At a performance at Stomp last night, a live, in-theater commercial was performed. The world's "first theatrical advertisement" is a promotion from Visit London, where different actors perform for three minutes to, as the website says, draw "on the specific cultural similarities between the visited city and London and will star a known local personality in a cameo role." You know, like Fifth Avenue and Oxford Street, the Guggenheim and Tate Modern - but who knew that Paraminder Nagra, of ER and Bend it Like Beckham and who was last night's cameo, was a NYC local? Visit London's Ken Kelling told ABC 7, "It's about general messages, about connections between cities and visiting them, if it were a soft drinks or a wash powder than it probably won't work in the same way." Hmm, but from reports, it doesn't seem like people paid the ad much attention - probaby because they'd only pay attention to some clanging on garbage cans. Stomp, whose creators are from London, didn't ask for money for the ad (they told the Times it was a PSA), and it seems like it was a pretty pricey proposition, given the cast of actors and traveling to a couple U.S. cities to try out (though the publicity is priceless). more ›

- Nicolette Sheridan does not look over-Botoxed with fish lips! more ›

It's a complete cliche but in order for movies like the new romantic comedy opening this weekend with Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney, The Wedding Date, to do well at the box office chicks have to promise the trade-off. Something along the lines of "my movie with the word Wedding in the title" for "your silly game with sweaty men in tight pants on Sunday." Not that Debra and Dermot's movie looks like it will be any good, but still there will be the compulsion of chicks all over the country to drag their boyfriends to see it. more ›

Today kicks off the Fourth Annual IAAC Film Festival: The Indian Diaspora being held at Walter Reade theater in Lincoln Center and at Anthology Film Archives running through this weekend. Highlighting films "made by, about or featuring persons of Indian origin," the series celebrates the wealth of experience and cultural contributions made by Indians living outside of India. more ›

With last week's release of Seabiscuit, the Palm Beach Post's sports writers come up a list of the best sports movies ever made. Not surprisingly, the list skews towards more recent films, but Gothamist was surprised to see how much we agreed with the selections. We were especially glad that Hoop Dreams, one of the best films ever made, period, made the list, thereby not getting the short shrift for being a documentary. The top ten: more ›

The movie studios are adding blogging to their marketing repertoire: Fox Searchlight Pictures has started it's own blog, foxsearchlight.blogspot.com, to "join this online phenomena" plus innundate people with information about screenings, box office data, interviews, articles in which their releases are mentioned, etc., etc. Part of what's helpful in driving traffic to the blog is the fact that the releases Fox Searchlight has out there right now are actually good, like 28 Days Later and Bend It Like Beckham, and their upcoming films, frothy Merchant-Ivory Le Divorce, nihilistic teen girl movies Thirteen, and Jim Sheridan's long-awaited In America, are definitely intriguing. Also, worth checking out is Fox Searchlight's SearchLab which has Quicktime interviews with directors like Ridley Scott, Mark Romanek, Baz Luhrmann, and Kimberly Peirce. [Via Movie City News] more ›

News of David Beckham's possible move from Manchester United to Barcelona has not only British soccer enthusiasts freaking out, but the entire United Kingdom reeling as well. The Times tries to give its Stateside readers perspective of how devestating this is to Brits. The Sun says the Beckham feels "stabbed in the barc", and other sources also say Beckham is upset by it, with his eye towards vetoing it. Gothamist is fascinated by the language of the deal: In U.S. sports, it would be a trade, but under these circumstances, Beckham would be sold to Barcelona. Sold. Like chattel. more ›

601am mentioned how someone at his local video store kept renting the movies he wanted to see, making him wonder if the person would like him, too. I wonder that often when I go see movies, especially when I go alone. I wonder if the people at the Saturday 11AM showing of Femme Fatale or Sunday 12:05PM of My Wife Is Actress are people like me. I suspect we have similar interests, but in truth, I'd probably hate most of them, the way I hated the ladies who kept talking during the 12:20PM Bend It Like Beckham last Sunday. more ›

Finally, the British hit Bend It Like Beckham opens here. It's about an Anglo-Indian girl whose parents want her to lead a traditional Sikh life while she is crazy about soccer. The Beckham in the title refers, of course, to the impossibly attractive and talented David Beckham of Manchester United. Here are reviews from A.O. Scott of The New York Times and Kenneth Turan of the L.A. Times. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon calls love interest Jonathan Rhys-Myers "sullen and dull. Hee. more ›