HE’s “age-ist” columnist Moises Chiullan on the Blue Hair Mafia and Oscar scene.

This is a bad time to bring anything up about poor Mark Ruffalo given his brother’s recent shooting tragedy, but I’ve been thinking about how strong (i.e., unforced, uncomplicated) he is in What Doesn’t Kill You and also that post from an HE reader a day or two ago that he should play Marlon Brando in a biopic. If — I say if — a Brando biopic were to happen, who better could fill the role?

Marlon Brando, Mark Ruffalo

I already know the story and the theme. The film would be about Brando’s decline into self-disgust and Hollywood cynicism, or how his career went from the high-toned quality streak of the early to mid ’50s — The Men, Streetcar, Viva Zapata, The Wild One, Julius Ceasar and On The Waterfront — into rank or less distinguished big-money Hollywood pics like The Egyptian (which Brando refused to do), Desiree (awful), Guys and Dolls (tolerable but that’s all), Teahouse of the August Moon (shallow), etc.

The sad tale would end with his last attempt at artistic self-definition in a take-charge, master-of-his-own-fate mode — i.e., the direction of the moody psychological western One-Eyed Jacks. Brando’s career went into a gradual decline mode for 13 years straight after Jacks came out and was mostly seen as something of a disappointment (even though its reputation today is sterling), only to revive again with The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris.

So what happened with the Seven Pounds (Sony, 12.19) screening in Los Angeles last night that Gold Derby‘s Tom O’Neil moderated the post-screening discussion of? No reactions, plot spoilings, analogies to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, etc.?

Last night I finally listened to this mp3 of Clint Eastwood‘s half-talking, half Tom Waits-ean singing of the Gran Torino song. It’s okay. Clint shouldn’t have named the tune “Gran Torino” (i.e., too on-the-nose), but I’m not hugely bothered by this — just mildly so. Otherwise it’s a whaddaya-whaddaya.

A screening of a much-anticipated period film happens this morning at 10 am, a Frank Langella-slash-Frost/Nixon interview follows at 2 pm, and then a Paul Schrader/Adam Resurrected discussion at 4:15 pm. Postings will probably be few and random. An emphasis on photos.

Anyone who says the rescuing dog is dragging the injured, possibly dead dog off to the side of the road so he can eat him will get his/her ticket stamped. This is the best heart video I’ve seen in ages. No other views will be tolerated.

Cheers to Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman, Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris, Allison Janey, et. al.

Entertainment Weekly‘s Christine Spines has reported about a casted and ready-to-roll David Fincher crime thriller called Ness, a kind of son-of-The Untouchables about famed Al Capone adversary Eliot Ness, and starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams. Plus I’ve heard a couple of things myself from a good source.

“So why hasn’t Paramount gotten around to making the darned thing?,” Spines asks. “That’s the question around town as the clock ticks on the studio’s rights to the project, which are due to expire on 12.5.” I’ve actually been told the drop-dead date is December 12th.

“A source inside the negotiations says Damon and Affleck are ready to go,” writes Spines, “and that McAdams has expressed interest, but Paramount has yet to pull the proverbial trigger.

“At press time, the studio insisted it only recently received a finalized script from Ehren Kruger (The Ring) and would make a decision before the rights ran out.

A source close to team Fincher has told me that Fincher is ready to make the picture immediately but can’t get an answer out of Paramount because — ready?– production execs prefer that Fincher make a Keanu Reeves chef comedy instead.

Among the just-revealed Sundance ’09 selections for Documentary, Dramatic and World Cinema competition, my three personal stands-outs are all docs: (1) When You’re Strange (director-screenwriter: Tom DiCillo) — This first-ever feature-length doc about The Doors “enters the dark and dangerous world of one of America’s most influential bands using only footage shot between 1966 and 1971”; (2) William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (directors: Sarah and Emily Kunstler) — A portrait of the most famous and influential radical leftie lawyers of the 20th century who defended, among many ’60s-era New Left defendants, the Chicago 7; and (3) The September Issue (director: R.J. Cutler) — Culled from nine months of covering Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and her team preparing the 2007 Vogue September issue, widely accepted as the “fashion bible” for the year’s trends.

Mickey Rourke‘s sister Patty Rourke and stepsister Janet Smalley have spoken to Nikki Finke and challenged the accuracy of Pat Jordan‘s interview hit piece that ran in last Sunday’s N.Y. Times Magazine, at least as far as Jordan’s casting doubt on Rourke’s stories of child abuse at the hand of his step-father.

“We were shocked and deeply saddened to read Pat Jordan’s overtly biased piece about our brother Mickey Rourke in The New York Times Magazine,” the sisters said. “Although our childhood is searingly painful to discuss, we absolutely needed to speak out to set the record straight. Tragically, what our brother has said about his abusive childhood barely scratches the surface of what really happened. If Pat Jordan had tried to contact us, we would’ve told him the truth. We love Mickey very much and stand by his account of our early years.”

The section of the Oak Bar where Cary Grant was drinking with three business colleagues just before being kidnapped in North by Northwest is not where the Revolutionary Road luncheon was held. We were all in the rear room with the tables, banquettes, superb food, white tablecloths, perfect waiters and beautiful old-school wood walls and carvings. Road stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, David Harbour plus Willem Dafoe, Paul Schrader, James Toback, et. al. attended.

Leonardo DiCaprio, James Toback at this afternoon’s Revolutionary Road luncheon, thrown by Manhattan blue-chip party madame Peggy Siegal and Paramount Vantage in the Plaza’s Oak Room bar and restaurant — Wednesday, 12.3.08, 1:10 pm

Generic but nonetheless visually impressive pre-war building — Wednesday, 10.31.08, 6:05 pm

Paramount Vantage publicists at Revolutionary Road luncheon.

DiCaprio, Toback.