Red Carpet: Radioactive Lohan & Gangster Depp

It's that time again, Red Carpet Lineup. Here's a (truly) random sampling of actors at events this past week. Let's check in with...

Ever classy Lindsay Lohan who celebrated her 23rd birthday (it's actually tomorrow) at a Vegas pool wearing that, flashing a peace sign, and sporting bright blue contacts. Unless she's been spending too much time on Nevada's nuclear testing grounds, those are contacts. I should never ever look at Lohan as she's become the avatar of Lost Potential. She found the empty calories of fame more enticing than the rich nutrients of good actressing.


Public Enemies opens today and it should be an interesting test of Johnny Depp's box office pull. The public is generally averse to period dramas but they do like gangster crime films so it's a bit of a toss up, really. It's already on IMDb's Top 250 but that's typical for masculine "cool" movies when they first open. It's early still and the mixed reviews so far are fascinatingly contradictory. You know that old saw "you must have seen a different movie than I did" Who to believe?

Patricia Clarkson is all smiles and why not? Knowing that you're the best thing in your movies must be heartwarming. That's definitely true of Whatever Works. The only thing that makes bad Woody Allen scripts bearable is his ability to get fine actors to vividly color his caricatures. In Whatever Works Patty is forced at penpoint to delineate the conversion from empty-headed bible thumping Southerner to bohemian polyamorous New Yorker. The movie has little flashes of against-all-odds charm but it's mostly annoying in its broad and stale misanthropy. Yes, I'm a Woody apologist to some degree but I'm not going to apologize for this one.

<-- Josh Duhamel's got something in his eye. Dreams of movie stardom outside of Transformers, perhaps?

Kristen Bell sent geek hearts fluttering when she attended the Saturn Awards. She lost but she's a previous winner (this nomination was for her bad girl on Heroes -- people still watch that?!? -- but the previous three and one win were for good girl Veronica Mars). After years of television it looks like Forgetting Sarah Marshall prompted a committed big screen leap. She's got five movies on the way. First up: Romantic comedy When in Rome with Josh Duhamel, Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston, Will Arnett and my friend Luca Calvani whom I've already congratulated for the gig. Go Luca! It's about time Hollywood bit.

I've placed Mike Doyle in the lineup to keep you and myself guessing about who might be included each week. He's here only because he was a) at the opening of Twelfth Night and b) he's got a role opposite Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole. The play it's based on had only five roles and his character "Craig", unless they've changed the names, was not one of them so there's been some expansion for the screen. I hope he dies in the movie! He's previously worked Off Broadway and played "Leprechaun" in the Hilary Swank vehicle P.S. I Love You (I don't want to know) but he's best known from regular work on both Oz and Law & Order: SVU.

Hey, it's Rosie Perez. "Fight the Power!" She's been on my mind because of the Do The Right Thing anniversary. I miss her absolutely rambunctious screen presence. Good to see her, however briefly, in Pineapple Express. Get it Rosie!