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The Weekly Casting Couch: Megan Fox, Elisabeth Shue, Tina Fey, and Mariel Hemingway

The Weekly Casting Couch: Megan Fox, Elisabeth Shue, Tina Fey, and Mariel Hemingway

Capping a week that marked the loss of big-screen heartthrob Patrick Swayze and Kanye West lose his marbles — again — lesbian faves Tina Fey, Megan Fox, Elisabeth Shue, Maura Tierney, Helen Hunt, Robin Wright Penn and Mariel Hemingway lead this installment of the Hollywood Trade Roundup, a collection of hotties making headlines.

Capping a week that marked the loss of big-screen heartthrob Patrick Swayze and Kanye West lose his marbles — again — Tina Fey, Megan Fox, Elisabeth Shue, Maura Tierney, Helen Hunt, Robin Wright Penn and Mariel Hemingway lead this installment of the Hollywood Trade Roundup, a collection of hotties making headlines in The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety.

The week opened by proving that Tyler Perry can do no "Bad": His I Can Do Bad All By Myself bowed atop the boxoffice with a $24 million take, with Tim Burton's animated 9 coming in second, and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds rounding out the top three. The horror-thriller Sorority Row opened at No. 6 with a weak $5.3 million take for the Rumer Willis starrer.

At the Kathy Griffin-hosted Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Tina Fey added another statuette to her showcase, taking home the prize for best guest actress in a comedy series for her impersonation as former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on NBC's Saturday Night Live. Other big winners at the event included Ellen Burstyn for her guest role on NBC's Law & Order: SVU, and Joss Whedon for his Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day Web musical hit Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Transformers and Jennifer's Body hottie Megan Fox has been tapped to host the 35th season premiere of Saturday Night Live when it returns with musical guest U2 on Sept. 26. Upcoming hosts and musical guests include Drew Barrymore, Lady GaGa, Regina Spektor and Shakira.

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Former Mixed Martial Arts champ Gina Carano's Knockout has landed a distributor: Lionsgate has signed on to distribute the action spy thriller being directed by Steven Soderbergh. Production begins in February with an eye to release the film before the end of next year.

Elisabeth Shue and Abigail Breslin have been cast in the independent drama Janie Jones, the story of a young girl (Breslin) who is abandoned by her drug-addicted mother (Shue). Brittany Snow co-stars. Production begins this week in Iowa.

Maura Tierney has withdrawn from NBC's upcoming drama Parenthood because the show's production schedule interferes with her treatment for breast cancer. Emmy and Oscar winner Helen Hunt, meanwhile, is in talks with the network to replace Tierney. The role would mark Hunt's return to television, where she won Emmys for her work on comedy Mad About You.

Robin Wright Penn and James McAvoy have been cast in the Robert Redford-directed The Conspirator, the period drama based on the events surrounding the assassination of President Lincoln. Production begins next month. Wright Penn will play Mary Surratt, ,the only woman among a group charged with conspiring to kill the president. McAvoy will play Frederick Aiken, the young war hero who defends her.

Eva Mendes has joined Michael Keaton, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in The Other Guys, an action comedy set to hit theaters in August.

Mariel Hemingway is spearheading an effort to bring the memoir written by her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, to the big screen. A Moveable Feast was published in 1964 and revolves around the author's years in post-World War I Paris. The text includes portrayals of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. Hemingway owns the film and TV rights to the book and is in the process of shopping the project around Hollywood.

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In ratings news for the fresh fall TV season, Fox was pleased with the 3.5 million viewers who tuned in for Glee's return to the airwaves. NBC's Jay Leno Show premiered to strong numbers, collecting 18.4 million viewers. The second night, however, wasn't as strong as viewership slid to 10.3 million. The CW was doing cartwheels with the results for the series premiere of The Vampire Diaries, as it set a ratings record for the network and collected 5 million viewers. The return of One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl, meanwhile, were both down from last year's premieres.

Arianna Huffington is joining forces with How I Met Your Mother's executive producer Greg Malins for a multicamera comedy for ABC revolving around three freshman members of Congress who live together in Washington, D.C. Malins will write the script and executive produce with Huffington and Huffington Post founding editor Roy Sekoff.

Former Golden Girl Betty White, 87, will be honored with the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award during the 16th annual SAG Awards on Jan. 23.

Turning to the Billboard charts, Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3" tops the Billboard 200 albums chart, giving the rapper his 11th No. 1 album, pushing him ahead of Elvis Presley as the solo act with the most No. 1 albums. Only the Beatles have more. Rounding out the album charts this week, Miley Cyrus holds at No. 2, while last week's topper, Whitney Houston's "I Look To You," falls to No. 3. Taylor Swift's "Fearless" slides a spot to No. 10.

Looking to the weekend at the boxoffice, Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried star in Diablo Cody's long-awaited Jennifer's Body, while Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart star in the romantic comedy Love Happens. In counter programming, Matt Damon stars in the drama-thriller The Informant! and the animated Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs rounds out the four wide releases.

Tune in next week to see how Fox and crew faired at the boxoffice and how the new fall TV offering fares.

Find previous Casting Couch posts and other entertainment from Lesley here!

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Lesley Goldberg