After tackling ancient history in "Red Cliff," released in US theaters on Friday, Woo is fast-forwarding to World War Two for his next film "Flying Tigers," about American pilots working in the Chinese Air Force.

Sony said the movie that uses the Mayan calendar and other end-of-days prophecies to depict the world's demise came in above its initial box office estimate on Sunday of $225 million globally. Moviegoers in North America chipped in $65.2 million, while international audiences contributed $165.2 million.

A federal lawsuit accused the co-host of ABC's "The View" of lifting content from a book written by self-published Cape Cod author Susan Hassett on the digestive disorder celiac disease. Hasselbeck's book was called "The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide" and appeared on best-seller lists this year.

Underwood, who on Monday spoke to reporters during a conference call, will star next month in a holiday special, and she just released her second consecutive chart-topping album, "Play On."

"I have something for you that might f--- up your career," the filmmaker told her. "I said, 'Sign me up, sugar!'" the actress recalls, hooting with laughter. "'Sign me up!' "

That was the advice a dog trainer, of all people, gave Christoph Waltz, the Vienna-born actor who won the top acting prize at Cannes for his role as the eerily deliberate Col. Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds."

Not even a recent screening of "Paranormal Activity," the low-budget horror of the moment could do it, which was a disappointment.

She's an irrepressible hoot in writer-director John Lee Hancock's otherwise thoroughly conventional take on Michael Lewis' fact-based book "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game."

Family representative C. Christie Craig said Wendkos died on Thursday in Malibu, California.

According to a report on SI.com, the Sports Illustrated website, the veteran band will take the stage during the halftime show of the 2010 National Football League championship game, scheduled for February 7 in Miami.

Dennis Hof, the owner of the Moonlite BunnyRanch near Carson City, Nev., said he has not spoken with Brooke Phillips for more than a week and is unable to reach her. Hof says Phillips' aunt and a close friend believe she is one of the victims of Monday's fire.

Sony's apocalyptic actioner "2012," toting a $200 million production cost and hefty marketing expenses, is opening in 105 global territories simultaneous with its domestic debut.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began giving out Oscars specifically for best animated film in 2002, and since then, the number of award-hopeful cartoon flicks has steadily increased amid a boom in computer animation.

The compilers of the Billboard 200, the benchmark pop albums chart in the United States, said on Wednesday they would dramatically overhaul the listing later this month to include catalog recordings as well as current releases.

Dobbs, who announced his departure near the start of his nightly news and commentary show, did not say where he plans to go, after nearly 30 years at CNN.

Slatkin's manager R. Douglas Sheldon said Wednesday that doctors want the 65-year-old Slatkin to rest until early December.

The judge's ruling came after an attorney for the "Thriller" singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, said she had no objection to John Branca and John McClain running the estate.

But Ojani Noa, a chef and model who was married to Lopez for less than 11 months, said he would fight back.

"Eastwick," a fresh take on the hit 1987 movie "The Witches of Eastwick," will finish production on 13 episodes; ABC plans to run them all.

Well, perhaps not.

The specialty division of 20th Century Fox will co-finance and distribute "Black Swan," a supernatural thriller from Darren Aronofsky, the director of "The Wrestler."

Jim Nolan, a spokesman for Mutual, and Angela DePaul, a spokeswoman for Winfrey's Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc., would only say Monday that the case was resolved amicably. Documents filed last month in U.S. District Court in Omaha do not outline details of the settlement.

Williams, who police say is 38, is charged with burglary and criminal trespassing, according to Coweta County Sheriff's Office Maj. James Yarbrough.

Michael Woods died from heart disease at Kent Hospital in Warwick on July 26, 2006, after going into cardiac arrest on a gurney. He was 49.

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" rises in theaters on November 20 as one of the most-anticipated movies early in Hollywood's holiday season. Predecessor "Twilight" made $384 million at worldwide box offices in 2008, and its young principal actors, Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, shot to overnight stardom.

Australian media reported that fans walked out of the first of Spears' 14 Australian performances that was staged in Perth on Friday after just a few songs, describing it as "boring," "stiff," mimed and lacking interaction with the audience.

The project centers on a soldier who wakes up in the body of a commuter and must solve the mystery of a train explosion. Shooting is scheduled for the first quarter of next year.

Completed in 2007 and only now appearing on the festival circuit, "The City of Your Final Destination" is a gentle, witty tale of a young Iranian-American academic seeking permission to write the authorized biography of a Uruguayan novelist.

Daniel Raim's "Something's Gonna Live" is absolutely infused with profound admiration and respect for the people who can make real or imagined worlds come alive. Although the focus is on Hollywood, "Something's Gonna Live" is a natural for festivals everywhere and should be a useful, if not essential, teaching tool in any cinema course.

His feature directing debut, "The Men Who Stare at Goats," starring George Clooney, opened Friday via Overture Films and earned a respectable $13.3 million during its first three days.

Yes in the first half-hour of Fox's Saturday-night entry, and no in the second.

The Disney animated version of the Charles Dickens classic knocked the King of Pop out of the No. 1 spot as "Michael Jackson's This Is It" slipped to second place with $14 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

On Saturday, Ray brought a Wilmington soup kitchen new appliances, shelves and furniture. Ray's show also promised to supply food for the kitchen for the next year.

The 73-year-old actor and artist attended the Breeders' Cup in support of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, the official charity of the year-ending thoroughbred championships Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Southern California.

Robert Eringer, a US private eye who also claims to be a former FBI agent, alleged in an interview this week that he ran a service called the "Monaco Intelligence Service", reporting directly to the prince, from 2002 to 2007.

"It wasn't the same person that says 'I love you.' It was not those...eyes," Rihanna, 21, told Diane Sawyer in an interview on ABC television's "Good Morning America" show.

On this particular afternoon, the singer/songwriter/producer/musician was being whisked off to CBS Studios to perform her second single, "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart," for an episode of "Dancing With the Stars" that will air November 17. From there, she hopped on the freeway -- in rush hour traffic -- to neighboring Long Beach, California, where she spoke at California first lady Maria Shriver's annual Women's Conference and closed the event with a rendition of her hit "Superwoman."

D'Lugoff died Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital. His brother, Burt D'Lugoff, said a cause of death was not yet known.

Winans appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last week and was seen in promos for future appearances. Now he'll be cut out of the segment, said Winfrey spokesman Don Halcombe on Thursday.

The president told the audience at an evening concert in the East Room that classical music is "lifting hearts and spurring imaginations" all across the nation, and is something to be enjoyed by aficionados and the uninitiated alike.