Danny Puff

NEW YORK (AP) Rick Ross has formally apologized for lyrics some have called pro-rape.

Thursday's apology in the form of a tweet came the same day a women's group, UltraViolet, planned a protest outside of one of his sponsors, Reebok, in Manhattan.

In Rocko's song "U.O.E.N.O," Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDMA, known as Molly, and having his way with her. The song was released in January but just recently began getting widespread notice.

Although last week Ross said his lyrics were misinterpreted, he tweeted Thursday that he doesn't condone rape and apologized for lyrics that were "interpreted as rape."

He also offered "apologies to my many business partners, who would never promote violence against women," specifically mentioning Reebok and UltraViolet.

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(Reuters) - Award-winning novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, author of "Heat and Dust" and many other books set in India, died on Wednesday at the age of 85, her Los Angeles agent said.

Jhabvala died at her home in New York City, a spokesman for Hollywood agency Paradigm told Reuters. The spokesman did not give the cause of her death but said she had been sick for some time.

Jhabvala also worked on several movie adaptations with filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, winning two Academy Awards for her screenplays for 1985 movie "A Room With a View" and "Howards End" in 1992.

Jhabvala was born in Germany but emigrated with her family to Britain during the Nazi regime. She later married an Indian architect and moved to India, where she began to write about her life there.

Her novel "Heat and Dust," a romance about a young woman living in India in the 1920s, won Britain's coveted Booker Prize in 1975, and was adapted for the big screen in 1983.

Jhabvala collaborated with Merchant and Ivory on more than 20 movies including "The Remains of the Day" and "Mr. And Mrs. Bridge."

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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NEW YORK (AP) "Arrested Development" will be reborn on Netflix on May 26.

The subscription service announced the premiere date Thursday, saying that all 15 episodes of the comedy series will be posted at the same time. The Mitchell Hurwitz sitcom starring Jason Bateman was canceled by Fox in 2006 after three seasons.

"Arrested Development" is the most eagerly anticipated original series from Netflix following the political thriller "House of Cards," which debuted in February.

In a statement, Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos says the return of the cultishly beloved "Arrested Development" ''is sure to make history all over again."

In response, Hurwitz joked that Sarandos is "going to be immensely disappointed."

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Online:

http://www.netflix.com

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By Lucas Shaw

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Matthew McConaughey will star in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic "Interstellar," the director's follow-up to "The Dark Knight Rises" and McConaughey's first big-budget film in years. The actor told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune he had accepted the role in the film, confirming reports from about a week ago.

The Texan has undergone a career renaissance over the past couple of years after close to a decade of making charming but redundant romantic comedies. After the "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," the last in his string of rom-coms, McConaughey took a couple of years off and then starred in "The Lincoln Lawyer" in 2011. 2012 was a year neither the actor nor cinephiles will readily forget.

McConaughey played an enterprising prosecutor in Richard Linklater's "Bernie," a murderous cop in "Killer Joe" and a stripper in "Magic Mike" - all in a span of a few months.

All three films were made on shoestring budgets, and all three paired McConaughey with iconic directors - Linklater, Billy Friedkin and Steven Soderbergh. His performance in "Magic Mike" also earned him an Independent Spirit Award.

McConaughey will next appear in "Dallas Buyers Club" as an AIDS patient and in Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Yet "Interstellar," which Nolan is directing from a script by his brother Jonathan, marks the latest step in McConaughey's career evolution. The story follows a physicist, Kip Throne, who proffered that time travel was possible.

Steven Spielberg was initially slated to direct, but now the Oscar winner will produce with fellow titan Nolan behind the camera.

Though the film, a collaboration between Paramount and Warner Bros., is set to open in the more awards-focused time of November 2014, sci-fi in Nolan's hands will always feel grandiose.

The diversity of roles McConaughey has taken on have landed him in films that are both awards contenders and box office draws. This film would seem to fall in both categories.

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By Tim Kenneally

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jim Carrey, who raised the hackles of the right wing by calling Fox News - or, rather, "Fux News" - a "giant culture fart" and with his criticism of assault rifles, has fired off another round in the debate, calling some of his harsher critics "thugs" and "a minority."

He also says that he doesn't want to infringe on anyone's Second Amendment rights.

Bemoaning the lack of civility he says he's encountered, Carrey writes in a column published Tuesday on the Huffington Post, "It is shocking to see this concerted effort to brutally intimidate anyone who speaks of a compassionate compromise ... These thugs, though menacing, are a minority, but they will have their way if good people don't step forward now and make a difference."

Carrey also emphasized, "NO ONE IS ASKING ANYONE TO GIVE UP THEIR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS." Instead, he says, he hopes "we can limit" access to weapons that cause "massive devastation to good and innocent people."

"No one is allowed to own a bazooka. In a movie theater an assault rifle with a 100-round drum magazine can cause just as much damage," Carrey writes.

The actor stirred up the gun-control debate last week with his Funny or Die music video "Cold Dead Hand," which criticizes gun-control opponents.

Carrey released a statement later in the week, claiming that he'd seen "Fux News" - presumably, a reference to Fox News Channel - "rant, rave, bare its fangs and viciously slander me because of my stand against large magazines and assault rifles.

"I would take them to task legally if I felt they were worth my time or that anyone with a brain in their head could actually fall for such irresponsible buffoonery. That would gain them far too much attention which is all they really care about," Carrey added while giving the network's commentary attention.

Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld subsequently took a shot at Carrey on "The Five," calling Carrey "washed-up."

"I guess Jimmy thought he couldn't lose a debate to a dead man," Gutfeld said, referring to deceased actor and former NRA president Charlton Heston. "That's what's really funny - he did and now Charlton Heston has a brighter future in films than Jim Carrey."

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) Philadelphia is getting ready for a supersized game of "Pong" on the side of a skyscraper.

The classic Atari video game will be re-created later this month on the facade of the 29-story Cira Centre, where hundreds of embedded LED lights will replicate the familiar paddles and ball.

Organizers expect hundreds of onlookers as gaming enthusiasts use giant, table-mounted joysticks to play from afar. The players will be standing on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a site that offers an unobstructed view of the office building from across the Schuylkill River.

"'Pong' is a cultural icon, cultural milestone," said Frank Lee, the Drexel University game-design professor behind the concept. "This is my love letter to the wonders of technology as seen through the eyes of my childhood."

Despite the buzz the idea has received since being announced Wednesday, Lee said it took five years to find people willing to make it happen. He eventually met kindred spirits at Brandywine Realty Trust, which owns the Cira Centre, and at the online news site Technically Philly.

Now, what might be the world's largest "Pong" game will be played April 19 and 24 as part of Philly Tech Week, the news website's annual series of events, seminars and workshops spotlighting the city's technology and innovation communities.

"This is one of the best things I could imagine that could make people aware that there's something happening here, and bring more people into the fold," Technically Philly co-founder Christopher Wink said.

Wink estimated about 150 people might play over the two days most will be chosen by a lottery, but some spots will be reserved for younger students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and math programs.

Among those playing will be 36-year-old Brad Denenberg, one of three winners picked at random during a Tech Week preview on Wednesday. Denenberg, who runs the tech startup incubator Seed Philly, confessed to some trepidation. He said he's actually not a big gamer.

"My biggest fear is that I'm going to play against some 8-year-old who will destroy me," Denenberg said.

In today's gaming era of lifelike graphics think "Call of Duty" and colorful characters think "Angry Birds" it's hard to imagine how the pixelated "Pong" qualified as revolutionary when it was introduced in 1972.

The black-and-white arcade game used simple block shapes to simulate two paddles and a ball; the object was for players to hit the ball so their opponents could not return it. A home version paved the way for the game console industry.

At the Cira Centre, the game will be re-created using hundreds of lights already embedded in its north face. The tower stands by day as a gleaming, mirrored edifice in west Philadelphia, but each night it illuminates the skyline with colored, patterned displays. A spokesman could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Lee said he was driving by the building one night five years ago when he was suddenly struck with the idea that the lights could be configured to play the shape-fitting game Tetris.

The concept grew from there. Last month, after finally securing the necessary permissions, he and two colleagues successfully tested giant versions of "Pong" as well as the classic games "Snake" and "Space Invaders." People might get to play "Snake" on April 24, Lee said.

The effort has been satisfying on a technical level, Lee said, describing "Pong" as "a large-scale interactive, light-based art project."

But he noted it was rewarding on an emotional level as well, comparing it with the excitement he felt as a boy when he would put the "Pong" game cartridge into the console. And he hopes it inspires a new generation of innovators.

"I hope kids ... will go on to be the leaders, and push technology forward and do wondrous things in the future," Lee said.

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Online:

http://ph.ly/pong

http://phillytechweek.com/

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Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson

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By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pulitzer-Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert died on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times said, two days after he said his cancer of 10 years ago had returned.

"It is with a heavy heart we report that legendary film critic Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) has passed away," the newspaper where Ebert worked for decades said on Twitter.

"There is a hole that can't be filled. One of the greats has left us. Roger Ebert has passed away at the age of 70," the Chicago Sun-Times added.

Ebert gained national prominence with fellow Chicago film critic Gene Siskel on the television show "At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert," coining the phrase "Two Thumbs Up." After Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert teamed with critic Richard Roeper, but later quit for health reasons.

Ebert, one of the most widely read movie critics in the United States, lost his ability to speak and eat after surgeries for thyroid and salivary gland cancer in 2002 and 2003.

On Tuesday, he posted a blog entry saying he was taking a "leave of presence" from his more than 40-year career and scaling back his work after doctors diagnosed his cancer had returned.

It was discovered by doctors after he fractured his hip in December.

The 'painful fracture' that made it difficult for me to walk has recently been revealed to be a cancer," Ebert said in the blog posting, giving no further details about the type of cancer or diagnosis.

"I am not going away," he added. "My intent is to continue to write selected reviews ... What's more, I'll be able at last to do what I've always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review."

Ebert's reviews were syndicated to more than 200 newspapers and he had been reviewing films for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975.

Forbes magazine dubbed Ebert the most powerful pundit in America in 2007.

(Additional reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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NEW YORK (AP) The TLC network is making a movie about some of the 800,000 condolence letters that were sent to the widow of former President John F. Kennedy after his 1963 assassination.

"Letters to Jackie" will air this fall, as the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's killing approaches on Nov. 22.

The film revisits the aftermath of the assassination to examine the former first lady's role in helping the nation through its grief as she suffered through her own.

Twenty celebrities will read the letters, including Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst, Anne Hathaway, Mark Ruffalo, Betty White and Michelle Williams.

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MADRID (Reuters) - Telefonica, Europe's biggest telecoms operator by revenue, has received a 200 million euro ($257 million) financing facility from the Canadian export agency to buy BlackBerry smartphones and services.

Export Development Canada (EDC) said the credit line to Telefonica would be used to provide BlackBerry products and services across Telefonica's international operations.

Telefonica operates in more than a dozen fast-growing Latin American markets as well as its depressed home market of Spain and other European markets.

BlackBerry's iconic devices, often used by business people, once dominated the smartphone market. But in recent years the company has suffered as phones powered by Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems have eaten away at its market share across the globe.

Government export credit agencies tend to support big deals that involve exports to emerging economies and provide a boost to local manufacturing. EDC provided financing for Telefonica to buy equipment from BlackBerry as well as other suppliers in 2006.

Telefonica secured a $1 billion credit line from Sweden's export agencies last month to buy infrastructure from Ericsson.

"EDC's financing is really about making the transactions between BlackBerry and Telefonica easier, helping to enhance and broaden the relationship between these two major global players," Lewis Megaw, EDC's regional vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said in a statement.

In a bid to reinvent itself and claw back market share, BlackBerry launched a wholly re-engineered new line of devices powered by its new BlackBerry 10 operating system this year.

The first of these, a touchscreen device dubbed the Z10, is already on sale in over 25 countries across the globe. A new device with BlackBerry's traditional physical keypad is set to begin hitting store shelves later this month.

($1 = 0.7783 euros)

(Reporting by Clare Kane in Madrid; Additional reporting by Euan Rocha in Toronto; Editing by Clelia Oziel)

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The Rock is ready to roll into WrestleMania as a dual champion.

He's the reigning king of the box office after "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" stormed to $40.5 million over the weekend to become the No. 1 movie.

And in the ring, he's walking tall as WWE champ.

Everything Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson touches these days turns to gold, from the film franchises he whips into blockbusters to the diamond-encrusted WWE championship belt he drapes over his shoulder before he hits the ring to lay the smack down one more time in his triumphant return to the company.

Johnson is set for his latest starring role when he defends his title against John Cena at WrestleMania 29 on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The main event rematch is the pinnacle for the sports entertainment powerhouse and one of the most popular spectator sports in America.

"It's the biggest show of my career," the 40-year-old Johnson said.

Johnson has the sequel market cornered, flexing his box office muscle in franchise films as "Fast Five," ''The Mummy Returns," ''Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" and now "G.I. Joe: Retaliation."

He's ready to prove another one of his sequels can top the original when he faces Cena on Sunday.

In his first singles match since 2004, Johnson defeated Cena last year at Sun Life Stadium in Miami in a WrestleMania main event billed as "Once in a Lifetime."

Well, that tagline may as well be "Once a Year."

Hard to believe a professional wrestling company would stretch truth in advertising, but the two became set for a return bout once Rock beat C.M. Punk at January's Royal Rumble to win the championship and Cena won the 30-man Rumble to become the No. 1 contender.

Johnson said the rematch made sense because it was still the biggest money match the promotion could offer in the Super Bowl of sports entertainment.

He had the numbers to back it up. With one full year of hype, Rock-Cena drew 1.217 million pay-per-view buys last year and another 78,363 packed Sun Life Stadium on the strength of the match. Much like the Final Four or World Series, the WrestleMania brand is almost guaranteed to fill a stadium before a match is announced. It's getting fans at home to plunk down at least $59.95 for the standard definition broadcast that can truly stuff the coffers.

"Rock means revenue. Rock means ratings," WWE Hall of Famer Booker T said. "The Rock is great, not just a great performer, but he is a great ambassador for this business."

With shows tailored around The Rock, the last two WrestleManias have topped 1 million buys. The WWE expects to hit that mark again Sunday.

The Rock had a wrestling ring set up wherever he was on location filming movies, his private training camps a part of the grind necessary to keep his spot as the biggest dual threat in entertainment.

"I always knew he loved the business," Cena said. "He loves it so much now that he really is the busiest person in the history of the WWE. He's everywhere at once. He can do everything and still compete as WWE champion."

Rock was in position to call his shots and he picked Cena for his return feud over Punk or any other superstar on the roster. For all the trash talking in the ring, there's a deep respect in real life between two wrestlers who know how to carry the global sports entertainment empire.

"He's been the No. 1 guy in the company for many years now, and has managed to maintain a genuine, optimistic love for the business," Johnson said. "Often times, inherently, what the business creates is pessimism over time, and unhappiness. John has been able to stay above that, not get lost in the garbage, and not get lost in the noise. He's very focused, very committed. There's an X-factor about John that moves an audience."

Rock is among four key stars including Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker and Triple H who work a scaled back schedule with main event slots waiting for their returns. The four have combined for five pay-per-view matches since last year's WrestleMania, the kind of work-rate wrestlers on a punishing 200-day-a-year schedule could appreciate more than any five-star match. Amid gripes Rock takes a headline position that could go to a full-time wrester, Cena said Johnson has earned that spot.

"I wish we had one guy with 10 percent of his vision and his aspiration," he said. "When he gets a small opportunity, he kicks the damn door down and owns the horse. Often times here, we have superstars that remind me of a hamster on the treadmill and those are the guys that usually complain. I don't take too kindly to them. I'm fortunate Rock's here and I'm glad he's here. He can show up whenever he wants."

Johnson said he hasn't decided if he'll participate in WrestleMania 30 next year in New Orleans. With a loss Sunday, the anniversary card could set up an epic rubber match. Then again, the WWE would be foolish to leave a Rock-Brock Lesnar bout on the table without a payoff at a major pay-per-view event.

If Rock returns, he'll need to set up that ring for training camps in Budapest, where he'll head after WrestleMania to start shooting "Hercules."

Not a wrestling fan? Hate action movies? Well, you've probably seen Johnson pop up the last six months everywhere from a starring role in a Super Bowl milk commercial, or on TV hosting his new reality show, or maybe on your mobile device with the game, "Rockpocalypse."

The Rock sure does know his role to entertain in every available forum.

"I never feel that it's too much because I'm aware of the plan. I put the plan together," he said, laughing. "But in that, comes really incredible challenges that require a lot of people to embrace the vision of it, to support it.

"It was one of those things where you take a risk and, fortunately, it's paid off."

He has the WWE title belt around his waist and a No. 1 movie to prove it.

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Follow Dan Gelston at www.Twitter.com/APGelston

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