Los Angeles, Jan 12 - The father who triggered a massive alert after falsely claiming his six-year-old son was adrift in an experimental helium balloon headed to jail Monday to serve a 90-day sentence after pleading guilty in November to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant.

Richard Heene will serve 30 days in a standard jail and 60 days in a work release programme that will allow him to work during the day and spend nights in jail. He was also sentenced to four years probation, 200 hours of community service and was banned from receiving any form of financial benefit from the infamous incident.

Los Angeles, Jan 12 - High technology has come to the glamorous world of sex dolls.

A company called Perfect Companion said Monday that it has debuted the world's first sex robot, named Roxxxy, complete with artificial intelligence that give her a life-like personality and flesh-like synthetic skin that can make her feel like a real woman.

In a statement, creator Douglas Hines says that Roxxxy, which debuted over the weekend at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, can be "programmed to learn your likes and dislikes" as well as "listen, feel, and speak to her owner."

Los Angeles, Dec 30 - The teenage father of Sarah Palin's grandchild has won a crucial court victory in a bitter child custody battle, portraying the one-time vice presidential hopeful as "vindictive" and "malicious", the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday.

The report said that a judge in the case had sided with Levi Johnston, 19, to have the hearings open to the public despite the request of Bristol Palin, also 19, to keep the deliberations behind closed doors.

Los Angeles, Dec 29 :President Barack Obama has urged Americans to keep vigilance against terrorism after the failed terror attack on a US passenger plane last week.

Obama, who is currently on a Hawaii vacation, said Monday the latest attack was "a serious reminder of the danger we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland", Xinhua reported.

Americans should remain vigilant but also be confident, he said. "We are doing everything in our power to keep you safe."

Los Angeles, Dec 25 : Actress Brittany Murphy, who died of cardiac arrest, has been laid to rest in a small, private ceremony at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park here.

Murphy's widower, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, and her mother Sharon were joined by close family members and friends at the funeral ceremony Thursday to pay their last respects to the 32-year-old star. It was an invitation-only ceremony, reported aceshowbiz. com.

Los Angeles, Dec 22 - A California appeals court Monday rejected a bid by lawyers for Roman Polanski to have his child-sex case thrown out on the grounds of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

The unanimous ruling by the three judge panel said a lower court did not err when it ruled earlier in the year that Polanski must surrender to US authorities before pursuing his misconduct claims.

Los Angeles, Dec 20 : US scientists have discovered fog moving across the south pole of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

Titan looks to be the only place in the solar system aside from Earth to have copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) on its surface.

The new discovery suggests that Earth and Titan share yet another feature, which is inextricably linked with that surface liquid: common fog, according to researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Los Angeles, Dec 17 - An estimated 15 percent of American teenagers have received nude or sexually suggestive photographs on their cell phones, according to a study Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The study about the tech-fueled trend called "sexting" said that boys are as likely as girls to send "sexts," while teens who pay for their own cell phone bills are more likely to text salacious shots.

Los Angeles, Dec 11 - Editor & Publisher, a trade journal that has covered the newspaper business for 125 years is to be shut down, a victim of the travails that have ravaged the industry it covered.

The Nielsen Company, which owns the publication, said that both the print and web operations of the journal would be shut immediately.

The move was part of a massive realignment by the privately held media company, which also saw it sell titles like The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard to e5 Global Media, for an undisclosed sum.

Los Angeles, Dec 11 : Lawyers for Roman Polanski appealed to a California appeals court in a bid to have the case against him dismissed citing judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

The court motion came Thursday as the director, 76, is under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland, pending deportation hearings that could see him sent to the US to face justice for the 1978 rape of a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, Dec 11 : Tiger Woods' wife Elin Nordegren may stay with the philandering golf superstar for the sake of the couple's two children, both under the age of 2, People magazine is reporting in its latest issue due out Friday.

The report said that the Swedish model herself is a "child of divorce" whose parents split when she was 6-year-old.

Los Angeles, Dec 7 :Flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson Monday unveiled the world's first commercial spaceship, saying it heralded a new age in travel.

"We want this programme to be a whole new beginning in a commercial era of space travel," Branson said of the 20 metre long craft, SpaceShip Two.

After winning Oscar and Golden globe, now it’s Grammy time for ace Indian music director A.R. Rahman.

The Mozart of Madras has been selected in two categories at the 2010 Grammy Awards for his "SlumDog Millionaire" soundtrack.

Rahman gets nominated in the best soundtrack for motion pictures, TV or other visual media category for the movie, and in the best song for motion picture, TV and other visual media category for his stupendous creation "Jai ho".

Los Angeles, Dec 3  Independent movie festival Sundance 2010 announced the line up of movies that will compete for its jury prizes in the 10-day competition scheduled for late January in Park City, Utah in the US.

Festival director John Cooper said that despite the funding crisis that has hit the film world in the aftermath of the global recession, Sundance still received 9,816 submissions and selected 113 feature length films for the competition.

In total, selections from 38 countries will feature in the festival's various categories.

Los Angeles, Nov 28 - Video game franchise Call of Duty has racked up over $3 billion in global sales thanks to the record-breaking release of its latest installment Modern Warfare 2, publisher Activision Blizzard said Friday.

The company said that over 55 million copies of Call of Duty have been sold since the launch of the franchise in 2003.

The hottest sales came this month when the release of Modern Warfare 2 stoked $550 million in sales in its first five days on the market, selling almost 5 million copies in the UK and US alone in what the company said was the highest-grossing entertainment

Los Angeles  - Country starlet Taylor Swift swept up five awards at the American Music Awards on Sunday night, beating Michael Jackson for the coveted artist of the year award.

Jackson won four awards. He was named favourite male artist in the pop/rock and soul/R&B categories, while his hits collection Number Ones was named favourite album in both those categories.

"Music has never been ultimately about competition," said Swift, 19, after winning the artist of the year prize. "To even be mentioned in a category with Michael Jackson - who we'll miss and love forever - is an unimaginable honour."

Los Angeles - The vampires of the newest Twilight saga, New Moon, howled to success this weekend with the third largest opening weekend on record of 141 million dollars.

Only the Batman saga Dark Knight (158 million dollars in 2008) and Spider-Man 3 (151 million dollars in 2007) took bigger bites of a weekend boxoffice.

Los Angeles, Nov 21- American actress-singer Nicole Richie is back at home after being treated in hospital for pneumonia.

The socialite had checked herself into the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center here earlier this week. The doctors had quickly diagnosed pneumonia, reports contactmusic. com.

Now, Richie is on the road to recovery and is resting in the comfort of her own home. (IANS)

Los Angeles, Nov 21- Reliance Big Entertainment and Brad Pitt's production company Plan B have entered into a pact with leading video gaming firm Capcom to make the sci-fi action game "Drak Void" into a motion picture.

"The theatrical version of the 'Dark Void' game is being developed as a sci-fi action franchise and potential starring vehicle for Pitt," Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Big said in a statement Saturday.

Los Angeles  - The former financial manager of actor Nicolas Cage has fired back at the Hollywood movie star, claiming in a lawsuit that Cage was a compulsive spender who ignored all warnings to rein in his lavish lifestyle, People reported Tuesday.

Cage sued Samuel Levin last month for 25 million dollars, claiming that the accountant led him on a path to financial ruin that included the foreclosure of many of his houses.