Brad Pitt

To call the three-hour-long "Meet Joe Black" leaden would do an injustice to lead. To call it phlegmatic is to dishonor phlegm. To describe it as turgid does a disservice to honest turges everywhere.Only the hardest-core Brad Pitt fans will want to brave this static, deflated entry into the Screen Angels Sweepstakes. If they insist on disregarding the best advice -- Don't go! -- then they should at least heed the following: Bring adequate lumbar support and gallons of coffee, not to mention a box of Kleenex.

Mega-star Brad Pitt lent his glitter to the proponents of same-sex marriage in Maryland today, giving $25,000 to the campaign for Question 6. The donation is part of a $100,000 gift to the Human Rights Campaign, a national organization that is promoting same-sex marriage in all four states where it is on the ballot. It comes at a good time for supporters, who reported last week they have only $22,000 in the bank . Pitt is the latest in a lengthy list of bold faced names who are supporting Maryland's same-sex marriage effort.

Mega-star Brad Pitt lent his glitter to the proponents of same-sex marriage in Maryland today, giving $25,000 to the campaign for Question 6. The donation is part of a $100,000 gift to the Human Rights Campaign, a national organization that is promoting same-sex marriage in all four states where it is on the ballot. It comes at a good time for supporters, who reported last week they have only $22,000 in the bank . Pitt is the latest in a lengthy list of bold faced names who are supporting Maryland's same-sex marriage effort.

I did a bit of a double-take when I saw the Pitt-tastic cover of this weekend's Entertainment Weekly . Clearly, the designers at the magazine have been reading a bit too much Esquire . The cover looks exactly like one of those fancy Esquire covers, minus the faux-handwritten headlines.  Don't know if this is intentional, an homage or outright stealing.  Oh well. We have a preview of the interview inside (on newsstands Friday, in which Pitt candidly discusses a variety of topics.

I did a bit of a double-take when I saw the Pitt-tastic cover of this weekend's Entertainment Weekly . Clearly, the designers at the magazine have been reading a bit too much Esquire . The cover looks exactly like one of those fancy Esquire covers, minus the faux-handwritten headlines.  Don't know if this is intentional, an homage or outright stealing.  Oh well. We have a preview of the interview inside (on newsstands Friday, in which Pitt candidly discusses a variety of topics.

I can deal with people who want to be Elvis or Albert Einstein or Joan of Arc. But . . . Ricky Nelson?That's the central problem of the dim "Johnny Suede," a bit of hipper-than-thou foolishness stopping at the Westview for what will certainly be a brief spell.It stars Brad Pitt's hair as the silly Johnny Suede, wannabe '50s pop singer who is unhappily at sea in the inhospitable '90s. Alas, underneath Brad Pitt's hair is the actual Brad Pitt, who is not nearly so interesting.His hair is great.

Brad Pitt and his partner, Angelina Jolie, are ready for another child, the actor said yesterday as he was promoting his new film. He did not indicate whether they planned another biological child or if they would adopt. Pitt and Jolie, with children in tow, were in Venice, Italy, to talk about his film on Western outlaw Jesse James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Asked by Italian state TV whether they were ready for a fifth, Pitt replied: "Yeah we're ready."

Brad Pitt has been the flavor of the month for so long he should start wearing a Baskin-Robbins uniform.He has been one of Hollywood's hottest actors-on-the-verge-of-stardom since his celebrated, albeit brief, breakthrough role three years ago in "Thelma & Louise." There were the inevitable "next James Dean" whispers."A River Runs Through It" was supposed to be the star-making vehicle that drove him to his destiny. His fans said he was terrific in the role, and the film was a sleeper hit but not enough of a hit to shine Mr. Pitt's star.

HERE's a story to take with a healthy grain of salt, but somewhere within may be a kernel of slanted truth. Brad Pitt was in a cab not long ago, in the United States. He was chatting up the driver, who said he was a recent immigrant from Africa. Brad said, "I just came back from Africa." The driver said, "Why were you there?" Brad: "I was doing some work with my wife and the president of the Pan-African Parliament." Driver: "Who are you, and who is your wife to be working with President [Gertrude]

I like guts, both in people and movies, and "Seven" has guts up to its eyebrows. It's a kamikaze of a film, a flaming Zero that doesn't waver a millimeter as it follows a doomed trajectory into the superstructure of our hopes and aspirations.Delivering a crushing downer of an ending that will, I'm certain, utterly destroy its commercial prospects (and explains why such a potent star vehicle wasn't released by a major), the film is the rare movie about ideas more than its own plot.Alas, the idea it pursues with a terrier's tenacity is nihilism.

Pitt laughs over New Orleans mayor T-shirt push The idea of Brad Pitt running for New Orleans mayor has generated a lot of buzz around the city even though he isn't eligible. It also generated some laughs for the actor in a Thursday television interview. Many residents have been sporting "Brad Pitt for Mayor" T-shirts since mid-June, when a Tulane University professor and two brothers who own a New Orleans T-shirt shop joined forces to launch a quasi-campaign to persuade Pitt to run. The actor founded the Make It Right organization in 2007 to build houses for low-income residents who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina.

HOLLYWOOD - The days might be numbered for the old Brad Pitt - the Hollywood heartbreaker, the absurdly handsome leading man who couldn't seem to keep his shirt on in a movie for more than five minutes, the prankster who once ran amok through the streets of Los Angeles in a gorilla suit. History. Outta here. Going, going, gone. Now it's time to meet the new, older (and presumably wiser, but no less photogenic) Brad Pitt, who a couple of weekends ago reflected on the themes of his latest film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which opened in theaters on Christmas Day. Portraying the title character, a man who's born as an octogenarian and ages backward into infancy, Pitt says he had some personal reckoning to do with the temporality of things - a fitting assignment for a man at life's midway point.

Brad Pitt runs Shakespeare's "seven ages of man" in reverse in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which ranks with the best films about youth (say, Hope and Glory) and mortality (say, The Dead). It starts in 1918, when Benjamin Button is born with an old face and dilapidated plumbing and wrinkled skin over an infant body, and ends in 2005, when his true love, Daisy (Cate Blanchett), completes the telling of his story. Every chapter in between brings with it a fresh air of discovery. And the movie's emotional completeness leaves you poised between sobbing and applauding - it comes from a full comprehension not just of one man's life, but of the intersection of many lives over the course of the 20th century.

CONCERT Merry Kixmas: After all these years, the big-hair bands of the '80s can still take themselves way too seriously. (We're talking about you, Axl.) But not so for Baltimore's own Kix. The band gets it just right by putting on potent, rock-heavy shows a couple of times a year and not wearing out its welcome with devoted fans. Show starts 8 p.m. Friday at Rams Head Live. For more: ramsheadlive.com FILM Brad Pitt in 'Benjamin Button' : When A-list actresses want an Oscar, they usually go ugly.

Lakeview Terrace * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $15 million $15 million 1 week Rated: PG-13 Running time: 110 minutes What it's about: An interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) move to an L.A. suburb and almost immediately suspect their neighbor, a veteran black cop (Samuel L. Jackson, above), of plotting to drive them out of the neighborhood. Our take: It's one more failed thriller about men behaving badly - and stupidly. Burn After Reading ** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS) $11 million $36.1 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 96 minutes What it's about: Espionage gets mixed up with a gym worker's desire to get a Hollywood body, a CIA wife's move to get a divorce, and a U.S. Treasury agent's propensity to get some thrills.

HALF THE people in Hollywood are dying to be discovered and the other half are afraid they will be," said the actor Lionel Barrymore. My favorite story of late is about a press agent. Not just any press agent, but the queen of them all these days - the party-giver, movie premiere maker, social fixer Peggy Siegal. There she was at Cannes for the Film Festival, well, not r-e-a-l-l-y for the festival itself, more for the atmosphere and contacts. There were only about six American films seen at Cannes during that period, and most of the foreign movies were pretty deadly.

Brad Pitt runs Shakespeare's "seven ages of man" in reverse in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which ranks with the best films about youth (say, Hope and Glory) and mortality (say, The Dead). It starts in 1918, when Benjamin Button is born with an old face and dilapidated plumbing and wrinkled skin over an infant body, and ends in 2005, when his true love, Daisy (Cate Blanchett), completes the telling of his story. Every chapter in between brings with it a fresh air of discovery. And the movie's emotional completeness leaves you poised between sobbing and applauding - it comes from a full comprehension not just of one man's life, but of the intersection of many lives over the course of the 20th century.

Early on, local audiences may feel the thrill of anticipation when they hear the narrator of this sprawling Western say, "Alexander Frank James was in Baltimore with his wife and child when he read the news about the assassination of Jesse James." But even though Sam Shepard lends his cryptic, windbeaten visage and a fine, dry delivery to Frank James (Jesse's brother), he never enters the picture again after we hear those words. The line occurs on Page 348 of Ron Hansen's engrossing novel.

THERE'S MORE babies coming, you know me!" That's what Angelina Jolie said to a Swedish reporter, on the red carpet in Cannes. No, she was not referring to the twins she is now carrying. Jolie wants more children, after these arrive. She already has Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh. The first three adopted, the last her daughter with very significant other, Brad Pitt. And Brad is, of course, the proud papa of the coming double blessing. Jolie is ravishing these days. She always looks better pregnant, not concerned with keeping a movie-queen figure.