Marquee stars are contractually banned by the studios from participating in risky sports during a movie shoot.
Skiing Skydiving Don’t even think about it: Too much money is at stake. Behind the camera, though, things are left more to individual discretion. Which is why the director Kevin Smith – of “Clerks,†“Mallrats†and “Zack and Miri Make a Porno†fame – has decided to play goalie (for the first time in 15 years) in a Canadian street hockey tournament five days into shooting the Warner Brothers detective comedy “A Couple of Dicks.†The Carpetbagger is a blog that covers Hollywood and the movie business — the news, the nonsense and the players who drive the entertainment industry. We’ll talk about the films and the people who make them and star in them, but also business trends, technical breakthroughs and interesting moves by the moguls. Much of the blog will come from the team of reporters The New York Times has based in Hollywood, led by Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes, with occasional help from David Carr, a culture reporter and media columnist based in New York, Paula Schwartz, Rebecca Cathcart and others. Kevin Smith will play in a street hockey tournament in Ontario just four days after starting to shoot his latest film. The Morning Take: Fri., May 15 The Morning Take: Thur., May 14
A sign of how the poor global economy is affecting the Cannes Film Festival: There were few Hollywood stars at Wednesday night’s opening gala, and there are still rooms to be had at the super-expensive and super-posh Hotel du Cap, normally mogul central.