Joey Lauren Adams’ Come Early Morning, so one could be forgiven for thinking this topless-but-not magazine cover, from December’s issue of Marie Claire, was nothing but a move to publicize that. Au contraire. The piece is about her advocacy for the group YouthAIDS.

Judd is whipsmart and one of those celebrities trading on her fame to do some good. And if she’s willing to go all in with her body as well, who the hell am I to argue? Me, I’m reading up on how to become the life of the party. For a redacted version of the interview from Marie Claire, click here.

In a moment of bereaved silence for today’s okay-okay-we-get-it-already TomKat nuptials, let’s all take a moment to pause and remember this Tom Cruise. Or this one, if you must.

Michael Ballhaus (Broadcast News, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence) will receive the 2007
American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) International Achievement Award in
recognition of his artful and enduring contributions to advancing the global
art of filmmaking. His most recent film is frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Ballhaus will be feted in Los Angeles during the 21st Annual ASC
Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration on February 18, 2007.

The Dance Camera West Film Festival, a vibrant selection of dance film from around the world, is calling for entries for its next event, running throughout June of 2007. The sixth annual festival welcomes dance films with an emphasis on choreography made for the screen, in any dance style or genre, including documentary, shorts and installation. Early deadline is December 15 and the late deadline is January 17, 2007; entry forms and more details are available at www.dancecamerawest.org/submit.htm. So get crackin’, Baryshnikovs…

So in an interesting attempt to stave off the inevitable for a few more years (who really religiously goes to a standalone videostore anymore?), Blockbuster has inked a pact with the Weinstein Co. to make the erstwhile leading video retailer the exclusive rental outlet for all its releases, Variety is reporting. The four-year deal takes effect in January 2007, and dictates that TWC will not make any of its titles available for rental through competing outlets like Netflix and Movie Gallery. So if that changes your eventual rental plans for School for Scoundrels, so be it. Of course, you can still turn to peer-to-peer DVD sites like Peerflix.com. For the full piece, from Variety, click here.

As previously mentioned here, Fox Searchlight will be mounting an aggressive Oscar campaign for Little Miss Sunshine, and with so few clear-cut leaders out in front in the awards derby, they’ve already rushed into the breach a bit early, with an eight-card postcard set mailing, housed in its own same-sized cardboard slipcover (above), touting various performances with pull quotes from critics’ reviews.

With so many Academy Awards contenders falling on the swords of mixed critical reception and/or commercial indifference, there’s definitely a “feel-good” slot open in this year’s Best Picture race, and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ feature debut has a lot of love from its mid-summer bow. Audiences feel for Little Miss Sunshine the same sense of discovered ownership that they did with My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Variety has posted an obituary for the VHS format, which almost all major retailers have officially booted from shelves to make way for the oncoming glut of Christmas… sorry, holiday product. For those who simply can’t cope with the death of the format, don’t worry — there’s always Ebay and Half.com, where those 30 million copies of The Lion King will be peddled for another generation or so, likely at or around shipping cost. Of course, once your kids’ Barney or Dora the Explorer tapes wear out the heads on the VCR, you’re totally screwed…

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