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Big screen pop stop

Actor James Broland and wife Barbara Streisand. Broland also stood by his woman as she underwent colon surgery. PHOTO: EPA

Harrison Ford gets set for Fallujah offensive
Actor Harrison Ford is attached to star in a movie about the recent battle for Fallujah, according to Daily Variety. The Paramount movie will be based on the upcoming book No True Glory by Bing West, a former Marine and US assistant defense secretary who covered the battle as a foreign correspondent.

The film will be the first major Hollywood film on the Iraq war and would focus on US troops and their military and civilian leaders, rather than on the Iraqi insurgents targeted in the massive assault.

Ford would play the general in charge of the operation, according to Variety.

While No True Glory would mark the first feature drama about the war, several Iraq war projects are being developed for TV, including a pilot series from NYPD Blue co-creator Steven Bochco titled Over There.

Tom Clancy has a video hit
Military thriller master Tom Clancy is having his hit videogame Splinter Cell turned into a movie. The game follows the adventures of government spy Sam Fisher as he tries to infiltrate an international terrorist syndicate and stop a high-tech threat.

The Splinter Cell movie will be made by Paramount which has had four hits when adapting Clancy books like The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears.

Streisand and the benign polyp
Actress and singer Barbra Streisand has made a full recovery from the colon surgery she underwent at the start of the month, according to reports earlier in the week.

"During a routine colonoscopy earlier this year, Barbra Streisand's doctor discovered a benign polyp," publicist Dick Guttman said in a statement. "The removal of the single polyp was done earlier this month, and its benign nature was reaffirmed."

The success of the operation allowed Streisand to undertake a full promotional tour for her latest film Meet the Fockers, a sequel to the hit 2000 comedy Meet the Parents. The movie marks her first major role since Yentl in 1983.

Brolin hits on wife, too much
Actor Josh Brolin has been arrested on suspicion of hitting his Oscar-nominated wife Diane Lane, according to news reports. But a spokesman for the couple said that the incident was just a normal argument that went too far and that Lane declined to press charges.

The incident occurred last weekend at the couple's Los Angeles homes, just a few months after the couple's August wedding.

"There was a misunderstanding at their home," spokeswoman Kelly Bush told the New York Daily News. "Diane called the police. Josh ended up being arrested."

Brolin was quickly released on US$20,000 bail, and went back to Lane.

"They are home together and are embarrassed the matter went this far," Bush said.

Top of the box office
Jim Carrey scored a fortunate event last weekend when his new children's movie toppled Ocean's 12 from its perch at the top of the North American box office.

Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events raked in US$30 million in its opening weekend, stealing victory from the crime adventure Ocean's 12, box-office trackers Exhibitor Relations Co Inc said.

The film, in which the rubber-faced Carrey plays a greedy count who wants to steal the inheritance of three orphaned children, co-stars multiple Oscar-winner Meryl Streep.

Director Steven Soderbergh's sequel to 2001's Ocean's 11 was in second place with a booty of US$18.1 million in a weekend marked by lacklustre ticket sales.

The film stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

In third place was the romantic comedy Spanglish, starring comic Adam Sandler in an unsual role, opening with a take of US$8.8 million.

Animated Christmas adventure The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks in five different roles, maintained fourth place with ticket receipts of US$8.4 million.

Blade: Trinity, which stars Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson in a story about a group of vampires seeking to resurrect Dracula, was fifth with US$6.8 million.

Historically-flavored adventure flick National Treasure, starring Nicolas Cage, was sixth with a haul of US$6 million, followed by the seasonal comedy Christmas With The Kranks with US$5.3 million.

Flight of the Phoenix, a remake of a 1965 film of the same name about survivors of a plane crash in the Mongolian desert, debuted with US$5 million in ticket receipts, assuring it eighth spot.

Closer, the harrowing story of a doomed love quadrangle, starring Jude Law and Julia Roberts, was next with US$3.3 million and ninth place. Rounding off the weekly top 10 ranking was the Disney-Pixar animated superhero adventure The Incredibles, which took US$3.1 million.

The film has grossed nearly US$237 million in North America alone since debuting seven weeks ago.

The top 12 films at the box office generated a combined total of around US$99 million, down more sthan 25 percent from the US$133.4 million notched up by the top dozen films in the same period one year ago.

Keaton, Jessica Parker team up
Diane Keaton and Sarah Jessica Parker are teaming up for a Christmas comedy about a family who hates the girl brought home by one son for the holidays.

According to the Hollywood Reporter the film has the working title of Hating Her and will start shooting in February.
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