Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have broken up, reports say

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop star Justin Bieber and his girlfriend, Selena Gomez, a Disney actress and singer, have broken up, ending a relationship that made them one of Hollywood's most high-profile young couples, media reports said.

Bieber, 18, and Gomez, 20, disclosed their relationship in February 2011 when they appeared together at an Oscar night party after months of rumors of their dating.

E! Online late on Friday was the first to report the split, with other media outlets including US Weekly and People also saying the relationship was over. The reports cited unnamed sources close to the couple.

Representatives for Bieber and Gomez did not returns calls or emails on Saturday.

Bieber has released two No. 1 albums in just over a year - the holiday-themed "Under the Mistletoe" and his latest, "Believe." In September, he topped Billboard's "21 Under 21" list of top young musical acts. It was his second year in a row with the title.

Gomez rose to fame as a teenager in the Walt Disney Co television series "Wizards of Waverly Place" and has enjoyed success as a pop singer.

(Reporting By Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Greg McCune and Peter Cooney)

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Charlie Chaplin's bowler and cane to hit auction block

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of Charlie Chaplin's iconic bowler hats and canes, the staple of Hollywood silent-era comedy, will go under the hammer in Los Angeles this weekend, auction house Bonhams said on Tuesday.

Chaplin's hat and cane - synonymous with his trademark "Little Tramp" character in films such as "City Lights" and "Modern Times" - are expected to fetch between $40,000 and $60,000 in the November 18 auction.

It is unknown how many of Chaplin's bowlers and canes still exist, said Lucy Carr, a memorabilia specialist at Bonhams. The ones up for auction come from a private collection but have a direct link to Chaplin, Carr said.

The waddling and bumbling Little Tramp character propelled Chaplin to global fame. The character, which Hollywood legend says was created by accident on a rainy day at Keystone Studio, first appeared in 1914's "Kid Auto Races at Venice" and lastly in 1936's "Modern Times."

Chaplin's hat and cane are the highlights of an auction of popular culture artifacts including a saxophone that belonged to jazz pioneer Charlie Parker ($22,000-$26,000) and a handwritten letter from John Lennon in which The Beatle sketched himself and wife Yoko Ono nude ($18,000-$22,000).

Other items hitting the block range from an archive of Marilyn Monroe photographs ($15,000-$20,000), an early Charles Schulz "Peanuts" comic strip ($10,000-$15,000) and a wicker chair from Rick's Cafe in "Casablanca" ($5,000-$7,000).

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Actor Channing Tatum dubbed People's sexiest man alive

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Channing Tatum, who set female hearts fluttering in the summer movie hit "Magic Mike", was named the sexiest man alive by People magazine on Wednesday.

"My first thought was, 'Y'all are messing with me," Tatum told the magazine after hearing the news.

The 32-year-old actor, who is married to actress Jenna Dewan-Tatum, is training to play an Olympic athlete in his upcoming film, "Foxcatcher".

The couple, who have been married since 2009, are ready to start a family, according to People.

"The first number that pops into my head is three, but I just want one to be healthy and then we'll see where we go after that," he told the magazine.

Tatum joins a long list of Hollywood heartthrobs who also have also received the "sexiest man" title from the magazine including Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Ryan Reynolds, George Clooney and Matt Damon.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

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Retrospective of George Bellows features best of U.S. artist

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Paintings of boxers, gritty tenements, waterfront workers, as well as bucolic parks, portraits, and scenes of domestic tranquility form a new retrospective of the works of George Bellows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibition, which includes 120 works by the man who was regarded as one of America's finest artists when he died at the age of 42 in 1925, opens on Thursday and runs through February 18.

"He was a painter's painter and a printmaker's printmaker," said Barbara Weinberg, the museum's Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture.

"I can't think of another artist in his circle who was so multi-faceted in his vision, who was so experimental, and who accomplished so much in such a short time," she added in an interview.

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Bellows moved to New York City in 1904 to study art with the influential teacher Robert Henri. He was the star of the so-called Ashcan School, a group of artists whom Henri inspired to strive for realism.

"The power of his brush when he paints, the power of his crayon when he draws, and his work in lithography is really extraordinary," said Weinberg.

Bellows' realism frequently revealed the economic disparities in American society. In one drawing, Bellows shows people on a hot, overcrowded city street in a poor neighborhood. In a pointed barb toward the monied class, he titles the picture, "Why Don't They Go to the Country for Vacation?"

FIGHT SCENES AND MORE

Bellows' iconic works are his fight paintings. "Stag at Sharkey's," a 1909 oil on canvas depicts two boxers at a sporting club in Manhattan. The fighters' bodies fly into each other but remain suspended, leaving their struggle unresolved.

"Bellows is known for the fight pieces, but there's so much more," Weinberg said.

In "The Studio," which was painted in 1919, he shows his wife, two children and mother-in-law in his New York home and studio -- showing the interplay between his familial and artistic lives.

Bellows contrasts his drawings of teeming tenements with his 1910 painting "Blue Snow, The Battery," a work in which people are seen traipsing through a snow-covered park. It was one of 18 oils Bellows showed in his first solo exhibition in 1911.

The riverfront sometimes served as a dramatic landscape for Bellows as it did in "North River," but it was also a stage for human activity.

He depicted longshoremen in his 1912 painting, "Men of the Docks," and showed workers in "Snow Dumpers" emptying horse-drawn carts of snow into the river.

"Bellows was always looking for something else to consider; there was nothing to which he was indifferent," said Weinberg. "He appealed to the realists and the modernists."

"Easter Snow" captures people at leisure, walking through Riverside Park in Manhattan after an early spring snowfall, and in "Beach at Coney Island" Bellows shows an amorous couple and people either seeking shade under a tent or playing in the waves.

The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where it will be on view from March 16 through June 9, 2013.

(Reporting By Ellen Freilich; editing by Patricia Reaney)

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Steve Wozniak, Danny Trejo to appear in 8-bit video game

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When it comes to the iPhone, Steve Jobs created it, but Steve Wozniak got game.

The Apple co-founder will appear as a playable character in an upcoming iOS video game "Danny Trejo's Vengeance: Woz with a Coz."

The game, slated to be released around November 22, puts Wozniak alongside "Machete" star Trejo in an 8-bit mobile game, fighting a city full of enemies with an assortment of weapons.

The plot is simple: "Woz" is forced to save his wife, J-Woz, after she is kidnapped by street thugs. Teaming up with Vengence, Woz tears up Fusion City in his quest to rescue her.

"Featuring an over-the-top, old school inspired action combined with a retro 8-bit and exciting gritty art style, players will enjoy Woz's brain power, translator apps, Danny Trejo's machetes, guns and other crazy upgrades," a Facebook fan page devoted to the game says.

Other playable characters will include musician Baby Bash and MMA World Champion "Suga" Rashad Evans.

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Ouch! Guy Fieri flambéed in NY Times restaurant review

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Guy Fieri may be rethinking his career choice after a merciless review in Wednesday's New York Times.

The hyper-caffeinated host of Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," was on the receiving end of a critical roasting courtesy of Times reviewer Pete Wells that would have left even the most hardened culinary maestro reaching for the serrated knife. His savaging of Fieri's Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square was delivered in a series of sardonic questions that poked fun at the celebrity chef's limp french fries, flavorless sauces and blue cocktails that "glow like nuclear waste." Even the crouton allotment on salads is met with derision.

"Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?" Wells wrote in The New York Times. "If you hadn't come up with the recipe yourself, would you ever guess that the shiny tissue of breading that exudes grease onto the plate contains either pretzels or smoked almonds? Did you discern any buttermilk or brine in the white meat, or did you think it tasted like chewy air?

"Why is one of the few things on your menu that can be eaten without fear or regret - a lunch-only sandwich of chopped soy-glazed pork with coleslaw and cucumbers - called a Roasted Pork Bahn Mi, when it resembles that item about as much as you resemble Emily Dickinson?"

It's enough to make Fieri's signature frosted tips fall out. But there's more.

"Is the entire restaurant a very expensive piece of conceptual art? Is the shapeless, structureless baked alaska that droops and slumps and collapses while you eat it, or don't eat it, supposed to be a representation in sugar and eggs of the experience of going insane?," Wells wrote. "Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?"

Just in case readers missed the point, the New York Times helpfully summed up Wells' reaction to Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in a single word: poor.

Welcome to flavor town, indeed!

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Why David Geffen is getting the "American Masters" treatment

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - David Geffen is not a singer. Nor is he a movie star. Nor is he a writer.

Thus he would seem an odd subject for "American Masters," a series devoted to artists ranging from Willa Cather to Woody Allen.

Yet series creator Susan Lacy claims that the mogul has had a profound impact on American popular culture that equals any of those figures. She pleads her case in "Inventing David Geffen," which will be broadcast November 20 on PBS. The documentary had its premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

"He seems like a bit of an odd choice," Lacy admitted to TheWrap. "But I have a degree in American Studies and I learned that the people with the most influence are often the ones behind the scenes."

In Geffen, Lacy saw a figure like Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer whose lasting legacy was a series of modernist shows he held at his New York galleries that influenced visual arts in this country and brought cubism to the masses.

Some arm twisting must have been required to get the press-averse Geffen to emerge from semi-retirement to reflect on his career in movies, music and Broadway. Lacy said that part of the reason she was able to convince him to participate is that he was a fan of the series and had participated in her documentaries on figures such as Joni Mitchell.

"It wasn't hard," she said. "I knew from other people that he thinks my Leonard Bernstein documentary is one of the best documentaries anyone ever made. Mike Nichols told me that he makes everybody who stays with him watch it."

In addition to Geffen, the documentary features interviews with his friends and colleagues -- an A-list rolodex that includes Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Elton John, Neil Young, Clive Davis, Barry Diller, and Irving Azoff. His sphere was huge, Lacy claims because his influence was tectonic.

By championing musicians such as Jackson Browne and Laura Nyro, Geffen put his own imprint on the emerging singer-songwriter movement in the 1970s. Later, Geffen managed to adapt to shifting tastes, by aligning himself with groups like Aerosmith and Guns 'N Roses and helping to usher in the heavy metal craze. For more than 30 years, his labels - Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and DGC Records - represented the high-water mark for musicians, who clamored to get in the door.

"He had an incredible eye for talent," Lacy said. "These people would have eventually found their way. But he helped them get there. He fixed their teeth and allowed them to write music that's history."

Though he made his name in music, Geffen also became a force in the theater and film businesses.

He enriched himself by producing hit musicals like "Cats" and "Dreamgirls," and branched out into movies with memorable pictures like "Risky Business." In 1994, he co-founded DreamWorks SKG, the studio behind Oscar-winners like "American Beauty" and "Saving Private Ryan."

"In each decade, he has done something that has affected the culture," Lacy said. "If I had to boil it down to one thing it would be his genius at business."

It's a mastery of deal-making and talent-scouting that has made him a very wealthy man, worth an estimated $5.5 billion. It is also a trajectory that Lacy maintains cannot be replicated in a more fractured media landscape, where mega-corporations wield disproportionate influence and are more interested in quarterly earnings than fostering rising stars.

"Even he would say that nobody could do what he did today," Lacy said. "The times have changed so much. I asked him if he could raise $2 billion to start a new studio, and he said 'absolutely not.' And record companies, well, we know what happened to them. Behind all the conglomerates and corporations, to find someone with a genuine sensibility like David Geffen's would be impossible. He was unique."

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Judge throws out Justin Bieber paparazzo chase case

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Criminal charges filed against a photographer who pursued teen pop star Justin Bieber at high speeds on a Los Angeles freeway in July were thrown out on Wednesday, striking a blow to California's crackdown on overly aggressive paparazzi.

Celebrity photographer Paul Raef was the first person to be prosecuted under the state's 2010 law that criminalizes dangerous driving when taking photos commercially.

Raef was charged in July with two counts of violating the law stemming from a July 6 incident on a freeway in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.

Dismissing the charges, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Robinson called the state's anti-paparazzi law "problematic" and "overly inclusive."

The law "sweeps very widely and would increase the penalties for reckless driving" in unintended cases, Robinson said.

Robinson faulted the law's vague definition of commercial photography, saying that it could also apply to a photographer who was speeding to reach an arranged photo shoot with Bieber.

Raef could have faced up to a year in prison and $3,500 in fines, if convicted. His attorney, Brad Kaiserman, said the law is "about protecting celebrities."

A message left with Bieber's publicist requesting comment was not immediately returned.

Raef still faces lesser charges of misdemeanor reckless driving and failing to obey police orders after he allegedly pursued Bieber, 18, at high speeds. He will be tried on those charges at a later date.

Bieber, who was pulled over by police for driving 80 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone, told officers at the time that he was being hounded by paparazzi, and police said they noticed Raef's car following the "Boyfriend" singer.

About 30 minutes after the traffic stop, Bieber called police to report that Raef continued to follow him. Police later found Raef and other paparazzi together in downtown Los Angeles.

The Canadian singer received a speeding ticket at the time.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

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French mayor ends hunger strike after crisis aid

PARIS (Reuters) - A French mayor who went on hunger strike a week ago to demand emergency aid for his town ended his protest on Thursday and packed up the tent he had been sleeping in outside parliament after the government met his demands.

"I regret that things came to that but it was necessary," Stephane Gatignon, mayor of Sevran, a poor town on the outskirts of Paris, told Reuters.

Gatignon slept six nights on the pavement outside the National Assembly to press his demand for 5 million euros ($6.4 million) of rescue aid, saying the economic crisis was pushing Sevran and dozens of other poor towns to the brink of ruin.

France's cash-strapped government is seeking to slash its deficit in line with broader efforts to end a debt crisis that has plagued Europe for three years.

While the government is urging local authorities to do their part, it will increase aid to many of the poorest towns next year in a budget package that the lower house of parliament approved this week.

Gatignon said the government had indicated it was willing to deploy those funds in a way that would satisfy his demands. The office of urban affairs minister Francois Lamy did not respond to requests for comment.

The Sevran mayor looked weary but relieved after six days of consuming nothing but sugary tea.

"Today it'll be a bit of broth, then some soup and slowly back to normal eating," Gatignon said.

(Reporting by Emile Picy and Brian Love; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Robin Pomeroy)

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