October 06, 2008

This year, the annual American Music Awards will see Jimmy Kimmel back as host again. The comedian and talk host has been tapped to guide the music event which will be held on November 23 in Los Angeles and aired on ABC.

President of Dick Clark Productions that produces the show, Orly Adelson, personally regarded Kimmel as "a masterful host with incredible spontaneity and wit; audiences can expect a great night." Kimmel responded to this with "I agree with Orly completely." He had taken the same hosting duties at the event for four times.

As time comes nearer and nearer to the production of "The Hobbit", Guillermo Del Toro let out more interesting tidbits about the J.R.R. Tolkien's novel adaptation. Sharing his idea with Coming Soon during the conversation with New Yorker staff writer Daniel Zalewski, the filmmaker spoke out of his excitement on tackling one of the creatures in the flick saying, "All my life I've been fascinated by dragons. I was born under the Chinese sign of The Dragon."

"It's such a powerful symbol, and in the context of 'The Hobbit' it is used to cast its shadow through the entire narrative," he further explained. "Essentially, Smaug represents so many things: greed, pride...he's 'the Magnificent,' after all. The way his shadow is cast in the narrative you cannot then show it and have it be one thing, he has to be the embodiment of all those things. He's one of the few dragons that will have enormous scenes with lines. He has some of the most beautiful dialogues in those scenes!"

The Los Angeles Times has just posted on its site an update on Miley Cyrus' "Sweet 16 - Share the Celebration", giving people a peek of her jam-packed schedule during the star-studded event. Aside from all the commitments she had to complete during the 12-hour celebration, the Disney starlet got what she's been dreaming of, puppy, her parents gave her at the end of the celebration as birthday present.

Below is the list on Miley's schedule during her birthday party, held Sunday, October 5 at California's Disneyland:

Busy prepping for the launch of her highly anticipated new album "Circus", Britney Spears was seen putting her driving skills on test, getting behind the wheel for a spin around "Dromo 1: The Real Racing Experience" in Anaheim, Calif. on Sunday afternoon, October 5. Rumor has it, her go-kart moment was recorded for her upcoming behind-the-scenes DVD, which is expected to be released along with "Circus".

In some pictures that Mail Online has obtained, Britney was seen slipping on a black balaclava and then putting a bright orange helmet on her head before getting herself ready to race in the indoor karting center with a challenging 1000ft.-long track. She was also spotted sporting a pair of gloves.

A promotional video for the third episode of "Brothers & Sisters" season three has arrived. Entitled "Tug of War", the snippet revealed that in the upcoming episode, there will be 2 careers, 2 life-changing decisions and one relationship that could come undone.

Next Sunday on October 12, viewers will be presented with an episode where Holly pushes her authority too much, allegedly causing two Walkers to resign from Ojai Foods. On other story, Kevin will be faced with homophobia issue when a very important client and his wife asked him about marriage, while Justin is dealing with his job as a military recruiter.

The ex-"Wings" man, Steven Weber is playing on the new season of American television drama series "Desperate Housewives". EW's Michael Ausiello stated that Weber comes into Wisteria Lane only on one episode of the season as 20 years elder boyfriend of Susan's adult daughter, Julie Meyer.

Weber plays briefly as Julie's college professor, a widower of thrice divorced, who then turns his love to her. The couple's sudden appearance in Wisteria Lane to visit Susan will cause complex situation for her.

Marking the comeback of Brandy to the music platform is the unveiling of her new album's official cover art. The R 'n'B singer who had been absent from the industry since the release of her 2004 album "Afrodisiac", will release "Human" on November 11.

For the new effort, Brandy has reunited with Rodney Jerkins who also helped her in jacking her hits in the '90s. "I'm never leaving Rodney again," Brandy said on the collaboration. "Our sound is a little bit different from our old sound, but we are back." The song "Right Here (Departed)" has been released as the first single from the album.

"28 Months Later" has allegedly found its director. Recently, Joblo has reported that the director of the horror thriller sequel is going to be Paul Andrew Williams, who is the director of a 2008 comedy horror movie, "The Cottage".

Williams' directing rumor comes in contrary to the earlier speculation that "28 Days Later" director Danny Boyle will return to undergo the new project. However, the truth on whether Paul Andrew Williams has been attached to undergo "28 Months Later" still remains a big question to date.

Eddie Van Halen and girlfriend-manager Janie Liszewski are engaged, People reports, adding that they are planning to walk down the aisle June next year. A source close to the couple broke their engagement to the publication, informing the weekly magazine the guitarist and songwriter proposed to her on August 4, 2008 while they were vacationing in Hawaii.

"They are happy, healthy, very much in love and looking forward to living life together forever," the source stated. "They are devoted to each other and to experiencing life in a whole new, positive and passionate way."

Johnny Depp is indeed reprising one of his memorable roles, Captain Jack Sparrow, in "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" with one lucrative deal. According to Gordon Smart of The Sun's Bizzare, the 44-year-old will be earning as much as 32 million pounds to star as the treacherous and eccentric Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea.

This big payout has been given out by the mouse house because Disney allegedly need their Sparrow for the fourth movie. "It's a lot of swag but they just can't make another without Sparrow," an insider revealed. Reportedly, Depp's earning for the sequel tops Tom Hanks's 29 million pounds check for "The Da Vinci Code" sequel, "Angels & Demons".

Following the reports circulating that Ali Lohan has rejected the offer from Jonas Brothers' management, the man mentioned in the article, Johnny Wright, has released a statement saying that he is not involved in any kind of encounter with the starlet. Wright emphasized that he had never even met Ali when the reports surfaced.

"Johnny Wright would like to set the record straight regarding his involvement with Ali Lohan," the press release, dated October 2 is partly read. "Johnny Wright has never met with Ali Lohan, has never been introduced to Ali Lohan nor has he had a meeting with Ali or Dina Lohan regarding Ali's music career."

Attending the New York Film Festival screening of her new film,"Changeling," Saturday night, October 4, which was her first red-carpet appearance since giving birth to twins Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, Angelina Jolie showed off two new tattoos on her left arm. The new tattoos are the longitude and latitude of Nice, France, where the twins were born.

Jolie was accompanied on the red-carpet by longtime partner Brad Pitt. She wore a strapless black Atelier Versace gown, leaving the new tattoos on her left upper arm noticeable for everyone to see. The new tattoos are etched right underneath Maddox, Sahara, Shiloh and Pax's commemorative tattoos.

A child then, a grown woman now, Michelle Williams (II) has accomplished a lot in her career that branches out from singing to acting. The former Destiny's Child member is on the verge of releasing her third studio album, "Unexpected" which she said as the account of her unexpected life.

At the age of 28, Michelle has released multi-platinum albums with Destiny, and dropped two gospel albums along with two stage productions, "Aida" and "The Color Purple". She has also conquered the small screen world playing an HIV-positive record producer named Naomi Dawson in UPN's comedy series "Half & Half".

Completing a scheduled appearance at the "Target Presents Variety's Power of Youth" event, held at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 4, Selena Gomez was seen skateboarding down a street in Los Angeles accompanied with fellow actress Jennifer Stone later that day. Apparently, both stars, who are the cast of TV series "Wizards of Waverly Place", enjoyed their time together very much as they were snapped joking along the way.

Cruising about her Los Angeles neighborhood on her skateboard, Selena was spotted sporting a white t-shirt with fellow Disney actor and singer Mitchel Musso's face plastered on its front part. The t-shirt bore the text that read, "This reminds me of a fairytale ... except it's real." Jennifer also wore the same t-shirt and she even beautified her look wearing what looked like a flowery head band.

It was only hours before Miley Cyrus kicked off her "Sweet 16 - Share the Celebration" Sunday, October 5 and amidst preparations for the bash, Los Angeles Times had a peek on the fellow celebrities who were invited to show up at the event. Among those on the list were her singer father Billy Ray Cyrus, best friend Emily Osment, and fellow Disney star Demi Lovato.

Cody Linley, who has boasted on getting her support for his upcoming appearance on the "Dancing with the Stars," was also invited. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kobe Bryant, and Steve Carell were among the 25 years and over guests. Besides them all, Miley also invited fellow "High School Musical" cast Kaycee Stroh and Matt Prokop, the Los Angeles Times reports.

After the airing of "Desperate Housewives" episode 5.02 on Sunday, October 5, ABC have presented fans with a sneak peek into the forthcoming episode of the drama comedy and the promotional video has come out. Giving out snippets on what each character will be facing next Sunday, October 12, the footage promises that the 5.03 episode will be juicier than ever.

The episode entitled "Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else" will center its story on the return of Bree's estranged daughter, Danielle, to Wisteria Lane and is met with overflowing criticism. In the meantime, Gaby and Susan are involved in a catfight due to their kids' brawl. On Lynette's part, she will get extremely annoyed upon finding out that Tom and Dave have formed a garage band after she told Tom to get rid of his old things.

Jay-Z is returning Coldplay the favor by appearing in one of the band's remixed songs. Posted on Coldplay's official site is the announcement that the rapper will assist in the remix of "Lost!" which will be released in a few weeks to come.

"In the spirit of trying to do things a bit differently and keep everything fresh, we are going to do a few musical moves that we have not previously attempted," the statement read. "Firstly, in a few weeks we are going to release a version of Lost! which has a guest appearance on it in the form of Jay-Z."

LaKisha Jones officially ended her single status when she wed financial adviser Larry Davis on Sunday afternoon, October 5 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. There were 50 family and friends attending the nuptials. Some of her fellow "American Idol" castmates were also in attendance, including Haley Scarnato, Melinda Doolittle, Gina Glocksen and Sanjaya Malakar.

The wedding had the theme of "old Hollywood black and white" and was held in the ForbesLife Penthouse Suite. Keeping with the event's theme, there were "white round candles perched on floating black stands and red rose petals dotted the floor," People reports.

Kanye West has previewed a new song that will appear on his upcoming album "808's & Heartbreak". During a guest appearance at T.I.'s Los Angeles concert on Friday, October 3, the rapper showed the audience a taste of his "Heartless".

West initially assisted T.I. on the song "Swagger Like Us" and went on with his equally new single "Love Lockdown". He then previewed "Heartless" that contains "how could you be so heartless" within the lyrics, before stopping abruptly saying that he didn't want it to end up on YouTube.

Following earlier speculation that "Batman 3" may fall into its pre-production sometime in early February, another interesting rumor about the follow-up movie of "The Dark Knight" has surfaced. This time, it is said via Film School Rejects that the latest issue of Production Weekly has put director Christopher Nolan in the status of being involved in the project.

Before fans putting high hopes on Nolan signing back in, it should be noticed that there are yet confirmation on the matter from either Warner Bros. Pictures or Nolan himself. Meanwhile, a Warner Brothers executive through IESB has recently thrown down speculation on the production to begin in February 2009.

An alleged full-plot synopsis of "The First Avenger: Captain America" has been published in the latest issue of Production Weekly. Uncovered via Cinema Blend, the storyline exposes some interesting tidbits on the introduction of the superhero character before and during the second World War until he becomes the Avengers' leader.

The synopsis read, "Born during the Great Depression, Steve Rogers grew up a frail youth in a poor family. Horrified by the newsreel footage of the Nazis in Europe, Rogers was inspired to enlist in the army. However, because of his frailty and sickness, he was rejected. Overhearing the boy's earnest plea, General Chester Phillips offered Rogers the opportunity to take part in a special experiment...Operation: Rebirth."

Third time's a charm, Tina Fey has returned as Sarah Palin again on "Saturday Night Live" October 4 episode that sent the show's rating sky-rocketing. The comedienne spoofed Palin's Vice President Debate with her Democratic rival Joe Bidden last week at Washington University in St. Louis, Letterman.

Playing Bidden was "SNL" cast member Jason Sudekis while serving the moderator seat as Gwen Ifill was Queen Latifah. As Ifill, Latifah read out some rules of the debate including when she said, "Due to the historically low expectations for Gov. Palin, were she simply to do an adequate job tonight, at no point cry, faint, run out of the building or vomit, you should consider the debate a tie."

Having been married since the year of 2005, it wasn't until Saturday, October 4 that Dierks Bentley and his wife Cassidy Black welcomed the arrival of their first child together, a baby girl, whom they named Evalyn Day Bentley. She was born just before midnight at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, People reports.

The newborn baby weighed 7 lbs., 10 oz. at time of birth. According to Dierks, the baby's name was derived from Cassidy's maternal grandmother Evalyn, while the middle name was chosen because he and Cassidy "just liked the word 'Day' - it's a hopeful word." And so, they will simply call her "Evie".

Having a number of work commitments to fulfill, Jonas Brothers stop by ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to show some love, support and help for the Akers family, whose oldest child Christian has Chrohn's Disease and two daughters, Brooke and Faith, are suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy that left them confined to their beds. Besides having meet-and-greet session with the young children, the brothers also sang them a song.

Traveling to West Chester, Ohio to tell the Akers family they will have their home being renovated in only seven days, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" filmed Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, and Kevin Jonas meeting the family in San Francisco where they've been sent on vacation while their house is being remodeled. They shook hands with the kids who consider them as their idols and Brooke even had the chance to kiss one of the famous siblings.

On Sunday, October 5, Bloody-Disgusting reported that two more horror movies, "Dying Breed" and "Autopsy", have fallen into After Dark Horrorfest III's line-up for their "8 Films to Die for". The additional two films join the five previously announced collections that include "From Within", "The Broken", "Slaughter (2009)", "Perkins 14" and "The Butterfly Effect: Revelation".

"Dying Breed" is a horror thriller from director Jody Dwyer. It is said to be inspired by the legends of a 19th-century cannibal and an extinct tiger and tells the story of four friends who discover deathly mystery lurking in Australian bush. Meanwhile, "Autopsy" comes from one of the "Mother of Tears" writers, Adam Gierasch. The Seven Arts Pictures film centers its story on a woman in search of her injured boyfriend in a bizarre and dangerous hospital.

Janet Jackson was supposed to be back on touring duty on Saturday, October 4 in Greensboro, North Carolina but she has postponed the plan, canceling three more shows due to her mystery illness. Her rep sent an e-mail to Associated Press, announcing that three more shows are scrapped.

Those not being able to witness the concert on schedule beside Greensboro are the Sunday gig in Atlanta and a third one on Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale. According to the singer's rep, the date in Atlanta has been rescheduled for October 19, 2008 while others that have also been scrapped will be rescheduled at later dates to be announced. Jackson asked people to keep their tickets for the postponed shows.

"Beverly Hills Chihuahua" takes a big bite at the North American three-day weekend box office by debuting at #1 position. Exceeding many expectations with $29.3 million, the Walt Disney Pictures flick about a lost chihuahua trying to find its way home pushes aside last week topper "Eagle Eye" by collecting approximately ten million more than the crime thriller.

Played in 3,215 theaters across the country, "Chihuahua" marks the best Disney's opening ever for October. Expressing the studio's excitement over the success of the family comedy flick, Disney's president of distribution Chuck Viane let out, "In a market with seven new pictures, it's terrific to be the No. 1 movie. It's not easy to compete when there is that much distraction and people are being pulled in every direction"

New report has just surfaced that troubled singer Amy Winehouse is considering a switch to controversial religion Scientology in a bid to kick her drugs habit and get her life back on the right track. British tabloid the Daily Mirror reported the church of Scientology is reaching out to her, urging her to try its Narconon drugs program, which it claims has helped hundreds of people kick the habit.

"She had a call from the celebrity branch of the Church Of Scientology. She thinks they got her number through one of the American music producers who worked on her 'Back to Black' album", a source close to Amy informed the Daily Mirror. "They told her they wanted to help her beat drugs and could tailor-make a program so she wouldn't have to go to a residential center. She liked that idea because her husband Blake is out of prison soon and wouldn't want to be away from him when he's finally freed."