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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Marriage has been a hotly discussed topic since President Barack Obama voiced his support for same-sex unions, but author Nell Freudenberger looks at the institution from a different perspective in "The Newlyweds." In her latest novel she tells the story of Bangladeshi Muslim Amina who marries George, …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Stolen Prey" jumped straight to the top of Publishers Weekly best-sellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "Stolen Prey" by John Sandford (Putnam, $27.95) …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A museum conservator and horologist loses her colleague and married lover of 13 years, forcing her to use the intricate restoration of a 19th century automaton and the diaries of the man who commissioned it as the means to cope with her grief. Set in London in 2010, "The Chemistry of Tears" is the 12th …

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Perhaps the only thing longer than the title of a Vatican document issued in English on Wednesday was the time it took for an official translation of the Latin to appear - 34 years. The document, called "Norms Regarding the Manner of Proceeding in the Discernment of Presumed Apparitions or Revelations," …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Some thoughts on Lisa Marie Presley: "Too bad she ain't just like her daddy/Oh what a shame/She got no talent of her own/It's just her name." No, that's not our review. That's Presley anticipating (or reviving) some of the conventional/cynical wisdom about her musical career in "Sticks and Stones," …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Well, the upcoming movie adaptation of "Fifty Shades of Grey" has its theme song, if it wants one. "Chokehold," a provocative track from Adam Lambert's second album, sounds tailor-made for the S&M occasion: "Sheets are in a knot... I kinda like the pain... I keep running away from you, but I …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap) - America's top critics are branding "Dark Shadows" frightful for all the wrong reasons. From the Wall Street Journal to the Los Angeles Times, the reviews for the latest collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are frosty, with the Warner Bros. film receiving a mediocre 41 percent "fresh" …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Everyone remembers the most galvanizing moment of this year's Grammys - when the telecast cut to commercial and, over a Chipotle ad, we heard a studio recording of Willie Nelson singing Coldplay's "The Scientist." You can relive that very special Grammy moment (minus the environmentally themed …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Oscar prognosticators were flummoxed when "Where Do We Go Now?" won the audience award at last year's Toronto Film Festival - previous winners like "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The King's Speech" had turned the prize into an Academy Awards bellwether. But this Arabic-language film (with smatterings …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A faint hint of a Texas accent comes through when Sissy Spacek calls up to talk about her new memoir. Spacek, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter," grew up in a small town, Quitman, Texas, in the 1950s and 1960s, a formative period that imbued …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Just in time for Mother's Day, "Girl in Progress" is providing illustrative lessons on how to be the antithesis of an exemplary Mom. The movie's not-so-model single mum eats the last of the cereal and milk before her adolescent daughter comes down for breakfast, is sleeping with a married man …

TOKYO (Reuters) - A fear of flying inspired bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch's latest book, centering on a woman who awakes in a hospital with total amnesia, one of two people left alive after a massive plane crash. "The Song Remains the Same" follows Nell Slattery as she tries to piece together her former life even …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - From "A Room with a View" to "Enchanted April," it's been a movie truism that British people have to leave Britain if they want to unshackle themselves from their soul-crushing Britishness. And so we have "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," in which a handful of pensioners set off to retire in …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When "A Little Bit of Heaven" starts unfurling, you can feel the film ticking off the cutesy romantic comedy conventions, one by one: Kate Hudson (check) stars as a free-spirited ad exec (check) who has a gorgeous courtyard apartment (check) in New Orleans, complete with sassy gay neighbor (check) …

(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil's vast size and massive profits have often put the oil giant in the crosshairs of critics, and its strict adherence to company protocols and philosophy has created an image of the company as impervious to outside pressure. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll's new book "Private Empire: Exxon …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - As sure as the Pope resides at the Vatican, the Catholic Church won't be organizing busloads of parishioners for fieldtrips to go see "The Perfect Family." That's because this slight satirical comedy has as its center a woman so slavishly devoted to the church that she has worn blinders for years …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - There's an old adage that goes "Leave ‘em wanting more," and although that may not be a specifically Broadway or TV adage, it's been adopted for the "Smash" soundtrack album, which solves the problem of whether to fill the disc up with pop covers or musical-comedy originals by not offering enough …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Assembling a team of superheroes is no doubt like putting together an all-star cast - you've got to deal with a lot of clashing egos in a small space and make sure that everyone has his or her moment to shine. Writer-director Joss Whedon pulls off both in "The Avengers," an exhilarating ode to …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The original idea of a Tim Burton-directed "Dark Shadows" certainly must have seemed like a good one on paper, with the master of mass-market Goth applying his imagination and a Hollywood budget to the infamously on-the-cheap, Dan Curtis-created cult soap opera that ran from 1966 to 1971 on ABC …

TOKYO (Reuters) - A fear of flying inspired bestselling author Alison Winn Scotch's latest book, centering on a woman who awakes in a hospital with total amnesia, one of two people left alive after a massive plane crash. "The Song Remains the Same" follows Nell Slattery as she tries to piece together her former life even …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It's a good thing that you can't judge a book by its sleeve art, because Carrie Underwood's fourth album, "Blown Away," arrives this week bearing one of the tackiest country music album covers of all time - a ludicrously airbrushed portrait that dares you not to focus on Underwood's gleaming, …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Back in 2003, the surviving Beatles authorized the release of "Let It Be... Naked," an album of remixes that stripped away the most outlandish production flourishes producer Phil Spector had added to the original "Let It Be" album in 1970. In a way, the new George Harrison release "Early Takes, …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Spanking, sex and submission are raking in profits for erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey", reinvigorating marriages and sparking anguished debates among feminists, but there has been one unintended result of the novel - laughter. The best-selling book by British writer E.L. James that has taken …