Morning Meme: DiCaprio Loves Hammer, Franco Wants Sal Mineo, and an Early Review of "Shameless USA"

Armie Hammer has joined the Clint Eastwood/Dustin Lance Black biopic Hoover. The 6’5” hunk is going to play Clyde Tolson, the number two at the FBI and allegedly J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio)’s secret lover. That’s an image I won’t soon get out of my head. And I’m fine with that.

Charlize Theron has signed up for the part of Helen Gandy, Hoover’s personal secretary for more than 54 years.

So someone new and cute has been cast on 90210, and you now care a great deal about the thin acting resume of Freddie Smith.

Space X successfully launched a rocket and recovered the capsule. This ushers in private space travel, at least to low earth orbit. Some speculate that could lead to private space mansions for the very rich, just like the wealthy built islands in Dubai.

James Franco has optioned the biography of Sal Mineo, costar with James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Mineo has a past both celebrated and checkered, and had a fairly well documented sexuality that wasn’t entirely straight.

The Writers Guild of America have announced their nominations. Glee and Modern Family feature prominently, as do As the World Turns and One Life To Live, which should cover parts that had Kish.

Senator Collins has agreed to vote for the Defense Appropriations Bill, which contains Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, but only after they pass tax cuts for the rich. That’s right folks, tax cuts for billionaires come before funding the troops, the wars, or national security. And shame on Democrats for not saying that over and over until it sticks.

Back in the bad old days, before Disney shelled out $7 billion to buy Pixar, they feuded with the company. And one idea they came up with was to create Toy Story 3 for direct-to-video with a plotline about Buzz Lightyear getting recalled. Instead they have a possible Best Picture Nominee.

The gold company that Glenn Beck has been pimping as he forecast the coming fall of America has had all its assets seized by the courts for “fraud.”

You’ll get to see all the nudity, sex and pain of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, because the MPAA has overturned their own NC-17 rating of Blue Valentine, clearing the way for a wide release of the film as an R.

Alan Ball’s dark comedy All Signs of Death has been scrapped by HBO. Which is fine, because I want all his attention on True Blood.

MTV plans to put Snooki in a ball and drop her for New Year’s Eve. I’m sure that won’t be nearly as satisfying as it sounds.

Lady Gaga beat out competitors such as Miley Cyrus for CNN’s Most Provocative Celebrity of 2010. That they were both in the same category shows a flawed logic I can’t even begin to describe.

Pat Buchanan wants to defund the Smithsonian Institution for the exhibit of gay art currently being displayed. I tell you what Pat, as soon as they paint over the nudes of Michaelangelo, Rafael, and all the other great artists who were mostly sponsored by the church, we can talk about it.

Kellan Lutz says he’s not a gym rat, living to lift weights to maintain that incredible body. In fact, he’s eating jelly beans right now. Which makes that body even more amazing (and annoying).

I have to admit, I’m a little uncomfortable talking about Sarah Palin again. But Aaron Sorkin’s takedown of her killing the moose on her “reality” show and butchering it on television is epic. And as for her preemptive attempt to call everyone hypocrites, well, if she historically and regularly hunts and butchers her own moose, then maybe we are. If she killed that animal for ratings, Sorkin may have a strong point.

Nine years after a truck carrying chocolate sauce crashed into a trailer in Los Angeles, another truck containing whipped cream crashed into the same trailer. I hope they weren’t expecting a decent tip for service like that.

The Wachowski siblings are having some trouble funding their gay Iraq soldier story, so they’re going to make a modern retelling of Robin Hood while that falls into place. Because that’s what the world wants, a derivative story, and not something original and daring.

Disney has moved up the release of the new Muppets movie to Thanksgiving Day, which they typically save for their big animated film of the winter. That shows a lot of confidence.

Someone who has never watched the original Shameless reviewed an early cut of the American version and loved it. It’s hard to worry about spoiling a story that’s largely been done, but I don’t think this standout quote is too much:

Aside from its raw energy, the most promising aspect of the series has to be the complicated relationship between brothers Lip and Ian. Monaghan delivers one of the most realistic depictions of a gay teen ever seen on television. He's a fully-realized character with plenty of dimensions that help us understand what he's going through. Meanwhile, White delivers my favorite performance in the pilot as he struggles to come to terms with his brother's sexuality.