Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, already this year's most nominated Oscar film, has become the second movie ever to break the $1 billion box-office mark worldwide, and did so in record time. The conclusion to director Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy now ranks as the second-highest-grossing film of all time after the 1997 sea-going romance Titanic, which cruised to
$1.8 billion in global receipts.

Betting that William Hung, this season's biggest American Idol loser who sang the Ricky Martin hit She Bangs, has a few more media cycles in him, Fuse network joined with Koch Entertainment this week to offer the 20-year-old college student a $25,000 recording-slash-music video contract.

Ashton Kutcher is joining funnyman Martin Lawrence and Will & Grace's Debra Messing in lending their voices to Open Season, the first computer-animated flick from Sony Pictures.

The Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore romance 50 First Dates held off a flurry of new movies to remain the top weekend box-office draw with $20.4 million.
 

Charlotte Church, the Welsh soprano who has sung for two U.S. presidents, the pope and Queen Elizabeth II, turned 18 on
Saturday, meaning she now has control of her $30 million trust fund.

Add another name to the list of celebrity children's book writers: Whoopi Goldberg. The actress-comedian has agreed to a multibook deal with Hyperion's Jump at the Sun imprint, which specializes in releases by African-American writers.

Dave Matthews Band has renewed its contract with RCA Records, extending a relationship first forged with the group's 1994 breakthrough, Under the Table and Dreaming.

Ken Watanabe, who made a splash in The Last Samurai, will star as the lead villain Ra's Al Ghul in Chris Nolan's Batman movie which begins production next month. Liam Neeson will play a mentor to Bruce Wayne and a friend to Bruce's father, Christian Bale stars as Batman, Cilian Murphy is potentially cast as the Scarecrow, Katie Holmes as Bruce's girlfriend, Michael Caine as Alfred the Butler, and Morgan Freeman as an employee of Wayne Enterprises.

Renny Harlin, who took over The Exorcist: The Beginning after Morgan Creek and Warner Bros. fired Paul Schrader, has completely reshot the entire film after 13 weeks, and no footage from Schrader's cut will be used. In addition, all scenes
featuring Clara Bellar, Gabriel Mann and pop star Billy Crawford have been completely cut out as well.

Kevin James from TV's The King of Queens will co-star in Last First Kiss starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. The romantic comedy is being directed by Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama). James will play the role of Albert, who will be primary client of a date doctor (Smith) who claims he can find soulmates for people in just three dates. Eva Mendes plays a female reporter
who enlists the doctor's services in order to try to expose him as a fraud.

Elisha Cuthbert (TV's 24, The Girl Next Door) will join the Warner Bros. remake of House of Wax for first time feature film director Jaume Collet-Serra.

Universal Pictures is getting McG on board to direct Pure Evel, a movie based on the life of stuntman daredevil Evel Knievel. Andrew Kevin Walker will pen the screenplay. Walker and McG will be visiting Knievel in Florida to interview him about the movie. The film will showcase a part of Knievel's life, where he used his motorbike to do some of the world's most dangerous
stunts.

Angela Robinson has been tapped by Walt Disney Pictures to direct Herbie: Fully Loaded. The film is set to reintroduce the lovable Volkswagen with a mind of its own. Herbie first made it's debut in The Love Bug in 1968. Disney is hoping Lindsay
Lohan will come on board to star in the picture, which will have Herbie go against NASCAR cars in the modern day world of racing.

Michael Bay and his production company, Platinum Dunes, are in talks with New Line to produce a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre. Scott Kosar, who wrote the script for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, will also now be penning the script for The Amityville Horror remake, to which Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes will also be producing.

Metallica's much-anticipated documentary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster has been picked up for U.S. theatrical distribution by IFC Films.

Korn will be supporting Linkin Park on their Projekt Revolution Tour, which begins July 23 and wraps up on Sept. 6. Also appearing will be rapper Snoop Dogg.

The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, who studied for a National Diploma in Music Technology at Huddersfield Technical College, wants to spend around $186,000 of his $3.7 million fortune on creating the Justin Hawkins Studio at the college.

A brand-new Slipknot track, titled Don't Get Close, will be featured in the upcoming PS2 game MTX: Mototrax, due on March 3.

McFarlane Toys has announced plans to release a Motley Crue Deluxe Boxed Set of action figures in October 2004.