1. Demi Moore has been cast as feminist icon Gloria Steinem in that Linda Lovelace biopic that we feel like we’ve been reading about forever now, and is finally shooting in Los Angeles. Also part of the ensemble: Amanda Seyfried, who plays Lovelace, Peter Sarsgaard as her husband, and James Franco, who will make a cameo as Hugh Hefner. [via THR]

2. On New Year’s Eve Patti Smith announced that her annual residency at the Bowery Ballroom — a beloved tradition for New York-based rock fans — was coming to an end; according to Lenny Kaye, her lead guitarist, the band will continue doing the yearly batch of shows, just at an alternate location. [via ArtsBeat]

3. Despite underwhelming performance at the box office, Sony says that a sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is still in the works, with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara already on board to reprise their starring roles. That said, David Fincher has not signed on to direct the sequel just yet. [via Vulture]

4. Elton John would like for Justin Timberlake to play him in a forthcoming biopic that’s in the works; JT previously played a younger version of the legendary performer in David LaChapelle’s video for “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore.” [via LAT]

5. A pixelated image of Morrissey has been hidden in Google Earth, just outside of the UK’s Salford Lads Club, the venue that appears on the cover of The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead album. [via NME]

Bonus Buzz: Who’s Writing Rupert Murdoch’s Tweets?

Today at Flavorpill, we were sad to hear that famed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta had died at 82. We felt uncomfortable listening to Andy Rooney rant about music world upstarts like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Usher. We couldn’t believe that Poster Boy was sentenced to 11 months in jail. We were charmed by the results of Lego’s collaboration with Muji. We met Andrey Ternovskiy, an eighteen-year-old high-school dropout, and the brilliant mind behind Chatroulette. We were happy to hear that “C.O.G.,” one of the short stories from David Sedaris’ Naked is being adapted into a film. We applauded Kristin Chenoweth for attacking a Newsweek article that suggested that many openly gay actors can’t play straight — namely, her Promises, Promises co-star Sean Hayes. We wanted to visit all 8 of the weirdest hotels on Earth. We saw the first image of Peter Sarsgaard made up as Dr. Hector Hammond for The Green Lantern… and he looked kind of familiar. And finally, we found this Pulp Fiction chronological sequence of events infographic quite helpful. Now we’re craving a Royale with cheese.

Today we’re checking out the trailer for An Education, an upcoming period drama about a British schoolgirl (dead ringer for Audrey Hepburn Carey Mulligan) whose Oxford-bound future is thrown for a loop when she meets an older man.  The preview is lush — ’50s costumes! London! Paris! Peter Sarsgaard! — and kind of reminds us of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which is not a reference we can make often. Read More »

When we first heard that Rawson Marshall Thurber — the same man who directed Dodgeball — was adapting Michael Chabon’s debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, we were slightly incredulous. But in an odd way it made sense: the silly comedy was all about a team of underdogs, and you could argue that the book’s protagonist Art Bechstein, the son of a powerful mob man, was kind of in the same boat. And as Thurber explained at The Mysteries of Pittsburgh press day, it was a project that he’d been dying to take on even before he knew he wanted to make movies for a living. Read More »

So: Vanya is a virgin. Of course! It’s everywhere! The confusion of infatuation and love (“You are my joy, my life and my youth!”); the ridiculous superlatives (“I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman in my entire life.”).  The childish ideal of feminine purity (“a noble, gentle creature, pure as that blue sky above”); the false, showy cynicism (“Is she faithful to the Professor?” Astrov asks. “Unfortunately yes.”). The bumbling assertiveness when he lunges for a kiss (“First let me make peace with myself! My darling…”); the simpering fear when a woman takes offense (“Wait, wait, my joy, my ecstasy, forgive me. I apologize.”). It’s everywhere, and we missed it ― until Denis O’Hare showed us.

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Books: Will A-Rod’s roid scandal encourage Joe Torre’s book sales?
Dance/Opera: Salvaging NYC’s opera scene
Design: Chip Kidd dubs Tony Stark design’s super hero.
Film: Michael Cera Bale’s out on the set of Youth In Revolt.
Music: Chris Brown surrenders to the fuzz.
Television: The first 10 minutes of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse revealed — in case you can’t wait for Friday.
Theatre: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are so freaking cute.
Visual Arts: Shepard Fairey arrested on the way to his own opening.
Web: “I’m on a boat.”

Broadway might need a bailout: The Daily Telegraph reports that only two shows made money this difficult season — The Seagull and All My Sons. Sorry, Harry. So what can we expect Broadway producers to do with this new information? 1. Opt for more limited runs. 2. Cast shows with big name stars. 3. Choose only established classics. The good news: At least this should rule out more dreck like Shrek. [Telegraph]

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Prop 8 boycotters be damned, the slate for this year’s Sundance Film Festival has been announced, and as always it reads like an overwhelming buffet of tasty cinematic treasures along with a few movies that we would never, ever want to see. The ones that we’re the most excited about? The films that star the actors who we love most, naturally.

(Admittedly this is a flawed way of doing things, as last year it meant that we completely missed out on Momma’s Man and Man on Wire, but our screening powers are only as good as our unhealthy crush on Michael Cera.)

After the jump, the five flicks that we’ll be vying for good seats at come January; leave your own picks in the comments.

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