Brittany Murphy’s widower, Simon Monjack, is making public accusations against Warner Bros. and plans to file a wrongful death suit, according to The Daily Beast. And Warner Bros. is firing back, calling the accusations “false, reprehensible, and defamatory.”

Monjack is blaming Murphy’s death on movie bosses, saying they fired the actress from Happy Feet 2 two weeks before she was found dead in her bathroom, from an apparent heart attack, last month. He claims she suffered the heart attack as a result of stress related to being let go from the project.

He also claims she was fired because of rumours that she was difficult on the set of the horror film, The Caller, from which she had recently been let go and replaced with Twilight star Rachelle Lefevre. The film was shooting in Puerto Rico and storied were that she and Monjack — who did Brittany’s hair and makeup — had been so hard to deal with (with Monjack sometimes showing up drunk) that producers had let her go. Other sources claim the studio was looking for a reason to fire Murphy and hire Lefevre.

“They killed her,” Monjack recently told TheDailyBeast.com. He said, “Warner Brothers relied on conjecture and hearsay about the Puerto Rico film for why they cancelled Brittany’s role in Happy Feet. You’re disposable as an actress or actor.”

And that, he alleges, is why she died. He said, “She was devastated. All she wanted to do was to make movies. She was waiting for the role that would revive her career, waiting for the call from Penny Marshall or Gary Fleder, people she had worked with before, that they might remember how talented an actress she was and call with a new magical role.”

A Warner Bros. representative is refuting the allegations, telling Access Hollywood that Murphy was never hired for Happy Feet 2 in the first place, and that studio bosses aren’t taking Monjack’s accusations lightly: “Any claim that Warner Bros. Pictures was somehow responsible for Brittany Murphy’s tragic death is demonstrably false, reprehensible, and defamatory. Despite press reports to the contrary, Warner Bros. Pictures and Ms. Murphy never entered into any deal for Happy Feet 2.”

It’s not just one kind of action flicks that are going 3D. It seems it’s time for some three dimensional erotica, or so says veteran Italian erotic film director Tinto Brass.

Brass has just announced that he will produce what he is calling the world’s first-ever 3D pornographic production. This is according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Brass, 76, is best known for the 1979 film Caligula, which he directed in collaboration with noted author Gore Vidal and magazine publisher Bob Guccione, and from which he later became disassociated. Caligula starred an illustrious cast that included Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole and Sir John Gielgud but it was plagued with production problems and on-set squabbles, caused controversy for its overtly sexual content and was critically panned. Brass’s other films include 1975’s Salon Kitty, about a Berlin brothel used for espionage purposes in WW II and 1992’s Cossi Fan Tutti, a sex comedy loosely based on the Mozart/da Ponte opera.

THR reports that Brass said he plans to “revisit an abandoned project about a Roman emperor that was ruined by Americans, and go from there,” a likely reference to Caligula.

Brass also said the time is right for 3D technologies to be used to create an erotic film, noting that the project, which he claims will be the world’s first 3D erotic film, will also be the first 3D film of any type made in Italy. This means Italy’s first 3D movie offering will be (soft core) porn.

Brass said he would start work on casting and the script immediately, and that he plans to start filming in May or June.

It just might be the most perfect pairing since Oreos and milk (chocolate and peanut butter, wine and cheese): James Bobin and the Muppets.

New York Magazine’s Vulture blog says the co-creator of the Flight of the Conchords‘ “critically praised, ratings-challenged, and now-defunct” HBO cable show is tipped to take the director’s chair on Walt Disney Pictures’ next Muppet movie. A Disney insider reportedly told Vulture that while no deal has been finalized, “the movie is James’ to direct, if he wants it.” Nobody official would comment but rumour is that the plan is to go into production in summer.

There may be a conflict, however, as Bobin is also reportedly being offered the chance to direct a Judd Apatow comedy, Bridesmaids. It may present a difficult decision.

Bobin has been a writer and director on Da Ali G Show and helped create the Sacha Baron Cohen characters Ali G, Borat and Bruno.

The Muppets, who were created by Jim Henson in the 1960s and bought by Disney in 2004 — excluding the Sesame Street characters — got their last theatrical release in 1999’s Muppets From Space, in which Gonzo meets his alien family. They are on route to a comeback, however, and recently made huge viral waves with a cover video of Bohemian Rhapsody, honouring the late Freddie Mercury.

The script was written by Forgetting Sarah Marshall team, Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. Stoller was supposed to direct as well but he was apparently too busy.

Sarah Polley will take charge of Seth Rogen in her next directorial venture, according to Deadline Hollywood, a blog that is rarely wrong about these things. Michelle Williams will also feature in the film.

Deadline says it has learned that Polley has secured the financing to direct her script Take This Waltz, which will feature Rogen and Williams in a romantic triangle and that Polley will choose another actor shortly to round out the cast. The script apparently made the most recent Black List of 2009’s best unproduced screenplays (The Black List is a list compiled by movie industry folks of the best screenplays not produced during a given year and released by Franklin Leonard) .

The Canadian Polley, 31, starred in the film The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen, as a child in 1988, and in her teens was best known (on home turf anyway) for her role as Sara Stanley on CBC television’s Road to Avonlea. She made her directorial debut with 2006’s Away From Her, which starred Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie as a married couple struggling to deal as Christie’s character develops Alzheimer’s disease. The film earned a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination.

Polley’s latest acting venture, Splice, screened at Sundance, as did Blue Valentine, featuring Michelle Williams.

Williams will next be seen in the Martin Scorsese-directed Shutter Island. Among Seth Rogen’s projects are The Green Hornet and Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom and Doom.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation

As The Runaways continues to gather buzz after its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, Kristen Stewart, 20, and Dakota Fanning, 15,  continue to address all the grown-up or edgy stuff they’re doing in the movie. The actresses star as members of the 70’s all girl band, The Runaways, Stewart as guitarist Joan Jett and Fanning as singer Cherie Currie.

First they talked about the lesbian love scene (it was no big deal, they said, while Currie herself has said it was “overplayed”). Now it’s the drugs. The Runways features the two New Moon stars snorting cocaine in a bathroom. Explanations are in order, since, as MTV points out many a young girl might look up to Stewart and Fanning as role models.

Again, it’s all par for the course. “I’ve been exposed to everything under the [sun],” Stewart told MTV. “I think that if you don’t realize the people you look up to [are just acting, that's a problem]. This is also a really hard question for me.”

“This is [about] real people,” Fanning said, defending the scenes. “This is their real experience.

“It’s the story,” she added. “[Us doing drugs] is just about finding the beats, you know what I mean?”

(Photo by PR Photos)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation

‘Twilight’ actress, Kristen Stewart, is taking on edgier roles outside the vampire series. In two movies, Welcome to the Rileys and The Runaways, both screening at Sundance, Stewart appears in various states of undress. But in one case, she’s not as naked as she looks, she told MTV. It’s amazing what the movies can do.

In Rileys Stewart, 20, plays a teen stripper/prostitute, who falls under the fatherly eye of a man, played by James Gandolfini, who has lost his own teenage daughter. She appears onscreen in skimpy outfits and, once or twice, without clothes on.

The 20-year-old explained to MTV that acting gives her the strength to do things she might not otherwise. She said, “There are things you are capable of doing under the guise [of acting]. You’re so safe.”

Also, in the final shot of Runaways, in which she plays real-life rocker Joan Jett, Stewart is seen floating underwater without any clothes on, or is she?

“You can’t see anything,” said Stewart,  adding that she was not actually unclad. “I was not naked,” she said. “I was wearing stuff. I was wearing really, really, really unattractive nude moleskin or something. Really, really, really gross. In the movie, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s cool, this looks objective. She’s submerged. She’s lost in this world, this ocean.’”

Stewart also told MTV she wasn’t clear on what floating nude in the ocean had to do with the story but, under the direction of Floria Sigismondi, she went for it anyway.

“I was like, ‘What is this? I’m in a bathtub and suddenly I’m in an ocean. I don’t understand. OK, I’ll lay in the water and look like a tool.’”

Orlando Bloom has squashed any remaining hope that he might return for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

MTV spoke to the actor during the Sundance Film Festival and Bloom made it very clear that he will not be reprising his role as Will Turner, the good guy turned immortal captain of the Flying Dutchman.

“No, definitely not,” he said when asked if he’d return for the fourth Pirates movie, which will star Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. “I think Will is sort of swimming around with the fish at the bottom of the ocean.”

Bloom went on the explain that he simply wanted to do other things. “I had a great time making those movies,” he said. “I just really wanted to do different things, but I think it’s going to be great. Whatever Johnny does, I think it’s fantastic.”

And he is eager to see what happened when director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) takes the helm. “I think he’s an amazing director,” Bloom said. “I think it will be a very interesting fit, because Johnny is musical anyway and I’m sure that something really beautiful will come out of it.”

Keira Knightley, who played Turner’s love interest, Elizabeth Swann, said back in 2008 that her “pirating days are over.”

One role Bloom would like to revise is that of Legolas, the Elven archer he played in The Lord of the Rings movies. He told MTV he had contacted producer Peter Jackson about the possibility. “I shot an e-mail to Pete and I said, ‘You know, if you want me to don the blonde wig and pointy ears again, I’d be honored to do it,’” Bloom told MTV. “He said, ‘Well, we’ll see.’ They’re very, very hush-hush.”

It’s unlikely, however, that Bloom’s services will be needed for The Hobbit, which will be directed by Guillermo del Toro, as Legolas does not appear in the story by J.R.R. Tolkien, which is the prequel to the Rings books.

Bollywood’s first major movie gay kiss is fuelling controversy.

The UK Times is reporting that, months before its release, Dunno Y . . . Na Jaane Kyun has already been called India’s answer to Brokeback Mountain. Earlier films (according to the Hindustan Times) such as My Brother Nikhil and Dostana had undertones of homosexuality but Dunno Y will break new ground by telling the story of a serious, and explicitly sexual, relationship between two Indian men. Its release comes just months after a law outlawing homosexuality was overturned in the Delhi High Court – though the decriminalization is reportedly still awaiting final approval by the Supreme Court.

The film, from director Anil Sharma, set for release in May, stars established actor Kapil Sharma and an unknown, whose name is not being disclosed at this time. The poster shows Sharma in an intimate, naked embrace with the faceless newcomer, who will reportedly play an aspiring model, forced to compromise his morals to further his career.

The UK Times says gay activists are braced for a big song and dance from religious and political conservatives, many of whom opposed the repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code — a law that bracketed homosexuality with bestiality and paedophilia as crimes “against nature,” punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Sharma, the director, is unapologetic, according to the Hindustan Times. He said, “I don’t care what objections people will have. I’ve made the film according to my judgment.”

Oh, those contractual obligations.

Just last week it was reported that SAW VI director and longtime editor of the SAW movies, Kevin Greutert, would be jumping off the Lionsgate and climbing aboard with Paramount to helm the Paranormal Activity sequel, and that the two films would be going head to head at the October 22, 2010 box office.

If you thought it seemed too odd to be true, it seems you were right. Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Lionsgate and partners, the aptly named Twisted Pictures, have called Greutert back on his contractual obligations to direct SAW VII a.k.a. SAW 3D.

Deadline says this happened just 2 weeks before shooting starts, that the goal was to block Paramount and that Twisted Pictures, which holds an option on Greutert, bumped previously announced SAW 3D director David Hackl (who directed SAW V) to make it happen. Both directors have been involved with the SAW films since the beginning.

Meanwhile, it seems Greutert is not thrilled with the situation and DenOfGeek.com reports that he has been airing his grievances on his website. At last check, the posts were not available or had been taken down, but Den Of Geek says Greutert posted a statement that reads:

“I’m in the middle of something really terrible right now, as anyone who has come to this site probably knows. While I fight for justice in this, the important thing is to avoid giving in to hatred and anger, because these emotions are life killers.

“Hopefully we will all arrive at an amicable solution. Thank you to everyone who is working with me on this.

Kevin”

After that post was removed, he reportedly wrote:

“I just had the task of telling my 83 year old mother that no, I’m not going to be allowed to direct the movie we were all so excited about when my family last got together, and that I’m being forced to leave town before getting a chance to see her again.  Yes, I’ll be filming people getting tortured YET AGAIN.  So we’ll have to put off me making a film she can actually watch for another year.

I’m not making this sh*t up.”

One might wonder why Greutert has decided to develop a sudden aversion to torture after working on six previous SAW movies over six years.

The rivalry between the studios, Paramount and Lionsgate, began when sleeper hit Paranormal Activity crept up and crushed SAW VI at the 2009 box office on its way to a $150 million worldwide gross on a $15,000 budget.

Zelda Rubinstein, the 4-foot-3-inch character actress best known for playing Tangina the clairvoyant in the Poltergeist movies, died on Wednesday January 27 in Los Angeles. She was 76.

Rubinstein suffered a heart attack two months ago. It was reported at the time that she had been taken off life support and was not expected to live much longer. No immediate family members survive.

The New York Times says Rubinstein was a medical lab technician until she opted for a career change in her late forties. She made her film debut in 1981 in Under the Rainbow. In 1982 she appeared in Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist as Tangina Barrons, a psychic attempting to purge a violent ghost from a house bought by the Freeling family. Tangina failed repeatedly to rid the family of its tormenters (despite pronouncing the famous line, “This house is clean!”) and returned for both the second and third films — Poltergeist II (1986) and Poltergeist III (1988) — to try again. Rubinstein was awarded a Best Supporting Actress Saturn Award for her performance in the first film and the Washington Post called it one of the best by a film actress that year.

Rubinstein’s other films include Frances (1982), Sixteen Candles (1984) and Teen Witch (1989). She also had a recurring role on televisions ‘Picket Fences.’

Rubinstein was also known for her public advocacy of AIDS education and the rights of little people.