Los Angeles - Harry Potter author JK Rowling was named entertainer of the year Monday by influential US magazine Entertainment Weekly, which cited her ability to be both timeless and relevant at the same time. "Not only do (her) novels feel timeless, but they also manage to speak to today's fraught world," the magazine said of Rowling, whose seven books have spawned estimated revenues of 15 billion dollars.
"JK Rowling is our Entertainer of the Year because she did something very, very hard, and she did it very, very well, thus pleasing hundreds of millions of children and adults very, very much," noted the magazine.
"In an era of videogame consoles, ... she got people to tote around her big, fat, old-fashioned printed-on-paper books as if they were the hottest new entertainment devices on the planet."
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Quiet Riot singer DuBrow found dead
Los Angeles - Kevin DuBrow, lead singer of the popular 1980s hard-rock band Quiet Riot, has been found dead from unknown causes at his home in Las Vegas, according to authorities Monday.
DuBrow, 52, was found dead Sunday evening, and an autopsy is to be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Quiet Riot is best remembered for its hit Cum on Feel the Noize from the mega-selling album Metal Health, yielding the band number- one hits on both the singles and album charts. The band was among the first to ride to success on the wave of videos on then-new music channel MTV in the early 1980s.
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Stiller to produce Gods Behaving Badly
Los Angeles - Ben Stiller's production company, Red Hour Films, is to convert the novel Gods Behaving Badly into a TV comedy series, according to The Hollywood Reporter Monday.
The book is set in London, where the ancient Greek gods have been living together in a house since the 1660s. They still are running the world and quarrelling with one another, but they are dangerously bored and living in much reduced circumstances. Apollo has turned a Goldman Sachs market trader into a tree after she refused casual sex with him, while Aphrodite runs a telephone sex service.
Stiller is currently searching for a writer to adapt Gods for the small screen.
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Crowe may step in for Pitt
Los Angeles - Russell Crowe may replace Brad Pitt as star of State of Play, after Pitt decided to pass on the movie due to script problems, Variety reported Monday.
The report said that Pitt's decision could expose him to a lawsuit from Universal, which wanted to push ahead with production despite what Pitt viewed as shortcomings on the script. The studio wasn't able to order a rewrite because of the current strike by screenwriters.
The role now being considered by Crowe is a journalist who spearheads his newspaper's investigation into a killing, leading to a fast-rising politician played by Edward Norton. The journalist faces two conflicts: he once ran campaigns for the pol and was his confidant, and the journalist develops a romance with the politician's estranged wife, played by Robin Wright Penn.
