Miley Cyrus (right), seen here with 'Gossip Girl' star Blake Lively, was not aboard her tour bus when it flipped on its side Friday morning

Driver found dead after bus falls over; Cyrus not on board

By Matthew B. Zeidman

DINWIDDIE, Va. (Hollywood Today) 11/20/09 – Disney starlet Miley Cyrus was not on board her tour bus when in flipped on its side while traveling on Interstate 85 earlier this morning, the Associated Press reported.  According to the wire service, one person was found dead, while another was treated for minor injuries.

According to local CBS affiliate WTVR, the driver of the bus has been identified as the only death in the incident, which occurred at approximately 8:15 a.m., but it was unclear if the driver was killed as a result of the impact or if the driver’s death was the cause.

Cyrus, 16, is in the midst of her Wonder World Tour, which includes 46 domestic concert dates and 11 European ones.  She last performed in Uniondale, N.Y. on Wednesday and Thursday and is next scheduled to appear on Sunday in Greensboro, N.C.  No concert is scheduled for Monday, the pop singer’s 17^th birthday.

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” looks to blot out “New Moon” opening when released this coming June

By Adam Shapiro

Sewart and Pattinson at the corssroads in New Moon

TORONTO, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/19/2009 – If you think “New Moon” is going to do major box office, wait till you get a bite of “Twilight III,” also known as “Eclipse,” this coming summer.

It will be a full five-day opening that includes the Independence Day holiday weekend, compared to “New Moon’s” measly three-day opening on a non-holiday (Thanksgiving isn’t until next week).

“Eclipse” will also be a summit of vampire vs. werewolf action as Bella (Kristen Stewart) must choose between toothy Edward (Rob Pattinson) and furry Jacob (Taylor Lautner), as well as mortality vs. immortality.

With lines already formed for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” set to be unleashed today, bloodthirsty teenage fans will no doubt turn their attention and [Read more →]

It’s been 25 years. “The Godmother” Oprah Winfrey will take her show off broadcast TV in what might be ploy to jumpstart her own OWN network while taking a billion dollar bite out of the other “families” ABC and CBS.

By Jeffrey Jolson

Oprah major stategic move or just a little rest?

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 9/20/08 – Oprah is considered by many to be the most influential woman in the world, mainly due to the “Oprah” TV show, the highest rated talk show ever (over 100 million viewers for the 1993 Michael Jackson interview) After 25 years as a TV staple, Oprah Winfrey will end her popular and influential TV show in September 2011.

Oprah, 55, will explain why she is quitting on her Friday show. One reason is likely the 2 ½ decades doing the same show (with some re-tooling along the way) has given her reason to take a deep bow and get a little rest. Reinvent herself as it were.

She would have more time to work with her charities – she is after all the most philanthropic Africa American ever. Yet she can afford it. She has been listed at times the wealthiest black person of the 20^th Century and the world’s first black billionaire, though we imagine there are some oil-rich kings out there.

Why do you think she’s leaving? Comment below.

But don’t expect her to stay out of the game for long, This workaholic will likely put a reworked, revamped version of the show on her own new cable network, OWN, a Los Angeles-based joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc.

OWN was targeting a reach of 70 million, a figure that would be easily met and even surpassed if network had the one and only Oprah show to dangle before cable and [Read more →]

Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson form a supernatural love triangle in 'New Moon,' sequel to last year's wildly popular 'Twilight'

NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 11/19/09 – With midnight showings poised to kick off the second installment of the wildly popular “Twilight” book-to-movie series Friday morning, “New Moon” has already dominated the box office.  According to Entertainment Weekly, the film has broken the record for most presale tickets sold by ticket services Fandango and MovieTickets.com.

Starring Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson and Dakota Fanning, “New Moon” will follow fictional Washingtonian high schooler Bella Swan (Stewart) as she deals with her separation from her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Pattinson), and her attraction to werewolf Jacob Black (Lautner).  Fanning makes her first appearance in the Stephenie Meyer series as Jane, a member of ancient vampire cabal the Volturi.  Also returning are actresses Ashley Greene and Nikki Reed.

Lunar frenzy but can Rob Pattinson & Co. beat Shia LeBeouf and Robots’ top 2009 weekend bow of $108 million?

By Peter Lonergan

Pattinson looks Elvis AND his films gross higher

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/19/09 –With the film New Moon set to open in just one day, anticipation around the world is building to a frenzy.  The movie is a sequel to the enormously successful Twilight, the first of Stephanie Meyer’s books to reach the big screen.  Twilight brought in an estimated $70.5 million in its opening weekend, and expectations are that “New Moon” will exceed this.  The film is directed by Chris Weitz, who had the unenviable task of creating a film that would live up to the tremendous hype as the second of the four-part Twilight saga.

Some pundits think New Moon will open in the $85 million range, yet we think it will do better.  For one thing, Movie Tickets reports that is is their No. 1 Advance Online ticket-seller of all time — even more than Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith.

Stephanie Meyer’s books have a following not far from that of the Harry Potter series, so Twilight’s success on the big screen – despite an incredible opening weekend – was not totally unexpected.  Meyer’s second book, New Moon, vaulted to number one on the New York Times best seller’s list for children’s chapter books in just two weeks and remained on the list for almost a year.  Best selling novels have been debuting extremely well as movies and New Moon will be another massive box office hit.   To exceed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s opening weekend gross of $108 million, however, will be no easy task but it is not out of the question, considering today’s current fascination with vampires.

Interview with The Vampire may be the most acclaimed and recognizable vampire movie of all time, however, in the last few years, vampires have become an entertainment phenomenon.  Vampires have gone from grotesque, ghastly characters portrayed in movies like Blade; 30 Days of Night; and From Dusk till Dawn; to emotion-filled, attractive characters in TV shows and movies like The Vampire Diaries; True Blood; and Twilight.  Thanks to Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Robert Pattison (Twilight) viewers are falling in love with what were once some of the most heinous creatures of human imagination.

Stories and photos from New Moon have been on the cover of almost every entertainment magazine in the US.  There is no question that it has been one of the most advertised and anticipated movies this year. New Moon is not only in the running for this year’s highest grossing opening weekend: it could be amongst the highest grossing opening weekends in the history of film.

Our reviewer loves Julian Casablancas but has reservations about his new solo act

By “Big Vic” Smith

Casablancas whistles up a blue tune

SAN FRANCISCO (Hollywood Today) 11/18/09 – Former Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas has one of those deep voices you’d like to turn a speaker over and sit on it. His voice grinds.  It shakes.  It gets in there like Frank Sinatra.

Once watching The Strokes from on the stage at T in the Park in Scotland in 2004 before a crowd of 100,000 to seeing their leading man Julian play an under sold Regency Theater with about 800 people in it was a bit of a shock.   I expected the line to be around the corner and scalpers hot on any extra ticket’s tail.

But it was quiet when I walked up, and it was [Read more →]

Top scientists and young filmmakers meet at USC to discuss the love affair between science and science fiction – and learn that much film and TV sci-fi is already real

By Paul M. Allen

Get your spandex jumpsuits ready as cloaking devices real now

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 11/17/09 – What will the world look like in 2050 when science further looks like science fiction does today? Or today looks like the science fiction of the 1950s?

We never got the flying cars the 50s “house of the future” promised, but there are robots to vacuum, refrigerators that talk and so on.

And if you have the money, you can get a copter, voyage to the bottom of the sea or fly into space.

Some of world’s finest scientists and film imaginations got together at the USC School of Cinematic Arts Research, and we found out there is already a real cloaking device like in “Star Trek,” nanotechnology similar to that of the replicators on “Stargate-1,” and data gloves that work as those do in the movie “Minority Report.” Cellphones have long been like the communicators on “Trek” while “Star Wars”-like laser guns are all too real. One scientist noted he has been inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

And likewise, Kubrick and other great filmmakers like Spielberg and Lucas have started their sci-fi story-telling with as much real science as possible, and then added a bit of imagination. The same is true with every writer, sci-fi or otherwise, whether books, film or television.

Yet since I don’t have a flying car yet, real life creeps in. After making it through the traffic, street closures and sirens from numerous police, fire, and ambulance brigades surrounding the downtown Los Angeles campus of the University of Southern California, I finally reached one of several parking structures.

I noted a small army of Film School students prepared to [Read more →]

For that special gift for the holidays, Lollibakes gourmet cake pops offer a new category of dessert treat **** 4 stars
By Gabrielle Panera

Lollibakes, let them eat cake...and lollipops

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/17/2009 – “I love making Lollibakes,” says Lollibakes dessert baker Diana Sproveri. “They’re like creating little works of art. I have so much fun coming up with new flavors and being creative.”

Lollibakes are gourmet cake pops, the right amount of cake with frosting. The very moist cake bites are covered with a layer of dark chocolate or white chocolate then decorated.

“I find inspiration in everything from the finest menus to something in the snack aisle,” says Sproveri. “No matter what the inspiration, I like to [Read more →]

Review of AMC miniseries: As compelling as it is confusing

By Jeffrey Jolson

Sir Ian in a bright moment for Number Two

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/17/09 – “The Prisoner” is set in an idyllic village that belies the fact that it is a prison where mind control and rats are the soup du jour at the corner café. Such is it with the AMC six-episode remake with Sir Ian McKellan and James Caviezal.  It’s just weird enough to get you hooked, and just weird enough to keep the remote nearby for a quick escape.

There is no easy escape for Number Six (Caviezel), originally played by Patrick McGoohan who co-created the British TV show in 1967. Back then, Six was the “Secret Agent Man” from the song, whose verse was “they gave him a number and took away his name.”

In 2009, Six is an exiled, brainwashed New York spy analyst.  As might be in the psychedelic 60s, we find the 2009 Six dealing with love potions, giant balls rolling through the desert, mysterious deep holes appearing in the ground, and other Kafka nightmares. And they add 2009 twists like a troubled gay son for Number Two.

Even the promotions are weird, and not just in content as expected in a tease campaign. AMC blanket-bombed every show on their line-up with “The Prisoner” commercials for more than a month, and used those damnable little bottom screen pop-ups to promote from below until you were as crazy-mad as Six.

But they didn’t stop once the [Read more →]

Copyright 2009 David Glover www.CartoonStock.com

HOLLYWOOD,  CA (Hollywood Today) 11/16/2009 – Sarah Palin, hit with legal fees for the vetting process because she and McCain weren’t elected, is getting payback. She claims in her book that she was billed $50,000 by the McCain lawyers. Insiders say McCain didn’t want Palin to write a book because he didn’t want her to discuss the concession speech that she wasn’t allowed to give.

‘Precious’ still climbing charts for Oprah and Perry

By Keith Williams

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/15/09 – It was the end of the world as we know it this weekend with Roland Emmerich’s apocalyptic 2012 heating up an estimated $65 million from 3404 solar flares.   Caught in the ensuing tsunami, Richard Curtis’s Pirate Radio capsized with $2.8 million on 882 wavelengths, Lee Daniels’s Precious floated up to $6 million on 174 life-rafts, leaving Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr Fox safe and dry with $260,000 at only four woodland lairs.

Having destroyed half of civilization already in Independence Day and frozen the rest of it in The Day After Tomorrow, Master of Disaster Roland Emmerich outdid even those past efforts with “the end-of-the-world movie to end all end-of-the-world movies”.  Starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet as the seperated couple reunited by destruction, and featuring cameos from the likes of George Segal and Woody Harrelson, this cheery tale of Sayonara Earth ticks every conceivable box that lovers of this genre have come to expect.  Pity those who sneered at its screenplay – what did they expect, King Lear? – under-predicted its opening weekend – 42 million, really? – and failed to enjoy what must be considered one of the most spectacular films in years.  Even by Emmerich’s previous standards, this is quite an achievement, and for once, in these days of over-priced 3D excursions to the cinema, true value is delivered for those who love entertainment on the big screen.  Don’t be at all surprised to see 2012 win special effects at the Oscars next march, unless of course James Cameron’s Avatar really is that good.

Blown into second place from its perch last week at no 1, Disney’s A Christmas Carol continued warbling with only a 25.7% drop in business, collecting $22.3 million in the charity cup.  Whether this is enough to sustain it through to the holiday season proper remains to be seen, but considering its [Read more →]

Roll over Beethoven and Tchaikovsky then news: You can learn a piano song in minutes. Patents issued. Tablature for Piano sings in a new era.

RockMaster System book with Tablature

New York  (Hollywood Today)– 11/14/0 – The United States Patent Office has granted a second extraordinary patent to a uniquely simple piano-learning technique so simple kids to entertainment pros can use it.

It is part of the RockMaster School of piano instruction, being used at prestigious educational establishments like the New York School System.

While it won’t make your Mozart or Elton in a night, kids can use it easily to learn while entertainment pros without a lot of music training can use it to transmit their ideas to others who must interpret for stage and screen. Even musical pros can benefit from this method.

The Patent Office calls the “Visual Keyboard Instructional Method.”

It’s the first and only source to create four-part harmonies without possibly years of schooling.

It does so with a visual representative of the chords – the visual aspect being [Read more →]