Entertaining Posts

Monday, March 14, 2011

Rocker Bryan Adams, assistant are expecting a baby

LOS ANGELES | Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:49pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is about to become a father for the first time at the age of 51, his spokeswoman said on Monday.

The "Summer of '69" musician is expecting the baby in May with his personal assistant, a long-time employee who helps run his charitable efforts.

"Alicia Grimaldi and I are expecting a baby," Adams said in a statement. "She helped me start my foundation years ago and it looks like she'll be running the family now."

His spokeswoman declined to describe the nature of their personal relationship. Adams maintains strict secrecy about his private life. Britain's Sunday Telegraph, which broke the news, quoted an unidentified source as saying many of Adams' friends did not know he was in a relationship.

Grimaldi, a Briton, helped set up the Bryan Adams Foundation in 2004, three years after graduating from Cambridge University, according to Adams' Web site.

Adams, famed for such rock songs as "Summer of '69," "Cuts Like a Knife," and "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)," is in the middle of a U.S. theater tour.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman, editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Steven Soderbergh plans to retire from filmmaking

Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:00am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Steven Soderbergh says he's done with Hollywood.

The Oscar-winning director -- whose credits include "Traffic," "Erin Brockovich" and "Ocean's Eleven" and its two sequels -- said in an interview with "Studio 360's" Kurt Andersen that after he shoots his next two movies he's planning to retire from filmmaking.

"When you reach the point where you're, like, 'if I have to get into a van to do anther scout I'm just going to shoot myself,' it's time to let somebody else who's still excited about getting in the van, get in the van," Soderbergh, 48, he said in the interview that aired Friday on "Studio 360."

"And so it's just time. For the last three years, I've been turning down everything that comes my way, so you're not going to have Steven Soderbergh to kick around anymore," he quipped.

Soderbergh said he's got two more movies to shoot -- "Liberace," starring Damon and Michael Douglas, and "Man From U.N.C.L.E.," starring George Clooney -- and then he's going to call it quits.

"That's a great way to sort of step off," he said.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

"Battle: Los Angeles" claims box office victory

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES | Sun Mar 13, 2011 1:07pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Alien invasion film "Battle: Los Angeles" waged a successful campaign for North American movie supremacy over the weekend, collecting $36 million in a march to the No. 1 spot on box office charts.

The movie, which tells of a group of U.S. Marines defending the city from otherworldly beings, trounced two other new films in theaters, thriller "Red Riding Hood" and animated "Mars Needs Moms," which looks to be a costly flop for the Disney studios, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

"Battle: Los Angeles" also opened in 33 overseas markets, where it took in $16.7 million to boost its worldwide haul to nearly $53 million over its debut weekend in theaters.

"It hit the high end of our expectations," said Rory Bruer, distribution chief for the film units of Sony Pictures, which released the movie. He called the opening a "great result."

The same could not be said for "Red Riding Hood," a modern version of the classic fable about a girl, her grandmother and a bloodthirsty wolf. The Warner Bros. release collected $14.1 million, which was below pre-weekend forecasts of a debut in the neighborhood of $20 million, and landed in the No. 3 spot.

Last week's top movie, cartoon comedy "Rango," wrangled the No. 2 position on ticket charts with $23 million in sales for its distributor, Paramount Pictures, pushing its total receipts in two weeks at U.S. and Canadian theaters to $67 million.

Disney's expensive family film "Mars Needs Moms" mustered only $6.8 million after costing the studio a reported $150 million to produce and millions more to market.

"Mars" touched down at the No. 5 spot, well behind Universal Pictures' thriller "The Adjustment Bureau," which claimed the No. 4 position with $11.5 million in its second weekend.

Sony Pictures is a division of electronics giant Sony Corp.. Warner Bros. is part of Time Warner Inc, and Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. Universal Pictures is part of the NBC Universal media group controlled by Comcast Corp, and Disney's film studios are owned by The Walt Disney Co.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Eric Beech)

Friday, March 11, 2011

"Twilight" cast evacuated in tsunami warning

By Mark Cina

Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:17pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and other actors filming the upcoming "Twilight" installment "Breaking Dawn" have been forced to evacuate the Vancouver Island beach area in British Columbia.

No one was injured, but the actors were transported out of the region for safety measures.

Filming also has been delayed.

On Friday, Tinsel Korey, 30, who plays Makah Emily Young, Tweeted dramatically: "They're evacuating us 4 a tsumnani warning. If this … is my last my tweet. I love you. The end. Hugz.

"If this is the moment. Then I've lived a good life," she later added. "And I'm thankful 4 everything I've been given."

Meanwhile, the cast and crew shooting CBS' "Hawaii Five-O" are fine, as tsunami waves there have not caused any major damage thus far.

Star Daniel Dae Kim Tweeted Friday: "Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. My family and I have moved to high ground. Now we wait..." He later added, "Back at work, bleary eyed & heartsick, but very grateful. As far as I know, everyone is safe. Thx 2 all of you 4 your kind thoughts. Truly."

Jimmy Kimmel, who was vacationing in the tsunami zone in French Polynesia, was forced to flee the area early Friday.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

Filmmaker Tom Shadyac: from "Liar" to truth seeker

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES | Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:19pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood movie director Tom Shadyac is best known for blockbuster comedies such as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "Liar Liar," "The Nutty Professor" and "Bruce Almighty" among other films.

But this Friday, Shadyac enters the world of documentary filmmaking with "I Am," which was inspired by a cycling accident that left him with Post Concussion Syndrome, in which symptoms of the concussion don't go away.

After facing death, Shadyac embarked on a quest for enlightenment, meeting with experts in science, philosophy and faith, among other areas. He spoke with the likes of David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky and Desmond Tutu, asking what's wrong with the world and what can people do to make it right.

The 52-year-old filmmaker, who sold his mansion and now lives in a mobile home community in Malibu, California, sat down with Reuters to talk about his personal transformation.

Q: Most filmmakers start off making low-budget independent films and graduate to big studio blockbusters. You're doing it backwards. Did your bike accident knock the sense into you, or out of you, for you to be doing this?

A: "It knocked me out of my head, but I think I called that into my life. I hit my head 'cause I had to get out of my head. What better way to get a person out of their head and into their heart than to make their head so filled with pain and noise? It dropped me into my heart. And that's why I did this movie because I faced my own death."

Q: What in your life did you feel needed changing?

A: "I looked at my life and how I was doing my own business. I was standing above and saying 'I'm more valuable, I'm the director, pay me more, give me more spoils.' That to me was break from the morality that I believe in."

Q: What do you believe in?

A: "We're all in this together. Nothing in nature takes more than it needs, yet I was participating in a system which valued the fact that I took as much as I possibly could."

Q: You are one of the reasons stars like Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy and Steve Carrell are able to command high salaries because of the successful films you worked on together. Have any of them reached out to you since you began this journey?

A: "A lot of people didn't know that I had the accident. I was very isolated. Some people may have called, but I didn't call back. I couldn't even do a phone call. It was quite painful to even do that. So I don't blame them. They simply didn't know. And the film is only coming out now."

Q: If the bike accident led to this documentary, what led to the shift in your outlook and attitude?

A: "Morgan Freeman opened me up to all these ideas. After 'Bruce Almighty,' he shattered my paradigm by turning me on to certain authors. I came back to him and said, 'I'm seeing things differently now. What do I do?' He said, 'I have no idea, son.' I was like, 'Are you kidding me? You're going to shatter my paradigm and not give me a program?'"

Q: This coming from the man who played God in your movies.