Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal

VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped...

Read More..

Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal

VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped...

Read More..

Nine Inch Nails to go back on road after reinventing itself

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails is planning to hit the road again for a world tour after reinventing itself and adding new musicians.Founder Trent Reznor, who took a hiatus after the band’s “Wave Goodbye” tour in 2009, told music website Pitchfork.com on Monday that the band is “reinventing itself from scratch.”Reznor said in a statement that bass player Eric Avery, formerly...

Read More..

Hathaway, Waltz, “Amour” win as Oscars share out the honors

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Anne Hathaway won her first Oscar on Sunday and harrowing Austrian film “Amour” was voted Best Foreign Language Film as the movie industry scattered its highest honors across multiple films.Hathaway, who starved herself and chopped off her long brown locks to play tragic heroine Fantine in “Les Miserables,” was considered the overwhelming favorite for supporting role in the...

Read More..

Oscar show promises music, megastars and James Bond

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bigger stars, more music and edgier comedy are on the menu for Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, when the most coveted awards in the movie industry are handed out during a glittering Academy Awards show.Producers of the three-hour Oscar telecast at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre are promising a faster-paced show and more face time with first-time host Seth MacFarlane, while honoring the...

Read More..

Jane Fonda, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner join list of Oscar presenters

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Oscar-winner Jane Fonda has been added to this year’s list of presenters at the Academy Awards ceremony, along with non-Oscar winners Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner and Kerry Washington, the show’s producers said on Thursday.Fonda took home her first Oscar statue in 1972 for her leading role in “Klute” and then won another in 1979 for her performance in Hal Ashby’s “Coming...

Read More..

Mumford & Sons storm to top of Billboard 200 after Grammy win

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British folk band Mumford & Sons jumped to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday after their album “Babel” won a top Grammy honor, while several other Grammy performers received boosts on the U.S. charts.“Babel,” which won the coveted Album of the Year prize at the Grammy awards on February 10, sold 185,000 copies according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan....

Read More..

History alive and kicking at 2013 Oscars

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – History is alive and kicking at this year’s Oscars in an unusually rich year for movies that plumb the distant and recent American past and have resonated with both audiences and voters.Four of the nine Best Picture nominees at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony – Iran hostage drama “Argo,” Osama bin Laden thriller “Zero Dark Thirty,” slavery revenge fantasy “Django Unchained”...

Read More..

Country singer Mindy McCready dead in apparent suicide

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) – Country music star Mindy McCready, whose albums include “Ten Thousand Angels” and “If I Don’t Stay the Night,” was found dead on Sunday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Arkansas sheriff said. She was 37.McCready’s body was found on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon. She was pronounced dead at the scene “from what appears...

Read More..

Jennifer Lawrence seen winning Best Actress Oscar

(Reuters) – Two rising Hollywood actresses are seen as front-runners for this year’s Best Actress Oscar, with Jennifer Lawrence expected to steal the show from Jessica Chastain on awards night, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.In true Hollywood style, there is even some off-screen drama between the actresses before the February 24 Academy Awards with Chastain from “Zero Dark Thirty” using Facebook...

Read More..

Emmett Till’s family reacts to Lil Wayne lyric

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A cousin of the late Emmett Till wonders if Lil Wayne understands just how damaging it was when he rapped a vulgar reference to the black U.S. teen whose death in 1955 became a significant moment in the civil rights movement.Airickca Gordon-Taylor says Till’s family would like an apology from Lil Wayne for the brief but disturbing lyric on Future’s “Karate Chop” remix. But...

Read More..

Josh Groban beats Tim McGraw to top of Billboard 200 album chart

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Singer Josh Groban scored his third No. 1 on Wednesday as his latest album shot to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart, edging out new entries from Tim McGraw and rock band Coheed and Cambria.“All That Echoes,” Groban’s sixth studio album, sold 145,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, making it the singer’s third chart-topping album...

Read More..

Alec Baldwin, wife expecting a baby this summer

NEW YORK (AP) — Alec Baldwin and his wife are expecting their first child together.Publicist Matthew Hiltzik confirmed Tuesday that Hilaria Baldwin is due late this summer.Alec Baldwin already is the father of a 17-year-old daughter, Ireland, from his previous marriage to actress Kim Basinger (BAY’-sing-ur). Hilaria Baldwin is a special correspondent for the TV show “Extra.” The couple wed last June...

Read More..

Jennifer Aniston joins Owen Wilson in “She’s Funny That Way”

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Jennifer Aniston is joining Owen Wilson in Peter Bogdanovich‘s comedy “She’s Funny That Way,” Red Granite Pictures announced in Berlin.She will play a therapist with a mother in rehab for alcoholism in the Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach-produced the film following a married Broadway director (Wilson) who falls for a prostitute-turned-actress, then helps advance her career.Jason...

Read More..

One year later, Grammys recall scramble over Whitney Houston death

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Grammy host LL Cool J called it a “death in our family” and it was he who suggested starting the Grammy Awards show last year with a prayer for Whitney Houston.Behind the scenes, Grammy Awards producers had worked all night to re-shape the music industry‘s biggest night just 24 hours after the drowning death of the troubled superstar in a Beverly Hills hotel.Producers and musicians...

Read More..

TV drama captures public angst at “Made in Japan” decline

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese electronics firm near bankruptcy, a ruthless Chinese rival and a laid-off engineer feature in a popular TV drama that is hitting a public nerve in a nation fretting over the decline of a once-admired manufacturing model.A weaker yen due to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe‘s expansionary economic policies has lightened some of the gloom for exporters, but NHK public TV’s “Made...

Read More..

Ex-LA cop, murder suspect sent CNN anchor parcel

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Law enforcement officials are inspecting a package CNN’s Anderson Cooper received from a former Los Angeles police officer who allegedly killed three in a shooting spree.CNN spokeswoman Shimrit Sheetrit said Thursday that a parcel containing a note, a DVD and a bullet hole-riddled memento were sent by Christopher Dorner and addressed to Cooper’s office.LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith says...

Read More..

Court to probe singer Chris Brown’s community service records

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Prosecutors on Tuesday asked a court to find R&B singer Chris Brown in violation of his probation because they say community service records stemming from his 2009 assault on girlfriend Rihanna contain “significant discrepancies.”Brown is scheduled to appear at a hearing on Wednesday in Los Angeles, at which time a judge could decide to revoke the “Don’t Wake Me Up” singer’s...

Read More..

Oscar night to have something for everyone, producers say

BEVERLY HILLS (Reuters) – With a high five from 9-year-old actress Quvenzhane Wallis, and a pledge that Oscar night will have something for everyone, the Academy Awards kicked into high gear on Monday at a luncheon for more than 160 nominees.Jennifer Lawrence, Steven Spielberg, Jessica Chastain, Naomi Watts, Joaquin Phoenix, Kathryn Bigleow, Anne Hathaway and Denzel Washington were among the Oscar-nominated...

Read More..

The top films at the North American Box Office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Following are the top 10 movies at North American box offices for the weekend starting February 1, led by Warm Bodies at No. 1, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters. 1 (*) Warm Bodies…………………………..$ 20.0 million 2 (1) Hansel and Gretel……………………..$ 9.2 million 3 (3) Silver Linings Playbook………………..$ 8.1 million 4 (2) Mama…………………………………$ 6.7 million 5 (4) Zero Dark Thirty………………………$...

Read More..