Chow Yun-fat to star in Pirates of the Caribbean 3

According to Variety, Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have enlisted Chow Yun-fat for Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Chow will play Capt. Sao Feng, a notorious pirate who plays a major role in the second sequel to 2003's Disney blockbuster.

It is the Hong Kong native's first English-language role since Bulletproof Monk in 2003.

Pirates 2 and 3 are shooting back-to-back, with production skedded through January. The shoot is currently in a scheduled hiatus so helmer Gore Verbinski can ready portions of Pirates 2, formally monikered Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, for post-production, with an eye toward a July 2006 release. Pirates 3 is skedded for summer 2007.

Shooting stopped June 10 and will resume in mid-August in Los Angeles, shifting back to Caribbean locations later in the year. Some Pirates 2 footage remains to be shot, but most of the remaining shooting days will be devoted to Pirates 3.

"weird" things in Grudge 2 set

An interesting story is developing around the set of The Grudge 2. Apparently, student filmmaker Jason Cutler was allowed by Sony to come to Tokyo and shoot his senior thesis about the making of this film. It seems that he got to Tokyo, started shooting footage in and around the set, and compiled various talking head footage with the cast and crew. Cutler even managed to capture the actors in some highly candid moments and had begun blogging about his experiences online. Everything was going fine and then after five posts, Jason Cutler turned up missing.

Now apparently Cutler's roommate, who police only listed in their reports as ScottieK49, has actually been trying to find his friend (he even went so far as to pick up where Jason left off in his blog). It is unclear where Jason Cutler's parents are in all of this, and when questioned, members of the cast and crew of The Grudge 2 seem to acknowledge that he was in Tokyo shooting footage, but that they hadn't seen him in a while. It had been assumed that Cutler had gotten all the assets that he needed, and was now returning to the US to put it all together for his aforementioned senior thesis. When we tried to get in touch with his camera operator, the production office of The Grudge 2 could give us no information. It seems Cutler had contacted the operator via the internet and had arranged everything outside of The Grudge 2 production. When asked how Jason Cutler, a filmmaker with no credits to his name was able to gain access to the set of this movie, nobody in the production office seemed to have any explanations.

In an effort to help find Jason, Sony has made his roommate's blog available at sonypictures.com/movies/thegrudge2/blog/ so that anyone, if they have any information about Jason's whereabouts, can get in touch to help in the investigation. It seems that Cutler's roommate has been going through all of his footage and his logistical information from Tokyo. He seems to be trying to create a timeline of events that might explain where Jason went before he disappeared. Sadly, you can't actually contact the roommate via the blog, even though it is still active and he's continuing to post information.

One of the interesting points of note from the blog is that it seems Cutler was staying in the Gyokuro Hotel then he moved over to the Ikebana Hotel for two days. As nobody was with him when he did this, and it doesn't seem like Cutler's roommate found any video footage explaining this sudden location change, we have no explanation for why this occurred. One of the theories is that Cutler may have been involved with some people in Tokyo, and he ultimately disappeared with them, but based on his production footage that doesn't make sense. He seemed more than eager to cover the shooting of The Grudge 2 and, based on the footage he'd shot, had captured many interesting moments on tape.

Another point in the roommate's blog is him mentioning some erratic behavior from Jason. Apparently, Cutler shot some footage of himself that the roommate found before he turned all this information over to authorities. Here is an excerpt from his blog:

"This morning I watched 60 minutes of nothing but Jason pointing the camera at his bathroom mirror. He didn't say anything, he just stood there rolling tape."

While covering this story we had resisted looking into any "supernatural" causes for Jason Cutler's disappearance. It just didn't seem like an avenue to go down, but as the clues on the roommates blog continued to become more and more disjointed, we began wondering if perhaps there might not be something to the "supernatural" theory. We're not saying that that's definitely what happened, the investigation is still on going, but there's some footage of The Grudge 2 star Amber Tamblyn (and other actors like Matthew Knight), that certainly seem to suggest that there was something about the set, an in making The Grudge 2 in particular, that was getting to them.

During her interview, Tamblyn seems both distracted and nervous. She even says that she's "ready to be done" with this film and even talks about "this experience" being "tiring." Then, during her interview the light seems to come in and out in the room. After this, Tamblyn is very on edge and mentions being the "only one left here. Everybody's gone... I'm just kind of alone." Then, one of Cutler's lights seems to explode, and as the camera moves around a bit, a dark, oval-like image seems to appear on the wall behind Tamblyn. After this she abruptly leaves the room.

We're continuing to follow this story as more information becomes available. The fact that Sony has only posted the roommate's blog, and not gone public with more information about the disappearance of Jason Cutler, is also odd. It would seem if more people knew that he had vanished (and if they knew the circumstances), more information would turn up and they would, hopefully, find him quicker. We will certainly keep you updated as we get more information on this evolving story.

10 Ways to Make the Switch from Summer to School

1. Restart Routines. Kids need time to adjust, so provide a head start. About two weeks before school starts, make bedtime earlier and dust off the alarm clock. Aim to serve meals at approximately the same times your child will be eating throughout the school year. To make sure your morning timing is right, stage a test run. Have him ready to go by the time the bus or carpool would arrive — then remind him he still has a few days of summer left!

2. Go Over Ground Rules. Decide when and where she'll do homework. Be sure to cover tricky topics: can she watch TV after she finishes her work? How late can friends visit on school nights? When's the caffeine cut-off? What about chores? Establishing guidelines and going over them together will make sure you're on the same page once school's in session. Some families even draw up a written contract spelling out everyone's expectations.

3. De-stress Dressing. Let your child choose special first-day clothes — a souvenir shirt from a park you visited this summer or a new dress to match her best friend's. To avoid arguing over school-appropriate clothes, bring the fall wardrobe front and center. Replace sandals and swimsuits with socks, sneakers, and lightweight sweaters.

4. Develop a Game Plan — Together. Discuss goals for the upcoming year, triumphs from the year before, and some skills he would like to improve. Goals might include:

Making three new friends, or sitting at a different lunch table every week
Becoming captain of the chess team or a spelling bee finalist
Making the honor roll
Helping a new student adjust
Listen, and ask questions. Setting his own priorities will make them more meaningful. Throughout the year, track his progress and encourage his efforts.

5. Keep Passions in Play. If your child became a weaving whiz at summer camp or a diving champ at the local pool, keep it going. Integrate new summer hobbies into the school year by finding after-school clubs or groups that will let her continue to do the cool new things she tried this summer!

6. Summon the Learning Spirit. Assign creative "homework" as summer wanes: Ask him to identify a paw print in the park or photograph something that changes colors. Make family flashcards and quiz each other: What was the farthest you went from home this summer? What plans were rained out? Who got the most bug bites?

7. Take a Family Field Trip. Plan one last fact-packed trip to top off months of water parks and baseball games. You don't have to go far: Visit a nature sanctuary to learn about different plants and trees, or examine an old ship down at the docks. Whether you pick an aquarium or a modern art museum, the combination of fun and learning is sure to get kids back in school spirit.

8. Set Up a Homework Area. Create a quiet, well-lit space for study. Prevent first day freak-outs by hauling out the necessities: backpack, dictionary, atlas, calculator, art supplies, paper, and pencils. Make it personal and fun, but free from distractions.

9. Sharpen Skills. Add more factual brain-bending activities into the everyday mix. Sudoku games, crossword puzzles, word searches, and trivia all encourage your child to sit still, focus, and complete a task from start to finish.

10. Go for a Test Run. Take a trip to school and get familiar with the new classroom. Make sure to find the cafeteria, gym, theater, and library. Don't forget about bathrooms! It's also a good time to size up cubbies, try out lockers, and locate a pay phone. The first trip back might prompt an attack of the end-of-summer bummers, so stop for a fun treat on the way home and remind her that is she well prepared.

Steve Irwin

On 4 September 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray off the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia while filming a segment for his daughter Bindi Irwin's underwater documentary called Deadly Sea Creatures. The BBC reported that this was only the second known fatality in Australian history from a stingray attack.

Shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time (01:00 UTC), Irwin was filming in the Low Isles, Queensland near Port Douglas, north of Cairns, Queensland, Australia, where he was stung either through his heart or through the left side of his chest and suffered cardiac arrest. After he was stung, his crew called for medical help and the Queensland Rescue Helicopter responded, taking him to Cairns Base Hospital. However, Irwin was pronounced dead at noon. The Queensland Police Service notified his family and released a statement for the media concerning the event.

The Scream

The Scream (Skrik, 1893) is a seminal expressionist painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. Regarded by many as his most important work, it is said by some to symbolize modern man taken by an attack of existential angst, with the skyline inspired by the red twilights seen after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.[1] The landscape in the background is Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg. The Norwegian word skrik is usually translated as "scream", but is cognate with the English shriek. Occasionally, the painting has been called The Cry.

There is a tempera on cardboard version (measuring 83.5 x 66 cm) formerly in the Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway (see gallery), and an oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard (measuring 91 x 73.5 cm) in the National Gallery (shown to right), also in Oslo. A third version is also owned by the Munch Museum, and a fourth is owned by Petter Olsen. Munch later also translated the picture into a lithograph (see gallery), so the image could be reproduced in reviews all over the world. Since 1994, two separate versions of The Scream have been stolen by art thieves, but both were eventually recovered.


Thefts

On 12 February 1994 the National Gallery's Scream was stolen, the same day that the 1994 Winter Olympics opened in Lillehammer. The painting had been moved to a ground floor display as part of the Olympic festivities, and the presence of international media made the theft a sensation. An early claim of responsibility by a Norwegian anti-abortion group turned out to be false. After three months, the painting was offered back to the Norwegian government for a ransom of USD $1 million. The ransom was refused, but the painting was nevertheless recovered on 7 May 1994, following a sting operation organised by the Norwegian police with assistance from the British Police and the Getty Museum.

On August 22, 2004, the Munch Museum's Scream was stolen at gunpoint, along with Munch's Madonna. Museum officials expressed hope that they would see the painting again, theorizing that perhaps the thieves would seek ransom money. On April 8, 2005, Norwegian police arrested a suspect in connection with the theft. On April 28, 2005, it was rumoured that the two paintings had been burnt by the thieves to conceal evidence. On June 1, 2005, the City Government of Oslo offered a reward of 2 million kroner (about USD $320,000) for information that could help locate the paintings. In early 2006, six men with previous criminal records were scheduled to go on trial, variously charged with either helping to plan or execute the robbery. Three of the men were convicted and sentenced to between four and eight years in prison in May of 2006. Two of the convicted art thieves, Björn Hoen, 37, and Petter Tharaldsen, 34, were also ordered to pay 750 million kroner (US $122 million) to the City of Oslo which is where the paintings were previously located. The Munch Museum itself was closed for 10 months for a $6 million security overhaul.


Recovery

On August 31, 2006, Norwegian police announced that the paintings had been recovered again from a raid, and the paintings were said to be in a better-than-expected condition with only a minor scratch and two minor holes. "We are 100 percent certain they are the originals," police chief Iver Stensrud told a news conference. "The damage was much less than feared."

On September 1, 2006, Munch Museum director Ingebjoerg Ydstie said that the condition of the paintings was much better than expected and that the damages could be repaired.

Trump fires Apprentice co-star

Donald Trump has reportedly fired one of the executives famous for her role as a tough-talking judge on the hit US reality show 'The Apprentice'.

Carolyn Kepcher is being replaced on the show by his daughter and is no longer with the company, a Trump representative told the New York Post.

The representative declined further comment, but the New York Post said Donald Trump's TV sidekick was fired after spending too much time cultivating her own celebrity with speaking engagements.


Kepcher had been with the property tycoon for more than 10 years, most recently serving as chief operating officer of Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, New York, and helping manage another Trump golf club in New Jersey.

Trump's daughter, Ivanka, will replace Kepcher on 'The Apprentice,' and his son, Donald Jr, will replace the show's other judge, George Ross, the Post said.