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Celebrated composer DANNY ELFMAN has landed the magical job of turning illusionist HARRY HOUDINI’s life into a stage musical.
Elfman, who has been moviemaker TIM BURTON’s longtime musical partner for films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and the creator of both The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives themes, will create the music for the new Jack O’Brien production.
Architect and designer David Rockwell will create the sets and co-produce, alongside Scott Sanders, who brought hit show The Color Purple to the New York stage. Houdini will debut on Broadway in 2010.

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EWAN McGREGOR was so desperate to land his second movie role, he agreed to pose naked and be covered in paint in 1996 film THE PILLOW BOOK.
McGregor allowed director Peter Greenaway to shoot him fully nude with Chinese writing covering every inch of his body, in the hope it would help him crack Hollywood.
He recalls Greenaway’s requests: "He said, `Would you be prepared (to be) naked and for us to shoot any part of your naked body?’ and I said, ‘Yes’.
"He said, `Would you be prepared to simulate sex with a woman? Would you be prepared to simulate sex with a man?’ and I said, ‘Yes’ so I got the job.
"I had to have all of this Chinese, beautiful calligraphy painted all over my body and I’d come in at four in the morning. So I’d lie down and fall asleep and they’d paint my front." McGregor reveals how the woman handed the job of attending to his naked form, handled the more delicate parts of his body: "I’m naked and there’s a lovely little Japanese lady who was our calligrapher and she’d do my legs and my body and she’d always leave my `old chap’ (penis).
"She’d then give me the phone and she’d get me to call my wife so I was slightly distracted - and then paint it. She was very caring in that respect."

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U.S. presidential candidate BARACK OBAMA has been given another major celebrity boost - Hollywood’s leading Indian-American actor is campaigning for him.
Van Wilder and The Namesake star Kal Penn has joined the likes of Will.i.am, Jessica Alba, Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen and Will Smith in offering his support to the Democrat.
Penn, who has been quietly campaigning for Obama at colleges and high schools all over America, says, "I’m not a registered Democrat, and I’ve never gotten motivated before, mostly because I wasn’t a fan of the political establishment.
"But I was really inspired by Barack. I haven’t been that inspired since hearing my grandparents tell stories about marching with Gandhi." And the actor is prepared to back Barack all the way to the White House: "I’m with the campaign until the man has a new address on Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)

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JUMPER star HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN has never seen the finished version of film flop FACTORY GIRL because he hated making the movie.
The actor studied songwriting, the guitar and Bob Dylan so he could portray the legendary folk-rocker.
But when Dylan threatened to sue over the all-star Edie Sedgwick biopic, Christensen had to re-dub his lines, so he didn’t sound like the Lay Lady Lay singer.
He recalls, "I signed up to play Bob Dylan and it’s a biopic. A true story. I learned how to at least pretend to play the guitar and did a scene where I wrote a song and performed it.
"But later, because he threatened to sue, I had to go in and… re-dub my whole performance and change the way my character talked, because I had been doing the Dylan voice.
"I don’t know what’s onscreen in the end because I never saw it, but I do know it’s very different from what I did, and I was sort of p**sed with the people who made the movie." In the finished version of the film, Christensen played a Dylanesque character called The Musician.

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INDIANA JONES producer GEORGE LUCAS fears the forthcoming sequel is doomed to suffer the same critical failure as his much maligned STAR WARS prequels.
The producer has brought the swashbuckling franchise back to life, 19 years after Harrison Ford’s movie archaeologist last appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
But, as the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull draws close, Lucas admits he is terrified die-hard fans will turn their backs on the movie - in the same way Star Wars devotees did after he reignited the sci-fi franchise.
He says, "We’re not gonna have adoring fans sending us e-mails saying how much they loved the movie. We’re gonna have a bunch of angry people saying, ‘You’re a bunch of a**holes, you should never have done this. You’ve ruined my life forever.’"

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STEVEN SPIELBERG is hoping his problem-solving skills will help United Nations officials find ways of ending the ongoing genocide in the Sudan.
The director met with U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon earlier this week (beg14Apr08) to brainstorm ideas about how to keep the focus on issues in Darfur as global concern moves to issues in Tibet and Zimbabwe.
The meeting with Kimoon came two months after Spielberg quit as artistic director to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, over his concerns the Chinese government wasn’t doing enough to help end the genocide in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.
The moviemaker’s spokeswoman Andy Spahn tells the Los Angeles Times newspaper the low-key meeting was a success: "We went there to offer help in any way that we could.
"We will continue to try to focus public attention on the issue and to try to arrange meetings with those who have influence in Sudan."

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Sexy SHANNON ELIZABETH has been caught cheating with her dancing partner just days after revealing her teacher boyfriend was delighted with her dancefloor dude.
The American Pie star and Dancing With The Stars pin-up Derek Hough were caught on camera hugging, kissing and rolling around in the sand on a Malibu, California beach on Thursday (17Apr08) as they prepared for next week’s (beg21Apr08) dance-off on the hit U.S. talent show.
The romantic sunset moment comes just days after Elizabeth told In Touch magazine her boyfriend couldn’t have been happier when she landed boyish blond 22-year-old Hough as her partner.
The unnamed beau initially feared the actress would be paired with dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who became a sex symbol when he partnered with Spice Girl Mel B last season (07).
Elizabeth says, "My boyfriend saw Derek walk through the door and it was OK.
He knows I’ve never dated a blond. Plus, Derek’s 22 and I’m a few year’s older.
Elizabeth, 34, is divorced from actor Joe Reitman.

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ANGELA BASSETT has landed the role of slain rapper NOTORIOUS B.I.G.’s mother in the heavyweight’s biopic.
The actress, who portrayed Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It, has signed on to portray Voletta Wallace in the planned movie.
Bassett says she jumped at the chance to be a part of the project after taking a look at the script, which she insists does a "wonderful job of bringing his life to the page".
She adds, "It’s flashbacks, starting at the funeral, through the eyes of different characters in his life." The role comes less than a month after Bassett was honoured with the 2,358th star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in Los Angeles (20Mar08).
Notorious B.I.G., real name Christopher Wallace, was gunned down after a Vibe magazine party in Los Angeles in 1997.
Newcomer Jamal Woolard will play the rapper in the new film.

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All-girl pop punks THE DONNAS will celebrate America’s Record Store Day on Saturday (19Apr08) by DJing at Los Angeles mecca Amoeba as fans buy CDs and vinyl and take part in store promotions.
They’re not the only group taking part in the inaugural independent record shop celebration - Metallica will make a rare in-store appearance at Rasputin Music’s Mountain View store, near San Francisco, California.
It will be the band’s first in-store appearance in almost a decade.

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LATEST: THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND have rescheduled the New York residency they were forced to scrap due to GREGG ALLMAN’s Hepatitis C battle to next year (09).
Allman was forced to pull out of the 15 Beacon Theatre shows in May (08) to allow the band leader to fully recover from medical treatment.
But the band insists it will be back next year - to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary.
Ailing Allman, who has also pulled out of festival appearances and concerts throughout May and June, says, "New York’s a second home to us. We love playing there and are as disappointed as anybody not to be able to get there this time." The group is hoping to resume its touring schedule in August (08).

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Beloved music mogul CLIVE DAVIS is to step down as the CEO of the Sony BMG Music Group to mentor the label’s biggest names.
Davis, 76, will be replaced by Barry Weiss, who currently heads Sony’s Zomba Label Group.
In 50-plus years, Davis has become one of the most revered men in music - as well as founding Arista Records and J Records, the Hall of Fame mogul is also largely responsible for the careers of Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Whitney Houston.
He is currently working with Houston on her comeback album.
And he’s still at the top of his game - his latest signing, Leona Lewis, has topped the charts in over 20 countries with her debut single Bleeding Love, and the singer became the first British female solo artist in history to debut at number one in the U.S. album charts on Wednesday (16Apr08).
She followed that feat by toppling Mariah Carey from number one on the U.S.
singles countdown on Thursday (27Apr08) - and scoring a rare chart double.

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Reggaeton star DON OMAR and his bride-to-be have asked guests at their wedding in Puerto Rico on Saturday (19Apr08) to give cash gifts to a local charity instead of purchasing lavish presents for them.
Omar will wed Jackie Guerrido at Isla Verde’s Hotel Ritz and they want to make sure an abused women’s shelter nearby benefits from their big day.
Wedding guests have been asked to give generously to the Casa Protegida Julia de Burgos on the invitations the couple have sent out to family and friends.

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VELVET REVOLVER will hold online auditions to find a replacement for ex-frontman SCOTT WEILAND.
Just a week after rocker Slash revealed the band already had a singer in its sights, he has revealed the group is creating a website for hopefuls.
The guitarist recently said, "We actually worked with a guy, I won’t mention his name, before we left to go to the U.K
. and there just wasn’t enough (time) to break him in, so we’re gonna work with him again some more." But it now seems that plan has fallen through.
Slash tells Billboard.com, "The band is actually talking about actually building a website (and) doing some auditions via that.
And he admits he no longer has anyone in mind for Weiland’s replacement: "We’re at that point of just listening to different things..
. It’s one of those kind of situations where you can’t really explain it to anybody because you’ll know it when you hear it." Velvet Revolver dismissed Weiland following a series of public disputes on 1 April (08)
. Weiland has since announced a summer tour with his former band Stone Temple Pilots.
Meanwhile, the Velvet Revolver will honour a concert in Las Vegas, which was booked before Weiland’s departure
. Slash reveals "a bunch of well-known people will get up and sing some songs"
.

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Semi-retired superstars CHER and TINA TURNER are to team up for a one-of-a-kind show in Las Vegas.
Oprah Winfrey has brought the two divas together for a TV special.
The Oprah Winfrey Show: Oprah, Cher and Tina in Vegas will be taped at the Coliseum - Celine Dion’s former concert home in Sin City - at the beginning of next month (May08). The show will air in America on 8 May (08).

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A magnitude 3.2 earthquake shook the site of the Coachella Festival on Thursday night (17Apr08) - a week before the likes of PRINCE, JACK JOHNSON, ROGER WATERS and THE VERVE perform there.
Despite the fact that no injuries or damages were reported, experts at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory insist the California desert area is primed for a major earthquake by 2037.
And they state the quake will most likely break along the San Andreas Fault line that runs through the Coachella Valley.
At the beginning of the week (14Apr08), scientists estimated there’s a 99.7 per cent chance that a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike the state in the next 30 years.

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ASHLEE SIMPSON’s manager/father has hit back at reports he’s trying to sell his daughter’s big pregnancy reveal and baby pictures to U.S. tabloids.
Insiders claim Joe Simpson wants $1 million (GBP500,000) for the package, in which pop star Ashlee will finally confirm she is expecting fiance Pete Wentz’s child - but he insists the story is ridiculous.
In a statement through his publicist, Joe Simpson says, "This is completely not true." A representative for the minister-turned-pop mogul adds, "What’s next? Joe will DJ the wedding and bake the cake?" Wentz has denied reports his partner is expecting the couple’s first child and Simpson insisted all pregnancy questions were "inappropriate" when she was quizzed about her health on TV in America earlier this week (ends18Apr08).

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LATEST: Defiant rapper FOXY BROWN has slammed the officials who sentenced her to a year-long prison spell at New York’s notorious Riker’s Island jail, insisting the punishment did not match the crime.
Brown, real name Inga Marchand, was released four months early on Friday (18Apr08), and insisted her first priority was to find a church and thank God for supporting her.
Speaking to fans and media shortly after her release, the rap star said, "I did not deserve a sentence that harsh." Brown was sent to jail for a series of probation violations.
The rapper conducted her first full interview, with MTV, by phone from the back of a white Bentley, which arrived to take her home from jail.
She told the music network that prison was a life-changing experience for her, explaining, "There were days when I just thought I could make it through; I was sitting down (and) eating next to drug addicts, next to killers.
"I have a whole newfound respect for my freedom. Little things I would take for granted… like a Snickers bar… It’s an incredible feeling. I feel really good." Of her trip to church, she said, "I really, really want to go to church first and get it right with God. It’s only through His grace that I was able to survive this, and I want to get down on my knees and thank Him."

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