Movies
+ Superbad boy Jonah Hill is in early negotiations to costar opposite
Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 2 for DreamWorks and Paramount. Hill will
provide the comic relief as a sidekick to LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky. (A
source tells EW that he'll play Sam's college roommate, but DreamWorks
won't confirm.) The sequel is set to begin shooting this summer.
+ Insiders are questioning whether Speed Racer — a PG-rated take on the
cult '60s cartoon from the Wachowski brothers — will face a few roadblocks
at the box office. They point to early tracking numbers that predict an
opening in the mid-$30 million range for Racer — which cost $120 million
to make and is sandwiched between Iron Man and the Narnia sequel Prince
Caspian on the summer release slate. Warner Bros.' president of domestic
distribution, Dan Fellman, won't comment on box office projections, but
he disputes that the film, which graced a recent EW cover, is suffering
from low awareness: ''Family tracking is great, and we got a bump from
17- to 35-year-olds, probably fans of the TV show.'' Still, those folks
likely discovered Racer during its irony-laden mid-'90s renaissance on
MTV. The Wachowski version, on the other hand, plays directly to kids
with videogame-like F/X, simple dialogue, and lots of scenes with a pet
monkey. No caped avengers or flying bullets here — just high-octane family
fun. ''The Wachowskis have made a lot of R-rated movies,'' says producer
Joel Silver. ''They wanted to finally make a film for everybody.'' The
question now is whether everybody will show up. — Nicole Sperling with additional reporting by Carrie Bell
Television
+ With few exceptions (think: JAG), established shows seldom thrive when
they switch networks. But that doesn't seem to concern ABC, which is all
but certain to poach Scrubs from NBC, and may even swipe The New
Adventures of Old Christine if CBS fails to renew the Julia
Louis-Dreyfus sitcom. An ABC spokeswoman wouldn't comment, but
the new home for Scrubs makes sense: Disney owns both the show and ABC,
so the company would benefit by making more episodes to sell in
syndication. As for Christine, which averages 10.4 million viewers, it
could be in play if CBS doesn't launch a second night of comedies next
fall. There's only room for four sitcoms on Mondays — right now, CBS has
five — and Rules of Engagement pulls a larger audience (10.7 million),
while How I Met Your Mother, with a median age of 43, is the youngest
show on CBS. — Lynette Rice
Music
+ Ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters' gig at Coachella set off
two aerial controversies. Though Waters' camp was reportedly denied
permission, a plane dropped Obama flyers that instead landed in nearby
yards. Speaking of debris: An inflatable pig bearing a pro-Obama slogan
floated off midshow, and a $10K reward was offered — not by Waters, who
often sets pigs adrift at outdoor gigs, but fest organizers who wanted
the souvenir. Susan Stoltz found half the swine in her driveway — ''pretty
shredded, like pulled pork,'' she tells EW. Maybe a Hillary supporter or
oft-estranged Floyd guitarist David Gilmour brought it down with a
rocket launcher? — Chris Willman
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