Alejandro González Iñárritu to direct “Birdman”

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Alejandro González Iñárritu is set to direct “Birdman” from a script he co-wrote with Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo, a person familiar with the project told TheWrap.Known for more dramatic pieces like “Amores Perros,” “Babel” and “Biutiful,” Iñárritu will be tacking a comedic film for the first time.“Birdman” tells the story of an actor who once...

Read More..

Obama meets with Boehner on fiscal cliff: aides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama met with Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner on Sunday at the White House to negotiate ways to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” according to White House officials and a congressional aide.The two sides declined to provide further details about the unannounced meeting. Obama and Boehner aides used the same language to describe...

Read More..

Obama meets with Boehner to discuss 'fiscal cliff'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama met with Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner on Sunday at the White House to negotiate ways to avoid the "fiscal cliff," according to White House officials and a congressional aide. The two sides declined to provide further details about the unannounced meeting. Obama and Boehner aides used the same language to...

Read More..

Anger at Australian radio station over royal hoax

LONDON (AP) — It started out as a joke, but ended in tragedy.The sudden death of a nurse who unwittingly accepted a prank call to a London hospital about Prince William‘s pregnant wife Kate has shocked Britain and Australia, and sparked an angry backlash Saturday from some who argue the DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible.At first, the call by two irreverent Australian DJs posing...

Read More..

Twitter to Start War on Instagram In Time for Christmas

Holidays seem to be Instagram‘s bread and butter, so it makes sense that Twitter would fire their first shot in the war on Instagram when the app is at its most vulnerable. RELATED: Why You Can’t See Instagram Photos on Twitter AnymoreIf we learned anything from Thanksgiving, it’s that people love to Instagram their holidays. Turkeys, stuffing, table settings: you Amaro’d it all. It was the service’s...

Read More..

“Freaks and Geeks” revisited: “Everybody was so talented and nobody knew it yet”

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Looking back on “Freaks and Geeks,” Linda Cardellini – who led the (now) star-studded cast as Lindsay Weir – sums up the short-lived NBC series in one simple sentence: “Everybody was so talented and nobody knew it yet.”Thanks to Judd Apatow, the director of “Knocked Up” and sort-of-sequel “This Is 40,” everybody knows it now.And Vanity Fair’s in-depth oral history of the...

Read More..

Venezuela’s Chavez to have another cancer operation

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he would undergo another cancer operation in the coming days after doctors in Cuba found a third recurrence of malignant cells in his pelvic area.The news is a big blow for his supporters in South America’s biggest oil exporter, who elected him in October to a new six-year term in power. Chavez has twice said he was cured, and then...

Read More..

Texas A&M freshman quarterback Manziel makes Heisman history

NEW YORK (AP) -- He's Johnny Best in Football now - and a freshman, at that.Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel became the first newcomer to win the Heisman Trophy, taking college football's top individual prize Saturday night after a record-breaking debut.Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o finished a distant second in the voting and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein was third. In a Heisman...

Read More..

Protesters surge around Egypt’s presidential palace

CAIRO (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters surged around the presidential palace on Friday and the opposition rejected President Mohamed Mursi‘s call for dialogue to end a crisis that has polarized the nation and sparked deadly clashes.The Islamist leader’s deputy said he could delay a December 15 referendum on a constitution that liberals opposed, although the concession only partly...

Read More..

Billionaire Aldi heir dies aged 58

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German billionaire Berthold Albrecht, heir to the Aldi supermarket chain and one of Germany‘s richest men, has died aged 58, his family announced on Friday.Together with his brother Theo Jr, Albrecht’s fortune was estimated at $ 17.8 billion, according to Forbes. That placed them at 32 in the list of Forbes billionaires and second for Germany.“Berthold was a fighter, and full...

Read More..