The Media

Doctor accused in Jackson's death won't testify - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Attorneys for Michael Jackson's former physician told a judge on Tuesday they have no plans for him to testify in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the singer's death.

Dr. Conrad Murray's lead attorney, Ed Chernoff, did not mention Murray's name when he listed witnesses who would take the stand, prompting Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor to say he would inform Murray of his right to testify, even if that might conflict with the defense strategy.

Chernoff asked if the judge was legally obligated to give that advisement to Murray and Pastor's reply was short.

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Forget "Frasier." Meet Kelsey Grammer's brooding "Boss" - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kelsey Grammer doesn't want to turn off audiences for his dark new TV drama "Boss" by comparing it to Shakespeare. But he just can't help saying the S word.

Grammer's ruthless, power-hungry Chicago Mayor Tom Kane is an abrupt change of direction from the jaunty "Frasier" persona that gave the actor 20 years of TV comedy success.

So perhaps it's just as well that Grammer is getting audience expectations in order before "Boss" debuts on cable channel Starz on Friday.

"We've borrowed a lot from Shakespeare. It's not a Shakespeare piece -- we don't want to alienate anybody from the show saying, 'oh dear God, we're going to tune into a Shakespeare play,'" Grammer said.

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New York film festival's Richard Pena steps down - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced Sunday that its longtime program director and head of the New York Film Festival selection committee, Richard Pena, will step down from his post next year.

Pena, who has been affiliated with the Film Society for 25 years, will remain involved with the group and has agreed to help design and organize a new educational initiative.

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Greece could use property as bond collateral: group - Yahoo! News

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece could use state-owned real estate assets as collateral for new bonds to raise more than 100 billion euros ($138.7 billion), under a proposal put forward by a leading Greek think-tank and a former conservative minister.

Yannis Stournaras, the head of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), said on Saturday the plan had been submitted to the government and would allow Athens to convert a substantial share of its public debt into a new form of asset-backed bond.

The plan would enable Greece, which expects debt to amount to about 162 percent of gross domestic product this year and which has been shut out of bond markets, to reduce its public debt by 50 to 60 percent of GDP.

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"Footloose" remake a pleasant, if cornball, surprise - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Did we need a new version of "Footloose"? Probably not. But not needing a second piece of birthday cake doesn't make it any less delicious.

Director Craig Brewer ("Hustle & Flow," "Black Snake Moan") gives away his strategy right away, as we hear the familiar mm-cha-mm-mm-cha beat of the Kenny Loggins title song -- the original version, not a cover -- as the Paramount logo fills the screen.

Clearly, Brewer has come to praise "Footloose," not to bury it, and so he leaves Dean Pitchford's screenplay more or less intact.

The result is one of the more pleasant surprises of 2011. This new "Footloose" is as cornball as the original, but it's also just as exuberantly entertaining.

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Disney close to reviving Johnny Depp's "The Lone Ranger" - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It looks like The Lone Ranger will ride after all: TheWrap has confirmed that Disney is close to a deal to revive the Johnny Depp movie.

In August, the company halted production on the big-budget project, which stars Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the masked man. Gore Verbinski is directing and Jerry Bruckheimer is producing.

An individual close to the project told TheWrap on Tuesday that while a deal to get the project back in production is not yet finalized, it appears imminent.

It took some doing. In order to cut costs -- there was talk the movie would cost more than $250 million -- the script, which apparently contained supernatural elements, had to be reworked. Some of the principals also had to cut their fees.

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Berlin, Paris vow new crisis plan as pressure builds - Yahoo! News

BERLIN (Reuters) - The leaders of Germany and France have promised to unveil new measures to solve the euro zone's debt crisis by the end of the month, as international pressure builds for bold steps from Europe to avert an economic backlash of global proportions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after talks in Berlin on Sunday evening that their goal was to come up with a sustainable answer for Greece's woes, agree how to recapitalise European banks and present a plan for accelerating economic coordination in the euro zone by a G20 summit in Cannes on November 3-4.

But they declined to reveal any details of their plan. As they met, British Prime Minister David Cameron urged them to take a "big bazooka" approach to the crisis, telling the Financial Times that euro zone leaders had to break their cycle of doing "a bit too little, a bit too late."

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"Breaking Bad" season finale ends best season yet - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Here's the dilemma about Sunday night's "Breaking Bad" season finale: We can't wait to see it. But once we do, we won't get any more "Breaking Bad" episodes for...well, a long time.

The show's fourth season has cemented its status as one of the best TV dramas ever, and, we might even argue, the best TV show ever, period. Fans of "The Wire" and "The Sopranos" and "Mad Men" will make their own arguments, but we challenge anyone to honestly point to another series that, episode after episode, season after season, entertains as much as this one.

Series creator Vince Gilligan, the writers, the crew, and the Emmy-winning cast have built a sometimes unbearable amount tension into season four, with payoffs both subtle (Hank's theory about the industrial laundry operation!) and shocking (poor, dumb Ted Beneke).

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Men at Work lose bid to appeal 'Down Under' ruling - Yahoo! News

SYDNEY (AP) — Australian rockers Men at Work lost their final court bid on Friday to prove they did not steal the distinctive flute riff of their 1980s hit "Down Under" from a children's campfire song.

The High Court of Australia denied the band's bid to appeal a federal court judge's earlier ruling that the group had copied the signature flute melody of "Down Under" from the song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree."

"Kookaburra," a song about Australia's famous bird of the same name, was written more than 70 years ago by Australian teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition. The song went on to become a favorite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada. The wildly popular "Down Under" remains an unofficial anthem for Australia.

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Nickelodeon to honor teens with service awards - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (AP) — Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, David Beckham and Jessica Biel will honor teenagers who are trying to help solve social problems in a Nickelodeon special.

The Teen Nick HALO Awards will air Nov. 6 with Nick Cannon as host. HALO stands for "helping and leading others."

Gaga is honoring Emily-Anne Rigal. She's a 17-year-old from Williamsburg, Virginia, who started the anti-bullying website and YouTube channel WeStopHate after she had to switch schools because she was bullied about her weight.

Other honorees targeted tornado relief, gang violence and needs in Africa.

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