Grammer sitcom follows tried-and-true formula

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – ABC's "Hank," inspired partly by the current economic downturn, is not so much a comedy about the recession or how one adapts to belt-tightening. It is, instead, a more or less traditional family sitcom that makes only fleeting reference to one family's downward mobility, mostly to establish the premise.

The show's main strength is the admirable comic acting ability of Kelsey Grammer and decent wordsmithing by sitcom veteran Tucker Cawley ("Everybody Loves Raymond," "Parks and Recreation"). But even with those assets, "Hank" comes across as familiar and formulaic -- something you don't mind watching but wouldn't go out of your way to see. The show premieres Wednesday (September 30) at 8 p.m.

Grammer stars as Hank Pryor, who single-handedly built a retail sporting-goods empire. For reasons never explained and of no consequence, he lost the confidence of the board and was fired. Now the family is moving to fictional River Bend, Virginia (not to be confused with fictional Stoolbend, Virginia, home of "The Cleveland Show"), where he opened his first store and which also happens to be the hometown of his wife, Tilly (Melinda McGraw).

Hank and Tilly have two children. First, there's teenage Maddie (Jordan Hinson), a typically spoiled, self-absorbed and oblivious teen. Of the move from Park Avenue luxury to small-town Virginia, she asks, "Why does God hate us?" And then there's Henry (Nathan Gamble), a "Star Wars" devotee who eschews most sports.

Hank is the eternal optimist. Recent experience notwithstanding, he believes he cannot fail. He welcomes the chance to start over and the opportunity to spend more time with his family. For her part, Tilly -- who had done nearly all of the child-rearing -- is accepting, if not overjoyed, with the transition. Cawley gives her more than a few punchlines, and McGraw rises to the occasion.

The move puts the Pryors in close proximity to Tilly's brother, Grady Funk (David Koechner), a bumbling contractor and bumpkin unable to conceal his glee at Hank's fading fortunes.

Returning to a familiar pattern, whether it be in "Frasier," "Back to You" or, this time, "Hank," Grammer plays a character who comes back to a place from his past. But this isn't about nostalgia any more than it is about the recession.

In "Hank," the comedy is the all-purpose kind, mostly targeted at relationships and emotions. Not a moment is spent reflecting on how the Pryors will manage financially. That's a mistake. Even a hasty reference to economic consequences would make this sitcom more credible and relatable.

"Hank" might provide a sturdy enough building block for ABC's night of comedy, but there were better choices to kick off the night.

Judges tosses Pooh copyright claims against Disney

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A U.S. judge in Los Angeles dismissed remaining claims by the estate of long-time Winnie the Pooh licensee Stephen Slesinger against the Walt Disney Co in a copyright infringement case, court documents showed on Monday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper brings to a close a legal battle waged since 1991 in several venues over potentially billions of dollars in royalties.

Stephen Slesinger Inc still has a claim against Disney pending before U.S. patent regulators, a Disney spokeswoman said.

"We are pleased with the ruling of the federal court dismissing all of SSI's remaining claims," Disney said in a statement.

A Slesinger spokesman could not be located for comment.

Slesinger, a New York television and film producer, obtained the exclusive merchandising and other rights to the Pooh works from author A.A. Milne in 1930 and transferred them to Disney in 1961 exchange for a regular royalty.

His heirs first sued Disney in California state court, claiming the entertainment giant had comingled Pooh and Mickey Mouse revenue to avoid paying them more than $700 million in royalties.

When trial and appellate judges threw out the case after 13 years of litigation over misconduct by a private investigator, the Slesinger heirs filed a federal copyright infringement case against Disney, which was attempting to strip Stephen Slesinger Inc of its rights to the honey-loving bear.

On Friday, Cooper granted Disney's request for summary judgment and dismissed the Slesingers' counter-claims saying the heirs had failed to describe what rights they still held to the "silly old bear."

"The court is satisfied that under the clear terms of the parties' agreements, SSI transferred all of its rights in the Pooh works to Disney, and may not now claim infringement of any retained rights," Cooper wrote in her opinion.

The case is Clare Milne vs. Stephen Slesinger Inc and Stephen Slesinger Inc vs. Disney Enterprises et al., Case No. 02-cv-08508, U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. (Reporting by Gina Keating; editing by Caroll Bishopric)

Filmmaker Roman Polanski's arrest to spark extradition fight

ZURICH/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fugitive director Roman Polanski, whose tumultuous life has overshadowed his film career, was arrested this weekend in Zurich after U.S. authorities sought to have him extradited to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Polanski, 76, was taken into custody on Saturday after arriving in Switzerland to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival the next day.

Amid protests from his native France and from his former homeland of Poland, he now faces a court battle over extradition, and perhaps even a new trial in Los Angeles.

"Some form of justice will finally be done," said Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. "He received a very, very, very lenient sentence back then, which would never be achievable under today's laws, and we'll see what the court wants to do in terms of the sentence and the parameters within the case settlement they had back then."

He did not say what sentence prosecutors would recommend.

Polanski fled the United States on the eve of his 1978 sentencing because he believed a judge might overrule his plea and put him in jail for 50 years. But a 2008 film documentary has prompted new questions of judicial misconduct, and his lawyers have tried unsuccessfully to get his case dismissed.

Polanski has avoided countries such as Britain that have extradition treaties with the United States. He has never returned to Los Angeles, where his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by followers of Charles Manson in 1969.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand was "stunned" to hear about the arrest, his office said, adding President Nicolas Sarkozy was following the case and hoped the matter could be resolved, allowing Polanski to return to his family.

"We are going to try to lift the arrest warrant in Zurich ... the (extradition) convention between Switzerland and the United States is not very clear," Polanski's lawyer, Georges Kiejman, told France Info radio.

Another lawyer, Herve Temime, was quoted as telling French newspaper Le Figaro that Polanski has regularly visited Switzerland and even owns a chalet in a ski village.

LONG ARM OF THE LAW

Los Angeles County District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said her office learned last week Polanski would be in Zurich and sent a provisional arrest warrant to the Swiss.

The Swiss Federal Justice Department said the extradition warrant and any final decision could be challenged in court.

Polanski was initially arrested in the United States in 1977 and charged with giving drugs and alcohol to the minor and having unlawful sex with her at actor Jack Nicholson's Hollywood home. Nicholson was not in the house at the time.

The director maintained the girl was sexually experienced and consented. Polanski spent 42 days in prison undergoing psychiatric tests and eventually agreed to plead guilty and receive a sentence of time served.

The case was the subject of a 2008 film documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" that included interviews with the victim, Samantha Geimer of Hawaii, and lawyers for both sides.

It argues, in part, that Polanski was the victim of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. In a 2008 interview, Geimer told Reuters Polanski should not face any jail time.

Based on what they said was new evidence in the film, Polanski's lawyers tried to have the case dismissed, but were denied their attempt earlier this year by a Los Angeles judge.

Los Angeles criminal defense specialist Steve Cron, who is unaffiliated with the case, said Polanski's attorneys might now agree to extradition believing the charges could be dropped.

Born to Polish-Jewish parents in 1933, Polanski's family were Holocaust victims, although he survived to become a brilliant filmmaker.

His first full-length feature, "Knife in the Water," won a number of awards, and his reputation grew with "Repulsion," his study of a woman terrified by sex who becomes a murderer.

Polanski scored a huge hit in the United States with 1968 horror thriller "Rosemary's Baby," and another with 1974's Chinatown," a stylish thriller starring Nicholson that was nominated for 11 Academy Awards.

"Tess" (1979) also earned him an Oscar nomination, and Polanski finally won his only best director Oscar for 2002 film "The Pianist," the story of a Jewish-Polish musician who sees his world collapse with the outbreak of World War Two.

Polanski is married to French actress Emmanuelle Seigner with whom he has two children.

Crawford says Time Warner will sell magazine unit

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Time Warner Inc will eventually sell the Time Inc magazine unit and could buy holdings in its core entertainment category, Gordon Crawford, managing director of its largest shareholder, said during a presentation this week.

"Time Warner just spun off their cable division, they are going to sell their print division, they are going to spin off AOL and they're just going to be Warner Brothers, HBO and the Turner Networks," said Crawford, managing director of The Capital Group.

"Now, they will make acquisitions ... but they're probably going to buy just stuff in their wheel house of those businesses. They're not going to, I don't think, go very far afield from their core competency."

Crawford made the comments during a September 24 discussion at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication entitled "The Art of the Long View: The Media Company of 2020."

Time Warner declined to comment on Saturday.

Time Inc's magazines include popular titles such as People and Sports Illustrated. In the second quarter, revenue at Time Inc publishing, the largest U.S. magazine publisher, fell 22 percent to $915 million due to a 26 percent decline in advertising revenue.

While Crawford did not name specific acquisition targets, he did say there would be a "winnowing process" during which weaker companies in the sector would be gobbled up.

Capital Research Global Investors held 98.6 million shares of Time Warner, or 8.32 percent of the company's total shares outstanding, as of June 30.

The presentation, which was available online, was discussed in a BusinessWeek blog posted on Friday.

Tupac's mother donates his writing for research

ATLANTA – Tupac Shakur's mother has donated a collection of the rapper's writing to the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Atlanta University Center.

Afeni Shakur has handed over more than 150 of her son's items, ranging from rough drafts of lyrics and poems to a photocopy of his contract with Suge Knight and Death Row Records.

The rapper's collection will be part of the archives at the library on the campus of the Atlanta University Center, which comprises the historically black universities of Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and the Morehouse School of Medicine.

The library also houses The Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. Shakur's records are expected to be available for research in the fall of 2010.

"We need to read history from the source," Afeni Shakur said. "It gives people the opportunity to judge him objectively. What we want to do is educate."

Other items include the rapper's handwritten playlists of "All Eyez on Me" and "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory"; letters he wrote to his family when he in prison in 1994; and some of his personal items returned to the family after his death.

Afeni Shakur says she has never read any of her son's notes.

"I haven't touched them one bit," she said. "I have not been able to. But I think when the library makes them available, I think I can go with my family and might able to do it for the first time."

Shakur was one of rap's best-selling artists, becoming an even bigger star after his release from prison in 1995 with his multi-platinum selling album "All Eyez on Me." He was shot to death while riding in a car with Knight in Las Vegas a year later.

"Tupac's collection provides this generation to see primary documents," said Loretta Parham, CEO and library director. "It's the opportunity for them to relate something from the past to now."

___

On the Net:

Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, http://www.tasf.org/

Robert W. Woodruff Library, http://www.auctr.edu

"Surrogates" takes robotic tale to silly extremes

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "Surrogates" is a movie about human robots that appears to have been made by human robots. Just as the dystopian world the movie portrays is arid and specious, the movie itself is a mechanical sci-fi'er absent of logic or emotions. It functions as an expensive place-filler on the Disney release schedule and, as such, will be welcomed by only the least discriminating thriller fans after it opens Friday.

Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell play FBI agents in a society in which no one is whom or what he seems. The future world imagined here is one where humans cocoon at home, connected to remote-control devices, while idealized, synthetic surrogates they control via brain impulses march daily into society to engage in any sort of risky behavior without possibility of injury or repercussion. Every "unit" looks like it stepped out of the pages of "InStyle."

You're told in an abbreviated though inadequate introduction that it took a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision to OK this brave new world. What would have been the constitutional question the Court was deciding, one wonders.

Rather than pay attention to the movie, you start to ponder things such as: Does this mean that a Manny Ramirez surrogate wouldn't need steroids? Would a Glenn Beck robot actually be Sarah Palin -- or maybe Michael Palin?

A few humans refuse to live in a world of robots. They get herded onto reservations and respond to a leader called the Prophet (Ving Rhames). Think of them as the Amish of this brave new world.

The murder of a surrogate that killed its human controller sets police back on their heels. What new weapon did this? Willis and Mitchell rush around to investigate, but you lose confidence in a police procedural where everyone they interview is not really a person. That hot girl may be a slobbering old guy in a tenement or that black guy could be a white guy in a rest home. Indeed, as writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris -- working from a graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, which you can only hope wasn't as relentlessly silly as this movie -- muddy the waters with plot twists that are like a shell game with human forms, you give up all hope. One character apparently controls far too many surrogates than logic would dictate.

The movie, indifferently directed by Jonathan Mostow, takes a stab at social commentary when Willis is forced to do without his surrogate -- to experience the real word as an actual flesh-and-blood person -- while his character longs to embrace his actual wife rather than her perfectly rendered surrogate (Rosamund Pike).

The Wizard of Oz/mad scientist here (James Cromwell) invented the surrogacy and now has second thoughts. The wonder is that no one had first thoughts. Supposedly crime has gone down. Why would that be? If you can rob Fort Knox without any possible harm, what's to prevent you?

The true illogic to all this doesn't hit home until the big-reveal climax. It's terminally stupid. If you do see this movie, just think about it for a moment.

The Massachusetts-based production is more robotic than probably intended, with most sets looking artificial, the music way too excited and stunts as fake as they can get.

Travolta tells court of failed bid to save son

John Travolta told a court in Nassau, Bahamas, on Wednesday about his desperate efforts to save the life of his autistic son.

Testifying in the trial of two people accused of trying to blackmail him over the boy's death, the film star, 55, said a nanny had alerted him that his son, Jett, 16, had fallen at the family vacation home in the Bahamas on Jan. 2.

"I ran downstairs with my wife to help my son," Travolta said.

He described performing CPR on the teen, who had seizures every five to 10 days. Travolta said he performed artificial respiration and a caretaker handled chest compressions, but the boy died of the seizure.

Travolta described his son's illness as a "seizure disorder," adding "he was autistic."

Security was tight at the courthouse for Travolta, who was accompanied by his wife, Kelly Preston.

Travolta is one of 14 people expected to testify at the trial of paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former Bahamas senator Pleasant Bridgewater.

The defendants are charged with trying to extort $25 million US from the star by threatening to make public a document he signed turning down an ambulance.

A police officer testified Tuesday that Travolta signed the release because he initially wanted his son taken to the airport instead of a local hospital, but later changed his mind.

Beatles sell 2.25 million albums in 5 days

LOS ANGELES – Nearly 40 years after breaking up, The Beatles are still breaking records for album sales.

EMI Group PLC says consumers in North America, Japan and the U.K. bought more than 2.25 million copies of the Fab Four's re-mastered albums in the first five days after their Sept. 9 release.

Most of the records were broken for most simultaneous titles in the top-selling charts by a single artist.

On Billboard magazine's pop catalog chart, for example, the band had 16 titles in the top 50, including all 14 re-mastered CDs and two box sets.

The Beatles' original U.K. studio albums were re-mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London over four years and released to coincide with the sale of "The Beatles: Rock Band" on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.

Brad Pitt in talks for "Sherlock Holmes" sequel

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Brad Pitt has had discussions with the producers of "Sherlock Holmes" to star in a sequel as the detective's nemesis Moriarty, according to people familiar with the project.

No deal is in place for Pitt, currently in theaters with "Inglourious Basterds," and there's still three months to go until the first picture is released on Christmas Day.

Robert Downey, Jr. plays Holmes in the Warner Bros. project, which Guy Ritchie directed. Jude Law plays Watson, and Rachel McAdams stars as love interest Irene Adler. Much of the talent is expected to return in the new picture, as could Ritchie as director.

Pitt has been the subject of a litany of blog rumors as appearing in several shots of "Holmes" as Moriarty, but those familiar with the script say the character is in shadow and cannot be recognized.

It's increasingly common for a studio to begin developing sequels ahead of a movie's release, enabling a second picture to get into production faster than it normally would, and at a comparatively low cost. Warners began pushing "The Hangover," as the movie's prerelease buzz began to grow, though did not close deals until after the movie had begun raking in box office dollars.

Warners is keen on developing new franchises, with Holmes -- with its broad fan base and rich source material -- considered a very appealing candidate. The project would also mean Downey would star in a second franchise, after "Iron Man," while DreamWorks could build yet another franchise around him with "Cowboys and Aliens."

Red carpet ablaze with heat and color at Emmys

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The red carpet sizzled with heat and color on Sunday as many of television's biggest stars arrived at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards in bright reds, blues, purple and yellow gowns.

Australian Toni Collette, who nabbed an Emmy for a best actress in a comedy for her role in "United States of Tara," wore a hot pink strapless ruffled gown.

Collette said she was "happy to feel a breeze" as she arrived for the Emmys in the blazing heat.

Many television actresses wore red, including Debra Messing, in a Michael Kors gown, Blake Lively in a plunging red Versace and "House" star Jennifer Morrison.

"There was a lot of strong color. Color makes people feel better, especially on a blazingly hot day," said Hal Rubenstein, fashion director for InStyle Magazine, who also noted many nominees and guests also wore their hair swept up in updos to battle the heat.

A very pregnant Heidi Klum, sporting a black Marchesa gown, was among the stars who wore their hair up, as were Christina Applegate, nominated for best actress in a comedy for "Samantha Who?," and Olivia Wilde, from "House," who wore an embroidered tulle gown.

Even some men chose to punctuate their suits with a dash of color. Actor Alec Baldwin, nominated for best actor in a comedy for his performance in "30 Rock," sported a lavender tie, while actor Terry O'Quinn, of "Lost" wore a yellow tie to match wife Lori O'Quinn's yellow gown.

"Black and white is pretty boring," said O'Quinn. "I think we're evolving sartorially," he said.

Cool-looking metallic dresses were also aplenty, with stars, like Emmy-winning Kristin Chenoweth, who nabbed the trophy for her supporting actress role in "Pushing Daisies," shimmering in a sequined sheath.

Rubenstein described the evening's tone as smart and not overtly glamorous.

"There was a lot of smart, sleek, colorful looks, but not over-indulgent. Fashion isn't in that kind of extravagant place right now," Rubenstein said.

Lawrence Zarian, TV Guide Network's red carpet fashion expert, said many actresses had sought strapless gowns or off-the-shoulder dresses, adorned with sparkling jewels.

"We really want to celebrate the shoulder this year and there are lots of embellishments. There are many big jewels and jewel-encrusted dresses," he said.

Leonard Cohen OK after fainting on stage

Canadian poet-singer Leonard Cohen is recovering after collapsing on stage while on a music tour in Spain.

Doctor Music Concerts released a statement early Saturday saying Cohen has been released from hospital after suffering stomach problems.

The singer — who turns 75 on Monday — fainted halfway through Bird on the Wire while performing in Valencia on Friday.

Video placed on YouTube by a concertgoer shows Cohen kneeling several times as he sings and then keeling sideways.

Band members rushed to his aid. He was treated on site at first and then sent to hospital, his record company said.

A band member told fans the performer had suffered stomach cramps and vomiting.

Cohen is due to perform Monday in Barcelona to wrap up his Spanish tour.

A spokesman for the Palau Sant Jordi concert hall in Barcelona said trucks bearing Cohen's stage set arrived on Saturday and will be set up.

According to the poet's website, after Spain, he isn't due to perform until Oct. 17 in Sunrise, Fla.

Atwood creates 'green' cult for post-pandemic world in new novel

The fictional religious cult Margaret Atwood creates in her new novel, The Year of the Flood, has a rather unconventional approach to sainthood, having canonized both late Canadian marathon runner Terry Fox and former U.S. vice-president and environmental campaigner Al Gore.

"All of the people who are saints are chosen for reasons that have to do with their saintly interaction with the natural world," Atwood said Friday in an interview with CBC's Q cultural affairs show.

"At lot of them are people that are really quite saintly, aren't they? … Saint Farley Mowat of Wolves, Terry Fox … he's the saint of locomotion without the use of fossil fuels, and there are a number of other people in that category also."

The saints, who also include more familiar figures such as Saint Francis of Assisi, are all part of a religious cult known as God's Gardeners.

Atwood's apocalyptic story is set in a time after a pandemic, when only a few humans remain on the earth, including two women and a man, who are the narrative voices of the novel.

"When the novel opens, we find the two women have escaped the pandemic by being isolated from it," she said.

"One of them is holed up in a spa — which I think would be a fairly good place to be with lots of towels. The facial products are edible, so she's making do in there. The second one is actually locked up. She's in the quarantine zone of an upmarket sex club, and, unfortunately, she does not know the airlock combination that would get her out."

As each of the characters thinks back over the 10 years that led to this point, they reveal the story behind God's Gardeners, a group of strict vegetarians who base their theology on protecting creation.

The idea of the cult is rooted in modern theological thinking, Atwood said, pointing to a "green" version of the Bible that already exists.

"It's got politically correct covers. It's got linen paper," Atwood said. "The green parts [of the text] are printed in green — some of those green parts may surprise you —- and it has an intro by Archbishop Tutu and some theological essays by other people. And at the end, it's got a helpful list of things you can do to become a greener and more righteous person."

"So, this split has already happened in Christian fundamentalism in the U.S., with some of them taking that view [that] we must be custodians and stewards, and the other half taking the view that rapture will happen."

Atwood is wary of thinking of her novel as a warning call about environmental destruction and the potential effects of a pandemic.

She says many scientists and health professionals are already thinking deeply about the environment, and many individuals are trying to live in ways that are lighter on the earth.

Atwood said The Year of the Flood is "part of a general tide of thinking" that she hopes will push politicians to act on environmental issues.

"I think that any book like that, that's about the future, it's not exactly a warning call; it's a blueprint," Atwood said. "Here's a blueprint: is this the house you want to live in? Maybe you'd like to change some of the features."

Atwood just returned from Britain, where she has been promoting her book with a road show that includes artists and volunteers acting out the roles of the fictional followers of God's Gardeners.

Many of these road shows have been held in churches, where the sermons that Atwood wrote for the cult's spiritual leader in the book are read aloud by actual religious leaders.

"In Edinburgh, it was [former Bishop of Edinburgh] Richard Holloway who read, and he practically converted himself he was so good," Atwood said. "When you hear someone like Richard Holloway deliver the sermons, they don't actually sound that funny."

Atwood begins a tour of Canada this week to promote the book.

Young class of divas inducted on VH1 special

NEW YORK – There's a new class of divas in town — and they're ready to rock with attitude.

Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus and Kelly Clarkson were among the new inductees at the "VH1 Divas" concert Thursday night.

Paula Abdul hosted and opened the show, but she got the most attention for poking fun at her "American Idol" replacement Ellen DeGeneres — rocking a signature suit, tennis shoes and a short blonde wig — while prancing around onstage.

Hudson may have had the night's biggest diva moment — a duet with Stevie Wonder, who she calls her "childhood hero."

Cyndi Lauper, Liza Minnelli, Sheryl Crow, Leona Lewis, Adele, Jordin Sparks and India.Arie also appeared.

The show aired live from the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

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On the Net:

http://www.vh1.com/

Spike Lee, Robert De Niro in New York frame of mind

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Quintessential New York filmmakers Spike Lee and Robert De Niro have teamed with Showtime to develop a drama series about Lower Manhattan's Alphabet City.

The ensemble drama, "Alphaville," will chronicle the neighborhood's gritty and tumultuous past before it became the gentrified East Village.

The project will be written by John Ridley, with Lee on board to direct the potential pilot. Ridley, Lee, De Niro and his producing partner Jane Rosenthal will executive produce the project.

Set during the 1980s, the drama will re-create the neighborhood's mix of struggling artists and musicians living alongside Puerto Rican and black families. Along with its growing bohemian and celebrity population, which also included graffiti artists, break-dancers, rappers and DJs, the neighborhood was plagued by illegal drug activity and violent crime.

Local tensions culminated in the Tompkins Square Park riot of 1988, in which police clashed with anarchists and homeless activists.

The 1980s-era Alphabet City was the setting for the musical "Rent." The neighborhood also served as the backdrop for two De Niro pictures: 1976's "Taxi Driver" and 1999's "Flawless."

Universal's Harry Potter park to include Hogwarts

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Creators of the highly anticipated Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando revealed some details of three major Potter-themed attractions on Tuesday, including a "Forbidden Journey" ride set in the iconic Hogwart's Castle.

"(It is) brand new, extremely exciting, never been done, never been seen before. I can't say big enough words. It's going to be absolutely mind-blowing," said Alan Gilmore, the project's supervising art director and art director on two Harry Potter films.

Paul Daurio, show producer for the Wizarding World, said the attraction "couldn't be further from a roller coaster."

The 20-acre "park within a park" is due to open next spring. In a Webcast, descriptions of the attractions were generalized, and questions submitted via the Internet about ticket price and the effect on park attendance were ignored.

The Webcast included a short animated video but no actual photography of the park.

Mark Woodbury, head of Universal Creative, said Wizarding World scenery, attractions and souvenirs were faithful to British author J.K. Rowlings' seven-book Harry Potter series.

Woodbury said visitors would be able to sample butter beer and pumpkin juice at the Three Broomsticks Restaurant, relax in the Owlery and be fitted for a magical wand in Ollivander's Wand Shop, all of which are familiar to Potter fans.

Major attractions include the Dragon Challenge, a high-speed ride described as "definitely for the brave." It is based on the Triwizard Tournament, a fictional 13th century contest between students of the three most prestigious magical schools of Europe.

Another is Flight of the Hippogriff, a coaster based on Rowlings' magical creature with the head, wings and front legs of a giant eagle and body, hind legs and tail of a horse.

Actor Tom Felton, cast as Draco Malfoy in the film versions of the Harry Potter novels, participated in the Webcast and said of the park: "It's going to blow some serious minds."

Woodbury said the Wizarding World had been under development for five years. Park details have been tightly held since the project was announced in 2007.

Universal Orlando is co-owned by the Blackstone Group private equity firm and NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.

Universal's Webcast capped two-and-a-half weeks of headline announcements by Orlando's two biggest theme parks.

On August 31, the Walt Disney Co agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4 billion in the biggest media deal of the year. And on September 12, Disney announced a major expansion of Fantasyland at Orlando's Disney World to break ground in 2010 and open in two stages in 2012 and 2013.

Entertainment and travel industry analyst Harold Vogel of Vogel Capital Management said both Universal's and Disney's theme parks are in need of refreshment, and the announced projects will help maintain interest.

"It (Harry Potter) is the kind of story that can keep them (Universal) going for at least five to 10 years in terms of worldwide interest," said Vogel who also teaches at Columbia Business School.

He said Disney's Orlando parks are likely to see a dip in attendance during the one or two quarters after the opening of Wizarding World, which he said likely figured in the timing of Disney's Fantasyland expansion plans.

Vogel said he doubts the opening of Wizarding World will significantly change the tourism outlook next year for the Orlando area, which has seen the number of visitors plummet during the recession, since large numbers of people likely will remain unemployed.

"I am not a long-term optimist about this (theme park) sort of business. I think it is capital intensive and it will not face the same type of environment that is has for the last 40 or 50 years. This is a different world that we're in," Vogel said.

Houston to Winfrey: Brown was emotionally abusive

CHICAGO – Whitney Houston took drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, with ex-husband Bobby Brown, who was emotionally abusive during their marriage and at one point spit on her, the singer said during an interview that aired Monday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

"I had so much money and so much access to what I wanted," Houston told Winfrey. "I didn't think about the singing part anymore. I was looking for my young womanhood."

After a long absence from music, Houston is staging a career comeback with a new album "I Look to You" released last month and a two-part appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Houston is one of the best-selling artists of all time, but her career stalled as she grappled with drug problems and a troubled marriage to Brown.

The couple married in 1992 and were divorced in 2007. During their marriage, Brown was arrested on drug and alcohol charges, and Houston twice entered drug rehabilitation programs. She has custody of their teenage daughter.

Houston told Winfrey that Brown wasn't physically abusive but "he slapped me once but he got hit on the head three times by me."

A phone message left Monday with Brown's attorney in Atlanta seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Houston said she was attracted to Brown because he took control of their relationship and had "a sweet, gentle tenderness."

"At home, he was very much the father, he was very much the man," Houston said. "He was very much in control. I liked that. When he said something, I listened. I was very interested in having someone have that kind of control over me. It was refreshing."

She described an episode after a birthday party for Brown that left her "horrified. He spit on me, in my face." She said their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, witnessed the incident, which left Houston "very hurt, very angry."

Houston also said Brown would smash and break things at their home.

The 46-year-old singer described her drug use, saying it became "heavy" after her 1992 movie "The Bodyguard." She said she would take marijuana combined with rock cocaine.

"You put your marijuana, you lace it, you roll it up and you smoke it," Houston explained to Winfrey.

During a 2002 ABC interview with Diane Sawyer, Houston admitted dabbling in drugs but denied using crack, then uttered the now-famous phrase: "Crack is wack."

"He was my drug," Houston told Winfrey of Brown. "I didn't do anything without him. I wasn't getting high by myself. It was me and him together. We were partners."

Houston said she stuck with Brown because she took her marriage vows seriously. She said she told her daughter about her drug use and took her with her to an Atlanta drug rehab for mothers and children.

"I didn't lie to her," Houston said.

Her mother also tried to intervene, the singer said, and at one point came to Houston's home with police.

The singer prayed for help, asking God to give her strength, she said.

"I was so weak to him," Houston said. "I was so weak to the love."

___

On the Net:

http://www.oprah.com/

http://www.whitneyhouston.com/

Abu Dhabi unveils speakers for film conference

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Abu Dhabi Film Commission on Sunday unveiled several media industry leaders who will be speaking at its upcoming Circle Conference, which is aimed at boosting the emirate's media industry.

Speakers for the gathering, which runs from October 9-11 in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, include producer Walter Parkes and CBS television executive Nancy Tellem.

The conference is held in conjunction with the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), which is in its third year in 2009.

At a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, organizers for the Circle Conference unveiled a lineup of speakers to talk about topics including global film funding, developing stories with broad international appeal, women in film and TV, and regional film and TV production.

Abu Dhabi wants to become a center of media production, and the conference is part of a long-term plan aimed at stimulating industry growth, said Bassem Kudsi, manager of special projects for the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

Parkes is an Oscar-nominated producer of films such as "Awakenings" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and Tellem is president of CBS Television Studios Entertainment Group for CBS Corp.

Other industry veterans to speak include film producer Barbara De Fina ("Cape Fear"); Sanford Panitch, president of News Corp's Fox International Productions and producer Sheikha Al-Zain Al-Sabah, a member of Kuwait's ruling family.

The film commission also unveiled nominees for its Shasha grant for screenwriting. They are Haifaa Al Mansour with the story "Wajda", Annemarie Jacir with "When I Saw You", Engi Wassef and "The Beautiful Game", Rezah Abi Rafeh with "Zahra", and Nadeem Thabet for "A Lebanese Story."

The winner will get a $100,000 production grant and film deal with Imagenation Abu Dhabi.

Woody Harrelson puts new spin on movie superhero

TORONTO (Reuters) – It may be hard to imagine actor Woody Harrelson, known for his work to legalize marijuana among other causes, as Hollywood's next superhero, so don't.

Harrelson outfits himself in a skintight crime-fighting suit for his new movie "Defendor," which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, but for the low-budget film he is far less Superman and far more Don Quixote.

Quixote, the literary character who battled windmills and learned of the world in romance books, is not too different from "Defendor" Arthur Poppington, who dons a homemade costume adorned in duct tape and sets out nightly to battle crime and search for his long-time nemesis, Captain Industry.

"The world is his windmill," Harrelson told Reuters.

"Defendor" is part drama, part comedy, and it borrows from superhero films. But writer/director Peter Stebbings insists he is not spoofing big-budget Hollywood flicks like the Batman or Spider-Man movies. He said he is using elements of fantasy to explore real issues of social justice and mental health.

Stebbings said major studio executives could not fit "Defendor" in a specific genre, which made the script a hard sell in Hollywood, but the story's power eventually won out and he found financing in the low-budget, independent film arena.

"They (the studios) didn't want to touch it, but all the actors and their agents wanted to," he said.

"Defendor" attracted "Grey's Anatomy" star Sandra Oh and Kat Dennings ("Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"), and Harrelson said the character Arthur was too compelling to pass up.

"It was one of those longshot things where they sent the script to my agent and I was like, 'Oh man, that is a good script.' It was so well written, so original," he said.

ORDINARY HEROES

Arthur is a grown man who has the mental development of a child but still knows the difference between right and wrong despite the fact there is a lot of ambiguity in between the two, and Harrelson said he could identify with the character.

"When I was a child, they put me in special education after I got out of this private school and went into public school, for which, I was a bit resentful and not really taking it well," said Harrelson, "I thought they should put me into just a normal routine with the other kids."

Harrelson overcame that bit of adversity and went on to receive degrees in theater arts and English from Hanover College in Indiana and, of course, a major career as an actor.

In his day job, Arthur holds traffic signs for a street crew, and does not feel part of the routine of others. But by night, he confronts life on his own terms, "'cause superheroes aren't stupid and they're not afraid," as he says in the film.

Defendor incorporates a lot of the dark, gritty realism that is a key part of many big superhero blockbusters, but beyond that, it turns the genre on its head.

Instead of the outside world not knowing the identity of the mysterious protagonist behind his crime-fighting mask, it is the hero himself, Arthur, who is unaware of the strength and depth of the ordinary man beneath the costume.

It takes an unlikely friendship with a young, drug-addicted prostitute (played by Dennings) for Arthur to see that real people can do extraordinary things on their own.

And in real-life when Harrelson is not dressing up and playing a character, the longtime vegan has tried to change the world himself, championing environmental and other causes.

Remastered Beatles a hit once again

It's the second coming! Of The Beatles, that is. The entire Beatles music catalogue was released in a digitally remastered format on Wednesday, and Rock Band: The Beatles was released for the popular video gaming systems Xbox, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

Manager Ben Frith, of Vancouver's Neptoon Records & CDs, said his store sold out of the albums in a matter of hours. “Guys, girls... They're universally loved,” he said.

The new Beatles albums and the Beatles video game top the amazon.ca music and video gaming systems lists, respectively, in several categories, including the best-selling, most gifted and most wished-for lists.

Frith said his store had a hard time getting a hold of the discs. Distributors, he said, are sold out. “Places like HMV undercut everyone. They went below their own costs just to draw people in,” he said. Frith's store sold the stereo box sets for $230 while HMV sells them for under $200. “I can understand them selling it at cost, but that far below cost is just ridiculous to me... It's totally unfair for stores like us,” he said.

Beatles songs are not – and have never been – available on iTunes.

Prolific songwriter Bob Pollard was once quoted as saying “Not liking The Beatles? Man, that's like not liking air.”

The Beatles' last live performance with all original band members was in their native England in January, 1969.

The Beatles performed in Canada three times; Their last performance in Canada was at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in 1966. Former Globe and Mail reporter John MacFarlane was there. The cost of his ticket? Five dollars and fifty cents.

Since the band's rise to fame in the early ‘60s, the Beatles have sold over a billion records worldwide.

Lead guitarist George Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001, and John Lennon was shot and killed in 1980. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr continue to rock.

Disney says no plans to bring back Jackson 3D film

ANAHEIM, California (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co on Thursday dashed fan speculation that it plans to resurrect the Michael Jackson 3-D film "Captain EO" in its theme parks, saying the 1986 short movie is dated.

"There aren't plans to bring back 'Captain EO' at this time," Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said at a news conference.

"We are looking at it. It's the kind of thing that, if we did it, would get a fair amount of attention and we'd want to make sure we do it right."

Iger said he and four Disney executives recently viewed the 17-minute movie that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and noted that special-effects production techniques have advanced significantly since the film was made. Jackson's face also changed markedly in the intervening years.

"There's a simplicity to it," Iger said. "He's (Jackson) charming."

Iger said he has held no discussions with representatives for Jackson's estate. It was not clear who owns the film.

Since Jackson's death in June, the film has enjoyed a resurgence of interest on the Internet.

Some websites speculated that Disney would announce a reintroduction of "Captain EO" during its current D23 fan expo in Anaheim, the southern California city where Disneyland is based.

Jackson's costume from the film, as well as costumes from other popular Disney films from "Mary Poppins" to "Pirates of the Caribbean," are among the wares on display at the expo.

Jackson played the title character in the science fiction movie about the crew of a spaceship on a mission to see a wicked queen played by Anjelica Huston.

The film was shown at Disneyland and company parks in Florida, Tokyo and Paris until the mid-1990s. That coincided with a time when Jackson's career cooled and he started getting caught up in child-molestation accusations.

Warner Bros shakes up DC Comics division

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Warner Bros executive guiding "Harry Potter's" box office magic will be taking control of Superman as well, the Hollywood studio said on Wednesday in a shake-up of its DC Comics brand.

In its reorganization of DC Comics, Warner Bros changed the division's name to DC Entertainment Inc and named movie executive Diane Nelson as president of the unit, with the goal of using DC's characters across film, television, video games and consumer products, Warner Bros said.

Nelson manages the studio's "Harry Potter" movie franchise. This year's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" has made more than $917 million at worldwide box offices since its July release. Nelson will continue her role with "Harry Potter."

Warner Bros is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

Leno: He's `laid back' as prime-time debut looms

LOS ANGELES – With less than a week to go before "The Jay Leno Show" begins on NBC, Leno describes himself as "laid back" — especially compared to his debut as "Tonight Show" host.

In a teleconference Tuesday, Leno took a jab at NBC, noting its fourth-place position in the network ratings and suggesting his show couldn't do any worse. It debuts Monday, Sept. 14.

Leno also made light of his role as network TV's potential savior. He said a Time magazine story calling him the future of TV was "hilarious," and shows how much trouble broadcasters are in as they confront dwindling viewership and rising costs.

Leno said his show, to be taped hours before it airs weeknights at 10 p.m. EDT, will offer immediacy. That's what viewers want, he said.

Canada gets pricey gift from Italy

Prime Minister Stephen Harper received the rarest and most expensive gift doled out at the recent G8 summit — a book given by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that was appraised by one dealer Monday at up to $460,000.

"You have to know that copy No. 1 in this type of limited edition is always worth much more than all the other copies," said Gilles Tremblay of Montreal's Librairie Librissime Inc., which has distribution rights to the book in Canada.

It's a gift more valuable than any recalled by some veterans of international summits and an uncommonly extravagant example of the souvenir trinkets world leaders tend to give each other.

It landed in Canada's lap by sheer luck. By virtue of this country's place in the alphabetical pecking order — because Canada starts with a 'C' — Stephen Harper received the first in a series of serial-numbered, limited edition, marble-covered art books.

A limited-edition book dealer with exclusive rights to distribute the tome in Canada said copy No. 1 — the one given to Harper — holds up to double the value of those received by other leaders at the July summit in Italy.

But Harper won't get to keep the book because federal politicians can't accept gifts worth more than $1,000. The book becomes government property and will likely be donated or displayed.

The books given by Berlusconi feature the works of famed neoclassical Venetian sculptor Antonio Canova, and are among just 33 copies produced by Italian publishing company Fondazione Marilena Ferrari.

Moore premieres new documentary in Venice

VENICE, Italy – Michael Moore says his film "Capitalism: A Love Story" is dedicated to "good people ... who've had their lives ruined" by the quest for profit.

After much success at Cannes, Moore premieres the movie Sunday in his first appearance at the Venice Film Festival. It was warmly received at a press showing Saturday evening and won positive reviews. Variety called it one of Moore's "best pics."

"I am personally affected by good people who struggle, who work hard and who've had their lives ruined by decisions that are made by people who do not have their best interest at heart, but who have the best interest of the bottom line, of the company, at heart," Moore told reporters Sunday.

The film features plenty of examples of lives shattered by corporate greed — but also some inspiring tales of workers who have rebelled.

According to Moore, "the revolt you think I am calling for has actually begun. It began Nov. 4," when President Barack Obama was elected.

There is the Chicago glass and window company whose employees barricaded themselves to demand their pay after management laid off all 250 employees when the bank line of credit dried up.

On the side of greed, Moore tells the story of a privately-run juvenile detention center in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, that paid off judges to lock up juvenile offenders. One boy said he had done little more than throw a piece of meat at his mother's boyfriend during a fight at the dinner table, and a teenage girl's offense was making fun of her school's vice principal on a Myspace page.

The film is filled with classic Moore gimmicks, like wrapping crime scene tape around landmark banks and Wall Street institutions. And there is the expected Moore grandstanding as he tries to make citizen arrests of bank CEOs, not getting past the sometimes amused security guards at the main entrance. By now, everyone sees him coming and knows who he is.

Moore said he considered himself a proxy for the "millions of Americans who would like to be placing crime scene tape around Wall Street."

The filmmaker is optimistic that unimagined change can happen, citing the unexpected fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and Nelson Mandela's election as the president of South Africa after 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activism.

"There are many things that have happened in the last 20 years that are just utterly surprising, so that I now believe anything can happen. People can revolt in good ways."

Moore said his expose on the health care system, "Sicko," helped trigger "a national debate about why we are the only Western industrialized country that does not have universal health care."

While "Capitalism" has a strong political message, Moore said his main purpose is to entertain with a film that "makes you laugh a little, or cry, or think. I am happy with all those results.

But he acknowledges that his mass appeal allows him to reach even nonbelievers, a luxury enjoyed by few on the left.

"I am going to use that position to try to communicate not just to the church of the left but to the average, everyday American who wants to go see a good movie, and maybe gets something out of it at the same time."

"Capitalism: A Love Story" is competing for the Golden Lion, which will be awarded Sept. 12.

Filmmaker Herzog is up against himself in Venice

VENICE (Reuters) – German director Werner Herzog is competing against himself at the Venice film festival this year with two pictures in the main lineup.

After presenting Nicolas Cage in "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" earlier in the week, Herzog's second movie "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" has been named as the surprise film this year.

They are among 24 movies in the main competition lineup in Venice, which runs from September 2-12 and ends with the Golden Lion award for best picture.

"Venice never accepted any of my films into competition for four decades," Herzog told reporters.

"(Festival director) Marco Mueller saw 'Bad Lieutenant' and somehow as a side remark I said to him, 'Well I have yet another film', and he was completely enthusiastic about it and said, 'I need this film as well'."

"My Son" is based on a true story of a mentally disturbed man who murdered his mother and also happened to be an actor in a staging of Greek myth of Orestes, who also killed his mother.

FACE TO FACE MEETING

Herzog said he met the man in California after he was released from a high-security mental institution, and decided to turn the story into a movie.

Michael Shannon plays Brad, Chloe Sevigny appears as his girlfriend and Willem Dafoe is a police officer trying to arrest Brad, who is armed and presumed dangerous. All three actors have Academy Award nominations, as does Herzog.

The executive producer is David Lynch, and, while Herzog said he and Lynch were very different film makers, viewers may recognize elements of Lynch's film making in the dark and disjointed portrayal of mental illness.

"David Lynch and I like each other very much," Herzog said.

"But I was sitting with David and we talked about production costs exploding, $100 million (to make a movie), $180 million and releasing costs another $25 million.

"I said, like a manifesto, we should make films that cost maybe only $2 million, but we will work with the best of the best of the actors. He said, 'Why don't we do it?'"

For Shannon, the issue of mental illness was not as clearly defined as many assumed.

"The whole notion of sanity is a construct that is necessary for us all to share the world together, but it's not necessarily something that you can prove, whether somebody is sane or insane or what's the correct way to behave as a person.

"I'm interested in exploring characters that exist outside of normalcy because I feel that normalcy is like a prison."

The film takes Herzog back to Peru, backdrop to his 1982 movie "Fitzcarraldo" starring Klaus Kinski as a music lover who wants to build an opera in the jungle.

Also premiering in Venice on Saturday is French competition entry "Persecution," starring Romain Duris as a troubled builder who finds it hard to trust others, including the woman he loves played by Charlotte Gainsbourg.

"Accident," directed by Hong Kong's Soi Cheang, is a slick psychological thriller about a hit man who grows increasingly paranoid when he thinks somebody is out to get him back.

Madonna lights Sabbath candles with Netanyahu

JERUSALEM – Madonna has joined the Israeli prime minister and his family in the traditional ritual that welcomes the Jewish Sabbath, lighting candles and reciting a blessing together with Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sarah.

A statement from Netanyahu's office says the singer spent two hours at the Netanyahu home on Friday evening.

Although not Jewish, the 51-year-old pop star claims a special bond with Israel and Jewish tradition.

She's been exploring Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, for more than a decade and has taken the Hebrew name, Esther.

She arrived in Israel on Sunday and performed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and Wednesday.

She was wearing a short-sleeved black dress as she left the heavily guarded Netanyahu home Friday.

CSI creator releases 'digi-novel'

Anthony Zuiker, creator of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV series, is creating a novel, movie and interactive website called Level 26.

With his crime story about a serial killer who wears a full-body latex suit he wants to push the boundaries of the traditional publishing world by realizing a new concept he calls the "digi-novel."

The novel which comes out on Tuesday in traditional book format will prompt readers to go to the website to view the videos and join the online community.

The idea for the first book Level 26: Dark Origins came to Zuiker during a three-month TV writers strike in 2007-2008. Duane Swierczynski wrote the novel and Zuiker wrote the book's outline and directed the videos.

Daniel Buran, formerly cast in CSI, plays Steve Dark, the hero who is out to get the serial killer named Sqweegel. Michael Ironside, who recently played General Ashdown in Terminator Salvation, plays Tom Riggins, Dark's mentor at the special investigations group. The female lead, Dark's wife, Sibby, is played by Tauvia Dawn who was another former actor on CSI.

The digi-novel is called Level 26 after the categorization system used by law enforcers, which classifies premeditated torture-murderers at Level 25. Sqweegel is a new kind of killer beyond even the most heinous murderers out there and he's called Level 26.

Readers can read the book and contribute to the story online. At Level26.com fans can create their own profile, read actor interviews and read blog posts about real crimes featuring Q&As with detectives and real serial killers.

Level26.com's latest contest invited readers to try out photo-storytelling with photos and captions. The top story winner will have their idea written into a 500-word short story by Zuiker.

The site also has a behind-the-scenes video explaining how the cinematic clips will link to the novel. Readers will be prompted away from the book to the videos and discussions online and then back to the novel, said Zuiker. "This may change how we consume books and maybe it will revolutionize publishing," he said in the featurette.

The future of the entertainment business will be the convergence of different mediums, said Zuiker.

People need more choices in how they consume their entertainment because their attention spans are becoming shorter, said Zuiker.

Zuiker imagines a world five years from now in which every TV show has a microsite that will continue to give viewers an experience beyond the one-hour show, engaging them 24/7, he said.

YouTube may stream movie rentals

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Online video site YouTube is in talks with several major movie studios about renting movies to users by streaming the movies over the Internet according to a person familiar with the talks on Wednesday.

It would mark the first time the world's most popular video site would charge its users to watch videos.

YouTube, which is owned by Internet search giant Google Inc, has held discussions with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp, and Time Warner Inc's Warner Brothers about online movie rentals, the person said.

In many cases, the movies would be available for rental for a fee in a system similar to Web rental programs from Apple Inc's iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.com with newer movies. YouTube would likely charge a similar fee around $3.99 a rental.

YouTube, which is the world's No.1 video website, currently offers video for free, on an advertising-supported basis.

It currently has a range of archive movies, TV shows and promotional clips from the three named studios and other partners on its site.

"We hope to expand on both our great relationship with the movie studios and the selection and types of videos we offer our community," said YouTube spokesman Chris Dale.

YouTube is in the midst of talks and negotiations with a wide range of media content partners as it ramps up efforts to build a substantial library of current and archive professional movies and videos that it can monetize.

The site, best known as a place to seek out fun videos uploaded by users that feature themes such as skateboarding dogs and dancing babies, recently started to emphasize a growing amount of professional videos.

Advertisers are believed to favor professionally made videos over those of users. Hulu, a video site owned by News Corp, Walt Disney Co and NBC Universal, has had relative success attracting both users and advertisers with a range of full-length TV shows and older movies.

Last month, YouTube announced a partnership with Time Warner Inc properties including CNN and TNT. It agreed a similar deal in March with Walt Disney.

YouTube owner Google has come under growing criticism from Wall Street analysts and investors concerned the expense of serving millions of videos to users around the world everyday is costing the company more money than it earns from advertising.

Rising stars rank high with summer film fans: poll

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Films with rising stars like Bradley Cooper and Megan Fox dominated box offices this summer, and a new poll on Tuesday by online ticket seller Moviefone shows fans favored those flicks with fresh faces.

Thirty-five percent of respondents to a Moviefone poll named surprise hit comedy "The Hangover" the summer movie "most worth" the price of admission, while 33 percent called ancient biblical caper "Year One" the biggest waste of their money, despite the fact it starred top comedian Jack Black.

"The Hangover," a yarn about a guys' trip to Las Vegas gone haywire, starred an ensemble cast of largely unknown male actors, with Cooper as the biggest name. But it has made $420 million at worldwide box offices, thanks to positive reaction from both men and women.

Seventy-five percent of poll respondents named "The Hangover" the summer's funniest comedy.

"Star Trek," director J.J. Abrams' re-imagining of the Paramount Pictures franchise, earned second-place in the category of most worthwhile summer movies, with 18 percent of respondents choosing it. That film also starred a cast of previous unknowns, including Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana.

But fans showed their ambivalence about action movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which has made $828 million at worldwide box offices and become the biggest movie of the year in the U.S. and Canada with nearly $400 million.

In the poll, only 16 percent of respondents said it was the movie most worth their money, while 17 percent said it was a bust. But a whopping 55 percent named "Transformers" star Megan Fox the "summer's sexiest babe," a sign of her rising appeal.

Top comedy star Will Ferrell joined Black at the losing end of the Moviefone poll, which received nearly 622,000 votes.

Ferrell's movie "Land of the Lost" was ranked second only to Black's "Year One" as the movie "least worth" the ticket price, even though producers spent an estimated $100 million on the film, a large sum for a comedy.

Moviefone is owned by Internet giant AOL. Full results of the poll can be found at http://www.moviefone.com

TV show hires ex-president Bush's daughter

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Former President George W. Bush's daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, is set to become a correspondent for the U.S. television news and talk show "Today."

NBC, which airs "Today" weekday mornings, said on Monday it had hired Hager, 27, to be a contributing correspondent starting September 14.

"In previous appearances, she displayed a natural ability to communicate and connect," Jim Bell, the show's executive producer, said in a statement. "She has great passion about important subjects, especially education and literacy."

Hager started teaching schoolchildren in Washington in 2005 and has served as an intern for UNICEF, touring Latin America and the Caribbean to document the plight of impoverished children.

She currently is the Young Leadership Ambassador & Chair for UNICEF's Next Generation committee.

Hager has written two books that made The New York Times bestsellers list, "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope," the true story of a 17-year-old mother in Latin America who has HIV, and "Read All About It!," a picture book co-written with her mother, former first lady Laura Bush.

Hager also has written stories for The New York Times and CosmoGIRL! magazine. She graduated from the University of Texas in 2004.