The actor, who’d had a long battle with cancer, died surrounded by his family and close friends.

Newman’s long career on the stage, screen and television included nine Oscar nominations and a win for The Color of Money. He truly was one of his generations greatest leading men. Newman remained in demand as an actor from the 1950′s through the 2000′s. His final on screen role was as a conflicted mob boss in Road to Perdition.

In later years his interests turned to philanthropy and racing cars.

Here’s a brief bio of his life and acting career from TVguide.com

Newman was born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up as the son of a successful sporting goods store owner in Shaker Heights. He acted in grade school and high school plays, then joined the Navy, serving in the Pacific in World War II. After his discharge he enrolled at Kenyon College, then spent a year at the Yale Drama School. He finally headed to New York, where he attended the famed New York Actors Studio.

He married his first wife, Jackie, in 1950. They had three children — Scott, Susan and Stephanie — before divorcing in 1958. In the same year Newman met and fell in love with his future wife, Joanne Woodward, when they filmed the The Long, Hot Summer. They married in Las Vegas, and went on to have three daughters, Elinor, Melissa and Claire.

The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January. He was often asked how a Hollywood marriage could persevere so successfully.

“I have steak at home,” he once explained. “Why should I go out for hamburger?”

In the decade after his marriage he made some of the most important films of his career. Newman’s rebels meshed perfectly with the mood of the 1960s, when he made such box office and critical hits such as The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

In 1968 he directed his first feature, Rachel, Rachel. The film earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination and a Best Actress nomination for Woodward.

After his only son, Scott, died of an accidental overdose in 1978, Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention. He later started The Hole in the Wall Gang Camps, an organization for terminally ill children that took its name from Butch Cassidy.

Perhaps the most recognizable effort by the Newman clan is their food company Newman’s Own, which produces all-natural food, with proceeds going to charity.

An avid and passionate race car driver, he became co-owner of Newman-Haas racing in 1982.

He earned his Academy Award for his portrayal of The Hustler’s Fast Eddie Felson, now middle-aged, in The Color of Money.

After a public appearance in which Newman looked weak and gaunt, family friend A.E. Hotchner confirmed in June that Newman had a form of cancer, but said the actor was “dealing with it nicely.” More recent reports have said the actor decided to end treatments so he could die peacefully at home.

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

If you enjoy playing games where your knowledge of trivia matters you’ll love the Trivia Games website.

When you visit the site you’ll see that there are a number of Trivia topics ranging from Music, Entertainment, Sports and even jackpot games. The games are none stop so you can enjoy them 24/7 and even earn money while playing.

When you sign up as a member of Trivia Games you can play against other members in trivia tournaments, write trivia questions to stump your opponents and even create your own personal trivia page.

Also, when you sign up as a member you are given $5 absolutely free so that you can try the games and when you start playing for real you’ll get a 50% bonus. The real money games are not available in all US states. For example if you live in Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, or Vermont you won’t be able to play the real money games. You will however be able to access the free games and they are plenty fun.

I signed up just to check it out and as a Canadian it looks like I have access to both the free and money games, I got a $2 bonus when I signed up and then another $3 when I confirmed my registration.

When you select a game to play – I chose Entertainment Trivia – a large screen comes up and you can choose from a variety Trivia games. Some are free, and the rest have a variety of entry fees ranging from 50 cents and up. Once you pick a game to play all you need to do is wait for it to start and then begin typing in your answers when a question pops up. It’s easy and fun.

The trivia questions are chosen randomly from the TriviaOnNet question banks by an automated game logic.

Other than joining in the Trivia games or playing in Trivia tournaments registered members of Trivia Games can create their own blog, create buddy lists, join discussion groups, invite friends, or add photos and video. There’s quite a community feel to Trivia Games.

In my short experience in using the site I found that Trivia Games worked well on my computer system (PC) and that the games were easy to join and fun to play.

So if you enjoy playing Trivia games go to the Trivia Games site and sign up. I’m sure you’ll have fun!

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

Word is that daily shows like Soaps and talk shows will be hit the hardest. Letterman and and Jay Leno are going into reruns as of today. Other shows will likely follow suit.

Apparently shows like Gray’s Anatomy and The Office stockpiled scripts in anticipation of this strike so they should continue to have material to work with through till January, but other shows where the actors are also writers such as 30 Rock may not fair so well. 24 and Lost may not start when they are supposed to and have a shorter season when they do start.

The last Writers Guild Strike in 1988 lasted 22 weeks! If this one lasts even half that long you’d better get used to Reality TV because that might be the only thing on!

How do you feel about the Writers strike?

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

Fans of the movie have been hoping for a sequel, but the creators have launched perhaps something even better. They’ve just launched a “how to” program called “The Secret Science of Getting Richer”. You can read the complete information about this how to program at the Official Site: The Secret Science of Getting Rich.

“The Secret” was about helping people improve their lives by focusing on the positive and attracting great things. It’s said that some call this the law of attraction. Millions of people who saw the movie, viewed the DVD or heard the media buzz about “The Secret” wanted to learn how to manifest what the movie “The Secret” promised.

This is how the “How-To” program came about. It’s a seminar and an affiliate program. Top teachers from the movie itself, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, and Michael Beckwith, will take you through all the steps of wealth building. The teachers have been successful themselves in building wealth through their positive approach to life and through this program you can learn their secrets, perhaps you’ll even be able to quit your day job.

Visit the Official “The Secret Science of getting Rich” website to learn more about this seminar and affiliate program.

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

His hit movie in 2004 turned him into a lovable loser on screen and an unlikely heartthrob off screen.

He was recently interviewed for the upcoming April issue of Elle magazine. During the interview he was asked if there was a “buffet of eager women” waiting for him after the movie came out. Heder jokingly replied “Maybe there was a buffet at some location that my bus just did not reach. But yeah, there was definitely this ‘I love you! I love you!’ this and that.”

The Mormon actor, happily married and expecting his first child with his wife of 5 years was never tempted by the movies groupies “You don’t want to hook up with all those greasy girls. And they don’t want you. They want Napoleon. And I wasn’t about to go back to that perm.”

Heder, who will costar in a new movie “Blades of Glory” with Will Farrell, also took the time to talk about one of his most embarrassing moments. He says he didn’t have a lot of previous experience with women since he and his wife Kirsten were college sweethearts. He does remember one embarrassing moment – “I had my first kiss when I was 17 or 18. The second time we kissed I got a little excited and I was wearing these really loose shorts that didn’t leave much to the imagination.” he went on to say “I tried to angle my body away and divert her eyes by saying, ‘Hey, look at the stars.’ From then on I wore tighter jeans.”

Aw, doesn’t he sound like a nice guy?

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

How would you like to be able to download your favorite movies for a very low price? If you’re interested then you should visit MyVideoLib: Movie Downloads to check out their wide selection of top rated movies. There are 300 titles at this time, but an additional 800 titles will be added to the MyVideoLib database in the next month.

You can download movies to play on your iPod for as low as $1.99, and DVD qualities movies for $4.99. Movies downloaded in AVI video format that’s been encoded with XVID can play back their movies on home DVD players, computers, iPods or other hand held devices.

At this time you can look at 15-30 screen shots of the movies that you are interested in, but a 2 minute video and audio pre-view will be available shortly. Movies can be downloaded in DVD quality, Video CD or in iPod format.

It’s very easy to download the videos of your choice. Just select the movie that you’d like to purchase, pay for it and download it directly to your computer or hand held device. All downloads can be resumed if they are stopped for any reason.

It’s legal to download these movies because the website is based in Russia and operates under Russian laws. The company has licenses to distribute the movies and pays usage fees to the copyright holders for each movie.

The site seems to be very straight forward and user friendly. I don’t think that you’ll have any problems finding a film to enjoy and download. Check it out.

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker and Martin Scorsese take top Oscar honors!

I don’t think many of the awards handed out will come as much of a surprise this year. There were so many great movies over the past year but some stood high above the crowd and it was clear that those movies and the actors that played in them would take home an Oscar Sunday evening.

Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker took home the top acting prizes of course. Mirren thanked the Academy for “biggest and the best gold star that I have ever had in my life”. Whitaker, who was visibly moved for his win as Ugandan dictator idi Amin in The last King of Scotland took the time to thank everyone from his ancestors to the people of Uganda.

Martin Scorsese, won a long awaited Oscar for best Director. This award was a long time in coming as he’d been nominated five times before but had lost each time. Upon accepting his award he said “I’m overwhelmed with this honor. … I just want to say too that so many people over the years have been wishing this for me. I go into a doctor’s office, an elevator … .” After thanking a long list of colleagues and family members, he gave a final shout-out to his 7-year-old daughter Francesca: “Jump up and down and make a lot of noise in the hotel. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Jennifer Hudson was overcome with emotion when she was called up to accept her award – “I have to just take this moment,” she told the crowd. “I cannot believe this. Look what God can do.”

She continued tearfully, “If my grandmother was here to see me now – she was my biggest inspiration for everything. She was a singer. She had the passion for it but she never had the chance. But I’m so grateful to have my mother here celebrating with me, my boyfriend, my sisters and my brothers. … Thank you all for being with me.”

One surprise at the show was that Eddie Murphy did not take home an award for Best supporting actor. Instead the the award was given to Alan Arkin for his role in Little Miss Sunshine which also won for best Orginal Screenplay. – “More than anything,” he said, “I am deeply moved by the openhearted appreciation our small film has received.” He also credited the offbeat comedy’s cast and crew “for creating the same sense of joy and trust and community that the film speaks about.”

Ellen DeGeneres, the host of the 79th Academy Awards, kept things moving along and kept the mood friendly.

Gore took the award for Best Documentary feature “An Inconvenient Truth” and in accepting his award he said “My fellow Americans, people all over the world,” then continued, “[global warming is] not a political issue. It’s a moral issue. We need to solve the problem.”

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

The movie is an adaptation of the Broadway hit that was loosely based on the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes. The movie came in second behind Ben Stillers comedy “Night at the Museum” which took in $11.8 million on Monday from four times as many theaters.

“This thing has been generating big numbers from the moment it opened,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of the box office tracking service Media By Numbers.

In comparison, the 2002, when the hit movie Chicago made $9.2 million between the Christmas weekend and the week that followed Christmas.

However, the Muhammad Ali boxing drama “Ali” still holds the Christmas day opening making $10.2 million on December 25th 2001.

Dreamgirls managed to score seven nominations for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, and five nominations for the Golden Globes making it a serious contender for the Oscars.

All this before it publically hit a wide array of Theaters throughout the country. The film stars Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Beyonce Knowles, and newcomer Jennifer Hudson.

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy