James Cameron

PASADENA, Calif. — Avatar director James Cameron is helping to build a high-resolution 3-D camera on the next-generation Mars rover.

The camera will be mounted atop Curiosity, the next rover mission to Mars set for launch next year.

Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory scaled back its plans in 2007 to mount a 3-D camera atop Curiosity because the upcoming flagship mission to Mars was consistently over budget and behind schedule.

But Cameron lobbied NASA administrator Charles Bolden for inclusion of the 3-D camera during a January meeting, saying a rover with a better set of eyes will help the public connect with the mission.

Bolden was convinced.

San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems is now building the 3-D mast camera with Cameron listed as co-investigator.

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Information from: Pasadena Star-News, http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/

Few parts have as much pressure on the actress that plays it as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

But Rachel Weisz is stepping up for the challenge.

Entertainment Weekly reports the Academy Award-winning actress is going to play the title role in Jackie, about the days immediately following President Kennedy’s assassination.

Weisz’s fiancee, director Darren Aronofsky, is slated to direct and produce.

Joan Rivers visits Cannes, France, in 2009. (AFP/Getty Images file)

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When Joan Rivers takes the stage at the Kravis Center on Wednesday, she’d love to see everyone who digs her patently honest, bawdy brand of humor. But there’s a particular audience that the 76-year-old comedian, host, jewelry designer, fashion critic and unrepentant pop culture observer wants front and center.

“Tell every gay man that I want him there,” Rivers said in a recent phone conversation. “They make a great audience. Sit six gay men in the front row and everyone will have a good time. I tell (the box office), ‘If they look gay, sell the front-row tickets to them.’ They laugh — they’re willing to go along with you. They’re just glorious.”

One of the glorious things about being Joan Rivers is that there’s pretty much no one familiar with you who’s surprised when you say things like that. Being Joan Rivers, love her or lump her, is about the uncensored. It’s about standing on the red carpet and saying exactly what she thinks of the dress she just saw, no matter the status of the star wearing it.

It’s about deliciously over-the-top moments like the one on the previous season of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice where she unloaded a righteous stream of venom on competitor and professional card player Annie Duke (“You’re a pok-ah player!” Rivers snarled at her, as if “poker player” meant roughly the same thing as “person who beats puppies with rocks”).

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Twilight star Taylor Lautner has signed on to play Stretch Armstrong in a new film about the Hasbro toy.

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The 17-year-old teen heartthrob will play the rubbery hero in a 3D film set for release in 2012, according to MSNBC. “In the past two years, Taylor has emerged as a real star at the global box office. He brings the perfect balance of energy and athleticism to the role of an unlikely super hero with a fantastic super power,” Universal Pictures co-chairman Donna Langley said. “We couldn’t be more pleased that he has agreed to be our Stretch.”

Take a peek at celebrity paychecks

Lautner, who is also set to star as the title character in Max Steel, is one of the highest-paid teen actors in the world. He will earn $7.5 million for his role in the upcoming Tom Cruise flick Northern Lights, which tells the story of a young pilot at odds with his overbearing, billionaire father. He can next be seen among an all-star cast in the romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, due out in February.

Bill Murray might well be up for Ghostbusters 3. But apparently, he won’t be in it for long — at least, not the way he has been in the first two movies.

Murray revealed in a fun interview with British newspaper The Mail that he would do the film, but only if they kill off his character, Peter Venkman, right away:

I said to them, ‘I’ll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.’ So now they are going to have me as a ghost in the film.

Murray also talks about his golf game — one thing he’s never shy about discussing — and the fact that having the reputation of being a difficult actor isn’t bad at all:

At work I’m just nothing but trouble with anything I don’t want to do. And I fired my agents. I said I didn’t ever want to speak to them again, and I never did. It saved me money but mostly it stopped the irritation of the endless phone calls.

Sci-fi site io9 is among those saying Ghostbusters 3 will begin filming this summer.

‘Avatar’, ‘Hurt Locker’ score 9 nominations each | Photos: Gallery of nominees
Nominees: The full list | ‘Transformers’, ‘Land of the Lost’ lead Razzies
Video: Nominees announced | What’s a ‘Secret of Kells’?

My Oscar nomination ritual has been the same for the last several years – start stalking the morning shows (all of them) around  7 a.m., because even though they’re not on for about another hour and a half, I don’t wanna miss anything. I then answer the phone about five minutes before the nominations come on, and it’s always my sister, and then when they start I have to hang up on her, because for some reason, her TV is always 10 to 15 seconds ahead of mine and she cannot keep a secret to save her life.

Anyway, the nominations are pretty much what you’d expect, following the leads of the Golden Globes and the SAG awards, with a few notable points:

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“Gossip Girl” star Leighton Meester says she’s been having the time of her life making the foray from acting to singing.

View photos of Leighton Meester

The 23-year-old actress, who’s performed with Lil Wayne, Robin Thicke and Adam Lambert, tasted musical success as part of Cobra Starship’s hit song “Good Girls Go Bad.” She says she hopes it continues. “I get more excited than nervous, and I feel like that’s the best kind of energy to have,” Meester said. “I’m just having the time of my life … It’s fun. I’m like best friends with my dancers, so it comes easily.”

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Although she’s best known as the high-society teen Blair Waldorf on the CW’s popular series, Meester says she enjoys taking her fashion down on notch on stage. “I think I’ve become more in tune to a casual side that I never really knew. When I perform, I like to wear sneakers, pants and big baggy T-shirts and call it a day. And that can be really fun,” she said. “Fashion is one of the ways I express myself. I love it. I really live for it. I know it’s not important to everybody, but I find a lot of joy in it.”

According to 'Forbes', Will Ferrell pulls in $3.29 for every dollar spent on him. (Sam Morris / Getty Images)

Will Ferrell is the most overpaid actor in Hollywood, according to Forbes.

The magazine compared how much actors are paid for each movie, then took a look at how much each movie brought in. Ferrell came in at the top, or bottom as the case may be.

Ferrell’s movies, which have included the flops Land of the Lost, Semi-Pro and Stepbrothers, have brought in on average $3.29 for every dollar spent on him.
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Former Smiths frontman Morrissey was released Sunday from a hospital where he was held overnight after collapsing on stage during a concert.

A spokeswoman for the Great Western Hospital in the English city of Swindon said the singer was “much improved.”

“Morrissey became unwell, and he was admitted overnight as a precautionary measure,” she said on condition of anonymity, in line with hospital policy. “He’s been seen by the medical team, much improved and now discharged home.”

Sky News in the U.K. first reported the news of his collapse on Sunday:

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Rihanna is exposing her fans to more than her music with her new single, “Russian Roulette.”

The singer is featured nearly topless on artwork for the song, covered only by what looks to be barbed wire.

The photo fits the apparent theme for her new album, Rated R, which is due out Nov. 23. It will be her first CD since 2007′s Good Girl Gone Bad, which went multiplatinum. It will also be her first solo single since she was attacked by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.

“Russian Roulette” will debut Tuesday on Rihanna’s Web site.