July 29, 2008

Lately Hollywood has inserted an element of Asia in many of its feature films. Be it in the setting of the films or in the growing number of performers appearing in the movies, Hollywood film industry indeed has slowly taken in Asian influence. In the past years, the contribution of Asia to the world's biggest entertainment industry has been greater than ever with movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "The Ring" and "Kung Fu Hustle" making their mark.

The year of 2008 poses no difference in that matter. It brings in another surge of Asia, spawning high grossing box office movies from "The Forbidden Kingdom" to "Kung Fu Panda". With the coming out of another Asian-influenced film "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" this Friday, August 1, it would be interesting to discuss about the possible causes of the 'Asianization' of Hollywood seen from the escalating interest in Asian pop culture, the budding Asian actors in Hollywood and the growth of the Asian movie industry itself.

After much speculation outed in the press about their tour plan, finally an official confirmation about AC/DC's world tour has been revealed on July 28. The rockers reportedly will go on an 18 months tour starting from October.

According to Billboard.com, the news was confirmed by Creative Artists Agency managing partner Rob Light at IAAM conference and trade show in Anaheim, California. Unfortunately, Light hasn't revealed the details about the venues and the exact dates for the tour.

So far, news concerning New Line Cinema's adaptation project "Y: The Last Man" are coming from director D.J. Caruso. Still, it looks like the helmer of "Eagle Eye" and "Disturbia" is not the only one that has a say about the movie. At the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, producer JC Spinks gives out the casting scoop.

Confirming that the production company involved is trying to get Shia LaBeouf for the lead character, Spinks brings in an even more interesting tidbit noting that he is considering to sign R 'n' B star Alicia Keys for Agent 355 role. Sharing his most likely choice for the bodyguard character to UGO, he stated, "...believe it or not, I think Alicia Keys would be fantastic. Or Zoe Saldana. By then Star Trek will be out and she'll be huge."

In anticipation of the highly anticipated teaser trailer of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" which is expected to be unraveled on Tuesday, July 29, two new images from the sixth "Harry Potter" saga have been making their way to be seen by the boy wizard's fans. One of them reveals for the first time the young Tom Riddle which can be seen on the news' photo, while the other exposes Dumbledore in a fiery battle posted below.

Being the first to unearth the images, USA Today noted that the two are the movie's stills which could be seen in the upcoming teaser. Giving further explanation about the photos, the publication noted that the boy portrayed in the picture is the 11-year-old incarnation of Lord Voldermort and he is played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin who is the nephew of Ralph Fiennes, Voldermort's depicter. In the same picture, it can also be seen on the background Mrs. Cole and the younger version of Dumbledore.

Fans of rock band Foo Fighters will be thrilled to hear the latest reports saying that the band are preparing to release a live DVD of their recent two concerts in Wembley, London. The two shows that were held on June 6-7 is very special indeed as one of the two shows also feature the band's collaboration with members of Led Zeppelin.

The live DVD set is being scheduled to hit the shelves on August 23 and it will have about 18 tracks including two collaboration tracks between Foo and the Zeppelin, which were "Rock and Roll" and "Ramble On". Meanwhile, other tracks on the new package are the songs that the band played on their London concerts. The complete track list for the DVD can be viewed at Angryape.com.

Is still young but has been caught in numerous racy pictures scandals, Miley Cyrus has been the target of condom manufacturer. She reportedly has been offered a $1 million deal to become the celebrity endorser of LifeStyles Condoms.

On offering the still 15-year-old girl the agreement, the company's VP of marketing Carol Carrozza explained, "Pop culture proves that teens are more ready than ever to discuss the subject of sex." She then added, "We believe that Miley is both influential and relatable to this afflicted set-and is the obvious choice to get the message of safe sex out to teens across America."

Coming to the 2008 San Diego Comic Con to promote his forthcoming thriller "The Unborn", filmmaker David Goyer gives an update to his other feature film project, "The Invisible Man". Talking to Shock Till You Drop, the writer/director spoke out about what he had done for the script writing as well as his idea for this project.

Noting that he is writing the screenplay, the man behind "Blade: Trinity" revealed that he is working with "Batman Begins"'s conceptual artist for the script. "I'm writing it right now," said the 42-year-old. "I got Universal to hire some conceptual artists for me so they're working tandem with me writing. The main guy is Jamie Rama, Aaron Sims did some pieces too. Rama is a great conceptual artist who worked on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, he's one of the primary conceptual artists who worked on the Bat suits."

Nelly is embarking his career beyond music, invading the worlds of modeling and TV acting. The internationally renowned recording artist has been hired as the new spokesmodel for P. Diddy's new Sean John underwear line.

The clothing company confirmed the deal Monday, July 28. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed though.

Shortly after premiering the music video for "Marco Polo", Bow Wow has already launched another clip on July 28. The new video was shot to accompany his latest single titled "Big Bank Take Lil Bank" featuring Swizz Beatz, which was taken from his upcoming LP "Pedigree".

The new clip was filmed in a unique method which is on a black and white computer graphic enhancement. The video also doesn't have lots of features as most of the scenes only saw Bow Wow rapping in front of the camera.

During the presentation of Sam Raimi's latest horror thriller "Drag Me to Hell" at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, an extended clip has been previewed. Nearly four minutes long, the video footage gives out the first real look into the Universal Pictures' horror flick which can be described as horrifying and at the same time tickling.

Focused on the main character Christine Brown played by Alison Lohman, the clip displays Brown being attacked presumably by the old woman whose loan extension she denied earlier. Began with a creepy scene where Brown walks to her parked car, the video hypes up the terrifying atmosphere with a sudden appearance of the old woman in the back seat of Brown's car. Then, the clip continues by exposing the fight between Brown and the old woman.

Acting, singing, and hosting are not the only things many of Hollywood celebrities could do. In real life, they actually can do more, taking part in cancer telethon for example. Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, and Charlize Theron are just some of the public figures who have agreed to lend a helping hand for the project.

They will be joined by fellow celebs, including American Idol champion David Cook, Christina Applegate, Meryl Streep, Sally Field, Lance Armstrong, Josh Brolin, Casey Affleck, and America Ferrera, all of whom have signed on to help work the phonebank during an upcoming benefit for Stand Up to Cancer, slated for September 5 later this year. The event will be simultaneously aired on ABC, CBS and NBC to raise money for cancer research and treatment.

It looks like Britney Spears' upcoming album could really be one of the most anticipated albums this year after the latest reports stated that on the new LP she will be working with renown musicians. The famous names that reportedly will help Britney on her upcoming LP are Timbaland, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Taio Cruz.

That news was confirmed by Taio himself who said to the press, "The songs will be good - she has Kanye, Pharrell, Timbaland and me doing tracks for her." He also added that the next record will be important for Britney's music career. "Her career is riding on this record so I need to sit down and talk to her to make sure she is ready," Taio said.

Rumor has it that Javier Bardem is planning to propose to actress girlfriend Penelope Cruz. The Spanish actor, as reported by British the Daily Mail, is about to pop the question during their holiday next month.

The couple's planned engagement was outed by a source close to them, who as well also revealed that they will move to London September later this year while Penelope is due to work on her new big screen movie, "Nine." The source said, "He plans to ask when they are away on holiday. Then, in September, they will be coming over to the U.K. to live while Penelope makes her new film."

After gleaming up for "Sex and the City" premiere last May, New York City has once again played host to the premiere of another set of friends. This time, the city that never sleeps became the place where Warner Bros. Pictures celebrated the premiere of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2".

Rolling down the red carpet at Ziegfeld Theatre on Monday, July 28, the special first screening event can be said to be a celebration of youth with the attendees dominated by a line of young Hollywood actors. Grazing the carpet were the sequel's main stars, Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera and Blake Lively, as well as supporting actors, Jesse Williams, Leonardo Nam and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

The hard work is paid off. Britney Spears' many visits to the gym to regain her svelte figure do her body good. The singer and mother of two young boys is in fine form. She was photographed donning a white two-piece bikini during a weekend getaway down in Cabo San Lucas with a new man.

She was seen frolicking in the pool outside of her luxurious Cabo San Lucas, Mexico home Sunday, July 27. Spears looked curvier than before and she apparently really enjoyed her time with her shirtless male companion, Palms Resort and Casino owner George Maloof, having a chit chat and flirting with him.

Mary Lynn Rajskub has become a mother for the first time as she has given birth to a baby boy, her first child with boyfriend Matthew Rolph, Thursday, July 24. The infant, named Valentine Anthony, weighed in at 9lbs., 5oz.

Shared her experience to People magazine about giving birth to Valentine almost two weeks after her exact due date, Rajskub said jokingly, "It was like an episode of 24 with the clock ticking." Furthermore revealed that she and Rolph at first could not agree over whether or not to find out the baby's gender, the TV actress said that they at last decided to have a green-themed gender-neutral nursery in their San Fernando Valley home.

Country singer Trace Adkins has finally revealed new details about his upcoming new LP after announcing its official release date. Although he hasn't set a title yet for the upcoming album, Trace has confirmed that the record will be outed on November 25.

Beside revealing about his new LP's release date, Trace has also confirmed that a song titled "Muddy Water," will be the first single from the yet-to-be-titled album. The track, which was written by Monty Criswell and Rick Huckaby is set to be dropped via radio airplay on August 4.

Samuel Goldwyn Films have given movie lovers a chance to see deeper into the Isabel Coixet-directed drama "Elegy" through five new clips. All of the clips are focused on the main character David Kepesh portrayed by Ben Kingsley and two of them displayed Kepesh's relationship with the student he is obsessed with Penelope Cruz's Consuela Castillo.

Though the length of the videos is varied from fifty seconds to one minute fifty, all of them help to give out more information about what the movie is all about. Sharing more of the drama in the complicated life of Kepesh, the clips also give out a better look into the dynamic between him and other characters played by Dennis Hopper, Peter Sarsgaard and Patricia Clarkson.

Wedding bell will soon ring for Maria Bello and her boyfriend Bryn Mooser now that the couple have engaged. Her representative confirmed the engagement, saying that the actress is "very happy."

Bello, 41, is the latest Hollywood actress to settle down with a much younger man. Mooser, a writer, is just 28. The pair announced their engagement to Bello's hometown newspaper, The Norristown Times Herald, in Norristown, Penn. which claimed that both Bello and Bryn "fell in love over a sheer passion of politics, Africa and cryptozoology."

Emerging from popular reality show American Idol, comes Ace Young, an aspiring singer with the look to be proud of. The 27-year-old who also writes his own music, has released his self-titled debut album on July 15 via Pazzo Music with "Addicted" as the first single and AceShowbiz has 3 copies of the CD to be given away.

The album, took over 16 months and more than 5 studios to record. Ace said, "I've taken my time because I realized how important it is to make sure it's right, true to me and up to my level of expectation. I only get one chance to tell my fans who I am."

Their dream of having child comes true after they revealed publicly just a little more than a week ago that they're "trying to get pregnant." Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell are expecting their first child together, it's been claimed. Greater than that they reportedly are expecting twins.

The babies are conceived without the help of in vitro fertilization or the fertility drug Clomid, a source close to the couple said. "Jerry couldn't be happier about becoming a dad," another source told US Weekly.

Having just dropped a new album on July 15, rapper Nas has already had an idea for a new music project. Speaking to MTV, the rapper revealed that he plans to record and release an album collaborating with his wife Kelis.

Stating about the collaboration plan Nas said, "Me and my wife was thinking about doing this record together. I'm doing my dream. If you could, wouldn't you do it? What else would you do?" Before the album plan, the rapper has actually recorded songs together with Kelis and one of their collaboration tracks is "Blindfold Me".

Though the buzz over "X-Men" movies still lingers around "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" with its first footage being presented at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and leaked out earlier, recent report suggests that it is possible that another "X-Men" movie is on the way. Words are the 20th Century Fox is developing "X-Men: First Class".

Speculation on the development of the comic book adaptation has broken out with it being listed over at Production Weekly and with its website X-MenFirstClass.com being redirected to FoxMovies.com. It is still unclear whether the possible feature film project will be a movie adapted from Jeff Parker and Roger Cruz's comic book series or it only uses the comic book's title for another "X-Men" spin-off.

Jack's Mannequin, led by singer-keyboardist Andrew McMahon, will release its second album, entitled "The Glass Passenger", on September 30, 2008 via Sire/Warner Bros. Records.

Co-produced by McMahon and Jim Wirt (Incubus, Hoobastank), The Glass Passenger is the follow-up to the band's debut "Everything in Transit", which was released in August 2005 and debuted at No. 37 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.

Chris Brown has a new and exciting music project on the way which is singing a jingle for famous bubble gum company Wrigley's. Chris has been tapped by the company to re-mix the jingle for one of their gum products, the Doublemint.

However, the R 'n' B stud is not the only singer that is being asked by Wrigley's to help their ad campaign as the company also tapped the likes of Ne-Yo and Julianne Hough. But Ne-Yo and Julianne won't be collaborating with Chris because they will remix the jingle for other products of Wrigley's, which is Big Red for the R 'n' B singer/songwriter and Juicy Fruit for the country singer.

Say it isn't so, Amy Winehouse is hospitalized, again. The troubled singer was rushed to a London hospital Monday night, July 28 after suffering an adverse reaction to medication, reports claimed. She was admitted to University College Hospital in Bloomsbury.

Onlookers who happened to be outside her north London home claimed to have seen her being escorted from the building to a waiting ambulance in a wheelchair. She was wrapped in a blanket and given oxygen. Her father Mitch Winehouse was by her side. Her spokesman Chris Goodman said nothing about her condition, except that "She was in a wheelchair, but conscious" adding "No one was panicking."

Coming back to the big screen two decades after his last adventure with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", the whip-cracking archaeologist proved that he still has his charm by collecting $313.6 million domestically and $743.7 million worldwide. With that success, many speculations arise on the possibility of the fifth film and Jones' creator, George Lucas, apparently has a thing or two on the future "Indiana Jones" project to be discussed.

Talking about the forthcoming "Star Wars" animation movie "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" to Times Online, the 64-year-old made time to share his insight on "Indiana Jones V". Noting that everybody involved in "Crystal Skull" expecting the result the movie earned, he confessed that it is much more difficult right now to get even the story with everybody has a say for it, especially because he and director Steven Spielberg have their own idea of the plot's direction.

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) power couple Stephanie McMahon and Triple H welcomed their second child together, a baby girl, Monday, July 28. The newborn infant is named Murphy Claire Levesque.

No more details being disclosed about the baby, except that she weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces. She joins big sister Aurora Rose Levesque, who was born in 2006.

Following its video preview that has streamed earlier this week, finally the full version of Lil Wayne's music video for his latest single "Got Money" has been premiered on July 28 via MTV. The new clip was being directed by Gil Green and features Wayne's collaboration with T-Pain and Mack Maine.

Just as it was previously reported on the new clip Wayne is being pictured as a nice thief, who rob a bank but shares the money with others. The scenes from the video starts with the meeting held by the rapper with his friends to plan their bank robbery. In the end of the clip the rapper finally gets captured by the police but he receives a warm applause from the people who are watching in the streets.

Matt Damon breaks his silence. Instead of keeping the information private, he prefers to share it with people. In an interview with USA Today, via telephone from his home in Miami, the actor addressed on such issues, as his forthcoming second child, family time, and charity effort.

Is waiting for the arrival of his second child with wife Luciana Bozan Barroso, the actor said the infant is a girl and due to be born soon, without mentioning the exact date. "I'm so outnumbered down here, it's crazy," Damon said jokingly of becoming the only man in his nuclear family. Already found out the sex of the baby, he and Luciana "decided to wait till she's born" to pick out a name. "We're going to get a look at her and we'll probably keep debating it," so he said.

Jason Voorhees' terror indeed began at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con with the screening of "Friday the 13th" intensely thrilling trailer. Though earlier fans and movie lovers who missed the special preview should be satisfied only with the written description, now they can watch the video footage shown during the exhibition as the trailer leaked out.

Obviously bootlegged, the compilation of clips opens with a shot of a vast lake. Then day turns into night and two presumably young councilors walk through the dark woods. Finding the abandoned camp crystal lake, the two move on to enter a cabin where they find Voorhees' bed and the holed wall with melted candles surrounding it. Seeing something inside the hole, one of them reaches into the hole to brings out a dead woman's head. The door behind them suddenly slams close and the terror is unleashed.