andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Sean Penn is going from Oscar to Stooge.

The “Milk” actor, who picked up his second Academy Award last month, has been cast as the violin-toting Larry in “The Three Stooges,” the Farrelly Brothers’ upcoming MGM comedy.

The movie will not be a biopic, but rather a modern take on the slapstick trio based on their classic film shorts.

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Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal have signed on to star in the film adaptation of the classic musical “Damn Yankees.”

According to Variety, the New Line movie is being produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the same people who brought “Hairspray” to the big screen.

The plot revolves around a man named Joe Boyd (to be played by Gyllenhaal) who makes a Faustian bargain with the devil (to be played by Carrey) to help a struggling pro baseball team he is devoted to.

The musical, which debuted on Broadway in 1955 and won seven Tony Awards, was previously adapted into a 1958 film.

Carrey’s recent projects include “Yes Man” and “I Love You Phillip Morris,” while Gyllenhaal recently completed work on the romantic comedy “Nailed” and the drama “Brothers,” both scheduled to hit theatres later this year.

Canadian comedian Jim Carrey isn’t all about jokes. Sometimes, he’s serious — about world issues, no less.

And he’s proven it recently by urging the United Nations Security Council to slap an arms embargo against the military junta in Burma.

The 45-year-old performer says that Canada’s government “uses its weapons not in self-defence but against its own citizens.”

At a news conference near UN headquarters in New York City Friday, the Bruce Almighty star blamed the international community for allowing the brutal crackdown on Burma’s pro-democracy demonstrators.

The military arrested thousands of people, including hundreds of Buddhist monks, after firing on peaceful protesters following a series of demonstrations in late August.

Reports say hundreds of people have been executed but authorities in Burma, also known as Myanmar, have confirmed only 10 deaths.

Carrey is one of a list of celebrities who have put forth effort into calling on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to help win the freedom of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

China and Russia remain opposed to council action, but the U.S. has threatened to introduce a UN resolution seeking sanctions against Burma, including an arms embargo.

Saturday marked a day of action in 30 countries in support of the Burmese protesters. Marches are being held in several cities across Canada.

Funnyman JIM CARREY is set to shock his fanbase with his next movie role as a family man who gets sent to prison only to fall in love with his cellmate.

Carrey, best known for comedies including The Mask and Dumb & Dumber, will star as real-life police officer-turned-crook Steven Russell in I Love You Phillip Morris.

The film is based on a book by Steve McVicker and is written and directed by the Bad Santa team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.

(c) 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All global rights reserved. No unauthorized copying or re-distributing permitted.

If you’re looking for the run-of-the-mill funny Jim Carrey movie, “The Number 23″ isn’t it.

Much like the “Truman Show” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Carrey takes a serious turn in “The Number 23.”

He plays Walter Sparrow, an average American suburban man who makes his living as an animal control officer. For his birthday on Feb. 3 (2/3 – get it?) his wife, Agatha (played by Virgina Madsen) gets him a book called the Number 23. Walter becomes obsessed with the book, saying the main character, Fingerling (also played by Carrey) is a carbon copy of him. He begins to get paranoid from the book and the number 23.

The film has an interesting premise, and as directed by Joel Schumacher, is filmed beautifully (the credits are especially striking). However, Carrey just seems to be miscast in the role. Not just because normally he is being a clown in his films, but simply because we haven’t seen enough of him in a wholesome family man type of role. Instead, Nicholas Cage may have done better.

The film has its highs and its lows. Watching the book play out as Walter reads it can get a bit tiresome because it’s almost like watching a film while the writer reads the script to the audience. It would have been a little bit better if what happened in the book began happening in Walter’s real life world.

The film is filled with little hidden gems if you look closely enough, so it has an M. Night Shyamalan feel to it. For example, Walter’s wife’s name is Agatha, which is, I’m assuming, a play on the great mystery writer Agatha Christie.

Similarly, if you look closely you will see the number 23 throughout the film, even when Walter doesn’t notice it.

The film is anti-climatic. It could have ended numerous times, but as with any other mystery, there are multiple endings before the truth is finally revealed. And truth be told, it is a bit of a let down to learn what really happened.

Madsen is interesting in this role, although she doesn’t particularly seem to care about what her husband is doing or the fact that he is becoming paranoid and delusional because of the book.

Overall, it is a wonderfully shot film, and a pretty good mystery at that.

Comedian JIM CARREY is writing a self-help book entitled BE READY TO BE OK.

In his new book, the DUMB & DUMBER star will sharing his wisdom on how to deal with life stress.

He says, “(It’s) just my thoughts about different things, you know. It will be very revealing about what I believe.

“The idea of that is accurate, that most things we get upset about in life can be avoided if we just went in ready to be okay when things happen.

“”Okay, I’m getting in the car right now so chances are I could hit some traffic.’ Be ready to be okay with that. Deal with it.”

The star is currently shopping the book around to publishers.

(c) 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All global rights reserved. No unauthorized copying or re-distributing permitted.

Jim Carrey’s new movie with Cameron Diaz has been scrapped before it even began.

It was announced just last month that the two actors would reunite to play a married couple in the new film, “A Game Without Consequence,” but now Reuters is reporting that deal is dead in the water.

Besides Carrey and Diaz leaving the project, the film’s director, Gabriele Muccino, also left the movie due to “creative differences” according to the studio.

Sources say that producers wanted to go in one direction, while Muccino saw another avenue. Reports say that the actors left the film before Muccino walked this weekend.

Apparently, Diaz, Muccino and Carrey wanted to keep the film darker, much like the French original, whereas the studio wanted to make it more commercial.

Sources also told Reuters that producers hope to woo back Carrey, but that it looks like that is unlikely to happen.

Jim Carrey has new representation.

Reuters reports the funny man has signed with Creative Artists Agency. It was almost a week ago the actor abruptly fired his representation at United Talent Agency.

Carrey had been with UTA for 15 years, but saw problems this summer when two of his feature films in development were shut down due to escalating costs.

However, Carrey’s decision to sign with CAA comes at no surprise as it has recently acquired huge comedic talents, such as actor Will Ferrell.

Over 10 years after first starring together in a movie, Cameron Diaz and Jim Carrey will be co-starring in a movie once again.

Reuters is reporting that the two actors have signed on to play a married couple in the new film, “A Little Game Without Consequence.”

Diaz and Carrey co-starred in “The Mask” in 1994, the film is hailed as starting both actors’ careers and sending them in to superstardom.

“A Little Game Without Consequence” is about a married couple who, after five years together, decide to spice up their marriage by telling friends and family that they are splitting up. Only instead of support from them, the couple learns that most of their friends and family didn’t think they two were meant to be together in the first place.

The film is set to start shooting next month in New York.

More than a decade after the first “Ace Ventura” sequel, a third film is in the works for the Pet Detective.

However, due to the film’s plot (and Jim Carrey’s progression away from low-brow humour), the movie will likely happen without the original star.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, film studio Morgan Creek has enlisted writers Justin Heimberg, his brother Jason, and Jeff Sank to come up with a script for the project.

The storyline is said to follow Ventura’s son as he works to fill his father’s pet-snooping shoes.

There have been no announcements about possible directors or cast members as of yet.

The series’ first two installments, 1994’s “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and 1995’s “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,” brought in more than $180 million across North America.

“Dumb and Dumber,” another Carrey film from the same period, also spawned a sequel (”Dumb and Dumberer”) that didn’t involve Carrey nor his co-star, Jeff Daniels.