DC Madam to the Big Screen?

But Colton Harris-Moore won't be living large, he'll pay back his victims

(AP) - The Barefoot Bandit, whose cross-country crime spree brought him folk outlaw status, has reportedly signed a movie deal worth as much as $1.3 million with 20th Century Fox. But 20-year-old Colton Harris-Moore won't see a penny for the rights of his life story: It instead goes to pay the minimum $1.4 million restitution he owes to the victims of his high-dollar thefts. The $1.3 million is unusually high, but Harris-Moore was on law enforcement's radar from the young age of 10, and many details surrounding his childhood remain a secret, attorneys for Harris-Moore said. More»

Ron Howard attached as direct

(NEWSER) - Roland Deschain may soon be gunslinging his way onto screens big and small. Stephen King is in talks to turn his Dark Tower books into a TV series and a movie trilogy directed by Ron Howard, Deadline New York reports. Both Universal's Imagine Entertainment and Warner Bros.' Weed Road are vying for the project. Whichever lands the deal, the projects will have Howard and the rest of his A Beautiful Mind team attached. More»

Lovechildren, gay affairs, and hookers, oh my!

(NEWSER) - From Eliot Spitzer’s $80,000 worth of prostitute action to Mark Sanford “hiking the Appalachian trail,” this decade has been ripe with political sex scandals. The Frisky picks the juiciest. Some of the slightly-lesser-discussed affairs:

• Mike Duvall: A self-described “family values warrior” in the California State Assembly spilled about his mistress—while miked—meaning that a whole bunch of politicians got to hear about his propensity for “spanking her.”

The actions of a half-dozen employees doesn't represent the huge organization

(NEWSER) - The conservative campaign against ACORN—which has now, thanks to a few video “sting” operations, lost its federal funding—is built on an outrageous set of exaggerations and falsehoods, writes Joe Conason for Salon. “No doubt it was fun to dupe a few morons into providing tax advice to a ‘pimp and ho,’ but what ACORN actually does, every day, is help struggling families.” More»

(NEWSER) - Hollywood executives are scratching their heads over why so many mega-wattage stars are failing to fill movie houses. A record number of usual box-office successes like Denzel Washington, Will Ferrell, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks came up short, in some cases not even attracting enough viewers for producers to break even, reports the New York Times. “The cratering of films with big stars is astounding,” said one observer. “These supertalented people are failing to aggregate a large audience, and everybody is looking for answers.” More»