Steven Spielberg

Two of the biggest names in showbiz, Steven Spielberg and Stephen King, will team up next summer on CBS. The network announced Thursday that it has ordered 13 episodes of “Under the Dome,” a drama adapted from King's 2009 novel about a small New England town suddenly cut off from the rest of the world by a transparent dome, from Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. In addition to writing the source material, King is on board as an executive producer. "Under the Dome" will launch in summer 2013 with a premiere episode directed by Niels Arden Oplev, who helmed the Swedish-language adaptation of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” CBS appears intent on turning “Under the Dome” into a summer television event by making it available across multiple platforms shortly after the network broadcast.

There are plenty of stories with Hollywood endings -- this is one with a Hollywood beginning. A new J.J. Abrams film called "Super 8" reaches theaters on June 10 with a coming-of-age story about young, amateur filmmakers who film a spidery space alien on the loose in Ohio during summer 1979. For people who know the 44-year-old Abrams, that plot seems only slightly more fantastic than the real-life, three-decade story that led to the film. "The craziest thing is that it's true, it actually did happen," says Damon Lindelof, who collaborated with Abrams on the landmark ABC series "Lost" and the hit 2009 film "Star Trek.

Director Steven Spielberg will be honored with the 1994 Chaim Weizmann Award for Philanthropic Leadership at a fund-raising dinner Saturday in Beverly Hills. The event, sponsored by the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, will honor Spielberg for his philanthropy and for raising awareness about the Holocaust. The Israeli-based Weizmann Institute, founded in 1934, is a science and medical research organization.

One time-tested way to measure the worth of anyone in Hollywood is to honor that person at the annual Moving Picture Ball. The ball's organizers pride themselves on tapping the hottest talent of the moment--Robin Williams last year; Bette Midler in 1987, and Eddie Murphy in 1986. If Steven Spielberg's ability to draw ticket buyers is any indication of his worth, he is hotter than Williams, Midler or Murphy.

A day after the Oscars, and mom's little restaurant was buzzing--mom being Steven Spielberg's mother, Leah Adler.

Steven Spielberg is at it again, this time playing with dinosaurs. The Huck Finn of Hollywood has always found time for toys: trailer-sized sharks, laser-lit spaceships, cuddly-beyond-belief extraterrestrials and now, a gang of prehistoric monsters, some nice, some not-so-nice, some huge, some not-so-huge. "Jurassic Park" may be Spielberg's biggest plaything yet.

On Thursday night, nearly a year after "Schindler's List" won him a best picture Oscar and "Jurassic Park" nestled in behind "E.T." to give him the two highest-grossing films of all time, director Steven Spielberg was awarded the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement award. At 47, Spielberg is the youngest person to receive the honor.

"I don't have to keep studios happy. A long time ago I felt I did. I don't feel that anymore. I don't feel like I'm working for anybody but myself now." Steven Spielberg smiles, and reaches for a mug of tea. It's a beautiful autumn day on the lot at Universal Studios where Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment production company occupies its own little oasis. There are no signs leading to it, or on it.

More than 20 Norman Rockwell paintings belonging to Steven Spielberg have until next July to get ready for their close-up, which will come when they're hung in a special exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington -- along with more than 30 other Rockwells from the collection of his fellow filmmaker-to-the-masses, George Lucas. Then there's the one sitting in climate-controlled sequestration, somewhere in Las Vegas, and there's no telling when it'll be seen again.