Create your own free news widgets.

He may be on the verge of movie stardom, but it's his leading role in the TV sitcom that truly delights himJohn Krasinski is in the place where he has been happiest for the past four-plus years: on the set of the American version of The Office. The 29-year-old actor, on a short lunch break, cracks jokes from the go, very gently mocking the plotlines his character is involved in. In short, he turns out to be much as one might expect from his laconic, deadpan character in the show, Jim Halpert. He is personable, a little quirky and, above all, funny.We talk in his trailer in the unlovely Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys, which doubles with surprising aptness for the drab post-industrial chill of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the show is supposedly set. 'Yup, here we are in Van Nuys,' he says. (It is home to a notoriously noisy airport for private jets, industrial warehouses and several offshoots of the porn business.) 'It does a perfect job of doubling as Scranton - except of cours

Whether it's Brad Pitt, Harry Potter or a highly trained guinea pig, everyone in the movies seems to be acting out the same old story. Is Hollywood running out of cliches?Lately, I've noticed that films all seem to be running together. Transformers is a big, stupid, boisterous affair in which the actors compete with the flashy, destructive machines for the audience's attention. But so is Terminator Salvation. The Hangover is about a group of young men behaving immaturely, and sometimes even piggishly. But so is Knocked Up. And Superbad. And Funny People. An alarming number of recent movies seem to be about vampires; an even more alarming number star Sandra Bullock; and an awful lot of Jason Stathamish type movies now star Gerard Butler. Movies all seem to contain one puking scene, one scene where someone gets kicked in the testicles, and one scene where a character asks another who has just survived lobotomy, castration, gang rape or being the victim of ritual flaying: 'Are you all rig

For the fourth season in a row, viewers have voted for a singing act to win America's Got Talent 4. Chicken farmer and country singer Kevin Skinner won $1 million and his own Las Vegas show. Here's his final performance. Ugh. Who wants to go to Vegas to see karaoke? He beat opera singer Barbara Padilla, who's a far better singer. The most Vegas-like performative act, Recycled Percussion, came in third (their finale performance, followed by the Texas Tenors and sibling singers Voices of Glory. The finale--on which Susan Boyle performed--had the show's most-watched episode ever, and improved over last season's finale in the ratings. It 'was up 6% in 18-49 and 24% in total viewers vs. its year-ago finale, racking up the show's largest audience ever,' Variety reported. I don't quite get the show; some of the acts are entertaining, but its progression is tedious, and feels like watching the (old) semi-final rounds of American Idol for three months. But perhaps between Idol and So You Thi

Coldplay consider fans' toilet breaks when choosing their set list. The 'Fix You' hitmakers constantly watch their audiences during concerts and if they see people getting restless during certain songs, they axe the track from subsequent shows.

Any movie based on a children’s picture-book is bound to be a feat of extrapolation, but taking on “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’’ poses a special challenge. The 1978 book has a funny concept - a town called Chewandswallow, where the food supply falls from the sky - but no characters and little plot to speak of. Food drops, ...

In a career spanning some 40 movies including global hits "The English Patient" and "Chocolat," Juliette Binoche has built a strong reputation by playing many erotically charged and emotionally naked characters....

Paula Abdul gives her opinion of the choice to have funny lady Ellen DeGeneres replace her at the "American Idol" judges' table. "It's just going to be a different show," she said of the change, while on the KISS FM Phoenix radio show Johnjay and Rich. The radio hosts asked Abdul if she ever had second thoughts about leaving the show, of which she replied, "I think that happened during the time I was making that very difficult decision."

Early on in “The Burning Plain,’’ Charlize Theron tells a friend that she has a new beau. “Do I know him?’’ the friend asks - then quickly adds, “Do you ?’’ It’s a great line, indicating everything we need to know about how unmoored Theron’s character is.

Any movie based on a children’s picture-book is bound to be a feat of extrapolation, but taking on “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’’ poses a special challenge. The 1978 book has a funny concept - a town called Chewandswallow, where the food supply falls from the sky - but no characters and little plot to speak of. Food drops, ...

This week Jason Solomons meets the cockney auteur Nick Love to talk about Fila tracksuits, football violence and why he decided to remake Alan Clarke's classic The Firm.We have an exclusive interview with Israeli director Samuel Maoz, who took the Golden Lion at this year's venice film festival for his harrowing war film Lebanon, set entirely inside a tank during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.Xan Brooks and Jason review Sam Mendes's new film Away We Go, the wonderfully wacky 3D animation Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the Brazilian drama Birdwatchers.We also find out about the onedotzero festival, which celebrates the best and most innovative digital films and animation, as it heads for Zurich then Buenos Aires.All that and a chance to win The Firm soundtrack!Jason SolomonsXan Brooks