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The Return of the King debuts next Wednesday in the U.S. and the advance buzz is deafening. Variety says: A “King” that earns its crown, Peter Jackson’s final installment in his monumental “The Lord of the Rings” represents that filmmaking rarity — a third part of a trilogy that is …

The Kennedy Center honored a new batch of icons over the weekend, culminating with a gala performance that will be seen on CBS, Friday, December 26: “Godfather of Soul” James Brown and country music icon Loretta Lynn were among five stars honored in Washington on Sunday for their contributions to …

The Saudis appear to be taking concerted steps to capture Islamist terrorists at home and to change the tone of religious rhetoric abroad. Is this cosmetic or fundamental change? Today: The Saudi authorities say security forces have shot dead a suspected Islamist militant in a gun battle at a petrol …

If you book dwarf comedians into Sierra Leone, you’d better make sure they show up, dammit: Thousands of fans rioted at Sierra Leone’s national stadium Saturday when authorities substituted two local dwarf comedians for a widely anticipated out-of-town midget duo. Police arrested 30 people, amid damage and dozens of injuries. …

A Manhattan Civil Court judge has ruled in favor of New York University (NYU) in its eviction proceedings against the Bottom Line: Barring a last-minute reprieve, the Greenwich Village club will be evicted within five days. The Bottom Line had fallen $185,000 behind in rent. NYU said the venue’s $11,250 …

I just got finished telling you what a disaster the screener ban has been for the MPAA – now, in yet another abject indignity, a judge has ruled against it, at least temporarily: U.S. District Judge Michael B. Mukasey sided with the independent producers, granting a temporary restraining order against …

AP’s Linda Deutch has snooped around and come up with some new information about the Michael Jackson case, which was apparently set in motion by the freakfest Bashir documentary of Jackson that aired in February. Here are some of our reactions to the doc at the time – Sydney Smith: …

The “insurgents” in Iraq aren’t primarily nationalists, jihadis, family members of war victims or anything else remotely ideological or principled: they are Sunni/Baathist thugs with a pathological sense of entitlement who are pissed at having the keys to the vault taken away. Jim Hoagland: At one basic level, the guerrilla …

The anniversary of John Lennon’s murder is December 8 – I look at the nexus of John Hughes’ classic ’80s teen movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the Beatles and the death of John. Ferris The premise of the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is Ferris’s (Matthew Broderick) ability to pull …

The payments to consumers in the MAP antitrust settlement against the major music distributors are finally going out in the next couple of weeks: PORTLAND, Maine – A federal judge approved a $143 million settlement Thursday of a lawsuit that accused major record companies and large music retailers of conspiring …