The soft-porn Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy debuts as the stricken porn industry turns to 3D as a potential money-spinner to revive its fortunes following the success of Hollywood blockbusters such as Avatar.

“What we’re going to expect is that people don’t take it as an erotic or any gross thing to look at,” said director Christopher Sun.

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“Try to take it as an entertaining movie for adults.”

His father, Stephen Shiu, was responsible for the original “Sex and Zen,” a 1991 film that grossed over US$2.6 million and held the crown as the city’s highest-grossing adult film for over a decade.

Based on a classic Chinese erotic text, The Carnal Prayer Mat, the $3 million film, released on April 14, follows a young man as he befriends a duke and enters a world of royal orgies and other sexual peccadilloes.

The film, which began production last August in a shabby film studio on the leafy fringes of Hong Kong, uses slapstick comedy and an amusing script to offset some of the more explicit sex scenes and occasional shocking violence.

Seven simultaneous premiere screenings took place in central Hong Kong, and Sun said he hopes it will run for over a month. This would take in both the Easter and the crucial May Day holiday, seen as key for one target audience – Chinese tourists.

The Chinese government has engaged in a long-term crackdown on smut, and movies with sexual content are generally banned.

“We have already drawn a lot of tourists and also I say they are actually ordinary Chinese people. Of course they are adults,” Sun said.

“There’s no way to show this film there in China so they just come by and try to watch it.”

Taiwanese newspapers reported that at least five tour groups from mainland China had already made reservations to see the film during the May Day holiday.

With 3D films taking almost twice the time to shoot of conventional movies and requiring higher budgets, more advanced equipment and elaborate lighting, the porn industry has been slow to take up the technique despite early excitement at its promise.

But despite this, major 3D sex movies are now reportedly in the works.

US adult entertainment firm Hustler is said to be working on a three-dimensional porn spoof of the lithe, blue aliens in Avatar, while Italian director Tinto Brass plans to film a 3D version of his classic 1979 erotic film Caligula, based loosely on the life of the dissolute Roman emperor.

Many viewers appeared drawn by the film’s novelty, with some saying they liked it better than they had expected.

“I think people should really view this movie as more a romantic movie with kind of a lot of sexual scenes just coming in between,” said a woman who said she worked in finance but declined to give her name.

“I think there’s a deeper message to the movie than just people expecting to see body parts flying around.”

“The chance to make a scary, science-fiction film starring Jaden and Will is my dream project,” contactmusic.com quoted Shyamalan, who is of Indian origin, as saying.

The film is set 1,000 years into the future in which Jaden plays a boy who must find his way around an abandoned planet after his spaceship has crashed. Will will play his estranged father.

Will and Shyamalan will also be producing the film.

The father-son duo previously starred in “The Pursuit of Happyness” (2006).

The country singer, who has two daughters – Sunday Rose, two, and three-month-old Faith – with the actress, checked into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction, just months after marrying Kidman in 2006.

He now realises the reason he took substances was to make up for the lack of “intimacy” in his life.

“I think I’ve spent my life fearful of intimacy. The result was a feeling of ‘being without’, this hole I tried to fill with all those other things. The only thing that has really filled it has been the love of my wife and our daughters,” showbizspy.com quoted him as saying.

Urban wishes he had met Kidman earlier in his life, but says he is now grateful for every day he gets to spend with her.

“The way in which it happened has turned out to be divinely inspired,” he said.

contractions.

The pregnant singer, who turned 41 yesterday, was hospitalised in the middle of the night but is now back home after the false alarm.

The singer who is expecting twins, a boy and a girl, with husband Nick Cannon, took to Twitter to update her fans.

“So dem babies really wanted 2 celebrate w/us/share the anniversary! I started having contractions last night..went 2 the hospital. Finally they said I could come home after they got it under control (sic),” she tweeted.

“But they almost came on 3/27- happy anniversary in deed. We have a few more weeks 2 go but- wow (sic),” she added.

In December, the ‘Hero’ hitmaker’s husband Nick Cannon confirmed they were expecting twins, later revealing they are due to have a boy and a girl.

They are due to be born in the spring of this year.

“Lindsay is dropping the Lohan and just going by Lindsay,” Dina Lohan told AOL celebrity news site Popeater.com on Friday.

The decision appears to be motivated by a desire to distance the “Mean Girls” actress from her estranged father Michael Lohan, who was charged earlier this week with assaulting his girlfriend and who has a history of run-ins with the law.

Dina Lohan told Popeater that she and her younger daughter Ali — also an aspiring singer and actress — are officially changing their last names to her maiden name, Sullivan.

Dina and Michael Lohan divorced in 2007 — the year Lindsay was arrested for drunk driving and cocaine possession and starting a downward spiral of trips to rehab, failed drug tests and jail. The former “Parent Trap” child star is currently facing trial on a jewelry theft charge that could send her back behind bars if convicted.

Dina Lohan said her 24 year-old daughter had been thinking about dropping her last name for some time. But it was only after the infamous 2010 TV ad for online brokerage E*Trade, featuring a baby as “that milkaholic Lindsay”, that the actress realized she no longer needed it.

Lindsay Lohan filed a $100 million lawsuit against E*Trade last year, saying the commercial violated her privacy, but the two sides later settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Lindsay’s plans to go single with her name failed to impress many fans on the Popeater website. “Your name is not your problem Lindsay. It’s your inflated ego, unwillingness to stay out of trouble that are,” read a comment by Stephanie.

While Portman had said that she trained for five hours a day, for a year, to perfect her steps, Lane, 27, said that movie-goers have been misled about Portman’s dancing, reported Entertainment Weekly online.

“Of the full body shots, I would say five per cent are Natalie. All the other shots are me,” said Lane.

Lane says she performed many of the incredible dance sequences and Portman’s face was then digitally placed onto the professional dancer’s body.

Her claims come follow Portman’s fiance and ‘Black Swan’ choreographer Benjamin Millepied saying earlier this week that Portman had performed most of the moves in the film.

“There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like she (Lane) did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettes, and one diagonal phrase in the studio. Honestly, 85 per cent of that movie is Natalie,” Millepied had said in an interview.

But Lane insists that is not the case and says that her work is far more significant than she is being given credit for.

“The shots that are just her face with arms, those shots are definitely Natalie. But that doesn’t show the actual dancing,” said Lane.

Although Lane was not promised any particular billing in the film, she said she was disappointed to only be credited as ‘Hand Model, ‘Stunt Double’, and ‘Lady in the Lane’ for a brief walk-on part during her six week stint during the

production of the film.

“They wanted to create this idea in people’s minds that Natalie was some kind of prodigy or so gifted in dance and really worked so hard to make herself a ballerina in a year and a half or the movie, basically because of the Oscar,”

Lane said.

“It is demeaning to the profession and just to me. I’ve been doing this for 22 years. Can you become a concert pianist in a year and a half, even if you’re a movie star?,” she added.

Damon will play Douglas’ lover in a movie about gay piano legend Liberace.

“It’s scripted that there’s more than one. I never thought I would get to kiss Michael Douglas,” contactmusic.com quoted Damon as saying.

Douglas, who revealed in January that he is in remission for stage four throat cancer, is equally enthusiastic about the project.

“I’m just going to get really comfortable so it’s not a caricature. Matt Damon’s going to be my younger lover. God bless Matt. I saw Matt and I was teasing him. I was saying, ‘Bring a lot of ChapStick, babe,” said Douglas.

The film will be helmed by Steven Soderbergh.

Radcliffe is getting ready for the release of the final movie in the franchise Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

“My aim is hopefully just continuing to work as much as I can. Obviously I’ll never be in anything with the commercially success that ‘Harry Potter’ has but then again neither will anyone else,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted him as saying.

The actor who is currently living in New York and will take on the lead role in musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” on Broadway from March 27, had initial reservations about singing in the production.

“I love singing, I started having lessons when I was in the play Equus because I had to sing the Milky Bar theme tune and I was getting it wrong. I love my singing teacher, he’s a fantastic guy so the singing was just something I’ve put a lot of work into,” he added.

Other winners of the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, presented Saturday in New York, include the NBC comedy “30 Rock” and CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ for its series on gay teen suicides.

Music mogul Simmons received the Excellence in Media Award.

Martin was cited for an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in which the pop singer discussed raising twin boys and his decision to come out as gay.

Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo were also recognized.

Scissor Sisters were named outstanding music artists for the album “Night Work.” The website Essence.com was saluted for outstanding digital journalism.

Nonelectronic media winners include The New York Times columnist Frank Rich and Peter David for his Marvel comic book “X-Factor.”

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize fair, accurate and inclusive representation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives in the media.

Winners were announced in 25 of this year’s total of 32 media categories. The remaining awards will be presented at ceremonies to be held in Los Angeles and San Francisco in April and May, respectively.

Depp revealed he often gets strange requests when he signs autographs.

“It’s been everything from ‘Can you talk to my mum on the phone?’ to ‘Will you come home with me to dinner?’” dailystar.co.uk quoted him as saying.

“I did go to someone’s house once. He was having marital problems and I tried to mediate. Unfortunately it didn’t work out,” he added.