This might be slightly off-topic, but if they ever make the life story of Lucille Ball then the top contender has to be Debra Messing. Not only does she kind of resemble the classic comedienne, she even stole a few tricks from Ball's book when it comes to her own comedic style. Variety has announced that Debra Messing (Better known as 1/2 of the famous TV coupling of Will and Grace) has joined the cast of Humboldt Park. The Latin family 'dramedy' was written by Rick Najera, Ted Perkins, and Alison Swan, and the script centers on two brothers who come home for the holidays to their old Chicago neighborhood, Humboldt Park.

The film stars Freddy Rodriguez (Planet Terror) and John Leguizamo as the two brothers. Messing will play the wife of Leguizamo's character and will probably serve as the 'fish out of water' in the mainly Latin cast. Other cast members include Alfred Molina, Jay Hernandez, Mercedes Ruehl, Luis Guzman, Melonie Diaz and Vanessa Ferlito (Death Proof).

Messing is also heading back to the small screen with her new series, The Starter Wife. That show is set to air on USA this summer -- kind of a far cry from 'Must-See TV', but what are you going to do? Messing will also be filming the remake of George Cukor's classic film, The Women. So as much as that news of that particular remake still makes me a little nauseous, I am confident that at least Messing has the style to pull off that particular brand of fast-talking dame. Humboldt Park is set to start production on location in Chicago by next week.

On November 20, for the first time ever, a movie will be exclusively distributed via iTunes. Yes, we already heard about this briefly when our own Kevin Kelly talked with Edward Burns at ComicCon. But at the time, Burns had said he would be given a trial run, in which his latest film, Purple Violets, would be available on iTunes for four weeks beginning on October 9. That date has come and gone, and now the New York Times has revealed that the film will actually get a full, exclusive release on November 20. That means you won't be able to see it in theaters, or on DVD, or on Cable. Yet, anyway. Personally, I'm a bit shocked the idea didn't happen sooner. There's tons and tons of indie films out there that can't get good distro. Going with iTunes sounds like a great opportunity to get notice. Plus, with iTunes still only offering less than 1000 movies, and still unable to get titles from all the studios, the service would do well to increase its library with exclusives like this. The idea certainly worked for companies like Netflix, which started exclusive distribution via its Red Envelope Entertainment moniker. Maybe one day, like Red Envelope, iTunes could even produce its own movies.

The Times goes into detail about iTunes distribution, mentioning the strategy of putting Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier up for free download, which sparked extra interest in The Darjeeling Limited. It also points out the benefit of having short films on iTunes in general, not just for well-knowns like Anderson. The move can affect DVD rentals, though, according to Burns, who has had difficulty securing video distribution for Purple Violets now that it will be available on iTunes. The movie, which stars Burns, Debra Messing, Patrick Wilson and Selma Blair, premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, where Eric called it Burns' "best film since The Brothers McMullen ... a more mature film than anything Burns has done in the past."

The women have been really hard to come by -- at least when The Women in question is a remake of the 1939 classic. (What is it with the year 1939 lately?) MGM was first focused on the project, but no real headway was made and the title was sold to Ted Turner as part of MGM's library. He, in turn, bought New Line and made the film a starring vehicle for Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, with James L. Brooks signed on to direct (1994). It was at this point that Diane English was brought on to the production, a writer known for her work on Murphy Brown. It took a handful of years and then she was named director of the project in 2001. It took another 5 years to get further, when Matt Bradshaw posted about the cast of the film, which consisted of Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow, Anne Hathaway and Candice Bergen. It was supposed to start shooting in March, but nothing happened when Spring rolled around.

Now Variety has the scoop on The Women, which almost has a finalized cast, and has gotten an actual start date -- August 6 -- over ten years after the adaptation was put in the works. Some of the cast has stayed the same, and some have changed. Along with Ryan and Bergen, actresses in final talks are Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith and Debra Messing. That's really one hell of a cast considering that the film has got a budget under $20 million. One of the backers is Dove, you know, the soap? When the film begins to be marketed, I imagine there will be lots and lots of soap-centric commercials with these leading ladies. As for how the title is translated over 60 years later, word has it that English's "script maintains the arch spirit of the original, and the all-female cast, but the gals aren't as relentlessly catty this time around." It is, however, still about the group of female friends and how one's husband is cheating on her.

I've always been a bit hard on Edward Burns, but only because I think he has potential as a filmmaker. In my opinion, there's no one else out there right now who knows how to capture New York the way Eddie does. The man lives for this city; it is, and will always be, his muse. However, because he always insists upon wearing so many different hats (writer, director, star and sometimes producer) during each of his films, something always suffers. And as I've approached each one, I sort of go in wondering what Eddie will screw up this time. Will it be a poorly-written script? Wooden acting? Bad direction? All of the above? That being said, I'm happy to report that Purple Violets is his best film since The Brothers McMullen (the 1995 Sundance hit that helped launch Eddie's career behind the camera). It's genuine, it's from the heart and -- I can't believe I'm saying this about an Edward Burns film -- it includes terrific performances from well-written female characters.

When I told a friend of mine that I was going to see the new Eddie Burns film Purple Violets, they were immediately turned off -- as if a bad odor had just entered the room. "You mean, Eddie directed a film called Purple Violets? I don't get it, did he have a sex change operation? Is he now a woman? What's up with that girly title?" For those that love Eddie for his take on masculine Irish-American life in the blue-collar suburbs of New York, Purple Violets might not go down as smoothly as that pint of Coors Light. Yet, the beauty of this film lies in its title. Purple and violet are often confused as being the same color, but they're not. It's almost like meeting someone with whom you were friends with 12 years ago, and trying to re-establish the same type of relationship you had with them back then. However, they've changed, you've changed and while on the surface you both kind of look the same, inside you're both very different people. Thus is the premise for Purple Violets: Four old friends reunite after 12 years apart, while attempting to heal old wounds and ignite new memories.