Free Republic

Actor Jamie Foxx pleaded for a commuted sentence on behalf of Stanley Tookie Williams, the convicted murderer and Crips gang co-founder. Foxx is not alone. An unusually varied collection of Hollywood stars and other famous names is trying to persuade Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that Williams ought to be spared. His supporters assert that the people Williams killed were unimportant compared to his more recent artistic endeavors on death row. Williams has written nine children's books and established an online project linking teenagers in America and abroad. A Swiss legislator, college professors and others repeatedly have submitted his name for Nobel...

HOLLYWOOD star Tom Hanks' production firm has signed a deal with the man known as Deep Throat to turn his story into a movie, industry press said today. Former FBI agent Mark Felt, who last month revealed he was the Deep Throat who helped reporters expose US president Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal, is understood to have inked the deal with Universal Pictures on behalf of Hanks' Playtone company. The rights, along with those to a book, were sold for around $US1 million ($1.3 million), according to The New York Times. Entertainment industry bible Daily Variety said the...