F. Scott Fitzgerald gave some fantastic advice to his 11-year-old daughter Scott in a 1933 letter, as Maria Popova points out at Brain Pickings.

Discussing what to worry about in life, Fitzgerald touches on several things that are relevant in 2014: 

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

The letter is found in "F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters."

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We talk a lot about movies here — those that bomb on the weekly and that do well over the course of the year. 

At the end of 2013, how did each studio fare? We took a look at the seven biggest movie studios of 2013 — Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, Sony, Fox, and Lionsgate.

Despite Disney's billion dollar "Iron Man" film, Warner Bros. became the top-grossing studio for the year with $5 billion worldwide at theaters.

Below, we've outlined the five biggest movies for each studio in 2013:

Disney: $4.7 billion
1. “Iron Man 3”: $1.2 billion
2. “Monsters University”: $743.6 million
3. “Thor: The Dark World”: $630 million
4. “Frozen”: $551.2 million
5. “Oz the Great and Powerful”: $493.3 million

Universal: $3.7 billion
1. “Despicable Me 2”: $918.8 million
2. “Fast & Furious 6”: $788.7 million
3. “Oblivion”: $286.2 million
4. “Identity Thief”: $174 million
5. “Mama”: $146.4 million

20th Century Fox: $3.4 billion
1. “The Croods”: $587.2 million
2. “The Wolverine”: $414.8 million
3. “A Good Day to Die Hard”: $304.7 million
4. “Turbo”: $282.6 million
5. “Epic”: $267.9 million

Paramount: $2.27 billion
1. “World War Z”: $540 million
2. “Star Trek Into Darkness”: $467.4 million
3. “G.I. Joe: Retaliation”: $375.7 million
4. “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”: $225.7 million
5. “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa”: $142.7 million

Sony Pictures / Columbia: $3 billion
1. “The Smurfs 2”: $347.5 million
2. “Grown Ups 2”: $247 million
3. “After Earth”: $243.8 million
4. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2”: $238.8 million
5. “Captain Phillips”: $209.3 million

Lionsgate: $1.1 billion
Note how important the “Hunger Games” franchise is to the studio.
1. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”: $802.3 million
2. “Instructions Not Included”: $85.5 million
3. “Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor”: $53.1 million
4. “The Last Stand”: $48.3 million
5. “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas”: $46.7 million

SEE ALSO: The highest-grossing movies of 2013

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Sheree Heil made "The Price Is Right" history on Monday, becoming the biggest winner ever on the CBS daytime version of the show by walking away with an Audi R8 worth $157,300.

The car is really impressive — the V8 engine delivers over 400 horsepower and it goes from 0 to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds. 

But it's not nearly as impressive as Heil's energy and reactions — not just to winning the car, but at every point along the way.

She kissed and hugged host Drew Carey after winning a group challenge that gave her the chance to go for the big prize:

After learning the big prize was an Audi R8:

And that it came with $10,000:

To win the car, Heil had to pick the correct price from five choices — by eliminating the wrong ones, one by one. Here's her reaction to eliminating the first incorrect choice:

Halfway through the challenge, and still alive:

And victory:

Now watch the full video, Heil's excitement is contagious:

SEE ALSO: 10 Cars We Can't Wait To See In The Next 2 Years

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Beyoncé was the lead singer of girl group Destiny's Child — and don't you forget it!

In a newly unearthed interview clip going viral after being posted to Vine, teenage Beyoncé throws some serious shade toward her bandmate Kelly Rowland.

In the vintage footage, Rowland tells the interviewer, “I’m the second lead vocalist of the group," at which point Beyoncé conveniently coughs and rolls her eyes.

The ladies have since buried the hatchet, but it's still pretty entertaining. Watch below:

SEE ALSO: NASA Astronauts Upset With Beyoncé For Sampling Challenger Disaster On New Album

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Sometimes you need to change your name to make it as a star in Hollywood or the music business.

Plenty of today's biggest stars don't go by their birth names — Reese Witherspoon, Mila Kunis, and Natalie Portman. 

However, you probably aren't familiar with how they ended up with their current monikers.

Some are simple. Francis Ford Coppola's nephew Nicolas Cage changed his last name to avoid the worries of Hollywood nepotism. 

Others, like Bruno Mars and Michael Caine are more inspired. And then there's Whoopi Goldberg, whose name was changed after friends noticed her flatulence problem.

Mila Kunis — Milena Markovna Kunis

At the age of seven, Milena Markovna Kunis and her family moved from Ukraine to Los Angeles, Calif.

Mila's mother, Elvira, and father, Mark, soon enrolled her in acting classes and allowed Mila to shorten her name when she started booking her first roles on "Days of our Lives," "7th Heaven," and playing a young Angelina Jolie in "Gia."

Joaquin Phoenix — Joaquin Rafael Bottom/Leaf Phoenix

Joaquin Rafael Bottom is the third of five children, all with equally interesting names, including River (1970–1993), Rain (1973), Liberty (1976), Summer, and a half-sister Jodean.

After Joaquin's parents, John Lee and Arlyn Bottom, married in 1969, the couple joined the religious cult the Children of God and traveled around South America. But they soon became disenchanted with the cult and moved back to the U.S. in 1978, where they changed their last name to "Phoenix" to symbolize "new beginning."

Around this same time, a young Joaquin began calling himself "Leaf," desiring to have a similar nature-related name like his siblings. In a past Jay Leno interview, Joaquin said he had originally called himself "Antleaf" as a child.

Leaf would become the name he would use as a child actor until, at age 15, he changed it back to Joaquin.

Reese Witherspoon — Laura Jeanne

The "Sweet Home Alabama" actress traded her first and middle name in for her mother's maiden name, "Reese."

The fifth installment of “Paramount Activity” was no match for Disney's Thanksgiving holiday release "Frozen."

Yes. 

In its sixth week in theaters, it wasn't "The Hobbit" sequel nor any other December films, but Disney's animated film that commanded the box office. In the past two weeks, "Frozen" saw a huge jump at theaters — probably because it was the only kids' flick out to offer an alternative for families during a crowded holiday and has been very well received by audiences. 

Instead, "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" had the lowest opening weekend for the franchise.  

The sequel is more of a spinoff for the series with "Paranormal Activity 5" due out later this year.

Fox's "Walking with Dinosaurs" and Universal's "47 Ronin" dropped out of the top ten this week. Keanu Reeves' samurai flick is faring better overseas right now. It's made $84 million worldwide to date.

Here are this week's winners and losers in Hollywood: 

10. Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone's "Grudge Match" moved up a notch to round out the top ten. The boxing film has now made $24.9 million. It cost an estimated $40 million to make. 

9. "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" continues its hot streak with another $7.4 million. In seven weeks, the second installment from Lionsgate has brought in $830.9 million. 

8. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" moved down one spot this week earning $8.2 million. The Ben Stiller film has made most of its $114.5 million intake overseas (60.1%). 

7. Disney's Mary Poppins' film "Saving Mr. Banks" brought in another $9 million bringing its worldwide total to $64.8 million.  

6. "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" drops a big three spots with $11.1 million in week three. Still, the sequel has already made more than the original ($144.2 million vs. $90.6 million). The film's $50 million budget is nearly double of the 2004 film. 

5. "American Hustle" nearly beat out Paramount's "The Wolf of Wall Street" this weekend with $13.2 million. The film is director David O. Russell's second holiday film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper after last year's "Silver Linings Playbook" and is closing in on $100 million worldwide. 

4. Instead, Martin Scorsese's three-hour epic "The Wolf of Wall Street" edged out "Hustle" with $13.4 million. Scorsese's longest film to date has made $63.3 million so far and cost an estimated $100 million to make. 

3. "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" brought in another $16.3 million in its fourth week bringing its grand total to $756.6 million. The sequel is now Warner Bros.' highest-grossing movie of the year edging out "Man of Steel" ($668 million). 

2. "Paramormal Activity: The Marked Ones" debuted to $18.2 million. That's not a stellar start since its the lowest debut of the franchise which is now five films deep. Still, the spinoff to the series only cost $5 million to make and has made nearly as much money overseas bringing its worldwide total to $34.4 million.  

1. Disney's "Frozen" managed to retake the box office making $20.7 million in its sixth weekend in wide release. The film has now made $640 million worldwide. Not counting Pixar, "Frozen" is now Disney's highest-grossing animated picture beating out 2010's "Tangled" ($591.8 million).

SEE ALSO: The most successful movie studios of 2013

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Netflix just released another new trailer for "House of Cards" season 2 and it's even better than the first.

Now that Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) has accepted a nomination for Vice President, will he be able to maintain his power or is he getting ahead of himself?

Season two of "House of Cards" returns to Netflix February 14.

If you can't wait until then Netflix recently released commentary on all of season one which can be accessed through the subtitles menu.

SEE ALSO: The first trailer for the series return

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Come February, there's going to be some serious shifts in the late-night TV landscape.

Current "Late Night" host Jimmy Fallon will be taking over for Jay Leno on the "Tonight Show," while "Saturday Night Live" cast member Seth Meyers will inherit “Late Night” from Fallon.

But Meyers won't have to travel far for his new gig.

"One of the great things about my new job is how close it is to my old job," he explains in a new promo. "In fact, 'SNL' is in studio 8H and 'Late Night' will be in 8G, which is right here so I'm only moving 30 feet."  

Watch the full promo below:

Fallon, meanwhile, will take the “Tonight Show" to New York City after four decades in Los Angeles.

The show debuts February 17, watch the show's promo and heartfelt history of hosts below:

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Fallon Cracks Up Watching Justin Timberlake Play Him During SNL 'Celebrity Family Feud'

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Last week, Leonardo DiCaprio slammed "The Wolf of Wall Street" character he portrays, Jordan Belfort, as "everything that's wrong with the world we live in."

DiCaprio went on to defend director Martin Scorsese for allowing "the freedom of this almost hypnotic, drug-infused, wild ride that these characters go on," despite some audiences' negative reactions.

Now Jonah Hill, too, is defending the film he also stars in.

During Variety's brunch at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Hill explained:

“I personally take away the message from the film that this behavior, this lifestyle, leads to a very bad ending. I think the movie is not glorifying this behavior, it is showing that it leads to bad places whether their judicial punishment doesn’t reflect that is one thing. Where your life ends up, who you are as a person, is another.”

SEE ALSO: Leonardo DiCaprio Says 'Wolf Of Wall Street' Characters Represent Everything Wrong With The World

MORE: All The Controversy Over ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’ Actually Helped Its Box-Office Sales

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"The View" co-host Jenny McCarthy is fighting back after a Radar article, which has since been removed, falsely quoted her as saying that her 11-year-old son, Evan, had been misdiagnosed with autism in 2005. 

McCarthy, who has been an outspoken anti-vaccine campaigner after believing it led her son to become autistic, tweeted on Saturday slamming the report.

The 41-year-old mom calls the article "blatantly inaccurate and completely ridiculous" and says she is "taking every legal measure necessary to set this straight."

Read her complete statement below:

Stories circulating online, claiming that I said my son Evan may not have autism after all, are blatantly inaccurate and completely ridiculous. Evan was diagnosed with autism by the Autism Evaluation Clinic at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital and was confirmed by the State of California (through their Regional Center). The implication that I have changed my position, that my child was not initially diagnosed with autism (and instead may suffer from Landau-Kleffner Syndrome), is both irresponsible and inaccurate.

These stories cite a "new" Time Magazine interview with me, which was actually published in 2010, that never contained any such statements by me. Continued misrepresentations, such as these, only serve to open wounds of the many families who are courageously dealing with this disorder. Please know that I am taking every legal measure necessary to set this straight.

In a February 2010 interview with Time, McCarthy said her son, then 7, was improving developmentally. "Evan couldn't talk—now he talks. Evan couldn't make eye contact—now he makes eye contact. Evan was antisocial—now he makes friends. It was amazing to watch, over the course of doing this, how certain therapies work for certain kids and they completely don't work for others."

SEE ALSO: Science Community Is Furious Over Jenny McCarthy's New Job On 'The View'

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Before three-time Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio starred in hits like "The Wolf of Wall Street," "The Great Gatsby," "Inception," and "Titanic," he was just a struggling child actor trying to get his big break.

Now 39, DiCaprio was just 15-years-old when he booked his first gig on "The New Lassie," eventually leading to larger roles on "Parenthood" and "Growing Pains."

But before he became a TV teen heartthrob in the early 90s, Leo was just a little kid with a big future ahead of him.

Check out that range! (via @MakingOfs)

A young Leonardo DiCaprio showing off his emotional range pic.twitter.com/x6rPtbQayk

— Behind the Scenes (@MakingOfs) January 3, 2014

SEE ALSO: Leonardo DiCaprio Says 'Wolf Of Wall Street' Characters Represent Everything Wrong With The World

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A computer scientist has created a list of the top 25 directors of all time by the number of on-screen deaths in their films.

Randal Olson, who also made a list of the deadliest actors, created the tally based on the database of kill counts from MovieBodyCounts.com.

It turns out that Peter Jackson reigns as the most murderous director, although most of his film deaths happen in "LotR: Return of the King" (836) and "LotR: The Two Towers" (468). 

John Woo, seems to have stopped actively directing films in 2003, racked up about half of his kills in a six year stretch from 1987 to 1992. Robert Rodriguez, director of "From Dusk til Dawn" and "Grindhouse," is no surprise.

Many people wouldn't expect Quentin Tarantino to be right above James Cameron since Tarantino's oeuvre is consistently bloody. Cameron is buoyed by 307 deaths in "The Titanic."

Olson told BI that Michael Bay is interesting because people may expect him to be higher on the list, but "it's important to keep in mind that he's more focused on cool effects and blowing things up than murdering en masse."

In a blog post, Olson notes Katja von Garnier is the most murderous female director with 256 on-screen deaths. Also, Sylvester Stallone ranked in 3rd on the deadliest actor list and 15th on the most murderous directors list.

Olson told BI that Je-kyu Kang is really only on the map because of one film, Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War (2004), a bloody film about the Korean War that averages 50 people dying per scene.

Many people were surprised that Chuck Norris didn't make the top 25 deadliest actors. On this list, Martin Scorsese is conspicuously absent bu Olson notes that while Scorsese is known for brutal films, the death counts are relatively low.

And then there is Akira Kurosawa, who is probably an omission (like John Wayne on the actors list). Olson provides a reason: "We only have a handful of his samurai epics counted, so if there are any fans of the older samurai epics out there who want to do counts, get in touch!"

Here's how Peter Jackson got to the top of the list:

SEE ALSO: The 25 Deadliest Actors Of All Time

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When Katy Perry is on tour, there's a few things the pop star likes to make her feel healthy and at home while on the road.

TMZ got their hands on Perry's backstage demands for her New Year's Eve concert at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and here's what it takes to keep the "Roar" singer in fighting shape:

• Fresh veggies AT ALL TIMES -- including spinach/broccoli/celery/beets/carrots/kale, etc.
• Two large baskets of fruit -- one must be tropical.
• Dinner must include a vegetarian option ... plus quinoa or couscous.
• ALL meals must be low-fat and health conscious and cannot contain MSG.

Katy's dressing room requirements are even more specific:

• Fresh organic grown fruit (including SLICED pineapple, mango, kiwis, etc)
• Fresh cut crudites (cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, snap peas & celery ... plus ranch dip)
• Healthy granola
• Dried figs
• Whole grain tortilla chips
• Large bowl hummus
• Fresh made guacamole
• Two bottles of Pinot Grigio and one Argentine Malbec.

There you have it.

SEE ALSO: Leaked Tour Rider Reveals The Crazy Items Beyoncé Demands In Her Dressing Room

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In the new film, "Her", Joaquin Phoenix develops a complex emotional relationship with his phone's Siri-like assistant (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).

Apple took time to update its own Siri, in case anyone got any ideas.

Vulture Editor Lindsey Weber asked Siri the important questions:

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Dish CEO Joe Clayton thinks he has figured out how to stave off the death of TV: Every new Dish customer gets a free iPad.

Paid cable and satellite TV services are fighting for survival against "cord-cutters" who no longer want to pay for service because they can watch what they want on their laptops and tablets.

Dish today launched a series of new products at CES, the giant consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. But it may be the free iPad offer that seals the deal for consumers. Officially, here is what Dish launched today:

• Dish SuperJoey: A DVR that lets you record eight shows at once, thus ending family viewing conflicts.
• Wireless Joey: A wifi device that lets you watch on any TV, anywhere in the house, no wires.
• Virtual Joey: for Sony PS3 and PS4, so you can watch on your gaming console.
• Dish Anywhere mobile app: Updates to the app let you watch live, on demand, or recorded content on your phone or tablet anywhere.

Taken together, Dish's strategy appears to be to copy the online or wireless device companies that are disrupting traditional pay-TV, by providing as-good or better Dish devices that do the same thing. The proposition to customers appears to be: Why bother with Netflix or Roku when Dish can give all that plus regular live TV service, on any device you want? "It is our never-ending goal to provide our customers with simply the best video experience, period," Clayton said.

For many people, however, the capper is likely to be Dish's deal with Apple to provide free iPads to all its customers: Dave Shull, Dish's evp/chief commercial officer, said, "We are so enthusiastic about this partnership with Apple because essentially we are giving them a free TV, and they can take the Hopper experience with them anywhere in the world.”

The obvious risk: the iPad is also an online video gateway to all Dish's competitors.

Dish has 6 million homes with a Hopper or a Joey already, and 14 million customers total, according to the company.

SEE ALSO: TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It

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The Seattle-based rapper Macklemore and his DJ partner Ryan Lewis hit the mainstream in the fall of 2012 with "Thrift Shop," a quirky ode to anti-consumerism that put forth the idea that spending money won't necessarily make you cool.

Since then, Macklemore has racked up endorsement deals from the likes of Cracker Jacks, the NBA, and now, Dr Pepper. Though he once famously chided listeners for thinking they could impress a woman with the brands they buy, Macklemore now seems to be suggesting that if they were truly unique, they'd drink Dr Pepper.

In a new ad from Deutsch, Macklemore tells the story of how he went from a wannabe to a No. 1 artist without the help of a major record label. In doing so, he says, he and Ryan Lewis have proved themselves "one of a kind," just like Dr Pepper.

The ad is part of Dr Pepper's "one of one" campaign, which has highlighted the stories of other unique people, like the polarizing hip-hop artist Pitbull and NFL kicker Justin Tucker. The ad featuring Macklemore and Ryan Lewis will debut on television Jan. 20.

SEE ALSO: The Cheerios Bee Gets A Hip-Hop Makeover In This Remix Of Nelly's 'Ride Wit Me'

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Since collaborating on hit show "Seinfeld," Larry David went on to create and star in HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" while Jerry Seinfeld is in the midst of the second season of his show "Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee."

But 16 years after "Seinfeld" said goodbye, it appears the two comedians are re-teaming for a "big, huge, gigantic" project together.

Seinfeld let the news slip today in a Reddit AMA:

“[Larry David and I] never obsess over anything that isn’t mundane. Most recent was intentional mumbling. We wrote this script for this thing that you will eventually see but I can’t reveal what it is at this time. All I can do is tell you is that it’s big, huge, gigantic. Even bigger than that Amazon package.”

Seinfeld continued to answer fans' questions about his relationship with Larry David, including how they met:

“The first time I met him, that’s a long story… I actually was eavesdropping on him talking to another comedian, and I wasn’t even in comedy yet. But he was leaning on my car in front of the Improv on 9th Ave and 44th Street, and this would be probably 1975. That was the first time I ever saw him. But we didn’t talk. But him and this other comedian were leaning on the fender of my car, and I knew that they were real comedians and I was still just flirting with it. So I don’t know if that answers the question.

Is Larry David anything like he is on "Curb Your Enthusiasm"?

I have heard this question many times. And I find his character on Curb to be the most reasonable and logical person. And I've never understood why people think of him any other way. To me he is one of the most intelligent and perceptive people, and our minds are very synchronous. So I think he is very much like that character, maybe not as nice all the time.

On scrapped “Seinfeld” ideas:

“…There was one episode where Jerry bought a handgun. And we started making it and stopped in the middle and said ‘this doesn’t work.’ We did the read-through and then cancelled it. A lot of other stuff happened, but trying to make that funny ended up being no fun.”

On modern-day "Seinfeld" Twitter handles:

“Oh this is a very painful subject. As you can probably imagine, over the 9 years of doing the show, Larry David and I sat through hundreds of ideas that people wanted to do on the show. And most of the ideas are not good. Which I saw Larry say the other day on some show, somebody asked him the same question and he said “I know you think it’s funny, but it’s really hard.” The ideas that Larry and I would respond to, I don’t even know, they just need to be very unique. It’s just a lot harder than it seems to come up with. And particularly for that show, where we tried to do things that were unusual, and you had to go through a lot of ideas to find the ones you like.”

To read the full AMA, click here >

SEE ALSO: Jerry Seinfeld Explains How To Be Funny Without Sex Or Swearing

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This year's big Marvel movie — other than "Galaxy of the Guardians" — will be "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."

While Marvel initially released new images for the film last week, Disney just put out larger high resolution versions of the photos.

Similar to "Thor: The Dark World," and "Iron Man 3," the sequel will follow Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) after "The Avengers" as he attempts to adjust to normal life. 

Don't expect that to last too long.

While we're waiting for "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" to hit theaters April 4, see what's up next for Steve Rogers this spring.

Chris Evans returns as Captain America.

After the events of "The Avengers," the Captain (Evans) has hung up his suit and is living in Washington, D.C.

But not for long. After a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is attacked ...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese state media warned Japan on Tuesday of an escalation in the war of public opinion after both countries compared each other to Lord Voldemort, the villain in the Harry Potter stories, in a tit-for-tat diplomatic spat.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's December 26 visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals are enshrined along with other war dead, infuriated China and South Korea and prompted concern from the United States, a key ally.

Both China and Korea suffered under brutal Japanese rule, with parts of China occupied in the 1930s and Korea colonized from 1910 to 1945.

In an op-ed in Britain's Daily Telegraph, the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, Liu Xiaoming, wrote last week: "If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul."

In British author J.K. Rowling's best-selling series Harry Potter, Voldemort uses horcruxes to hold bits of his soul and extend his life.

Liu's commentary was followed by another published on Sunday by his Japanese counterpart, Keiichi Hayashi, in the same newspaper, headlined: "China risks becoming Asia's Voldemort".

The Global Times, an influential tabloid owned by the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said the "Sino-Japanese war of public opinion is facing an escalation on all fronts".

"Japan's state apparatus has very strong capacity in public opinion warfare. They will mobilize various media forces of their country, create a leverage to lever world opinions, their goal to cleverly mask the malignant nature of Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine," the newspaper said in a commentary.

"We need to make our demands simple and clear, that is, the Japanese prime minister cannot visit the war criminals in Yasukuni because it is equivalent to paying homage to criminals like Hitler and Goebbels," the newspaper said, referring to the leaders of Nazi Germany.

Chinese Internet users were unimpressed with the latest feud.

"Two ancient civilized countries in East Asia have become two children quarrelling and fighting with each other," said a microblogger.

"Five thousand years of traditional virtues have been turned into this?" wrote another microblogger.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee and Hui Li; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong movie and TV mogul who popularized kung fu genre, dies at age 107

HONG KONG (AP) — Run Run Shaw built a Hong Kong movie and TV empire that nurtured rising talents like actor Chow Yun-fat and director John Woo, inspired Hollywood filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and produced the 1982 sci-fi classic "Blade Runner."

Shaw's prolific studio helped bring kung fu films to the world but he also passed on the chance to sign one of the biggest names in that genre: the young Bruce Lee.

The missed opportunity was a rare misstep for Shaw, who died at age 107 on Tuesday, according to a statement from Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), which he helped found in 1967. No cause of death was given.

His Shaw Brothers Studios, once among the world's largest, churned out nearly 1,000 movies and gave young directors like Woo their start. He produced a handful of U.S. films that also included the 1979 disaster thriller "Meteor."

His television empire, which remains a dominant force in Hong Kong, was where stars like Chow got their first breaks. Wong Kar-wai, the director behind critically acclaimed art-house movies like "Chungking Express" and "In the Mood for Love," got his start through a TVB training course and worked at the station briefly as a production assistant.

Shaw (pronounced Shao in Mandarin) led TVB until retiring as chairman in December 2011 at the age of 104. He is survived by his second wife and four children from his first marriage.

Shaw was born near Shanghai to a wealthy textile merchant. His exact birthdate is unclear, and different Shaw-related websites say he was born in 1906 or 1907.

One of his six siblings, elder brother Runme Shaw, set up a silent film studio, Unique Film Production Co. Shaw and a third brother, Runje, went to Singapore in 1923 to market films to southeast Asia's Chinese community and eventually opened 139 movie theatres across the region.

After surviving World War II, the company was faced with growing competition from rivals in Hong Kong and Singapore, so Shaw moved to Hong Kong in the late 1950s to modernize the company. He shifted focus from exhibiting films to producing them and renamed the company Shaw Brothers.

His path to Asian moviemaking dominance began in earnest in 1961 when he opened Movie Town, a vast, state-of-the-art studio in Hong Kong's rural Clearwater Bay. With 1,500 staff working on 10 soundstages, Movie Town was reputed to be the most productive studio in the world. At its busiest, actors and directors churned out 40 movies a year, most of them featuring kung fu, sword fighting or Asian gangsters known as triads.

The result was a library of nearly 1,000 movies such as "The One Armed Swordsman" and "The Five Fingers of Death," the latter being one of Shaw's most successful in the United States.

The studio's logo — the initials SB on a shield — was inspired by the Warner Brothers emblem, in a nod to its Hollywood aspirations. It came full circle when Tarantino appropriated the Shaw Brothers logo for use in his two "Kill Bill" movies, which were in homage to the studio and other Hong Kong martial arts movies.

"For a year, I'd watch one old Shaw Brothers movie a day — if not three," Tarantino told the Los Angeles Daily News in 2003, discussing his preparation for filming.

Films were produced with assembly-line methods and stars and technical staff lived in dorms on site. Budgets were low and production schedules were quick — 35 days to three months, according to a 1976 Time magazine report.

The producer acknowledged that the quality of the films was not his foremost concern. "We're here to make money," he told Time. Even Shaw protege Raymond Chow complained about the B-movie quality of the films when he was first hired to work in the publicity department.

"I told Sir Run Run to forget it," Chow told Asiaweek magazine in 1983. "I said I did not think I could keep my job because the pictures were so bad," said Chow, whose comments earned him a promotion to the production department.

While Shaw didn't create the kung fu movie, he was quick to capitalize on the genre's trendiness and used a modernized studio system and centralized production techniques to pump out films quickly, beating out rivals to satisfy audience demands.

In their heyday, Shaw films were reportedly seen by 1.5 million people a week, many of them in the cinemas owned by Shaw and his brothers in southeast Asia.

The movie mogul failed to spot the potential of an up-and-coming Bruce Lee, who had returned to Hong Kong after a stint in Hollywood. Lee wanted a bigger salary and creative control of his films. But Shaw wouldn't budge from the standard contract given to all his actors.

Lee signed instead with rival upstart Golden Harvest, founded by Chow to get away from his former boss's standardized factory-like studio system. Other up-and-coming stars like Jackie Chan also spurned Shaw's factory-like approach.

Movie audiences moved on to grittier, more realistic or contemporary action fare, though Shaw movies still have a solid cult following globally. The Shaw film library was eventually sold in 2000 to Celestial Pictures, which has been restoring them and re-releasing them digitally.

Film production ceased in 1983, but by then Shaw had switched his focus to television. In 1973 he took control of TVB, which remains Hong Kong's dominant TV station. It served as the launching pad for the careers of talents including Chow Yun-fat, Wong Kar-wai, heartthrob Andy Lau and comedian Stephen Chow.

The broadcaster's Chinese language channel is also popular in southern China and its Chinese programs, many dubbed into other languages, are seen by 300 million households around the world. Shaw, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974, was also a philanthropist. In 2002 he founded the annual Shaw Prizes, Asia's version of the Nobel Prizes. The honor offers US$1 million annually to winners in mathematics, medicine and astronomy.

Shaw preferred to stay out of the spotlight and rarely gave interviews, even about his philanthropy. A journalist for the South China Morning Post newspaper recounted mentioning during a 1984 interview that a medical team fighting leprosy in southwestern China had trouble traveling over the rugged, mountainous terrain. On hearing this, Shaw immediately decided to donate off-road vehicles but demanded there be no publicity.

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Follow Kelvin Chan at twitter.com/chanman

Online:

TVB statement: bit.ly/1knaVjY

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