Archive: April 2009 (121-130 of 341)

Apr 20 2009 08:36 PM ET

Oprah Winfrey pulls Columbine anniversary show

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Categories: Television

Oprah Winfrey announced today that she is pulling today’s scheduled show on the ten year anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. "After reviewing [the episode]," Winfrey wrote on her Facebook page, "I thought it focused too much on the killers. Today, hold a thought for the Columbine community. This is a hard day for them." A show about mothers released from prison will air in its place.

Apr 20 2009 07:46 PM ET

Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian to helm new reality show

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Categories: Television

Keeping Up with the Kardashians‘ Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian will appear in yet another E! reality series: Kourtney and Khloe in Miami. The series, which is set to debut in August, will follow the sisters as they open a boutique in South Beach. "We knew fans could not miss out on this drama-filled duo as they invade such a beautiful, vibrant and notoriously wild city as Miami,"  E! Executive Vice President Lisa Berger told Us.

Apr 20 2009 07:17 PM ET

'Olive Kitteridge,' 'Ruined' win Pulitzer

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Categories: Books, Stage

Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, a collection of linked stories set in a small Maine town and centered on a stolid, blunt schoolteacher, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in fiction today, in an announcement by Columbia University, which administers the awards. In her review of Olive Kitteridge last spring, EW’s Tina Jordan noted, "Rarely does a story collection pack such a gutsy emotional punch." The finalists in fiction were both books by female writers, Louise Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves and Christine Schutt’s All Souls.

The drama prize went to Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, an update of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courageset in modern war-torn Congo that EW described as "an astonishment onmany levels" during its Off Broadway run earlier this year. (The show is currently scheduled to close May 10 at the Manhattan Theatre Company.) Nottage isthe second African American female playwright to win the Pulitzer(following Suzan-Lori Parks, who won for 2002′s Topdog/Underdog). Ruined, which debuted at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre last fall, is the secondstraight Chicago production to claim the Pulitzer; Tracy Letts’ 2008 winner August: Osage County got its start at the Windy City’s Steppenwolf before a long (and ongoing) Broadway run. The drama finalists were Gina Gionfriddo’s Off Broadway comedy Becky Shaw and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Tony-winning Broadway musical In the Heights.  

In other arts and letters categories, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham’s American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, took the Pulitzer for biography, while the history prize went to Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. Douglas A. Blackmon’s Slavery by Another Name won for general nonfiction, and W.S. Merwin’s The Shadow of Sirius won for poetry (Merwin previously won for 1970′s The Carrier of Ladders). Steve Reich’s Double Sextet took the music prize. 

The Pulitzers in arts and letters, each worth $10,000, are generally open only to U.S. citizens.

Apr 20 2009 03:15 PM ET

Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code' follow-up due in September

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Categories: Books

Dan Brown‘s new novel, The Lost Symbol, will be published in the U.S. and Canada by Doubleday on Sept. 15, 2009, the publisher announced today. It is Brown’s first novel since The Da Vinci Code, the best-selling hardcover adult novel of all time with 81 million copies in print. Symbol again features Brown’s protagonist Robert Langdon, this time in a narrative that takes place in a 12-hour period. "Dan Brown’s prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book," says Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

The Da Vinci Code was adapted into a Ron Howard-directed Columbia Pictures movie in 2006 with Tom Hanks starring as Robert Langdon. Howard will again direct Hanks as Langdon for the upcoming film adaptation of Brown’s 2000 novel Angels & Demons, which releases on May 15.

More Dan Brown:
Dan Brown’s first novel since ‘The Da Vinci Code’ may be finished
Defending ‘The Da Vinci Code’ in the U.K. courts
‘Angels & Demons’ full trailer debuts
Book review: ‘The Da Vinci Code’
Movie review: ‘The Da Vinci Code’

Apr 20 2009 01:19 PM ET

Monica Potter to star opposite Peter Krause in 'Parenthood' pilot

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Categories: Television

Monica Potter has joined NBC’s burgeoning Parenthood pilot cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The TV adaptation of the 1989 hit film will follow four siblings — played by Peter Krause, Maura Tierney, Erika Christensen, and Dax Shepard — and their parents — played by Craig T. Nelson and, likely, Bonnie Bedella (who’s still in final negotiations). Potter will play Krause’s wife, stepping in for originally cast Diane Farr, who had a scheduling conflict with a recurring role on Showtime’s Californication. Sam Jaeger (Eli Stone) is also now set to play Christensen’s husband.

Apr 20 2009 01:00 PM ET

Will Smith developing crime procedural for SciFi

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Categories: Television

Will Smith is producing a two-hour crime procedural movie, Unfinished Business, for the SciFi Channel that will serve as a potential series pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The drama will follow an ex-cop who starts seeing flashes of memories from the recently dead and helps them with unresolved issues. Emmy nominee Sally Robinson (Iron Jawed Angels) will write the script, and Emmy winner Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers) will direct.

Apr 20 2009 12:00 PM ET

Jackie Chan Defends Chinese Media Control

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Categories: Movies

Variety reports that Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan defended lack of freedom in China and said that the Chinese people might need to be controlled. Chan was speaking at an economic conference in Boao, China on Saturday and had been urged by other panelists to decry censorship on the mainland. Chan noted the "chaotic" nature of Hong Kong and Taiwan and said, "I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled.If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want." According to the AP, his remarks have since prompted protests from some Hong Kong and Taiwanese lawmakers.

Apr 20 2009 12:00 PM ET

Disney Presents 'Toy Story 3' Teaser

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Categories: Movies

Variety reports that Disney premiered the first teaser for Toy Story 3 at the Digital Cinema Summit at NAB in Las Vegas this weekend. The spot had Toy Story characters creating signs for the upcoming movie. The 3-D release is expected to premiere June 18, 2010 and will be preceded by a double-feature release of new  3-D versions of the two previous Toy Storys

Apr 20 2009 12:00 PM ET

Columbus Short Joins 'The Losers'

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Categories: Movies

Stomp the Yard actor Columbus Short will join Warner Bros’ Vertigo/DC Comics adaptation of The Losers, an action yarn about special ops soldiers cut loose by the government, reports Variety. He’ll play gunner Pooch opposite Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, and Zoe Saldana. Yard director Sylvain White is writing and directing.

Apr 20 2009 12:00 PM ET

Fox Shuts Down Atomic Label

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Categories: Movies

Variety is reporting that Twentieth Century Fox is closing the short-lived production label Fox Atomic. Founded in 2007 by Peter Rice, the label was intended to develop comedy and genre films. Atomic exec Debbie Liebling will return to Twentieth Century Fox; the future of Atomic’s other executives will be decided next week. The label — which released such such projects as The Rocker, The Comebacks, and 28 Weeks Later — has had few commercial successes. It has two high-profile films out later this year: high-school comedy I Love You Beth Cooper (due July 10) and the horror movie Jennifer’s Body (due Sept. 18).

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