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Rihanna Posts Photo To Prove She's Still With Chris Brown — Here's Today's Buzz

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Rihanna Chris Brown

  • Amid rumors of a split, Rihanna posted a photo of  herself and Chris Brown with a caption about her hair looking "like a toupee," quoting the lyrics of Brown's "Look At Me Now."
  • Meanwhile, a new gruesome image has surfaced of Chris Brown's bodyguard following the singer's fight with Drake at a NYC club last summer. The brawl allegedly began after Drake sent Brown a note that read " "I'm f------ the love of your life" referring to Rihanna.
  • "Last Call with Carson Daly" has been renewed for a 13th year amid late-night upheaval. The news comes in the wake of rumors that Alec Baldwin was primed to take his time slot.
  • Former porn star Jenna Jameson allegedly beat up her transgender assistant with a brass knuckles cell phone case.
  • Ryan Seacrest and Russell Brand are the latest celebs to get swatted. A 911 call came in Wednesday claiming shots were fired inside the Seacrest manse by "mobster looking guys in suits with rifles."
  • Liberal activist Jane Fonda tells critics of her Nancy Reagan role in "The Butler" to "Get a life."
  • A real-life psychiatrist analyzes "Mad Men" characters Don Draper and Rodger Sterling.
  • "Glee" and "American Horror Story" creator Ryan Murphy's latest project has received a pilot order at HBOOpen will play as "a modern, provocative exploration of human sexuality and relationships," focusing on "five lead characters, including a married couple of thirtysomethings, the husband’s male co-worker and a woman in her 40s who is a yoga professional."
  • Katy Perry ... without makeup!

SEE ALSO: Alec Baldwin in talks to host NBC late-night show >

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'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Reveals A New Photo Featuring Jennifer Lawrence

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Lionsgate revealed a new photo for its upcoming "Hunger Games" sequel featuring star Jennifer Lawrence through a new website for the film.  

TheHungerGamesExplorer.com launched collaboration with Internet Explorer to release new content over the next few days. 

Based on the best-selling series by Suzanne Collins, the second film in the franchise picks up where the last film left off with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hafter winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games. 

The photo shows Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) returning home to greet sister Prim (Willow Shields).

the hunger games catching fire jennifer lawrence 

Over the next few days, the site will be revealing more photos from the upcoming film as fans share the image from the site using the hashtag #HungerGamesExplorer. 

As new photos appear, we'll add them below.  

The first trailer for the film will premiere during the MTV Movie Awards this Sunday, April 14.  

"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" comes out November 22.

SEE ALSO: 'Breaking Bad' spinoff is in the works at AMC >

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Matt Lauer Jokes About His Reputation: 'I Have A Lower Q Rating Than Polio'

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Katie Couric Matt Lauer

Matt Lauer poked fun at his bad reputation Tuesday night at UJA Federation of New York’s Broadcast Cable & Film Division event honoring Bloomberg Media Group CEO Andrew Lack.

According to the New York Post, Lauer — a longtime friend of Lack — took the stage to emcee the event by saying:

"I'm a bit surprised to be asked to host this dinner. If you’ve been following the papers lately, you know it’s been a bit rough for me. These days, I only get asked to host dinners if polio is busy. Yup, I have a lower Q rating than polio right now.”

The "Today" show host continued to take jabs at himself when introducing his former co-host Katie Couric:

“Katie has a way of making headlines. Who can forget when she was co-host of the ‘Today’ show? She got a colonoscopy on TV. Not to be outdone, two weeks ago, I got one in The New York Times." 

Lauer appeared on the front page of The New York Times last month as the subject of an article by Brian Stelter, titled "At NBC, a Struggle to Revive the Morning Magic."

The Huffington Post summed the up the article: "Stelter reported that some 'Today' staffers think that the damage done to Lauer's reputation cannot be repaired, and that he will not sign another contract with the show; that his 'Q score,' widely seen as a top barometer of television popularity, has plummeted by more than 50 percent over the past two years and put him behind ABC rival George Stephanopoulos (though NBC disputes this); that NBC executives are concerned about his 'connection' to the audience; and that Curry still feels betrayed by him."

While Lauer initially tried doing damage control by talking to The Daily Beast's Howrd Kurtz in a sympathy-seeking article, we're glad he can now make light of the situation. 

SEE ALSO: Matt Lauer apologizes to 'Today' intern who tweeted he was "not so nice" >

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'Oblivion' Reviews: What Critics Are Saying About Tom Cruise's New Sci-Fi Movie

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tom cruise oblivion

The first "Oblivion" reviews are out.

The sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman has already premiered in 35 countries ahead of its U.S. release April 19. 

Based on director Joseph Kosinski's unfinished graphic novel, the film features Cruise as a former Marine, Jack Harper, in the year 2077 searching for resources on a barren Earth. 

If the film looks familiar, its because Kosinski first brought us "Tron: Legacy" in 2010.

As the first reviews are trickling out, here's what you should know before deciding to see it yourself.

You'll be watching a real-life action version of Disney and Pixar's "Wall-E."

oblivion tom cruiseThe Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, Total Fillm's Kevin Harley, and Variety's Justin Chang compare "Oblivion" to the likes of the Oscar-winning animated feature.

Total Film:

"You’re watching WALL-E humanised, though the deadening dialogue could’ve benefited from WALL-E’s wordless reserve."

THR:

"In mood, a certain delicacy and the sense of isolation both on a depopulated Earth and somewhere above it, the recent film that this most strongly recalls is WALL-E, except with violence and without the humor and charm of the Pixar classic."

Variety:

"It all looks and sounds a bit like a live-action remake of “Wall-E,” right down to the way the protagonist, spurred by natural curiosity and an unexpected love interest, finds himself on a dangerous unauthorized mission."

It's long and anything but original. (The film clocks in at 126 minutes.) 

The Mirror:

"Oblivion is essentially Top Gun in space with a smattering of Total Recall, Minority Report and Moon thrown in for luck."

The Guardian:

"Oblivion goes on for a long time, moving slowly and self-consciously, and it looks like a very expensive movie project that has been written and rewritten many times over."

Total Film:

"The plot could’ve benefited from some spark, too: taking ages to get moving, it leaves you homing in on the echoes of other movies. ... The canyon dogfight echoes Star Wars; the explosive but hollow, muddled climax echoes Independence Day minus the goofy thrills."

The star power of Cruise and Freeman is wasted.

The Mirror:

"None of the cast – including a seriously underused Morgan Freeman -- is well-served by a script that requires them not to act but recite dull, expositionary dialogue."

Andrea Riseborough is one of the few gems of the film.

THR:

"[Riseborough] is an inspired bit of casting as she brings prim, snappy delivery to many routine lines and irrepressible emotion to her later behavior."

The set is gorgeous, so gorgeous it steals the film.

oblivion setThough Kosinki delivers another mind-blowing futuristic landscape, Time Out's Guy Lodge says in his "Oblivion" review that the director gets too caught up in his "sleek sci-fi playground of gleaming cloud palaces":

"Kosinski continues to lavish far more thought on how his elaborate fantasy worlds look than how they work, and neither the politics nor the human stakes here coalesce into rational or relatable drama."

It's something a lot of critics have picked up on regardless of a positive or negative review.

Olly Richards of Empire Magazine praised the art direction in his review, but also found it overwhelming of the cast. 

"Kosinski has again built a fantasy world that feels real to its core, but once more put most effort into the scenery and too little into the people."

If you can get past all that, it's not half bad.

Variety:

"A moderately clever dystopian mindbender with a gratifying human pulse, despite some questionable narrative developments along the way."

The Playlist:

"It's never especially bad, but neither is it especially excellent, beyond the visual wow factor. But there's still a lot to admire in the film, not least that it's engaging from the first moment to the last."

Overall consensus: Pass

Most "Oblivion" reviews boil down to the same thing: Kosinski delivers a story that can't keep up with the visuals and, for the most part, the main cast's mundane performances. Instead, you may want to wait for "Elysium," another tale about the end of the world out later this year or just tune into "Wall-E."

Check out the latest trailer below:


SEE ALSO: The first trailer for Matt Damon's "Elysium" >

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3-D Film Sales To Decline For First Time Since 2009

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iron man 3 explosionMovie theater owners fretting about the box-office slide and 3D companies looking to push those colored glasses are not going to like a new report from Fitch Ratings on the state of the exhibition industry.

The credit rating agency predicts that theatrical attendance will drop this year because the 2013 film slate cannot match last year's franchise heavy offerings and audiences are getting sick of shelling out $3 to $4 extra to see films in 3D.

As a result, the rating agency projects that 2013 will mark the first year there will be a year-over-year decline in 3D's box office contribution since it gained prominence in 2009.

Also read: 3D Still A Hit With Foreign Audiences, But Domestically It's a Different Story

"Attendance likely benefited from the initial proliferation of 3-D films," the study's authors write. "However, the initial excitement has dwindled, and consumers are focused again on the overall quality of the film and are weighing the cost of a premium ticket versus a base 2-D ticket."

That surcharge is also damaging one of the movies' big selling points -- affordability.

"Going to the movies remains one of the lower-cost forms of entertainment," the study's authors write. "However, increased pricing, particularly on 3-D films, may erode this perception over time."

ticket price for movies

Thanks to global blockbusters like "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Avengers," box office in North America rose 6 percent to $10.8 billion last year; this as the first time it has grown since 2009. Admissions in the U.S. and Canada also reversed a two year slide, increasing 6 percent to 1.36 billion, according to a recent report by the Motion Picture Association of America.

But while 3D helped bolster the film industry in the wake of "Avatar"s' massive success, the format's contribution to the overall box office in the United States and Canada was flat in 2012 at $1.8 billion.

This year's crop of tentpole films includes such big names as "Iron Man 3" and "Man of Steel," but Fitch projects that it will have a difficult time of matching the record-breaking $34.7 billion racked up by the worldwide box office in 2012.

"Fitch views the expected film slate as favorable, but believes it will result in slightly weaker attendance compared to the 2012 film slate," the study's authors write.

Through last weekend, the domestic box office was down 12.1 percent, a decline whose impact was accelerated by the decrease in enthusiasm for 3D titles.

Also read: MPAA Report: Global Box Office Breaks Records, China Becomes 2nd Largest Market

Perhaps most worrisome for exhibitors is that the ratings agency thinks the rise of newer and snazzier home entertainment offerings will only intensify the fight for entertainment dollars.

Moreover, moviegoers are beginning to get wise to the fact that they have to wait a shorter period of time than before movies start popping up on video-on-demand and make an appearance on store shelves.

average release window for films

For now, exhibitors and studios have reached a tentative truce on when major theatrical releases can make their home entertainment debuts.

The line in the sand is that 90 days must pass between when a film debuts in theaters to when it's available for rental or purchase. However, studios have at various points attempted to shorten that time frame.

In 2011, for example, Universal launched a scheme to charge consumers $60 to rent "Tower Heist," three weeks after it appeared in theaters. Facing a boycott from theater owners, it abandoned that plan.

But the window has been shaved down anyway. Citing the National Association of Theatre Owners, an exhibition trade group, Fitch reports that the average theatrical release window had dropped to four months from roughly 5.5 months in 2000.

Less of a wait means less of a reason to hit the cinema, and that might be a more formidable adversary than any villain Iron Man will face this summer.

SEE ALSO: Disney confirms layoffs to staff >

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'60 Minutes' Spends An Insane Amount Of Time And Money On One Show

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60 Minutes

The team behind CBS news staple "60 Minutes" is used to being the ones investigating stories, but The Hollywood Reporter recently took a long, hard look at the producers, correspondents and inner-workings of the longtime documentary news program.

In a lengthy piece titled "The Secret World Behind '60 Minutes,'" THR unveils how the show has managed to stay on the air for 45 years despite huge production costs and time commitments of years.

Some stories — specifically those requiring war-zone reporting which adds extra security, transportation, and insurance fees — can cost upwards of  $200,000 for one segment. Other stories have taken years to report.

Here are the 20 most interesting things we learned about "the secret world behind '60 Minutes'":

  1. Jeff Fager 60 Minutes '60 Minutes' haschanged little since the CBS News program debuted 45 years ago. 
  2. The show has had exactly two executive producers in 45 years: Don Hewitt, who died in 2009, and current EP, Jeff Fager. "Don liked drama," recalled Morley Safer, but Lesley Stahl says Fager is "sane." With Fager in charge, emphasizes Safer, "there isn't quite so much blood on the floor."
  3. The show only does about 100 stories a year on 31 broadcasts and each season runs from September to May.
  4. Each correspondent works with a regular team of five to six producers whose job it is to pound the pavement for stories.
  5. Deeply-reported pieces can take months — even years  to come together.
  6. The show has garnered a whopping 12.7 million viewers this season— more than double the viewership of NBC's "Dateline," its closest competitor.
  7. The median age of the audience is 60, which has made the show too ancient to charge advertisers a premium.
  8. But it still pulls in close to 4 million viewers in the 25-to-54 demographic — that's more than "Parks and Recreation," "The Good Wife," "The Mindy Project," and all of the broadcast late-night show.
  9. "60 Minutes" booked $123 million in ad revenue in 2012, up from $115 million the year prior, according to Kantar Media.
  10. "There's no secret to the success of the broadcast," says correspondent Morley Safer, 81, who joined the show in 1970. "It is staying out of the gutter and handling just about any kind of story imaginable. And at some point, maybe around the 25th year, we became a habit."
  11. "It remains the primetime newsmagazine of record," says Paul Bogaards, executive vp at Alfred A. Knopf, who placed Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on the show to support her controversial memoir "Lean In." "It's not just the viewership, it's the kind of viewer that you are capturing ... We know that the book segments on "60 Minutes" drive results."
  12. Subjects are given no control over how they are presented or what material makes it into the piece.
  13. A popular piece earlier this year featuring Steven Spielberg's parents was initially supposed to be an interview with the director's wife, Kate Capshaw, but she decided not to do it. 
  14. There will be no mention of viral video sensation "Kony 2012" — which has nearly 1 BILLION hits on YouTube — in Lara Logan's upcoming piece on the hunt for African warlord Joseph Kony because producer Jeff Fager thinks the video was "such a Hollywood thing."
  15. Lara Logan 60 MinutesLogan's Kony piece, which will air in late April, was six months in the making and cost between $125,000 and $150,000  the segment is not even the most expensive for the newsmagazine.
  16. "The show's war-zone reporting in such hotspots as Afghanistan and Syria, where transportation, insurance, and security cost dearly (private security can double the cost of a piece), can easily run to $200,000 for each segment," reports THR.
  17. That's more than double the cost of an entire hour of some newsmagazines in the post-crash media economy.
  18. "I can promise you that when you see less international reporting in other parts of broadcast news, it's because of the expense," says Producer Jeff Fager. "And that's because they've deemed the audience uninterested. If we think it's important, the onus is on us to make it as interesting as we can. We don't say the audience is turned off by the war in Afghanistan. Screw that."
  19. Fager adds that even while sparing no cost, "60 Minutes" and the CBS news division overall is profitable.
  20. But domestic pieces do well, too: Steve Kroft's 2008 sit-down with then-newly-elected President Obama and Michelle Obama at the Chicago Ritz-Carlton 10 days after the election garnered more than 25 million viewers — at the time, the show's biggest audience in nine years.
  21. "The most important thing about that show is the quality. They take time to do those stories," says CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves, who persuaded Fager to take the chairmanship job at CBS News in early 2011 after many months of wooing. "Could Jeff do the show cheaper? Probably. But that's not the place to scrimp."

Read the full Hollywood Reporter article here >

SEE ALSO: Meet Steven Spielberg's parents in this revealing '60 Minutes' profile >

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Suddenly Everyone Is Buying Private Islands

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Necker Island Wildlife, CaribbeanPrivate islands are all over the news.

It's rumored that Jay-Z is looking for a private island getaway for wife Beyonce and baby Blue Ivy, and Skorpios — the most famous private island in Greece — just sold to an anonymous Russian billionaire for $153 million.

Last month, the Emir of Qatar bought $11 million worth of islands, also in Greece. And Oracle honcho Larry Ellison spent a reported $600 million on his own Hawaiian paradise last year.

But lots of celebrities and wealthy people own their own private islands, which are, perhaps, the ultimate symbol of wealth. Here's a look at some of those owners.

Actor Johnny Depp paid $3.6 million for 45-acre Little Hall's Pond Cay, in the Bahamas, in 2004 after filming "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Source: Huffington Post



Jay-Z is rumored to be spending around $3 million on an island in North Abaco, a district in the Bahamas, so he can have a private place to escape with wife Beyonce and baby Blue Ivy.

Source: The Sun



Skorpios Island, off the coast of Greece, was the private island of the late Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis. It just sold to a Russian billionaire for $153 million.

Source: Business Insider



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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'Charlie Brown' Actor Pleads Guilty To Stalking

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peter robbins charlie brown

The man who voiced Charlie Brown on holiday TV specials plead guilty to threatening and stalking both his ex-girlfriend and a plastic surgeon  Wednesday. 

City News Service reports 56-year-old Peter Robbins allegedly threatened to kill his former girlfriend and her son if she refused to return his dog and car. 

Robbins allegedly made similar threats to a plastic surgeon who gave his ex-girlfriend breast enhancements.  

He faces up to three years in prison. 

Robbins was arrested back in January on five felony charges including stalking and making a threat of death or bodily harm. 

The child actor voiced the "Peanuts" character in cartoons throughout the '60s including "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown." 

He was also on the television series "Blondie."

SEE ALSO: Jennifer Lawrence in a new "Hunger Games" photo >

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Here's The Cushy Hamptons Rehab Where Lindsay Lohan Will Spend 90 Days For $50K

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Lindsay Lohan Rehab

When Lindsay Lohan was recently sentenced to 90 days of in-patient rehab, she reportedly asked to check in after this weekend's Coachella music festival in Palm Springs.

Lohan has since reportedly chosen Seafield Center in Westhampton Beach, N.Y. as the place where the party girl will attempt to reform her ways.

["No comment" was all a rep for the center would say when asked if Lohan is indeed becoming a patient.]

The only problem is that when Lohan does check in, she will be faced with yet another challenge: staying inside the facility when the hottest summer club scene is just 15 minutes away.

But, as TMZ reports, "If Lindsay tries to leave, she can't be stopped, but someone would see her and notify authorities. That would trigger a probation violation and the judge would almost certainly throw her butt in jail."

Seafield CenterTMZ notes that the cushy facility also has 24-hour staff guarding the doors, as well as surveillance cameras and walls.  

And the cushy rehab retreat doesn't come cheap.

One week at the Seafield Center costs $4,025, so Lohan will be spending $51,750 on her 90-day stay.

Lindsay isn't the first Lohan to check into Seafield, her father Michael also stayed there in 1989 and reportedly and became close with Executive Director Mark Epley.

Michael tells TMZ that Epley knows the Lohan "family dynamic" and wants to do family therapy while his daughter serves her court-ordered time this summer.

Sounds like Lindsay will have plenty of time for family therapy, as the Seafield website states patients are not allowed to bring "mp3's-ipod's, radios, TV, cell phones, tape recorders, cameras or beepers."

Seafield aims to "restore dignity to clients, support a return to healthier, more productive lifestyles, and provide programs to prevent relapse and assist families as well as the client."

Check out photos from the Westhampton facility's website below:

Lindsay Lohan Hamptons Rehab

Lindsay Lohan Hamptons Rehab

Lindsay Lohan Hamptons Rehab

TMZ has more photos of the Seafield Center >

SEE ALSO: David Letterman asks Lindsay Lohan if she's an addict >

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Here's Taylor Swift's First Commercial As Diet Coke's Brand Ambassador

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Coca-Cola just released singer Taylor Swift's first commercial for Diet Coke.

Swift was signed as the soda company's brand ambassador in January, a month after Beyoncé was named to the same role for Pepsi (for $50 million).

The ad, made by Droga5, is called "Music the Moves" and shows Swift writing her new single, "22."

It's less edgy than Beyoncé's ad for Pepsi that came out last week.

SEE ALSO: McDonald's Apologizes For Unapproved Ad That Mocks Mental Illness PSAs >

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Republicans Are Up In Arms Over Jay-Z's Trip To Cuba, So He Responded With A Vicious Track

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Rapper Jay-Z released a new track on Thursday responding to Republican inquiries about his recent trip to Cuba with wife Beyonce, bragging that President Barack Obama told him he would get "impeached."

Republicans are already seizing on one line from the new track, which Jay-Z released on his website Thursday — "I got White House clearance." U.S. citizens cannot travel to Cuba unless approved by the government. According to multiple reports, the Treasury Department said it approved the trip as part of an "educational" exchange.

Upon release of the new track, the Republican National Committee sent out an email questioning whether the White House had a hand in the approval. Subsequently facing questions on the topic from reporters, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that the White House didn't have anything to do with it.

"I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury," Carney joked, "because Treasury offers and gives licenses for travel, as you know, and the White House has nothing to do with it."

Jay-Z and Beyonce have faced criticism from Florida lawmakers, including Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balar, and Sen. Marco Rubio.

On the track, Jay-Z pushed back.

"Politicians never did s— for me, except lie to me, distort history," he raps. "They wanna give me jail time and a fine? Fine, let me commit a real crime."

Listen to the song below (for what it's worth, the beat's solid). The lyrics are here.

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"Iron Man 3' Looks Like It Will Be The First Film This Year To Pass $100M Opening Weekend

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iron man 3 tony stark

"Iron Man 3" is expected to be the first film this year to break $100 million opening weekend at the box office.  

Initial tracking for the film has the sequel earning north of $125 million upon its debut when it opens May 3.

Featuring Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire Tony Stark, the first number is slightly below the first weekend for 2010's "Iron Man 2" which earned $128.1 million. 

Boxoffice.com projects the film to debut at $151 million. 

Last year's Marvel superhero film "The Avengers" went on to earn a record-breaking $207.4 million last year in its premiere weekend at the box office. 

The film will help turn around a dismal box-office year so far. 

Currently, Disney is leading the pack at theaters already. "Oz the Great and Powerful" has the highest opening of the year with $79.1 million. 

Placing second is DreamWorks Animation's "The Croods" with $43.6 million. 

"Iron Man 3" is the first big blockbuster set to debut next month with "The Great Gatsby," "Star Trek Into Darkness," and "The Hangover: Part III" opening in the weeks following.

SEE ALSO: What critics are saying about Tom Cruise's "Oblivion" sci-fi thriller >

SEE ALSO: 30 movies getting sequels this year >

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How To Buy Your Way Into A Movie Or TV Role

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Kristen Bell Veronica Mars Kickstarter Campaign

The "Veronica Mars" Kickstarter campaign recently broke records for how quickly it raised its funding goals from fans' online donations.

One way the people behind the TV show-turned-film bribed fans to donate was by offering them "freebies" for each amount donated.

Those who pledged $10 will be sent a pdf of the shooting script on the day of the movie's release, but the one anonymous person who donated the largest amount — $10,000 or more — will receive the honor of a speaking role in the film.

The role is of waiter/waitress and as it explains on the Kickstarter project page:

Here’s the scene — Veronica is eating with the man in her life. Things have gotten tense between them. You are the waiter/waitress. You approach the table, and you say, “Your check, sir.”

We guarantee you will be on camera as you say the line. Unless you go all hammy and ruin the scene and we have to cut you out, but that would be a sad day for all of us. Just say the line. Don’t over-think it. You’re a waiter.

In addition to appearing in the movie, you’ll receive a framed copy of the page of the script that includes your line. You’ll get an invitation to the premiere and the after party. You are, after all, in the movie. You’ll also receive the signed movie poster, the Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, the digital version of the movie, the T-shirt and a pdf of the shooting script.

Other sites, too, are capitalizing on the general population's desire to appear on-screen.

Buyamovierole.com is, according to their website, an organization set up by established members of the film and entertainment industries to raise global awareness for charities founded by celebrities.

Entourage Adrien GrenierAs explained on the site, wealthy individuals are able to get involved with movie production— from on-screen cameos, supporting and speaking roles, and owning a share of box office profits, to being fully involved as an executive producer.

Current items for sale include "a voiceover in a 3D animated project" for £250, an invite to a movie premiere for £50 and a week-long set visit in London or L.A. for £500, among others.

Omaze.com is another site devoted to creating "dream experiences" for people, but not just for the highest bidder.

These dream experiences can be anything from playing a doubles tennis match with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf or recording a song with Usher, to making your TV debut with a walk-on role on USA TV show "White Collar." They'll even throw in airfare if you live outside of the L.A. area.

Here's how it works: Donate $5 to be automatically entered for the opportunity to win. The more you donate, the better your chances of winning. The process works just like a charity raffle. Once the deadline to enter for the experience passes, they collect all the entries and select the winners through a computer-generated random selection process.

"Walk-on parts are among our most popular experiences," Omaze co-founder Matt Pohlson tells Business Insider. "We get thousands of people from all over the world entering and it generates an incredible amount of money for the causes."

Roubeena Jeetah and her mother, Titrarecah, won an Omaze raffle for a walk-on TV role after donating just $10 to Young Storytellers Foundation.

After traveling all the way from Mauritius, they soon found themselves at the infamous "MacLaren's Pub" with the cast of "How I Met Your Mother."

How I Met Your Mother set visit

Others have found themselves rubbing elbows with Matt Bomer on the set of "White Collar."

Omaze White Collar

While sites like Omaze open up dream roles to the general public, the wealthy can often still purchase walk-on roles at charity auctions.

But it isn't cheap.

Bill Thompson from Young Storytellers Foundation tells Business Insider "Many of our supporters in entertainment have donated walk-on parts, and they typically raise anywhere from $5,000-$15,000."

The amount is on par with the minimum $10,000 donated by a "Veronica Mars" fan for that waiter or waitress role in the upcoming film, but still a lot more than Roubeena Jeetah's $10.

SEE ALSO: 'Veronica Mars' Movie Campaign Wants More Than The 4.5M Of Fan Money Already Donated >

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Lindsay Lohan Arrived Late To 'Scary Movie 5' Premiere—Here's Today's Buzz

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lindsay lohan scary movie 5

After promoting her "Scary Movie 5" film this week, Lindsay Lohan showed up to the movie's premiere 30 minutes after the red carpet was set to close. The actress will be attending the Coachella music festival this weekend before heading to a rehab facility May 2. 

The "Iron Man 3" UK premiere was moved for Margaret Thatcher's funeral. 

For his 87th birthday, Hugh Hefner received a 3-D collaboration of Playboy magazines from his 26-year-old wife, Crystal Harris.

Remember the Troll dolls of the '60s? DreamWorks Animation has acquired the brand and plans to give the franchise new life. The studio originally had plans to make a film back in 2010. 

Amanda Bynes took to Twitter to say that neither her parents nor her friends speak on her behalf. These are the latest in a bizarre round of tweets the Nickelodeon child star has put out in recent weeks after displaying erratic behavior since last year.

Warner Bros. revealed another poster for "The Hangover Part III" featuring the Wolfpack. The film hits theaters May 24.

hangover III poster

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An Inexplicable Photo Of Robert Griffin III And Morgan Freeman

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A couple things about this photo of Morgan Freeman and Robert Griffin III from the premiere of the movie "Oblivion" in Hollywood on Wednesday night:

1. Morgan Freeman is wearing one glove.

2. Morgan Freeman appears to be asleep.

3. Robert Griffin III thinks it's hilarious.

The contrast here is almost artistic. This is the entire range of human enthusiasm in one photo:

morgan freeman robert griffin iii

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Reebok Fires Rapper Rick Ross For Writing Song About 'Rape'

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Rick Ross is unconscious following seizure.

After a week of silence, Reebok decided to fire rapper Rick Ross from his endorsement deal for writing a song that flippantly describes date rape.

The lyrics of "U.O.E.N.O" that got Ross the axe? "Put Molly all in her champagne. She ain't even know it. I took her home and I enjoy that. She ain't even know it." 

Molly is slang for MDMA, which is a pure form of Ecstasy.

Activist group UltraViolet gave Reebok a petition on April 4 with 71,000-plus signatures, asking them to part ways with Ross, but the company stayed silent. Members of the women's rights group later protested outside of Reebok's NY flagship store.

At first Ross got himself in more hot water, giving interviews to radio stations saying that the song wasn't about rape since he didn't actually use the word "rape" in the piece.

"Woman is the most precious gift known to man ... And there was a misunderstanding with a lyric ... a misinterpretation where the term rape was — wasn't used. I would never use the term rape, you know, in my lyrics. And as far as my camp, hip hop don't condone that, the streets don't condone that, nobody condones that."

He then took to Twitter to apologize for the alleged misinterpretation. 

rick ross rape apology reebok

After realizing that his partnership with Reebok was at stake, he tweeted an apology to the company as well an hour later — making sure to include UltraViolet so they would stop pressuring Reebok to dump Ross.

rick ross rape apology reebok

But Reebok is finally done with Ross.

A spokesperson said, "Reebok holds our partners to a high standard, and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand. Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so. While we do not believe that Rick Ross condones sexual assault, we are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse. At this time, it is in everyone's best interest for Reebok to end its partnership with Mr. Ross."

SEE ALSO: These are all the American Apparel ads banned in the U.K. >

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John Goodman Kidnaps The Wolfpack In New 'Hangover III' Trailer

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the hangover part 3

The latest "Hangover III" trailer finally gives us a look at the film's plot.

Amid pig masks and Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) in prison, it looks like John Goodman's mysterious character is seeking out the Wolfpack to track down Chow, who apparently owes him upwards of $21 million.

From there, it's up to Phil (Bradley Cooper), (Zach Galifianakis), and Stu (Ed Helms) to find Chow, an adventure that appears to send the crew to Tijuana.

If you're concerned about the third installment in "The Hangover" franchise being a complete rehash of the last two films, we've heard from folk at Warner Bros. it will be vastly different. 

After viewing the latest trailer it seems that way.

The finale also shows the pack returning to Vegas, the location of the first film, which would bring the series full circle.

Goodman and Melissa McCarthy join the returning cast of Cooper, Galifianakis, Helms, Jeong and Justin Bartha.

"The Hangover Part III" opens at theaters May 24.

Check out the trailer below:

After viewing the trailer, here are a few things we picked up on:

Those guys in the pig masks director Todd Phillips was teasing last year on Instagram are not of the Wolfpack. They're working with Goodman's character.

the hangover part III

hangover 3 pig masksGoodman's character is out for Chow's blood. He supposedly owes him $21 million.

goodman galifianakis
Chow looks like he's breaking out of prison Shawshank style.

chow hangover The Wolfpack is heading to Tijuana.

tiajuana the hangover III 
It looks like we may be seeing the return of "Carlos," the baby from the original film.

carlos the hangover III

SEE ALSO: Whether you should see Tom Cruise's new Sci-Fi flick "Oblivion" >

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Listen To PSY's New Single 'Gentlemen'

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PSY goes from "Gangnam Style" to being a "Gentlemen."

The Korean pop star released his second international single, "Gentleman," as a followup to last year's viral sensation.

"Gangnam Style" took less than four months to become the most-viewed video on YouTube with more than 1 billion hits.

The new song is catchy, but people may not favor the vulgar lyrics in the chorus.

PSY will perform the track over the weekend at Seoul's World Cup Stadium.

And, in case you're wondering, he told Reutersthere will be a dance to follow.

"I can't tell you about the dance but all Koreans know this dance," said PSY. "[Those in] other countries haven't seen it."

Check it out below:

SEE ALSO: PSY's 'Gangnam Style' makes history with 1 billion YouTube views >

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Hearst Exec May Have Been Victim Of 'Catfish' Sexting Scam

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Scott Sassa

Scott Sassa, the former president of entertainment and syndication at Hearst who left his job after sexual text messages he wrote were sent to the company's legal department, may have been the victim of a "catfish" scam, three sources tell Business Insider.

A catfish is someone who uses a false identity online, particularly to pursue a deceptive virtual romance. College football player Manti Te’o is perhaps the most famous catfish victim — he had been duped into thinking he was in a relationship with a woman named Lennay Kekua, but she never existed.

The sources declined to speak on the record, but they were all familiar with the reason Sassa's career at Hearst ended. At Hearst, Sassa had been the executive producer on the hugely successful History Channel series "The Bible."

Sassa resigned his $6 million a year job on March 13 after a man claiming to be the boyfriend of an escort named "Kira" sent Hearst copies of racy text messages. The messages allegedly showed Sassa offering money and drugs to Kira in an effort to convince her to come visit him in a hotel on Christmas Day in 2012.

One source tells Business Insider that she is the woman featured in a photograph attached to one of the texts. The woman tells us she never met Sassa, never exchanged texts with him, and has a different phone number than the one associated with the texts.

She says she never heard of Sassa until Business Insider broke the news of Sassa's texts earlier this week.

The woman — who we decided not to name because she does not want to be associated with the messages — says she was formerly friends with the man who obtained Sassa's texts and sent them to Hearst. She believes Sassa was taken in by a catfish scam and that at no time was a woman named "Kira" ever going to show up to meet Sassa.

A second source tells us that the phone used in the scam was not owned by Kira, and that Kira did not pay the bill on the phone either. The phone number for Kira that was sent to Hearst when the company began its legal investigation of Sassa is associated with Ben Free, the boyfriend, according to copies of emails viewed by Business Insider.

Lastly a third source tells us that when Sassa saw photos of the woman identified as Kira in the texts, he did not recognize her — and in fact thought he was communicating with an entirely different person throughout.

We reported previously that the messages caught Sassa at a time when he was feeling particularly lonely — he was in a hotel room in Los Angeles, far from his New York home, and not able to spend Christmas with his children.

It is not clear who, exactly, was texting Sassa on Christmas night. But the messages end with Kira telling Sassa that she cannot meet him because her car battery died. There is no indication that Sassa ever met the woman.

Extortion scams that stem from fake online relationships are rare but not unheard of. In 2010, British authorities warned business executives travelling to China that they were potential targets for blackmail through sexual relationships there.

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Here's Why Disney Is Cutting Jobs By The Hundreds (DIS)

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Bob Iger

Disney confirmed rumors this week that it would be laying off staff in a move to streamline its businesses.  

Mouse House cut 150 positions from several film studio divisions, nearly two percent of the division's 7,000 overall jobs, according to Bloomberg.

Disney's studio department is made up of theatrical distribution, home entertainment, and television.

Disney announced the cuts as "part of an ongoing review to ensure that the Studios’ operational structure and economics align with the demands of the current marketplace" in a spokesperson statement.  

Last week, cuts were reported to be part of an internal audit ordered by Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger.

The layoffs were the second round Disney made in a week after closing Lucasfilm's video game division, LucasArts, and laying off 150 staff members. 

Disney acquired Lucasfilm last December in a $4 billion deal.

Business Insider caught up with Jeff Gomez CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment to discuss the most recent layoffs and those at LucasArts. 

Starlight Runner closely tracks projects at all of the major studios. Gomez has worked on Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" and has served as a brand extension consultant to the company.

Here's what's going on at the Mouse House: 

Home theatrical sales are down

CinderellaDuring Disney's Q1 earning's call in February, Iger acknowledged an operating income decline in the home entertainment and theatrical businesses due to the poor retail performances of "Brave" and a re-release of "Cinderella." 

"Home entertainment results faced a difficult comparison given the releases of Cars 2 and the Lion King last year compared to Brave and Cinderella this year. While theatrical revenue was higher in the quarter due to the release of Wreck-It Ralph, Lincoln and Frankenweenie, operating income declined as a result of higher distribution and film amortization costs compared to prior year." 

Disney's most recent 10K SEC filing expands on this more:

Lower home entertainment revenue reflected a 23% decrease from a decline in unit sales and an 8% decrease from lower net effective pricing including the impact of a higher current-quarter sales mix of catalog titles, which have a lower sales price than new releases. Significant titles in the current year included Brave, Cinderella Diamond Release and Marvel's The Avengers ...

As a result, Gomez says the latest round of layoffs at the studio make a lot of sense.  

"Our mass conversion to a digital and cloud-based society is picking up steam and impacting DVD / Blu-Ray, consumer products and distribution to say the least," says Gomez. "It makes sense to move people around as a result, or to even cut staff. We last saw this at the studios not long after DVD sales peaked earlier last decade."

Moving away from in-house studio films 

iron man 3Another factor that has affected the studio is Disney's reduced reliance on distributing less films through its own studio.  

Last September, Disney took a reported $50 million write-down on a stop-motion animation project set to debut fall 2013. 

During 2012's Q4 earnings call last November, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Executive Vice President James A. Rasulo mentioned the cancellation of the film, "Cinderbiter," was responsible for 98% of the write-downs Q4 2012.

Instead the Mouse House turns to its big three acquisitions—Pixar, Marvel, and, now Lucasfilm—to deliver hits.

"With Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel, more of Disney's key product is being developed off the studio lot and with greater autonomy," says Gomez. "This taxes the studio proper less than in the past, but pulls the focus to some of Disney's greatest strengths: marketing and distribution, consumer products and theme parks. You can expect these divisions to be bolstered in the coming months."

This year, the company will release a total of ten films. Its big hits for the year include Marvel's "Iron Man III" and "Thor: The Dark World," Pixar's "Monsters University."

Four months into the year, the company has only released one movie, "Oz the Great and Powerful," with plans to release ten this year.

There was a time the Mouse House was putting out triple that number of films in 2000. Last year, Disney released 18 movies.

Laying off LucasArts staff

george lucas star warsGomez says the decision to rid of Lucasfilm's gaming division most likely had to do with the LucasArt's distribution record. 

"Although LucasArts have made some great games over the years, the division's record for hits was inconsistent, which was something Disney was already familiar with," says Gomez.

Plus the Mouse House doesn't need another video game division that may deliver flops.

The segment posted losses for 19-consecutive quartersDespite posting its first profits in Q1 2013, Interactive is still Disney's least profitable division.

Gomez adds it's highly unlikely that the LucasArts cancelled game "Star Wars 1313," which was rumored to revolve around bounty hunter Boba Fett, fell in line with Disney's line of family-friendly material.

"Major projects in production like the Star Wars 1313 game may have been significantly afield tonally (e.g., much darker) from the kinds of films and television shows now being planned for the franchise. Fortunately we're seeing indications that some of the great talent from that division will be finding their way into movie production at Lucasfilm."

Later this year, Disney is hoping on a big hit from its video game department with the release of an interactive game, "Disney Infinity," something Iger hinted can be a make or break for the Interactive division in February.

"The biggest swing factor for the year, as I said in my remarks, is Infinity," said Iger. "If Infinity does well, it bodes very well for the bottom line for this unit. If it doesn't do well, the opposite will be the case."

The game's release date has already been pushed back from June to August of this year.

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