ORLANDO, Fla. - Lou Pearlman, the man who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for engineering a decades-long scam that bilked thousands of investors out of their life savings.

It was the maximum sentence the boy band mogul could receive for allegedly swindling some $300 million from investors and banks since the early 1980s.

He pleaded guilty in March to two counts of conspiracy and single counts of money laundering and presenting a false claim in bankruptcy court.

U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp noted that many victims were Pearlman's relatives, friends and retirees in their 70s or 80s who lost everything.

"The sympathy factor just doesn't run very high with the court," Sharp said.

However, the judge said he would reduce Pearlman's sentence by one month for every $1 million returned to investors. It wasn't clear how, or if, investors would ever be compensated.

"I want to say clearly that there's no pot of gold out there," defense attorney Fletcher Peacock said.

Prosecutors allege Pearlman scammed individuals out of an estimated $200 million, and banks out of another $100 million.

The courtroom was packed with victims, some of whom gave emotional testimony. Another two dozen or so waited outside.

"Over the past nine months since my arrest, I've come to realize the harm that's been done," Pearlman said in a short courtroom statement. "I'm truly sorry and I apologize for what's happened."

Peacock said Pearlman meant to pay back all the investors, and noted he had returned about $103 million.

He said Pearlman got caught up in lawsuits - also alleged fraudulent business practices - over his otherwise successful entertainment ventures in the 1990s that prevented him from returning the money.

The Wildcats are back. They start off getting out of school, where Shar Pay makes sure Troy has job at her country club. Troy then in returns gets everyone else a job at the country club too. Gabrielle is the new lifeguard, while Troy, Chad, and the others work in the kitchen. At the country club there is a talent show, which Sharpay and Ryan win every year. Kelsie had written a song for Troy and Gabrielle to sing at the talent show, which later on Sharpay takes (at a faster tempo) for her and Troy to sing at the talent show. Sharpay plots to take Troy away from Gabrielle,by getting him a better job than the rest of the Wildcats. Troy starts changing, all for a "scholarship", starting to act like a jerk, which results in Gabrielle breaking up with Troy, saying she doesn't belong there. After Troy loses all his friends, because he began acting like a jerk and had found out that Sharpay had made it where no Junior Staffers can perform in the talent show, he decides to do something about it, and asks for his old job back with the rest of his friends and quits the talent show leaving Sharpay with nothing, since she had ditched her brother to perform with Troy. She then goes back to Ryan, who had been working with the Junior Staffers on an act, who then leaves her saying she always wanted the spotlight, now she has it. Troy ends up doing the talent show, thinking that he would be performing with Sharpay. He learns a new song within a matter of minutes.

Read about Entertainment and movie

In the heart of Paris lies a deadly secret. Half a world away in Los Angeles, Ambassador Han is about to disclose it. In his possession is explosive new evidence about the inner workings of the Triads--the most powerful and notorious crime syndicate in the world. The Ambassador has discovered the identity of Shy Shen, the very crux of the wide-ranging crime ring, and he's about to reveal it to the World Criminal Court--until he is silenced by an assassin's bullet. The Triads will go to any lengths to make sure their secrets stay buried, and there's only one hope for stopping them. LAPD Detective Carter and Chinese Inspector Lee are back--back where they don't belong. The unlikely duo is headed to the City of Lights to stop a global criminal conspiracy and save the life of an old friend, Ambassador Han's now-grown daughter, Soo Yung. They don't know the city, the language or even exactly what they're looking for, but their race will take them across the city, from the depths of the Paris underground to the breathtaking heights of the Eiffel Tower, as they fight to outrun the world's most deadly criminals and save the day.

Read about entertainment and movie

LOS ANGELES - It's another story of stoned celebrities in rehab. Only these are real stars.

Sixty-one stars from the Hollywood Walk of Fame - including those of Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra - have been removed and stored while a $500-million hotel-shopping-housing project is built on Vine Street near Hollywood Boulevard.

Eight of the terrazzo star squares crumbled as they were removed from the walkway.

"We saved the brass. They'll be rebuilt," said Tim Maxwell, project manager for Webcor Builders, which is involved in the construction project.

The stars were placed in a secure warehouse, where they'll remain until the project is completed in 2009.

The removal of the stars and the closure of a half-block near the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine has angered some people.

"This was done for a private developer. This was not done for the public's interest, like when the stars were removed back in the '90s for the Metro Red Line (subway) construction," said John Walsh, a longtime Hollywood activist. "Closing down sidewalks for years at a time like they do here would never happen in New York City."

The sidewalk needed reconstruction because it was improperly sloped and didn't meet federal requirements for providing access for wheelchairs, said Ken Summers, project director for Webcor Builders. The new sidewalk will be flatter, he said.

Taken from Yahoo News

Movie trailers or previews are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film programme. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film

Trailers normally consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum length allowed by theaters. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.

Studios may create trailers in-house or may "farm out" creation to one or more advertising agencies. Agencies that specialize in creating trailers are known as trailer houses. Depending on the amount of influence the filmmakers have with the studio, they may or may not be involved in the creation of the trailer for their film. Some choose to closely supervise the process, when possible. They usually don't get involved until a version of the trailer has been approved by the studio internally.

All he wanted was to disappear; instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is--legendary assassin. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was. Now, in the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne--all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.

Read about entertainment and movie

Homer Simpson must save the world from a catastrophe he himself created.

When Homer mistakenly pollutes the river with toxic waste from his "Pig Crap" silo, he causes the EPA to encase Springfield in a glass dome, and must save them before President Schwarzenegger gives the order for the town to be destroyed.

Read about entertainment and movie

Chuck Levine and Larry Valentine are the pride of their fire station: two guy's guys always side-by-side and willing to do anything for each other. Grateful Chuck owes Larry for saving his life in a fire, and Larry calls in that favor big time when civic red tape prevents him from naming his own two kids as his life insurance beneficiaries. But when an overzealous, spot-checking bureaucrat becomes suspicious, the new couple's arrangement becomes a citywide issue and goes from confidential to front-page news. Forced to improvise as love-struck newlyweds, Chuck and Larry must now fumble through a hilarious charade of domestic bliss under one roof. After surviving their mandatory honeymoon and dodging the threat of exposure, the well-intentioned con men discover that sticking together in your time of need is what truly makes a family.

Read about Entertainment and movies

As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Returning to Hogwarts will be a relief--or will it?

Read about Entertainment and Movies

Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion--dancing. Her dream is to appear on "The Corny Collins Show," Baltimore's hippest dance party on TV. Tracy seems a natural fit for the show except for one not-so-little problem--she doesn't fit in. Her plus-sized figure has always set her apart from the cool crowd, which she is reminded of by her loving but overly protective plus-sized mother, Edna. That doesn't stop Tracy because if there is one thing that this girl knows, it's that she was born to dance. After wowing Corny Collins at her high school dance, Tracy wins a spot on his show and becomes an instant on-air sensation, much to the chagrin of the show's reigning princess, Amber Von Tussle, and her scheming mother, Velma, who runs television station WYZT. Even worse for Amber is the fact that it's not just the audience who loves the new girl in town; Amber's sweetheart, Link Larkin, seems to be smitten with Tracy's charms as well. This dance party gets personal as a bitter feud erupts between the girls as they compete for the coveted "Miss Teenage Hairspray" crown. At school, however, a short stint in detention and raised-eyebrows caused by the budding relationship between her best friend Penny Pingleton and Seaweed opens Tracy's eyes to a bigger issue than the latest dance craze or the coolest hairdo--racial inequality. Throwing caution to the wind, she leads a march with Motormouth Maybelle to fight for integration and winds up with an arrest warrant instead. Tracy is on the lam now and goes underground--literally--to her best friend Pennys basement. Has Tracy's luck finally run out? Will she miss the final dance-off against Amber and forfeit the title of "Miss Hairspray," or will she sing and dance her way out of trouble again?

Read about Entertainment and Movies

The Earth is caught in the middle of an intergalactic war between two races of robots, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, which are able to change into a variety of objects, including cars, trucks, planes and other technological creations.

Read about Entertainment and Movies

On the July 4th holiday, an attack on the vulnerable United States infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out every modern angle -- but he never figured on an old-school "analog" fly in the "digital" ointment: John McClane. No mask. No cape. No problem.

Read about Entertainment and Movies

A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely - and certainly unwanted - visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy's passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down.

Read about Entertainment and Movies

Newly elected to Congress, the polished, preening newscaster, Evan Baxter, is the next one anointed by God to accomplish a holy mission--walking in the footsteps of Bruce Almighty. Evan leaves Buffalo behind and shepherds his family to suburban northern Virginia. Once there, his life gets turned upside-down when God appears and mysteriously commands him to build an ark. But his befuddled family just can't decide whether Evan is having an extraordinary mid-life crisis or is truly onto something of Biblical proportions.

Also Known As:
Bruce Almighty II
Bruce Almighty Sequel
The Passion of the Ark

Read about Entertainment and Movies

With Von Doom back in his homeland of Latveria the fantastic four have new troubles when Galactus has decided that Earth is his next target. When his henchman, The Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd), is sent to Earth he discovers that he's getting more than he bargained for when he encounters the Fantastic Four. But that's not all when Dr. Doom decides that after two years in the homeland he is ready to return.

Everything seems to be going great for the Fantastic Four. Reed and Sue are finally getting married, and things couldn't seem better. However, when the mysterious Silver Surfer crashes things, they learn that they will have to deal with an old foe, and the powerful planet eating "Gah Lak Tus."

While Reed Richards and Susan Storm are preparing to get married, a mysterious freezing phenomenon happens in a bay in Japan and in Egypt. The arrogant General Hager meets Dr. Richards and he prepares a sensor to locate the source, and along his wedding, they disclose that the responsible is the alien Silver Surfer. The despicable Victor Von Doom joins Dr. Richards, Susan, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm providing information about the Silver Surfer, and Dr. Richards develops a device to separate the Surfer from his board and source of power. Susan makes contact with the Silver Surfer and he reveals that his leader, the planet devourer Galactus, is following the beacon in his board and will destroy Earth. When Victor discloses his real evil intention, the Fantastic Four joins to the Silver Surfer to save Earth from the destruction.

Read about Entertainment and Movies

Renowned horror novelist Mike Enslin believes only in what he can see with his own two eyes. But after a string of best-sellers discrediting paranormal events in the most infamous haunted houses and graveyards around the world, he has no real proof of life--afterlife. But Enslin's phantom-free run of long and lonely nights is about to change forever when he checks into suite 1408 of the notorious Dolphin Hotel for his latest project, "Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms." Defying the warnings of the hotel manager, the author is the first person in years to stay in the reputedly haunted room. Another best-seller may be imminent, but first he must go from skeptic to true believer--and ultimately survive the night.

Read about Entertainment and Movies

Cinematography (from Greek: kinesis (movement) and grapho (to record)), is the discipline of making lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography, though many additional issues arise when both the camera and elements of the scene may be in motion.

History was made in New York on October 6th, 1927 when the very first spoken voice in a feature film was heard. The voice belonged to Al Jolson and the ground breaking movie - The Jazz Singer. The reaction by the theatre audience was immediate - they rose to their feet, applauding ecstatically. The moment came in the middle of the film when, during a nightclub scene, Jolson suddenly spoke. The first words ever spoken in a movie were, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!" The words were truly prophetic in light of the massive advances taken in the realms of movie sound since that time.

From the breakthrough point of the film when Jolson first spoke, the film made liberal use of the new medium. In one scene Jolson sits at the piano and exchanges lines with his mother between verses of Blue Skies. Al Jolson also ad-libbed various lines during the musical sequences of the film and these were left in.

The Jazz Singer was the story of a young Jewish man who was from a long line of cantors. Yet, he decides to break with the family tradition and become a Jazz singer. The movie is full of songs that have since become famous, such as 'Mammy', 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye,' and 'Blue Skies.' The movie also contains scenes of the Jewish Yom Kippur ceremony. The film is a mixture of silent and talkie. The film appears dated by today's standards with Jolson's mannerisms and some Jewish stereotypes which would not be politically correct by today's standards. Al Jolson was a minstrel singer for much of his career. He was a white man who put on a black face for his final performance in the movie. This has led many people to believe that Jolson was a black man.

The use of synchronised music in movies had been in use for over a year as a result of the Vitaphone system introduced by Warner Brothers. The first film to use Vitaphone was Don Juan starring John Barrymore. The Jazz Singer, however, was a major step up from there, with realistic spontaneous speech. Fox Studios were quickly into production with a rival system called Movietone, designed for use with short films and news clips. The first broadcasts in Movietone were news clips of a reception for Aviation hero Charles Lindbergh given by President Calvin Coolidge and a speech by Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini. These proved so popular that the Fox Studios set up Movietone News to make regular sound newsreels.

Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins. Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie.

This classic film narrates the love between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler during the American civil war. It's the history of a selfish woman who doesn't want to admit her feelings about the man she loves, and finally loses him.

The epic tale of a woman's life during one of the most tumultuous periods in America's history. From her young, innocent days on a feudalistic plantation to the war-torn streets of Atlanta; from her first love whom she has always desired to three husbands; from the utmost luxury to absolute starvation and poverty; from her innocence to her understanding and comprehension of life.