'Guardians of the Galaxy' continues assault on U.S. box office

Cast member Chris Pratt and his wife, actress Anna Faris pose at the premiere of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' in Hollywood, California July 21, 2014.

 "Guardians of the Galaxy," already the biggest film of the year, continued its improbable assault on the box office, collecting $10.2 million to lead all films after a month in theaters.

Featuring a cast of misfit super heroes that includes a machinegun-toting raccoon, "Guardians" leapt from the pages of Marvel Comics to total $295 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to studio estimates.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was second with $6.5 million in ticket sales for the three days from Friday through Sunday on a relatively slow post-holiday weekend. "If I Stay" was third with sales of $5.8 million, according to the box office tracking site Rentrak.

Cumberbatch takes unsung WWII hero to Toronto in 'Imitation Game'

 The code-breaking machine that may have cut World War II by two years and saved millions of lives was invented by British mathematician Alan Turing, a prickly genius and unlikely war hero unknown to most of the world.

That might be because his work to crack Germany's Enigma code remained classified for decades. But also, Turing met a tragic end following the war, taking his own life at 41 after he was convicted for being homosexual and sentenced to chemical castration.

'Spirit' fades for famed Japan animation studio after Miyazaki signs off

Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki poses at a special screening of the animated movie 'Ponyo' at El Capitan theatre in Hollywood, California, in this July 27, 2009 file picture.

The artistic legacy of Hayao Miyazaki, the reclusive and bearded Academy Award-winning director and animator sometimes called Japan's Walt Disney, has never been more certain.

Yet at the same time, the commercial future for Studio Ghibli, the privately held Tokyo studio he left behind in retirement, has never been more in doubt.

Under Miyazaki, Ghibli became famous for intricate, hand-drawn animation and imaginative coming-of-age story lines that made films like 1988's "My Neighbor Totoro" into an international hit. A dozen years later, he masterminded what remains today as Japan's highest grossing film, the Academy Award-winning "Spirited Away".

Pink Floyd co-founder says new 'Wall' an anti-war protest film

Former Pink Floyd co-founder and bass guitarist Roger Waters performs with a Romanian children choir during ''The Wall'' tour live concert in Bucharest August 28, 2013

 Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters says a new movie about his monumental, three-year remounting of the band's famous "The Wall" album should be seen as a protest against the growing spread of armed conflict, rather than just a concert documentary.

"Roger Waters: The Wall", which had its world premiere on Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, documents the massive concerts that included pyrotechnics, animation, a flying inflatable pig and an actual wall constructed on stage as the show progressed.

But it also includes vignettes of Waters visiting war cemeteries and memorials in Europe, including the grave of a grandfather who died in World War One, and the site of the 1944 battle that killed his father when Waters was just a baby.

Family, friends remember Joan Rivers in poignant, funny funeral

Television personality Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner arrive to attend the funeral of comedienne Joan Rivers at Temple Emanu-El in New York September 7, 2014.

 Family and friends bid farewell on Sunday to Joan Rivers, the outspoken comedian who became famous around the world for her acerbic wit and brash style, at a private funeral sprinkled with jokes, laughter and songs.

Journalists Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer, comedian Whoopi Goldberg, tycoon Donald Trump, actress Sarah Jessica Parker and comedian Kathy Griffin were among the celebrities who attended the service at Temple Emanu-El, a landmark synagogue on New York's Fifth Avenue where Rivers, 81, was a member of the congregation.

Comedian Jeffrey Ross described it as "somber but funny" with plenty of hearty laughs from Rivers' friends.

Charlize Theron’s new Dior ad is pure gold

                                                                           Charlize Theron

Los Angeles – The South African born actress, Charlize Theron, can be seen in the latest Dior J'adore ad.

In the short video the blonde beauty shows off some impressive acrobatic skills while smoothly delivering her lines.

Ricky Martin wants a baby daughter next year

                                                                                         Ricky Martin

Los Angeles - Ricky Martin wants to have a baby daughter next year. 

The 42-year-old singer is already a father to six-year-old twins Matteo and Valentino - who were born by a surrogate mother in 2008 - but he insists his family won't be complete until he adds a little girl to his brood. 

Speaking to Fox News Latino, he said: "The little baby will come next year. 

''When daddy's little girl arrives, I want to be there."

Amy Winehouse 'reeked of alcohol before death'

                                                                                        Amy Winehouse

Los Angeles - Amy Winehouse ''reeked of alcohol'' and was barely able to talk the day before her death, according to her mother Janis Winehouse.

Amy's mother found "broken bottles of white wine" lying around the singer's house in Camden, north London, the last time she saw her alive and claims her daughter was so drunk that she was only able to make it downstairs courtesy of her bodyguard Andrew Morris.

Julia Roberts to star in Oscar winning movie remake

                                                                                    Julia Roberts

Los Angeles - Julia Roberts is to star in the remake of The Secret in Their Eyes.

The August: Osage County actress has been signed up to play the female lead in the upcoming Billy Ray-directed remake of the 2009 Argentine crime thriller, Deadline reports.

12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor is set for the male lead of a former MI-5 agent who returns to Boston on a joint task force with the FBI.

Roberts will play his friend and former partner whose daughter was murdered.

Ejiofor's character refuses to get over the crime and digs up the case years later when he thinks he's found the man who got away with it.

Gwyneth Paltrow has also been signed up to appear alongside Ejiofor and Roberts, who recently impressed in HBO series The Normal Heart.

The Secret in Their Eyes is scheduled to begin shooting in Los Angeles in October with Mark Johnson producing.

Petition to stop SA playwright's 'racist' exhibition in UK

Petition to stop SA plJohannesburg - A petition is circulating in a bid to stop South African playwright Brett Bailey's exhibition about colonial oppression, that features living people, from going to London, Beeld reported on Saturday.

According to artnet.com, 7 000 people have signed the online petition to stop the exhibition from opening at London's Barbican Centre on 23 September. It has already been to Edinburgh, Berlin, and Vienna.

Singer Simone Battle found dead at LA-area home

                                                            Simone Battle

Los Angeles - Girl group singer Simone Battle has died.

According to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, Battle was found dead in her West Hollywood home on Friday morning.

Battle gained notoriety through performances on the television show X Factor, and her band — G.R.L. — had been signed by mega-hit maker Dr Luke.

Los Angeles - Gwen Stefani thinks her baby son is a ''miracle.''

The 44-year-old singer was adamant she and her husband Gavin Rossdale didn't want to have any more children but she was left stunned when she fell pregnant with Apollo, six months, after her eldest son Kingston, eight, asked God for another little sibling. 

Gwen - who also has Zuma, six, with Gavin - explained: ''He has a direct link to God, basically. He asked me, 'Mum, are you gonna have a baby? I want you to have a baby.' 

''I was like, 'It's over. We're not having any more. This is our family.' ''

Imitating her son, the blonde beauty said Kingston would clasp his hands together, close his eyes and say out-loud: 'Dear God, please let my mum have a baby. Please, God! Please let my mum have a baby!' 

She added: ''And four weeks later, I was pregnant!'' 

The Voice USA coach, who married Gavin in 2002, admits she's slightly concerned about what Kingston will pray for next because his faith is so strong. 

Speaking on Late Night this past Wednesday, she explained: ''He prays for everything. He's like, 'Please, God, please let me have another cupcake... Yes!' He really believes.''

P-Square are not doubt one of the top singers not just in Nigeria but in Africa. Its no wonder the duo, Peter and Paul Okoye who have a large fan base are always busy cooking up something new for their fans.

Just recently, the multiple award winning twins, P-Square revealed on a radio station that they do not live with their wives.

Comedian Joan Rivers moved to private room from intensive care: daughter

TV personality Joan Rivers and daughter Melissa Rivers leave following a Spring/Summer 2013 collection show at New York Fashion Week September 10, 2012.

Comedian Joan Rivers, who suffered cardiac arrest last week, has been moved out of an intensive care unit in a New York hospital and into a private room, her daughter said on Wednesday.

Rivers, 81, is "being kept comfortable" in a private room at Mount Sinai Hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, according to her daughter, Melissa Rivers.

The comedian was placed on life support after she stopped breathing and suffered cardiac arrest during outpatient surgery on her vocal cords at a nearby clinic on Aug. 28.

Classical music meets soccer in 'Last Hammer Blow' at Venice

Cast member Romain Paul poses during the photo call for the movie 'Le dernier coup de marteau' at the 71st Venice Film Festival September 3, 2014.

A French film that improbably links soccer and classical music in a tale of a sports-mad teenage boy living in poverty with his dying mother and who meets his estranged conductor father for the first time charmed the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.

Alix Delaporte's "Le Dernier Coup de Marteau" (The Last Hammer Blow) relies heavily on body language rather than dialogue to communicate its bittersweet coming-of-age story.

"What you will see in the film is there is not much dialogue, people do not talk much, characters do not talk much," Delaporte told a news conference. "I've tried to replace words with movements."

Spotlight thrown on Mafia in Venice festival film

Director Sabina Guzzanti poses during the photo call for the movie ''La trattativa'' (The State-mafia pact) at the 71st Venice Film Festival September 3, 2014.

 An Italian documentary about the Mafia whose director said she checked all the facts "1,400 times" cast a spotlight at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday on a mooted, covert deal between Italy's political establishment and organized crime.

"La Trattativa" (The State-Mafia Pact), shown out of competition at the world's oldest film festival, is directed by Sabina Guzzanti, a former television satirist and a longstanding foe of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who, through film clips, figures prominently in her new film.

"In understanding and getting to the bottom of this material, I too, had moments of depression, of fear and I thought the same things all of us have for years, 'I'm leaving (Italy), there's nothing left to do here'," Guzzanti told a news conference after the screenings.

A Minute With: Comic Jon Stewart on not flubbing his first film

                                            Gael García Bernal as Maziar Bahari in a scene from Rosewater.

Having hosted late night television's satirical "The Daily Show" for 15 years, comedian Jon Stewart grew accustomed to a daily churn that he says "forgives sloppiness."

Now, he has crafted his first feature film in a more meticulous fashion, and hopes it will not be more permanent evidence of his own idiocy.

His directorial debut is the drama "Rosewater," the story of Tehran-born Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned and tortured in Iran at the hands of a man who smelled of rosewater. Stewart advocated for Bahari's release and then invited him to his nightly show.

Ariana Grande scores second chart-topping album on Billboard 200

                        Singer Ariana Grande performs on NBC's 'Today' show in New York August 29, 2014.

Pop singer Ariana Grande landed her second chart-topping album on Wednesday as her latest record debuted atop the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart.

"My Everything," the second album from 21-year-old Grande, sold 169,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

The record was released in conjunction with the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 24, where Grande performed her song "Break Free" to kick off the televised event.

24 movie on the cards

Los Angeles  - Imagine Entertainment want to make a 24 movie.

According to TVLine, the production company's chairman, Brian Grazer, has expressed an interest in taking the hit Fox series to the big screen following the end of the show's latest series 24: Live Another Day.

It is believed negotiations have stepped up in recent weeks after 24 producer Jon Cassar admitted he felt there was huge potential in reviving the show in a movie format, despite previously insisting that there were no planned future installments of the Keifer Sutherland fronted series in the pipeline.

Superhero 'Turtles' swing back onto big screen in new mutation

Cast members (from L-R) Danny Woodburn, Jeremy Howard, Alan Ritchson, Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Noel Fisher and Pete Ploszek pose at the premiere of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' in Los Angeles, California August 6, 2014.

The teenage mutant heroes in a half shell are battling their way back to movie screens with teen crushes, insecurity, rage and a hankering for pizza in a franchise reboot for a new generation.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," based on the 1980s comic book series that led to a television show and then a film in 1990, features four turtle brothers trained as fighters.

In the 2014 version out in U.S. theaters on Friday, the amiable Turtles named after Renaissance artists are brought to life with new performance capture technology.