Justin Timberlake has some jerk friends! (YouTube)

– How's this for a wedding present: Justin Timberlake's buddy, real estate agent Justin Huchel, filmed a bunch of homeless people wishing the best for the actor/singer and his new bride, Jessica Biel. See, it's funny because what could the homeless possibly offer Hollywood royalty except wishes? Not everyone thinks this joke is in good taste, but then they probably haven't seen Biel's wedding dress. (Video after the jump.)

http://youtu.be/DMHcGFmhB_s
– Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy broke up. It's probably for the best, though we hope it doesn't end up with her writing a song called "Camelot."

– If we were sending out good vibes to a celebrity right now, it would be Diddy, who was in a serious car crash yesterday in L.A. No one was hospitalized, but seriously ... this is why we all take the subway.

– Last night was GQ’s Gentleman's Ball. Starring Adam Levine, Ted Danson and Willie Geist, the three biggest gentlemen in the biz.

Ruh-oh! (ABC)

-Though Mr. Timberlake might be going to the courthouse for something other than a marriage certificate: Britney Spears trial lawyers have brought up her former Mouseketeer co-star and boyfriend as a precipitating cause for her meltdown.

- Tom Hanks dropped a big 'ole F-bomb on Good Morning America, shattering the illusion that he is the celebrity equivalent of Ned Flanders. Even so, how adorable is it that he only curses when doing an impression of a foreign person who uses profanity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C2h6JSnM-E

Justin Timberlake (Getty Images)

Onetime pop star Justin Timberlake--whose most recent album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, is nearing its sixth anniversary--is to make music once more after an extended period during which he focused on movie acting. The music he is making, though, is a score for the just-announced film The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea, which is to star his fiancée Jessica Biel. We highly doubt, given our experiences with film scores, that this film's score will be pop vocals about sex, so we are less than optimistic about this newly announced Timberlake music.

Last night, at what is widely hyped as the best night in New York fashion, the attendees of the annual gala benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute did not disappoint. Patterns, we saw a few: a lot of black, a lot of neon, a lot of feathers, and a lot of sheer. And Beyonce's dress? We still don't know what to think. See our picks for best and most bewildering are in this slideshow, and read our rundown from the red carpet here.

Names under consideration reportedly include Kristen Stewart, Dianna Agron (of Glee), Jessica Biel, and Rachel McAdams. The last Superman reboot, released as Superman Returns in 2006, starred Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth in roles cast with far less transparency, or hype, than the current process.

Whoever is leaking these names (if they're legitimate) is simply taking part in the new, super-long buzz cycle. A film like Superman Returns, which predates our 2010s cycle, was tossed around from actor to actor quietly over many years, without a public search. The casting process was as arduous, but nowhere near as public. By contrast, in the past few months, practically every young actress in Hollywood has loudly cleared her throat (Blake Lively the most persistently, it seems) to indicate interest in the role of Catwoman or Lisbeth Salander or Daisy Buchanan or Lois Lane. These casting searches, surely riddled with bloggy misinformation (did Emma Watson really want to be the girl with the dragon tattoo?), were intriguing to watch and comment upon. Will there ever again be a tentpole movie that casts a star without the casting process being broadcast? And given the fantastic tooth-and-nail fight that's about to ensue for the meager prize of a supporting role in a tired franchise, would we even want that?

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

The Modern, who has acquired the director's archives for its collection, notes she has succeeded in "transforming the language of genre films," which is what you say when somebody who early-on made good, stylish, genre films later wins an Oscar.  

Maybe she was picked, just in small part, because she's a woman? This would be a totally offensive question if the Museum, which has said recently it is attempting to correct past slights towards women artists, didn't make such a point of her gender in their announcement.

For the annual Film Benefit, however the key question is always what celebs will come, and who will pay handsomely to see them? (Top ticket price is $75,000 for a table.) In the initial two years of the party/prize, guests included Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman, Jessica Biel, Danny de Vito, Maggie Gyllenhaal and, of course, the Olsen twins, all swanning about MoMA director Glenn Lowry.

Expect some big names and serious schmoozing at the Nov. 10 dinner. Earlier this week, Bigelow, along with director Michael Moore, was elected to the Board of Governors that oversees the Oscars.

The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 11:30pm): Jessica Biel, Zach Galifianakis, musical guest Steve Earle.

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:35pm): Tom Hanks, musical guest Green Day (rerun).

Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, 12:05am): Paris Hilton, Ken Jeong, musical guest Blink 182 (rerun).

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC, 12:35am): Ice-T, Elmo, Morgan Webb, musical guest Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 12:35am): Michael Douglas, Carrie Ann Inaba.

Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, 1:35am): Musical guest Melanie Fiona.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 11:00pm): Dr. Oliver Sacks.

The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 11:30pm): Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Chelsea Lately (E!, 11:00pm): Brooke Hogan, Michael Yo, comedians Josh Wolf and Natasha Leggero.

Noël Coward is a musical B-12 shot at any time, but considering today’s general gloom, doom and moneymaking box office junk, a spoonful of that timeless Cowardy custard right now is just what the doctor ordered. Broadway’s got Angela Lansbury laying them in the aisles with a hilarious revival of Blithe Spirit. Now the movies have a jaunty revamp of a lesser-known but equally charming Coward work, Easy Virtue, guaranteed to lift your spirits and cure what ails you.

Written 80-odd years ago and first adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock as a silent film, Easy Virtue retains the fizzy Champagne wit of an elegant writer, and the flinty, gossamer-wing direction of Australia’s Stephan Elliott distinguishes it as his best work since his famous 1994 breakthrough film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Lush production values, a perfect cast and the nimble, cutting wordplay and class conflict of Coward’s sensibility add up to a sparkling entertainment that doesn’t feel a bit dated. You expect nuance and brittle theatricality from Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas, but the big surprise is Jessica Biel, who is positively dizzying as a Jazz Age American race car driver who flirtatiously seduces and marries a naïve and uptight young English nobleman, then journeys to his rich, extravagant, upper-crust English country manor to meet his parents, setting British society back a few hundred years. The playboy groom (Ben Barnes) is fonder of his new wife than his batty family is. His starchy snob of a mother (Ms. Scott Thomas) actually hates her, and his dim-witted sisters (Kimberly Nixon and Katherine Parkinson) actively try to sabotage the marriage and send their American sister-in-law packing. Only in the randy family patriarch (Colin Firth) does the outsider find encouragement and acceptance, and the two bond in their mutual passion for motorbikes and thumbing their noses at pretentious upper-class etiquette. 

Mr. Elliott directs the ensemble with panache and a gleeful appreciation for Noël Coward songs as they sally forth in their tennis knits to endure crafts fairs, a fox hunt and dancing the cancan at a benefit show for war widows while Noël Coward himself sings “Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out in the Noonday Sun.” Some will find the unfulfilled father, the weak son, the shrewish sisters and the draconian mother a nest of British clichés, but the comic timing and the subtleties in the script (adapted by Mr. Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins) honor Coward with frosty aplomb. 

The stifling repression endemic to the British class system is so impeccably preserved that it connects with modern audiences, and young people allergic to period pieces are likely to embrace the message about the need to break from the shackles of the past and open a window to a brave new future. The cars and the costumes and the china and the sumptuous sets enrich what could otherwise, in lesser hands, seem bland and arch. My one caveat is the musical orchestrations, which, in a desperate attempt to sound whimsical, work in washboards and kazoos that massacre the Great American Songbook. Still, Jessica Biel manages a delicious “Mad About the Boy,” and the sweet, tuneful crooning of Ben Barnes adds a satisfying lilt to two Coward evergreens, “Room With a View” and “I’ll See You Again.” Easy Virtue is romantic, clever and artfully crafted. All told, a sparkling, classy and ultimately satisfying experience.

rreed@observer.com

Cameron Diaz made a big deal of avoiding ex Justin Timberlake's current girlfriend Jessica Biel backstage at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, but Ms. Biel was apparently too busy showing off her hot dad to notice. [Full Disclosure, second item]

It's probably not a coincidence that Madonna and Alex Rodriguez are both in Mexico City right now. [NYDN]

Samantha Ronson's half-sister, 20-year-old Annabelle Dexter-Jones, has been asking Lindsay Lohan for advice on picking an agent. [Page Six Magazine]

Orlando Bloom and model Miranda Kerr are not engaged, in case you heard they were. [Us Weekly]

Metallica drummer (and art collector) Lars Ulrich doesn't do drugs anymore, but he still likes "bonding" with friends in bathroom stalls. [P6]

Bill Clinton and David Paterson bonded over a back massage at yesterday's Triborough Bridge renaming ceremony. [P6]

Jessica Biel will not be overseeing a handbag line for boyfriend Justin Timberlake's William Rast label which, given the quality of most celebrity handbag designs, is probably for the best. [The Cut]

James Franco is perfectly comfortable doing two gay roles in a row. [R&M] 

Fidel Castro has approved Steven Soderbergh's Che for Havana's New Latin American Film Festival, though the cast will have to receive permission from the U.S. to attend the screening. [P6]

Unlike the Los Angeles outpost, New York's Nobu will not be offering a recession special. [Grub Street via Blackbook]