Dead rats anyone? Hollywood gets creative to promote movies

Hollywood studios are going to ever more creative lengths to attract attention in a jam-packed entertainment market where social media plays a key role in promoting content. For Matt Damon's October film “The Martian,” in which an astronaut is stranded on Mars, 20th Century Fox Studios hosted a media day last week at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California just to promote a trailer

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Singers Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale to divorce: reports

Singer Gwen Stefani has filed for divorce from rockstar husband Gavin Rossdale after 13 years of marriage, several news reports said on Monday. In her divorce petition, Stefani, 45, cited irreconcilable differences and asked for joint custody of the couple's three children, 9-year-old Kingston, 6-year-old Zuma and 1-year-old Apollo, celebrity websites TMZ and People.com said

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India asks YouTube to remove Delhi rape film

India has asked YouTube to remove all links to a controversial documentary about the gang rape and murder of a woman in Delhi after banning its broadcast, a government official told Reuters on Thursday. Leslee Udwin's “India's Daughter” features an interview with Mukesh Singh, one of four men sentenced to death for the rape and torture of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012. “We just forwarded the court order and asked them (YouTube) to comply,” an official at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology told Reuters

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Australian documentary unspools race riots dating back to 19th century

By Pauline Askin SYDNEY (Reuters) – A racist flare-up in a beachside Sydney suburb hit the global spotlight nine years ago, besmirching Australia's reputation as a sun-drenched oasis wooing migrants from around the world. A TV documentary attempts to show the alcohol-fueled riots of December 2005 were not an aberration and that racial tension in Australia had simmered long before the Cronulla Beach incident pitted white surfers against ethnic Lebanese youths. “The Great Australian Race Riot” documents nine major riots since the mid-19th century, beginning with sectarian violence between Irish Catholics and British Protestants living in Melbourne that led to bloodshed on city streets in 1846.

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Sony Pictures CEO says had no choice but to pull ‘The Interview’

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Describing the lonely work of leading a company through a devastating cyberattack, Sony Pictures Entertainment chief executive Michael Lynton on Friday said the Hollywood studio did not make a mistake in pulling satirical film “The Interview.” Lynton, speaking in a lengthy interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, was responding to comments made by President Barack Obama that the studio erred in shelving the film after cinemas refused to show it following unspecified threats from hackers. …

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Sony trying to find alternatives to release ‘The Interview’

By Mary Milliken LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sony Pictures said on Friday it is looking for alternatives to release “The Interview” after it scrapped the Christmas Day theatrical opening of the screwball comedy at the center of a cyber attack on the studio blamed on North Korea. After a rare public shaming of a corporation by President Barack Obama, who said Sony Pictures made a mistake in pulling the film and bowing to intimidation, chief executive Michael Lynton told CNN he hoped that the public would see the film but no other platform had shown interest.

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IBM says cloud business enjoying ‘breakthrough year’

By Eric Auchard LONDON (Reuters) – IBM aims to expand the number of data centers it offers clients around the world by 25 percent to meet fast-rising demand for internet-based services, after what a company executive said has been a “breakthrough year” in 2014 for its cloud computing business. IBM has quadrupled the number of cloud data facilities it offers around the world to 49 in the past 18 months, responding in part to laws requiring the local retention of data following revelations over U.S. government Web surveillance as well as increased corporate compliance rules

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All calm amid political storm at ‘Interview’ premiere

By Piya Sinha-Roy Los Angeles (Reuters) – All was calm on Thursday at the Los Angeles premiere of Sony Pictures' parody film “The Interview”, which had been in the spotlight for sparking tension with North Korea and potentially prompting a major cyber hack on the company. Stars Seth Rogen and James Franco posed on a small red carpet restricted to photographers as Sony reined in media access after the film made headlines following a devastating security breach that leaked films, data and emails. ..

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