[Entertainment wRap]: Josh Brolin’s pies, Mickey Mouse in Venice

MANILA, Philippines – Here are some entertainment stories from September 1 to 7.

Josh Brolin makes a great pie, says Kate Winslet 

Josh Brolin, known for villainous roles, makes a great pie both on and off screen, said his co-star Kate Winslet on Saturday, September 7.

The 45-year-old American actor – who has played menacing characters in such films as “Milk,” “American Gangster,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” and the Coen brothers’ Academy Award-winning “No Country for Old Men” – perfected his baking skills for a scene in director Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day.”

The film, based on a Joyce Maynard novel, premiered this week at the Toronto International Film Festival. Brolin plays an escaped convict taken in by a reclusive single mother, portrayed by Winslet.

“Josh got into his character and, I can say, is an excellent cook of pies,” the 37-year-old English actress said at a news conference.

Reitman concurred, and, according to Brolin, the crew on the set were also very pleased with his flaky crusts.

Here’s a clip of ‘Labor Day’:

But the actor may have taken preparing for the scene a tad too far.

“He got a little bit obsessive with making pies,” said Winslet. “He would get up at 4 in the morning and he would come to work with a box and say, ‘I’ve baked you a pie.'”

Brolin would also email pictures of his pies to friends and others.

5 weeks and many, many pies later, Winslet and the rest of the cast and crew had had their fill. Reitman, for one, said his fridge was full.

“Josh is a picture of masculinity, but you’d show up at his cottage and he’d be so excited to tell you about the crust he achieved that day or the juices that were coming out of the pie,” said Reitman.

Brolin confessed that it all started out of “abject fear” of not being able to do the pie scene with Winslet – described in the script as “the greatest pie making scene in cinema history.”

He said he burned the top of the pie on his first attempt while the bottom was uncooked. The reason? He had accidentally turned the oven to broil.

British DJ Dave Lee Travis to face sex assault trial

British radio presenter Dave Lee Travis, who counts Aung San Suu Kyi among his fans, will stand trial next year, for 11 counts of indecent assault and one sexual assault, a judge said Friday, September 6.

The 68-year-old former BBC star, one of the biggest names in British broadcasting during the 1970s and 1980s, has indicated that he will plead not guilty to the charges.

At a 20-minute preliminary hearing at London’s Old Bailey court, judge Nigel Sweeney said Travis would next appear on October 21, and fixed his trial date for March 4 next year.

Bearded Travis, wearing a grey suit and a red patterned tie, spoke only to confirm his name and to say that he understood his bail conditions.

He got straight into a taxi after leaving the court, ignoring the scrum of waiting journalists and photographers.

The assaults are alleged to have taken place between 1977 and 2007 against 9 alleged victims aged between 15 and 29 at the time.

Travis, whose real name is David Patrick Griffin, is one of several aging celebrities in Britain arrested under Operation Yewtree, the police operation set up in the wake of revelations that late BBC star Jimmy Savile was a prolific sex offender.

READ:Australian entertainer slapped with sex charges

The charges against Travis are not connected to his former colleague, Savile, who police believe abused hundreds of victims, mainly young girls.

Nicknamed the Hairy Cornflake, Travis spent 25 years presenting on BBC Radio 1, and also hosted a music request show on the BBC World Service.

Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi said the World Service show had helped her to get through more than two decades under house arrest, and she met the DJ when she visited BBC studios in London last year.

Woman charged with stalking US actor John Cusack 

A 45-year-old woman was charged Thursday, September 5, with stalking US actor John Cusack, whom she allegedly pestered with text, Twitter, and other messages for the last 3 years, prosecutors said.

Elizabeth Diane Pahlke pleaded not guilty to stalking Cusack between October 2010 and Tuesday, September 3, when she was arrested near the star’s home near Malibu, an hour northwest of Los Angeles.

WATCH: #AskMargie: Stalking tendencies

Pahlke allegedly followed the 47-year-old actor – whose credits include “Being John Malkovich,” “High Fidelity,” and “Grosse Pointe Blank,” – to a restaurant and approached him, according to Shiara Davila-Morales of the LA County District Attorney’s Office.

The woman, who was already subject to a restraining order recently obtained by Cusack, was also charged with one count of attempted burglary on the day she was arrested.

She was ordered to remain in custody in lieu of $200,000 bail, pending her next court appearance on September 16.

Pahlke is not Cusack’s first alleged stalker. In 2008 a 34-year-old woman, Emily Leatherman, 34, was sentenced to 6 months already served and 5 months’ probation, as well as being ordered to undergo psychiatric counseling.

Cusack, who has played gritty characters as well as romantic-comedy roles, was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in “High Fidelity.”

Here’s a trailer of that film: 

Mickey Mouse as Italian Romeo in Venice

A besotted Mickey Mouse brought light relief to a crisis-themed Venice film festival Tuesday, September 3, as a gondolier who is rowing up the Grand Canal in the floating city when he is smitten by young Signorina Minnie.

“O Sole Minnie”, a short by Emmy award-winning artist Paul Rudish, who helped develop and direct the much-loved animation series “Dextor’s Laboratory” and “The Powerpuff Girls,” captures the romantic spirit of the canal city.

Mickey leaps off his gondola into the restaurant where Minnie works as a waitress and puckers up for a kiss, but from there the hapless mouse is thwarted at every step, with pesky hippopotami, chickens and an operatic whale getting in his way.

The technology may be cutting edge but the illustration harks back to the 1950s and 1960s, and Mickey’s wild ride through Venice – from cries of “ciao bella!” to romancing with a plate of pasta – will delight those who grew up with him.

Rudish’s postcard homage to the Italian city is just one of a series of short animations which will feature Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto going on adventures in Santa Monica, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing.

Here’s a clip of ‘O Sole Minnie’:

 – With reports by Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com

John Cusack and Kate Winslet photo from Shutterstock