British Telecommunications has entered into an agreement in principle with US entertainment-based internet site Hollywood.com to distribute Hollywood.com content across its multiple internet platforms including narrowband ISP, broadband DSL access and wireless WAP technologies in the UK.

BT has also struck a deal with AtomFilms, the online short film distributor/exhibitor, to supply eight films a month for the next 18 months over its broadband consumer service (BT Internet Broadband Portal). The films, which will be available when the service starts service in July, will be available on an Atom-branded channel.

Content supplied by Hollywood.com will include movie news and reviews, celebrity interviews, multimedia and box office results. BT will also have the right to incorporate Hollywood.com content on certain of its affiliated sites.

Hollywood.com has also formed a strategic partnership with Legend Holdings Ltd, the largest computer manufacturer in China to distribute Hollywood.com content throughout China on all Legend new Pcs and Legend’s new Chinese-language portal FM365.com.

Hollywood.com recently partnered with US cinema chains AMC Entertainment, National Amusements, Famous Players and CBS Corporation to launch MovieTickets.com, an online movie ticketing company which plans to launch at the end of May.

Spacey as new Inspector Clouseau?!

MGM/UA is hoping to revive its Pink Panther franchise and is close to signing a deal with Kevin Spacey to take over the role of Inspector Clouseau the character originally played by the late Peter Sellers. MGM vice chairman Chris McGurk confirmed that a script is close to completion and that while discussions are currently going on with Spacey, no deal with him has been signed. Reports said that Ivan Reitman will produce. They did not indicate whether Blake Edwards, who helmed all of the previous Pink Panther movies, will be involved with this one.

William Goldman lambasts ‘piece of shit’ Private Ryan

Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) has launched another one of his routine missile attacks on Hollywood. In an interview with Empire magazine to promote his latest book, Which Lie Did I Tell?, Goldman, among other things, referred to Saving Private Ryan as "a detestable piece of shit." After allowing that the first half hour of the movie featured some "brilliant stuff," Goldman went on to remark that the last hour "is as bad as a movie can be."

Bollywood meets Oscar in London's Dome

The Indian film industry, which produces some 900 movies each year -- more than any other country -- is planning to stage its own version of the Oscar awards for the first time on June 24, the Times of India reported on Thursday. The newspaper said that the ceremonies will take place at London's new Millennium Dome and will be hosted by the current Miss World, Yukta Mookhey. The newspaper said that organizers of the awards show plan to stage it in a different country every year.

Idiots to go out on Film Four with pixelated errections

Danish director Lars Von Trier's comedy The Idiots which was cleared for theatrical release by the British Board of Film Classification last year despite explicit sex scenes, has now been cleared for showing on FilmFour, the movie channel operated by Channel 4. However, the channel will be required to "pixellate" images of erect penises and penetration in order to comply with Independent Television Commission regulations. Nevertheless, the channel has posted the unedited scenes on its Web site as part of a general online discussion of British Film censorship; a petition to the ITC is being circulated on the site asking the regulator to allow all films on FilmFour to be shown in their original form.

James Bond rescues a sinking lion

Once again James Bond has proved to be MGM's gold finger, transforming a losing first quarter a year ago into a profitable quarter this year. The company reported net income of $5.2 million on revenue of $344.7 million versus a loss (including a charge) of $306.6 million on revenue of $258.6 million a year ago. It was the third consecutive profitable quarter for the company, largely due to the success of the Bond thriller The World Is Not Enough, which has grossed $350 million worldwide. Shares in the company leaped 9 percent to 26 1/16. In a conference call with analysts, CEO Alex Yemenidjian, who has been credited with orchestrating the studio's turnaround, said: "We are very sanguine about the future profitability outlook of MGM."

Forget Arms to Iraq, now it’s Arms to Burbank

The Ministry of Defense, still smarting from the loss of the film contract to Ireland for the filming of Saving Private Ryan, is now touting its military bases to Hollywood directors as ideal locations for filming upcoming war movies. The Daily Express reports that the MOD is offering one of its largest garrisons, the Infantry Training Center at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, along with soldiers stationed there for future film productions. Chris Hughes, who is marketing the centre, as saying: "It is an ideal venue for film companies. The MOD has decided that they have a vast range of assets which they don't need on a daily basis and this is one of them."

Airports - the new multiplex?

The Hong Kong government is planning to entertain passengers waiting for departures from a local airport by erecting a domed theater there showing short, 3-D films later this year, the South China Morning Post reported on Wendesday. Chris Donnolley, a spokesman for the Chek Lap Kok Airport Authority, told the newspaper that the theater will be part of a departures-area "cyberzone" that will also feature Internet cafes. "It makes sense at our airport, because the average waiting time for transfer passengers is about four hours," Donnolley told the newspaper. "You can kill four hours quite easily inside the terminal, but it would be better to have a greater variety of air-side attractions."

Ainsley gets the chop in the US

The peacock has cooked chef Ainsley Harriott's goose, informing him that NBC stations will no longer carry the US version of his talk-squark-and-cook show after the end of its current run. The affiliates reportedly are planning to fill the slot with a new relationship show called Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.

Vinniejones.com - home of male strippers

Vinnie Jones, the slightly aggresive football star who shot to international film fame in the hit film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, has shut down a porno Web site, <www.vinniejones.com> that promoted an American male stripper, also named Vinnie Jones, the Sun reported on Monday. The newspaper said that Jones paid a six-figure sum to buy the address after a fan called to complain. "We checked it out for ourselves," said a spokeswoman for Jones, adding: "Vinnie was not amused at all -- in fact, he was very, very annoyed."

The Ambassador's Receptions are renowned for their exceedingly good hamsters...

Italian advertisers are willing to pay Hollywood film stars, who ordinarily disdain appearances in U.S. TV commercials, handsomely to endorse their products. So far Richard Gere is getting $1.6 million to tout Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Robert De Niro is receiving $4.8 million to appear in ads for a light bulb firm, Harrison Ford was paid close to $2.4 million to promote a new model Lancia automobile. Other film stars appearing in Italian ads: Kevin Costner (Valleverde shoes), Brad Pitt (Damiani jewelry), Catherine Zeta Jones (Alfa Romeo sportswagons), Woody Allen and Marlon Brando (Telecom Italia).

Best in Optimum place from Sky

Production company Best Films and Sky Pictures, the feature arm of UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB, have settled a legal dispute over the release of soccer picture Best.

Sky and the film's producer-director Mary McGuckian and producer-star John Lynch have agreed to a simultaneous outing for the picture in cinemas through distributor Optimum Releasing and on Sky. The move comes after McGuckian and Lynch secured a court injunction against the satellite powerhouse to stop the film being broadcast in March.

The producers claimed that Sky was "frustrating the traditional theatrical release pattern that supports our industry."

Mrs Robinson on the casting couch

Middle-aged Hollywood actresses are lining up in the hope of succeeding Kathleen Turner as Mrs. Robinson in the West End stage version of The Graduate. When the play's producer, John Reid, traveled to Hollywood last week to find a replacement for Turner, who is due to leave the cast in August, he "faced a barrage of interest from agents." "It's been unbelievable," according to an unnamed source, "everybody from Rene Russo and Sharon Stone to Demi Moore and Goldie Hawn has been touted around. ... There are very few good roles for women in Hollywood at the moment and this is one of the best available."