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Nicolas Cage has suffered a serious downgrade in sexy sidekicks.

After revving up Eva Mendes in his last comic book-based flick, Ghost Rider, the Oscar winner now gets stuck with Christopher Mintz-Plasse, aka Superbad's McLovin, for his next comic go-round.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Cage and Mintz-Plasse have joined Kick-Ass, director Matthew Vaughn's feature film based on the ultraviolent Mark Millar graphic novel.

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Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMA Press

Proof, if need be, that you can be a multimillionaire and still be a sellout...not that there's anything wrong with that.

Jerry Seinfeld, who popped back up on the pop-culture landscape last year, thanks to an assist from some animated bees and a litigious cookbook writer, is returning to the small screen this fall—but not with a new sitcom.

Instead, the comedian has stepped up to reboot Microsoft's stodgy image and appear in a new ad campaign for the computer giant.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Seinfeld will appear alongside chairman Bill Gates in the TV spots. For his efforts, the already-loaded comedian will pocket a serious amount of cash, estimated in the neighborhood of $10 million.

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New Line Cinema

Peter Jackson just can't kick his Hobbit habit.

After a fruitless eight-month search for the perfect scribe, the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings overlord and his handpicked Hobbit helmer, Guillermo del Toro, have decided they're the best men for the job of adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth prequel into two films.

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Michael Caulfield / Getty Images / stampedebeer.com

There's only one pairing more natural than beer ads and buxom blondes, and that's Jessica Simpson and Texas.

The marketing geniuses over at Dallas' Stampede Brewing Co. brought the foursome together, bagging the country (née pop) star as their newest spokeswoman.

While the full financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Simpson will receive a 15 percent stake in the brewery in addition to appearing in ads for Stampede Light Plus.

As the name suggests, it is a light beer aimed at imbibers with an active lifestyle. A girl's gotta keep her figure somehow.

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Scott Kirkland / INFphoto / Kiehl's

Brad Pitt is looking for a way into your shower.

The fair-faced movie star is collaborating with luxury hair- and skin-care company Kiehl's Since 1851 on an ecofriendly body wash to raise money for green causes.

But although Pitt's obviously camera-ready, he will not be appearing in ads for the product, nor will his name be on the bottle—although a reproduction of his handwriting will be, Women's Wear Daily reports.

One hundred percent of the proceeds from Kiehl’s Aloe Vera Biodegradable Liquid Body Cleanser, washing up in stores in October for $16.95 a bottle, will go to the newly launched JPF Eco Systems, a nonprofit started by Pitt and Kiehl's to "minimize impact on the environment through thoughtful design."

And this is no "Run out and get yours while supplies last" flash in the pan.

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Matthew Fox is standing atop an island of cash.

The Lost star has inked a new deal that gives him a 50 percent raise, bringing his salary to an estimated $225,000 per episode, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

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At least one vodka company enjoys its product on the Rockys—er, rocks.

Russian vodka producer Synergy has enlisted the shilling help of Sylvester Stallone, signing the action star up for a one-year contract to appear in print and TV ads for their Russian Ice, or Russkiy Liod, line of tipple beginning Sept. 1.

Though the deal's worth has not been officially disclosed, the endorsement is said to have cost the company roughly $1 million.

The star's visage will grace the alcohol's ads along with the product's Stallone-centric slogan: "There is a bit of Russian in all of us."

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Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise's front is no longer united.

After perhaps one anthrax scare too many, the actor's longtime production partner, Paula Wagner, has announced that she is leaving her chief executive post at the new United Artists to pursue projects independently.

She will retain her coownership in UA, the nearly century-old studio that she and Cruise revived after losing their spot on the Paramount lot in 2006, and she'll continue to work on her films that are already in the pipeline.

"I love Paula—we have worked together and been friends for over 25 years," Cruise said in a statement Thursday. "I support her in anything she does. Paula is an incredibly smart and talented producer, and I look forward to working together producing films in the future."

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Jennifer Lopez is dusting off this Maid for the small screen.

After scoring a box-office hit back in 2002 with Maid in Manhattan, the actress-producer is now developing an hourlong comedy-drama for ABC based on her Cinderella story about a luxury hotel cleaner who hides her identity after falling for a wealthy senator.

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Mike Guastella/WireImage.com

J.J. Abrams is ready to rumble.

After rebooting the monster movie with Cloverfield, the über-producer is now teaming up with David Seltzer, the scribe who penned the original Omen, to put a new spin on the disaster genre with Earthquake.

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AP Photo

Oasis is taking a new approach to spreading the word all around the world.

Warner Bros. Records has inked a deal with the Liam- and Noel Gallagher-controlled Big Brother Recordings and will share distribution duties with the band's longtime home, Sony BMG, on the British hitmakers' upcoming new album, Dig Out Your Soul.

Sony will continue to oversee all U.K. releases while Warner peddles the disc in North America.

"Everyone at Warner/Reprise could not be more excited at the prospect of supporting such great artists, and working closely with Big Brother to continue to increase Oasis' profile in North America," Warner Bros. Records chief operating officer Diarmuid Quinn said Wednesday. "P.S.: The new music kicks ass."

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Ash Knotek/ZUMAPress.com, Orion Pictures, Jaimie Trueblood/New Line Cinema

Welcome to the déjà vu edition, with the latest round of Hollywood wheeling and dealing taking a turn on the retreadmill, including Leonardo DiCaprio looking to enter The Twilight Zone, a revived Robocop and the latest stoner hijinks of Harold and Kumar.

DiCaprio is teaming up with Warner Bros. to find the right pitch for a new movie based on Rod Serling's classic sci-fi TV series.

Unlike 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie, which remade four classic stories in episodic form for the big screen, DiCaprio's version would likely be a single story based on an old Twilight Zone segment, per the Hollywood Reporter.

Keeping up the rerun theme, MGM has hired director Darren Aronofsky to pull a Christopher Nolan and reboot the dormant Robocop franchise.

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