Movies, Entertainment, Celebrities - News and Gossip

CHICAGO (AP) — Film critic Roger Ebert on Thursday confirmed that a fellow critic yelled at him and whacked him on the knee with a program during a movie screening at the Toronto Film Festival last weekend, but said the incident was “blown out of proportion.”

“It has been blown out of proportion. It is of little interest,” Ebert said in a column posted Thursday on the Web site of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has been a critic since 1967.

Ebert, ... read more

For weeks, the tabloids have been breathlessly touting the possibility that Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt would cross paths during their respective promotional duties at the Toronto International Film Festival (she’s plugging “Management”; he’s pushing “Burn After Reading”).

“Brad seeing Jen!” blared a recent In Touch cover, which claimed that Angelina Jolie found time between breast-feeding twins Vivienne and Knox and mothering Maddox, 7, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2, at the couple’s palatial French chateau to be “furious” over the unlikely ... read more

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” has won the top award at the Venice Film Festival.

The film awarded the Golden Lion on Saturday stars Mickey Rourke as a wrestler forced into retirement who strikes up a romance with an aging stripper played by Marisa Tomei.

Russia’s Aleksey German Jr. won the award for best director for “Bumaznyj soldat (Paper Soldier),” a story set in the early days of the space program ... read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Inspired by Neil Young and Radiohead, Michael Moore will release his new film online and for free.

The film, “Slacker Uprising,” follows Moore’s 62-city tour during the 2004 election to rally young voters. It will be available for three weeks as a free download to North American residents, beginning Sept. 23. An official announcement of the film is planned for Friday.

Moore said he considered releasing “Slacker Uprising” ... read more

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Let’s see Hari Puttar get out of this one.

Bollywood producers set to release a film called “Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors” are working to fend off a lawsuit filed by Warner Bros. that claims the movie title hews too closely to their mega-famous boy wizard franchise.

While Bollywood films often borrow liberally from Western movies, producers of “Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors” say their movie bears no resemblance to any film in the “Harry Potter” series.

“There is absolutely nothing to link ‘Hari Puttar’ ... read more

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Maybe Harry Potter should have brought a note from his parents saying he would be missing school.

Warner Bros. gave Harry the school year off, announcing last week it was bumping the sixth movie in the series from fall to next summer. But Entertainment Weekly — which shares the studio’s parent company, Time Warner Inc. — was unaware, featuring “Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe on the cover of its Aug. 22-29 fall-preview issue.

The magazine ... read more

MIAMI (AP) — Paris Hilton didn’t do enough pledging for a 2006 sorority comedy, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Worldwide Entertainment Group Inc. filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Miami, alleging the 27-year-old model-actress-heiress owes $75,000 in damages for not fulfilling promotional obligations.

Hilton entered into an agreement in 2004 for the production and distribution of the movie “National Lampoon’s Pledge This!,” ... read more

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — Actors Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright, along with members of a crew filming an Oliver Stone movie, were arrested during a bar fight Saturday morning, police said.

Shreveport police Sgt. Willie Lewis said Brolin, Wright and five others were arrested just after 2 a.m. at a club called the Stray Cat bar.

A call to deal with a rowdy patron drew interference from other patrons, Lewis said.

The Times of Shreveport reported that Brolin was booked and ... read more

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Will Smith usually plays the hero in his summer blockbusters. But in “Hancock,” he drinks, swears, mouths off — and goes to prison.

Smith’s role as a superhero-gone-bad could be jarring to some moviegoers — but not his children and wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

“Fortunately, our kids are in the business so they kind of understand,” the 39-year-old actor told Associated Press Television News at the red-carpet premiere of the ... read more

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Last time around, the Oscar songs category was three times “Enchanted” — a trick that may never be repeated.

The number of original songs that can be nominated from a single movie will now be limited to two, according to a rule change by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The academy’s governors approved the change late Tuesday.

Last year, Disney’s “Enchanted” had three titles in contention: “Happy Working Song,” “So Close” and “That’s How You Know.” The winner of best original song: ... read more