May 01, 2007

After months of speculations, finally the curtain is being lifted on who to play the lead character of Alex O'Connell in "The Mummy 3."

Variety has come up with news reporting that Universal Pictures and director Rob Cohen have chosen 26-year-old Luke Ford to assume the role, who is depicted as the son of Rick O'Connell, hero from previous "Mummy" installments played by Brendan Fraser. Here the character is said to follow his father to China and the Himalayas where they run into a new shape-shifting mummy, a former Chinese emperor cursed by a female wizard.

Scottish indie rock band Travis sees Ben Stiller the perfect character to guest star in their new video, "Closer". The main reason to it is because no other actor is as uptight as him.

"We just thought, 'Who do we know that is uptight and wound-up?'," said bassist Douglas Payne. "So Fran emailed Ben and sure enough he had the day off and it was great, we all went off to LA and started shooting." Ben will be playing as a wound up store manager who got trouble in a supermarket.

Looks like casting process for "The Night Watchman¹" has gone to a quick pace indeed. Just couple of days ago picking up Chris Evans, the cop drama now has already had Hugh Laurie submitted into the cast lineup.

Though so, there is still no word yet on which role the "House M.D." star is set to play while Evans has confirmed that he will appear as a cop named Diskant. Other cast members, Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker, have already been billed to portray a Los Angeles police officer framed for murdering fellow cop and his former mentor also prosecutor, respectively.

Green Day's cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" is made available for digital download starting from May 1. The charity song, which is part of Amnesty International for Darfur, contains partly Lennon's original voice.

The single is the third release from compilation titled "Instant Karma: The Campaign To Save Darfur" after R.E.M.'s cover of "#9 Dream" in March and Corinne Bailey Rae's version of "I'm Losing You" in April. Other tracks waiting to be released are the covers from U2, Black Eyed Peas, Christina Aguilera, Jack Johnson, Snow Patrol and Aerosmith.

Seems going out of the radar following the dispute occurred between him and New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye, Peter Jackson is now being reported to shop around his latest pitch of "The Lovely Bones" for a partnership in developing the project.

Adapted from Alice Sebold's best-selling novel of the same title, the film concerns a young girl tracing steps back through her own murder and is likely to be a more low-key effort for the filmmaker compared to "Lord of The Rings" trilogy and "King Kong." Its script was written by Jackson himself alongside partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh.

50 Cent sees that the possibility of him collaborating with British singer Robbie Williams is indeed very big. He particularly wants Robbie to taste hip-hop and get on the recording studio with him.

The rapper who is amazed by Robbie's voice said, "People should look forward to hearing 50 Cent and Robbie together. He's keen to explore hip-hop. He's got a very distinctive voice and with the right song we could work well together." A deal was already made between both representatives and they are currently in early planning of the collaboration.

Well, seems the crew of "The Hardy Men" has to wait for unspecified time to get the high-profile project made as director Shawn Levy turns out to have another plan in his mind.

The Canadian filmmaker, who recently scored huge success with "Night at the Museum", has come up to a decision to make a different feature as his next effort instead, picking up a coming-of-age drama comedy "The Way Back", which he will develop for Fox Searchlight.

No more rumors on Blur's reunion. The band has decided to give it a try anyway. Together with the three remaining members, guitarist Graham Coxon who quit in 2002 has agreed to enter the studio this summer.

The come out from this studio trial will decide whether there will be a true reunion or not. "We're all heading into the studio together this summer. Graham's coming too. We're gonna see if we've still got it. If not, I think we'll just call it a day," said bassits Alex James.

For those who just can't wait little longer to see "Spider-Man 3" as it opens this Friday, May 4, do empty your schedule on Thursday night, May 3 for Sony reportedly is adding numerous midnight screenings of the flick that day.

Reports informed that the third part of the web-slinging superhero tale would be released on several screens virtually at the same time in some megaplexes where a single print can be spooled out from one projection booth to another. Seems no need to worry about running out of tickets then.

This just in. After making headlines with her so-called misunderstanding New York restaurant non-payment, Tyra Banks has sparked another media frenzy with her being romantically linked to New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas.

The supermodel, according to the New York Post's Page Six, was looked cozy with Isiah as they lunched at Club 66 in Midtown on Tuesday afternoon April 24th. "They looked like they were really enjoying themselves," the publication quoted an onlooker as saying.

Finally, the wait is over for the fans of the Marvel Comics superhero quartet in their hope to get more detailed look on the highly-anticipated "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."

Definitely will satisfy their curiosity of the movie, Apple has submitted on its site the final full-length trailer for the flick in QuickTime format. The good news is that the trailer wonderfully is available in several options, including High Definition and iPod Video.

After sparking news that she would appear at the famous LA's House of Blues clubs under the moniker M+M's, Britney Spears died down the flame by calling off the comeback gig. She gave no reason upon the cancellation in Forty Deuce club despite the hefty rehearsal in the last few weeks.

Seemingly not ready to make a comeback, Britney cancelled the show but still continue rehearsing for other dates in the coming weeks. "Britney came on stage during rehearsal, looking very hot, with four dancers and sang three songs," Ivan Kane who owned the club said. "They ran through the set several times, the choreography was smokin' and she sounded great."

The coveted Golden Popcorn trophies once again set to be handed into the rightful ones as MTV has just revealed its list of nominees for this year's MTV Movie Awards, which it will air live for the first time ever from Universal City's Gibson Amphitheatre on June 3.

Picking up titles of various genres for the competition, the network surprisingly gives large portion attention to epic saga "300", granting the Zack Snyder-directed flick a total five nods, notably Best Movie and Best Performance for lead star Gerard Butler.

Apparently still eager for another turn in comedy genre after "The TV Set", Sigourney Weaver is reportedly engaged in negotiations for a starring slot in Universal Pictures' comedy "Baby Mama."

Featuring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the flick revolves around a single professional woman who opts to hire a surrogate mother so she can have a baby and keep her career on track. While Fey and Poehler have already been billed as the career woman and the surrogate, Weaver will likely play Chaffee Bicknell, owner and operator of the surrogate agency that Fey's character uses if everything goes as expected.

Music stars are teaming up, making good deeds with their status by designing their own guitars to raise money for charity.

There are around 30 music acts to be involved in the special project, among those are Noel Gallagher, Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, James Blunt, Paul Weller, James Morrison, The Kooks, Razorlight and Dirty Pretty Things.

The Shortlist Music Prize has downsized the nominated albums up to mere ten. The 2006 albums that stands the chance are coming from Cat Power, Band of Horses, Beirut, Bonnie Prince Billy, Girl Talk, Hot Chip, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor, Spank Rock and Tom Waits.

These finalists are the ones thought to be potentially 'creative and adventurous' this year. They are selected after a hefty list of 60 others such as Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall, Panic! At the Disco, 2005's winner Sufjan Stevens and many others. Co-founder Greg Spotts said, "This is the year of the storyteller. More than half of our ten finalists are wordsmiths who create unique characters and narratives, interpreting our complex world in new ways."

New rumors surface by the hour that Leonardo DiCaprio is getting close to model Petra Nemcova.

The movie hunk was spotted partying with the model at New York's Marquee nightclub on Friday April 27th while his reported fiancee Bar Refaeli was no where to be seen.

Scottish singer KT Tunstall who is infectious for her "Black Horse & The Cherry Tree" hit will have another blow this late spring or early summer. "Drastic Fantastic" will be the name of the sophomore effort and is coming out via Virgin Records around September.

"The second album sort of feels like the next half of a book rather than a totally different book," the singer said in a statement. "I'm really excited about that because the first album was made in the middle of the country, so I'm now looking at making an album in London. I think the city will always find its way under the door of the studio and imbed itself in what you're doing."

Ellen DeGeneres is one who is highly committed to her profession. She always does everything in the biggest way possible. The talk show host is going to do this week's show from hospital bed after reportedly hurt her back over the weekend.

A bed will be placed center stage on Ellen's set as she'll play host to Ryan Seacrest on Tuesday May 1st and Lindsay Lohan the next day May 2nd.

Not only a poet gets the chance to accumulate their words in a book, musician Sting will have his lyrics comprised in a paperback. Coming out this fall via The Dial Press is simple-titled book "Lyrics by Sting".

Every word that the 55 years old singer wrote both as a solo artist and as the lead singer of The Police will be recorded in the book. Fans can expect Sting's personal commentary on his works such as "Roxanne", "Every Breath You Take" and "Spirits in the Material World".

Coming to his fourth collaboration with Russell Crowe, Ridley Scott has signed on to assume helming duties on the Oscar-winning actor's starring vehicle "Nottingham", which Universal Pictures is developing alongside Imagine Entertainment.

A revisionist take on the Robin Hood tale, pic will present Crowe's character, Sheriff of Nottingham, as a noble and brave lawman who labors for a corrupt king and engages in a love triangle with Maid Marion and Robin Hood. It is said that Scott will work on the project after finishing filming "Body of Lies" for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Claiming can't describe the new record in a sentence, Paul McCartney recalled the days from being a kid where all the emotion and vibe become the main theme of the 13 tracks. Titling the album "Memory Almost Full", McCartney dotted this one as a very personal record.

The 64 years old singer has unveiled the track list of the record which includes a five songs-medley. He referred this medley as "purposely retrospective" and said, "I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John (Lennon) and a lot of that was also looking back. It's like me with 'Penny Lane' and 'Eleanor Rigby' -- I'm still up to the same tricks!"

Ewan McGregor is about to be immortalized in a special series of stamps for the US postal service.

The Scottish actor, commemorated for his Star Wars role, will be the new face on one of 15 special edition postal stamps, brought out to immortalize the series' 30th anniversary next month. In addition to the stamp, McGregor also appears on an express mail delivery sticker.

Set to become the leading lady, Isla Fisher is reportedly attached to topline a new comedy feature entitled "The Cookie Queen" that Universal Pictures is currently setting up at its pit.

The project will find Fisher play Claire "Cookie" Taylor who holds the record for all-time girl scout cookie sales. However, her twenty-year reign later is threatened to meet its end following the arrival of a precocious fifth grader, leading her to embark on a sabotage mission on the rival.

Saving the best for last, 2007 Coachella Festival only pumped the adrenaline the right way. Reunited Rage Against the Machine closed the festival to a screaming audience who seemed to wait only for that moment.

Zack de la Rocha who left the band in 1999 entered the stage holding his fist up high in attempt to deliver the first message, "Keep Fighting!" He then clarified the idea in several songs that boasted his heavy sound such as "Bulls on Parade", "Killing the Name", "Freedom" and "Guerrilla Radio".

Courtney Love is planning to auction most of her late husband Kurt Cobain's belongings. The controversial actress has not yet set the date for the sale though, except saying that it would occur in the near future.

"I'm going to have a Christie's auction," Love tells AOL music Website Spinner.com. "[My house] is like a mausoleum."

Britney Spears creates another headlines when she reportedly has evidently sparked a bidding war between Allure and Vanity Fair magazines for a tell-all interview.

The singer, who is also planning to write a tell-all book, is expected to talk about shaving her head, going to rehab, firing her manager and fighting with her father while trying to relaunch her music career.