Clark Kent says: Don’t have the dough to get something special for your significant other? I can help you from ending up on the couch.

With the February 14th hype died down, I swear the lovelorn lotharios have that date highlighted for sheer $#!*s and giggles. As a part of the 9% that are in the 99ers Club, you’d think that I would be crying broke to any lady willing to give me some rhythm… and you’d be right. But don’t worry I’m not using tears of turmoil as an excuse and you don’t have to either.

Don’t Lose Your Day Job wants to make sure that your pennies don’t prevent your pimpin’. Below are ten ways to keep your recession lovin’ alive!

10. Write A Handwritten Letter –

Everything is rush, rush, rush these days. What better way to show your light-speed lover that you know how to love slowly than writing a letter using *gasp* a pen?! Those handwritten words of warmth will melt right in the mouth of your booski (scratch) significant other and promise an even hotter night.

9. St. Valentine’s Scavenger Hunt –

Not a lot of space in your place, but have oodles of love in your heart? Get some items that subtly let your mate know your feelings, hide them around the loft, and leave sticky notes in alternate places as clues. Your other half will laugh as she has a blast finding out what you got her @$$.

8. Be A Pampering Pimp (Or Pimpstress) –

These days even those who don’t have a full-time are running ragged trying to get one. With everyone on the go, go, go — you can bring some ease to your wiz by engaging in a night of fanciful frolicking. Bubble bath with scented salts, candles, and your own two hands can start the evening off right. A deep tissue body massage with your lover sprawled out on the bed adorned with soft, satin sheets may make you the talk of the town, and the unemployment line.

7. Dinner For Two –

They say the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach (which is true). But if you can’t cook and don’t have the juice to pull a reservation at a fancy restaurant, then you can make what you know (breakfast at dinner) and freak it with love. Candles, a nice set-up, and you looking outrageously awe-inspiring will make a recession-esque meal into a four course f^(! session.

6. A Walk To Remember –

The weather outside may be frightful, but it takes a strong couple to be in love during the 21st Century. Grab your counterpart’s hand and together prove to the world that you’re everlasting by conversing while walking around town. Even if birds fall from the sky and fishes walk on land, your bond will be iron-clad as together (and united) you stand.

5. Party At A Museum –

Couples who are strapped for cash, but don’t want to let the holiday pass can take it the sights and sounds of the cultured by going to their local museum. Here in New Yawk, there are plenty that are free to attend. And if you want to get an early jump on March’s friskiest day of the week then head to MOMA or the Brooklyn Museum on the first Friday and Saturday of the month to enjoy the soundclash as the city’s best deejays mesh with the classics of Norman Rockwell or Andy Warhol.

4. Play Video Games With a Purpose –

Are you competitive? Is your significant other competitive, too? Make the best of it and place a bounty as the cherry on top by testing your mettle in a video game. You can go as serious as multi-players (Call of Duty, Gears of War) or casual (Scrabble, Dance Central). In the end, both parties are winners — celebrating with whip cream (and other assorted items).

3. Make A Mixtape –

Loving in the 21st Century means saying goodbye to the past. Luckily for all of us we’re not trapped having to record songs off the radio and can thank Steve Jobs for that! Set your relationship to the frequency that lover’s know and convert that mp3 mayhem into a mixtape that could be the soundtrack to the “boom boom” bass in your bedroom.

2. Capture Your Memories In Celluloid –

Whether it’s an awesome Spielberg iMovie flick that chronicles your union to the day or a photographic montage of the most craziest moments — creating a memory out of many notes that you’ve cherished the experiences while enjoying your time together.

1. Confess Yourself To Love’s Court –

No mon’, no fun is what “they” want you to believe. But at the root isn’t being together really about letting the one you love know how much you love “them”…? Serenade if you can sing, slam if you got poetic skills, you can even whisper if you want! But whatever you do on this day — let the person you admire know why because if you haven’t heard time is too short!

Clark Kent asks: What are recession proof ways to love on this holiday? Share your comments below!

AJ Michalka, actress and one-half of the duo 78violet, announced today that she has been cast in J.J. Abrams’ Super 8.

VIA CS:

Michalka, who recently had a role in The Lovely Bones and stars in the upcoming Secretariat, will be joining a cast that includes Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich, Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills and Gabriel Basso.

Clark Kent says: ‘Super 8′ is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the thriller is now shooting for a Summer 2011 release. See the teaser trailer for yourself below:

Clark Kent says: If you’re wondering WHO Alex Kurtzman is — he’s the guy on the left — and is responsible for penning ‘Transformers 1 & 2′ and produced ‘Eagle Eye’. Find out what’s next for the Dreamworks go-to-guy after the jump.

VIA SF:

Vulture has learned that Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks will give Alex Kurtzman his first big screen directing gig, an “intimate dramatic script” titled Welcome to People, which he co-wrote with his partner Orci and Jody Lambert (the documentarian who made the 2008 documentary Of All the Things). Here is the plot synopsis from the article:

Welcome to People tells the story of a struggling twentysomething man who, after flying home to L.A. for the funeral of his estranged record-producer father, discovers that the will stipulates that he must deliver $150,000 in cash to a 30-year-old alcoholic sister he never knew existed, and her troubled 12-year-old son. Determined to keep the money to solve his own problems, he’s nonetheless fascinated by his unknown kin and makes contact with the two without revealing who he really is. … The title Welcome to People refers to a child anger-management program in which the nephew is enrolled after blowing up his middle school’s pool with a sodium chunk stolen from chemistry class; the grown son is a damaged goods broker — a fitting metaphor for his emotionally crippled relationship with his father; and the illegitimate daughter is an alcoholic who tends bar at The Standard Hotel on Sunset Blvd.

Apparently the script was first written six years ago, and Kurtzman chose it to purposely fight against the action/sci-fi label that has become attached to him as a screenwriter. It definitely sounds a lot more complex, character-wise and emotionally, than anything Kurtzman has been a part of thus far.

Clark Kent says: As long as he doesn’t have any Sambots in ‘Welcome to People,’ I’m straight. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Allison Miller (17 Again) has joined the Steven Spielberg-produced Fox sci-fi television series Terra Nova that has been delayed.

Clark Kent says: The reason it’s been delayed — Spielberg wants to give the show the roll-out it deserves! More news about Ms. Miller after the jump.

VIA SF:

Variety reports that Miller will play Skye, a veteran Terra Nova resident who takes previously cast star Jason O’Mara’s character’s son under her wing.

The series has been given a 13-episode order. The network is skipping the traditional pilot because breaking down the pilot’s sets only to rebuild them again would add too much to the already high price tag. The pilot episode is directed by Alex Graves, who has helmed the pilots for The Whole Truth, Fringe and Journeyman, as well as directing episodes of Sports Night, The Practice, The West Wing and The Nine.

Jason O’Mara (Life on Mars) will headline the series. The series will follow a family who live 100 years from now on future Earth, who are flung back in time 150 million years to the prehistoric age, when Earth was ruled by dinosaurs. Terra Nova was written by Craig Silverstein and Kelly Marcel, based on Marcel’s story idea.

Clark Kent says: I thought we survived the prehistoric age? We’ll keep you posted as more develops in the months to come.

The New Zealand director has promised that he will have certainty about whether The Hobbit is going ahead “sometime soon” in an interview with New Zealand’s Dominion Post.

VIA E:

Yes, he’s still optimistic that the legal knots can be combed out, saying that Warners was “making progress untangling the MGM situation“, which can only be a good thing.

But that’s not all he’s planning: it sounds like his long hinted-at ANZAC project may be the next project on his plate. A huge fan of Gallipoli, Peter Weir’s 1980s take on the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought in the Mediterranean in World War I, Jackson hopes to get his own take on the story of the disastrous Dardenelles campaign off the ground.

Jackson already directed a World War I short film in 2007 called Crossing The Line, presumably just to get a feel for trench warfare and the rest, but it appears that he’s hoping to get an ANZAC movie going in time for the centenary of the campaign in 2015. That means he’ll have to try to fit that in around a second planned Tintin movie, following the first in 2011, and The Hobbit if that comes together quickly. Annoyingly, it looks like Temeraire’s still on the back burner, which is bad news for fans of Napoleon and dragons.

Clark Kent says: I really am hoping that ‘Temeraire’ gets a bump up in schedule. One of my favorite books — fans of all ages would be impressed with Jackson’s deft handling of the subject.

Vulture has learned that Joe Hill’s comic Locke & Key will no longer be coming to theaters, but instead will be adapted for television by Steven Spielberg, Alex Kurtzman, Robert Orci and Josh Friedman.

VIA SHH:

Distributed by IDW Publishing, Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them… and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all.

Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) will write and produce. Kurtzman and Orci recently signed a deal with 20th Century Fox TV, so the studio will end up producing with Spielberg’s DreamWorks TV.

Clark Kent says: Unfamiliar to ‘Locke & Key’…? Peep a quick trailer below and get hip! Share your thoughts below:

Shia LaBeouf is going around telling people that he’s been talking to Spielberg about a fifth Indiana Jones film, that the screenplay is being written, that Spielberg “pitched” the idea to him, and that it sounds “crazy” and “really cool.”

Clark Kent says: …This, of course, is after he badmouthed the film during the Cannes Film Festival. Find out what he Shia “can’t wait” to do after the jump.

VIA C:

Also, apparently, he “can’t wait” to do the fifth film, though the latter may be editorializing on the part of the Showbiz Spy blogger.

Despite seemingly widespread fan disgust with the attempt to revitalize the franchise, Crystal Skull made nearly $800 million worldwide. A fifth film would also assuredly make a huge profit, which Spielberg, Lucas, LaBeouf, etc., surely know. Thus, the inevitability. And look: Is any Spielberg movie ever really something to dread?

In any event, Spielberg will finish filming War Horse before having a chance to turn to another Indy. So smoke if you got ‘em. We’ve got at least two more years to wring our hands.

Clark Kent asks: Should the ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise stay around or go the way of the Dodo bird? Speak your piece in the comments section below.

Before you click on the jump, this is the clip which uses the phrase “hashtag amazing” for the first time, echoing Twitter’s hashtag speak, hence it being mentioned in this piece.

Clark Kent says: Two of my favorite mates talk ‘Tintin’ and Steven Spielberg after the jump. Enjoy!

VIA E:

Steven Spielberg’s time travel TV series Terra Nova will shoot in Queensland, where state premier Anna Bligh on Monday said that production is expected to begin in October.

VIA CS:

“Fox Broadcasting has today confirmed Queensland as the location of choice for ‘Terra Nova’… and once again shows Queensland’s ability to attract first rate productions to the state,” Bligh said.

“My government provided considerable incentives through Screen Queensland to secure this production which, in turn, will generate in excess of AUS$54 million ($50 million) in economic activity and create thousands of jobs,” she added.

Bligh said that around 80% of the cast and crew will be Queenslanders.

Production will be centered on locations around southeastern Queensland and at the Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast.

“We wanted this ambitious series to look like no other on television and Queensland provided the best of all possible worlds,” executive vice president of production, Jim Sharp added.

“Queensland had the right look, climate and terrain, a vibrant production community and attractive economic incentives. We are very excited to be shooting our first production there.”

Starring Jason O’Mara, Terra Nova tells a group of scientists from 2149 who travel back 85 million years to prehistoric Earth to try to save the planet that is dying from development and overcrowding.

Clark Kent says: FOX will preview the first episode next year in May, then after that will launch the 13 episodic series later that Fall. Will you tune in? Share your thoughts below!

Clark Kent says: Mike Myers and his colorful cast of characters are back for the last hoorah in ‘Shrek Ever After’. Is it all that its cracked up to be? Or is this a story to skip over? Find out after the jump.

GOOD: On this go-’round ‘Shrek Forever After’ is more serious. Mike Myers and his merry band of characters earn the audience’s empathy. Animation has never been a problem and DreamWorks utilizes 3-D in a fun way. Children and parents alike will appreciate the impressive conclusion to Shrek’s fairy tale. Everything that is enjoyable about the franchise is back for a final time: ironic use of pop standards, musical numbers armed with comedic contemporary choreography, and risque one-liners. Donkey (Eddie Murphy) manages to steal the scene even though the plot finds him not being able to remember his green Ogre best friend. Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and Puss-In-Boots (Antonio Banderas) are in fine form in this fantastic finale.

BAD: Unfortunately ‘Shrek Forever After’ takes an insane amount of time to kick in. Teetering on the verge of being formulaic — the cast never fully rises to the heights of the original or its highly praised sequel. Somewhere along the journey the franchise lost its quick wits. Gone are the constant rapid-fire jokes that seemed to define ‘Shrek’ and his adventures. Choosing to go with the trend of telling whimsical jokes that go over the heads of children that are in the audience fails to impress.

UGLY: Watching ‘Shrek Forever After’ one is reminded of how the franchise first appealed to audiences. The jokes were quick and pop culture punchy. The characters were instantly unforgettable and the stories blended our beloved fairy tales with splashes of our trendy lives thrown in for comedic measure. It’s now kind of jarring to go into ‘Forever After’ expecting to laugh frequently, only to find that jokes are fewer and further between. Myers’ character has come full-circle and earns this somewhat serious take on such a popular icon. As the green ogre superstar, Myers’ voice paints a picture as one who is going through a mid-life crisis and realizes the importance of appreciating family — a message that everyone can relate to.

Clark Kent says: In other words… Skip It! The movie often feels like a rehash of its earlier, funnier moments, and you’re better off saving your money/waiting for the DVD to drop. You can share your opinion and enjoy the trailer below: