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Venice Film Festival: Tsui blends fantasy, martial arts, special effects for "Detective Dee"

Sheri Jennings, The Associated Press 9 Sep, 2010 0 0

VENICE, Italy - Hong Kong's action film master Tsui Hark returns to the big screen with "Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame", a new cloak-and-dagger martial arts blockbuster set in the Tang dynasty. Tsui blends fantasy with martial arts and special effects in a drama infused with love an

Jonathan Franzen surprised, gratified at Barnes & Noble reading of new novel 'Freedom'

Hillel Italie, The Associated Press 9 Sep, 2010 0 0

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Jonathan Franzen is still getting used to the attention. On Wednesday night, he stepped up to a small platform at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square and sat behind a long table, blowup posters of "Moby-Dick" and "Gulliver's Travels" hanging high on the wall behind, like literary god

Diverse singers, blacklight performers advance to 'America's Got Talent' finale

Derrik J. Lang, The Associated Press 9 Sep, 2010 0 0

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Three very different singers and a group of special-effects wizards got talent — and votes. Soulful 30-year-old crooner Michael Grimm, flashy 32-year-old showman John "Prince Poppycock" Quale, 10-year-old opera phenom Jackie Evancho and 13-man performance troupe Fighting Gravit

Colbert celebrates US troops' return from Iraq with Vice-President Biden, beer, hot dogs

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 9 Sep, 2010 0 0

NEW YORK, N.Y. - A hot dog vending cart was wheeled back and forth. Cocktail waitresses hurried past with trays full of beer. Vice-President Joe Biden led New York Yankees great Yogi Berra by the arm. Such was the bizarre, red-white-and-blue circus backstage at comedian Stephen Colbert's celebration

Eminem set to open Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards on sprawling white stage

Derrik J. Lang, The Associated Press 9 Sep, 2010 0 0

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Eminem is not afraid to open the MTV Video Music Awards. MTV general manager Stephen Friedman said Wednesday that the rapper, who's nominated for eight trophies and continues to sit atop sales charts with "Recovery," will open Sunday's ceremony at the Nokia Theatre, which has b

Movie Review: Despite a few glimmers of truth, 'I'm Still Here' is self-indulgent, pointless

Christy Lemire, The Associated Press 8 Sep, 2010 0 0

Joaquin Phoenix may truly have walked away from a much-heralded acting career two years ago to pursue his artistic expression as a rapper. His look, which went from dark and mysterious to shaggy and doughy, may simply have been part of his transformative process. Or not. It becomes increasingly diff

Review: Internet predator stalks teens in Val McDermid's 'Fever of the Bone'

Michelle Wiener, The Associated Press 8 Sep, 2010 0 0

"Fever of the Bone" (HarperCollins, $14.99), by Val McDermid: When serial crime fiction is done well, readers can drop into any installment and within a few chapters, understand nearly everything about the primary characters and their relationship with one another. And so it is with Val McDermid's T

Review: Ping social-discovery feature on iTunes needs longer music previews, more members

Ryan Nakashima, The Associated Press 8 Sep, 2010 0 0

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Apple Inc.'s new music-discovery feature, Ping, is a potentially useful addition to iTunes. With it, you can see what songs your friends are buying and recommend some of your favourites to them. It's great that Apple is finally incorporating elements of Lala.com, which offered

Country singer James Otto hospitalized in Tenn. for abdominal illness, cancels weekend shows

Caitlin R. King, The Associated Press 8 Sep, 2010 0 0

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country singer James Otto is hospitalized in Nashville. He was admitted to an area hospital Tuesday for an abdominal illness and is cancelling his weekend shows in Clarksville, Tenn., and Berea, Ohio. Otto says in a statement that he has "been feeling badly on and off for a while

Americana Awards set to celebrate legacy of rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson

Chris Talbott, The Associated Press 8 Sep, 2010 0 0

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Wanda Jackson had no idea the influence she would have on future rock 'n' roll women when she carved a sharp, distinctive line across the heartwood of the new genre back in the 1950s and '60s. The rockabilly queen with the knockout voice to go with the same kind of looks was worki