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Much more to come later this morning from Jonesboro, where Circuit Judge David Laser will consider a plea bargain between the state and the West Memphis 3 that could bring their immediate release from prison after more than 17 years. If the judge approves — and this is an all-important if — the defendants will leave still convicted of first-degree murder for slaying three eight-year-old West Memphis boys in 1993. This will leave their staunchest defenders unhappy and offend even many less interested who will take offense at convictions for crimes that Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin...

The fall of Hollywood? OK, Sith is now the tenth highest grossing film of all time, and probably headed toward number seven. But Wall Street is bearish on film stocks; on Monday Dreamworks shares fell more than 13%. The big fear is that DVD sales are falling, as Shrek 2 bombed in this market. Hollywood box office has been down for nineteen weeks out of twenty, and believe me Harry Potter won't do Johnny Depp and Tim Burton any favors. Daniel Gross opined that Hollywood is the next Detroit. Others see a big mystery in falling receipts. Yet others blame...

Elton John has said stars are scared to speak out against war in Iraq because of "bullying tactics" used by the US government to hinder free speech. "There's an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly. Everyone is too career-conscious," he told New York magazine, Interview. Sir Elton said performers could be "frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics", The singer likened the current "fear factor" to McCarthyism in the 1950s. "There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn't say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot...

Actress Sarandon visits Texas condemned killer04:35 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2004Associated Press LIVINGSTON -- Actress Susan Sarandon spoke with a convicted killer for about two hours Wednesday in a Texas death row visit. Sarandon declined to talk with reporters after she met with James Allridge, III at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. Sarandon is a death penalty opponent who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of an anti-capital punishment nun in the film "Dead Man Walking." Allridge, who declined to speak with reporters Wednesday, faces execution August 26. He was condemned for the 1985 shooting death of...

Rosie Takes Shot At Bush During Gay-Friendly Cruise Cruise To Stop In Key West Later This Week POSTED: 12:13 PM EDT July 13, 2004 UPDATED: 6:00 PM EDT July 13, 2004 PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. -- On the eve of a possible U.S. Senate vote to make gay marriages unconstitutional, Rosie O'Donnell spoke out against the Bush administration's plans to ban same sex unions during a stop on a gay-friendly cruise, according to Local 6 News. Rosie Promotes Cruise, Discusses Possible Gay Marriage Ban "I think this cruise comes at the perfect time, when they're considering an amendment making it illegal...

Ahoy, mateys, Rosie O'Donnell's going full steam ahead--her cruise line for gay and lesbian families has launched on its maiden voyage. The first cruise of R Family Vacations, a new company backed by the comic and gay-rights advocate, set sail Sunday from New York for a seven-day cruise to the Bahamas. O'Donnell was on hand in Manhattan Sunday to celebrate the first of several gay family friendly vacations planned by R Family Vacations. According to the R Family Website, the cruise is a seven-day adventure that will take its 2,100 passengers from New York to Florida to the Bahamas and...

Yoko Ono has joined the chorus in support of gay marriage by recording "Every Man Has a Man Who Loves Him," a gay-friendly version of a song she wrote nearly a quarter-century ago. The song "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him," included on her last album with John Lennon before he was killed in 1980, was also retooled into another version: "Every Woman Has a Woman Who Loves Her." It's both a political statement and a tribute to an audience that has improbably made her a hit act in the dance clubs at age 71. "I should think...

Being a single mother makes it difficult to find a mate —even when you're Nicole Kidman. "I'm hoping to meet someone and be happy with them. But that's not as easy as it sounds. I'm a 37-year-old woman with two children. Men aren't beating a path to my door," she said in an interview published Wednesday in the latest issue of Now magazine. "I don't want to sound like a woman from a lonely hearts club and I don't want to advertise. The children are my priority. I take them around with me — movies or baseball games or local...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Ashley Judd will visit Cambodia next week to raise AIDS (news - web sites) awareness and to launch new health products and services, a U.N. program said Thursday. The star of "Double Jeopardy" and "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" also will visit Thailand and attend this month's international AIDS conference in Bangkok, according to YouthAIDS, run by the nonprofit Population Services International. Her visits will include trips to clinics and schools to speak with children about the threat of catching HIV (news - web sites). She'll tour the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and Siem...

EXPOSED: The Left's biggest (and we do mean biggest) liar and hypocrite, Michael Moore Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man by David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke Oscar-winning filmmaker and bestselling author Michael Moore has made a king's fortune railing against the hypocrisy he epitomizes. In "documentaries" like Bowling for Columbine and the soon-to-be-released Fahrenheit 9/11, and in "nonfiction" books like Stupid White Men and Dude, Where's My Country?, Moore has proved himself over and over to be the most shamelessly dishonest -- if crudely effective -- propagandist since Joseph Goebbels and Nazi documentarian Leni Riefenstahl. Now,...

Just as his "Fahrenheit 9/11" opens nationwide, several filmmakers are readying documentaries aimed at debunking Michael Moore, and a new film festival is being planned that will feature such works as well as other documentaries well to the right of Moore's films. Scheduled Sept. 9-11 in Dallas, the American Film Renaissance, as the festival will be known, has just been announced by co-founder Jim Hubbard, who said it is bankrolled primarily by some "big-time conservative donors." Hubbard currently is negotiating to show two films critical of Moore. The first is "Michael Moore Hates America," made by newcomer Michael Wilson and...

'WHITE CHICKS" LIKELY TO LICK 'FAHRENHEIT" Will the flood of attention given to "Fahrenheit 9/11," which Lions Gate and IFC Films will bow in 868 venues, translate into boffo B.O.? While Michael Moore's pic has dominated headlines this week, it's not the top dog going into the weekend box office race. Continuing the summer's trend of midweek bows, Sony/Revolution's "White Chicks" opened on Wednesday, taking in $4.2 million from 2,412 locations. Opening day results put pic, which stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans as undercover white girls, on a pace to dethrone Fox's "DodgeBall" at the top of the box office...

'White Chicks' likely to lick 'Fahrenheit' Thu Jun 24, 6:07 PM ET Gabriel Snyder, STAFF This article was updated at 6:54 p.m. Will the flood of attention given to "Fahrenheit 9/11," which Lions Gate and IFC Films will bow in 868 venues, translate into boffo B.O.? While Michael Moore (news)'s pic has dominated headlines this week, it's not the top dog going into the weekend box office race. Continuing the summer's trend of midweek bows, Sony/Revolution's "White Chicks" opened on Wednesday, taking in $4.2 million from 2,412 locations. Opening day results put pic, which stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans (news)...

Turned off by political attack ads? Get your news from late-night comedy shows? Try this: A comely cartoon stewardess, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, lights the cigar of a nervous businessman, read by Kevin Bacon. "How's the reconstruction going?" he's asked. "Great," he replies, "I mean profitable. Very profitable." As a plane full of businessmen strap on parachutes, grabbing their briefcases and guns, the announcer asks: "What if the same men who profited from the war had to fight it?" Moved? How about a television ad written by satirist Al Franken, in which a $25,000-a-year waitress (Ione Skye) explains Bush's tax...

<p>Mel Gibson's unprecedented hit, The Passion of the Christ, already has changed Hollywood forever. Those industry insiders who deny the significance of the transformation are fooling only themselves.</p> <p>A recent article in USA TODAY, headlined " 'The Passion' could be a hard act to follow," displayed a subhead baldly declaring, "Hollywood is unlikely to get religion."</p>

'The Passion of the Christ', the movie that film superstar Mel Gibson personally financed because no studio thought it was commerically viable, could become the highest grossing film in history. By the end of business Sunday, the story of Jesus final hours had grossed $264.5 million in the United States and Canada. The film opened on Ash Wednesday, February 25.'If The Passion continues on this trajectory, it is possible for it to surpass Star Wars ($461 million) and Titanic ($600.8 million) as the domestic box office champion of all time,' said Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations Inc, which tracks film...

Seeing Rosie O’Donnell condemn President Bush just after she “married” her girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter, was bizarre in a tiresome sort of way. O’Donnell claimed, “We were inspired to come here by the sitting president and the vile and vicious and hateful comments he made.”If O’Donnell had any sense of humor or irony, she would look at herself and say, “Gee, for such a tolerant, open-minded person, I sure do condemn and vituperate an awful lot, especially on what should have been the happiest day of my life.”Maybe I’m some sort of pervert, but I don’t recall bearing anyone in the...

''Monster'' star and best actress nominee Charlize Theron never imagined awards nominations. In fact, back when she was making the film she couldn't even envision a crowd of close to 1,000 sitting down together to watch the drama based on the life of lesbian serial killer Aileen Wuornos. ''When we closed AFI, 800 people watched it at the Dome. I never ever imagined 800 people watching this movie at the same time in the theater,'' Theron said from New York City, where she prepping for the film's junket. She also had the added task of producing the film in addition...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Former television talk show host Rosie O'Donnell said she planned to marry her longtime girlfriend Thursday in San Francisco, where more than 3,300 other same-sex couples have tied the knot since February 12.</p> <p>Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," O'Donnell announced she would wed Kelli Carpenter -- two days after President Bush called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.</p>

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) won a Grammy Award on Sunday, but not for his famed saxophone playing. Clinton was honored in the spoken word album for children category for a project he worked on with fellow winners, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Italian screen siren Sophia Loren (news). None of them was at the ceremony to pick up the award for "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks." Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton (news - web sites), was nominated in the spoken word album category for the audiobook version of...