August 25, 2007

Though principal photography has not yet begun on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the crew appears to have already known where they will head for by the time the filming starts: back to Lacock Abbey.

The Wiltshire Times reported that producers of the next installment of the mega-hit fantasy series have obtained permission from the residents of Lacock to once again use the building to shoot scenes needed for the project, which is said to start principal photography next month.

Ready with tracks and first single, 'Heroes' star Hayden Panettiere joins Hilary Duff to be the artist under Hollywood Records. The 18-years-old actress had just signed a recording deal with the label and will release a debut album in January 2008.

A source told The Sun, "Hayden's got a great voice so we're hoping with the popularity of the show that she'll be a huge success."

This just in, Paulina Rubio is pregnant. The Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated Mexican singer and actress reportedly pregnant with her first child with husband Nicolas Vallejo Najera.

"She's been pregnant for a few months. I don't know exactly how many... She is very happy," the singer's best friend, socialite Liliana Sada Melo, was quoted by Website Lossip.com as saying.

As AVPGalaxy previously hinted, a Red Band trailer for "Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem" has indeed arrived on the net by now, which sure is the moment every fan of "Alien vs. Predator" series have been waiting for.

Though officially posted in perfect high quality at Ign.com, the trailer turned out to have leaked on YouTube prior to its submission on the site. Running about two minutes, it contains handfuls of no cut-away shots of gore while confirming the new Predator "whip" weapon as well as the return of the original Predator vision and wristblades.

Starting off as a dancer herself, Jennifer Lopez gets down to the business by calling a street audition for female dancers interested in making a cameo in her new music video. Lopez has been touring nationally since Thursday (August 23) and will visit 5 other cities in the coming weeks.

"I'm looking for somebody who's clean, who can pick up choreography but also has a stage presence," Lopez said. She herself sat at the judging panel at the first stop in New York but her entrusted man, choreographer Shane Sparks, will continue with the rest.

Like father like son. Master P and Lil' Romeo are indeed more than just father and son, they in fact such great business partners. The twosome has teamed up with T-Mobile for the ad campaign to promote the new forthcoming Sidekick LX, a smartphone that has a browser, email/texting and a phone.

"The Sidekick is the most important device for running my ventures," Master P said. "I can't always talk on the phone, but I can shoot off a quick text to close the deal when I need to." Son Romeo, elsewhere, has his own statement on the product he endorsed, saying "Everywhere I go I take my Sidekick with me: school, the movie set, out on the road. It allows me to run my business and keep in touch with my friends. Texting is still the leading way of communication for us youth. I need my Sidekick like I need my Rap Snacks! I gotta have 'em!."

Rock band Goo Goo Dolls are releasing the first volume of their retrospective collection. Titled 'Greatest Hits, Vol. 1', the album will have fourteen tracks compiled from the band's previous hits including 'Iris' until the recent 'Before It's Too Late (Sam and Mikaela's Theme)'.

Beside the 'Transformers' soundtrack, there's also a theme song for 'Treasure Planet' called 'I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) that frontman Johnny Rzeznik did as a solo in 2002. The compilation will be dropped in stores November 13 via Warner Bros. Records.

Here it comes Joan of Arcadia about to make her return to the small screen. Amber Tamblyn, who came to fame as the title character on TV series "Joan of Arcadia" (2003-2005), has signed on to star in CBS' upcoming season of "The Russell Girl."

The actress and poet is said to have been billed to play a small-town girl who attempts to escape her past by moving to Chicago. She then heading back home and is forced to deal with the tragedy she left behind.

Can't you sense Kanye West's political interest? The rapper, who says he is not political and has no interest in "who's running with who" in the 2008 election, is teaming up with the Strong American Schools (S.A.S.) for their "ED in an '08" campaign which will address America's education crisis and dropout epidemic.

As part of their partnership, West will appear in television public service announcements for SAS calling for U.S. Presidential candidates to improve America's public schools and make education reform a top priority on the campaign trail.

Time is all The Cure need right now. Leading to perfection, an amount of time is necessary to complete their new album, which is now confirmed to be a double CD. And for that North American Tour this fall will have to be pushed back.

The new trek is dated as far as April and May next year. The post in the band's website read, "The schedule as it stands only gives us a couple of weeks to finish our new double album before we hit the road again, and we know this just isn't enough time to complete the project to our total satisfaction."

Nearing the release date of Babyface's first album under newly-relaunched Mercury records, lead single 'Fire & Rain' has gained popularity in several radio stations. The cover of James Taylor's 1969 classics is placed #2 most-added single at AC radio and #1 in most added at Smooth Jazz.

'Fire & Rain' is taken from the R&B icon's upcoming album 'Playlist', due September 18. As previously reported, the record contains mostly covers while also having new materials within the tracks. "These songs came from memories, and these songs helped shape who I am – and they’re still shaping who I am," Babyface said earlier.

Allowing moviegoers to see more action and suspense they will find in the upcoming "American Gangster", Universal Pictures has brought online a new international trailer for the action drama exclusively at Empireonline.com.

Also can be accessed through AceShowbiz's American Gangster Trailer page, the trailer starts off with a bunch of faces getting beat down before shifting to how Denzel Washington's character Frank Lucas came out on top in the drug industry.

DMX gets into trouble. The rapper hits another new low with another animal cruelty. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department raided that star's home in Cave Creek, Arizona on Friday morning August 24th and found 12 undernourished pit bulls which soon thereafter turned over to a shelter.

Authorities said they received reports about two weeks ago of "animal abuse/neglect" at the house and quickly informed DMX's camp about the matter and issued a warning to remove the animals should the care not improved.

From one highly-anticipated film project to another, there his name now gets linked to.

In the middle of heavy rumors on his inclusion in "Star Trek", new tidbit has surfaced pointing out that Russell Crowe will also take part in "The Dark Knight", and the scoop looks convincing as it came from none other than the Caped Crusader's portrayer himself, Christian Bale.

The beginning of the end has come for Michael Vick's career. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was suspended from the National Football League (NFL) Friday August 24th, just hours after he filed a plea agreement, acknowledging that he did involve in dogfighting.

In the court papers it is stated that "Vick agreed to the killing of approximately 6-8 dogs that did not perform well in testing sessions. All of those dogs were killed by various methods, including hanging and drowning." Vick, who acknowledged bankrolling gambling on the dogfights, in fact denied placing bets himself or taking any of the winnings.

Don't know if this is good news or not, but there will be no scary things happening in the big screen version of the phenomenal "High School Musical", that's for sure.

A spokesperson of Walt Disney Pictures confirmed to TVGuide.com that plans to present a story set during Halloween involving some sort of haunted house in the project, originally titled "Haunted High School Musical", have been completely dropped.

Two grand finalists of American Idol in cycle six have been making huge progress since their graduation in May this year.

Winner Jordin Sparks is officially signed to 19Recordings/Jive Records and her first single 'Tattoo' that supposes to hit the radio on Monday (August 27) has made a round in the Internet first. Her album is coming out in November with collaborators including Amanda Ghost who co-penned James Blunt's hit 'You're Beautiful'.

Elaborating its collaboration with Peter Berg, Universal Pictures has appointed the New York-born filmmaker to once again handle helming matters on a new big screen feature coming from its pit following the upcoming "The Kingdom."

Titled "Lone Survivor", the project is based on a memoir by former Navy Seal officer Marcus Luttrell who led a team into Afghanistan on a mission to kill a Taliban leader but was the only one to survive. Rights to the book and Luttrell’s life were optioned by Universal after the man chose to bond with Berg during his meetings with potential writers and producers arranged by Attorney Alan U. Schwartz of Greenberg Traurig, who helped Luttrell find a publisher for his account.

They were on then off, and now they probably on again. Paris Hilton and Britney Spears BFF again. Could it be true? Only time will tell.

It looks like the former best friends have put problems behind them and decided to patch up their friendship. TMZ was first to bring the speculation to public as they spotted the two celebs leaving Opera on Thursday night August 23rd, within 10 minutes of each other.

Kirsten Dunst gets robbed. The movie siren had some of her stuffs stolen from her penthouse suite at the SoHo Grand hotel, Manhattan two weeks ago while she was in town to shoot scenes for a forthcoming film called "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People."

Two thieves broke into Dunst's hotel room at about 5 a.m. on August 9th, while the beauty left to work on location, and stole two designer bags, $2,500 in cash, credit and ID cards, two digital cameras, a cellphone and an iPod music player. A surveillance camera captured the burglars leaving the hotel with those items.