Rock N Roll Songwriter Jerry Leiber Dead At 78

La, Calif. -- Rock n roll songwriter Jerry Leiber, who authored lyrics for such hits as Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock, died Monday. He was 78. The dying was confirmed by his longtime publicist, Bobbi Marcus, stated. With Leiber as lyricist and partner Mike Stoller as composer, they channeled their blues and jazz skills into pop tunes carried out by such artists as Elvis, the Coasters and Ben E. King. Their breakout hit was blues great Large Mama Thorntons 1953 rendition of Hound Dog. Presleys version hit No. one in 1956. Other artists who've recorded their tunes reads just like a whos-who of popular music: Barbra Streisand, Buddy Carol, the Moving Gemstones, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin and Lee Foundation Lewis. Their songwriting required a far more serious submit 1969 with Peggy Lees hit Is The Fact That All There's? These were awarded with a Rock 'n roll Hall of Fame later. The background music world lost today among its finest poet laureates, stated Terry Stewart, leader from the Rock 'n roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Jerry not just authored what that everybody was singing, he brought the means by the way you verbalized our feelings concerning the social changes i was coping with in publish-The Second World War existence. Properly, his automobiles of preference were the emerging populist musical genres of rhythm and blues after which rock 'n roll. Copyright 2011 by Connected Press. All privileges reserved.These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The New Trailer for the George Lucas-Produced Red Tails Gets Shot Down

Fighter piloting is inherently cinematic, so when a new movie comes out in the vein of Memphis Belle and Top Gun, I already hear the swells of music and gunfire. But in the case of Red Tails, the new Anthony Hemingway drama that arrives in theaters January 20, the grace of the genre is replaced with spotty dialogue and catatonic performances. Cuba Gooding Jr., you may as well call this movie Plane Trip. Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog You have to wince when a historical film conjures the same heaviness as Pearl Harbor. No, not even Pearl Harbor. More like the Faith Hill video for “There You’ll Be” from the Pearl Harbor soundtrack. Except without doe-eyed Mr. Hartnett’s liplock! Truly irredeemable. The red-tailed carnage has its dazzling moments, but they’re all undercut by the truly awful dialogue. “I feel like I’m driving my grandfather’s Buick!” OK, pilot man, we get it: You got the “hand-me-down” planes. But can you explain the hand-me-down performances? Terrence Howard is downright phony when he mutters, “We have a RIGHT to fight for our country. The same as every other AMERICAN.” He’s less a person and more a Fourth of July t-shirt sold at a heartland gift shop. I can’t deny the ferocious redness of those planes, though. Seriously, we’re looking at some vermilion aeronautics. If I saw them on a pack of Prismacolor pencils, I’d pick up a 24-pack right there. Otherwise? This is terminal. VERDICT: Nosedive

Cyberlocker Battle: Hotfile Threatens to Countersue Warner Bros.

Hollywood has made a stink about so-called "cyberlockers,"file-hosting websites that allow users personal storage that often gets used to share copyrighted movies, music and games. Now, one popular cyberlocker, Hotfile, currently fighting a big lawsuit brought by the MPAA, is fighting back, suggesting in court papers that it is prepared to countersue Warner Bros. The entertainment industry has had some issues bringing the legal hurt against cyberlockers, as many are domiciled overseas. But in February, the MPAA found a juicy target in Hotfile, one of the 100 most popular websites on the Internet, operated by a man who was residing in Florida. Since the lawsuit was filed, Hotfile hasn't rolled over, nor has it decided to duck for cover in some foreign country. It is putting up a rollicking fight. In April, the cyberlocker offered its response, saying that itscrupulously complies with the DMCA safe harbor provisions, and got some preliminary success when a judge tossed the MPAA's claims for direct copyright infringement, leaving open the question of whether Hotfile holds any secondary liability for inducing copyright infringement by its users. Hotfile hasn't stopped there. Over the summer, the company has been pushing the film industry to open up about its anti-piracy investigation techniques, the process by which movie studios search and find infringements on the Internet, and the rationales that lead a studio to send a takedown notice.In turn, the studios claimed these priviledged logs are sensitive trade secrets not relevant to the proceedings. In July, Hotfile said it needed this information not only to defend itself against massive copyright charges, but also to bring legal action against at least one studio believed to be abusing its anti-piracy tool by deleting files it didn't own. "Being able to determine which withheld documents are related to Plaintiffs' cooperative antipiracy efforts to remove material from Hotfile is also important for a counterclaim Hotfile intends to bring against at least one of the Plaintiffs-Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc." On Friday, the movie industry filed more court papers that continue its resistance to handing over too much information. The MPAA tells a judge that Hotfile hasn't proven the relevance of this material, and as for a possible countersuit, it writes, "Defendants claim they need discovery for a counterclaim they might bring against one Plaintiff. But that is not how discovery works: partiesare not entitled to take discovery for a counterclaim they have not pleaded..." Then again, the document reveals that the parties have scheduled a deposition so that Hotfile's attorneys can find out for themselves whether Warners was up to no good, or, as the MPAA's lawyers put it, "so thatDefendants may satisfy themselves that there is no basis for any claim." Of course, the pre-litigation fight may merely be a side-show to the ultimate, big question concerning cyberlockers and their liability for users' stored files, but the evidence so far suggests that barring any settlement, this is likely to be a hard-fought, protracted court battle that could yield some interesting information about Hollywood's war on piracy. E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com Twitter: @eriqgardner

Will Arnett Has a very good reason for Saying He "Can't Speculate" Concerning the Arrested Development Movie Plot

If the 'Arrested Development' movie really will get made, it'll surely function as the most avidly anticipated film adaptation of the cancelled TV series in entertainment history. Series stars Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, and can Arnett have confirmed that creator Mitch Hurwitz is focusing on getting his misinterpreted (by Fox professionals, a minimum of) masterpiece towards the giant screen. Then, today, Screenrant sailed the most recent plot rumor to come to light. Based on the site's un named source, the overall outline could be the following: Ron Howard is creating a movie concerning the Bluths utilizing an A-List cast. But Dr. Tobias plays themself because nobody really wants to play him within the movie. The Bluths choose to make their very own movie in contention with Ron Howard's. We checked along with Will Arnett (next showing up within this fall's NBC comedy 'Up All Night') over email, who rejected to shoot lower the rumor, precisely, but did provide us with more food for thought: "I can not speculate in regards to what the film could be about," Arnett authored, "because I really understand what the film could be about. We simply hope it takes place.Inch Us too!

Man Charged With Illegally Profiting From Disney's Purchase of Marvel

A man who made a 3,000 percent profit buying Marvel call options just before Disney purchased the company was charged with insider trading, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. The SEC said Toby Scammell was working at an investment fund in August 2009 when, acting on information he obtained from his girlfriend, a Disney employee, he loaded up on Marvel options that soared in value once Disney said it would acquire the company for $4.2 billion. The SEC also said that Scammell secretly used money from accounts owned by his brother, a U.S military man. Scammell had access because he controlled those accounts while his brother served in Iraq a few years earlier. The SEC did not name the brother or girlfriend and said neither was involved in wrongdoing. "This does not involve Disney and the complaint speaks for itself," a Disney spokeswoman said Thursday. The incident is the second in a year where a man tried to profit from information obtained by a Disney employee he was romantically involved with. In October, Yonni Sebbag tried to sell early access to a Disney quarterly earnings report that his girlfriend, Bonnie Hoxie, an assistant to Disney's head of corporate communications at the time, would supply him. Sebbag was sentenced to 27 months in prison and Hoxie was given four months of home confinement. In the case of Scammell, the SEC said the girlfriend spoke to him about an upcoming transaction but didn't give details due to "confidentiality." The girlfriend was described as "an extern in Disney's corporate strategy department" who "possessed confidential details about the pricing and timing of the deal." According the SEC, Scammell learned that Disney was about to buy Marvel in a variety of ways, including listening in on his live-in girlfriend's conversations. The girlfriend was also considering writing about the Disney-Marvel acquisition as part of her application to business schools, a decision Scammell was aware of and in a position to exploit. The SEC said Scammell's trades stood out because he didn't usually deal with call options, and because he was purchasing Marvel options with unusually high strike prices: $45 and $50, even though the stock never traded above $41.74. The options were also set to expire worthless a month after he purchased them if the stock didn't rise dramatically. Scammell bought $5,400 worth of Marvel call options and cashed them in for a $192,000 profit in less than a month, the SEC said. Related Topics The Walt Disney Company

Kutcher to produce 'DMV' reality series

KutcherGoldbergAshton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg have received a TruTV series order for their Katalyst shingle to produce unscripted series "California DMV: Field Offices." The series from the creators of "Punk'd" goes behind the scenes at the DMV to focus on its employees and their workplace adventures. "With 'California DMV: Field Offices,' truTV is ready to jump behind the counter and see what really happens," said Marc Juris, the cabler's EVP and g.m. "This promises to be a fast-paced, fun series, and we're excited to be working with Katalyst for the first time." Hedda Muskat will exec produce with Kutcher and Goldberg. "We've all spent time at the DMV, but few people know what it's like to work for the DMV," Goldberg said, adding that the show "promises to be a glimpse at what DMV workers experience, from strange to hilarious." Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com

Crazy Stupid Love

Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily (Julianne Moore) have the perfect life together living the American dream... until Emily asks for a divorce. Now Cal, Mr Husband, has to navigate the single scene with a little help from his professional bachelor friend Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). Make that a lot of help...

The Tesseract

In Bangkok, in a low-budget hotel called "Heaven", the fate of four guests are interconnected due to a theft in a room: Sean, a paranoid English drug dealer, that is dealing with a powerful local drug lord; the also British psychologist Rosa, who is grieving the loss of her son and making a research with poor children in Thailand; a seriously wounded killer, hired to kill the mobster; and Wit, a thirteen years old abused bellboy, that steals the guests. In the end, we see that it is almost impossible to control life, and sometimes, a subtle incident may lead to fatality.

CBS touts a new study tool

CBS is promoting a brand new research tool with Nielsen Co. meant to give both network and it is marketers a much deeper knowledge of its audience beyond fundamental census. The network used its TCA presentation on Wednesday to talk about the outcomes of the survey of abnormally comprehensive scope -- 7,000 participants clarified a lot more than 150 questions regarding their media habits at the end of 2010 and early 2011. Individuals findings were utilised to produce a taxonomy of six fundamental kinds of audiences, which may be mix-indexed with Nielsen data encompassing TV an internet-based to yield psychographic experience. For example, marketing could be specific to achieve either "media trendsetters," considered to be early adopters of TV fare and technology who often use social networking, or "program passionates," audiences dedicated to specific choices of program who often time-change their consumption. Marketers may take these studies to as granular an amount as determining which groups over-index among a specific program and marry that information with other consumption habits that mark audiences of this program. For example, a studio can uncover that fans of "The Great Wife" see or plan to watch movies online with marital styles, making that demonstrate an invaluable target for marketing more such movies. There's an increasing marketer interest in viewership data that discloses not only age and sex. Also it becomes particularly important because the target 18-49 demographic comprises much less from the overall audience cake. David Poltrack, chief research officer for CBS Corp. believed the demo will slide from 62% from the audience to 55% by 2015. "Entrepreneurs across all groups recognize they can't still target a lowering part of the populace,Inch he stated. "They need to broaden their sights." The Attention is not alone on countering this dilemma demographic. NBC required another tack this past year with the development of its "alpha boomer" research recommending that entrepreneurs re-evaluate the significance of audiences aged north from the 18-49 demographic. Poltrack considered the tool an "freeInch resource, enabling clients as well as rivals to supplement the core databases using their own proprietary data. CBS can also be putting the study to internal use, making proper programming and marketing choices for that approaching fall season. Contact Andrew Wallenstein at andrew.wallenstein@variety.com