Penn to head Cannes jury

People

Penn to head Cannes jury

Sean Penn, 47, has been chosen to head the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival, to be held May 14-25.

Law & Order in London?

Dick Wolf plans to export a version of his successful "Law & Order" show to Britain. Variety says Wolf is negotiating with production house Kudos Film — producers of the British spy show "MI-5" — to make 13 episodes of "Law & Order: London" for ITV. The show has a built-in audience: The U.S. version of "L&O" has long been a hit there.

Laugh act sets record

Dane Cook broke a record at Los Angeles' Laugh Factory set less than a month ago by Dave Chappelle. In what is becoming a battle between the two comedians, Cook, 35, told jokes at the Sunset Strip comedy club for seven hours, beating the record Chappelle, 34, set at six hours and 12 minutes in December. In April, Cook set a record with an act lasting three hours and 50 minutes. Chappelle broke the record later that month and broke his own record in December.

Oops

About that train ...

A GPS can tell a driver a lot of things, but apparently not when a train is coming. A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks in Bedford Hills, N.Y., Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him and got stuck on the tracks as a train was barreling toward him. The man escaped in time and no one was injured. A railroad spokesman said the driver was issued a minor summons for obstructing a railroad crossing and he and his rental company would be liable for the damage.

Crimes of the art

A group of Czech artists who allegedly hacked into a national television weather broadcast to show a fake nuclear blast at a mountain resort will face trial and possible three-year jail terms if convicted, a state prosecutor said Thursday. Six members of the Prague-based Ztohoven group allegedly tampered with equipment so a live shot of the Krkonose, or Giant Mountains, in the northern Czech Republic on June 17, 2007, was followed by a flash of light and a mushroom cloud on the horizon. The group claimed the aim of the project named "Media Reality" was to show how reality could be manipulated by the media.

Passages

Ed LaDou, 52, who was born at McChord Air Force Base and was the first pizza chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago, a developer of the first menu at California Pizza Kitchen and an instrumental figure in the pizza revolution that gave the world such creations as pizza with breast of duck and hoisin sauce, died of cancer Dec. 27 at a Santa Monica, Calif., hospital.

Lee Sherman Dreyfus, 81, who as Wisconsin governor signed the nation's first statewide gay-rights law in 1982, died Wednesday at his Waukesha home.

Today in History

1821: The woman who would be named America's first native-born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, died in Emmitsburg, Md.

1951: During the Korean War, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured Seoul.

1960: French author Albert Camus died in an automobile accident at age 46.

1974: President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

Today's Birthdays

Actress Barbara Rush, 81. Football Hall-of-Fame coach Don Shula, 78. Actress Dyan Cannon, 71. Opera singer Grace Bumbry, 71. Actress Ann Magnuson, 52. Country singer Patty Loveless, 51. Rock singer Michael Stipe, 48. Actor Dave Foley, 45. Actress Julia Ormond, 43. Tennis player Guy Forget, 43. Actor Jeremy Licht, 37. Actress Jill Marie Jones, 33.

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