(AP) The creator of the popular religious children’s television show “Davey and Goliath” has died. A memorial service will be held May 31 at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas for Richard Towne “Dick” Sutcliffe. He died May 11 in Dallas from complications of a stroke. He was 90.

Sutcliffe created “Davey and Goliath,” a Christian-themed children’s show about a boy and his talking dog that used stop-action animation.

Along with Gumby creators Art Clokey and Ruth Clokey Goodell, Sutcliffe created the Sunday-morning series to spread a religious message without losing younger viewers with overly complicated concepts, his daughter, J.T. Sutcliffe, told The Dallas Morning News.

Church leaders approached Sutcliffe about using television to reach young people when he was director of Lutheran radio and television ministry in New York. He chose a format that would offer sound theology while being entertaining, his daughter told the newspaper.

Sutcliffe is survived by his wife, Judy Sutcliffe; daughter, J.T. Sutcliffe; son, Michael Sutcliffe; brother, Paul Sutcliffe and three grandchildren.

Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu is ready to walk down the aisle with long-time partner. Actor George Takei will marry Brad Altman now that the California Supreme Court has overturned that State’s ban on gay marriage.

Takei, now age 71 and Altman (54) have been a couple for 21 years and can now make official plans for a wedding ceremony.

When asked what kind of ceremony will take place the famous star of movies, television and stage stated, “There’s no tradition in terms of same-sex marriage. We are designing and shaping our own wedding in our own way, so it’s going to be singular and unique.”

“As an American, I was delighted that we’re getting closer and closer to more truly being faithful to the Constitution,” added Takei, who is a strong proponent of human rights on all levels.

Takei, known to be gay only to a few in the inner circle of Hollywood’s elite “came out” publicly 3 years ago after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a same-sex marriage bill passed by the state Legislature. Takei said that he realized he could no longer stay quietly on the sidelines and it was time to take a public stand on what he and many others see as just another form of segregation and intolerance, something he is all too familiar with having been forced to live in internment camps during World War II, when American citizens of Japanese heritage were put in camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

Source: CNN News

John Phillip Law, the strikingly handsome 1960s movie actor who portrayed an angel in the futuristic “Barbarella” and a lovesick Russian seaman in “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” died Tuesday. He was 70.

Law died at his Los Angeles home, his former wife, Shawn Ryan, told the Los Angeles Times. The cause of death was not announced.

With vivid eyes, blond hair and imposing physique, Law was much in demand by filmmakers in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

He gained wide notice in 1966 with Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner and Theo Bikel in “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” Norman Jewison’s Cold War comedy in which a Soviet submarine runs aground off a peaceful New England island town.

He played the sweet Russian youth who falls in love with a local American girl in the film, which was nominated for four Oscars including best picture, actor (Arkin) and director.

French director Roger Vadim put Law’s looks to good use in his 1968 science fiction film, “Barbarella,” which starred Vadim’s then-wife, Jane Fonda, as a sexy space traveler in the faraway future. Law wore wings to portray Pygar, a blind angel.

“I’ve had more kicks out of playing far-out things,” Law told the Los Angeles Times in 1966. “It’s like putting on a funny face and going out in front of people and going, ‘yaaaaaa.’ ”

Messages left Thursday for Fonda’s New York publicist were not immediately returned.

Law was World War I ace Baron Manfred von Richtofen in the 1971 “The Red Baron” and Charlton Heston’s son in “The Hawaiians,” a 1970 sequel to “Hawaii,” based on James Michener’s sprawling novel.

In Otto Preminger’s 1967 film, “Hurry Sundown,” he was a war veteran struggling to preserve his farm against a land speculator played by Michael Caine. Fonda played Caine’s wife.

He continued his career in a variety of U.S. and foreign films and television over the past 30 years, including appearances in “The Young and the Restless” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

Law was a California native, born in 1937 to actress Phyllis Sallee and her husband, a police officer. He told the Los Angeles Times he did some extra work in films as a child. He said he put acting ambitions aside in his teens, but his interest was renewed in a college drama class.

He worked in the theater in New York for a while before breaking into the movies, spending some time in the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, whose directors included the great Elia Kazan.

Source: L’Osservatore Romano

The Vatican stated today through the Reverend Jose Gabriel Funes, the pontiff’s chief astronomer, that it is acceptable for Catholics to believe in alien life outside the planet Earth and that such belief in no way contradicts the Church’s teachings on faith in God.

In his official statement Rev. Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said that the vastness of the universe surely can indicate it is possible there could be other forms of intellligent life outside Earth capable of having faith in a god.

Life outside our own understanding of creation “doesn’t contradict our faith,” stated Fune. “Aliens would still be God’s creatures…..[and rejecting such a notion would be] putting limits” on God’s universality.

Hazel Court, an English actress who co-starred with horror legends Boris Karloff and Vincent Price for fright-fest films of the 1950’s and 60’s has died of a heart attack at the age of 82.

Court had a very successful career acting in the U.K. and U.S. in film and television, however she is best known for her work in such films as 1963’s “The Raven” and in the Roger Corman classic film that showcased several of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems. Those great movies also starred Price and Karloff, as well as another past great, Peter Lorre.

Court was dubbed one of several famous “Scream Queens” of that era, who had the pipes and cleavage to pull off some of the best campy death scenes in celluloid history. In fact, Corman liked her performances so well that he directed her in five more of his movies.

Some of her other big screen films were “The Premature Burial,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Curse of Frankenstein” and “Devil Girl from Mars.”

Some of her non-horror roles included appearances in 60’s and 70’s TV shows like “Mannix,” “McMillan & Wife” with Rock Hudson, “Mission Impossible” and “The Wild, Wild West.” She also appeared in non-genre films like “Hour of Decision,” “The Wackiest Ship in the Army” and the 1946 romantic feature “Carnival” opposite the great Stanley Holloway. However, in the hearts and minds of all her fans she will always be one of Hollywood’s best “Scream Queens.”

Truly a cult classic fave, Court will live on forever in those great old horror flicks, especially with specialized cable channels like Chiller and others.

Computer programmer Bernie Peng wanted a way to make his proposal to sweetheart Tammy Liu special and memorable.   So, Peng spent a month working on a special reprogramming of Liu’s favorite videogame “Bejeweled” to pop the question.

According to Yahoo! News, the game was programmed to display a ring and a proposal when Liu reached a certain score.  

“I thought it was pretty cool, in a nerdy way,” Peng told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

The hard work paid off. Liu said yes and the two will marry in September.

The couple plan to marry over Labor Day weekend, and PopCap, the Seattle company that makes “Bejeweled,” will fly the couple to Seattle as part of their honeymoon.

“Most video game companies would frown on people manipulating their games,” said Garth Chouteau, a spokesman for PopCap.

“But it won him a woman. As a bunch of geeks we have to say, ‘Bernie, hats off to you.’”

The company is also supplying copies of “Bejeweled” to hand out as favors to the wedding guests. In the game, players score points by swapping gems to form vertical and horizontal chains.

We lost one of the giants of the entertainment industry yesterday. Charlton Heston died with his wife of 64 years, Lydia, close by his side in their Beverly Hills home at the age of 84.

Mr. Heston was an Oscar winning actor, World War II veteran, president of the National Rifle Association, political advocate, a strong supporter of the civil rights movement and an environmentalist back before Green was the in-thing.

He began his career with wife Lydia in 1947, not as an actor, but a model in New York and the two also managed a stage playhouse until he was offered his first part in 1948 on stage with a supporting role in the Broadway revival of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. From there he moved into early 1950’s television and would have likely become a major star in that medium if the Broadway stage hadn’t called him back where he secured recognition in such landmark stage productions as “Macbeth,” playing Sir Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons,” “Mister Roberts” and Mark Antony in productions of “Julius Caesar” and “Antony and Cleopatra.”

His first movie role was 1950’s “Dark City,” however, it was two years later in “The Greatest Show on Earth” that Heston was catapulted into stardom and his streak across the entertainment sky would never dim after that.

Heston would go on to star in such blockbuster films as Cecile B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments,” playing Moses, “Ben-Hur,” “El Cid,” “The Agony and the Ecstasy” and “Khartoum.”

He did his fair share of SF films as well, becoming indelibly imprinted on the minds of fans with his performances in “The Planet of the Apes,” “Soylent Green,” “The Omega Man” and “Earthquake.”

The only time he was ever mis-cast in his 60 year career was in a film directed and co-starring the great Orson Wells’ for the crime film-noir titled “Touch of Evil” in 1958. The film was great, and Heston adequate but not quite believable as Mexican Ramon Miguel ‘Mike’ Vargas.

Over the last decade Heston made only brief cameo appearances in films such as Tim Burton’s remake of “The Planet of the Apes,” starring as an ape in that one, “Wayne’s World” and a few others. All totaled, Heston starred in over 126 major motion pictures since 1950.

Charlton Heston continued his fight for civil liberties, civil rights and remained a major advocate against gun control right up to his death.

Written by: Deb Neufell

Fans of the Lifetime original series “Blood Ties” have worked tirelessly in campaigning to save the show they love, but they have also used the campaign to help raise money for charity at the same time.

A total of $900 was raised to benefit The Best Friends Animal Society. This donation was made possible by the sale of custom-made campaign postcards, generous donations by the fans and five auctions for autographed photos of one of the show’s stars, Christina Cox.

Campaign organizers made the donation on behalf of the cast - Christina Cox, Kyle Schmid, and Dylan Neal - as a thank you from the fans for all of their hard work and dedication to the show. Best Friends helps animals all across the country.

If you’d like to make a donation or more information, please visit their website at: www.bestfriends.org

Paul Scofield, the Academy Award winning actor from the U.K. has died at the age of 86, loosing his battle with leukemia.

A long time member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theater, Scofield, who was as much comfortable before the cameras as he was on the stage, won his Oscar in 1967 for the riviting portrayal of Sir Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons.

He starred in several popular films such as “A Delicate Balance” with Katherine Hepburn, 1989’s “Henry V,” “King Lear, “Quiz Show,” “Hamlet” and “The Crucible.”

He also didn’t shun the small screen, bringing in outstanding performances for “Martin Chuzzlewit” “The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank,” and “Anna Karenina.”

SF and genre fans will recognize his powerful, baritone voice for animated fare like George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” or “Genesis: The Creation and Flood,” “Kurosawa,” “Robinson in Space,” and “The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb.” Those in the U.K. may remember his made for TV fantasy film called “Mr. Corbett’s Ghost.”

In 2001 England bestowed one of its highest honors it can for a civilian on Scofield, the Companion of Honor. The Queen wanted to honor him with knighthood, which he roundly turned down on several occasions.

One of the staples of 1960’s & 70’s television has died. Ivan Dixon, the actor-turned-director most noted for his role as the cool, laid-back cigar smoking POW Sgt. James ‘Kinch’ Kinchloe in the TV hit show “Hogan’s Heroes,” died Sunday after complications from a hemorrhage and kidney failure. His family made the announcement this morning. He was 76.

Dixon appeared in more than 40 different television series in his 51 year show business career either as a regular cast member or guest star. He made several episodes of the original “Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits,” and had stints on such geek-fan faves as “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Fugitive” and “I Spy.”

His career began in 1957 and within two years he had landed the role of Jim in “Porgy and Bess” opposite mega-stars such as Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Bailey and Brock Peters. From then on his career kept spiraling upward. His most popular big screen film role to date is still the gravely voiced Lonnie in the sleeper hit comedy “Car Wash.”

Dixon was nominated for an Emmy in 1967 for his performance as the lead in the “CBS Playhouse special drama “The Final War of Olly Winter.”

While Dixon was a fine actor, he really shined behind the camera as a highly sought after director. Some of his best directing gigs took place on Tom Selleck’s hit Emmy and Golden Globe winning series “Magnum P.I.,” in which he helmed 13 different episodes between 1982 through 1986. He also directed episodes of “Quantum Leap,” the original “Wonder Woman” and “The Bionic Woman,” starring Lindsey Wagner.

The great Sidney Poitier once said of Dixon, “As an actor, you had to be careful, He was quite likely to walk off with the scene.”

Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Executive News Director)

The world mourns the loss of one of its greatest and most gentle humans with the death of Arthur C. Clarke. He passed away late last night in his home in Sri Lanka at the ripe old age of 90.

If I had to point to any person or persons in my nearly 60 years of living on planet Earth that influenced me the most (outside of my parents) I would have to narrow it down to just two men, humanist and philosopher Joseph Campbell and the renowned, author, scientist, futurist and humanitarian Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

For most Sir Arthur is probably best known for writing the sci-fi novel that set the tone for everything that would be seen on the movie screen in the 20th Century if it dealt with outer space, the revolutionary story of “2001: A Space Odyssey” (originally written in 1948), which was brought to the big screen by a collaboration between him and the legendary director Stanley Kubrick in 1965. To say that the novel and film were eons before their time would be a gross understatement. Relying on scientific fact and the limitless imagination of his genius, Clarke allowed an entire generation of closet geeks to come out and change the face of both the scientific and entertainment community simultaneously. He made us proud to be geeky, smart, and yes, a bit nerdish.

Sir Arthur is reverently referred to as the father of the modern communications age when as early as the 1940’s he stunned the scientific community with the concept of using orbital satellites for worldwide telecommunications. Again, in 1940, he was the first to predict that man would be on the moon before the close of the 20th Century and was the first pioneer and proponent for seeing the need to move into green technology decades before anyone else saw the dangers of global temperature shifts.

What made his sci-fi novels so believable and lasting, so that over the last 60 plus years they have stood the test of time and will live on long after most of us are gone, is how he interlaced his fantastic stories with the harsh realities of scientific fact married to scientific possibility.

There have been many SF and genre-related influences in my six decades of living. Such people as the great Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and the feisty but brutally honest Harlan Ellison, but it is Sir Arthur C. Clarke that will forever hold a unique and special place reserved in my heart and memory. I will miss him greatly and the world is less with his passing.

Source: Yahoo News

Oscar winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as “The English Patient,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Cold Mountain” into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54.

Minghella’s death was confirmed Tuesday by his agent, Judy Daish. No other details were not immediately available.

“The English Patient,” the 1996 World War II drama, won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella, best picture and best supporting actress for Juliette Binoche.

Based on the celebrated novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, the movie tells of a burn victim’s tortured recollections of his misdeeds in time of war. Minghella also was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay for “English Patient,” and for his screenplay for “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”

Among his other acclaimed films were “Truly, Madly, Deeply” (1990), and last year’s Oscar-nominated “Michael Clayton,” on which he was executive producer.

Minghella was recently in Botswana filming an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s novel “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.” It is due to air on British television this week.

The book is the first in a series about the adventures of Botswanan private eye Precious Ramotswe; a 13-part television series was recently commission by U.S. network HBO.

Minghella also turned his talents to opera. In 2005, he directed a highly successful staging of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” at the English National Opera in London. The following year, he staged it for the season opener of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. It was the first performance at the Met under general manager Peter Gelb.

Jeff Ramsay, press secretary to Botswanan President Festus Mogae, said Minghella’s death was a “shock and an utter loss.”

He said the director had been coming to the country ahead of the detective film and learning about Botswana.

Ramsay said Minghella had told him how he had been forced to shoot “Cold Mountain” — set in the United States — in Romania and that it had “seemed wrong.” He said this made the director “more sure that the film could only be shot in Botswana.”

Born the second of five children to southern Italian emigrants, Minghella came to moviemaking from a flourishing playwriting career on the London “fringe” and, in 1986, on the West End with the play, “Made in Bangkok,” a hard-hitting look at the sexual mores of a British tour group in Thailand.

He worked as a television script editor before making his directing debut with “Truly, Madly, Deeply,” a comedy about love and grief starring Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman.

Melissa “Fiver” Kern has been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien since she read “The Hobbit” as a child, and has always loved books. Her heart leaped when she saw the preview for Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of “The Lord of the Rings,” and she has been involved in organizing like-minded “Ringers” in the Southeast for many years now.

The hard truth is that Melissa has recently been diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Essentially, it causes all the motor neurons in the brain to shut down, gradually making the muscles unable to function. It’s very rare (1 in 1 Million) for someone who’s only 34 years old to come down with this, as it mainly affects people between 50 and 70. Life expectancy is 3-5 years from diagnosis, and there is no cure. (She’s had the disease for about a year already.) The disease progressively takes away movement and coordination. In September, she marched with fellow LOTR fans in the annual DragonCon parade. Six months later, she is barely walking, and needs help to climb stairs and get dressed.

She is excited about the filming of “The Hobbit” sequels, but was apprehensive about the release dates of 2010 and 2011. She doesn’t even know if she’ll still be alive when these movies are released. I told her to make that her goal, to be around to see these films in the theater. But we don’t know how this disease will go.

The goal of PROJECT FIVER is to deliver a petition to Peter Jackson, New Line, and whoever takes the directorship, asking that Melissa be cast as a costumed hobbit extra in the film. Even if she’s not there when the movies are released, just being part of the production of “The Hobbit,” even if it’s just sitting at a table in the background, will absolutely mean the world to her. And most importantly, it would be her reason to hang on and fight the good fight.

Melissa has done an incredible amount to promote Tolkien Fellowship. She has been a key member of the Tolkien Track at DragonCon for several years, and has also volunteered with the Young Adult Literature track there. She has been an active member on TheOneRing.net, co-leader of ArmsOfMiddleEarth.com and member of numerous LOTR-Related Moots, and Meet-Up groups in the Atlanta area. Additionally, she has helped organize local Release Parties for the Harry Potter books and coordinated with movie theaters to have a crew of costumed Pirates raise money for the AMC Stars of Hope Charity at the Pirates of the Caribbean movie premieres. Many in these groups have been asking what they can do to help her out and lift her spirits, and PROJECT FIVER is my best answer.

All of our Slice of SciFi and FarPoint Media family, friends and fans can help make this happen!

The Brittany mantra could fit quite well with this story about Dawn Wells. The actress who played the innocent little sweet heart for years on “Gilligan’s Island” is currently serving six months of unsupervised probation on a drug charge in Idaho.

First, Mary Ann is a naive and sweet girl who obviously doesn’t know that you never drive around in Idaho with your stash in the car and secondly, she’s been stuck on that island for decades and well….she’s sweet!

Last month Wells was sentenced to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving. She had been charged with driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance and having with her some drug paraphernalia. However, those more serious misdemeanor charges were dropped, although, in today’s world, driving under the influence is no laughing matter and should never be treated lightly.

All this stems from being pulled over back in October 2007 when she got nabbed by a Teton County police officer after he noticed that Wells was driving erratically. After watching her swerve, speed up and slow down without apparent reason, the police officer decided to pull the car over. Wells, age 69, was returning home from a surprise birthday party, and SURPRISE, she got hauled off to jail after the officer smelled marijuana in the car and under inspection found a half-smoked doobie and two small empty cases that can be used to store grass in. She then proceeded to miserably fail the administered sobriety test.

For her defense, Wells stated the marijuana wasn’t hers but belonged to a couple of passengers she had dropped off and that she was unaware of it, thought they were smoking a cigarette. Those at the party testified that she had little to drink at that evening’s party. Her lawyer stated that Wells was swerving because she was trying to adjust the heater in her new and unfamiliar car.

The judge took all of this testimony into account, discharging the 3 major accusations but hitting her with the driving under the influence charge which comes with the automatic five days, small fine and six month probation.

See, we told you she was still sweet and innocent.

Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Executive News Director)

Sherwood Schwartz, the man behind two of TV comedy’s greatest classics, “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Brunch,” he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday.

I don’t wish to take anything away from Sherwood and applaud the decision by the committee for choosing and giving him a place on the Boulevard, but how can someone like Sherwood be considered while our good friend Walter Koenig still has no star?

If there is anyone who deserves to be commemorated for over four decades of entertainment it is Walter Koenig. This becomes even more important when one considers the fact that he is the only remaining original main cast member of the legendary Star Trek series and motion pictures to be without a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Time is quickly closing in on June 2008, which will be the last chance that Walter has to get immortalized on that famous walkway.

Let them know that Walter deserves this honor just as, if not more, than anyone else under consideration at this time.

Write to the committee at this address:

Chairman Walk of Fame Committee
c/o Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
7018 Hollywood Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Hollywood, CA 90028