Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand

According to the New York City medical examiner, Heath Ledger's death was due to an "accidental overdose of painkillers, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication and other prescription drugs." For those hip to different medications, the official cause of death was "acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine." Apparently, these are the generic names for Oxycontin, Valium, Xanax, Restoril and Unisom. There was no word on how much of each he took, or whether a heavy dose of one was what ultimately did him in, but a spokeswoman did note that his death was due to "the cumulative effects of these medications together."

This ruling finally came two weeks after the actor was found dead by a masseuse in his rented SoHo apartment in New York City. Original reports claimed the apartment belonged to Mary-Kate Olsen (which turned out to be false), and the masseuse actually called Olsen several times before calling for an ambulance in an attempt to get the young actress to send her security crew. This was the part I had the most trouble with -- if you found this dude unconscious on a floor, would you want an ambulance there or Mary-Kate Olsen? Whatever the case, it's obvious Ledger (may have) had a pretty strong addiction to pain killers and sleep medication, if it was taking that many pills to knock the guy out. It's my belief that too many young kids today are sucking these pills down like they're water, not really understanding what they do or how they can harm you. Hopefully Ledger's death will provide enough of a wake-up call to those who are currently suffering from their own addictions.

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Filed under: Casting, Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand

Chalk up another missed opportunity for Lindsay Lohan, as it now appears the gal will not be starring in the upcoming flick Poor Things, no matter what Shirley MacLaine tells us. Lohan originally dropped out last year when she was admitted to rehab (first or second trip for her, I forget?), and now according to The Hollywood Reporter, they're looking at Brittany Murphy as a possible replacement. I say 'looking at' because negotiations with Murphy haven't even begun yet; she's just one actress they're eying for the role. Poor Things also has a new director in Scott Marshall (Blonde Ambition), who replaces Ash Baron-Cohen after the dude dropped out over "creative differences."

Poor Things tells the story of two female con artists who befriend and then murder homeless men for their insurance policies. Sounds interesting enough, although I never knew the homeless were known for their phenomenal insurance policies. The film already stars Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis (as the two female con artists, I believe), as well as Rosario Dawson and Channing Tatum. HR also says that Murphy was cast in Sin City 2; a project we haven't heard much about as of late. I assume she'll be reprising her role from the first film. No word on when Poor Things will finally go into production, but we'll let you know.

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I know, I know: I didn't sprint to this blog after the Wesley Snipes verdict, but in fairness to myself, the "bombshell" I'm about to drop on you (while watching a bearded Bill Richardson do what can only be called his Horatio Sanz impersonation on Super-Fat Tuesday), this news did break a couple of hours ago: Graydon Carter has canceled the Vanity Fair Oscar party because of the writers strike. Oh lawd. What gives? I thought we were a little closer to settlement. Can't you see the gold-plated tumbleweed blowing down Vine Street.

Speaking of tumbleweed, the Academy's president, Sid Ganis, put the passive-aggressive squeeze on the stars at the nominees luncheon the other day, threatening -- jokingly, of course -- that you can't win if you don't come. Man, that Democratic debate from last week is starting to look more and more like the year's most glamorous event. President Ganis, meanwhile, is starting to seem a lot like certain people's moms.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 5, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Retro Television Network (RTN), which is owned and distributed by Equity Media Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq:EMDA), announced today that it will bring RTN programming to Harlingen/Weslaco/Brownsville/ McAllen, TX. The new affiliate is scheduled to air later this year on a digital stream of the market-leading ABC affiliate, KRGV.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 5, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Foundry Networks(r), Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced that XM Satellite Radio, Inc., America's number one satellite radio company, installed Foundry's(tm) BigIron(r), FastIron(r) SuperX(tm), FastIron SX 800 and FastIron Edge X series Layer 2/3 switches to power their satellite broadcasts to subscribers. With XM's customer base of more than 8.5 million subscribers, Foundry delivers the high standards of performance that XM Radio demands.

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking

"He's a male bimbo. He's a mimbo!"

Following last week's Wolfman fiasco, a friend of mine asked me whether I thought Brett Ratner would ever direct another big-budgeted film again. And when I say big-budgeted, I'm talking action, adventure, big stars -- the type of film with franchise potential. It's no secret the internet pretty much despises this man. For those who might not remember, director Mark Romanek dropped out of The Wolfman recently, and a whole bunch of directors were in talks to replace him. At the top of that list was Brett Ratner -- and once sites like AICN got hold of that news, all hell broke loose. Harry Knowles (in an un-Knowles-like hate-spewed rant) went off on Ratner, how he's a cruddy director and that Universal would be idiots to bring him on. Eventually, Jurassic Park III director Joe Johnston took over the project.

But not before the internet (including sites like ours and many others) went off on the Ratner decision. Word is Universal was pretty taken aback by all the hostility, and, in the end, it may or may not have played into their decision to go in a different direction. After all, do they really want months of Ratner bashing when their film has been awarded with nothing but love up until this point? I wouldn't want that. Who would? And that's what brings me to this question: With all the major movie sites in agreement that Ratner is the worst choice for practically any film, will this hurt the dude's future career behind the camera?

It's a very weird place to be in for a major studio, because, in all honesty, the guy's films bring in lots of money. Mass audiences are attracted to his name. But, going forward, will there be a studio willing to deal with all the Ratner web bashing in order to make it to theaters in the hopes that their marketing department could defeat all the bad word of mouth? Rush Hour 4 aside, do you think Brett Ratner will ever direct a big-budgeted fanboy film again?

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SAN DIEGO, Feb. 5, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR), a leading provider of silicon solutions to enable connected home entertainment, will be participating in the following upcoming events with the financial community during the month of February.

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 5, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Fired up and ready to go! Today video game publisher, Gamecock Media Group, announced the launch of CockTheVote.us, a site aimed at video gamers to promote voter registration using its special brand of animalistic political humor. Their GRRNews.com campaign bus will be traveling around Los Angeles all day today for Super Tuesday.

BOCA RATON, Fla., Feb. 5, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Empire Interactive PLC, the international developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software and a unit of Silverstar Holdings Ltd., has set March 11, 2008 as the North American release date for the latest iteration of the multi-award-wining FlatOut Series, FlatOut: Head On for the PSP(r) (PlayStation(r)Portable) system.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 4, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Retro Television Network (RTN), which is owned and distributed by Equity Media Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq:EMDA), announced today that it will launch RTN affiliates in two South Dakota markets, Sioux Falls and Rapid City. In Sioux Falls, the network will begin airing in March on KAUN, a station owned by J.F. Broadcasting that currently airs ION Television. In Rapid City, RTN programming will launch this summer on a digital stream of KOTA, the local ABC affiliate that is owned by Duhamel Broadcasting.