Sheen returning to Aspen in domestic violence case (AP)

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2009 file photo, actor Charlie Sheen is pictured at an event to celebrate Planet Hollywood's purchase of restaurant chain Buca di Beppo, at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)AP - Actor Charlie Sheen is returning to court in Aspen on domestic violence charges stemming from a Christmas Day dispute with his wife.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:15 am

Sheen returning to Aspen in domestic violence case (AP)

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2009 file photo, actor Charlie Sheen is pictured at an event to celebrate Planet Hollywood's purchase of restaurant chain Buca di Beppo, at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)AP - Actor Charlie Sheen is returning to court in Aspen on domestic violence charges stemming from a Christmas Day dispute with his wife.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:15 am

Sheen returning to Aspen in domestic violence case (AP)

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2009 file photo, actor Charlie Sheen is pictured at an event to celebrate Planet Hollywood's purchase of restaurant chain Buca di Beppo, at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)AP - Actor Charlie Sheen is returning to court in Aspen on domestic violence charges stemming from a Christmas Day dispute with his wife.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:15 am

Schwimmer engaged to Brit photog - Chicago Sun-Times


NEWS.com.au

Schwimmer engaged to Brit photog
Chicago Sun-Times
The man who played thrice-married Ross Gellar on "Friends" is getting ready for his first real-life trip to the altar. A representative for David Schwimmer told EW.com that the 43-year-old actor-director is engaged ...
David Schwimmer to WedUs Magazine
'Friends' Alum David Schwimmer Engaged to Zoe BuckmanBuddyTV
David Schwimmer engagedSheKnows.com
TheCelebrityCafe.com -People Magazine -Popcultnews
all 89 news articles »

Source: Entertainment - Google News | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:01 am

South Side Irish march on ... in tiny parade - Chicago Sun-Times


Boston Globe

South Side Irish march on ... in tiny parade
Chicago Sun-Times
Contrary to what you may have heard, the 31st annual South Side Irish Parade did march down Western in Beverly on Sunday. You just weren't invited. It didn't block the street. ...
South Side parade dead, spirit still goingSouthtown Star
St. Patrick's parade brings out Irish and friendsBaltimore Sun
Lack of South Side Irish Parade pinches Beverly businessesChicago Tribune
Boston Herald -Boston Globe -Journal and Courier
all 232 news articles »

Source: Entertainment - Google News | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:01 am

Sheen returning to Aspen in domestic violence case - The Associated Press


St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sheen returning to Aspen in domestic violence case
The Associated Press
ASPEN, Colo. — Actor Charlie Sheen is returning to court in Aspen on domestic violence charges stemming from a Christmas Day dispute with his wife. An arraignment is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Sheen is accused of putting a knife to the throat of ...
The Question Charlie Sheen Can't AnswerTMZ.com (blog)
Charlie Sheen faces Monday court date in threat caseLos Angeles Times
EXCLUSIVE: Sheen Defense Will Discredit Cop To Beat Domestic Violence ChargeRadar Online
Sawf News -Actress Archives -KNX1070
all 178 news articles »

Source: Entertainment - Google News | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:00 am

Sheen returning to Aspen in domestic violence case

Actor Charlie Sheen is returning to court in Aspen on domestic violence charges stemming from a Christmas Day dispute with his wife. An arraignment is scheduled for Monday afternoon. ...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:56 am

News Corp to net $350-400 million from "Avatar": report

(Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will earn $350 million to $400 million from James Cameron's blockbuster "Avatar," once the movie is released on pay television and DVD, Bloomberg...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:49 am

News Corp to net $350-400 million from "Avatar": report (Reuters)

Reuters - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will earn $350 million to $400 million from James Cameron's blockbuster "Avatar," once the movie is released on pay television and DVD, Bloomberg said, citing two people with knowledge of the financial performance.
Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:49 am

News Corp to net $350-400 million from "Avatar": report (Reuters)

Reuters - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will earn $350 million to $400 million from James Cameron's blockbuster "Avatar," once the movie is released on pay television and DVD, Bloomberg said, citing two people with knowledge of the financial performance.
Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:49 am

Valerie Harper pays tribute to dissolute star Tallulah Bankhead in 'Looped' - New York Daily News


New York Daily News

Valerie Harper pays tribute to dissolute star Tallulah Bankhead in 'Looped'
New York Daily News
In "Looped," Matthew Lombardo's whisper-thin but enjoyable comedy starring Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead, the bygone celebrity bad girl is at a recording studio in 1965 doing something unusual for her − she's cleaning up her act. ...
Comic talent wasted in Tallulah Bankhead playReuters
A Smidgen of Sympathy for a Diva on the SkidsNew York Times
It's Tallulah, Dahling, through Harper on BroadwayThe Associated Press
NorthJersey.com -USA Today -The Faster Times
all 106 news articles »

Source: Entertainment - Google News | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:38 am

'Mission: Impossible' star Peter Graves dies in LA Click here to read My First TV Station: $550,000


Click here to read My First TV Station: $550,000

Click here to read Rielle Hunter the Only Person on Earth Who Loves John Edwards

Click here to read Rielle Hunter the Only Person on Earth Who Loves John Edwards

Click here to read There Is Literally No Way to Make Money Selling News

Click here to read There Is Literally No Way to Make Money Selling News

Peter Graves, a career actor who is remembered for his roles in Airplane! and the TV series Mission: Impossible, died of a heart attack outside his home after returning from Sunday brunch with his wife and kids. Graves received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last October, telling the LA Times "I think I have been hanging around so long, I guess they had to give it to me."

Actor Peter Graves found dead at his home in Pacific Palisades [LAT]

Read more posts by Zeke Turner

Filed Under: obits, airplaine!, mission:impossible, peter graves



Source: Vulture | 14 Mar 2010 | 11:19 pm

Peter Graves, Star of Mission: Impossible, Airplane!, Dies

Peter GravesPeter Graves' career was more like three careers. At least. He was Mission: Impossible's pre-Tom Cruise leading agent, Jim Phelps. He was Airplane's Turkish...


Click here to read Detroit's Problems Now Include Smelly City Workers

Click here to read Detroit's Problems Now Include Smelly City Workers

Checkmate: David Fincher is attached to direct Columbia Pictures' Pawn Sacrifice, a Bobby Fischer biopic that will follow the chess champion through his victory over Boris Spassky in 1972. At last that's what Variety says. We hope Fincher does it Benjamin Button style, with Fischer starting life as a crazy anti-Semite and aging backwards into an adorable 13-year-old prodigy. [Variety]

International Treasure: Forest Whitaker is in talks to star in the Shanghai-set indie drama Little Treasure, about a couple "dealing with prejudices, humor, cultural differences and self-discovery while meeting a street kid who changes their lives" (presumably by leading them to an actual treasure, unless the film's title is some clever reference to the kid or their enlightening traveling experiences). [Variety]

Steenburgen Goes South: Mary Steenburgen has signed on to play the mom in the new ABC comedy pilot Southern Discomfort, about a couple whose lives are turned upside down when their adult children move back in with them. The show's title and Steenburgen's casting both imply that Discomfort will be set in the American South (she's from Arkansas), but we think the comedic possibilities would be more plentiful at the South Pole. [HR]

Kate and Switch: On the strength of its pilot, USA has ordered 11 episodes of Facing Kate, the second female-centered drama the network has picked up this year (after the Piper Perabo—starring Covert Affairs). Kate stars Sarah Shahi as a lawyer frustrated with the legal system who decides to become a mediator instead. Says one of the show's makers: "With traditional lawyers, it's always one wins, one loses; in mediation, the goal is to have win-win." When it comes to thrilling TV drama, nothing beats compromises. [HR]

More Descendants: Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, and Robert Forster have joined the cast of Alexander Payne's George Clooney—starring dark comedy The Descendants, about a guy struggling to repair his relationship with his two daughters after his wife becomes a vegetable following a boat-racing accident near Waikiki. The movie starts shooting today in Hawaii, so they should probably hurry up and get down there. [HR]

Three Go to Cable: Three people you've probably not yet heard of have been added to shows you probably don't watch: Marsha Thomason, Billy Brown, and Gregg Henry will join the casts of USA's White Collar, FX's Lights Out, and HBO's Hung, respectively. [HR]

Go Joe, Guy: Said Taghmaoui's career has miraculously survived last summer's G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. He'll star in Conan as "a leader of thieves who is saved by Conan [Jason Momoa] and later offers him aid." [HR]

Read more posts by Lane Brown

Filed Under: the industry, alexander payne, beau bridges, billy brown, bobby fischer, conan, david finches, facing kate, forest whitaker, gregg henry, hung, judy greer, lights out, little treasure, marsha thomason, mary steenburgen, movies, pawn sacrifice, robert forster, said taghmaoui, southern discomfort, the descendants, tv, white collar



Source: Vulture | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:15 pm

Survey: Readers don't want to pay for news online

A new consumer survey suggests that getting people to pay for news online at this point would be "like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons." That's one of several bleak...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:03 pm

Historian takes fresh look at Tudor dynasty (AP)

In this book cover image released by Delacorte Press, 'The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty' by G.J. Meyer, is shown. (AP Photo/Delacorte Press)AP - "The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty" (Delacorte Press, 640 pages, $30) by G.J. Meyer: Five centuries have not diminished the appetite for all things Tudor. Henry VIII, his six wives and his equally intriguing children are endlessly being reinvented in the popular media. Veritable rock stars of the English monarchy, their lives easily eclipse anything our own celebrity-obsessed, reality show culture can spit out.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:00 pm

Historian takes fresh look at Tudor dynasty (AP)

In this book cover image released by Delacorte Press, 'The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty' by G.J. Meyer, is shown. (AP Photo/Delacorte Press)AP - "The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty" (Delacorte Press, 640 pages, $30) by G.J. Meyer: Five centuries have not diminished the appetite for all things Tudor. Henry VIII, his six wives and his equally intriguing children are endlessly being reinvented in the popular media. Veritable rock stars of the English monarchy, their lives easily eclipse anything our own celebrity-obsessed, reality show culture can spit out.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:00 pm

`Texas Tough' is compelling history of US prisons (AP)

In this book cover image released by Metropolitan Books, 'Texas Tough, The rise of America's Prison Empire' by Robert Perkinson, is shown. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Books)AP - "Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire" (Metropolitan Books, 496 pages, $30), by Robert Perkinson: As Robert Perkinson points out in "Texas Tough," his very readable history of U.S. prisons, locking up people is big business. America sends more people to prison per capita than any other country in the world, locking up about one out of every 100 people.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:00 pm

Review: `Chased the Moon' offers light reading (AP)

In this book cover image released by Bantam Books, 'The Girl Who Chased the Moon' by Sarah Addison Allen, is shown. (AP Photo/Bantam Books)AP - "The Girl Who Chased the Moon" (Bantam Books, 265 pages, $25), by Sarah Addison Allen: Sarah Addison Allen stays on familiar ground in her latest offering, "The Girl Who Chased the Moon," dishing up light doses of magical realism and romance, all in the North Carolina landscape where she grew up. It's a formula that has worked well for her, including putting her first novel, "Garden Spells," on the best-seller list.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 14 Mar 2010 | 10:00 pm

'Celebrity Apprentice' begins with a 1st firing Click here to read Video Game Journalist's Innocence Lost to Pole-Dancing Booth Babes


Click here to read Video Game Journalist's Innocence Lost to Pole-Dancing Booth Babes


Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 14 Mar 2010 | 9:37 pm

Artist Behind 'I'm With Coco' Image Gets Paid


Artist Mike Mitchell is learning what it's like to be Shepard Fairey, and he's getting paid. His unofficial "I'm With Coco" graphic, which he originally posted to TwitPic, has been purchased by Conan's "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" as the tour's official image. Mitchell did not disclose exactly how much he was paid by the tour, but went so far as to say the he has been taken care of. Mitchell has also raised $25,000 for the Haiti earthquake relief effort by selling clothing bearing the image. [TMZ]

Read more posts by Zeke Turner

Filed Under: conan, conan o'brien, i'm with coco, late shifting


Click here to read Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

Click here to read Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here



(Reuters)

Jack and Meg White arrive for the Reuters - As stylish as the band it depicts and occasionally as enigmatic, "The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights" stands out among tour films largely because of the strange tour at hand.



Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 14 Mar 2010 | 8:12 pm

Forest Whitaker circles 'Treasure'

Front Page: Actor in talks for indie drama set in Shanghai -- Forest Whitaker is in talks to star in indie drama "Little Treasure," due to be filmed on location in Shanghai and centered on an American couple who returns to the wife's homeland of China.



Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 14 Mar 2010 | 8:00 pm

Fincher to make 'Sacrifice'

Front Page: Helmer circling 'Dragon Tattoo' -- David Fincher is making his next move, on Columbia Pictures' chess drama "Pawn Sacrifice."



Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 14 Mar 2010 | 8:00 pm

ShoWest redubbed CinemaCon

Front Page: Confab gets under way in Vegas -- As exhibitors gather for the final ShoWest starting today in Las Vegas, the National Assn. of Theater Owners has remonikered next year's exhib confab as CinemaCon.



Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 14 Mar 2010 | 8:00 pm

Comic talent wasted in Tallulah Bankhead play Click here to read Newest Weapon in New York's War on Nightclub Smoking: 'Hipper-looking' Inspectors


Click here to read Newest Weapon in New York's War on Nightclub Smoking: 'Hipper-looking' Inspectors

Caprica sold this series to BSG fans as a chance to get the backstory on the attacks that sent the last humans fleeing into outer space. By the end of the pilot, Zoe Graystone’s formula for downloading a human personality into a virtual avatar set in motion the inexorable march toward the destruction of the twelve colonies. But now that all of the show’s plates are in motion — spinning from Little Tauron to New Cap City — we’re beginning to realize that there will be a million human follies before the worlds will end. And some serious techno-ethical dilemmas along the way. This episode, the best since Amanda Graystone stormed the set of Back Talk, brings us closer to the next iteration in the Cylon’s development and teases out the possibility that Zoe’s formula could also virtually extend any human life. Isn’t sci-fi the best?!*

*Must be willing to accept some seriously cheese-filled premises.

Amanda sees dead people. For our money, Amanda Graystone is the most fully realized character on Caprica. She’s impetuous, but shrewd. She’s pouty, but capable. She’s insightful, but she can’t see what’s right in front of her. So when they chose to stick her with a creaky flashback trope this week, we groaned. See Amanda chasing a faceless man down the hallway of a mental institution. See Amanda seeing Flashback Boy everywhere she goes. Will they trot out another TV trope and turn the doctor into a patient?

As phase two of the Seduction of Lady Graystone begins, Clarice gets Amanda to confess. Flashback Boy is her brother, Darius, whose death led to Amanda’s mental breakdown and eventual institutionalization. “Trauma and therapy and talking and more therapy and more talking and, finally, some really good drugs.” Well, the girl does like her Scorpion Ambrosia. To the writers’ credit, Clarice seems like she’s buying into their faux friendship as much as Amanda is.

We’ve always found the domestic scenes and unspoken shorthand between Amanda and Daniel captivating, and there’s a great example here when Daniel recognizes that his neglect is edging his wife to the dark side. During a Thelma-and-Louise drug binge at the Dive, Clarice tells Amanda to have faith in God. Amanda asks, “Which one?” Once she’s sobered up, will she realize she’s been smoking up with an agent of the STO?

Teenagers in love. Philo, the lab tech, chooses a tandem flight simulation for his virtual date with Zoe’s avatar. We thought we were going to get the Paul Verhooven treatment — you know, a futuristic world that’s somehow not that different from the real one (i.e., flaccid Capricans take Vinagro instead of Viagra). But the plane crashes because Zoe (looking fly in a Top Gun pilot’s jumper) refuses to treat the virtual world like a game with instant skill upgrades. In fact, she waxes poetic to a surprisingly buff Philo, the V world could be so much more than a fantasy. If developers would stop cutting corners and use the same generative algorithms used by living systems, the trees wouldn’t look so fake, and oh, life could be extended indefinitely. That line of thinking is her ploy to get Philo to move the Cylon body out of Daniel’s lab and closer to Gemenon, but Philo has other ideas.

This episode draws explicit distinctions between Dead Zoe and Avatar Zoe. For one, Avatar Zoe is a lot less shrill. But she also starts referring to her creator’s dad as “Daniel” and Lacy points out that she might’ve disappointed Dead Zoe, but never the avatar. This could complicate the whole afterlife bit. If the avatars are different from their human analogs, then you’re not really preserving lives, you’re creating new ones.

The ol' dead-daughter-in-the-robot bit. Ever since the Philo + Zoebot’s impromptu dance routine, the show seems to have gotten itself a sense of humor. A broad, weird, squarely sci-fi kind of humor, sure, but it yields some winks at the absurdism of it all to the audience. In V world, Zoe tells Lacy that Sister Clarice stopped by her dad’s lab. “She looked me right in my eye [singular]!” Lacy responds, “Well, do you think she knows it's you?” Yes, because people always check to see if they recognize a familiar face lurking behind the façade of a toaster.

There was also the well-played mistaken identity/comedy of errors gag when Daniel walked into his lab to find Philo (on his date) tonguing the air with a holoband over his eyes. Philo doesn't know that the avatar he's making out with is living inside the Cylon body across the room. Daniel doesn't know that his dead daughter is trapped inside his defense-contract prototype — or that she’s getting busy with his lab tech. And Zoe's avatar doesn't realize that her machinations will help her father develop more of that technology she’s always hated.

Return to New Cap City. We know we’re in the minority here, but we’re still not feeling Esai Morales as Joseph Adama. In any case, he forces Heracles/Tad to take him back into the game to find Tamara. Heracles warns him that once he’s dead in the game, he can never come back, but it’s Heracles who ends up permanently de-resed. Adama meets a redhead in platform Mary Janes named Emanuelle. She offers to help him around New Cap, but for a price. We have a strange suspicion it’s his secretary in virtual disguise.

While Adama is fumbling through New Cap he walks by a stencil graffiti on a wall with a picture of a girl’s face and the words “This is not me. It’s not just my body vehicle.” Is this a sign of a groundswell of kids, like Tad, contending with a virtual world where an avatar can feel dangerously closer to the authentic self?

Cylon 2.0. Daniel still hasn’t figured out how to duplicate the success of the first Cylon. Post-makeout, Philo passes along Zoe’s idea about the generative process to Daniel. “What if there's something in the MCP that's analog, like a person?” While Daniel is brainstorming about how to apply a human system to a robot, he notices his dog keeps playing fetch with the Cylon, as if the dog knows it somehow. Daniel walks over, looks into the Cylon’s eye, and asks “Zoe?” WHOA. Will she respond? Will they work together to build a killer army or a virtual afterlife? Zoe, what madness have you wrought!

More Recaps
PopWatch thinks Caprica is "the weirdest, smartest, and most consistently surprising show on TV" and suspects the dialogue on Philo and Zoe's date was the key to understanding all of Caprica.
Television Without Pity thinks "talking fluent Geek" made Philo even dreamier, and thinks Caprica is establishing itself as "the most dynamic and relevant show on TV." 
HitFix also loved the street graffiti, and thinks the point of New Cap City is somehow tied to the overarching plot.

Read more posts by Nitasha Tiku

Filed Under: overnights, caprica, recaps, tv



Source: Vulture | 14 Mar 2010 | 7:31 pm

Joy Behar, Cynthia Nixon Take Top Honors at GLAAD Media Awards


Joy Behar picked up the top prize for Excellence in Media Saturday night at the GLAAD Media Awards in New York. Sex in the City creator Michael Patrick King presented Cynthia Nixon with the Vito Russo Award, which honors an openly gay media professional for his or her work promoting equal rights. Brothers and Sisters and Parks and Recreation took home awards for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Individual Episode, respectively. [EW]

- Outstanding Daily Drama: One Life to Live (ABC)
- Outstanding Talk Show Episode: “Ellen DeGeneres and Her Wife, Portia de Rossi” The Oprah Winfrey Show (syndicated)
- Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: “Why Will Won’t Pledge Allegiance” American Morning (CNN)
- Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: Tie between “‘We Love You, This Won’t Change a Thing’” by John Buccigross (ESPN.com) and “Why Can’t You Just Butch Up? Gay Men, Effeminacy, and Our War with Ourselves” by Brent Hartinger (AfterElton.com)
- Outstanding TV Journalism — Newsmagazine: “Uganda Be Kidding Me” (series) The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)
- Outstanding Newspaper Article: “Kept From a Dying Partner’s Bedside” by Tara Parker-Pope (The New York Times)
- Outstanding Newspaper Columnist: Frank Rich (The New York Times)
- Outstanding Newspaper Overall Coverage: The New York Times
- Outstanding Magazine Article: “Coming Out in Middle School” by Benoit Denizet-Lewis (The New York Times Magazine)
- Outstanding Magazine — Overall Coverage: The Advocate
- Outstanding Comic Book: Detective Comics by Greg Rucka (DC Comics)
- Outstanding New York Theater — Broadway & Off Broadway: A Boy and His Soul by Colman Domingo
- Outstanding New York Theater — Off-Off Broadway: She Like Girls by Chisa Hutchinson

Read more posts by Zeke Turner

Filed Under: awards, brothers and sisters, cynthia nixon, glaad media awards, joy behar, michael patrick king, parks and recreation, sex in the city



Source: Vulture | 14 Mar 2010 | 7:07 pm

Design Hunting: Two-Story Windows, a New Take on Office Space, Artificial Hearts, and More


This week, our design editor Wendy Goodman goes to the offices of Epoch Films, an architect's apartment (which has double-height windows), Diane Meier's office (which looks more like a cozy home), checks out artificial hearts at Art et Industry, and finds some amazing pieces at Liza Sherman Antiques.

Read more posts by Wendy Goodman

Filed Under: design hunting, andy warhol, art et industry, campana brothers, diane meier, epoch films, fernlund + logan architects, liza sherman antiques, slideshow


Click here to read Classmates.com Settles Lawsuit for $9.5m Because Dumb People Believed Their Spam

Click here to read Classmates.com Settles Lawsuit for $9.5m Because Dumb People Believed Their Spam

Famously shirtless soccer star David Beckham injured his Achilles tendon in a match Sunday, putting his chances of playing in the World Cup on the line,...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:30 pm

Hollywood’s New Plan to Lure in the Christian Audience: The Bible As 3-D Blockbuster


On Monday, an Internet report announced the development of In the Beginning, an eye-popping 3-D movie retelling of the world’s creation as depicted in the Bible. The report then mentioned, almost offhandedly, that “TV vet David Cunningham” was signed to direct the film. Cunningham only has one feature film to his credit, the 2007 Fox/Walden live-action fantasy film The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, which grossed only $8 million here in the States. Normally a debut like that lands you in movie jail, not movie Eden. So why was Cunningham recruited by former Walden Media head Cary Granat (who is partnered with Paramount) to helm a $30 million 3-D extravaganza? In part because he’s the guy with the connections that might lure in the elusive-but-almost-30-million-strong evangelical Christian audience. They're the ones who made The Passion of the Christ the highest-grossing indie of all time, with $611 million on its collection plate, and Hollywood is now going after them with a fresh zealousness.

So who is David Cunningham, and why is he so key? His father, Loren, is the founder of one of the world’s largest evangelical Christian missionary organizations, Youth With a Mission. With over 16,000 full-time volunteer missionaries in over 170 countries around the world, Y-WAM (pronounced why-wham) also trains another 25,000 short-term missionaries annually. And anyone who could effectively tap into that kind of global network would get a serious box-office boost. Moreover, back at home, Cunningham has a key credit on his filmography that will appeal to conservative audiences: While Cunningham didn't write 2006’s controversial, right-leaning ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11, he did direct it. Before it aired, ten of the nation’s top historians, including Pulitzer Prize winner Arthur Schlesinger Jr., penned an open letter of protest to ABC decrying what they called “flagrant falsehoods” and futilely calling on the network to halt its broadcast. Nick Salvatore, a professor at Cornell University who co-signed Schlesinger’s plea, says that Cunningham’s taking the helm of In the Beginning bodes well for Paramount: “It frames that letter as a badge of courage: That all these pointy-headed intellectuals signed this letter against him only rallies the conservative base.”

After Passion of the Christ's huge success in 2004, Hollywood went crazy for the Christian audience, which normally ignored Hollywood, considering it Gomorrah West. Twentieth Century Fox, having passed on Passion despite a first-look deal with Mel Gibson's Icon Prods., even formed the religious-film division Fox Faith in 2006, but it quickly sputtered. That same year, New Line released the $35 million The Nativity Story, which grossed only $46 million worldwide. “The assumption was that if you marketed to a Christian audience, you couldn’t help but do business,” recalls Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution at Fox. “Obviously, that turned out not to be the case.” The studios’ Christian initiative largely petered out, but they’ve recently become reinvigorated, and with the success of Avatar, they believe they have a new, better game plan: Make religious-themed movies, but make them big, effects-packed, 3-D blockbusters, so they attract the regular moviegoing public and the heartland audience that usually shudders at the thought of Hollywood's cavalcade of sin. As The Chronicles of Narnia ($745 million worldwide) proved, you can make the perfect five-quadrant movie: Everybody …and God. And the Bible makes for the perfect source material. Granat says that his Genesis tale, In the Beginning, “is a story 4 billion people already know, and to which everyone has the rights,” adding that “there’s never been a telling of the story that would appeal to all people.”

And if a Hollywood film not only interests evangelical audiences, but also serves that audience's interests, then a powerful promotional symbiosis can occur. For example, with The Passion of the Christ, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Christian media agency faithHighway devised a strategy by which local churches could tack a mini-ad for their own house of worship onto customized ads for Passion, and then pay to air the ads on local cable themselves. Says former faithHighway president Shane Harwell, “The final six seconds of those custom ads would say, ‘This season, come see The Passion of the Christ, and come worship with us at First Baptist Church of Los Angeles,' or wherever you were.” Harwell estimates that some 400 evangelical Christian pastors bought customized Passion TV commercials touting their own churches; the campaign reached as many as 24 million people, helping drive the film’s theatrical grosses to $370 million domestically. “The church has been willing to embrace Hollywood anytime it gives a nod to what they’re trying to do,” says Harwell, “which is capture the beliefs of Christians.”

This potentially lucrative outreach is why Cunningham is ideal: His father's missionaries can be enlisted to help spread the word. Granat isn't the only one who realized that; Cunningham was also originally wooed to direct Columbia's Devil-themed Fall From Grace before he signed on to Beginning. Set before the creation of the world, Grace chronicles the angel Satanel’s failed rebellion against God and his transformation into the Devil; it’s like the Star Wars prequels, but with Satan standing in for Darth Vader. “Is [Cunningham] Mel Gibson?” asks the film's producer, Todd Black (Seven Pounds, the upcoming Spider-Man reboot). “No. But David has an even greater core knowledge of the evangelical audience. He knows, biblically, what is correct and what is preached. And he has a vast understanding of what the different communities within evangelical Christianity each believe. He’s the perfect choice for Cary.” (When Cunningham bowed out, Black turned to Australian director Peter Cornwell, who made A Haunting in Connecticut, and who is now filming an elaborate $25,000 video presentation to convince Sony’s brass that his view of a 3-D heaven is a good bet. He turns it in this May.)

Meanwhile, other studios are coming to Jesus. Or at least heaven: Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have begun storyboarding an adaptation of Paradise Lost, with Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), a practicing Christian, set to direct. Back at Sony, Will Smith is developing the celestial Angelology, based on the new Danielle Trussoni novel hitting bookstores this month, with Marc Foster (Finding Neverland, Quantum of Solace) in place to helm. Every studio is hoping that the angelic and biblical roots of these stories will make their films blockbusters-and-then-some, but they know from the past Christian crash that the movies also have to be entertaining. “It starts with a good story,” says Black. “You can’t lead with, ‘Let’s go after that audience.’ We bought [Fall From Grace] because of the story. We knew we’d get that evangelical audience, too, but we bought it for the story. So if the script for In the Beginning isn’t good, well, then [they’re] screwed.”

Read more posts by Claude Brodesser-Akner

Filed Under: in god we trust, 3D, in the beginning, movies, passion of the christ, the bible



Source: Vulture | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:22 pm

Meet Fashion’s New Teen Dream


Last week, as Paris Fashion Week was under way, a name started making the rounds in whispers, Facebook posts, "Did you hear?" e-mails. Fashion, it seems, has a new wunderkind. Pedro Lourenço, at just 19 years old, has managed to draw comparisons to the Greats (we dare not even say their names).

Lourenço's show, styled by Brana Wolf and produced by powerhouse KCD, was quite the "debut" for the Brazilian designer. But it was far from his first collection. He has been designing since he was 8 years old. His first proper showing was presented in 2003, when he was 12, at São Paolo Fashion Week.

His fall 2010 collection, a study of leathers that offers a sense of the romantic past combined with the look of a not-too-distant future, achieves something few others have: a feeling of wonderment. Lourenço loves working with leathers, and has recently been dabbling in plastic. "Some pieces I have details made by hand, some very natural, as leather, and some very technological, as the plastic," he explains. "All those mixes I find very important, because I don't want to be futuristic. Some people find my work to be futuristic but I find it is today, is my generation."

If his collection is looking both forward and back, then it makes sense that his sartorial philosophy does as well. His two biggest influences? Madeline Vionnet, whose highly crafted, very architectural work celebrated the natural female form; and Mario — as in Super Mario Brothers from Nintendo. ("Like two years ago, I used to play video games — I still play video games when I can, so I'm like the digital generation. I'm always like the Nintendo, I love Mario.")

That's not to say Lourenço doesn't have other influences. There are of, course, his parents, themselves designers, who gathered together industry friends to view Pedro's collection at 8. Plus, "the early Comme des Garçons's old fashion shows when I was small was a very big influence for me," he offers. "Actually the one where he had changed the shapes of the models — he made some giant shoulder pads with his hands, so it was this completely crazy new silhouette." But Pedro’s small no longer, as he makes clear discussing another inspiration: the Picasso show at the Gran Palace, where he learned of Picasso’s confession that he had worked his whole life to be free like a child. Pedro sniffs at this revelation. “I feel I was free like a child when I was creating when I was small,” he explains.

As for what's next for the teen sensation (yes, we know), he's hard at work producing his line. Wynn Las Vegas has reportedly expressed interest in his collection, and Pedro's already thinking of spring. "Also the next book I¹m going to read."

View Pedro Lourenço's fall 2010 collection.

Read more posts by Spencer Morgan

Filed Under: youth gone wild, designers, fall 2010, kcd, paris fashion week, pedro lourenco, sao paolo fashion week



Source: The Cut | 14 Mar 2010 | 6:19 pm

It's Tallulah, Dahling, through Harper on Broadway Click here to read Jennifer Love Hewitt Gets a Meal for One


Click here to read Jennifer Love Hewitt Gets a Meal for One

Corey Haim's funeral has been scheduled for Tuesday in Toronto and will be closed to the public. To cover the costs of the ceremony and burial, the website Startifacts.com donated $20,000 to Haim's family, which may also receive assistance from the City of Toronto. The family suggested that fans send flowers in Haim's memory to the cancer unit in their local hospital instead of to them in Toronto. Over the weekend, reports surfaced that Haim was in possession of OxyContin and possibly other painkillers linked with a large prescription drug ring currently under investigation. Haim's official cause of death will not be released for a month.

Official: Corey Haim's name found on fake painkiller prescription [USAT]
Toronto to pay for Corey Haim's funeral? [CTV Toronto]

Read more posts by Zeke Turner

Filed Under: corey haim, funerals, oxycontin



Source: Vulture | 14 Mar 2010 | 5:27 pm

Alice Holds Top Spot at the Box Office in Second Weekend


Disney's Alice in Wonderland dominated the box office for the second weekend in a row, bringing in $62 million. Green Zone and Matt Damon came in second, with an opening weekend of $14.3 million, followed by two other new releases: She's Out of My League ($9.6 million) and Robert Pattinson's Remember Me ($8.3 million). Shutter Island rounded out the top five. [Box Office Mojo]

Read more posts by Zeke Turner

Filed Under: weekend box office, alice in wonderland, green zone, remember me, she's out of my league, shutter island



Source: Vulture | 14 Mar 2010 | 4:54 pm

'Avatar': Release and Repeat - New York Times


Hindustan Times

'Avatar': Release and Repeat
New York Times
“Avatar” may soon be booked for a second run at digital and Imax 3-D theaters this summer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Cameron is in discussions with Fox to work out a re-release of the film, possibly with additional scenes that were cut ...
Imax profits from 'Avatar' halo effectHollywood Reporter
'Avatar' director James Cameron: 3D promising, but caution neededUSA Today
'Avatar' Says 'I'll Be Back'TheCelebrityCafe.com
Reuters -MTV.com -Economic Times
all 388 news articles »

Source: Entertainment - Google News | 14 Mar 2010 | 4:24 pm

Early success at SXSW

Front Page: Long lines, sold-out screenings at Austin film festival -- Clear skies proved a blessing to the SXSW fest this weekend, with the upswing in film registrants creating around-the-block lineups for mostly sold-out screenings, often leaving fans and buyers alike looking for a backup plan.



Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 14 Mar 2010 | 4:02 pm

Matt Damon Bombs; Robert Pattinson Unharmed

Remember Me, Robert Pattinson, Emilie de RavinNo, Robert Pattinson's Remember Me didn't kill. But it didn't die. Unlike Matt Damon's Green Zone. On a crowded weekend at the multiplex, Damon's $100 million...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 3:52 pm

Who's the Most Fabulous Fashionista of Them All?

Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer LopezSure, Red Carpet season cools down just a bit after the Oscars, but our desire for the blood sport of fashion facedowns is never quenched. And that's why there's the...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 3:15 pm

David Schwimmer Engaged!

David Schwimmer, Zoe BuckmanFrom Friends to fiancé. Leaving bachelorhood behind him, David Schwimmer is set to marry his longtime girlfriend Zoe Buckman, according to Entertainment Weekly. The...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 2:05 pm

Pinches, Pizza and Other Kendra Secrets Revealed

Kendra Wilkinson-BaskettHow do you make Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett feel sexy during pregnancy? A pinch on the butt, for starters. (So long as it's from husband Hank.) The NFL wife and recent new mom had that...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 1:00 pm

Glee Cast and Creators Dish on Neil Patrick Harris, "Puckleberry" and Lady Gaga!

Glee CastJust when you thought Glee couldn't get any better: Lady Gaga has agreed to let Glee cover one of her songs this season. Neil Patrick Harris and Matthew Morrison will share some seriously...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 12:35 pm

'Alice' leads box office, as 'Green Zone' flops - Reuters


The Guardian

'Alice' leads box office, as 'Green Zone' flops
Reuters
LOS ANGELES, March 14 (Reuters) - "Alice in Wonderland" raced to a $430 million haul at the worldwide box office on Sunday, while Matt Damon's new Iraq war conspiracy thriller "Green Zone" was one of the year's first big flops. Director Tim Burton's 3D ...
'Green Zone' can't change fortunes of war moviesUSA Today
'Alice' Wins the Box Office WeekendNew York Times
Box Office: Alice Turns Damon a Sickly GreenTIME
Washington Post -Los Angeles Times -E! Online (blog)
all 1,167 news articles »

Source: Entertainment - Google News | 14 Mar 2010 | 12:31 pm

Style Showdown: Reese Witherspoon vs. Jessica Simpson

Reese Witherspoon, Jessica SimpsonBetween weight and romance issues lately, Jessica Simpson has had a rough ride so we'll go easy on her. After all, she really did get it almost right with the L'Wren Scott sheath she wore...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 12:15 pm

Celebrity Apprentice Contestants Just Want to Have Fun in Tonight's Premiere

THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE , Carol Leifer, Sinbad, Maria Kanellis, Sharon Osbourne, Rod Blagojevich, Michael Johnson, Donald Trump, Curtis Stone, Cyndi Lauper, Goldberg, Daryl Strawberry, Brett Michaels, Selita Ebanks, Summer Sanders, Holly Robinson PeeteCelebrity Apprentice returns tonight for another season of "stars" competing to promote their pet charities. Time will tell whether this new round of D-listers will match the...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 11:45 am

Celeb Memorabilia Site Steps Up to Cover Corey Haim's Funeral Costs

Corey HaimWith Corey Haim's family so strapped for cash that they have gone online to ask for fan donations and auction the actor's possessions, a celebrity memorabilia company has stepped to cover...



Source: E! Online (US) - Top Stories | 14 Mar 2010 | 11:25 am

Universal not in the 'Zone' at B.O.

Front Page: 'Alice' muscles out host of fresh openers -- Universal's "Green Zone" grossed an understated $14.5 million.



Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 14 Mar 2010 | 9:18 am

'Tiger Woods' Makes 'South Park' Appearance

'South Park' creators have written Tiger Woods into the opening of the show's 14th season.


Source: FOXNews.com | 14 Mar 2010 | 7:46 am

Lady Gaga's Bloody Nun Outfit Debut, Video Causes Uproar

Lady Gaga debuts her latest quirky costume, a bloody latex nun outfit, at her concert in New Zealand.


Source: FOXNews.com | 14 Mar 2010 | 7:07 am