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The January 31 photo opportunity for the film “The Artist” came courtesy of Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who presented the cast and crew of the film with the inaugural “Made in Hollywood” award. But the photo op wasn’t just a feel-good ceremony to celebrate the movie.

It also served as a clever marketing opportunity for Harvey Weinstein, the movie impresario who has made a history of tweaking rules set by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to restrict Oscar campaigning. (more…)

“The Colbert Report,” the popular satirical news show that went on hiatus without explanation last week, will resume production on Monday, Comedy Central said.

The network declined to comment on Sunday on social media reports that political satirist Stephen Colbert switched the show to reruns at the end of last week to care for his ailing 91-year-old mother, Lorna.

“We are not commenting on any speculation about the nature of the cancellations last week,” Comedy Central spokesman Steve Albini said in an email to Reuters. (more…)

In just a few short years, Bridgit Mendler has risen to become one of the Disney Channel’s most popular stars thanks to the success of her series “Good Luck Charlie” and the Disney Channel original movie “Lemonade Mouth.”

On Friday, the 19-year old heads to the big screen, voicing the title character of the animated Disney film “The Secret World of Arrietty,” and that has given rise to the idea Mendler may be the next Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato. (more…)

European Cinema has always been interesting, and has never stopped surprising us. The countries although close to each other are very different. They all have something that makes them special, and therefore with this article I want to introduce you to the five very best films of the five most important film industries of Europe. Let us start of with the birthplace of film: France.

France’s best Film: The Fabulous Life of Amelie (2001) [IMDb User Rating: 8.5] (more…)

A bumper 40 million U.S. viewers watched Sunday’s Grammy Awards, drawn in by the death of Whitney Houston and the performance comeback of Adele, and kept watching by a controversial religious stage act by rapper Nicki Minaj.

The telecast drew 39.9 million viewers — the second-largest Grammy TV audience ever and the biggest since 1984, ratings data showed on Monday. Last year’s Grammys show drew 26 million viewers. (more…)

A former producer of the reality TV show “Survivor” was extradited to Mexico on Wednesday to stand trial for the 2010 murder of his wife in the resort town of Cancun, attorneys in the case said.

Bruce Beresford-Redman is charged in Mexico with the brutal killing of his wife of 11 years, Monica Burgos, whose naked and beaten body was found in a sewer at a Cancun hotel in April 2010 three days after he reported her missing.

Mexican prosecutors allege that Beresford-Redman dumped his wife’s body after a violent fight and fled to the United States. He was arrested in Los Angeles in November 2010 and has maintained he is innocent. (more…)

NBC’s singing contest “The Voice” got its second season off to a supersize start, attracting 37.6 million viewers on Sunday — more than double the show’s biggest audience last year, NBC said on Monday.

Enjoying a bump from the record 111.3 million TV audience for Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl — the most watched show in U.S. television history — “The Voice” was the top entertainment show for NBC since the finale of comedy “Friends” in May 2004, when 52.5 million Americans people tuned in.

The bumper numbers bode well for “The Voice”, which became a surprise and much-needed hit last summer for NBC, which has struggled for years to climb off its bottom place among the four major U.S. TV networks. (more…)

Quarterback Eli Manning and his New York Giants may have beaten superstar Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at Sunday’s Super Bowl, but none them could outmuscle Madonna — at least, where TV audiences were concerned.

A record 111.3 million U.S. viewers watched the Giants defeat the Patriots in the professional football championship, but 114 million watched the halftime performance by Madonna that drew mostly mixed reviews and a firestorm of controversy over a rude gesture by rapper M.I.A. (more…)

Pop superstar Madonna said it was a dream come true to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday and conceded she was feeling pressure at the idea of singing in front of the huge live television audience.

Last year’s Super Bowl attracted 111 million U.S. viewers – the largest for a single TV broadcast in the United States.

“This is a Midwesterner girl’s dream to be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show,” said Madonna, who was born in Bay City, Michigan. (more…)

NBC is getting together with some “Bad Girls” — and they’re going about it in a “Shameless” way.

The network has given the go-ahead to “Shameless” showrunner and “E.R.” creator John Wells’ one-hour drama pilot “Bad Girls,” an adaptation of the British crime drama of the same name. Wells will executive-produce the pilot, a women-in-prison affair that centers around a scandalous female warden, her lackey and a host of female inmates “who struggle with loyalties to people on the inside and outside.” (more…)