Actors

Hell hath no fury like an actor scorned. Anyone who's talked to Terrence Howard recently knows that the actor is still fighting mad six months after being replaced in the upcoming "Iron Man 2." "It was a very, very bad choice," fumed Howard, who played Iron Man's Army buddy Lt. Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes in the first film, to Parade magazine about Marvel Studios' decision to reboot the part with Don Cheadle in the role. "You don't make $800 million and then try and shake everyone down.

Unless you're making "Transformers 3" or "Iron Man 2," every movie in Hollywood is a gamble in one way or another. But some gambles are more intriguing than others, like the one Lionsgate recently announced teaming Russell Crowe and Paul Haggis. The two Oscar winners have joined forces on "The Next Three Days," a Haggis-directed adaptation of the 2008 French film "Pour Elle" that begins production in Pittsburgh in late September.

Lance Reddick doesn't get to smile a lot on the job. As federal agent Phillip Broyles in Fox's hit drama "Fringe," he is icy -- and possibly sinister -- as the head of an interagency team investigating a pattern of bizarre, deadly incidents. Flip the channel and you might also catch the Baltimore-born-and-raised actor in his recurring role as the stern and smartly dressed Matthew Abaddon, whose last name may be a fearful omen for the survivors of the plane crash of ABC's "Lost."

Chaim Topol was so young when he starred as Tevye in the 1971 movie version of the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" that he had to spend more than two hours in the makeup chair every day to transform himself into a middle-aged milkman. The makeup artist would even pluck gray whiskers from the beard of director Norman Jewison and glue them into Topol's eyebrows.

She was acting by the time she was 3 years old. Was there ever a question that Drew Barrymore wouldn't go into the family business? Actually, it's more like a dynasty. Members of her family were performers before the American Revolutionary War. Her Oscar-winning great-aunt was Ethel Barrymore. Academy Award-winning Lionel Barrymore was her great-uncle. Her grandfather was none other than movie and stage great John Barrymore -- a.k.a. the Great Profile.

Like a veteran of the witness protection program, actress Kate Vernon picked a secluded corner table of a very public restaurant for the meeting. She studied the tape recorder sitting next to her teacup on the table and then glanced around the Studio City bistro to see if anyone was eavesdropping. "Forgive me if I'm a little awkward talking about it," Vernon said during an interview earlier this week.

When former North Korean spy-turned-movie director Chae Myeong-min went looking for actors for a film based on his life, he included a caveat: South Koreans need not apply. In a domestic movie industry where South Koreans traditionally play their Northern cousins, the 50-person crew for the film "Choice" features only North Korean defectors. Chae says he has seen enough movies depicting life across the DMZ to know that South Koreans fail to capture the harsh reality.

After weighing the implications of bringing its youngest, poorest Indian actors to the Academy Awards, the makers of "Slumdog Millionaire" have decided to do so, and now expect the film's entire cast to arrive in time for Sunday night's Oscar ceremony. If the film wins the best picture Oscar, all nine of the youthful performers are expected to join producer Christian Colson on the stage of the Kodak Theatre.

Life is messy, and Greg Mottola sees no reason to clean it up. The director of 2007's blockbuster "Superbad" and writer-director of the new "Adventureland" is drawn to ambiguous characters and unresolved story lines, to the delight of fans and the vexation of marketers. Sitting on a sun-drenched hotel poolside cafe in dark clothing, his head shaved bald and wearing black-framed glasses, Mottola is the very model of a modern indie filmmaker.

If Washington only had more hotel space, all of Hollywood would've happily hurried back East this week to be a part of the Obama inaugural festivities, instead of just the lucky, deep-pocketed few like Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg (and others) who got some of those highly sought-after inaugural tickets in return for a hefty $50,000 donation.