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The Scream series has always succeeded in attracting great cameos for its opening kill sequence, and Scream 4 will not be the exception. According to USA Today, both Veronica Mars’s Kristen Bell and True Blood’s Anna Paquin have agreed to go under Ghostface’s knife. The two actresses will join a growing list of high profile names who’ve previously appeared as bait in the first three films. Things kicked off with Drew Barrymore meeting her untimely demise in the 1996 original....

Russian forces have been pounding the Ukrainian capital and other cities with artillery and cruise missiles, with Ukraine’s forces putting up “very determined resistance” to the three-pronged Russian advance, according to U.S. defense officials. Actor Sean Penn, who has been the center of controversy lately for his extremely outdated homophobic and transphobic comments, is on the ground in Ukraine for a documentary with Vice Studios about Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country, a studio rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter....

Certain people in World Culture capture the zeitgeist in such a way that they can simply be known by their first names. There’s Martha (Martha Stewart), Oprah (Oprah Winfrey), Brad (Brad Pitt)… and most recently (and much quicker it seems) is Simon. That would be Simon Cowell. Executive Producer of the immensely popular American Idol, Simon was recently on hand to discuss his newest creation America’s Got Talent. With Regis Philbin hosting and people like David Hasselhoff and Brandy doing the judging, each week America is treated to all different kinds of “performers” vying for a $1 million cash prize....

The Good An in-depth account of how one state can make all the difference in an election. The Bad Somewhat hard to follow the political process at times. If you are still scratching your head over the 2004 election when it seemed like George W. Bush was ripe to taken out of office, So Goes the Nation explains how that didn’t happen. With the war in Iraq going badly, the economy not doing well, and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 making $100 million at the box office (the film basically screaming for the removal of our Commander In Chief), it seemed that all Kerry would have to do would be to motivate youth voters and Democrats were going to reclaim the White House....

Paramount Pictures announced today it is developing a new feature-length animated movie based on the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants. The project, which was announced during a Viacom (Paramount’s parent company) conference call to investors, will be released in late 2014. Back in July, Paramount announced the formation of their own animation unit, instead of just distributing titles from DreamWorks Animation. Last year’s Rango was the first fully-owned and produced animated movie from the studio, which won Best Animated Film at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony....

You can get more bang for your sci-fi buck with two new BD sets from a classic sci-fi film series. Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture Collection and Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy will both be released on May 12. The Original Motion Picture Collection will be released only in Blu-ray ($104.99 SRP), which contains the first six films in the series and a bonus disc, and the Motion Picture Trilogy will be released in both standard ($29....

The dialogue from the Star Wars prequels has gained a deservedly infamous reputation for not being very good. From Anakin’s now legendary dislike of sand to pretty much any line of romantic dialogue between Anakin and Padme, certain lines have seared themselves into our memory for how bad they are. All three prequel films were written and directed by George Lucas, a man who has two Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for American Graffiti and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, respectively)....

Lucasfilm Ltd. announced today that the live-action Star Wars Saga will be converted to 3D, and will be arriving in theater starting in 2012. There are few movies that lend themselves more perfectly to 3D; from the Death Star trench run to the Tatooine Podrace, the Star Wars Saga has always delivered an entertainment experience that is completely immersive. Presented by Twentieth Century Fox and Lucasfilm Ltd., the cutting edge conversion will take that immersion to the next thrilling level, with Industrial Light & Magic supervising the project....

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY CBS STREAMS FOUR SITCOMS ON WEB – THIS WEEK ONLY CBS, trying like the rest of the networks to figure out how to use the Internet advantageously, announced Monday that it will offer two episodes of Two and a Half Menand two episodes of How I Met Your Motherfor free via the Yahoo! website. The webcasts are being “streamed” – that is, they cannot be downloaded onto a PC or watched on portable video players....

i>GANGSTER EXPECTED TO STING BEE Although Jerry Seinfeld has been relentlessly plugging his family-oriented animated flick Bee Movie, and although it is opening in 3,500 theaters and about twice that number of screens, box-office prognosticators figure that An American Gangsterwill lead the box office this weekend. They are also predicting that a third film, Martian Child, starring John Cusack, will flop, earning perhaps less than $5 million. MOVIE REVIEWS: AMERICAN GANGSTER...

S.O.S.: SAVE OUR SAWYER ABC executives have mounted an S.O.S. campaign – for “Save Our Sawyer” – to persuade Diane Sawyer to remain as co-host of Good Morning America following the current season, the Los Angeles Timesreported today (Friday). The newspaper observed that if she decides to leave the morning program, her exit would generate more instability at a network that has already had to deal with the death of former World News anchor Peter Jennings and the wounding of his successor, Bob Woodruff, in Iraq....

DIGITAL GAINS FEW CONVERTS AMONG RETAILERS Although as part of the government’s plan to switch all TV stations to digital by Feb. 17, 2009, owners of analog-only sets can apply for coupons giving them $40 off on $60 digital-to-analog converters, only two major retailers have agreed to stock the converters, it emerged during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday that only two major retailers have agreed to stock the converters – RadioShack and Best Buy....

i>IDOL COSTLIEST SHOW FOR AD BUYERS Buying a 30-second spot on Fox’s American Idolwill set advertisers back as much as $700,000 when the show debuts at midseason, Advertising Agereported today (Friday), citing a survey of media agencies. It marks the third consecutive year that Idolhas held the top spot as the most expensive regular series for advertisers. The trade publication observed that some marketers will pay significantly less for a spot, when the show returns in January – depending on the number of spots they buy on it throughout the season and their overall ad commitment to the Fox network....

The Arrowverse finally has its very own version of Lex Luthor. Jon Cryer, the Emmy-winning actor who formerly starred alongside Charlie Sheen (and for a brief time Ashton Kutcher) on Two and a Half Men has officially been cast as the iconic DC villain, who is set to appear on Supergirl later this season. Executive producers Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller had this to say about Cryer’s casting in a joint statement....

Syfy has just released the first trailer for its upcoming fall series Z Nation, which doesn’t have a premiere date in place at this time. The 13-episode series is set three years after a zombie virus wipes out most of the American population, with a group of heroes trying to transport one of the last survivors from New York to the last functioning blood labs in California. Check out the first footage from this upcoming series, starring Harold Perrineau, Tom Everett Scott and DJ Qualls....

In books and film, a MacGuffin is a device, object, or even a person that exists solely to start the plot of a story and keep the plot in motion, even if the object ends up having no real significance. The term was originally coined by famed director Alfred Hitchcock circa 1939 and has since become recognized as an actual term by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. When done right, a MacGuffin can captivate an audience and keep viewers interested in the narrative, in the case of MacGuffins such as the Death Star plans in Star Wars or the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark....

The Batman has already proved to be a big hit with cinema audiences, and now the highest-grossing movie of the year is making an impact on HBO Max. Having arrived in cinemas in early March with an exclusive window of 45 days, the Matt Reeves-directed grounded movie made its streaming debut on April 18 on HBO Max and has landed with the significant impact you would expect from such a hyped film....

Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) had an amazing career that spanned five decades. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, her first introduction to American audiences came with the 1939 film, Intermezzo, an American remake of a Swedish film of the same name that Bergman starred in three years prior. From the on, Ingrid Bergman would carve out a place as one of the greatest screen legends of all time, with the American Film Institute naming her the fourth most iconic female screen legend in history, behind only Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and Audrey Hepburn....

The site tried to squeeze a few details about the comic book movie he mentioned, but he was stopped by his assistant, only revealing that, “I’m really into graphic novels and really into the superhero genre, and I really think there’s some interesting stuff going on, and I think that’s what I’m leaning towards.” “I really hope the film does well. I will not be involved in a sequel…I don’t want to have my next movie be a horror movie....

Longtime Saturday Night Live announcer Don Pardo has passed away at the age of 96. He died of natural causes in Tucson, Arizona last night. His daughter, Dona Pardo, confirmed his death. Don Pardo was born in Westfield, Massachusetts to Dominick, a bakery owner, and Viola. His parents were immigrants from Poland. He spent his childhood in Norwich, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from Emerson College in 1942. He joined NBC as an in-house announcer in 1944, remaining on the network staff for 60 years....