Publicist Says Nicole Kidman Is Pregnant

Actress Nicole Kidman is shown in this Nov. 8, 2007 file photo in New York. Kidman is pregnant, her publicist confirmed Monday. The 40-year-old actress and her husband country singer Keith Urban "are expecting a baby," publicist Catherine Olim said in a brief statement. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File

The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Jan 7, 2008 (AP)

Nicole Kidman is pregnant, her publicist confirmed Monday. The 40-year-old actress and her husband country singer Keith Urban "are expecting a baby," publicist Catherine Olim said in a brief statement. "The couple are thrilled," Olim said.

The baby would be the first for Kidman and Urban. She already has two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise.


Kidman recently confided to Vanity Fair that she had a miscarriage early on in her relationship with Cruise, leading them to adopt.

Kidman won an Oscar for her role in the 2002 film "The Hours."

Urban, a singer and guitarist raised in Australia, won a Grammy in 2006 for best male country vocal

Read More......

'Hairspray', Blonsky win Critics awards

Nikki Blonsky accepts the award for best young actress for �Hairspray� at the 13th annual...

By SANDY COHEN, AP Entertainment Writer
 
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - "No Country for Old Men" was the big winner at Monday's Critics' Choice Awards, winning best picture, best director for brothers Joel and Ethan Coen and best supporting actor for Javier Bardem.


Bardem accepted for the absent Coens, saying, "I'm the third brother, the Spanish one."

Awards came in pairs for three other films: "Hairspray," "Juno" and "There Will Be Blood."

The cast of "Hairspray" was named best acting ensemble and its breakout star, Nikki Blonsky, won best young actress.

The 19-year-old thanked "my mommy who's sitting here crying and my other mommy who's at home, John Travolta." Travolta famously cross-dressed to play Edna Turnblad.

The teen-pregnancy film "Juno" collected trophies for best comedy and for screenwriter Diablo Cody.

"There Will Be Blood" earned the best actor honor for star Daniel Day-Lewis, and composer Jonny Greenwood won best composer for his haunting score of the film.

The Writers Guild of America strike, which began Nov. 5, has effectively shut down Hollywood and cast a pall over Tinseltown's awards season. But the Critics' Choice Awards, presented by the Broadcast Film Critics Association at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and broadcast live on VH1, wasn't covered by guild contracts.

Julie Christie won best actress for "Away From Her," but she wasn't on hand to accept her prize. Also absent was best young actor Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, star of "The Kite Runner," and supporting actress Amy Ryan, who co-starred opposite Casey Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone."

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who won best song for their work in "Once," also skipped the ceremony.

The cooking comedy "Ratatouille" won best animated film. Writer-director Brad Bird said before the ceremony that winning wasn't just for him.

"I look at it as a win for all the people who worked on the film. It was a film that was long in gestation," he said. "Animation is coming more and more to the forefront and it's great because people see that it's not an obscure art form, it's something accessible and fun."

"Enchanted" won best family film, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" was best made-for-TV movie and "Sicko" was best documentary feature.

The critics chose "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" as the best foreign film. Director Julian Schnabel was humbled by his win. Asked backstage how he felt, Schnabel said, "a little drunk and pleasantly surprised."

George Clooney, a nominee for his starring turn in "Michael Clayton," presented the inaugural Joel Siegel Award to Don Cheadle for his humanitarian work.

Before introducing his friend, Clooney noted the impact of the Hollywood writers' strike on the city.

"This is a one-industry town and when a strike happens it's not just writers or actors, it's restaurants and hotels and agencies," he said. "And our hope is that all of the players involved will lock themselves in a room and not come out until they finish."

Cheadle also acknowledged the strike, saying it kept him from writing an acceptance speech.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association, which represents more than 200 TV, radio and online critics from the United States and Canada, founded the Critics' Choice Awards in 1995.

"Into the Wild," written and directed by Sean Penn, had a leading seven nominations but didn't win any.

Read More......

Oh, My Poor Arthritic Ski Club

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK Miramar Ski Club members arrive in Vermont.

By ALLEN SALKIN
Published: January 6, 2008
Waitsfield, Vt.

ON powder days, Sandy Geiger waits for no one. There were five inches of fresh snow on the mountain at Sugarbush last Sunday, more falling, and a lightly tracked double-black-diamond run in front of him.

But there was one problem. He had had enough of the young woman with whom he was skiing. She was struggling in the powder, falling and continually stopping to catch her breath.

“Have a good day,” Mr. Geiger, a driver for the Board of Education in New York City, told her. He pointed his skis downhill and a cascade of white crystals rose in his schussing wake.

“I was shocked,” said the young woman, Farnaz, a pathologist. (She asked that her last name not be printed.)

Later, back at the spartan lodge owned by the Miramar Ski Club — which, for about $600, including accommodation, meals and lift tickets, had bused Mr. Geiger, Farnaz and 46 others to Vermont for four days of skiing — Mr. Geiger, 59, explained the simple logic behind his unchivalrous behavior.

“I live for powder,” he said.

Not every skier is part of a rich family on vacation at an $800-a-night slopeside condominium with a hot tub and butler service. The perception that skiing has become a sport only for the rich was reinforced this season when Vail, the sprawling Colorado resort, announced it was raising daily lift ticket prices to $92, a virtual guarantee that the $100-a-day ticket is on the horizon.

Yet, there are still vestiges of skiing’s past as a sport accessible to the working man. Starting in the 1930s, city-based ski clubs such as the Norway, Swiss and Miramar flourished. Many were formed by immigrants from ski-loving countries, or groups of neighbors who wanted the sport to be both sociable and affordable. They pooled their money and bought modest houses in ski towns like Ludlow, Vt., and Shandaken, N.Y., in the Catskills.

Membership is dwindling at the clubs that have survived. Many modern skiers find the idea of doing a few chores and sharing a bathroom with strangers, which many clubs require, as unacceptable as a T-shirt without a designer label.

Whether some clubs will last another generation is in question, said Bill LeSeur, a former chairman of the Metropolitan New York Ski Council, which advises clubs and negotiates group ticket discounts with resorts. It depends on whether they can recruit younger people who are willing to forgo luxuries and look past the gray hair of longtime members.

“Most ski clubs are running older,” Mr. LeSeur said. “Young people come down to a meeting, they see the older people at the meeting and they say ‘whoa.’”

The 1960s were headier days for ski clubs of all income levels. During that decade, Oleg Cassini and his brother, Igor — who wrote a gossip column under the name Cholly Knickerbocker — helped establish Ski Club 10, which owned a clubhouse at the base of Sugarbush. Members included Nan Kempner and the bandleader Skitch Henderson. According to a 2006 book, “The Story of Modern Skiing” by John Fry, Ski Club 10 helped earn Sugarbush the nickname “Mascara Mountain” in the news media.

During the same era, a founder of the Chalet Ski Club, Buddy Bombard, started a bus service from Manhattan to Sugarbush that for $25 included cocktails and dinner. In 1966, he told Ski Magazine what sort of bus he was running.

“We don’t want rude people, drunks, slow payers or terribly unattractive people,” he said.

Mr. Bombard might have banned some Miramar members from his bus.

Miramar was an offshoot of the Miramar Yacht Club in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn; members wanted an activity to fill the cold months. At first, they stayed in hotels, but in the early ’60s the club bought an old gristmill near a covered bridge in Waitsfield and began converting it to a lodge that sleeps 54. There is no hot tub or sauna. No on-site spa or massage therapist (although a lady can occasionally entice a gentleman to give her shoulders a rub).

But there is a bar, a fireplace and a dance floor with a small glittering disco ball in the basement. When the lodge first opened and for decades after, the seating in front of the fireplace was old car seats.

Just as the Swiss ski club is no longer limited to those of Alpine descent, Miramar is no longer bound by shared geography. Suburban contractors and city bureaucrats buckle their boots together. What the members do have is more of a psychological affinity. Although a few couples did meet in the earlier days, and some of their children are now members, a good portion of the current crop of “Miramartians,” as they call themselves, are not the settling-down type.

Miramartian Geiger, the powderhound, has never been married.

“These are people who do not sit at home,” said Sharon Lieberman, a club officer whose day job is personal assistant to the writer Joan Didion. “They’ve got plans for their next travel, their next adventure.”

As the years have unwound, the timing of a ski weekend has been distilled into a precise routine. The bus leaves Fridays at 6:30 p.m. from Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street, makes another pickup in Ramsey, N.J., and arrives, if the weather is good, at the lodge by 12:30 a.m.

Wake-up with a cowbell is around 7:30 a.m. Breakfast is at 8. Bus to the slopes, 8:45. Bus back from the slopes, 4:30 p.m. Cocktails, 6 to 7. Dinner at 7. Dancing follows.

Everyone must sign up for a chore. Roslyn Beck, a member for about 30 years, was on garbage duty last weekend, dragging bags to the Dumpster in the parking lot. “Tie it up, take it out,” said Ms. Beck, who directed teacher education programs at Long Island University before retiring. “That’s it.”

(My chore was writing an article about the weekend for the club newsletter, “Lift Lines.” Beats Dumpster duty.)

On the last day, usually a Sunday, the bus leaves the mountain at 3:30, makes a dinner stop and, if roads are clear, arrives in Manhattan by 10:30 p.m.

Guests are welcome to take three trips before applying for membership. which costs $170 annually. On the bus ride home, they fill out evaluation forms. “I was out of place,” wrote Melanie Chirignan, 25, a substitute music teacher. “I would prefer a group that more matches my age.”

She also did not like how every time she accidentally broke a rule, like taking a communal plate of vegetarian food to her table, the correct procedure was explained over and over to her as if she were a child.

Many of the 29 ski clubs represented by the Metropolitan Council are trying to figure out a way to attract a new generation. The Garden City Ski Club, founded in 1934, is 30 percent smaller than 15 years ago, Mr. LeSeur said. It no longer runs every-weekend buses to its lodge.

Richard Huber, the president of the Edelweiss Ski Club, which was started in 1965 by families from the Glendale and Ridgewood areas of Queens, said that his club is trying to bring the children of original members into leadership roles.

Miramar, which distributes glossy fliers at ski shops throughout the city, managed to add 22 new members last year, many in their 30s and 40s, and some weekends sell out. All the lodge rooms have been freshly painted a cream color, a relief to Harry B. Miller, a member since 1967 and a former scene designer at CBS. He recalled poaching paint from “Captain Kangaroo” for the bedrooms.

“It got impossible to remember all the different colors I had used, and which ones I needed to bring more of when we were repainting.” Mr. Miller, 83, said while sitting in the lodge basement at cocktail hour after a day of skiing. “It became a lot of work.”

Most rooms have two single beds and are not romantic. Every two rooms share a bathroom. But some members, including Mr. Geiger, have managed to kindle relationships at Miramar.

Others, such as Becky Renaud, 53, an occupational therapist, said she is in the club for the mountains, not the men. “It’s a ski club,” she said before dinner Sunday, “not a breeding program.” And yet, after dinner, she could be found dancing madly.

Despite being left in the powder by Mr. Geiger, Farnaz, who is in her mid-30s and single, said she would like to join the club.

“It’s more interesting sometimes to hang out with this age group than with people my own generation,” she said. “Most of the guys I know, their biggest problem they talk about is, ‘Should I date a blonde or a brunette?’”

Read More......

GE funding five SunPower solar projects for California

This artist's rendering shows solar panels atop a parking lot canopy at Agilent Technologies.

January 7, 2008 4:26 PM PST
Posted by Elsa Wenzel

SunPower and General Electric Energy Financial Services are partnering to build solar power installations generating 8 megawatts in California by the end of the year.

The five projects include what could become the nation's largest solar panel installation on one roof, capable of 2.3 megawatts, at Toyota Motor Sales' Parts Center. Construction is set to start next month.

GE Energy Financial Services is acquiring a majority equity interest in the projects for an undisclosed amount. It will own the systems built and run by SunPower, a maker of high-efficiency solar panels.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company, which is owned by Cypress Semiconductor Corp., first partnered with GE's energy investment arm in 2006 on a solar plant in Portugal.

The four other plans for California include a 1-megawatt solar array covering eight buildings at an HP printer research and development center in San Diego.

A 1-megawatt solar tracking system atop a parking lot will provide shade and power for Agilent Technologies, a maker of scientific measurement tools, in Santa Rosa.

In northern Lake County, ground-mounted solar systems for a jail and two wastewater treatment plants will generate 2.4 megawatts. A 10-acre solar system will provide energy to a water district in Murrieta in the south.

SunPower's panels are also being set up at North America's largest solar installation, totaling 14.2 megawatts, at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The company recently announced plans to build an 18 megawatt power plant in Spain.

GE Energy Financial Services manages $16 billion in assets and invests $5 billion annually in energy and water. It aims to dramatically expand its $2 billion renewable energy portfolio. Parent company GE has been making massive investments in renewable energy through its "ecomagination" campaign.

California's "million solar roofs" law came into effect one year ago, aiming for 3,000 megawatts, or 5 percent of the state's electricity, to be generated by solar power by 2017.

Read More......

T-Mobile to link Panasonic cameras to Google galleries

The Lumix FX55 is a newer camera, but Panasonic hasn't yet detailed its upcoming WiFi-equipped model.
(Credit: Panasonic)

January 7, 2008 5:50 PM PST 
Posted by Stephen Shankland
 
Panasonic announced a partnership Monday by which customers will be able to use forthcoming 802.11-equipped Lumix digital cameras to wirelessly upload photos to Google's Picasa photo-sharing site.

Panasonic announced the partnership at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Buying the camera comes with a 12-month subscription to use any of T-Mobile's 8,500 wireless hot spots for free, similar to an earlier deal that Nikon announced with the telecommunications company.

Panasonic didn't share further details about the Wi-Fi-enabled camera.

Read More......

Sweater Set

Sweaterdresses are like winter's answer to sundresses They're effortless, chic and warm...Is there anything else you need?
Oh, yes, a pair of boots!
That way you can pair them with your woolens like Alicia, Jess and Liv, whose sleek boots manage to make an otherwise silly design look cool.
Of course, boots aren't a requirement. Katie proves the sweater dress works just as well with leggings and heels to balance out the longer hemline.
Any way you wear it, this is our favorite incarnation of a traditional pullover—and a far cry from some of the hideously festive options that pop up during the season.

Read More......

More tests after presenter dies

Ms Collins, 31, was pronounced dead at the scene

Monday, 7 January 2008, 17:03 GMT

A post-mortem examination on Natasha Collins, the fiancee of CBBC presenter Mark Speight, was "inconclusive", police have said.
Further toxicology tests will be carried out on the 31-year-old actress's body.

Mr Speight was arrested on Thursday after finding her dead in the couple's flat in St John's Wood, north London.

He was bailed until the first week of February on suspicion of murder and supplying cocaine, which he has denied.

Mr Speight, who was born and raised in Wolverhampton, is best known for CBBC programme SMart, which he has hosted since 1995.

The couple met on the BBC children's series See It Saw It.

A spokeswoman for Mr Speight said he was "absolutely distraught" at her death.

"He is assisting police with their enquiries and had nothing to do with Natasha's death," she added.

Read More......

Naomi Campbell Interviews Hugo Chavez

The Associated Press LONDON Jan 7, 2008 (AP)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he likes Prince Charles and thinks President Bush is crazy, in an interview with Naomi Campbell in the British edition of GQ magazine.

The 37-year-old supermodel spoke to Chavez in her role as contributing editor to British GQ, the magazine said. Excerpts were released Monday.


Chavez, who lost a referendum last month that would have greatly expanded his powers and institutionalized his version of "21st-century socialism," gave Campbell his views on a range of subjects.

He said President Bush was "completely crazy. But he's on his way out."

"We're seeing the fall of the empire. ... Like the fairy tale, the emperor is naked," he was quoted as saying.

Asked to name the world's most stylish leader, Chavez chose Cuba's Fidel Castro.

"Fidel, of course! His uniform is impeccable. His boots are polished, his beard is elegant," Chavez said.

Campbell asked if Chavez would appear topless in photos as Russian President Vladimir Putin has done.

"Why not?" he said. "Touch my muscles!"

The Venezuelan leader asked Campbell if she knew Prince Charles.

"I like the Prince," he said. "Now he has Camilla, his new girl. She's not as attractive, is she?"

GQ said Campbell would interview other high-profile figures in politics, sports and entertainment.

The full interview with Chavez is in GQ's February issue, to be released Thursday.

Campbell wrote that she had hoped to get a sense of "Hugo Chavez the man."

"I found him to be fearless, but not threatening or unreasonable," she wrote. "I hope Venezuela's relations with America will improve in the immediate future."

Read More......

Another hybrid Porsche on the way

Posted by Laura Burstein Post a comment
January 7, 2008 8:25 AM PST

Porsche Panamera hybrid

(Credit: Porsche AG)
Porsche announced today that it's developing a hybrid version of the Panamera, a four-door GT car that will debut in a traditional combustion engine version in 2009.

The hybrid system will use a combustion engine, plus an electric motor and an additional clutch, along with a battery pack to store power. The system can switch between the combustion and electric motor, or combine power from both, depending on driving conditions. And although we haven't seen specific technical data yet, this system sounds strikingly similar to GM's "two-mode" hybrid system, which can yield anywhere from zero emissions to pretty much standard combustion engine-level emissions, depending on how hard the car is driven. Porsche claims their hybrids will reduce fuel consumption by 30 percent over standard models.

Porsche isn't saying exactly when the hybrid Panamera will go on sale, but says it will be offered at "a later date" than the purely gas-powered 2009 Panamera. It could be a while, since Porsche recently announced that the hybrid version of its Cayenne SUV would be delayed until 2010.

Read More......

Bacon painting may set new record

A security guard stands in front of Triptych 1974-1977 at Christie's

Monday, 7 January 2008, 15:45 GMT

A Francis Bacon painting is expected to set a new record for an Irish or British work when it goes under the hammer next month.
Triptych 1974-77 is valued at £25 million but is expected to exceed estimates when it appears at auction for the first time.

It is the last in the series that Bacon painted in response to the suicide of his lover George Dyer in 1971.

The auction will take place at Christie's on 6 February in London.

Dyer had committed suicide on the eve of the opening of Bacon's last retrospective in Paris, in the hotel room he shared with the artist.

Many of Bacon's works after this moment were preoccupied with his lover and the tragic manner of his death.

Triptych 1974-77 shows sequential images of dark, ominous umbrellas and Dyer struggling on a near-deserted beach.

Bacon, who died in 1992, currently holds the record for an Irish or British work with Study from Innocent X (1962), which sold in May last year for £26.5m.

Read More......

Funeral for musical star Kirkwood

Pat Kirkwood has always denied a relationship with Prince Philip

Monday, 7 January 2008, 14:06 GMT

The life of West End musical star Pat Kirkwood has been celebrated at her funeral in West Yorkshire.
More than 100 mourners were led by the star's 91-year-old fourth husband, Peter Knight.

The singer's voice rang out through the church as the congregation listened to her version of You'll Never Walk Alone.

Kirkwood, who died on Christmas Day at the age of 86 in a nursing home in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, had enjoyed a career spanning more than six decades.

In the last years of her life, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and, in August 2004, became a resident at private nursing home Kitwood House, where she died.

The singer's coffin, decorated with yellow roses and white lilies, was carried into the church by four pallbearers.

'British Ethel Merman'

Speaking at the funeral, Kirkwood's friend and royal biographer Michael Thornton spoke of Noel Coward's admiration for the star and quoted Cole Porter's message to her: "You may sing any song of mine at any time for the rest of your life."

Mr Thornton said after the funeral that Kirkwood was the "British equivalent of Ethel Merman".

"She never did rubbish, she only did quality music. She belted songs out and changed the style of the British leading lady," he said.

The service at All Saints Church in Bingley was followed by cremation at Nab Wood Cemetery and Crematoria in Shipley.

Kirkwood was born in Lancashire and made her professional debut at the age of 14.

A year later, in April 1936, she made her first appearance on stage - billed as The Schoolgirl Songstress - at the Royal Hippodrome, Salford.


He was so full of life and energy. I suspect he felt trapped and rarely got a chance to be himself
Kirkwood on Prince Philip
Obituary: Pat Kirkwood

By 1945 she had been signed to Hollywood studio MGM but her first film flopped.

She recovered with a triumphant 1947 UK return, appearing in Starlight Roof at the London Hippodrome.

And in 1950, Noel Coward wrote the West End musical Ace Of Clubs especially for her.

In 1954, she became the first female star to have her own one-hour series on British TV - The Pat Kirkwood Show.

Also in 1954, she broke box office records with a sell-out three-month cabaret season at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.

Kirkwood and her then-boyfriend met Prince Philip backstage at a show in 1948 when the Queen was eight months pregnant.

She later recalled: "He was so full of life and energy. I suspect he felt trapped and rarely got a chance to be himself. I think I got off on the right foot because I made him laugh."

Read More......

Anne Frank story musical to open

Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945

Monday, 7 January 2008, 12:37 GMT

The Diary of Anne Frank is to be made into a Spanish musical.
The show, to be performed by a 22-strong cast including a 13-year-old girl in the lead role, will open at Madrid's Calderon Theatre in February.

The show's director, Rafael Alvero, said the "emotional" staging was comparable to a tragic opera.

Anne Frank wrote her diary - since read by millions of people - while she and her family hid from the Nazis in an attic in Amsterdam during World War II.

When I first came here, they had this doubt about how somebody can do a musical of a story like this
Director Rafael Alvero
Ultimately, the family was betrayed and arrested in 1944.

Anne Frank, whose diary was preserved and later published, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

Mr Alvero said initial plans for the musical met with a mixed reaction.

"When I first came here, they had this doubt about how somebody can do a musical of a story like this," he said.

"Of course this is emotional. The thing we want to do is through the music, to understand the story better."

'Important detail'

Last week, staff at the Anne Frank Museum, which has endorsed the project, showed members of the cast around the tiny attic apartment in Amsterdam where the Frank family hid.

Thirteen-year-old Isabella Castillo, who plays Anne Frank in the musical, said it had been even smaller than she had imagined.

"If you're doing a musical of the family and how they lived and the house and everything, I think it's very special and a very important detail to come to this house," she added.

Rocio Leon, who is playing the part of Anne's sister, Margot, said: "When I was coming in, I started to feel touched by everything I saw and I thought that wouldn't happen."

The cast members also sang numbers from the musical to museum staff.

Read More......

Japanese pop star deaf in one ear

Ayumi has sold nearly 50 million albums

Monday, 7 January 2008, 12:02 GMT

Hugely successful Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki has revealed she has gone deaf in her left ear, but vowed to go ahead with an upcoming tour of Asia.
The 29-year old wrote on her blog that her left ear "doesn't work anymore" and that it was inoperable.

The star is thought to have tinnitus, a ringing in the ear that can be caused by constant exposure to sound.

Ayumi is Japan's top-selling singer scoring 28 number one hits and has sold nearly 50 million albums.

She has known of her condition since going in for an ear check last year, according to her website.

'Continue singing'

"Nevertheless, I would like to continue as a singer. That's why I would like to continue singing until I reach the limit with my remaining right ear," she wrote on her members-only fansite.

"I won't stop. I won't make excuses. As a professional, I would like to deliver the best performance for everyone."

Ayumi is due to launch her second tour of Asia in April to mark her 10th anniversary as a performer.

She released her ninth album, Guilty, on 1 January.

Read More......

Cruise company 'near strike deal'

Tom Cruise co-owns United Artists with the MGM studio

Monday, 7 January 2008, 10:42 GMT

A film company run by actor Tom Cruise is close to an agreement with the striking Writers Guild of America, news agency Reuters has reported.
The deal with United Artists would be a first for a movie company since writers began their action in November.

TV host David Letterman's production company recently reached a similar deal which enabled his show to return.

Since talks broke down in December, the WGA has been in talks with independent companies to reach interim agreements.

Quoting anonymous sources, Reuters reported the United Artists deal could be announced as early as this week - but that any deal would face opposition from other studios.

An agreement would benefit MGM, which shares ownership of United Artists with Cruise and producer Paula Wagner and distributes its films.

The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since 5 November in a dispute over "residuals" - royalties for work distributed online or released on DVD.

The strike has halted the production of nearly all TV comedy, drama shows and many films.

United Artists and the WGA had no immediate comment.

Read More......

Cage film stays top of US chart

Cage stars as a history expert trying to solve an ancient puzzle

Monday, 7 January 2008, 09:30 GMT

National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which stars Nicolas Cage, continues to top the US and Canada box office.
The sequel, which sees Cage reprise his role as a treasure hunter, reached the top of the chart three weeks ago. It has taken a total of $171m (£86.8m).

Will Smith's action thriller I Am Legend followed in second place.

Teen pregnancy comedy Juno made it to third place, with Alvin and the Chipmunks at number four and One Missed Call rounding off the top five.

US AND CANADA BOX OFFICE
1. National Treasure: Book of Secrets - $20.2m (£10.2m)
2. I Am Legend - $16.4m (£8.3m)
3. Juno - $16.2m - (£8.2m)
4. Alvin and the Chipmunks - $16m - (£8.1m)
5. One Missed Call - $13.5m (£6.8m)
Source: Media By Numbers
The horror movie, starring Edward Burns and Shannyn Sossamon, was the weekend's only new major release and made $13.5m (£6.8m).

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts star in Charlie Wilson's War, which made sixth place.

The drama is based around a Texas congressman called Charlie Wilson and his covert dealings in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Romantic drama PS I Love You, which stars Hilary Swank, is at number seven and in eighth place is fantasy film The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.

Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter reached number nine and Oscar-nominated movie Atonement completes the top 10.

Read More......

Trinian's star 'is new Bond girl'

Arterton trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Monday, 7 January 2008, 08:57 GMT

St Trinian's star Gemma Arterton has been cast as a Bond girl in the latest 007 film, according to industry paper The Hollywood Reporter.
The 21-year-old actress will play a character called Fields in the movie, which has the working title of Bond 22.

No other details were available, but a representative for the film's producer, Danjaq Productions, told the paper it was "a nice-sized role".

Filming has already started and the movie is due for release in November.

Arterton was most recently seen starring opposite Rupert Everett as an unruly pupil in a revival of the 1950s boarding school films.

Her casting continues the tradition of Bond producers choosing less established actresses for the coveted part, including Ursula Andress in Dr No, Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die and Eva Green in Casino Royale.

The Kent-born actress joins Daniel Craig, who will be playing the role of 007 for a second time.

It is thought the new film will take up where Casino Royale left off and will be loosely based on the Ian Fleming short story Risico, where Bond is dispatched to infiltrate a drug ring flooding Britain with heroin.

Producers last week confirmed French actor Mathieu Amalric will join the cast to play Bond's main adversary.

Read More......

Microsoft to offer Windows Home Server perks

January 7, 2008 12:01 AM PST
Posted by Ina Fried

Aiming to boost the appeal of its Windows Home Server software, Microsoft is offering an update to the operating system that will add both fixes to the existing product as well as add-ons and new features.

Dubbed Power Pack 1, the software makes it easier to choose which files can be accessed remotely, and by whom, and also makes it possible to watch recorded TV programming remotely, essentially letting the Home Server act like a Slingbox of sorts. It also allows the Home Server's contents to be backed up to an external drive.

It's the first significant update to the operating system, which was first announced at last year's Consumer Electronics Show and started showing up on systems last fall.

Until now, the product has been hard to find on retail shelves, but Microsoft product manager Joel Sider said that HP's MediaSmart will be at Circuit City stores this week and is expected to be on Best Buy shelves later in the month.

Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder said that the product has exceeded expectations, but noted that those expectations were extremely modest. Microsoft did not release exact sales, but the company's Steven VanRoekel said that it was in the tens of thousands.

Gownder said that Microsoft faces a continued challenge in marketing its home server, although he predicts significant growth in the market over time.

Power Pack 1, which eventually will be added to new systems and be a free download in the spring for existing Windows Home Server owners, also allows those running the 64-bit versions of Vista and Windows XP to connect to a home server. While use of the 64-bit operating systems are not all that widespread, they are more common among the hardcore enthusiasts that have made up many of the early buyers of Windows Home Server-based products.

The update also brings support for Chinese and Japanese languages.

Read More......

Wikia launching human-powered search

January 7, 2008 12:01 AM PST
Posted by Rafe Needleman

Today, Wikia is planning to launch Wikia Search, a very early-stage version of its open search engine. Wikia (and Wikipedia) co-founder Jimmy Wales believes that it's necessary for the public to take control of search, which he sees as a shared need and thus a shared resource.

The site that's launching today is for users who want to "help us build a search engine," Wales said. So don't expect a Wikia-powered Google killer on Day One. "We want to be sure people aren't expecting a Google-quality experience on Monday."

Here's what Wikia is building: a human-ranked search engine and mini-Wiki, with a social network angle. The first two parts are the most interesting.


Not a black box.

Wales says that initially the engine will crawl and index the Web, and give users algorithmically generated results. But users will be able to rank results up or down, which will have a strong influence on further results. This extra, intentional step of rating results will, I am sure, help little-known but high-quality pages rise in the rankings, and encourage link-farmed search spam to sink. Assuming, that is, that users take the time to rate, and that suitable antigaming technologies are put in place.

I tried a preview of the alpha on Saturday and couldn't see how users rate results. Hopefully the rating function will be added before launch.

Google, by the way, also applies human intelligence to its search results; see the Q&A with Google's Peter Norvig in MIT's Technology Review.


Wikia Search: Where users help guide other users.

Users will be able to contribute mini-articles that live at the top of search pages (much like Ask's search toppers, I imagine). As on any Wiki, people will be able to edit and comment on the articles. This could become the best feature of the Wikia Search experience. These little guides dropped into search results pages by fellow surfers remind me of the hobo code marks: helpful advice left by other travelers who've been before where you are going now.

Wikia Search will have another social angle. Users will be able to find other contributors to work on the search engine with them, behind the scenes from the masses who just want results. It appears that Wikia Search users will also be able to attach their profiles to particular search results, indicating if they are an expert (or, I suppose, have a business interest in) what the search is about.

Wikia Search is all open source. Anyone will be able to download the code for the engine and the crawler. Some people will use this to tweak their Web sites so the Wikia Search engine ranks it more highly. But other people will try to improve the code itself, which could have a very interesting effect on SEO (search engine optimization) industry once and if Wikia Search gets big enough to matter.

Wales maintains that since users will be rating pages, there will be no "search engine optimization" to perform other than creating content and sites people like. Unless I am missing something, even with the option to put human ratings on pages, most pages will remain unrated. The algorithm will still matter. I do have high hopes for Wikia Search, though, since the idea of an open algorithm that is transparent, and transparently updated, strikes me as a lot more fair than the current black-box search engines run by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask.

Can Wikia Search succeed? Web search is a difficult and expensive business, but as Wales says, "It monetizes well." Unlike many other crackpot sites we see, with search, if the users come, the money follows. Try out the very early, very rough Wikia Search at alpha.search.wikia.com.

And see also Mahalo, an evolving human-powered Web guide. Currently, Mahalo primarily uses paid staffers to create its topic pages, but a new "Mahalo Follow" feature lets users easily recommend sites to the engine--a more cost-effective way to quickly build a library of human-approved links.

Read More......

Microsoft's IPTV crosses 1 million set-top mark

January 6, 2008 6:30 PM PST
Posted by Ina Fried

Microsoft has been investing in interactive TV for more than a decade, but as of this month, the company can finally say it has a million customers.

Right now, there about 1 million set-top boxes running Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV software. In the coming weeks, Microsoft said it expects to also have more than 1 million homes using its software. (The difference between homes and set-top boxes stems from the fact that some customers have more than one set-top box).

There are a lot of reasons why unit CTO Peter Barrett expects the IPTV effort to start paying off even more in the coming years. One is the move to on-demend television as opposed to just recording over-the-air content. While cable and satellite TV will struggle as content moves to HD, Barrett said that IPTV is equipped to handle lots of demand for on-demand content.

Barrett said the popularity of file-sharing services shows that consumers want to get their content anywhere and everywhere. "People are voting for the utility of watching TV on their PC by doing it the hard way," he said. "Setting aside that BitTorrent is largely illegal, it's a chore to use."

There is a strong market, he said, for combining the wide selection and quality available via file-sharing, with the ease of use of traditional TV.

"You can't operate BitTorrent with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other."

Eventually, content could not only be sent throughout the home, but also available remotely on a PC or mobile device.

"These things are not part of the imminent service release, but are inevitable," Barrett said. "It's the sort of thing that's really, really hard to do if you have a broadcast infrastructure."

Microsoft also expects the merging of its IPTV and Media Center PC efforts to ultimately mean that developers can write interactive applications that can run on either set-top boxes or PCs.

"The roadmaps will converge and you will be able to develop for both," Barrett said. "That's not part of the current release but it is part of a subsequent release."

In particular, Barrett said he can imagine the kind of bonus interactive features included on high-definition DVDs to eventually be available on video sent to Media Center PCs or Mediaroom set-top boxes. Already, a number of developers are writing programs that can sit on top of Microsoft's interface.

At CES, Microsoft is showing several, including a social networking program from eMuse called MyMap and a NASCAR application that could be used by TNT to show in-car cameras atop live race footage as well as an interactive boxing program from Showtime that would allow viewers to choose from different live audio feeds, such as the referee, each boxer's trainer, and the commentator.

While it has some advantages, Microsoft still faces challenges in the IPTV arena. To date, it's feature set has not been to different from that of satellite and cable, making it a tough sell. There have also been some outages and other growing pains to contend with.

To help show how its service is unique, AT&T has been having Tupperware-like parties in San Antonio, one of the cities where it is conducting trials of the Mediaroom service.

Microsoft hopes that the pending addition of new features, like whole-home DVR, will help further its appeal.

Barrett concedes that the effort has taken somewhat longer than Microsoft had hoped to reach this point. "This is a big complicated application," Barrett said. "We're happy with where we are after four years. We would have loved to do it in three. Nobody ever lost money betting software would take longer than expected."

While Microsoft's interactive TV effort stretches back longer, its modern approach of sending TV over Internet Protocol is only a few years old.

Read More......

Small and Fabulous: Modular Living as It Should Be

By Rob Beschizza
01.07.08 | 12:00 AM

SINGLE HAUZ

The world is getting hotter and more crowded every day, and modular, prefab housing is just what the doctor ordered. When you go small, it's not just about energy efficiency and carbon footprints -- it's also about being strange, cool and beautiful. We've chosen our favorite houses that meld style with globally conscious living. Enjoy. (Please include your own picks in the comments section.)

Left: When prefabricated houses become small enough, high-tech enough and weird enough to allow for mounting on a cliffside or over a lake, they may have gone a step (or a splash) too far. The Single Hauz, from Poland, offers cantilevered space for one atop a cement pole, and looks like a cross between a billboard and a scene from the Myst series.

Price not available
About 200 square feet

LOFTY LIVING WITH THE LOFTCUBE
Werner Aisslinger's Loftcube is a singular creation, with a singular intent: It goes on an existing roof. It has tall windows and a certain retro look, perfect for taking over the world's rooftops.

"Imagine a place where your neighbors fly and windows are 360 degrees wide, a place where you can work, relax and share your life with your friends," the makers ask. And it's yours for $136,000, deposited in situ by helicopter.

$136,000
420 square feet

With space-age style and stilts, the Versadome might look a little out of place in the average suburban town. What better excuse to move to the beach?

Crafted to mirror "ancient architecture" and "the clean details of a yacht," a Versadome aims to be both compact and spacious, with seamless roofing and modular stackability inherent in the design.

Add a bedroom, throw on an extra bathroom -- everything comes delivered and ready to plug in to your planned 'dome setup. It's like a human Habitrail with funny columns. There are even carport and pool canopy modules to help you assemble a complete Versadome lifestyle.

From $100 per square foot
Variable Sizes

WE WANT A WEESTUDIO

For about 70 grand, Alchemy Architects' 350 square foot weeStudio exemplifies the modular approach. As customizable as a car -- there's even an online color picker to go with options ranging from fancy siding, overhanging roofs and various other extensions to the "base model." One can customize details right down to bathroom fittings and exterior lighting. No Wii, however, is on offer, to go with your Wee.

It delivers to most of the United States and there are even plans for entire weeCommunities.

$64,500 to $109,500
350 to 660 square feet

Read More......