top stories (12 posts)

ABC/KELSEY McNEAL

Step in time with our Dancing With the Stars performance-show liveblog:

Only four stars remain and each will be performing two dances chosen at random, meaning they could wind up redoing their favorites or be forced to revisit their own personal ballroom hells. Either way, good times for us.

For some reason, the judges have reinstated the no-lift rule after allowing one per dance last week (which makes the choreography way more fun, but whatever), and expectations are high for one of the stronger semifinals in recent memory.

"Give it some welly," head judge Len Goodman reminds the group. And away we go with Jason Taylor's fox-trot...

Keep Reading

Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage.com

UPDATE:  A source close to the production says Anne Hathaway, Evan Rachel Wood and Alison Lohman are all reading the Manson Girls script for the role of Charles Manson follower Nancy Pittman, recently vacated by Lindsay Lohan.

Meanwhile, the film's producer, Brad Wyman, tells E! News exclusively: "I have extraordinary faith in Lindsay and her talent and am saddened by her departure."
________________________________

Good thing she has that Ugly Betty gig to fall back on, because Lindsay Lohan's movie prospects are rapidly going the way of the dodo.

After being touted as starring in two upcoming high-profile projects—a romantic comedy with Jack Black and a drama about the Manson Family—the actress needs to line up new work after being replaced in both films weeks before shooting was to commence, E! News has learned exclusively.

And the spinmeisters are out in full force to portray everything as hunky-dory.

Keep Reading

Warner Brothers

As it turns out, Speed Racer didn't have a bad opening weekend. It had a worse one.

Final grosses out today show the big-budget, high-octane movie sputtered to a debut of just $18.6 million, down from the $20.2 million that was projected Sunday.

To top it off, Speed Racer dropped a spot in the rankings, falling to third, behind Iron Man and the newly upgraded No. 2 movie, What Happens in Vegas.

Keep Reading

INFdaily.com

Angelina Jolie celebrated Mother's Day by doing a little bumpwatch of her own, logging some quality time with the forthcoming family additions.

The expectant mom, accompanied by Brad Pitt and sons Maddox and Pax, checked out the inner workings of her womb and its current denizens via sonogram at a hospital in Grasse, France.

"Angie was due for a scan and they thought it would be cool to do it on Mother's Day and take Maddox and Pax along to see the twins for themselves on the sonogram machine," a source close to the couple tells E! News.

"Brad and Angelina are very big on explaining things in a very simple way to their kids, and they want the kids to feel included in the process of her pregnancy. Having them see the babies for themselves was a really exciting day out for them all."

Keep Reading

Jason Kempin/WireImage.com

Jimmy Fallon will be the new Conan O'Brien, who will be the new Jay Leno.

As for the old Jay Leno? That's for another press conference.

Today it was NBC announcing what had been long suspected, and outright leaked: that Fallon will assume O'Brien's Late Night hosting chair once O'Brien assumes Leno's Tonight Show hosting chair next year.

"It's a comedian's dream to get this job, to work with writers and try to be funny every night," Fallon said from NBC's fabled "30 Rock" headquarters, where he used to star on Saturday Night Live, and where he'll star on Late Night.

Late Night executive producer Lorne Michaels said the Fallon era "probably" will begin in the first six months of 2009.

Keep Reading

Gary Calton/ZUMAPress.com

The long and winding road to divorce is almost over for Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.

A London judge today granted a decree nisi, the first step to the finalized divorce under British law. High Court Justice Hugh Bennett approved the petition, citing the fact that the couple have been living apart now for two years.

"On the petition for divorce presented by Miss Heather Mills, I pronounce the decree nisi of divorce on the grounds of two years' separate," the judge said. "Sir Paul McCartney has consented to the decree being granted on these grounds."

Neither McCartney nor Mills attended the proceeding, and their attorneys declined to comment.

Keep Reading

Lester Cohen/WireImage.com

UPDATE: This is not the kind of upgrade you want when you go to the airport.

Dennis Farina has been charged with a felony count of carrying a loaded firearm, an upgrade from his original misdemeanor booking this afternoon after police confirmed that the gun the actor was toting through airport security was not registered.

His bail was also upgraded in kind from $25,000 to $35,000.

"Farina was very apologetic and cooperative with officers," police said. "However, he had no apparent authority to carry a concealed weapon at the time of his arrest."

Farina spent the majority of the afternoon at Van Nuys jail before being released on bail.

___________________

What happens at LAX...better not involve an unregistered handgun!

Veteran actor and former Chi-town police officer Farina was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday after LAX screeners found an unregistered .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol in his briefcase. He was transported to a police station in Van Nuys and is being held on $25,000 bail.

Police say Farina, 64, was "very apologetic and cooperative" and told them he had simply forgotten about the weapon. The former Law & Order star was on his way to Chicago when he was arrested by TSA.

In addition to a jail cell this weekend, Farina can be seen in What Happens in Vegas starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.

(Originally published May 11, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. PT)

Warner Brothers

The summer box office season has seen its first crash.

The $100 million-ish Speed Racer opened this weekend with an estimated $20.2 million, and, according to one box office expert, will struggle to get to $50 million domestically by the time its run is done.

"In terms of Warner Bros., this is a yellow flag of caution," Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations Co. said today.

Keep Reading

Denise Truscello/WireImage.com

They might have been called non-moms, but they didn't have non-voices.

An NBC Mother's Day special was seeing to some last-minute changes after adoptive parents balked at a category honoring them as "non-moms."

"We heard the concerns from our viewers, and we certainly understood that," an NBC spokeswoman said today. "We immediately looked into it, and we were able to change that."

Keep Reading

Marvel Enterprises, Inc., DC Comics

So, if you're Superman, and you heard this week that Thor—Thor!—got a release date for his movie, do you wonder what on your adopted planet you have to do to get on the calendar?

The answer might be: Be a Marvel character.

This week, hot off Iron Man's $102-million opening weekend, Marvel issued a "partial" list of eight upcoming superhero movies, everything from Iron Man 2 to Thor. All but Ant-Man had scheduled release dates.

Meanwhile, rival DC Comics' characters, from Aquaman to Wonder Woman, and with the very large exception of Batman, remain in various stages of, if you'll pardon the vulgar Hollywood expression, development.

Keep Reading

DMX apparently isn't one for facing the music of the night.

Three days after getting busted for a months-old traffic violation, the actor-rapper was arrested early Friday at his Phoenix-area home on suspicion of animal abuse and felony drug possession following a search of the house and, before that, a brief standoff with police when he attempted to shut himself up in his bedroom.

According to the Maricopa County sheriff's office, a SWAT team executed a search warrant on DMX's Cave Creek, Ariz., residence at about 3 a.m. in connection with a seven-month-old investigation into reports that the Cradle 2 the Grave star had a number of malnourished pit bulls on his property.

"A guy like this DMX character with all his money and fame has no excuse for not providing proper care for his animals," said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "He has a long criminal history and obviously has no respect for the law."

Keep Reading