Columbia Pictures, Miramax Pictures, United Artists

Matt Damon's family emergency appears to have found a happy resolution—and not a moment too soon. After the briefest of Damon dry spells, he's back to fulfilling all of our paparazzi-catching, movie-acquiring needs.

Wasting no time getting back in the saddle, the Oscar winner is in talks with Josh Brolin—who knows from both Academy Award nominations and Westerns himself—to star in a reimagining of the iconic 1969 cowboy flick True Grit (which, incidentally, earned John Wayne his only Oscar).

According to Variety, the duo would star alongside Jeff Bridges in the Joel and Ethan Coen flick. Should discussions turn to done deals, it would mark a reunion for everyone but Damon; the brothers Coen previously toiled with Bridges The Dude on The Big Lebowski and clocked hours with Brolin on the Academy lovefest No Country for Old Men.

The remake would follow Damon and Bridges joining forces with a teenage girl to track down her father's killer; Brolin would play the bad guy. The testosterone-heavy flick is due out in late 2010.

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Check out which others stars are moving and shaking on new projects in our Casting Couch gallery.

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We hope everything turns out all right for Matt Damon.

The oft-involved actor was forced to pull out of a charity event tonight in San Francisco due to a "family emergency of a serious nature," his rep confirms to E! News.

"He wouldn't have missed this otherwise," she said.

Organizers for the Second Annual OneXOne Fundraiser, which Damon had been scheduled to host, had said earlier today that it's main man couldn't make it.

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Erik Kabik

We knew there was more going on between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck than meets the eye.

Jokes about their level of closeness and who's banging Jimmy Kimmel aside, it turns out the longtime pals and Oscar-winning screenwriters really are more than friends and writing partners. In fact, they're related!

According to the New England Genealogical Society, the actors are both descendants of bricklayer William Knowlton Jr., an Englishman who settled in Ipswich, Mass., around 1630.

That would make Affleck and Damon approximately 10th cousins, once removed. Affleck was born in Berkeley, Calif., but spent his formative years in Boston, where he and Damon became friends.

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You'd better apologize to Matt Damon tonight, Jimmy Kimmel.

Because otherwise, the very-much alive movie star might unleash hell on you, the way he did on your sidekick Guillermo, who tonight dared to ape Damon's character from The Informant!, right down to the fake 'stache and cheap suit.

With Informant! costar Joel McHale standing idly by, Damon and Guillermo went to town on each other, movie-star-style, after Damon caught the portly parking-lot attendant posing as him and dared to question his thespian credentials.

"Is that my mustache?" Damon demanded, ripping it right off Guillermo's face, after which Kimmel's loyal stooge sent the best lover Sarah Silverman ever had flying right into a table.

When all was said and done and the apple chunks had been knocked out of McHale's smug mouth, Damon let it be known who he really blamed for all his troubles in life.

"I'm going to f--king kill Kimmel," he vowed.

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Remember why Jimmy Kimmel is uncomfortable around Matt Damon in the first place? Refresh your memory right here.

Matt Damon might be alive and kicking, but who knows after George Clooney is finished with him.

To continue our ever-expanding coverage of hijinks between the two, Clooney is prepping for retaliation against The Informant! star who is semi-responsible for a gay fan's widely publicized stripper-gram last week. 

The other culprit? Another member of the Ocean's bromance, Brad Pitt.

At the Toronto Film Festival premiere of his new flick Up in the Air, E! News presented Clooney with a very simple question: "What are you going to do to Damon for 'Italy-gate'?"

His response? "I'm going to do something. I've got something big planned."

So there you have it. Damon, you've been warned. Pitt, you should probably watch your back, too.

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Clooney bromances aside, he has had some gorgeous ladyloves over the years.

With friends like these...

The very-much-alive Matt Damon turned up on the Late Show With David Letterman last night and, aside from breathing, made some news by offering a possible explanation for buddy George Clooney being ambushed by a clothes-eschewing would-be gay lover at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week.

It was Damon's fault. And Brad Pitt's.

As Damon tells it, Pitt was getting so fed up with Italian journos' queries about when he was going to tie the knot with Angelina Jolie, he finally blurted out that he'd do the deed once "George Clooney marries his boyfriend."

"So this Italian journalist comes in and goes, Matt, is it true what Brad say?" Damon, in his best Eye-talian accent, recounts to Letterman. "And I have no idea what he is talking about. But you know, I go, 'Yeah, of course it's true.' And he says, 'Do you mean George Clooney have a boyfriend?' And now I'm trying to keep a straight face and I go, 'Yeah, of course he's got a boyfriend. And he wants to legally marry him. We've been on him about this for years...' "

Flash forward to Tuesday: Damon turns on CNN and "this guy stands up and says, 'George!...I am a gay.' And this guy starts peeling his clothes off and he says, 'If you musta choose, choose me!' "

"I'm sure George is still laughing about that one," says Letterman.

Right. All we can say is watch out, Damon. Payback's a bitch.

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Joking aside, Clooney doesn't need any help in the romance department. Take a gander at some of his ladyloves.

ABC/MITCH HADDAD

They're f--king (with) Matt Damon.

Though at least he won't be hurting for material when he turns up—alive and well—to chat with David Letterman tonight.

Fangirls' collective hearts briefly stopped beating yesterday evening when the Internet became awash with reports—or really, just one dubious and, as it happens, reycycled year-old report—that the Oscar-winning father of two had passed away.

Unlike the usual fake celebrity death reports that see victims falling off New Zealand cliffs, Damon's demise reportedly came during a trek through California's Palo Verde Mountains on Wednesday after going missing during a camping trip.

Never mind that Damon wouldn't have time to go camping even if the inclination struck, busy as he's been promoting The Informant! in both Venice and New York over the past few days.

Giving the rumor a touch (though just) of credibility, it cited TMZ as the source of the sad news.

And while the words "Matt Damon," "is" and "dead" did in fact appear on said site yesterday, it wasn't exactly a declaration.

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Robert Giroux/Getty Images

Being a celebrity can be pretty sweet: the fat paychecks, the red carpet glamour and getting to have your photo on the wall at your dry cleaner's.

But some celebrities have figured out that being famous means you can help people, too. Whether it's about the plight of refugees or raising funds for firefighters, stars like Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Matt Damon, Denis Leary and others are doing more than just polishing their public images. They're using fame to fuel charitable works around the world.

So check out some of Hollywood's finest in our Do-Gooder Gallery, and feel free to offer up your thoughts—or the names of other celebs and causes to mention—in the comments.

Is there nothing dreamy Joel McHale can't do? The Soup's host is a master of martial arts, noted test pilot, Arctic adventurer and rodeo roustabout, plus he's always so nice when he asks us to stop making up things about him. (His legal team could learn some manners from him, yikes!)

And now this: He's starring in The Informant, a film by Steven Soderbergh about corn, lies and the FBI. Yes, the film also features Matt Damon in the lead as a guy who rats out his agribusiness company's price-fixing to the feds while all the while enjoying the benefits of said schemes.

You figure with Damon in the role he's totally going to skate on this, right? Well, however it all turns out, we just feel a little safer now that Joel's there to take him down, G-man style.