WALL-E (promoted providing an interpunct as WALL·E) is a 2008 computer animated adventure comedy science fiction film programmed by Pixar Animation Studios and released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures on June 27, 2008. WALL-E should be released onto DVD and Blu-ray on November 4, 2008.The film is administered by Andrew Stanton, who in the past attempt Finding Nemo. It follows a romance between two robots in the future. Most of the characters do not experience human voices, alternatively communicating in on person talk and sounds (designed by Ben Burtt) the resemble voices. It is moreover the previous animated feature by Pixar to undergo multi segments featuring make a home action characters. The film has earned something like universal praise on film critics.

Plot

In the the beginning of 2100s, the megacorporation Buy ‘n Large took during most every attention on Earth, plus the government. Overrun by consumerism, the sector quickly became so heftily polluted who it would no longer substantiation life. In an term to still be humanity alive, Buy ‘n Large financed an exodus to space aboard hundreds of dollars of incredible “Executive Starliners”, the leading of that is the Axiom, that left Earth in the year 2115. Thousands of WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) homes got left behind to clean up the planet.

By 2815, just one WALL-E is presently operational, scavenging facets based on his inactive duplicates. 700 ages of have has lead to WALL-E to grow a personality. He collects items which he finds amid the refuse, together with a videotape of the 1969 movie Hello, Dolly!. Throughout the film he relentlessly plays the tape, remarkably the performances of “Sunday Clothes” and “It Only Takes a Moment”. It teaches him emotion, essentially having hands (which gets a recurring theme). He too finds and guards a seedling plant, placing it in an old boot.

EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) (Elissa Knight), a robot according to the Axiom sent to supply plant life, lands and begins her search. The two robots give out get hold of and WALL-E’s curiosity grows swiftly to love. After a multitude of misunderstandings, WALL-E tells her the plant he found. Following her directive, EVE stores the plant inside herself and deactivates. WALL-E goes to sharp lengths to cover her body, in conjunction with lowering himself. EVE is soon recovered by the ship which took her to Earth, that flies going back to the Axiom. WALL-E latches on to the outside of the ship and rides it coming back to its destination. Aboard the Axiom, WALL-E follows EVE to her destination, endorsement his habits on to select of the robots along the way. After 700 ages of residing in micro-gravity, the ship’s passengers undergo become lethargic and obese, not able to stand or move without robotic help. Every aspiration is now automated, as well as the captain’s duties, that are handled by the autopilot AUTO (MacInTalk).

WALL-E follows EVE to the captain’s room, at which Captain B. McCrea (Jeff Garlin) is to be substantiated the plant. However, to the surprise, EVE’s compartment, at which it was kept, is now empty. AUTO tells McCrea too EVE has malfunctioned, and sends her to the robot repair ward amid WALL-E. Misunderstanding the purpose of the diagnostic machine, WALL-E takes EVE’s gun arm and accidentally frees all the malfunctioning robots, who carry him off. EVE chases WALL-E to recover her arm; in the process, she is accidentally referred to as as a rogue robot. Seeing the chaos WALL-E has caused, EVE tries to send him coming back to Earth in an holiday pod, but he refuses to go. AUTO’s assistant, GO-4, arrives and reveals which he had the plant the overall time. He disposes of it in the vacation pod; when WALL-E goes to retrieve it, he is launched to space, and the pod’s self-destruct series is activated. He crunches to holiday the pod amid the plant at the go on second. EVE proceeds the plant to McCrea. Curious to see images of Earth, he projects EVE’s security camera footage, at which she sees the lengths such a WALL-E headed to cover her. The captain is shocked by the environmental catastrophe on Earth illustrated in the recordings and decides properties have to end up with to craft amends.

AUTO mutinies and tries to dispose of the plant, and is required to to reveal the thing of the well being to McCrea. After resigning the Earth, Buy ‘n Large eventually decided the current the nation was too toxic to repeatedly substantiation livlihood once more and abandoned recolonization plans; as a result, AUTO is secretly designed to never send back to Earth. AUTO locks the captain in his quarters, subsequently electrically shocks WALL-E and deactivates EVE, throwing them and the plant to a garbage chute. EVE awakens in the Axiom’s disposal facility and defends WALL-E, whose hardware is massively damaged and fast and hard costing power. She searches in vain for parts, and WALL-E presents the plant, that could shoot them going back to Earth at which he can be fixed. They recruit the malfunctioning robots and battle this way coming back to the number one side of the ship. Seeing such a efforts, the captain takes it upon himself to help, hotwiring the talking institutions out of the confines of his quarters. He shows WALL-E and EVE to put the plant on the holo-detector, a pedestal who rises based on the storey on one of the passenger decks. AUTO tries to intervene and is fought by the captain. AUTO throws the captain off, influencing the ship on its side. He later forces the holo-detector going back to the floor. EVE is required to to continue a train based on information from crushing the immobile passengers, additonally WALL-E uses his person to jam the holo-detector, that crushes him. McCrea stands up by himself (to the amazement of the Axiom’s passengers) and deactivates AUTO, restoring form aboard the ship. Once the plant is in the holo-detector, the ship’s hyperjump returning to Earth is initiated. WALL-E’s crushed person operates out of credit and shuts down.

Once properties turn up on Earth, EVE frantically takes WALL-E’s person going back to his home; she replaces WALL-E’s damaged elements making use of spare portions scavenged of a larger number of WALL-Es. While such a occurs, humans and the greater number of robots are observed exiting the Axiom. After he recharges and begins to function, the damage has kept on so considerable such a he looks to suffer lost his memory and personality: he begins to perform his designed task, crushing his treasured knick-knacks to cubes. EVE, heartbroken throughout the detriment of WALL-E, follows him as he heads off to perform his job. When he pauses, she takes own of his hand and leans her managed towards his. A static discharge (a “kiss”) jumps between the two. The spark reboots WALL-E’s memory and he All of the sudden recognizes her as properties clasp hands. With a renewed sense of purpose, humanity and robots start on attempting up to restore Earth’s biosphere.

Cast

* Ben Burtt as sound technician for voices of WALL-E, WALL-A, M-O, and additional robots
* Elissa Knight as EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator)
* Jeff Garlin as Axiom Captain B. McCrea
* Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, BNL CEO
* John Ratzenberger as John
* Kathy Najimy as Mary
* Sigourney Weaver as Ship’s Computer. Weaver’s casting was a nod to the Alien films.
* MacInTalk sounds got expended for AUTO. Burtt originally wanted to use old Maritime military sounds for the character.

Production

Andrew Stanton conceived WALL-E before Toy Story was made:the notion was, “What if mankind evacuated Earth and forgot to turn off the persist remaining robot?” Pete Docter grown the film for two cycles in 1995, ensuing Stanton explained the story to him, but he reached the conclusion to instigate Monsters, Inc. (2001) instead, as he was unsure of telling a sttink story.The underlying thought been heard to preoccupy Stanton, due to the fact that of his sttink of space opera and personifying inanimate objects.
WALL-E is the easily one much really living. And how is the closing purpose of living? To love. And WALL-E falls administered within heels amongst a robot named EVE. Now, Wall-E’s feeling’s aren’t reciprocated because, well, she has no feelings. She’s a robot, cold and clinical. WALL-E is the one who has evolved through long time and garnered feelings. So in the end, it’s going to be WALL-E’s pursuit to win EVE’s heart, and his weird value increase of livlihood to become mankind’s the preceding pray to rediscover its roots. In short, it’s being given to take a robot’s sttink to blessing earn the industry go round.”

Andrew Stanton

After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton have had to deal with properties “had in fact reached the physics of thinking you got particularly below water, so I argued ‘Hey, let’s do overly surrounded by air.’ Let’s fix our lenses, let’s get the depth of field appearing spot on how anamorphic lenses strive and do all these types of tricks which take in us suffer the same brand of dimensionality the present we got on Nemo in on an object out in the air and on the ground.’”Producer Jim Morris added such a the film was animated so the current it ought to feel “as if there in reality was a cameraman”.Dennis Muren was brought in to advise Pixar on copying science fiction films based on data from the 1960s and 1970s, plus components these as 70 mm frames, barrel distortion and lens flare.Scale cases got built for Muren, that he expended to teach Pixar.

The design of the robots came nearly by Stanton telling his designers, “See it as an appliance first, and afterward was reading character to it.”In producing the title character, the animators got inspired by a pair of binoculars and Luxo Jr., the lamp featured in the Pixar logo.[5] Stanton was fiddling among a pair of binoculars, that looked great or sad depending on whether properties got upside lower or not.Stanton have had to deal with “you do not fancy a mouth, you do not ask for a nose, you get a general personality only based on what i read in [the eyes]”, that caused the audience could feel he is “not only a human in a robot shell”. WALL-E’s person came out of the logic of invested in his person curl up covet a turtle and reservoir treads so could improve the ability of him to overcome any terrain. The director as well acknowledged he may experience carried on subconsciously persuaded by Johnny 5 out of the film Short Circuit (which he saw once).

Stanton pitched the story to Ben Burtt who signed on to do the sound design.There is bit traditional dialogue in the film; Stanton joked, “I’m in reality producing R2-D2: The Movie”, in reference to Burtt’s term on Star Wars. To commence dialogue, Burtt took a good number of mechanical sounds, and combined them to resemble dialogue.When WALL-E recharges his battery by suggests of solar energy, he leads the same startup chime as the newly made Macintosh computers.Executive producer John Lasseter assumed of the film’s lack of dialogue the “the art of animation is on how the character does, not how it says. It all depends on how you inform the story, whether it has a lot of dialogue or not.”

As Cars was dedicated to the memory of Joe Ranft, WALL-E was dedicated to Justin Wright (1981-2008), a Pixar animator who had got the job done on Ratatouille.In the Pixar tradition, a directory of “Production Babies” was included in the ultimate credits.

References to a greater number of Pixar films

Pixar films often contain character references to the studio’s a good amount of projects. EVE scans a Pizza Planet truck according to Toy Story. A dusty Rex, based on data from Toy Story, looks on WALL-E’s conveyor belt of garbage (between two bowling pins). There is a Hamm toy, according to Toy Story as well, on the conveyor belt of stuff afterward in the movie. A toy of Mike based on Monsters, Inc. moreover looks like it’s on their conveyor belt. When WALL-E goes to sleep surrounded by his cockroach at the occuring of the film, on top of the shelf above him is a Frozone bobble endeavor according to The Incredibles. During the final credits, a mosaic version of a sea turtle of Finding Nemo appears. A113, a phrase overly has continued put to most any Pixar film to date, is an crucial code in the movie. John Ratzenberger additionally voices one of the characters, as he has wound up for most any full-length Pixar release.

References to Apple computers

Due to the occurence this Pixar and Apple Computers are in detail linked companies, there are multi character references to Apple. Most dominantly, the voice of AUTO, the Axiom’s autopilot, is finished paying for Macintosh Plainspeak. Another build of Plainspeak is used up for M-O’s “Foreign Contaminant” detector. WALL-E’s “Full Solar Charge” realize tone is in addition the start-up sound on the Macintosh. Finally, WALL-E watches Hello, Dolly! on an old iPod nano.

Music

Main article: WALL-E (soundtrack)

The soundtrack was released on June 24, 2008. The album parts “Sunday Clothes” and “It Only Takes a Moment” by Michael Crawford — based on information from Hello, Dolly!, and “La Vie en Rose” by Louis Armstrong, and “Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel. The music was generally composed by Thomas Newman investing in orchestration charge to Carl Johnson, JAC Redford, Thomas Pasatieri, and Gary K. Thomas.

Television spots

Additional music performed by British-Pop band The Polecats for this 1983 hit, “Make A Circuit With Me” spent in the television trailer regions for the film.

Etta James’ version of the hit song “At Last” is featured in the official trailer, toying throughout the instant at which WALL-E meets EVE. The song performs not arrive in the movie, nor on the soundtrack.

Parts of the screen based on what i read in Brazil by Michael Kamen got expended in television promotions.

Release

WALL-E marquee at the El Capitan Theatre, Los Angeles, on June 26, 2008.
WALL-E marquee at the El Capitan Theatre, Los Angeles, on June 26, 2008.

The film earned its premiere at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 23, 2008.WALL-E opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on June 27, 2008 and grossed $23.1 million in its opening day.In its opening weekend, the film grossed $63 million in 3,992 theaters, ranking #1 at the box office.The opening weekend may offer the film the third-best opening weekend for a Pixar film.

Continuing a Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired through a very brief film for its theatrical release. The attached film was Presto.

Reception

WALL-E earned near-universal acclaim based on film critics.Rotten Tomatoes reported this 96% of critics gave the film sure reviews, established upon a sample of 165 reviews, among an common score of 8.6/10.At Metacritic, that assigns a normalized display out of 100 to reviews for mainstream critics, the film has earned an regular screen of 93, centered on 37 reviews.

Todd McCarthy of Variety dubbed the film “Pixar’s ninth consecutive wonder”, professing it was imaginative yet straightforward. Citing WALL-E’s “adroit” borrowing based on information from a good deal more works, McCarthy stated it pushed the boundaries of animation in managing to equate esoteric innovations in a good deal more straight off available ones, and overly the primary change between the film and a greater number of science fiction projects centered in an apocalypse was its optimism. McCarthy additionally had praise for Thomas Newman’s musical rate and the visuals, for that he declared cinematographer Roger Deakins’ key in as a ass consultant as a probable factor.

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter stated too WALL-E surpassed the achievements of Pixar’s initial eight features, arguing the present the film had the “heart, soul, spirit and romance” of the most ideal silent films. He argued the current the filmmakers operate to say to a the best story over Residual and aural tools that enabled the robotic characters to convey “a rainbow of emotions”. He claimed the visuals got arguably Pixar’s finest and praised the production of a ruined Earth city and a human spaceship as “fantastically imaginative”. Honeycutt claimed the film’s definitive stroke of brilliance was in paying for a mix of archive film footage and computer graphics to explanation WALL-E’s romantic leanings. He praised Burtt’s sound design, asserting “If there is this kind of a event as an aural sleight of hand, this moment is it.” Honeycutt finished by declaring so although the film’s acknowledged nods to a large amount of operates (2001: A Space Odyssey, and minutes at which robots “run riot” bringing to mind Monsters, Inc.), WALL-E may be Pixar’s the majority of first make it out to date.

Roger Ebert creating in the Chicago Sun-Times argued WALL-E succeeded in 3 areas: as “an enthralling animated film, a Visua wonderment, and a wonderful science-fiction story”. Ebert argued the scarcity of dialogue may assist it to “cross terminology barriers” in a manner appropriate to the out of country theme, and he had praise for the ass effects, arguing the color palette was “bright and cheerful… and a bit bit realistic”. He raised the beginning of Disney animations the present successfully translated human sayings onto non-human characters as an lessen on the title character. He claimed the film run to engender a “curious” claim for the WALL-E, comparing his design (”rusty and hard-working and plucky”) agreeably to a multitude of easy attempts at writing “lovable” cause characters. Ebert labeled the storytelling “enchanting” and declared the film may be enjoyed by adults and children alike. He stated WALL-E was apprehensive amongst tools pretty as opposed to spectacle, alleging it may make “a bit of thought” on the half of the audience, and the present now may be essentially stimulating to younger viewers.

Commentary

The film was interpreted as tackling a topical, ecologically minded agenda.Todd McCarthy claimed it did so among a lightness of touch the current granted the viewer the ability to accept or ignore the message.Jessica Jensen of The Huffington Post, additonally praising the film overall, experienced it did not cause an adequate amount of of a height in on its environmental themes. She argued it may experience had environmental advice or a website link over the end credits, inserting it was “troubling” the present by the end “humans come up with to Earth and it looks as if it’s as if anything could just now be hunky-dory”.The film’s ecological theme was criticized by cynical commentators this type of as CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck, and contributors for National Review Online;Shannen W. Coffin alleged the the film was “leftist propaganda on the evils of mankind”,and Jonah Goldberg wrote the he agreed providing the invoices of hypocrisy and “Malthusian fear mongering” leveled at the film by others, but alleged overly it was “fascinating” and occasionally “brilliant”.

Patrick J. Ford of The American Conservative stated WALL-E’s pessimistic critics got missing lessons in the film overly he have had to deal with got tantalizing to traditional conservatism. He suggested the the mass consumerism in the film was not provided evidence to be a product of big business, but of too finish a tie between big market and big government: “The municipal unilaterally with its residents through anything and everything properties needed, and such lack of variety led to Earth’s downfall.” Responding to Coffin’s contend too the film points out the “evils of mankind”, he believed the merely evils portrayed got people the current resulted based on data from “losing touch in our own humanity” and this monumental gloomy representations the as the farm, the family unit and “wholesome” entertainment got in the end seized aloft by the human characters. He concluded, “By steering cautious denizens away on WALL-E, these types of commentators are working at the readers a nice disservice.”Andrew Stanton commented on the reaction to the environmental themes by alleging those of us got causing connections such a he “never saw coming.” He argued the conditions of humanity’s abandoning the Earth came up easily as a way of telling the story, “reverse-engineered” for the first underlying thought of paying refuse as both a Visua shorthand the could be easy for children to understand, and as a way of depicting the title character as invested in a low-status, menial job.

Kyle Smith, author and columnist for the New York Post, wrote the present in depicting humans of the coming years as “a flabby mass of peabrained idiots who are literally too fat to walk”, WALL-E was darker and a greater number of conservative as opposed to any pivotal Disney cartoon he ought to be sure of. He added, “I’m in addition not absolute I’ve as of yet witnessed a required corporation spend so still finances to matter an insult to its customers.” Maura Judkis of U.S. News & World Report asked whether now depiction of “frighteningly obese humans” might resonate providing children, construction them a good amount of anticipated to “play outside relatively as opposed to in front of the computer, to stay away from a similar fate”.[33] Stanton denied so his aim was to pass comment on obesity, asserting the purpose was in its place to portray human overdependency.

The controversy surrounding these Anna Nicole Smith photos which were released online yesterday is getting a little more … well … controversial. The Insider published a statement from someone who claims to be Howard K. Stern’s attorney which reads as follows:

“Shortly after I was retained by Howard Stern, I received firsthand information that MOE BRIGHTHAUPT (”Big Moe”) had contacted tabloids offering for sale one or more photographs of Anna Nicole Smith. Yesterday, photographs of Anna Nicole and Dannielynn were posted on various Internet websites. These photographs are the property of the Estate of Anna Nicole Smith and were stolen from her camera shortly after her death. Big Moe denies selling the photographs but admits that he is distributing them. His misappropriation of Estate property is unlawful and his stated motives for doing so are not credible.

“This is another egregious example of deceit and manipulation by individuals and certain members of the media to profit from Anna Nicole’s death. Even more disturbing is the fact that selective photographs have been distributed — intentionally selected to make Anna Nicole and others appear in a false light. Fortunately, the memory card stolen from the camera had been downloaded before it was stolen and the Estate is in possession of every photograph in the series. The other photographs clearly show that Anna Nicole, as she often did, was merely playing for the camera.”

However, NewsBlogPk.com received a statement this morning in response to Howard’s K. Stern’s alleged attorney’s statement which reads as follows:
After reading the statement of attorney L. Lin Wood we find it necessary to respond to a series of erroneous comments. Big Moe has never stolen anything, including a memory card shortly after the untimely death of Anna Nicole Smith. Claims of profiting from Anna Nicole’s death are equally disturbing. Big Moe would never seek to profit from the disturbing photographs on various Internet websites.

In regard to L. Lin Wood’s comment regarding deceit and manipulation the pictures in question through focused eyes speak for themselves. If playing for the camera included Anna Nicole Smith vomiting, L. Lin Wood has taken spin to a new level.

Big Moe continues to mourn the death of his close friends, but continues to question why pictures on Anna Nicole Smith were ever taken in the first place.

Paul Porter”

I’ve been informed that this story will be all over Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out on television. I’ll be watching because Pat O’Brien is such a leathery stud. And ferrets are cute. Especially the dead one under Pat O’Brien’s nose.

Note: Anna Nicole wasn’t dead in these photos, but they’re still probably NSFW

Celebrated by both the Horde and the Alliance, the Brewfest is a time to enjoy the fermented fruits of the harvest: pretzels, cheese, and booze! The competing breweries Thunderbrew, Barleybrew, and the Ogres, all come together outside of all the major cities in a bid to outdo each other with their special ales, meads, and beers. Brave adventurers are invited to sit back, take a pull, and sample the finest wares these brewers have to offer! 

 Features 

Type: Brewfest
Date: 2-16 October
Location: Main Event: Orgrimmar and Ironforge. Beer gardens will also be set up outside of Silvermoon City, Darnassus, Undercity, Stormwind, Thunder Bluff, the Exodar, and Shattrath.

Enjoying the Brew

Complimentary mugs filled with fresh, foamy beer sit atop tables outside of all the major cities. If you drink one down while standing near one of the brewers’ stands outside of Ironforge or Orgrimmar, one of their assistants will toss you a new mug. You can also fill up your empties at any of the kegs sitting near the brewers’ stands. At Brewfest, you’ll never have to worry about how you’ll quench your thrist! 

Things To Do

Brewfest is about more than just sampling fine ales from all over Azeroth and Outland. Read on to find out what mighty deeds you can do while quenching your thirst:
Ram Racing
Adventurers can show their ram-riding skills by speaking with Neill Ramstein or Ram Master Ray. Before they’ll trust you with their precious rams, though, you’ll need to prove you can control one! Once you’ve proven your expertise at handling the rams, you can earn some Brewfest Prize Tickets by picking up some kegs of brew from Kharanos or Razor Hill and bringing them back to the fest.

Barkers Wanted
The representatives of some of the major breweries want adventurers to help out by advertizing their brews in Orgrimmar and Ironforge; just speak to one of the brewers for Barleybrew or Thunderbrew outside of Ironforge or T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery or Drohn’s Distillery outside of Orgrimmar to get started. You’ll be given a ram to hurry you on your way, spreading the word around Orgrimmar or Ironforge about who has the best brew.

Mystery Hunts
For those who enjoy a good mystery hunt, Goldark Snipehunter and Glodrak Huntsniper have some tasks involving wolpertingers and pink elekks they’d like you to perform for them. Just a fair warning: you may need to keep a wee dram of hair of the dog ready for the morning after!
 
Defend the Fest
From time to time, the envious Dark Iron dwarves will launch a sneaky invasion of the festivities. Determined drinkers must rally to protect the ale and to give the Dark Irons a sound thrashing lest they make off with the booze.

Lastly, don’t forget to drop by Belbi Quikswitch and Blix Fixwidget to redeem your Brewfest Prize Tickets for some great prizes!

HONG KONG - “Rush Hour” put Jackie Chan in Hollywood’s major leagues, but the Hong Kong star isn’t a fan of his successful action comedy franchise.
   
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Chan said when he made the first installment of the “Rush Hour” series in 1998 he only wanted to test the U.S. market and didn’t have high hopes.

“When we finished filming, I felt very disappointed because it was a movie I didn’t appreciate and I did not like the action scenes involved. I felt the style of action was too Americanized and I didn’t understand the American humor,” Chan said in a blog entry on his Web site seen Sunday.

The actor said he made the sequel because he was offered an “irresistible” amount of money to do it and made the recently released third installment to satisfy fans of the series.

Chan said “Rush Hour 3″ was no different from the first two installments for him.

“Nothing particularly exciting stood out that made this movie special for me … I spent four months making this film and I still don’t fully understand the humor,” he said, adding the comedic scenes may be lost on Asian audiences.

Chan’s comments came even though the “Rush Hour” series, which revolves around the racial humor stemming from the pairing of a Chinese (Chan) and a black (Chris Tucker) police officer, helped the action star cross over to mainstream American audiences.

“Rush Hour” was Chan’s first movie to break $100 million at the U.S. box office, earning $141 million, according to the box office tracking Web site, Box Office Mojo. “Rush Hour 2″ made $226 million and “Rush Hour 3″ has earned $137 million so far.

Chan has been known to be blase about his Hollywood work. He said in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press that he uses the high salary he earns in the U.S. to fund Chinese-language projects that truly interest him.

He also showed little enthusiasm for his latest Hollywood project, “The Forbidden Kingdom,” which marks his first on-screen collaboration with fellow action star Jet Li.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal jury decided Madison Square Garden and its chairman must pay $11.6 million in damages to former New York Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders in her sexual harassment lawsuit.

The jury also found Knicks coach Isiah Thomas subjected Browne Sanders to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but that he did not have to pay punitive damages.

Deciding MSG had harassed Browne Sanders, the jury found the Garden owes $6 million for allowing a hostile work environment to exist and $2.6 million for retaliation; MSG chairman James Dolan owes $3 million.

“What I did here, I did for every working woman in America,” said Browne Sanders, who came out of the courtroom beaming. “And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone working in a corporate environment.”

She said it also was for “women who don’t have the means and couldn’t possibly have done what I was able to do.”
 
The Garden said it would appeal, but the verdict gave Thomas a partial victory after an ugly, three-week trial.

“I’m innocent, I’m very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing,” said Thomas, who’s married with two children. “I’m extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have.”

After the verdict, Browne Sanders hugged family members and friends gathered in the back of the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch called it an “eminently reasonable” verdict, and gave the jurors instructions on how to proceed. Before the jury resumed deliberations, attorneys from both sides appealed to the jurors.

Browne Sanders’ lawyer, Anne Vladeck, had urged the jury to affix damages that sent a message “to avoid this happening to somebody else.” She said the defendants had ruined her client’s career, and she called Dolan a liar.

Thomas’s lawyer, Ronald Green, told jurors they had already sent “a very clear, very strong and very forceful message.

“Punishment for the sake of punishment is not what this is all about,” he said.

The harassment verdict was widely expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating that it believed Thomas, the Garden and Dolan sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three.

“We believe that the jury’s decision was incorrect,” MSG said in a statement before punitive damages were awarded. “We look forward to presenting our arguments to an appeals court, and believe they will agree that no sexual harassment took place and MSG acted properly.”

MSG is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., based in Bethpage, N.Y., and Dolan is Cablevision’s CEO. Shares fell 35 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.71 in afternoon trading.

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Salma Hayek’s latest production just might be her best to date.

The filmmaker-actress and her fiancé, French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, welcomed their first child together Friday, daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault.

“Mother and child are doing well,” Hayek’s publicist, Cari Ross, said in a statement.

Hayek is a first-time mom, while Pinault, 45, has two children from a previous relationship. The predominantly private couple announced both their engagement and their expectant status in March.

There’s still no word on when she’s planning to walk down the aisle, but it’s nice that Hayek found time to have a baby this year.

In addition to guest appearances on Ugly Betty, which she also coproduces, in April the Mexican beauty teamed with MGM to form her own production company, Ventanazul, which will develop, produce and acquire between two and four Latin-themed films per year for the iconic Hollywood studio.

The past Emmy and Oscar nominee currently has a cameo in Frida director Julie Taymor’s homage to the ’60s and the Beatles, Across the Universe, and she is working on the Chihuahua-lost-in-Beverly Hills comedy South of the Border, which costars Drew Barrymore, Jamie Lee Curtis and a veritable who’s-who of Latin and Latin-American actors, including Andy Garcia, Edward James Olmos, Cheech Marin and George Lopez. The family film is currently slated for an August 2008 release.

Meanwhile, Hayek’s other pet project, Ugly Betty, had a stellar freshman year, winning the Golden Globe for best comedy series and top acting honors for star America Ferrera (a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a SAG award), and snagging a handful of trophies at the ALMA, NAACP Image, GLAAD and Satellite awards, among others.

Next up for Hayek, aside from her various production duties, are William H. Macy’s feature directorial debut, the drama Keep Coming Back, and the musical comedy La Banda, in which she’ll play an upperclass housewife who moonlights as a wedding singer to make ends meet after her husband leaves her.

After more than 20 years of bitter feuding, the principal founding members of Van Halen hugged each other on Monday during a news conference to announce a rebirth of one of America’s premier rock bands.

Flamboyant singer David Lee Roth, 52, has returned to the fold for a 25-date North American arena trek that will kick off on September 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina. International dates and a new album are also in the planning stages.

Roth quit the band in 1985 for a disappointing solo career, and he spent the subsequent years sniping at his old bandmates and their replacement singer Sammy Hagar.

But as excited reporters cheered them on, the garrulous “Diamond Dave” embraced his old antagonist, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, during the gathering at the Four Seasons Hotel.

“My new brother,” said Van Halen, also 52, as his 54-year-old brother, drummer Alex Van Halen looked on.

It is indeed a family affair, with Eddie’s 16-year-old son, Wolfgang, replacing Michael Anthony on bass, to the chagrin of some fans hoping for a reunion of the classic lineup famed for such hits as “Runnin’ With the Devil,” “And the Cradle Will Rock” and “Panama.”

Asked about Anthony’s absence, Roth said: “This is not a reunion. This is a new band. … Usually when a band comes back like us it’s rockers with walkers, and this is everything but. Meet us in the future, not the past.”

NEW ALBUM

Roth said Van Halen was “plotting and planning” a new album, his first with the band since 1983’s blockbuster “1984.”

“Saving the world is (U2 singer) Bono’s job. We just want to save a hundred cities,” Roth said. “Then we want to save Europe, then we want to save Japan, Australia and … Hong Kong. Then we make an album. Lots of big dreams here, lots of ambition.”

Added Eddie Van Halen: “We are a band and we’re gonna continue.”

The band has been on the rocks since 1996, when Hagar acrimoniously left. That year, Roth reunited with his old bandmates to record two songs for a hits album, and to present an award at the MTV Video Music Awards. He had assumed this would lead to a full-blown reunion, but later claimed he had been duped by Eddie Van Halen.

The band, instead, cast its lot with a new singer, Gary Cherone, the former vocalist with soft-rock band Extreme. His one album with the band, 1998’s “Van Halen III” was a flop, and he left the following year.

The Van Halen soap opera entered a bizarre phase in 2002, when Roth and Hagar launched a co-headlining tour, despite Roth’s description of his replacement as a “mediocre talent.” Also that year, Eddie van Halen underwent cancer treatment, and the band was dropped by its longtime label, Warner Bros.

In 2004, Hagar and his old bandmates embarked on an unhappy reunion tour, with Anthony and Hagar claiming that Eddie Van Halen had alcohol problems. The guitarist, a recovering alcoholic, entered rehab earlier this year.

Observers are hoping for better things this time around.

“The real question is whether Eddie and Dave can peacefully co-exist,” said Matt Blackett, associate editor at Guitar Player magazine. “For the sake of their die-hard fans let’s hope so, because it was that pairing that created the band’s most groundbreaking music. Eddie never played better than when he was with Dave.”

Reuters

Just your average six-year-old’s birthday party, except the birthday boy has some very special parents.

Brad and Angelina’s oldest son Maddox turned six on Sunday and mom and dad blocked off the entire weekend for a surprise celebration at their Santa Barbara home.

Photos featured inside the new edition of Life & Style magazine (on newsstands Friday) show daddy Brad in military-chic leading Maddox and his friends in a game of capture the flag and even Angie and Zahara got into the camouflage spirit!
Maddox’s siblings Shiloh, Pax and Zahara were at the party, but mostly hung out with mom as Brad kept the kids busy.

And clearly, Brad and Angelina have a biker-in-the-making on their hands, as Maddox zoomed around on an ATV. Luckily, he will have lots of practice time as the proud parents got their daredevil in training a new dirt bike, leather jacket and helmet - just like his daddy!

Spears accused of threatening paparazzi

Britney Spears threw a baby bottle and threatened two photographers after they took pictures of her leaving a Las Vegas spa, the photographers said in a statement Tuesday.

Spears yelled “I am going to kill you!” and cursed at Andrew Deetz, a photographer who says he was beaten by Spears’ bodyguard on Thursday, according to a statement released by Deetz’s lawyers.

Deetz, 24, is preparing to sue, his lawyers said. The other photographer involved was Kyle Henderson, 23. They both work for a celebrity photography company called Flynet Pictures, which sells to such publications as People and US Weekly, according to Daniel Kogan, a spokesman for Deetz’s lawyers.

The men were taking pictures of Spears, 25, as she and her children — 22-month-old Sean Preston Federline and 10-month-old Jayden James Federline — left the spa at the Wynn Las Vegas casino-hotel around 11:30 a.m., accompanied by two bodyguards.

One bodyguard, Cesar Julio Camera, 37, pushed Henderson against the wall until Wynn security intervened and asked Henderson to leave, the statement said.

As they were about 30 paces away and walking in the opposite direction, Camera attacked Deetz from behind, threw him on the ground and punched and kicked him until security pulled him off, it said.

Afterward, Spears ran toward Henderson but was stopped by security, and then threw a baby bottle at him, it said.

Then, in front of several other hotel guests and bystanders, Spears threatened to kill Deetz and said he should get a restraining order against her because she was going to kill him or hire someone that would, it said.

Camera also told Deetz on July 23 outside the Lisa Kline boutique in Beverly Hills, “I have unfinished business with you,” the statement alleged.

Spears’ lawyer Gary Stiffelman declined to comment.

Wynn Las Vegas released a statement confirming that Spears stayed at the hotel and left on Thursday, but also declined to discuss the confrontation.

“We respect the privacy and do our utmost to maintain the anonymity of our guests,” it said.

Las Vegas police issued a summons for a charge of battery to Camera, the only person cited. He could face up to six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.

Stiffelman’s office would not relay messages to Camera seeking comment, and The Associated Press was unable to find a phone number for him.