I guess AMC isn’t the only network having problems negotiating with their highest profile series. Word is coming from The Daily Beast that Fox has come to a bit of an impasse in negotiations with the five lead actors of The Simpsons that may result in a halt of production on the long-running animated series after the 23rd season concludes next spring. Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, and others), Julie Kavner (Marge, her sisters and others), Nancy Cartwright (Bart and more), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Hank Azaria (Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum,  Apu Nahasapeemapetilo, and more), and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, and others) have all been told that they need to take a 45% pay cut, or risk being replaced with sound-alike actors after this season. More details on this worrisome issue after the jump.

Watching Broadcast News twenty years after release it’s interesting to note that the film hasn’t been vaulted into the category of films like Network or A Face in the Crowd for being a prophetic film about what’s happened to journalism. Perhaps because it cuts deeper to the bone. And though it may not be the go-to for the state of journalism, it’s just as on-point as any satire of TV journalism. Holly Hunter stars as Jane Craig, a segment producer for network television’s evening news. She’s good friends and colleagues with Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), who’s nursed a crush on her so long that it is a habit of their friendship, and their platonic bond is disrupted when Tom Grunick (William Hurt) enters the pictures. He’s the handsome but vacuous new talent, who knows he’s out of his depth but also knows how to anchor. My review of the Blu-ray Criterion edition of Broadcast News follows after the jump.

We have four clips from the upcoming James L. Brooks film How Do You Know.  The plot centers on a love triangle between an athlete who has been cut from her team (Reese Witherspoon), an innocent businessmen who may be headed to jail (Paul Rudd), and a narcissistic baseball player (Owen Wilson).  Hopefully, How Do You Know will showcase the warm, character-centric dramedy that Brooks can deliver when he’s at his best.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  How Do You Know opens December 17th.

Pop quiz: what do Denzel Washington’s Antwone Fisher, Matt Ruskin and Chris Rolle’s documentary The Hip-Hop Project and James L. Brooks’ upcoming rom-com How Do You Know all have in common? Any guesses? Anyone?  Okay, I’ll tell you: all three films, in their finished form, include over one use of the word “fuck” during the course of their running time. Yet oddly enough, despite the MPAA’s staunch ‘one ‘fuck’ per PG-13 film’ rule, two of these films–Antwone Fisher (three “fucks”) and The Hip Hop Project (seventeen)–somehow managed to avoid being slapped with an R-rating, and instead were deemed suitably appropriate for a PG-13.

How Do You Know, on the other hand, hasn’t been quite as lucky. Earlier this week Sony found their film slapped with an R-rating, on account of the film’s usage of the word ‘fuck’ three times. After losing an appeal to overturn the rating, Variety is now reporting that Sony will take the film back to the editing room in the hopes of securing a more audience-accessible rating for its December release. Hit the jump for some of my thoughts.

Columbia Pictures has released the first trailer for James L. Brooks’ How Do You Know, a romantic comedy led by an impressive cast of Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson, and Kathryn Hahn.  The film centers on a love triangle between a professional baseball player (Wilson), a white collar executive (Rudd), and the object of their affection (Witherspoon).  Check out the trailer after the jump.

Jack Nicholson may re-team with writer/director James L. Brooks for a third time after reports that Bill Murray has gone MIA from the director’s upcoming film.  It’s not that filming began and then Murray dropped out midway.  According to Variety, Bill Murray had been in talks to portray the blueblood father of Paul Rudd’s character, but no deal closed. In recent weeks Murray’s interest in the project waned and he fell out of touch.  My guess: Murray has just gotten really into playing “Left 4 Dead” and he can’t pull himself away from his XBOX 360.  You can’t hold that against him.

Nicholson previously worked with Brooks on “Terms of Endearment” and “As Good As It Gets” and was rewarded with Oscars both times.  The Variety articles also notes that he would be the last piece of major casting with Rudd playing a white-collar executive vying for Witherspoon’s affections, and Wilson portraying a professional baseball pitcher who is also a love interest.  I say why stop at a love triangle?  Make it a love quadrangle with Nicholson in the mix.  You know he’s still got it.