Hollywood

All seven books in the "Harry Potter" franchise are coming to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Starting June 19, Amazon Kindle owners who also subscribe to the company's Prime service will be able to check out the titles at no charge from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. According to Amazon, the titles can be borrowed as frequently as once a month, and unlike some other lending services that limit the number of e-books available, Amazon will have enough for anyone to access the books when they go live on the service.

"We're absolutely delighted to … Read more

If you look under your seat, you might find a new Oprah Winfrey game designed by star game maker Jane McGonigal's Superbetter Labs.

The new project, called Oprah's Thank You Game, was announced today with the specific -- and ambitious -- goal of "spreading the positive emotion of gratitude to half a billion people worldwide."

"Once someone clicks on the 'I said thank you' button," the game's Web site reads, "they will be taken to the game on Facebook to record their thank you and participate in other exciting game elements -- … Read more

"Hey, George Lucas: Come on and cross the Bay. The water's just fine."

That appears to be the message from hundreds of people who have signed an online petition urging the "Star Wars" filmmaker to locate his new 260,000-square-foot technical production facility at Vallejo, Calif.'s Mare Island.

The petition comes after Lucasfilm decided to abandon long-held plans to build the new facility on a piece of property it owned in bucolic Marin County, about 30 minutes north of San Francisco and across San Pablo Bay from Vallejo.

That decision was the result of … Read more

"The Hobbit" is possibly one of the first movies to be filmed in 48fps, or double the framerate of tradition theatrical releases. According to a Facebook entry by its director Peter Jackson, the switch promises significantly higher clarity and smoothness, especially when it comes to fast movements and panning shots.

Some viewers, however, were unimpressed after a preview of the movie at the CinemaCon trade show in Las Vegas. A rival studio's projectionist was even quoted by the Los Angeles Times, saying that the film looked like a made-for-TV movie and was too accurate and too clear. … Read more

In the summer of 2005, one of the biggest scandals in the history of video games broke: Hot Coffee. If you don't recall the brouhaha over some very sexual content that was found to be hidden on the disc for Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then you probably weren't reading much news that summer.

The scandal embroiled one of the most popular game franchises in the industry's history, and it wasn't because the game allowed players to shoot cops or run over hookers. Grand Theft Auto, which emerged from Scotland, took the world by … Read more

Get ready, MP3s: Rocker Neil Young and his electric-powered Lincoln Continental are coming for you.

According to "Rolling Stone," Young has applied for a series of trademarks on what appears to be potential names for a new high-definition audio format that the musician is creating.

The project appears to be the result of Young's long-standing dissatisfaction with the quality of MP3s.

"They might sound like great song titles, but '21st Century Record Player,' 'Earth Storage,' and 'Thanks for Listening' aren't new Neil Young tunes," "the magazine wrote. "They're trademarks that the … Read more

Conspiracy theorists focused on President Obama's citizenship may have been on the wrong track. Perhaps he didn't call Kenya or Indonesia home. Perhaps he's not a citizen of Earth at all.

In fact, new photographic evidence leaked to TwitPic suggests the commander in chief may not even be human. The photo -- no doubt intended as a personal memento and not for the eyes of Earthlings -- shows Obama (if that's really his name) flashing the Vulcan salute alongside none other than Admiral (formerly Lt.) Nyota Uhura, who apparently time-traveled from her administrative offices at Starfleet Intelligence for a top secret conference with the president.

Come to think of it, Obama always did strike us as looking a bit Vulcan-like.… Read more

Paramount has agreed to give YouTube and Google Play access to 500 movies for rental, the companies announced today.

What's that you say? Haven't their parent companies fought one of the Web's nastiest copyright battles for the last five years? Viacom sued Google and YouTube in 2007 alleging that they encouraged users to pirate Viacom's TV shows and films. YouTube won the first round in federal district court but Viacom has appealed.

Viacom has actually done business with Google for years, and some of the company's content has been available on Android and YouTube for … Read more

Blame MegaUpload, if you stored legal documents on the cyberlocker service and now may not be allowed to retrieve them, according to the U.S. government.

Neil MacBride, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who in January shut down MegaUpload, after accusing founder Kim DotCom and six other company managers of criminal copyright violations, asked a federal court in documents filed last night to deny a request for a protective order filed by Carpathia Hosting, which houses MegaUpload's user data.

Carpathia wants the court to help pay the costs of preserving MegaUpload's data, which … Read more