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| BSkyB posts strong first quarter earnings Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:30 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Pay-TV group BSkyB reported first quarter earnings up 16 percent on Thursday as price rises and the sale of additional products to subscribers helped mask an otherwise steady performance in signing up new customers. BSkyB, which sells pay-TV, broadband and telephony, has launched an online offering and promoted new products to existing customers in the last year as it struggles to sign up new subscribers in the tough economic conditions. ... Full Story | Top |
| Songwriter Bill Dees, co-writer of "Oh, Pretty Woman," dies at 73 Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:41 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer-composer Bill Dees, best known for his songwriting collaboration with Roy Orbison on the hits "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "It's Over," has died at age 73 in Mountain Home, Arkansas, according to an obituary posted online by a local funeral home. Dees, a Texas native who got his start in the 1950s with a high school band called the Five Bops, is credited with writing scores of songs in all, some recorded by such performers as Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Glen Campbell. ... Full Story | Top |
| George Clooney is distant cousin of Abraham Lincoln Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:10 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Aunt Rosemary was not George Clooney's only famous relative. You can add a certain Civil War American president to the Oscar-winning actor's family tree. Politics has apparently run in the activist actor's blood for centuries, as website Ancestry.com on Thursday revealed that the "Ocean's 11" star is distantly related to President Abraham Lincoln. According to Ancestry.com, Clooney is the half-first cousin five times removed from Lincoln, the 16th president. ... Full Story | Top |
| ABC News seeks dismissal of Beef Products' defamation lawsuit Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 06:29 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - ABC News on Wednesday asked a federal court to throw out claims it defamed a meat processor through a series of television reports about lean finely textured beef, a product that critics have dubbed "pink slime." In court papers, lawyers for the U.S. network said a September lawsuit by Beef Products Inc (BPI) seeks to inhibit free speech. They said the lawsuit poses a challenge to the right of a news organization "to explore matters of obvious public interest -- what is in the food we eat and how that food is labeled. ... Full Story | Top |
| "The Details" Review: airless all-star comedy is devilishly dull Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 05:46 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The devil is in "The Details," but only in that this smug and airless comedy feels like 91 minutes in hell. The first few minutes promise a Rube Goldberg whirligig of bad behavior, unhappy coincidences and plain old rotten luck, but all writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes ("Mean Creek") can deliver is a group of jerks acting like jerks. ... Full Story | Top |
| "A Late Quartet" Review: classical-music drama gets soapy but actors avoid the false notes Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 05:45 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "A Late Quartet," as it turns out, has more than one meaning: The film's musicians spend most of the movie grappling with Beethoven's Opus 131, the String Quartet No. 14 in C# Minor, which was one of the composer's "late quartets," completed the year before his death. But the title also refers to a foursome of players whose relationship as a performing entity could very well reach its demise at any moment. ... Full Story | Top |
| 'Wilfred' Gets 3rd Season From FX Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 05:42 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Wilfred" will bark once more. FX has given the series, which stars Elijah Wood as a struggling young man who befriends his neighbor's curiously human-like dog, a third season, the cable network said Wednesday. The 13-episode third season will debut in June 2013. In addition to the third-season order, writers/producers Reed Agnew and Eli Jorné have been promoted to executive producers and showrunners for the show. ... Full Story | Top |
| Evan Rachel Wood marries "Billy Elliot" star Jamie Bell Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 05:39 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood actress Evan Rachel Wood has quietly married Briton Jamie Bell - star of the 2000 "Billy Elliot" dance movie - in a ceremony in California, Wood's spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "The bride wore a custom dress by Carolina Herrera. It was a small ceremony with close family and friends," the spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that the wedding took place on Tuesday. In a Twitter posting on Wednesday, Wood, best known for her roles in "The Wrestler" and coming of age movie "Thirteen," said "Words cannot describe the happiness I am feeling. Overwhelming. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer set for latin Box-Office hit remake "Elsa & Fred" Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 05:37 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Michael Radford ("Il Postino") is set to direct Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer in the English-language remake of the Spanish-Argentine box-office hit, "Elsa & Fred," the filmmakers announced on Wednesday at the American Film Market. The romantic comedy features Elsa (MacLaine) as a gregarious retiree who is as lively as the New Orleans streets outside her apartment. When straight-laced widower Fred (Plummer) moves into her building, conflict ensues. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kevin Pollack heads "Chez Upshaw" cast for Global Media Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 05:36 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Global Media Group has added "Chez Upshaw" with Kevin Pollack to their American Film Market slate, the company announced on Wednesday. Ileana Douglas co-stars in this comedy about a married couple that owns a failing bed and breakfast but turn their luck around by getting into the business of assisted suicides. Greg Grunberg, Molly Sims and Shane Johnson co-star. Written and Directed by Bruce Mason, the film is produced by Marvin Acuna, Bruce Mason, Tina Palvides & Kevin Pollak. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two plead guilty in Miami to trying to sell stolen Matisse Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 04:02 PM PDT MIAMI (Reuters) - A man and woman have pleaded guilty to charges of trying to sell a stolen painting by French master Henri Matisse worth $3 million nearly 10 years after it went missing from a Venezuelan museum, authorities said on Wednesday. FBI undercover agents arrested Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman, 46, of Miami, Florida, and Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo, 50, of Mexico City, Mexico, during a sting operation at a Miami Beach hotel in July. ... Full Story | Top |
| Liam Neeson thriller "A Walk Among The Tombstones" sells worldwide at AFM Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:15 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Exclusive Media has sold its thriller, "A Walk Among The Tombstones," starring Liam Neeson, to a number of overseas territories, it was announced Wednesday on the first day of the American Film Market in Santa Monica. "Liam Neeson is at the top of his game achieving worldwide box office success with ‘Taken 2' and his other recent titles," said Alex Walton, president of international sales and distribution. "This film is a smart, gripping, edge of your seat thriller loaded with international appeal and we are thrilled with its performance so far. ... Full Story | Top |
| All Broadway shows likely playing by Thursday Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:14 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Broadway will be back in full force by Thursday, predicts Broadway League Executive Director Charlotte St. Martin. Though the Great White Way stayed dark from Sunday night through Tuesday while New York City braced for Hurricane Sandy, the theater district believes that the time has come to turn on the marquee lights. "There is a tradition on Broadway that the show must go on," St. Martin told TheWrap. "It goes to the core of our actors, producers, stage hands and the people who work on Broadway. It's a century old, and it's what we've always done. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ralph Nader to Stephen Colbert: Give me your Super PAC cash! Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:13 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Stephen Colbert's super PAC is sitting on nearly $778,000 in cash, and five-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader knows exactly where to spend it. On Ralph Nader. If only Colbert would listen. The longtime consumer advocate told TheWrap in an exclusive interview that he has been trying to get the "Colbert Report" host to donate the money remaining in Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow's coffers to the nonprofit American Museum of Tort Law he plans to build. ... Full Story | Top |
| Isabel Lucas, Jim Sturgess top "Electric Slide" cast Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:12 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Myriad Pictures has taken on sales duties on the Jim Sturgess and Isabel Lucas starrer "Electric Slide," which is currently shooting in Los Angeles. The film is a Myriad Pictures presentation of a Killer Films Production in association with Media House Capital and Myriad Pictures. The film is based on a true, 1980s- story of high-living, charismatic Dodson (Sturgess), the owner of a posh Los Angeles furniture store who robbed a bank to impress his new girlfriend (Lucas). ... Full Story | Top |
| Disney bets "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones" still home-entertainment juggernauts Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:04 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The chance to make fresh "Star Wars" films and pepper theme parks with space creatures from a "galaxy far, far away" was the big "get" in the Walt Disney Company's $4.05 billion purchase of Lucasfilm this week. Less heralded, but equally important was that more than 30 years after they first rocketed across screens, Luke, Leia and Han Solo's stars have not dimmed in the home-entertainment universe. ... Full Story | Top |
| "Cheers" star George Wendt hospitalized, drops out of play after suffering chest pains Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:03 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - If you recently heard a rousing chorus of "Norm!" coming from a Chicago-area hospital, now you'll know why. "Cheers" star George Wendt, who played portly barfly Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom, was hospitalized Sunday night and is receiving medical treatment after suffering chest pains, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. According to the paper, Wendt is expected to make a full recovery, but the 64-year-old actor has been forced to drop out of the stage production "The Odd Couple" at the Northlight Theatre, located in the Chicago suburb of Skokie. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hurricane Sandy: outdoor filming in NYC halted until at least Friday Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:02 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The cameras still aren't rolling Wednesday on many television and film productions in New York City, and the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy may push delays further into the week. For the time being, those films and shows that do resume shooting will have do so on a set and not on the streets of the Big Apple. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration announced that it will not issue permits for outdoor filming in the city's five boroughs until Friday at the earliest, citing the ongoing cleanup and safety concerns. ... Full Story | Top |
| "Anger Management" makes syndication deal Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:01 PM PDT NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Here's a deal Charlie Sheen isn't mad at: the FX series "Anger Management" is getting syndicated to Fox Television Stations beginning in September 2014 - after airing for just one season. The Fox stations will have plenty of episodes to re-air. Under an unusual deal, the series was picked up for 90 episodes after meeting a ratings threshold set by FX in its first season, which premiered in June. Fox Television Stations acquired the off-network rights from Debmar-Mercury in a cash and barter deal. No terms were disclosed. The show will air on nine Fox stations. ... Full Story | Top |
| 'Suits,' 'White Collar,' 'Necessary Roughness' Get January Return Dates Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 01:59 PM PDT NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - USA has announced that its sunny dramas "Suits," "Necessary Roughness" and "White Collar" will return within days of each other in the dead of winter. The top-rated cable network will bring back "Suits" for the second half of its second season on Thursday, January 17 at 10/9c. Six episodes remain in the season. "White Collar" will be back for the second half of its fourth season on Tuesday, January 22 at 10/9 c. It will also air six episodes. "Necessary Roughness" will wrap its second season with five episodes beginning Wednesday, January 23 at 10/9c. Full Story | Top |
| ProSieben attracts three offers for TV channels: sources Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 01:04 PM PDT FRANKFURT/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - ProSiebenSat.1 has attracted three offers worth more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) for its Nordic TV channels, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, which may help to reduce the group's debt. The bidders are private equity firms Nordic Capital and Providence Equity Partners as well as cable network Discovery Communications, three people said. Binding offers are due to be submitted by the start of December, and with bids at this level, a sale will likely succeed, one of the people familiar with the process said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bram Stoker's restored "Dracula" desk up for auction Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 12:56 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The desk where Bram Stoker wrote his famed 1897 book "Dracula" is going up for auction next month after having been restored and turned into a work of art, auction company Profiles in History said on Wednesday. The desk, which will be auctioned off by the California company on December 15 and 16, has had a long history, which, over the past century, has left it battered, with missing drawers and legs sawn short. The Irish-born Stoker, who died in 1912, initially gave the desk to his friend J.S.R. Phillips. ... Full Story | Top |
| Disney to buy "Star Wars" producer for $4.05 billion Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:55 AM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co agreed to buy filmmaker George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd and its "Star Wars" franchise for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster deal that includes the surprise promise of a new film in the series in 2015. The deal unites a boutique Northern California film studio that brought special effects into the digital era with a venerable Hollywood powerhouse that has shown a knack for getting the most out of big-name entertainment brands. ... Full Story | Top |
| A Minute With: Rapper RZA putting on "Iron Fists" for new movie Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:51 AM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper and music producer RZA is best known as the leader of the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan which also includes such popular members as Method Man, Ghostface Killah and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. RZA branched out into film, taking on small acting roles and scoring music, including the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." Now, nearly a decade later, 43-year-old RZA has combined his childhood love of martial arts movies to co-write with Eli Roth the feature film "The Man With the Iron Fists," which he also directs and acts in the title role. ... Full Story | Top |
| "Life of Pi" teen star lives out his own fairy tale Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 06:13 AM PDT  MUMBAI (Reuters) - Suraj Sharma went from being a regular teenager growing up in New Delhi to starring in Ang Lee's big-screen adaptation of the bestselling novel "Life of Pi". The 17-year-old Sharma was picked from more than 3,000 hopefuls to play Pi, an Indian boy who finds himself stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days with a Bengal Tiger. Now 19, Sharma spoke to Reuters about the film, which opens in cinemas next month, acting with a computer-generated tiger and why "Life of Pi" may well be his first and last role. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kate Moss opens up about modeling misery Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:37 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you hate having your picture taken, you're in good company - British supermodel Kate Moss does as well. "I'm terrible at a snapshot. Terrible. I blink all the time. I've got facial Tourette's," she told Vanity Fair in the December issue, out on Wednesday. Moss, who has graced countless magazine covers and was emblematic of the waif look popular in the 1990s, added "Unless I'm working and in that zone, I'm not very good at pictures." Moss, 38, opened up about her years spent before the camera, including now-legendary shoots that left her anxious, demoralized, and hungry. ... Full Story | Top |
| Top Canadian book prize awarded to humorist, travel writer Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 02:33 AM PDT  TORONTO (Reuters) - A humorist, travel writer and novelist who penned a fictional tale about the inner workings of Nigerian email scams won Canada's most prestigious and lucrative literary prize on Tuesday. Will Ferguson won the C$50,000 ($50,000) Scotiabank Giller prize for his novel "419," published by Penguin Canada. "I'd like to raise a toast to the written word," Ferguson, said in his acceptance speech as he drank from a flask at the podium. ... Full Story | Top |
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