Howl

• Freida Pinto has joined the cast of Miral, written by The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's Julian Schnabel. — Variety
• George Lopez will have a late-night talk show on TBS starting in the Fall. — AP
• Speaking of late-night, Chelsea Handler has signed a deal to stay at E! through 2012. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Kelly Clarkson is still topping the Billboard chart this week, and the Twilight soundtrack is back up to No. 3. — Billboard
• Jon Hamm has joined the cast of Howl, the Allen Ginsberg biopic starring James Franco. — Variety
• A crossover episode between Bones and Family Guy — yes, really — will air May 7. — TV Guide
• Conflicts with Big Love have forced Amanda Seyfried to drop out of Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. — Entertainment Weekly
• Jennifer Hudson will perform after tonight's American Idol taping, with the performance to be broadcast at a later date.

— TV.com

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It was just another afternoon at work for James Franco on the set of Howl in NYC yesterday. He sported his third costume change of the week, and this time he also got to be behind a camera as well as in front of them. We're always interested in seeing James take on dressing up for new parts, but at the same time we'd be more than happy to see him ditch those button-downs altogether.

To see more of James, just read more

James Franco spent his St. Patrick's Day hard at work on the NYC set of Howl. It was his second day in a row dressed as Allen Ginsburg in one of the two biopics currently in production about the writer's life. Filming a movie must be a tiring addition to James's already packed grad student schedule, but luckily he's a power napping pro.

Startraks Photo

Another Allen Ginsberg movie, you say? Why yes, in fact, in addition to the Ginsberg biopic Howl starring James Franco as the legendary poet (check out some new pics from the set here), now Jesse Eisenberg (of The Squid and the Whale and the upcoming Adventureland) will play Ginsberg in the feature film Kill Your Darlings.

In Howl, the focus is on the obscenity trial launched to censor Ginsberg's long poem "Howl." Kill Your Darlings is not solely about Ginsberg but will tell the story of "the murder that helped spawn the Beat Generation. . . . [Ben] Whishaw will play Lucien Carr, the Columbia U. undergrad who brought together Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac ([Chris] Evans), and William S. Burroughs."

I'll be curious to see how Eisenberg and Franco's portrayals of Ginsberg differ — or match up — in these simultaneous projects. After so much remake and "rebooting" movie news, I can't express how refreshing I find these projects about a real man who genuinely influenced American culture with his art. I say, bring on the Ginsbergs.

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James Franco transformed into poet Allen Ginsberg on the set of his new movie Howl in NYC yesterday. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ginsberg's most famous work, James is taking on the biopic along with costars Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd. After a year of diverse movies including Pineapple Express, Milk and . . . Nights in Rodanthe, James Franco isn't ready for a break yet. Maybe this role is less of a stretch for James as a dedicated student and future published author himself.

Splash News Online

When I was in high school, I discovered Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl and it astounded me. Ever since, it's been that book on my bookshelf that consistently beckons me to pick it up and read it again, and decades later, it's just as relevant to our times as it was in the 1960s. At the time of its publication, however, some folks were not so enamored with Ginsberg's words.

To commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the publication of Howl, there's a biopic in the works, focusing on "the obscenity trial launched to censor Ginsberg's groundbreaking book-length poem." James Franco will play Ginsberg, and the cast just expanded to include David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd. For more details, read more