The Daily Dish: April 9

-- Billy Bob Gets Testy on Q. The first rule of talking to actor Billy Bob Thornton? Don’t talk about actor Billy Bob Thornton. Purge your mind of his former career...it never happened. Have you done that? Good. Now we can get on with things and find out more about this new guy, musician Billy Bob Thornton and his band The Boxmasters and their new album. Unfortunately Jian Ghomeshi, on CBC Radio’s Studio Q, didn’t follow those guidelines and decided to try and give his listeners some context by referencing Thornton’s dual roles in his introduction. Big mistake. At the mention of his non-music related career, he clammed up and became downright surly and uncooperative, even going so far as to explain his evasiveness by pointing out that Ghomeshi had been instructed not to talk about his acting. The star - drummer and lead vocalist for the band - also chose not to perform with the group when they played an instrumental number toward the end of the segment and eventually walked out of the studio altogether. Thornton’s publicist later told CNN that the star "simply elected not to engage with the interviewer because of the direction of the interview from the outset”.

-- Neeson and Fiennes get set to Clash. Not since Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List have Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes shared the big screen but it looks as if they are set to do so again, this time as warring deities in Warner Bros. remake of 1981’s classic epic Clash of the Titans. Neeson, in his first role since the tragic death of his wife Natasha Richardson, has been tapped for the role of Zeus, the ruler of the Gods, while Fiennes (whose deal is still being negotiated) is to take on the role of Hades, the lord of the underworld. The film, set to be directed by The Incredible Hulk’s Louis Leterrier, is scheduled to start filming at the end of April and already counts Sam Worthington, Mads Mikkelsen, Alexa Davalos and Gemma Arterton among its cast.

-- Cameras roll on Iron Man 2. The sequel to last summer’s blockbuster Marvel smash started filming this week in Hollywood. Jon Favreau, fresh off the success of the first film, is back to direct and Tweeting - providing fans with updates on the film’s progress directly from the set - sharing his excitement (“First day went great. I've never worked on a sequel before. It's like we picked up where we left off”), praising co-star Mickey Rourke for his work (“Rourke does not disappoint!”), and giving us a peek at what the stars themselves are saying (“Garry Shandling: I can't wait to see the movie to see who I actually play.”) Also joining returning stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow in the big screen comic adaptation are Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle and Sam Rockwell. I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait to see this one when it comes out! Anyone else circling May 7, 2010 on their calendars?