Tootsie

Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced it has signed a five-year deal with Tony-winning Broadway producer Scott Sanders to adapt the studio's films for the stage. First up in the studio's extensive catalog? The 1982 comedy "Tootsie," which starred Dustin Hoffman in drag. As part of the deal, Sony has purchased a 20% equity stake in the 5-year-old Scott Sanders Theatrical Productions, multiple news outlets have reported. A dollar amount was not disclosed. Sanders' prior screen-to-stage credits include "The Color Purple" and "The Pee-wee Herman Show.

"Arrested Development" fans, the wait is (almost) over: The cult favorite will make its highly anticipated return next spring with at least 10 episodes - possibly more. The news was confirmed by a Netflix representative. Rumors of an "Arrested Development" revival have surfaced repeatedly ever since the critically beloved but ratings-challenged sitcom was canceled by Fox in 2006. Last year, Mitchell Hurwitz and the entire cast reunited for the first time at the New Yorker Festival, and announced plans for a new, limited-run season and a possible movie.

"I'm very excited about working with him again," said the actor about the director. "I spent a week waiting on pins and needles while he made up his mind. When he said yes, I called him up. " 'Is it true?' I asked him. He said yes. I said 'Ya schmuck, you'll never learn. . . .' " Dustin Hoffman chuckled, remembering his recent conversation with Sydney Pollack. Hoffman's teasing carried black whimsy.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced it has signed a five-year deal with Tony-winning Broadway producer Scott Sanders to adapt the studio's films for the stage. First up in the studio's extensive catalog? The 1982 comedy "Tootsie," which starred Dustin Hoffman in drag. As part of the deal, Sony has purchased a 20% equity stake in the 5-year-old Scott Sanders Theatrical Productions, multiple news outlets have reported. A dollar amount was not disclosed. Sanders' prior screen-to-stage credits include "The Color Purple" and "The Pee-wee Herman Show.

When veteran actor Dabney Coleman was preparing to film his last scene for the 1982 comedy "Tootsie" with costar Jessica Lange in New York, he recalls how they looked at each other in dismay, both convinced they were making a terrible movie. "Jessica said to me, 'Thank God no one will ever see this,'" says Coleman, speaking by phone from his Los Angeles home. Ten Academy Award nominations later (one going to Lange for supporting actress), "Tootsie" is now considered one of the greatest American comedies of all time.

Mikey Welsh Former bass player with rock band Weezer Mikey Welsh, 40, the former bass player for the alternative rock band Weezer, was found dead in a Chicago hotel room Saturday, police said. Chicago police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said employees of the Raffaello Hotel found Welsh unconscious and not breathing when they entered his room after he failed to check out. Kubiak said no signs of foul play were evident. Autopsy results are pending. Welsh, of Burlington, Vt., performed with Weezer from 1998 to 2001 and played on the bestselling "Green Album.

1. "Tootsie." "Dustin Hoffman, in drag as Tootsie, is at home entertaining an elderly man who has fallen in love with him/her. They are having drinks when Bill Murray, Hoffman's roommate, walks in. Murray, who knows Tootsie is a man, takes in the scene, turns to Hoffman and, after a long pause, says, 'You slut.' " * 2. "Treasure of the Sierra Madre." "Bogart is in a trench. A Mexican bandit is a few feet away. The bandit shouts, 'We are the Federales.'

"Arrested Development" fans, the wait is (almost) over: The cult favorite will make its highly anticipated return next spring with at least 10 episodes - possibly more. The news was confirmed by a Netflix representative. Rumors of an "Arrested Development" revival have surfaced repeatedly ever since the critically beloved but ratings-challenged sitcom was canceled by Fox in 2006. Last year, Mitchell Hurwitz and the entire cast reunited for the first time at the New Yorker Festival, and announced plans for a new, limited-run season and a possible movie.

Dustin Hoffman has not made a motion picture since the instantly classic "Tootsie" in 1982. He gave the next three years of his life to the stage instead, starring in a revival of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," playing to virtually sold-out houses each night, earning the kind of acclaim performers dream of and extending his reputation as an actor of range, depth and intensity.

When veteran actor Dabney Coleman was preparing to film his last scene for the 1982 comedy "Tootsie" with costar Jessica Lange in New York, he recalls how they looked at each other in dismay, both convinced they were making a terrible movie. "Jessica said to me, 'Thank God no one will ever see this,'" says Coleman, speaking by phone from his Los Angeles home. Ten Academy Award nominations later (one going to Lange for supporting actress), "Tootsie" is now considered one of the greatest American comedies of all time.

Mikey Welsh Former bass player with rock band Weezer Mikey Welsh, 40, the former bass player for the alternative rock band Weezer, was found dead in a Chicago hotel room Saturday, police said. Chicago police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said employees of the Raffaello Hotel found Welsh unconscious and not breathing when they entered his room after he failed to check out. Kubiak said no signs of foul play were evident. Autopsy results are pending. Welsh, of Burlington, Vt., performed with Weezer from 1998 to 2001 and played on the bestselling "Green Album.

NOTE: This is a blog about two guys attempting to lose weight over a six-week period. They kicked off their weight-loss "strategies" on Jan 10. I love some of the comments we’ve received so far during the “Two Guys Lose Weight” program Tony and I are on. LisaFlorida writes to Tony:  “Your diet is crap.  You should see a dietician.” Patroklos tells me:  “You sound like a horrible friend.”  She was alluding to when I sabotaged my friend who was trying to lose weight with two Super Burritos every day. RELATED:   Soul food is not sinful “Oatmeal is not a diet food,” AmyAlkon writes me.  (By the way I was reading this while eating my morning oatmeal.

Larry Gelbart, the award-winning comedy writer best known for developing the landmark TV series "MASH," co-writing the book for the hit Broadway musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and co-writing the classic movie comedy "Tootsie," died this morning. He was 81. Gelbart, who was diagnosed with cancer in June, died at his home in Beverly Hills, said his wife, Pat. Jack Lemmon once described the genial, quick-witted Gelbart as "one of the greatest writers of comedy to have graced the arts in this century."

To judge by the American Film Institute's list of the greatest American comedies, there is apparently nothing funnier than a dude in a dress. At No. 1 in the AFI rankings (which were issued in 2000): Billy Wilder's 1959 cross-dressing comedy, "Some Like It Hot." At No. 2: Sydney Pollack's 1982 cross-dressing comedy, "Tootsie." A case could be made that Wilder's farce, with its view of sexual identity as a fluid construction, was ahead of its time.

Spanish police foiled an attempt to smuggle cocaine into the country inside lollipops, a regional government official said. Gang members in Colombia packed the drug into 55 lollipops and sent them by airmail via Madrid's Barajas International Airport, Vicente Ripa Gonzalez, governor of the northern region of Navarra, said in Pamplona. Civil Guard officers and customs officials intercepted the package at the airport. Three suspects have been arrested.

In her flowing crimson cape, thigh-high leather boots and metal-studded red leather bustier, Cardinal is a bow-and-arrow-toting femme fatale. But not only is Cardinal not real--she's a character in the popular computer game "Ultima Online"--she's not really female. Cardinal is the alter-ego of Kenn Gold, a 33-year-old former Army sergeant with thorny green-and-black tattoos covering both of his muscular arms.

Spanish police foiled an attempt to smuggle cocaine into the country inside lollipops, a regional government official said. Gang members in Colombia packed the drug into 55 lollipops and sent them by airmail via Madrid's Barajas International Airport, Vicente Ripa Gonzalez, governor of the northern region of Navarra, said in Pamplona. Civil Guard officers and customs officials intercepted the package at the airport. Three suspects have been arrested.

"The slasher horror flick "Freddy vs. Jason" scared off the competition for young males this weekend, coming in at No. 1 with an estimated $36.4 million ... it could mean there will be yet another sequel for the franchises, which have been around since the early 1980s." -- Los Angeles Times, August 2003 "Alien vs. Predator," which brought together two horror-film franchises ... took in an estimated $38.3 million and averaged an impressive $11,267 per theater in its opening weekend."

A friend took me to Los Feliz to one of those ubiquitous mini-mall "chop shops." I was not at all comfortable there, sitting in a plastic chair like some kind of tacky suburban memsahib while young women whose names I didn't know knelt before me, servicing my feet with questionable implements, while an acrylic-taloned Kathie Lee Gifford cackled loudly on an overhead TV. This was not a minor luxury, as my friend had promised. No, for me, this was more like going to the dentist.