• Only one man in Hollywood would dare step on the toes of Steven Spielberg in the venerable American historical Ken Burnsy territory and that man is Robert Redford, who set into motion his own Abraham Lincoln bio-pic, competing with the Jurassic Park helmer's long announced, long gestating Lincoln film. [Variety]

• Fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut was the big news in Toronto last night. His film A Single Man received generally favorable reviews, with Hitfix calling it a near home run. [Hitfix]

• The LA Times reports that Carl Icahn's shareholder agitation against Lion's Gate appears to have been quieted by the company's rising share price. With the company's board meeting scheduled for today, Icahn seems not to have followed through with his threat to nominate a competing slate of directors. [LA Times]

• Helen Hunt will take the lead of Parenthood, a sitcom based on Ron Howard's 1989 film. Maura Tierney had played the role in the pilot but pulled out due to breast cancer treatments. [Hollywood Reporter]

• One more thing that hasn't changed about the new Jay Leno — his role as punching bag for America's critics. [The Wrap]

• Betty White will receive the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award when at the Guild's big trophy show in January. [The Wrap]

"No," Redford replied sharply when asked if he might consider a role working with the incoming president, who is said to be mulling the introduction of a "culture czar" in Washington. It's nothing personal — the man does have other things to do, and there is some lingering bitterness over his last trip to the nation's capital.

"I went do DC this year with John Legend and Kerry Washington to lobby for more money from the NEA for art," he said. "And what was weird was you go through this kind of a charade where everyone's so glad you're there — 'Thank you for coming,' and so forth. And then you go through this heartfelt session about how important it is and yada yada yada. And at the end they say, 'We're so happy you came. It makes us so happy that you care so much, but we can't help you. We've ran out of money.' And we said, 'Well, you could have told us that up front and saved us a trip.' "

But don't get him started. Really. "Nerves," he shouted last night, prefacing his introduction ofMary and Max. "Angst. Worry. Pain. Panic. Fear. I'm not talking about the festival, although I thought you might think I was. I'm talking about what's going to be exiting the national stage on Tuesday."

No worries, Bob — Spike Lee is here, chomping at the bit! Pass the invitation along if/when you ever receive it.

"If you have questions, don't ask them," Redford joked, joining fest director Geoff Gilmore for his opening-day welcome. It wasn't much different than last year's or the previous decade's for that matter, Redford's rambling, optimistic oratory only mildly complicated by a Sundance marketplace that contracted by two-thirds between 2007 and 2008.

"For us it's always been a long term view, starting with the fact: Would we survive?" he said, reflecting on Sundance's 25th anniversary, the date of which he acknowledged he couldn't even remember. "Frankly, I didn't know if we would. It was a risk. It was a new idea. Independent film was pretty much exclusively in the hands of the National Endowment of the Arts in the '80s. ... I saw it as a category that we might feed and expand into something with more mass appeal — as an adjunct to what the film business was at that time, which was called just strictly mainstream. On a personal note, I liked the idea of independence."

Moreover, Redford liked the idea of having a launching pad for the work coming out of the margins of the Sundance Institute labs. It was the canny branding trick that captivated the mainstream as much as Soderbergh, Tarantino or anyone else who broke out of Park City. And with the mainstream attraction came the "ambush marketers," Redford complained today, happy to see their own numbers narrow with the recession. "I always believed they would exhaust themselves, and that's beginning to happen. The swag bags had nothing to do with us. And now that's starting to recede."

But is that coveted mainstream — of which Sundance is now the begrudging flagship — a casualty of itself? Too many films, not enough outlets? An imbalance between art and commerce? "It's an interesting question," Gilmore said, "We walk lines, but we haven't changed our agenda. My [colleagues] are always debating what's commercial. The most frustrating thing that happens at Sundance from year to year is that someone tells you how wonderful a film is, but they can't take it out into the marketplace. And what we want to make sure is that the wonderful films that are at Sundance get taken out into that marketplace."

Redford also addressed speculation that Sundance might accept Abu Dhabi's invitation — and money — to launch an extension of the festival there. After noting that the Institute had cultivated work from the Middle East for years and now wanted to extend its mission, Redford waxed skeptical. "When you have too many cooks in the kitchen you're going to slow down the parade," he said, noting that he wanted the annex but hadn't advanced beyond informal discussions. "Right now we have too many cooks in the kitchen. Whether it'll resolve itself or not I can't say." If ever it were to be said, however, this would be the week to do it. Developing....

· While the festival itself is as cutthroat as it's ever been — this year admitting only 32 American films to competition out of 1,900 submitted — founder Robert Redford acknowledged to THR that he can foresee a day when Sundance runs its swag-choked, over-hyped, deflated-market course: "[W]hen we're no longer providing the mission we started with — not creating something new for audiences, not creating opportunities for new artists to have a place to come and develop — then we shouldn't be here, and we won't."

· And if/when the sponsorship pool recedes to near-wading levels, symptoms of which are apparent this year after festival partners Volkswagen and Adobe have backed out and party budgets have been slashed by millions of dollars? "What might be a positive is that if there is less hoo-ha," Redford says."Less of a circus atmosphere." Meh. "Get off my lawn" sounds so much better coming out of Clint Eastwood's mouth.

· Worst-case scenario, we can export Sundance to Abu Dhabi, where investors are in talks to introduce their own version of the fest — surely at an 600,000 square-foot indoor mall inside which Park City's Main Street will be rebuilt, five feet of man-made snow will line the street, and puddles of fake vomit will greet filmgoers exiting midnight screenings at the Egyptian.

· Again, 1,900 filmmakers vied for spots in this year's American competition. Less than 2 percent of them received this phone call from Sundance programming chief John Cooper. Show-offs. [via /film]

The boycott talk is coming from outside the industry, not inside. So far, calls for a boycott are mainly coming from bloggers, not influential directors, producers, and actors. We don't see that changing, unless the cash-poor Harvey Weinstein decides to make a dramatic nonattendance statement as a way to save face (and plane airfare).

A boycott big enough to matter is unlikely. The young filmmakers accepted into the festival would crawl over their own mothers to be there, and the Sundance hangers-on like Paris Hilton have never been bastions of activism. Without enough straight allies who could bear to part with their tickets to Park City, there's no chance to make a big dent, because...

The gay presence at Sundance has waned. Back before your associate editor took up blogging and adopted the royal "we" at Defamer, I held a regular gig as The Advocate's film critic and attended several Sundances working the gay beat (not as hustler-ish as it sounds!). Though the film festival has a deservedly gay-friendly rep, it's gone through some pretty sparse queer years as of late. At the 2007 festival, the gay slate had so little on it that the centerpiece was a Chad Allen movie. If Sundance was boycotted by gay filmmakers and queer-themed films, the lineup wouldn't change that much.

We're all about new and novel ways to protest (what's this we keep hearing about "A Day Without a Gay"?), but the Sundance idea seems DOA to us, especially when everybody's already got their plane tickets set for January. Next year might be a different story — there'll be a lot more lead time — but let's hope there won't be reason to protest then, OK?

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Gay Activists vs. Utah and Sundance [Variety]

He was 76 when I worked with him on Road to Perdition. Conrad Hall was the cinematographer. He was about Paul’s age, maybe slightly younger, and he’d also shot Harper, Cool Hand Luke, and Butch Cassidy, so he had seen Paul from the age of 40, and there they were in their seventies, still shooting together. It was very moving. At one point he was shooting a close-up of Paul looking into a fire, and I turned round and Conrad was crying as he lit the shot.

I asked him what was the matter, and he just said, “He was so beautiful.” And I said, “Well, he’s beautiful now!” And he said, “Yeah, but he was so beautiful.” I think he was crying for both of them. But whereas Conrad, you see, was sort of not at peace with the idea of death and growing older, Paul said several times, “Yeah, I’ve had some great innings, it’s about time I give all this up. It’s all a bit silly.” There was this real sense of grace and dignity. He had nothing left to prove. He knew what a fortunate and wonderful life he had led, and he was very willing to admit that. That really lent him an aura of a minor deity to me. He had sort of ascended already.

That's just the first segment; there's much more where it came from. And while our job is to perhaps summarize this in some pithy, innocuous way, some stories really just demand telling themselves. So bravo, Mr. Mendes, and for what will in all likelihood be the last time, RIP, Mr. Newman. That is all.

• Sam Mendes Tells His Best Paul Newman Stories [Source]

That development would help neutralize what's arguably Cablevision's biggest paradox here: How to create coexistence between Sundance and its current indie-film channel IFC. Sundance currently reaches about 30 million homes, having balanced out uncut broadcasts of its namesake festival's selections with more original programming over the last three years. It stops short of airing commercials, though, which Cablevision will seek to integrate in a fashion similar to its canny evolution of AMC from vintage movie dump to contemporary outlet for mainstream films and original series like Mad Men.

A commercialized Sundance Channel would also entitle IFC the latitude to pursue its precious mission — "independent film, unedited and commercially uninterrupted 24 hours a day" — with fewer of the tacky on-air branding and sponsorship credits it endures now. (Not that it'd give up all of that easy revenue, but still.) To that end, Sundance last week presented its first upfronts to advertisers, led by Redford himself. Assuming you haven't changed the channel, expect to see the results between Iconoclasts and The Green segments some time this fall.

• Sundance Is Sold to Cablevision for $496 Million [TV Decoder]

In today's episode: Jason Lee, Giovanni Ribisi, Nate Corddry, BJ Novak, and Rainn Wilson; Hilary Swank; Eddie Murphy, Jessica Alba and Dane Cook; Kiefer Sutherland; Diane Keaton and Ron Popeil; Frances McDormand; Jeanne Tripplehorn; David and Victoria Beckham; Sharon Stone; Donald Faison; Kevin Bacon; Kim Basinger and Slash; Donald Sutherland; Billy Crystal; Keith Urban; Adam Goldberg; Will Arnett; Michael Cera; Christina Ricci; Tim Meadows; Seal and Heidi Klum; Andy Dick; Laura Prepon; Mark McGrath and Bonnie Franklin. In China: Josh Hartnett.

· I'm probably not the first to write in about the arcade fire show at the hollywood bowl on 9/20, but we seemed to be sitting in the special nbc section. giovanni ribisi and jason lee were sitting together nearby, giovanni looking trim and tiny, jason lee rocking the earl mustache. they were smiling a lot and seemed to be there with their ladies. spotted nate corddry of the late, not-too-much-lamented "studio 60" sitting close to bj novak from "the office." bj had a beard and wore a hoodie and seemed to be trying hard not to be recognized, leaving before the show was over with the lights still down. that was a huge contrast to rainn wilson, sitting a few rows behind us, who seemed to be hanging with friends but chatted with every well-wisher who came by to tell him how much they love dwight schrute. he stayed til the end and sang along with every song. as far as we could tell, dwight and ryan the temp did not make contact with each other...

·Arcade Fire at the Hollywood Bowl, 9/20- Rainn Wilson in the box seats. He wouldn't take a picture, but he let a friend and me talk to him for about five minutes. Was wearing a jacket from his new movie "The Rocker." He then proceeded to stand up and rock out during most of the show. Very nice man.

· Just saw Hilary Swank and her CAA boyfriend (I don't know agents & too lazy to research...it's like John Parcheezi or something, right?) enjoying Saturday morning (9/22) brunch at Patrick's Roadhouse in SM. I can report exclusively that she looked very petite and feminine in a royal blue track suit and long hair pulled back for a Sat morning. Really cute, actually.

· Wednesday September 19th, around 10PM.
I saw Eddie Murphy at the "Good Luck Chuck" premiere party at Napa Valley Grille. He was a late joiner to the party—his reserved sign looked different. Anyway, he showed up with 2 guys and 2 pretty young things, all dapperly dressed. Apparently he refused to use the guest bathroom, and instead was escorted to the employee bathroom to do his bizness.
Jessica Alba (looking reaaaaal skinny, with a big ole entourage) and Dane Cook were both there, nice enough, surrounded by hanger ons.
That's all.
Hope that helps.

· Walked into Mr. B in Burbank, escaping a torrential downpour in Burbank, Saturday the 22nd. The bar seats were full of regulars, but I saw a slight, darkly dressed man in a corner booth, on my way to the restroom.

I came back to the table my boyfriend had selected and he said '9 o'clock' ( the corner booth). It was Kiefer Sutherland with a Coke in a bucket and a shot of something brown, intently text messaging on his cell phone. He looked trim and quite handsome.

The regulars were all quite aware of him. One asked for an autograph, which he graciously penned. Another asked for a cell phone pic; again, he obliged. And another offered to buy him a drink, but he kindly explained to the bartender that he was just stopping by for one on his way home from work.

On his way out, he shook many hands. Seemed like he was quite familiar with the place. Did I mention that he looked trim and quite handsome in all black with a trench/raincoat?

· My friend and I decided to take a long lunch in Beverly Hills today and drink some wine on company time. While I also saw an actual celebrity, Diane Keaton (wearing the bowler hat she has on every time I see a picture of her) the real treat of the afternoon was spotting the king of the infomercial. Looking about as I remember, but maybe a little older, was the inventor of the veg-o-matic, the solid flavor injector, the spray paint toupee, and many other modern marvels, Ron Popeil! I know I should be ashamed, but I haven't been so excited in quite some time.

· On Friday I was at Sharkey's on Beverly Blvd (Beverly Hills). I was chatting away with my friend when all of a sudden, right next to me was Frances McDormand. Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with the cutest little girl, she is the coolest and was smiling and super friendly to everyone.

· wednesday 9/19: strolled into the newly remodeled joans on third, i
see jeanne tripplehorn — eldest and most wrinkliest of the "big love" sister-wives. she was eating with a man and a young boy and, thankfully, bill paxton's naked posterior was not present.

thursday 9/20: pretty late into our meal at neal fraser's restaurant
grace, around 9:15, the door opens and a silence falls over the room
as victoria beckham enters wearing a very tight, very short black dress. she sits down in the corner with three business-looking people, but then sends one of them to the hostess to get them moved a few tables over. she didn't look nearly as icy or robotic as i'd expected and, dare i say, almost seemed pleasant. about 10 minutes later and with less fanfare, a surprisingly thin david beckham comes strolling in with a sweater/tie combo and sits next to posh. for the rest of the meal, the duo don't seem to talk to each other much. maybe posh is mad that becks is home because of his injury? go play some soccer or something, bro.

saturday 9/22: waiting outside of griddle cafe, a short-haired Sharon stone comes in with her son and cuts to the front, bypassing the mass of peasants waiting outside for a table. she definitely looks her age, but was very involved with her son. later on in the meal, Donald Faison — he of "clueless" and "scrubs" fame — saunters in with his girlfriend.

·Friday 9/21 7 pm. Kevin Bacon, sauntering out of Ammo on Highland, with agent-type, and younger-looking version of Kyra. Mr. Bacon looked not a day older than his Footloose days, but at least his haircut was better.

·Two for one.
Wednesday 10/19 KushiYu in Tarzana
Slash looking GOOD and very un-bloated eating sushi with his family. No one but me knew who he was. He is not letting the 90's die.
Kim Basinger was also there. Looking beautiful but in a bad outfit.

·Sunday September 23 - I saw Donald Sutherland at the Third Street Promenade, walking E. down Arizona. Long, flowing silver hair. Dark sunglasses. Tan-ish suit. No expression, actually sort of zen-like. Just walking at a moderate pace. Just a regular guy on a Sunday afternoon. Happens to have spawned Kiefer. That is all.

·Keith Urban getting off a Vancouver to LAX flight on Sunday, September 23rd. No entourage, very low key. Gave me some pause when he bypassed the waiting town car driver to head straight for the bathroom, but I'm sure it was totally innocent. Seemed very humble and cool.

Billy Crystal dining at Toscana in Brentwood on Monday, September 24th. Looked like he was with his wife and a friend.

· I saw Adam Goldberg at the 3rd Street Trader Joe's on Thurs., Sept. 20. He is in surprisingly good shape, very toned. But tattoos running up and down both arms and a crazy look in his eye. I would cast him as the unibomber in a heartbeat.

·It's been my week of Arrested D cast sightings. I strolled past Will Arnett on Larchmont this past Friday afternoon. Dude is tall — and hot!!

· Finally managed a contemporary sighting; it's usually 70's TV b-listers for me in the valley. Entering the Jamba Juice in WeHo Gateway Friday afternoon (9/21), Superbad's Michael Cera entering with a young bearded guy and a young woman. They exited with their smoothies 10 minutes later while I sat and enjoyed my concoction in the plaza. Wearing a gray wool cap and a reddish hoodie, he looked about 12, chattering away with his friends. Honestly, he barely looked old enough to drive, and totally normal. But then he did play a high school student in the movie.

· 9/23/07- Starbucks in the Target center at Santa Monica and La Brea- there sitting in a corner was little Christina Ricci with what looked like a freshly chopped Vidal Sasoon bob- looked great on her. She was talking to producer Barry Mendel. As I waited for my mocha (yeah, I like mocha's, bite me) I could hear them talking. And I'm pretty sure Barry asked her if she mourns not being able to play a certain type of role b/c of her age. COME ON, Barry, learn yourself some tact!! You don't ask an actress anything related to age— get it together, man! Hopefully, I just misheard him (but I'm really only saying that so the lawyers don't come after me).

· Saw SNL alum and perpetual Ladies Man Tim Meadows ordering pizza on Friday night at Village Pizzeria in Larchmont. It took great strength not to ask him "say, sweet thing, can I buy you a fish sandwich?"

· 9/22 - If Seal or Heidi Klum are reading this, I swear I'm not stalking you. If you guys are stalking me, however, you're more than welcome and sorry for boring you. This was the second Sunday in a row I've spotted Seal at the Starbucks on Beverly in Beverly. This time he was with the Mrs. and driving a more family friendly SUV. As I was walking out of Starbucks, I heard a blast of Seal music coming from said SUV and caught Heidi Klum grooving to her hubby's tunes in the passenger seat. The couple, dressed in rock 'n roll cool jeans and t's, walked into Starbucks holding hands. They're hot and look like they genuinely have great times together.

· Spotted Andy Dick on Sunday night (9/23) at Amoeba. Startlingly, he appeared to be wholly sober, and refrained from molesting any random passers-by (that I could see). He was with a cute 20something blonde girl - she seemed normal enough, but must have a screw loose somewhere because, well, she was voluntarily in the company of Andy Dick.

· 9/23 - Laura Prepon, AKA "Donna from That 70s Show", looking blonde and generally very pretty, spotted with two female friends at the Pinkberry in Los Feliz on Vermont. She paid for her friends' yogurts which means her total probably came to $50 or something. How generous of her! And it's not even really yogurt.

·Mark McGrath on the 22nd floor of the Mandalay Bay late on Saturday night Sept 22, or was it early Sunday morning?....walking with a bunch of dudes and a 12 pack of BUD LITE?? Looks like they were post show (Sugar Ray played Saturday night), but I hope they were going someplace where no one minded if the brought their own cans.

· Friday the 21st - While enjoying the weather in Downtown Ventura, Lo and Behold! Bonnie Franklin of One Day at a Time fame! Ms. Ann Romano looks GREAT! "Hey Annie! Where's Schneider!?"

Special Great Wall of China Josh Hartnett Edition:

· I walked the Great Wall on Thursday and spotted Josh Hartnett with two British friends, one male and one female. The girl was dressed in a totally inappropriate tight and short black spandex tank top/skirt one piece thing that had all the Chinese blushing and pointing and commenting all day. She was also constantly taking photos of Josh for which he happily posed. Never photos of all three of them just being friends on the wall but photos just of him striking a pose. I don't think anyone on the wall would have noticed him if not for that. You don't exactly expect to see celebrities in a place like that. At one of the stops where a guard charges you extra to keep walking the wall (very Chinese) Josh and his friends loudly laughed and complained about being ripped off. They were clearly joking because the amount was like 2 dollars each but it seemed more like mockery to the locals and a bit over the top. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a low round scoop neck and a pair of jeans. At some point he wrapped a white t-shirt around his neck like a scarf and he had on Ray Ban Wayfarer shades. He was really nice to anyone who approached him and asked for photos or wanted to chat for a bit. There were only about 5 people who did so and they were British frat boy types. After the hike to the Si Ma Tai section of the wall he sat and had some beer with his friends. There was a lot of talking about deals and agents and dinners and stuff like that. It was all a little surreal for the location but a bit of unexpected fun on a really great day.

Cruise next will star in "Lions for Lambs," a Robert Redford-directed drama that will co-star Redford and Meryl Streep.

Pic will be his first outing for United Artists since he and C/W partner Paula Wagner agreed to revive the shingle for Harry Sloan's MGM.

"Lambs" is a Matthew Carnahan-scripted drama that consists of three interconnected storylines: Cruise as a congressman who interacts with a journalist (Streep); Redford as an idealistic professor who attempts to inspire a privileged student in his class; and a third storyline about a pair of American soldiers wounded in enemy territory, one of whom is Redford's former student.

It's a shrewd, if ultimately safe, choice for Cruise, who's apparently decided that the best course of action for a comeback sure to be mercilessly scrutinized is to surround himself with Oscar-winning human shields. Should the project meet with eventual failure, he can deflect any critical bullets by shrugging and asking, "I don't know why the movie didn't connect with audiences. Why don't you ask the people with all the fancy awards?"

• Cruise's UA tames 'Lions' [Variety]

There's no people like show people - mostly die-hard Democrats - so a lot of folks were holding their noses yesterday as they prepared to attend President Bush's cocktail party at the White House for the Kennedy Center Honors.

"That's the lowest thing on my list," Glenn Close told me at a preshow brunch at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel here, where Brit actress Helen Mirren traipsed around the dining room sporting a hand-lettered T-shirt urging "Help New Orleans and the gulf.

Also roiling around the room was the word that for the first time in the event's 27-year history, the White House had asked the trustees of the Kennedy Center - via faxes to their homes - not to be present for cocktails and the awards ceremony at the White House. And Democratic trustees were complaining that they'd been assigned lousy seats for the show at the Kennedy Center.

We imagine longtime lefty Robert Redford, who famously brought down a reviled Republican leader in All the President's Men, had a particularly hard time keeping a smile on his face as Bush placed the medal around his neck. Still, it's hard for a celebrated actor with decades of award party conditioning to turn down any shiny object with their name on it, regardless of who's handing them out.

• Stars get jitters over Bush bash [NY Daily News]