NEW YORK - Billy Bob Thornton is happy for his ex-wife Angelina Jolie, who adopted an orphaned baby girl, Zahara Marley, in Ethiopia last month.
"I love it. I knew for a while that she was going to adopt," Thornton tells People magazine in its Aug. 8 issue. "She cares so much for kids who don't have anything."
"Any kid Angelina adopts is going to have a great mother," adds Thornton, who stars in the new movie "Bad News Bears."
Before their split in 2002, Jolie and Thornton adopted a baby boy, Maddox, from Cambodia. Jolie is often seen carrying Maddox in her arms.
Thornton says he doesn't get to see Jolie and Maddox much.
"She's all over the world and I live in California," he says. "I see them every time she comes to town, but that hasn't been very often in the last couple of years."
Brad Pitt, Jolie's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" co-star, accompanied the actress when she picked up her daughter.
"Nothing surprises me," Thornton said.
On the Net:
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NEW YORK - Katie Couric says she'll decide this fall whether to continue her long-running morning television partnership with Matt Lauer.
The "Today" show co-anchor faces the question because her contract expires next May.
"I have, when it's operating on all four cylinders, one of the best jobs in television," she told The New Yorker magazine. "At the same time, everybody needs recharging."
Couric, 48, has been approached by CBS News about its evening news anchor job.
NBC Universal executive Jeff Zucker, Couric's former producer, said last month that he hoped Couric was at the network "for many, many years to come."
Lauer, 47, told the magazine that after he turns 50, he could see himself in semiretirement like his pal Bryant Gumbel.
"I don't want to work five days a week," he said.
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On the Net:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/?ta=y
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SAN FRANCISCO - Seann William Scott has made peace with the notion that he may be a dolt on screen forever.
Scott, who embodied the blockhead jock Steve Stifler in the "American Pie" movies, the nitwit in 2000's "Dude, Where's My Car?" and the sex-crazed buffoon in "Road Trip," is now in "The Dukes of Hazzard" movie, playing Bo Duke.
"Most of the comedies will have some similarity because most comedy roles are about guys that aren't that bright," Scott told the San Francisco Chronicle in Sunday's editions. "Every once in a while you'll get a 'Sideways,' not that I'm doing it."
Scott, 28, was still working at Home Depot in Los Angeles when he was cast as Stifler in "American Pie."
He said he'd rather be a "fly on the wall than the party guy. I don't think anybody really cares what I'm going to do outside my house. I moved to L.A. to act. I don't have time to waste or time to make friends out there."
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HONG KONG - He's called the "Spielberg of Asia" because of the wide range of movies he's made: comedy, action, romance and animation. But Tsui Hark's latest film, "Seven Swords," marks his return to his kung fu roots.
The 55-year-old Tsui says "Seven Swords," the story of seven martial arts fighters who try to evade an imperial ban on kung fu, isn't typical of the genre. It depicts the evolution of the hero rather than dwelling on sheer heroism, he said.
"Seven Swords" examines "the price the hero pays in his growth process," Tsui told The Associated Press.
Tsui directed the 1991 "Once Upon a Time in China," one of Jet Li's most famous works. He also filmed "Zu: Warriors From the Magic Mountain" in 1983, a groundbreaking production for which he sought input from special effects experts who worked on "Star Wars," and an updated version in 2001, "The Legend of Zu."
Among his works in the early 1980s is the Dick Tracy-style detective comedy "All the Wrong Clues (for the Right Solution)," set in Hong Kong. He produced Hong Kong's classic gangster film, "A Better Tomorrow," the 1986 John Woo movie that made the gun-toting, trench coat-wearing Chow Yun-fat an icon.
The director has spent most of his career in Hong Kong, but he's willing to give Hollywood another shot if the right script comes along. He said his Hollywood work isn't as inspired because he filmed scripts written by others.
Tsui joked about his reputation as "Asia's Spielberg."
He said, "There's probably a big gap between his talent level and mine. In terms of wealth, there's a big gap too."
On the Net:
http://www.sevenswordsthefilm.com
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A two-hour special featuring highlights from this year's Country Music Association festival will air on prime-time TV this week, with performances by Alan Jackson, Rascal Flatts, Dolly Parton, Keith Urban, Trisha Yearwood and others.
"CMA Music Festival: Country Music's Biggest Party" will air Tuesday night on ABC. The show was taped earlier this summer during the four-day annual festival in Nashville.
"The special includes riveting performances in front of thousands of fans - which is where these artists excel," CMA Executive Director Ed Benson said. "The unique relationship between country music artists and their fans is the cornerstone of this event."
The festival, formerly known as Fan Fair, began in 1972 and gives fans a chance to meet many of their favorite celebrities and recording artists as well as see them perform.
The TV special captures some of the interaction. In one segment, Jackson meets a group of New York City firefighters who played his poignant hit about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," in the firehouse for months.
"To watch the fans and the artists come together and connect on a personal level is an experience like no other, and we are thrilled to bring this special to ABC for the first time," ABC executive Andrea Wong said.
Other artists to appear on the show include Dierks Bentley, Cowboy Troy, Sara Evans, Jo Dee Messina, Miranda Lambert, the Grascals, Sugarland, Phil Vassar, Lee Ann Womack and Wynonna.
The special also will premiere Gretchen Wilson's video for her new single, "All Jacked Up."
On the Net:
http://abc.go.com/specials/cmamusicfestival.html
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