Wednesday 4 April 2012

Cannes festival left fuming by April Fool's line-up

General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival Thierry FremauxA French blog has admitted to posting a bogus line-up for next month's Cannes Film Festival, saying it was tricked by an April Fool's prank that left the organisers of the Riviera showcase fuming.


Cannes judge wants surprises, open to Asian films

Nanni Moretti says he will not oblige the Cannes jury to agree unanimously on prizesNanni Moretti, head of this year's Cannes film festival jury, says he looks for movies that "surprise" him -- adding there is no reason a Chinese-language film cannot win the top prize.


Poland hunts for team song for Euro 2012

Poland football manager Franciszek Smuda will help choose the official team song for the European championshipsFans of both music and football will have the final say on Poland's official team song for the looming European championships on home soil, the Polish FA announced on Wednesday.


Paula Deen Calls Bourdain’s Remarks ‘Very, Very Cruel’

By Reena Ninan: Bacon burgers sandwiched between two donuts and fried cheesecake are what Paula Deen was known for — until news of her type 2 diabetes diagnosis was made public. Since then, the 67-year-old Food Network host has received backlash from critics, like chef...

Review: Nicki Minaj feeds all fans with 2nd album

In this CD cover image released by Cash Money/Universal Republic, the latest release by Nicki Minaj, Nicki Minaj, "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded" (Cash Money/Universal Republic)


Review: 'American Reunion' isn't even half baked

In this image released by Universal Pictures, Jason Biggs is shown in a scene from You probably haven't been lying awake in bed at night wondering whatever became of Stifler and Oz and the rest of the horny kids from the original "American Pie" movie.


Hollie Cavanaugh fails to ignite on 'Idol'

In this undated image released by Fox, clockwise from left, Hollie Cavanaugh didn't give the judges a good feeling on "American Idol."


Review: 'Titanic' stays afloat with help of 3-D

In this film image released by Paramount Pictures, Leonardo DiCaprio, left, and Kate Winslet are shown in a scene from the 3-D version of James Cameron’s romantic epic If any film should be redone in 3-D, it's "Titanic." And if any filmmaker should be the one doing the redoing, it's James Cameron.


BCBGMAXAZRIA - The “I Do” BCBGMAXAZRIA

Say “I do” to style â€" enter to win a glamorous BCBGMAXAZRIA wedding gown and $5,000! Here’s how to win:

1) CREATE AN “I DO!” BCBGMAXAZRIA PINBOARD
Set it up on Pinterest, categorized under “Women’s Apparel” and “Wedding & Events.”

2) PIN YOUR HOPES
Brides (and maids of honor!), use your board as a tool to plan your dream wedding. To be eligible to win, include at least three product images from bcbg.com on your pinboard.

3) SEAL IT WITH A KISS
Submit your dream wedding board to ido@bcbg.com before April 13, 2012, for your chance to win, and include the following information:
Name
Wedding Date
Wedding Budget
Wedding Location
Wedding Theme
Link to a board

4) MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Throughout the contest, they'll post links to their favorite boards on BCBGMAXAZRIA Facebook page. Look for the winner on BCBG’S Facebook page on Friday, April 20, 2012. Contest Overview: http://www.bcbgmaxazriagroup.com/i-do-bcbg/

Betty White's brings her prank 'posse' to NBC

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2012 file photo, actress Betty White is shown prior to the taping of Betty White is turning a team of pranksters loose on the younger generation.


Book explores world of Supreme Court law clerks

In this book cover image released by University of Virginia Press, "In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices" (University of Virginia Press), edited by Todd C. Peppers and Artemus Ward: They've been called "Courtiers of the Marble Palace" and "Sorcerers' Apprentices." But to the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, their law clerks are much more: sparring partners, workhorses and, often, extended family.


Burger King apologizes to Blige over ad

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2012 file photo, singer Mary J. Blige arrives at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles. A criticized Burger King commercial featuring Mary J. Blige singing about chicken has been pulled, but the fast-food chain is blaming licensing issues for the decision. In it, Blige sings passionately about the ingredients in the chicken snack wraps. But as the video went viral, some in the black community criticized the ad as stereotypical. The black women-oriented website Madame Noire likened it to “buffoonery.” Burger King said Tuesday the commercial was pulled because of a music licensing concern and that they hope to have the Blige “ads back on the air soon.” (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)Burger King is apologizing to Mary J. Blige and her fans for releasing an ad that garnered the singer serious fan backlash.


Gary Sinise cancels appearances after car accident

FILE - In this July 28, 2010 file photo, actor Gary Sinise arrives at the CBS CW Showtime press tour party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Sinise is canceling appearances with his Lt. Dan Band after suffering injuries in a car accident. A spokeswoman for the actor says Sinise was a passenger in a car involved in an accident on March 30. The 57-year-old Sinise was to perform with his band at a fundraising event last weekend in Martinsville, Va., and next week in Palm Desert, Calif. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, File)Gary Sinise is canceling appearances with his Lt. Dan Band after suffering injuries in a car accident.


Autopsy: White residue on spoon in Houston's room

FILE - In this April 25, 2010 file photo, singer Whitney Houston performs at the o2 in London as part of her European tour. An autopsy report shows that cocaine was found in Houston's system and that investigators recovered whity powdery substances from her hotel room. Houston died Feb. 11, in California at the age of 48. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, file)Detectives found white powdery substances and a spoon with white residue in the hotel room where Whitney Houston died, according to the final autopsy report released Wednesday.


Sarah Palin fails to give 'Today' a ratings jolt

Sarah Palin, who is co-hosting NBC News' If Sarah Palin's star turn on the "Today" show was meant to send ratings soaring, it fell short.


Stuntman claims he was injured at NY 'Spider-Man'

FILE - In a Dec. 22, 2010 photo, the marquee for the Broadway musical A stuntman who claims he suffered a concussion, whiplash and two holes in his knees while performing in Broadway's "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" has asked producers to turn over any relevant information as he weighs pursuing a negligence lawsuit.


Palin helps keep 'Today' ahead vs. Couric on 'GMA'

Sarah Palin, who is co-hosting NBC News' Sarah Palin helped "Today" maintain its winning streak against "GMA," even with the appearance of its own guest star Katie Couric.


2 'Real Housewives' get their own shows on Bravo

FILE - In this March 30, 2011 file photo, Lisa Vanderpump from Two of "The Real Housewives" are getting their own shows on Bravo.


Capsule reviews of 3-D 'Titanic,' other new films

In this image released by Universal Pictures, Jason Biggs is shown in a scene from You probably haven't been lying awake in bed at night wondering whatever became of Stifler and Oz and the rest of the horny kids from the original "American Pie" movie. Yet here they are, after 13 years and a couple of sequels, and they're more bland than bawdy these days. That's part of the joke: that they (and we) aren't in high school anymore, that we all have to grow up and function as adults with responsibilities and whatnot. But that doesn't make for a very fun or funny movie; instead, "American Reunion" relies on cliches about nostalgia and melodrama about the rekindling of first loves. Jim and Michelle (Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan) are now married with a 2-year-old son and zero sex life. But they return to their Michigan hometown for a 10-year high school reunion that's being staged three years late because supposedly no one could get their act together. It's a plot contrivance, leave it at that. There they run into the old gang, including Chris Klein as Oz, who's now a slick sports anchor; Eddie Kaye Thomas as the sophisticated Finch; and Seann William Scott as Stifler, who's still ... Stifler. "Harold & Kumar" creators Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg take over as writers and directors, but the sense of unpredictability that infused that franchise never surfaces here. Plus, this kind of raunchy, hard-R comedy has been done â€" and done better â€" countless times since "American Pie" debuted and seemed fresh in 1999. R for crude and sexual content throughout, nudity, language, brief drug use and teen drinking. 105 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.


Bruce Willis offers to donate Idaho ski area

FILE - In this March 26, 2011 photo, Bruce Willis appears onstage at the “The Comedy Awards” presented by Comedy Central in New York. Willis says he’s willing to give away his popular central Idaho ski resort to a nonprofit. The action star has already put his lavish home in nearby Hailey, Idaho, on the real estate market, it’s listed at $15 million, along with his local bar and nightclub, The Mint, listed at about $4 million. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)Bruce Willis says he's willing to give away his central Idaho ski resort to a nonprofit.


Movie, centennial, return Canada town to spotlight

This Feb. 29, 2012 photo shows the headstone of Joseph Dawson, who shoveled coal aboard the Titanic, at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The inscription Among the graves of Fairview Lawn Cemetery, there is one that was a magnet for bouquets and weeping girls in the 1990s. The name on the tombstone: J. Dawson.


Vince Neil, Vegas Hotel In Twitter War

Looks like Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas has one less rocker to worry about trashing their rooms. Vince Neil, front man for Motley Crue, told the twitterverse: “Do [sic] to recent events, including distrust and dishonesty at the executive level. I will never again...

Vanilla Shortage: Rocky Road For Ice Cream Prices

We already imagined an Easter without chocolate bunnies…but could you survive a summer without vanilla ice cream? If you can’t, be prepared to pay more:  the cost of a scoop of vanilla ice cream could go up 10 percent this summer amid a shortage of...

For DeGraw, life is 'Sweeter' off the dance floor

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2011 file photo, singer Gavin DeGraw appears onstage at the 39th Annual American Music Awards in Los Angeles. DeGraw is among the celebrity contestants competing the ABC dancing competition series The voters showed they weren't quite over pop star Gavin DeGraw and pro partner Karina Smirnoff on Tuesday night's "Dancing With the Stars" elimination round. Soap star Jack Wagner and partner were eliminated instead.


Moroccan rapper charged for anti-police song

Larbi Chentoufi, Mouad Belghouat's lawyer gestures at the court during the case of Mouad Belghouat, the Moroccan rapper, also known as El-Haqed, or A Moroccan court denied bail on Wednesday to a rapper charged with attacking the image of the security services in a song about police corruption.


Review: Artist meets artisan in 'The Morini Strad'

In this undated image released by Primary Stages Theater, Mary Beth Peil, left, and Michael Laurence are shown in a scene from In one beautifully simple statement, the violin maker in Willy Holtzman's new play "The Morini Strad," crystalizes the unlikely friendship at the center of the piece.


Animal Planet unleashing a new season of shows

In this undated image released by Animal Planet, survivalist Guy Grieve, right, uses bow and arrow during the filming of Animal Planet has a menagerie of new shows for the season ahead that promise real-life drama, monstrous mystery, unusual human creatures and a new breed of cute.


Renee Fleming mentors Chicago high school students

In this March 19, 2012 photo, famed soprano Renee Fleming performs with a choir of dozens of high school students in the rotunda of the State of Illinois building, the James R. Thompson Center, in Chicago. For the past school year the opera singer has been mentoring teenaged vocal students in Chicago as part of her role as creative consultant at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.(AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)There's a reason Renee Fleming has been dubbed "The People's Diva."


Latest album shows 'Changed' Rascal Flatts

This Feb. 27, 2012 photo shows Jay Demarcus, left, Gary Levox, center, and Joe Don Rooney, right, of the trio Rascal Flatts, in a dressing room at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn. Their eighth studio album, As a group, Rascal Flatts sold millions of albums, scored a string of hits and stood at the top of country music. But the truth was Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney weren't much of a team.


Plans move forward for RoboCop statue in Detroit

FILE - This 1990 file photo released by Orion Pictures Corp. shows film director Irvin Kershner, right, and actor Peter Weller, portraying Robocop, during the making of Plans are moving forward for a Detroit statue of the fictional crime-fighting cyborg RoboCop.


One doc two doc: Dartmouth school named for Seuss

Dartmouth College has named its medical school after a famous alum: Theodor "Ted" Geisel (gy-ZEL'), better known as Dr. Seuss.

Thailand bans 'Macbeth' adaptation as too divisive

Director of Thailand's film censors have banned an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," saying it could inflame political passions in the country where it is taboo to criticize the monarchy.


Nobel winner Grass: Israel a threat to world peace

FILE - The Oct. 15, 2009 file photo shows German writer and Nobel price laureate for literature Guenter Grass during an interview with journalists of the Associated Press in the library of Steidl publishers in Goettingen, Germany. Grass is sharply criticizing Israel amid tensions with Iran and what he describes as Western hypocrisy over Israel's suspected nuclear program. In a prose poem published Wednesday, April 4, 2012 in German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the 84-year-old Grass highlighted Berlin's recent sale to Israel of a submarine able to German Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass labeled Israel a threat to "already fragile world peace" in a poem published Wednesday that drew sharp rebukes at home and from Israel.


Seacrest taking part in NBC's Olympics coverage

Ryan Seacrest is coming to NBC, but he won't be overthrowing Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today" show.

Glen Ballard, Dave Stewart spirit 'Ghost' to NYC

In this March 15, 2012 photo, composers Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard pose for a photo backstage after the initial performance of the Broadway musical Luscious, harmonious music is swelling from an orchestra in a Chelsea recording studio. The two guys who wrote it listen â€" in their own way. They could not seem more different.


Paramount to add 500 films to YouTube rentals

YouTube and Paramount Pictures have reached a deal to make nearly 500 films available to rent online, even while their parent companies continue to feud over a $1.76 billion lawsuit.

Dave, Craig set to stay in late night through 2014

Relax, all you fans of David Letterman and Craig Ferguson. They'll be hosting awhile longer.

Nielsen's top programs for March 30-April 1

Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for March 26-April 1. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.

Song dynasty ceramic sells for $26.7M in Hong Kong

Nicolas Chow, Sotheby’s Asia Deputy Chairman, holds the Chinese Song Dynasty ceramics Ruyao Washer at the Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong Wednesday, April 4, 2012. The 900-year-old dish smashed the world record for Chinese Song Dynasty ceramics sold at auction, fetching US$26.7 million. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)A 900-year-old dish has smashed the record for Chinese Song dynasty ceramics sold at auction, fetching $26.7 million.


Even set in wax, UK young royals still fascinate

Waxworks of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are unveiled at Madame Tussauds, London, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short)Fake versions of Britain's young royals have prompted a real-life media scrum when they were unveiled at Madame Tussauds.


Spock, basketball, country are winners for CBS

CBS created its own version of March madness, earning a weekly ratings victory with college basketball, country music and a dash of Mr. Spock.

NBC News apologizes for editing tape of 911 call

NBC News has admitted it erred and has apologized for editing a recording of George Zimmerman's call to police the night he shot Trayvon Martin.

Bahrain culture chief: Critics 'not real men'

Bahrain's culture minister is facing demands for her dismissal after calling conservative lawmakers "not real men" for opposing an annual arts festival under way in Manana.

Thailand bans film adaptation of 'Macbeth'

Thailand's film censors have banned an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," saying it could inflame political passions in the country where it is taboo to criticize the monarchy.

Art dealer charged with fraud related to Picassos

An art dealer has been arrested on federal charges that he defrauded his customers by falsely claiming the artworks he sold them were original pieces by Picasso.

Olbermann casts light, lawyer on Current TV split

In this photo provided by CBS, talk show host Keith Olbermann, left, chats with host David Letterman on the set of the “Late Show with David Letterman,” Tuesday April 3, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/CBS, Jeffrey R. Staab) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO ARCHIVE; NO SALES; FOR NORTH AMERICAN USE ONLYKeith Olbermann said he "screwed up" by taking a job with Current TV, but he plans to make the channel pay for firing him.


Library of America to release 'Little House' books

Laura Ingalls Wilder, who already holds a special place in the hearts of millions of parents and children, soon will be added to the country's official literary canon.

'Little House' books to join US literary canon

Laura Ingalls Wilder, who already holds a special place in the hearts of millions of parents and children, soon will be added to the country's official literary canon.