io9 – Which character in the genre world really gives you the chills? What slathering monster are you most afraid of? We compiled a list of the 80 scariest movie characters we could think of. Meet terror personified, below.

As you know, we only deal with science fiction and urban fantasy here, so Hannibal Lecter and the like are absent from this list.

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io9 – Most major religions, going back thousands of years, tell stories about the End of the World. And post-apocalyptic fiction is perennially popular. So why, in the last twenty years, has the apocalypse ceased to matter?

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io9 – What’s the secret connection between Quentin Tarantino and Felix Gaeta? What relationship between Bear McCreary (in person) and Starbuck did we almost see? We’ve got the exclusive answers, from Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season Four.

Thanks to Titan Books for sending us these exclusive extracts from the BSG season 4 companion book, out now to coincide with the release of the direct-to-DVD “The Plan.” No, they won’t explain that whole “Opera House” thing, but they are pretty fascinating.

So here are five things you never knew about Battlestar’s final season: Click to Read More

NBC Chicago –

The Sun – The Fight Club star was reportedly weaving in and out of traffic at a red light yesterday afternoon when he lost control of his two-wheeler and fell off.

He was apparently sent crashing to the tarmac when his handlebar clipped a stationary car.

Brad promptly returned to his feet and moved his bike to the side of the road before taking refuge in an apartment building, according to TMZ.

It’s claimed he waited there until an aide came to pick him up, leaving his bike at the scene.

Contact Music – ASHLEE SIMPSON-WENTZ has been dropped from U.S. TV series MELROSE PLACE.

The singer/actress landed the role of Violet Foster, a small-town girl new to Los Angeles, in the remake of the 1990s soap opera.
But Simpson-Wentz’s part has now been cut from the show, along with co-star Colin Egglesfield’s character Auggie Kirkpatrick.
Executive producer Todd Slavkin says, “We felt that once the murder mystery (involving their characters) was resolved, the tone of the show was going to shift … and (Simpson-Wentz’s) character would move on.”

Simpson-Wentz and Egglesfield took the news “like professionals” because they were warned they could be dropped from the programme.
Slavkin says, “They knew ahead of time (that leaving was a possibility); it wasn’t a complete shock.”

CNN – A coalition of top musicians, including R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, want to know if their music was used by the U.S. military as part of controversial interrogation methods at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The artists have endorsed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, which were filed Thursday morning, asking the U.S. government to declassify documents that would reveal which artists’ work was used on detainees at U.S. prison facilities and military detention centers, including the one at Guantanamo Bay.

The National Security Archive, a Washington-based independent research institute that advocates “for the right to know,” filed the requests on behalf of the Close Gitmo Now campaign, which launched this week, the archive’s senior analyst Kate Doyle said.

The multimillion-dollar national grassroots Close Gitmo Now campaign is aimed at pressuring members of Congress to support President Obama’s endeavor to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. It is supported by a coalition of retired generals and liberal activists.

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Hollywood Reporter – ABC might not be able to simulate spaceships hovering above cities as in the show’s premiere episode, but the network came up with the next best thing to promote the launch of its alien-invasion drama “V.”

Starting Friday, skywriters will create giant V’s across the sky at 26 U.S. landmarks.

The network is mum on where and when the V’s will strike, but such places as the Statue of Liberty and the Capitol Records building are under consideration. The skywriting will be done multiple times a day at each site until the series launch at 8 p.m. Nov. 3.

“V” is the final new fall broadcast drama to debut. After four episodes, it goes on hiatus until early next year.

TMZ – A TLC official tells TMZ the Heene family approached the network “months ago” with a reality show idea, but the network passed.

TMZ has learned the Heene family has been pitching a reality show about the wacky family, as one TV source put it, “all over town.”

We’re told Richard Heene pitched a series to Reality Real, as well as RDF Productions. RDF produces “Wife Swap,” on which the family appeared back in March.

We’re also told the Heene’s have made the rounds at the networks, including TLC. Of course, TLC produced “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”

Gawker – TLC was going to switch to Kate Plus 8, a show about professional paparazzi-dodger Kate Gosselin and her brood after her divorce from ex-husband Jon Gosselin. Now they’re calling the whole thing off. Thank God almighty, free at last.

The New York Post reported this morning that the show got the ax, and People filled in the details later. TLC is going to eke out a few extra episodes with previously-filmed footage, but is then packing up its trucks and looking for the next freak show to exploit. The whole thing will be over by early November.

Apparently, Jon had some sort of epiphany about the damage the show was causing to his kids and won’t allow them to be filmed. Without them, then this is just a show about a sad lady with a bad haircut living in Pennsylvania, and no one wants to watch that. Well, no one was watching anyway. The ratings had slipped from more than 10 million for the episode where the pair announced their divorce to just over 1 million for recent episodes. Maybe if those numbers were a little healthier TLC would have fought a little bit harder.

But we’re glad they didn’t. The day we don’t have to look at pictures of Jon riding his ATV or Kate dropping off her kids will be the day that Jesus is reborn.

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