JK Rowling reveals Beedle stories

JK Rowling has premiered a collection of fairy tales which she first mentioned in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows at a reading in London.

The world famous author has hand-written and illustrated just seven copies of the Tales Of Beedle The Bard.

One will be sold to raise money for her Children's Voice charity at an auction at Sotheby's in London later this week.

Rowling will give away the remaining copies of the stories to those closely connected with the Potter books.

'Fair fortune'

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard played a central role in the seventh book.

A volume was left to the character Hermione Granger by Hogwarts head teacher Albus Dumbledore.

It provided clues to help Harry and his friends in their quest to defeat his nemesis Lord Voldemort.

Rowling has no plans to publish the fairy tales - and Sotheby's expect the auctioned book to sell for up to £50,000.

Each of the seven copies is bound in brown Morocco leather and mounted with different semi-precious stones.

A dedication written in the front of the book says: "Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years.

"This seventh copy will be auctioned; the proceeds to help institutionalised children who are in desperate need of a voice. So to whoever now owns this book, thank you - and fair fortune be yours!"

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Writers’ strike may impact 2009 films

Indiana Jones, Capt. James T. Kirk and other movie heroes may have to toss off more ad-libbed wisecracks next year. By 2009, they could be positively tongue-tied if a strike by Hollywood writers drags on for months.

Unlike television, which felt an immediate impact as some programs shut down when writers halted work in November, big-screen movies have a longer lead time and can ride out the strike with scripts already in hand, at least for now.

Talks between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down bitterly last week, diminishing any hope that a quick resolution would limit the impact on movie production to small ripples.

www.msnbc.msn.com

Sharon Stone in Dubai hopes to raise $1 mln for AIDS

Hollywood star Sharon Stone hopes to raise above $1 million dollars for AIDS research at an auction in Dubai to spread awareness about the deadly virus that remains taboo in the Arab world.

Cinema Against AIDS, an artist-led drive to raise funds for AIDS research, is being held on the sidelines of the fourth Dubai International Film Festival.

"We're happy as artists to know that we're coming together in the movie community to work in AIDS awareness," Stone told Reuters on Monday night as she arrived on the red carpet.

"We've been very happy to have been for many years at the Cannes film festival and the Rome festival and now we're happy to be here."

Also in Dubai to support the drive was Gloria Estafan, and Michelle Yeoh, star of Memoirs of a Geisha.

Wearing a long black satin dress and a purple fur wrap-over, Stone paused for photographers before she opened the auction on behalf the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).

"At this point we are already at $800,000, so we certainly know we're going to walk out with above a million and that's already good," said Stone, chair of amfAR global fundraising.

Cinema Against AIDS events have generated over $30 million for research on AIDS since 1993. Since 1985, amfAR has invested $260 million, helping more than 2,000 research teams worldwide.
www.reuters.com

Hollywood meets Washington at 'War' premiere

Monday night at Universal Studios, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts walked the red carpet with the real-life figures they play in their 1980s-set political drama, Charlie Wilson's War (in theaters Dec. 21). As Texas congressman Charlie Wilson and Washington socialite Joanne Herring, Hanks and Roberts use their influence with the U.S. government to equip Afghani rebels with arms to fight the Soviets.

The real Wilson attended with his physician, having received a heart transplant just 10 weeks ago. "My new heart's beating very, very hard tonight," admitted Wilson. The rapid heartbeat might have had something to do with the film's portrayal of him as a hard-drinking and drugging womanizer. But Wilson offered no apologies. "I plead guilty to everything — with a smile on my face."

Director Mike Nichols chose to represent Wilson's notorious sex drive by including a scene with Hanks' character cavorting in a hot tub with both a Playboy playmate and an exotic dancer.

Actress Jud Tylor, who plays the playmate, recalled her first day of work — in the water just inches from Hanks. "Tom was wearing a nude sock because he has to get out of the hot tub naked," she recalled. "You actually see his bare buttocks in the film. It was crucial for the shot."

While Tylor tried her very best not to look, actress Hilary Angelo, who plays the exotic dancer, couldn't resist sneaking a peek. "And the man's well endowed," she reported. "But we were all pruney in the water. There was this mixture of make-up and grease floating on top. Then there was this mysterious bubble that went up in the water and we all just blamed it on Tom."

Do Film Critics Know Anything?

I sprinted down the corridors of TIME this afternoon, eager to spread the news of the New York Film Critics Circle voting for the year's best films. The winner, in the film, director, screenplay and supporting actor categories? The Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, which three different people told me they'd been meaning to see. The runner-up, with wins for best actor and cinematographer? There Will Be Blood, an audience-punishing epic that doesn't open for another two weeks. Best actress? Julie Christie, in Away from her, which earned less than $5 million in its North American release.

I didn't even tell them that the very popular, and very good, Pixar cartoon Ratatouille lost out to a French movie about the troubles in Iran. (Though Persepolis, take my word for it, is funny.) By the time I'd got back to my office I had realized that we critics may give these awards to the winners, but we give them for ourselves. In fact, we're essentially passing notes to one another, admiring our connoisseurship at the risk of ignoring the vast audience that sees movies and the smaller one that reads us.

In the past five days, five groups — the National Board of Review, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Washington. D.C. Film Critics Association and my crowd, the New Yorkers — have convened to choose the most notable movies and moviemakers. No Country was named best picture in four of the groups, There Will Be Blood in L.A. George Clooney won two best actors awards, playing a lawyer at crisis point Michael Clayton, Daniel Day-Lewis a pair for his oil mogul in There Will Be Blood and, in Boston, Frank Langella the prize for playing an aged novelist in Starting Out in the Evening. Three groups selected Julie Christie as best actress — she's an Alzheimer's patient in the Canadian film Away rom Her — and two liked Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La vie en rose.

Beowulf tops US box office chart

The film, based on an ancient English poem, uses actors as the basis for animation. It sold $28.1m (£13.7m) of tickets during its first three days.

Jerry Seinfeld's animated Bee Movie slipped one place to number two with $14.3m (£7m).

American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, also fell down the chart to third place - taking $13.2m (£6.4m).

Christmas comedy Fred Claus, featuring Wedding Crashers actor Vince Vaughn as Santa's older brother, took $12m (£5.8m) in its second weekend, earning the number four spot.

Fantasy drama Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, starring Dustin Hoffman as a toy impresario, entered the chart at number five with $10m (£4.9m).

Sixth was Steve Carrell's comedy Dan in Real Life, which took $4.5m (£2.2m), while thriller No Country For Old Men was a new entry at seven with $3.1m (£1.5m) despite a limited release.

Finishing off the top 10 were Lions for Lambs with $2.9m (£1.4m), horror film Saw IV with $2.3m (£1.1m), and literary adaptation Love In The Time Of Cholera with $1.9m (£936,000).

Rihanna postpones three UK gigs

Birmingham's NEC Arena said the 19-year-old had been forced by her doctor to pull out of Monday's gig.

The star, who plans to reschedule, also pulled out of Saturday's Nottingham show. Tuesday's Bournemouth show was also postponed.

Birmingham's NEC said the Umbrella star "appreciates the love and support of all her fans and wants nothing more than to see and connect with them".

Fans with tickets are advised to hold on to them until further news is received.

A spokeswoman for the star was unable to comment.

Rihanna began the tour in Paris last month and was due to end it on 21 December in Moscow, Russia.

The star, who was discovered by US rapper Jay Z, shot to fame with the single Umbrella, which stayed at number one in the UK singles chart for 10 weeks.

Martha Stewart to stop publishing Blueprint magazine

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc said on Monday it will stop publishing Blueprint magazine as a standalone publication early next year to invest more heavily in its digital and weddings divisions.

Blueprint will continue to exist online as a blog and will be published as special-interest issues within its home category.

The company said it will cut jobs, but also anticipates reassigning some employees to other divisions.

Radiohead prepares for physical release of CD

London-based indie label XL Recordings is living up to its name by playing an extra-large role in one of 2007's biggest music industry stories after snagging the physical release of Radiohead's "In Rainbows."

The left-field rock band effectively threw the recording industry rule book out the window when it released the studio set through its own Web site October 10, allowing downloaders to set their own price.

Speculation over who would issue the album physically spiraled until October 31, when XL announced it would release the CD on New Year's Eve worldwide -- excluding the United States, where it lands the following day through Dave Matthews' ATO Records, and Japan, which sees a December 26 release through Hostess.

XL now faces several unknown factors -- not the least of which is finding out how a new album performs after being available digitally for three months.

Radiohead "have done the radical," XL co-founder/CEO Richard Russell said. "Now we're doing the traditional, with singles and videos. But I don't know how it's going to perform; we will evaluate and re-evaluate as it goes on and see how the record develops."

That "traditional" approach sees lead single "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" landing January 14 in the United Kingdom, while the first European dates of a world tour, beginning next June and including key festival shows, have just been announced.

'Cold Case' extends rerun deal

"Cold Case" will be on the hunt for two more years in broadcast syndication.

The crime show's distributor, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, said CBS stations in 16 markets, including WCBS New York, KCBS Los Angeles and WBBM Chicago, have renewed weekly rerun rights for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

"Cold Case" -- in its fifth firstrun season on CBS -- stars Kathryn Morris, Danny Pino, John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry and Tracie

Smith brings sci-fi action film to screen

For more than a decade, various directors and actors tried to bring the sci-fi action film I Am Legend to the screen. Only Will Smith managed to get the job done because he didn't give up.

You can experience the results starting on Friday as he defines the role of a scientist alone in Manhattan fending for himself after a bizarre pandemic.

Three previous movie versions of the classic 1954 Richard Matheson novel have made their way to the silver screen.

The more memorable films include 1964's The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price and The Omega Man, seven years later. Starring Charlton Heston, The Omega Man still has a cult following enamoured with its post-nuclear war fatalism.

Now make way for Mr. Smith Goes to Flesh-Eater Town. In the latest Francis Lawrence-directed rendition, I Am Legend comes across as a hybrid monster mash mixed with sci-fi cautionary tale.

Smith plays virologist Robert Neville trying to survive in New York City after a man-made virus wipes out its population and maybe most of the inhabitants of the globe. Naturally immune, he's running out of time to find a cure as cannibalistic mutants, who suffer from side effects, close in on him.

Almost as challenging as redefining a classic was filming the movie in bustling Manhattan. It made for some interesting logistical problems -- lots of snarled traffic jams and angry New Yorkers, who expressed themselves on a daily basis.

"I would say it's the most middle fingers I've ever received in my career," says Smith of shooting there. "I'm used to people liking me, but I was starting to think 'f -- you' was my name."

On the other hand, the 39-year-old confirms that filming on the usually busy but empty streets provided an easy way to get into his role as the last man standing.

Kiefer Sutherland reports to jail

Kiefer Sutherland, star of the hit television series "24," was formally sentenced on Wednesday to 48 days in jail for drunken driving, and his lawyer said the actor would begin doing time immediately.

Sutherland will serve the 48 days consecutively rather than in two separate stints as had been previously planned in order to prevent a conflict with the production schedule of the Fox network show.

Fox announced last month it was suspending production on the series due to the screenwriters' strike, so there was no longer any need for Sutherland to break up his jail term into two parts.

Urban draws from Australia's robust country scene

Keith Urban, the hunky Aussie country music superstar and hubby of Hollywood's Nicole Kidman, owes a lot to scruffy United Kingdom convicts banished to Australia two and a half centuries ago.

They're the folks who, at the end of a day of back-breaking labour, found the energy to sing. From those songs about loneliness and endurance grew a musical tradition that eventually fed directly into Australia's robust country scene.

"Those early strains are still prevalent in Australian country music, but I don't know specific songs," says the country rocker by telephone from Jacksonville, Fla., his accent largely intact despite having lived in Nashville for 15 years.

Backstreet Boy weds longtime girlfriend

Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough is single no more. He wed his longtime girlfriend Saturday in his hometown, the band's attorney confirmed.

Fellow Backstreet Boys bandmates were in attendance as Dorough, 34, married Leigh Boniello at St. James Cathedral in a traditional Catholic ceremony, People and OK! magazine reported on their Web sites.

"The wedding took place as planned and all went well," attorney Jason L. Turner said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Dorough, also known as Howie D, proposed to his girlfriend of six years last New Year's.

"She wasn't expecting it, and I was quite nervous -- more nervous about proposing to her in front of 40 family and friends than about performing in front of 40,000 people onstage," Dorough told People earlier this year.

'Gossip Girl' turns actress into star

Wide-eyed teens excitedly watch as "Gossip Girl" star Blake Lively films a scene with co-star Penn Badgley.

Take after take in New York's Stuyvesant Park -- a perfect setting with its stately gates and statues -- the youthful onlookers linger on this cold autumn day, providing some evidence that the low-rated CW series holds interest for its target demo: BlackBerry-holding, DVR-using Gen-Yers.

Lively, who got her big break as a soccer-loving teen in 2005's "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," plays Serena van der Woodsen on the glossy soap, based on the popular young-adult novels about rich Manhattan private school kids whose scandals and trysts are dishy fodder for an anonymous blogger.

Serena captures the most attention: the Queen Bee hooked up with her best friend's man -- OMG! -- and now has a budding romance with brainy black-sheep-on-campus Dan Humphrey (Badgley).

Lively, 20, sat down with The Associated Press in between scenes to talk about her "Gossip Girl" success, her determination to stay grounded as her star rises and her love for a certain guitar-themed video gam

Keira Knightley comes of age

The 22-year-old star, who played a soccer-loving teenager in "Bend it Like Beckham" and a swashbuckling gentlewoman in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, enters a world of adult sacrifice and betrayal in "Atonement."

In the film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, Knightley plays Cecilia Tallis, the bored and brittle daughter of a wealthy English family, who's frittering away a hot 1930s summer after finishing college. Her emerging romance with a housekeeper's son is destroyed by a lie told by her younger sister -- a fiction that transforms the lives of all three central characters.

The film, already being talked up as an Academy Awards contender, is likely to be a turning point for Knightley, co-star James McAvoy and director Joe Wright. For Wright, who also directed Knightley in 2005's "Pride and Prejudice," and McAvoy -- last seen as the Scottish doctor befriended by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland" -- it could open doors in Hollywood.

For Knightley, already a big enough star to be a target for paparazzi and the tabloid press, it provided a chance to play a flawed adult character after a string of ingenues.

"I was interested by the fact that she really isn't very nice at the beginning," Knightley told The Associated Press. "She's a snob. I think she's probably a good person, but she's at a point in her life where she's sort of aware of her privilege but completely directionless. I was fascinated by this woman who is emotionally repressed and yet the emotions are bubbling away under the surface and just waiting to explode."

The dresses aren't bad either. "Atonement" had a modest budget of about $30 million, but it looks expensive, and the period costumes are luscious.

Can Led Zeppelin still rock?

They have been described by critics as the definitive heavy metal band, they released eight studio albums in just 10 years and have sold more than 300 million records worldwide. And now, one of the best rock acts of all time is back.

After the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, Led Zeppelin split up and, aside from occasional appearances at one-off gigs and a brief return by guitarist Jimmy Page and lead singer Robert Plant in the late 1990s, the band has stayed away from the limelight.

Monday, December 10, will see the surviving members of the band take to the stage again, in London's O2 Arena. They will be joined by Bonham's son Jason, for what is one of the most eagerly anticipated comeback gigs in recent memory.

The venue has a capacity of 20,000, but as soon as the tickets went on sale -- for a cool £125 ($253.50) -- fans rushed to get their hands on one. In total 11 million people signed up for the chance to see the reunion gig, officially announced as a one-off performance by the band.

But will it be worth it? The band were known for giving standout performances, and for having incredibly high standards -- their set at the Live Aid concert in 1985 upset them so much they refused to allow it to be added to the DVD released to commemorate the star-driven charity event.

In their heyday they were known for great performances on stage, and a wild and crazy life off, getting a reputation for partying as hard as they rocked. Stories of the band destroying hotel rooms and committing lewd acts with groupies have become the stuff of rock legend.

Ashlee Simpson out of her head with new single

The first single from Ashlee Simpson's upcoming third album goes to iTunes and other leading digital retailers on Tuesday.

Like a good percentage of the as-yet-untitled album, "Out of My Head (Ay Ya Ya)" was produced by Timbaland, who received a producer of the year Grammy nomination last week.

The album is set for a March release via Geffen Records, and Simpson hopes to whet appetites the month before with a small club tour. She plans to decide the title over the holiday break.

Simpson shot the video for "Out of My Head (Ay Ya Ya)" last week, saying it was inspired by Salvador Dali, one of her favorite artists.

"There's a bit of 'Being John Malkovich' in there too," she told Billboard.com. "It's a little out there."

As for the album, she said it was influenced in part by her love of '80s music.

After Talks Fail,

The collapse of talks between striking screenwriters and the nation's film and television producers sets the stage for a long, cold winter in Hollywood that could effectively shut down much of the entertainment industry and usher in sweeping changes in the TV business.

Hopes for an early resolution of the strike, which enters its sixth week today, were dashed late Friday after officials from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of the studios, broke off talks with the Writers Guild of America at a Los Angeles hotel. The breakdown came amid signs of rancor and finger-pointing that suggested growing distrust between the two sides.

Extreme videos
Extreme videos

Stallone says filming ‘Rambo’ was dangerous

Twenty-five years after Sylvester Stallone first strapped on the headband, he brings his vigilante Vietnam vet, Rambo, back. And he told Access Hollywood’s Tony Potts recently at the opening of the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, that returning to “Rambo” nearly cost him his life.

“There were a lot of you might say ‘people’ trying to dissuade us,” Stallone told Tony. “There were a lot of threats to myself, to the crew… There were some formidable death threats.

“The day we landed is when Thailand had their coup,” Stallone continued. “I’m seeing all these planes leaving and here comes one arriving and that is us.”

Winehouse’s mother begs singer to come home

The mother of troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse has written a public letter to a British Sunday newspaper pleading with her daughter to come home for help to deal with a series of personal traumas.

Last week a distraught Winehouse, who has struggled with drugs and alcohol, was pictured in newspapers wandering the streets of London at dawn in only a bra and jeans.

The 24-year-old singer recently cancelled all her remaining planned concerts this year, saying she could not perform while her husband was in custody.

Jennifer Love Hewitt Takes On Bloggers

Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is getting a lot of grief for some recent paparazzi photos showing her in a bikini while on vacation with her fiancé.

Some bloggers say she looks overweight and has too much cellulite -- particularly in shots showing her from the rear. One wrote, "She needs to do some jogging. Badly."

E! News Now host Ashlan Gorse says, "People just of course wanted to scrutinize her because she is famous and wanted to call her out on it and called her fat, which wasn't fair."

Love Hewitt, who stars in the CBS drama "Ghost Whisperer," is a size two. And she isn't taking the criticism sitting down.

She's done something rather unusual for a star under the cellulite spotlight. She's spoken up.

Pacific Coast News found her browsing in a bookstore and she looked directly into the camera, saying, "People should be proud of who they are and what they look like, and not let all this silliness and judgment sort of get in the way."

Teri Hatcher sued over lip gloss deal

Teri Hatcher is being told to pucker up and pay $2.4 million to a skin-care products company that says she promoted the wrong lip gloss.

Hydroderm's lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, claims that a 2005 agreement with ISBE Productions, Hatcher's production company, stipulated the star of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" wouldn't endorse other competing products as part of a $2.4 million endorsement deal.According to the lawsuit, the company learned last summer that Hatcher was also promoting CityLips, a lip plumper made by City Cosmetics that competes with Hydroderm's lip plumper, called Volumizing Lip Serum.

Hatcher, 42, appeared in promotional materials for CityLips, said she was a "fan" of the product, credited it with "helping her appear beautiful at an awards event," and gave CityLips gift bags to guests at her birthday party.

The lawsuit also alleges that Hatcher promoted other products, but doesn't name them.

"Hatcher's name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors' products (at least 17!) that it is anyone's guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful," the lawsuit said.

It's Macc the life for Beatles star

ROCK lord SIR PAUL McCARTNEY is being honoured for his life’s work in music.

Macca will be handed the Outstanding Contribution To Music gong at next year’s Brit Awards.

It has been a horror year for the BEATLES legend after his split from Lady Mucca – so it’ll be a pleasure to raise a glass to him next February in a room full of people he inspired.

Ostrich

Funny face

Britney’s five-finger gas-station discount

If a hard-to-hear, sarcastic comment to paparazzi outside a Los Angeles-area Chevron gas station is correct, then Britney Spears stole a cigarette lighter on her way back to her car. Spears seemed to say, “I stole something. Oh, I'm bad!” in video captured by paparazzi, and the owner of the gas station told People magazine that he doesn’t approve of Spears’ personal festival of light.

“Yes, Britney stole a blue lighter here last night. The lighter is $1.39. I'm hoping maybe the next time she comes back she will pay for it. I know she can afford to pay for it, but I'm not planning to file a police report. It's still not right for her to steal the lighter. I hope she will do the right thing the next time she comes here,” Chevron owner Jatinder Kaur said. Since Spears seems to frequent gas stations more than the average person, there’s hope she arrive with some change next time around.

Funny Videos

Funny Videos