July 23, 2007

Set to put an antagonistic role in his acting resume, "Road to Perdition" star Stanley Tucci is reportedly engaged in negotiations to portray the pivotal role of killer George Harvey in "The Lovely Bones", which DreamWorks Pictures is currently gearing up for production.

Project has already signed newcomer Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, a teenage girl murdered by Harvey, as well as Hollywood stars Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling who will play the teen's parents. Story, based on Alice Sebold's best-selling 2002 novel, centers on Salmon who finds herself in the afterlife where she later observes her family also her killer from.

Eager to have a Hollywood household name to headline the project, Columbia Pictures is reported to plant hope on Tom Cruise to play the titular character in its spy-thriller feature "Edwin A. Salt", setting it as a potential vehicle for the mega-star.

Written by Kurt Wimer, project concerns Salt, a CIA agent who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy and gets chased by superiors who are convinced he is out to assassinate the president. Eluding the capture, he then sets out to reunite with his family while struggling to prove someone else is the traitor.

It's on. The party has been kicked off. And there they were, David Beckham and wife Victoria Adams, as well as Hollywood celebrity couples, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith, joining together to cheer the British power couple's arrival in Los Angeles.

They posed together at the Museum Of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday July 22nd, where a red carpet was rolled out at the entrance with a small group of police patrolled streets for blocks. The lightings, music, and floral arrangement, the bash would even more complete with star-studded guests.

As filming has already begun on Jessica Simpson's new vehicle "Major Movie Star", a number of acting talents have reportedly been picked up to accompany the pop sensation in the cast of the comedy apart from the previously-announced Jill Marie Jones.

On the female side, names hired include Vivica A. Fox, Cheri Oteri, Olesya Rulin, Keiko Agena, and Aimee Garcia while Steve Guttenberg, Ryan Sypek, and Gary Grubbs are rounding out the male cast.

Going to his next big screen stint after that in "The Forbidden Kingdom", Jackie Chan has signed on to both produce and star in a Japan-set immigrant drama entitled "The Shinjuku Incident", Variety has revealed.

Not much is known about the flick's story apart from the fact that it will be set in the 1990s and feature lives of Chinese immigrants in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Yee Tung-sing has been hired to direct under Chan's JCE group banner with Emperor Motion Pictures taking care the international markets.

Talks on "Watchmen" cast seems to never reach an end despite the building expectation on the revelation of the lineup at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con held July 26-29 this year.

Latino Reviews has learned from its chronic scooper that Canadian actress Malin Akerman has secured a starring slot in the long-gestating superhero movie as Sally Jupiter aka The Silk Spectre. The heroine is described to be a former crime-fighter who lives with the powerful entity Dr. Manhattan, said to be played by Billy Crudup.

It's been months that they ended their romance, but Olivier Martinez has just come to realization that he made a mistake in splitting with Kylie Minogue.

The French actor is reported to tell friends, none of the most beautiful women he has ever dated compares to Minogue. "Martinez told a friend Kylie is everything any man could want in a woman - beautiful, charming, hugely talented - and that he was certain he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her," the Sunday Mirror quoted a source close to the actor as saying.

Slated to have another big screen stint besides her only role of Hermione Granger in "Harry Potter" series, Emma Watson has taken part to provide the voice of Princess Pea in the upcoming animated feature "The Tale of Despereaux", her official site has claimed.

Based on Kate DiCamillo's best-selling fantasy book of the same name, pic tells about the tale of three unlikely heroes - a misfit mouse who prefers reading books to eating them, an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess.

Scissor Sisters are working 12 hours a day in the studio with Kylie Minogue. The group is recording their third album and is lining up a number of songs that may actually not made the cut with the Australian singer.

"We definitely work her really hard in the studio, from midday to midnight - although sometimes we pepper it with a shopping trip in between," frontman Jake Shears said. "We've written songs with her that are ridiculous and may never see the light of day. We've also written songs with her that I think are amazing but they may never see the light of day either."

Is said to be keen to earn respect as a movie actress, Jennifer Aniston has put to rest rumors on "Friends" reunion by refusing to reprise her role as Rachel Green on the possible TV special or movie version of the hit show if there's any.

"There have been whispers of a Friends movie for a while now, especially with the "Sex and the City" film finally getting the go-ahead," a source revealed. "But it can't happen without Jen and she thinks 'Friends' has had it's time and she should move on with her film career."

Buzz around "The Green Hornet" is likely to get louder by now as Los Angeles Times has brought in a new scoop about the project following the recent inclusion of "Knocked Up" star Seth Rogen.

According to the paper, Rogen is apparently keen to have Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow to play Kato, the titular character's sidekick formerly played by the deceased martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. Chow, considered the finest Hong Kong screen comedian since Michael Hui, is probably most well-known to international audience for his recent works of "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle."

Britney Spears is eyeing a big comeback in the entertainment industry. The pop singer who's been tight-lipped on the heavy issues surrounding her personal life, is keen to do a tell-all interview which will be a big blow.

Rumors are abuzz that Spears has quietly called OK! Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Sara Ivens to negotiate a tell-all interview with the magazine, which Ivens agreed to. In what is promised to be a "shocking interview," OK! magazine plans on running a story next week that contains a very candid conversation with the mother of two.

R&B crooner Craig David is assisting rapper Kano with his new single "This is the Girl" that is taken from the Jamaican-British rapper's new album. The single is actually slated to be released on August 27 but it has leaked online.

Kano has been grateful on the collaboration saying, “Me and Craig coming together is a great thing because a lot of the times in the UK you don’t see collaborations like that, its all about making great music at the end of the day.”

The search of a soul mate comes to an end already. Steve Martin has found the love of his life. The actor-comedian has proposed to girlfriend, Anne Stringfield, and they will tie the knot soon.

No details being made public on the couple's engagement nor do on their upcoming wedding, except that Stringfield is a former New Yorker journalist, who has recently been writing for US Vogue.

Mariah Carey is coming close to wrap her eleventh album that will be the follow up of Grammy winning "The Emancipation of Mimi". The singer has recently bagged the 10th track and is moving to Atlanta to put finishing touches.

“I'm heading to Atlanta to work with on a stone groove, smash-hit wonder - or at least a stone groove, hopefully," she revealed. “I'll be holed up in the studio working on things for the next few months."

Coming up with a delightful tidbit on "The Punisher 2", Latino Review has claimed that filmmakers of the project have finally cast their choice on Ray Stevenson of HBO's "Rome" fame to play the titular hero as the replacement of Thomas Jane, who decided to give up the role he portrayed back in 2004's "The Punisher" last May.

Apart from the surprising info, the site also pointed out that "Green Street Hooligans" helmer Lexi Alexander is indeed in charge to direct the action flick which has its latest draft penned by Stuart Beattie. Further, it stressed that the villain would still be Jigsaw as it has reported before.

No joke, Hilary Swank is going to make hair donation. The Oscar-winning actress has signed on to front the year long Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign, a new charity campaign which aims to support women who've lost their hair during cancer treatment.

Concerning her role, Swank will star in a Pantene Beautiful Lengths public service announcement (PSA) and encourage people across the US and Canada to grow their hair, cut it off and then donate it to create wigs for the women who have lost their hair due of cancer. The actress herself will also do the same thing.

Regarded as one of best selling artists in late '90s, Westlife is confident that they can compete with Spice Girls' huge comeback. The Irish boyband will release their next album on the same week the reunited British band drop theirs.

Unlike Spice Girls' newly-worked record, Westlife's album has been baked in the studio for sometime and may actually be ready before the end of this year. However, now that the girls have announced their reunion, the management thinks it would be great to reignite the chart battle.

It's obvious now that moviegoers are rather inclined to have laughs in spending their weekend in theaters this time as "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" surprisingly goes straight to the top place of weekend domestic box office ended July 22 despite bad reviews.

Raking in a hefty $34.2 million, the Universal comedy thereby successfully knocks "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" down to number two, but, on the other hand, only makes a narrow gap between them for the fifth installment of the teen wizard adventures turns out to score slightly below at $32.5 million.

Lil' Flip made a brief visit to jail, literally. The rap star turned himself in to the Harris County Courthouse around 2:30 pm Saturday July 21st and was released shortly after posting a $2000 bail.

Flip was accused of credit card abuse after allegedly purchasing an airplane ticket using another man's American Express card. Per the authorities, it is said that Flip bought a Southwest Airlines ticket from Houston to Baltimore, cost $671, using a credit card owned by a man named Jordan Salinger, who didn't authorize the purchase.

Matchbox 20 has returned with a new single called "How Far We've Come". The song was premiered on the band's MySpace page and will be the first single pulled out of their greatest hits compilation.

The new tune is born out of the band members' songwriting minus guitarist Adam Gaynor who quit in early 2005. It would be one out of four new materials that will be included in the band's greatest hits CD called "Exile on Mainstream", their first in 5 years after 2002's "More Than You Think You Are"

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC), an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center, was a big winner at the 23rd annual Television Critics Association (TCA) Awards, held Saturday July 21st at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.

The network led the winner list, walked away with four trophies in hand, one of which was the Individual Achievement in Comedy Award that went to Alec Baldwin for his action in its sitcom "30 Rock".

Although Rihanna's "Umbrella" has descended U.S. chart in the tenth week, the Jay-Z featuring hit still has its say in U.K. Singles chart. The song enters its tenth week at #1, making itself the longest running Number One single in ten years at the top of the U.K. chart.

With such record, Rihanna joins Whitney Houston and Bryan Adams in the list of singers with #1 hit that stays more than nine weeks. Houston's "I Will Always Love You" remained seated at the top post for ten weeks in 1992 while Adam's "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" claimed 16 weeks victory one year prior.

David Beckham did his duty quite well. The soccer god made his debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy in an exhibition against Chelsea at the Home Depot Center on Saturday night July 21st in Carson, Calif. despite his left ankle injury.

Beckham got into the exhibition against Chelsea in the 78th minute, running down into the field amid huge cheers and a sea of camera flashes. The 32-year-old midfielder made a brief 12 minutes debut after spent most of the game on the bench because of an ankle injury.