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Star Studded Venice Film Festival Kicks Off


Hollywood film stars and from around the world will be gathering for the star of the 67th Venice Film Festival.

Darren Aronofsky's new psychological thriller Black Swan, with Natalie Portman, is opening the gala.

Director Quentin Tarantino heads up this year's jury to determine the awards, which includes the main Golden Lion prize, which Aronofsky won in 2008 for The Wrestler.

Some 79 movies are expected to premiere over the festival's 11-day run.

Tarantino said his time in Venice would be work, not play.

"There's a lot of really exciting movies, it's a fantastic line-up," he told the Reuters news agency.

"I've been on a few juries and I love it. It's a joy to me. But it's work. We're not here for vacation," he added.

The gala is opening with an unprecedented triple header. Aronofsky's film will be followed by a screening of Hong Kong directot Andrew Lau's The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, which will then lead into a midnight screening of Robert Rodriguez's Machete, starring Jessica Alba.

Director Sofia Coppola's comeback movie, Somewhere, is among the 22 movies being shown in the competition.

Actor and director Casey Affleck will show his documentary, I'm Still Here, abut his brother-in-law actor Joaquin Phoenix's decision to retire in 2008 and reinvent himself as a hip-hop musician.

September 11th will see the close of the festival, with an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, starring Dame Helen Mirren as a female Prospero, along with Russel Brand.

 

DiCaprio Attacker to Face Trial

A trial will go on as planned in Los Angeles for a woman who has been accused of attacking Leonardo DiCaprio with a broken bottle at a Hollywood party in 2005.

Aretha Wilson, 40, is looking at one count of assault with a deadly weapon. Her layers is expecting the case to open in the next 60 days.

DiCaprio was given a dozen stitches to his face and neck after the party.

The judge, after seeing photographs of the actor's injuries, said he did not consider them “trivial or moderate”.

The pictures showed cuts to the star's ear and neck, and have not been made public.

The Inception star was not in court for the hearing.

Ms Wilson has been in jail, pleading not guilty to the charge earlier this month, after failing to get her bail of $150,000.

She had already been ordered not to contact or come within 500 yards of DiCaprio.

Ms Wilson is looking a term of seven years in prison if she is convicted.

She has been accused of sneaking into a party hosted by Paris Hilton's former boyfriend, Rick Salomon.

Police say that she mistook DiCaprio for a former boyfriend and attacked him with a bottle.

DiCaprio later filed a formal criminal complaint and a warrant was then issued for Ms Wilson's arrest.

Ms Wilson fled to Canada after the incident and had to be extradited back to the US last month to face charges.

She is scheduled to appear in court on September 9th.

 

Crocodile Dundee Not Allowed to Leave Australia

Paul Hogan, of Crocodile Dundee fame, has been disallowed from leaving Australia over an unpaid multi-million dollar tax bill, according to his lawyers.

The ATO (Australian Taxation Officer) served the US-based actor when he returned to Sydney for his mother's funeral.

The 70-year-old actor is alleged to have to pay AU$37.6m of film royalties in offshore tax havens.

Hogan denis the allegations, claiming he had “paid plenty of tax” in Australia.

The order keeps the actor from leaving Australia until the alleged tax debts are paid of arrangements made for the liability to be discharged.

Lawyer Andrew Robinson said Hogan was "stunned and very disappointed the government could treat him as a flight risk".

"He denies the liability asserted by the ATO and has filed objections which have not been the subject of any response.

"The process of detaining Paul in Australia away from his wife and child has devastated him and he hopes that discussions between us and the ATO will lead to a prompt resolution allowing him to return to his family," Mr Robinson added.

The tax office apparently served Hogan with a tax bill for undeclared income last month after a five-year long wrangle.

A spokesman from the ATO told Reuters, "As he is an individual taxpayer, we can make no comment."

Starting as a popular Australian TV comedian, Hogan hit international stardom as Mick “Crocodile” Dundee in the 1986 film, which went on to become Australia's most successful film ever.

The actor lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski.

   

Van Gogh Stolen in Egypt

The Egyptian government's head of fine arts has been kept in custody pending an investigation into the theft of a Van Gogh painting over the weekend.

First under-secretary at the culture ministry, Mushin Sha'lan, was accused of “negligence”, according to Mena, the state news agency.

Other officials are thought to have been detained at the same time.

The painting, worth $50 million, was taken from a Cairo museum on Saturday and has been blamed on poor security.

The work is known as both Poppy Flowers and Vase And Flowers. It was cut from the frame at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum during the day on Saturday.

Abdel Meguid Mahmud, Egypt's top prosecutor, said that none of the alarms went off at the museum, and only seven of 43 cameras were functional.

The broken alarms and cameras had not worked for a while.

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram said nine culture ministry employees had also been disallowed traveling as part of the investigation into the robbery.

Government officials were unavailable for comment.

Police are focusing their efforts on the hunt for the missing Van Gogh in Egypt's sea and airports.

There was confusion on Saturday when Egypt's culture minister mistakenly thought the painting ahd been recovered.

Farouk Hosni claimed that two Italians had been arrested at the Cairo airport in connection with the theft after going to the museum earlier that day.

He later said that the information he was given was inaccurate.

The painting was previously stolen in 1978, but was recovered in Kuwait a decade alter.

The work, measuring 30cm by 30cm (1ft by 1ft), and depicting yellow and red flowers, is believed to have been painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1887, three years before his death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

 

Ernest Borgnine to get SAG Award

Accomplished screen actor Ernest Borgnine is set to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) next year, the organizers have announced.

The 93-year-old won an Oscar for his role in the 1955 film Marty, and has appeared in more htan 200 movies during his long career.

SAG president Ken Howard said that Borgnine still had “boundless energy” and boasted an “impressive body of work.”

He will get the award at the ceremony in Hollywood on January 30 of next year.

Borgnine got a recent nomination from the Emmys last year for his guest starring role in the final episode of medical drama ER.

His career has gone over six decades on the small and big screen, but started on the stage after World War II.

A career turning point was Borgnine's performance as a bullying police officer in 1953's From Here to Eternity, followed by his Academy Award for Marty two years later.

He also got a BAFTA and Golden Globe for his role as Marty Piletty, a lonely butcher who lives with his mother in the Bronx.

It wold be 52 years before the actor, son of Italian immigrants, collected a second Golden Globe nomination for sentimental TV movie A Grandpa For Christmas.

His newest film, Red, which stars Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman, is due to come out in October.

Mr Howard said, "Whether portraying brutish villains, sympathetic everymen, complex leaders or hapless heroes, Ernest Borgnine has brought a boundless energy which, at 93, is still a hallmark of his remarkably busy life and career.

"It is with that same joyous spirit that we salute his impressive body of work and his steadfast generosity."

Former SAG lifetime achievement award recipients include Julie Andrews and Clint Eastwood.

Last year's honor was given to Golden Girl Betty White.

   

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