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  • 21
    Feb
    2013
    2:25pm, EST

    Josh Brolin, Diane Lane divorcing after 8 years

    Matt Sayles / AP file

    Josh Brolin and Diane Lane are divorcing, their reps confirm.

    By Courtney Hazlett, TODAY

    Josh Brolin and Diane Lane have decided to end their eight-year marriage, reps for the couple confirmed to TODAY.com. No reason for the split was given.

    The "Gangster Squad" actor and Lane, who recently starred in "Cinema Verite," married in August of 2004. They have no children. As a couple, the Hollywood pair has kept a low profile. However, Brolin was in the spotlight in January after police found him heavily intoxicated and unable to care for himself on a Santa Monica sidewalk.


    Follow @TODAY_ent

    Both Lane and Brolin were previously married and divorced. Lane was wed to Christopher Lambert from 1988 to 1994, and Brolin was married to Alice Adair from 1988 to 1994.

    Related content:

    • Even 1940s charm can't save 'Gangster Squad'
    • Actor Josh Brolin arrested for public intoxication
    Show more
    Explore related topics: celebrities, featured, diane-lane, splits, josh-brolin
  • 11
    Jan
    2013
    10:49am, EST

    Even 1940s charm can't save bloody 'Gangster Squad'

    By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC News

    REVIEW: "Gangster Squad" made the news last summer before most moviegoers had even heard of it. A scene in the film's trailer shows four men with automatic weapons who stand behind a movie screen and fire through it at the seated audience while a movie airs, then walk through the holes their bullets made in the screen and continue firing.

    The scene would've been brutally violent in any context, but after the horrific shootings at a Colorado theater showing "The Dark Knight Rises," the trailer was pulled and the film altered. That scene's now gone from the film, and those who haven't heard of the controversy wouldn't ever notice its omission. (The released film contains a scene with a shooting in Chinatown, which reportedly was added in as a replacement for the theater scene.)

    But as with "Jack Reacher," which came out just a week after the Connecticut school shootings and opens with a sniper who takes aim on innocents, including a young girl, it's going to be tough for many -- perhaps all -- to see the sheer amount of violence in "Gangster Squad" and not wonder about it.

    Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's acted in his share of violent films, has come out and said that Hollywood can't be blamed for real-life shootings like those in Colorado and Connecticut. And in a lively discussion on the TODAY Facebook page, many readers agreed with the former California governor.

    "Watching Roadrunner-(Wile E.) Coyote cartoons did not make me hit people on the head with an anvil," wrote reader Abel Garcia.


    Follow @ NBCNewsEnt

    And indeed that's true. Few Acme anvil murders have been reported even when Looney Tunes was at the height of its popularity. But that doesn't mean it's easy to sit and watch the sheer unrelenting violence that flows across the screen in "Gangster Squad," to see a pregnant woman shot at over and over again, to watch a man murdered with a giant drill and then see the camera quickly switch -- in a supposedly witty segue -- to a raw hamburger patty sizzling on a grill.

    But suppose you can take as much violence as Hollywood cares to dish out here, from the guy ripped in half by a car and quickly devoured  by coyotes to the henchmen burned up in an elevator. Even then, "Gangster Squad" is no "Godfather," no "L.A. Confidential." It doesn't delve into the minds of its characters like those films, doesn't use its richly painted retro setting for anything meaningful.

    Josh Brolin stars as Sgt. John O'Mara, an Irish cop who sets out to stop New York mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) from taking over Los Angeles. It's 1949, and Brolin and his pals repeatedly remind us that they're World War II vets, who fought for freedom overseas and aren't about to give up fighting back at home. But there's no real indication of how the war hardened or changed them, only the constant repetition that they are veterans. Which every man was back then, and few needed to trumpet.

    Penn, so good in so many films, has just two emotions here: "I'm About To Go Full-Blown Completely Freakout Psycho," and "Here I Am, In Full-Blown Completely Freakout Psycho Mode." There's never a sense, as we got from the Corleones in "The Godfather" or even Tony Soprano in "The Sopranos," that Cohen has anything in his personality that would make him a leader. He's just a sadistic crazy who's bound to turn on anyone he's ever met, including lovely girlfriend Emma Stone.

    Ryan Gosling utilizes his Hey-Girl charm as the womanizing member of the squad, with Robert Patrick as the sharpshooting cowboy, Giovanni Ribisi as the brainiac, and Anthony Mackie as the black guy who hates Burbank. Seriously, he's given no other distinguishing characteristics, but at least he's slightly more of a full squad member than Michael Pena, who plays the group's lone Mexican member.

    The screenplay never avoids a chance to remind us that Cohen is Bad with a capital B. After he has the man torn apart and fed to coyotes, his henchmen sweet-talk a midwestern innocent fresh off the bus into a hotel room where they plan to gang-rape her. O'Mara's able to smash his way in one-handed and stop it, of course, because that's the kind of movie this is. Uncomplicated evil meets uncomplicated good, and blood and brains grease the path. 

    Related content:

    • 'Gangster Squad' star Josh Brolin arrested on intoxication charge
    • 'Zero Dark Thirty' filmmakers stand their ground
    • Schwarzenegger: Films can't be linked to school shootings
    • Gosling's mom wears Eva Mendes' clothes to 'Gangster' premiere
    • Hollywood struggles with gun violence after Newtown shooting
    • 'Gangster Squad' trailer pulled from 'Dark Knight' showings
    Show more
    Explore related topics: movies, featured, sean-penn, ryan-gosling, josh-brolin, gangster-squad
  • 5
    Jan
    2013
    6:36pm, EST

    Actor Josh Brolin arrested on public intoxication charge in Santa Monica

    Santa Monica Police Dept.

    Josh Brolin is seen in a photo released by the Santa Monica Police Department.

    By Jason Kandel and Nyree Arabian, NBCLosAngeles.com

    Actor Josh Brolin, who plays a police sergeant in the upcoming Hollywood movie "Gangster Squad," was arrested Wednesday after police found him heavily intoxicated and unable to care for himself on a Santa Monica sidewalk, police said on Saturday.

    Brolin was contacted by police in the 1600 block of Ocean Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis. He was booked into custody at 3 a.m. Wednesday.

    Brolin was held in custody on a misdemeanor public intoxication charge and released.


    "This was a booking only to hold him until he sobered up," Lewis said. "We do not normally file any charges on persons for simple intoxication."

    Police said they would only book someone on a more serious charge and request that the City Attorney's Office prosecute if that person became a "chronic drain on resources" or has multiple arrests, Lewis said.

    "In this case," Lewis said, "no further action is being sought."

    Brolin's profile on imdb.com said his "rugged features" and "natural charm" have worked for him.

    The son of actor James Brolin, his star has risen recently. He's played roles as a policeman, a hunter, and the President of the United States.

    In his most recent film, "Gangster Squad," he plays Sgt. John O'Mara on a Los Angeles Police Department unit that chases notorious mobster Mickey Cohen.

     

     

    Show more
    Explore related topics: actors, celebrities, movies, josh-brolin

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Courtney Hazlett, TODAY

Courtney Hazlett reports on all things pop culture across NBC's various online and broadcast platforms.

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Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC News

Gael Cooper is the movies editor for TODAY.com and a pop-culture junkie. She is the co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?" and "The Totally Sweet '90s."

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