Screen Grabs: Competition

"I drink your milkshake" may have been the most indelible line of Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar-winning performance in There Will Be Blood, but "I have a competition in me" runs a close second. Last week saw the competitive juices flowing freely throughout the movie world, suggesting that Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview isn't the only one afflicted with the disease of wanting no one else to succeed. To their credit, the Screen Actors Guild and Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers began long-anticipated contract negotiations politely, seeking to avoid the acrimony that led to the writers' strike; meanwhile, SAG has already cut a deal which allows its members to work with independent studios in the event of a work stoppage, similar to agreements the WGA worked out during the strike. Speaking of the WGA, George Clooney's displeasure with the organization for its refusal to grant him a share of the writing credit for his new film Leatherheads, alluded to in a recent New Yorker profile, became common knowledge as it was revealed that Clooney had downgraded his membership status in response; Clooney had been keeping the spat a secret to avoid overshadowing the SAG negotiations. And the actors weren't the only ones the studios had to worry about—a dispute with theaters over digital cinema fees was at an impasse, leading to dire predictions that the industry was headed for a "potential train wreck."

Meanwhile, Ed Norton sought to put an end to long-simmering rumors of a feud with Marvel Studios over the final cut of the upcoming new version of The Incredible Hulk, in which he plays Bruce Banner, by issuing a one-time public statement on the matter. And in the realm of the truly outrageous, the eccentric, erratic German director Uwe Boll continued to go up against the rest of the film world, adding Gus Van Sant, Michael Haneke, and Tom Twyker to his official hit list.

There were also friendlier forms of competition. She and Him, Zooey Deschanel's much-lauded collaboration with indie-folk star M. Ward, got a rival this week in the form of fellow starlet Scarlett Johansson, who teamed with her own indie-cred-oozing musician (Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio) on an album of Tom Waits covers that's been described as the best-ever album by an actor (the promo photos will definitely pique your interest). The next starlet to turn songbird? Lindsay Lohan, who's heading back into the studio (she'd recorded a few dance-pop songs before, as you might recall) to record a record which she hopes will make her a "kind of Kylie Minogue-meets-Rihanna" (if that doesn't help revive her career, maybe her upcoming low-budget film in which she plays a nymphomaniac waitress will do the trick). Scarlett and Zooey's efforts also prompted a retrospective of other actresses—including Juliette Lewis, Jena Malone, Toni Collette, and Minnie Driver—who have discovered their inner rocker chicks.

But sometimes competition sends people to court. The messy Anthony Pellicano trial was halted briefly after one defense attorney called for a mistrial, then resumed, only to be threatened by another mistrial. This particular ugly drama figures to last awhile longer, with Hollywood super-litigator Bert Fields (who has represented the likes of Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Warren Beatty) next on the stand. But even with resolution of the Nicholas Cage/Kathleen Turner libel case, there was at least one more high-profile lawsuit to capture the public's attention: J. K. Rowling went to court in Manhattan to prevent a mild-mannered librarian with a Harry Potter haircut from publishing a Harry Potter encyclopedia; he cried, she felt bad, and the judge, who could well have been admonishing everyone mentioned here, wondered why we all can't just get along.