Celebrities On Spotlight

Tom Cruise's son in "Red Dawn"

2009-08-10T23:56:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Tom Cruise's son is among the newest Wolverines to join the remake of "Red Dawn," the 1984 action movie about a group of teenagers who form an insurgency when their town is invaded -- this time by Chinese and Russian soldiers.
Connor Cruise, 14, will join fellow new recruits Josh Hutcherson, Isabel Lucas and Edwin Hodge in the MGM/UA project. Already cast are Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck and Adrianne Palicki.
Cruise is playing Daryl, the mayor's son and best friend of tech geek Robert (Hutcherson, in the role originated by C. Thomas Howell).
Lucas is Erica, head cheerleader and the Peck character's girlfriend whom he desperately hopes to spring from an internment camp. Lea Thompson played the character in the original. Hodge will play Danny, the coolest kid in school and star wide receiver who helps establish the resistance.
The young cast heads off in a few weeks for military training in an undisclosed location. Shooting will then begin in Detroit for a September 24, 2010 release. Dan Bradley is directing
Cruise debuted in December as the young Will Smith character in "Seven Pounds." Hutcherson starred in "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Bridge to Terabithia." Lucas recently appeared in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Hodge has a recurring role on Fox's "Mental" and recently appeared in the feature "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane."

True Blood’ Stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer Engaged

2009-08-07T04:22:00.000-07:00

The ‘True Blood’ co-stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer have been dating each other since the pilot episode of the drama series was filmed in 2007, and now their representatives have confirmed that the two are engaged. There haven’t been any details planned for when the couple will tie the knot.
Moyer, who is British and 39, has two children - a 9-year-old son named Billy and a 7-year-old daughter named Lilac. The two kids came from his previous relationships. Paquin is 27 years old and was born in New Zealand.
Paquin plays the part of Sookie Stackhouse in the series, while Moyer plays the part of Bill Compton. The two characters in the show are lovers as well, and Paquin recently admitted their real relationship makes it easier for them to film the nude scenes. She says that she feels fine about doing the nude scenes, but she thinks maybe she shouldn’t with the way that people ask her about it all the time.
She continued that since they are already in a relationship with each other, they don’t have to go through the initial awkwardness of being naked with someone when they don’t even know their middle name. Regardless of the scene, the better the actors know each other, the more real and open their performance can be, Paquin said. This can be applied to stunt scenes, heavily emotional scenes, as well as sex scenes, she added, but she does have a little head start in that area with her on-screen partner.
Talking about their relationship, Moyer says that it’s exciting, and it was there from the first day. There isn’t anyone else he would rather work with, he added, and they are very happy together.

The Grapevine—Barbara Streisand, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, Eli Manning, Victoria Beckham

2009-08-07T04:20:00.000-07:00

Paquin and Moyer to Wed
Actors Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer plan to marry, according to People Magazine. The two are currently working side-by-side on the hit HBO series, “True Blood.” No wedding date has been publicly announced.

Anna Paquin Engagement Ring

2009-08-07T04:19:00.000-07:00

Newly engaged actress, Anna Paquin was proudly showing off her engagement ring to photographers, on Thursday. Anna Paquin was spotted in Venice, California, as she walks her dog in Venice yesterday. Anna Paquin was engaged to her “True Blood”, series co-star Stephen Moyer. Anna Paquin was looking very happy while displaying her engagement ring. The will be the first marriage of 27-year-old Paquin, while 39-year-old Moyer is the father of two children from her previous relationships.
According to reports, the couple met each other during the auditions of the HBO hit series “True Blood”, and they fell in love as the played vampire lovers, Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton in the series and came close to each other in real life. It is also said that Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer has been dating since February. The Oscar winning actress said that she felt very comfortable with Moyer and their on screen chemistry is also incredible.
After her engagement, Anna Paquin said,

“Obviously, if you’re already with that person then you’re not having to sort of get over the ‘Wow, I’m naked with someone that I don’t even know the middle name of!’”

Anna Paquin is a talented actress. She is famous in both television and theater world. She was only 11 year old, when she won an Academy Award for best actress in a supporting role. She is the second youngest ever to earn this award.

True love on the set of "True Blood"

2009-08-07T04:17:00.001-07:00

Representative of co-stars of the HBO series "True Blood" are engaged.

Stars of the HBO hit series "True Blood," Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer are engaged to be married. If fans faun over the chemistry that characters Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin) and Bill Compton (Moyer) share on screen, they will not be soon disappointed.

Their off-screen romance certainly makes the frequent nude sex scenes a lot less awkward. According to the Insider, Paquin said that it was easier to get over that initial "Wow, I'm naked with someone that I don't even know the middle name of!"

The two met during auditions for the show and hit it off from there. 39-year-old Moyer has two children from a previous marriage, a son Billy and daughter Lilac; however this will be the starlet's first marriage.

The two love birds were spotted soaking up the sun together at Santa Monica beach. Moyer told the NY Daily News that Paquin was "hardcore."

Check Out Anna Paquin's Engagement Ring!

2009-08-07T04:16:00.001-07:00

Could she look any happier? True Blood star Anna Paquin was all smiles on Thursday, showing off her new engagement ring to photographers.

The Oscar winner, 27, happily displayed her giant sparkler while taking her dog for a walk in L.A.
Yesterday, RadarOnline.com reported that the actress was engaged to her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer, 39. The couple, who met during auditions for the hit HBO show, say they fell in love while playing their star-crossed characters, Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton.
This will be Paquin’s first marriage. Moyer has two children from previous relationships.

Paquin to wed vampire co-star

2009-08-07T04:15:00.000-07:00

Anna Paquin has got engaged to her ‘True Blood’ co-star Stephen Moyer - who she has been dating since filming the pilot episode of the vampire drama in 2007 - their representatives have confirmed.

Moyer, 39, has two children, son Billy, nine, and seven-year-old daughter Lilac from previous relationships.

It has not yet known when the couple plan to tie the knot.

New Zealand-born Paquin, 27 - who plays telepathic Sookie Stackhouse - and British star Moyer - who portrays vampire Bill Compton - are lovers in ‘True Blood’ and the actress recently admitted their real-life romance makes it easy for them to shoot nude scenes.

She said: “I feel fine. Although the way that people ask me about it all the time, I feel like maybe I should feel uptight about it. But I really don't.

"Obviously, if you're already with that person then you're not having to sort of get over the, 'Wow, I'm naked with someone that I don't even know the middle name of!’

"I think that regardless of what kind of scene you're doing, the better you know the person... the more open and real your performance can be. And that goes for stunt scenes and heavy emotional scenes and sex scenes. OK, so I have a little bit of a leg up in that particular area with my on-screen partner."

Anna Paquin engaged to co-star

2009-08-07T04:13:00.000-07:00

Anna Paquin is engaged to her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer, it has been confirmed.
The 27-year-old X-Men star - who won an Oscar for her role in The Piano aged 12 - has been working with the 39-year-old English actor for over a year on the HBO vampire series in which they play lovers.
Representatives for both actors confirmed the engagement to People.com.
Anna, who was brought up in New Zealand, plays telepathic Sookie Stackhouse inn True Blood, while Stephen plays vampire Bill Compton.
The Essex actor has two children from previous relationships: a son, Billy, born in 2000, and a daughter, Lilac, born in 2002.
Last month, Anna said of her nude love scenes with Stephen: "Obviously, if you're already with that person then you're not having to sort of get over the 'Wow, I'm naked with someone that I don't even know the middle name of!'"
Stephen has said of Anna: "My girl is hardcore."

Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany

2009-08-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany first met on the set of the Academy Award winning "A Beautiful Mind" back in 2001 and sparks flew. They have since worked together in 2008's "Inkheart" and in the recently completed "Creation," which is about the life of Charles Darwin. After getting the chance to chat with both at San Diego Comic-Con, it was immediately apparent to me that they couldn't be happier than when working with each other.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.

2009-08-07T04:10:00.001-07:00

We first saw their onscreen chemistry in 1997's "I Know What You Do Last Summer," but the 90s stars didn't officially start dating until 2000. Sarah and Freddie got married just about three months after their second picture together, "Scooby Doo," hit theaters in 2002. They're expecting their first child later this year.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck

2009-08-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

Everyone was so sick of Bennifer from Ben Affleck's J.Lo years that when he started dating a new Jennifer, in this case the lovely Jennifer Garner, everyone waited for the worst. But the twosome tied the knot after working together on the rather lackluster "Daredevil" and have remained low on the radar every since. Every once in a while you can catch them at a Sox or Celtics game in Boston with their two daughters, but the pair has otherwise remained relatively tabloid free. Apparently good things can come out of bad movies.

'True Blood' Stars Anna Paquin & Stephen Moyer Are Engaged, So We Look At Other Couples Who Met On Set And Made It Work

2009-08-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

When the news was announced that Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer were engaged, I couldn't help but feel my heart swell in happiness for the absolutely adorable "True Blood" couple. Even though I am a "True Blood" virgin (or was until yesterday, at ironically about the same time the news was released) I've still been following the couple through the tabloids and everything I've witnessed — from them playing with penguins at Sea World to Anna's admission that it is easier to do a sex scene with someone you know the middle name of (lets rephrase that to are in love with) — won me over. Sure, Anna and Stephen aren't the first celeb couple to meet on set and fall in love, but we at Hollywood Crush have the feeling they have the stuff to make it last. So, in order to give them continued hope, we've come up with a list of five of Tinseltown's royal couples that met on set and have made it work ever since. (Hint! Our list includes: a vampire, a daredevil and a former flute player.)

Home Alone maker John Hughes dies

2009-08-07T04:05:00.001-07:00

American writer-director John Hughes who directed movies like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink and produced popular child comedy Home Alone, has died after suffering a heart attack. Hughes was 59.
The Brat Pack director collapsed while taking a morning walk on the streets of Manhattan on Thursday, according to his spokeswoman.
Hughes' first directorial effort, Sixteen Candles, had won almost unanimous praise when it was released in 1984, due to its realistic depiction of middle-class high school life. The film was the first of his string of comedies centered around high school life and teenagers.
Hughes' greatest commercial success was Home Alone, a film he wrote and produced about a child accidentally left behind when his family goes away for Christmas, forcing him to protect himself and his house from a pair of inept burglars.
Home Alone would be the top grossing film of 1990, and remains his most successful live-action comedy of all time. His last film as a director was Curly Sue in 1991.
A father of two, Hughes stepped away from the limelight in the 1990s to run a farm in his native Illinois. He later penned the screenplays for Jennifer Lopez [ Images ] starrer rom-com Maid In Manhattan in 2002.

Titan of teen angst, director John Hughes, dies at 59 on Manhattan street

2009-08-07T04:02:00.000-07:00

John Hughes, whose coming-of-age movies captured an American teenage generation between Elvis Presley and Britney Spears, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack while walking on a Manhattan street.
He was 59.
Hughes, a Michigan native who lived in Illinois, was visiting his family in New York, according to a spokeswoman.
Matthew Broderick, who starred in Hughes' 1986 hit "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," said he was "truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend. ... He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family."
Hughes' 1985 film "The Breakfast Club" established him as the signature teen filmmaker of that decade, and made "John Hughes movie" into shorthand for a sometimes agonizing but ultimately upbeat look at teenage years.
"The Breakfast Club" made a star of Molly Ringwald, and he directed her again in two subsequent films, "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink."
Ringwald said she was "stunned and incredibly sad" to hear about Hughes' death.
"He will be missed - by me and by everyone that he has touched," she said in a statement on People.com.
Some of the actors in his films, including Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson, became known as the Brat Pack.
In contrast to raucous 1980s teen comedies like the "Porky's" series, Hughes films were sweet, often sentimental. Their heroes and heroines, who started out feeling like misfits, were rewarded for the basic virtues of good hearts and decency.
He kept them from being simply throwbacks to some romanticized earlier age by effective use of realistic teen dialogue.
Hughes was working as an ad copywriter when he broke into showbiz by selling jokes to comedians like Rodney Dangerfield. He went to work for the National Lampoon and scored his breakthrough by writing the screenplay for the 1983 hit film "National Lampoon's Vacation," which starred Chevy Chase.
That film showcased Hughes' ear for droll absurdity. When the dimwitted brother-in-law of Chase's character is grilling dinner and says he's using Hamburger Helper, Chase mutters that yeah, that's good with a little meat. The brother-in-law says, "You add meat?"
His high school movies centered on the girl who doesn't feel pretty enough, the guy who feels like an idiot, the arrogant bullies who pick on them, and the awkward moments they endure before it all works out.
Hughes' movies also featured lavish and smart use of music.
Hughes did a few more teen movies, including "Weird Science" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," then scored with "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" in 1987 and even bigger with "Home Alone" in 1990.
After that, however, he headed for the exits. The last film he directed was "Curly Sue," in 1991. In 1994, he retired from both the film business and the public eye - which he had never enjoyed.
His last public project was writing an independent film, "Reach the Rock," in 1999.
Hughes is survived by his wife, Nancy, to whom he was married for 39 years, and two sons, James and John.

Steve Martin, Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick lead tributes to director John Hughes

2009-08-07T03:56:00.000-07:00

Macaulay Culkin, Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald are among stars who have paid tribute to the writer and director John Hughes following his death aged 59.
Broderick, who starred in Hughes' 1986 teen classic, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, said he was "truly shocked and saddened" by the news of the film-maker's passing. "He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family," he said.
Ringwald, who starred in Hughes' first two films as writer-director, 1984's Sixteen Candles and 1985's The Breakfast Club, said Hughes "was and will always be such an important part of my life."
She added: "He will be missed – by me and by everyone that he has touched. My heart and all my thoughts are with his family now."
Culkin, who became an overnight child star following the enormous success of the Hughes-penned Home Alone in 1990, said: "The world has lost not only a quintessential film-maker whose influence will be felt for generations, but a great and decent man."
Devin Ratray, who portrayed Culkin's older brother Buzz McCallister in the Home Alone films, said he remained close to Hughes over the years.
"He changed my life forever," Ratray said. "Nineteen years later, people from all over the world contact me telling me how much Home Alone meant to them, their families, and their children."
Steve Martin, who starred alongside John Candy in 1987's Planes, Trains and Automobiles, said the script for the film was the best he had ever read. "I asked John how long it took to write it, he said, 'I wrote it over the weekend.' The weekend. That shows you what he was able to do."
Many who did not know Hughes well personally but were inspired by his work also paid tribute. "The flag's at half-mast," wrote film-maker Kevin Smith on Twitter. "John Hughes, the man who spoke for geeks way before anyone else did."
But perhaps the most touching words came from blogger Alison Fields, who revealed a hitherto hidden pen-pal correspondence with the film-maker during his most creative years.
"I can't tell you how much I like your comments about my movies," Hughes wrote to her. "Nor can I tell you how helpful they are to me for future projects. I listen. Not to Hollywood. I listen to you. I make these movies for you. Really. No lie. There's a difference I think you understand."
Fields revealed that she once spoke to the director on the phone in 1997, several years after Hughes made his final film as a director, 1991's Curly Sue.
"We talked for an hour. It was the most wonderful phone call. It was the saddest phone call. It was a phone call I will never forget," she wrote on her blog.
"John told me about why he left Hollywood just a few years earlier. He was terrified of the impact it was having on his sons; he was scared it was going to cause them to lose perspective on what was important and what happiness meant. And he told me a sad story about how, a big reason behind his decision to give it all up was that "they" (Hollywood) had "killed" his friend, John Candy, by greedily working him too hard.
"Tonight, when I heard the news that John had died, I cried. I cried hard. (And I'm crying again.) I cried for a man who loved his friends, who loved his family, who loved to write and for a man who took the time to make a little girl believe that, if she had something to say, someone would listen."

John Hughes – a career in clips, from The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller to Curly Sue

2009-08-07T03:46:00.000-07:00

John Hughes defined high school for a generation. Whether or not you actually attended – maybe you were too old, or young, or from a different country – his films not only invented a genre, they informed the experience and they crystallised the memories, too. It was a remarkable coup of cultural conditioning.
At the time of release, Hughes's films struck a chord because they were fresh and funny, and because they acted as a comforter. They showed what every teenager may have suspected: schools are quasi-prisons, staffed by beings who seem from a different planet.
Hughes's genius was to think like a teenager but write like an adult. He never patronised his target audience, but he also made films that (particularly compared with the brainless raunch of something like Porky's) their parents could, even sneakingly, approve of; even sympathise with. It's easy to see the link between Hughes's oeuvre and the likes of The Graduate - not just in terms of, say, artful music cues, but sensibility, too.

John Hughes, filmmaker captured teen heartbeat

2009-08-07T03:44:00.001-07:00

John Hughes, the writer, director, and producer whose movies defined adolescence for audiences who came of age in the 1980s and whose smart, sympathetic characters endure as icons of the "Brat Pack" generation, died yesterday at the age of 59.
The cause was a heart attack suffered during a morning walk in New York City. According to a spokesman for the late filmmaker, Mr. Hughes was visiting family.
The filmmaker found success in the entertainment industry by working his way through younger and younger protagonists, culminating in 1990's "Home Alone," still the most commercially successful live-action comedy of all time. He began as a writer for National Lampoon magazine, penning the 1983 hit film "National Lampoon's Vacation," and then embarked on a critically praised series of comedy-dramas about teenagers. Mr. Hughes wrote and directed "Sixteen Candles" (1984), "The Breakfast Club" (1985), "Weird Science" (1985), and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), among others, and he wrote and produced "Pretty in Pink" (1986) and "Some Kind of Wonderful" (1987).
These films, scored to achingly emotive '80s pop-rock hits and featuring cast members who carried over from film to film, such as Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall, were more than box-office smashes. In their attention to the emotional realities and small crises of teenage America in the Reagan era, they captured the zeitgeist and the beat of teenage hearts, and they remain touchstones for those who were there. Ringwald, in particular, was Mr. Hughes's everygirl: smart, quietly pretty, exasperated with family and school, and hoping that the perfect boy would see her at last.
By the end of the 1980s, Mr. Hughes had changed direction again, writing and producing a series of broad yet bittersweet comedies featuring the late comedian John Candy.
Then he hit pay dirt with "Home Alone," the story of a moppet in suburban Chicago whose parents accidentally maroon him when they leave for vacation. The 10-year-old star, Macaulay Culkin, became an overnight sensation as the resourceful Kevin, battling a pair of comically inept burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) with a series of Rube Goldberg booby traps. The image of Culkin in close-up, eyes popping and hands clapped to his cheeks, remains a pop-culture snapshot, a comic caricature of Munch's "The Scream."
Mr. Hughes did not direct "Home Alone" - Chris Columbus did - and after 1991's "Curly Sue," he stepped away from the director's chair for good. He continued to write and produce, but his output slowed by the end of the millennium, and by the early 2000s he had retreated from professional and public view.
In 1995, Mr. Hughes moved back to the Chicago area, his hometown and the psychic turf in which his characters were deeply rooted, dropped his agent, and ceased giving interviews. Eventually, he relocated to a farm in northern Illinois with his wife and former high school sweetheart, Nancy. She survives him, as do their two sons, James and John, and four grandchildren.
By the mid-2000s, Mr. Hughes had become an almost mythical figure to the new wave of writer-directors he was instrumental in creating.
"He's our generation's J.D. Salinger," director Kevin Smith ("Clerks") told a reporter last year. In the same article, Judd Apatow - arguably the Hughes of modern-day Hollywood - acknowledged that "it was all there first in John Hughes' films ... the whole idea of having outsiders as the lead characters."
John Hughes was born Feb. 18, 1950, in Lansing, Mich. His father was a salesman, and the family moved to Chicago when John was 13; in 1968, he graduated from Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Ill. He once recalled that his family never had a television set and that when he asked to go to the movies, his father would always send him instead to a book.
With three sisters and nine great-aunts, he was also surrounded by women, a fact that may explain the richly three-dimensional teenage heroines of his 80s films. "I was the only boy on a block of 22 girls; it was the greatest!" Mr. Hughes told the Sydney Sun Herald in 1991.
He dropped out of the University of Arizona after his junior year and returned to Chicago, where he tried his hand penning gags for Rodney Dangerfield and other comedians and worked at the DDB Needham advertising agency turning out copy for Johnson Floor Wax campaigns. After hours, he wrote short stories and comedy pieces.
One, a family memoir called "Vacation '58," served as his entry to National Lampoon. Mr. Hughes wrote a number of comic pieces for the magazine and was drafted into the effort to provide a big screen follow-up to "Animal House." He contributed to the short-lived 1979 television series spin-off "Delta House" and wrote the script for the generally reviled "National Lampoon's Class Reunion" (1982).
Mr. Hughes then struck gold with "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983).
Updated from that original memoir, it was a hit that starred Chevy Chase and featured Randy Quaid's deathless line, "I don't know why they call this Hamburger Helper - it tastes jes' fine by itself."
Mr. Hughes's script for a second 1983 success, "Mr. Mom," proved he could work outside the Lampoon orbit, and with 1984's "Sixteen Candles," he got his chance to direct.
That film and the teen angst classics that followed are his enduring legacy. "The Breakfast Club" locked in the '80s high school stereotypes of princess (Ringwald), geek (Hall), jock (Emilio Estevez), thug (Judd Nelson), and freak (Ally Sheedy), marooning them in Saturday detention and welding them, by the end, into a defiant support group standing firm against their teachers and parents.
By contrast, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Mr. Hughes's most infectious comedy, is about a high school prankster king who glories in his superiority over principals, older sisters, and other lesser mortals. Only Matthew Broderick's immense charm keeps the character from becoming a jerk.
In all his films, Mr. Hughes made a point to try to keep his thumb squarely on the pulse of Middle America. "I'm a guy who walks around malls that writes movies for other people who walk around malls," he told USA Today in 1992.
Mr. Hughes tried to branch out to more adult characters with the 1988 "She's Having a Baby," but the film was poorly received, a fact that deeply disappointed the filmmaker.
His John Hughes Co. had signed a multipicture deal with Paramount in 1985; in 1988, he switched to Universal. The success of his various films, especially "Home Alone," meant that he could do as he pleased and make what he wished.
Ironically, he wished to do other things than make movies and live in the public eye. In the last decade, he occasionally contributed story ideas and scripts under the pen name Edmund Dantes, wrote a pair of independent features, "Reach the Rock" (1999) and "Just Visiting" (2001), and produced "New Port South," a 2001 high school drama written by his son James.
Then he retreated from the stage he had built.
"I lived in California for four years, and I just ran out of ideas," he told Entertainment Weekly in the mid-1990s. "With Hollywood life, you get cut off from regular people."
In the end, Mr. Hughes vanished back into the heartland he portrayed on film. (NYT)

Director John Hughes Dies

2009-08-07T03:43:00.000-07:00

Film director, writer and producer John Hughes has died at the age of 59.

Hughes was responsible for massive comedies including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club and Home Alone.

He passed away in Manhattan whilst visiting family after suffering a heart attack.

Star of Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick paid tribute to the director saying: “I am truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend John Hughes. He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family."

Other films Hughes worked on include Pretty In Pink, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Beethoven and Maid In Manhattan.

Russell Crowe to star in 'Next Three Days'

2009-07-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

Russell Crowe is to star in a Hollywood remake of the French thriller "Pour Elle," entertainment industry Daily Variety reported on its website.

Crowe, 45, the Oscar-winning star of "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind," will play a teacher trying to free his wife from prison after she is wrongly convicted of murder.

The film -- to be released as "The Next Three Days" -- will be shot by Paul Haggis, a best director Oscar-winner in 2006 for "Crash."

Haggis, 56, told Variety that Crowe had been chosen for the part for his "everyman" qualities.

"We've seen him as the gladiator, but he has embodied the Everyman in so many pictures," Haggis said, describing the movie as an exploration of faith and belief.

"The deeper theme here is, would you save the woman you loved if you knew that by doing so, you would turn into a man that woman could no longer love?"

Crowe, who was most recently seen in political thriller "State of Play," is currently working on the Ridley Scott-directed "Robin Hood."

Michael Jackson died with doll

2009-07-29T18:10:00.001-07:00

Michael Jackson was cuddling a doll when he died.

A Los Angeles Police Department source has claimed the 'King of Pop' spent his last night snuggling up to the 'child-sized porcelain doll', which was wearing a dress.

Detectives reportedly found the 'bizarre toy' on the bed where Michael collapsed into a coma last month.

The source claims the star was 'living in squalor' in the months before he died, with clothes and other items strewn around his bedroom in his rented Holmby Hills mansion in Los Angeles, which was kept 'stiflingly hot'.

There were strange notes, apparently handwritten by Michael himself, stuck onto the room's walls bearing the words 'children are sweet' and 'children are innocent'.

The police officer said: 'The temperature upstairs was stiflingly hot, with gas fireplaces and the heating system on high because Jackson always complained of feeling cold.

'The singer's bedroom was a mess, with items seemingly thrown about and some 20 handwritten notes stuck on the walls. A porcelain girl doll wearing a dress was found on top of the covers of the bed where he slept.'

The officer also claims the singer's staff were banned from entering his room to clean up the mess.

Meanwhile, the fight for Michael's inheritance between his mother Katherine and the attorneys for the singer's estate and concert promoter AEG Live has intensified.

After losing a bid to be named temporary administrator of her son's estate, Katherine has demanded to see hundreds of financial documents, including contracts her son had with his record label, concert officials and even his father Joseph.

In papers filed at Los Angeles Superior Court, Katherine said: 'The special administrators of Michael's estate have, up to this point, refused all requests. They are apparently intent on keeping me in the dark as much and for as long as possible.'

Attorneys for AEG Live - the company promoting Michael's comeback concerts in London - argued Katherine could not be granted access to the documents because she 'would not uphold a confidentiality agreement'.

Papers filed by AEG Live said: 'Without the safeguards necessary to ensure the continued confidentiality of the artist agreement and any proposed modifications, AEG cannot provide such information to Ms. Jackson or her counsel without risking serious harm to its business.'

Anne Curtis released from hospital

2009-07-28T20:20:00.001-07:00

MANILA – Anne Curtis, who suffered minor injuries after figuring in a car accident, has been discharged from a hospital. Reports said the young actress is now resting at her home after leaving the still undisclosed facility. Curtis opted to skip her scheduled X-ray examination and went straight home in order to rest, reports added. Curtis was reportedly grateful to all those who came to her aid, some of whom were her friends from show business.

"The Wedding" artist, who was driving a Porsche Cayenne, hit an L-300 delivery van on the corner of Congressional and Mindanao Avenues in Quezon City around 2:30 a.m. Monday.

Aquino Marcelino, the van's driver, said the actress possibly fell asleep while at the wheel. Some of the actress' celebrity friends, including former boyfriend, Sam Milby, actor Jericho Rosales and singer Christian Bautista, reportedly rushed to the scene to help her. -abs-cbnNEWS.com. With a report from Doland Castro, ABS-CBN News

Kim Kardashian, Reggie Bush Split

2009-07-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush have split, her rep confirms to Usmagazine.com.

"Nobody cheated," a source close to the couple says. "This is just a case of conflicting schedules and their lives going in different directions.

See who else is single this summer.

"It was a totally mutual decision," continues the source.

The reality star, 28, began dating Bush, 24, the running back for the New Orleans Saints, in April 2007.

Look back at Kim and Reggie's most romantic moments.

In June of this year, she denied rumors of an engagement, as falsely reported by tabloid Star.

"I am not engaged!" she wrote on her Web site. "The rumors about me picking out my ring already are also not true! I don't know where all this comes from!!"

See Kim's sexiest red carpet shots.

But last December, she told Us "of course, I would say yes!" if Bush proposed.

When asked about marriage, Kardashian told Us then: "We are totally happy, and we have a great relationship, and it's definitely where things are heading. But hopefully it will be a surprise!"

Hollywood eyes Michael Jackson

2009-07-21T21:32:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - – A Hollywood movie made using footage of Michael Jackson rehearsing for his planned series of comeback concerts could hit theaters by the end of this year, US media reports have said.

Daily Variety reported that Sony Pictures studio was close to agreeing a 50-million-dollar deal for worldwide rights to nearly 80 hours of footage showing pop icon Jackson rehearsing before his death.

The report said AEG Entertainment, the company which owns the material and had been behind Jackson's proposed series of concerts in London, had screened the footage to Hollywood studio executives last week.

Variety reported that Kenny Ortega, the choreographer for Jackson's new "This Is It" concerts and the director of hit film "High School Musical," was expected to direct the movie.

So far only a brief snippet of Jackson's concert rehearsals have been revealed to the public.

Footage released on July 2 showed Jackson practicing a song-and-dance routine at Los Angeles's Staples Center two days before his death, supporting accounts he had been in good health.

Associates of Jackson have described the 50-year-old pop star as being in good form, including at another rehearsal the day before his death.

Jackson collapsed and died on June 25 at his rented Los Angeles mansion. A final cause of death has not been revealed as coroner's await the results of toxicology tests.

Jackson memorial performers announced as LA braces

2009-07-06T20:25:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES – The stage was set Monday for Michael Jackson's final act as the world capital of make-believe braced for what could be the biggest, most spectacular celebrity send-off of all time.

Ecstatic fans who won the lottery for seats at Tuesday's memorial received the tickets and spangly wristbands that will get them into the 20,000-seat Staples Center downtown. The family announced the participants will include Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.

The legal maneuvering that marked Jackson's extraordinary and troubled life also continued on Monday, with his mother losing a bid to control his enormous but tangled estate. And in one of the few reminders of Jackson's darkest hours, a New York congressman branded Jackson a "pervert" undeserving of so much attention.

More than 1.6 million people registered for free tickets to the 10 a.m. memorial, which will be broadcast live worldwide. A total of 8,750 people were chosen to receive two tickets each. The lucky ones picked up their passes Monday at Dodger Stadium amid heavy police presence.

"I got the golden ticket!" one fan screamed out of his car window in a Willy Wonka moment as he drove out of the parking lot.

"My mother loves Elvis. This is my Elvis," said ticket winner Mynor Garcia, 29.

Downtown hotels were quickly filling. Police, trying to avoid a mob scene, warned those without tickets to stay away because they would not be able to get close to the Staples Center.

British Airways reported a surge of bookings as soon as the memorial arrangements were announced. Virgin's trans-Atlantic flights to San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles were all packed with fans and VIPs, spokesman Paul Charles said.

"I think this is America's version of Princess Diana. People want to be in the vicinity. People from the UK and elsewhere want to share their emotions together," Charles said.

About 50 theaters across the country, from Los Angeles to Topeka, Kan., to Washington, D.C., were planning to broadcast the memorial live, said Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. spokeswoman Suzanne Moore. Admission will be free _ first-come, first-served.

Jackson's friend Elizabeth Taylor will be mourning in private. She said on her Twitter feed Monday that she would not attend the memorial.

"I just don't believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others," she tweeted. "How I feel is between us. Not a public event."

In Los Angeles Superior Court, meanwhile, a judge appointed Jackson's longtime attorney and a family friend as administrators of his estate over the objections of his mother, Katherine. Attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain had been designated in Jackson's 2002 will as the people he wanted to oversee his empire.

Mrs. Jackson's attorneys expressed concerns about McClain and Branca's financial leadership.

"Frankly, Mrs. Jackson has concerns about handing over the keys to the kingdom," said one of her attorneys, John E. Schreiber.

Another one of her attorneys, Burt Levitch, told Judge Mitchell Beckloff that Branca had previously been removed from financial positions of authority by Jackson. Branca's attorney said he was rehired by Jackson on June 17, days before Jackson's death.

Branca and McClain will have to post a $1 million bond on the estate, and their authority will expire Aug. 3, when another hearing will be held.

"Mr. Branca and Mr. McClain for the next month are at the helm of the ship," the judge said.

Jackson died at age 50 with hundreds of millions in debts. But a court filing estimates his estate is worth more than $500 million. His assets are destined for a trust, with his three children, his mother and charities as beneficiaries.

On eBay, bids for memorial tickets were reaching as high as $3,000, and prices on Craigslist were in the thousands, although both sites were removing postings attempting to sell memorial tickets.

Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of Jackson's two oldest children, had planned to attend the memorial but backed out Monday.

"The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy," her attorney Marta Almli said in a statement. "Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately."

In New York, Republican Rep. Peter King released a YouTube video calling Jackson, who was acquitted of child molestation charges, a "pervert" and a "low-life."

But the memories of Jackson's problems were far from the minds of fans preparing to say goodbye.

"It's the passing of a great soul," said Matt Tyson, 31, of Ojai, Calif. "He brought people together, helped express something that's in us all."

The family was expected to hold a private funeral at some point at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. No public funeral procession through city streets was scheduled, and it was not known whether Jackson's body would be at the Staples Center memorial.

In a symbolic convergence of events, however, the circus will be there.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey starts a run at Staples Center on Wednesday. In the predawn hours before Jackson's memorial, the elephants will walk from the train station to the arena.

___

Associated Press Writers Anthony McCartney, Danica Kirka and Michelle Rindels contributed to this report.

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Television networks planning Jackson coverage

2009-07-06T02:31:00.000-07:00

NBC executives changed their minds Sunday and decided to join other networks that will televise Michael Jackson's memorial service live this week.NBC joins ABC, CNN, MSNBC and E! Entertainment in offering the ceremony live. It's set for 10 a.m. PDT (1700 GMT) Tuesday at Los Angeles' Staples Center.
NBC had initially planned only a one-hour prime-time special on Tuesday night, but said Sunday it would also cover the event live. It was not immediately clear who would anchor.
Charles Gibson will anchor coverage for ABC, which is setting aside its typical daytime programming.
CBS anchor Katie Couric will be at the Staples Center, although the network had not yet said whether it was offering live coverage of the memorial.
CNN has seen its ratings soar with the Jackson story, and it will show the memorial on the main network and HLN (formerly Headline News). CNN International will air the ceremony to the rest of the world. Anderson Cooper, Larry King and Don Lemon are the anchors for CNN coverage. Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor at HLN. CNN en Espanol also will cover it.
Chris Jansing will anchor live coverage of the memorial on MSNBC. Fox News Channel hadn't announced its plans.
E! Entertainment will cover the ceremony on its television network and its Web site.