At The Movies

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is a young inventor who dreams of creating something that will improve everyone's life. Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) is a weathergirl covering the phenomenon who hides her intelligence behind a perky exterior. The timeless tale has been adapted from Ron and Judi Barrett's book, which illustrates a world where giant pancakes and pasta fall from the sky as a scientist tries to solve world hunger. However, things go terribly wrong when excess amounts of food overload cities and towns.

On DVD

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Hugh Jackman goes back to the beginning, delving into the mysterious origins of everybody's favorite admantium clawed mutant. Filling in all the gaps including Logan's violent and romantic past in Canadian wilderness, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, Sabretooth, and the ominous Weapon X program that unleashes his primal fury, it's an interesting look into the development of an otherwise isolated character. Along the way, Wolverine also encounters a number of fan favorite mutants from the X-Men universe, both familiar and new, each shaping and propelling him toward his destiny in the X-Men saga.

The Buzz..

MTV is leading its press release about ratings for the Video Music Awards with the fact that almost 27 million people watched the show. But that's not really the whole story. That figure, 26.9 million, to be more precise, is the number of people that tuned in at some point during the show on three different channels, MTV, MTV2 and VH1. MTV notes that's a 17 percent improvement over last year's 23 million, but last year's awards only aired on MTV and MTV2, so a jump is to be expected. None of this is to badmouth the ratings performance of the show, which featured a tribute to Michael Jackson, the debut of the latest Twilight: New Moon trailer and a notable interruption of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech by Kanye West. Its numbers were up over last year, just not dramatically so.

Patrick Swayze, who has been battling cancer for the past two years, has died. He was 57.

Whitney Houston told Oprah on her show that her mother forced her into the drug treatment program that saved her life. Houston, 46, confessed that she and husband Bobby Brown took cocaine and marijuana during their marriage. But she insists that Brown was the real source of her addiction.

Some of the world's largest recording companies are suing The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The allegation? That producers violated copyrights by playing more than 1,000 songs on the show without permission. Many of these songs were played in the popular segment in which Ellen DeGeneres dances from the stage to the interview seats, usually boogieing through the audience.

Jack White may have donated 170,000 dollars to rescue a ballpark in his old southwest Detroit neighborhood. An anonymous donation to help renovate Clark Park, where White played baseball as a child, was made by an L.A. lawyer. White's older sister was once married to a coach at the field, and most of the people involved in the project have a strong suspicion the musician, who now lives in Nashville, was the one who coughed up the dough.

Wolfmother's new album Cosmic Egg won't be released until October 27th, but the band are taking pre-orders for several special editions right now. Head to Wolfmother.com and you can place an order for the basic 12 track album, a 16 song deluxe edition, a 16 song two disc vinyl version, or various MP3 downloads. In other Wolfmother news, fresh off their recent string of shows supporting The Killers and in advance of their shows Down Under opening for AC/DC, the band will be doing some headlining shows in North America in October and November.

Motley Crue singer Vince Neil hosted a grand opening part for his second Las Vegas tattoo parlor on Saturday. After opening his first shop in the small O'Sheas casino on The Strip, he's now set up shop in the larger, off-strip Rio casino. This is just the latest business venture for Neil who also owns bars and restaurants in Florida and Las Vegas, has his own line of tequila, and is planning to open an airline. Neil says, "you can't do music forever. So you've got to have something to, not fall back on but just, to keep it interesting."

Jay-Z and Will Smith are looking to bring the story of Afrobeat musician and activist Fela Kuti to Broadway. The $11 million production will be helmed by Bill T. Jones, originally began last year as an off Broadway show, but is ready to graduate to Broadway when it opens in November. Fela will star actor Sahr Ngaujah, who played the part in the original production, while the music will include both Kuti’s solo work and that of his Black Panther inspired group, Africa 70.

No Doubt, Jimmy Buffett and Adam Sandler are among those on the lineup for the Bridge School Benefit concerts, an annual two night fundraiser organized by school co-founder Neil Young.

Comic Ray Romano is going to the golf doctor. The Golf Channel says the Everybody Loves Raymond star will be the focus of its new reality series, The Haney Project. The series follows Tiger Woods' swing coach Hank Haney as he tries to improve the game of a celebrity. The first season of The Haney Project with former NBA player Charles Barkley was the second highest rated program in the network's history. Only The Big Break, about competing for a spot on the professional tour, did better.