We're into the final stretch of award show season, folks. The nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards (now hosted again by your grandmother's favorite, Billy Crystal, not Eddie Murphy) are out! more ›

Our inbox is simply littered—littered!—with invitations to openings and galas and VIP-ness and other very important things happening this Sunday. Events where media types, like your SFist editor, enjoy getting tipsy to the tits. Alas, we cannot RSVP oui to any of them. Why? Because the Golden Globes are on Sunday, you clod. How did you not know that? You are in California, you should know this already. Whether cooking meth in Grass Valley or mainlining meth in The Salton Sea, it's your duty as a Californian to take time to honor this unofficial fledgling state holiday: Golden Globes Sunday. (Yes, we know they're bestowed by the inane Foreign Press Association, but the Globes, at they're very core, are sun-kissed Hollywood magic!) And what better way to watch the blood diamond-dipped festivities than inside a theater in the Richmond District? more ›

Disgraced former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans on making a return to the big screen. Sure to be as successful as Norma Desmond's Salome, his latest effort, titled, Last Stand, will be shot in New Mexico. According to Associated Press, "The movie is a modern day Western about convicts making their way to the Mexican border through New Mexico after escaping from a prison in Las Vegas, Nev." Exciting. more ›

A few notables will shoot movies in the Bay Area this summer. Valley kid Paul Thomas Anderson will start filming The Master in Vallejo mostly, with some shooting at sea. Anderson's latest flick is about a persuasive man who starts a new religion in the 1950s, assumed to be based on Scientology. Philip Seymour Hoffman is attached to the project, maybe Leonardo DiCaprio too. We're really, really looking forward to this one. more ›

Over the twitwires we spotted this mention of Jude Law this a.m., from a patron of the Sports Club L.A. at the Four Seasons: "Ran into Jude Law at the club (the guy's a star!) & think I managed to say something sensible." Could Jude be staying at the Four Seasons? Not that we want to encourage stalking, but, that was a pre-9 a.m. sighting. more ›

Well, both Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey were snubbed for their work in Black Swan, and Christopher Nolan was nixed from the Best Director category for Inception at this morning's Academy Award nominations announcement. Other than that, the usual suspects were richly rewarded for their work. The King's Speech, a film about speech therapy and Britishness, received 12 nominations, including thespian honors for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush. more ›

Hollywood is coming to town again, with director Steven Soderbergh descending next month to shoot Contagion, an action-thriller starring Jude Law(!) involving disease and the CDC that's being shot in San Francisco. It also stars Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard and Matt Damon (wtvr), and they're having an open casting call on January 29th and 30th for PAID extra work in the movie. See further details below, but know that you'll need to be available for shooting between February 9 and February 19, which is when the crew will be here on location. And how funny, it's a Talented Mr. Ripley reunion! more ›

Former San Francisco State University student Annette Bening won last night's Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for The Kids Are Alright, where she plays a lesbian mother who digs redheads. Or something like that. We have yet to see it. more ›

by Amy Crocker How does a girl from Marin County end up with a role in American Pie? According to Beth Behrs, with lots of luck. A graduate of the UCLA School of Film and Television, the Bay Area native is living and auditioning in Los Angeles - carving out a career in acting. Though she is a trained singer, her first film role is as the star of American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, which came out on DVD last Tuesday. SFist spoke with Behrs to get an insider’s perspective on the Hollywood ladder, American Pie, and of course, her run in with the cast of Twilight. more ›

We came across this over at Eye On Blogs. Greg Dewar, N-Judah Chronicle blogger, captured these shots of a futuristic San Francisco as conceived by J.J. Abrams in the new Star Trek movie. Check out more skyline scenes from the sci-fi flick, right here. more ›

"Preparing the way" by Darwin Bell. more ›

It's been an incredible success, yes? He's gone to Israel in order to (allegedly) build a bridge between the Bay Area and Israeli business leaders. (See what you've wrought, Rainbow Groceries?) And according to his schedule, Newsom started out in NYC today, but will be in WeHo later this afternoon to accept some silly award. Behold: more ›

Well, this should be exciting, hateful. This Sunday at 11 a.m. at 701 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, there will be a protest over that religious sect those zany Hollywood types know and love so well. You know, the one where you can't take Prozac, or call you Jewish children, or....whatever. (For a map of the SF branch, go here.) It sounds like it will be a Sunday afternoon well-spent. Instruction are as follows: more ›

Although most of us are giddy that Hollywood has come to our little town to film a moving picture show, others are less than gay about it. Namely, a few Castro merchants who have seen business drop since production began late last month. According to the BAR: more ›

SFist interviews Jeff Ross, founder of Indie Fest more ›

Christian Brando, the troubled son of legendary actor Marlon Brando, died from pneumonia early this morning at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. more ›

Jesus, have you seen those ads for this movie "Hancock"? Is it us, or is there something insaaaaaanely racist about them? Let's break it down: Will Smith plays an African-American superhero -- the first big-screen African-American superhero since, um, Robert Townsend in 1993's Meteor Man? Oh, that's right, there was that black sidekick in "The Incredibles." And Halle Berry as Storm. And Wesley Snipes as Blade ... so, okay, there've been four black superheroes in the last 15 years. But Will Smith's the first black leading-man flying superhero, which is a very cool and progressive thing to happen ... except that he's apparently a homeless dude who's borderline retarded and keeps getting in the white folks' way. more ›

Gus Van Sant isn't the only one who might make you a shiny, coke-addled star here in San Francisco. Take, for example, MTV and NBC who want to use you for their up-and-coming reality programming. more ›

While walking along Post Street this morning, we came across the above "mysterious" sign at Taylor Street and wondered where the film shoot was. Then we happened to turn down Mason and encountered the film crew at Geary and Mason, as an SFist tipster noted earlier. The set-up was all still there on our walk back home this evening. more ›

Previously on "Project Runway," Chris March made the cut, while Elisa "My Skull!" Jimenez was out. more ›

Due to the continuing WGA strike, the Golden Globes look like they might - might - get the ax. (For all of you book-reading intelligentsia who claim to have TV sets only so that your can watch your Netflix DVDs of The Sopranos and The Wire, you can read more about the strike here.) more ›

Well, this is some depressing news. Marin's very own Hollywood transplant power couple, Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn, are getting a d-i-v-o-r-c-e. At least according to People Magazine they are. more ›

We came back from taking down the recycling yesterday evening to find we had locked ourselves out of our apartment. "Noooo!!" [Insert Emo Darth Vader ballad here. Warning -- audio.] We dialed the apartment manager on the call-box but got his voice mail. Lucky for us, the manager, who wouldn't be back until 10:00, called our s.o., who wouldn't be back until 8:00, and our s.o. called our friend who lives a few blocks away. So, instead of being forced to sit on our lobby stairs all night, uncomfortably greeting all of our neighbors, we were soon whisked away and served pasta, wine, and a couple of episodes of the BBC version of "Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares." more ›

Oh la la. The reportedly very prickly Reese Witherspoon and rubenesque Vince Vaughn -- whatever, we'd hit it. Hit it hard -- are in town filming their new divorce-themed romcom, Four Christmases. (According to IMBD, it's about a "couple struggle to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day." If you're not in tears already, then clearly you have no soul.) And here they are at a....downtown locale of some sort? We... more ›

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-- Completely Hollywood (abridged): The Reduced Shakespeare Company's latest stage play skewers "Tinseltown's most lauded stars and starlets" ranging from the silent era to today's most beloved and pretentious independent films. The curtain goes up at 8 p.m. at Marines Memorial Theater; $45-60. more ›

Phillyist prepared to party by doing the hustle, lighting the lights, shopping up a storm, and... visiting Khrushchev?
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The new Maltese Falcon at John's Grill is less "pigeony" (). more ›

So...ugh. Birds died, gastronomic seasons were delayed. What's more, it hasn't even been a week, and already some of your favorite local and national politicos are personalizing the spill, more than ready to point old, spotty white fingers elsewhere. (RIP, acts of God.) How very helpful. Except not really. more ›

Anyway, the real story here is that it's an uninteresting race, but that that shouldn't matter. With Gavin Newsom running unopposed in the minds of many a San Franciscan, the city sheriff having no serious challengers, and the district attorney running unopposed, we can see why. And according to Alex Clemens in today's Examiner (AP), "[w[]"ithout a good fight at hand, a lot of people are worried that many San Franciscans will opt out of the process and just go to work instead." (That what they want you to believe, man! Wheels within wheels.) more ›