| Business News |
Ford posts $8.7 billion loss on truck slump
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Ford Motor Co posted a $8.7
billion quarterly loss on Thursday as it wrote down the value
of truck and SUV operations and cautioned that it did not
expect to see a U.S. economic turnaround until 2010.
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Dow Chemical second-quarter profit hurt by costs
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Dow Chemical Co posted
second-quarter earnings that fell short of market expectations
as its price increases did not completely offset a sharp spike
in energy and raw material costs.
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Nokia patent deal with Qualcomm boosts both stocks
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Nokia (NOK1V.HE), the world's top
cellphone maker, has ended three years of legal battles with
wireless chip developer Qualcomm and signed a patent
agreement that boosted both companies' shares.
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Wall Street extends drops after housing data
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Stock extended losses on Thursday
following a report that showed a steeper-than-expected drop in
existing-home sales in June, heightening concern about the
impact of the housing slump on economic growth.
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FCC has pact to approve Sirius-XM deal: source
(Reuters)
 Reuters - A majority of members of the Federal
Communications Commission have reached an agreement to
conditionally approve Sirius Satellite Radio Inc's
purchase of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc , a source
familiar with the agency review said on Thursday.
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New layoff filings jump as companies retrench
(AP)
 AP - The number of newly laid off people filing claims for unemployment benefits bolted past 400,000 last week as companies trimmed their work forces to cope with a slowing economy and fallout from a collapsed housing market.
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| Scarlett Johansson's album debut panned by critics - 21, May 2008 |
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Scarlett Johansson's latest film work may be getting the red carpet treatment at Cannes, but her debut album, released on Tuesday, is drawing fire from music critics.
"Anywhere I Lay My Head," a collection of Tom Waits songs recorded by the star of such films as "Match Point," "Lost in Translation" and "Girl with a Pearl Earring," has been described by the actress as "an intimate experience."
But numerous reviews of the album complained that Johansson's vocals end up lost in the lush arrangements of producer David Andrew Sitek, the guitarist and keyboardist for the indie rock band TV on the Radio.
For some critics, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"Johansson's voice is unremarkable and her pitch sometimes unsteady; she's a faintly goth Marilyn Manson lost in a sonic fog," wrote Rolling Stone magazine, which gave her a lukewarm 2.5 stars out of five.
Britain's Mojo magazine called the recordings "fussy and forgettable," adding that the decision to begin the album with an instrumental was hardly a vote of confidence in Johansson's vocal abilities.
The disc received a middling "C" grade from Entertainment Weekly magazine, which wrote that her "expressionless voice" was buried "deeply in the druggy ambiance."
And the Washington Post said it was possible to listen to all 40-plus minutes of Johansson's album and "still have no earthly idea what she sounds like."
(c) 2008 Reuters
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| Other news from Entertainment category: |
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Gillian Anderson, best known for her nine-year stint playing FBI Agent Dana Scully on "The X-Files," will reprise her Emmy-winning role this summer in a movie sequel based on the wildly popular science fiction television se
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lawyers for Brad Pitt on Thursday threatened legal action against anyone publishing recent photographs they say were taken by paparazzi of the actor and his newly enlarged family at their French estate.
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Television star Kelsey Grammer, best known from "Cheers" and his sitcom "Frasier," nearly died after suffering a heart attack last month, he told U.S. showbiz news program "Entertainment Tonight."
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - One rapper replaced another atop the U.S. pop album chart Wednesday, while the soundtrack to the new movie "Mamma Mia!" soared four places to No. 3.
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SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Like wannabe Dark Knights answering the call of the "bat signal," throngs of grown men wearing tights and capes converge this week to revel in all manner of superhero lore and merchandising at the 39th annual Comic-Con Convention.
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The script never got in the way of a good fight as comic actors Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly improvised their way through family warfare in the movie "Step Brothers," which opens on Friday.
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SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Like wannabe Dark Knights answering the call of the "bat signal," throngs of grown men wearing tights and capes converge this week to revel in all manner of superhero lore and merchandising at the 39th annual Comic Con Convention.
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LONDON (Reuters) - A film inspired by the 2005 London suicide bombings that killed 52 people explores the mistrust they stoked between communities and how Islamist radicals threatened to drown out the voice of moderate Muslims.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Actor Christian Bale, star of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight," on Tuesday denied allegations of assault made by his mother and sister after he was questioned by London police.
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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Ever since Fox canceled Joss Whedon's 2002 series "Firefly," fans have groused that the network sabotaged the show's chances by airing its episodes out of sequence.
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