tundra six-cylinder truck, I have a GMC Denali eight-cylinder SUV, I have a duallie Chevrolet Silverado, and I have a BMW 745 that will actually do 160. Ask me how I know. (Laughter)

Q: How do you know?

FREEMAN: Been there. (Laughter)

And sure enough, another report has eyewitness Rogers recalling that Freeman kept repeating the same questions when reached by rescuers: "'Was I speeding, can I lay on the ground? Is everybody okay?'" Hey—if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and drives like a duck, it's safe to say it probably has a leadflipper.

[Thanks to Gridskipper's Hunter Walker for the tip.]

• Morgan Freeman Press Conference Transcript (May 28) [Indy500.com] via Hunter Walker]
• Freeman recovering after surgery [BBC]
• Freeman still in serious condition after car crash [Southern Ledger]

Academy Award winning actor Morgan Freeman was involved in a serious car accident Sunday night in north Mississippi.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesperson Ben Williams said Freeman and a female passenger were traveling eastbound on Mississippi Highway 32 in Tallahatchie County when his vehicle went off the edge of the road. Freeman overcorrected, flipping his 1997 Nissan Maxima several times before coming to a rest.

Emergency crews extracted Freeman and his passenger from their vehicle using the jaws of life. According to Williams, they were both airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, where Freeman was listed in serious condition Monday morning.

The condition of Freeman's passenger has not been released.

Yes, a 1997 Nissan Maxima—a car very unbefitting God. Now that that's been addressed, you don't have to. On to the next topic: What is up with The Dark Knight curse? This is scaring the crap out of us. Developing...

• Actor Morgan Freeman hospitalized at The MED after serious car accident [wmctv.com]

Follow the jump for their respective two cents — mostly spoiler-free for even the most casual followers of the film, and naturally among the finest criticism available anywhere online.

STV: We should probably go into this acknowledging that the film is review-proof and completely saturated with things too interesting to spoil.
STV: That said, I just thought it was pretty good.
SA: I thought it was excellent!
STV: Yeah, yeah, fine. It's fitfully brilliant, but so heavy-handed. Did I miss something?
SA: Nope. This was the summer 2008 superhero movie for people who enjoy feeling awful, and thinking about feeling awful, and expressing what makes feeling awful so gosh darn wonderful.
STV: Iron Man this is not.
SA: It's misanthropy porn. It's also the bluest superhero movie I've ever seen, in every sense of the word.
STV: Right. From the start, too — those billowing blue flames, the Hong Kong horizons, Gotham at night.
STV: And yeah, everyone's depressed as hell.
SA: But that said, I don't think a single scene passed by that I didnt feel worked. And it was a long movie.
STV: What about the story? I was lost.
SA: The story was fine. Corrupt city government. Crime infested streets.
SA: It was sort of The Departed with bat-gadgets.
STV: But the Joker shows up wanting a piece of Teflon goombah Eric Roberts, the Russians, the blacks, and a Hong Kong money-laundering syndicate.
SA: Its the Mafia Olympics!
STV: Even if Gotham City is totally corrupt, it's the most equal-opportunity corruption in history, which I guess should be commended.
SA: Speaking of the Joker, what did you think of Heath?
STV: Heath was annoying.
STV: It's not his fault. Nolan couldn't rein him in.
SA: I was prepared for him to be annoying, but I actually really enjoyed him.
SA: I mean, its The Joker! This isn't a portrait in subtlety. You want hyena cackles!
STV: But look — and this is my problem with the whole movie: The audience is overwhelmed with moralizing.
SA: Yes, I'll agree it got bogged down in speechifying.
STV: The Joker is the default "Man, this world is fucked" mouthpiece, but his actions — just his very look — defy the monologues, the hamminess.
STV: He needs an origin story like the Burton Joker, right? Who the hell is this guy?
SA: Yeah — their not committing to his backstory was a strong choice, but I'm not sure it really helped them.
SA: But I think they were trying to say, "What does it matter where he came from?" Like, what does it matter where any psychopath comes from? He's chaos. But then you have no psychological in, so he's less interesting.
STV: Alfred the Butler touches on it: "Some people just want to watch the world burn."
SA: Yeah, but that doesn't satisfy dramatically.
STV: Even that was kind of overbearing.
SA: Nolan was reaching high with this. He obviously wanted the monologues.
STV: He's a great director, though, right? I mean, this film looks, feels, sounds amazing.
SA: That's why your quibbles don't bother me. This is his ride, and it's spectacular, and if he wants his speeches about human nature, I'll listen to them.
SA: He chose great actors to deliver them.
STV: But he's so much better at subterranean truck chases and high-altitude kidnappings. I want overturned big rigs!
SA: Well, luckily there's tons of those. And 180-degree, wall-flipping Bad Pods.
STV: And the Bat-Blobile. What was that? The Batmobile was a hulking blob of scrap on wheels.
SA: It was batass.
STV: OK, give me one-line summaries of the following actors' performances: Christian Bale.
SA: Obscene caller voice.
STV: Aaron Eckhart.
SA: Boringly delicious!
STV: Maggie Gyllenhaal.
SA: Made the most of the whiny token female.
STV: Michael Caine.
SA: Should have let him out of the fluorescent Batchamber more.
STV: He's basically a cockney Jiminy Cricket serving breakfast. How about Morgan Freeman?
SA: If God and Q had a kid.
STV: Gary Oldman.
SA: He gets swallowed up in it. He's one of the best actors ever.
STV: I think he's the best thing about it.
SA: Is he?
STV: He's a guy pulled 15 different ways, very flawed, vulnerable, and at his best when things are out of his control. He gets to work when shit hits the fan, while everyone else just sort of... talks.
SA: What did you think of Batman's voice?
STV: I didn't quite get it.
SA: Me neither. It was silly.
STV: He never closes his mouth when he talks, either! It lets all the air out of the big, portentous balloon.
STV: Is Heath Oscar-worthy?
SA: He'll definitely get a nomination.
SA: I sort of think the movie itself deserves a Best Picture nomination. It's just so ambitious and epic and so expensive-looking.
STV: This movie is going to make a fortune, right? I'm calling $140 million for the weekend plus $2 billion in damage caused by rioting fans worldwide.
STV: And I am a believer in IMAX.
SA: Oh, definitely. Those scenes were so cool.
STV: Bad format for preachy screenwriter moralizing, excellent format for hospital implosions and 10-minute chase sequences.
SA: OMG — that hospital. Yeah, I really loved this movie.
STV: It's not bad. I'll stick with Iron Man.
SA: Iron Man was fun; this was a nice compliment.
STV: The Dark Knight: Nihilism for the whole family.

While in New York, the Cruises had dinner with Jessica Seinfeld, possibly to discuss kid stuff (the third Seinfeld spawn is just about the same age as Suri). And though Katie's offer to star in a Broadway play this fall has allegedly been vetoed by Tom, she was at least allowed to accompany him to the Frances McDormand and Morgan Freeman-starring Country Girl. And as the photos above show, Suri is beginning to resemble Katie more and more with every passing month. Which has us thinking, maybe it's time to put those Rosemary's Baby rumors to rest.

[Photo credits: Splash, Vanity Fair]

• HAVE BABY, WILL TRAVEL: TOM AND KATIE TAKE SURI ON A MANHATTAN MINIBREAK [Daily Mail]

boomp3.com

The extremely well respected actor told reporters last night that while he may often play God in the movies, he does not actually have a God complex. While he does appreciate people coming up to him on the street and talking about prior work, it's just that he doesn't have all the solutions or answers to your problem. Freeman said that there's only so much he can do. He also appreciates it if people quit asking him to be their outgoing voice mail message.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

While the cast of Crash accepted their award for Best Cast Motion Picture, Ryan Phillippe makes his way over to presenter Morgan Freeman. As soon as Don Cheadle finishes the acceptance speech and the cast is dispersing, you can hear Ryan say to Morgan through the open microphone:

"I've always wanted to meet you...you just met Reese, my wife...I just finished a film with Clint Eastwood, he loved you a lot."

You have to admire the stunning efficiency of Phillippe's ass-kissing. Even tangled in the chaos of an entire ensemble cast accepting its award, he still managed to single out Freeman, and in two, brief sentences, establish that he's married to and has been directed by future and past Oscar-winners, then escape before his hero even knew that his hindquarters were being so publicly pampered.

[Photo: Getty Images]

• Ryan Hearts Morgan [Would You Blog Me]