Producer Enlists Scary Hollywood Lawyer To Terrify 'LAT' Into A Retraction

Last Sunday's LAT ran a story about Ryan Kavanaugh, a 33-year-old middleman between Hollywood and the secretive and incredibly confusing world of hedge funds. They reported that Kavanaugh, a former dotcom financier with a long list of EP credits to his name, would sell the private investment groups on "slates" of movies, investing hundreds of millions in a dozen films at a time (to lessen the impact of any single stinker). Of course, this is Hollywood, where stinkers come in biblical proportions, and their investment quickly dwindled to barely the value of a concession stand Combo Pack. Now, armed with Scary Hollywood Lawyer Martin Singer, Kavanaugh is fighting back, claiming the entire piece was planted by his publinemesis Mike Sitrick, who is currently suing Kavanaugh for "allegedly mismanaging a multimillion-dollar investment." More »

All The Easy 'Evan Almighty' Headline Puns Were Used Up In Friday's Poor Reviews

As invigorating as an hourlong, cold Monday morning shower following two sleepless days of binge drinking, your weekend box office numbers: More »

'Evan Just All-Righty,' And Other Underwhelmed Thoughts About The Priciest Comedy In History

The weekend of reckoning has finally arrived for Evan Almighty, aka The Most Expensive Comedy Story Ever Told, an occasion marked by dozens of nervous Universal executives kneeling before makeshift shrines and praying that their religious marketing partners are going to deliver the arkloads of Christians they promised. And while the reviews have not been kind, they have most certainly been creative, taking full advantage of the movie's biblical themes in trumpeting, amidst Almighty's zoological bounty, the arrival of the summer's biggest turkey. A smattering of memorable headlines: More »

Universal Ready To Knock Over Christians And Steal Their Collection Basket Money

Demonstrating once again that invoking the sacred phrase "Passion of the Christ money" More »

Most Expensive Comedy In History Balances Wastefulness With Environmental Awareness

· Universal is partnering with environmentally conscious marketers to promote Evan Almighty, culminating in a spectacular stunt in which the studio will flood its Universal City theme park, washing away thousands of tourists to emphasize the film's uplifting, "green" message that God will kill us all if we don't take better care of our planet. [Variety] More »

Hollywood PlagueWatch: 'Evan Almighty' Stage Consumed By Fire

Because we at Defamer at committed to keeping you informed of any disaster, whether man-made or natural in origin, currently besetting your peers, we pass along these two reports of the raging fire possibly still in progress over on the Universal lot: More »

Jim Carrey Uses His Pyrokinetic Powers To Halt Steve Carell's Ascendancy

Evan Almighty may be headed towards becoming the costliest comedy in movie history, but this deleted scene from the movie's prequel, Bruce Almighty, reminds us just how much can be accomplished on a limited effects budget. (It comes courtesy of Cracked's highly entertaining "The Most Absurd Deleted Scenes of All Time".) The original version of Steve Carell's famous gibberish scene was initially envisioned as a much more disturbing sequence, in which Jim Carrey's character wills blood to stream out of Carell's nostril moments before his head bursts into giant flames. We can't help but agree with Cracked's assessment that Carrey wasn't just acting here, but was actually conjuring up real, firestarting powers to use against his cunning protégé, who, in a classic, All About Steve scenario, was in the midst of stealing not just this movie from him, but his entire career. More »

'Evan Almighty': The Most Expensive Comedy Story Ever Told?

Today's LAT details the budgetary problems affecting Bruce Almighty sequel Evan Almighty, which threaten to saddle the movie with the unwanted distinction of becoming the most expensive comedy in history. According to the Times, even without Bruce star Jim Carrey and his massive salary, the Evan production could reach a $175 million budget, as uncooperative weather during shooting, the logistics involved in scheduling predatory animal actors so that they don't accidentally devour their tasty, lower-billed co-stars during their downtime, and the expense of convincingly staging Biblical disasters have all driven costs heavenward. Still, Universal executives Marc Shmuger and David Linde think they've got everything under control: More »