Be-Cumming the Mask
Fresh off his role as the ethereal Nightcrawler in X2, out Brit actor Alan Cumming is set to star in Son of the Mask, a sequel to the smash 1994 Jim Carrey hit. Neither Carrey nor Cameron Diaz will be back for this one, in which Cumming plays the supernatural figure Loki, whose magical ancient mask falls into the hands of a baby. With the mask, the baby is able to shape-shift, and the villainous Loki will stop at nothing to get his prized possession back. Along for the ride is cute WB reality-show star and very funny comedian Jamie Kennedy, playing an aspiring cartoonist who, through a series of humorous circumstances, has to take care of the baby. Son of the Mask shifts into theaters next summer.
Michael Stipe Gets Saved
Out producer Michael Stipe's movie Saved will baptize movie screens this fall with its straight-faced satire of Christian teen peer pressure. Donnie Darko star and indie It Girl Jena Malone—who recently spoke openly about her lesbian mom to super-hip Index magazine—plays a Baptist high school student impregnated by her gay boyfriend. And that's just for starters. Working the flipside of her A Walk to Remember character, Mandy Moore is a devoutly mean girl out to make Jena repent. Add a who's-who cast of interesting young actors like Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, and Macaulay Culkin; some cool grown-ups like Mary-Louise Parker and, yes, Valerie Bertinelli; and you can almost smell the born-again protests.
Hatch Is Back
Gay nudist-slash-millionaire Richard Hatch —who became a household name after being crowned the first Survivor champion—is sagging back to a TV screen near you. Hatch, along with an array of other past Survivor players, has agreed to do a special all-star version of the cutthroat reality TV game show where contestants vote one another out of their Lord of the Flies-like tribes. Curly-haired soccer hunk Ethan Zohn is also scheduled for the special, as is the Australian season's evil-vixen-turned-Playboy-playmate, Jerry Manthey. But I'm hoping big nellie Brandon Quinton from Survivor: Africa will be on the list of final 16 players as well. The eighth (can you believe it?) installment of the show is set to air on CBS in spring 2004.
It Takes a Village
Romeo would do just about anything to avoid hearing the song 'YMCA' again, but in the new Miramax-backed Australian comedy You Can't Stop the Murders, someone takes his own Village People vendetta a little too far. The movie, recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival and already playing in its home country, is about a serial killer who targets his victims based on their respective Village Person occupations. Hey, wasn't that the plot of Cruising? Director Anthony Mir told Reuters that the film's goal is 'to put the fun back into homicide.'
Romeo San Vicente always enjoys the company of a Macho Man, even if he has to go to the YMCA to get him. E-mail Write2Romeo@yahoo.com .