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It has been a week of uncomfortable conversations in Hollywood. While many agree that the Academy's overwhelmingly white membership does play a role in the types of films and performances that get Oscar attention, some white members privately express resentment over accusations of racism in failing to nominate a single nonwhite actor or anoint Straight Outta Compton a best picture candidate. Penelope Ann Miller, best known for Carlito's Way and The Artist, is a member of the actors branch that could have nominated Creed's Michael B. Jordan, Concussion's Will Smith, The Hateful Eight's Samuel L. Jackson or Beasts of No...

Ebert, 70, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic, died Thursday in Chicago. He had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.

BREAKING: American Airlines Releases Statement: Alec Baldwin Rude to Crew, Used ‘Offensive Language’ *UPDATED* by John Nolte **UPDATE: “He was beating the walls of the lavatory to the point that the captain called us to see what that was about. They heard it in the cockpit,” said one crew member on the JFK-bound flight who had to deal with the “30 Rock” actor. “He was asked five times. Everybody is the same. Everyone has to follow the rules, it doesn’t matter who you are,” the employee told The Post. “He was violent, abusive and aggressive.” Though they originally declined to...

A comedian and actor went to Twitter to suggest that the death of Muammar Gaddafi should inspire American liberals to kill Sarah Palin, sparking a virtual fire-storm. That's just what actor and former soda spokesman Orlando Jones did when he turned the death of the Libyan dictator into a call to arms for American liberals to kill the poster woman for the Tea Party movement. 'Libyan Rebels kill Gaddafi, if American liberals want respect the better stop listening to Aretha & kill Sarah Palin(:' Mr Jones tweeted on Friday.

Actress Mila Kunis is frustrated about the lack of interest in politics, insisting it's "crazy" young people "don't educate themselves about the world." The "Black Swan" star is a staunch supporter of President Barack Obama and she's baffled that others in her age group don't hold political views. She's urged the youth of America to sit down with a book or newspaper and learn about current affairs - for the sake of their own children. Kunis tells Britain's Stylist magazine, "Yes (I'm frustrated), because you are given such an amazing opportunity with so much information. Why is no-one taking advantage...

<p>Marcilio Filho is a Brazilian immigrant, in the country illegally, who works three jobs to support his family. Patrick O'Brien, also a husband and father, is a landscaper who is losing customers to Filho, who can charge less because he doesn't pay taxes. These two fictional characters clash in Hopkinton resident Karen Webb's "Green Grass," which won second prize for short screenplays in the 2007 Vail Film Festival Screenwriting Competition.</p>

The robustly liberal actor dismisses Internet rumors he plans to run against Connecticut’s conservative Democratic senator, Joe Lieberman. "It’d be lunatic to try to get into politics at my age. I don’t think I’d have the stomach for it." But he says he is worried by the policies of the Bush administration. "I wish I felt a little more comfortable about the direction that we’re going," Newman said carefully. "It does not seem to be of the people, by the people and for the people. It seems to be about something else completely different. "I think part of it...

<p>She is nearly always at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's side, a dark-haired wire of energy who, like the governor, arrived in Sacramento by way of Hollywood.</p> <p>Officially, Bonnie Reiss is a senior adviser. In truth, the former entertainment lawyer, accountant and producer is one of the governor's most trusted aides and one of his wife's closest friends.</p>

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is ruling out the prospect of returning to America to raise her child - because she deems her homeland too dangerous. The Oscar winning beauty - who is pregnant with her husband Chris Martin 's baby - has been living in London since settling down with the Coldplay star, and she has no intention of bringing up their child in a threatening environment. She says, "I worry about brining up a child in America. At the moment there's a weird, over-patriotic atmosphere over there, like, 'We're number one and the rest of the world doesn't matter.' And...

Justice was slow in coming, but it appears to be here.

Johnny Depp is feeling patriotic - about France. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star slammed the United States over Iraq in an interview in the German magazine Stern this week. "America is dumb, is something like a dumb puppy that has big teeth - that can bite and hurt you, aggressive," he was quoted as saying. Depp lives in France with the French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, with whom he has two children. He said he was delighted when he saw that French fries had been rechristened "freedom fries" in the U.S. Capitol canteen. "Nothing made me happier than...

french news BERLIN, Sept 3 (AFP) - Hollywood hearthrob Johnny Depp has slammed US President George W. Bush's policy on Iraq, calling him "one of the worst liars I have ever seen," in an interview with German magazine Stern to appear Thursday. Depp, who lives in France with his wife, pop singer Vanessa Paradis, and two children, told the magazine that "grown-up men and women in positions of power" in the US government had shown themselves to be "idiots" in choosing to go to war against Iraq and attacking Paris for its opposition to the war. The 40-year-old, who plays...

BERLIN - American actor Johnny Depp (news) likened his native country to a "dumb puppy that has big teeth" in an interview published Wednesday, ridiculing Washington's confrontation with France, where he lives, over the war in Iraq (news - web sites). The "Edward Scissorhands" and "Sleepy Hollow" star, who spends much of his time in the south of France with his companion, Vanessa Paradis (news), and their two small children, told the German magazine he couldn't see himself paying more than short visits to his Los Angeles residence in the present political climate. "America is dumb, is something like a...

Johnny Depp Says U.S. Is Like a 'Dumb Puppy' By REUTERS Filed at 7:48 a.m. ET BERLIN (Reuters) - Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed. The 40-year-old actor, who stars in the ``Pirates of the Caribbean,'' told the German news magazine Stern he was happier staying in the south of France with his wife, the French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis, and their two children. ``America is dumb, it's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite...

<p>Funnyman Robin Williams has launched a scathing attack on President George W. Bush and his decision to go ahead with war on Iraq.</p> <p>The "One Hour Photo" actor also criticizes what he sees as his country's mixed messages when it comes to national security.</p>

The Bush administration has been dealt a setback in its campaign to allow prayer in our public schools. The full 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has voted 15-9 to back the 2-1 vote by its earlier panel finding the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words ''under God.'' The pledge, written in 1892, had those words added to it in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration, and I remember a nun in our Catholic school telling us we had to say it because it was the law--but it was wrong, because it violated the principle of separating church and...