andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

We all remember Xena – but now get ready for Natalie Portman: Warrior Princess.

The 27-year-old actress is joining the cast of Universal’s “Your Highness,” a medieval farce starring Danny McBride and James Franco.

As previously reported, the movie will follow an arrogant and lazy prince (McBride) and his more competent brother (Franco) as they go on a quest to save their father’s kingdom.

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Actor James Franco is set to play a prince in Universal’s upcoming comedy “Your Highness.” The Golden Globe-nominee will reunite with “Pineapple Express” costar Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, the movie’s director, according to Variety.

“Your Highness” tells the story of two princes and their journey to protect their family kingdom from the hands of an evil magician and is set to start shooting in July, according to E! Online.

Also, funny-man Steve Carell may star in a Warner Bros. comedy called “Dumped.” The movie is about a divorced man who searches for new meaning in his life.

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“Mad Men” star Jon Hamm has hopped aboard “Howl,” an upcoming indie feature about the obscenity trial provoked by Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem.

According to Variety, the Golden Globe-winning actor will play Jake Ehrlich, the defence attorney in the trial whose life was also the inspiration for the TV series “Perry Mason.”

As previously reported, James Franco is starring as Ginsberg, while Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn, Jeff Daniels, Treat Williams and Alessandro Nivola round out the supporting cast.

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The cast of “Howl,” a biopic starring James Franco as iconic beatnik writer Allen Ginsberg, has just grown by five.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paul Rudd, Alan Alda, David Strathairn, Jeff Daniels and Mary-Louise Parker are attached to portray real-life characters in the 1950s-era film, which focuses on the obscenity trial launched to censor Ginsberg’s groundbreaking book-length poem.

Rudd (”Knocked Up”) will play literary critic and defense witness Luther Nichols, while Alda (TV’s “The West Wing”) will play Judge Clayton Horn.

The other three have signed on to portray various players on the side of the prosecution — Strathairn (”Good Night and Good Luck”) as prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh, Daniels (”Traitor”) as prosecution witness Professor David Kirk and Parker (TV’s “Weeds”) as radio personality and prosecution witness Gail Potter.

Gus Van Sant is executive producing, while documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (”Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt”) are making their narrative debuts as the movie’s directors, writers and producers.

“Fifty years later, Ginsberg’s vision is as relevant as the year he wrote it,” Friedman said in a statement released Tuesday.

“It resonates with issues of free speech, government censorship, militaristic empire building, fear-mongering, sexual conformity and the co-opting of religion.”

Franco, whose comedy “Pineapple Express” is currently in theatres, will next appear in the romantic drama “Nights in Rodanthe” and Van Sant’s Harvey Milk biopic, “Milk.”

James Franco better watch his back – his little brother, Dave, is hot on his heels.

The littlest Franco has just been cast in a new Fox pilot, “Do Not Disturb.” He’ll play Gus, a regular in the comedy set in a hotel. The Hollywood Reporter described the role as “a roadie for a rock band who gets deserted at the hotel and taken in by the gang.”

Jerry O’Connell and Niecy Nash will star.

Dave Franco has been practicing his comedy skills and endearing himself to the public with hilarious videos he made with James on the FunnyOrDie.com.