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GEORGE CLOONEY is throwing his weight behind US Senator BARACK OBAMA for a 2008 presidential run before the African-American politician has made his White House dreams official.
Obama hinted he was thinking about joining the race to replace PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH in a recent TV interview and just the mention of the fact has Hollywood buzzing.
Democrat Clooney has been one of the first to offer his public support, emailing the Los Angeles Times newspaper from Europe ahead of Obama’s book signing appearance in California this Friday (27OCT06).
Clooney writes, "If Senator Obama became PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Obama it would be the most electrifying thing to happen to the Democratic party since (PRESIDENT JOHN F) KENNEDY." WHEN HARRY MET SALLY director ROB REINER, a fellow Democrat, is also a big fan of Senator Obama, comparing his possible run for office to ABRAHAM LINCOLN’s presidency.
He adds, "How poetic would it be that a one-term congressman from the state of Illinois could be elected President and free the slaves and now a one-term African-America Senator from that same state could become the next President?"

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Busy TYRA BANKS is adding movie producer to her impressive resume after signing on to make a new kids film for Nickelodeon Films.
The former model is staying tight-lipped about the project, but suggests she might actually appear in the movie.
She says, "I do want to act sometimes." Meanwhile, with her daytime US chat show and reality show AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL both hits, Banks admits walking away from her modeling career last year (05) was one of the best decisions she ever made.
She adds, "I haven’t missed modelling at all. Toward the end of my career, it was something that I did, but I didn’t get a lot of pleasure out of it."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Actor ANTHONY MACKIE is in training to play US athlete JESSE OWENS in a new biopic.
The MILLION DOLLAR BABY star will start shooting the project next summer (07).
African-American Owens shot to global fame when he stunned ADOLF HITLER and his Nazi party leaders by claiming four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

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Newlyweds THOMAS JANE and PATRICIA ARQUETTE are set to team up on the small screen as former lovers.
THE PUNISHER star Jane will play his real-life wife’s ex-boyfriend in upcoming episodes of the actress’ hit US psychic drama MEDIUM.
The couple married during a European vacation in Venice, Italy in June (06).

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

DARYL DUKE, the man behind THE THORN BIRDS TV miniseries, has died of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 77.
The director died at his home in Vancouver, Canada on Saturday (21OCT06).
As well as bringing the beloved love story The Thorn Birds to TV, Duke won an Emmy in 1971 for directing an episode of US series THE BOLD ONES: THE SENATOR.
He also set up an independent TV station in his native Canada, which he ran until 1988.

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LORD OF THE RINGS actor ANDY SERKIS and HELEN MIRREN have been added to the star-studded adaptation of CORNELIA FUNKE’s (corr) children’s fantasy tale INKHEART.
Mirren will play a book collector, while Serkis will take on the role of villainous CAPRICORN.
THE MUMMY star BRENDAN FRASER, PAUL BETTANY and JIM BROADBENT have already signed on to star in the film, about a magical father who brings the animated characters in his children’s books to life.

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British comedian SACHA BARON COHEN’s controversial new comedy movie has been cut from more than half the 2,000 US cinemas it was supposed to debut in this weekend over fears film fans won’t get the comic’s BORAT creation.
In the film, BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE GREAT BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN, Cohen plays an offensive Kazakhstan TV journalist trying to get to grips with life in America.
The movie has already upset politicians in Kazakhstan, who insist the comedian’s character paints a terrible picture of their country, and now film distributors in the US fear cinemagoers will find the movie more offensive than funny.
The film was scheduled to open in 2,000 cinemas across America on Friday (27OCT06), but it will now bow in only 700.
Movie executives at Twentieth Century Fox pulled the plug on the wide opening after the film tested poorly.
Distribution official BRUCE SNYDER tells the Los Angeles Times newspaper, "Our research showed it was soft in awareness." Fox bosses hope to add cinemas a week after the film opens.

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Actor ISAIAH WASHINGTON has scrapped a planned interview with US chat show host ELLEN DEGENERES after she poked fun at his recent spat with co-star PATRICK DEMPSEY.
Washington was scheduled to tape an interview with DeGeneres yesterday (24OCT06) but pulled out after the TV personality joked about his on-set fight during a chat with castmate KATHERINE HEIGL.
Heigl played down the spat on the show, admitting she wasn’t privy to comments that were made to spark the brawl, but told the chat show host, "It was something silly and manly." And when lesbian DeGeneres revealed she was relishing interviewing Heigl’s co-star, who reportedly sparked the Dempsey fight by making a gay slur, the actress jokingly warned her to "step back." DeGeneres responded by saying, "He better not call me a name… I’ll be swinging." Publicists for the chat show insist the interview with Heigl isn’t responsible for Washington’s decision to cancel - he was simply forced to change his plans due to a production schedule switch.

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MICHAEL LANG, the brains behind iconic 1969 music festival Woodstock, has revealed TV and film cowboy ROY ROGERS turned down the chance to end the three-day event.
Last night (24OCT06) in Hollywood, Lang told an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences panel discussion about the festival movie - also called Woodstock, he wanted Rogers to croon HAPPY TRAILS after JIMI HENDRIX’s headlining appearance.
He said, "I had this inner dream. I grew up listening to Roy Rogers sing Happy Trails on the radio and I thought, `What a perfect way to end the show.’ "He was the only artist who turned us down. He didn’t get it at all." As well as Hendrix, the festival also featured live performances from CROSBY, STILLS & NASH, JOAN BAEZ, TEN YEARS AFTER, THE WHO and COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH.

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Punk icons GANG OF FOUR’s original line-up is working on a new album - the first since 1981’s SOLID GOLD.
The group reformed in 2004 and released a collection of rerecorded songs last year (05).
Bass player DAVE ALLEN insists the return to the studio is producing some great tunes, but there’s still no guarantee a new album will be completed.
He explains, "We’re in the very early stages… We’ve got to be careful, we’ve got to deliver something rather special. I think there’s enough going on in the world for us to start pontificating again."

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Rocker GENE SIMMONS is sharing the shock of becoming a dad again with fans of his reality TV show GENE SIMMONS’ FAMILY JEWELS, by airing the moment he discovered the news.
The KISS star and his longtime partner SHANNON TWEED agreed to undergo a joint plastic surgery procedure to tighten up their sagging faces for the first season finale of their hit US show.
But just before the rocker went under the knife for his nip and tuck, former model Tweed dropped a bombshell.
She said, "I might be pregnant so I can’t have surgery." The moment was caught on camera and will air during the season finale on Monday night (30OCT06).
Simmons and Tweed already have two teenage children together, NICK and SOPHIE.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Rap mogul DIDDY is back at the top of the US album charts after hitting number one with his first album in five years.
PRESS PLAY is the Bad Boy Records boss’ first number one album in America for nine years, selling 170,000 copies in its first week.
The last time Diddy was at the top was in 1997 when he was known as PUFF DADDY - his NO WAY OUT debut rocketed to number one with first-week sales of 561,000.
Meanwhile, goth-rockers EVANESCENCE stay put at number two with THE OPEN DOOR and teen pop icon JOJO debuts THE HIGH ROAD at number three on the new chart.
Other new entries in the Billboard top 10 are country singer DIERKS BENTLEY’s LONG TRIP ALONE at five and former AMERICAN IDOL winner RUBEN STUDDARD’s new album THE RETURN debuts at number eight.
Albums slipping down the top 10 include former chart-toppers from JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and ROD STEWART and crooner TONY BENNET’s compilation, DUETS: AN AMERICAN CLASSIC.

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BLACK SABBATH stars BILL WARD, TONY IOMMI and GEEZER BUTLER are hitting the road with former RAINBOW rocker RONNIE JAMES DIO as HEAVEN & HELL.
The trio decided it wasn’t Black Sabbath without OZZY OSBOURNE, who will be a part of the latest reunion, and so renamed themselves after the metal group’s 1980 album.
It won’t be Dio’s first time fronting the Sabbath founders - the DO YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES hitmaker fronted the group from 1979 to 1983 and recorded two studio albums, including Heaven & Hell, and a concert album with the British rockers.
The group will tour in 2007.

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LATEST: Pop queen MADONNA has slammed critics of her adoption of 13-month-old Malawian DAVID BANDA, fearing the controversy will put others off adopting orphaned African children.
Speaking on the OPRAH WINFREY SHOW in the US - to be aired later today (25OCT06) - the MUSIC star, 48, expressed her disappointment at the media uproar surrounding Banda’s adoption.
She tells Winfrey, "I’m disappointed because it discourages other people from doing the same thing - for anybody who had the idea that they, too, would like to open their home and give a life to a child living in an orphanage who might possibly not live past the age of five.
"I feel like the media is doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa, period, not just Malawi, by turning it into such a negative thing." Madonna and her husband GUY RITCHIE were granted interim adoption of David Banda last Tuesday (17OCT06).

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Malawian PRESIDENT BEN MUTHARKA has offered MADONNA his support as the pop star makes her first TV appearance to defend her recent adoption.
President Mutharka admits he’s shocked by the controversy surrounding Madonna’s adoption of 13-month-old DAVID BANDA, stating he can’t understand why activists around the world are upset by the singer’s good deed.
The RAY OF LIGHT hitmaker has been heavily criticised for allegedly breaking Malawian adoption laws in an attempt to rush through the process and become a mum again.
But the President urges Madonna’s critics to stop and think about exactly what she has done: "Someone comes and takes one child, to give that child a future education and we want to make a noise? I don’t know." Meanwhile, Madonna taped a TV interview with OPRAH WINFREY in America yesterday (24OCT06), in which the singer insisted she didn’t purposely break any laws during the adoption process.
But she confessed that Malawian adoption laws were so vague, officials seemed to make them up as they went along.
In the interview, which airs later today (25OCT06), an emotional Madonna also tells Oprah that the little boy she is attempting to adopt was suffering from malaria and tuberculosis when she first met him in a Malawi orphanage.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

DONALD TRUMP’s daughter has laughed off suggestions her stern father frightens away prospective suitors, insisting he leaves his bad temper in the boardroom.
IVANKA, 24, was recently linked to cycling champ LANCE ARMSTRONG, and before that she dated New York socialite JAMES GUBELMANN for three and a half years.
However, she’s confident her failed romances have nothing to do with her dad’s interrogative demeanour, insisting the business tycoon is "pretty normal".
She says, "I don’t think he’s scarier than any other father.
"He doesn’t stand at the door with a shotgun, although that said, if I do introduce him to someone, he does spend about five minutes digging for information."

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actress ANGELA LANSBURY would be starring in a benefit show of THIS IS ON ME: AN EVENING OF DOROTHY PARKER for the York Company in New York City on 5 November (06)
. The production is actually being produced by The Acting Company, not the York Company
. We apologise for this error and any inconvenience
. (WENN

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ANTWONE FISHER star DEREK LUKE is set to be a dad - his actress wife SOPHIA LUKE is pregnant with their first child.
The actor, 32, and Luke, are expecting a baby in early March (06), his representative SAMANTHA HILL tells People magazine.
The couple wed in 1998.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)