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Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) and Mandy Moore (A Walk to Remember) are set to star in the romantic comedy Try Seventeen. According to Variety, the film centers on a young man who sets off for college but ends up learning more about life from the eccentric inhabitants of his apartment building. The project will be helmed by Jeffrey Porter and should begin shooting in March.
In General
Kung fu film master Jackie Chan suffered a minor injury while performing a stunt during the shooting of a movie outside Bangkok, but was back on the set Tuesday. The Hong Kong actor bruised his face during the incident Monday, and was kept in a hospital for four hours, the Associated Press reports.
Sigourney Weaver has been cast in director Andrew Davis‘ (Collateral Damage) next film, Variety reports. Holes, about a young boy falsely accused of stealing a pair of sneakers and sent to a wayward camp for kids, is based on Louis Sachar’s 1999 Newbery Award-winning kids’ book. Weaver is set play a juvenile detention facility warden.
Following the lead of many movie and TV productions, NBC has announced that L.A. Law: Return to Justice will be shot north of the border in Vancouver, the L.A. Times reports. Lured by tax breaks and a low Canadian dollar, the L.A. Law reunion project, which brings together the original series cast (minus Jimmy Smits), is the latest Southern California production to be shot in Canada.
The American Red Cross has inducted Jane Seymour, who played a quasi-physician on the long-running series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, into their new Celebrity Cabinet. According to Britain’s The Post, Seymour will focus her attention on childhood illnesses, especially measles, which is killing millions of children in Africa.
Proving that she’s still “worth it,” former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell has signed a $1 million deal to feature in a new international poster and TV campaign for cosmetics giant L’Oreal, reports Sky News. Halliwell joins the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Andie MacDowell, Claudia Schiffer and more recently, Destiny’s Child singer Beyonce Knowles.
Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer denied Tuesday that an interview with talk show host Rosie O’Donnell had caused a rift between them, AP reports. In the interview, O’Donnell is expected to talk openly about her homosexuality for the first time. Sawyer landed the interview, which is set to air on ABC’s Primetime Thursday on March 14.
Hank Williams, Jr. paid tribute to country icon Waylon Jennings, who died last week, during a sold-out Saturday night Grand Ole Opry performance at the Ryman Auditorium. It was his first appearance on the esteemed radio show in twenty years. In what may be the longest grudge in history, Williams has avoided the Opry not only because of the chilly reception he received the last time he appeared, but because the show fired his father, Hank Williams, Sr., in the 1950s.
Dawson’s Creek veterans James Van Der Beek and Kerr Smith are both engaged-and no-not to each other. Van Der Beek, who plays Dawson Leary, proposed to actress Heather McComb, his girlfriend of two years, while Smith asked actress Ali Hillis to marry him. However, according to Ananova, neither of the cuties have immediate plans to wed.
Record labels have tapped into video games–and the latest recruit in this cross-promo trend is none other than pop princess Britney Spears. According to Rolling Stones magazine, interactive entertainment software developer THQ is releasing Britney’s Dance Beat, a game where players get to select from a choice of dancers auditioning to be backup dancers on her tour. Get into the groove and you’ll score points to move on to more complex tunes.
Oasis will release “The Hindu Times,” their first new single in nearly two years on April 15, the band said in a statement posted on their Web site. The group first performed the track at a series of concerts late last year celebrating their 10th anniversary. It’s the first song from the band’s as yet untitled fifth studio album which scheduled for release in July.
Madonna has been nominated for the Les Paul Horizon Award at the Orville H Gibson Guitar Awards for her guitar playing. The singer is up against John Mayer, Pete Yorn, Michelle Branch and Chris Thomas King. For those of you who didn’t know, Madonna actually played the guitar on her Drowned World Tour.
In a blow to small broadcast outfits that fear being squeezed out of the marketplace, the federal appeals court Tuesday threw out the FCC’s regulation that prevents broadcast and cable operators from owning each other. The elimination of the TV cap enables companies like AOL Time Warner to acquire a major network like NBC.
