According to police in New York City, New York, Australian actor Heath Ledger, 28, has died from a suspected overdose of prescription drugs. He was found by his housekeeper in his Manhattan apartment.
At about 3:26 p.m. EST (UTC-5), the housekeeper was on her way to inform Ledger that his masseuse had arrived when she discovered his naked body on the bed.
"We are investigating the possibility of an overdose," said a police spokesman. The CourierMail quotes NBC as saying that Ledger's body was found "surrounded by pills."
Ledger starred in th
Stock prices dropped sharply in Europe and Asia Monday, with fears of economic problems in the United States causing some of the biggest single-day losses in recent years.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 5.5 percent - its biggest fall since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Losses of between three and seven percent were recorded in India, China, Britain, France, Germany and Canada.
While there are many factors linking national economies, analysts blame recent losses on fears of a recession in the United States.
The United Sta
Adam Aircraft Industries has laid off 300 members of its 800-strong workforce and suspended operations at their plant in Ogden, Utah. The moves come as the result of unexpected financial difficulties.
In addition, Adam is transferring much of its work at Pueblo, Colorado to its headquarters at Centennial. The only operations that are to continue in Pueblo is machine shop work. In addition to these three locations, Adam had previously been considering the possibility of a plant at New Mexico.
Fifty employees were laid off at the Ogden facility
Two days before Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, a biography of actor Tom Cruise written by journalist Andrew Morton, was released in the United States, a video showing Cruise promoting Scientology was leaked to the Internet. The promotional video appeared on video-sharing sites including YouTube, Gawker.com and radar online.com, and clips from the video were also shown on Wednesday morning talk shows in the United States.
In the 9-minute video produced by the Church of Scientology, Cruise is seen discussing his beliefs while the them
Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, a biography of actor Tom Cruise written by journalist Andrew Morton, was released in the United States yesterday amidst the potential for a US$100 million lawsuit against its publisher, St. Martin's Press. The book will not be published in Australia, Britain, and New Zealand due to strict libel laws in those countries. Morton had previously written the biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana: Her True Story. The book has reached number nine on Amazon.com's list of top sellers.
The book describes C
Brad Renfro, an American film actor, has died at age 25. Renfro, who had a history of substance abuse, was found dead yesterday morning in his Los Angeles home by paramedics who had been summoned to the scene. The cause of death has not yet been determined, but officials said an autopsy could be conducted as early as today.
Nine films have advanced to "Phase II" of the 80th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film race, out of 63 international films entered.
They are:
Austria, The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
Brazil, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, Cao Hamburger, director
Canada, Days of Darkness, Denys Arcand, director
Israel, Beaufort, Joseph Cedar, director
Italy, The Unknown, Giuseppe Tornatore, director
Kazakhstan, Mongol, Sergei Bodrov, director
Poland, Katyń, Andrzej Wajda, director
Russia, 12, Nikita Mikhalkov, director
Serbia,
A fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria has left at least 30 dead. The disaster occurred near a busy bus station in Port Harcourt.
Port Harcourt is located in an oil rich area, and is the central point of the Nigerian oil industry, which has a value of billions of US Dollars. It is consequently a regular target for extremists, but a police spokesman said terrorism is not believed to be a factor.
According to CNN, the same spokesman said a car's driver lost control whilst being chased by police, striking the tanker and triggering the explosion. How
It has been announced that the global premiere of the Lordi horror movie Dark Floors will be on February 8 in Oulu, Finland. Lordi, a Finnish theatrical hard rock band, will also perform at the premiere.
The event will take place at the Oulun Energia Areena, home of the Oulun Kärpät, a team in the SM-liiga, the Finnish National Hockey League. The premiere will be the nation's largest, and is a co-operative measure by Northern Film, Media Foundation POEM and Oulun Kärpät.
The film is based on an original concept by director Pete Riski, who dir
The European Commission has forced Apple Inc. to lower its prices for media in its United Kingdom iTunes store, Apple's online media shop. The change in policy will occur within the next six months, Apple announced this morning.
Apple is the producer of the world's most-sold MP3 Player, the iPod and launched the iTunes Music Store, a online music store, on April 28, 2003. The store was renamed to iTunes Store in 2006, as Apple began selling other media apart from music, such as feature-length movies. Since its launch the store has sold more th
Finnish actor Markku Peltola has died. He was 51.
Peltola was most well known for starring in the 2002 Aki Kaurismäki-directed film The Man Without a Past, which won a Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
He also had supporting roles in Drifting Clouds (1996) and Juha (1999), both directed by Kaurismaki. In total he had played over 30 roles in film and television.
The Helsinki-born Peltola, son of a taxi driver, was also a guitarist in a band and a director. In 1996 he co-
American actress Jessica Alba, 26, has announced her engagement to producer, and father of their unborn child, Cash Warren.
The pair met on the set of the movie The Fantastic Four, where Warren was a directors assistant. They have been together since 2004, although they did briefly split at one point.
Alba made the announcement via her publicist, Brad Cafarelli, who said "I can confirm they are engaged." She had only announced her pregnancy earlier this month, and the child is expected in spring or summer next year.
As well as Fantastic Four
