Lady Gaga, Katy Perry lead MTV Europe nominations - Music

The U.S. pop princesses are both shortlisted in four categories -- best pop act, best song, best female act and best video. Completing the nominations for Lady Gaga is best live act and for Katy Perry "best world stage performance."
Elsewhere in the nominations list, rapper Eminem has four nominations including best song, best male act, best hip hop and best video for his Rihanna collaboration "Love the Way You Lie."
British stadium rockers Muse, along with Thirty Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park and Kings of Leon, find themselves up against "Prince of Darkness" Ozzy Osbourne in the best rock category.
Pop phenomenon Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, B.o.B, Plan B and Jason Derulo are nominated for best new act.
Perry and Linkin Park are confirmed to perform at the annual event, one of pop music's biggest nights outside the United States.
Following is a list of the main nominations for the MTV Europe Music Awards, to be held in Madrid on November 7.
- Best Rock: Kings of Leon; Linkin Park; Thirty Seconds to Mars; Muse; Ozzy Osbourne
- Best Pop: Lady Gaga; Usher; Katy Perry; Miley Cyrus; Rihanna

� Continued...
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Carson Daly show revamps to focus on music - Music

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - With the debut of its 10th season on September 20, NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly" is overhauling its format to become predominantly focused on music, offering live performances, behind-the-scenes artist segments and spotlights dedicated to emerging acts.
"Before we ditched the studio, we'd been locked into that kind of late-night feel: monologue, then a desk thing, then the lead guest," says Daly, who started out as a VJ on MTV's "TRL" and as a DJ at KROQ Los Angeles. "Music has always been kind of an afterthought in the world of late night, which was a dumb thing for me since it's the epicenter of who I am. This new format enables us to include music wherever we want."
Among the acts that will be featured on upcoming episodes are Alberta Cross, the Walkmen, Japandroids and Broken Bells. "Carson's like, 'If we can do an entire half hour on music, that's what we want to do,'" says Davis Powers, music booker for "Last Call." "Certainly we'll program it where if it's a big-name act, they can take the whole half hour. But our main goal is to program our half-hours as music-heavy as possible so you're getting variety and different types of content."
Aside from reality TV shows, music-centered programing is almost nonexistent on network TV. While IFC's "360 Sessions" and select episodes of Sundance Channel's "Iconoclasts" provide cable viewers an in-depth look at recording artists and their work, this sort of programing rarely appears on the broadcast networks.
The music-centric format was tested during the show's ninth season, under the auspices of new executive producer Stewart Bailey, who previously worked on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." Guy Oseary also remains as "Last Call" co-executive producer.
"I have to give (Bailey) a lot of credit for this -- I feel much more comfortable and in my element, and not like I'm playing the part of a late-night host," Daly says. "I'm out in the real world and I get to organically talk about music."
Besides taking "Last Call" into its 10th season, Daly also serves as DJ for KAMP-FM Los Angeles. In addition, Daly will continue to host NBC's "New Year's Eve With Carson Daly."
A segment of the show, "Spotlight," focuses on emerging or underexposed artists; among those to be featured include Jay Electronica, Big Freedia and Tift Merritt.
"All the other traditional late-night shows are feeling the pressure of booking what is on the charts -- the top 10 acts -- and they all fight for it," Daly says. "We have a young staff that's passionate about music. To me, the power is in the diversity."
Powers says he's working with all the major Los Angeles music venues, including the Coliseum, to set up live shoots to incorporate into the "Last Call" slate. "Our approach to shooting artists in a live setting is ambitious," he says. "(We've already) featured Lily Allen at the Wiltern and the xx at the Palladium."
While the promotional power of a 1:35 a.m.-2:05 a.m. time slot is more limited than that of a show airing in prime time or during the traditional late-night slots, ratings for the show average 873,000 viewers per night, according to Nielsen Media Research, compared with 1.6 million on average for the season to date for "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," which precedes "Last Call" on NBC.
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Facebook gets movie treatments as social media hits high - Movies

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Facebook hits the silver screen this fall with two movies coming out within weeks of each other at a time when social media is at an all-time high.
Independent documentary "Catfish" and glitzy Hollywood feature "The Social Network" couldn't be more different. But both could very well be two sides of the same coin.
"We've gotten to a point where it's time to reflect on it," said "Catfish" filmmaker Ariel Schulman.
"'The Social Network' shows us how we got here. 'Catfish' shows us where we're at."
Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world with over 500 million active users. Sites like MySpace, microblogging site Twitter, and Tumblr are also thriving, creating an intricate online world where everything from dating websites to video game communities have users who put their personal lives out on public display.
As "Catfish" illustrates, not everyone on these sites is who they say they are.
"Catfish", which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, follows Nev Schulman, a photographer who falls in love with a girl on Facebook. Over time, their romance blossoms and they begin to text and talk on the phone.
When Nev, his brother Ariel and their friend Henry discover some startling revelations, they set off on a road trip to meet the girl in person.

� Continued...
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Tech Industry Ramps Up FM Chip Opposition - Radio Stations

Putting FM receivers in cellphones and other mobile devices has suddenly become a hot potato on Capitol Hill.
A coalition of six technology industry associations dispatched letters to the chairmen and ranking members of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees urging them not to craft legislation that would mandate FM receivers in mobile devices.
The idea for the mandate originated as part of a compromise between the National Association of Broadcasters and the Recording Industry Association of America. Those groups are, respectively, the key opponents and proponents of instituting performance royalties on music airplay.
Persuading congress to mandate FM tuners in phones would give both radio stations and music artists access to larger audiences, and provide consumers with another mobile content option.
That said, the technology industry isn't happy about being put in the middle.
“Calls for an FM chip mandate are not about public safety, but are instead about propping up a business which consumers are abandoning as they avail themselves of new, more consumer-friendly options,” the associations wrote. “It is simply wrong for two entrenched industries to resolve their differences by agreeing to burden a third industry -- which has no relationship to or other interest in the performance royalty dispute -- with a costly, ill-considered and unnecessary new mandate.”
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Montague, Ryan Launch Shop - Entertainment News

Former JWT North America leaders Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague have finally unveiled their new agency, which, by design, will collaborate with other shops to develop new brands, businesses and brand messaging.
 
The venture, called Co:, opens with four partners: Montague, who's in charge of content; Ryan, heading up brand strategy; Neil Parker, leading business strategy; and Richard Schatzberger, head of technology experience.
 
In a statement announcing the launch, the new agency identified some 42 creative shops, studios, consultancies and media entities that it plans to engage on behalf of clients. These include Big Spaceship, Campfire, Collins, Cunning, Horizon Media, Naked Communications, Medialink, Creative Feed and Cool Hunting.
 
"We call it a brand innovation studio because we are taking our structural cues from the evolving entertainment industry -- an industry built around a talent model that is much more fluid [and where] the right talent is brought together at the right moment to get the right outcome," said Ryan, in a statement.
 
Montague added, "Today and in the future, success for clients is driven by two things: superior talent and the ability to effectively collaborate."
 
At WPP Group's JWT, Ryan was North American president and Montague was N.A. co-president and chief creative officer. They left the agency earlier this year, eager to strike out on their own after years of working within a major holding company.
 
Co:'s other partners have both client-side and agency experience. Parker has worked as a management consultant and within IBM's corporate strategy group; most recently he was global head of strategy at Omnicom Group's Wolff Olins, a brand consultancy. Schatzberger comes from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, where he was director of creative technology; earlier in his career, he worked in interaction design and product innovation at Motorola.
 
The new shop plans to add a fifth partner, with the title of chief commercial officer, to manage a co-ventures practice.
 
Ryan and Montague planned to open their agency with at least two clients. But the new shop's launch statement and Web site do not name any accounts.
 
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Sky Deutschland shares up after cap hike details - Tv Series

FRANKFURT, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Shares in German pay-TV
channel Sky Deutschland (SKYDn.DE) rose up to 3.5 percent on
Monday, a day after the group set the subscription price of its
rights issue at 1.05 euros ($1.34) per share.
News Corp (NWSA.O), which holds a 45.42 percent stake in the
group, will partially backstop the capital increase so that its
shareholding does not exceed a level of 49.9 percent.
The subscription period starts on Tuesday and is due to run
until Sept. 27.
Sky Deutschland, formerly known as "Premiere", said it will
issue close to 270 million shares. At the given price, this
would equate to total additional capital of around 283 million
euros.
Shares in the group, currently valued around 1.0 euros
apiece, were outperforming the 0.4 percent stronger German
mid-cap index .MDAXI, trading 3.2 percent higher at 0843 GMT.

"Shares were already hit hard after the first announcement
of the upcoming capital increase. Additional impact should thus
be limited," traders from the Alpha brokerage wrote, adding that
shares may move closer to the subscription price.
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Top UK comedy award goes to English comic - Comedy

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain's top annual comedy prize, the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award, went to England's Russell Kane at an Edinburgh Fringe festival ceremony on the weekend for his show "Smokescreens and Castles."
The award for best comedy newcomer on the Fringe was won by 31-year-old London comedienne Roison Conaty, while the Spirit of the Fringe award went to 20-year-old American Bo Burnham, who has accumulated an audience of millions from his YouTube internet comedy broadcasts from his Boston bedroom.
Awards' producer Nica Burns said Kane, 30, from Westcliffe-on-Sea in Essex, "takes the audience by storm with his boundless energy and enthusiasm."
In his new show he "explores self, family, and the consequences of his Dad buying their council flat" in the apartment block nicknamed The Castle. The Sunday Times described the show as "bold, defiant...Shot through with vulnerability."
Conaty, from Camden in north London, told Reuters her experience on this year's Fringe had been "life changing in terms of doing a show every day ... I've learned so much."
She made her debut solo in the show "Hero, Warrior, Fireman, Liar."
The tall, mop-haired Burnham, who started his YouTube comedy exploits four years ago, was also short-listed for the best comedy award.
The awards were announced by star comedian Al Murray, who won the best comedy prize in 1999, and last year's winner Tim Key. Burns said the judging panel had seen 418 shows and attended nearly 1,200 performances over the past three weeks.
The Fringe, the world's largest annual showing of the arts, has fostered a galaxy of stars of theater, film and comedy since its inception alongside the city's International Festival in 1947.
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Oprah Winfrey and McCartney top new Kennedy Center Honors - Arts

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and former Beatle Paul McCartney top the list of show business luminaries to be saluted for their contributions to U.S. arts and culture at this year's Kennedy Center Honors.
Rounding out the roster of 2010's honorees announced by organizers on Tuesday are country music legend Merle Haggard, Broadway composer and lyricist Jerry Herman of "Hello Dolly!" fame, and dancer-choreographer-director Bill T. Jones.
Recipients of the 33rd annual awards will be feted at a December 5 gala event attended by U.S. entertainment and political glitterati at the opera house of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will welcome the honorees to a White House reception. The five recipients will be saluted with tributes and performances by peers at the Kennedy Center later in the evening.
The CBS television network will broadcast the Kennedy Center gala, which has become a highlight of Washington's cultural calendar, on December 28 as a two-hour special.
"The Kennedy Center celebrates five individuals who have spent their lives enriching, inspiring and elevating the cultural vibrancy of our nation and the world," Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein said in a statement.
The naming of Winfrey, one of the most influential and highly paid women on television, comes as she prepares to end her popular weekday talk show in 2011 after 25 years on the air, to focus on the launch of her own cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, a Los Angeles-based venture she formed with Discovery Communications Inc.
Winfrey, 56, also plans to debut a new evening program called "Oprah's Next Chapter" she will host from different venues around the globe on OWN.
Her original program, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," is broadcast from Chicago and airs in more than 140 countries. It ranks as the top-rated U.S. daytime talk show.
Although Winfrey's influence and work extends to motion pictures, books, magazines and live theater, she is one of the few Kennedy Center honorees over the years who made their name primarily in television. Others have included Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, Johnny Carson and Lucille Ball.
Winfrey's immediate reaction to being named a Kennedy Center honoree, according to The Washington Post, was: "Wow-zee!"
In a statement of his own, McCartney, 68, paid tribute to the slain U.S. president for whom the Kennedy Center and its annual honors are named.
"President Kennedy was such an icon for us in the Sixties, and his presidency was so inspiring for so many people that it is a great pleasure for this kid from Liverpool to receive this honor," the singer-songwriter, knighted as Sir Paul, said in a statement.
The Beatles' first U.S. visit, a few months after Kennedy's November 1963 assassination, is widely hailed as the start of the so-called "British invasion" that swept America's pop music scene, changing the face of rock 'n' roll and launching a 1960s cultural phenomenon.
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Recession creates new trend in fashion shopping - Fashion

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. recession has changed how people shop for fashion, with an eye for special pieces rather than trusty wardrobe basics, and top retail buyers say this trend is likely to last beyond an economic recovery.
As Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week begins in New York on Thursday, fashion directors from such high-end stores as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus say they will be on the lookout for eye-catching collections to wow customers.
After a dismal 2009, retail sales have improved every month for the past year, but consumer confidence has been slow to recover and is only half as strong as at the start of 2008. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity and is considered critical to the recovery.
"We have seen a change in the way that customers shop as a result of the economic climate that we have been in, and I see that trend continuing," said Colleen Sherin, fashion market director for Saks.
"Women are not necessarily looking for basics ... they're looking for wow pieces, something that inspires more of an emotional reaction," she said. "They are looking for value. They're looking for quality at a price."
Even classic, basic pieces such as a white shirt are being reinterpreted to appeal to customers, with perhaps a dramatic new collar or interesting cuff details, Sherin said.
More than 90 designers will show at New York Fashion Week's new headquarters on Manhattan's Upper West Side, up about 50 percent from the last two seasons in February and September. Countless more show in other venues around the city. The New York shows are followed by shows in London, Milan and Paris.
"SHE WANTS FASHION"
The semi-annual event generates more than $770 million a year in economic activity in New York, where fashion is the second-largest industry behind finance. New York is home to more than 800 fashion companies, employing 175,000 people, generating $10 billion in wages and $1.5 billion tax revenue.
Ken Downing, fashion director at Neiman Marcus, said while the outlook for the U.S. economy appeared to be improving, customers were still selective when buying fashion.
"She's being very thoughtful when she's purchasing," he said of shoppers. "Even at the most challenging moments in the economy, she was interested in trend.
"She's not interested in basics ... she wants fashion," he said. "The customer continues to respond to what is new and what she does not have in her wardrobe."
While designers are showing collections for next year's spring and summer that won't be available in stores for months, the industry wants to lure shoppers to spend now with a second annual "Fashion's Night Out" on Friday.
The retail initiative launched by U.S. Vogue editor Anna Wintour aims to get people shopping. Designers and department stores will to lure customers by holding in-store parties with celebrity guests and musical performances.
"The idea of 'Fashion's Night Out,' is really to create excitement in the shops," said designer Diane von Furstenberg, who is president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. "We just want people to shop."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference opening Fashion Week on Wednesday that people always need clothes and that diversity in fashion means there was "an opportunity to be well-dressed no matter what your economic situation."
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I'm Still Here an entertaining hoax - Celebrities

VENICE (Hollywood Reporter) - Give up acting? Casey Affleck's energetic directorial debut, "I'm Still Here," basically scotches the idea that Joaquin Phoenix has retired as an actor to become a hip-hop artist, revealing it all to be an elaborate media hoax, albeit one that has seriously altered the actor's real-life image over the last year and a half.
This sporadically engrossing mockumentary, which gets better as it rolls along, must have been planned way back before Phoenix bombed on "Late Show with David Letterman." Or is part of it for real?
At the film's Venice press conference on Monday, which Phoenix failed to attend, Affleck continued to suggest that he had shot a straight documentary, against much evidence in the film itself.
The fact that an audience can watch the film to the end and not be completely sure where reality ends and playtime begins is a tribute to Affleck's skills at mimicking documentary tropes: the handheld camera, badly framed images, the mishmash of news reports and YouTube clips. It is also a backhand compliment to Phoenix's thespian abilities and courage. But it may leave viewers with too much head-scratching uncertainty when it opens in English-speaking territories next week. Audiences who drink their documentaries straight beware: this is one potent mixed cocktail.
Daring to look nasty, vindictive, self-centered and ridiculous, Phoenix surrenders all privacy to his brother-in-law Affleck's invasive cameras. They follow him into hotel rooms and into bed, voyeuristically watching while he uses recreational drugs, entertains two New York hookers and falls apart at the seams.
Deciding to turn rapper out of the blue, Phoenix begins pursuing Sean "Diddy" Combs cross-country in the hope of doing a record together. But when he finally gets into Combs' recording studio with a homemade CD of his songs, the rapper quickly realizes what the audience already knows: that Phoenix's artistic talents lie elsewhere. "Why do you want to do hip-hop?" Combs asks in wonderment.
Shattered by Combs' reaction, Phoenix goes on "Letterman" in a catatonic state. Belittled and mocked by his host, he inspires tenderness for the first time; but the show sends his popularity plummeting.
Like a wounded animal, he takes out his frustrations on his assistant Anton (played by actor Antony Langdon) and his manager Larry. Then he remembers the wisdom lecture imparted by his friend Edward James Olmos, who compares his career to a drop of water that runs from the top of the mountain to the valley, disappears into the ocean, then evaporates and returns to the top once again. Joaquin takes it as the truth about his life.
Though the first half of the film keeps the viewer guessing about what's actually going on, it is paradoxically when the tricks and mirrors are forgotten that the film becomes funny and enjoyable as an engrossing character study. It finally becomes possible to gaze beyond Phoenix's four-letter words and manic ranting and at the man himself.
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Sarah Ferguson to rebuild life in TV show - Documentary

The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) -- a new cable channel due to launch in January -- said on Friday the documentary would be called "Finding Sarah" and would debut in the first three months of 2011.
"Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, will share with our viewers her personal struggle to rebuild her life," Lisa Erspamer, chief creative officer of OWN said in a statement.
"With the help of experts Dr. Phil McGraw, Suze Orman, Martha Beck and others, the Duchess will open up about her recent public troubles and explore her lifelong battles with weight, relationships and finances. She will look to put the past behind her and move forward to a positive future," Erspamer said.
Ferguson, 50, is the ex-wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II. She was caught in an embarrassing British newspaper sting in May in which she was filmed appearing to ask for, and accept, $40,000 in cash in exchange for access to Prince Andrew, who is also a British trade envoy.
The couple divorced amicably in 1996 after 10 years of marriage, and have two grown children.
Ferguson swiftly apologized and appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in June, saying that her own self-hatred, mounting debts and "gross stupidity" had led her to fall for the sting.
Ferguson said she was doing the TV documentary "because I need to heal my mind, body and spirit."
"After 22 years of raising my two amazing daughters, it's time for me to mother myself. My hope is that sharing my journey will help someone else."

� Continued...
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Liam Neeson boards Battleship movie - Sci Fi

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Liam Neeson is suiting up to play Admiral Shane in Universal Pictures' upcoming sci-fi war film "Battleship."
Inspired by the Hasbro board game of the same name, the movie centers around a battle on land, sea and the sky between Earth's forces and attacking aliens.
Neeson joins a cast that includes Taylor Kitsch, who plays a naval officer and the admiral's future son-in-law; model Brooklyn Decker, as the admiral's daughter; Alexander Skarsgard as a commanding officer and the older brother to Kitsch's character; and pop-star Rihanna as a weapons analyst on the USS John Paul Jones.
Set for release on May 18, 2012, "Battleship" is being directed by Peter Berg.
Neeson will next be seen in "The Next Three Days" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."
(Editing by Zorianna Kit and Steve Gorman)
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HMV eyes stronger games market after World Cup hit - Fashion

LONDON (Reuters) - British music, books and games retailer HMV Group hopes rivals to the Ninetendo Wii will drive the games market in the key Christmas period after reporting a worse-than-expected plunge in first-quarter sales .
The departure of long-time Finance Director Neil Bright, who is highly regarded by analysts, and lingering concern over the strategy to become a broad-based entertainment group, offering live music and fashion alongside its other products, also hit its shares, which were down 11.3 percent at 59.17 pence at 0945 GMT.
Overall underlying sales at the group, excluding the new live music division, were down 10.6 percent, while sales in Britain and Ireland dropped 14.9 percent as the soccer World Cup took people's attention away from DVDs and books.
"Though they had warned that the AGM (annual general meeting) trading update today would be weak because of the impact of the World Cup, the news is still bad," said analyst Nick Bubb at Arden Partners.
Shares in the 89-year old group have far underperformed other retailers this year but had been gaining ground over the last three months, rising 14 percent against a 1 percent gain for the index.
Seymour Pierce's Kate Calvert cut her recommendation on the stock to "sell" from "buy," saying she was unconvinced by the new strategy and that the Live division would not be enough to offset the migration of HMV's core retail business to online.
Consumer confidence is still fragile in the United Kingdom. Department store group Debenhams said earlier this week it was cutting prices in a bid to attract wary shoppers and on Thursday, Argos owner Home Retail forecast a fall in first-half profit.
HMV hopes the benefits of its new strategy will be seen at the core Christmas trading period, when it makes all of its profit for the year.
Chief Executive Simon Fox told reporters new releases of motion sensor games consoles, like Playstation Move and Microsoft Connect, along with such games as Fifa 11 and Call of Duty Black Box, should help the market.
"The games market's been down about 15 percent over the period, but we expect it to get much closer to flat in the Christmas period as a result of these new products," he said.
FESTIVALS AND BOOKS
HMV added it was making progress in turning around its Waterstone's bookstores, with ebook sales up 70 and over 1 million books downloaded via the website.
"Since the World Cup, we've been in positive like-for-like territory," CEO Fox said.
However, he said the group had set its sights too high for its new High Voltage Festival, launched this summer and which suffered low attendance.
"Creating a brand new festival in a congested market is tough so our expansion plans for festivals are as much around existing brands and formats that are known to work," he said. HMV also announced the departure of Finance Director Bright, who is leaving after 14 years at the group for the role at leisure and travel group Holidaybreak.
Fox said he hoped to have a successor in place by the time Bright leaves at the end of 2010.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Rhys Jones and Karen Foster)
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Top UK comedy award goes to English comic - Comedy

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain's top annual comedy prize, the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award, went to England's Russell Kane at an Edinburgh Fringe festival ceremony on the weekend for his show "Smokescreens and Castles."
The award for best comedy newcomer on the Fringe was won by 31-year-old London comedienne Roison Conaty, while the Spirit of the Fringe award went to 20-year-old American Bo Burnham, who has accumulated an audience of millions from his YouTube internet comedy broadcasts from his Boston bedroom.
Awards' producer Nica Burns said Kane, 30, from Westcliffe-on-Sea in Essex, "takes the audience by storm with his boundless energy and enthusiasm."
In his new show he "explores self, family, and the consequences of his Dad buying their council flat" in the apartment block nicknamed The Castle. The Sunday Times described the show as "bold, defiant...Shot through with vulnerability."
Conaty, from Camden in north London, told Reuters her experience on this year's Fringe had been "life changing in terms of doing a show every day ... I've learned so much."
She made her debut solo in the show "Hero, Warrior, Fireman, Liar."
The tall, mop-haired Burnham, who started his YouTube comedy exploits four years ago, was also short-listed for the best comedy award.
The awards were announced by star comedian Al Murray, who won the best comedy prize in 1999, and last year's winner Tim Key. Burns said the judging panel had seen 418 shows and attended nearly 1,200 performances over the past three weeks.
The Fringe, the world's largest annual showing of the arts, has fostered a galaxy of stars of theater, film and comedy since its inception alongside the city's International Festival in 1947.
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Netflix makes available free iPhone, iPod app - Entertainment News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Web video subscription service Netflix Inc launched on Thursday a free iPhone and iPod application that allows subscribers to watch TV shows and movies on Apple Inc's handheld devices.
Netflix said the app is available on iTunes for subscribers to plans starting at $8.99.
Earlier this month, Netflix struck a $1 billion deal with pay TV channel Epix to become the exclusive web-only distributor of films from Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Lions Gate Entertainment.
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Engrossing Last Exorcism stumbles at end - Documentary

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Demonic possession goes the shaky, hand-held camera route in "The Last Exorcism," a backwoods psychological thriller delivered faux-documentary-style, with mixed results. Call it the Linda Blair Witch Project.
The setup -- in which a slick con artist of a preacher stages a routine exorcism on a seemingly possessed teen girl with camera in tow, only to get more than he bargained for -- proves unsettlingly engrossing for the most part, until its forced finale proves to be a major mood killer. Up to that point, the committed cast of non-name actors lends this low-budget Eli Roth production the necessary aura of naturalism required to keep the viewer involved.
Of course, the extent of that viewer involvement remains to be seen. Even though the marketplace hasn't exactly been crawling with genre fare, the PG-13 "Exorcism" doesn't really deliver the sort of intense late-summer kick that its young-male demographic tends to embrace. The Lionsgate release opens Friday.
Although the name Marjoe is unlikely to mean much to the film's target audience, it's evident that writers Andrew Gurland and Huck Botko have turned to the 1972 documentary about the evangelical showman as inspiration for its portrait of preacher Cotton Marcus (smoothly played by Patrick Fabian).
Having performed fake exorcisms since he was a child, the clean-cut family man, undergoing an apparent crisis of conscience, is planning to cop to the 25-year charade by letting a documentary crew in on all the tricks of his trade. But soon after they show up at the rural Louisiana home of a strict fundamentalist farmer (Louis Herthum), it becomes readily apparent that his tormented, wide-eyed teen daughter (an impressive Ashley Bell) is going to require much more than just sideshow sleight of hand.
Director Daniel Stamm ("A Necessary Death") maintains a nice, slowly tightening grip on the chilly atmospherics, even as the film continually trips over some truly clunky exposition, yielding more than one unintended snicker in the process. The sturdy performances go a long way to make up for those awkward moments, until it all goes to hell with a terse "shocker" ending that recalls another from a film that shall remain nameless so as not to rankle the spoiler-alert police.
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Wyclef song accuses Haiti president of blocking him - Radio Stations

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitian hip-hop star and presidential hopeful Wyclef Jean turned to song on Thursday to accuse outgoing President Rene Preval of engineering his rejection as a candidate for Haiti's November election.
Local radio stations were broadcasting a song by Jean in Creole in which he called for the jailing of electoral officials who last week disqualified him and for the first time directly blamed Preval for being banned from the November 28 vote.
The 40-year-old Haitian-born, U.S.-based musical celebrity, who has an enthusiastic youth following in his poor homeland, is challenging the rejection of his candidacy and has denounced the electoral authorities as corrupt and politically motivated.
The dispute has raised fears of tensions that could disrupt the Caribbean nation's rebuilding after a massive January 12 earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people.
In his Creole composition entitled "Prizon Pou K.E.P.a" (Jail for the Provisional Electoral Council), a somber-voiced Jean sings that Preval "expelled me from the race."
"I know all the cards are in your hands ... I voted for you to be president in 2006, why today did you reject my candidacy?" the song says, addressing Preval, who cannot seek re-election after serving two terms as president.
"It's not Wyclef that you have expelled, it is the youth you have denied ... it's the population you have denied, its the peasants you have denied," Jean sings. He also posted the song on his Twitter page twitter.com/wyclef.
Preval had been informed about the song but did not immediately react, aides said.

� Continued...
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Casino cash may inject $1.5 bln into Singapore annually-DBS - Casino

SINGAPORE Aug 26 (Reuters) - Revenues from two new
casino-resorts could contribute as much as S$2 billion ($1.47
billion) annually to Singapore's economy, which is expected by
the government to grow by up to 15 percent this year, DBS Bank
said on Thursday.
The two resorts have already contributed S$470 million or
0.3 percentage points to gross domestic product (GDP), which
grew 17.9 percent in the first half of 2010 from a year
earlier, DBS economist Irvin Seah wrote in a report.
"If the GDP contributions by the integrated resorts
continue to rise at the same pace going forward, we can expect
full-year GDP contributions of about S$2 billion from these
projects," Seah said in the note.
That would translate into adding 0.7 percentage points to
GDP for the whole of 2010, he said.
Singapore is counting on the two resorts opened earlier
this year by Malaysia's Genting Bhd (GENT.KL) and Las Vegas
Sands (LVS.N) to help fuel tourism and economic growth. It
hopes to double visitor arrivals to 17 million by 2015.
In July alone, at least 1 million people visited Singapore,
the highest number the city-state ever saw in a month, after
seven consecutive months of record monthly visitor arrivals.
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Modern Family wins best comedy series Emmy - Comedy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The rookie comedy "Modern Family" won the Emmy for the best TV comedy series on Sunday, ending the three-year reign of "30 Rock."
The show, which revolves around an extended family in Los Angeles, earlier won awards for best supporting actor and writing.
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Lindsay Lohan's E-Trade lawsuit enters odd phase - Celebrities

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In a great year for entertaining lawsuits, perhaps the most intriguing is still Lindsay Lohan's case against E-Trade for airing a commercial that featured a "milkaholic" baby named Lindsay.
In defending the merits of the suit, Lohan's lawyer Stephanie Ovadia asserted that the actress deserved single-name status like Oprah or Madonna. Does she? The fate of Lohan's lawsuit may depend on the answer.
Lohan's lawyer has filed new papers in New York Supreme Court in an effort to survive E-Trade's motion to dismiss.
E-Trade argues that there are some 250,000 women in United States named "Lindsay," including celebrities like Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, tennis player Lindsay Davenport and actresses Lindsay Wagner and Lindsay Price. E-Trade also says that unlike Oprah, Madonna, Cher and Beyonce, Lohan doesn't have a federally registered trademark on her first name.
In an amusing 27-page court brief, Lohan's lawyer now attempts to justify why Lohan should get special treatment compared to the 250,000 other Lindsays.
"As they say, 'What's in the name?' It is in the totality of circumstances that a particular name or person acquires popularity or notoriety. It is in totality of circumstances that a name or person becomes a distinguished name. Some names such as Bill, Hillary, Bush, Tiger, Paris, Johnny, Allen, are very common names. There may be millions, if not billions, of people with these names in the world. Some words may not necessarily be just the names for human beings but may convey other meanings also. For example, 'Tiger' is an animal and is associated with a jungle or zoo in a particular context. However, when used in the context of (the) Golf game world, it conveys totally different message."
But that doesn't explain why Lindsay is to celebrity milkaholism as Tiger is to golf.
Alas, Lohan's brief tries to put it all together.
"The issue, in case at bar, is not how many people in the USA are with the name 'Lindsay' or 'Lindsey'. The issue is how many celebrities are with this name 'Lindsay' in the USA, and then in the context, manner, characterization, persona ... If Defendants take this name, 'Lindsay' in context of a celebrity name then by Defendants' own admission, there are only a few limited celebrities with this name around, and this number may not be more than four or five."
The brief then goes into a "process of elimination" among Lindsay Lohan, Lindsey Vonn, Lindsay Davenport and the two other Lindsay actresses: "The type of a particular role and persona, the role of an alcoholic bimbus woman, that Defendants were looking for in their said commercial, none of the other celebrity "Lindsay" as referred by Defendants ... fits into."
Essentially, she says that none of the other famous Lindsays are considered alcoholic bimbuses (bimbi?) like her client is. As proof, the brief cites tabloid headlines like RadarOnline's "Whoops! Kate Hudson Almost Does A 'Lindsay'"
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