Fans brave torrential rain at ‘Harry Potter’ premiere

If Potions Professor Horace Slughorn had mixed a brew to conjure up torrential rain, the weather could not have been worse for the premiere of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." Dedicated fans braved thunder, lightning and Biblical downpours in London’s Leicester Square to catch a glimpse of the film’s stars arriving at the opening of the sixth film in the wildly popular “Harry Potter” franchise.

Share

Paris Jackson emerges as surprise voice of memorial

Michael Jackson’s eldest daughter touched the hearts of millions when she bid a tearful farewell to her father at his memorial service Tuesday in a rare public appearance. With her brief speech, 11-year-old Paris Jackson also shocked the event’s organizers, who said her appearance was not a planned part of the star-studded tribute to the King of Pop at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Tuesday

Share

L.A. Gears Up for Star-Studded Michael Jackson Memorial

In the same Los Angeles arena where he rehearsed for the ill-fated “This Is It” tour, Michael Jackson will be remembered on Tuesday by a bevy of luminaries paying their final homage to the globally celebrated star. Jennifer Hudson, Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Usher, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder have all been announced as performers who will help bid Jackson farewell at L.A.’s Staples Center in a ceremony that will be broadcast live on all major networks and many cable channels as well as streamed live on websites from Myspace to MTV.com. Brooke Shields, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, Martin Luther King III and the Rev.

Share

Disney adds robotic Obama to attraction

He looks like President Barack Obama, speaks like him, and even gestures like him, but he is not exactly the president of the United States. This president is an audio-animatronic Obama surrounded by the 42 other U.S. presidents at Walt Disney World’s newly revamped Hall of Presidents in Orlando, Florida.

Share

Fake Tamiflu ‘out-spams Viagra on Web’

The number of Internet scammers offering fake anti-swine flu drug Tamiflu has surpassed those selling counterfeit Viagra, a UK body said Friday. Since the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, was declared a global pandemic last month, there has been an increase in the number of Web sites and junk emails offering Tamiflu for sale. More than 70,000 people have now been infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization

Share

‘Neda’ becomes rallying cry

The show, called “Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor,” or “Penitents Compete,” features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religion, according to CNN Turk. If they succeed, the contestants are rewarded with a pilgrimage to one of their chosen faith’s most sacred sites — Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for converts to Judaism, a trip to Tibet for Buddhists and the chance to visit Ephesus and the Vatican for Christians.

Share

TV gameshow offers atheists ‘salvation’

A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the "biggest prize ever" — the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world’s major religions. The show, called “Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor,” or “Penitents Compete,” features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religion, according to CNN Turk

Share

Depp channels inner outlaw in ‘Public Enemies’

He’s been a homicidal singing barber in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and an drunken swashbuckler in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End." Now, Hollywood shape-shifter Johnny Depp is back as another unexpectedly charismatic outlaw: Depression-era bank robber, John Dillinger, a character he says he’s been drawn to since he was a boy. “I sort of had a fascination with John Dillinger when I was about 10, 11 years old, for some reason,” Depp told CNN. “I always kind of admired him, oddly.” Oddly, perhaps, because for a short but intense period between September 1933 and July 1934 Dillinger and his gang rampaged through the American Midwest, staging jail breaks, robbing banks and killing 10 men and wounding seven along the way

Share