Hollywood's 'Man-Deity' Honored

Longtime leading man, former NRA president, had Alzheimer's

(NEWSER) - Charlton Heston, the longtime Hollywood leading man who portrayed everyone from Moses to Michelangelo and won an Oscar for his chariot-driving performance in Ben Hur, has died at age 84, the AP reports. Heston, who announced in 2002 that he had Alzheimer's, became the unapologetic head of the NRA in 1998, a position that nearly overshadowed his acting career. More»

Roger Corman, Gordon Willis, John Calley share the spotlight

(NEWSER) - A mere 65 years after her unforgettable screen debut, Lauren Bacall has won an Academy Award. The honorary Oscar was a high point of a ceremony last night in Los Angeles that also celebrated the careers of filmmaker Roger Corman, cinematographer Gordon Willis, and producer John Calley. "I can't believe it, a man at last!" the 85-year-old Bacall joked as she hoisted her new hardware. More»

Gibson aims for rehabilitation, but Mad Max is 'gone'

(NEWSER) - Mel Gibson appears to be making an effort to revive a career stalled after his 2006 arrest and accompanying anti-Semitic tirade, but “it seems unlikely he can ever really come back,” writes Roger Friedman for Fox News. “Like Tom Cruise, Gibson has sent himself into a weird purgatory from which his reputation can never fully recover,” Friedman notes after watching the actor/director chat with Jimmy Kimmel. More»

(NEWSER) - Julia Roberts is poised to step back into the spotlight with next month’s Duplicity, and Hollywood is hoping she can do again what none of her successors has been able to—pull boffo box office, the New York Times reports. “It’s just so clearly there,” said a producer of the industrial espionage-cum-romantic caper, costarring Clive Owen. “I don’t know how we know it, but we do.” Roberts hasn’t headlined a flick since 2001. More»

Reveals star's troubled childhood

(NEWSER) - Christian Bale's infamous F-word-laced meltdown on a movie set was caused by a hair-trigger temper forged in his childhood, his mom tell the Mirror. The perfectionist actor was repeatedly humiliated as a child by his father, said his 61-year-old mum, Jenny, who accused her son of assault last year. “People might now realize that that is his temper," she added. More»