By Peter Rudegeair NEW YORK | Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:50pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - What began two years ago as an attempt to document on video one day's events all over the world has evolved into a network of tens of thousands of filmmakers able to provide a glimpse into experiences of people living in war zones, closed societies and otherwise inacce...

LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:42pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The father of "Modern Family" star Ariel Winter was given temporary control over the teenage actress' estate on Wednesday in a court-approved settlement in Los Angeles after allegations that her mother had abused her. Winter, 14, who plays the brainy and precocious teenager Alex Dunphy on ...

By Michael Holden LONDON | Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:39pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - British television star Jimmy Savile is suspected of carrying out an unprecedented number of sex offences including 31 rapes, police said on Wednesday in their most comprehensive review of the scandal. Revelations about Savile, who died last year, provoked outrage across Br...

"Nosarans were treated to a colorful display this past Saturday December 8th, as the Nosara High School Christmas Festival kicked off with a series of “bangs”, followed by floats, music, and dance." Over 1.300 people came out ready for lights, sounds and sights with families, teens, and the young-at-heart lining the main strip of town from Super Nosara to the airport in order to see all the mar...

By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:16am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The actors of drama "Lincoln," musical "Les Miserables" and comedy "Silver Linings Playbook" led nominations for the Screen Actors Guild film awards on Wednesday, winning four nominations apiece, including best ensemble cast. Joining them among nominees for best m...

NEW YORK | Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:17am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Paul McCartney jamming with Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder duetting with Roger Waters on a Pink Floyd song are just two of the acts in store at a benefit concert on Wednesday for victims of Superstorm Sandy, producers say. The "12-12-12" concert at New York's Madison Square Garden features a who's ...

LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:04am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Director Quentin Tarantino's slavery era Western "Django Unchained" and mythological indie film "Beasts of the Southern Wild," were among the top film nominees on Tuesday for the annual NAACP Image Awards. The NAACP also nominated "Flight," starring Denzel Washington as an alcoholic airlin...

By Jill Serjeant and Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:03am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, who helped introduce the sitar to the Western world through his collaborations with The Beatles, died in Southern California on Tuesday, his family said. He was 92. Shankar, a three-time Grammy winner with le...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:02am EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy to life, filmmaker Peter Jackson is back in the world of Middle Earth with the author's prequel, "The Hobbit." The three-film series is due to open in U.S. theaters on Friday with "The Hobbit: An Unexpe...

LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:02pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" landed a record-breaking 13 nominations for the Critics Choice Movie Awards on Tuesday, ahead of musical "Les Miserables" and indie comedy "Silver Linings Playbook". "Lincoln", starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, ...

By Dana Feldman LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:17pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bacon, whiskey and stilettos - this is not your mother's kitchen. This is "Epic Chef," YouTube's 20,000-calorie cooking spectacle that makes its debut on Friday. "The show is complete madness," producer Rob Czar told Reuters on a recent set visit in Los Angeles, whe...

NEW YORK | Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:12pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf will make his Broadway debut as a petty thief opposite Alec Baldwin in a revival of the play "Orphans," press representatives for the play's producers said on Tuesday. LaBeouf, 26, who starred in such big-budget movies as "Indiana Jones" and the "Transformers" franchi...

LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:09pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The popular TV show "Storage Wars" - in which treasure hunters bid to buy unseen items in abandoned units - is rigged, with producers sometimes planting valuable items among the junk, a former contestant said in a lawsuit on Tuesday. David Hester, one of the reality TV show's longest-servi...

By Mike Collett-White LONDON | Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:53pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - The Spice Girls took to the stage on Tuesday after the world premiere of a new musical loosely based on their meteoric rise to fame in the 1990s, earning huge cheers from an audience that only really got going at the encore. "Viva Forever!" was the brainchild of produce...

LOS ANGELES | Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:39pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden thriller "Zero Dark Thirty," Iran hostage drama "Argo," indie comedy "Silver Linings Playbook," and mythological indie film "Beasts of the Southern Wild" made the year's top 10 films on Monday as picked by the American Film Institute (AFI). The AFI list, released at the sta...

By Kurt Anthony Krug DETROIT | Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:14pm EST DETROIT (Reuters) - It was the death of Walter Harris, a 17-year veteran Detroit firefighter, in an abandoned building four years ago that inspired Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez to film their documentary "BURN." "(Harris) was killed in the collapse of an abandoned building while fighting ...

By Rob Taylor CANBERRA | Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:16pm EST CANBERRA (Reuters) - Two Australian radio announcers who made a prank call to a British hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate broke a three-day silence on Monday to speak of their distress at the apparent suicide of the nurse who took their call. The 2DayFM Sydney-based announce...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES | Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:18pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Andy Serkis reprises his role as Gollum in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," to be released worldwide this week, but his main role this time was as a second unit director, shooting battle sequences in 3D for director Peter Jackson. The British-born actor, 48, who...

During the first 15 days of November, the beginning of tourist season, the tourist police reported an increase in the number of crimes against property. At the same time, Jeison Vargas, tourist police chief in Guiones, assured that this is what the tourist police are here for and that they are visiting the area businesses every day. The police advise taking necessary precautions to ensure that ...

By Madeline O'Leary BRUSSELS | Mon Dec 10, 2012 9:26am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Comic artist Brecht Evens decided to break away from the traditional comic strip images of clear lines and pencil sketches developed in Belgium more than half a century ago. After surviving at first on government subsidies, in 2010 he produced a graphic novel featurin...

MEXICO CITY | Sun Dec 9, 2012 7:10pm EST MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera is feared dead after Mexican authorities said they found the wreckage of a plane she was traveling in on Sunday. A spokesman for the state government of Nuevo Leon said investigators had found the remains of Rivera's Lear jet, which disappeared off the r...

By Ronald Grover and Andrea Burzynski Sun Dec 9, 2012 2:47pm EST (Reuters) - James Bond showed remarkable staying power as the latest installment of the spy series, "Skyfall," captured the box office title and collected $11 million in its fifth week in U.S. and Canadian movie theaters, outgunning Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" and "The Twilight Saga: Breaki...

Sun Dec 9, 2012 2:36pm EST (Reuters) - Following are the top 10 movies at North American box offices for the three-day weekend starting December 7, led by "Skyfall" at No. 1, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters. 1 (2) Skyfall .................................$11.0 million2 (4) Rise of the Guardians ...................$10.5 million3 (1) Twilight: Bre...

By Edith Honan NEW YORK | Sun Dec 9, 2012 2:22pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fifty years since their first London jam sessions, the Rolling Stones kicked off the U.S. leg of a brief anniversary tour with a vibrant show in New York on Saturday that belied their years - wrinkles and nostalgia aside. Drummers wearing gorilla masks warmed up the crowd p...

LOS ANGELES | Fri Dec 7, 2012 9:14pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The autopsy report on murdered hip hop star Notorious B.I.G. has been released by the Los Angeles County Coroner, more than 15 years after his shooting. Notorious B.I.G was gunned down at the age of 24 in Los Angeles in the early morning on March 9, 1997, in a drive-by shooting. The rapper ...

LOS ANGELES | Fri Dec 7, 2012 7:59pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The South Korean pop singer behind the viral smash hit "Gangnam Style" apologized on Friday for past concerts featuring anti-American lyrics, ahead of a holiday performance to be attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and his family. Psy issued the apology after reports surfaced in the Uni...

WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 7, 2012 7:26pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Singer-songwriter James Taylor says he doesn't see the resemblance, but he was pitched - without success - to play the role of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in the new film. Taylor told a packed audience at the National Press Club on Friday that Oscar-winning musician John Williams - who com...

LOS ANGELES | Fri Dec 7, 2012 3:26pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen and newcomer blues-rock band Alabama Shakes landed the top awards in Rolling Stone magazine's annual list of the year's best music on Friday, which featured many of next year's leading Grammy nominees. Springsteen's 17th studio album "Wrecking Ball" topped t...

Go Blue Central America is an interactive map to share with the rest of the world, the uniqueness and authenticity of the marine and coastal areas of Central America. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and National Geographic (NatGeo) presented "Go Blue Central America", an interactive map on the internet designed to promote tourism in the Isthmus. The website "Geotourism ...

By Mike Collett-White LONDON | Fri Dec 7, 2012 12:02pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - One of Britain's top directors Michael Grandage is targeting the next generation of theatre-goers by offering one quarter of all tickets to his upcoming, star-studded season for 10 pounds ($16) each, a fraction of what they would normally cost. The award-winning 50-year...

By Gyles Beckford WELLINGTON | Fri Dec 7, 2012 12:09am EST WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Film maker Peter Jackson wants to scare children with his latest movie - and perhaps even a few grown ups. The first of the Hobbit movie trilogy - "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" - is about to hit theatres, and Jackson says he's tried to hold true to its roots a...

By Vernell Hackett NASHVILLE, Tennessee | Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:57am EST NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Male artists led the nominations announced on Wednesday for the 2013 Grammys, as fun., Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys landed six nods each for music's biggest awards. The nominations for Ne...

By Lisa Richwine NEW YORK | Wed Dec 5, 2012 4:59pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Netflix Inc doesn't plan to pass along the cost of the rights to Walt Disney Co movies to subscribers, a senior executive at the video streaming company said on Wednesday. Netflix, which analysts estimate paid more than $350 million for the exclusive rights to stream Disn...

LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 5, 2012 4:59pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oprah Winfrey has selected "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" by first-time novelist Ayana Mathis as the second book in her newly re-branded book club, the media mogul said on Wednesday. Oprah's Book Club 2.0 will test whether Winfrey can sustain her power to propel books onto best-seller lists ...

By Christine Kearney NEW YORK | Wed Dec 5, 2012 4:46pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Zero Dark Thirty," filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow's action thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, was named best film of 2012 on Wednesday by the National Board of Review - the second accolade for the movie in one week. Bigelow was named best director and Jessica Ch...

LONDON | Wed Dec 5, 2012 4:03pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - A veteran BBC TV and radio presenter was charged with three counts of indecent assault by British police on Wednesday, the latest high-profile figure to be questioned since a sex scandal erupted at Britain's publicly funded broadcaster. The charges will be a further embarrassment for the BBC, which w...

NEW YORK | Wed Dec 5, 2012 3:40pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Advertising sales at Walt Disney Co's sports powerhouse ESPN are running slightly ahead of the level they reached at the same point last year, Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said on Wednesday. At the ESPN cable television network, "we have now seen a slight improvement" in the pace of ...

By Liana B. Baker Wed Dec 5, 2012 3:29pm EST (Reuters) - Passing on a pricy Disney distribution deal could help premium movie channel Starz become a more attractive acquisition target for media companies when Liberty Media spins it off in late December or January, analysts say. Netflix said on Tuesday it signed a deal with Disney that gives it exclusive r...

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 5, 2012 3:03pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - American R&B singer Alicia Keys scored her fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with "Girl on Fire," unseating reigning chart queen Rihanna. Keys' fifth studio album sold 159,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which was the lowe...

By Christine Kearney NEW YORK | Wed Dec 5, 2012 3:00pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, whose choice of novel rhythms, classical structures and brilliant sidemen made him a towering figure in modern jazz, has died at the age of 91, his longtime manager and producer Russell Gloyd said on Wednesday. Brubeck died of heart failure ...