Entertainment

LEXINGTON, Va. -- Media Advisory: On Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 10 a.m. at the Roanoke Civic Center, Roanoke Virginia, All American Icon will announce the largest talent search in America. We will be issuing an "Icon Challenge 2007" to the top reality TV shows such as American Idol, Nashville Star, Country Music Showdown and America's Got Talent.

MIAMI, Fla. -- As Florida continues to attract independent filmmakers to the state, Film Florida will be at the IFP Market in New York to tout filming in the state. To celebrate independent filmmakers at the IFP conference, Film Florida is also hosting its annual Florida Wasabi on Tuesday, September 18 at Jellado.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. and LONDON, England -- BETA Records, the online record company, officially launched BETA Records UK on September 1, opening a London office and a portal for music lovers and artists of every style. This follows the success of BETA Records in the USA, Germany and Mexico.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Wildfire, Inc., which specializes in UV effects, including fixtures and expendable materials, is announcing the launch of their UV Artist of the Month Contest, which is open to all readers of their new newsletter, The Monthly Blaze. Every month, a black light artist will be selected and featured in the print and online newsletter.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Wildfire, Inc., which specializes in UV effects, including fixtures and expendable materials, has just launched a unique newsletter devoted entirely to UV effects called "The Monthly Blaze."

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- A&R Select, a full service artist development and marketing firm for independent artists and bands announces that IDASAS from Redlands, California, has won the 2007 Battle of the Bands competition at BB King's, located at Universal's Citywalk.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Beauty TV(R), the world's only beauty TV network today announced that it will bring program offerings to Joost(TM), the world's first broadcast-quality Internet television service. Founded in 2006 by Latino entrepreneur Rob E. Angelino, Beauty TV is dedicated to the beauty enthusiast in the ever-growing $150 billion dollar a year beauty industry.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Entertainment media invited to attend Red Carpet screening and afterparty for the North American release of Jackie Chan's The Myth, June 26th. The long awaited 96-minute English language version action-comedy feature film from Director Stanley Tong stars Jackie Chan and renowned Asian actors Kim Hee Seon, Tony Leung Ka Fai and Mallika Sherawat. Filmed on location in China, India, and Hong Kong.

BRONX, N.Y. -- The Bronx Stage & Film Company presents Part 1 of the 5th Bronx Independent Film Festival Friday, June 29 & Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 8:00 pm in the 500-seat Lovinger Theatre on the Lehman College Campus. The honorable Earl Brown, Deputy Bronx Borough President will help open the two day festival featuring twenty one films from around the world.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Winning the Game, LLC, a full service software and Internet marketing company, announces the launch of TheTalentQuest.com, a web site for people who want to be a star, discover a star, or wish to help create a star. TheTalentQuest is a showcase where singers, dancers and comedians compete within their own category for the number one spot.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- As the old Hollywood adage goes, it's not what you know, it's who you know. This could be the reason Productionpoint.com has become one of the fastest growing online networks for the advertising and entertainment industries.

HOUSTON, Texas -- When "The Waitress" opened in theaters on May 2 the first 22,000 audience members received an exclusive coupon from online boutique Whiteflash.com. Movie-goers using that coupon are automatically eligible to win a pair of beautiful diamond stud earrings, valued at $1000. The grand prize winner will be randomly selected from eligible registrants on June 1.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Dominic and Brennan Latkovski are entertainers at heart. The brothers are the brains behind BirdZerk! and ZOOperstars!, both popular traveling sports entertainment shows that perform at venues across the United States and the world. So it was no surprise that they decided to make their afternoon at Wrigley Field one to remember a few years ago.

BOONTON, N.J. -- Spending on digital rights management (DRM) software and hardware to protect entertainment, commercial software, and other information will exceed $9 billion dollars over the next five years, says a new market research report from Insight Research Corp. By the close of 2007, total worldwide spending on DRM will reach just over $1 billion, and by 2012 business spending is forecasted to grow to nearly $1.9 billion, according to the new research study.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Electronic artist The G-Man and country keyboard player Doug Colosio announce the formation of Golosio Publishing, a music licensing company which will supply songs for film, TV, games and commercials.

SYLMAR, Calif. -- Gadget Universe, the premier innovation catalog, showcased several products at the GBK Oscar(R) Gift Suite this year. Several celebrities, including Academy Award Nominee Keith Robinson, received elegant Steinhausen watches as well as other gadgets and innovations.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- "Lord Help Us" is a new urban inspirational romantic comedy written, directed and edited by former child actor, Shavar Ross, who played "Dudley," Gary Coleman's best friend for six seasons on the hit 1980's show "Diff'rent Strokes," and produced by Tri-Seven Entertainment.

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Gameshastra, a leading provider of Game Outsource Services, announced today the appointment of Jason Wong as Vice President - Quality Assurance. In this position, Mr. Wong will be responsible for overseeing all of Gameshastra's outsource testing operations, including their offshore testing facility in Hyderabad, India.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- As befits anything from an album by DJ Insane and The G-Man, the first music video is one of the strangest ever posted online. The opening track, entitled "Trans Addiction," from the U.S. album CRAZED + DAZED (Delvian Records, UPC 6-75604-10252-0), has prompted an advertising copywriter in India to use open source film footage by an avant-garde German director to create the "Trans Addiction Wine Symphony."

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The schedule was released today for HDFEST's Los Angeles event which will be staged at Dolby Laboratories in Burbank. This December event is the final stop on the HDFEST 2006 World Tour, which also included HD Festival events this year in Seoul, New York, Finland, and London. HDFEST Los Angeles will include screenings of high-definition movies, panels on HD moviemaking and digital cinema, festival parties and the HDFEST 2006 Deffie Award Ceremony.

GLENDALE, Calif. -- Intellikey Labs, the first and most established content and DVD testing lab, is on the forefront of DVD content copy protection testing. Utilizing its proprietary protocols developed specifically for copy protection testing, Intellikey performs definitive copy protection testing for optical media via its expansive domestic and international DVD player matrices.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Dee Dee Phelps, author of "Vinyl Highway," singing as Dick and Dee Dee in the Sixties was introduced to a sold out audience by Book Publicists of Southern California founder Irwin Zucker, with comedian Fred Travalena and game show host Wink Martindale, at the 12th Annual IRWIN Awards dinner and program for Book Publicists of Southern California on October 11th in Studio City, California.

HOUSTON, Texas -- Jessica Simpson was greeted by flashes and photographers as she arrived at an exclusive party celebrating the pre-screening of her film "Employee of the Month" by Lionsgate. Whiteflash.com worked with Lionsgate to throw the celebration at the Tenjune lounge in New York City and congratulated the star with a triple set of matching yellow sapphire, amethyst and diamond bangle bracelets valued at $3500, which she wore to the event.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Wildfire, Inc. of Los Angeles, known for providing UV effects and materials to the entertainment industry for 17 years, will be joining the set of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" in an episode to be aired Sunday, October 15 at 8/9 pm CST.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Students from the Cleveland Campus of the Ohio Center for Broadcasting spent a day with the production staff of the ABC Television show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" as the show stopped in Cleveland on September 7th to hold auditions for the next contestants of the show. Both Cleveland students and show and station executives felt the day went great, and the students were left with a lasting impression of the excitement associated with being on staff of an international hit TV show.