News
Venice festival honors John Woo with lifetime achievement award
MIN LEE - December 21, 2009
HONG KONG (AP) Organizers for the Venice Film Festival have honored John Woo with its lifetime achievement award, saying the veteran director transformed action movies both in his native Hong Kong and his current professional home of Hollywood. Calling the 61-year-old filmmaker "an...
A group of 10 a cappella singers, Straight No Chaser, hoping for mainstream success
MESFIN FEKADU - December 21, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) Imagine this: By day you're a typical businessman, working the 9 to 5. Your nights and weekends, however, are spent sharing a stage with nine other guys just like you performing a cappella songs in small venues while recording an album under Atlantic Records. That was...
Movie review: Labored 'Squeakquel' offers twice the chipmunks, half the fun
GLENN WHIPP - December 21, 2009
"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" offers exactly two big laughs for its kiddo target audience one involves passing gas, the other a shot to the crotch. Since there's a fair amount of time between these two bits of comic invention, young and old alike have ample opportunity to...
Top 50 Concert Tours of Decade
The Associated Press - December 21, 2009
The Top 50 Concert Tours of Decade ranks artists by total box office gross and includes the total tickets sold for shows in North America. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers. TOP 50 CONCERT TOURS OF DECADE...
Father says Kim Peek, Utah man who inspired Dustin Hoffman's 'Rain Man' character, dies at 58
DOUG ALDEN - December 21, 2009
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) The man who inspired the title character in the Oscar-winning movie "Rain Man" has died. Kim Peek was 58. His father, Fran, says Peek had a major heart attack Saturday morning and was pronounced dead at a hospital in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray....
Actress Alaina Reed-Amini, star of 'Sesame Street' and '227,' dead from breast cancer at 63
By Associated Press - December 21, 2009
LOS ANGELES (AP) Alaina Reed-Amini, the Broadway star and TV actress best known for her long-running roles on "Sesame Street" and "227," has died. She was 63. Reed-Amini died Dec. 17 at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica after a two-year battle with breast cancer, her publicist...
Movie review: Downey's no Sherlock Holmes, but it works in Ritchie's Conan Doyle update
DAVID GERMAIN - December 21, 2009
Take it from a lifelong fan of Arthur Conan Doyle: Robert Downey Jr. is so NOT Sherlock Holmes. That's not a hindrance in fact, it's a big help as he and director Guy Ritchie bring Conan Doyle's dusty Victorian-age detective into the modern world. Enough of the trappings...
Movie review: Love is simple-minded in 'It's Complicated,' though Streep's always a pleasure
DAVID GERMAIN - December 21, 2009
"It's Complicated" is lying from the moment the title appears. Writer-director Nancy Meyers' latest relationship comedy isn't what the name promises at all. It's simple, almost as simple about grown-up romance and heartache as the average Hollywood teen comedy is about youthful love...
MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan apologizes for 'rude' conduct during interview with Fla. Democrat
By Associated Press - December 21, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan apologized Monday for his "very rude" conduct last week during an interview on health care with a Florida congresswoman. Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz was explaining Friday on Ratigan's show "Morning Meeting" why she supported health care...
Diane Sawyer launches a new era as anchor of ABC's flagship evening newscast
DAVID BAUDER - December 21, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) Diane Sawyer was all business on a busy first day as anchor of ABC News' flagship evening newscast on Monday, save for a brief salute at the end to Charles Gibson, whose retirement opened the job for her. "For you, Charlie Gibson, I hope you had a good day and a great...
