Whoa, talk about big weekend for Daniel Radcliffe and fans.

First, Radcliffe’s new film, The Lady In Black, debuted to overall rave reviews this weekend.

I couldn’t get on Twitter or Facebook without seeing a post about how great it was, and although the majority of print reviews claim the film adaptation of the 1983 thriller fiction novel of the same name uses some tried-and-true techniques for scaring us silly, Los Angeles Times calls it “a good, old-fashioned ghost yarn of the Victorian Gothic persuasion,” The Hollywood Reporter says it’s a “nifty old-school horror film,” and NPR reminds us there’s a reason these techniques are “time-honored”:

[...] keep you on edge, they definitely do.

Oh, and The Boston Globe says Radcliffe is now “in for the long haul.”

Then, Radcliffe admits that he used to show up on the Harry Potter set drunk.

If you have some free time this weekend and your local theater is showing it, you might want to check out My Week With Marilyn, the new Marilyn Monroe film starring Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Watson, and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe.

My Week With Marilyn is a 99-minute British flick (don’t worry – it’s hit a number of theaters in The States) based on British writer and filmmaker Colin Clark’s account of working with Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier during The Prince and the Showgirl – an account made up of two books and turned into a screenplay by writer Adrian Hodges.

The film played at nearly every fest you can think of (the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival, just to name a few), but it doesn’t seem to be getting rave reviews now that it’s been released to the general British and American publics.

Last week, USA WEEKEND posted an interview with actress Mariel Hemingway about her 2009 award-winning film, Archie’s Final Project.

The film, which will be released to DVD next month (December 6, 2011), is about a topic that has seemingly surrounded Mariel all her life: Suicide.

Many of you probably know the 50-year-old actress is the granddaughter of American author, journalist, and Nobel Prize-winner Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises, For Whom The Bell Tolls, The Old Man And The Sea), who committed suicide in 1961.

Because of this connection, some of you might even know Mariel has been a suicide prevention advocate for many years.

Yet, I’m willing to bet a smaller portion of you know that Mariel’s association with suicide – and mental health in general – goes much deeper than her famous grandfather.

From horror movies like Halloween to haunted houses roamed by stray mental health patients, when it comes to scare tactics, mental illness has long shared the spotlight with goblins, ghouls, and other Things That Go Bump In The Night – and not just during Halloween.

Some advocates turn the other cheek when it comes to using mental illness as a scare tactic; they’ve learned to pick their battles, if you will. Others actively fight against the stigma they believe such representations promote.

Others still snub knee-jerk reactions in either direction and instead use the depictions as teaching tools.

Fortunately, I’m not writing yet another post about why you should or should not be okay with movies called Psycho or parents allowing their children to trick-or-treat donning the iconic Jason Voorhees hockey mask.

(Pause for applause.)

I am, however, going to tell you that contrary to what many mental health advocates preach, there are scary things – truly scary things – about mental illness.

Okay, okay, okay – she might not have gotten naked for his charity (or even lent her name to it), but Jennifer Aniston is helping Ben Stiller in another big way -

- and not just by partying with him after his recent Saturday Night Live hosting gig.

At a charity auction at New York City’s Christie’s auction house, the 42-year-old actress who’s getting ready to show the world her directing skills with Five dropped a cool $450,000 on “Stranger #44,” an original piece of art by American artist Glenn Ligon.

The auction, dubbed “Artists for Haiti,” was held to raise money for health and education in Haiti. Ben Stiller co-founded the event, and in all “Artists for Haiti” brought in $13.7 million.

Learn more about “Artists for Haiti,” or head over to The Stiller Foundation to find out how Ben’s working toward providing opprotunities for children across the globe.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Despite how you feel about Mel Gibson, you might want to grab a copy of the The Beaver this weekend, according to fellow PsychCentral.com blogger Joseph Burgo, Ph.D., who has posted a review of the film over at Movies & Mental Health.

The Beaver (directed by Jodi Foster, who also co-stars as Gibson’s wife) tells the story of a depressed and suicidal man who begins communicating with a hand puppet (a beaver) in an effort to relieve his depression symptoms.

Burgo’s review of the film claims it tackles the difficult subject of suicidal depression “with psychological insight and emotional honesty.”

Ah, Labor Day weekend.

That glorious three-day holiday when folks across the United States commemorate the labor movement and the social and economic achievements of American workers by cooking out, throwing parties, taking one last dip in the pool, and…

…lolling about in the one bikini you swear you’ll wear until the strings pop off.

Well, that last bit only applies if you’re Jennifer Aniston.

During a recent Glamour interview, the Horrible Bosses star admitted she’s worn the same bikini for two years in a row:

I’ll wear it for as many years as the strings still tie! Bathing suits now have so much hardware on them that they singe your skin. When you take your bikini off, it looks like you’ve been branded with crop circles and lightning bolts and words like Gucci!

After the jump, find out what the down-to-earth actress has to say about relationships, age, and a carpe diem attitude while she, Demi Moore, and Alicia Keys sat down with Glamour to talk about their involvement with Five, a series of films about women and breast cancer.

See that lovely lady to the left? That’s actress, singer, and Weight Watchers spokesperson Jennifer Hudson at the 2011 Academy Awards. She wasn’t nominated for an Oscar at that ceremony, but she was there, looking fit and sparkly and beautiful.

That’s what losing a bunch of weight (and having the money to dress yourself up in diamonds – or, the fame to borrow them from jewelers) will do for you.

However, back in 2007 Hudson did win an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Dreamgirls. At that point she’d already won a handful of lesser-known awards for that movie (like the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Award for Breakout Performance and the Palm Springs International Film Festival Award for Breaththrough Performance), but I imagine the night she went home with an Oscar was much more memorable.

Yet, despite how good that Oscar must have felt in her grip, the former American Idol finalist told Self losing 80 pounds felt better:

I’m prouder of my weight loss than my Oscar!

Plan on watching Talihina Sky: The Story of the Kings of Leon on Showtime this Sunday?

Then prepare yourself for a pretty raw look at lead singer Caleb Followill’s problems with alcohol and how those problems have (and still are) affecting the band.

As you might already know, earlier this month Kings of Leon announced they were canceling the remainder of their summer tour dates due to what the band’s representative called Caleb’s “vocal issues and exhaustion.”

However, Jared Followill, Caleb’s younger brother and the band’s bassist, was quick to let the world know that the band was suffering from problems “bigger than not drinking enough Gatorade.”

Of course, after that, we all pretty much realized what was going on, and Caleb wasn’t too secretive about it.

Now, Rolling Stone reports that Stephen C. Mitchell, a friend of the band and the documentary’s director, has decided not to cut a fairly graphic-sounding glimpse at just how thoroughly Caleb’s drinking has saturated the band’s dynamics.

Dear J.K. Rowling,

Nearly two decades ago, you finished the manuscript for the first book in a series that I – staying true to my nature – snubbed (hey, I have issues with hype – I can’t help it!) until one day, several years later during my junior year of college, my Children’s Literature professor forced me to do more than breeze by the Harry Potter section at my local bookstore.

I actually had to stop in front of it.

I had to find a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, purchase it, and read it.

During that class, one of my classmates, who clearly knew only slightly more than I about your Boy Who Lived, warned me the book was “strange.”

“It’s about a boy who’s aunt and uncle make him live in a closet,” she said, her nose wrinkled.

At the time, I remember meeting her wrinkled nose with wide and rolling eyes.

These days, I look back on the memory as a bittersweet one. It was my introduction to the world of Harry Potter. My invitation to escape Number 4, Privet Drive. My Hogwarts acceptance letter. My chance learn magic in a centuries old castle, to sit by a cozy fire in Gryffindor’s common room, to chase a snitch around the Quidditch pitch.

It was my chance to solemnly swear I was up to no good.