Happy New Year!  I hope that you are happy and healthy in 2007!

All my Love,

Leora

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Ariel and I went to see the new Will Ferrell movie "Stranger Than Fiction" the other day and we thought it was one of the best movies we’ve seen this year.  You’re immediately drawn in to the movie with really intelligent and well done special effects that paint a picture of what might go through the mind of an obsessive compulsive person.  It’s hard to describe them but it immediately got my attention.

The plot is far fetched but if you manage to use your imagination the story is heartwarming, funny and intelligent.  I’m sure a literature professor would get a really kick out of this film as would any connoisseur of the literary arts.

Will Farrell’s performance was both unexpected and welcome.  This isn’t his typical goofy role or yet another reprisal of an SNL skit.  This film, more than any other work, truly demonstrates that Farrell is a great actor.  Perhaps he’ll be doing more serious movies in the future? 

Another unexpected performance was from Queen Latifah who did a great job playing Penny Escher.  I’ve also never seen her act in a serious role before.  Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thomson were fantastic as usual and Maggie Gyllenhaal was cute but didn’t blow me away.  Is it just me or does Maggie always play the same character in all her movies?  It seems she’s always the progressive rule breaker. Regardless, she and Will had great on screen chemistry.

My favorite scene in the movie was when Dustin Hoffman was walking around his office barefoot.  That man has nice toes!  hehe

"Stranger Than Fiction" is a great movie, check it out!

Tags: stranger than fiction, dustin hoffman, emma thomson, maggie gyllenhaal, queen latifah

I’m embarrased to admit that I’ve yet to actually see a James Bond movie so I’m really not one to judge this but the buzz is that Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever.  What do you think?

Personally I think Pierce Brosnan is better looking…

Congratulations Casino Royale for becoming the highest grossing James Bond film to date! Daniel Craig certainly has earned his title of “Best Bond Ever” with his movie’s worldwide total reaching a whopping $448 million (that’s $17 million better than Pierce Brosnan’s Die Another Day

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If you live in or are visiting New York, Miami or Las Vegas pop down to one of the following clubs to run into your favorite stars and then send me pictures!

MIAMI:
• Lindsay Lohan has been snapped chilling poolside at the Delano Hotel, so it’s only fitting that she’s set to party at the South Beach hot spot alongside celebs such as Michelle Trachtenberg, Taye Diggs, Kimberly Stewart, Maxwell and Sofia Vergara.
• At Mansion, DJ AM, Travis Barker and Lohan’s ex Wilmer Valderrama will reign over the festivities. As Valderrama tells PEOPLE, "What’s a better way to celebrate a great year than coming to Mansion?"
• Euro-chic lounge Prive and Opium Garden, the open-air club it overlooks, will welcome Dave Navarro, Kristin Cavallari and Spider-Man 3’s James Franco.
• Jared Leto will helm the party at the Raleigh Hotel, owned by Uma Thurman’s beau Andre Balazs, where guests can mingle in an open-air beachfront bar.
• Luke Wilson, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Robert Iler and Tyson Beckford will celebrate at Skybar as rapper Q-Tip plays emcee.
• At Setai, Jessica Alba, Haylie Duff and The O.C.’s Benjamin McKenzie will host a poolside soiree with sounds by celeb DJ Steve Aoki.
• Adrian Grenier plays a movie star on Entourage, but he’ll be playing rock star at the Hotel Victor when he performs with his band the Honey Brothers.
• Ludacris will rock a party at Social Miami at the Sagamore Hotel hosted by Venus and Serena Williams.

LAS VEGAS:
• Talk about out with the old: Britney Spears will usher in the New Year with a bash at Caesars Palace’s PURE nightclub – the backdrop for Kevin Federline’s "Lose Control" video. Ouch!
• Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden will take over the deejay booth at Ghostbar on the 55th floor of the Palms Casino Resort. Will new squeeze Nicole Richie be there to kiss him at midnight?
• Battle of the exes: Pamela Anderson will host a bash at Tao at the Venetian while her soon-to-be ex-husband Kid Rock parties across the street at The Mirage’s Jet nightclub – and first husband Tommy Lee performs with Rock Star: Supernova at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
• As he did in 2005, Vince Vaughn will bring his Wild West Comedy tour to Mandalay Bay. This year, John Favreau will join him onstage to mark the 10-year anniversary of Swingers, the movie that made them famous. "Vegas, Baby!"

NEW YORK CITY:
• In Times Square, Carson Daly will count down to midnight on NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly, featuring a performance by rockers Panic! At the Disco, while Christina Aguilera belts in the New Year for ABC’s Ryan Seacrest-hosted Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (Fergie, Natasha Bedingfield and Meat Loaf are also slated to perform).
• After her Times Square show, Aguilera will head over to the Hudson Hotel to guest host a party co-sponsored by Heineken (her husband, Jordan Bratman, already requested eight cases Heineken Light).
• Mira Sorvino will party with The Sopranos’ Federico Castelluccio as well as Elias Koteas, Caroline Rhea and … her dad, Paul Sorvino, at Nikki Beach Midtown.
• The ultra-exclusive Room Service will open its doors for a bash hosted by MTV’S Damien Fahey. Revelers can reserve one of the nine private suites complete with leather couches, a mini-fridge, a plasma TV and DVD player, and a concierge. Come 3 a.m. guests will even be served a gourmet breakfast. Now that’s service!

Source Tags: new year’s eve, fergie, lindsay lohan, vince vaughn, hilary duff, duff

Julia Roberts is pregnant again!  Congrats!

Hazel and Finn will soon have to share their famous mom’s attention: Julia Roberts is expecting her third child with husband Danny Moder.

Roberts is due this summer, her rep, Marcy Engelman, confirms exclusively to PEOPLE.

Did anyone notice a baby bump at her Charlotte’s Web Premiere?

Source Tags: julia roberts, pregnant, baby bump, charlotte’s web, dakota fanning

Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal are two of my favorite movie stars so I’m really glad they got out unharmed from this fire at their hotel:

Jake Gyllenhaal battled hurricanes and tidal waves in The Day After Tomorrow, but on Wednesday he faced a real-life natural disaster: A fire at the California hotel where he was vacationing with his family.

Gyllenhaal, 26, and his actress sister Maggie, 29, were among the guests forced to flee Manka’s Inverness Lodge in the San Francisco Bay area when the two-story wooden inn caught fire around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Marin Independent Journal reports.

"Jake was helping me pull things out of the fire," Daniel DeLong, a chef and co-owner of the historic lodge where the actors had often vacationed, told the Journal.

The blaze apparently started after a tree crashed into the back of the building near a water heater. "It was during a very high windstorm and a tree came down. The cause of the actual fire has not been determined at this point, but it totally destroyed the lodge," Kaaren Gann, a spokeswoman for the Iverness Fire Dept, told PEOPLE.

Eight people were believed to have been upstairs in the lodge when the fire broke out, while others were staying in cabins scattered throughout the property, Gann said. Only the lodge burned down, and no one was injured.

The inn and its restaurant were known as a place where A-listers could unwind in a relaxed environment: Prince Charles dined there last year, and DeLong told the Journal that over Christmas he’d cooked grits for the Gyllenhaals as well as actress Frances McDormand and her husband, filmmaker Joel Cohen.

"We just do what we do," he said.

In honor of their safe escape I vow to watch Donnie Darko this weekend and I suggest that if you haven’t seen this awesome movie starring the Gyllenhaal siblings to run out and get it because it’s an awesome movie!

Source and Source Tags: jake gyllenhaal, maggie gyllenhaal, fire, donnie darko, hotel fire, movie star

I loved Michelle Trachtenberg when she played the adorable Dawn Summers on the TV show Buffy but I haven’t noticed much that she’s done since.  Yesterday she was at MTV’s TRL promoting her new movie "Black Christmas" that comes out in just a few days on Christmas.  She also has three more movies in the works:

• The Possibility of Fireflies
• Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight
• Kickin It Old Skool

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Not being a Christian I don’t really get why anyone would complain about a stupid horror movie.  Are you offended by it?

Christian groups have slammed the remake of cult 1974 movie Black Christmas, because they find the horror movie "offensive."

The Glen Morgan-directed film stars Oliver Hudson, Katie Cassidy, Lacey Chabert and Michelle Trachtenberg and centers on a group of college students who battle a slasher over the Christmas holidays.

The movie will be released on Christmas Day, much to the horror of Christian groups.

Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, says, "To have a movie that emphasizes murder and mayhem at Christmas, a time of celebration and joy around the world seems to be ill-founded."

Jennifer Giroux, co-founder of Operation Just Say Merry Christmas, adds, "The use of religious music ‘Silent Night’ and the nativity set on the front porch in one scene are insensitive to Christians.

"It’s not enough to ignore and omit Christmas, but now it has to be offended, insulted and desecrated. Our most sacred holiday, actually a holy day, is being assaulted."

That being said I won’t be spending my money to see this movie…Here’s the trailer:

Source Tags: horror, christmas, black christmas

Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest has broken a DVD sales record.  I must say I’m a big Jack Sparrow fan and loved this movie as well as the original Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl.  What a great Christmas or Chanukah present these DVDs could be.  Just buy the DVDs, some Gourmet Pirate’s Booty and maybe these adorable Pirate Skull Magnets and either wrap them in a pirate flag or put them into this pirate trash can.

Tags: pirates, pirates of the caribbean, dead man’s chest, black pearl, jack sparrow, record sales

Robert De Niro at "The Good Shepherd" Premiere

Source Tags: robert de niro, the good shepherd premiere