Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting

Good lord, Tim Roth is doing a lot of morphing lately. He de-aged himself in Youth Without Youth, became a weird ol’ monster in The Incredible Hulk, and now he’s getting his wings.

Variety reports that Roth is taking the title role in Skellig — a UK production that will hit television screens next spring before getting a theatrical release. Based on the novel by David Almond, Skellig focuses on a boy in northern England who makes a surprising discovery. His parents have just bought a rundown house, and while investigating the shed out back, he finds a man/creature lying in the darkness who he decides to help. “Feeding him Chinese food and beer, the boy nurses the creature, who possesses magical powers, back to health.”

It definitely sounds like an interesting story (read more about it here), and it’s hard not to get intrigued at the thought of Roth as an angel, alongside the likes of Kelly MacDonald, Bill Milner (the cutie from Son of Rambow), and John Simm. The film has just started shooting in Cardiff.

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Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Lost, Saturday Night Live, Entourage, Celebrities, Heroes, NCIS, Casting, Reality-Free

Annie posted earlier today about Michael Phelps‘ upcoming hosting duties on Saturday Night Live. The Olympic swimming champ isn’t wasting any time capitalizing on his stardom, because now he’s also landed a cameo on HBO’s Entourage.

According to the World Entertainment News Network, the eight-time gold medal winner will appear as himself in an upcoming episode of the buddy-series, which begins its fifth season on Sept. 7.

Phelps certainly must have some good people working with him, because in addition to hosting SNL, he’ll be among the presenters at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 7.

Continue reading Michael Phelps set to cameo on Entourage

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Beyonce tells the Marie Claire UK Magazine that she’s over being a pop star.  Yeah…so are we.

Beyonce says: “There is a time limit on being a pop star, yes. Being a legend, an icon? Absolutely not. I’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.”

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Anne Hathaway has been spotted canoodling with actor Josh Lucas.

The “Devil Wears Prada” actress, who split from Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri over the summer, was reportedly holding hands with Josh at the Democratic National Convention, in Denver, last week.

The happy pair were later seen flirting and laughing at Earls Restaurant in Denver.

A source told gossip blogger Perez Hilton: “They definitely looked like a couple. They were really into each other, giggling and smiling and even holding hands at one point. You could almost taste their chemistry!”

“She looked beautiful and happy. Josh put his arm around her for a bit before they left.”

Anne, 25, and Josh, 37, are also believed to have been “connected at the hip” at another Democratic National Convention event hosted by the National Apartment Association earlier this month.

The Hollywood stars reportedly “sneaked away” together for some privacy during a speech by the association’s president.

“Sweet Home Alabama” star Josh has previously been romantically linked to Salma Hayek and Heather Graham, while Anne split from Raffaello after four years following a series of scandals involving the businessman.

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Lindsay Lohan has confessed she ”loves” Samantha Ronson.The “Mean Girls” actress - who has so far refused to confirm she is dating the New York DJ - declared she is “smitten” with the blonde star.

Writing on her official MySpace blog, Lindsay puts her mood as “smitten.”

She then went on to dedicate Ray LaMontagne’s touching ballad “Trouble” to “sr” (Samantha Ronson) before adding “ILY” (I love you).

Lindsay also revealed she is desperate to track down a dessert she and Samantha used to enjoy at school as a surprise for the DJ.

The blog reads: “So, Samantha and I are looking for Dixie cups - does anyone remember them???”

“They were given in school as a desert. They are half vanilla/half chocolate.”

“I have to have them before she gets back - so anyone that can help me find them - please, please, please, post it for me to see!!!!”

“Take care xoxo.”

“This song is for sr… ILY”

“Currently listening: ‘Trouble.’ By Ray LaMontagne.”

Ray’s romantic track includes lyrics such as: “She gave me love and affection/I said I love her/She’s good to me” and “I’ve been saved by a woman/She won’t let me go/She won’t let me go now”.

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Hi, this is the last reminder that we’re giving away a pass for DEMO (San Diego, next week). Here’s how to enter. If you’re not going, you come back to see what hot start-ups is presenting there.

Add a comment | From: Last chance to get a free DEMO pass | Visit Ubergizmo

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) yesterday posted its lowest price in nearly five years. The stock moved to $17.75, down from a 52-week high of $34.08.

The Wall Street Journal pushed the idea that this was an options play. “Trading in Yahoo options leapt to four times the normal level as investors picked up 168,000 calls that allow them to buy the company’s stock.” In other words, some traders are willing to gamble that the shares will go up.

But, they won’t go up. There is growing evidence that marketers prefer search internet ads to display advertising. Yahoo! sells a great deal of display inventory and is a distant second to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in search. Some of that may change as Yahoo! begins to use the Google system to create its search results.That may not offset the fact that Yahoo! probably has as much display advertising availability as any company in the world.

Because Yahoo! has shown it is unwilling to make major cost cuts, a flattening of its revenue growth would be a disaster for its investors. The firm’s year-over-year sales improvement is already barely above 10%. What had been a growth stock three or four years ago has now become a buyout gamble. Investors still hang on to some hope that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or a large media company will make an offer for the portal company.

That means that Yahoo! still carries a “takeover” premium, which begs the question of where the shares might trade at the end of the year, if there are no offers. Investors are gambling that there is a 30% chance that Yahoo! will be bought, if it is not, the stock heads toward $13.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Politics, Comic/Superhero/Geek

The date has been set for Warner Bros and Fox to go head to head — and it should soothe the fearful. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studios will be going before the judge on January 6th. There’s plenty of time, even at a snail’s pace, for the issue to be resolved before the March 6th opening. (It’s like the court is going along with the movie marketing — we’ll get a video journal the same day. There really is no such thing as bad publicity in Tinseltown!)

Furthermore, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allan Feess says that Fox shouldn’t attempt to file a preliminary injunction against Warners to stop the release of the film because the issues surrounding the case were too complex to be solved in an interim basis. Instead, both studios are being ordered to put their cases together, and start expedited discovery and depositions. This thing could get quite big — as the New York Times pointed out, Paramount, Legendary Pictures, and even Universal could get hauled into it, alongside Lawrence Gordon, who’s really the man in question in all this.

And remember, this is if it actually makes it to court. This could easily be settled before Christmas, with Warners handing over a nice chunk of The Dark Knight change just to be done with it. (How appropriate that Bruce Wayne help out other costumed vigilantes.) It depends how fierce the studio is feeling, and how certain they are of their case — but all signs point to you keeping your March 6th moviegoing plans.

You really have to feel bad for the cast and crew on this one, though. All that happy buzz of ComicCon panels and promo posters squashed under a heap of legalese. Oh well, at least Fox can’t take away what we’ve already been given. Check out our Watchmen gallery below.

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Twitter have today removed all link juice from profile bio links and it’s fair to say this hasn’t gone down too well in the SEO industry.

The move follows Dave Naylor’s backlink tip which caused Matt Cutts to notify Twitter founder Evan Williams, appearing to recommend that hyperlinks are removed from profile bio pages.

As I wrote earlier in the week Twitter has become a very important tool in the search industry, and this began to cause controversy because many active users feel that the time and effort they have spent in building up their Twitter profiles should be rewarded with a backlink to promote their own websites.

This tweet from Sugarrae helps to show the general feeling people have about why bio links should be valued by Google:

With a good point made by Graywolf:

And another valid opinion from Rishil:

I would agree with all of the above statements and in my opinion Twitter could learn a great deal from the way Sphinn and SEOmoz reward the active members in the community. Sphinn nofollow all submission links until they hit the homepage and SEOmoz nofollow profile links until you reach 100+ user points.

What do you think, is this wrongly punishing legitimate Twitter users or is this necessary to stop spammers? And, if Google have contributed with advice about how these links are valued, should they be recommending this?

Copyright SEOptimise. Original article from our SEO Blog - Search Engine Marketing Services

What Twitter could Learn from Sphinn & SEOmoz Nofollow Tactics

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Filed under: Videos and Screenshots

Quite possibly the biggest feature for this year’s NBA game from SCEA’s San Diego Studios is the addition of The Life, a story a mode which chronicles the player’s journey from the streets to the NBA. This first trailer highlighting the single player campaign looks pretty epic — will this be able to differentiate itself from the other NBA games coming out this year?

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