I just added some more stills of Charlie Wilson’s War plus a few ‘On Set’ pictures. Enjoy!

After his wife died, Sam Baldwin did not think about other women. His 8-year old son Jonah thinks that his father needs a woman in order to get his life back in order and calls in on a nation-wide radio-show. The voice and story of Sam is heard by hundreds of women, including Annie Reed, who is about to marry her fiancé Walter soon. She can’t find a rest until she really knows for sure that Sam Baldwin is not the one person for her. Thus, Annie travels to Seattle, where Sam and Jonah live, and there decides that Sam is not the one. The letter she never sent was posted by a friend of Annie, and therefore Jonah, who feels that she’s the one for his dad, already booked a flight to New York in order to meet her on the roof of the Empire State building, just like in “An Affair to Remember”. Of course, his father follows him instantly…

TOM HANKS is offering one lucky fan the chance to act opposite his wife RITA WILSON in a performance of SHAKESPEARE’s THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
The double Oscar winner has teamed up with the eBay Giving Works organisation and will auction off the chance to land a speaking role in the play when it airs as part of the Shakespeare Festival L.A. on 19 May (08).
The winning bidder will also get the chance to mingle with Wilson’s co-stars Annette Bening, William Shatner, Zach Braff, Tim Allen, Christina Applegate, David Schwimmer and Sean Astin, and he or she will also be a part of the post-show cast party.
Hanks has also agreed to record a personal message for the winning bidder’s answering machine.
The auction, which will be managed by Auction Cause, will go live on eBay.com on Thursday (08May08) and run until 14 May (08).

Rick Gassko is about to marry Debbie Thompson. Her parents hate him. Her old boyfriend hates him. They all have money and he gets a cut of the crap games on the catholic school bus he drives. His friends decide to give him the bachelor party of all bachelor parties with an expensive hotel, booze, movies and hookers. As the players catch wind of the elements of the party, each adds a little monkey wrench so that one set of hookers ends up giving demos at the bride’s shower, the brides friends end up dressed as hookers in a room with a number of non English speaking Japanese business men, and so on as things get out of hand.

In an obvious attempt to be ignored for a while, Tom Hanks with no fanfare, news release or hoopla, late tonight put up a video on his MySpace page endorsing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Had it come on, say, a Monday morning, the endorsement by the popular and widely-respected Hanks would have caused seismic shifts on those rock shelves that underlie Hollywood and promise to slide the place into the ocean someday.

Thanks to The Times’ dauntless Tina Daunt, The Ticket, however, is right on top of this major international political story. “BEWARE,” says the headline on Hanks’ video, “Celebrity Endorsement.”

“I’m Tom Hanks,” Tom Hanks says directly into the camera in what looks like someone’s den, “And I want Barack Obama to be the next president of our country. As an official celebrity, I know my endorsement has just made your mind up for you.”

He continues in a straightfaced, tongue-in-cheek manner to seriously endorse the freshman senator. Hanks acknowledges all the candidates — and some of their relatives, associates and supporters — have made gaffes in recent weeks.

But he says he reads history sometimes and cites the groundbreaking peaceful turnover of power in 1797 from George Washington to John Adams as a major turning point in history. And says the same sort of corner can be turned by the election of the country’s first African American president, a member of a race once officially considered only three-fifths of a person here.

He especially praises Obama’s character and vision, integrity and ability to unify the country. Hanks’ endorsement is a breath of good news for Obama after a few difficult weeks involving the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who Obama says is wrong.

It’ll be something positive for Tim Russert to ask Obama about on “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, but Hanks’ approval may not carry much weight with the working class Democratic voters where the senator’s support has not been strong.

Things have been relatively quiet on the Hollywood endorsement scene of late, since it’s a given that most prominent celebrities there will be endorsing Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Just kidding. McCain’s got Sylvester Stallone and that’s it.

Hillary Clinton lined up Jack Nicholson too. And Obama has also been endorsed by Jane Fonda but that hasn’t shown up on many billboards yet.

“I’m Tom Hanks,” the actor/director/producer says at the end of his video, “I wrote and approved this message, and I am now going to turn off the camera.” He gets up, walks around out of sight and the camera goes off.

Beware: Celebrity Endorsement

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks thinks the story of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japanese star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, would make a good film.

Matsuzaka, known by his Boston nickname Dice-K, has been under intense pressure after the Red Sox spent more than 100 million dollars to acquire him last year from his Japanese team.

“An interesting movie, I think — one I’d want to see, if they made it — would be the story of Dice-K,” Hanks told the Japan Times in an interview published on Thursday.

“That movie would have conflict and cultural clashes and superb sports skills and sportsmanship,” he said.

“It would really be something in the right filmmaker’s hands.”

Hanks, who won back-to-back best actor Oscars for 1993’s “Philadelphia” and 1994’s “Forrest Gump,” also starred with Madonna in “A League of Their Own,” a film about an all-women’s baseball league.

Matsuzaka last year became the first Japanese pitcher to start a World Series game, helping Boston win their second championship in three years in his US rookie year.

But his record has been erratic. He apologised to fans after a shaky start when the Red Sox opened their 2008 season in Tokyo in March.

Tom Hanks has been asked to run for president – of the Phillippines.

“They say ‘You should come down and be president here,’” the 51-year-old actor, who celebrates his twentieth anniversary with Rita Wilson tomorrow, laughs.

It’s a far cry from his first job of selling soft drinks at baseball games.

“On the very first day, I got robbed of all my pockets,” he says. “What I learned from that is that no one knows that you are a vendor if you don’t wear a white shirt. Number two, have some money in your pocket, but keep most of your money in your shoe.”

What’s the secret to his success?

“I have none. I stumble around and get lucky. That’s my thing.”

Tom attended the 40th Anniversary Screening of 2001 A Space Odyssey last week and I have just added some pictures of that.

If you can’t bear to watch another analysis of the endless campaign feud between Barack and Hillary, check out the newly released DVD of Charlie Wilson’s War starring Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman (who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a rogue CIA operative). Hanks delivers a dead-on funny and thought-provoking portrait of the real-life Texas congressman who got involved in Afghanistan before Osama Bin Laden unleashed his reign of terror.

And Hanks has his own thoughts on running for office, being one of the most powerful A-list celebs and just trying to be a dad to his kids.

Could Charlie have run for President in today’s high pressure, dog-eat-dog world of politics?

“If he was running, I would vote for the guy because he’s free of hypocrisy. I once asked him, ‘How do you keep winning these elections? You did drugs. You drank. You chased women. You were a notorious drunk womanizer.’ He said, ‘Well, because I never lied about my behavior.’ He never pretended to be something that he wasn’t. That’s a hard thing to do. I wish he was in Congress today.”

Are you planning to endorse a candidate?

“You live your politics. I don’t think it’s necessary for us, as celebrities, to go out to endorse candidates. I pay a lot of taxes. Of course, I should pay more taxes than anybody else. I drive an electric car. As far as being politically active, I think I’m politically practical. I live my life in a practical way that I guess is representative of my political choices.”

Rumors are that what you’ll get paid for the The Da Vinci Code sequel, Angels and Demons, will make you the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

“Look, I’m going to get paid quite a bit of money in order to do that but there’s no such thing as the highest paid actor. And I wouldn’t be interested in holding that title. To me this isn’t like work, to go off and pretend to be somebody else. There are some people that do it for power; there are some people that do it for fame. I’m not into it for those things.”

Do your kids treat you like a superstar?

“My kids are used to me being an actor. They don’t think of me like a huge, big, massive thing. Dad usually comes home late, and then looks kind of goofy, depending on what role he’s doing. I just hope that all my kids, my oldest and my youngest end up landing something that they just so totally enjoy so it’s not like working. If it’s show business like it is with Colin, then God bless him. Nothing I can teach him. He’s just got to go out and figure it out himself.”

How are you doing as a parent?

“I’m making my own mistakes no matter how hard I try. I try to teach them to love, to wake up content in the morning and to chill out and don’t spill soda on the sofa.”

Have you learned any secrets about acting?

“Honestly, it’s the oldest lesson in the world — just do it. Everything else is a distraction to your concentration and focus — how late it is, how difficult it is, how uncomfortable it is, what the dialogue is. Those are all distractions to just getting up and doing it.

Source: Parade Magazine

Tom Hanks recently addressed the rumour that the fat paycheque he will earn working on the Da Vinci Code sequel, Angels & Demons, will make him the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

“Look, I’m going to get paid quite a bit of money in order to do that, but there’s no such thing as the highest paid actor,” Hanks told Parade magazine. “And I wouldn’t be interested in holding that title. … There are some people that do it for power; there are some people that do it for fame. I’m not into it for those things.”