Fan Fare

“First Dog” — the Hollywood pooch with an illustrious past

Celebrities and their dogs are two a penny in Hollywood.  But Little Bear must be a cut above the rest.

The cute Queensland Heeler is not only about to make his cinematic debut as the star of “First Dog”,  but he also has the illustrious credentials and heart-wrenching back story to go with it.

Little Bear is now owned by film director Bryan Michael Stoller.

But before he came to Stoller,  he had been  rescued by former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan and the late President Ronald Reagan after he left office and the couple moved back to California.

Stoller says Little Bear’s troubled early life was the inspiration for his  movie, which revolves around a dog who is accidentally left behind at a presidential dedication ceremony and is found by a young foster boy who runs away from home and  sets out on an adventure to return the dog to the White House.

“Little Bear’s fortune changed when Nancy Reagan found and fostered him…In my film (he) is found by a young foster boy named Danny Milbright, who is hopeful that his lot will change. And as fate would have it, it does,” Stoller said.

“First Dog”, which  includes songs performed by Dolly Parton and a duet by Willie Nelson and his daughter Paula, is one of the opening features at the Hollywood Film Festival on Oct. 22.

Tom Cruise tipped to play film version of John Edwards

The tale of John Edwards’  personal and political downfall will be coming to a movie theater near you.

But who will play the disgraced politician?

Aaron Sorkin, best known for penning the hit White House drama series “The West Wing” has bought the rights to the book penned by Andrew Young — the former aide to the Democratic presidential hopeful throughout his affair with Rielle Hunter.

Sorkin described  Young’s  book “The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’ Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down” as a “first-hand account of an extraordinary story filled with motivations, decisions and consequences that would have lit Shakespeare up.”

The entertainment and political world is already agog with speculation on who will land the role of the former golden boy of Democratic politics.

Tom Cruise, who bears a resemblance to Edwards,  Dennis Quaid, George Clooney and British actor Michael Sheen are among the early front-runners in the eyes of the celebrity media.

But it is Cruise — also a one-time golden boy whose image has slipped in the past few years — who is emerging as the favorite.  Cruise is seen as having the charm, the smile and the acting skills to pull off  the role.

New “Terminator” movie gets L.A. preview

For the first three “Terminator” movies, nuclear destruction and an epic war between man and machines loomed in the future. “Terminator Salvation,” the next installment in the saga due out on May 22, takes everything up to the year 2018, and it features plenty of newfangled machinery.

In a preview on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, the movie’s director McG (given name Joseph McGinty Nichol) played for a small audience scenes from the upcoming film.

In one scene, a giant robot called a Harvester tore through a decrepit gas station, picking up humans and depositing them in a mobile jail cell. One of the plotlines in the film is that machines will use humans for ghastly research as they develop their latest Terminator machine.

The movie’s cast of fearsome machines has many more players. They include Hydrobots, machines that swim underwater and look like robotic barracudas. In one scene previewed for the audience, actor Christian Bale flies a helicopter close to a lake and gets ambushed by the Hydrobots, but manages to keep them at bay with a an assault rifle. Bale plays John Connor, leader of the embattled human resistance against the machines.

In his talk, McG talked about the role that Arnold Schwarzenegger could play in the film. Schwarzenegger starred in the first three “Terminator” movies, and he was talked about for a possible cameo in the latest film. McG offered few details, but said that he plans to show Schwarzenegger the movie soon. Schwarzenegger is now governor of California, a state embroiled in a budget meltdown.

McG also said he expects the film will be more than two hours long. And he said it will be released in IMAX format, although it will not be shot in that format.

And he talked about another movie coming out this year with deadly machines. The film “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is due out on June 26, from director Michael Bay. “It’s a healthy competition, so we’ll see who the last man standing is,” McG said.

Has “Sex and the City” changed your dating habits?

Although the TV series “Sex and the City” was a fictional account of four women’s working and love lives in New York, a majority of singles told a survey that it had influenced their dating habits.

A survey by dating Web site Engage found that eight out of 10 singles believe the popular HBO series that has now been made into a movie had made it more acceptable for women to have fun dating and worry less about finding a committed relationship.

The poll found 43 percent of singles believe the series had made it more acceptable for women to be unfaithful in their relationships while 55 percent of single women said the show influenced them to “date like men”.

“”Sex and the City,” along with the introduction of dating reality shows like ABC’s The Bachelor, socialize dating,” said Trish McDermott, vice president of Love at Engage, in a statement.

“Suddenly, everyone was talking about the dating choices others make — like breaking up via Post-It notes — and learning vicariously through them.”

The survey of 250 singles found 36 percent of respondents borrowed ideas from “Sex and the City” and used them in their dating life. Do you?