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LAT: Inside George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch

The uninvited have been coming to Skywalker Ranch for decades, all drawn by the Force, however they choose to define it. Some don camouflage parkas and hike over the leafy Marin County ridgelines, while others drive right up to the front gate and try to con their way in, as if you could enter Valhalla on the grift. Geoff Boucher reports.

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February 25, 2008

AP: Elton John is the belle of Oscar parties

With Vanity Fair sitting out this year's celebrations, the belle of the Oscars parties was a piano playing Elton John. Solvej Schou reports.

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February 20, 2008

AFP: Host Jon Stewart ready to provide Oscars laughs

Television comedian Jon Stewart will be injecting some stinging satire into the Oscars here Sunday, giving a political flavor to the Hollywood extravaganza in a presidential election year. Tangi Quemener reports.

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AP: Michael Moore: Bring Fidel to the Oscars

"Sicko" director Michael Moore jokes that Fidel Castro would be a "ratings grabber" at Sunday night's Academy Awards show. Moore's Oscar-nominated documentary on the health-care industry concludes with a trip to Cuba, where he seeks care for a group of 9/11 responders who have experienced health problems. Marcela Isaza reports.

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January 22, 2008

NYT: Actor Heath Ledger Found Dead in NYC

The New York Times is reporting that actor Heath Ledger has been found dead in an apartment building in SoHo in New York City after his body was discovered by a housekeeper and masseuse, according to New York City police. The actor was heralded for his performance in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" and recently starred as one of the many actors playing Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes "I'm Not There." Ledger was also gaining attention for his upcoming role as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel, "The Dark Knight."

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January 10, 2008

AP: Honorary mayor of Hollywood dies at 84

Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood who traveled the world as Tinseltown's No. 1 cheerleader for more than a half-century, has died. He was 84. Jeff Wilson reports.

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December 17, 2007

NYT: Kurdish Director, Stuck Between Iraq and Iran

Bahman Ghobadi, the international face of Kurdish cinema, works in countries that are less than accommodating. Peter Scarlet reports.

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December 13, 2007

Guardian: Jodie Foster comes out - at last!

It's standard practice for Hollywood stars to thank friends and family when accepting awards. But when Jodie Foster paid tribute to "my beautiful Cydney" during a speech at the Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment breakfast last week, it caused a ripple of excitement. Justine Hankins reports.

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December 4, 2007

Guardian: Kite Runner's Afghan child stars forced into hiding

Four Afghan boys aged 11 to 14 have been spirited out of Afghanistan to a haven in the Middle East to protect them from potential reprisals ahead of the world release this month of a Hollywood movie in which they star. Ed Pilkington reports.

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November 29, 2007

AFP: Godard says he stole money to make movies: report

French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard has confessed that he stole money to finance his films in an interview with a German newspaper to be published on Thursday. "I had no choice. Or at least it seemed that way to me. I even stole money from my family to give to (fellow French director Jacques) Rivette for his first film. I pinched money to be able to see films and to make films." AFP reports.

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November 15, 2007

Reuters: Directors say war films make up for poor reporting

Two Hollywood directors who are part of a wave of films about the war in Iraq and the broader fallout from the September 11, 2001 attacks have said they were only doing what media failed to do -- telling the truth. Mike Collett-White reports.

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November 12, 2007

Guardian Interview: Todd Haynes

Directed by Todd Haynes, one of whose early films told the tragic tale of Karen Carpenter using glove puppets, "I'm Not There" is the first cinematic attempt to tackle the epic landscape that is Dylan's life and work. It is a wildly experimental film whose extravagantly staged, but often determinedly confusing, approach is as far away from the tired terrain of the traditional biopic as it is possible to go. "I wasn't that interested in, you know, the truth," elaborates Haynes, sounding for a moment like his subject, "nor in taking the straight biopic approach. Instead, I wanted to track Dylan's creative imagination and where it took him and how his life mirrored that imagination, or propelled it, or followed it. It's essentially my take on those moments in Dylan's development where his music and the events of his life intersected."

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November 5, 2007

Guardian Interview: Sean Penn

"The way I see it," Penn says, calmly, "if you believe in democracy, you got to do something. We have people running the country now who really should be in prison for what they are doing to democracy. If you define our country by the constitution, we have enemies of the state in the White House, the defence department and the state department. That's where we are now." Sean O'Hagan speaks with Sean Penn.

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October 30, 2007

NYT: Booed at Cannes, but Now the Real Test

"It was painful," Richard Kelly said of the Cannes screenings, which were marred by walkouts and boos. "I just thought, 'Please let it be over.'" At his press conference, seemingly shellshocked, he fielded hostile questions and muttered that he hoped the film would not "bomb." In interviews at the time he expressed concern that he would basically have to mutilate his movie, which then ran nearly three hours, if he ever hoped to get it released. Dennis Lim reports.

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October 26, 2007

Guardian Interview: Cate Blanchett

"It's interesting that Elizabeth had absolute power, being ordained by God, whereas Dylan was given absolute power, which I think happens in the music industry. They give people in the public eye absolute power and then are furious at them at the same time for having it. Dylan is constantly saying, 'I didn't ask for this.'" What's it like being Bob Dylan right after Queen Elizabeth I? Cate Blanchett tells Patrick Barkham about fame, sleep deprivation and losing weight to play a man.

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October 22, 2007

Reuters: Actor Garcia Bernal not tempted by Hollywood

Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, star of "Babel" and "The Motorcycle Diaries," said he is not tempted to work in Hollywood, despite receiving many invitations. "To work in Hollywood? No!," he told reporters at a film festival underway in Brazil's biggest city. "The closest I got to Hollywood was a movie I did in Tijuana. And it is really close, about three hours," he added. Fernanda Ezabella reports.

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SF360: Robert Arnold, in "The Key of G"

In his first documentary feature outing, director Robert Arnold intelligently homes in on the most intimate moments of this story of a very differently abled teenager moving into adulthood, and pieces together an audio-visual experience that highlights the prickly art of creating compassionate relationships. We spoke with Arnold about his own intersections with the story, which won the Golden Gate Awards' Best Bay Area Documentary prize at San Francisco International's 50th last spring. Susan Gerhard reports.

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October 12, 2007

Guardian: California fuels fight over Monroe photos

The son of a favoured photographer of Marilyn Monroe is awaiting a court ruling that will determine whether he can sell his father's pictures of the star. Josh Greene, whose father Milton took more than 4,900 shots of Monroe, including the celebrated portrait in a ballerina outfit, spoke out last night against a decision by California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Guardian reports.

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October 9, 2007

LAT Inteview: Ryan Gosling could be the Sundance Kid

Ryan Gosling could be the Sundance Kid, emerging out of that indie film festival with such gritty dramas as "The Believer," "The United States of Leland" and "Half Nelson," which earned him an Academy Award nomination. David Germain reports.

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October 4, 2007

AFP: SKorea hopes Kim Jong-Il takes lesson from films

South Korea voiced hope Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il would learn about freedom of expression as he sits through the thick stack of films it gave him. President Roh Moo-Hyun, only the second South Korean leader ever to visit Pyongyang, gave some 150 DVDs to the film buff Kim, whose regime bans ordinary North Koreans from watching the South's movies. AFP reports.

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