The Office

Andrew Garfield "terrified" to take on "Spider-Man" - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Pictures on Monday unveiled a first look at the upcoming reboot of the "Spider-Man" movie franchise, and the action-packed thriller has at least one person in the audience shaking in his Spidey suit -- the man who plays him, Andrew Garfield.

"I'm terrified right now," Garfield told an audience at a New York City movie multiplex in a presentation that was one of four similar events happening simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles, London and Rio de Janeiro.

Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans and director Marc Webb were on hand in other locations to speak briefly about the movie.

In New York, Garfield told the audience that taking on the role of the teenage crime fighter and comic book superhero was daunting because of the responsibility for portraying a character who is beloved by so many people.

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Warhol painting of Taylor fetches $662K in NY - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (AP) — An Andy Warhol painting of Elizabeth Taylor sold for over $662,000 at auction in New York.

The painting was included in Christie's auction house sale Wednesday of jewelryand other items from the collection of the late actress, who starred in "National Velvet" and "Cleopatra." A wedding dress worn at her second marriage to Richard Burton sold for over $62,000.

The jewelry portion of the auction fetched over $137 million. Highlights were $11.8 million for a pearl necklace and more than $8.8 million for a diamond ring given to her by Burton. Prices include the buyer's premium.

Other sales of Taylor's art, clothing and memorabilia will be held through the week. An online-only sale of some items runs until Saturday.

Taylor died in Los Angeles in March at age 79.

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Tilda Swinton dives again into dark emotional waters - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - By now, it's certainly no surprise that Tilda Swinton has turned in another riveting performance in a dark and difficult movie; from "Orlando" to "I Am Love," that's what she does, with occasional detours to play the white witch in the Narnia films and win an Oscar as a corporate lawyer in "Michael Clayton."

Swinton's latest, which has made her a dark-horse Oscar candidate, is "We Need to Talk About Kevin," an intense, intimate and disquieting drama drawn from Lionel Shriver's novel about a woman struggling through the aftermath of a horrific crime committed by her son.

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Nasdaq falls 2 percent - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Wednesday, pushing the Nasdaq down 2 percent and putting the S&P 500 on track for a sixth straight losing session, as the euro zone crisis and weak Chinese data weighed on sentiment.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dropped 166.88 points, or 1.45 percent, to 11,326.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 19.32 points, or 1.63 percent, to 1,168.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> slid 47.22 points, or 1.87 percent, to 2,474.06.

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Glenn Close was "blindsided" by Albert Nobbs story - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When Glenn Close sees a good part she goes after it -- even if it takes decades.

Bringing "Albert Nobbs" to the screen was a 15-year effort on the part of Oscar-nominated actress, who first played the role in an Off Broadway production in 1982.

Something about the tale about a woman who pretends to be a man so she can work as a butler at a turn-of-the-20th century Dublin hotel registered with Close.

"It's a very complex issue, but it's very real," Close said at TheWrap's screening series of "Albert Nobbs" Monday night at the Landmark Theater in Los Angeles.

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Anne Hathaway signed for Jackman's "Les Miserables" - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Anne Hathaway is going from Catwoman to Fantine.

As TheWrap reported in August, Hathaway has long been in negotiations for Universal's Hugh Jackman-starring adaptation of the Broadway hit. On Tuesday morning, the studio confirmed it -- and set a release date of December 7, 2012.

Jackman plays the fugitive Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe plays Inspector Javert in Tom Hooper's version.

Hathaway has at least a little experience with the role: She sang "On My Own" from the musical when she hosted this year's Academy Awards. And she sang it to Jackman.

William Nicholson ("Gladiator") wrote the screenplay.

Sir Cameron Mackintosh, among others, will produce.

Deadline first reported the news.

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Citigroup Q3 net rises, boosted by accounting gain - Yahoo! News

(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc reported higher third-quarter earnings on Monday as the bank set aside less money to cover bad loans and recorded an accounting gain banks can take in turbulent markets.

Investment banking fees dropped as the European debt crisis cut into stock and bond issuance and merger activity. Operating expenses rose, in part because of investments the bank is making to boost its business.

Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, reported net income of $3.77 billion, or $1.23 per share, up from $2.17 billion, or 72 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

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Hilary Swank gives fees from Chechen event to charity - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Hilary Swank is donating her fees for attending a controversial event in Chechnya to charity after criticism from human rights groups.

A spokeswoman for the two-time Oscar winner said on Friday that Swank would give her personal appearance fees to various charitable organizations.

Swank has said she "deeply regrets" taking part in a birthday celebration in the Chechen capital Grozny last week for regional strong Ramzan Kadyrov, who is accused of orchestrating human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch urged Swank and other celebrities who attended the event to return any money or gifts.

Swank said this week she was unaware of Kadyrov's policies, which human rights group say promote fear, abductions and executions of those involved in Chechnya's Islamist insurgency.

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Innkeepers, Cerberus in tentative sale pact - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cerberus Capital Management and Chatham Lodging Trust have reached a tentative agreement to buy bankrupt Innkeepers USA Trust at a lower price than an earlier deal that fell apart, a source close to the talks said.

Cerberus and Chatham would acquire the bankrupt hotel operator for about $1 billion in a deal that could become official as soon as Thursday, according to the person, who spoke anonymously because talks are private.

The parties are confident the deal will get done, though it is not official and could still fall apart, the person said.

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BlackBerry outages spread to North America - Yahoo! News

LONDON (Reuters) - A three-day disruption to BlackBerry services spread to North America on Wednesday, frustrating millions of users of the Research In Motion devices just two days before rival Apple's new iPhone 4S goes on sale.

RIM advised clients of an outage in the Americas and said it was working to restore services as customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India continued to suffer patchy email and no access to browsing and messaging.

RBC analysts Mike Abramsky and Paul Treiber estimated that about half of BlackBerry's 70 million subscribers outside North America could be affected.

RIM, which had said on Tuesday services had returned to normal, said later it was still working to resolve the problem.

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