Tom Cruise tabloid lawsuit: abandonment claims "substantially true" - publisher

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The publisher of "Life & Style" and "In Touch," which is being sued by Tom Cruise for printing that the "Jack Reacher" star had abandoned his daughter Suri following his divorce from Katie Holmes, has fired back at the actor's suit.

In an answer to Cruise's defamation lawsuit, filed in October, Bauer Publishing Co. says that its reporting is "substantially true."

Bauer's answer, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in California, also asserts a number of defenses, including that it's protected by the First, Fifth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as Article 1, Section 7 of the California Constitution.

Bauer asserts that it's not liable for damages because, among other things, "one or all of the allegedly defamatory statements complained of by the plaintiff are true or substantially true."

Bauer also claims that Cruise "cannot prove that he has suffered any compensable damage as a result of any actionable of any actionable statement published by the Bauer Defendants," and that he is "a public figure and the Bauer Defendants did not act with actual malice."Cruise's attorney has not responded to TheWrap's request for comment.

The actor sued over stories published by "Life & Style" and its sister publication, "In Touch," claiming that Cruise had "abandoned" his six-year-old daughter, Suri. Cruise's attorney called the stories, published in July and October, "a disgusting, vicious lie."

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Paramount alters marketing campaign for "Jack Reacher" after Newtown shooting

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Paramount has altered the marketing for its upcoming Tom Cruise film "Jack Reacher" to minimize the gunfire and violence, an individual with knowledge of the studio's plans told TheWrap.

While the studio declines to give specifics, its move was made because of the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn. Paramount postponed last week's Pittsburgh premiere of the film, which opens in theaters on Friday.

"Jack Reacher" stars Cruise as a drifter and former military cop tracking down a sniper guilty of killing five. He becomes convinced the sniper is innocent and works to prove it.

The film opens with sniper fire, and the trailer features semi-automatic weapons (above) and a taser.

The studio took any appearance of gunfire and use of weapons under consideration in light of the recent tragedy, the second worst school shooting in United States history, the individual told TheWrap.

It has made no changes to the film and plans to release it as scheduled.

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"Amour" review: A wrenching but essential look at a disintegrating life

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Movies love to speed up the dying process, whether it's the rosy-cheeked young girl who succumbs to a mysterious fatal illness in the final reel or the hero cop suddenly felled by one random bullet after committing an act of extraordinary heroism.

But the actual mechanics of death and dying - the slow degeneration of mind and body, the subtle shadings in which people gradually lose their mobility and faculties and independence - those tend to be absent from the big screen.

It's not compact or convenient. It's a subject people would just as soon avoid, whether or not they've faced it firsthand in their own lives. And frankly, as plots go, it's exceedingly depressing.

I won't argue that Michael Haneke's "Amour," winner of this year's Cannes Palme d'Or and Best Picture from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (of which I am a member), isn't sad and wrenching and devastating, but it's those qualities that make it such a powerful piece of moviemaking.

While this might not be the post-gift-unwrapping movie destination of choice this holiday season, the brutal honesty and emotional truth of "Amour" make it one of this year's best films.

Veteran French film stars Emmanuelle Riva ("Hiroshima mon amour") and Jean-Louis Trintignant ("My Night at Maud's") star as Anne and Georges, an upscale, educated older couple in Paris who live in a sophisticated bubble of art and classical music and books and witty friends. And none of these trappings, as it turn out, will help much when Anne suffers a minor stroke, so brief that it's practically over before Georges can even respond to it.

But this event marks the beginning of a slow decline for Anne: Soon, she's lost the use of one side of her body. Before long - and it's part of Haneke's deft grace as a storyteller that the passage of time is more often suggested than literally spelled out - she becomes bedridden, then loses her ability to speak or control her bodily functions, as Georges devotes himself more and more to her caretaking, even to the exclusion of their ostensibly concerned daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert).

Haneke eschews sentimentality in telling this story, and he allows us to draw our own conclusions about the characters and their motivations. Is Georges being overly controlling? Does Eva really want to participate in her mother's care, or does she feel obligated to make a show of concern given the circumstances? And does Anne, for her part, even want to stay alive as she fades away? (In their first major discussion following the stroke, she all but tells Georges that she'd rather not be around for the next part.)

With his previous film, "The White Ribbon," and now "Amour," Haneke seems to be showing a more humane side than the manipulative and even sadistic streak he revealed in films like "Funny Games." But even so, he keeps things cool and detached enough to avoid the easy bathos that could come out of a story like this one.

He bolts his camera still for long periods and expects you to figure out why, and he shuns anything extraneous.

There's a sequence late in the film when Georges imagines he's seeing Anne back at her piano. Almost any other director would, after cutting to Georges, cut back to the empty piano bench, but Haneke trusts us enough to get the moment without spelling it out in big, bold letters.

Riva, 85, and Trintignant, 82, tackle these roles that are both physically and emotionally complex with gusto; any discussion of the ability of actors to continue to do challenging and gut-wrenching work after the age of 75 would have to include these two extraordinary performances.

Is "Amour" hard to watch? Emotionally, yes, but it's never tedious or meandering or spinning its wheels. It pulses with vitality, even as its main characters cope with life's passing.

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"The Guilt Trip" review: Not like buttah, but better than margarine

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The trailer, the casting, even the title of "The Guilt Trip" sets us up for a specific kind of movie: Nice neurotic boy henpecked by his nagging, smothering Yiddishe mama. It's a dynamic we've seen everywhere from the novels of Philip Roth to Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks" and countless other movies and sitcoms over the last half-century or so.

But "The Guilt Trip," starring gravelly voiced everyslacker Seth Rogen as the son and Barbra Streisand as the mom, has its own agenda that goes far beyond cheek-pinching and boiled chicken.

The movie, directed by Anne Fletcher ("The Proposal," "27 Dresses") from a script by Dan Fogelman ("Crazy Stupid Love," "Cars"), may occasionally err on the side of innocuousness, but at least it explores actual facets of the mother-adult son relationship without veering into caricature.

Young inventor Andrew Brewster (Rogen), at the end of his financial rope, sets out on a cross-country road trip in an attempt to sell his organic cleaning product to one of the major retail chains. Flying to his home in New Jersey from L.A., he pays an all-too-rare visit to his mother Joyce (Streisand), who dotes on her son cross-country with a seemingly endless series of phone messages, sharing everything from encouragement to tips on underwear sales at The Gap.

During his visit, Andrew tries to get Joyce to go to a singles' mixer for older people, but she's clearly not having it. That night, she tells him about her first love, a boy from Florida whom she loved passionately but who ultimately never proposed to her, suggesting instead that she accept the offer from Andrew's father.

Andrew tracks the man down on Google, finds him in San Francisco, and suggests that Joyce accompany him on the trip, mainly so he can attempt a reunion by the bay for his mom and the guy she never fully got over.

In a cheesier movie, the rest of the film would just be about overbearing Joyce getting on Andrew's nerves in an enclosed space, but "The Guilt Trip" goes in smarter directions than that, whether it's the two of them listening to the audiobook of Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" (a constant source of discomfort for Andrew, who feels awkward listening to discussion of genitals in his mother's presence) or Joyce's attempts to help Andrew out with both his professional and romantic life.

Viewers of a certain age will be thrilled to know that Joyce's advice is right far more often than it's wrong. In fact, one of the film's strengths is that both characters genuinely learn things from and about each other in ways that rarely feel contrived or phony. Mother-love tends to get a bad rap in pop culture, but not here.

There's not a ton of plot, granted, but the real pleasure of the film comes from watching Rogen and Streisand (looking more loose and relaxed than she's appeared in any medium for some time) interact.

I will always, always laugh uproariously at "What's Up, Doc?" no matter how many times I see it, so it's been disappointing to see Streisand ignore her comedic roots for so long. (And let's not count the "Fokkers" movies, which did no one's funny bone any favors.) Her unflagging insistence and his laid-back withdrawal mesh perfectly; this is a comic duo that should keep working together.

The movie's also peppered with lots of great character actors, who apparently agreed to glorified walk-ons just for the opportunity to spend a day with an icon like Streisand: Keep an eye peeled for the likes of Kathy Najimy, Adam Scott, Casey Wilson, Rose Abdoo, Miriam Margolyes, Colin Hanks, Dale Dickey and Nora Dunn, among others. (Special mention to Brett Cullen, most recently seen in the "Red Dawn" remake, as a soft-spoken Southwesterner smitten with Joyce and her skill at putting away a big steak dinner.)

"The Guilt Trip" is too gentle to be uproarious (although no one makes a comment like "This place smells like strawberry gum" about a topless bar the way Streisand can), but if you're in the mood for something easygoing and well-acted, it's a sweet little character piece. Take your mom - or at least call her. You know how she worries.

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Kevin Nealon, Tig Notaro fill out "Walk of Shame" cast

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Kevin Nealon, Tig Notaro and Liz Carey are among the 11 actors who have joined the cast of "Walk of Shame," a comedy starring Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden and Gillian Jacobs.

Written by Steven Brill, who will direct, the film stars Banks as an uptight anchor who gets locked out of her apartment after a late night out. Stranded without her wallet, phone, ID or car, she embarks on a series of adventures. Marsden plays her love interest.

Lakeshore and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment have filled out the cast with Nealon (left), Notaro, Carrey Bill Burr, Ken Davitian, Willie Garson, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Oliver Hudson, Alphonso McAuley Ethan Suplee and Sarah Wright.

Brill's previous directorial efforts include "Drillbit Taylor" and "Mr. Deeds. He also wrote the three "Mighty Ducks" movies.

Lakeshore Entertainment's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi will produce, along with Sidney Kimmel.

FilmDistrict will distribute this film domestically, while Lakeshore and Sierra/Affinity are shopping it internationally.

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