I Did Not Expect to Feel Inspired by Ryan Reynolds This Morning

I'm a big, big fan of Ryan Reynolds. He's funny and he's hot and I think Just Friends and The Proposal should have won awards. I've never seen Deadpool but I plan to eventually, and I expect I'll enjoy that, too! However, I did not realize anyone in Hollywood ever had to "fight" to get a comic book movie made. I've always very much assumed that whenever someone said, "Hey, how about we make this comic book movie next?" someone in Hollywood would respond, "Sure, here's $500 million." And even if that wasn't the case, I assumed that as long as Reynolds was the one to say "Hey, how about we make this comic book movie next?" then everyone would say, "Sure here's a billion dollars." But, apparently not! Reynolds, who's currently promoting Deadpool and Wolverine with Hugh Jackman, recently told the New York Times that, not only did it take him a decade to get the first Deadpool made, but he gave up his salary to ensure the screenwriters were on set with him. “No part of me was thinking when Deadpool was finally greenlit that this would be a success,” Reynolds told the outlet. “I even let go of getting paid to do the movie just to put it back on the screen: They wouldn’t allow my co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on set, so I took the little salary I had left and paid them to be on set with me so we could form a de facto writers room.” Again, I can't imagine anyone saying no to Reynolds. But the 2016 Deadpool was eventually given a $58 million budget—which basically makes it an indie film—and then made $782 worldwide. The franchise is now worth over $1 billion. Inspiring! “I think one of the great enemies of creativity is too much time and money, and that movie had neither time nor money," Reynolds continued. "It really fostered focusing on character over spectacle, which is a little harder to execute in a comic-book movie. I was just so invested in every micro-detail of it and I hadn’t felt like that in a long, long time. I remembered wanting to feel that more—not just on Deadpool, but on anything.” I'm going to print this out, frame it, and mail it to every executive in the world currently trying to shove AI down our throats. But, wow, consider your press tour successful, Ryan! I may just watch the first two Deadpools this weekend, so I can go see Deadpool & Wolverine on July 26. Crazy. Ozzy Osbourne, leave Britney alone! [Page Six] Madonna says the Madonna biopic is still in the works. Phew. [Indiewire] The #scandoval that won't end! Tom Sandoval is suing Ariana Madix. [Page Six] Will Smith was hanging out with Johnny Depp. Awesome. [Pop Tingz] Congrats to Brittany and Patrick Mahomes! [People] Brad Pitt and his girlfriend Ines de Ramon both feel like "they've met their soulmate." Cute. (Gross.) [Us Weekly] J.Lo and Ben Affleck did not spend their second anniversary together...[Daily Mail]