Signature Devices announced that the company will market "Mazes of Fate" for the Nintendo DS handheld video game system on MySpace.com, exposing it to millions of gamers. MySpace.com is a social networking web site that offers interactive networks of friends sharing different interests. The site already has more than 106 million members with approximately 230,000 more joining each day. This advertisement is expected to reach 1.6 million gamers on their personal MySpace pages.

"We're very happy to be able to market 'Mazes of Fate' on MySpace.com. This site is a very popular place to reach the video gaming audience. With so many visitors of such varied interests on the site, I'm sure we'll reach a great audience and build a tremendous fan base," said Kenneth Hurley, CEO of Signature Devices and Graffiti Entertainment.

"Mazes of Fate," published by the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Graffiti Entertainment, tells an epic tale of magic and conspiracy with over a hundred interactive characters, 50 different game levels, 20 customizable character skills and more than 50 types of enemies to battle. It also includes an hour of original music and twenty-five hours of game-playing entertainment. Maze gamers will explore dungeons, solve intricate puzzles, and go on multiple quests with up to three adventurers.

David Banner is undoubtedly one of the most controversial hip-hop aritists today, yet it’s his certified crunkness that keeps him out of political rapper territory. Although he’s been targeted by hip hop critics following the infamous Don Imus incident, he’s held his own, and his latest ballerific single Get Like Me is enveloping airwaves around the nation.

A rollercoaster ride of a year has found him in a new place—50 pounds lighter and still mourning the loss of Pimp C and his father, who passed away last summer—but the road he is traveling represents a brand new, more relentless grind.

There is no artist that works as hard as I do,” a perspiring David Banner told a cheering crowd at Manhattan’s Knitting Factory. Having just been warmed up by Maino, New York’s newest MVP, Banner’s free MySpace show treated spectators to the depths of Banner's ever-shifting personae. First, the audience met Dr. David Banner, the unassuming scientist who emerged onto the stage so traumatized by the prejudice, injustice and ignorance of the South that he broke down his own heartfelt stories during the emotional Suicide Doors. It didn't take long, however, for the Hulk to materialize in full form. Using his superhuman strength to remove his sweat-covered shirt, the microphone-monster took full advantage of the sounds of his live band on crowd-pleasers like 9mm and Shawty Say.

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Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunk driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labelled "Jail Bird."

In the age of the Internet, it might not be hard to guess what happened to those pictures: Someone posted them on the social networking site Facebook. And that offered remarkable evidence for Jay Sullivan, the prosecutor handling Lipton's drunken-driving case.Sullivan used the pictures to paint Lipton as an unrepentant partier who lived it up while his victim recovered in the hospital. A judge agreed, calling the pictures depraved when sentencing Lipton to two years in prison.

Online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace have offered crime-solving help to detectives and become a resource for employers vetting job applicants. Now the sites are proving fruitful for prosecutors, who have used damaging Internet photos of defendants to cast doubt on their character during sentencing hearings and argue for harsher punishment.

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MySpace has embarked on talks with several tech-focused agencies, according to several industry sources.  It is unclear whether the nature of the work sought includes the potential for an agency becoming a full-fledged AOR partner to the social network or if it would a project relationship to help the site launch new features and platforms. According to one source, the review has been ongoing for more than a month.

 A spokesperson for MySpace declined to comment. Two agencies that MySpace currently works with are Edelman and SparkPR, both of which declined to comment. Edelman has worked with the site since 2005, while Spark was enlisted this year to work on its developer platform, according to the agency's Web site.

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Actor Shah Rukh Khan is back shooting for films. In fact while he was busy at the IPL, SRK used to shoot for Priyadarshan's Billoo Barber , too. With just one schedule remaining, we guess the makers of this one are keeping a rather low profile.

It was not very long ago that the shooting schedule of this film was to take place in a village. Shah Rukh who plays a simple, aam aadmi in this movie, had no choice but to travel with the cast and crew to a village in North India – where Viraasat was shot.

Apparently, sources close to us say that the one thing SRK hates is shooting in a village. After all, the actor is used to the lavish luxuries of life, and the close-to-no-facility areas provide much discomfort to him. A unit member informs us, "I don't know much about his likes and dislikes, but Shah Rukh is a sport. He adapted ok and didn't as much as complain even once. He was ready to do whatever it took for him to deliver! Also, he mingled well with one and all and didn't have any prolems. He went out of the way to make the locals there feel special."

Pakistan rejected as concocted lies on Thursday an Afghan accusation that Pakistan's main security agency was behind an attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai in April.

Relations between the uneasy neighbours, both important U.S. allies in its campaign against al Qaeda and the Taliban have long been strained by Afghan accusations that Taliban insurgents operate from sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of their border.

Afghan leaders have often said they believed elements in Pakistan were still helping their old allies, the Taliban.

But a spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Wednesday accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of organising the attack on Karzai.

It was the first time Afghanistan had accused Pakistan of trying to kill Karzai, who has survived several assassination attempts since he took over soon after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001.

Taliban militants fired on a parade in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on April 27, killing three people, including a member of parliament, but missing the president.

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With a title like Mohandas, anybody would think that the film is on Gandhi...
Mohandas is an investigative satirical thriller. The film is not directly based on Gandhi, his biography or the historical aspect. We are dealing with his concerns for the country. We’ve taken off from a note which was penned by Gandhi in 1948. The crux of the note is: whenever you take a step, calculate what its effect would be on the weakest man. My protagonist, Mohandas, is a weak man, tucked away in a remote village he isn’t a superhero. So, there’s a connect somewhere. You can’t write it off as something done in vain.

And how thrilling is the thriller?
The way the story has been told is intriguing. The film begins with a journalist meeting Mohandas, who says, ‘I’m Mohandas, how can anyone else be Mohandas?’ It’s the journo who digs out the truth that someone else has been living Mohandas’ life. The flick belongs to the investigative genre.

How excited are you about the film finding a place in the main competition section of the 10th Osian’s Cinefan, Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema?
What’s different about this Festival, is its Asian focus. Somewhere I feel strongly about the Asian aspect. Much like the Festival, the film is culturally rooted. I also wanted the film to premiere in Delhi I’m happy that it’s happening.

Film festivals and awards must be of great help...
Not really. Film festivals cater to a small audience. The real test is when the film hits the theatre. What it can do at best is create a fraternity and help the producers in distribution. It also creates a certain curiosity, which can be of some help to the film-maker. That’s just it.

You were quoted as saying, ‘There is no dearth of stories that are unique to our time and place. We are not looking here hard enough and go on borrowing from other cultures. In the past, we have had our unique voice’. Do you think this voice is lost now?
Bollywood is becoming suffocating by the day. The easiest thing to do is take up a DVD and make a film. Most film-makers aren’t showing any interest in stories generated in the country they aren’t looking at original work. Whereas, so much has been written even today. I feel the authors are more in touch with ground reality. Film-makers like Guru Dutt, Mehboob, Bimal Roy and K Asif have shown the way our mainstream cinema could go, while sticking to original plots. They have a great body of original work. My film too, is based on a story by Uday Prakash. What directors fail to understand is that the reality and concerns in Hollywood are way different from that of ours. We need to attach more importance to local stories.

Would you stick to being original, even if it fails at the box-office?
I would prefer to work this way. BO matters, but again it’s not the sole criterion of adjudging a film. At times, I’ve been to theatres to catch superhit films, but couldn’t bear to sit through it. I would be happy to know that mine is a good film which is doing moderately well at the BO.

You must be excited since it’s your debut directorial venture...
I was excited the minute I started shooting. It’s a different high for me. I believe that a film is a director’s medium. I did the cinematography just to learn the craft. Thankfully, people are liking the film. Otherwise, I would have been really upset.

Mohandas is a moderate-budget film. Was that a problem?
Not at all. You just need modest budgets unless you’re shooting a historical.

What next?
My next would be Highway 39 that’s the working title. But I’m yet to finalise the cast. Apart from that, I’m going through a few more scripts. I’m yet to zero in on any.

Another week with a sad good-bye and rejoicing at a birth!  It's the way of life!  Also, some simple little tidbits that come my way.  The bigger though is the ACTORS' STRIKE which is looming.  Will it be another found of the networks chasing their tails!  Only time will tell!

OBITS
For those of you who love the musical “Singing in the Rain” like I do, I have sad news for you.  The lovely lady who shared the memorable dream dance sequence with Gene Kelly passed away this week.  Cyd Charisee died Tuesday at the age of 86.  She started as a ballet dancer for MGM and never really received the credit she deserved.  

ACTORS' STRIKE
Okay folks!  Sit back and wait!  There’s another strike looming in the wings  Once they settled with the writer’s, the powers that be had to turn their attention to the actors with the hopes that the strike could be stopped.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t and their contract expires on June 30th and as of now there has been NO DEAL.  While AFTRA has accepted an agreement, SAG (the major actor’s guild) hasn’t.  SAG is after AFTRA to stick with them.  Contract negotiations have stalled which means that production on shows could case on July 1st.  Better be glad that some have already started production!  It could look grim again.

Here’s a run down from TVGuide.com of how the different areas stands.
     Network shows by and large have gone back to production and will have a few episodes ready for this fall.
     Cable series probably cut production back or delay the start date.
     AFTRA-0nly shows would begin production and have no stoppage.
     Late night television need more  non-actor guests

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Floods that left standing water have raised concerns about diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.

Tom Hart, environmental specialist for Linn County Public Health, said floodwaters temporarily restricted access to some of the county's mosquito monitors, but those traps were being re-established this week.

Chickens used as "sentinel" monitors for West Nile virus and other encephalitis diseases also were being brought to Linn County this week, as the county does every year.

Hart said the greatest concern is grassy areas where flooding left standing water, in addition to tires and other containers where mosquitoes typically breed.

"So far, we'll do the normal monitoring," he said, adding that floodwaters bring heightened concerns. "The more water you've got, the more mosquitoes."

Hart said if residents of a particular area see a tremendous increase in mosquitoes compared with other years, the health department could consider monitoring that area.

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Producer LATI GROBMAN has hit out at the "aggressive" paparazzi stalking LINDSAY LOHAN on the set of their new movie LABOR PAINS - branding the commotion they cause "insane".

Lohan's every move is caught on camera by photographers - and it's no different when the 21-year-old is at work.

And Grobman cannot believe the lengths some snappers will go to to get the perfect shot of Lohan.

She tells People.com, "It's the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life. They do things that are very, very aggressive.

"I'm not a producer anymore, I'm a policewoman!"

But Grobman is pleased to be working with Lohan, and admits she has been won over by her professionalism: "The difference between her and the other girls that are naughty in the business is that she's actually talented.

"It's not (like) Paris Hilton and the rest of them. We took a chance. It's good that we did. So far, so good."