1. In case you haven’t heard the thrilling news yet, the long-awaited Season 5 premiere of Mad Men on March 25, which was penned by series creator Matthew Weiner, is going to be a delicious two hours long. [via Vulture]

2. Contraband, Mark Wahlberg’s new thriller about an ex drug smuggler forced to get back into the game, surprised us all by wining the top spot at the weekend box office, taking in an estimated $24 million. Beauty and the Beast 3-D came in second place, with $18.5 million in ticket sales, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol — which has already made more than the original Mission: Impossible movie — rounded out the top three with a $11.5 million draw. [via ArtsBeat]

3. Taking the company’s unhealthy obsession with giant glass structures to a whole new level, a planned Apple Store in Aix en Provence, France is basically going to be invisible. [via Gizmodo]

4. Multiple medical marijuana dispensaries in LA are selling a new strain of marijuana called “OG Blue Ivy,” in homage to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s new baby daughter Blue Ivy Carter. In related news: an Australian researcher has named a horsefly that has a golden butt after Beyoncé. [via NME, EW]

5. According to the Daily Express, two members of the Downton Abbey cast, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery (aka Countess of Grantham and her daughter Lady Mary), are recording an album together that’s due out later this year.

Bonus Buzz: Top 2 Tina Fey Photobombs at the Golden Globes

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got seven new trailers this week, ranging from the joy of Elmo and Dolly to the horrors of Katherine Heigl; check ‘em out after the jump.

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Sean Penn, never the wallflower, has some opinions he’d like to share about his latest film, The Tree of Life. His thoughts may surprise you! (If you know absolutely nothing about Sean Penn, that is.) The actor told the French publication Le Figaro, “I didn’t at all find on the screen the emotion of the script, which is the most magnificent one that I’ve ever read. A clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact. Frankly, I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing there and what I was supposed to add in that context! What’s more, Terry himself never managed to explain it to me clearly.”

While Penn’s complaints may have resonated with the refund-refused moviegoers of Connecticut, most have seen it as rather bad form—particularly for a critically-acclaimed picture that is still in general release. On the other hand, he’s certainly not the first actor to publicly diss his own work; we’ve collected some of our favorites after the jump.

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Plenty of film critics and movie pundits have bemoaned the lack of truly great films in 2010, and while that’s not necessarily a notion that’s without validity, it could also be said that there was a surplus of awfully good movies this year. There may not have been many that really knocked us back, that pulled together ace screenplays, smart direction, and brilliant acting into the full package, the way the best movies do. But there was plenty to entertain, to enlighten, to thrill, to arouse; even some of the year’s lesser movies had an element — a good performance here, a memorable scene there — worth recommending. So with that, let’s take a look at some of the best scenes from this year’s movies — not all of them in films that were great (or, in some cases, even particularly good), but all meriting a spot in our 2010 movie scene mixtape.

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1. Madonna — who admittedly has some of the best guns in the business — is opening a chain of gyms around the world that will be known as Hard Candy Fitness. [via AP]
2. Paul the Psychic Octopus, who correctly predicted the outcome of several world World Cup matches, passed away last night at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre in Germany. He will be missed… particularly by gamblers. [via The Daily What]
3. The Daily Beast has ranked America’s smartest (and dumbest) cities, with Boston topping their list and Las Vegas pulling up the rear.
4. Mark Wahlberg will star in Ted, the directorial debut of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. The film is a buddy movie about a man and his teddy bear, who thanks to a childhood wish, has come to life. [via Deadline]
5. Ang Lee has cast newcomer Suraj Sharma to play the lead role of 16-year old Pi Patel in his upcoming adaptation of The Life of Pi. [via Deadline]

Bonus link: Longreads.com has launched!

1. The New York Times asks where all of the quote-worthy movie moments have disappeared to in the aughts. Maybe Hollywood screenwriters have simply run out of annoying catchphrases.
2. Jon Stewart is expanding his “Rally to Restore Sanity” to the West Coast. The satellite event will be held in Los Angeles on October 30th at the Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park. [via THR]
3. Malcolm Gladwell and Mark Wahlberg are teaming up on a CIA drama for HBO that will be set in Cold War-era Berlin. [via Deadline]
4. A new exhibition called Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses will open at Seattle’s Experience Music Project this April. Included in the show: Kurt Cobain’s previously undisplayed high school paintings and pieces of the first guitar he ever destroyed on stage. [via NME]
5. Facebook is joining MTV, GLAAD, and a host of other organizations to combat anti-LGBT bullying through a “Network of Support.” [via Mashable]

Bonus link: NME Cool List 2010

Today at Flavorpill, we wanted to take a ride on this bizarre tricycle, but we weren’t sure exactly how to go about it. We tripped out over Leo Villareal’s hypnotic light sculptures. We found this handy chart which tallies the insane body count in The Expendables. We wondered if a Destiny’s Child reunion will ever happen. We listened as Christopher Walken read us some things. We were glad that the word “cheeseball” finally made it into the Oxford Dictionary of English. We loved this spoof on 16 & Pregnant. We watched Arcade Fire’s new video for “Ready to Start.” We were intrigued by the news that Mark Wahlberg and James Frey will be working together on a new show for HBO about the porn biz. We reimagined Free Willy as a horror movie. And finally, we wondered what someone did to this poor potato to push him past his breaking point.

1. Someone stole Kanye West‘s Porsche Panamera and crashed it into a multimillion-dollar house in Honolulu, where he has been working on a new album. [via The Daily Swarm]
2. Mark Wahlberg has confirmed that a big-screen adaptation of Entourage is in the works. “In the trailer, you see [Ari and his associate, Lloyd] waking up together in Vegas not knowing what happened. It would be pretty cool!” [via MTV]
3. Jive Records is trying to block Andre 3000 from appearing on “Lookin’ For Ya,” a track off of Big Boi‘s upcoming solo album Sir Luscious Left Foot. You can listen to it here. [via Vulture]
4. You can now rent the NYC apartment that Barack Obama lived in way back in 1981. [via Gawker]
5. Did Gus Van Sant really lobby hard for The Breaking Dawn directing gig? [via The Playlist]

Bonus link: 5 (More) Places to Buy (and Sell) Affordable Art

Another Will Ferrell/Adam McKay collaboration is on the horizon, the duo moving on from lampooning news anchors and NASCAR drivers to a new buddy-cop flick The Other Guys. In the past it was Ferrell’s gleeful idiocy and braggadocio that made characters like Ron Burgundy so quotable; here, he’s relegated as the bespectacled straight man to Mark Wahlberg’s peacock-imitating alpha male.

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HBO’s newest series, How to Make It in America, officially debuts on Valentine’s Day, but they’ve already leaked the pilot online. The show — which stars Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk — focuses on two New York City guys in their twenties who are trying to break into the fashion industries; art galleries, plaid flannels, and Wilhelmina models all naturally figure in. Executive producers include Rob Weiss (who inspired the insane director, Billy Walsh of Entourage), Mark Wahlberg, and creator Ian Edelman, among others.

Watch the pilot, and then download “How to Make it In America: The Mixtape” courtesy of KiD CuDi (who also stars), DJ Green Lantern & Broke Mogul (DECON) after the jump.

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