EA upset at 'South Park' Tiger Woods Spoof

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Electronic Arts is reportedly considering legal action after Tiger Woods PGA Gold Tour featured on an episode of South Park poking fun at the disgraced golfer.

Titled "Sexual Healing," the first episdoe from season 14 of the animated series parodied the recent sex scandal surrounding Woods.

In the show, which pulled in 3.7 million viewers in the U.S. when it premiered last week, Cartman and Kenny play an Xbox 360 game of Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren beating each other up and then crashing Wood's car.

Next to the games console stands a poster of what appears to be Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, along with stacks of boxed video games.

Electronic Arts which pledged its support for Woods, is now considering legal action on grounds of copyright infringement, reports the Daily Informer.

"Soon after the airing of the episode the top beef were called in and informed of the situation," said an insider.

"Before the episode aired the marketing folks were already worried, but now they have a lot more to worry about."

The source added: "While I personally found the episode quite funny, there are defintely a few copyright infringements in there that I'm sure will be dealt with accordingly."

The Real 'Schindler's List' on Sale for $2.2 Million

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The only privately owned copy of Oskar Schindler's list of Jews to be saved from Hitler's concentration camps is up for grabs at $2.2 million, according to FOX News.

The 13-page list compiled by Schindler and accountant Itzhak Stern is dated April 18, 1945 and was made popular by Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning movie.

Gary Zimet, a historic document sales specialist told FOX the list is "arguably the most important WWII document."

Zimet is selling the list on a "first come, first served" basis on behalf of an anonymous seller through his web site MomentsinTime.com.

He told FOX there were seven different versions of the list, but only four other are known to have survived. This list has the names of 801 men, along with their birth dates and occupations.

'Alice' still rules box office with $34.5 million

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Alice remains the queen of the box office.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" took in $34.5 million to remain the No. 1 movie for a third-straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Disney release raised its domestic haul to $265.8 million and its worldwide total to $565.8 million after just three weekends in theaters, a huge result for a film playing in the typically slow month of March.

"You rarely see this kind of domination by one movie at this time of year," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Normally at this time of year, films don't make this kind of money and they don't hold in this long."

"Alice in Wonderland" easily beat a rush of new movies led by 20th Century Fox's family film "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," which opened at No. 2 with $21.8 million. The movie is adapted from Jeff Kinney's cartoon novel about a sixth grader maneuvering through the intricate social structure at his middle school, which includes its own "cooties" game known as the "cheese touch."

"I think cheese touch equals magic touch at the box office," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox.

Debuting at No. 3 was Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler's action comedy "The Bounty Hunter" with $21 million. Released by Sony, the movie follows a bounty hunter chasing his ex-wife, a reporter with an arrest warrant over her head after she misses a court date while pursuing a story.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker's action thriller "Repo Men" flopped with a No. 4 opening of $6.2 million. The Universal release features Law as a repo man on the run in a future where organs are bloodily repossessed if patients miss their payments.

In narrower release, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning's Joan Jett music drama "The Runaways" opened weakly with $803,629 in 244 theaters.

Ben Stiller's comic drama "Greenberg" premiered strongly in limited release pulling in $120,432 in three theaters for a huge average of $40,144 a cinema.

Released by Focus Features, "Greenberg" stars Stiller as a neurotic whose mean tongue jeopardizes a budding romance with his brother's personal assistant.

'Alice' blows away 'Green Zone' at box office

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Alice is still ruling the movie palace.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" easily remained the No. 1 weekend draw with $62 million, according to studio estimates today.

In it's second weekend in theaters, "Alice in Wonderland" pulled ahead of the $206.5 million domestic haul of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to become the top-grossing of Depp and Burton's seven films together, which include "Edward Scissorhands," "Sweeney Todd" and "Corpse Bride."

"I believe it's literally magical, if you would, pairing Tim and Johnny," said Chuch Viane, head of distribution for Disney. "When you take those two, they always seem to make something really out of the ordinary."

"Alice in Wonderland" added $76 million overseas to bring its international total to $221 million and its worldwide gross to $430 million.

A rush of new movies had so-so openings, led by Matt Damon's Iraq War thriller "Green Zone," which debuted at No. 2 with $14.5 million domestically. Released by Universal, "Green Zone" stars Damon as the leader of a U.S. army team who stumbles onto a conspiracy over the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Paramount's romantic comedy "She's Out of My League" debuted at No. 3 with $9.6 million. Meanwhile, "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson's romantic drama "Remember Me" opened at No. 4 with $8.3 million. In it's fourth weekend, Paramount's "Shutter Island" was No. 5 with $8.1 million.

Debuting at No 6 with $7.6 million was Fox Searchlight's comedy "Our Family Wedding," starring America Ferrera as a Hispanic bride marrying a black man.

"Alice in Wonderland" took in nearly as much as the rest of the top-10 movies combined.

"By itself, "Alice in Wonderland" is really propelling huge box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Iran film stirs controversy over prophet's depiction

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's plans to depict Prophet Muhammad in a film on the childhood of the Muslim figure revive controversy in the Islamic world over the permissibility of visual portrayals of the prophet.

Majidi announced earlier this month that he will direct a movie about the first 12 years in the life of Prophet Mohammad to be filmed in several countries in the Middle East, particularly in Morocco, where he plans to shoot most of the scenes.

The film entitled "Muhammad" is expected to be the most expensive in the Iranian cinema with an approximate budget of $30 million. Iranian filmmaker Kambuzia Partovi, took three years to write the movie's script, which awaits revision by a group of historians and religious scholars.

Recognizing that movies made about the Muslim prophet were much fewer than, for example, those made about Jesus and Moses contributed to Majidi's interest in making the movie, he added.

"There are more than 200 movies about Jesus and more than 100 about Moses while only 40 movies were made about Muhammad," Majidi said.

Majidi's highly-acclaimed film "Children of Heaven" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998.

Chavez thanks Sean Penn for slamming his critics

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is grateful that actor Sean Penn has defended him against his critics with the U.S. media.

In an appearance on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" last week, Penn slammed Chavez critics who refered to the socialist leader as a dictator. The Oscar-winning celebrity noted that Chavez has won repeated elections and suggested that media critics who call him a dictator should be jailed.

He says that "there should be a bar for which one goes to prison for these kinds of biases." Penn has visited Chavez several times and frequently defends the president's leftist political policies. Chavez welcomed Penn's comment Wednesday and thanked the actor for standing up to his detractors.

Trouble in the Vienna Boy's Choir

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The Vienna Boy's Choir said on Friday it was possible that members of the historic vocal ensemble were sexually abused by supervisors in the past.

The choir's statement followed complaints in an Austrian newspaper by two now grown-up former members and appeared to widen a sexual misconduct scandal in Austria that also included child abuse by a Catholic priest.

The Vienna Boy's Choir is not affiliated with the church but is an Austrian cultural icon. Founded in 1498 its 100 choiristers aged between 10 and 14 give about 300 international performances a year, living in dormitories while away from their families.

To help identify culprits, the choir appealed to former choirsters, including the pair quoted anonymously in the Vienna newspaper Der Standard, to get in touch and provide names, dates and other relevant details. The choir would then search archives for evidence to allow justice to be done.

The choir's statement said it had taken steps to prevent abuse "decades ago."

"We cannot undo these incidents. But we have already drawn the consequences decades ago. All educators tasked with taking care of the children must have appropriate pedagogical training," the statement said.

Der Standard quoted a 33-year-old ex-choister who lives in Berlin as saying he and others were pressured to wash their genitals thoroughly in the shower while supervisors watched. He was quoted as saying that an older choirster once forced hime to perform oral sex. The newspaper quoted another member, now a 51-year-old psychologist living in Munich, as saying that when he sang with the group between 1966 and 1970, a choirmaster kept his hand on his thigh for an hour during a bus tour.

There have been daily reports of child sexual abuse in Austrian Catholic institutions since the arch-abbot of Salzburg's St. Peter's monastery quit Monday after admitting to sexually abusing a boy 40 years ago.

Authorities: Haim had illegal prescription

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The late actor Corey Haim had a fraudulent prescription for a powerful painkiller that authorities said Friday was obtained through a major drug ring.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office said records of the prescription in the name of the former teen heartthrob were found during an investigation of the ring that illegally obtained prescription pads and used the stolen identities of doctors to fill them out.

"Corey Haim's death is yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of prescription drug abuse," Brown said in a written statement. "This problem is increasingly linked to criminal organizations, like the illegal and massive prescription drug ring under investigation."

L.A. County coroner's officials, however, said they have not yet determined what killed the 38-year-old Haim on Wednesday.

State law enforcement authorities said they were investigating the drug ring and how Haim, who battled addiction for years, obtained the prescription.

A person familiar with the investigation said Haim may have been doctor shopping.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said four prescription drug bottles bearing the actor's name were found in the apartment where he collapsed, but all those drugs had been provided by a doctor who had been treating the actor. The illegal prescription was for the powerful painkiller OxyContin said Jerry Brown.

"This is a growing and dangerous problem," Brown said.

Investigators believe the ring either sells the pads on the street to addicts or to people who then fill out the forms and obtain the drugs for illegal distribution.

Doctors whose names are on the form usually aren't aware that their identity is being used illegally. So far, authorities have uncovered up to 5,000 fraudulent prescriptions linked to the fraud ring in Southern California.

'South Park' ready to take on Tiger

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Golf clubs in hands or not, the kids of "South Park" are ready to take on Tiger Woods.

No subject is sacred for creators of the Comedy Central cartoon. So for the opening of its 14th season on Wednesday, the troubled golfer encounters Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman in their animated Colorado town.

Matt Stone, who makes the series with partner Trey Parker, says it's such a juicy topic they could have made a Tiger-centric season.

He says sex addiction, the intersection of powerful men and willing women, strange stories and bad public relations all give them fodder. Stone wasn't revealing many details, in part because the two were still writing. The show is airing its 200th episode next month.

Clinton slams Israel on housing announcement

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday delivered a stinging rebuke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his government's announcement this week of new Jewish housing in East Jerusalem, calling it "a deeply negative signal" for the Mideast peace process and ties with the U.S.

The State Department said Clinton spoke to Netanyahu by phone for 43 minutes to vent U.S. frustration with Tuesday's announcement that cast a pall over a visit by Vice President Joseph Biden and endangered indirect peace talks with the Palestinians that the Obama administration had announced just a day earlier.

The length and unusually blunt tone of Clinton's call underscored the administration's concern about prospects for the negotiations it has been trying to organize for more than a year and its anger over Israel's refusal to heed U.S. appeals not to make provocative gestures.

"The announcement of the settlements on the very day the vice president was there was insulting," Clinton said in an interview with CNN Friday. "It was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone, the U.S., our vice president who had gone to reassert America's strong support for Israeli security and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that view known."

Clinton called "to make clear that the U.S. considered the announcement to be a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship and counter to the spirit of the vice president's trip," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowly told reporters.

The harsh criticism of America's closest Mideast ally and questions about its commitment to the U.S.-Israeli relationship followed equally blunt condemnation of the housing announcement from the White House and Biden himself.

It also comes ahead of a trip to the region by U.S. Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and a meeting in Moscow next week of the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers that Clinton will attend.

The Israeli announcement enraged the Palestinians and Arab states, jeopardizing the proximity talks Mitchell is to mediate. An Arab league advisory committee has already withdrawn its endorsement of the discussions.