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Disney announced the list of the nine companies which will participate in its Accelerator program this year, including the virtual reality firm Jaunt and content creation platform Playbuzz. The three-month program will connect the nine startup tech and media companies from around the world with Disney, providing mentorship and immersion into the media and entertainment industry. “We are evolving this year’s Disney Accelerator to include many later-stage start-ups, and for the first time, an internal project,” Michael Abrams, Senior Vice President, Innovation, The Walt Disney Company, said in a statement Monday. “This year’s Disney Accelerator program is designed to advance a broader.

Katie Holmes has landed a series regular role in ABC’s Richard Lagravenese drama pilot. In the vein of Dangerous Liaisons, the untitled project is set in New York and revolves around the love and rivalry between two equally matched, powerful socialites, Philip Fitzgerald Julien (Rufus Sewell) and Margot Worth Cole, who play out their obsessive attraction and seduction of each other through their manipulation of others. Holmes will play Ann, a woman of education and breeding who, with her husband, runs a philanthropic foundation that helps bring clean water to African villages. Related: 2014 ABC Pilots Josh Sussman (Glee) has been cast as a series regular in Henry Winkler ABC’s comedy pilot The Winklers, from Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal; Winkler’s son, director Max Winkler; and son-in-law, actor Rob Reinis. The project, which had a pilot production commitment, was conceived as a starring vehicle for Henry Winkler...

If you have a fledgling consumer media or entertainment product company, then this is for you: The media giant says its new Los Angeles-based program — called Disney Accelerator — will pick 10 companies to receive $120,000 in investment capital and three months of mentoring help from execs including CEO Bob Iger. The initiative will be “powered by” Techstars, which runs similar programs to identify investment opportunities at companies including Barclays, Nike, and Sprint. Disney has an April 16 deadline for applications to its program (check here), which begins June 30, and ends in September with an Investor Demo Day where teams introduce themselves to industry leaders and investors. “Disney Accelerator offers a unique collaboration between some of the best creative minds in the entertainment industry and the modern-day visionaries who are starting businesses on the strength of exciting new ideas,” says Disney Evp of Corporate Strategy and Business Development Kevin Mayer. Innovation Svp Michael Abrams will oversee the program.

Tika Sumpter has signed with Wme. Appearing in Own’s freshman hit Tyler Perry drama series The Haves And Have Nots, Sumpter also has been on Gossip Girl and in the feature Sparkle. Sumpter has roles in a pair of upcoming films: Perry’s A Madea Christmas and the Kevin Hart-Ice Cube comedy Ride Along. Sumpter continues to be managed by Emily Gerson Saines at Brookside Artist Management. Blake Berris has inked with Paradigm. Previously withICM Partners, he is a Daytime Emmy nominee for NBC’s Days Of Our Lives. Berries has appeared on such primetime series as The Big Bang Theory, Breaking Bad and The Mentalist. His feature credits include Meth Head and House Of Last Things. He continues to be managed by the Michael Abrams Group and his attorney is Scott Whitehead. Ashley Hinshaw has signed with UTA. She starred opposite Dane DeHaan in Chronicle and toplined About Cherry.

The President

by Ferenc Molnár (Adapted by Morwyn Brebner) Storm Theatre Company

When was the last time you attended a stage play, of any variety, that fully utilized 23 spirited professional actors? Storm Theater Company gives us the opportunity to see this in an excellent production of The President, a madcap farce resurrected intact from olden days when large and varied casts were customary. As then, The President gives each supporting actor a moment of undivided focus, in concert with great comic performances by the principals.

The President is a highly fast-paced and hilarious farce. Its 75 minutes fly by lickety-split as it tells the story of an officious and manipulative big bank president, Norrison (Joe Danbusky), as he is driven by self-interest to accomplish the (almost) impossible. In a scant one hour, he must transform the drab, dull-witted, communist, yet handsome husband of his ward Lydia (Becca Pesce) into a "captain...

Simon Cowell was left shaken this week after discovering a female fan armed with a brick in his bathroom.

The music mogul, who likened the incident to a “horror movie”, was unharmed in the incident.

However he’s not the first celebrity to be confronted with an unwanted houseguest.

Madonna was forced to give evidence in court after Robert Dewey Hoskins scaled the walls of her Hollywood Hills estate in 1996 and threatened to cut her throat “from ear to ear”.

Heiress Paris Hilton stepped up her security after Nathan Lee Parada was caught trying to break into her home in April last year.

Parada, who was armed with two knives, was apprehended by armed Hilton’s boyfriend before he had a chance to get inside.

George Harrison feared he had been fatally wounded when he was stabbed in his Oxfordshire home in 2000.

The ex-Beatle chanted “Hare Krishna” in an attempt to distract Michael Abrams,...