Newman Bows Out, Stallone Gets Fined,
MPAA Says No Thanks for Smoking
June 2007 News
Newman retires from acting: After several decades of acting, Paul Newman (left, with Robert Redford) has called it quits. Newman, who is 82, told ABC News last month that he no longer feels up to the challenges of the profession. He was nominated for an Academy Award nine times, winning once for The Color of Money; his last role was as Doc Hudson in the animated Cars.
Jackson, Dreamworks ink Lovely deal: Dreamworks has won the war for Peter Jackson's next picture, The Lovely Bones. The studio beat out Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal and Sony by committing at least $65 million to the film adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel. Meanwhile, Jackson's dispute with New Line Cinema over profits for the Lord of the Rings trilogy continues. Jackson claims that the studio owes him as much as $100 million; during a panel at Cannes, studio founder Bob Shaye said the director and his wife had already been paid $250 million in profit participation.
More wheeling and dealing: Director Robert Rodriguez will helm the remake of the 1968 sci-fi fantasy Barbarella. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who co-wrote Casino Royale and the upcoming Bond 22, will do the script. Michelle Williams, Bryce Dallas Howard and Evan Rachel Wood will take on somewhat more sophisticated characters in Bronte, a biopic about the famous writing trio. And Samuel L. Jackson is in talks to play the villain in The Spirit, a comic-book adaptation that would be Frank Miller's solo directing debut.
Smoking may be harmful to your movie rating: The Motion Picture Association of America announced it will add smoking to the criteria considered when rating movies. Anti-smoking activists had urged the group to rule that any movie with tobacco content would automatically receive a R; however, MPAA chairman Dan Glickman said the organization would take a more nuanced approach. Fortunately for fans of Humphrey Bogart's film noirs, the move is not retroactive.
Stallone fined for illegally importing drugs: Speaking of substance use, Sylvester Stallone was formally convicted in Australian court of importing human growth hormone into the country without a prescription. Officials had found four dozen vials of the hormone in Stallone's luggage when he entered the country in February. Fortunately for the Rocky star, prosecutors did decide that he was planning to use them for legitimate medical reasons. Stallone was ordered to pay $10,651 in fines and court costs.
In memoriam: Actor Gordon Scott died April 30 of post-op complications from heart surgery. Scott made 24 movies, but is best known for playing Tarzan, opening his movie career with six straight films about the Edgar Rice Burroughs character.
