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The cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, who was best known for his work on The Deer Hunter and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, has died. He was 85. His business partner Yuri Neyman confirmed that Zsigmond died on Friday in Big Sur, California. The Hungarian-born Zsigmond helped define cinema’s American New Wave in the 1970s, through celebrated collaborations and a preference for natural light. He first gained renown for his collaboration with Robert Altman on the classics McCabe & Mrs Miller and The Long Goodbye. He was nominated for four Oscars: for his work on the Vietnam War epic The Deer...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Lindsay Lohan's publicist fired back at the media on Thursday, saying journalists had crossed a line by mocking a heartfelt letter the screen star wrote following director Robert Altman's death last week. Spokeswoman Leslie Sloane said the note -- which one columnist suggested was composed by Lohan on "one of her legendary party benders" -- was instead dashed off by the distraught 20-year-old actress on a Blackberry, moments after she learned Altman had died. Altman, who died on November 20 at age 81, directed Lohan in the last film of his career, "A Prairie Home...

There is probably a dumber community in America, but nobody is as hell-bent on proving it in public as Hollywood. The series of brainless rants around Oscar time two weeks ago was the climax of months of escalating public idiocy by people who confuse celebrity with wisdom.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 19 (AFP) - Hollywood stars Wednesday opened a new front in their battle to derail US plans for a war with Iraq, unveiling plans to flood the White House and lawmakers with antiwar phone calls, e-mails and faxes. A group of stars led by Martin Sheen -- who plays the US president on the television show "The West Wing" -- and actresses Anjelica Huston and Janeane Garofalo said they would stage a "virtual march" Monday on Washington. "Our message to Washington will be clear -- 'Don't invade Iraq!' We can contain Saddam Hussein without killing innocent...

US anti-war groups flex their muscle Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Tuesday October 22, 2002 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk Medea Benjamin has been close to both President Bush and his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, over the past few weeks. So close, in fact, that she was arrested. Most memorably, Ms Benjamin was one of two women seen directly behind Mr Rumsfeld at last month's congressional hearings on Iraq holding an anti-war placard and later charged with "disruption of Congress". This Saturday, she will help lead what organisers hope will echo in scale the anti-war protests of the Vietnam era three decades...