David Letterman’s ‘Airplane!’ Audition Was So Terrible the Crew Went Up to Him and Said, ‘You Can’t Act!’: ‘I Laughed My Way Back to the Car’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Before Matthew Vaughn earned critical acclaim for rebooting the “X-Men” movie franchise with 2011’s “X-Men: First Class,” he was courted to replace Bryan Singer as the director of 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” That tentpole served as the third film in the storyline led by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, but Vaughn recently revealed at New York City Comic-Con (via ScreenRant) that he rejected the offer to direct the sequel after discovering a studio executive’s plan to deceive Halle Berry into reprising her role as Storm. “One of the main reasons I quit ‘X-Men 3,’ and this is a true story,” Vaughn said. “I went to an executive’s office and I saw an ‘X3’ script.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David Fincher is known for doing lots of takes while filming, but Michael Fassbender upped the ante while filming “The Killer” by apparently never blinking when the camera was on him. The film’s cinematography Erik Messerschmidt revealed the detail in the latest issue of Empire Magazine.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Horror master John Carpenter told the Los Angeles Times that he’s heard about the negative reaction to Universal and Blumhouse’s “Exorcist” reboot, which currently sits at a paltry 23% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and opened to under $30 million at the box office. Universal spent $400 million on rights to the franchise with the intent of starting a new trilogy. The reboot, titled “The Exorcist: Believer,” is directed by David Gordon Green, who worked with Carpenter on the most recent “Halloween” reboot trilogy.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Patrick Stewart writes in his new memoir, “Making It So,” that Paramount executives wanted him to audition for the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” with a wig on, which required his then-wife Sheila Falconer to ship a hairpiece from London to Los Angeles. “Right as I was boarding my plane at Heathrow, my London agent called Sheila at home and notified her that the Paramount people had been in touch, asking if I owned a hairpiece, and if I did, could I bring it to the audition?” Stewart writes (via Insider). “Sheila diligently retrieved my ‘audition wig’ from its space in my wardrobe and boxed it up, whereupon a British Airways representative collected it and placed it on a later flight to Los Angeles.” “I do not know if my hairpiece flew first class,” he continues.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Guillermo del Toro sent “Star Wars” fans into a tizzy in late September when he confirmed on social media that he was once planning a trip to a galaxy far, far, away as the director of a “Star Wars” movie. The Oscar winner provided no further details at the time, but he’s now confirmed to Collider’s Steven Weintraub that his axed “Star Wars” movie centered on Jabba the Hutt. Considering del Toro’s love of monsters, it’s hardly a surprise he’d pick Jabba as the focal point for his own “Star Wars” movie.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Patrick Stewart reveals in his new memoir, “Making It So,” that longtime friend and colleague Ian McKellen advised him to turn down “Star Trek” and stay in theater when Stewart was debating whether to make the jump to a major Hollywood franchise (via Insider). Stewart originated the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” starting in 1987. Prior to “Star Trek,” Stewart was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and won a Laurence Olivier Award for starring in a West End production of “Antony and Cleopatra,” among other theater accomplishments.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sofia Coppola told the Wall Street Journal that her “Priscilla” budget was so “strained” at times that she thought of raffling off a pickleball game with her star Jacob Elordi in order to raise funds for additional shooting days. “Euphoria” alum Elordi plays Elvis Presley in the film opposite Cailee Spaeny in the title role. Spaeny won best actress honors at the Venice Film Festival for her performance.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Steve Nicks all but confirmed in a new interview with Vulture that Fleetwood Mac is done and will no longer perform following the November 2022 passing of singer-songwriter and longtime band member Christine McVie. Nicks’ comment echoes similar thoughts that Mick Fleetwood shared in February when he told the Los Angeles Times, “I think right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris. I’d say we’re done, but then we’ve all said that before.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Kerry Washington explains in her new memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” that she actively rejected playing the “white girl’s best friend” after starring in “Against the Ropes,” the 2004 boxing drama headlined by Meg Ryan and Omar Epps. The film starred Ryan as Jackie Kallen, the first woman to achieve success as a boxing manager.

Joe Biden has made another gaffe.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David S. Goyer is the co-architect of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy. The director recruited Goyer to help him flesh out the story and co-write 2005’s “Batman Begins,” before Nolan and his brother Jonathan penned the scripts for 2008’s “The Dark Knight” and 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises” based on stories cracked by Goyer.

he wasn’t good anymore because the 69-year-old is “woke.”“I hear that a lot that I’m not good anymore because I’m woke,” said Stern according to a report by the news site Mediaite.“By the way, I kind of take that as a compliment, that I’m woke,” he said. “I’ll tell you how I feel about it. To me the opposite of woke, is being asleep.”“And if woke means I can’t get behind Trump, which is what I think it means, or that I support people who want to be transgender or I’m for the vaccine, dude, call me woke as you f—— want,” Stern said in the rant.“I am woke, motherf—–, and I love it.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In a career-spanning interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, “Man of Steel” writer David S. Goyer agreed with host Jake Horowitz that Warner Bros. should’ve developed a standalone Superman sequel with Henry Cavill instead of rushing to create a universe with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” The studio did so in order to compete with Marvel and create its own superhero universe.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Howard Stern and Bill Maher are “no longer friends,” according to Stern. The SiriusXM radio host told listeners (via Entertainment Weekly) that Maher made a “sexist” comment involving Stern’s first wife and “was actually dumping on me” during an episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast. “He took a big shot at me,” Stern said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In the introduction for the upcoming book “Succession: Season Four: The Complete Scripts” (via Vulture), series creator Jesse Armstrong reveals a debate occurred on how to end the Emmy-winning HBO drama. The team could write one final season consisting of 10 episodes (the show’s first two seasons had that episode count, while Season 3 consisted of nine episodes), or follow in the footsteps of “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad” by having an increased episode count and splitting up the final season into two parts.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Guillermo del Toro confirmed on X/Twitter that he planned to direct a “Star Wars” movie around four years ago from a script by David S. Goyer, best known known for writing superhero movies such as “Batman Begins,” “Man of Steel” and more. The project never made it past development, but Goyer confirmed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that “a lot of cool art work” was produced for it.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Evans knows that critics hated “Ghosted,” his Apple original movie co-starring Ana de Armas. The film, directed by Dexter Fletcher, opened in April to abysmal reviews. It currently boasts a 26% Rotten Tomatoes score, and Variety called it “over-the-top and convoluted.” (Other critics, like IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, were even more brutal, calling the film “insultingly bland.”) In a new interview with GQ magazine, Evans admitted the film could’ve been better.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Leonardo DiCaprio finally weighed in on the massive “Killers of the Flower Moon” rewrite that changed the direction of Martin Scorsese’s latest historical epic. The script originally centered on FBI agent Tom White, who DiCaprio was supposed to play, as he investigates a string of murders among the Osage Nation in the 1920s. That perspective kept the film in line with the majority of David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name, but something about telling “Flower Moon” from the FBI’s point of view did not sit right with DiCaprio or Scorsese.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Walter Isaacson’s new Elon Musk biography reveals an alleged altercation between the Twitter/X owner and comedian Larry David that took place at the wedding of Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel last year in Saint-Tropez, France. The event took place just a few days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. David and Musk were seated at the same wedding table.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Speaking to Entertainment Tonight Canada at the world premiere of his biographical documentary “Sly,” Sylvester Stallone called himself “the last of the dinosaurs” while praising his career longevity. The “Rocky” icon was referring to the fact that he’s one of the few ’80s action stars left continuing to headline movies, which is the case with the upcoming fourth “Expendables” movie. He’s also the lead of the Paramount+ series “Tulsa King,” which has been renewed for a second season.