Jamie Foxx on 'Django': Should be amazing

Quentin Tarantino has a certain signature with his films, and Jamie Foxx says you should expect no less from “Django Unchained.”

The 43-year-old Oscar winner landed the role of the titular character, a freed slave who sets off on a mission to rescue his lady love Broomhilda from a sadistic owner with the help of a German bounty hunter. Tarantino is calling it a “southern” film, according to Time.
Leonardo DiCaprio has signed on as that evil plantation runner Calvin Candie, and Samuel L. Jackson is expected to play his right-hand man, Stephen. Christoph Waltz is reuniting with his "Inglourious Basterds" director to play the bounty hunter, reports Variety, while Kerry Washington, who starred opposite Foxx in "Ray," is reportedly one of the contenders to portray Broomhilda.

Foxx told CNN at the premiere of “Horrible Bosses” last week that this is a story that needs to see the light of a movie theater.
“I think, just to be able to work with Quentin Tarantino and Samuel Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and to be able to tell a story that needs to be told," he said of why he agreed to the role. "If you're a fan of 'Inglorious Basterds,' I mean, you know.. It's just amazing. It should be [an] amazing thing.”

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Spoilers flood the Internet after 'Dance with Dragons' ships early

By Darren Franich, EW.com

July 4, 2011 -- Updated 1510 GMT (2310 HKT)

George R. R. Martin, author of "Game of Thrones" which the HBO series is based on, had his latest book shipped too early
(EW.com) -- It's every fan's nightmare: You wait six years for a book, and then a couple weeks before it finally hits bookstores, the spoilers start popping up on fansites.
As "Game of Thrones" author George R. R. Martin wrote on his personal not-a-blog blog, "Amazon Germany screwed up big time and started shipping "A Dance with Dragons" before they were supposed to. I am told that about 180 copies got out before they were made aware of their mistake and shut down shipping."
Martin's response to the situation would make Tywin Lannister proud: "If we find out who is responsible, we will mount his head on a spike."
Because of the early shipping, spoilers for "Dragons" are popping up everywhere on the Internet -- especially in "A Song of Ice and Fire" forums.
Elio M. Garcia, Jr., webmaster for Martin fansite Westeros.org (which also manages A Wiki of Ice and Fire) explains that, at first, the website was planning to keep "Dragons" spoilers in a separate forum. (The Westeros.org gang got an early look at "Dragons" when Martin personally sent the book to them for "continuity checking.")
But after "Dragons"' UK publisher, Voyager, issued a statement pleading for people to avoid spoilers, "We've now tried to move to being spoiler-free," says Garcia. "But that sort of made us a target."
While noting that most of the spoilers are inaccurate or garbled -- "Most of the trolls have been misled by other trolls," he jokes -- Garcia notes that real genuine spoilers are out there...and predictably, they're mostly coming from horrible teenagers with nothing better to do.
"There's an 18- or 19-year-old guy from Kentucky. There's a teenager out in Australia that we've had problems with before, who occasionally sneaks in and causes trouble. It's just guys having a laugh."
"Dragons" publisher Random House had no comment on the early shipping, and indicated that there were no plans to bump up the book's July 12 release date.
So, if you're a "Dragons" fan, you might want to avoid fan forums, Facebook...heck, maybe just don't go on the internet or speak to anyone for the next 11 days.

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Box office: 'Transformers' posts year's best opening weekend

By John Young, EW

July 4, 2011 -- Updated 1138 GMT (1938 HKT)

Shia LeBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley star in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," the year's best opening weekend flick.

EW.com -- Records, records everywhere. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" collected $97.4 million this weekend (from Friday to Sunday), according to studio estimates. That's a significant result in three ways:
1. It's the largest opening weekend of the year, passing the $90.2 million debut of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides."
2. It's the biggest Independence Day weekend, opening beating $88.2 million from "Spider-Man 2."
3. It's the third-best July opening weekend, behind "The Dark Knight" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
Michael Bay's $195 million alien-robot threequel is projected to finish the four-day holiday weekend with $116 million, bringing its six-day cumulative total to $181 million.
But despite those enormous numbers, "Dark of the Moon" will likely never catch its predecessor "Revenge of the Fallen," at least domestically. By comparison, that 2009 sequel had earned a massive $214.9 million after six days. According to Paramount, 62% of "Moon's" audience was male and 55% younger than 25. Showings in 3-D continued to account for 60% of its gross, and IMAX screens single-handedly brought in an estimated $13.8 million over the four-day weekend.
Two other movies notched meaningful records.

On Saturday, "Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" crossed $1 billion worldwide, becoming just the eighth film ever to do so. Despite being the weakest "Pirates" film domestically ($233.7 million through today), "On Stranger Tides" has pillaged an extraordinary $774 million overseas.
The only other movies to have earned more on foreign shores are "Avatar" and "Titanic."
And Universal's "Bridesmaids" is expected to pass "Sex and the City" today to become the highest-grossing R-rated female comedy ever. With $152.9 million through Sunday, "Bridesmaids" is also producer Judd Apatow's most successful movie.
As for the rest of the box office, "Cars 2" plunged a steep 62% for $25.1 million over the three-day weekend -- the largest second-weekend drop in Pixar history.
"Bad Teacher" earned $14.1 million for a 55% decline.
In fourth, the new Tom Hanks-Julia Roberts comedy "Larry Crowne" didn't make much of an impression with $13 million. According to Universal, 64% of the film's audience was female, and a whopping 81% was at least 35 years old.

And in fifth, the Selena Gomez comedy "Monte Carlo" debuted to $7.6 million.

READ MORE - Box office: 'Transformers' posts year's best opening weekend

Jamie Foxx on 'Django': Should be amazing

Quentin Tarantino has a certain signature with his films, and Jamie Foxx says you should expect no less from “Django Unchained.”

The 43-year-old Oscar winner landed the role of the titular character, a freed slave who sets off on a mission to rescue his lady love Broomhilda from a sadistic owner with the help of a German bounty hunter. Tarantino is calling it a “southern” film, according to Time.

Leonardo DiCaprio has signed on as that evil plantation runner Calvin Candie, and Samuel L. Jackson is expected to play his right-hand man, Stephen. Christoph Waltz is reuniting with his "Inglourious Basterds" director to play the bounty hunter, reports Variety, while Kerry Washington, who starred opposite Foxx in "Ray," is reportedly one of the contenders to portray Broomhilda.

Foxx told CNN at the premiere of “Horrible Bosses” last week that this is a story that needs to see the light of a movie theater.

“I think, just to be able to work with Quentin Tarantino and Samuel Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and to be able to tell a story that needs to be told," he said of why he agreed to the role. "If you're a fan of 'Inglorious Basterds,' I mean, you know.. It's just amazing. It should be [an] amazing thing.”

READ MORE - Jamie Foxx on 'Django': Should be amazing

Janet Jackson revives brother's memories with virtual duet

By Samuel Burke, CNN
July 1, 2011 6:05 p.m. EDT
London (CNN) -- Janet Jackson is opening up for the first time about a duet with her brother that she's reviving two years after his death.

Jackson took to the stage in London on Thursday and performed their 1995 song Scream as video of Michael Jackson played and his voice filled Royal Albert Hall.

The reworked duet follows in the footsteps of jazz pianist and singer Nat King Cole and his daughter, Natalie Cole. In 1991 she turned her father's famous 1961 recording "Unforgettable" into a father-daughter duet.

Janet Jackson said she did the original duet at the request of her brother years ago.

"I was on the Rhythm Nation tour and Mike actually asked me to do a song with him and I told him no. I didn't want to do it. I felt I hadn't come into my own and I hadn't fully made a name for myself ... and I didn't want to ride anyone's coattails," she said. "And I remember being in the Janet Tour a few good years later and he asked me again if I would do a song with him. And I felt, at that point, I'd carved my own little niche in this world of music and I felt okay, I can do this now and that's how it came about."

Jackson said that performing the song alongside her brother again isn't difficult.

"It feels great -- just listening to and hearing his voice," she said, adding that on stage she finds herself, "remembering the experience of recording it."

Jackson decline to comment to the press on the two-year mark of her brother's death, instead taking to social media this week with a simple message on Twitter on the June 25 anniversary: "I miss you, I love you."

Jackson wraps up the European leg of her tour this week then heads to North America, Australia and Africa.

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'All My Children' to air final episode September 23

Save the date! The citizens of Pine Valley will officially say goodbye when "All My Children" airs its last episode on Friday, September 23.

The long-running soap opera premiered on ABC in 1970 and former cast members including Josh Duhamel, Carol Burnett, Leven Rambin, and Eva La Rue, are expected to return to the series prior to the finale, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

"The final episodes will celebrate the stories of the families that fans have grown to know and love over the years," the network said.

"The Chew," a new lifestyle series hosted by “Top Chef” fan favorite Carla Hall, “Iron Chef” Michael Symon, nutrition expert Daphne Oz, “What Not to Wear’s” Clinton Kelly and Mario Batali, will air on ABC beginning September 26.

Meanwhile, "One Life to Live," which also got the axe, will air its final episode in January 2012.

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Royal fever: Princess Diana, Prince Harry and another wedding

It’s been two months since the world paused to watch the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge marry, but royal fever is still raging.

While we’ve always been a little (perhaps begrudgingly) infatuated with the monarchy across the pond, our interest lately has been piqued with even the tiny details –- the desire to dress like Kate Middleton had buyers in such a frenzy they once crashed a website for hours.

But today, the royal cup overflows. Not only do we have another wedding on our hands, but it’s also what would’ve been the late Princess Diana’s 50th birthday. Let the royal chatter begin:

Monaco's Prince Albert, the only son of the late Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, has had a wedding of his own. The 53-year-old tied the knot with former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock in a civil ceremony at the palace on Friday afternoon. The couple later settled in for a picnic outside the palace as musician Jean Michel Jarre performed. On Saturday the two will have a religious ceremony, an official dinner and a fireworks display.

Meanwhile, the royal couple that captivated our attention on April 29 have been busily traveling on their royal tour. William and Kate stopped in Ottawa on Thursday and are also on hand to help celebrate Canada Day today. Once they're done up north, they're heading to California for three days.

And then there’s that (what some have called uber creepy) cover of Newsweek, showing what the late Princess Diana would’ve looked like had she been 50. It didn’t stop there, though – Newsweek also dreamed up what it would be like if Princess Diana had a Facebook page and an iPhone.

Also arriving just in time for Diana’s 50th is acclaimed writer Monica Ali’s novel “Untold Story,” which imagines what would’ve happened if Diana hadn't been killed in a car crash in 1997. In Ali’s imagination, this Diana flees England and resumes life with a new identity in a small American town.

Prince Harry – or should we say his dating life – has also been front and center lately. First there was healthy speculation that he and Pippa Middleton were dating, but the gossip mill has latched on to a new name: Florence Brudenell-Bruce.

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