In Courts
Christopher “Play” Martin, of the rap group Kid N’ Play, has been accused of failing to pay child support, The Associated Press reports. Martin, 38, was arraigned Friday in federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., on charges that he failed to pay $32,277 in child support to his 7-year-old son Skyler with former wife, actress Shari Headley. She told New York’s Newsday that the rapper hasn’t seen his son or paid child support since the couple split in 1995.
Honored
Late actor Anthony Quinn was honored Saturday with the Gabriel Figueroa Lifetime Achievement Award at the fifth annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. “As far as people who have given their lives to Latin cinema, he was one of the giants of all times,” said actor Edward James Olmos, the festival’s artistic director, said during the ceremony. Present at the event were former costars Kirk Douglas and Mickey Rooney. Quinn‘s widow, Katherine Quinn, accepted the award. Cinematographer Gabriel Figeroa and actor Raul Julia have been previous recipients of this award. Quinn died earlier this year.
In General
Producer Aaron Spelling and his wife, Candy, are selling the house where the 1976 pilot for the television series Charlie’s Angels was shot, AP reports. The home, built in 1936, has six bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, a tennis court, and a master suite with a fireplace. The Spellings lived there for 16 years before they moved to their six-acre home that once belonged to Bing Crosby.
Actress Angelina Jolie paid a visit to Cambodia as a guest of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, AP reports. Jolie, 26, toured former Khmer Rouge zones where the UNHCR worked with displaced people and returned refugees. She also spent the last two nights in Anlong Veng; the last hangout of the communist rebel groups before the guerrillas killed them in 1998. Jolie stars in the action flick Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which includes scenes shot in Cambodia at Angkok Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, known for Buddhist and Hindu temples around Cambodia.
To mark Harry Potter’s birthday on Tuesday, Warner Bros. has set up an electronic birthday card on its Web site for the upcoming movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, based on the first of the best-selling children’s Potter’s books by J.K. Rowling, The Associated Press reported. The CBS Early Show will televise a birthday party for the fictional character, including a Harry Potter lookalike contest, balloons, cake and a 6-foot birthday card.
Brad Pitt and wife Jennifer Aniston have bought a $13.5 million French Normandy-style house in Beverly Hills, AP reports. The 12,000-square-foot, six-bedroom house was built in the 1930s for actor Fredric March. The house has a rotunda foyer, a screening room, and a wine cellar.
Former 1980s heartthrob Luke Perry, from Beverly Hills 90210 will star in and executive produce Jeremiah, a sci-fi series for Showtime. Jeremiah is set in a future post-apocalyptic world, where a virus wiped all the adult population, leaving only those who hadn’t reached puberty, Reuters reports. Perry will portray the title character. Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show) will costar. Perry is currently playing the role of Brad Majors in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show.
Lucy Lawless, the former Xena: Warrior Princess has signed on for a multi-episode gig on the upcoming season of The X-Files, Variety reports. The actress is set to appear on the show’s first two episodes. Details about her character are being kept under wraps. The new season of The X-Files will premiere on Nov. 4.
Universal Pictures and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment are moving forward in their efforts to turn the children’s book series Curious George into a movie. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the project, originally planned as a live-action feature, will now be a fully CGI project a la Shrek. Grazer also said that the studio’s parent company, Vivendi Universal, which acquired Curious George book publisher Houghton Mifflin in June, is planning on turning the character into its unofficial corporate mascot.
Around 140 films will be screened during the 58th Venice Film Festival, running from Aug. 29 to Sept. 8, although not all will be entered into the competition, the BBC News reported. Among the competitors are Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others, starring Nicole Kidman and Christopher Eccleston, Woody Allen‘s The Curse of Jade Scorpion, Richard Linklater‘s Waking Life and Steven Spielberg‘s Artificial Intelligence. In addition, 20 films from the international competition will come from Spain, Italy, France, Hong Kong, Mexico, the Netherlands, India, Romania, and Brazil. French filmmaker Eric Rohmer will receive the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award.
