Britney Spears charged with misdemeanor

Los Angeles prosecutors charged pop icon Britney Spears with misdemeanor counts of hit and run and driving without a valid license in an accident that occured on August 6, 2007.

Spears could face up to six months in jail and a US$1,000 fine for each count if convicted, said Nick Velasquez, spokesman for the city attorney's office. Spears' lawyers has not issued a statement yet on the charges.

Spears, 25, was filmed by paparazzi that day steering her car into another vehicle as she tried to turn into a spot in a Studio City parking lot. After assessing the damage to her own car only, she was shown on paparazzi video walking away.

Three days after the accident, the owner of the other vehicle, Kim Robard-Rifkin, filed a police report, and investigators later determined that Spears does not have a license, officials said.

Leonardo Di Caprio Goes Environmental

After collaborating on two short films ("Global Warming", "Water Planet"), filmmakers Nadia Conner and Leila Conners Petersen and producer Leonardo DiCaprio set out to explore the largeer story of the human experience on the planet, in Warner Bros. Pictures' acclaimed documentary "The 11th Hour".

Seeking out credible voices to speak to the history of the human species, the state of the oceans, lands and air, and social, design and political challenges for change, the trio netted 150 hours of interviews with over 70 scientists, designers, historians and thinkers.

"We reached out to independent experts on the front lines of what could be the greatest challenge of our time - the collapse of our planet's ecosystems and our search for solutions to create a sustainable future," says DiCaprio.

"We ourselves wanted to understand why humans were on a crash course with nature, and what we had to do to change course," says co-writer/co-director/producer Leila Conners Petersen. Her sister and collaborator Nadia adds, "One of the great things about doing this project was being able to meet people that inspired me or opened my mind through their work and writings. It was a great honor and huge learning experience".

It's A Boy Girl Thing

What would you do if you wake up in the body of your worst enemy? In the new moview "It's A Boy Girl Thing", two teenagers will prove that the more you hate, the more you love. This new romantic comedy is about next-door neighbors who live worlds apart.

Nell Bedworth (Samaire Armstrong, also seen as Anna Sterm in the TV Series the OC) and Woody Deane (Kevin Zegers) are sworn enemies. Woody, the star quarterback of the Westdale Bay High School football team, has it all - good looks, great personality, athletic ability and extreme popularity.

Whatever the future brings, Woody has the loving support of his parents Della (Sharon Osbourne) and Stan (Maury Chaykin). Right next-door is the pretty (in bookish way), academically astute and socially inept. Nell, who also attends Westdale Bay High School. But she is there strictly for the education, attempting to fulfill a lifelong ambition of attending Yale.

Her mother Katherine (Sherry Miller) has dedicated her life to this dream - while her father Ted (Robert Joy) looks on exasperated. Woody and Nell may attend the same high school and live in the same neighborhood but they stay far away from each other. That is, until the two thrown together on a school field trip, where a heated argument ensues and results in a mysterious twist courtesy of a mischievours Aztec God. The next day they wake up in a very strange place: Each other's body.

In their new identities they set about to do destroy each other's reputation. But each other's lives aren't exactly they first thought. Can a little bit of empathy and understanding take a relationship from infuriation to infatuation?

It's A Boy Girl Thing was first developed by Producer Steve Hamilton Shaw. "Steve came up with the idea of doing a romantic comedy and a body swap movie in a teen environment," recalls producer David Furnish. "Teens have varying levels of sexual sophistication and comfort with one's body and social status. The situation created so many opportunities for comedy."

South Korean pop singer U-Nee commits suicide

South Korean actress and pop singer U-Nee was found dead from hanging in her home in Seo-gu Incheon, Sunday afternoon.

U-Nee's grandmother found the body of the 26-year-old singer hanging from a door frame after she returned from a church service.

Police investigating the death have announced the case was an apparent suicide, though the singer left no note or will. U-Nee's mother has testified that U-Nee had been suffering from depression.

U-Nee's third album "Honey" is due for release on February 1. People have speculated U-Nee was suffering from the huge pressure associated with the release of the new album and was upset by online criticisms and attacks.

U-Nee came to the public's attention under the name "Lee Hye-ryeon" with her 1996 debut in the KBS TV drama "Grown-ups Just Don't Understand". She appeared in the movie "Seventeen" in 1998, then in the TV dramas "Theme Game" and "Tears of the Dragon".

Her debut album "Go" was released in 2003 and she gained even greater popularity with the 2005 release of her second album "Call Call Call." Her sexy dance moves and revealing fashions made her the favorite of teenagers across Asia.

"Stomp the Yard" tops North American Box Office

Sony's dance movie "Stomp the Yard" was at the top of the North American box office again this weekend with 13.3 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales, edging out Ben Stiller's "Night at the Museum," according to preliminary figures released here Sunday.

The Stiller comedy, which took in an estimated 13 million dollars, surpassed "Superman Returns" to become the fifth top grossing film of 2006, said box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

The movie, the top earner for three weekends in a row, has grossed an estimated 205.8 million dollars since its debut five weeks ago, according to Media by Numbers, another Los Angeles-based box office tracker.

"Dreamgirls," starring Golden Globe winners Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy, came in third with an estimated 8.7 million dollars, while the horror flick "The Hitcher" debuted in fourth place with about 8.2 million dollars in gross receipts.

In fifth place was "The Pursuit of Happiness," starring Will Smith as a struggling father who remakes himself as a stock broker, with 6.7 million dollars in ticket sales.

Meanwhile, other film that won awards at the Golden Globe Awards last week, including Paramount Vantage's "Babel" and the Miramax drama "The Queen," jumped into the top 12 films group over the weekend, while "Pan's Labyrinth," directed by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, was at No. 7 with 4.7 million dollars.

The Spanish-language fairy tale film set in 1940s' Spain is one of the nine films vying for five slots in Academy Awards' best foreign-language picture category on Tuesday, when Oscar nominations are announced in Beverly Hills.

The 12 top-earning films grossed an estimated 76 m.