Billy Crystal channels real-life role in "Parental Guidance"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After a decade away from the big screen, funnyman Billy Crystal has mined his real-life experiences as a grandfather and is back in the holiday season movie "Parental Guidance."

The film, which opened in U.S. theaters on Christmas, stars Crystal as a recently fired baseball announcer, who agrees to watch his three grandchildren with his wife (Bette Midler), while his daughter and her husband go on a business trip.

Crystal, 64, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film, being a grandparent and why he won't host the Oscars ceremony anymore.

Q: You have not been on the big screen in a starring role since 2002's "Analyze That." Did you miss making movies?

A: "I spent over four years doing my one-man Broadway show, '700 Sundays' and didn't care about doing movies. I just so love being in front of live audiences. The play is more satisfying than anything. I'm not interrupted by planes flying overhead, waiting for them to light and all those gruesome slow things on a movie. But really, the last five years were spent getting this movie made."

Q: How did "Parental Guidance" become your return to film?

A: "When I wrote the first story for this movie, my wife Janice and I babysat for our daughter Jenny while she went away with her husband. We had six days with their girls, all alone. It was an eye-opener. When you're not used to that energy, it's tough. On the 7th day I rested and came in to the office and said, 'Here's the idea for the movie.'"

Q: What was eye-opening about those six days?

A: "The eye-opener was the bible that we were given before they left town about what to say (to the kids), what to do, all the rules, don't do this, don't do that, this child has to be taken here. They have my respect of how they programmed their days and weeks. It's insane what they have to do nowadays for schooling and parenting. It's wild."

Q: Quite a difference between your childhood and the grandkids' childhood, right?

A: "When I was a kid growing up, it was basically 'Go outside and play and I'll see you at dinner.' There was no thought that there were bad people out there. There was such a carefree wonderful trust which forced you to use your imagination, which also bonded you with the best of you, and your friends. We didn't have that 'inside' thing like videogames. My only 'inside' thing was watching the Yankees. Otherwise everything was outside."

Q: Speaking of the Yankees, your well-documented lifelong love of baseball is incorporated in to the film with your character being a ball-game announcer. That must have been fun to do.

A: "I love the game and I thought it was a really interesting occupation we hadn't seen before. And a good one for me to play because I love it. I wanted my character to have something he loved doing where I didn't have to fake it."

Q: In being absent from the silver screen for a while, did you find that the movie-making business has changed much?

A: "The studios are so concerned with quadrants (capturing four major demographic groups of moviegoers - men, woman and those over and under 25). I'd never heard of these things when I was in my early years of making movies. You just did them. There was no interference. Now it's a whole different ball game. They're so worried: 'Who's going to come?' Well, there's 77 million American who are babyboomers. That's a huge audience who wants to laugh and have a story told to them that doesn't have bombs and spies and killing."

Q: Does "Parental Guidance" reflect where are you now at this stage of your life?

A: "I was fortunate to be in a great romantic comedy about falling in love (1989's 'When Harry Met Sally'). I wrote the original story for my turning 40, 'City Slickers' (in 1991), which became a huge hit and a very liked movie. And now 'Parental Guidance' happened at this point in my life. I relate to it as a parent and a grandparent."

Q: You will be a grandfather for the fourth time in March. What do you like best about that role?

A: "It's so hard to understand how you can love someone so much that's not yours, but extensions of you. I'm always so moved seeing my girls pregnant, and seeing them move on in their lives. I'm going to turn 65 on March 14. My wife's birthday is the 16th. The baby's due the 18th. So we've got maybe a straight flush happening here. That would be the greatest present of all - a healthy new baby."

Q: Last year you hosted the Oscar ceremony for the ninth time, making you the second most-used host after the late Bob Hope. Are you gunning for his title?

A: "I'm not even close. I've done 9, he's done 19 and neither one of us are doing it again. It's hard to say, 'Can't wait to do it again,' but I can wait."

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Cynthia Osterman)

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Matt Damon tackles "fracking" issue in the "Promised Land"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The hot-button topic of "fracking" has finally made its way to Hollywood in the new movie "Promised Land," out in U.S. theaters on Friday, with actors Matt Damon and John Krasinski teaming up to further the debate on the energy drilling technique.

The film explores the social impact of hydraulic fracturing drilling technique, or "fracking," which has sparked nation-wide environmental and political battles over its impact on drinking water, U.S. energy use, seismic activity and other areas.

"Promised Land" will see Damon, 42, reunite with director Gus Van Sant for the third time, following their success with 1997 film "Good Will Hunting and 2002's "Gerry."

In their latest film, Damon plays a corporate salesman who goes to a rural U.S. town to buy or lease land on behalf of a gas company looking to drill for oil. He soon faces opposition from a slick environmentalist, played by Krasinski.

In real life, Damon hasn't shied away from getting involved in political and social issues, working with charities and organizations to eradicate AIDS in developing countries, bringing attention to atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, providing safe drinking water and stopping trees from being chopped and used for junk mail.

Yet "Promised Land," which Damon also co-wrote and produced, doesn't take a noticeable stance on "fracking." The actor would not publicly state his own views, telling Reuters that he didn't think his opinion had "any bearing" on the film.

"The point is that the movie should start a conversation. It's certainly not a pro-fracking movie, but we didn't want to tell people what to think," Damon said.

The actor said he and Krasinski never set out to make a socially conscious film, and "fracking" was added in later, as a backdrop to the story.

"It wasn't that we said we wanted to make a movie about 'fracking' as much as we wanted to make a movie about American identity, about real people. We wanted to make a movie about the country today, where we came from, where we are and where we are headed," Damon said.

"'Fracking' was perfect because the stakes are so incredibly high and people are so divided. It asks all the questions about short-term thinking versus long-term thinking."

Hydraulic fracturing entails pumping water laced with chemicals and sand at high pressure into shale rock formations to break them up and unleash hydrocarbons. Critics worry that "fracking" fluids or hydrocarbons can still leak into water tables from wells, or above ground.

FROM 'ADJUSTMENT BUREAU' TO 'PROMISED LAND'

At first glance, the pairing of Damon with Krasinski may not come across as the perfect fit, as Damon has primarily been associated with longtime friend and collaborator Ben Affleck, both of whom won Oscars for writing "Good Will Hunting."

Damon later become a colleague and friend to a number of key Hollywood players, including George Clooney and Brad Pitt, with whom he co-starred in the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise.

Krasinski, 33, is best known for playing sardonic Jim Halpert on NBC's long-running television series, "The Office," and has had occasional supporting roles in films such as 2008's "Leatherheads."

Damon and Krasinski came together after meeting through Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt, who co-starred with Damon in the 2011 film "The Adjustment Bureau." Damon said he and his wife started double-dating with Krasinski and Blunt, through which their collaboration on "Promised Land" came about.

The duo's busy work schedules forced them to moonlight on weekends to make "Promised Land."

"John showed up at my house every Saturday at breakfast and we would write all day until dinner," Damon said. "Then we'd do it again on Sunday. I have four kids so he would come to me."

But Damon's determination to make the film his feature directorial debut fell through when his acting schedule changed, making it impossible to direct "Promised Land," so he turned to Van Sant.

"My first inclination was to send the script to somebody I'd worked with before," he said. "Gus seemed like the most obvious choice and I realized later that I'd never written anything that anyone else had directed, except Gus. I have a real comfort level with him."

Damon said he has not given up on his dream of directing movies and has his eye on a project at movie studio Warner Bros., which has a deal with Damon and Affleck's joint production company, Pearl Street Films.

With Affleck's third directorial effort "Argo" becoming an awards contender, Damon joked that the film's success can only be a good thing for his own budding directing career.

"I now happen to be partnered with the hottest director in Hollywood!" he said, laughing.

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Paul Simao)

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Ex-Times editor Rees-Mogg, who supported Mick Jagger, dies

LONDON (Reuters) - William Rees-Mogg, a former editor of Britain's Times newspaper who famously backed Mick Jagger when the Rolling Stones singer was jailed for a drug offence, has died at the age of 84.

On its website, the Times said Rees-Mogg, a former chairman of the Arts Council and vice-chairman of the BBC, had been suffering from oesophageal cancer.

Rees-Mogg became editor of the paper in 1967 and, despite establishment credentials built up at independent school and Balliol College, Oxford, soon showed a rebellious streak.

In July of that year, he published a celebrated leading article criticizing the jailing of Jagger for a minor drugs offence, headlined: "Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?"

Later Rees-Mogg, in an article in the Times after he had stepped down as editor, described John Major, Conservative prime minister for most of the 1990s as "over-promoted, unfit to govern and lacking self-confidence".

"His ideal level of political competence would be deputy chief whip or something of that standing," he added, in a contemptuous reference to Britain's behind-the-scenes political party managers.

However Rees-Mogg stubbornly defended former U.S. President Richard Nixon against all the Watergate evidence filed by the Times' Washington staff as the scandal that led to Nixon's resignation in 1974 unfolded.

The Times was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in January 1981, at which point Rees-Mogg, who had backed the Murdoch purchase, resigned to make way for one of Britain's most celebrated editors, Harold Evans, who became Reuters editor-at-large in 2011.

The paper's website carried a tribute from Murdoch on Saturday.

"William Rees Mogg was a distinguished editor of the Times for 14 years, during which time he modernized the paper, reaching out to a younger readership with expanded coverage of news, sport and features," Murdoch wrote.

"It is to his great credit that he retained the intellectual integrity of the paper while attracting a broader based and markedly more female readership for the paper.

"He gave me invaluable support when I acquired Times Newspapers in 1981, and remained someone on whom I could always count for impartial counsel."

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Kim Kardashian pregnant with Kanye's baby

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Kanye West and reality TV star Kim Kardashian are expecting a child, Kardashian said on Monday shortly after West announced the pregnancy to fans at a concert.

"It's true!! Kanye and I are expecting a baby," Kardashian, 32, wrote on her personal blog.

"Looking forward to great new beginnings in 2013 and to starting a family," she added.

Kardashian began dating West in April, some six months after filing for divorce from basketball player Kris Humphries. The two were married for 72 days following a lavish, made-for-TV wedding. Their divorce has yet to be finalized.

Kardashian is about 12 weeks pregnant, according to U.S. media reports.

Fans and family took to Twitter to congratulate the celebrity power couple, and to speculate whether the new baby's name would begin with a K, in line with Kardashian family tradition.

"Been wanting to shout from the rooftops with joy and now I can!" wrote Kardashian's sister Kourtney. "Another angel to welcome to our family. Overwhelmed with excitement!"

Kardashian's brother-in-law, basketball player Lamar Odom, who has been open about struggling to have a baby with wife and "The X Factor" host Khloe Kardashian also tweeted his congratulations.

"I'm excited for Kanye and my sister!" said Odom. "There's nothing like bringing life into this world! Let's keep God's blessings coming!"

West, 35, was first to announce the news from the stage at a concert in Atlantic City on Sunday, singing, "God brought us a whole new plan, baby. 'Cause now you're having my baby."

Kardashian, who rose to fame five years ago for her appearances in reality TV show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," was the most-searched person on the Yahoo! website in 2012.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

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Playboy founder Hugh Hefner marries his "runaway bride"

(Reuters) - Octogenarian Playboy founder Hugh Hefner briefly swapped his iconic silk pajamas for a tuxedo to marry Crystal Harris, the one-time "runaway bride" who followed through this time at a New Year's Eve wedding.

"Happy New Year from Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Hefner!" the Playboy magazine publisher tweeted early on Tuesday.

The message accompanied a photograph of Hefner, 86, wearing what appeared to be purple silk pajamas under a black bathrobe and snuggling his bride, 26, still wearing her pale pink wedding dress. He also wore his trademark captain's hat.

An hour earlier, Hefner posted a picture of himself in a tuxedo with his bride under an arch of pink and white flowers at the wedding ceremony in the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

"Crystal & I married on New Year's Eve in the Mansion with Keith as my Best Man. Love that girl!" Hefner wrote on Twitter with the picture, referring to his brother Keith Hefner, a songwriter.

The couple tied the knot more than a year after their planned 2011 wedding was scuttled when Harris got cold feet.

The blonde Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 2009 jettisoned the adult entertainment mogul in what was called a "change of heart" five days before a lavish June 2011 wedding before 300 guests.

Harris, who appeared on the July 2011 cover of the adult magazine with a "runaway bride" sticker covering her bottom half, tweeted on Monday that she was ready to commit and changed her name to "Crystal Hefner" on the micro-blogging site.

"Today is the day I become Mrs. Hugh Hefner," Harris, who has a psychology degree, wrote on Twitter after writing "Feeling very happy, lucky, and blessed."

The San Diego native, whose parents are British, said she asked for Christmas ornaments rather than lingerie at her pre-Christmas bridal shower to help decorate Hefner's famed mansion.

Hefner, founder of the Playboy adult entertainment empire, has been married twice before. He and his second wife Kimberley Conrad, also a former Playmate, divorced in 2010 after a lengthy separation. His first marriage to Mildred Williams ended in divorce in 1959. He has two children from each marriage.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Paul Simao)

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Putin makes French film star Depardieu a Russian

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to Gerard Depardieu, the French movie star whose decision to quit his homeland to avoid a tax hike prompted accusations of national betrayal.

The "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Green Card" actor bought a house across the border in Belgium last year to avoid a new tax rate for millionaires planned by France's Socialist President Francois Hollande, but said he could also seek tax exile elsewhere.

Putin said last month that Depardieu would be welcome in Russia, which has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent, compared to the 75 percent on income over 1 million euros ($1.32 million) that Hollande wants to levy in France.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called Depardieu's decision to seek Belgian residency "pathetic" and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national debt.

"I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned," the actor retorted in a letter published by a newspaper, saying he would hand in his passport and social security card.

Depardieu is well known in Russia, where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns. He worked in the country in 2011 on a film about the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.

French media teased Depardieu, showing clips of the actor's Russian work that were unknown at home, including the Rasputin film and a commercial for ketchup.

Magazine L'Express put together a slideshow on its website of other countries that he could flee to, suggesting Italy where he has starred in commercials for Barilla pasta, or Japan, given that the actor owns a Japanese food shop in Paris.

Depardieu welcomed the move to grant him Russian citizenship, according to excerpts of a letter published by a Russian state TV website.

"I love your culture, your intelligence," the letter read. "My father was a communist of that era. He listened to Radio Moscow! That is my culture too."

Depardieu's publicist Francois Hassan Guerrar was not immediately available to comment on the letter.

Depardieu was one of several Western celebrities invited to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, in 2012.

Depardieu, 63, had told friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: settling in Belgium, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or moving to Russia, French daily Le Monde reported in December.

Putin told a news conference last month: "If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively.

"I know that he (Depardieu) considers himself a Frenchman. He loves his country very much, its history its culture - this is his life, and I'm sure he is going through a tough time now," Putin said.

The Kremlin's website said on Thursday that Putin had signed a decree granting Depardieu citizenship. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was not necessary for Depardieu to move to Russia - that would be the actor's decision.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Westerners still knew little of Russia's tax regime.

"When they find out, we can expect a mass migration of rich Europeans to Russia," Rogozin, a nationalist politician and former envoy to NATO, said on Twitter.

WELCOME TO RUSSIA

Muscovites said they would welcome Depardieu. "He is a normal guy. He is fond of drinking too, I suppose, the Russian way, so let him come here," said one resident, Lev Nikolaevich.

Putin has in the past spoken of good relations with France, which he visited last June, but he is a frequent critic of the West. He had a tense summit with the European Union last month and wants the bloc to move faster toward visa-free travel.

Since the Cold War, Moscow has often expressed support for Westerners at odds with their governments - a way to counter what Putin says is hypocritical U.S. and European criticism of the Kremlin's treatment of its own citizens.

In 2010, a Kremlin official suggested Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be nominated for a Nobel Prize.

News of the decree granting Depardieu citizenship set off a frenzy of wry commentary on Russian social networking sites, some musing on why a Westerner would want a Russian passport.

One cartoon posted on the Internet depicted Putin and Depardieu as characters from the French comic books Asterix.

Another showed what appeared to be a nude photo of Depardieu on vacation, with a caption that referred to him as "our compatriot", playing on foreign criticism of how Russians behave on holiday.

Russia does not require people to hand in their foreign passports once they acquire a Russian one. Many Russians have citizenship of other countries and travel without problems.

Depardieu could also request Belgian nationality but has not yet made such a request, said Georges Dallemagne, head of Belgium's parliamentary committee that oversees naturalizations.

"As a Russian he could certainly remain in Belgium, he would possibly need the necessary visas but for a short period he could stay here," said Dallemagne.

France's Constitutional Council last month blocked the planned 75 percent tax rate due to the way it would be applied - but Hollande plans to propose redrafted legislation which will "still ask more of those who have the most".

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman, Nikolai Isayev and Alexander Fedorov in Moscow, Catherine Bremer in Paris and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Belgium; Writing by Megan Davies; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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Helen Mirren "happy" her Hollywood star next to Colin Firth's

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren finally got her wish on Thursday, receiving a star along the Hollywood Walk of Fame right next to dashing fellow Briton Colin Firth.

"I couldn't be prouder and more happy that I'm actually going to finally lie next to Colin Firth, something I've been wanting to do for a very long time," Mirren said wryly.

Mirren, 67, who won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in 2006's "The Queen," was honored with the iconic terrazzo and brass star along Hollywood Boulevard in the historical heart of the U.S. film industry.

Mirren's star, the 2,488th since the Walk of Fame began in 1958, serves as a de facto lifetime achievement award for those in the entertainment industry.

Firth, who received his Walk of Fame star in 2011, won an Oscar as best actor for his portrayal of Britain's King George VI in 2010's "The King Speech."

"Well I'm very pleased and proud and I think it's very good for the British monarchy that here on Hollywood Boulevard, the King and the Queen are going to actually sleep together, for the rest of history," said Mirren said at the unveiling.

The actress posed for photographers lying on her side next to her star and blew kisses to the crowd.

Writer and director David Mamet introduced Mirren.

"Helen's performances reap higher praise than being praised, they're loved," Mamet said.

"And by one who's had the absolute kick of working with her, I want to say as (British poet) Rupert Brooke said, somewhere there will be a little piece of foreign ground that is always a bit of England, and that's right there," Mamet said.

Mirren is starring alongside Al Pacino in Mamet's upcoming TV film about troubled music producer Phil Spector's murder trial.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

(Reporting by Alan Devall, writing by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

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"Django Unchained" on pace to be Tarantino's biggest box office film ever

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - After nine days in theaters, "Django Unchained" is on pace to be Quentin Tarantino's highest grossing movie ever.

That's right, if the trend holds, the blood-soaked slave-revenge fable will rack up more at the box office than "Pulp Fiction" ($213.9 million worldwide), "Kill Bill Vol. 1" ($180.9 million worldwide), "Kill Bill Vol. 2" ($152.1 million worldwide) and previous record holder, "Inglourious Basterds" ($321.4 million worldwide).

Even though "Django Unchained" has only debuted stateside, with $82.4 million through January 2, it is outstripping all of the previous Tarantino movie mash-ups. At a similar point in its rollout, "Inglourious Basterds" had netted $67.6 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo.

"It's the Quentin Tarantino brand," Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst with Boxoffice.com, told TheWrap. "People appreciate what he's doing. He makes these purely cinematic movies that allow even casual moviegoers to feel like they get to be a film snob and the great cast helps."

With a Cinemascore rating of A- (something of an imperfect arbiter of quality given that "Parental Guidance" has the same score) and a RottenTomatoes ranking of 89 percent "fresh," the film has been embraced by both audiences and critics, which bodes well for the proverbial "word of mouth" business.

"The exit polls are fantastic, the results have been outstanding and we're looking forward to a long run," Erik Lomis, head of theatrical distribution at The Weinstein Company, told TheWrap.

Not that "Django Unchained" has been immune to criticism. A fierce debate has erupted over Tarantino's proclivity for using a certain racial epithet that begins with "N," with directors like Spike Lee boycotting the film and decrying it for making light of slavery.

However, the red-hot controversy does not appear to have singed ticket sales.

And Fandango Chief Correspondent Dave Karger argues that the controversy may be helping the film. He notes that the plethora of opinion pieces on the subject as well as a viral video of star Samuel L. Jackson trying and failing to get an interviewer to use the racist term have kept "Django Unchained" in the public eye.

"This is the kind of movie that, as the best movies do, really inspires conversation and debate afterward and that only helps it," Karger said. "There are going to be people turned off by the use of the word, but they're going to just avoid the movie, and clearly it hasn't been a huge deterrent."

Indeed, as of 7 a.m. PT, "Django" was the number-one ticket seller on Fandango, ahead of other holiday hits like "Les Misérables" and "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." It currently accounts for 21 percent of the ticketer's sales and, based on studio tracking, it should add another $18.5 million to its haul over the weekend.

That will likely push it over the $100 million mark after two weeks in theaters.

In contrast, it took "Inglourious Basterds" 23 days to hit a similar figure domestically. Moreover, by that point in its release schedule, "Inglourious Basterds" was never showing in less than 3,165 theaters whereas "Django Unchained" has never unspooled across more than 3,010 since it debuted, giving the Nazi drama a major per-screen advantage.

Starting on January 16, "Django Unchained" will find out if its film grindhouse humor translates abroad when it opens in France and Belgium and then rolls out across Russia, most of Europe and much of Latin America later that week. Sony will handle the international launch, while The Weinstein Company is overseeing the movie's domestic release.

Of course, highest grossing doesn't mean most successful. Adjusted for inflation, "Pulp Fiction," which amassed its $200 million-plus nearly 20 years ago, would be the top earner among the Tarantino oeuvre. Moreover, it still ranks as the director's most successful film having been produced for a meager $8 million.

Operating under the principle you have to spend money to make it, the Weinstein Company shelled out $87 million to produce "Django Unchained." Still if foreign audiences embrace the picture and the film picks up Oscar nominations, the studio will ride out of the holiday season with an awful lot of green-backs in its saddlebags.

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"Star Wars" creator George Lucas engaged to businesswoman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Star Wars" creator George Lucas will marry his longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson, the director's production company Lucasfilm Ltd said on Thursday.

Lucas, 68, and Hobson, the president of Chicago investment firm Ariel Investments LLC, have been together for the past six years. It will be Lucas' second marriage. He was married to Oscar-winning film editor Marcia Lucas from 1969 to 1983.

No date or location for the wedding has been made public.

Hobson, 43, serves on the board of directors for Hollywood studio Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc, cosmetics company Estee Lauder Companies Inc, coffeehouse chain Starbucks Corp and Internet coupon company Groupon Inc.

Lucas, who rose to fame directing the 1971 science-fiction film "THX 1138," launched "Star Wars" in 1977 developed it into one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time.

Lucas sold Lucasfilm and the "Star Wars" franchise to the Walt Disney Co in November for $4.05 billion.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Shumaker)

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Adele's "21" scores again, beating Swift for 2012's top album

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British singer Adele's Grammy-winning "21" scored a rare feat in 2012 as it topped U.S. album sales for a second straight year, beating out U.S. country-pop star Taylor Swift's "Red, Nielsen Soundscan said on Thursday.

It was the first time a single album had been a top-seller for two years in a row since Nielsen began tracking album sales in 1991, the organization said.

But U.S. album sales overall fell 4 percent in 2012 to 315.96 million albums, after 2011 saw a rare 3 percent bump in sales.

Adele's "21" sold 4.41 million units in the United States in 2012 to top Swift's "Red," which sold 3.11 million copies. In 2011, "21" sold 5.82 million units.

"It's a sort of a once-in-a-lifetime album," Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts at Billboard, told Reuters of "21." "Only a few of these albums come along in history."

The heartbreak record, with hits like "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You," earned Adele six Grammy Awards in early 2012, boosting the profile of the 24-year-old singer and songwriter, who records on indie label XL Recordings.

The album sold at a furious pace, reaching the 10 million albums-sold plateau in the span of two years, Caulfield noted. The last album to achieve that feat was boy band 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached," which was released in 2000.

"It's really the right combination of artistry and hit singles," Caulfield said of "21's" success.

"She really crossed over from pop to Latin to adult contemporary to dance," he added. "Young and old consumers bought it, and because of its mixture of fans, she was able to sell it as well as she did."

Adele's success came despite the drop in 2012 U.S. album sales.

"Last year (2011) was a fluke," Caulfield said. "A year gain in album sales is a mega achievement. ... It's the way the market works now, people buy songs and not albums."

Indeed, digital song sales rose 5 percent in 2012 to a record high 1.336 billion downloads.

The year's best-selling albums in the United States had a particularly British flavor as Swift was the lone American in the top five. Swift records for the independently owned Nashville-based Big Machine, distributed by Universal Music Group.

British boy band One Direction's "Up All Night," released in 2011 on Sony Music Entertainment's SYCO/Columbia label, placed third with 1.62 million units sold, while their 2012 follow-up, "Take Me Home," took the fifth spot with 1.34 million units sold.

Britain's folk revivalists Mumford & Sons, on indie record label Glassnote, placed fourth with their album "Babel" selling 1.46 million units.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Peter Cooney)

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