Archive: September 2009 (201-210 of 314)

Sep 11 2009 06:16 PM ET

'Vampire Diaries' stars charged and fined for allegedly flashing motorists in Georgia

Categories: Television

Four actresses from The CW’s The Vampire Diaries were charged with disorderly conduct for hanging off a bridge and allegedly flashing motorists during an Aug. 22 promotional photo shoot in Forsyth, Ga., a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman confirmed to EW.

According to police documents, two deputies arrived at the Rumble Road Bridge in Forsyth after receiving numerous calls about “females hanging from the bridge.” The officers encountered the four Vampire Diaries actresses — Candice Accola, Sara Canning, Nina Dobrev, and Kayla Ewell — as well as photographer Tyler Shields and actress Krystal Vayda (who doesn’t appear in Vampire Diaries). One of the officers checked Shields’ camera and found “numerous photographs of the females hanging, sitting, and straddling the bridge,” according to the report. One photo even displayed a “female being held by her legs by the other females, as if they were trying to throw her over.”

The six individuals were taken into custody, paid a fine to a bonding company, and were released the same day, according to a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. A network rep for The Vampire Diaries had no comment.

The show, which shoots in Georgia, premiered last night to strong ratings.

Sep 11 2009 06:10 PM ET

'M*A*S*H' writer Larry Gelbart dies at 81

Categories: Television

Writer Larry Gelbart, best known as one of the key creative forces behind groundbreaking TV series M*A*S*H, died today at the age of 81. His wife, Pat Gelbart, said he died of cancer at his home in Beverly Hills. The Chicago-born writer/director/producer’s work spanned radio, TV, film (Tootsie, Oh God!, Blame it on Rio) and theater (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). Producer-director Gene Reynolds hired him to write the pilot script for M*A*S*H (which grew out of Robert Altman’s 1970 film, based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel). Gelbart served as executive script consultant and executive producer of the Emmy-winning Korean War sitcom from 1972-76, and also directed several episodes. He also worked on After M*A*S*H in the 1980s.

More: Ken Tucker’s appreciation of Larry Gelbart

Sep 11 2009 04:20 PM ET

'Pirates of the Caribbean 4' gets official title

Categories: Movies

The fourth installment of Disney’s Pirates franchise will be titled Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the studio revealed today. The film is due out in summer 2011, with Johnny Depp returning as Captain Jack Sparrow. The first three Pirates hits were titled Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End.

Sep 11 2009 02:33 PM ET

Summit acquires 'Twilight in Forks' documentary

Categories: Movie Biz, Movies, Twilight

Nikki Finke reports in her Deadline Hollywood Daily blog that Summit has acquired the Twilight in Forks: The Saga of the Real Town documentary, which will chronicle the goings-on in Forks, Washington, Twilight‘s setting. The studio plans on releasing the doc on DVD in 2010, in conjunction with New Moon‘s DVD release.

Sep 11 2009 12:59 PM ET

Michael Jackson tribute concert delayed until next year

Categories: Music

Organizers have announced that the Michael Jackson tribute concert scheduled to take place on Sept. 26 in Vienna has been canceled, Reuters reports. Instead, the event will take place in London in June 2010, to mark the first anniversary of Jackson’s death. On Tuesday, Jackson’s brother Jermaine and organizer Georg Kindel said at a news conference in Vienna that the tribute’s roster included Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Akon, and Natalie Cole. The very next day, however, they backtracked and cited various conflicts with those stars’ schedules.

Sep 11 2009 09:41 AM ET

Copyright suit against Jessica Seinfeld rejected

Categories: Books, Lawsuits

A federal judge ruled yesterday that Jessica Seinfeld did not copy from author Missy Chase Lapine with her 2007 book about sneaking healthy food into children’s meals entitled Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Foodreports the NY Times. Lapine’s book, The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals, was released five months before Seinfeld’s and Lapine later sued, alleging copyright infringement, trademark violations, and unfair competition. (Lapine also sued Jerry Seinfeld, Jessica’s husband, for defamation after he mocked her on David Letterman. That suit is ongoing.) Wrote the Times: “Although the judge found some similarities in the two books, she said that ‘no reasonable fact finder could conclude’ that they ‘have the same aesthetic appeal.’” The judge concluded that Seinfeld’s “cookbook has a completely different feel and appears to be directed to a different audience.”

Sep 11 2009 08:41 AM ET

ABC's John Stossel moves to Fox

Categories: Television

ABC anchor John Stossel is moving to Fox where he’ll host a weekly show on the Fox Business Network and make regular appearances on Fox News. A noted, and occasionally controversial libertarian, Stossel has been a longtime correspondent and co-anchor for 20/20 where he created regular segments entitled “Give Me a Break.” Stossel wrote on his ABC blog that his new show will “dig into the meaning of the words ‘liberty’ and ‘limited government.’”

Sep 11 2009 07:23 AM ET

Kara DioGuardi on Ellen DeGeneres: 'It's going to be a great new energy'

Categories: Television

American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi said in an interview airing Friday on Sirius XM’s The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick that she is “thrilled” about Ellen DeGeneres joining the show’s judging panel this upcoming season. ”I am a huge Ellen DeGeneres fan,” she said. “I think she’s going to bring so much to the show. She’s somebody who loves music, she’s positive, she loves kids, she’s somebody who’s watched the show from the beginning, knows everything there is to know about American Idol. And I think ultimately it’s going to be a great new energy.” DioGuardi said she hasn’t had a chance to speak to DeGeneres yet, but that she would like to congratulate her and welcome her to the Idol family.

DioGuardi also addressed some of the criticism she received last year when she was introduced as the show’s new, fourth judge. “It was difficult [for people] to understand why somebody who nobody ever heard could kind of come out of nowhere and sit next to these iconic figures. Ya know, why was I there, what did I do to deserve to be there. And I can understand it. I think to this day people still don’t understand what I’ve done in the music industry or my achievements. And that’s okay. Slowly they’ll learn, hopefully. Or they won’t, and it’ll just be easier this year because I’m not as fearful as I was last year. For somebody who’s never been on live television, it’s very, very challenging to go from the back of the studio to the No. 1 TV show and that kind of visibility. It was very, very, very scary.”

Sep 11 2009 05:58 AM ET

Record companies sue 'Ellen' over rights

Categories: Lawsuits, Television

While Ellen DeGeneres is making news in the music industry with her new Idol gig, her daytime talk show may be in trouble with multiple record companies. The AP reports that several labels, including Warner Bros., Sony Music, and Motown Records, have sued the producers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, claiming they violated the copyrights of over 1,000 songs that are routinely used when DeGeneres and her audience dances at the beginning of each episode. Wrote the AP report: “According to the suit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, when representatives of the recording companies asked defendants why they hadn’t obtained licenses to use the songs, defendants said they didn’t ‘roll that way.’” A spokesman for the show’s production company told the AP that the suit did not involve DeGeneres herself, and that they are working to come to “amicable and reasonable terms.”

Sep 11 2009 05:56 AM ET

James Cameron to produce 3-D drama 'Sanctum'

Categories: Movie Biz, Movies

Avatar director James Cameron has signed on to executive produce Sanctum, yet another 3-D flick, this time from Universal and Relativity, according to Variety. Apparently Relativity was the first bidder after a screening of the new 3-D technology that Cameron intends to use in the movie, while other studios also made bids. Sanctum has a budget of about $30 million and will film later this year in Australia.

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