PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 24, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) toasted the winner of its second annual national short film competition, Delta's Fly-In Movies, at a celebratory party hosted Wednesday night by Cheryl Hines at SKY360* by Delta - Park City during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Vancouver filmmaker Robert Kirbyson was awarded the top prize for his film "Ctrl Z." In addition to the trip to Sundance, Kirbyson receives a $10,000 cash award and a pair of round-trip tickets valid anywhere Delta flies worldwide.

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Comic/Superhero/Geek

The New York Post's Joe Neumaier claims that Jack Nicholson told London reporters that he "warned" Heath Ledger: but about what, exactly? Burning the candle at both ends? Playing a gay cowboy in a homophobic country? "Well, I warned him," is the full and exact quote. Still, under the caption of Nicholson in full purple regalia in the Post, it claims Nicholson "warned Ledger about the part [of The Joker]." Neumaier notes other reports that Ledger had slept two hours a night during the filming of The Dark Knight, and that Ledger had told the press "prescription drugs didn't help."

This might just be a ghoulish attempt to capitalize on Ledger's death by linking him to a celebrated screen and comic book villain, so I thought I'd check Burton on Burton (edited by Mark Salisbury) to see if Tim Burton recalled Nicholson going through similar angst when making the 1989 Batman, giving him grounds for worrying about the stress on another actor playing the role. Not quite. On Nicholson, Burton commented, "He was very cool...he was very calming and helpful and would just say, `Get what you need, get what you want, and just keep going.'" (Thanks to Moviefone for this tipoff.)

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Rumor has it that Ryan Gosling is set to take over the role of Jack Ryan in a round of new movies. Weird. Weren't the "Bourne" movies supposed to obviate the need for more Clancy-ishness? Did Hollywood learn nothing from Ben Affleck's try? And while I've enjoyed Gosling as a neo-Nazi, a crackhead teacher, and Bianca's boyfriend, the idea of him in a suit with a gun does not turn me. But I do support his obligation as a young actor to blow up a lot of stuff in the name of making the world a better place.

So my very tech-trend-savvy buddy, Ike, has this device that's still in its beta called Chumby. It's like a clock-radio/computer screen/pet rock. The night of Heath Ledger's death. I was on a bed in a Salt Lake City hotel staring at Chumby little screen, which at the time was displaying the top 13 Google searches. The number-two search after Heath Ledger was for someone named "Keith Ledger." A little research and a few news reports reveal that a lot of us thought Ledger's name was Keith. The Internet Movie Database has a page for him. There are no movies on it, but his "Star Meter" is "up 8% since last week." Gawker seems to have noticed this, too. It's surreal enough that Heath Ledger is standing on the Brokeback Mountain in the sky. But the idea - however stupid - that he might have been Keith all along or that he'd left behind some revenant doppelgänger is too Japanese-horror-movie to process right now.

BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 24, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Silverstar Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq:SSTR), a leading international publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software, reported today the company has been invited to present at the 20th Annual Roth Capital Partners Growth Stock Conference. The conference will be held February 18-21, 2008 at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Jan. 24, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Retro Television Network (RTN), which is nationally owned and distributed by Equity Media Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq:EMDA), announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Quincy Newspapers, Inc. (QNI) to launch RTN programming on 11 stations. The new affiliates will air on the digital streams of KWWL (Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Iowa City/Dubuque, IA), WKOW (Madison, WI), WSJV (South Bend/Elkhart, IN), WVVA (Bluefield/Beckley/Oak Hill, WV), KXLT (Rochester, MN/Mason City, IA/Austin, MN), KTIV (Sioux City, IA), WREX (Rockford, IL), WXOW/WQOW (La Crosse/Eau Claire, WI) and WAOW/WYOW (Wausau/Rhinelander, WI).

When the Oscar nominations came out Tuesday, the world's hipsters let out a massive, "WTF?" upon learning that Jonny Greenwood's music for "There Will Be Blood" was not one of the five original score nominees. Those geezers, people cried (maybe even people such as me-self). Anyway, now comes word from Charles Bernstein, the head of the Academy's music branch, that Greenwood's score wasn't ever eligible in the first place. According to the Associated Press' Christy Lemire, "some of the score came from a performance Greenwood had done for the BBC, titled 'Popcorn Superhet Receiver.' Some of it came from Estonian composer Arvo Pärt; still other parts came from a Brahms violin concerto."

Apparently, Jonny was too busy changing the music-biz sales paradigm to tell us.

HONG KONG, Jan. 24, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Hong Kong based Artificial Life, Inc. (OTCBB:ALIF) (www.artificial-life.com), a leading provider of award-winning mobile 3G technology and applications, today announced signing a development agreement with the Cartoon Network, Inc. As the leading animated program broadcasting cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting, Cartoon Network (CartoonNetwork.com) is currently seen in nearly 91 million U.S. homes and in 160 countries around the world. Cartoon Network is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.'s ad-supported cable service that offers animated entertainment for kids and families.