Tracy Morgan

● Tracy Morgan left the hospital and Utah yesterday, oxygen tank in tow. "Superman ran into a little Kryptonite today," he told TMZ, explaining that exhaustion and the altitude at Sundance had made him sick. [TMZ]

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Needless to say, last night's Stefon sketch on SNL had everything: stickball, a Pakistani family that cuts in line at Universal Studios, upper lowerside hotspots, scrunchies and a shaved lion that looks like Mario Batali. The most unexpected: Ben Stiller reprising his Derek Zoolander character. Take a look.

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"My success is a poison chalice."

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Since "young and hip" was the goal, we understand why comedians weren't hired to host last night's Academy Awards -- a decision, by the way, that most people agree backfired. But it's an entirely different thing to include virtually no comedians in the broadcast at all.

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Happy Tears - We grow old. It goes without saying, and yet, we don’t say it much. Happy Tears contends with this inevitability. Parker Posey and Demi Moore play sisters who return home to care for their increasingly delusional father (Rip Torn). Mitchell Lichtenstein, director of vagina dentata classic Teeth, honors his own father, late pop-art star Roy Lichtenstein, by crafting whimsical fantasy sequences that mimic his work. Posey and Moore aren’t always believable as kin and, poetically, it’s left to the old folks to steal the show: Torn’s peculiar brand of crazy -- unlike his character -- never gets old, while Ellen Barkin is downright resplendent as an aging sexpot who claims to be his nurse. (Think: Elle Woods in 30 years, rocking a prop stethoscope.) -- Eiseley Tauginas

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●Jamie Foxx might clinch the role of Frank Sinatra in the upcoming Martin Scorsese bio-pic over Johnny Depp, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Harry Connick Jr. because “cool is colorblind” [PopCrunch] ●John Mayer cementing his D-bag/Lothario status by stumbling out a club Saturday night covered head to chest in red-lipstick kisses from no doubt his countless admirers. [Dlisted] ●Despite making millions of people laugh in films like Zoolander and Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller doesn’t find himself particularly funny. [Showbizspy]

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● Warren Beatty has a new film project in the works -- his first in almost a decade -- and he wants Lindsay Lohan to act opposite him. The only catch is Lohan must live with Beatty during the filming ... I suppose as a way to monitor her partying ways. Sounds like a movie in itself. [FoxNews] ● Evidently Ben Stiller’s Joaquin Phoenix/Hasidic meth lab worker bit was a surprise to Oscar producers. Stiller created the bit and kept it a secret till he got on stage after he had a meltdown over the planned script. [P6] ● Kanye West was left embarrassed, for once, after fashion maven Vivienne Westwood had no idea who he was. West congratulated the designer on her show, and Westwood just stared at the "greatest rapper of our generation" blankly. Word is Kayne's head exploded Murakami-style from the diss. [NYDN]

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Ben Stiller must have known when he wrote and directed his upcoming comedy Tropic Thunder that a storm of backlash/boycott could result. Now, after months of online viral marketing for the war film-within-a-film Hollywood spoof, and just days before its release, enough people have seen it to mobilize an offensive of their own. Disability groups, including the National Down Syndrome Congress and the American Association of People with Disabilities, want to lighten Ben Stiller's pockets.

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The early noughties were kind to comedian Ben Stiller. He milked cats with Robert De Niro, struck blue steel opposite Will Ferrell in Zoolander, and wore a heavily imitated red tracksuit in one of the best films of 2001. But then there were flops, so many flops, that seemed to position Stiller as, well, an unfunny funnyman. Along came Envy, Polly, and Duplex. There was an abysmal night spent in the museum with Robin Williams. But then Stiller pulled together a husky Tom Cruise, a beminstreled Robert Downey Jr., and a cast of greats to star in the hilarious Tropic Thunder, out later this summer. Then word came today that he would star opposite Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon in an untitled romantic comedy directed by Cameron Crowe. We're still a little worried, however, because Stiller, when things aren't looking so good laughs-wise, tends to retreat into sequels and animated fare. Up next for him? Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian and the pixellated Monsters vs. Aliens. And, as Stiller once said, you can milk almost anything.

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imageWhen Ben Stiller isn’t trying to relive the Farrelly gross-out glory days (The Heartbreak Kid) or solidify his box office clout in paint-by-numbers family fare (A Night at The Museum), he can be an edgy comedic renaissance man (Zoolander). Tropic Thunder is the A-list actor’s second effort since his male model elegy to write, direct, and star in an all-out comedy binge. The film, which shot in Hawaii and features cameos from Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey, is about a group of primadonna actors who think they’re shooting a war movie, only to find themselves caught in an actual war. Think Platoon meets For Your Consideration. The film garnered buzz last week when it was revealed through a photo that Robert Downey Jr. will be playing a thesp with a Day-Lewis-esque devotion, who decides to... well, just see for yourself after the jump.

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