Entertainment News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood directors said on Thursday they would hold off on starting contract talks with major film and TV studios until at least January to give striking screenwriters time to resume their own stalled negotiations.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some stars are born, others toil for years before landing a dream role and occasionally the road to Hollywood's red carpet starts at a New York ice cream shop.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Perfectly timed to cash in on the perennial endless radio plays of the classic novelty tune "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late"), this holiday movie presents the furry warblers in all their high-pitched glory.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Family films that won't make adults gag are always in short supply, so a pleasing British fantasy, "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep," is a welcome addition to the holiday season.

LOS ANGELES - The year's fresh face on the independent-film circuit is a guy named Francis Ford Coppola.

PORT ARTHUR, Texas - Thousands of family and friends said farewell Thursday to Pimp C, whose raspy Southern drawl and raw lyrical prowess attracted legions of fans.

CLEVELAND - The Material Girl is about to become a Hall of Famer.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Dance musician Moby has launched a Web site that gives his music away -- to the right people, of course.

NEW YORK (Billboard) - They play marginally talented singer/songwriters on their HBO comedy series, but Flight of the Conchords members Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie put in extensive studio time to perfect their debut album.

(In final paragraph, corrects album release date to March 11 from March 24)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A new and little-seen cable television show, FX legal drama "Damages," starring five-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close, led the Golden Globe contenders for TV series awards on Thursday with four nominations, including a bid for best drama.

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - Two movies set against different wars, "Atonement" and "Charlie Wilson's War," dominated Golden Globe nominations on Thursday with "Atonement" earning seven nods, including one for best drama, to lead all film contenders.

Reactions from some of the Golden Globe Award nominees Thursday:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Hollywood awards are so up for grabs that even Golden Globe voters were divided, picking seven nominees for best drama instead of the usual five.

NEW YORK - If there was any doubt before, the Golden Globes have sounded a clear message: This year, the best TV is on cable.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood directors said on Thursday they would hold off on starting contract talks with major film and TV studios until at least January to give striking screenwriters time to resume their own stalled negotiations.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dow Jones & Co Inc shareholders voted to approve a $5.6 billion buyout by News Corp on Thursday, giving Rupert Murdoch control of one of the world's most influential newspapers, the Wall Street Journal.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission flatly refused on Thursday to delay a vote next week on a plan to ease U.S. media ownership rules despite a barrage of criticism from Senate lawmakers.

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - Two movies set against different wars, "Atonement" and "Charlie Wilson's War," dominated Golden Globe nominations on Thursday with "Atonement" earning seven nods, including one for best drama, to lead all film contenders.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers have come out in favor of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc's proposed purchase of its rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc, the companies said on Thursday.

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - David Edgar has trimmed his nine-hour 1982 Tony Award-winning play based on Charles Dickens' "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" to two easily digested parts, but they should please audiences just as much.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Perfectly timed to cash in on the perennial endless radio plays of the classic novelty tune "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late"), this holiday movie presents the furry warblers in all their high-pitched glory.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Family films that won't make adults gag are always in short supply, so a pleasing British fantasy, "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep," is a welcome addition to the holiday season.

NEW YORK - Heroes and villains — hard to tell them apart.

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.

NEW YORK - For those rock 'n' roll fans on your gift list this holiday season, there are plenty of new offerings to keep their heads bopping along happily into the new year.

"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."

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - David Edgar has trimmed his nine-hour 1982 Tony Award-winning play based on Charles Dickens' "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" to two easily digested parts, but they should please audiences just as much.

Billy Elliot the Musical made its Australian premiere Dec. 13 at the Capitol Theatre in Haymarket, Sydney. Creators Elton John and Lee Hall were on hand to take a bow.

The national tour of the Cameron Mackintosh/Really Useful Theatre Company, Inc. production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince, celebrates its 15th anniversary on Dec. 13 during its fifth engagement in Chicago.

Liza Minnelli, the Oscar- and Tony Award-winning actress, collapsed on stage during a Christmas concert in Sweden Dec. 12, and returned to the United States for treatment.

Veteran theatre actress Elizabeth Franz has had her share of milestones in her career.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Legendary film director Steven Spielberg has appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao for a second time to use China's influence over Sudan to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some stars are born, others toil for years before landing a dream role and occasionally the road to Hollywood's red carpet starts at a New York ice cream shop.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - He's played stone cold killers, sexy leading men and military heroes, but John Travolta figures his best role yet may just be the woman he portrays in movie musical "Hairspray."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Film director Steven Spielberg, artistic advisor to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, sent a letter to China's president on Thursday urging Beijing to press ally Sudan to accept peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur.

LOS ANGELES - The year's fresh face on the independent-film circuit is a guy named Francis Ford Coppola.

New York - With glamorous gowns displayed like elegant sculptures in her New York showroom, Reem Acra joined the increasing number of designers doing formal presentations for their pre-fall collections, the transitional season that retailers use to bridge spring/summer and fall collections.

New York - Subtle Asian-inspired elements were the basis of the Luca Luca Pre-Fall Â’08 collection, presented in their New York store on Madison Avenue on Tuesday, Dec. 11.

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.

DEAR ABBY: I admit it: I am scatterbrained. I'm forgetful when it comes to events and information that affect me personally, although I have the odd ability to remember facts and trivia. It is a source of frustration and amusement to others that I can remember details about the Battle of Actium, but can also lose my car for several days because I forgot where I had it parked.

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.

12/13/2007 - DEAR MARGO: I met and married the man of my dreams four years ago. Both of us were in our 40s, and obviously we each had a past. I was honest about mine; he said he just didn't remember things. After we married he remembered a few things . . . such as having sex with two women at the same time. I told him I found that disgusting. When he saw how shocked I was, he didn't tell me anything else.

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.

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.

LONDON (Reuters) - Multi-millionaire English artist Damien Hirst said on Thursday he was donating four major works to Britain's Tate Gallery, including a sliced and pickled cow and calf.

NEW YORK - The next batch of painful "Jackass" stunts is coming to a computer screen near you.

CLEVELAND - The Material Girl is now a Hall of Famer.

PORT ARTHUR, Texas - Thousands of family and friends said farewell Thursday to Pimp C, whose raspy Southern drawl and raw lyrical prowess attracted legions of fans.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Prosecutors have dropped a domestic battery charge against Scott Stapp after the rocker completed terms of an agreement including a requirement that he participate in anger management counseling.