Madonna sued over “Material Girl”  clothing line

Entertainer, Madonna, has launched a “Material Girl” clothing line with daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon. Oops!  L.A. Triumph, claims it’s been selling clothes under that label since around 1997 and at some of the same high-ended retailers involved in the new Madonna deal.

This week, the California company sued Madonna. More details in a story on The Los Angeles Times website.

Dr. Laura’s controversial farewell

In the wake of a controversy over her use of the N-word on the air, Conservative Radio Talk Show Host, Dr. Laura Schlessinger,  announced she would pull the plug on her program at the end of the year. Dr. Laura made the surprise announcement on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

Dr. Laura says she’s taking the drastic step because she wants  her  ”… First Amendment rights back.” Not everyone is buying that reasoning — here’s a good post about it all on The Wrap. Dr. Laura’s radio program can be heard locally on KFWB News Talk 980. 

Oh, click here for Dr. Laura’s blog where she talks about the controversy, her apology, and the support she’s getting from Sarah Palin.

Betty White’s new two-book deal

UPDATED:  Sunday,  August 22, 2010                                                                                                                                                       

 Actress Betty White has another Emmy to add to her collection. White won number  seven last night for best guest actress in a comedy series for her hosting of a “Saturday Night Live” episode, back in the spring.

That award winner was announced during the creative arts section of the 62 Annual  Primetime Emmy Awards, at the Nokia Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.  The winners in some of the major Emmy categories will be announced on a broadcast next Sunday, August 29, 2010, on NBC. 

Actress Betty White is 88-years-old and has a career that’s on the upswing. The Emmy Award-winning actress has gained new fans with her appearance in a hit Super Bowl TV commercial back in February, then in May as a guest host on NBC-TV’s, “Saturday Night Live,” and now she has a role on cable network TV Land’s popular series, “Hot in Cleveland.”  This week it was disclosed White has sealed a two-book deal with G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

The first book, “Listen Up,” will be about life lessons learned during White’s many years in Hollywood. It’s due out in hardcover next spring. By the way, she has been nominated for 20 Emmy Awards and has won six — including two for her role in the 1970s ”The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and one for starring in the hit 1980s series, “The Golden Girls.”

The second book, “The Zoo and I: Betty and Her Friends” will showcase stories and photographs of White and her friends at the Los Angeles Zoo – scheduled to hit the market in 2012.

In a PR Newswire press release, White said she’s enjoying the new challenge: “Much as I love what I do for a living in show business, I love writing even more – so I am thrilled to be working on not only one new book but two of them.”  White is the author of five other books.

Bristol Palin to marry Levi Johnston

That Palin family – never out of the media spotlight for long. The latest news,  Bristol Palin is engaged to former boyfriend and father of her son, Levi Johnston. The couple broke the news to US magazine, which posted the exclusive story and some photos on its website today. The Palins really like US magazine. Remember, Sarah Palin on the above US cover with the couple’s son, Tripp, back in 2008?  

Online vampire book sells to major publisher

Photo from www.martaacosta.com

San Francisco Bay Area Author Marta Acosta has a thing for vampires. Acosta sold her latest fang book by posting it on the website scribd. The YA novel, “The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove,” got tons of reads and was bought recently by Tor Books. GalleyCat has the scoop on how Acosta’s novel scored with online readers and the sci-fi fantasy publisher.

 Tribute to Dennis Hopper

“Dennis Hopper Double Standard” now showing in The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles. Celebs like Liv Tyler, Diane Keaton, and Reese Witherspoon turned out for the opening party last Saturday, for this exhibit showcasing the art career of the late, Dennis Hopper. The actor/artist died last May,after a battle with prostate cancer.                                                                                                                            
Vogue website has more on the star-studded affair. The MOCA site has details on the exhibit, which runs through September 26.

 A Southland lottery winner cashed in that missing $7 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot winning ticket last Monday, June 14. This is the unclaimed jackpot I posted about a few days ago. The ticket was bought in the 7-Eleven store at 3450 Overland Avenue in Los Angeles for the June 5 draw. Oh, the 7-Eleven gets a $35,000 bonus for selling that winning ticket.

 The owner of the lucky ticket wants to remain anonymous. According to lottery officials, the winner chose the annuity option and will receive increasing payments over 26 years, beginning with the first for $175,000. What are his plans?  The winner disclosed he intends to pay off some credit cards, some other bills, and take a long-awaited trip to Disney World!

Actress Demi Moore nails a $2 million book deal

Movie roles have been pretty slim for Actress, Demi Moore, lately, but she just scored a huge deal in the publishing biz. Over on Deadline.com, Mike Fleming reports Moore’s reps are working on the fine points of a book contract with HarperCollins. The word is this will not be a trip down memory lane. More here.

Screenwriting duo hook a deal to write “Monster High” musical

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are very busy screenwriters/producers these days. And they are making a lot of dough at it. Gough and Millar are the showrunners for the TV hit, “Smallville.” Also, they wrote such male-focused films as ”Lethal Weapon 4,” “Shanghai Noon,” and “Spider-Man 2.”  For a some variety, they produced last year’s “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” which rang up $80 million at the domestic Box Office.

Now Gough and Millar are working on a monster musical about the trials and tribulations of high school — as experienced by the off-spring of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman. “Monster High” is based on a new entertainment/toy line from Mattel. The Hollywood Reporter has a nice write up on the project. 

Another 3D flick blows up at the domestic Box Office. Moviegoers are definitely loving their 3D. “How to Train Your Dragon” opened with an impressive debut of around $43.3 million, to become the number one movie in the country.

This DreamWorks animation is about a Viking teenager raised in a tribe that slays dragons, however, he ends up befriending a wounded dragon and that begins the adventure. The star voices in “How to Train Your Dragon” include America Ferrera, Gerard Butler, and Jay Baruchel. The movie is based on a 2003 children’s book of the same title by British author, Cressida Cowell.

In second place, the live action/animated mega-hit “Alice in Wonderland” with an estimated $17.3 million. After four weeks in release, three of those at number one, the domestic tally for this Tim Burton creation stands at around $293 million.

The new R-rated comedy “Hot Tub Time Machine” landed in third with about $13.7 million. The comedy  stars John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke as a group of friends who find themselves transported back to 1986 after a wild night of drinking in a hot tub.  

The romantic comedy/action adventure “The Bounty Hunter” earned fourth with an estimated $12.4 million, bringing its two week domestic total to around $38.8 million. Rounding out the top five, the family film “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” with $10 million.

“Alice in Wonderland” is still packing them in at the movie theaters, especially at the big 3D complexes. Tim Burton’s live action/animated fantasy adventure of the classic tale delighted audiences to the tune of about $34.5 million this weekend. “Alice” easily held onto the title of the number one film in the U.S. for the third straight week. The domestic total for this mega-hit has reached $266 million.

Several new movies opened and two managed to do okay. The family flick,”Diary of a Wimpy Kid, ” debuted better than expected with around $21.8 million. Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron star in the adventures of a middle school kid and his best friend during a school year. The film is based on a book of the same title in a popular illustrated series by Jeff Kinney.

Close behind in third place,”The Bounty Hunter,” starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. It’s about a struggling bounty hunter who gleefully sets out to bring in his ex-wife who has jumped bail. “The Bounty Hunter” captured an estimated $21 million, which is in line with expectations.

In fourth, the new Jude Law and Forest Whitaker action/thriller “Repo Men.”  It’s set in the future where repo men repossess body organs when patients miss their payments. It earned a meager $6.1 million. Rounding out the top five, the R-rated romantic comedy, “She’s Out of My League” with around $6 million.

Hollywood is tapping a new source for movie ideas — blogs!  I have heard of other projects based on websites, but this latest one, being developed for Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon, sounds like a real winner. Over on the deadline.com/New York site, Mike Fleming is reporting that Columbia Pictures has made a deal with blogger/author Ree Drummond for a romantic comedy, ”The Pioneer Woman.”

Drummond is known as ”The Pioneer Woman” who writes a popular blog with the same title,   http://thepioneerwoman.com/  The website description says she’s “plowing through life in the country  …one calf nut at a time.” Drummond is a self-confessed city girl who fell in love with a cowboy and is now making a lot of hay, ah, money writing and blogging about her life on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma. 

 Last year Drummond’s cookbook, “The Pioneer Woman Cooks, recipes from an accidential country girl,” came out and became a New York Times bestseller.

Next Valentine’s Day, William Morrow will release, “Black Heels to Tractor Wheels,” Drummond’s story of love and adventure in the country. On her website, Drummond describes the book as “… the complete saga (to date) of the rip-roaring true story of how I met my husband, Marlboro Man, and how I went from spoiled city girl to domestic ranch wife in the blink of an eye.”

Spec script season in full swing

Some interesting spec scripts making the rounds of the production companies and studios lately. Literary manager Kathy Muraviov is shopping, “The One” by Stan Evans, according to the Spec Chaser site. This is a romance about a woman who gets the ultimate choice: one week with her “soul mate” or a lifetime with a man she cares about, but who is not “the one.”  

Also, spec scripts are being snatched up and bought. On the Spec Chaser, the spec screenplay “Ruthless,” by Cooper Layne, is marked sold!

“Ruthless” is a crime thriller about an ex-con who shows up suddenly in a small Louisiana town and begins to cause havoc by exposing the secrets of the town folks. The script sold to Double Nickel Productions.

A super opening for the latest teaming of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. The suspense thriller, “Shutter Island” debuted with an estimated $40.2 million this weekend at the domestic Box Office, to become the number one film in the country.

“Shutter Island,” set in the 1950s, is about the investigation of a murder and some bizarre medical practices at a hospital for the criminally insane. This is the film version of Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same title. Lehane’s novels,”Gone, Baby, Gone (1998),” and “Mystic River (2001)” were both turned into successful movies.  ”Shutter Island” is the fourth movie hook-up for Scorsese and DiCaprio. They also worked together on “Gangs of New York” (2002), “The Aviator” (2004),  and “The Departed” (2006).

As for the rest of the weekend contenders, the romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” came in a distant second with about $17 million. Last weekend, “Valentine’s Day” was sitting pretty in the top spot. No matter, in two weeks the star-studded comedy has raked in around $87.4 million at the domestic Box Office.

The blockbuster hit, “Avatar” landed in third, earning $16 million. The 10 week domestic total — $687 million! The adventure fantasy, “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” scored $15.3 million. And rounding out the top five,  the horror drama “The Wolfman” with $9.8 million.