'SCARFACE' BADDEST FILM THUG
Al Pacino has just won the meanest award in showbiz - his head-busting, coke-snorting gangster Tony Montana from "Scarface" has been named the "Biggest Movie Badass of All Time."
"This cockroach shoots and shoots, murders his way to a green card, survives a chainsaw attack, whacks his boss so he can have sex with his old lady, snorts coke like he's breathing air and kills his best friend," says Maxim magazine.
The mag picks the 25 roughest, toughest characters ever to light up the silver screen in its November issue, and not all of them are men.
In fact, just behind Montana is Sarah Connor, the sexy, butt-kicking mom played by Linda Hamilton in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."
"Did our mothers school us in hand-to-hand combat and munitions? No, we had to take piano lessons," Maxim says.
Bruce Lee's character Lee in "Enter the Dragon" comes in third, followed by Bill the Butcher, the cutthroat crime boss portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in "Gangs of New York," and Harry Callahan, Clint Eastwood's shoot-first cop from "Dirty Harry."
After Harry comes Luke, Paul Newman's rough-and-tumble prisoner from "Cool Hand Luke"; Mad Max, Mel Gibson's desert-swelling loner from "The Road Warrior"; and Officer Bud White, the brutal cop played by Russell Crowe in "L.A. Confidential."
Rounding out the Top 10 is Paul Kersey, Charles Bronson's vigilante gunman from "Death Wish," and Shaft, the babe-magnet Harlem detective played by Richard Roundtree.
Diana Predicted Her Own Car Crash Death, Says Aide
LONDON (Reuters) - Princess Diana made a chilling prediction of her own death in a car crash just 10 months before she died in Paris road tunnel, according to a secret letter revealed by her former butler Monday.
The former wife of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles wrote the letter in October 1996 claiming there was a plot to kill her in a car crash and gave it to her butler Paul Burrell, asking him to keep it for insurance for the future.
The Mirror newspaper, which is serializing Burrell's book "A Royal Duty," said the letter includes an allegation by Diana that someone was planning her death, but that the plotter's name could not be published for legal reasons.
"This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous," it quoted the letter as saying. "(DELETED WORD/S) is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry."
Burrell claims in his book that before sealing the letter in an envelope marked "Paul," Diana told him: "I am going to date this and I want you to keep it... just in case."
A spokesman for the royal household declined to answer any questions. "We are not making any comment," he told Reuters.
Burrell was Diana's servant, friend and confidante for more than a decade during some of the most turbulent times in her marriage to Charles. The couple's divorce became official in October 1996 after both Charles and Diana had admitted to having adulterous affairs during their rocky 15-year marriage.
Burrell stood trial last year accused of stealing hundreds of the Princess' belongings including jewelry and clothes, but the case collapsed dramatically after Queen Elizabeth told prosecutors she remembered Burrell telling her after Diana's death that he would look after some of her possessions.
Diana died at the age of 36, alongside her lover Dodi al Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul when their car crashed in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Burrell told the Mirror: "With the benefit of hindsight, the content of that letter has bothered me since her death."
CONSPIRACY THEAORIES RIFE
Robert Lacey, a royal biographer, said the letter was an "extraordinary revelation and prophecy" which was bound to add to the raft of conspiracy theories on how and why Diana died.
"There is something magic about this," Lacey told Reuters. "People will say forever now that Diana foretold her death. And that will add to the magical aura -- the supernatural and the prophetic -- that surrounds Diana."
He also said it would add to growing pressure for a British inquest into Diana's death. The coroner charged with investigating the death has promised there will be an inquest, but has so far declined to set a date.
An inquiry by French authorities in 1999 ruled the crash was a accident caused by Paul being drunk and driving too fast.
But Dodi's father, the multi-millionaire owner of the exclusive Harrods London store, Mohamed Al Fayed, has repeatedly called for a British inquiry, insisting that Diana and his son were murdered by the British secret services.
Piers Morgan, editor of the Mirror, which has exclusive coverage of Burrell's book, said he had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the letter. "Paul Burrell is about as reputable as it comes...when it comes to the testimony and legacy of Princess Diana," he told BBC radio.
Lacey too said the writing looked exactly like Diana's hand.
'Chainsaw' Massacres Box Office Rivals
LOS ANGELES - Bloodshed continues to rule at theaters. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," the remake of the 1974 horror tale that helped launch the modern slasher genre, debuted as the top weekend movie with $29.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Quentin Tarantino's bloody vengeance saga "Kill Bill — Vol. 1," the previous weekend's No. 1 movie, slipped to second place with $12.5 million, lifting its 10-day total to $43.3 million.
The John Grisham court thriller "Runaway Jury," with Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack and Rachel Weisz, opened in third place with $12.1 million.
After a strong debut in limited release a week earlier, Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" — starring Sean Penn and Tim Robbins — expanded to wide release and came in at No. 5 with $10.36 million.
Playing in 3,016 theaters, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" averaged a strong $9,649 a cinema, compared to a $4,298 average in 2,815 theaters for "Runaway Jury" and a $7,059 average in 1,467 cinemas for "Mystic River."
Cate Blanchett's "Veronica Guerin," in which she plays a real-life Irish journalist slain during an investigation of Dublin druglords, bombed with $603,000 in 472 theaters, averaging just $1,278.
In limited release, "Sylvia" — Gwyneth Paltrow's film biography of suicidal poet Sylvia Plath — opened strongly with $56,132 in three theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, averaging $18,711.
"Pieces of April," a Sundance Film Festival favorite that stars Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson, debuted with $48,000 in six New York City and Los Angeles theaters for an $8,000 average.
The overall box office soared, with the top 12 movies grossing $105.3 million, up 43 percent from the same weekend last year, when the horror tale "The Ring" was the top movie with $15 million.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" stars Jessica Biel as one of a group of friends stranded in a Texas town, where they are preyed on by a clan of cannibals, including chainsaw killer Leatherface.
In its first weekend, the movie took in three times its $9.5 million production budget. Three-fourths of the audience was younger than 25, while the crowds were evenly split between men and women.
Biel's presence helped draw women into a gory genre flick that more typically appeals to men, said Russell Schwartz, head of domestic marketing for New Line, which released "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
"But also, women love to be scared, perhaps more than men," Schwartz said. "It's only the gory part that helps turn off the female audience, not so much the scary part."
"Runaway Jury" played to an older audience, with 82 percent of viewers age 25 and older, said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox, which released the movie.
The opening-weekend gross came in on the low side of the studio's projections, but Snyder said movies aimed at older audiences often stick around longer at the box office.
"Adults don't necessarily run out to see a movie the first weekend," Snyder said. "We hope it'll be around for a good long time."
This past week, Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" inched past $300 million, the year's second movie to cross that mark, after Disney-Pixar's "Finding Nemo." It was the first time one studio had two movies topping $300 million domestically in a single year.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," $29.1 million.
2. "Kill Bill — Vol. 1," $12.5 million.
3. "Runaway Jury," $12.1 million.
4. "The School of Rock," $11.3 million.
5. "Mystic River," $10.36 million
6. "Good Boy!", $9 million.
7. "Intolerable Cruelty," $6.9 million.
8. "Out of Time," $4.1 million.
9. "Under the Tuscan Sun," $3.4 million.
10. "The Rundown," $2.8 million.