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The Twilight Saga: New Moon grossed $72.7 million on Friday, according to estimates from Summit Entertainment, shattering The Dark Knight’s previous opening-day record of $62.2 million. (The figure includes the $26.3 million New Moon banked from midnight screenings, also a box office record.) The astronomic figure puts Bella, Edward, and Jacob on a clear path to the biggest opening weekend ever, all the more impressive considering New Moon is opening in 342 fewer theaters than The Dark Knight did last year.

Oprah Winfrey is fleeing broadcast TV for cable. NBC, once arguably the biggest cultural tastemaker in the United States, is being shopped to Comcast, the country’s largest cable company. Have we reached a tipping point that suggests a remarkable decline in the fortunes of broadcast television in America? snip Analysts and executives agree that the economic model of broadcast — which relies more heavily on advertising than cable — is fractured. What they are wondering now is if it is irreparably broken. snip The business model of the big three networks — which became four when Fox began prime-time programming...

From the Post, Levi Johnston was spotted Tuesday at JFK airport where he refused to stand in line with the "regular" people. Levi, who goes by the name "Ricky Hollywood" these days, made quite a show of his boarding the flight headed for the left coast: A spy on his American Airlines flight told Page Six: "He then made a big show of getting on first. He was seated in the front row of first class, looking like he was born to be there and waiting for some recognition. Jason Alexander was quietly sitting behind him." We wish Levi would...

When the apocalypse comes, China will save the world. Or at least that's how Chinese audiences are interpreting "2012," Hollywood's latest blockbuster disaster movie. "It's about time the world sees us as a dominant ally," said Liu Xinliang, 27, a Beijing-based computer programmer who watched the movie twice.

The film contains several oddly off-kilter little jabs at conservatives. For instance, Sean Tuouhy, played by Tim McGraw, says it’s odd that his family should have a black son before ever meeting a Democrat, a line seemingly written by the kind of liberal who imagines that Southerners are as cloistered and isolated from opposing viewpoints as residents of Beverly Hills. In another scene, set at one of those dreary government offices where bored civil servants provide occasional slow-motion service to frustrated citizens, Leigh Anne demands to know who is in charge. The clerk points, in a non-sequitur nonpareil, to a...

Twilight Is A 'Deviant Moral Vacuum': Vatican Slams Blockbuster New Moon Film By NICK PISA 20th November 2009 The latest movie in vampire saga Twilight is a 'deviant moral vacuum', the Vatican said yesterday. New Moon, which opens in Britain today, is a 'mixture of excesses aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element', a spokesman added. The blockbuster opened on Wednesday in Italy and took £1.8million at the box office. 'Deviant': The Vatican claims vampire flick New Moon, which stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (pictured), occupies a 'moral vacuum' Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, of the Pontifical Council...

Vatican City, Nov 18, 2009 / 03:51 pm (CNA).- The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano (LOR) published several articles in its November 17 edition which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the movie “Ben Hur.”  The film, which was released on November 18, 1959 and starred Charlton Heston, became the first movie to receive 11 Oscar awards. In an article entitled, “Hollywood in Rome For A Christian Story,” LOR explained that the movie was filmed in the studios of Cinecitta by director William Wyler, who created a screenplay free of much of the heaviness of the original novel written in 1880...

NASA scientists are sick of being asked if the world is going to end in 2012 – so much in fact, they've published an article on their website explaining just why it's a load of rubbish. The release of Roland Emmerich's blockbuster film 2012, in which John Cusack's character Jackson Curtis has to deal with the end of the world, has only made matters worse. There are several theories as to how the world is supposed to end, most of which focus on a particular date - December 21. The best-known is that relating to the Mayan 'long-count' calendar, which...

Hollywood studios are now thinking twice about splurging on A-list movie stars and costly productions in reaction to the poor economy, but also because of the surprising success of recent films with unknown actors.

Equalizer Actor Edward Woodward Dies Actor Edward Woodward, famous for his roles in The Wicker Man and The Equalizer has died today. Actor 'never lost his brave spirit' The 79-year-old had been suffering from various illnesses, including pneumonia.

Remembering Ken Ober, The Voice Of 'Remote Control' Posted 41 minutes ago by Kyle Anderson in Music, Television This was a sad day at MTV, as we had a death in the family. Ken Ober, the longtime comedian, television producer and host of early MTV game show "Remote Control," passed away at age 52. Arguably, Ober's most indelible legacy is "Remote Control," which premiered in 1987 and was one of MTV's first attempts at crafting an original television series. The premise was delightfully low-fi: Ober posited that he hosted a media-obsessed game show out of the basement of his parents'...

I saw the movies 2012 last night with my children. FIRST and most important, not a schred of anti-republican politics (like the kind that ruined "the day after tomorrow") We saw it in an amazing local theatre with comfortable chairs and an incredible sound system - which is almost mandatory for this movie. The sounds will shake you in your seat and certainly add to the experience. My children (all girls) are above age 10 and the PG13 rating is good for the loud noise and incredible special effects- not ANYTHING sexual or perverted. They were not scared and though...

The makers of a hit Hollywood film are at the centre of a race controversy after removing two black actors from a poster being used to promote it in Britain. The American advert for Couples Retreat, a comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kristin Davis, show all eight principal actors – six of whom are white and two black. But the poster in Britain, where the film is on general release, omits actors Faizon Love and Kali Hawk. Couples Retreat, about four couples who go on holiday together and receive therapy to improve their relationships, has taken more than

Nicole Kidman recently hit headlines when she came out with her opinion that Hollywood probably contributes to violence by portraying women as sex objects, and “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Doris Roberts couldn't agree more. According to Doris, ladies need to leave a little more to the imagination. “You've got to start with the dolls that are out. We are more than breasts and rear ends, and if you're a child and that's what we're trying to emanate you think that's all we are,” Roberts told Tarts at the recent “Peace Over Violence” event in Los Angeles which was aimed at...

"The Reagan revolution sits on her like an anvil. "It's a mystery to me why a lot of people don't want Democrats. When I was growing up, it was all Democrats. We wouldn't let a Republican in the back door." "Another mystery: how, like Vanessa Redgrave, she always managed to keep the hard angles of politics out of her work. How many social reformers could say they regret never having worked with Fred Astaire "because we were so much alike"?"

Thanks to all those who replied. I received some very good nominations, also some names I wasn't aware of (and then there were the frivolous wastes of time). I still think popular culture is a battlefield for conservatives. One most don't realize. So it's nice to know who is already engaged. Here are my own choices. Tell me what you think: OK Here is my list of the ten greatest conservative filmmakers: 1 -Frank Capra 2- James Carabatsos (script writer as well as producer) 3- Lionel Chetwynde 4- John Ford 5-Elia Kazan 6- John Wayne 7- Clint Eastwood 8- John...

<p>It's a little early to issue a death certificate for the career of Michael Moore -- but his latest film, "Capitalism: A Love Story," has grossed just $14 million in seven weeks of release.</p>

When, in late September, rumors surfaced that Comcast was trying to buy NBC Universal from General Electric, Wall Street reacted with dismay. Grandiose attempts to combine media production and distribution — programming and plumbing — are nothing new in the entertainment business, but they almost always end in disappointment. Witness AOL Time Warner. So what in the world could be prompting the Comcast chief executive, Brian Roberts, to start down this accursed path? I fear that I’m to blame. A few months ago, while stalking the aisles of my local Best Buy, I gave in to techno-temptation. I bought a...

On Dec. 4, 2009, the radical Hollywood left is poised to release its latest tribute to the men and women of the armed services, entitled "Brothers." The film stars Tobey Maguire as a military man serving in Afghanistan. When he is presumed killed in action, his wife, played by Natalie Portman, has an affair with his brother, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Naturally, Maguire shows up at home with a tremendous case of post-traumatic disorder -- which, if we are to judge from the trailer, causes him to fire weapons at random and physically abuse his wife. "Brothers" follows hot on...

Roland Emmerich's new end-of-the-world disaster film 2012 has a rollicking good time destroying every monument to man's architectural genius in the world. The Sistine Chapel goes kablooie, as does the Vatican and the giant Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. The White House gets flattened, too. All man's most well known landmarks get turned to dust by Emmerich's over-the-top movie effects team. But by the time the year 2012 rolls around, director Roland Emmerich is obviously saying that Islam has been wiped off the face of the Earth. There are no Saudi scenes of mayhem and destruction in...

'2012' movie review: Roland Emmerich ends the world ... again By Stephen Whitty/The Star-Ledger November 12, 2009, 4:28PM “2012” Movie Review -- Remember “Independence Day,” that alien invasion movie with great special effects that made a ton of money? You don’t remember it half as well as its director, Roland Emmerich. Because he turned it into a blueprint for “2012.” 2012 (PG-13) Columbia (158 min.) Directed by Roland Emmerich. With John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor. Now playing in New Jersey. STEPHEN WHITTY’S RATING: TWO STARS Ratings note: The film contains approximately 6 billion acts of violence. There is one,...

It's sleek, it's fast, and it's reinforced with a ton of bullet-proof Kevlar armour. The mean-looking Ady Gil is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's newest weapon in their ongoing battle against Japanese whalers. The trimaran - previously known as Earthrace - recently set the world powerboat record for circumnavigation.

Disney’s ‘Christmas Carol’ Disappoints at Box Office, Carrey Slams Capitalism Posted By S.T. Karnick On November 10, 2009 @ 3:08 pm In Entertainment, News, Politics Robert Zemeckis’s motion-capture-animation version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol had a fairly blah opening weekend at the North American box office, finishing first with an unexpectedly miserly total of $31 million in ticket sales. Industry insiders had figured the film to bring in up to $45 million. Disney studio representatives predict that this latest adaptation of the Dickens classic will do well over time, like Zemeckis’s 2004 The Polar Express. My assessment...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue speaks to the way Catholics and Muslims are treated in the upcoming film, “2012”:When we got word recently that the movie “2012” depicts the Vatican being blown up, along with the famous statue from Rio, Christ the Redeemer, we were unmoved. Why? Because this occurs during the end of the world in a massive destruction. This kind of sensationalism, we reasoned, is standard fare for director Roland Emmerich: he is the guru of the “blow ‘em up” genre of movies. But now we’ve learned that while Catholics get theirs, Muslims are spared. Out of fear,...

A short video of sets and action from the upcoming Red Dawn remake being filmed in and around Detroit. These shots are from the filming in Pontiac, MI. NSFW WARNING: The background music contains some vulgar language and may not be safe for work or around younger children. Viewers with concerns should mute the sound before playing the video. Note: I am not affiliated in any way with Contrafilm, MGM, or anyone else involved in the production or marketing of this film.

Cult films, the critic Danny Peary wrote in his 1981 book “Cult Movies,” “are born in controversy” and elicit “a fiery passion in moviegoers that exists long after their initial releases.” By those measures David Fincher’s “Fight Club,” a movie that stirred vitriolic ire when it came out 10 years ago and today inspires obsessive, often worshipful scrutiny in both lowbrow and highbrow quarters, is surely the defining cult movie of our time. In his memoir Art Linson, a producer of the film, describes the aftermath of the first screening at the 20th Century Fox lot: ashen-faced executives imagining their...

America has a bad case of the doomsday jitters. You don't have to be a Glenn Beck follower to know that whenever things go wrong in this country, you can always find all the anger, bitterness and fear-mongering bubbling up and over into our popular culture. As Shakespeare's witches exulted in "Macbeth," when things go wrong, it's time to stir the pot: "double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble." With Wall Street fat cats still cashing in while the rest of the country still suffers from double-digit unemployment, with partisan bickering at an all-time high and a...

Director Roland Emmerich admitted that he has no time for organized religion. His latest movie 2012 is based on a pagan Mayan prophecy that the world ends that calendar year (December 21). Bad enough he gives credence to ancient folklore, worse yet he trashes Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, while leaving Islam unscathed. One scene has Saint Peter's Basilica rolling onto the multitude of clergy and laity praying for divine assistance. Every national monument and religious icon is destroyed EXCEPT the the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure located in the center of Mecca, the site of the Hajj. Why? Is the director...

Lost Charlie Chaplin film bought on eBay for $5 A lost Charlie Chaplin film has been discovered in a can of nitrate film bought on eBay for £3.20 ($5). Morale Park from Henham, Essex, purchased the tin simply because he liked the look of it. He was amazed to discover its fragile contents: a previously unknown seven-minute film Chaplin film called Zepped. His interest was piqued, he said, when he could not find any mention of it on the internet. The film features footage of Zeppelin airships flying over England during the First World War, and out-takes from three pictures...

2:15 PM UPDATE: I've learned that 100 people are being laid off across "several divisions" of the A&E Television Networks yesterday and today "as a direct result of the merger". It will make those employees feel so much better that management tells me it's "no one in a decision making role." A&E Television Networks in August acquired Lifetime Entertainment, and everything is now owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst and NBC Universal. Big Media = Big Mergers = Big Mistakes.

Never let it be said that the folks in Hollywood aren't good at coming up with a totally fictional horror story. I just have a problem when they use it not to entertain, but to create a moral panic to push the government to pass laws in their favor. In discussing the recent 60 Minutes piece that was really nothing more than an MPAA scare tactic, some suggested that it was really just a first step in the process of getting the government to make sure net neutrality rules had a special Hollywood exception. So, it's interesting to note that...

'2012' maker destroys Vatican, Jesus, but leaves shrine in Mecca alone. The maker of the upcoming apocalyptic film "2012" has conceded he enjoyed orchestrating the visual disintegration of the world's religious symbols, such as the Vatican and the famous statue of Jesus overlooking Rio de Janeiro. But he left an Islamic symbol alone because he feared the reaction from the Muslim world. In an interview with the online SciFiWire website, Roland Emmerich said he had considered including the destruction of the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure in Mecca worshiped by Muslims as being built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. "Well,...

...For "2012," Emmerich set his sites on destroying the some biggest landmarks around the world, from Rome to Rio. But there's one place that Emmerich wanted to demolish but didn't: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure located in the center of Mecca. It's the focus of prayers and the site of the Hajj, the biggest, most important pilgrimage in Islam. "Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit," the filmmaker told scifiwire.com. "But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, 'I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.' And he was right."...

This has been coming for some time, and after recent shakeups at Disney, is really no great surprise. Now Daniel Battsek, the current president of Miramax, has announced that he’ll step down at the end of January 2010. At the same time, Disney will relocate the label from New York City to Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, CA, where they’ll reduce Miramax’s output to just three films a year. The label that launched Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith and was the biggest face of the ’90s indie explosion is basically dead. OK, the real end of the era hit...

Just got hold of the latest issue of the magazine my old alma mater in Spain sends me regularly. A feature about a movie actor, now also a producer, immediately got my attention. First, a magazine that tries to be serious in character would normally not talk about actors and celebrities. Second, though I’ve heard of the story before in a tangential way, I thought it would just have a short shelf life, just a flash in the pan, you know. In short, the article broke my guiding principles. It deserved to be read. And I did. Now, I feel...

When I read NBC's "Law & Order" was airing an episode last week "ripped from the headlines" of an abortionist shot in church, i.e., Dr. George Tiller, I, of course, anticipated the plot would not go well for pro-lifers. The most I expected was milliseconds of fairness with pro-abortion clichés ruling the hour. My, was I surprised. I could have written that script. The episode wasn't even balanced. It was outright pro-life, not that I mind. If you haven't seen the episode, you should. Sans commercials it is only 42 minutes long. Briefly, the story begins with a pro-life renegade...

With the noise level rising over consumers possibly paying a fee for TV shows online, now comes a report that iTunes is considering an all-you-can eat $30-a-month TV service. A new subscription service would turn iTunes into a pseudo cable and satellite TV operator -- a company that charges monthly fees for traditional TV/cable networks. The difference is that iTunes service would be sans advertising. Shows would not be distributed via linear networks -- but, as iTunes does now, by program. The story was first reported in AllThingsD.com. Apple's iTunes Stores is the original digital video Internet service, launching with...

Having fended off Hollywood’s lascivious advances for five full decades, Barbie has finally collapsed onto its couch with her legs spread, exhausted from years of being chased around a desk by horny, pantsless studio-executive suitors promising to make her a big movie star. Variety reports that Universal is the beneficiary of the Mattel icon’s weary willingness to surrender her big-screen virtue to the highest bidder, announcing today they’ve reached a deal for a live-action film based on America’s favorite plastic bundle of unhealthy body-image issues. Reaching the deal was the easy part; with the relationship consummated (awkwardly, we’d assume, as...

<p>Prophet Mohammad the new Darth Vader?</p> <p>An epic film about Islam's Prophet Mohammad backed by the producer of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Matrix" is being planned with the aim of "bridging cultures."</p> <p>Filming of the $150-million English-language movie is set to start in 2011 with American Barrie Osborne as its producer, Qatari media company Alnoor Holdings said on Sunday.</p>

POLIWOOD: D Tonight at 7:30 on Showtime. Director Barry Levinson’s 90-minute “Poliwood” is billed as a film essay. That’s like calling the back of a cereal box a novel. Say what you will about Michael Moore, but at least he knows how to spin a story. Levinson (“Rain Man”) aims to explore the crash of politics, celebrity and media. He’s fascinated as to why performers are greeted with hostility when they become politically active. He trails famous members of the Creative Coalition, Hollywood’s nonprofit, nonpartisan lobbying group for arts funding, through the 2008 Democratic and Republican presidential conventions. The coalition’s...

CANCUN, Mexico - Roland Emmerich has an ongoing project: destroying the world. In 1996's Independence Day, the German director sent aliens to wipe out the White House. In 1998, he unleashed Godzilla to wreak havoc on the streets of New York. In 2004's The Day After Tomorrow, he froze the planet in a new ice age. But in his new film, 2012, to be released Nov. 13 and already the eye of a vast promotion storm, things get really bad. Emmerich, who has earned the unofficial title of "Master of Disaster," admits having searched Google for a doomsday scenario even...

What is your favorite movie theme tune? Mine is definitely the "Third Man" theme from the movie of the same name. Interestingly the director of that film didn't originally intend for music to play such an important part of that movie but Carol Reed was doing location scouting in Vienna and heard the zither sounds of Anton Karas at a beer garden. Reed loved the sound and brought Karas to London to compose a tune for his movie. Even before the movie was released, then tune was a big hit. When the movie was released, it too became a big...

LOS ANGELES — Like many of Jason Jones’ best ideas, this one came in the middle of the night.A member of the production team that put out the pro-life hit movie of 2006, Bella, Jones’ previous nocturnal brainstorm had instigated Bella Hero, a campaign devoted to putting a copy of the film in the hands of every visitor to a crisis-pregnancy center in the United States. Next came Bella on Campus, which raises funds to pay for college screenings.Now, because of a chance meeting with a New York City beggar, drug addict and ex-con to whom he had given...

There’s something weird about Law Abiding Citizen, and it isn’t simply the movie’s attempt to gussy up the legal thriller genre with gruesome, Saw-style theatrics. No, the most notable thing about the film is how it appears to inadvertently channel the recent, inchoate Republican anger at the Obama administration and use it to power a violent revenge fantasy. Don’t believe me? Here are four ways Law Abiding Citizen feels like a Republican wet dream. Mild spoilers ahead: Sympathy with the Devil Jamie Foxx’s district attorney Nick Rice is ostensibly our hero, struggling to put an end to the murderous schemes...

Michelle Marvin, ‘Palimony’ Figure, Dies THE ASSOCIATED PRESS October 30, 2009 LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michelle Triola Marvin, who fought a landmark "palimony" case against her former lover, actor Lee Marvin, has died. She was 76. Family spokesman Bob Palmer says Marvin died Friday morning of lung cancer at the Malibu home she shared with actor Dick Van Dyke, her partner of 30 years. Marvin lived with Lee Marvin for six years and took his name. They broke up in 1970 and nine years later she sued for nearly $2 million, even though she had no alimony rights because the...

Kalpen Modi, the star of the Harold and Kumar Go To movies and the TV series House, made a big splash when he put aside his Hollywood career to take a White House position as “director of public engagement,” which everyone assumed would be more or less a liaison to Hollywood as an adjunct social secretary. Unfortunately for Modi, he apparently didn’t stick to those duties. According to new documents released as part of a FOIA request, Modi helped plan the notorious NEA call conducted by Yosi Sergant that attempted to link NEA grants with support for the Obama agenda,...

In honor of Halloween, I have assembled two lists. One holds a ranking of the ten best slashers of all time. While these characters were awesome, that does not necessarily mean that any of their respective movies were any good. So my other list looks solely at the movies, and which come in tops. The list of the best slashers will be published tomorrow (Saturday) on hometownstation.com. Today though, we'll take a stab (please pardon the pun I know it's bad) at identifying the ten best horrors movies...ever.

LOS ANGELES – Dennis Hopper has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is canceling all travel plans to focus on treatment. Manager Sam Maydew says the 73-year-old actor and artist is being treated through a "special program" at the University of Southern California. Asked about Hopper's prognosis, Maydew said, "We're hoping for the best."

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on HBO to apologize for an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in which the main character splattered urine on a painting of Jesus. snip “It is beyond tasteless to insult the religious sensibilities of billions of people in America and around the world with such a cheap and vulgar publicity stunt. Jesus, peace be upon him, is loved and revered by both Christians and Muslims. Muslims view him as one of God’s greatest messengers to mankind. snip “We understand the drive for ratings, but...