BlackBook

With his new series House of Lies premiering next week, it looks like David Fincher has some other exciting non-feature film projects in the works. The Playlist confirms for us that yes, the man who brought us Fight Club, Zodiac, Seven, etc. will now be directing the video for Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie," the first single off his new album. Apparently J.T. and Fincher must have gotten pretty chummy while filming The Social Network and are collaborating once again with production already underway. No stranger to the world of music, not only did Fincher got his start on videos and commercials—with Nine Inch Nails' "Only" his last hand at cinema for the sonic—but music always plays such a key role in his films.

Did you watch The Newsroom last night? I didn't! I'll tell you why: 1. I was out at a bar having fun like a normal human, and 2. I kind of hate Aaron Sorkin. Sure, I have never seen The West Wing, Studio 60, or Sports Night, but I always felt like I've had a good handle on them because I have seen The American President, The Social Network, and Moneyball. Know what I mean? What I'm saying: I can only take so much of big-feathered A-list actors delivering grand monologues that give Mr. Sorkin a major boner. Turns out I was on to something!

There's been much chatter about all the things The Social Network has spawned: Jesse Eisenberg's stardom, Justin Timberlake's acting cred, Aaron Sorkin vs. the Internet, Mark Zuckerberg as pop culture icon, and so on and so forth. But what no one's really properly gauged—unless we missed it—is the impact it might have on movies that use Facebook as a plot enabler. Cue XOXO, a new thriller from in-demand Black Swan scribe Mark Heyman, that aims to play the Zuckerberg brainchild for scares.

Well, at least one part of The Social Network is true. Harvard president and legendary asshole Lawrence Summers said in a press conference that the scene where he shuts out the spoiled Winklevii twins is more or less accurate, except he didn't ask anyone to punch him in the face. Glad to hear Sorkin et al left at least part of the story alone! Watch Summers explain after the jump.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that last night's Oscars were something of a disaster. Absolutely nothing unexpected happened awards-wise, with the Oscar bait-y (but great!) The King's Speech cleaning up in most categories. James Franco and Anne Hathaway weren't great -- but they weren't terrible! James Franco was totally stoned. At least we have that. And Gwyneth Paltrow sang/bleated, something she does a lot these days. After the jump, some quick analysis of this year's un-young and un-hip show.

The Social Network, the overhyped film of the moment – as Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers would have it, "an American landmark!" – may be the biggest movie splash about so little in Hollywood history. The ratio of the film’s perceived value and obvious self-importance to the piddling scale of its subject matter easily outpaces any other movie in memory. But why does The Social Network exist? Because Mark Zuckerberg made a truckload of money? Even Robert Redford’s Quiz Show – a lauded drama about a famous 1950s TV quiz show fix, and a movie I’ve always thought to be assuming a mountainous stature for being a very modest molehill – has more stake in our lives. So would a biopic of Justin Bieber, though the prospect of that makes me want to eat glass. Is The Social Network more than the story of a rather simple Internet startup that resulted in obscene wealth and a few lawsuits? It doesn’t seem so, and it’s certainly not about science.

● Reality show pros Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and that one in Miami, are coming to New York City to shop and date for cameras. Sister Khloe was like, "Enough is enough," or just got left out. [Page Six] ● The Social Network took home $23 million its opening weekend, more than enough to earn first place at the box office, but for Mark Zuckerberg, it's like a bellboy tip. [Vulture] ● BREAKING: Courtney Love tweets a naked photo. [HuffPo]

October 1: David Fincher’s The Social Network is released. We like this. October 2: Jon Stewart hosts Night of Too Many Stars, an autism benefit featuring Chris Rock and Tina Fey. In this case, autism is kind of benefiting us. October 3: See blotches of paint worth more than some countries when Abstract Expressionist New York opens at MoMA.

Yesterday at the Soho Apple Store, The Social Network director David Fincher and star Jesse Eisenberg sat for a Q&A. Given that there’s already been significant flap over the film’s accuracy, especially with respect to its portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, it came as no surprise that someone asked the pair about possible misrepresentation. Just how fast and loose are they playing with the lives of Zuckerberg et al? Fincher spoke for both of them, saying, “I don’t think it would be responsible for either of us to enter into an endeavor that was simply a million dollar hatchet job.”

When the excellent trailer for David Fincher's The Social Network hit, it surprised a lot of people. We had built-in expectations for a movie about Harvard twerps creating a website in their dorm rooms, and the dark, dramatic preview subverted them. What it also did was hint that this will be a movie as much about partying and screwing as will be about creating algorithms. But just how deep does the debauchery run? We did some serious detective work—like browsing the movie's IMDb page—and discovered that The Social Network is really a movie about what happens when young people (especially nerds) become successful at a really young age. (Hint: They party and screw.)