Entertainment - Page 22

Reuters - Comedy-inflected dramas about grief are hard enough to get right when the loss at hand is purely fictional, tailored to suit one story's dramatic needs. How much harder it is when a character's loss is linked to a real catastrophe that each member of the audience has processed in a deeply individual way.

Reuters - Time magazine hits newsstands on Friday with a new look to attract the Web generation as it bets that ink on glossy pages can satisfy readers in a way that the Internet cannot.

AP - Simon Cowell says he's bigger than The Boss. In an interview to air Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," the "American Idol" judge says he's worth five times more to Sony BMG than Bruce Springsteen.

Playbill - Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company will extend its production of August Wilson's King Hedley II one additional week, to April 22, to accommodate those who were not able to get into the sold-out run. More Info...  

Reuters - The U.S. association of cable operators and programmers criticized on Thursday a government proposal to limit the number of subscribers a cable company can reach to 30 percent of the market. More Info...  

AP - Israeli police said Thursday they were deciding whether to charge two bodyguards in a scuffle with photographers during Leonardo DiCaprio's visit to the Western Wall earlier this week.

AP - Prince Frederic von Anhalt has sued Fox and Bill O'Reilly after the talk-show host called him a fraud for claiming he could be the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby.

AFP - Angelina Jolie was expected to adopt a three-year-old boy from an orphanage in Vietnam Thursday -- the fourth child for the Hollywood superstar and her partner, screen idol Brad Pitt.

AP - Isaiah Washington, who traced his ancestral roots to Sierra Leone through DNA testing, has donated $25,000 to a computer animation project that aims to detail the Atlantic slave trade. More Info...  

Reuters - Producer Steven Bochco is developing a TNT drama about former law school classmates who find themselves facing off against each other in court.

Reuters - On paper, it sounds like the polar opposite of a box office sensation -- a three-hour ode to the Z-grade cinema of the 1970s, shot in the style of the time with enough sex and violence to satiate any exploitation junkie. But when the creative masterminds behind such a project turn out to be Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, suddenly, it seems like a Hollywood gold mine. More Info...  

Entertainment News

AP - Paula Abdul says she and Simon Cowell, who torments her on the set of "American Idol," are chummy in real life. "Simon and I actually get along great," the 44-year-old "Idol" judge says in an interview in TV Guide magazine's March 19 issue. "We have cultivated a fun relationship. ... He's actually become a really good friend."

Reuters - If Thomas Wolfe had seen "October Road," he might not have said, "You can never go home again." More likely, it would have been, "You should never go home again." More Info...  

AP - Yoko Ono's former driver, who pleaded guilty to trying to extort money from her, can leave the United States voluntarily rather than be deported, a federal immigration judge decided Wednesday. More Info...  

Reuters - Publisher Scholastic Corp. said on Wednesday it would release a record-breaking 12 million copies for the first U.S. printing of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which hits stores on July 21.

Reuters - Grammy-winning songwriter-producer Glen Ballard is putting the final touches on Annie Lennox's first album in four years, which will be released in the fourth quarter.

Playbill - Grease: You're The One That I Want co-host Denise Van Outen as well as producer Bill Kenwright, stage actor John Barrowman and voice coach Zoe Tyler will join Andrew Lloyd Webber on the panel for BBC's upcoming reality casting show "Any Dream Will Do." More Info...  

AP - NEW YORK (AP) — Soon-to-retire game show host Bob Barker has a chance to win his 18th Daytime Emmy. He received a nomination Wednesday, while the CBS soap opera "Guiding Light" captured a leading 17. Another CBS soap, "As the World Turns," got 16.

AP - The family of Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, said his death was a suicide. "He was a man who gave all he had to give to everyone around him, whether family, friends, fans or strangers," the family said in a statement relayed by police Wednesday. "He gave as long as he could, as best he could, and he was very tired. We take comfort in knowing that he is now, at last, at peace."

AFP - An Indian-born fashion designer who has dressed celebrities including Paris Hilton has been charged with rape and a string of sex offences, authorities in Los Angeles said Wednesday.