Reuters Entertainment News Summary

08/25/2016 8:59

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Actress Leslie Jones' website hacked, nude photos posted

"Ghostbusters" actress and comedian Leslie Jones' website was hacked on Wednesday and nude photos and personal information including her passport and driver's license were posted, according to media reports. The website, www.JustLeslie.com, was subsequently taken offline.

'Birth of a Nation' slavery movie stumbles in Hollywood

The American Film Institute has called off a Los Angeles screening of slavery movie "The Birth of a Nation" amid controversy over an old rape case involving the film's director just as Hollywood's awards season swings into gear. The screening, scheduled for Friday at the AFI, was to be followed by a question and answer session with director Nate Parker in what would have been Parker's first public event since it emerged last week that the accuser in his 1999 rape trial and acquittal committed suicide in 2012.

Courteney Cox regrets 'horrible' bids to fight aging

Former "Friends" star Courteney Cox says she is now reconciled to looking older and regrets some procedures she had in the past to keep the wrinkles at bay. Cox, 52, spoke out during an expedition with outdoor adventurer Bear Grylls in the Irish highlands, in which the pair abseiled down sheer cliffs and shared maggots found in a rotting sheep.

Netflix drug drama 'Narcos' returns for second series

Netflix Inc drama "Narcos" returns for a second season next week, continuing the real life story of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his reign over the Medellin cartel. The dark crime show, which first aired last summer, follows the cartel's cocaine smuggling to the United States in the 1980s. Escobar was killed in 1993.

Exclusive: Accidental mogul - China property billionaire's route to Hollywood

Wang Jianlin, the billionaire Chinese property tycoon turned entertainment mogul, says his push into movies was entirely accidental. "We didn't have a choice, we were forced into it," Wang, whose Dalian Wanda Group controls Hollywood studio Legendary Pictures and U.S. cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings, told Reuters in an exclusive interview this week.

Actor-director Krasinski mines tears, laughs in 'The Hollars'

An aging matriarch's brain tumor diagnosis may not be the obvious scenario for a comedy, but actor-director John Krasinski wanted to show in his movie "The Hollars" that life does not always differentiate between tragedy and humor. "You don't have time to prepare for the bad moments in your life, and you don't have time to prepare for the good moments in your life," Krasinski said. "They just sort of happen to you."

Jennifer Lawrence ranked world's highest paid-actress for second year

"Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence on Tuesday topped a Forbes magazine list of the world's highest-paid actress for the second straight year, earning some $46 million, followed by Melissa McCarthy. Lawrence, 26, took the top spot largely through a slice of the profits from the final movie in the "Hunger Games" franchise, as well as a big upfront fee for her forthcoming space adventure movie "Passengers," Forbes said.

Robert De Niro gets back into the ring with 'Hands of Stone'

Actor Robert De Niro has re-entered the ring in the new boxing drama film "Hands of Stone." But this time, he's not the one throwing the punches, he's training famed Panamanian fighter Roberto Duran, portrayed by Edgar Ramirez.

Celebrities join Native American pipeline protest in Washington, DC

Actors Susan Sarandon, Riley Keough and Shailene Woodley joined members of North Dakota's Standing Rock Sioux Tribe outside a courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to protest against construction of a pipeline they say would pollute water and desecrate sacred land. About 100 members of the Native American group demonstrated outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia while others filled a courtroom inside where a legal battle unfolded over the $3.7 billion project.

Dwayne Johnson dethrones Robert Downey Jr. as highest paid actor

Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson topped a Forbes magazine list of the world's highest paid actors on Thursday with an estimated 2016 payday of $64.5 million. Johnson, 44, knocked Robert Downey Jr. off the top spot and more than doubled his 2015 earnings, largely thanks to his action comedy "Central Intelligence." Johnson, known as "The Rock" during his wrestling career, also collected advance fees from the eighth installment of the popular "Fast and Furious" racing movie franchise.

08/25/2016 8:59