Expecting no more than light chit-chat about ballroom dancing, reporters in Tokyo were startled when actor Richard Gere launched into a condemnation of Europe's plans to lift an arms embargo against China. After promoting his new film, Shall We Dance? in which he co-stars with Jennifer Lopez, Gere grabbed a microphone to denounce plans by the European Union to lift the embargo imposed after China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989.
The race-relations comedy Guess Who, starring Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher, debuted atop the US and Canadian weekend box office, according to studio figures released on Monday.
The remake of the Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier civil-rights movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner earned US$21 million to see off the challenge of Sandra Bullock's sequel, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, which opened in second place with US$14.5 million.
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The Ring 2 dropped to third with US$13.8 million followed by the animated movie Robots and family comedy The Pacifier. Hitch was in sixth spot followed by the Bruce Willis thriller Hostage and Ice Princess.
John Travolta's Be Cool was in ninth place with Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby closing out the top 10.
Neopets, the wildly popular children's Web site that lets kids nurture digital pets, is making the move from the Internet to the big screen.
PHOTO: AP
According to the Hollywood Reporter Warner Bros has closed a deal with Neopets to make CGI-animated features using 50 different pet species from the kids Web site.
The report said that the studio and Neopets have already firmed a concept for the first film and have begun talks with an animation director they would not name.
Created in 1991, NeoPets has a global following of about 25 million members who log on regularly to create and care for their own virtual pets.
PHOTO: AP
Cable channel USA Network has unveiled its remake of the hit 1970s detective series Kojak, which featured actor Telly Savalas as a lollipop-sucking detective, with Ving Rhames, an actor who has appeared in hit movies like Pulp Fiction and Mission: Impossible.
USA Networks hopes its new series will be a hit domestically and around the world with Rhames in the starring role. Rhames, like Savalas, is bald.
The two-hour long premier aired over the weekend and featured the new Kojak on the trail of a serial killer of prostitutes. But although the tough detective eventually got his man, he was less successful in capturing positive reviews. USA Today said the show was "for suckers only," while the Chicago Tribune said the show goes from "bald to worse".
Actress Cameron Diaz, who is on a protracted break from movie making, is keeping in front of the cameras with a new eco-tourism show on MTV.
Trippin', which debuted Monday on the popular music channel, featured Diaz and celebrity friends like rappers DMX and Redman, actresses Eva Mendez and Jessica Alba and pro surfer Kelly Slater as they head to environmentally sensitive spots around the world and seek to discover ways to preserve them.
Orlando Bloom has been tipped to play a young James Bond in a movie series designed to endear the suave British master spy to younger viewers, according to press reports Monday.
The series, which is backed by Miramax and DreamWorks would be based on a new series of young 007 novels which began this year with Silverfin.
In the book set in the 1930s, a teenage James Bond spends a holiday at a remote castle where he soon comes upon a mystery involving killer eels and an arms tycoon conducting dangerous genetic experiments.
In a blow to Michael Jackson's defense, prosecutors in his child molestation trial can introduce evidence of "past sexual offenses" by the pop star involving five young boys, a judge ruled on Monday. The decision by Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville means that jurors will hear testimony about a 1993 case that Jackson settled out of court for about US$23 million.
The artist best known for pickling a shark and slicing up a cow admits he's had some pretty silly ideas over the years. But Damien Hirst, the aging enfant terrible of the British art world, is optimistic that museums will still be showing at least some of his work in 200 years' time.
The Lee (李) family migrated to Taiwan in trickles many decades ago. Born in Myanmar, they are ethnically Chinese and their first language is Yunnanese, from China’s Yunnan Province. Today, they run a cozy little restaurant in Taipei’s student stomping ground, near National Taiwan University (NTU), serving up a daily pre-selected menu that pays homage to their blended Yunnan-Burmese heritage, where lemongrass and curry leaves sit beside century egg and pickled woodear mushrooms. Wu Yun (巫雲) is more akin to a family home that has set up tables and chairs and welcomed strangers to cozy up and share a meal
President William Lai (賴清德) has proposed a NT$1.25 trillion (US$40 billion) special eight-year budget that intends to bolster Taiwan’s national defense, with a “T-Dome” plan to create “an unassailable Taiwan, safeguarded by innovation and technology” as its centerpiece. This is an interesting test for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and how they handle it will likely provide some answers as to where the party currently stands. Naturally, the Lai administration and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are for it, as are the Americans. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not. The interests and agendas of those three are clear, but
Dec. 8 to Dec. 14 Chang-Lee Te-ho (張李德和) had her father’s words etched into stone as her personal motto: “Even as a woman, you should master at least one art.” She went on to excel in seven — classical poetry, lyrical poetry, calligraphy, painting, music, chess and embroidery — and was also a respected educator, charity organizer and provincial assemblywoman. Among her many monikers was “Poetry Mother” (詩媽). While her father Lee Chao-yuan’s (李昭元) phrasing reflected the social norms of the 1890s, it was relatively progressive for the time. He personally taught Chang-Lee the Chinese classics until she entered public
Last week writer Wei Lingling (魏玲靈) unloaded a remarkably conventional pro-China column in the Wall Street Journal (“From Bush’s Rebuke to Trump’s Whisper: Navigating a Geopolitical Flashpoint,” Dec 2, 2025). Wei alleged that in a phone call, US President Donald Trump advised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over Taiwan. Wei’s claim was categorically denied by Japanese government sources. Trump’s call to Takaichi, Wei said, was just like the moment in 2003 when former US president George Bush stood next to former Chinese premier Wen Jia-bao (溫家寶) and criticized former president Chen
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