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For Lindsay Lohan, beating the incurable chikungunya virus might seem easy compared to her latest round of legal troubles. The actress' lawyer, Shawn Holley, appeared in court in Santa Monica, California, on Wednesday to submit proof of her client's community service progress stemming from her 2012 reckless driving charge. But, Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry White was not convinced she actually did the work - and now he's demanding an investigation into her service hours. White said that court documents claiming Lohan completed 80 hours of community service in just nine days were particularly suspect, according to the Associated Press. "If this was Lindsey Smith,...

For Lindsay Lohan, beating the incurable chikungunya virus might seem easy compared to her latest round of legal troubles. The actress' lawyer, Shawn Holley, appeared in court in Santa Monica, California, on Wednesday to submit proof of her client's community service progress stemming from her 2012 reckless driving charge. But, Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry White was not convinced she actually did the work - and now he's demanding an investigation into her service hours. White said that court documents claiming Lohan completed 80 hours of community service in just nine days were particularly suspect, according to the Associated Press. "If this was Lindsey Smith,...

A judge can change his mind, right? After taking a day to deliberate after a hearing on Thursday, La Superior Court judge Richard Stone has reversed his tentative ruling and decided to dismiss Kevin Costner's allegation that Morgan Creek fraudulently concealed profits from the 1991 hit Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Costner's fraud claim was previously rejected by the judge in February and on a second try, the actor's attorneys attempted to point to Morgan Creek's duty to disclose “truthful, accurate, full, and complete” revenue information on profit participation statements. It's Costner's contention that the film company intentionally failed to

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Despite its best legal efforts today, Fox didn’t get a judge to shut down Dish Network’s ad-skipping Autohop and Primetime Anytime features. After hearing arguments from both sides, federal Judge Dolly Gee said she would take the broadcaster’s preliminary injunction request under consideration. A decision could come anytime starting next week. For Fox, that injunction cannot come soon enough. “This is going to grow like a brush fire if it is not stopped,” said Fox lawyer Richard Stone to the court today. Introduced in May by Dish, AutoHop allows subscribers to leap past commercials in programs that have been recorded off network TV the day before. CBS, NBC and Fox have all filed copyright infringement suits against Dish to get the service stopped. Twentieth Century Fox Films Corp. and Fox Television Holdings’ lawyer argued in documents filed on August 22 (read it here) that the product is in...

The Iron Lady and the arts were never the closest of bedfellows – she took her axe to them and they rebelled

In a word, Margaret Thatcher's relationship with the arts has been ironic. By taking an axe to British culture, the former Pm – making headlines once again with the arrival of The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep – gave a generation something to rebel against, inspiring an outpouring of creativity that was usually negative, hateful and directed against her.

There's even a hint of that irony in the new film: it starts with the old milk-snatcher herself running out of milk. Thatcher is undeniably an easy look: big hair, handbag, deep voice, blue dress – or business suit for her Spitting Image puppet. On TV, she's been portrayed by everyone from Jennifer Saunders (as a femme fatale in The Hunt for Tony Blair) to Greta Scacchi (nakedly in Jeffrey Archer: The Truth...

The photograph of Meryl Streep as Thatcher reminds us of the potent combination that created the image of an 'Iron Lady'

I wasn't the only one to be taken aback by the picture of Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher that was released this week, a publicity shot for Phyllida Lloyd's forthcoming biopic The Iron Lady. The picture stared at us from the front page of no fewer than five national newspapers. But what is it about this photograph that makes it so iconic?

As an artist who has spent a lot of time setting up people to look like celebrities, including Thatcher, for my photographs and TV programmes, I can only applaud the casting: Streep is no Thatcher-lookalike, but she has the perfect nose structure for the job. The instant recognition is all in the make-up and styling, though. With that Queen Margaret-style bouffant, Thatcher had a hairstyle that was so old-fashioned,...

Pause your indifference—it's not what you think. Ok, fine, it's a little what you think. With most of the criminal fallout from her 2007 DUIs behind her (but only just), a date has finally been set in the civil case Lindsay Lohan still faces for her seemingly unshakeable busts. Judge Richard Stone today set a Jan. 31 start date for the civil trial resulting from a lawsuit filed by Tracie Rice. Rice was in the unenviable position of sitting in the passenger's seat of the car a heavily-influenced and coke-residued LiLo chased across Los Angeles. Rice sued Lohan for assault, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The newly rehabbed star—who,...

When Dexter Douglas goes out on a date with his girlfriend Steff, it obviously can’t be a normal affair. Why shouldn’t it coincide with a night that his arch-nemesis, The Lobe, feels particularly antsy and insists on going out to dinner? When Dexter Douglas goes to the Museum of Antiquity with his family, it can’t be a dull family vacation. Why wouldn’t Duncan, his older brother, destroy an ancient amulet, releasing Invisibo, an invisible pharaoh, to chase Freakazoid?

An absolute treasure, Freakazoid! remains hilarious and fun to watch over a decade after its cancellation. Perhaps it’s the fact that, instead of cheap pop culture shots, Freakazoid! was more inclined to reference Hollywood legends or, for the younger set, rival WB shows like Pinky and the Brain or Animaniacs. The humor is smart yet random, the villains are unique; overall, this show was unlike any thing...

Gordon Goodwin is one of those people whose music you've heard already, but perhaps couldn't match it to a name. His versatile film career started with work on the 1978 cult classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!, then for more than a decade, he focused on his jazz career. From the early 90's onwards, Gordon became the regular orchestrator and conductor of Trevor Rabin with whom he worked on all the composer's best known scores (Con Air, both National Treasure pictures, etc.). Although his even better known as the leader of his Big Phat Band, our inteview will mainly focus on his contributions to film music.

What's your relation to film music?

Like many people, John Williams was probably the first guy that got my attention. Although I do remember being very impressed by the music for Disney’s Jungle Book when I was a kid. It had some cool jazzy elements to it,...