Indiana Jones’ machete, E.T.’s head: Iconic movie props up for auction

Amy Winehouse‘s estate has sued the late singer’s friends for £730,000 over claims they profited from selling her personal property at an auction.Mitch Winehouse – the father of the late icon and administrator her estate – has sued both Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay – friends of Winehouse – at the High Court after they allegedly kept profits from a sale of her belongings.According to the court document, both women had allegedly sent “various items of personal property owned by Amy during her lifetime” to two auctions in 2021 and this year.It claimed that by having the items put up for sale “in their own names and on their own behalf”, they were able to convert Winehouse’s property “to their own use”.The estate is currently seeking £534,192.90 in damages from Parry while also claiming £198,041.07 from Gourlay.Mitch claimed that any money made should have gone to the Amy Winehouse Foundation which was set up in the singer’s memory following her death from alcohol poisoning in 2011.Gourlay and Parry allegedly gained a portion of £3.3million raised during a 2021 auction in Beverly Hills. A dress made by Parry reportedly fetched £200,000 at the auction.Last month, the Amy Winehouse Foundation said in a statement: “In 2021, Amy’s estate auctioned items from her life and career with 30 per cent of the proceeds going to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Oppenheimer”).During the simultaneous Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes, the sagging box office was boosted, like NFL ratings and the economy of East Rutherford, New Jersey, by Taylor Swift.Marvel Studios, which used to be the surest thing in Hollywood, began to underperform (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”) and then downright flop (“The Marvels”).And DC was revealed to actually stand for Dud Central, with all of the studio’s comic-book films of 2023 (“Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “The Flash” and “Blue Beetle”) turning out to be financial failures.In a win for Gen Z, studio execs determined Zendaya’s star wattage is so huge now that two of her movies — “Dune: Part 2” and “Challengers” — were delayed a year due to the strikes, so she can promote them to her hoards of fans. And baby boomers were dinged by the big-time tanking of the nostalgic “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” starring a now 81-year-old Harrison Ford who schlepped around New York and Europe.Despite all the madness — and a sea of schlock — some excellent films hit theaters this year.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In a medium where stop-motion chickens organize elaborate escape plans, computer-generated ducks have to do a lot more than relocate to amuse us. Illumination’s “Migration” — about a fussy duck dad who reluctantly reconsiders his fear of flying — is a cartoon in search of a concept, where the most daring idea is hiring the Oscar-nominated co-director of 2012’s “Ernest & Celestine” and asking him to abandon that movie’s unique watercolor style in favor of a relatively standard digital approach.

David Lynch had some hesitations about acting in Steven Spielberg‘s The Fabelmans. However, once he took on the role of John Ford, he had one simple request — a bag of Cheetos.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” movie has cleared multiple stages of approvals and will release in mainland Chinese theaters on Dec. 31. The announcement, foreshadowed by Variety earlier this month, was made at 1.13pm (or 13.13) on Friday in China, a reference to Swift’s birth date and lucky number.

The new Mean Girls movie is just one month away from hitting theaters and the cast just gathered for their first major event!

As Democrats look to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year, one of the candidates that may help them do that is a gay former federal prosecutor. That candidate, 38-year-old Will Rollins, is again running against Republican incumbent Ken Calvert in California’s 41st Congressional District in Riverside County. Rollins narrowly lost to Calvert in 2022. Photo: Will Rollins for Congress

Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS) has announced winners for the 28th annual California on Location Awards (COLAs), presented Friday at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City.

Valerie Wu Intern The 28th annual California on Location Awards have been announced, with top prizes going to the team behind Amazon series “Daisy Jones & the Six,” which took home two awards, one for Location Manager of the Year in the category of One-Hour Episode TV for Jay Traynor and another for television Assistant Location Manager of the Year for Courtney Ochoa. Other projects that took home two awards were upcoming action comedy film “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley” and the upcoming romantic musical film “The Greatest Hits.” Sheila Ryan-Cruz of “Joker: Folie à Deux” earned a nod in the Feature category for Assistant Location Manager of the Year.

EXCLUSIVE: Abramorama has acquired North American distribution rights to A Storm Foretold, a documentary about Trump adviser Roger Stone that becomes more urgent as the 2024 presidential election inches closer with every passing day.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The year is coming to end, but not without some major original films debuting on Netflix, Prime Video and more top streaming platforms. Whether it’s potential new holiday classics (Prime Video is launching the Eddie Murphy holiday comedy “Candy Cane Lane” this month) or potential new franchises (Zack Snyder returns to Netflix for the start of his space opera saga “Rebel Moon”), streaming is offering up a ton of original fare this month bolstered by star power such as Bradley Cooper, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and more. Disney+ already added the first four “Indiana Jones” movies to its streaming library in May, but now comes the arrival of the fifth installment, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which marks Harrison Ford’s final outing as the iconic archeologist and adventurer.

It’s quite a reunion in today’s premiere of Chuck Lorre‘s new Max comedy series Bookie.

Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and national security advisor under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and advisor to George W. Bush, has died, according to a release from his Kissinger Associates. He was TK.

Michaela Zee Marc Thorpe, the visual effects artist who worked on several “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” films before launching the bot battling competition Robot Wars, has died. He was 77.

The Big Lebowski is going up for auction next month, along with a host of other Hollywood memorabilia.The iconic outfit worn by Bridges in his role as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1998 crime comedy film is to be displayed at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills on December 16, to honour the movie’s 25th anniversary. It will feature the character’s brown fleece bathrobe and cotton t-shirt.The movie, which also starred John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore among many other famous faces, follows Lebowski as he is tasked with the mission of delivering a kidnapping ransom on behalf of a millionaire, also named Jeffrey Lebowski, for whom the protagonist is mistaken at the start of the film.Named by NME and others a “cult classic”, The Big Lebowski was praised for its iconic soundtrack, Bridges’ performance and the amusing script.

Tom Jones, Bryan Adams, Madness and Sting have been announced as headliners for the inaugural Plymouth Summer Sessions festival 2024.Gabrielle, Cassyette, The Lightning Seeds and Blondie will also perform as support at the shows between June 13-16 at The Plymouth Hoe.Tickets are set to go on sale Friday (December 1) at 9am GMT, and you can buy your tickets here.A post shared by Sir Tom Jones (@realsirtomjones)Jones will kick off the first-ever Plymouth Summer Sessions on Thursday, June 13 with support from Gabrielle. Adams will then take to the stage on Friday, 14 June alongside special guest Cassyette.Madness are set to headline Saturday, June 15, joined by The Lightning Seeds, and Sting will close out the debut Plymouth Summer Sessions with special guest Blondie.“We are thrilled to bring together an extraordinary lineup of legendary artists for the first-ever Plymouth Summer Sessions,” said Peter Taylor, co-founder of festival partner Cuffe & Taylor in a press statement.“We can’t wait to enliven the spectacular location that is The Hoe, with the magic of world-class music.

David Bowie‘s handwritten lyric sheet has been estimated to potentially fetch up to £100,000 at auction.The documents, which will go under the hammer next week, contain the late singer’s corrections, drafts and notes to his tracks ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’ and ‘Suffragette City’. Both appear on his seminal 1972 album, ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars‘.So far, the lyric sheet has been valued at anywhere between £50,000 to £100,000.

Robot Wars creator Marc Thorpe has died after a decades-long battle with Parkinson's Disease. Marc is remembered for founding the popular competition series Robot Wars as well as building incredible models for iconic Hollywood films including Indiana Jones and Star Wars.The news of Marc's death was sadly confirmed by his daughter Megan Feffer who shared a candid post about her father's heartbreaking health battle in a Facebook post.

Lupita Jones stepped down and released a statement, Miss Universe called a press conference to announce the official appointment of Cynthia de la Vega as the new director of Miss Universe Mexico.Cynthia has extensive experience in beauty pageants, having participated in various editions, such as Elite Model Look Mexico in Sanya, China, in 2008. She also participated in Nuestra Belleza Mexico, where she was the first finalist in 2010.

Beyoncé has dropped the latest trailer for her film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, on Thanksgiving morning (November 23). Focusing on the significance of her children, the trailer opens with the ‘Break My Soul’ star addressing youngest daughter Rumi – “Oh Rumi, can I teach you a trick? You gotta turn it to the side” – before cutting to a montage splicing backstage footage with a performance of ‘Renaissance’ highlight, ‘Cuff It’.Watch the new trailer below:Whereas the previous two trailers touched on her creative vision for the tour, and standing out in a male-dominated industry, the latest trailer finds her commenting on her role as a mother.