Actors get 'final offer'

July 1, 2008

Hours before their contract with film and TV performers was due to expire, Hollywood studios presented the Screen Actors Guild with a "final offer" yesterday, but there was no immediate response from the union. In a three-page statement circulated to the media, the studios' bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said its proposal was worth more than $250 million in additional compensation to guild members. The existing three-year contract covering movie and prime-time television work for 120,000 guild members was due to expire at 12:01 a.m. today, and the two sides have remained at odds for months over the terms of a new deal. The labor talks, which began in April, have hit some of the same stumbling blocks that led Hollywood writers to walk off the job months ago, including clashes over how union talent should be paid for work created for the Internet. (REUTERS)

A lawyer for Luciano Pavarotti's widow says his family has come to a friendly agreement on how to divide his estate. The Italian opera singer had drafted two wills near the end of his yearlong battle with cancer. One divided his assets by Italian law, giving half to his second wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and half to his four daughters. The second left his US holdings to Mantovani. Pavarotti died last September. He had three adult daughters from his 35-year marriage to first wife Adua Veroni. He married Mantovani in 2003, and the couple had a young daughter. (AP)

Court records released yesterday in Los Angeles show that Britney Spears is seeking a house with a larger yard that's closer to parks and recreation areas for her children, Sean Preston and Jayden James. (The children's father, Kevin Federline, has custody.) She also wants a "less trafficked" locale than her paparazzi-stalked Beverly Hills home, which she bought for nearly $7 million early last year. (AP)

Hollywood has a serious drug problem and isn't committing the time it takes to fix it, according to Dr. Drew (inset). Substances are plentiful and socially acceptable in most celebrity circles, and stars who seek treatment often choose abbreviated programs in exclusive environments, said Drew Pinsky, host of radio's "Loveline" and VH1's "Celebrity Rehab." Drew, who has studied what draws stars to drugs, presents his findings in the hourlong "VH1 News Presents: Dr. Drew's Celebrity Addiction Special," which airs today. (AP)

Helena Bonham Carter could soon join the battle between man and cyborg. The British actress is in talks to board "Terminator Salvation," the fourth installment in the franchise kicked off by James Cameron in 1984. Roles in the new film have been kept under wraps, but insiders described the Bonham Carter role as small but pivotal. (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

'We have no aspirations. Let me make that clear.' Ray Magliozzi, half of the "Car Talk" duo known as Click and Clack, talking about whether the brothers' new animated series is intended to be a career move.