It looks like Ben Stiller is swiftly regretting his decision to liberally sprinkle the word "retard" in his forthcoming self-penned comedy Tropic Thunder. Following on from earlier protests which saw a viral website for the movie pulled from the internet, a number of demonstrators from groups representing people with disabilities made their presence felt last night at the Los Angeles premiere of the film, which stars Stiller, Robert Downey Jr and Jack Black as actors filming a Vietnam war drama who unwittingly find themselves at the centre of a real conflict. Around 50 protesters gathered outside Mann's Bruin Theatre carrying banners reading: "Ban the movie, ban the word" and "Eliminate the R word"." Stiller commented: "It's sort of edgy territory, but we felt that as long as the focus was on the actors who were trying to do something to be taken seriously that's going too far or wrong, that was where the humour would come from."

Meanwhile Tom Cruise, whose cameo as a balding, fat, foul-mouthed Hollywood exec in Tropic Thunder has been attracting buzz, is in talks to play an uptight New York chef forced to cook school meals in Food Fight, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The move would mark a return to comedy for Cruise, whose leading roles since 1996's Jerry Maguire have mainly been in dramatic roles. He will next appear as Klaus von Stauffenberg, the Nazi commander who plotted to kill Hitler, in wartime tale Valkyrie.

Finally, Cinematical.com has some shots from Darren Aronofsky's new film, The Wrestler, which hits cinemas in the autumn. The movie features Mickey Rourke as a retired professional wrestler trying to survive on the small-time independent wrestling circuit, along with Marisa Tomei as a stripper. Aronofsky badly needs a hit after the debacle that was The Fountain, which spent more than half a decade in development before finally getting a release to distinctly negative reviews.