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The red carpet will get glitzier as Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik, acclaimed UK-based Brick Lane actress Tannishtha Chatterjee and director Dev Benegal will rub shoulders with the Hollywood glitterati...

The war between the BBC and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation escalated tonight when the BBC director general accused Murdoch's son James of being 'desperately out of touch' for lambasting the corporation in a speech last month.Mark Thompson's decision to name Murdoch, who runs News Corporation's operations in Europe and Asia, in an email to employees heralds the start of a BBC fight-back following allegations that it is too powerful, according to senior sources at the corporation.The chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, launched a separate public defence of the BBC, in an atmosphere coloured by Murdoch's combative speech at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. Murdoch warned that the scale of the BBC's ambitions was 'chilling' and called for it to be radically reduced in size.In an unprecedented open letter to licence-fee payers, Lyons acknowledged that the BBC may have to 'become smaller' in the current political and economic climate.In his email t

Everyone's a bitch, men own the internet and denial is good. Writer, director and straight-talker Nora Ephron lets ripNora Ephron's new film about the joys of cooking slips down as easily as chocolate souffle, precision-baked to satisfy the appetite of the mainstream American female cinemagoer. There are laughs, there are tears. There are lots of lovely fats and carbs, safely out of reach on the screen. There is Meryl Streep, Ephron's favourite actor, chewing up the scenery as the daffy 60s TV chef, Julia Child. There is Amy Adams, cute as a button as Julie Powell, who baked and blogged her way through Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then wrote a book about it. There are two dishy, endlessly helpful husbands. It's warm, sweet, unchallenging.Save for one short scene in a bar. Julie has had a bust-up with her husband. 'I'm a bitch,' she wails to a friend. The friend says nothing. Julie is wounded. 'You really think I'm a bitch?' 'Well, sure,' says the friend. 'But so am I

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is proud to announce a major expansion of ACCESS Roundabout, a multi-faceted audience development initiative that allocates over 34,000 affordable tickets, as low as $10, to theatergoers. Beginning with the 2009-2010 season, ACCESS Roundabout will increase the number of affordable tickets available by 12,000!

James Murdoch's BBC proposals would be 'a tragedy for the world', says Australian public broadcaster's Mark ScottThe head of Australia's public service broadcaster has torn into James Murdoch over his attack on the BBC, accusing him of wanting to 'destroy the BBC as we know it'.Mark Scott, the managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, took issue with the News Corporation Europe and Asia chief's recent claim in his MacTaggart lecture that the BBC was constraining commercial news organisations from charging for news.'I can't let this pass without commenting on James Murdoch's recent claim that it was 'essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news',' Scott said in a speech tonight to the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association at Australia House, central London.'In other words, that as commercial news services were now considering charging for their online news, there was no longer a place for a free, public news ser

Jack Viertel, Artistic Director of new york City Center's Encores! series, today announced directors for the three 2009-10 season musicals...

Prize-winning German-Turkish director Fatih Akin is turning to comedy in his latest film 'Soul Kitchen,' which showed at the venice film Festival on Thursday.

International News: Thompson calls News Corp. exec 'out of touch' -- BBC director general Mark Thompson has gone on the offensive following the attack on the pubcaster by News Corp. exec James Murdoch, who recently denounced it for mounting a 'chilling' land-grab.

Director general Mark Thompson tackles James Murdoch's MacTaggart lecture head on in email to all BBC staffMark Thompson, the BBC director general, issued a strongly worded attack on James Murdoch today, accusing the head of News Corporation in Europe and Asia of being 'desperately out of touch' with viewers.Thompson's decision to name Murdoch in an email sent to all BBC staff demonstrates that the corporation has decided to come out fighting after Murdoch's MacTaggart lecture at the end of last month, according to senior corporation sources.Referring to a Guardian/ICM poll published on Saturday, which showed that the majority of the public support the BBC, Thompson told employees: 'It must have made uncomfortable reading for those critics who would like the world to believe that trust and pride in the BBC is getting weaker rather than stronger.'We've seen a pretty relentless onslaught from the press over the summer, culminating in James Murdoch's MacTaggart Lecture. The most important

Director John Hillcoat asked the songwriter to take a crack at adapting The Road. Cave chose to write the score instead