#Batfleck is now a trending hashtag on Twitter. The internet is going batshit over Warner Bros.’ announcement that Ben Affleck will play Batman in the second “Man of Steel” movie with Henry Cavill as Superman. For some reason, the fact that Affleck has directed three fantastic movies in a row– “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Town,” and “Argo”– has completely escaped the reasoning. Also, Affleck won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director for “Argo.” Hello?

All of that has been forgotten. Fanboys are focused on Affleck’s past failures, like “Daredevil” and “Gigli.” Ridiculous? Yes. But Warner Bros.’ contempt for the press, and their curious way of handling announcements, got them into this bind. Who announces such an important thing without a build up? And late in the evening, New York times, when only bloggers can control the news? Warner Bros. deserves what it gets for botching their own announcement. They had no advocates, only naysayers.

The result is an online petition to stop Affleck, and Twitter aflame with people making jokes– even Richard Dreyfuss and Albert Brooks.

You’re still pissed about Gigli? RT @richarddreyfuss:You read for a part, you feel good about it, then they cast Ben Affleck.

— Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) August 23, 2013

I think Ben will make a great Batman. With Robin Williams as Alfred, Matt Damon as Robin, Jennifer Lopez as Catwoman, and Casey Affleck as the Riddler.

EXCLUSIVE: Robin Thicke‘s legal beef with the late Marvin Gaye‘s family isn’t just about “Blurred Lines” or Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” Thicke’s 2009 “Million Dollar Baby” is an almost exact rip off of Gaye’s classic “Trouble Man” circa 1972. And that’s not all Thicke has done to emulate R&B soul from the early 70s or even other music.

Thicke, whom I like a lot, has a bad habit of using wording and phrases from old songs to construct his new ones. It’s not just the music. In “Million Dollar Baby” he uses the refrain “Luck be a lady tonight.” And sorry, there’s only one song that has that line– “Luck Be a Lady” from “Guys and Dolls.”

Thicke also picked up Marvin Gaye’s “After the Dance” for his “Love After War.” Listen to them. They are more alike than the Olsen twins. In Thicke’s “Make You Love Me” he actually sings Gaye’s the refrain from “I Want You.” In “Sex Therapy” he sings the chorus.

Thicke may have already had an issue with his song called “Everything U Can’t Have.” It carries not only his name as author, but Moses Vivanco, author of a 1954 Yma Sumac record called “Malambo, Pt. 1.” The Thicke track is blanked out and not playable on Spotify.

Elsewhere in Thicke’s catalog there are several other songs that either sound like they’re aping Motown artists or Motown songs. There’s even a Thicke song called “Rollacosta” that suspiciously echoes the Ohio Players’ “Rollercoaster.”

So what’s going on here? Why hasn’t EMI Music Publishing, which owns the Motown catalog, sued Thicke? It could be because Thicke is published also by EMI Music Publishing’s April division. Coincidence? That may be discussed in weeks to come.

Rapper/singer/dancer Chris Brown is a sad, pathetic soul at this point. Four years after beating up Rihanna before the Grammy Awards, Brown remains unrepentant, clueless, lost and angry. When it was discovered that he had not completed his community service, but lied about it, the District Attorney in Los Angeles sent him back to do it over. He’s going to be wearing an orange jump suit and picking up trash for 1,000 hours. Brown doesn’t like this, and has expressed his feelings in his own unique way on Twitter tonight:

Nigga done 6 months community service wit police and the DA racist ass crying to the judge that I didn’t do it. Fuck the SYSTEM!

— Chris Brown (@chrisbrown) August 23, 2013

Brown then concluded:

I ain’t gotta @ no niggas. If u feel offended… Fuck u.

— Chris Brown (@chrisbrown) August 23, 2013

Does anyone feel sorry for him? I doubt it. He just refuses to get it.

Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes are each getting gala tributes at the New York Film Festival. Blanchett will be honored on October 2nd for “Blue Jasmine” and her upcoming George Clooney movie, “The Monuments Men.” Fiennes has directed “The Invisible Woman,” and will have his gala on October 9th. Fiennes is also being honored in Telluride, according to sources. “Invisible Man” is coming from Sony Pictures Classics this fall, just as “Jasmine” came from SPC. “Monuments Men” is with big Sony. “Invisible Woman” is about Charles Dickens (Fiennes) and his young mistress. One of them had Great Expectations. And one of them wrote “Bleak House.” You figure it out. PS Fiennes and Blanchett once starred together in what movie? Answer: “Oscar and Lucinda.”

EXCLUSIVE: The Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon used to be 21 hours of live entertainment and drama. No more. The 2013 MDA Show of Strength is now whittled down to two hours on ABC. Most of the performances have already been taped.

According to a website organizing the faux game-show like audience from this past July 30-August 2nd: “The show will be taped at CBS Studios in Hollywood, CA. Featuring HUGE musical performances, the concerts will also feature introductions by celebrity guests. Think MTV’s ‘Hope For Haiti’ … and you can watch it LIVE!!.”

The acts involved included Backstreet Boys, Ryan Seacrest, Lee Ann Womack, Kenny Loggins, Darius (Hootie) Rucker, and Matthew Morrison from “Glee.” I’ve never heard of the others: Jabbwockeez, Jessica Sanchez, Chris Mann, etc. They’re all nice people, but not exactly Frank, Sammy, Dino or the countless megawatt stars Jerry Lewis used to attract to the show when it was in Vegas.

MDA’s glory days with  Lewis are long in the past. In 2011, as I’ve reported before, MDA claimed around $60 million in pledges. But when the dust settled, according to the Form 990 they filed with the IRS, the group was only to bring in half that amount– $30 million.

Last year, 2012, MDA claimed $58 million in pledges. They’ve never released a Form 990 for 2012 so we don’t know what they actually took in. According to an MDA accountant, the filing for 2012 only happened last week. It won’t hit GuideStar possibly for two more months. I’ve called and emailed MDA’s Roxan Olivas several times. She simply doesn’t respond.

But MDA without Jerry Lewis — which began in 2010–is a calamity. The 21 hour telethon that focused national attention on Muscular Dystrophy and related diseases is a thing of the past. The show was reduced to six hours, then three, and now it’s an ABC special. The “Love Network” of local stations is gone. All the local connection to MDA has been cancelled after decades. (In New York that means no Julius La Rosa, Julie Budd, or call ins from hotel owners in the Catskills.)

How much did MDA actually collect in 2012? How depressing will the ABC show be? Stay tuned…

EXCLUSIVE: You’ve got to hand it to the friends of Xenu: they are a clubby bunch. Earlier this summer Michelle Stafford, a top celeb Scientologist, left her Emmy winning role on CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” after 16 years. No one knows why exactly. Stafford told the soap opera press she was “done.” Her role will likely be recast.

So what did Stafford leave for? To make a YouTube series with her Scientology pals. “The Stafford Project” so far is just two episodes, each around 9 minutes long. The “project” is a reality series in small installments, all about Stafford’s so called real life as a single mom of a baby delivered by surrogate.

But what “The Stafford Project” hasn’t addressed yet is that everyone involved in it is a Scientologist. No less than two of them actresses named Paige– Goodman and Long. They are all well versed students of L. Ron Hubbard. They write and produce the show with Stafford. Goodman (then called Paige Dorian) was ex-member Lisa Presley’s assistant and minder for eight years according to reports.

So far all the male actors are members of the cult, too– Sevier Crespo and Robert Filios, as well as actor Eric Matheny.

And they’re not alone. The composer of music for “The Stafford Project,” Holly Palmer, has a long list of Scientology courses under her own at www.truthaboutscientology.com

Stafford has been with Scientology since 1990, and has worked her way up to OTVII, which means she may have secret information about desert rendezvous with aliens. Stafford had been married several times on “Y&R,” kidnapped, tried to run enemies down with her car, but never got to play that story out. Maybe she will on “The Stafford Project.”

Ex-Scientologist and vocal critic Mike Rinder has an interesting take on Stafford’s peculiar exit from “The Young and the Restless.” He says it’s because Stafford would not work on the same show  as another ex-cult member, actor Michael Fairman, who plays the recurring character of Murphy. http://www.mikerindersblog.org/voldemort-19-july/

Fairman left Scientology in the last couple of years because he didn’t agree with David Miscavige’s controversial leadership. “Y&R” also boasts at least one other Scientologist in its cast– Sharon Case, a milquetoast actress who’s been taking courses since 1986. Her character, also named Sharon, was recently diagonosed with bi-polar disorder in order to explain her sociopathic behavior.

Also read Tony Ortega’s excellent piece on Fairman who told him, “I kind of dislike [Tom Cruise] for what he has allowed to go on.”

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/04/michael_fairman_1.php