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What exactly lies "Behind the Candelabra" referenced in the title of Michael Douglas' forthcoming film about Liberace and his lover?

A wink of Bowie-esque purple eyeshadow, for one thing ... But as we learn in New York magazine's in-depth cover feature on Douglas, the actor began shooting with a lot more than makeup weighing him down.

Shortly after signing onto the project, Douglas, 67, was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer -- after nine months of inconclusive tests. Shooting was delayed. Meanwhile, his troubled son, Cameron, was in prison on drug-dealing charges.

Though Cameron's drug issues remain a struggle, Douglas fought against the disease and seems to have won. He says he feels a "rejuvenation" of sorts, adding that "it feels great to be back at work." Of course, work on the Liberace film involved a few new challenges ...

"I was the girl on this movie," Douglas explains. "The hair and makeup for Liberace took two and a half hours. I've never done elaborate hair and makeup before. Up until now, my entire career has been contemporary."

A veteran of films like "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction," Douglas didn't sweat the sex scenes with a blow-dried and unfailingly pretty, Matt Damon, who plays Liberace's 18-year-old live-in boyfriend, Scott Thorson.

"Once you get that first kiss in, you are comfortable," says Douglas. "Matt and I didn’t rehearse the love scenes. We said, 'Well -- we've read the script, haven't we?"

On the other hand, sometimes it's easier to play a character whose big scenes involve action that's less mundane than making love.

"The hardest thing about sex scenes is that everybody is a judge," he points out. "I don't know the last time you murdered somebody or blew anyone's brains out, but everyone has had sex and probably this morning, which means everyone has an opinion on how it should be done."

"When I watch the movie, I forget it's Matt and me pretty quickly. And soon after that, I forget it's two guys. The fights, the love -- it's a couple." 

"Behind the Candelabra" brings Michael Douglas, Matt Damon (and, hopefully, at least one sparkly purple eyelid) to your living room on May 26 on HBO.

 

Elvis Presley circa 1970 ...
Silvio's crowning glory from "The Sopranos" ...Joe Pesci's neo-rockabilly look in "My Cousin Vinny" ...
Jeremy Renner's stupendous, traffic-stopping pompadour on the Boston set of the currently filming drama, "American Hustle."
 

What happens when a spirited girl becomes an official Disney princess? In the case of Merida from Pixar's "Brave," she transforms from a round-faced, round-eyed heroine with copious amounts of frizzy red hair to an almond-eyed, teeny-waisted hottie with smooth, wavy tresses, a twinkly dress and plenty of décolletage. She also trades her bow and arrow for a belt from Elvis' Vegas years.

 

Merida's makeover was done ahead of her "royal coronation" ceremony on Saturday as the 11th princess in Disney's collection, and it sparked an immediate backlash from fans who preferred the refreshing normalcy of the original character.

 

"Merida was the princess that countless girls and their parents were waiting for -- a strong, confident, self-rescuing princess ready to set off on her next adventure with her bow at the ready," reads a petition from Change.org. "She was a princess who looked like a real girl, complete with the 'imperfections' that all people have."

 

Her "skinnier, sexier and more mature" appearance sends a message "to girls that the original, realistic, teenage-appearing version of Merida is inferior," continues the petition, "that for girls and women to have value -- to be recognized as true princesses -- they must conform to a narrow definition of beauty."

 

Brenda Chapman, the film's original director (she was eighty-sixed during production), has also voiced dissatisfaction with Merida's fresh-from-the-surge​on's-knife look.

 

"There is an irresponsibility to this decision that is appalling for women and young girls," she fumes to the Marin Independent Journal. "Disney marketing and the powers that be that allow them to do such things should be ashamed of themselves."

 

What's more, "I think it's atrocious what they’ve done to Merida," adds Chapman, who came up with the "Brave" story concept and modeled the leading lady after her daughter. "When little girls say they like it because it’s more sparkly, that’s all fine and good but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy ‘come hither’ look and the skinny aspect of the new version. It’s horrible! Merida was created to break that mold -- to give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model, something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits around for romance."

 

Disney responded to the outcry by removing Merida's new look from the official Princess website and swapping in the original (see below).

 

"Merida exemplifies what it means to be a Disney Princess through being brave, passionate and confident," the Mouse House tap-danced to Shine, "and she remains the same strong and determined Merida from the movie whose inner qualities have inspired moms and daughters around the world."
Merida and some of her Disney princess brethren ...

 

Leave it to Jay Leno to chip away a tiny piece of our hearts. So, you know that adorable couple who became viral stars last week thanks to their infectiously upbeat gas-pump karaoke during a "Tonight Show" segment? They might be plants.

 

Sigh.

 

The Smoking Gun dug a little deeper and discovered that Will and Monifa Sims are professionally trained actors who started their own Chicago theater company before moving to Los Angeles to pursue stardom.

 

What's more, Monifa has appeared on the "Pumpcast News" segment before. In 2011, she drove up to the same Costco pump, in the same minivan, wearing the same sweatpants and chatted with the same faux anchor, Richard Stack.

 

"We weren't expecting this at all," she tells the Chicago Sun-Times of their sudden popularity. "But it's been a lot of fun. I'm happy that it's made a lot of people laugh."

 

Adds her hubby, "You never, in a million years, think you're going to pump gas and be on the Internet, let alone 'The Tonight Show.'" Unless, of course, it's happened before.

 

Leno didn't mention the Sims' thespian background when he introduced them on his show, a fact that Will explains away thusly: "The [producers] didn't want [people] to think we were actors and it was a 'plant.' They were like, 'You're a bartender, and she's a fitness [trainer].'"

 

So far, the video of the two crooning and dancing while performing "Living on a Prayer" and "Sweet Dreams" amid gas fumes has garnered more than 7.5 million YouTube views, making it by far the most popular "Tonight Show" clip ever.  

 

"Whoever you are, you can make me a star," Monifa told Stack at the pump. "I'm ready for my spotlight."

 

Last week, freelance writer Rebecca Dana noticed that Jimmy Kimmel's "Celebs Read Mean Tweets" segment, in which famous folks read nasty tweets about themselves, is almost a little too hilarious. So, as she told her own followers, she "did a nerdy thing and looked up the Twitter handles."

Dana discovered that three accounts didn't exist, three had been suspended and one was "awfully suspicious."

Apparently, Friday was a slow news day, because Gawker took Dana's tip-off and did a much nerdier thing: They investigated every single Twitter handle used in the history of the segment.

Turns out that while the first installment featured 100% real tweets, each subsequent segment had more possible fakes than the last. The second time the segment ran, it featured two iffy tweets, one of which came from a user whose only post on the site was the one used on the show. The other -- the admittedly amazing, "Ever since @matisyahu shaved, he looks like old, fat Justin Bieber" -- was credited to @dusted221, whose account is now suspended. Gawker also found "no evidence of this tweet" anywhere on the Internet.

In the third installment of "Celebs Read Mean Tweets," Gawker found four questionable tweets. And in round four of the segment, the site reported that "only eight out of 13 tweets were A-OK."

"Hey @zachbraff, I could take a picture of a piece of s--- in my toilet and it would be a better movie than Garden State," came from user @Zyx443, who has neither any tweets nor a username. (Is it wrong that we're laughing?)

Ditto @tweetlikeitsmyj, who allegedly posted "F--- @BradPaisley and his f------ country singing f------ face." (By the way, if a Kimmel staff writer used a riff on "tweet like it's my job" for a Twitter handle while being paid to invent Twitter handles, said staff writer gets an F for creativity.)

The same no username/no other tweets problem turned up in a @TWOSOUTHWRECKIN's No Doubt dig -- "Dear @nodoubt, The only thing in doubt is whether us music makes me want to puke or kill myself & then puke. Sincerely, everyone."

And again in @saaanex9's "@KellyRipa is kind of amazing, when you think about how hard it must be to balance that huge head on a tiny body."

Finally, the site's super-sleuths determined that @GOLF-GUY_127's "It's a good thing Ray Romano is funny because his face looks like a dump I took today" just might be the smoking gun: Dashes are impossible when it comes to creating Twitter usernames.

If the writers are inventing some of the tweets, it's not exactly a felony to make things up for the sake of comedy. But going forward, Jimmy Kimmel's staff writers might want to avoid Ray Romano and Elisabeth Moss ...



 

As he reminded a roomful of pseudo punk-rockers at last week's Met Fashion Gala with a series of amplified screeches, Kanye West is working on a new solo album.

The new disc is expected to feature a slew of collaborators, including Daft Punk, Azealia Banks and TNGHT. Scottish DJ and producer Hudson Mohawke, a new member of Yeezy's growing G.O.O.D. label roster, is also involved, and according to ConsequenceOfSound, he shared a pair of tracks off the upcoming disc at Poland's Free Form Festival on Friday night.

Kanye has spent most of the spring in Paris working on the recording, which probably includes some of the memorable lyrics he shared at the Met ("I am a God"), as well as the more R-rated, "There's leaders and there's followers but I'd rather be a d--- than a swallower," which is audible in video from Hudson Mohawke's set.

A release date has yet to be announced for the album, but Interwebbers seems to agree it's dropping on June 18, based on Yeezy's recent cryptic tweet.

Of course, June 18 could also be the release date for Kanye's other highly anticipated forthcoming project ... the one featuring Kardashian DNA.




 

 

In honor of Prince Harry's weeklong visit to the U.S., here's a look back at some of his um, youthful missteps and uh, adventures. We're so glad he's grown up.

 

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