Hacking Update: Attorney General Meets 9/11 Families News Corp Apparently Having to pay Arrested United kingdom Editors Legal Costs

Today’smeeting between U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and several family people of 9/11 sufferers occured in Washington and survived a lot more than hour,based on attorney Norman Siegel, who signifies the 9/11 families. The group searched for the meeting within the wake ofreports that News Corp reportersmay have attempted tohack into sufferers’ family people’ telephone numbers, much in the same manner journalists at Rupert Murdoch’s News from the Worldhacked into phones from the groups of London bombing sufferers and killed children, too by political figures and celebs.Thatfallout from that scandalcausedNOTW to shutter and finally ended News Corp’s bid to consider within the United kingdom’s greatest satellite television provider BSkyB. Holder didn’t say today whether there have been phone records showing tampering about this side of water-feature, Siegelsaid, but did saythat the FBI analysis is incorporated in the preliminary stages. Meanwhile working in london,the United kingdom’s opposition Work Party intensified its attacks on Pm David Cameron over reportshis former PR chief was receiving obligations from News Corp during the PM’s staff. Adding further fuel towards the fire would be a story in today’s Financial Occasions, which stated Coulson’s legal costs are now being compensated by News Corp. The obligations, to lawyer DLA Piper, would be the firstindication the former NOTW editor continues to be receivingfinancial the help of News Worldwide, which may neitherconfirm nor deny the report. “It is crazy the firm will not answer an issue the industry few public interest,” stated Work Mega pixel Tom Watson. “This totally undermines its tell you they are co-operating with individuals looking into phone-hacking and smacks of the cover-up.” Coulson quit his government job in The month of january and was arrested This summer 8 after facts emerged of hacking at NOTW throughout Coulson’s tenure since it's editor.

"Jailhouse Rock" Lyricist Jerry Leiber of Leiber and Stoller Songwriting Team Dies at 78

Jerry Leiber Jerry Leiber, one half of the songwriting team Leiber and Stoller, has died, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 78. Leiber, whose music with partner Mike Stoller was used as one of the themes on American Idol this past season, died Monday from cardiopulmonary failure in Los Angeles. See other celebs we lost this year Among Leiber's many accomplishments: Being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Some of their most definitive songs include Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog," The Clovers' "Love Potion No. 9," and "Kansas City," which went on to become the official song for Kansas City, Missouri. The Grammy winner's music was adapted into a Broadway musical revue, Smokey Joe's Café, which was nominated for seven Tonys in 1995.

Fall TV Start Looking: Ray Romano about the Middle

Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton "You appear really familiar." That is what Ray Romano's character states to Patricia Heaton's Frankie when he stumbles upon his old Everyone Loves Raymond wife about the Middle's September 21 premiere on ABC.Romano plays Nicky, a classic classmate of Mike Heck, who interrupts the pair on what's said to be an intimate getaway. Jokes Romano, "I am her husband of nine years. Patty and Neil [Flynn] only have been married to date for 2.InchFor additional first examines fall TV - such as the Good Wife, Vampire Journals and Grey's Anatomy - get this week's problem of TV Guide Magazine! Sign up for TV Guide Magazine now!

All Aboard! The Rachel Weisz Oscar Bandwagon Departs Now

It’s almost that time again: The fall movie season, when critics sharpen their wits, audiences sniff through Hollywood’s fetid miasma of hype, and awards-beat observers recalibrate their Oscarometers for the most precise reads on the encroaching horde of late-year releases. But as recent years have shown us, you don’t necessarily need to debut after Labor Day to be taken seriously as an awards contender. In fact, August may as well be the new December where some major categories are concerned. Which brings us to Rachel Weisz. Needless to say, Weisz is not exactly hurting on the respectability or visibility fronts. She has two high-profile premieres forthcoming at next month’s Toronto Film Festival, including Terence Davies’s adaptation of the classic Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea and her reunion with Constant Gardener director Fernando Meirelles in 360. As if these didn’t represent enough of a boost, her recent marriage to Dream House co-star Daniel Craig landed Weisz in the pages of movie blogs and celebrity rags alike. On paper, anyway, she’s positioned to make a run at unprecedented creative, professional and personal success, up to and including Davies’s likely awards-bait dangling in front of the Academy, BAFTA, the Golden Globes and any other other voting body that’s paying attention. The latter scenario, of course, assumes that Sea is a) good and b) will find a Stateside buyer willing to float it for consideration this fall opposite early contenders like Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) and… Rachel Weisz? Believe it. We’ve not been shy about suggesting as much around here, but unequivocally and for the record, Weisz delivers the performance of her career in The Whistleblower. Not bad, considering she already possesses a Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Gardener and excellence in last year’s sadly underseen Agora. And again, any number of her three films this fall may in fact surpass all of these. But there’s something uniquely captivating about her turn as Kathryn Bolkovac, the real-life Nebraska police officer whose stint as a UN peacekeeper in Bosnia exposed the organization’s connection to an international human-trafficking and sex-slavery ring. Weisz cites the story’s spiritual antecedents like Silkwood and Erin Brockovich, and indeed, as co-written and directed by Larysa Kondracki, The Whistleblower confers both the first film’s dark middle-class intrigue and the second film’s spunk and charisma, showing off two distinct sides of the underdog genre’s heroic coin. Yet in the end, The Whistleblower isn’t really about the coin. It’s about where the coin lands — amid a tragedy of unimaginable scale, one in which bureaucrats are indistinguishable from murderers, where lives are traded and discarded with impunity by the very people entrusted to save them. As Bolkovac, Weisz purposefully stalks through this universe, a Midwestern mom absorbing squalid scenes of abjection while the investigator unravels the scandalous plot around her. Knowing that it’s not as though viewers need to come around to morally aligning themselves with Bolkovac, Weisz does something brilliant with the character: She chips away at the implications and consequences of obsession — that of the crusader, the oppressed and the oppressor. Take a look at these three scenes, the first of which features Bolkovac’s first encounter with the horror-show environment into which Ukranian girls are sold and eventually kept as sex slaves. Bewildered at first by the alien setting but furiously piecing its elements together behind her eyes, she pins a dirty local police boss to the mat before he squirms away. But watch those eyes right when the boss mentions “whores”; they betray Bolkovac ever so slightly, supplying the film’s first evidence that she might be out of her constitutional depth: Bolkovac’s first encounter with one of the girls results in a more outward panic, laying out her humanity in sharp relief. But again, the average viewer will meet Weisz more than halfway when it comes to sympathizing with Bolkovac and The Whistleblower’s victims. But how do we relate to her male colleagues who’ve happily embroiled themselves in the flesh racket? We and Bolkovac know enough to loathe them, but how do we work through that to manipulate what we want out of them? That’s another dimension of the performance that Weisz navigates with cool and aplomb: On the flip side, when the victims have essentially been exploited, tormented and abused beyond any rational understanding, how do you persuade them to give you what you want? At some fundamental level, even for a professional like Bolkovac, the natural answer has to be, “I don’t know.” And that’s totally fine in the beginning. But the leap of faith that results is a thing of beauty and sensitivity that further enhances the dynamic range of Weisz’s character: The rest of the movie mines deeper and deeper into each of these relationships, as well as a sort of confessional three-way with a diplomat played by Vanessa Redgrave and an internal affairs officer sketched out with increasingly nervy paranoia by David Strathairn. It’s not an easy sit — least of all when Kondracki demonstrates the scope of the sexual abuses perpetrated by Bolkovac’s targets — but it is a visceral, revelatory one, made all the more remarkable by a climax exposing the true reach and insurmountability of the corruption. And in taking it beyond the simple David vs. Goliath framework — showing instead what David might be like if building his slingshot totally consumed him — Weisz elevates the material to a level that does in fact belong in the underdog canon alongside her cherished Silkwood and Erin Brockovich. In recognition of both Weisz’s performance and the disturbing reality that, as Roger Ebert notes this week in his review, the security contractor dramatized in the film remains in the service of the UN, The Whistleblower belongs in at least some broader cultural spotlight. Regardless of Weisz’s successful Oscar history, awards-season recognition will get it there. Which raises the question: Why would this open in August of all months, the seeming no-man’s-land between blockbuster season and fall-festival frenzy? Actually, that’s why The Whistleblower has a distinct advantage: It has a distributor (Samuel Goldwyn), and it’s being released as we speak. There’s nothing to shop around or, worse yet, potentially lose in the shuffle at Toronto (as Whistleblower was after its 2010 premiere at the same fest, where Natalie Portman and Fox Searchlight took the Oscar lead and never looked back). Moreover, August’s reputation as a ghetto of cinematic castoffs, dregs and untouchables has seen a recent awards-season restoration thanks to films like Inglourious Basterds, District 9 and — most importantly for Weisz’s purposes — the actress-friendly trifecta of Julie and Julia, Frozen River and Animal Kingdom. Even The Kids Are All Right may as well have been an August release, officially springboarding Annette Bening into last year’s Best Actress hunt with its blockbuster limited opening on July 30. (Kids, River and Kingdom all benefited from Sundance break-outs as well.) Life after August is real. In any case, The Whistleblower expands out today from New York and Los Angeles to Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and San Diego. The race is on. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. And until I see any better, my Oscarometer points to Weisz.

CBS Twitches Nose, Orders 'Bewitched' Script

Sam Catlin inks Sony TV deal

CatlinSam Catlin has signed a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. The "Breaking Bad" co-exec producer will be tapped to create original series for the studio and may continue with the AMC series as well. The future of "Bad" beyond its fourth season is currently up in the air as AMC and Sony negotiate over future seasons. Sony will also have the option of shopping "Bad'' to other networks should AMC pass. Catlin was an executive story editor on Fox series "Canterbury's Law" and story editor on NBC series "Kidnapped." He has previously developed pilots for both FX and the WB. Catlin also wrote the screenplay for indie film "The Great New Wonderful." Catlin is repped by UTA and attorney Ken Richman. Contact Andrew Wallenstein at andrew.wallenstein@variety.com

Guest star qualifications worth debate

A fast glance over the primetime Emmy guest star nods rapidly discloses the majority of the nominees look a great deal like series regulars.No women nominated walked in for one single episode, that has elevated some hackles. While acceptable under Emmy rules, now you ask , being elevated regarding how fair it's to check an actress arriving for one limited guest shot versus. one that is really a credit lacking a recurring character.Cloris Leachman may pop from the bed room from time to time, but because the crazy grandmother she's still part of the core family on "Raising Hope." And Joan Cusack in "Shameless" frequently wound up in as numerous episodes as individuals considered supporting stars.Loretta Devine has made an appearance on "Grey's Anatomy" because the show first released, but checked set for a substantial story arc on her behalf character's initial phases of Alzheimer's disease this year that gained her a nom.This past year, John Lithgow required home the guest actor Emmy despite the fact that he made an appearance in nearly every episode of "Dexter" because the Trinity Killer. Julia Stiles hopes to repeat that streak together with her ongoing turn last season as Dexter's partner in crime.The guidelines regarding guest star criteria have constantly transformed through the years. Previously, the television Academy has limited the amount of looks an actress could make about the series to be able to be described as a guest. Based on the org's senior Vice president John Leverence, previously the looks were assigned at three. Then, realizing story arcs, the amount was upped to 6. Later, the rule was transformed therefore the standards to be seen like a guest actor hinged about the actor's contract spelling out his credit on the program.InchThe quantitative ground is definitely shifting upon us, however the qualitative ground continues to be same," Leverence states. "The number of episodes work appeared to alter as drama transformed. Once we got more into ensemble casts, we joined right into a new section of who're the leads, and who're the supports and, consequently, who're the guest stars."Margo Martindale, who guest starred on "Justified" for starters season, elected to submit within the supporting actress category this season. She snagged a nomination.Leverence, however, keeps there's a noticeable difference between a guest actor along with a series regular even when they recur on the program instead of just walk set for just one job."There's an orbit round the mother planet of series and also the regulars," states Leverence. "The guest stars, regardless of the number of episodes they're in, are situated in a different way compared to core lead and support group."At this time around, you will find no intends to change conditions to which an actress may undergo this category."The bottom line is, board policy would be to defer towards the legal experts," states Sheri Ebner, director from the Emmy Honours. "When the contract states they're a guest actor, they really are a guest actor."But as history proves, policy can invariably change."The board might perform a blend, in which the title is a part after which a cap on the amount of episodes another," Leverence states. "There is nothing about the agenda, but rules are constantly altering and changing."Ebner states ultimately, it does not really matter the number of episodes where the actor made an appearance, however the energy from the posted performance. It only required one appearance on "Law & Order: SVU" for Ann-Margret's guest star Emmy win last season."Everything comes lower to that certain episode, to ensure that makes things equal, " Ebner states.Route To THE EMMYS: THE GUEST STAR Guest star qualifications worth debate Drama guest stars vie for Emmy Visitors shine in comedies Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Brett Ratner, Don Mischer to create the Academy awards

RatnerMischerDon Mischer and Brett Ratner are creating the 84th Oscars, the academy introduced.For Ratner, director from the "Hurry Hour" trilogy, it will likely be his first participation using the Academy awards telecast. He'll have the assistance of Mischer, who's creating and pointing for that second year consecutively.The Oscars is going to be held on February. 26, 2012 in the Kodak Theater."I had been so impressed with Brett after i met with him to go over the Oscar show," stated Sherak, who introduced the employing Thurday. "He's an amazing passion for film and it is background and is really a true student from the business of movies." Contact Justin Kroll at justin.kroll@variety.com

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith Show Off 25,000 Square Foot Calabasas Retreat

Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and their multi-talented family display their never-before-photographed Southern California home (located near Calabasas, Calif.), in the September issue of Architectural Digest magazine. The cover features the movie-star couple, while one photo in the magazine gathers together, for the first time, the entire family, including Trey, Smith's son from his first marriage, 18; Jaden, 13; and Willow, 10. Included in the story are pictures of Smith's recording studio (where Willow recorded her single "Whip My Hair"); two kids' rooms, one with bunk beds, the other a canopy bed; and a great room with views out to the mountains. The entire house is decorated in neutral hues with eye-catching pieces like purple shag pillows and exotic tribal-printed chairs. Interior designer Judith Lance adds that everything in the house "had to look handcrafted but at the same time refined and sophisticated." The Mediterranean-style abode was designed by architect Stephen Samuelson, who says that the aesthetic of the home "is anchored in history and the various interpretations of adobe in Persian, Moroccan, Spanish, as well as Southwest American cultures." Will Smith met Samuelson through Gene Hackman while the actors were shooting Wild Wild West in Santa Fe. For the Pinkett Smiths, the most important consideration in designing the 25,000 square-foot home was that it exude intimacy. The nine-bedroom residence includes a meditation room as well as a circular floor plan which creates "an infinite cycle that represented what Jada and I hoped for our love," says Smith, who next appears in Men in Black III. The property also includes a lake, basketball and tennis courts and three golf holes. The couple reportedly moved into their dream house in 2004 after a seven-year-long building process. Pinkett Smith -- who next appears in Madagascar 3 and wears a vibrant Lanvin dress on the cover -- says that, "for Will and me this home was always a spiritual endeavor. We're very earthy, organic people. We wanted to create a family retreat, something made by hand and as natural as possible, something that ties back to the land." The entire article will be available in Architectural Digest on Aug 9. Related Topics Jada Pinkett Smith Jaden Smith Will Smith Willow Smith Real Estate