January 30, 2008

Another major cast has join the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures' "Witch Mountain". According to ProductionCharts.com, the Will Stanton of "The Dark is Rising" Alexander Ludwig has been signed to star in the adventure fantasy film.

In the remake of "Escape to Witch Mountain", the teenage actor is set to portray one of the orphans with the ability of telekinesis, Tony. He will be joining AnnaSophia Robb, who is going to play Tia, the other orphan moderate paranormal abilities, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who plays Jason.

50 Cent has reportedly taken control over Ciara's musical career by banning her from doing a collaboration with Cash Money Records artists. Ciara who is rumored to be dating 50 was due to work on a project with rapper Birdman who happens to be in Cash, but 50 has allegedly taken action against it.

An insider told MediaTakeOut.com that "Nobody affiliated with 50 Cent can be affiliated with his enemy." 50 has been long known to be feuding with several rap artists including Cash Money's Baby and Lil Wayne. His anger towards the New Orleans label, was triggered by Young Buck's departure from his label G-Unit and Buck's decision to join Cash instead.

Jessica Alba plays it coy when it comes to the gender of her not-yet-born baby.

The movie beauty openly revealed during an appearance at "The Late Show with David Letterman" on Monday night, January 28 that she did know the sex of her baby, yet won't share the information with the public.

Former "Saturday Night Live" performer Kevin Nealon has been cast in the 20th Century Fox's adventure comedy "They Came from Upstairs". According to Hollywood Reporter, the 54-year-old comic will be playing Stuart Pearson, the father of Ashley Tisdale's character.

Aside from starring opposite the "High School Musical" starlet, Nealon will also join the cast that include Robert Hoffman, Tim Meadows and Gillian Vigman. Meanwhile, the film directed by John Schultz tells the story of a group of teens who defend their Maine vacation home from an alien invasion coming from upstairs.

The co-star of Nicolas Cage in "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" Diane Kruger has been chosen to be among the eight international film experts and stars to decide who is to take home the Golden Bear and the Silver Bears. On Tuesday, January 29, the German actress has been announced by the Berlinale organizers to be joining the jury panel at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival which will be held on February 7 to 17.

On the panel led by the 1990 Berlinale Golden Bear-winner Costa-Gavras, Kruger joins Danish director Susanne Bier, French actress Sandrine Bonnaire, production designer Uli Hanisch, sound designer Walter Murch, Russian film producer Alexander Rodniansky and Taiwanese actress Shu Qi. With those fellow, she would have to select films to be awarded the 58th Berlinale's top kudos from the total of 21 films running in the main competition.

Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban are using their celebrity status to branch out to the fashion-design world. The celebrity couple are planning to unveil their own clothing line, naming it "Hank Evie."

On using "Hank Evie" to name their fashion line, it is reported that the two words actually are the separate names Nicole and Keith used to call each other while they were still in the early stages of their relationship.

The two key cast of "The Fast and the Furious", Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, are coming back on the fourth installment of Universal Pictures' street car racing film. In an interview with MTV News, Diesel confirmed the rumors stating that he and Walker are reprising their role in "Untitled Fast and the Furious Sequel".

On the chance of Walker going back as Brian O'Conner, the star of "The Pacifier" said, "Gotta have Paul Walker." Meanwhile, on him being back as Dominic Toretto, he reasoned, "I think doing the cameo in 'Tokyo Drift' confirmed a lot of things for me. It confirmed that if you create a role that the world kind of identifies with, or the world adopts, sometimes you have that responsibility to revisit that role. I'm a little bit slower than the average actor that just jumps into the sequel, but I think the time has come to revisit Dom Toretto."

The bits and pieces of pictures on Kanye West's official blog have been put together, revealing the supporting acts for his upcoming tour.

As previously suggested, Lupe Fiasco and N.E.R.D. will join him in the 'Glow in the Dark Tour' and Rihanna too has been added to the list. Others like Common and Consequence are not listed, leading to speculations that they are merely rumored acts.

Country singer Dolly Parton and her label Dolly Records have signed a major deal with INgrooves to distribute her albums worldwide digitally, and her upcoming album 'Backwoods Barbie' will be the first venture. The deal is part of Parton's attempts to be innovative in creating connection with her fans through the sale of her albums.

"When we started Dolly Records we knew we had to be cutting edge as well as put out great music," Parton said. "After looking at the choices in digital distribution, INgrooves was the perfect partner for our first release. They had tons of experience and were flexible enough to work with a crazy country girl like me and I know we'll have a ball making waves in the digital world."

New York State Supreme Court Judge Melissa Jackson ruled Thursday, January 24 that Foxy Brown would not be allowed to leave the state for medical attention. The judge, in other words, turned down the rapper's request for an early release from jail for ear problem.

Brown petitioned on January 15 for her early release from New York's Rikers Island by January 30 to treat an ear problem she feared could jeopardize her hearing and singing career. In her four-pages handwritten letter to New York Supreme Court Judge, Brown said she has already learned a lesson from serving jail time and thus pleaded to be released.

The Academy Award-winning actress for her role in "Mighty Aphrodite", Mira Sorvino, is said to be developing a movie. According to press release, the co-star of Robin Williams in "The Final Cut" is in the process of making a baseball movie.

On the project, Sorvino commented, "The day we penned the first five pages was so exciting." She then revealed that it was a project stating, "We'd been talking about it for years, but then one day we just hired a babysitter to take the kids to the museum and sat there and banged stuff out."

Kylie Minogue releases two music videos from her 'X' album at relatively the same time. After first putting 'In My Arms' for worldwide view, the pop diva has exclusively given the world premiere of 'Wow' for gossip blog Perez Hilton.com.

The video of 'In My Arms' employs a futuristic look and 'in-the-box' concept and similarly, 'Wow' video also takes on colorful shots complete with symmetrical lines. The latter will also be premiered on U.K.'s 'Channel 4' at 11:00 P.M. today (January 30). Both are reportedly directed by Melina Matsoukas and filmed in Los Angeles, California.

It appears that alcohol is an easy-come easy-go for Lindsay Lohan. Soon following her comeback to the spotlight, the actress-singer has been seen back to her old-partying habit and once again turned herself into a nightclub regular. Less than a month after she was caught drinking champagne directly from a bottle on the dance floor at a New Year's Eve Party, she's been reported to fall off the wagon again.

Lindsay, as reported by the New York Post's Page Six, was seen drinking vodka at New York hotspot The Box on Friday night, January 25 as she partied with shipping heir Stavros Niarchos, DJ Samantha Ronson and "The Hills" star Brody Jenner.

The boy who wants to be The Flash in the Eddie Murphy's 2003 comedy "Daddy Day Care", Jimmy Bennett, has reportedly nailed a part in the upcoming sci-fi film "Star Trek". Comingsoon.com reported that the 11-year-old actor has been picked by director J.J. Abrams to join the "Trek" cast.

The actor who will turn 12 on February 9 is going to star as the young James Kirk. He will join the young new crew cast of the action adventure film, including Chris Pine who depicts older Kirk, Zoe Saldana, Ben Cross, Zachary Quinto, Winona Ryder, Eric Bana and Leonard Nimoy. In the meantime, the film distributed by Paramount Pictures is expected to hit theaters on Christmas Day.

P. Diddy has appointed a new president for his label, Bad Boy Records. Harve Pierre, a former intern of the rapper who had joined Bad Boy since its establishment in 1993, has been promoted to the top position on Tuesday, January 29.

Pierre started off as Diddy's assistant and the executive producer of 50 Bad Boy albums plus five other projects with RCA Records, according to Variety.com. He has since worked his way up to become the executive VP/General Manager/VP of A&R.

The "300" star Gerard Butler has been set to join the cast of Columbia Pictures' latest project "The Ugly Truth". According to Variety, the Phantom of 2004's musical film "Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera" will star opposite "27 Dresses" star Katherine Heigl in the battle of the sexes romantic comedy.

In the film directed by Robert Luketic, the 38-year-old Scottish actor is set to portray Mike Alexander, the host of a television segment with the same title as the feature film. He will be a chauvinistic correspondent who challenged morning show producer played by Heigl in a series of outrageous tests to prove his relationships' theories and help her find love. Additionally, the comedy film is expected to start production in April.

While there were reports that Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters planned to drum in Led Zeppelin's reunion tour, it has turned vice versa. The bassist of the British band, John Paul Jones will join Grohl's band in their scheduled performance at 50th Grammy Awards next month.

Foo Fighters will play their single 'The Pretender', which is also nominated at the event, and backed up with Jones and a number of amateur musicians. A contest called My Grammy Moment was opened for unsigned instrumentalists to submit their demo video on YouTube where its winners will get a chance to perform with Foo Fighters at the February 10 night.

Rapper-turned-actress Queen Latifah has been cast for a new 'role,' weight-loss spokeswoman for U.S. diet firm Jenny Craig.

The voluptuous star, who once revealed she wanted to lose weight, is the next celebrity after Kirstie Alley and Valerie Bertinelli to sign up as the face of Jenny Craig's diet program. Officially began her reign as Jenny Craig's newest celebrity client, Latifah could be seen strolling the streets of New York in the new TV commercials for the weight loss company, airing in the States now.

Missy Elliott and Walt Disney Studios will take on a rather new approach in music video production, combining two Elliott's songs 'Ching-a-Ling' and 'Shake Your Pom Pom' in a single 3-D video. It will be premiered on MTV on Monday, February 4 during the 'TRL' show, and 3-D glasses will be distributed beforehand through various promotions.

On the idea itself, Glen Lajeski, Disney's executive for music, creative and marketing said, "It was a perfect fit. Missy always wanted to do a 3-D music video, and Disney has done a lot of movies in 3-D."

While Gwen Stefani's camp has not yet commented on the second pregnancy speculation surrounding the singer, her father in-law Douglas Rossdale has left no doubt on that matter.

Douglas, who's the father of Gwen's husband Gavin Rossdale, confirmed the report to People, saying "They and the whole family are delighted." Douglas did not reveal a due date or sex of the forthcoming baby though.

Talking about the last issue of Brian K. Vaughan's comic entitled "Y: The Last Man", the director of the comic's adaptation D.J. Caruso hinted that the action sci-fi film may be a trilogy. In an interview with USA Today, the "Disturbia" helmer revealed that the film version will cover the first 14 issues of the Vertigo comic book which opens the possibility to make a trilogy.

On the film itself, Caruso commented, "For me, thematically, the most important thing and the reason I want to do this is...I don't want to say it's the end of the innocence, but it's actually a man-child who has to become a real man now." He also said, "I think it's a really simple, beautiful theme, but at the same time, the movie's really pop-culture entertainment."

A duet between Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo may have been denied, but the denial was valid for a studio recording only. The pair who have been dating for sometime, took the microphones in Hollywood, on Monday (January 28) and thrilled the audience with an impromptu rocking duet.

Simpson and the American football star pleased the crowd at tribute group Metal Skool's weekly showcase at Key Club when they sang Journey's '80s song 'Don't Stop Believin'', backed by the home band. Simpson reportedly took the stage first before Romo's name were chanted by the people to join her on stage.

Miley Cyrus shows some respect to her father by adopting her father's middle name.

The actress-singer has legally changed her name, it has been reported. Was born Destiny Hope Cyrus, the "Hannah Montana" star goes by the stage name Miley Cyrus. And in order to honor her country crooner father Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley has officially changed her name to Miley Ray Cyrus.

The rumor that Freddy Krueger will be back on the big screen has been confirmed. According to Variety, New Line Cinema has appointed Platinum Dunes to re-launch the 1984 Wes Craven horror film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" about the iconic psycho who haunts the subconscious dreams of teenagers and kills them in their sleep.

The reboot film "Untitled A Nightmare on Elm Street Remake" is more likely to still focus on Krueger who is a serial child killer murdered by angry parents and then returns with a burned face and razor glove to terrorize teens through their dreams. The remake project will be given to Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form who act as the film's producers. Further, it was reported that the studio won't hire a writer until the writers' strike ends.

Just a day after it was reported that Mariah Carey's first single won't take impact on the radio this week, further reports suggest that the single is further pushed to mid-February. All Access updated its New Releases list and cited that the single will only receive airplay on February 12.

The song, that was originally scheduled to be released on January 29, will now roam on Top 40/Mainstream and Top 40/Rhythmic-Crossover radio outlets on the new date. However on the other side, it is now known which song will be made the lead single from the album.

Report on Jennifer Lopez went into labor had heavily hit the Internet yesterday, January 29 but a representative for her husband Marc Anthony quashed it. Here comes a new report that the singer and hubby Anthony have already picked out names for their twins; Max and Emme.

Speculation on both possible names arose reportedly after Lopez's mother Guadalupe Rodriguez was spotted picking up two gold-rope baby ID bracelets engraved with those names from Genesis Jewelers in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. on January 18, just one day before Lopez and Anthony held a baby shower.

Kanye West has released several hints on his official blog, KanyeUniverseCity.com regarding his upcoming tour to support his multi platinum album, 'Graduation'. Presented in slashed pictures are the details on who will support him and the name of the tour.

Under the subtitle "Get Ready!", Kanye posted several pictures that indicate he will bring along Lupe Fiasco and N.E.R.D. on the tour dubbed 'Glow in the Dark'. Dates are not yet revealed but expected to be outed soon. For more on the pictures log on to KanyeUniverseCity.com.

Just weeks before Universal Pictures' latest horror thriller "The Wolfman" starts filming, it was reported that its director Mark Romanek dropped out of the film. According to Variety, the helmer of "One Hour Photo" left the project due to budget dispute as well as creative differences.

The dropping out of Romanek wasn't Universal's first experience of losing their projects' key talents in a big-budget film. Earlier, the studio had lost two of "State of Play" leading cast as Brad Pitt and Edward Norton quit the project weeks before shooting begin. Still, they managed to salvage the crime drama film by hiring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck.

While rumors on Angelina Jolie's pregnancy keep circulating among people and there has yet any official statement from the actress herself, her actor father Jon Voight spills the bean on that matter.

Spoke out on the persistent pregnancy rumors, Voight said he's excited by the prospects that Jolie might be pregnant. "It's wonderful news that she's having another child, if that's true," The New York Observer quoted Voight on Monday, January 28 as saying.

James Bond is getting hitched in the action film's 22nd installment "Quantum of Solace". According to U.S. reports, one of the newest Bond girl Gemma Arterton has accidentally hinted that the super spy agent may tie the knot in the upcoming 007 film.

Allegedly, the 22-year-old British actress told a U.S. television reporter that she and Daniel Craig had been filming scenes in a honeymoon suite. When the surprised journalist tried to confirm the spoiler by asking "Honeymoon suite?", Arterton seemed to be realizing that she had revealed a crucial plot and said, "I think I've said too much."