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Margulies lays down "Law" in dark legal drama

nobody@vox.com(Kathrina Malik) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:00:33 -0700

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It's one thing to be beset by demons, but Elizabeth Canterbury has so many crushing problems that she makes Job look like a whiner.Even so, Julianna Margulies -- also listed as a producer of "Canterbury's Law" -- is convincing as a lawyer whose only true solace is her work. Still, she lives under a black cloud that threatens to burst at any moment and overwhelm the show. Beneath that cloud, though, lives a cutting-edge character who blends a rough-and-tumble style outside the courtroom with a polished but assertive femininity once the trial begins.It would have been interesting to see what Elizabeth was like four years earlier, just before her young son was abducted when she momentarily looked away. Then came the corrosion of her marriage to law professor Matt Furey (Aidan Quinn), a predisposition to drink and an emotionally empty affair with her friend, Frank Angstrom (James McCaffrey), a helpful private investigator. ADVERTISEMENTNow, her personal emotions are in lockdown, leaving only her Providence, R.I., law practice to slake her passions. In this, she is assisted by Russell Krauss (Ben Shenkman), a former lawyer in the attorney general's office whose ethical streak ran counter to the philosophy of his boss, Zach Williams, played with malicious cunning by Terry Kinney. Others in the Canterbury office are legal assistants Chester Grant (Keith Robinson), a straight arrow, and spunky Molly McConnell (Trieste Kelly Dunn).In the opener, Canterbury's client has been framed for abducting and killing the adolescent son of a prominent family. The teleplay, from creator Dave Erickson, wastes no time letting us know that the real villain is the boy's abusive father but the challenge will be proving it, or even getting the bully to take the stand.Canterbury practices law like she graduated from the University of Pellicano. She gets her investigator friend to tap into a juror's opinion and then suborns perjury -- and that's just in the pilot. There's no indication that she will reform anytime soon. But if Canterbury is no Perry Mason, her adversary, Williams, is no well-mannered Hamilton Burger. True, Williams might consistently lose but he, too, is not above gaming the system.The premiere, directed by Mike Figgis, is a vision of darkness, as somber and chilly in parts as his "Leaving Las Vegas." Another episode to be shown later, also sent to reviewers, has a more balanced tone and is more inviting. Equally promising, the Krauss character has grown from being a cautious nebbish to assuming a vital role in the story.Cast:Elizabeth Canterbury: Julianna MarguliesMolly McConnell: Trieste Kelly DunnRussell Krauss: Ben ShenkmanChester Grant: Keith RobinsonMatt Furey: Aidan QuinnDeputy Attorney General Zach Williams: Terry KinneyFrank Angstrom: James McCaffreyExecutive producers: Denis Leary, Jim Serpico, Mike Figgis; Co-executive producer/creator/teleplay: Dave Erickson; Supervising producer: Tom Selletti; Consulting producer: Kerry Orent; Producer: Julianna Margulies; Produced by: Don Kurt; Co-producer: Katie O'Hara; Director: Mike Figgis; Director of photography: Mott Hupfel; Production designer: Chris Shriver; Editors: Sloane Klevin, Philip Neel; Music: Danny Lux; Set designer: Alexandra Mazur; Casting: Julie Tucker.Source: Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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Chinese actress Bai Ling fined 200 dollars in shoplifting case :: Gossips (celebs101.com)

nobody@vox.com(Kathrina Malik) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:19:57 -0800

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Chinese-born Hollywood actress Bai Ling, arrested last month on suspicion of shoplifting, pleaded guilty Wednesday to disturbing the peace and was ordered to pay a 200 dollar fine, officials said.The starlet was detained by an employee in a magazine shop in Los Angeles International Airport February 13 and booked by police on suspicion of shoplifting two magazines and a pack of batteries worth 16 dollars, police said.Ling has featured in numerous films including "The Crow," "Wild Wild West," and "Anna and the King," and in the television series "Lost."Source: AFP

http://www.celebs101.com/celebritygossips-3094-Chinese+actress+Bai+Ling+fined+200+dollars+in+shoplifting+case.html

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Jeri Ryan gives birth to baby girl

nobody@vox.com(Kathrina Malik) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:33:21 -0800

LOS ANGELES - Jeri Ryan and her husband, French chef Christophe Eme, have a new family member. The 40-year-old actress gave birth Sunday to daughter Gisele in Los Angeles, her publicist David Lust announced."Both parents are thrilled. Jeri is resting comfortably and Christophe is playing the part of proud new papa quite well," Lust said. The baby, weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces, is the couple's first. The pair wed in France last June and own L.A. restaurant Ortolan, which Eme heads.Ryan has a 13-year-old son, Alex, from a previous relationship.She currently stars on the TV drama "Shark" on CBS. Her TV credits include parts on "Boston Legal" and "Boston Public," and she gained fame as Borg character Seven of Nine on "Star Trek: Voyager," which wrapped up in 2001.Source: AP

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Reese Witherspoon backs bracelet sales for women fun :: Gossips (celebs101.com)

nobody@vox.com(Kathrina Malik) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:31:05 -0800

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sales of a bracelet will go towards a U.N. fund to combat violence against women under a plan announced on Tuesday by the United Nations, the Avon cosmetics company and movie star Reese Witherspoon.Avon Products Inc., the world's biggest direct seller of cosmetics, has pledged to match the first $500,000 in sales of the bracelet to benefit the fund aimed at ending a problem activists say affects one woman in three worldwide.Witherspoon showed off the "women's empowerment bracelet" at a U.N. news conference, saying its clasp in the shape of the infinity symbol -- a horizontal figure of eight -- represented "a future without limitations for all women."Joanne Sandler, head of the U.N. women's agency UNIFEM, said the public-private partnership -- a model favored by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -- would bring "badly needed resources" to the U.N. Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.Describing violence against women as a "hidden pandemic," Sandler told the news conference that in the United States alone lost productivity and earnings due to violence by domestic partners cost almost $1.8 billion a year.The bracelets will cost $3 and be sold by Avon's network of 5.4 million sales representatives around the world, primarily women who run home-based businesses.Avon chief executive Andrea Jung said the money raised would help UNIFEM improve implementation around the world of laws and policies dealing with violence against women.Past efforts have included grants to help India's legal system implement a new domestic violence law and to assist the Rwandan government to establish a special police unit to investigate cases of violence.Witherspoon, 31, who won a best actress Oscar playing country singer June Carter in "Walk the Line" but is a producer of her latest movie "Penelope," said she hoped to "use my recognizability for a cause that I think is very important."Asked about violence against women portrayed in Hollywood, she said her response was to "really depict women that I see socially, women who are strong and accomplished and self-respecting."She left it to Jung and Sandler to answer a reporter who asked whether Western cosmetics and the way Witherspoon herself was dressed -- she was wearing a short-sleeved, v-necked black dress -- might alienate people in conservative countries."People like Reese Witherspoon have such a powerful message, such a powerful resonance with so many women and men that actually one kind of transcends, I think, that issue," Sandler said.Source: Reuters

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Ritter's widow testifies about his death ::

nobody@vox.com(Kathrina Malik) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:31:07 -0800

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special CorrespondentGLENDALE, Calif. - Sobbing into her hands, John Ritter's widow on Monday gave jurors in a wrongful-death trial a minute-by-minute account of events leading up to the actor's death in 2003. Amy Yasbeck sometimes could barely speak through her tears as she recounted the last hours in which she was summoned to a hospital and told her husband was having a heart attack and needed an angiogram.She said that Ritter, who was in a hospital bed, was "scared" and asked Dr. Joseph Lee, one of the two defendants in the lawsuit, if he could get a second opinion before he agreed to the procedure."Dr. Lee said, 'No, there's no time. You're in the middle of a heart attack,'" Yasbeck testified.She said Lee asked Ritter to sign a consent form and read him its details.Asked by her lawyer, Moses Lebovits, what happened next, Yasbeck broke into gasping sobs."I leaned down to John's ear and said, 'I know you're scared but you have to be brave and do this because these guys know what they're doing.' And he was brave for all the time I saw him," she said.Yasbeck said that as Ritter was wheeled down a hall on a gurney he used sign language to say "I love you." She said she mouthed the same words back."He went around the corner and that's the last time I saw him," she said.Ritter, 54, fell ill earlier in the day while working on the sitcom "8 Simple Rules ... for Dating My Teenage Daughter" and died of a torn aorta at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. His family is suing Lee and a radiologist, Dr. Matthew Lotysch, who did a body scan on Ritter two years earlier, for $67 million.The doctors deny wrongdoing. The radiologist has testified the aorta was normal in the scan but Ritter had coronary artery disease at a relatively young age.Yasbeck told of the long wait to hear what was happening after Ritter was wheeled away, and of overhearing someone calling "code blue," which she recognized from an audition she had done for the show "ER."Shortly after that, she said, a doctor who had arrived from the Disney studios came out and told her Ritter was "crashing" and that a surgeon had been summoned.She said the doctor drew a picture for her and explained that Ritter's aorta had shredded and "it was a bad thing."At some point after she was joined by Ritter's ex-wife, Nancy Ritter, and their son Jason the surgeon came to them."He said it was over and John's dead, that they worked on John for a long time but the damage was done by the time he got there. It was a fait accompli and John was dead," Yasbeck said.Yasbeck then told of going home to tell her 5-year-old daughter, Stella, that her father had died. She waited until the next morning because the child was asleep.Asked by her lawyer to tell jurors what Stella lost with Ritter's death, she said, "As much as I lost my husband and the love of my life and my soul mate, what I lost was Stella's father."She said when it came to child rearing, "I really was dependent on him. I was 36 years old. He was so freaking wise about this stuff. And Stella, every day she wakes up and there's a new way to miss her father. I can't make up for that. It's a new road to face every day." The testimony was offered in part to demonstrate to jurors the devastation suffered by the family from the loss of Ritter. In the courtroom audience, his brother, Tom, wiped his eyes. Nancy Ritter, who was married to the actor for 19 years, also took the stand and testified about his importance to their three children and his decision to have a complete body scan two years before he died. She said she urged him to do it and when it was over he told her it had gone well. "He implied to me that he was reassured he was OK. Maybe he was protecting me," she said. The plaintiffs rested their case after Yasbeck's testimony and the defense opened its presentation with a brief appearance by Ritter's personal trainer, who said the actor was concerned about improving his health and was working out regularly. The current lawsuit follows settlements with the hospital and eight other medical personnel for about $14 million.Source: AP

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Oscar winner Cotillard backs 9/11 conspiracy theories :: Gossips (celebs101.com)

nobody@vox.com(Kathrina Malik) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:46:13 -0800

PARIS (AFP) - French actress Marion Cotillard, who picked up an Oscar for best actress in Hollywood last week, has admitted to having doubts about the official version of the September 11 attacks in the US."I think we're lied to about a lot of things," she said during a television programme first broadcast last year which has resurfaced on the Internet.The actress, who picked up the award for playing Edith Piaf in the French film "La Vie En Rose," cited the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 as one example, adding: "I tend to believe in the conspiracy theory."Cotillard could not be reached Sunday but her lawyer, Vincent Toledano, told AFP she had "never intended to contest nor question the attacks of September 11, 2001, and regrets the way old remarks have been taken out of context."In the video, the 32-year-old Parisian talks about watching films on the internet challenging the official version of the September 11 attacks, saying "its fascinating, even addictive."She continues: "Did man really walk on the moon? Me, I've seen a fair few documentaries on the subject. That, really, I question. In any case I don't believe everything people tell me, that's for sure."Source: AFP

http://www.celebs101.com/celebritygossips-3079-Oscar+winner+Cotillard+backs+9%2F11+conspiracy+theories.html

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