Princess Leia

Lucasfilm Ltd. has chosen Los Angeles for the 30th anniversary celebration of the release of "Star Wars." The company will take over the L.A. Convention Center May 23 through 28 for a wide range of events, including back-to-back screenings of all six of the space adventures. The event is dubbed "Celebration IV," because officially sanctioned "Star Wars" conventions have been held in Denver (1999) and Indianapolis (2002 and 2005). The 17-hour movie marathon begins at 9 a.m.

The networks have stuffed Sunday night so full of movies that at least one is bound to suit nearly everyone's Thanksgiving-week tastes. ABC serves up the appetizer at 7 p.m. with "The Thanksgiving Promise," a 1986 "Disney Sunday Movie" starring three generations of Bridges--Lloyd, Beau and Beau's son Jordon--in a story about a young boy who agrees to prepare a Canadian gosling for a neighbor's Thanksgiving dinner.

Thirty-odd negligible skits in about 50 intermissionless minutes, "Sketches 7: Bury the Hatchet" at Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group is directed by Zombie Joe and Josh T. Ryan. They and their three colleagues--T. Arthur Cottam, Denise Devin and Bernadette Larsen--gallop through the material, dressed in black T-shirts, black pants and black shoes, faces painted white, with blacked-out eyes and lips for a slightly sinister zombie mask.

Star Tours 2.0 promises the possibility of 54 different experiences when the updated attraction reopens at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida on May 20 and Disneyland in California on June 3. Photos : Concept art for Star Tours 2.0 Star Tours 2.0, set between the " Star Wars " prequels and the original trilogy, will update the 1980s simulator ride with high-definition 3-D technology...

They turned out Friday in legions, these fanatic fans of the mythical "Star Wars" story, not just to celebrate a groundbreaking film, but to recapture a tiny part of their own lives long forgotten since the movie's release a generation ago.

Skype and video iChat are great, but traditional video conferencing tools are so two-dimensional. Just imagine if you could talk to a friend or colleague in holographic 3-D. Well, you may soon be able to. Researchers at Queen's University have created a life-sized, 3-D video conferencing pod that allows users to see the person they are talking to in 360-degree holographic-like clarity. They call it the TeleHuman. But before images of Princess Leia telling Obi-Wan Kenobi that he is her only hope start dancing in your head, know that the 3-D holographic image only works if you have what looks like a giant cylindrical floor lamp made of acrylic that can display the life-sized 3-D holographic image in your home or office.

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: "People will see 'The Matrix Reloaded' if only for a demonstration of what a megamillions budget and state-of-the-art special effects can buy. But although the technical aspects don't disappoint, the human ones do. Action scenes can't be heart-stopping if the story hasn't gotten your ticker going to begin with." John Anderson, Newsday: "Being bulldozed by faux-tech double-talk is part of the sci-fi experience, and what 'Matrix' fans presumably want is action.

The death of Republican media advisor R. Gregory Stevens, whose body was found in a guest room at the Los Angeles home of friend and actress Carrie Fisher, did not involve foul play, an official said Friday. "No foul play is suspected," said Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman David Campbell. Stevens, 42, had served as co-chairman of the Bush/Cheney Entertainment Task Force during the 2004 campaign. He was found dead last Saturday.