Hope Davis talks about gearing up to play Hillary Clinton

In a matter of weeks, actress Hope Davis will transform herself from Annette -- the upper-class wife and mother who spars on stage with Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden, and James Gandolfini eight shows a week in the Tony Award-winning Broadway play God of Carnage -- into Hillary Clinton for HBO Films' political drama The Special Relationship for British director Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon). She was just asked Monday to step into the role after Julianne Moore had to bow out due to a scheduling conflict. Now, Davis is tasked with embodying our current Secretary of State during her less glamorous years as First Lady to Bill Clinton (played by Dennis Quaid) during the Monica Lewinsky affair.

So how does the award-winning actress plan to hastily prepare? Through lots of audio tapes, lots of books, and a trusty wig. "With something like this, you can't spend all your time worrying about what you sound like, that you're not doing the storytelling part," Davis tells EW, while on her way to yet another live show of Carnage. "That has to come first."

While the title A Special Relationship refers to the friendship between two heads of state, U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (to be played for the third time by actor Michael Sheen), the film, from screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen), also imagines what went on behind closed doors between the Clintons during the Lewinsky affair. And it's something Davis can relate to. "Almost every woman in the world has been in that position -- it was a long time ago in my life -- where the person that you trusted looks at you and says, 'I have an admission to make.' It's a moment we've all lived through." 

Davis will be flying to London on Sunday to meet Quaid and Loncraine and to do a script read-through. Production will begin July 20 and Davis will join the cast in the beginning of August.

Michael Jackson's final rehearsal: 'He was at his best,' says associate choreographer

The associate choreographer for Michael Jackson's comeback tour says that the 50-year-old performer "was at his best" before his sudden death last week. “He really was in good shape, he was moving well," Stacy Walker tells EW. Walker worked with choreographer Travis Payne on the "This Is It" tour that Jackson would have headlined in London this summer. "I don’t know what he was feeling on the inside but he certainly looked good on the outside. He was very, very up and happy. We all know he wasn’t a big guy. He was always very lean. Oddly enough, his best rehearsals were his last two on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. That’s where all the magic happened. We were all like, 'Wow!’ It was stunning and ironic that he was at his best, right before he left us.”

Walker says she and Payne were rehearsing the show's 11 dancers at Staples Center in Los Angeles when they heard the news about Jackson. "We were waiting for Michael to come," Walker recalls. "None of us believed it. You know, there’s so much craziness around Michael’s life, so we are pretty good at sticking with the truth. We didn’t truly believe anything until our director Kenny Ortega got an official call."

Talks are still ongoing over whether to continue Jackson's show in some form. "We’re hoping to still do something," says Walker. "I don’t really know what that is at this point because it’s all very fresh, but all of us feel the need to somehow spread his message because he had a big message. It was very important to Michael for people to get along without judgment and make this world a better place. Without sounding corny, it was about taking care of each other. We’re all very hopeful we’ll be able to do something and honor his life and get his message out there."

Ratings: Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett specials dominate Thursday night

Network viewers were more interested in Farrah Fawcett than Michael Jackson last night -- but they still preferred CSI reruns and So You Think You Can Dance overall. Fox won the night in key demos, while ABC's news specials were the most watched among their ilk.

Farrah Fawcett: Photographer Bruce McBroom remembers her iconic poster shoot

Photographer Bruce McBroom -- who snapped that unforgettable picture of the bathing-suit-clad Farrah Fawcett  -- reflects on working with the star, and creating a piece of pop culture history at her house one summer day in 1976. ("She was amazingly beautiful and sweet, and it's not fair that things like this happen to good people," says McBroom about Fawcett, who died yesterday from cancer. "I think she will be remembered as this wonderful, wholesome all-American girl that's on the poster, and also now for her courageous battle against cancer, and the fact that she shared it with a lot of people who may be going through similar situations. I applaud her for that.")

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What do you remember about Farrah from the early days?
BRUCE MCBROOM: I had the pleasure of knowing Farrah when she was the young innocent girl who just arrived in Hollywood. She was a very smart young lady, but she was this little girl from Texas with these really wonderful parents and very innocent in the way of Hollywood, and very honest and open. There was no artifice about her, no phoniness. She had no idea of how beautiful and how attractive she was, I’m sure.... Even after becoming a hit on Charlie’s Angels, she was never one that lurked in her dressing room. I would be working with her on a set, and she was totally accessible. No attitude…. She was just like [an] apple-pie, girl-next-door kind of girl, and in all the years I knew her she never changed.

How did the shoot for the poster come about?
One day I got a call from some guy in the Midwest from a poster company. He said, "I’m doing this poster of Farrah Fawcett and Farrah said to hire you to shoot her. I’ve hired two photographers and they photographed her and she hates the pictures." He said, "Here’s the thing, it’s gotta be her great hair, she’s gotta be smiling, she’s gotta be in a bikini and they’ve gotta be drop-dead, sexy pictures."

Can you walk us through the shoot?
She and Lee Majors [her then husband] lived in a big house up on Mulholland Drive [in Los Angeles]. I showed up and it was just the two of us.... Farrah did her own hair and her own makeup, not that she needed much makeup. I said, “He wants you in a bikini” and she said, "I don’t have a bikini." She was only about 29, and just gorgeous in anything. We took a lot of pictures. She’d go in, get something out of the closet and I’d find another background. I knew I didn’t have a picture that resonated with me even though she looked great. I was running out of ideas and I was getting desperate. We’d been there all day. I said, "You know how you look best. Is there anything else that you’ve got that we haven’t shot? The guy says he wants sexy." So she said, "Lemme go look around." She comes to the door and she’s standing in the doorway in that red suit. And she said, "What do you think of this?" It was like it was spray painted on her; I don’t think it was a swimsuit. I said, "You know what? That’s it!" I said, "Farrah, just get comfortable and do your thing." When she did the series of sitting-up poses, I said, "We've got it." And I heaved a big sigh of relief.

What else resonates about the shoot?
I literally ran out of color film about the same time that I took that picture. I knew I had it. Somewhere in that last roll of film is the picture that we’re looking for. She said, "I’m so tired of looking pretty and having this hair and makeup." And she grabbed the garden hose and just held it up and drowned herself with a garden hose. I grabbed my Nikon, and I was looking for a roll of black-and-white film, and I said, "Don’t stop, don’t stop!" And what I have always maintained, the sexiest pictures I took are the pictures I took after the session. It was a totally innocent Farrah: "I’m so sick of looking pretty all day." She just smeared her makeup, and it was the capper of the whole thing. We had so much fun. We just had a blast doing it.

The poster went on to adorn countless bedroom walls. Did you two have any idea how popular it would be?
Neither Farrah or myself thought that this was a big deal. This was like, "Come on up, we’ll take some pictures, and we’ll send them to this guy." I give Farrah all the credit for knowing how she looked best. She knew how she photographed best and she knew what she was selling. She gave a gift to the publisher, coming up with the red suit, doing her own hair and makeup, and unerringly finding the one picture out of thousands that made her look the way she wanted to look…. She had the right to approve all photos. We shot 40 rolls of film and Farrah sent [the poster producer] six 35-mm slides. She marked her favorite and second favorite; they went with her favorite. Farrah picked that image -- and she was right on the money.

Michael Jackson: On the scene outside UCLA Medical Center

Outside UCLA Medical Center, where Michael Jackson was pronounced dead earlier today, the crowd has been growing for hours. In the middle of about 500 fans and journalists, an argument broke out between a hardcore fan and another man. The fan, who had brought his boom box to blast Jackson's "Heal the World," was telling EW.com how much Jackson had changed the face of music when another man approached the fan and said, "You're full of s---!  Do you think he was a good man or that he was good for children unfortunate enough to cross his path?" The fan looked furious, but responded, "I choose to look at the positive."

Across the street from the medical center, the fraternity brothers at UCLA's Sigma Alpha Epsilon house were choosing to look at the positive, too. They opened their doors and windows and began blaring Jackson music for the crowd. “We know that a lot of people out here care about him," said SAE member, Edwin Alvarado, 20. "So we thought we might as well play music for them, and as a way to commemorate him.” Asked if Alvarado and his pals had dug through old CDs to find the Jackson tunes, Alvardo said no. "We all have his songs on our iPods." (Reported by Christine Spines and John Young)

'Jon & Kate' going on hiatus following separation announcement

Fans of Jon & Kate will have to wait a few months before they're reunited with the broken brood. According to TLC, after a retrospective of the couple's 10 years together airs on June 29, the show will be on hiatus until Aug. 3. "During this time the family will take some time off to regroup, and then a modified schedule will be in place to support the family's transition," the network tells EW, adding that it will continue cementing its close relationship with the family. "TLC continues to support the Gosselin family and will work closely with them to determine the best way to continue to tell their story as they navigate through this difficult time."

More on 'Jon & Kate' divorce:
Ken Tucker's Watching TV blog: 'Jon & Kate' minus a marriage: They'll divorce, and 'I will survive and they will survive'
'Jon & Kate' divorce: Lawyers weigh in on custody
PopWatch: Jon and Kate divorce: What should happen to the show?

'Jon & Kate' divorce: Lawyers weigh in on custody

Viewers may not have been shocked to hear Jon and Kate's Gosselin's divorce announcement last night, but most are left pondering a serious question: What will happen to the couple's children if the break-up is indeed final? On the show last night, Jon and Kate said the children will continue living in the house the couple bought last year, but the parents will "flip-flop," as Kate put it, depending on who has visitation rights.

Both parents seem committed to doing what's best for the kids, but if there does turn out to be a custody battle, things may not be so simple. "I can’t recall a case where there were eight kids," Los Angeles divorce lawyer Lynn Soodik says. "But let me just tell you this: If Jon gets four and Kate gets four, that’s not fair. So it’s not like money that you equally divide, because it’s not your right to have the children in an equal division. It’s what’s best for the children. And usually, they don’t split up siblings unless there’s a very specific reason to do so.”

At face value, simply being the kids' mother gives Kate an advantage in a custody battle, but as celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder points out, that certainly is not always the way it plays out. "The fine print says it’s women -- mothers usually get custody of children." However, he adds, "I think some judge would want to consider who was the moving force in this theatrical enterprise that they got the kids involved in. I think it’s going to be a bad mark for whoever it turns out to be.” Soodik agrees: "You probably know yourself couples with kids where the dad is a much better parent than the mom, and other times, you’re lucky the dad even knows the kids’ birthdays. It really depends on what’s been the best interest of the children."

Although viewers have formed opinions on who the better parent would be from watching the show, the heavily-edited Jon and Kate footage should not figure into the judge's decision. “The judge can’t even consider the show," Soodik says. "Because that’s not really evidence before him or her. Who knows what goes on in an editing booth. For example, let’s say a mom is a fabulous mom, but one day, does something bad. That might be what’s on TV. It’s not a good way to judge, because what is entertainment is not necessarily what happens the majority of the time."

"I must say, I saw the show a couple of times," Felder says. "I wasn’t particularly impressed, because it looks like they’re both performing for the camera."

More on 'Jon & Kate' divorce:
Ken Tucker's Watching TV blog: 'Jon & Kate' minus a marriage: They'll divorce, and 'I will survive and they will survive'

David Letterman protest: On the scene as Sarah Palin supporters sound off in New York

A larger-than-usual crowd gathered across the street from New York’s Ed Sullivan Theatre today -- but they weren’t tourists looking for tickets to David Letterman’s Late Show. Rather, dozens of protesters holding signs reading “Dirty Ole Man” or “We are ALL the Palins,” showed up to urge CBS to penalize, suspend, or just outright fire Letterman for his self-admitted “flawed” sexually charged joke about Sarah Palin’s daughter. “I’m outraged,” said protester Josephine Sarno, who held a sign reading “Over the line, Dave.” “It was a low blow. I’m insulted for women. I’m insulted for children. I’m insulted for families. I’m insulted.”

Other protesters took a more blunt approach, screaming for surrounding gawkers to take their children home to “keep them safe from David Letterman’s mouth!” And most at the scene were unwilling to accept the talk show host’s two apologies to the Alaska governor. (Earlier today, before the protest began, Palin accepted Letterman’s apology.) “I think he was sincerely sorry that his joke had got him into trouble,” said Susan, a protester who held a sign that read “We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore.” “I think apologies are wonderful and I hope he feels in his heart sorry for what he did. But it’s not okay enough for me. It seems like the only group that’s okay to bash all you want is pro-life women. You can say anything ugly you want. You can drag us through the mud, and nobody cares.” Although many were demanding Letterman’s termination, others were just hoping that CBS would make an example of the talk show host, much like MSNBC did when the network suspended David Shuster last year for suggesting that the Clintons had “pimped out” their daughter, Chelsea. “Is it okay because Bristol Palin had a baby, it’s okay now to drag her through the mud?” said Susan. “Barack Obama’s mom was [a teen] when she got pregnant with him. Is it okay to make jokes about her and his conception? It’s not right.”

Just feet away from the protesters, however, a group of Letterman supporters gathered with their own smattering of signs, like “You lost, now go away” and “Sarah needs a life.” And although one supporter seemed intent on hamming it up for cameras -- he spent most of the protest thrashing on the floor while screaming -- others had a more tactile approach. Two supporters, Tracy Barber and David Heller, expressed disappointment that Palin would accuse Letterman of making a joke about statutory rape when her own legislation forced rape victims to pay for their rape kits, as many news outlets reported during last year’s election. “Just the idea that Palin is pro-woman [is ridiculous], you know?” Barber said. “We love David Letterman. He’s a New York institution. And we believe that free speech is always more important than whether or not it’s in taste.”

But not everyone was so diplomatic. Said an attendee who preferred to remain anonymous: “She should be thankful that Dave or anybody said anything about her to keep her name in the papers.... I think she should keep her mouth shut, go back to Alaska, and maybe take a few of the Republicans that are here back with her.”

David Carradine: 'My Suicide' one of his final films

While the cause of David Carradine's death has yet to be determined by a coroner, reports that he was found in a Bangkok hotel room with a rope around his neck and body have lead to speculation that the 72-year-old actor took his own life. His manager, Chuck Binder, tells EW.com he doesn't believe Carradine killed himself. Eerily, one of Carradine's last projects is a film called My Suicide. The film, which won the Crystal Bear award at this year's Berlin Film Festival, centers on a 17-year old media geek who becomes the most talked about kid in school when he announces -- on-camera during a school project -- that he's going to kill himself. Carradine, we're told, plays a wise mentor figure who teaches the boy that you don't have to kill yourself, just the parts of yourself that you don't like. One of the film's producers is the non-profit company Regenerate Films, which is run by industry professionals dedicated to fighting teen suicide. A statement from the film's producers released today reads: "We are tremendously saddened to hear of our friend David Carradine's tragic death. His remarkable spirit will live on through the legacy of his incomparable career. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones."

Exclusive: Sir Richard Branson talks about taking over Mia Farrow's hunger fast for Darfur

When Mia Farrow ended her 12-day hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan, Virgin music and airline entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson agreed to step in and continue the fast for three days. On the first day of his endeavor, Branson spoke with EW exclusively about the value of peaceful protest and his strategies for surviving on an empty stomach.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you decide to make such a personal commitment to this cause?
RICHARD BRANSON: I've been to Darfur and spent a lot of time with Darfurians and I know first hand what they've been through and what they're going through. So I think that anything that can be done should be done. If you look at the history of conflict resolutions around the world, the best ones are peaceful ways of resolving conflicts. So every method should be tried. Mia Farrow's been unbelievably brave. And when she asked me to step into her shoes for three days, I must admit I thought I got off lightly. Although this is the first evening and I certainly could do with a decent meal already. I just had a couple games of chess with somebody who doesn't normally beat me, and he beat me both times.

When did you make the decision to do this?
Mia contacted me through a mutual friend about a week ago, and I said the moment she needs help I'd be happy to step into her shoes.

Why you? Had you already put it out there that you were willing to participate?
No, no. It was just a call out of the blue. But it was a call from someone who is one of the supporters of The Elders, a group of 12 international leaders I've set up with Peter Gabriel, headed up by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu. They go into conflict regions and try to resolve conflict. They've done some magnificent work. Sometimes that kind of intervention can work. Sometimes the United Nations can work. On other occasions other forms of peaceful protest, like this one, can and may work. It's by no means guaranteed. So, based on my involvement with that, she knew it was likely that I'd say yes.

I'm sure you've contributed money to charities throughout your career. But is this the most personal thing you've done to create political change?
This is the first time I've deprived my stomach to get political change. I'm a great believer in doing everything once in life. So it'll be interesting to see how one can cope. She said that if they haven't found anybody else to take over after three days they might extend it, so I'm hoping they get somebody else.