Movies

• Tom Cruise 1st to get Ducati superbike 06/28/08
       BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Tom Cruise is the first on the list to get Ducati's newest motorcycle — a $72,500 superbike bristling with titanium, magnesium and...
• Indie filmmakers find community online 06/28/08
       A number of films have left the recently concluded Sundance Film Festival with distribution deals. For most movies, the fight continues. The marketplace for in...
• Snipes trial offers IRS perfect script 06/28/08
       OCALA, Fla. - Even Hollywood couldn't have written a more ideal script for the Internal Revenue Service than actor Wesley Snipes' tax-fraud trial. At a time wh...
• Director Romanek departs 'Wolfman' 06/28/08
       LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Director Mark Romanek has left Universal's "The Wolfman," just weeks before the movie was to go before cameras. Cr...
• Little buzz for top Oscar films 06/28/08
       LOS ANGELES - One film has an oblique ending that's left some viewers dissatisfied and others floored by its profundity. The other features a slowly developing ...

Music

• NY Phil tries Dvorak diplomacy with North Korea 06/28/08
       PYONGYANG (Reuters) - The New York Philharmonic arrived in a snowy Pyongyang on Monday to play the symphony "From the New World" in an overture to tha...
• Kimmel Efs Affleck, Apes Damon 06/28/08
       Los Angeles (E! Online) - Jimmy Kimmel has let loose the dogs of a YouTube war. After keeping his silence for an agonizing three-and-a-half weeks in the wake o...
• More Mommy Time for Britney 06/28/08
       Los Angeles (E! Online) - After not seeing her boys for almost two months, Britney Spears has scored her second face-to-face visit in the past three days. The ...
• US sounds sour notes on North Korea 06/28/08
       SEOUL, South Korea - Despite a symbolic symphonic thaw with North Korea, the only music the Bush administration is making here is with South Korea's new, pro-U....
• Review: Erykah Badu's `New Amerykah' 06/28/08
       Erykah Badu, "New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War)" (Universal/Motown) On her fourth studio album, "New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War),&qu...

TV

• YouTube Plugs in HBO 06/28/08
       Los Angeles (E! Online) - Now it's really not just TV. HBO has inked a deal with YouTube to create a signature channel on the video-sharing site to air highlig...
• Blair Underwood is 'In Treatment' on HBO 06/28/08
       LOS ANGELES - Playing cocky charmers is a breeze for Blair Underwood. But playing alpha male Alex, the ultra-aggressive patient on HBO's taut saga of psychothe...
• News unit wins Italy Olympic rights, seeks partner 06/28/08
       MILAN (Reuters) - Sky Italia, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has won the Italian broadcasting rights to the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and the Lond...
• Oscars are a TV ratings dud 06/28/08
       NEW YORK - The Oscars are a ratings dud. Nielsen Media Research says preliminary ratings for the 80th annual Academy Awards telecast are 14 percent lower than t...
• Brad Renfro excluded from Oscar tribute 06/28/08
       LOS ANGELES - Blogs were buzzing Monday with discussion of why Brad Renfro was left out of the Academy Awards tribute to Hollywood figures who died in the past ...

Reviews

• For laugh hunters, "Wilderness" is a barren wasteland 06/28/08
       Strange Wilderness LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Laughter is definitely an endangered species where "Strange Wilderness" is concerned. An excep...
• Billboard CD reviews: Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz 06/28/08
       ARTIST: SHERYL CROW ALBUM: DETOURS NEW YORK (Billboard) - Since 2005's reflective "Wildflower," Sheryl Crow ended her engagement with Lance Armstron...
• A reporter's love affair for farmhouse 06/28/08
       "Minka: My Farmhouse in Japan" (Princeton Architectural Press, 241 pages. $24.95), by John Roderick: The extraordinary living room on the cover of Joh...
• History of New Orleans is wonderful read 06/28/08
       "The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square" (Lawrence Hill Books 352 pages, $24.95), by Ned Sublette: Founded, but not much...
• Jefferson's final years told in new book 06/28/08
       "Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson" (Random House, 352 pages, $27), by Alan Pell Crawford: This intimate and detailed biogra...

Books

• Best-sellers-Books-USAToday 06/28/08
       Key: F-Fiction; NF-Nonfiction; H-Hardcover; P-Paperback 1. "Duma Key" by Stephen King (Scribner) (F-H) 2. "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search ...
• New Parker book strains credibility 06/28/08
       "L.A. Outlaws" (Dutton, 352 pages, $25.95), by T. Jefferson Parker: Suzanne Jones, an eighth-grade Los Angeles high school teacher, thinks she is a de...
• 'Charlatan' chronicles medical quackery 06/28/08
       "Charlatan" (Crown Publishing Group, 336 pages, $24.95), by Pope Brock: Goat testicles to restore virility. An electric hat that grows hair. Healing b...
• Great love stories for Valentine's Day 06/28/08
       "My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, From Chekhov to Munro" (HarperCollins Publishers, 587 pages, $24.95), edited by Jeffrey Eugenides:...
• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS 06/28/08
       HARDCOVER FICTION 1. "Duma Key" by Stephen King (Scribner) 2. "Plum Lucky" by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Press) 3. "A Thousand Sp...

Celebrity

• Big Easy on the watch for celebs 06/28/08
       NEW ORLEANS - Sandy "Pepa" Denton got a lesson this week on how to toss beads and an up-close look at the elaborate float she'll be riding in Monday's...
• Court: Spears' dad has temporary control 06/28/08
       LOS ANGELES - Throughout the course of Britney Spears' months-long emotional tailspin, one universal question has always lingered with each spectacular turn: Wh...
• One 'Hannah' screening nearly empty 06/28/08
       NEW YORK - The "Hannah Montana" concert movie may be the hottest ticket in town — but early on opening day, at least one Manhattan theater was v...
• Richard Hatch's tax conviction upheld 06/28/08
       PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the tax evasion conviction of "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch, who was found guilty in 200...
• Jury acquits Wesley Snipes of tax fraud 06/28/08
       OCALA, Fla. - Action star Wesley Snipes was found not guilty of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges Friday, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts o...

Arts

• Arthur Kramer, Brother of Larry Kramer Depicted in 'Normal Heart', Dea 06/28/08
       Larry Kramer's play, a semi-autobiographical, socially significant drama which became a hit in 1985, tracked the early years of the AIDS crisis through prickly ...
• Designers Korins, Eisenhauer, O'Donnell and Morgan to Talk Craft 06/28/08
       Signature Theatre Company's artistic director James Houghton will moderate a discussion to include lighting designer Peggy Eisenhauer (The Ritz, Assassins), set...
• Farley and MacDevitt Will Design Jason Robert Brown's '13' in CT 06/28/08
       Performances will begin May 9 at the intimate Chester, CT, venue where Goodspeed incubates new works. The design team for the project was announced Jan. 28. Cas...
• "Flying Crows," Novel by Journalist Jim Lehrer, Comes to the Stage in 06/28/08
       In the play, it's 1997 and, prior to the demolition of the Kansas City Union Railroad Station, Det. Randy Benton is assigned one last inspection. "He disco...
• Bolshoi to reopen late in 2009 after rescue work 06/28/08
       MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre will reopen after restoration in November 2009, a year behind schedule, after emergency work to save it from collaps...

Fashion

• Leading Ladies Model Red Dresses for Heart Truth 06/28/08
       New York - Start spreading the news - you know it's not a run-of-the-mill fashion show when Liza Minnelli strides down a red carpeted runway in a shimmering Hal...
• Stars turn out at New York Fashion Week 06/28/08
       NEW YORK - It's a celebrity! No, a model! No, a celebrity! It was hard to keep the beautiful people straight at New York Fashion Week on Friday. Actresses Sara...
• French lingerie maker plans Valentine fashion show 06/28/08
       PARIS (Reuters) - A French lingerie maker will hold a free Valentine's Day fashion show to glam up its image and mark its near 100 years of existence. The comp...
• NY fashion show to take inspiration from economy 06/28/08
       NEW YORK (Reuters) - The financial meltdown sweeping the United States hits the fashion runway on Friday, when New York Fashion Week takes off, but its impact m...
• GQ Celebrates Best New Menswear Designers in America 06/28/08
       New York - When it comes to menswear, it's all about the details. How a designer reinterprets the staples in a gent's wardrobe - be it a suit jacket, a pair of ...

Humor

• Hillary Repackages Herself as a Black Man 06/28/08
       Creators Syndicate - In what some party insiders are calling a Hail Mary bid to win Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary C...
• Budget Crisis 06/28/08
       Creators Syndicate - On New Year's Eve this year, instead of going out for an expensive night on the town, my wife and I went to a "progressive" dinne...
• All Day Suckers 06/28/08
       Creators Syndicate - In one of the biggest stories of the past week, doctors recommended that parents not give cold medicines to kids under 2 years old. The med...
• Dear John 06/28/08
       Creators Syndicate - After 15 years of living with a decaying old wreck of a kids' bathroom, my wife and I decided last week to finally bite the bullet and have...
• Next Year's News 06/28/08
       Creators Syndicate - January: After paying five billion dollars for The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch will reduce the size of the paper by removing the fa...