Health risk from troubled Japan nuclear plant

Radioactive substances have been leaking from Japan's tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for nearly two months, and the plant is likely to continue emitting radiation into the atmosphere, and possibly into the ocean and ground water, for many months to come.

People living within a 20 km (12 mile) radius of the plant have been evacuated, while those in five towns downwind from the plants have also been told to prepare to leave their homes.

Following are some questions and answers about the health risks from continued radiation exposure from the plant, 240 km (150 miles) from Tokyo, as operator Tokyo Electric Power Co struggles to bring it under control:

HOW MUCH RADIATION HAS BEEN MEASURED OUTSIDE THE EVACUATION
ZONE?
The highest radiation reading outside the evacuation zone on Thursday measured 0.046 millisieverts an hour in Namie, Fukushima, which is one of the towns whose residents are preparing for evacuation.

Most areas outside the evacuation zone logged readings around 0.001 millisieverts an hour or less.

Japan's National Institute of Radiological Sciences calculated that in the month from March 14 to April 11, following the earthquake and tsunami, a person in Tokyo who spent eight hours a day outdoors and drank tap water would have been exposed to about 0.12 millisieverts.
In absolute terms, these quantities are extremely small. People in Japan are on average exposed to 1.5 millisieverts of natural background radiation a year.

HOW MUCH EXPOSURE IS DANGEROUS?
Experts' opinions vary. One benchmark from the Symposium on the International System of Radiological Protection recommends maximum exposure levels of 1 millisievert per year for the general public.

Children, whose cellular activity is more active than in adults, are especially vulnerable, and public health officials say they should be shielded as much as possible from unnecessary exposure.

CAN LONG-TERM EXPOSURE TO LOW LEVELS OF RADIATION CAUSE
CANCER?
Yes. Radiation is cumulative, and in theory, every radioactive particle that makes its way into the body increases the risk of cancer.

But there is no conclusive study that links a rise in cancer to cumulative radiation doses of less than 100 millisieverts. Experts are divided on the policy implications for these lower dosages.
Researchers are stumped in part because it can take decades and even generations before cancer emerges, and because so many other lifestyle choices can increase cancer risk. Researchers also had very poor quality data on dosage measurements after Chernobyl.

Japan's National Institute of Radiological Sciences says that cumulative exposure to 100 millisieverts of radiation raises the risk of death from cancer by 0.5 percent.

Every day, people are exposed to a vast array of other cancer-causing substances through cigarette smoke, eating and drinking habits, chemicals, viruses and bacteria.

IS SOME RADIATION MORE HARMFUL THAN OTHERS?
Yes. Radioactive particles are most harmful when inhaled or ingested, and particles that are easily absorbed and which have longer half-lives can cause more damage to cells and genetic material inside.

When examining radiation from the Fukushima plant, health officials focus especially on Iodine-131. Inside the body of an adult, it has a half-life of 7 days, but it accumulates quickly in the thyroid gland. Children are especially at risk because their thyroids are still developing.
Another by-product, Cesium, spreads throughout the body, concentrating in muscle tissue. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years, but inside an adult, the amount will be halved in 90 days.

Strontium and plutonium are rarer by-products of nuclear fission. But if they are ingested, they tend to collect in bones, where they are likely to stay put. Strontium can cause bone cancer. Plutonium is more dangerous when inhaled, increasing the risk of lung cancer.

HOW CAN RISK BE MINIMIZED?
Everything depends on how good the Japanese government is in monitoring radiation levels and how thoroughly it samples food products.

"The Japanese are very sensitive when it comes to food safety, so I am confident that children will not be exposed to radiated milk products," said Shunichi Yamashita, professor of biomedical sciences at Nagasaki University.

"Just as we have become attuned to pesticide risk, we will have to learn to live with radiation risk and do what we can to avoid contaminated food and water."

Computer beats doctors in finding hormone disorder

If you show people's faces to a computer, it does better than doctors at recognizing the signs of a rare hormone disorder, researchers report in a new study.

By analyzing photos of individual faces, the computer system correctly identified seven of every 10 people in the study with acromegaly, a condition that leads to excessive growth in bones and tissues, including those of the face.


Human experts were able to correctly pick out people with acromegaly roughly six out of 10 times.

"I have to say I was surprised," Dr. Harald Schneider, the lead author of the study and a researcher at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Germany, wrote in an email to Reuters Health. "We expected the program (at best to) achieve similar results as the experts but not to outperform them."

People with acromegaly have too much growth hormone, which can cause a variety of problems. They usually have a large jaw and tongue, widely spaced teeth, and enlarged bones in the forehead and cheeks.

About six out of every 100,000 people have acromegaly.
In this study, the researchers took front and side facial photographs of 57 people with acromegaly and 60 people without. All the participants were Caucasian and similar in age.
The researchers wrote a computer program that analyzes facial characteristics, such as the distances between features.

The computer out-performed physicians in identifying both those who had acromegaly and those who did not.

"Apparently the computer program is better at detecting all the information that is in a face than even the experienced doctor, at least by looking at a photograph," Schneider said.

Looking only at pictures was a disadvantage for the doctors. Schneider said the experts might have performed better if given the opportunity to do a normal examination of the patients, including their hands and feet. There was also no information available about people's symptoms.

Schneider said he was especially encouraged by the computer's ability to detect mild cases of acromegaly. In those cases the software was correct nearly six out of 10 times, but humans were accurate only four of 10 times.

Being able to diagnose acromegaly sooner in patients, before it develops into a more severe form, would greatly relieve suffering by giving people the opportunity for treatment earlier, Schneider said.

The study was funded by a German Research Foundation Grant, and some of the authors have received speaker fees and travel grants from pharmaceutical companies that market treatments for acromegaly.

"I see this one as yet another piece of evidence adding to the growing body of research that computer-based systems can diagnose patients as well as or better than human diagnosticians," said Dr. James Mazoue, a philosophy professor who is the director of online programs at Wayne State University.

So far no computer-based diagnostic systems have replaced human scrutiny. Instead they are used as an adjunct.

For instance, pap smears, which are used to detect abnormal cervical cells in women, can go through a computerized optical screen, but they also receive a human analysis.

Mazoue, who was not involved in this study, believes it is morally imperative for the medical field to pursue computer-based diagnostics if they can perform better than humans.

"We need to divorce ourselves from these legacy practices that are based on human intuition. I really don't have any doubt that in the future that's where things are moving," Mazoue told Reuters Health.

The acromegaly detection program, Schneider said, is not yet ready for the doctor's office.
While the computer was good at figuring out which people had acromegaly, it was not so good at figuring out who didn't. The computer incorrectly diagnosed acromegaly in nearly nine percent of people who did not have the disease.

The study, which is published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, also did not include people of other races.

"It's too small a sample to get all of the variations of acromegaly in all people," said Dr. Randolph A. Miller, a professor of biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University, who was not involved in this study.

Miller said he would like to see a program that could correctly identify people who don't have acromegaly 99.9 percent of the time before it's used in practice. But he called the system "a promising young technology."

Study pushes to expand "prediabetes" label

Having normal blood sugar levels is no guarantee against developing type 2 diabetes down the road, according to Italian researchers.

In fact, they report in the journal Diabetes Care, people at the high end of what's considered the normal blood sugar range are twice as likely to get the disease as are those in the low end.
But does that mean doctors should treat these people any different, as the researchers suggest? Not at all, said one expert who wasn't involved in the new work.

"The concern here is that people get started on medications at a level below the conventional threshold for diabetes," Dr. Michael LeFevre, a family physician at the University of Missouri in Columbia, told Reuters Health.

"My personal recommendation is that people should strive to manage their weight and be physically active irrespective of what their blood (sugar) level is," he added.

Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease in which the body no longer responds appropriately to the hormone insulin, which helps ferry sugar from the blood into our cells after a meal.

When fasting blood sugar levels reach 126 milligrams or more per deciliter, doctors will diagnose diabetes, because too much sugar in the blood will cause severe damage to the heart, kidneys and other organs over time.

Traditionally, blood sugar levels below 100 milligrams per deciliter have been considered safe, whereas levels between 100 and 126 signal a higher risk of diabetes -- termed prediabetes.

But according to the new study, by Dr. Paolo Brambilla and colleagues at the University Milano Bicocca in Italy, the currently accepted "normal" blood sugar range might be too wide.
The researchers looked at data for nearly 14,000 men and women who'd had blood drawn several times at their clinic.

The patients were between 40 and 69 years old and all of them had normal blood sugar levels at first. Over the next seven to eight years, on average, about two percent of the women and nearly three percent of the men developed diabetes.

Less than one percent of those who started out with fasting blood sugar levels between 51 and 82 milligrams per deciliter wound up with the disease, while more than three percent did so if they had values between 91 and 99.

After controlling for other factors that might influence the likelihood of getting diabetes, that corresponded to a two-fold difference in risk of developing the disease.

The findings are in line with an earlier study from Oregon, and the Italian researchers say they can help identify the people who need extra medical attention.

According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 25 million people in the US have diabetes, and as many as 79 million have prediabetes.

But LeFevre, who's a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a federally supported expert panel, said he was concerned about the label "prediabetes" -- let alone expanding it downward into lower blood sugar ranges.

"We don't know that there is a magic threshold" for blood sugar, he said. "As the blood sugar goes up, the risk of complications increases."

Unless you're diabetic, he said, the best thing to do is to eat a healthy diet and get lots of exercise. And that goes for people with low blood sugar as well.

"I would be very concerned if people with low (blood sugar) levels would allow themselves to be sedentary and overweight as a result of these findings," LeFevre said.

The American Diabetes Association could not comment on the findings in time for this article.

Hepatitis C cases rising among Massachusetts youth

Hepatitis C infections are rising quickly among white youth in Massachusetts, fueled by increases in the use of heroin and other injection drugs, local and federal health researchers said Thursday.

Cases of the infection -- a leading cause of liver damage and cancer -- have been dropping across the general population, but they started rising in youth aged 15 to 24 between 2002 and 2006, a trend that continued through 2009, a team from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported.

"Of cases with available risk data, injection drug use was the most common risk factor for HCV transmission," the team wrote in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly report on death and disease.

"The increase in case reports appears to represent an epidemic of HCV infection related to IDU (injected drug use) among new populations of adolescents and young adults in Massachusetts," they wrote.

The CDC said in an editorial is had been documenting cases of Hepatitis C infection for decades, but it called the recent epidemic among adolescents and young adults and its apparent link to IV drug use "a disturbing trend."

"Law enforcement data suggest this trend might be occurring in other states," the CDC said, citing data showing increases in first-time heroin use, which jumped to 180,000 in 2009 from 100,000 in 2002.

Law enforcement reports from officials in the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, New England, New York/New Jersey, Southeast, and West Central regions also suggests that heroin use is increasing, particularly among younger users.

Hepatitis C, an infection caused by a virus that attacks the liver, is considered one of the most serious of the hepatitis viruses. It is commonly passed through contaminated blood -- often through needles shared during illegal drug use.

The latest cases were reported from across Massachusetts, mostly among non-Hispanic whites, and were split evenly between males and females.

Of 1,196 cases in which doctors had a history of potential risk factors, 72 percent were in people who reported current or past injection drug use.

Among the 719 people who said they injected drugs in the preceding 12 months, 85 percent said they had used heroin, 29 percent had used cocaine, 1 percent had used methamphetamine and 4 percent had used other drugs.

They said the study suggested the need for better monitoring of Hepatitis C infection and better prevention efforts targeting adolescents and young adults, they said.

According to the CDC, 3.2 million Americans are infected. Most people who are newly infected have no symptoms.


Earlier flu shot better for pregnant women

Experts recommend that pregnant women get a flu shot each year, and now a new study suggests that the earlier they do it, the better.

The study, which estimated the effects of flu vaccination at different points in the flu season, found that the benefits wane if vaccination is pushed past November.

Vaccinations later in the season didn't prevent as many doctor visits and hospitalizations, researchers report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"The message is, the earlier you get vaccinated, the better," said Dr. Evan R. Myers of Duke University Medical Center, who led the study.

In the U.S., the flu season can start in October and last until May, but it usually peaks between January and March.

Ideally, yearly vaccination should begin in September, or as soon as that season's flu vaccine is available, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the flu usually causes no more than a week or so of misery, pregnant women are at higher-than-average risk of severe symptoms that can land them in the hospital.

Women who will be in their third trimester during the peak of flu season are at particularly high risk.

However, flu shots are also important for women who will give birth early in the season or just before, Myers said. Those women won't be at high risk of complications during the flu season - but their infants will.

Infants younger than 6 months cannot be vaccinated against the flu, Myers said, but if a mother gets her shot during pregnancy, some of her protective antibodies against the infection will be passed to her baby.

For their study, Myers and his colleagues used a mathematical model to estimate the benefits of flu vaccination, and different timings of vaccination, during pregnancy.

They found that compared with no vaccination, giving flu shots to all pregnant women would prevent more than one-third of their hospitalizations for the flu -- cutting the number to 1,235 in a year.

It would also trim the annual number of doctor visits for the flu made by pregnant women, from more than 54,000 per year to about 23,000.

Infants younger than 6 months would benefit, too. Their hospitalizations for the flu would fall from more than 4,700 per year, to just over 3,000, the researchers estimate.

However, the greatest benefits were seen when vaccination was done sooner -- November or earlier, Myers said.

That was especially true when it came to preventing infants' illnesses: the later vaccination was put off, the more babies who would be unprotected during the peak of flu season.
"A lot of the benefit is in preventing disease in the baby," Myers told Reuters Health. "I believe that's something we should be emphasizing more."

He noted that for every 10 pregnant women in the U.S., fewer than 4 get a seasonal flu shot each year.

It's not clear whether fears about vaccine safety are behind that low rate, according to Myers. But one thing that might worry some women, he said, is the fact that some flu vaccine formulations contain thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative.

There's no evidence that the small amounts of thimerosal in the vaccine are harmful. But for women who are worried, Myers said, thimerosal-free flu shots are available.

A recent government study also found no evidence of unusual complications from flu vaccination in U.S. pregnant women over the past 20 years.

Among the most common side effects were skin reactions at the injection site, symptoms like fever and fatigue, and mild allergic reactions. There was no evidence linking the vaccine to an increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth.

The current study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline Inc., one of several companies that make the seasonal flu vaccine.

Some insurance companies will cover the cost of a flu shot. In other cases, employers set up flu vaccination programs for their employees. Many people choose to get the shots - often for around $25 - at large retail chains like Costco, K-mart, and Walmart, or at drugstore chains like Walgreens and CVS, for example.

FDA approves Novartis pancreas cancer drug

Novartis AG's cancer drug Afinitor has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a rare type of pancreatic cancer that has few treatment options.

"Data show Afinitor delays tumor growth and reduces risk of disease progression in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NET) of pancreatic origin," the Swiss drugmaker said in a statement.

"This marks the first approval of a treatment for this patient population in the United States in nearly 30 years."

Last month, a U.S. advisory panel voted unanimously in favor of the drug's use in treating patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, despite concerns about serious side effects.

Afinitor is already approved for treating kidney cancer and is expected to rake in sales of $1.3 billion in 2015, according to a Thomson Reuters forecast.

In April FDA staff questioned Novartis' findings on the benefits of the drug, and the Swiss drugmaker narrowed the approval application after the reviewer's comments.

Novartis said it had also submitted applications for Afinitor use for pancreatic cancer to the European Medicines Agency and the Swiss regulator.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are rare, with a strike rate of about 0.32 cases per 100,000 people. They usually grow more slowly than other pancreatic cancers that kill within months of diagnosis. Both types have few treatment options.

Global 3D TV market to grow 5-fold in 2011: iSuppli


 The global 3D television market will grow more than 5-fold to account for 11 percent of flat-screen TV sales this year, as prices fall sharply and manufacturers add the function as an add-on feature, research firm IHS iSuppli predicted on Friday.

It projected 3D TV shipments would rise to 23.4 million units this year from last year's 4.2 million units, gaining further to 159 million units in 2015. By that time, iSuppli said, 3D TVs would account for more than half of global flat-panel shipments.

TV manufacturers, led by South Korea's Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics Inc and Japan's Sony Corp are hoping high-end models such as 3D help them arrest razor-thin margins amid intensifying competition with low-cost producers in the commoditized flat-screen TV market.
Another research firm, DisplaySearch, also forecast last week that 3D TVs will rise to more than 50 percent of revenues and hit the 100-million unit sales mark by 2014.

By technology, active shutter-glass (SG) type sets, the current industry standard, will gradually give way to passive film patterned retarder (FPR) types and fall below 50 percent of the overall 3D market by 2015, iSuppli said.

The shift can be a big threat to top TV maker Samsung, which is aggressively pushing for SG technology and has been embroiled in a growing war of words this year with hometown rival LG Electronics and its panel supplier LG Display.

LG Group is making a big bet on FPR technology to stake out a bigger claim in the global 3D market, currently dominated by SG-type sets made by first such as Samsung and Sony.

LG contends that FPR addresses consumer concerns over blurry and flickering images, with glasses two to three times lighter than the previous bulky battery-charged eyewear that was required for 3D viewing.

The 3D market forecast by iSuppli is more bullish than Samsung's own forecast of 17 million units.

Apple, Google to face lawmakers in privacy tussle


 Tech companies such as Apple and Google are hoping the tracks of millions of mobile device users will lead to billions of dollars in revenue.

But where they see dollar signs, lawmakers see red flags.
The revelation last month that Apple's iPhones collected location data and stored it for up to a year -- even when location software was supposedly turned off -- has prompted renewed scrutiny of the nexus between location and privacy.

On Tuesday, senior Apple and Google executives will submit to questions from a congressional panel on how location-tracking may violate users' rights.

Smartphone and advertising companies argue that they use data on what users like (which they know because users use the phone to check prices); where they are (which they know because of contact with cell phone towers); and who their friends are (which they know from social media like Facebook) to give their customers ads for products they are most likely to buy.

"There are terrific things about mobility. There's a lot of good stuff that can come out of this," said Joseph Turow, who follows marketing for the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

Companies capable of delivering advertisements to the right consumers in a mobile format could make big money.

"What's the implications of the data in terms of revenues? The issue is in one word -- huge. We think that by the 2014 time frame or so it will be well north of $3 billion," said Carter Lusher, an analyst with research firm Ovum.

"There are simply more and more devices shipped every day that can be targeted."
A study done for Google -- which sells mobile ads -- found that 82 percent of smartphone owners notice mobile ads and 74 percent make a purchase as a result of using a smartphone while shopping, according to the trade publication Mobile Marketer.

But the discomfort comes with the failure of companies -- ranging from smartphone makers, to app makers, to advertisers -- to disclose to customers what information they are collecting and what they will do with it, said a staffer for Democratic Senator Al Franken, chairman of the online privacy subcommittee that will hold Tuesday's hearing.

Witnesses will include Google and Apple executives, as well as Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department officials.

"There are rights-based harms," the staffer said. "We have a fundamental right to know what information is gathered from us, and what they do with it."

Google said in a statement that it was looking "forward to engaging with policymakers." An Apple spokesman said the company was not immediately prepared to discuss the hearing.

PRIVACY ADVOCATES WANT A TOUGH BILL
Tuesday's inquiry remains just that: lawmakers seeking more information on the technology and its potential uses.

But the risk is, if public concern snowballs into consumer outrage, that lawmakers may eventually pass laws restricting such activity.

Franken's staff has been concerned by reports that insurance companies have explored using location tracking to calculate insurance rates by noting where people go -- for example if they go to a gym or a donut store.

Already three online privacy bills have been introduced -- by Representatives Bobby Rush and Jackie Speier and by Senators John McCain and John Kerry. It's far too early to tell which, if any, of them might become law.

The bills include proposals that companies tell consumers what data is being collected, who it is shared with and how it is safeguarded.

"The fact is that they're creating these sort of mobile digital dossiers based on what you do on your mobile phone and where you are," said Jeff Chester, head of the Center for Digital Democracy.

Franken has not yet decided what he would like to see in a bill, his staffers say.
"Congress has a role to play here. Congress has not done a good job of updating privacy laws," said Marc Rotenberg, head of the privacy think tank Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The University of Pennsylvania's Turow agreed, advocating a ban on collection of data on financial or health issues, perhaps even as minor as over-the-counter medicine purchases.

"Executives in advertising don't understand what's going on," he said. "I really do believe that we need ground level protections. And certain things should be prohibited."

Apple usurps Google as world's most valuable brand


 Apple has overtaken Google as the world's most valuable brand, ending a four-year reign by the Internet search leader, according to a new study by global brands agency Millward Brown.

The iPhone and iPad maker's brand is now worth $153 billion, almost half Apple's market capitalization, says the annual BrandZ study of the world's top 100 brands.

Apple's portfolio of coveted consumer goods propelled it past Microsoft to become the world's most valuable technology company last year.

Peter Walshe, global brands director of Millward Brown, says Apple's meticulous attention to detail, along with an increasing presence of its gadgets in corporate environments, have allowed it to behave differently from other consumer-electronics makers.

"Apple is breaking the rules in terms of its pricing model," he told Reuters by telephone. "It's doing what luxury brands do, where the higher price the brand is, the more it seems to underpin and reinforce the desire."

"Obviously, it has to be allied to great products and a great experience, and Apple has nurtured that."

Of the top 10 brands in Monday's report, six were technology and telecoms companies: Google at number two, IBM at number three, Microsoft at number five, AT&T at number seven and China Mobile at number nine.

McDonald's rose two places to number four, as fast food became the fastest-growing category, Coca-Cola slipped one place to number six, Marlboro was also down one to number eight, and General Electric was number 10.

Walshe said demand from China was a major factor in the rise of fast-food brands. "The Chinese have been discovering fast food and it's such a vast market -- Starbucks, McDonald's... and pizza has hit China," he said.

"The way McDonald's has reinvented itself, adapted its menus, added healthy options, expanding the times of day it can be visited, for example oatmeal for breakfast... that allied with growth in developing markets has really helped that brand."

Nineteen of the top 100 brands came from emerging markets, up from 13 last year.
Facebook entered the top 100 at number 35 with a brand valued at $19.1 billion, while Chinese search engine Baidu rose to number 29 from 46.

Toyota reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable car brand, as it recovered from a bungled 2010 product recall. The survey was carried out before the March earthquake that caused massive disruption to Japanese supply chains.

The total value of the top 100 brands rose by 17 percent to $2.4 trillion, as the global economy shifted to growth.

Millward Brown takes as a starting point the value that companies put on their own main brands as intangibles in their earnings reports.

It combines that with the perceptions of more than 2 million consumers in relevant markets around the world whom it surveys over the course of the year, and then applies a multiple derived from the company's short-term future growth prospects.

Resident Evil - director to shoot "Pompeii" film

Paul W.S. Anderson, the filmmaker behind the "Resident Evil" movies, is giving the story of Pompeii the big-screen treatment.

He will direct "Pompeii," an adventure movie recounting the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the destruction of the Roman city in 79 A.D. Like "Titanic," the Pompeii film will be anchored by a strong love story. So far, no cast has been announced.

Summit Entertainment has snapped up U.S. distribution rights to the big-budget project set up at German production house Constantin Film.

"Pompeii" revolves around the slave of a shipping tycoon who dreams of the day he can buy his freedom and marry his master's daughter. What the slave doesn't know is that she's already been promised to a corrupt Roman senator, while he's been sold to another owner.

Just when things can't get any worse, Mt. Vesuvius erupts with the power of 40 nuclear bombs. But the slave is trapped on a ship headed for Naples, separated from his love and best friend, a gladiator who is trapped in the city's coliseum. As fire and ash destroy the only world he's ever known, the slave is determined to get back and rescue them.

Insiders say the plan is for Anderson to start shooting "Pompeii" next spring. He is now in post-production on "Three Musketeers," which Summit is releasing in the U.S. in October.

Anna Kendrick "Bones" star set for rapture comedy

"Up in the Air" star Anna Kendrick and "Bones" actor John Francis Daley are in talks to join the post-apocalyptic comedy feature "Rapture-Palooza."

They join Craig Robinson ("The Office"), whose casting was previously announced. The low-budget Lionsgate project, best described as "Zombieland" meets "The Big Lebowski," is a comedic look at life in the fallout of a religious apocalypse.

Kendrick, nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in "Up in the Air," is also part of the Twilight franchise. Daly first came on to the scene as the lead in Judd Apatow's "Freeks and Geeks."

Ace Ventura - film co. seeks protection in U.S

The Bermuda-based company that holds the rights to the films "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" and "Last of the Mohicans" asked a U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday to recognize it as insolvent, citing $74 million in debt.

Inverness Distribution Ltd, formerly Morgan Creek International Ltd, filed a petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, seeking recognition of its ongoing insolvency proceeding in Bermuda.

Filed under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the petition would officially recognize the company's foreign bankruptcy and protect it from parties looking to seize its assets in the U.S.

KPMG Advisory Ltd, appointed by the Bermuda insolvency court in February to liquidate Inverness' assets, filed the petition.

Inverness said it is more than $74 million in debt on a $150 million loan from Societe Generale, Santander UK Plc, ING Bank NV and others, according to the court papers.

The company cited a "dramatic and unexplained" decline in revenues collected from movie studios in exchange for television and video rights, saying revenues were 36 percent to 71 percent lower than normal in the last quarter of 2010.

Producer James G. Robinson, Inverness' only shareholder, produced "Ace Ventura," "Last of the Mohicans," "Young Guns" and "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."

He had been slated to back a third film in the popular "Major League" series that would star embattled actor Charlie Sheen, but backpedaled in February, saying he would not risk casting Sheen unless the actor improved his public image.

Sheen made headlines earlier in the year after a series of insulting rants and erratic behavior prompted his firing from the hit TV show "Two and a Half Men."

An attorney for the liquidating agents declined to comment.

The case is In re Inverness Distribution Ltd, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-12106.

Jackie Cooper dead at 88


 Actor Jackie Cooper, who survived a tumultuous childhood as an Oscar-nominated star to enjoy a varied career as a TV executive, director and "Superman" sidekick, died near Los Angeles, his attorney said on Wednesday. He was 88.

Cooper succumbed to complications of old age at a convalescent home in the coastal city of Santa Monica on Tuesday, attorney Roger Licht told Reuters.

He starred in more than 100 movies and TV shows before retiring from Hollywood more than 20 years ago. He retreated to a high-rise condominium with his third wife, Barbara, whom he credited for keeping him on the straight and narrow.

Cooper's life outside Hollywood was just as interesting. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War Two, and retired with the rank of captain from the reserves in the early 1980s. He also raced cars and owned racehorses.

He never really shed the pug nose and firm chin that endeared him to millions of Americans during the Great Depression, when he starred as a prominent cast member of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" short comedy films. At the twilight of his career, Cooper played grizzled Daily Planet editor Perry White in the 1978 "Superman" movie and its three sequels.

Born John Cooper, Jr. in Los Angeles, he was the illegitimate child of a sickly Italian mother who died when he was a teenager and a Jewish father who quickly abandoned the family. He got his start in Hollywood when his much-loathed grandmother dragged him around studio lots for day work as an extra.

His "Our Gang" work -- he appeared in such comedy shorts as "Teacher's Pet" and "Love Business" -- led to his starring role in the 1931 film "Skippy," an adaptation of the comic strip about a lively youngster.

In order to force him to cry for a scene, his grandmother dragged his dog off set and had it shot by a security guard. The boy duly cried, but remained hysterical even after it was revealed that the dog was not actually dead. Cooper titled his 1981 memoir "Please Don't Shoot My Dog."

Aged 9, he made Oscar history by becoming the youngest male performer to be nominated for a lead role. (He lost to Lionel Barrymore.)

Later in 1931, he co-starred in "The Champ" as the innocent son of a washed-up boxer played by Wallace Beery. The film was remade in 1979 with Rick Schroder as the tow-headed little boy. Cooper reunited with Beery in such films as "The Bowery" (1933) and "Treasure Island" (1934).

Off-screen, he fully enjoyed the fruits of stardom. By 18 he had become the lover of Joan Crawford, who was almost twice his age. But he was an old hand by then. He later recounted that when he was 13 he was having sex two or three times before 9 a.m. with a 20-year-old girl across the street.

His career inevitably dried up as he got older, and he had been divorced twice by the time he was in his early 30s.

Cooper won an Emmy for his title role as a Navy doctor in the sitcom "Hennesey" before becoming a vice president at Screen Gems during the 1960s, working on such shows as "Bewitched" and "Gidget." He turned to TV directing in the 1970s, winning Emmys for episodes of "M*A*S*H" and "The White Shadow."

His third wife, the former Barbara Kraus, died in 2009 after more than 50 years of marriage. He is survived by one of their three children, and by a namesake son from his first marriage.

Invisible Sign - won't be noticed at box office

Whatever it was about Aimee Bender's well-received novel that made this team want to turn it into a film remains invisible in "An Invisible Sign."

Lisa Rinzler's well-judged, intensely hued cinematography is the only element of any interest whatsoever in this inert dramatic directorial feature debut by Marilyn Agrelo, whose documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom" was an out-of-the-blue hit six years ago. IFC's theatrical release will define the term token, as VOD will prove the perfect place for curious souls to give this a perfunctory look.

Shot three years ago in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, New York, the picture is like a handsomely constructed house with nobody at home. None of the characters comes alive or has anything engaging to say, while the central concerns of the story, which have to do with mathematics, symbols and people finding their places in the world, are treated in a way that feels both trite and pretentious.

Painfully withdrawn, reticent and lacking in confidence since her genius mathematician father (John Shea) began to go nuts, Mona Gray (Jessica Alba) is cajoled into taking a job as a first grade math teacher despite a lack of credentials. Without a clue of how to proceed, Mona feels her way with some unusual methods while enduring insults from a bratty girl and developing a bond with another student, Lisa (Sophie Nyweide), whose mother is dying of cancer.

Mona's urge to help this game but troubled girl at least has a modest emotional pull, which is more than can be said for her tentative involvement with unappealing science teacher Ben (Chris Messina); when Ben comes on to her the first time and, after kissing him, she says, "I'm not into it. Please leave," you wish that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, it's not, and Messina's lack of energy and his and Alba's total lack of chemistry make their subsequent scenes arduous to endure.

The same is true for Mona's mania for a numerology system picked up from a retired math teacher (J.K. Simmons), a plot strand the film manages to make register not at all.

Expressing Mona's specific fear of human interaction and general anxiety by overreacting fearfully to even the most minor eventuality, Alba demonstrates a convincing inability to carry a picture by herself; she can't illuminate what might actually be going on inside her recessive character and certainly doesn't evince any affinity for math.

Favoring a view of the material that could be described as whimsical or insipid depending upon how charitable one felt at the moment, Agrelo does not apply the rigor or toughness that might have helped grapple with such key elements such as mental illness, struggling students and the strength it takes for Mona to reverse her natural tendency to withdrawal. She opts for a superficial feel-good approach, which does neither her characters nor the film any favors.

"Priest" Film review

"Priest," directed by Scott Stewart, is a short, dour and stodgy creature feature with average 3D effects that draws on so many film influences from westerns, action adventures and sci-fi tales that what fun there is comes from spotting the many sources.

Set in some nameless apocalyptic past or future it's a vicars-versus-vampires yarn that aside from a short animated scene setter at the start and the long credits crawl at the end lasts for about 80 minutes. Lacking marquee names and much in the way of thrills, it's unlikely to linger very long at the local multiplex and the blatant set up for a sequel after the climactic battle appears almost pitiable.

The animated sequence establishes that mankind has retreated within the giant walls of vile, polluted cities after innumerable battles with their vampire enemies, who are now confined to hideous underground camps a long way away.

All that corporal mortification in "The Da Vinci Code" was apparently not enough for Paul Bettany. He has the title role of another venomous cleric known only as Priest, who this time has been put out to pasture by the church that rules with an iron fist over what's left of humankind.

Two sequences set up what will follow in a rag-tag script by Cory Goodman. One has elements of "Indiana Jones" as a band of soldier-preachers run into a trap set by vampires in an underground maze and Priest fails to save his best mate (Karl Urban), who falls into the clutches of thirsty beasts.

The other has a Western touch as crazed attackers invade a solitary home far out in the wasteland, leave the Priest's brother and his wife for dead and kidnap their daughter Lucy (Lily Collins). Back in the "Blade Runner" city on a very bad day, Priest tells the church elders that he wants his badge back to he can go rescue Lucy. As a droll but insistent Monsignor, Christopher Plummer orders him not go anywhere as Christopher Young's choral score starts to soar.

The Priest promptly leaves on a souped up motorcycle and teams with a local lawman, Hicks (Cam Gigandet) to seek the girl. Now it's "The Searchers" as the embittered older man learns that Hicks is in love with Lucy but has to make it clear that if she has been bitten by the vampires then he will have to kill her.

Monsignor sends a team of priests led by Priestess (Maggie Q) to hunt down Priest, but she's really on the renegade's side, so now the three of them track the vampires to some kind of mountain that's shaped like a bee-hive and is in fact called a hive. Inside there's a large bouncy creature with nasty habits and no face but teeth like the creature from "Aliens 2."

Inevitably, Priest's lost friend shows up, the world's first human vampire known as Black Hat and looking for all the world like a man with no name except that his eye teeth come to exceptional points. Turns out he likes railway trains and he plans to transport a new army of vampires on a vast train to attack the city and he kidnapped Lucy just to lure Priest out so he could kill him.

Priest, Priestess and Hick must stop the train before the villains can do any harm and now the references come thick and fast. Once Upon a Time In the West competes with "Mad Max's" "Roadrunner" as Priest and Black Hat fight it out on top of the train while Hicks stumbles along in carriages filled with pods like the ones in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
If that sounds like fun, it's really not.

"Glee" 3D concert film opening in August


A 3D feature version of the upcoming "Glee Live! In Concert!" North American tour will hit theaters for a two-week run on August 12, Fox said Wednesday.

Starring 14 members of the television show, "Glee Live! 3D!" will be shot live during the summer concerts, capturing both the concert and backstage moments with the characters.

The tour gets underway May 21 in Las Vegas and wraps June 18 in Uniondale, New York, before moving on to the U.K. The film will be directed by Kevin Tancharoen ("Fame").

"This tour was all about going out and performing for our amazing fans who have supported our show from the beginning, but due to the limited time we had to travel during our hiatus, there were only so many cities we could get to before we had to resume work on the television series," said "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy.

"We knew that not every fan who wanted to attend a concert would get that opportunity. Now, thanks to our friends at Twentieth Century Fox Film, we'll be able to bring the concert experience to movie theaters across the country in full three dimensional glory. We promise every passionate 'Gleek' a cinematic experience that will have them singing and dancing in the aisles."

Going on tour are Glee stars Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowtiz, Mark Salling, Dianna Agron, Naya Rivera, Heather Morris, Harry Shum Jr., Chord Overstreet, Darren Criss, Ashley Fink and members of The Warblers.

"Lincoln" Tommy Lee Jones, Gordon Levitt join

Steven Spielberg is rounding out the large cast of his Abraham Lincoln movie.

Tommy Lee Jones and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, along with Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill and Joseph Cross, are in negotiations to join "Lincoln."
The list of actors doesn't end there. David Costabile, Byron Jennings, Dakin Matthews, Boris McGiver, Gloria Reuben, Jeremy Strong, and David Warshofsky are also in negotiations to board the DreamWorks project.

"Lincoln," which stars Daniel Day Lewis as the 16th president and Sally Field as his wife, is based on "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin and adapted by "Munich" scribe Tony Kushner.

Jones will play Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican congressman and staunch abolitionist, who was critical to writing the legislation that funded the Civil War.

Gordon-Levitt will play Robert Todd Lincoln, the Lincolns' eldest son and the only one to live past his teenage years.

The other actors will make up the supporting roles in this telling of Lincoln's journey to abolish slavery and end the Civil War.

The project will shoot this fall in Virginia eyeing a late 2012 release via Disney.

Cameron Diaz to star in "Expecting"

Cameron Diaz is in final negotiations to star in "What to Expect When You're Expecting," a romantic comedy based on the bestselling pregnancy guidebook.

The story follows five couples who suffer the many joys of the childbirth process. Diaz will play a 42-year-old woman in the mold of Jillian Michaels and hosts a weight-loss fitness show. Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee) is directing the Lionsgate/Phoenix Pictures project.

Diaz, 38, was last seen in "The Green Hornet" and is generating quite a bit of advance buzz for her potty-filled turn opposite ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake in the title role of "Bad Teacher," which opens June 24.

Brendan Fraser takes aim at "William Tell" role


 Brendan Fraser is taking aim to portray iconic archer William Tell.

Fraser is in negotiations to star in what is being called "William Tell: 3D." Nick Hurran, who directed the recent remake of TV's "The Prisoner," is attached to direct the film.

Anna Paquin is in negotiations to play Tell's wife, with German star Til Schweiger playing Habsburg king Hermann Gessler.

The Tell legend involves an archer who is forced to shoot an apple on the top of his son's head after not wanting to bow (no pun intended) in front of the king's statue. When the monarch inquires why Tell had two arrows in his quiver, the archer replied the other arrow was for the king in case he missed the apple. The ensuing events led to an uprising, eventually causing the formation of the state of Switzerland.

The film aims to shoot this fall in Romania and Switzerland.

Fraser is currently shooting "Whole Lotta Sole," in Ireland.

Ricky Gervais joins next "Spy Kids" film franchise


Ricky Gervais has signed on to voice a robot spy dog, Argonaut, in Dimension Films' upcoming "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World."

The funnyman joins Jessica Alba (Marissa Cortez Wilson), Jeremy Piven (Timekeeper), Antonio Banderas (Gergorio Cortez) and Joel McHale (Wilbur Wilson) for the franchise's fourth installment.

"Not only am I lending my voice to 'Spy Kids,' but they can keep it. I'm sick of it," Gervais said in a statement.

The Robert Rodriguez 3D film is scheduled to be released on August 19.

No stranger to voice-work, Gervais has done work on "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "The Simpsons," among numerous other projects.

"Akira" remake - Keanu Reeves may star in live-action



"Akira," the English-language, live-action take on the landmark anime and manga property, is zeroing in on its star, and it just might be Keanu Reeves.

Warner Bros. has been having a tough time finding the two leads of the movie, to be directed by Albert Hughes. In the script, the action moves from Neon-Tokyo to New Manhattan, where a biker gang leader tries to save his best friend from a medical experiment that threatens to unleash destructive powers.

Actors ranging from James Franco and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Robert Pattinson and Michael Fassbender have circled the project in some form or fashion as the studio sought to find an A-list lead.

Now comes word that Reeves has held talks with the studio, with whom he already made the massively successful "Matrix" movies, for the part of Kaneda, the gang leader. Reeves doesn't yet have an offer for the role, but we hear the talks with his representatives have been going well.

Reeves anchoring the project could serve as a strong lure for another A-lister to take the role of Tetsuo, the best friend.

Reeves is currently shooting the samurai action film "47 Ronin."

"Beaver" Voviegoers not eager to see Mel Gibson's


 Mel Gibson's long-delayed first movie since he was embroiled in a messy domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend flopped at the weekend box office in North America.

"The Beaver," an offbeat comedy-drama directed by and co-starring his close friend, Jodie Foster, earned just $104,000 during its first three days of limited release in 22 theaters, its distributor said on Sunday.

Its per-theater average of $4,745 ranks at No. 62 among the 139 limited-release movies tracked this year by Box Office Mojo. Among recent prestige debuts in a similar number of theaters, "Black Swan" opened to an $80,000 per-theater average last December and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" to $9,900 in March 2010.

The $21 million film will expand across North America on May 20, coinciding with a screening at the Cannes Film Festival, said closely held distributor Summit Entertainment.

Gibson, 55, stars as a suicidal businessman who finds salvation in a furry hand puppet he has salvaged from the trash. Critics were enthusiastic about his performance, pointing to eerie parallels between his character's alcoholic haze and the actor's own real-life problems.
"If you can get past your feelings for the troubled Gibson, you get to watch a high-wire performance of the highest caliber," said Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers.

Filming was completed more than a year ago, but the release was put on hold after audio tapes were leaked last summer of an angry Gibson threatening the mother of his baby daughter as their brief relationship hit the rocks. It eventually premiered in March at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Texas.

REAL-LIFE PROBLEMS
The "Braveheart" and "Passion of the Christ" director has struggled to recapture his box office magic in recent years as his personal life has taken center stage. He made anti-Semitic slurs in 2006 while being arrested for drunk driving, duly apologized and went into rehab.

His wife of almost 30 years filed for divorce in 2009, and Gibson fathered a daughter later that year with his girlfriend, a Russian pianist. That relationship blew up in spectacular fashion last year with a vicious custody battle highlighted by the leaked telephone voicemails.
Gibson told Deadline Hollywood last month that the rant should be seen "in the context of being in an irrationally, heated discussion at the height of a breakdown, trying to get out of a really unhealthy relationship."

But the damage to his tarnished reputation was done. His Hollywood agents dumped him, and he was dropped from a cameo role in the upcoming "Hangover" sequel after a revolt by the comedy's stars.

He was last in theaters with the thriller "Edge of Darkness," which opened to an encouraging $17 million in January 2010 but quickly faded to a $43 million finish.

Since 2001 he has starred in just six movies, of which three were wide releases and only one of those -- 2002's "Signs" -- was a big hit.

He has had better luck as a director with 2006's "Apocalypto" ($51 million) and the 2004 smash "The Passion of the Christ" ($371 million).

Nicolas Cage - Charges dropped against in New Orleans


Actor Nicolas Cage has avoided prosecution in New Orleans three weeks after he was arrested following a drunken argument with his wife, People magazine reported on Thursday.
It quoted his attorney as saying that charges of domestic abuse battery, disturbing the peace and public drunkenness had been dropped.

"The New Orleans District Attorney has confirmed that no charges of any kind will be pursued against him," Harry Rosenberg told the magazine. "After their investigation, the DAs refused all charges against Nick and the matter has been closed."

After-hours calls to officials in New Orleans were not answered, and Cage's publicist did not immediately reply to an email seeking further information.

The 47-year-old actor was taken into custody late on April 16 after police said he and his third wife, Alice Kim, got into an argument about the correct address of the home they were renting.

According to a statement that described him as "heavily intoxicated," Cage began striking cars and tried to get into a taxi cab. He then yelled at police officers who promptly arrested him. There were no visible injuries to his wife.

Two days later the couple attended the wedding of Cage's 20-year-old son, Weston, in New Orleans.

Cage, the nephew of film director Francis Ford Coppola, is best known for such films as "Raising Arizona," "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "National Treasure." He won an Oscar for his portrayal of a down-and-out alcoholic in the 1995 film "Leaving Las Vegas."

But his box office fortunes have been mixed, and he has been forced to sell some of his lavish homes around the world to settle multimillion-dollar tax debts to the U.S. government.

Factbox - History of the Cannes film festival


The Cannes film festival, which begins on May 11, is expected to be a splashier affair this year than last, when financing woes for smaller productions and the lack of major stars cast a shadow over the event.

Here are some facts about the Cannes film festival:

* QUICK FACTS:
-- Originally conceived in 1939 as an alternative to the then-Fascist-influenced Venice film festival, Cannes has been held annually since 1946 apart from 1948 and 1950, when lack of funds led to the cancellation of the event.

-- In 1949 the stars started coming: Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Norma Shearer, Errol Flynn and Edward G. Robinson all appeared that year. Brigitte Bardot made her first appearance in 1953.

-- A year later, starlet Simone Silva dropped her bikini top beside Robert Mitchum in front of the photographers, resulting in the kind of racy coverage that secured the festival's reputation.

-- In 1960, the first Cannes Market opened its doors to some 10 participants and one screen

-- a canvas hung from the roof of the old Palais Croisette. It quickly became a major meeting point for buyers and sellers from all over the world.

-- In 1968 film director Louis Malle, who was on that year's jury with Roman Polanski among others, was one of a group of film-makers who forced the festival to close in the midst of the student and worker uprisings across France. After an all-night debate marked by raging tempers and occasional fistfights, the organizers called it off.

-- Jane Campion became the first female director to win the Palme d'Or in 1993 for her film "The Piano."

-- In 1997 a "Palme des Palmes" -- a super-version of the Palme d'Or best film prize -- was awarded to Ingmar Bergman for the 50th festival. The Swedish director did not appear. -- In 2004 an actors masterclass (Lecon d'acteur) was created and inaugurated by Max Von Sydow.

* WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR:
-- Thai film "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," one of 19 entries in competition, took the coveted Palme d'Or for best picture, delighting some critics but angering others.
"'Uncle Boonmee', Palm of Boredom" was one headline in French daily Le Figaro, which called the slow-paced examination of reincarnation by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul "dull, incomprehensible and hallucinatory."

-- "Of Gods and Men," by French filmmaker Xavier Beauvois, won the runner-up prize and would have been a popular winner.

-- The meditative re-telling of the murder of seven Trappist monks caught up in civil unrest in Algeria during the 1990s had won almost universal praise for its restrained examination of belief, courage and religious tolerance.

Steven Tyler to debut first U.S. solo single on "Idol"


"American Idol" judge and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler will premiere the video of his first U.S. solo single on the television talent show next week, broadcaster Fox said.

Additionally, Lady Gaga will mentor the four remaining contestants on the top-rated show as they battle for a place in the finals.

The music video of Tyler's new single "(It) Feels so Good", will be shown on the "American Idol" results show on May 12, Fox said.

Tyler, 63, has been embroiled for almost two years in a feud with his Aerosmith bandmates that was further strained when he accepted a job as a judge on "American Idol" this season.
Tyler, who has just published a tell-all memoir "Does this Noise in My Head Bother You?", told Rolling Stone magazine last week that he had to fight off a legal threat to toss him out of the band that he co-founded 40 years ago so that he could join "Idol".

Relations between Tyler and his four bandmates hit a low in 2009 after he fell off the stage and broke his shoulder, forcing the Aerosmith tour to be canceled. The band responded by going public with threats to find another singer.

Tyler said last week however that he had written to the band members seeking a detente and a desire to return to the studio to record what would be the first Aerosmith album of new material since 2001.

Will Smith is frontrunner for Tarantino's next film


Will Smith has emerged as the frontrunner to star in Quentin Tarantino's next film, a spaghetti Western about a slave in the Old South who teams with a German bounty hunter to search for his wife.

Tarantino stalwarts Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz also are circling key parts.
"Django Unchained," Tarantino's follow up to his worldwide blockbuster Inglourious Basterds, will be distributed domestically by the Weinstein Co. but Tarantino is in the process of selecting a studio partner to release the film internationally. Sources say he is meeting with Universal executives today, and similar meetings with Sony, Paramount, Warner Bros. and possibly others have been scheduled.

Sources prepped for those meetings say Tarantino would like Smith to star in the film, the script for which has been making the rounds in recent days to wide acclaim. No official offer has been made to Smith, and any deal would of course be subject to working out financials, which might be difficult given Smith's status as one of Hollywood's few sure-thing stars.
Indeed, although Smith has been out of multiplexes since 2008's "Seven Pounds," he is still considered among the top two or three box office draws worldwide.

Smith is being teed-up for the title role of Django, a freed slave who seeks to reunite with his slave wife, a journey which will see him team up with a German bounty hunter to take down an evil plantation owner.

Tarantino wrote the bounty hunter part with Waltz in mind, according to insiders. The German ends up training Django and helping him seek his wife.

Jackson would play the house slave to the bad guy, Monsieur Calvin Candie. The slave is an expert manipulator and will face off with Django.

Smith and his representatives have received the screenplay, which could be a hot potato due to the themes of racism and the liberal use of the N-word. It's unclear whether Smith has read the script yet. The actor manages his image very carefully but the part is heroic and could be iconic. And let's not forget that Denzel Washington won his two Oscars playing characters who used the N-word.

Tarantino is aiming for a fall shoot in the South, possibly in Louisiana, but the exact locale has not been determined.

Jacob Lusk hurt by Iovine critiques on "American Idol"


Ousted "American Idol" contestant Jacob Lusk said on Friday he was hurt by constant criticism from the show's in house mentor Jimmy Iovine.

But the 23 year-old gospel singer, whose voice was compared to the late Luther Vandross, told reporters it was more important that his music connected with American viewers on the top-rated TV singing contest.

Lusk was booted off the show by viewers after reaching the Top 5, and exited on Thursday with a stirring rendition of "A House is Not a Home" that critics rated his best performance.

His departure followed weeks of negative comments about his song choices by record producer Iovine, the regular coach of the "Idol" contestants.

"It is definitely hard to have someone beat you over the head with a baseball bat, and then say go ahead and sing for your life," Lusk said in a conference call.

"But it's about touching people with music. It's not about how great I can sing, or how many riffs I can do, or how good Jimmy (Iovine) thinks I am. It is about me putting out great music that America loves," he added.

Lusk said he had no complaints about Iovine, and did not feel under pressure after having landed twice in the bottom three in public voting.

But he added, "I was getting a little tired probably, and I was trying to do different things that I thought he (Iovine) would like and (I thought) that Americans wanted to see different things."

"I just think I didn't have the greatest performance on Wednesday, and I wasn't in my element, and that is why I was sent home," he added.

Lusk, from the tough Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles, said he was looking forward to putting his past struggles behind him and making a career in music, and hopefully on Broadway.

He told reporters that his father died when he was 12, that he was bullied in school and had sometimes found himself homeless and hungry after leaving home at age 17.

"I have been homeless, I have gone without. There's a dozen times where I didn't have any money, times when I didn't think I was going to make it (in the music business) but I kept going and I am here," he said.

"I am so honored by the comparisons to Luther Vandross, and I want to put out a record that will not only make his fans proud but make the new fans that I have acquired proud as well," he said.

Paul McCartney to wed for third time

Paul McCartney is set to wed for the third time after proposing to his New York businesswoman girlfriend of four years, Nancy Shevell.

The London-based spokesman for the former Beatle confirmed on Friday that McCartney and Shevell were engaged, but declined to give further details.

"It's true!", said spokesman Stuart Bell, after People magazine broke news of the engagement.

Shevell, 51, who is divorced, and the notoriously private McCartney, 68, are reported to have begun dating about four years ago, following the Fab Four singer's bitter split with second wife, Heather Mills.

They have been seen together frequently at celebrity events and on McCartney's tours, and most recently posed for photos at a gala evening on Monday at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. A photo is displayed prominently on McCartney's official website.

American celebrity magazine Us Weekly reported on Friday that the "Can't Buy Me Love" singer popped the question last weekend "during a romantic candlelit dinner for two."

People magazine said McCartney had given Shevell a ring, although she did not appear to be wearing it when the couple posed on the red carpet at Monday's museum event.

"They have the right chemistry. They're both cool, chilled out and optimistic," People magazine quoted an unidentified source close to Shevell as saying.

McCartney was happily married for 29 years to American photographer Linda Eastman until her death of breast cancer in 1998. He said at the time that he and Linda had spent just 11 nights apart during their marriage.
Ever the romantic, his second marriage just four years later in 2002 to British ex-model Heather Mills took observers by surprise. The relationship quickly turned sour, ending in divorce in 2008 and an acrimonious legal battle over money.

About a year after separating from Mills in 2006, McCartney reportedly met and began dating Shevell, who sits on the board of New York's transportation authority.
Famously tight-lipped about his personal life, McCartney said in 2008 of their relationship, "I just like being in love."

McCartney's partnership with John Lennon in The Beatles in 1960s Britain produced some of the most famous and enduring pop songs of the past 50 years.

Now formally known as Sir Paul McCartney after receiving a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth, he is one of the wealthiest musicians in Britain, with an estimated fortune of 495 million pounds ($811 million), according to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

McCartney has five children -- four from his marriage to Linda Eastman, and one from his brief union with Mills. Shevell has a teenage daughter.

Glamour, art, politics collide at classic Cannes


The Cannes film festival is gearing up for what critics say should be a vintage year, with Hollywood stars out in force, revered directors there in droves and political controversy thrown into the mix.

The world's biggest cinema showcase has suffered from studio cost-cutting and lackluster lineups in recent years, but news that Terrence Malick's eagerly awaited "The Tree of Life" is in the main competition has cinephiles licking their lips.

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Sean Penn, Mel Gibson, French First Lady Carla Bruni and jury president Robert De Niro are among big names expected to walk the red carpet and hit the French Riviera party circuit.

And in addition to Malick, movie lovers can admire the latest works from Pedro Almodovar, two-time Cannes winners the Dardenne brothers, previous Palme d'Or laureates Lars Von Trier and Nanni Moretti and Japan's prolific director Takashi Miike.

"It's the strongest lineup in ages," said Mark Cousins, a film critic and regular Cannes attendee.

"It's the Malick that most excites. Some film makers make films about their home town, or their country, but Terrence Malick makes films about what it's like to be alive."

The Tree of Life stars Pitt and Penn in a family saga set in the Midwest during the 1950s. The long wait for its arrival, and a trailer featuring mysterious cosmic scenes, have raised expectations for what is only Malick's fifth feature.

Penn also appears in Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's in-competition "This Must Be The Place," in which he portrays a retired rock star who sets out to find his father's executioner, an ex-Nazi war criminal living in the United States.

SARKOZY, WIFE IN THE FRAME
Kicking off the May 11-22 marathon of screenings, press interviews, deal-making and late night revelry in the palm-lined Mediterranean resort will be Woody Allen's romantic comedy "Midnight in Paris," starring Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams.

Much of the media's focus is likely to be on former model Bruni, who has a small role in the film and is at the center of intense speculation in France over whether she is pregnant.
By coincidence, Cannes also includes biopic "La Conquete" (The Conquest), which portrays Bruni's husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during the 2007 election and the collapse of his previous marriage to Cecilia.

Women feature more prominently in the main competition than usual, although they still only account for four of 20 entries.

Scotland's Lynne Ramsay presents "We Need To Talk About Kevin," based on Lionel Shriver's bestselling novel and Australian Julia Leigh directs "Sleeping Beauty," described as a "haunting erotic fairy tale."

French actress/director Maiwenn Le Besco has directed "Polisse" about a photographer who begins an affair with a cop, and Japan's Naomi Kawase brings "Hanezu No Tsuki," four years after her "The Mourning Forest" won the runner-up Grand Prix award in 2007.

Belgium's Dardenne brothers have a chance to become the first directors to scoop the coveted Palme d'Or three times with "The Kid With A Bike" and festival favorite Almodovar will aim to lift his first Golden Palm with "The Skin I Live In."

Denmark's Von Trier is back two years after his "Antichrist" became the most talked-about film at Cannes for years for its graphic violence and sexual content.

This time he is in competition with "Melancholia," starring Kirsten Dunst as a bride celebrating her marriage as a planet threatens to collide with Earth.

Rubbing shoulders with the "auteurs" of high art will be Hollywood's big guns -- blockbuster sequels "Kung Fu Panda 2" starring Jolie and Jack Black and "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" with Depp and Cruz will boost the star power.

And economic recovery following the global financial crisis may also breath life into the giant Cannes market place where film rights are bought and sold and which acts as an engine room propelling the famous festival.

"Thor" opens to $66 million in North America


The God of Thunder reigned at the North American box office as "Thor" became the latest Marvel comic book superhero to leap to the big screen.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "Thor" sold about $66 million worth of tickets during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada.

The opening was in line with industry forecasts in the $60 million to $70 million range, and marked a strong start for a nonsequel and for the lucrative summer moviegoing period.

But it fell far short of openings by the first installments of other movies in the Marvel stable, such as 2002's "Spider-Man" ($115 million) and 2008's "Iron Man" ($99 million). Somewhat ominously, it barely exceeded the $62 million start for "Hulk" in 2003, the first of two failed attempts to turn the angry green man into a movie franchise.

International sales data for "Thor" were not immediately available. The film was No. 1 overseas last weekend with cumulative sales of $93 million.

"Thor" was produced for $150 million by Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios and distributed by Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures. Starring Chris Hemsworth in the title role, it was directed by British actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh, best known for his deft handling of Shakespearean material.

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