Hollywood Beltway

George Clooney’s “The American” looks like it’s in good shape to take the weekend box office.

“The American” opened Wednesday and already has $3.1 million in the till. It could come out of the holiday weekend with $20 million or more.

As I wrote a couple of days ago, “The American” has been a strange deal. No publicity and little marketing. Just ads. And hope. Clooney got a big boost at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night when he received a humanitarian award. His speech was superb, and if he wasn’t running for office, then it was for box office…

Tyler Perry is making an Oscar run on November 5th with his much anticipated “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.”

Lions Gate just announced they’ve moved up their release from a planned January 14th.

The film has a bevy of possible Best Supporting Actresses including Thandie Newton, Kerry Washington, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, and Janet Jackson.

There are plenty of other big names, like Whoopi Goldberg, in what could be the “Precious” of 2010.

This was the film Mariah Carey had to drop out of last spring. You can see why now.

Nevertheless, this…

Yes, there’s a whole new line of IPods announced yesterday. They have phones, cameras, and frappe blenders attached to them.

What they don’t have is...music.

Whether you listen to digital music on an IPod or — my personal favorite–a Creative Zen XFi2-- it doesn’t matter. You simply aren’t hearing what was recorded. This is especially true for classical, jazz, and classic rock records. No matter how good the earbuds– from the Klipsches we heard last week in L.A. to my preferred Ultimate Ears— 50% of the music is lost.

Some digital music is called “lossless” but that’s not true. In…

My dear Hanson fans:

You are a devoted group but you’re not buying CDs.

According to Nielsen Soundscan, the new Hanson album, “Shout it Out,” has sold a paltry 31,000 copies.

The most recent one before that was called “Walk.” Total sales to date from 2007: 54,000 copies.

The days of “MMMBop” are long since passed. This doesn’t mean Hanson are not talented musicians. It’s just that their day in the sun has come and gone. This can be said for plenty of acts. I wish them well in all their endeavors.

Oscar Isaac, the hot star of Madonna’s highly anticipated “W.E.,” is joining the cast of “Drive.”

“Drive” stars Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, and Albert Brooks. The action thriller is based on James Sallis‘s novel.

Isaac is hot as a pistol. He’s in Zack Snyder‘s upcoming “Sucker Punch.” In the last two years he’s starred in “Agora” with Rachel Weisz, and the cult film, “Balibo.” He was Prince John to Russell Crowe‘s “Robin Hood’ earlier this year, pretty much stealing the show.

In Madonna’s movie, Isaac is one half of a modern day couple who are juxtaposed with the…

What has happened to Rob Reiner?

His latest film, called “Flipped,” has made just around $690,000 since its release on August 6th. It’s dead, it’s over, it’s gone. A total write off of last $25 million.

“Flipped” got mixed reviews when it debuted. The trade papers didn’t like it. Some bloggers and a few newspaper reviewers were okay with it. It registered a high 68% on Rottentomatoes.com, with a cadre of little known bloggers pulling it up.

But “Flipped” is a Warner Bros. It’s not some little indie. And it has names, albeit not box office magicians: Rebecca deMornay, Anthony…

Seal– such a good singer songwriter, has a new album coming out on September 28th. It’s called “Commitment.”

Did you know about it? Of course not. It’s from Warner Music Group.

The first single is called “Secret.” It was released to YouTube and other outlets three days ago. Surprise!

I ran into Seal at the Governor’s Ball for the Emmy Awards with his delicious wife, Heidi Klum. They were celebrating losing the Emmy for “Project Runway” to “Top Chef.” Oh well. It’s better to look good than to feel good.

Seal told me he decided to stick with WMG for…

And replacing Paula Abdul is……. ELLEN DEGENERES! “DeGeneres will sit alongside Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi and offer her own unique perspective to the contestants throughout the competition,” Fox television said in a statement. “I’m going to have a day job and a night job,” DeGeneres said at her talk show taping Wedneday. [...]

There’s a poem on Britney.com that’s making the rounds. Could it be that my BritBrit is performing at the Video Music Awards tonight?! Check out the poem below: Y’all keep shouting, “Gimme, gimme, gimme more,” But little do ya know, some surprises are in store. No matter how many gallons of Celebrity Juice you drink, [...]

Not like that,  get your heads out of the gutter. Megan Fox is known to make some outlandish comments during interviews, even referring to working with director Michael Bay as working with Hitler. Ouch. But some crew members from Transformers have come to Bay’s defense. They’ve written quite the scathing letter to Miss  Megan and [...]