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..

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..

U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee drops bin Laden film probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One day after “Zero Dark Thirty” failed to win major awards at the Oscars, a congressional aide said on Monday the Senate Intelligence Committee has closed its inquiry into the filmmakers‘ contacts with the Central Intelligence Agency.The intelligence committee gathered more information from the CIA and will not take further action, according to the aide, who requested anonymity.Sony...

Read More..

“Scary Spice” Mel B joins “America’s Got Talent” panel

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Former Spice Girl Mel B will join the judging panel on summer TV talent show “America‘s Got Talent,” broadcaster NBC said on Thursday.The 37-year-old Briton, known by the nickname Scary Spice when she was part of the chart-topping 1990s British girl band, will replace Sharon Osbourne who quit the series in a dispute with NBC over their decision to drop her son Jack from another...

Read More..

“The Americans” renewed by FX for second season

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “The Americans” has been picked up by FX for a 13-episode second season, network president John Landgraf said on Thursday.The renewal comes just four episodes into the first season of the series, which premiered in January with 5.11 million total viewers to become the most-watched debut of any FX series.FX’s newest hit drama to join the roster of original programming stars...

Read More..

Afghan teens of ‘Buzkashi Boys’ stargazing in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The teenage stars of an Oscar-nominated short film from Afghanistan arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday for the Academy Awards after an Internet campaign raised enough money to pay for their trip.“Buzkashi Boys” actors Fawad Mohammadi and Jawanmard Paiz will walk the red carpet and rub shoulders with Hollywood‘s biggest stars at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night.The...

Read More..

‘Good Day to Die Hard’ debuts with $28.6M take

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bruce Willis’ action sequel “A Good Day to Die Hard” hauled in $ 28.6 million to lead the box office over the long President’s Day weekend.The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday by Hollywood.com...

Read More..

Tony Sheridan, early Beatles supporter, dies aged 72: media

BERLIN (Reuters) – Singer-songwriter Tony Sheridan, an early supporter of the Beatles, has died in Hamburg aged 72 following a long illness, German media reported.Sheridan used the Beatles, then known as the Silver Beatles, as his back-up band when they played in seedy nightclubs in Hamburg’s red light district in the 1960s well before numerous No. 1 hits made the British band famous.Sheridan died...

Read More..

“Zero Dark Thirty” and “Argo” win top Writers Guild Awards

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. film and television writers gave their top two movie awards on Sunday to “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Argo” in the final Hollywood guild awards show before next week’s Oscars.Writer Mark Boal won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Original Screenplay for “Zero Dark Thirty,” which chronicles the intense U.S. manhunt and daring raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama...

Read More..

Romanian movie ‘Child’s Pose’ wins at Berlin fest

BERLIN (AP) — A Romanian drama that centers on a woman’s effort to cover up her son’s responsibility for an accident in which a boy is fatally injured won the Berlin film festival‘s top Golden Bear award on Saturday.“Child’s Pose,” directed by Calin Peter Netzer, emerged as the winner from a field of 19 films that included a strong eastern European contingent this year — the 63rd edition of the event,...

Read More..

Dylan McDermott cast in CBS’s “Hostages” pilot

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Dylan McDermott will join Toni Collette in “Hostages,” a CBS drama pilot about a family caught in a vast political conspiracy.The star of FX’s “American Horror Story” will play Duncan, a righteous FBI agent at the center of it.Collette, the star of Showtime’s “United States of Tara,” was cast last month as Ellen, a surgeon chosen to operate on the President. When her family...

Read More..

Helena Bonham follows Lindsay Lohan into Liz Taylor’s shoes with BBC biopic

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Move over, Lindsay Lohan – another actress is taking a crack at playing Elizabeth Taylor, and just might have the chops to one-up you.Helena Bonham Carter will play Taylor in an upcoming biopic “Burton and Taylor.” “The Wire” actor Dominic West will play Taylor’s on-again, off-again husband, Richard Burton, in the production, which will air on BBC Four.“Burton and Taylor”...

Read More..

“Midnight Express” editor Gerry Hambling dead at 86

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Gerry Hambling, the British film editor whose credits include “Midnight Express,” “Pink Floyd: The Wall” and “Mississippi Burning,” died February 5 in England. He was 86.Hambling, who entered the film industry at 16 as an editor’s apprentice, was a longtime collaborator of director Alan Parker, editing 14 of his films.“He was undoubtedly one of the finest film editors that...

Read More..

Stars show skin, but adhere to Grammy dress code

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – There were no “wardrobe malfunctions” but stars at the 55th Grammy Awards were not covering up either, despite being asked to dress “appropriately.”Presenter Jennifer Lopez, wearing a black off-the-shoulder Anthony Vaccarello gown slit up her thigh on one side, joked about her attire.“As you can see, I read the memo,” said the diva who caused a stir a few years ago when she...

Read More..

New Polish film tackles homosexuality in Catholic Church

BERLIN (Reuters) – Polish director Malgoska Szumowska tackles the controversial topic of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic priesthood in her film “In the Name of” that had its world premiere on Friday but she said her aim was not to deliver a political message.“In the Name of”, the first of 19 competition entries to screen at this year’s Berlin film festival, focuses on a priest’s struggle with...

Read More..

Recovering ‘Good Morning America’ host Robin Roberts sets return

(Reuters) – “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts will rejoin the ABC morning television show on February 20 after treatment for a rare blood disorder, the show said on Thursday.Roberts’ doctors deemed her healthy enough to return to work five months after receiving a bone marrow transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder triggered by treatment for breast cancer five...

Read More..

Broadway Motown musical features civil rights, love story

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. watched with approval on Thursday as the cast of upcoming Broadway show “Motown: The Musical” tore through the storied record label’s hits at a 42nd Street rehearsal studio.The show traces Gordy’s rise from a struggling boxer and autoworker to a music mogul who made stars of Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye,...

Read More..

Hollywood to the FAA: Let Us Use Drones

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s …If the Motion Picture Association of America has its way, it soon could be a camera-equipped pilotless drone shooting the overhead chase scenes for Hollywood’s action thrillers.The MPAA is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to allow the use of what have been called “drones” – but in the movie business are far...

Read More..

NBC Universal reshuffles, Hammer takes over cable networks

(Reuters) – Longtime NBC Universal executive Bonnie Hammer will soon be running all of the media company’s cable networks besides sports and news, as part of a reshuffling, NBC‘s CEO Steve Burke said on Monday.In a memo to staff, Burke said that starting immediately, Hammer will oversee the entire cable portfolio, including Bravo and Oxygen, which are cable networks previously controlled by Lauren...

Read More..