2 hours, 5 minutes ago · Source: AP
LOS ANGELES - Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. on Friday rejected a bid by activist shareholder Carl Icahn to boost his stake in the movie studio, and its board disclosed the adoption of a provision meant to keep him from buying more shares.
The so-called poison pill, which takes effect Friday, triggers whenever any hostile acquirer gets a stake in the company exceeding 20 percent. Under a shareholders rights plan adopted by the company's board, which has been fending off Icahn's advances for a year, such investors would suddenly find the value of their shares diluted.
Read More » 2 hours, 59 minutes ago · Source: AP
LOS ANGELES - Authorities said Friday they had recovered four prescription drug bottles bearing the name of actor Corey Haim but found nothing illegal while investigating his death.
Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter declined to identify the drugs. Haim was battling flulike symptoms in the days before he died.
Read More » Fri Mar 12, 2010, 10:08 am EST · Source: AP
PRAGUE - A documentary by two Tibetan filmmakers tracing a year in the life of the Dalai Lama has won the Vaclav Havel award for its contribution to the protection of human rights.
"The Sun Behind the Clouds" won the award at the 12th annual One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival on Friday.
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Fri Mar 12, 2010, 9:45 am EST · Source: AP
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. on Friday rejected an offer from activist shareholder Carl Icahn to boost his stake in the movie studio by buying up to 13.2 million shares.
The company's board called Icahn's unsolicited offer of $6 per share — or up to $79 million — "inadequate."
Read More » Fri Mar 12, 2010, 6:45 am EST · Source: AP
NEW YORK - A former model says she's appalled that her nearly decade-old bikini photo became a randy prop in the film "Couple's Retreat."
Irina Krupnik filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit Thursday in a New York City court against NBC Universal. It distributed the 2009 Vince Vaughn comedy.
Read More » Fri Mar 12, 2010, 4:01 am EST · Source: AP
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is grateful that actor Sean Penn has defended him against his critics within the U.S. media.
In an appearance on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" last week, Penn slammed Chavez critics who refer to the socialist leader as a dictator.
Read More » Thu Mar 11, 2010, 4:45 pm EST · Source: AP
- Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"Green Zone" — All the war-zone authenticity in the Arab world cannot salvage the silly Hollywood plot at the heart of Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass' first collaboration outside the Jason Bourne realm. Their thriller about the futile search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is a visual and visceral knockout utterly deflated by a story as unappetizing as Army field rations. Damon's an Army guy hurled into a simple-minded conspiracy concocted by the filmmakers to explain why the WMD hunt keeps coming up empty. The cast, including Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson and Jason Isaacs, generally delivers serviceable performances in roles that do not call for much more. As Damon's translator and tipster, Khalid Abdalla does capture a sense of Iraqis' conflicted emotions over the U.S. occupation. For pure ambiance, the movie is a marvel. Greengrass, who directed Damon in "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "The Bourne Supremacy," applies a similar docudrama style to create a you-are-there sense of Bagdhad in chaos. R for violence and language. Running time: 114 minutes. Two stars out of four.
Read More » Thu Mar 11, 2010, 2:45 pm EST · Source: AP
- Remember the hoo-ha over whether Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl made a believable couple in Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up"?
The makers of "She's Out of My League" sure do. They've built an entire comedy from the premise, pairing string-bean Apatow alum Jay Baruchel with gorgeous newcomer Alice Eve and surrounding them with a chorus of Doubting Thomas friends who tell them their relationship can never work.
Read More » Thu Mar 11, 2010, 9:21 am EST · Source: AP
HONG KONG - Encouraged by the reception of its Hindi animated movie, Disney is shooting a new adventure film in the southern Indian dialect of Telugu as it deepens its localization drive in the populous country.
The still-unnamed production is about a 9-year-old girl with special healing powers who tries to save her homeland from a tyrannical queen, assisted by a blind swordsman, The Walt Disney Co. said in a statement Thursday.
Read More » Thu Mar 11, 2010, 6:39 am EST · Source: AP
LOS ANGELES - Federal prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a sushi chef and a Santa Monica restaurant on allegations that they served illegal and endangered whale meat.
Typhoon Restaurant Inc., which owns The Hump restaurant, and sushi chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, were charged with illegally selling an endangered species product, a misdemeanor.
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