Front Page: Helmer circling 'Dragon Tattoo' -- David Fincher is making his next move, on Columbia Pictures' chess drama "Pawn Sacrifice."

Front Page: Confab gets under way in Vegas -- As exhibitors gather for the final ShoWest starting today in Las Vegas, the National Assn. of Theater Owners has remonikered next year's exhib confab as CinemaCon.

Front Page: Actor in talks for indie drama set in Shanghai -- Forest Whitaker is in talks to star in indie drama "Little Treasure," due to be filmed on location in Shanghai and centered on an American couple who returns to the wife's homeland of China.

The two New Moon actresses trade vampires and werewolves for guitars and amplifiers in the biopic of Joan Jett's famous all-girl band.

Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle (Ocean's Eleven, Crash) portrays the one and only Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr in Talk To Me, the funny and moving biopic of an outspoken and inspirational radio DJ who became a figure of hope for the black community. Also featuring a powerful turn from Chiwetel Ejifor (Inside Man) as Greene’s harassed producer, Talk to Me expertly balances the comedy and tragedy of its inspirational subject's life. Talk to Me will be available on DVD and Blu Ray for the first time from 22 March 2010.

Front Page: Long lines, sold-out screenings at Austin film festival -- Clear skies proved a blessing to the SXSW fest this weekend, with the upswing in film registrants creating around-the-block lineups for mostly sold-out screenings, often leaving fans and buyers alike looking for a backup plan.

The Tim Burton remake has already crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office.

She's got bright red hair and is married to Jonathan Ross. Oh, and she's written a controversial new film

Age: 39

Appearance: Breasts. And bright red hair.

Ah, Jonathan Ross's wife. Correct. Although she does have a name.

Sure, but now you've covered the hair, breasts and famous husband, what's left to say? Apart from that she's a bit weird? Quite a lot, actually. The Jane Goldman who kept ferrets and went ghost-hunting is a thing of the past.

She's got rid of the ferrets? No, but she's moved on from paranormal investigating on obscure satellite television channels.

So what's she doing now? She's written a very controversial new film. Or rather, she's adapted one from a comic book. It's called Kick-Ass, and it tells the goofy, sweary, ultra-violent story of a teenage boy who decides to become a superhero. Think half-Watchmen, half-Superbad.

And what's controversial about it? For one thing it features an 11-year-old girl making liberal use of all the best swear words and then shooting a man in the face. Parents and pundits are up in arms, claiming the film encourages children to swear and kill people. And also become superheroes.

What does Jane think of swearing, murderous pre-teens then? She told a US interviewer: "I think that's the least of our worries."

So when did she become a screenwriter? Three years ago, when she co-wrote the script for the film version of Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust. She's also written an adapted screenplay from the chiller novel The Woman in Black, and penned a novel of her own about a murder plot in a utopian Florida theme park.

Quite a step up from sitting in haunted houses for Living TV then . . . Indeed, although she's still kept her spooky side. Earlier this month she reportedly bought a full-size replica of a two-headed Victorian child's skeleton.

That's definitely not normal. Normal, no, but at least she's not just Jonathan Ross's weird wife any more.

Do say: "What a lovely two-headed child's skeleton. Is that from Habitat?"

Don't say: "Apparently this film was written by Jonathan Ross's wife."

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The director of Hot Tub Time Machine discusses a sequel to the John Cusack hit-man comedy and a remake of the film version of Hunter S. Thompson's classic book.

Actor and dancer abandoned by her father, Diego Rivera

The actor and dancer Marika Rivera, who has died aged 90, shared with her father, the muralist Diego Rivera, an imposing physique and determined character. However, it was to her mother, Marie Vorobieff Stebelska – better known as Marevna and generally regarded as the world's first female cubist painter – to whom she displayed unfailing loyalty after Rivera abandoned them both to return to his native Mexico when his first daughter was less than two years old.

Born in Paris, near her mother's studio in Montparnasse, Marika grew up in the heart of La Ruche – the artists' residence known as "the beehive". The narrow streets nearby buzzed with talent and she remembered meeting Picasso – "He loved my mother, and I heard he teased my father, saying I was his daughter" – Modigliani and the shy artist Chaim Soutine. Much later, Soutine would move in with Marevna and become a father figure to Marika, who soon earned a reputation for being as headstrong as her mother.

She married young, to the French set decorator Jean-Paul Brusset, a friend and collaborator of Jean Cocteau. After ballet training, she joined performers entertaining the French forces in North Africa in the early days of the second world war. Conditions were uncomfortable – Marika arrived by boat and had to wade ashore carrying her belongings – but early deprivations had toughened her spirit.

In Algiers, Marika, a dark-haired, statuesque beauty, won a following among the troops while Brusset painted and decorated where he could – notably the interior of the Voice of America radio station. A son, Jean, was born, but the marriage foundered and Marika led a peripatetic life in the south of France until she met Rodney Phillips, the English publisher of Polemic magazine.

They were married in 1949. Phillips owned the magnificent Athelhampton House, near Dorchester, and the family, including Marevna, Jean and their own son, David, went to live there, where they were photographed by Angus McBean. But the couple parted and Marika moved her mother and sons to London. She attended drama school before landing some memorable film cameo roles, most notably alongside Julie Christie in Darling (1965), in Girl On a Motorcycle (1968), in the 1971 version of Fiddler On the Roof and in Eat the Rich (1987), a cheeky caper produced by the Comic Strip team. She also tried her hand at a cabaret act, Marika's Cafe Theatre, at the Lyric, Hammersmith, in west London.

But her thoughts had turned increasingly to Mexico from where, after a silence lasting many years, her father had called her, begging her to come to him. "I asked if he wanted just me or my mother as well and when he said that he only wanted to see me, and me alone, I refused. How I regret that now."

In her dreams, however, she flew to his side to comfort him after the death of his third wife, the painter Frida Kahlo, whom Marika had disliked ever since an attempt to reach Rivera had been intercepted by Kahlo. "Every time I called him, she said he wasn't there," Marika said. "Sometimes I could hear him in the background. Once, she just hung up."

She thought often about returning to Mexico, although her one previous trip had been uncomfortable – she felt rejected by Rivera's two daughters by his second marriage, to Guadalupe Marín. Instead, she asked me to go on her behalf to the beautiful chapel at Chapingo, outside Mexico City, which is almost womb-like in its structure, and where Diego Rivera had, she claimed, painted the walls and ceiling with images inspired by Marika and Marevna. She told many stories, often with a great sense of humour – she loved to tease – and would drift off into impassioned French, especially when warning of the ways of men.

She was tireless in working for wider recognition for her mother, who died in 1984. When Marika left London to live in Dorset a few years ago, she and David needed to find a suitable place for what remained of Marevna's work in private hands. That she was able to attend the opening in 2006 of the gallery specially built at Athelhampton to house the collection gave her immense pleasure, as did the fact that the present owners of the house care for the works as she did.

Marika is survived by her two sons.

• Marika Rivera Phillips, dancer and actor, born 13 November 1919; died 14 January 2010

• Dance
• Frida Kahlo
• Mexico
• Art

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