Evan Lysacek Wants to Be a Dancing Star
Gold medal-winner Evan Lysacek seeks Dancing with the Stars fame. Gossip Girl Leighton Meester is in an indie drama, as is Lucy Liu. Zach Galifianakis will play an exorcist. The Trade Roundup is proud of all our Olympic athletes.
•Only one thing can outshine Evan Lysacek's gold medal in men's figure skating: A spot on ABC's Dancing With the Stars. Lysacek has been hinting to Entertainment Weekly that he would like to be on this dancing-based reality show. He said: "All I have heard from everyone that has done the show is what a blast it is. That could be a good way for me to do something extremely challenging, but also fun to celebrate my Olympic win." You can't blame him: It's either that or making a bunch of commercials for his local Toyota dealer. [EW]
•We told you earlier about the drama over the U.K. release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland: Basically, Disney wants to get the DVD out to rich people with their Blu-Ray players as fast as possible, so they have shortened the theatrical release window. This has pissed off U.K. theaters, who want as much money as possible. Odeon, the U.K.'s number one movie chain, initially boycotted the film. But now they're backing down, probably because they realize that slightly less money is better than no money at all. None of this will matter once the revolution finally comes. [Variety]
•Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester has joined The Oranges. The indie dramatic comedy is about "a man's romantic relationship with the daughter of a family friend," according to Variety. Along with Meester, it stars Hugh Laurie and Catherine Keener. [Variety]
•Nicole Kidman is joining the rom-com Just Go for It. The film stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. A dream cast... for 1999. [THR]
•Zach Galifianakis will be staring in Miracle Workers as an exorcist. According to the horror film website Shock Till You Drop, the film "is a buddy supernatural comedy in which the actor is put on a path that has him posing as an exorcist with a pal. Incidentally, we hear our new editor-in-chief is considering changing Gawker's name to Shock Till You Drop Part Deux. [STYD]
•Turns out that old women watch the Olympics most of all: According to Neilsen, 56% of viewers are women, while "viewership among those aged 55 or older is 82% higher than the national average." Oh, and THR calls this demographic not "the most attractive". [THR]
•The new Farrelly brothers comedy already has a million actors in it: Owen Wilson, Jason sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Stephen Merchant, etc. Now, Christina Applegate and Alyssa Milano have joined up. [THR]
•Lucy Liu and Bree Larson have joined the cast of the indie drama East Fifth Bliss. Michael C. Hall also stars. [Variety]