Entertainment News

Francis Ford Coppola has said that he related deeply to "Youth Without Youth," Romanian writer Mircea Eliade's novella about a man incapable of finishing his magnum opus: a book about time, consciousness and the origin of language.

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Clear front-runners have yet to emerge in Hollywood's awards season, though Golden Globe voters have no shortage of fine films and performances to choose from with their nominations at hand.

Are singing chipmunks really so different from Britney Spears?

LOS ANGELES - Will Smith already has it all: the picture-perfect family, a film career that blends commercial hits with artistic acclaim, the occasional foray into music, where he scored his first success.

SAN DIEGO - Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner, who rose to fame in the 1950s and became a star performing with his ex-wife Tina Turner, has died at age 76, said an official with the performer's management company.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner, who rose to fame in the 1950s and became a star performing with his ex-wife Tina Turner, has died at age 76, said an official with the performer's management company.

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears was apparently too under the weather to go under oath.

NEW YORK - Rosanne Cash was recovering at her Manhattan home following brain surgery last month for a rare but benign condition.

NEW YORK - Jessica Alba and her boyfriend, producer Cash Warren, are expecting a baby.

TRENTON, N.J. - A federal jury was told Wednesday that "Sopranos" creator David Chase got help in developing HBO's Emmy-winning mob drama and owes a former municipal judge for that assistance.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Faced with ratings declines since the start of the fall TV season, three major networks are compensating advertisers with extra commercial time, and at least one, NBC, is taking the rare step of giving back cash, media buyers and network officials said on Wednesday.

1. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS.

BERLIN - Paris Hilton is making a personal contribution to protecting the environment.

XIANGHE, China (Reuters) - Even Hollywood is feeling the pinch from strains in U.S.-China trade relations.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Will Smith waltzes into the press conference as if he were the living embodiment of his character in his latest film, "I Am Legend" -- here to save Hollywood from a bad case of the box office flu.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Faced with ratings declines since the start of the fall TV season, three major networks are compensating advertisers with extra commercial time, and at least one, NBC, is taking the rare step of giving back cash, media buyers and network officials said on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Faced with ratings declines since the start of the fall TV season, three major networks are compensating advertisers with extra commercial time, and at least one, NBC, is taking the rare step of giving back cash, media buyers said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Adult entertainment company Penthouse Media Group Inc said on Wednesday it bought the owner of sex matchmaking site AdultFriendFinder.com for $500 million in cash and securities.

Francis Ford Coppola has said that he related deeply to "Youth Without Youth," Romanian writer Mircea Eliade's novella about a man incapable of finishing his magnum opus: a book about time, consciousness and the origin of language.

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

Are singing chipmunks really so different from Britney Spears?

"The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild" (Little, Brown and Company, 322 pages, $24.99), by Craig Childs. It's 8:30 a.m. A packed subway train crawls toward Manhattan from Brooklyn. I'm pushed on all sides, smashed against the door reading Craig Childs' newest set of essays, "The Animal Dialogues." Tears well in my eyes as I read about a perfect blue shark dying on a desolate beach.

NEW YORK - What do they eat in hell, anyway?

"The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild" (Little, Brown and Company, 322 pages, $24.99), by Craig Childs. It's 8:30 a.m. A packed subway train crawls toward Manhattan from Brooklyn. I'm pushed on all sides, smashed against the door reading Craig Childs' newest set of essays, "The Animal Dialogues." Tears well in my eyes as I read about a perfect blue shark dying on a desolate beach.

TOKYO (Reuters) - In Japanese novelist Miyuki Miyabe's Tokyo, the moon hangs low over dark rivers, spiraling debt leads to murder, and a young woman roams the streets setting criminals afire with a single thought.

PROVO, Utah - Brandon Sanderson, author of the fantasy "Mistborn" series, will finish Robert Jordan's final novel.

"Watchman" (Little, Brown. 253 pages. $24.99), by Ian Rankin: Hell, a character observes near the end of this British spy novel, is not some far distant region. "It was a millimeter away, and all one had to do was scratch at the surface with one's fingernail to reveal it."

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fallen press baron Conrad Black has said he can survive the hard transition from a life of glamour and luxury to one of anonymity and menial prison labor, but he intends to go down fighting to overturn his guilty verdict.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Terrence Howard will make his stage debut in Debbie Allen's Broadway revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," the first production led by an all-black cast to be authorized by playwright Tennessee Williams' estate.

Famed baseball player Joe DiMaggio is the subject of DiMaggio, Robert Mitchell's new musical, continuing at the Wings Theatre in Greenwich Village following a Dec. 3 launch.

Major stars James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad and Terrence Howard will descend upon the Broadhurst Theatre in spring 2008 in the Debbie Allen-directed new African-American take on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Niccolo Machiavelli's 16th century play, The Mandrake, translated by Peter Constantine and directed by Jim Calder, gets a production by Off-Broadway's Pearl Theatre Company in 2008.

A grieving mother seeks solace on the Canadian prairie during World War I in the world premiere of Maureen Hunter's Wild Mouth, getting its world premiere Jan. 2, 2008, at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre.

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears was apparently too under the weather to go under oath. The pop star was a no-show at a court-ordered deposition Wednesday morning in her ongoing child custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

SAN DIEGO - Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

NASSAU, Bahamas - An inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith's son adjourned Wednesday until Jan. 28, while court officials seek testimony from witnesses including an ex-boyfriend of the late reality TV star.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Ike Turner, best remembered for his successful musical partnership and violently abusive marriage to singer Tina Turner, has died at home in California, his manager said Wednesday. He was 76.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner, who rose to fame in the 1950s and became a star performing with his ex-wife Tina Turner, has died at age 76, said an official with the performer's management company.

New York - A rose is a rose, and a perfume is a perfume, right? Well, not if it's the "World's Most Expensive Perfume." Clive Christian No. 1 was awarded the Guinness World Record for being the most expensive perfume on Saturday, Dec. 8, at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.

New York - Fans of the ABC television series "Alias" knew that no covert operation would be complete without a suitcase containing at least one high-tech outfit change - and an identity-obscuring wig - for Sydney Bristow, the spy played by Jennifer Garner.

New York - Zac Posen continues to establish himself as a designer who can do over-the-top, camp and sassy, and yet still have the end result be couture-quality with tailoring, fit and detailing on par with a Paris atelier.

New York - Florals for fall was the big message at Oscar de la Renta's pre-Fall 2008 collection, which the designer showed to an audience of press, buyers and socialites on Park Avenue in New York on Monday, Dec. 3, who sat theater-in-the-round style around the runway.

"Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride Through The Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture (Universe/Rizzoli, 368 pages, $60), by Tommy Hilfiger with George Lois: Our world today is one of fragments, niches, products, icons — this much is obvious. Far less evident to Americans as consumers is how these fragments — bit by bit, year by year — shape and add texture to our lives.

DEAR ABBY: I read with interest the problem encountered by "Hurt Beyond Words in Cedar Rapids" (Oct. 22). Sorry to disagree with you, Abby, but "Hurt" needs a divorce lawyer, not a marriage counselor. I'm speaking from experience.

DEAR ABBY: With the holidays here, I know you are again being inundated with questions about what kind of gifts to give to seniors. Years ago, I took one of your ideas and decided to help my grandmother with Christmas cards. (She had arthritis, and it was hard for her to write.) It was one of the best presents I ever gave her, and it was lots of fun for me.

DEAR ABBY: I was the other woman for seven years, involved with a man I thought was perfect. His wife knew about me. It was never an issue until he fell in love with me. After that, things changed. He began making promises and told me as soon as his wife got herself together and found a job and a place to live, he'd divorce her and be with me forever.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 13-year-old girl in junior high. I'm being harassed at school by three boys. I'm not popular, attractive or fashionable. I am athletic, quiet and a straight-A student.

DEAR ABBY: I am a stay-at-home mother with three young children. I have become friends with another stay-at-home parent. We share many things in common, and our children are great playmates. The problem is, my friend is a man.

12/07/2007 - DEAR MARGO: I'm a 27-year-old gay Afro American male, and I'm not out to my family or friends because I will lose all of them. They are church folks and think all gays are gonna burn in hell.

12/06/2007 - DEAR MARGO: I have a friend at work with whom I am relatively close. She regularly talks about how she can't wait to get married and how her house will look and the kids she will have.

11/30/2007 - DEAR MARGO: My wife and I have been married 11 years. We have four wonderful kids, with a fifth on the way. Due to my financial situation, my wife has not had to work outside the home. In fact, I don't work outside the home, either. My office is in the house, so my commute is walking down the stairs. I have worked hard and am financially successful.

11/29/2007 - DEAR MARGO: I have been working in the same job for the past two years and am still dumbfounded by the work environment. There is a heavy emphasis on entertaining and hanging out. We have potlucks and luncheons, birthday parties and gift exchanges four to five times a month.

11/23/2007 - DEAR MARGO: Normally I believe people should largely figure out their own problems, but this is about a woman I love so much I would do anything to make her happy, even write to an advice column. I'll spill the info: We've been going out for three months (but have known each other for two years). I was previously a smoker before we started dating. I told her I would quit for her -- which I did. It was easy to do because I love her.

Creators Syndicate - My fingers are trembling as I type this column, because it's about pets. I can say anything I want about people; I can pick on kids, men, women, even old people, and nobody gets upset. But say one word about dogs or cats and I get angry diatribes from readers about how heartless I am. I have to speak out, though, before it's too late. America, I'm afraid, is going to the dogs.

Creators Syndicate - In a bold move that could dramatically alter the playing field of the 2008 GOP presidential race, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee today named Jesus Christ as his vice-presidential running mate.

Creators Syndicate - For the first 44 weeks of each year, I'm a pretty disciplined eater, at least by my own, admittedly poor, standards. I limit myself to a couple of pieces of toast every morning, and I take in a decent sized lunch and a healthy dinner, with seconds if it's something I like. (I like a lot.) But I eat vegetables and salads, and don't eat desserts, cookies, candy, potato chips, or drink even soda.

Creators Syndicate - Officials from a major food exporter in China apologized to American consumers today for shipping over 70 million poisonous turkeys to the U.S. early last week but indicated that it was "too late" for a recall of their toxic food product.

Creators Syndicate - These days, almost every morning, I open my paper to read the findings of new scientific studies that tell us stuff I could have figured out myself.

SAN DIEGO - Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

CHICAGO - A half-man, half-goat ceramic figure supposedly sculpted by 19th century French artist Paul Gauguin has delighted aficionados visiting the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade, but now the museum says "The Faun" is a fake.

LONDON - Best-selling fantasy author Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, he said in a message posted to his illustrator's Web site.

BERLIN (AFP) - Michael Schumacher may well be the fastest taxi driver in Germany after the seven-times world champion shocked a cab driver by taking over the wheel in order to be on time for a flight.

LONDON - Imagine that. A lock of John Lennon's hair sold for $48,000 Wednesday in an auction of Beatles' memorabilia collected by the band's hairdresser.