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Reuters Entertainment Summary

Reuters - Monday, September 8

Britney Spears sweeps at MTV Video Music Awards

LOS ANGELES - A year after her disastrous comeback attempt at the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears swept the event on Sunday, winning the first three "Moonman" statuettes of her career. The pop singer, whose career has been overshadowed in recent years by a litany of personal woes, took home the awards for video of the year, best pop video and best female video, all for the tune "Piece of Me."

Ricky Gervais sees dead people in "Ghost Town"

TORONTO - Ricky Gervais sees dead people. And he has found them to be a demanding bunch in his new movie "Ghost Town" as they clamor for help and attention from the only man who knows they're there. That man is antisocial dentist Bertram Pincus , who hates chit-chat, doesn't like the living much, and now, after a colonoscopy gone wrong, suddenly starts seeing ghosts.

Madonna dedicates "Like a Virgin" to pope

ROME - Pop star Madonna, once accused by the Vatican of staging one of the most satanic shows in history, surprised fans by dedicating her hit "Like a Virgin" to the pope at a sold-out concert held in Rome. "I dedicate this song to the pope, because I'm a child of God. All of you are also children of God," the 50-year old "Queen of Pop" told the 60,000 fans that flocked to the Italian stop of her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour on Saturday.

Spike Lee offers blood, hope in World War Two film

TORONTO - Filmmaker Spike Lee was focusing on the past when he made a movie about oft-forgotten the role of black soldiers in World War Two, a war film with both blood and schmaltz set in Tuscany. But the way the United States has changed since then makes the movie relevant for the present too, said Lee, who proudly sported an Obama T-shirt as he introduced "Miracle at St Anna" to the Toronto International Film Festival this week.

Nicolas Cage bombs at box office with "Bangkok"

LOS ANGELES - Less than a year after starring in the biggest movie of his volatile career, Nicolas Cage led the North American box office to its worst weekend in five years on Sunday with one of his weakest. "Bangkok Dangerous," a thriller in which the 44-year-old actor plays a jaded assassin, opened at No. 1 with estimated three-day earnings of just $7.8 million, distributor Lionsgate said. While no one was expecting it to be a hit, industry observers had predicted it would earn more than $10 million.

Venice hails cinema's comeback king Mickey Rourke

VENICE - Eleven days of red carpet galas, 21 films in competition and countless interviews, photo calls and parties at the Venice film festival boiled down to just one man in the end -- Mickey Rourke. The festival, which unofficially kick-starts the awards season leading to the Oscars, will be remembered chiefly for Rourke's performance in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," which the actor and critics agree is his best yet.

Michael J. Fox, James Cameron on Canada's Walk of Fame

TORONTO - Step aside Tinsletown. Toronto, dubbed "Hollywood North" for its active film industry, has its own star-studded "Walk of Fame," and its biggest red carpet yet was rolled out on Saturday for this year's Canadian inductees. Actor Michael J. Fox and director James Cameron were among those honored in front of hundreds of reporters and fans in the city already flooded with celebrities for the Toronto International Film Festival.

Donny and Marie bring G-rated variety to Vegas

NASHVILLE - Veteran sibling performers Donny and Marie Osmond are about to begin a 26-week stand in Las Vegas, and Marie Osmond points out that they just might turn Sin City into Sincere City. The duo will fill the need for a family-friendly variety show in the entertainment mecca, which now is dominated by big production shows a la Cirque du Soleil or single-artist-focused extended runs by one-name stars from Celine to Cher to Elton to Bette.

Christina Applegate in telethon for cancer research

LOS ANGELES - Cancer survivors Christina Applegate, Patrick Swayze, Sheryl Crowe, cyclist Lance Armstrong and dozens of other celebrities "stood up" to battle the disease in a charity television fund-raiser on Friday. In a rare collaboration across three rival U.S. television networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- Hollywood stars came together to appeal for millions of dollars to speed up research and send cancer to the history books.

An Old West shootout at the Toronto film festival

TORONTO - Westerns have been around as long as moving pictures, and two movies at this week's Toronto film festival, including Ed Harris's "Appaloosa," show how the old standard has taken wildly different looks over a century. From 1903's "The Great Train Robbery," westerns have traditionally painted a black-and-white picture of good versus bad, but Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" in 1992 updated -- or to some critics, redefined -- them by stripping away romance from a tale of a cold-blooded killer struggling to change his ways.

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