It looks like Shia Labeouf’s luck just ran out. The injury, he sustained from the July 27 car crush, is causing lot more trouble. Due to the injury, Shia had to withdraw from his upcoming movie, Dark Fields. A techno-thriller movie, Dark Fields, is based on Alan Glynn’s 2002 novel by the same name. Produced by the Universal Pictures, the movie is going to be directed by Neil Burger. Shia Labeouf was supposed to play the role of a young man who gets his hands on some ultimate smart pills. According to the reports of comingsoon.net, Shia was supposed to start shooting for the movie this winter. Already the production has been delayed and now Shia’s medical issues caused further disruption. Dark Fields was scheduled to release in 2010.
On July 27, 2008, Shia Labeouf had an accident on a West Hollywood street. As he was making a left turn with his Ford F-150 pick up truck, it collided with another vehicle and rolled over twice. Shia broke his two fingers and sustained minor injuries to his head and knee. Isable Lucas, who was riding with Shia that day, also had minor injuries. At the time of the accident, Shia was shooting for Transformers sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Producers of Transformers included his injury into the script. Immediately after the accident, Shia underwent an extensive surgery. To further repair his fingers, he would have to go through another surgery around his thumb.
British rockband, Coldplay, has been sued by famous guitarist, Joe Satiriani, for copying his music. Mr. Satiriani said that the track, “Viva la Vida” of the band uses “substantial original portions” of his instrumental track titled, “If I could fly,” from the album “Is there Love in Space?” which was released in April 2004. On December 4, 2008, Reuters reported the Satiriani filed the copyright infringement lawsuit at a federal court in Los Angeles. MTV reports:
Satriani, 52, is seeking a jury trial in the dispute, as well as damages and "any and all profits" attributable to the alleged copyright infringement. The songwriting credit on the Coldplay song is attributed to the band's four members: singer Chris Martin, bass player Guy Berryman, guitarist Jonny Buckland and drummer Will Champion. A spokesperson for Coldplay could not be reached for comment at press time.
This is like a hit in the gut. The news came out a day after Coldplay was nominated for Grammy Awards. One of the top contenders in the Grammy Award, Coldplay, received seven nominations. Their track “Viva la Vida,” has been nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The song was written by four members of Coldplay- singer Chris Martin; bass player Guy Berryman; guitarist Johnny Buckland; and drummer Will Champion. The title of the song was inspired by a painting by Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. Representative for the band and the recording company, Capitol Records, were not available for comment on the issue.
Slumdog Millionaire, a British Drama movie directed by Danny Boyle, has been chosen to be the best movie by National Board of Review (NBR), a non-profit organization. On December 4, 2008, NBR declared Slumdog Millionaire the best movie of 2008. David Fincher was announced the best director for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Brad Pitt played the character named Benjamin Button, a man who observes reverse aging. Clint Eastwood was named best actor for
Gran Torino. Eastwood played the character of Walt Kowalski, a racist Korean War veteran.
Slumdog Millionaire, is based on the novel, “Q and A” by Vikas Swarup. It tells the story of an Indian beggar named Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), who miraculously wins the Indian version of the quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” The screenplay is written by Seamon Beaufoy. Slumdog Millionaire, which had limited release, garnered critical acclaim. The movie shows the rising disparity between the upper class and poor class. The movie was screend at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Year 2008 is going to end and the Grammy Award is approaching. The 51st Grammy Award Ceremony, the most prestigious award in the American Music Industry, is going to take place on February 8. 2009.
The list of nominees for the award has been published. Famous rapper, Lil Wayne, has the top spot with eight nominations. His album, “The Carter III,” sold 1 million copies in USA, making it the best opening tally of the year. Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, received other nominations in the rap song section including rap album and rap songs.
Two famous British Rock Bands- Coldplay and Radiohead, will be fighting for the top honors.Coldplay is at the second place with seven nominations. Radiohead received four nominations. Jay-Z, Kanye West and R& B singer Ne-Yo received six nominations each. Lil Wayne, Coldplay, Ne-Yo and Radiohead will compete in the album of the year category.
“Raising Sand,” an album created by former Led Zeppelin frontman, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss has been nominated in four categories including: Album of the year, Record of the year (Please Read the letter), Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (Rich Woman), and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (Killing the Blues). Female British singer, Duffy, received three nominations including Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Mercy), and Best Pop Vocal Album (Rockferry). Fellow Brit female, Adele, received four nominations in Record of the Year (Chasing Pavements), Song of the Year (Chasing Pavements), Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
It has been thirty years since Academy Award winning movie maker, Roman Polanski, have been accused of rape charges by the US court. In order to avoid prison sentence, Roman Polanski fled to France. Now, the lawyers of the director requested the court to drop the charges. They said that they have evidence which shows that Polanski’s case was distorted by “judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.”
On December 2, 2008, the request was filed with Judge David S. Wesley in the Los Angeles Superior Court by Chad S. Hummel of Phelps& Phillips and Bart Dalton. Bart Dalton’s father Douglas Dalton represented Mr. Polanski in 1977. Now, he has joined in the filing with his son. Mr. Polanski will be represented by Mr. Hummel. New York Times reports:
Tuesday’s filing said Judge Rittenband, who is now dead, intentionally violated a plea agreement with Mr. Polanski after having engaged in what it called “repeated unethical and unlawful ex parte communications” with a deputy district attorney who was not involved in the prosecution, but was independently advising the judge.
The lawyers cited the documentary titled Roman Polanski:Wanted and Desired, which showed that a former deputy district attorney gave suggestions to the judge on how the case should be handled. The documentary focused on the rape incident of Roman Polanski in 1977.
Roman Polanski, who now lives in Paris with wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, was accused of raping a 13-year old girl at the age of 44. He spent 42 days in prison for psychiatric evaluation but left the country when he came to know that the judge was planning to send him to prison. He was indicted on six felony counts and faced life imprisonment.
American pop diva, Britney Spears, is under control of her life again. For the last two years, she became tabloid headlines for all the wrong reasons. Her marriage and divorce with Kevin Federline, her drugs habit, shaving heads, everything pointed at the end of her singing career. Now, the twenty seven year old mother is in her comeback stage. Earlier, Britney Spears gained lots of weight by drinking. She stopped drinking and got into weight loss program. In her recent European mini-tour, she showed off her body. However, it was a lot of hard work on her part and she is not happy at all. People Magazine reports:
"I have had to work hard at getting [my body] back to where it used to be," Spears tells Glamour in its January issue. "I used to be obsessed with working out ... But I can't get motivated right now because I'm so focused on my music."
On November 30, 2008, “For the Record” the much awaited documentary on the life Britney Spears was broadcast on MTV and it created lots of positive buzz. People have started to sympathize Britney Spears. They are saying that the documentary made them like Spears much more. Spears’ latest album, “Circus” is released today. One of the songs of the album, “Womanizer,” is ruling the top charts. Now, she wants to marry again to a person who could be a good father to her children.
The holiday season is upon us and Christmas is at the corner and there is no better way to enjoy the Christmas then watching a good Christmas movie and that is what Four Christmases provides to the movie goers. Starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, Four Christmases is a romantic comedy that focuses on the spirit of Christmas. Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn are unmarried couples who plan a romantic get away every Christmas but failed to do this year. Now they have no other option but to spend Christmas with four of their divorced parents.
Four Christmases which opened on November 26, 2008, collected
$ 46.7 million making it the third biggest Thanksgiving opening ever after Toy Story 2 ($80.1 million) and Enchanted ($49.1 million).
Twilight, which enjoyed the top position last week, took the second lead. Based on Stephenie Meyer’s 2005 bestseller novel by the same name, Twilight collected $35.7 million on its opening day. Overall, the movie collected $69.6 million in Canada and North America. This week it observed a steep decline of 62% in its collection.
Walt Disney’s animated movie, Bolt, took the third place collecting $36 million. Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond flick, is still going strong at the box office. The movie is now at the fourth position which is followed by Milk, a biological movie on California’s first gay governor, Harvey Milk.
