A-Listers Including Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, Hathaway As Catwoman Organizing to Record Audiobooks

Audible.com goes Hollywood, utilizing a roster from the-list stars to record a completely new kind of audiobooks attracted from famous works of literature.our editor recommendsKate Winslet Identified by Richard Branson for Yanking His Mother From FireNicole Kidman Transformed by Jennifer Aniston as Original 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' Actress: Report'Dark Dark evening Rises': Anne Hathaway's Catwoman Outfit, Bane's Orb (Photo) Kate Winslet, whose reading through through of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin was the initial audiobook inside the new series being recorded, mentioned in the experience: "You employ another part of the mind plus it keeps your creativeness flowing. It's challenging, which is a heckof a wonderful time too. Just like a listener, getting a chance to tune out and be taken into anotherworld, an atmosphere, an environment that's being created entirely to suit your needs by somebodyelse's voice could be a wonderful, magical factor." Other stars who've registered to determine great books include Nicole Kidman, who won an Oscar for playing Virginia Woolf inside the Several hours and who certainly are reading through through Woolf's For the Lighthouse Hathaway As Catwoman, who's lending her voice to L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Dustin Hoffman, who'll read Jerzy Kosinski's Being There. The initial in the new productions will probably be released early next season by Audible.com, which invented and commercialized the initial digital audio player in 1997. This year, the business mentioned, downloads by Audible individuals are up greater than 40% year-over-year, with individual people setting up typically greater than 18 books throughout the time of yearly. Other stars slated to complete inside the new series as well as the books they'll read areKim Basinger (The Awakening by Kate Chopin) Annette Bening (Mrs. Dalloway byWoolf) Jennifer Connelly (The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles) Colin Firth (The Conclusion in the Affair by Graham Greene) Samuel L. Jackson (A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes) Meg Ryan (An Individuals Comedy by William Saroyan) Susan Sarandon (The Individual within the marriage by Carson McCullers) and Naomi W (Summer season by Edith Wharton). Related Subjects Hathaway As Catwoman Dustin Hoffman Kate Winslet Nicole Kidman

A Widow Of No Importance

An East/West Players presentation in association with South Asian Network and USC School of Theater of a play in two acts by Shane Sakhrani. Directed by Shaheen Vaaz. Sets, John Iacovelli; costumes, Melanie Watnick; lighting, Jose Lopez; sound, John Zalewski. Opened Sept. 14, 2011. Reviewed Sept. 22. Runs through Oct. 9. Running time: 2 HOURS, 10 MIN.With Deepa Kirpalani, Lina Patel, Vinod Thadani, Sunil Malhotra, Tara Kirpalani, Puja Mohindra, Lalitha Anjali, Bhimani Chirag, Manoj Kirpalani, Sandeep Parvesh CheenaFor the second time this year, East/West Players have programmed a broad, synthetic comedy about AARP amour. Like Paul Kikuchi's February "Wrinkles," Shane Sakhrani's "A Widow of No Importance" has a Golden Ager explore unlikely late-life sexuality with a younger partner, prompting unmotivated shouting from the younger generation and unmotivated eleventh-hour changes of heart. If the company opts to return to this well a third time, it would be wise to turn over the assignment to a scribe with more interest in real-life behavior, and better gags. "Widow" nominally takes place in Mumbai, though it might as well be London, Jackson Heights or any other Indian enclave. Shut in for two years, widow Deepa (Lina Patel) wants nothing more than marriage for rebellious daughter Tara (Puja Mohindra), who'd prefer to study creative writing in the U.S. (Couldn't Tara have been given a career truly requiring on-campus study, like engineering or physics? She could do creative writing anywhere - not that we ever see her do so, or get a sense of her as someone devoted to self-expression.) "When I meet the man I marry, I want magic." "Who do you want to marry? Harry Potter?" That's the level of wit. Sakhrani includes too little Mumbai flavor and too many on-the-nose conversations. Nothing's ever discussed but sex, food and careers. We learn nothing about the late husband, or what conditions in the marriage might or might not have fostered the widow's desire for neighbor Vinod (Sunil Malhotra), a divorced accountant she initially has in mind for Tara. It turns out he has lusted after "Auntie Deepa" since he was 12, which is creepy enough but not as creepy as his and Deepa's acting out cowgirl/cowboy fantasies in chaps, staged by Shaheen Vaaz for humiliating prurience rather than healthy eroticism. The Indian subcontinent's humor and rhythms are so underrepresented on U.S. stages that even this threadbare plot and cavalcade of vulgar stage business may be welcomed. But the culture, these characters and the audience all deserve better. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Spiro for U.K. 'Company'

Double Olivier champion Samantha Spiro and Francesca Annis will join Tony nominee Daniel Evans in Stephen Sondheim's "Company" at resurgent U.K. regional house the Crucible Theater in Sheffield. Helmer Jonathan Munby's new production, running November. 29-Jan. 7, was created by Christopher Oram and lit by Neil Austin and choreographed by Lynne Page. The quality from the cast indicates the development has the opportunity of a West Finish transfer. Although John Doyle helmed a Gotham revival in 2008, London hasn't seen the tuner about marital (dis)harmony since 1996. Contact David Benedict at benedictdavid@mac.com

John Travoltas Vintage Mercedes Stolen

FIRST PUBLISHED: September 20, 2011 8:52 AM EDT SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- John Travoltas vintage Mercedes sports car has been stolen. Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis tells the Los Angeles Times that thieves had about a 10-minute window to make off with the 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280-SL. Lewis says Travolta parked the car on a residential street in Santa Monica Sunday afternoon and stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership for about 10 minutes. When he returned, he found an empty parking spot and no sign of the car. The car was parked in a residential area, and its not known if the theft was captured on video. Lewis also didnt know if the thief or thieves had followed Travolta or just came upon the vehicle. Lewis says Travolta had the keys with him at the time of the theft. Copyright 2011 by Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Tyrese Explains Michael Bay with Barking Dog Analogy

While accruing billions of dollars at the box office for his Transformers franchise, director Michael Bay has also gained somewhat of a reputation for his aggressive, dictatorial style of directing. Former Transformers star Megan Fox called Bay a nightmare who aspires “to be like Hitler on his sets.” Other Transformers actors have agreed, claiming that a day on a Transformers set is like a day on the battlefield with General Bay shouting commands for explosions, choppers, Blackhawks, appleboxes and instructions to ignore lunch. But is there a softer side to Michael Bay that the public does not know about? When Dark of the Moon star Tyrese Gibson phoned Movieline this morning to discuss his upcoming Fast Five DVD and Blu-ray release (Oct. 4), he took a moment to explain his long-time friend Bay and why he is so misunderstood in Hollywood. “Michael Bay is a good friend,” Tyrese started when asked about Bay’s directorial style. “We’ve had our moments and our conflict but Michael Bay is a man’s man just like me. He’s very driven and he’s very focused. A lot of people don’t understand him though. Here’s an analogy for you — when you walk up the street, and you see a dog that is barking really loud, if you open your arms, that dog is going to give you all love and hugs. Most people are going to just respond to the barking and say, ‘That is a really mean dog. He’s barking a lot. He’s really aggressive.” “All you have to do though is open yourself up to the dog though and see that the dog is not going to bite. But that is the reputation that Michael Bay has, for the barking. You get what I’m saying?” That message may be a little late for Megan Fox, but the rest of us will totally be prepared for any future Michael Bay street encounters. Gibson has appeared in all three Transformers films as Sergeant Robert Epps. Check back in later this month to read our full interview with Tyrese, in which he discusses his relationship with the other Transformers cast members, Fast Five, his upcoming advice book for men and how he plans to transition “from the bedroom to the club” with his next album.

Virgin America's screens to build up

Virgin America, which has suggested its entertainment options since getting rid of in 2007, will substantially overhaul its Red-colored-colored in-flight entertainment system late next season. The upgrade is notable for Hollywood thinking about the truth that San Francisco Bay Area-based Virgin remains busy brokering content deals and beginning its own production shingle Virgin Produced, whose professionals may have an important role in programming Red-colored-colored, incorporated within the relaunch. Red-colored-colored may even evolve more in to a lucrative platform for art galleries and TV systems, additionally to gamemakers and record labels, just like a platform to promote entertainment through VOD, but furthermore just like a advertising tool. Virgin America claims using Red-colored-colored has elevated 20% yearly since 2008. New system's finest change is going to be how large its seatback-based touchscreens, which will grow in the current nine inches and also have high-definition shows. The airline's monitors were already 25% bigger in comparison to-flight entertainment screens on domestic coach travel arrangements. The screens will let clients for hooking up their personal electronic items like laptops, pills and cell phones, enabling the airline travel, but furthermore content companies, a lot more options to market video and audio programming as downloads. It rents 25 movies for $8 each throughout travel arrangements, but bills you $5 to $7 for just about any movie adding to $2 for just about any Tv program once the new system bows. Aboard servers may even allow the airline travel to supply more content. Virgin professionals say you will discover expects to quadruple the amount of videos it presently offers using the hardware. It will still offer Wi-fi compatability aboard Virgin's planes. Airline travel was the initial domestic company to supply fleetwide Wi-fi compatability this past year. Entertainment options presently include live satellite tv, cached niche channels, greater than 35 on-demand films and premium Tv shows from cablers like Cinemax together with a 3,000 MP3 music library. All travel arrangements will feature re-energized channels this fall. "The idea behind Red-colored-colored is actually to reinvent the flight experience, by supplying travelers more options, with additional hold, more content plus much more interaction," mentioned David Cush, leader and Boss of Virgin America. "Our travelers want connectivity yes, additionally they want utilization of more media content and services that will improve their trip. You need to give our travelers more options instead of less." Lufthansa Systems' BoardConnect platform continues to be familiar with energy the completely new Red-colored-colored screens, that is positioned on all Virgin America's planes. It presently provides numerous 40 planes that's prone to grow to 57 by late 2013. The up-to-date Red-colored-colored system already continues to be examined on one of Virgin's Airbus A320's named #nerdbird, top tips for the hat to Twitter (company, we now have an energetic Twitter feed). System was revealed within the Airline travel Passenger Experience Assn Expo in Dallas on Tuesday. Contact Marc Graser at marc.graser@variety.com