January 05, 2008

"Atonement" can put up high hope for huge nominations as it took clear lead in the long lists for British Academy Film Awards. According to Variety, the drama film has received 17 entries from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

Under the long lists, the Joe Wright's film will have to be up against 14 other nominees in each category since only five will be chosen to be official nominees for the BAFTA Awards. In the category of Best Picture, it faces "American Gangster", "Charlie Wilson's War", "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", "Eastern Promises", "Into the Wild", "Juno", "Michael Clayton", "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood".

Due to his flu, Ozzy Osbourne has to cancel a performance at Portland, Maine's Cumberland County Civic Center on Thursday, January 3. The show that also features Rob Zombie has been rescheduled to January 31.

A spokeswoman said that the original tickets will still be valid for the new schedule. He is also offering discounted tickets to his concert in Worcester, Massachusetts on Tuesday, January 8 for Portland fans. Those interested can go to Ticketmaster.com and type the password 'portland'.

Wyclef Jean has mapped out a tour to support his latest release, 'The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant'. The jaunt begins January 14 and is scheduled up to February 26.

It kicks off in Providence, R.I. and visits 22 other dates, including the last venue in Kitchener, Ontario. According to some reports, Asian dancehall artist Sun will serve as his opening act.

Denzel Washington's based on true story film, "The Great Debaters" has been harshly criticized for its blunders. Talks of the blunders surfaced after the college students the film are based on claimed that the film is full of historical inaccuracies, especially about Harvard's participation.

In the inspirational drama starred by Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker among others, it was told that Melvin Tolson, a debate coach, took a group of underdog students from a small, modest black college in the segregated South in East Texas to challenge and win over the reigning debate champions Harvard University in the national championship.

Though talks of her sex tape scandal have been all over the gossip pages, Vivica A. Fox insisted there was no sex tape.

Reports were mounting earlier this week that Fox was involved in a sex tape scandal which saw her being filmed giving oral sex to an Atlanta man. Her alleged boyfriend unfortunately emailed the mobile phone footage to several pals.

T.I. is about to be a father, again. The rap star and his on-off girlfriend Tameka Cottle are expecting another child together, it has been confirmed.

Cottle posted the news of her pregnancy on her personal Myspace page confirmed she's having a boy and had since then "garnered many congratulatory comments from friends and fans," People wrote.

The "Napoleon Dynamite" star will star in a new horror movie. According to Bloody-disgusting.com, Jon Heder is set to star in Universal Pictures' developing film "Three Men Seeking Monsters". Apart from mentioning Heder as one of the cast member, no further details about the character has been shared.

In the meantime, the movie based on a book with the same title will be produced by Heder's identical twin brother, Dan Heder, along with Ken Atchity, Chi-li Wong and Mike Kuciak. The production of it is expected to be done in 2010.

More speculations on the reason Jay-Z left Def Jam have been suggested. Apparently the 'not enough money' factor that has been brought up at first, becomes the landing of the problem once again.

As quoted from a source, Jay dropped his position as the CEO of Def Jam because he made more money outside the job. He, thus, wanted to concentrate on his other business ventures such as opening clubs, hotels and making his own record label which had been exposed on the media lately.

Dating speculation has been mounting just now after photos of teen pop singer JoJo getting together with Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers surfaced on the Internet.

In some of the recent pictures, available for view through flickr.com, JoJo was seen walking arm in arm with Joe, thus prompted rumors they are dating.

As its leading star, Lindsay Lohan, is troubled by her addictions and lifestyle, "Dare to Love Me" is reported to be in trouble. It was reported that the romantic film is facing a financial problem that put the production on hold before it was even started.

To Page Six, producer Gary Hamilton revealed his concern over the postponing of filming saying, "I'm not sure the movie is going to go immediately." When asked whether the problem might be caused by Lohan's wild behavior, Hamilton denied it reassuring that there was no concern about Lindsay's relapse or any potential issues insuring her. He said, "There's no problem with Lindsay from our perspective. It's financing this film, which is a separate issue."

Demands keep pouring in for Spice Girls' reunion tour that a huge amount of money is offered to extend it. The band are reportedly to take as many as $4 million, each, should they agree to perform in 12 dates in Australia.

A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper, "The girls have a massive fan base in Australia and concert promoters are offering them a huge amount of cash to perform there. Everyone in Oz has been reading about the show and now want a piece of the action."

Words have been running up and down sometime that Amy Winehouse will make a comeback from her temporary hiatus at 50th Grammy Awards this February 10 at Los Angeles' Staples Center. Further reports suggested that she will perform a duet with Kanye West.

Winehouse allegedly was asked by the event's organizer and "excited" over it. A source told Mirror, "She's planning to do some sort of soul and Motown medley, and is even weighing up the possibility of a duet with some US stars - particularly Kanye West, who has spoken in the past of wanting to work with her."

Have already had two sons together, Chantal Kreviazuk and her husband of eight years Raine Maida are expecting their third child together, which according to Perez Hilton, will be a boy too.

No words on how long the Canadian singer-songwriter has been along with the not-yet born baby nor it is mentioned on when she's due to give birth.

The release date of the upcoming thriller "Doomsday" has been announced. Bloody-disgusting.com revealed that Universal Picture will release the Neil Marshall directed-film on March 14, 2008. Thus, it will be up against Colin Farrell's drama "Pride and Glory", Jim Carrey and Steve Carell's animation "Horton Hears a Who!" and Charlize Theron's drama "Sleepwalking".

The film starring Rhona Mitra and Bob Hoskins tells about an elite team who is sent to contaminated landscape of the walled-off country to find a cure following a re-emerging of a lethal virus, the Reaper. The virus appears in another country 30 years after it wiped out Scotland and caused the rest of the world to wall off the country.

To coincide with their new album's release, R.E.M. have signed up to be one of the performers in SxSW aka South by South West, a festival in Austin, Texas that has attracted large crowd and showcased renown acts annually.

The band will preview the materials in their highly-anticipated new album, 'Accelerate', that is due April 1. This year, the festival will present more than 1,500 acts and run March 7 to 16 in several different venues.

Natalie Imbruglia and her husband of four years Daniel Johns announced the demise of their marriage in a joint statement Friday, January 4, blamed their "career demands" for the split.

The 32-years-old Aussie singer-songwriter said she and Silverchair frontman Johns had grown apart due to the pressures of work.

Being a successful actress as she is, Reese Witherspoon apparently wants to test her ability in the movie production further as she is said to take the role of a producer once again. According to JoBlo, the "Rendition" star is most likely attached to produce and star in a dark comedy movie, "Nice".

If everything goes well, the new project will be Witherspoon's fourth time being a producer. Prior to this film, she had been the executive producer of "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde" in 2003, and the producer of drama comedy "Penelope" and "Four Christmases", both of which scheduled to be released in 2008.

Reports have been surfacing that Avril Lavigne cried after Lil Jon stole her show. The 'Girlfriend' singer was supposed to ring 2008 with a New Year's Eve show when the rapper snatched the mic and turned heads towards his direction.

Both artist were on duty at Prive, a nightclub inside Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Lavigne was scheduled to do the 10 second countdown to 2008 while Lil Jon was there for the DJing. However, seconds to the year change, the latter "grab his own mike and steal (sic) the show".

Glaceau's Smartwater is Tom Brady's smart pick. The record-breaking quarterback for NFL's New England Patriots has been tapped to shoot a series of new ads for the distilled municipal water and electrolytes for a reportedly US$3 million payment.

Has become the next public figure after Jennifer Aniston to endorse the popular drink, Brady has shot several Smartwater's ads which are set to start popping up in magazines and newspapers by next month.

Though being secretive about the cast of "Bond 22" for a while, the film's production companies finally confirmed that Gemma Arterton is indeed a new Bond girl. According to Hollywood Reporter, on Friday, January 4, Eon Productions in London, Santa Monica-based Danjaq Production, as well as ICM, Arterton's agent, have confirmed the casting.

It is said that in the action-adventure film directed by Marc Forster, the British newcomer will star as 'Fields'. Additionally, though details of her character remained as secret, a Danjaq representative hinted that her character is "a nice-sized role".

Fergie's team has been in talks with the management of Los Tigres Del Norte to do a collaboration. The Mexican band's frontman Jorge Hernandez revealed that they may do a track together which will be released in March this year.

"She said that she'd like to do something with us," Hernandez told PeopleEnEspanol.com. "They didn't speak directly with me. What I do know is that Fergie's producer and the person in charge of her projects got in contact with people from the company (Univision Music), and they were chatting about how they wanted to do some things with us."

A song has been leaked under the title '2 of You', allegedly one of those which will be made a track in Danity Kane's second album. The uptempo track is not yet confirmed to be the first single from the all-girl group.

The band's member, Dawn Richards, recently spilled the news on their album, saying that the album has been completed and will be out sometime this year. She also hinted that fans will be "surprised at how much DK has grown" in this album.

Britney Spears' child-visitation rights have been suspended soon following her hospitalization for mental evaluation after the so-called "family custody dispute" on Thursday night, January 3.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge, who's involved in Brit and Kevin Federline's custody dispute, held an emergency hearing and issued a written order which ruled Spears' children Sean Preston and Jayden James to be placed in the sole care of the singer's ex-husband K-Fed, suspending the pop star's visitation rights until "further order of the court."