April 18, 2007

Peeling another layer on its highly anticipated flick "Spider-Man 3", Sony's Columbia Pictures has released two new international TV spots online, which sure will bring another satisfaction to the superhero fans worldwide in their anticipation to see the movie next month.

Previously aired in a Taiwanese television network, the first and second commercial both feature the never-before-seen footage of Venom and Sandman, the super-villains who confront the web-slinger this time.

Pitchfork Music festival bloats its lineup through the addition of Klaxons, Fujiya & Miyagi and Deerhunter. The three acts will join several others that have been announced earlier to slam the stage of Chicago's Union Park.

The event that takes place July 13-15 presents rising bands such as Menomena, Beach House and Oxford Collapse. They will support the headliner Sonic Youth that plans to deliver a special performance from their 1988 album "Daydream Nation". Previously announced lineups include Stephen Malkmus, Of Montreal, Cat Power and Iron & Wine.

This is the beginning of the start. The early ritual on the much awaited wedding ceremony of India top actors Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan has been begun Wednesday April 18th with the traditional sangeet, or music ceremony, during which relatives of the couple sing and dance.

After that comes the henna ceremony, during which the bride's hands are painted, which is about to be held at Rai's house on Thursday April 19th. The last ritual is the Hindu ceremony and traditional parting of the bride from her parents, set to take place Friday April 20th.

"Grindhouse" fans around the States really should cheer up by this time as it turns out that the double-feature flick will be kept as whole, according to JoBlo.

The site apparently has learned from an insider of The Weinstein Company that all plans to get the picture split for a summer re-release have been thrown away and so, it will continue to run as one film in U.S. theaters. The studio, however, did try to screen the two segments of movie, "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof", separately in some cinemas while keeping them together in other places with an intermission instead of the fake trailers.

Modest Mouse is in full speed mode to promote chart-topping album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" (2007). They just announced that their May schedule is partly packed with UK gigs.

The band will kick off May 20 at All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Sommerset and conclude May 29 in Manchester's Ritz Ballroom. One show in Nottingham Rock City will coincide with the UK release of single "Dashboard" on May 28.

London's Somerset House Festival is rounding up with the announcement of its early lineups.

The festival that starts July 12 will be opened by Scottish band Mogwai. The band is followed by Kasabian, Bert Jansch, Beth Orton, Bernard Butler, Guillemots, Lily Allen, Mika, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Roots, Amy Winehouse in the respective dates. On July 21, electro-pop band Hot Chip will conclude the festival that takes place in the historic landmark.

Forget about the sex tape. Kim Kardashian has left the incident behind and already moves on with her new man, who happens to be New Orleans Saints running back, Reggie Bush.

An American socialite who comes to media attention primarily due to her close friendship with Paris Hilton, Kim finds Bush as a perfect match to date. The two were spotted leaving the Samsung Upstage Country Club event in Hollywood Hills on April 15th holding hands. That's a start for a date, isn't it?

With the lead part currently being in search, words no doubt are circulating around on who may get the coveted role in Paramount Pictures' sci-fi adventure "Barbarella."

Adding the hype on this matter, the Daily Express has come with an interesting tidbit saying that "Underworld" star Kate Beckinsale has been tipped to become the title character in the project, which is a remake of the 1968 flick of the same name.

The anticipation of "Shrek the Third" premiere will be celebrated three days earlier with the release of the soundtrack. Besides involving the star to contribute songs, Stacy Ferguson aka Fergie, Led Zeppelin, Wings, Ramones and Harry Chapin are growing the list.

Fergie will cover rock band Heart's song titled "Barracuda" while Eddie Murphy who starred as Donkey in the film performs duets with "Puss in Boots" character Antonio Banderas in Sly & the Family Stone's smash hit "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)".

Seems to be pretty ambitious in developing the recently-announced "Nine", The Weinstein Co. co-chairman Harvey Weinstein reportedly is determined to have some Hollywood's biggest names in the cast of the musical project.

The movie mogul has been spotted to remark that he would like A-list actresses of Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Catherine Zeta-Jones, plus Renee Zellweger to fill in the six major female roles of the picture, and appears to take it rather lightly in dealing with their salaries.

While Jessica Simpson and boyfriend John Mayer are not ashamed of publication, Nick Lachey and girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo are getting even more serious with their romance. The former MTV veejay is moving in with the singer, it has been reported.

If the New York Post is to be believed, Minnillo has moved into Lachey's Beverly Hills house in the wake of her attempt to become an actress and focus on gigs in L.A.

The coveted chair finally is secured by Michael Apted as Ain't It Cool News has surprisingly brought in a scoop stating the English filmmaker has already been assigned to be the director of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

The Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media's third installment of "Narnia" franchise, the project will be made based on C.S. Lewis' third published book of the series which finds Edmund and Lucy Pevensie helping Caspian to locate the seven banished lords of Narnia. Its predecessor, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" is currently in production for a May 16, 2008 release with Andrew Adamson at helm.

Contrary to tabloid reports, the Hogans are doing great so far. Hulk Hogan and wife Linda Hogan fire back at reports that their marriage is on the rocks, claiming they are happily married.

In response to the marriage-end reports, the American actor and semi-retired professional wrestler told Us Weekly, "I'm happily married, and everything is cool."

Consistently promoting fair, accurate, and balanced portrayals of Latinos in the U.S. entertainment industry, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) for the thirteenth time is going to hold its American Latino Media Arts Awards or known as ALMA Awards and has officially revealed titles and names nominated for the prizes.

The list was made public by telecast host Eva Longoria, NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguia, and Mario Lopez on April 16 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Winners will be named on Friday, June 1 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium with the event being aired later by ABC Television Network on Tuesday, June 5 at 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET.

One change of producer and one pushed back release date after, Velvet Revolver's "Libertad" is set for July 3 via RCA. Helmed by Brendan O' Brien instead of Rick Rubin, the album will be the band's first conceptual piece.

Bassist Duff McKagan who announced the new release date compared this record to the single oriented debut "Contraband". He said, "I think 'Contraband' was a great record. It was the right one for us to make as our first record. But 'Libertad' really goes way beyond that musically. I don't think any of us could have made a better record at this point in our careers." Summarizing the content of the new record he continued, "It's a great f*ckin' rock song. It has a kick-ass guitar riff, a great chorus, a really big bridge and a great Slash solo."

Nominations for this year American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Awards had been announced Monday April 16th during a press conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California with Eva Longoria served as host alongside best friend Mario Lopez and NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguia.

On the television category, HBO's "Walkout", plus ABC's "George Lopez" and "Ugly Betty" are the nominees vying for the Outstanding TV Series, Mini-Series, or TV Movie award. The series' male stars, including the likes of George Lopez and Michael Pena, are nominated for the Outstanding Actor- TV Series, Mini-Series, or TV Movie award.

R&B singer Gladys Knight will be the recipient of this year's ELLA Award. The honor that is given by Society of the Singers will be presented to her on Sept 10.

Upon receiving this award, Knight gave her statement, "It is a truly awesome feeling to be receiving this honor. Ella was the sweetest and most beautiful person as a talent and as a human being." The president of Society of Singers Jerry F. Sharell explained that choosing the singer is only appropriate considering that she is "one of the greatest and most distinctive voices of our time".

Stomping into new field, Will Ferrell has activated a comedy video site named FunnyOrDie.com through Gary Sanchez Productions, the company he established with Adam McKay.

Backed up by venture capital firm Sequoia Partners, the site is off to a sizzling start since quietly going up as a beta release Thursday, April 12, already having a short video featuring Ferrell and McKay racked up more than 1.5 million page views and generated more than 2 million streams. Entitled "The Landlord", the two-minute clip shows Ferrell as an apartment tenant forced to reckon with an angry landlord, who happens to be played by McKay's toddler daughter.

Dave Chappelle breaks the record of Dane Cook and Richard Pryor, entertained the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles for six hours and seven minutes on Sunday April 15th.

The comedian, walked out on the third season of his hit Comedy Central show May last year, hit the stage at 10:36 pm and continued cracking jokes until 4:43 am.

Someone familiar from the franchise may be missing in "Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventures." Recent report surfacing at Dark Horizons pointed out that Sallah, the old friend of Jones who first appeared in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", will probably not appear in this latest part of Indiana Jones series to accompany the hero's journey at all.

According to Dark Horizons, actor John Rhys-Davies who played the character has revealed through a third party that Sallah has been written out of the project's script in favor of "a younger cast." The site also speculated that the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy star presumably "has not been asked to be in Indy 4 or even approached about it."

Big & Rich had to cancel their concert in San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino on April 12 after a young girl was banned permission to enter the building. The girl who is a big fan of the country band did not meet the requirement of '21-years-old and above' because she is merely 5 years old.

Though no dispute has occurred, the duo has left as many as 1,600 fans who were waiting nearly over an hour disappointed. They were told to refund their tickets after the cancellation was announced. Director of the casino Steve Lengel stated, "This was an unfortunate incident and caused great inconvenience for our guests."

As if they want to put to rest the wrong split persistent rumors, Kirsten Dunst and Johnny Borrell showed up together, holding hands at the world premiere of her latest film project "Spider-Man 3" Monday April 16th in Tokyo, Japan.

Borrell joined his lady for the film premiere at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills after his solo performance at HMV Shibuya earlier that day. The happy couple then made appearance at the after-party.

Looks like it is not possible to see the return of Anthony Hopkins to horror genre after the 1992 "Dracula". The Oscar-winning thesp recently advised UK.RottenTomatoes.com that he is in consideration to take part in "The Wolfman" that Benicio Del Toro is toplining for Universal Pictures.

"There's also a chance I may play the Wolfman in London in a movie with Benicio Del Toro," Hopkins told the site. "My agent says it's a great script but he hasn't sent it to me yet."

Maintaining their solid pact after "Spider-Man" films, Sony's Columbia Pictures and Sam Raimi are working together to make a high-concept action-adventure the company has preemptively purchased from scribes Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.

Described as an all-ages fantasy movie with franchise potential that Columbia is hoping to fast track, the project follows a cynical New Yorker as he is forced to go to a land untouched by modern civilization to save a village and a princess from fiendish fairy tale creatures.

Set to deliver a good entertainment for male audience, Walt Disney Pictures has preemptively acquired a comedy pitch by Jack Angelo and Sam Brown entitled "Undateable" to develop it into a big screen feature, Variety has reported.

The project is said to depict the real-life tale of romantic loser Brian Wolf who launched a Web site (www.settleforbrian.com) as a last-ditch attempt at landing a girlfriend. Disney-based Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot have been confirmed to produce alongside Mikkel Bondesen of Fuse Entertainment with Alex Goldstone executive producing and Rich Demato co-producing.

Post a difficulty in naming the finished album, Sum 41 comes up with "Underclass Hero" after the first single that will be released. The record will arrive on US shelves July 24 via Island Records.

The first single will circulate US rock radios on May 15 while another track "March of the Dogs" is readily available on iTunes. The album marks the first record that they do as a trio after guitarist Dave Baksh calling it quit last year.

On sale: the nude photos of controversial supermodel Kate Moss.

Two nude photographs of Moss are to be auctioned off at Christie's auction house in London on May 31st. Both portraits, a 1996 print by Irving Penn and a two-meter square image by Albert Watson, are expected to sell for about £22,000 ($52,500) and £15,000 respectively, Christie's auctioneers said.

In the wake of wedding reports which details are still being kept under wrap, here comes a new report suggests that Rod Stewart is planning to marry fiancee Penny Lancaster in a lavish £1million June wedding.

The rocker is said planning to spend such amount of money on their big day which is set to take place at the exclusive Italian Riviera Portofino resort on June 16th. "They have hired a venue in the town and he is going to charter a couple of private jets to get his guests there. It is going to cost a small fortune but he wants it to be a memorable day," Britain's The Sun newspaper quoted a source as saying.

Fall Out Boy is giving a chance for new bands to prove themselves. The band is opening slots for their US tour's opening acts.

As much as 19 bands are going to be selected by submitting their details in mylocalbands.com. The registering band though, must be unsigned to any label. Written in the site is "In a few days, everyone will be able to come here, check out all the bands' MySpace pages, and vote on their favorite band."

No joke, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart are engaged to be married.

Rumor has it that the action hero actor has popped the question to longtime girlfriend Flockhart, asking her to marry him after 5 years together.