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U.S. TV network NBC will air another live performance of a Broadway musical, "Peter Pan," on December 4, hoping to repeat the ratings success of last year's broadcast of "The Sound of Music Live." The musicals are part of the Comcast-owned network's strategy to draw audiences to live events, a defense against later viewing on digital video recorders which is less valuable to advertisers. NBC also will air a new miniseries called "The Slap," another effort to create events that encourage audiences to watch live, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said on Sunday at a Television Critics Association meeting. The eight-episode drama tells the story of the slapping of a child at a barbecue that evolves into a court case. "The Sound of Music Live" attracted 19 million viewers on December 5. When DVR playback was added, the show beat NBC's highly rated "Sunday Night Football" that week, Greenblatt said. The cast for &quo

Robert De Niro may best be known as an Oscar-winning actor, but in a new documentary he takes on the role of a devoted son as he spotlights his own artist father, Robert Sr., for his influential but not well-known works in the New York City abstract expressionist art movement. De Niro, 70, who won Oscars for his lead role in "Raging Bull" and his supporting turn in "The Godfather: Part II", attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Sunday to premiere "Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr.," a HBO documentary about his father, who emerged alongside contemporaries including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Robert Sr. grew up in a conservative Italian-American family in New York and married fellow artist Virginia Admiral, with whom he had one child, De Niro. The marriage did not last very long and the couple made an amicable split. Abstract expressionism came about in post-World War II and was the first notable American artisti

"Ride Along," a buddy cop comedy starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, collected $41.2 million in ticket sales to win the weekend box office race, leaving another new release, political thriller "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," in the dust. Last week's box office winner, the Afghanistan war tale "Lone Survivor," was second with ticket sales of $23.2 million, according to studio estimates provided by tracking firm Rentrak. In a weekend crowded with four new films, "The Nut Job," the first animated release from Open Road Films, collected $20.6 million in ticket sales to claim third place. Starring Chris Pine as the late author Tom Clancy's fictional CIA analyst, "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" took in $17.2 million over the first three days of the Martin Luther King holiday weekend for the No. 4 spot. "Ride Along," which hip hop singer and star Ice Cube also produced, far surpassed Hollywood's $28 million opening weekend

As Jillian Michaels, the tough-love trainer on NBC's hit reality show "The Biggest Loser," lunges towards her middle years she infuses her fitness routine with the same take-no-prisoners mindset that impels her TV contestants to shape up. The Los Angeles-based trainer, who turns 40 next month, is determined to fight, rather than embrace, that milestone. "I‘m trying to get into the best shape of my life for 40," Michaels said in an interview in New York while demonstrating a workout designed for Curves, the global chain of women's fitness centers. Her own fitness path began as an overweight 13-year-old whose mother enrolled her in a martial arts class. She has spun her TV role improving the fitness of people who are 100 pounds or more overweight into an empire of exercise DVDs, equipment, best-selling books and clothing. These days, she said, her fitness credo is all about variety and gradually ratcheting up the intensity of her workouts. "I don&#

Hollywood producers injected drama into the race for Oscars on Sunday by choosing not one but two movies as their best films of the year, the space thriller "Gravity" and the slavery drama "12 Years a Slave". It is the first time the Producers Guild of America has declared a tie in the 25-year history of its awards. The PGA has correctly chosen the eventual Academy Award winner for best picture for the last six years, including Iranian hostage drama "Argo" a year ago. The PGA decision clashes with that of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which on Saturday chose the 1970s-set corruption caper "American Hustle" from director David O. Russell for its top prize, best film ensemble cast. But SAG has a mixed record on foreshadowing the Oscar best picture with its ensemble cast award, correctly predicting the Academy Award in six of the last 10 years. Nevertheless, after an intense week of awards, the Oscars are shaping up to be a three-way race bet

Claudio Abbado, who decided to become a conductor after hearing a concert at La Scala at the age of eight and went on to lead the Milan opera company and top orchestras for more than half a century, has died aged 80, La Scala said on Monday. Abbado, who was known as a musician's musician, shunned the publicity and pomp often associated with leading conductors and staunchly supported young musicians. He died in the northern city of Bologna in his native Italy after a long illness. "We have lost one of the greatest musicians of the last 50 years and one of the very few to have a close connection with the spirit of music in all its various forms," La Scala's current musical director, Daniel Barenboim, said in a statement. "He set an example for the world, showing that young and inexperienced musicians can make music at the highest level when they work with the right attitude and commitment. We owe him this, and much more." In addition to serving as music

A Filipina caregiver who won Israel's version of the X-Factor last week will be allowed to stay in the country and pursue a music career, the Immigration Authority said on Monday. _0"> Rose Fostanes, 47, was the surprise winner of the popular television singing contest, but her visa only allowed her to work in Israel as a caregiver and would not normally permit her to move into show-business. The interior minister has now decided to grant Fostanes an artists' visa, which would allow her to stay in Israel and work as a singer, the Immigration Authority said in a statement. "It has not yet been decided how long Fostanes could stay for," an immigration official added. Fostanes impressed the judges with a tear-jerking rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" on the show's final on Tuesday. Her victory came as a surprise in Israel, where about 20,000 Filipinos work mostly as caregivers and cleaners. Fostanes, who cares for an ailing woman in T