Top Story: Russian Tragedy Takes Venice Top Prize

The Russian film Vozvraschenie (The Return) took home the Venice Film Festival's top prize Saturday, the Golden Lion, Reuters reports. The minimalist film by first-time director Andrey Zvyagintsev tells the story of two boys whose lives are changed forever when they go on an ill-fated fishing trip in rugged Russian lake country with their father. The film's tragic subject matter rings even more true due to the fact one of its stars, 15-year-old Vladmir Garin, drowned a few months after the shooting ended. Other winners at the festival included Sean Penn for best actor as a terminally ill university professor in 21 Grams and Katja Riemann for best actress as the Aryan wife of a Jew in Nazi Germany in Rosenstrasse.

Serbian Film Takes Ribbon in Montreal

While over at the 27th Montreal World Film Festival, The Cordon, a film from Serbia and Montenegro, won the festival's top honors, the Grand Prix of Americas Sunday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the politically charged movie follows a citizen uprising against dictator Slobodan Milosevic. The runner-up prize in Montreal's main competition section, the Special Grand Prix of the Jury, was awarded to Canadian director Louis Belanger's Gaz Bar Blues, the trade paper reports, which opened the festival. Belanger's feature is about a man who runs a gas station-cum-neighborhood cafe with the help of his three sons and a loyal friend.

Stone's Not Rushing Into Anything

Since recently announcing her divorce from Phil Bronstein, executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, actress Sharon Stone isn't rushing back into the dating scene, The Associated Press reports. She told Access Hollywood she hasn't dated at all since she and her husband separated. "This is a whole new life" for her, Stone admitted. She says she wants "to take it kinda slow" and "do it in a way that's fun and gentle." The couple has a 3-year-old adoptive son, Roan.

Spade Speaks Out on Shoot Me Cancellation

David Spade, currently starring in the film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, admits he wasn't even aware the NBC series Just Shoot Me's final episode had aired at the end of August, in which he starred with George Segal and Laura San Giacomo. "It was kind of a bummer," Spade told the Dallas Morning News about the sitcom's seven-year run. During its last year NBC shuffled the show around so much on the schedule, fans had no idea when it was on. "You know, just give us a little help and we'll be fine," Spade said. "We don't have to be after Friends but at least let people know we're on. And then a couple weeks ago I read in the paper that our finale was on Saturday. And I thought, 'I'm on the show and I don't even know when it's on.' So that was that."

Elfman to Join Nine Cast

Jenna Elfman, best known for her ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg, will make her Broadway debut Oct. 7 in the musical Nine opposite Antonio Banderas. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Elfman will be taking over the role of Carla from Jane Krakowski, who recently won a Tony Award for her performance.

Bowie Beams Live Concert

Always one to push the boundaries of technology, rock singer David Bowie is at it again. To launch his new album, Reality, he will perform a live concert performance Sept. 15 and have it beamed by satellite to 22 cinemas in Europe, Reuters reports. The 90-minute concert at the Riverside studios in Hammersmith, England, will also be seen in cinemas in Rio de Janeiro, New York, Sydney, Warsaw, Toronto and Tokyo but on the following day due to the time difference. This newest stunt follows Bowie's past pioneering technological experiments. In the 1980s, he was one of the first artists to use e-mail to communicate with the media while on tour. In the '90s he offered fans a chance to download his latest release from the Internet in one of the first widespread uses of that technology.

Role Call: New Take on Amityville Horror

A new feature film based on the myth of the haunted house immortalized in the book and film The Amityville Horror is coming to fruition, AP reports. Produced by Emmett/Furla Films, Barstu Prods. and Integrated Films and Management, the film will follow the horrific true story of the 1974 murders by Ronald DeFeo of his parents and four siblings while they slept in their home in Amityville, N.Y., and the subsequent bizarre and bloody supernatural events that plagued the family who bought the house several years later. The Jay Anson bestseller, based on the Lutz family's account, was adapted into a 1979 feature starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder.