The first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released today.
The Warner Brothers movie, due for release in December next year, will be followed by The Hobbit: The and
[1] New director of music at St Paul's Cathedral George Chittenden loves the special character of church music written for the big acoustic of a stone church. Photo by Peter McIntosh. Gigs
Alibi, the Octagon.
• Fridays, from 10.30pm: Hemi and Bede.
Chick's Hotel, Port Chalmers.
• Tonight, 8pm: Kylie Price and Dave Coleclough
Circadian Rhythm, 72 St Andrew St
• Every Friday:
"Christmas Exhibition 2011", (The Artist's Room)
[1] Untitled, by Jenny Dolezel 
[1] Rihanna. Photo Reuters The wait is over for Middle Earth fans - the first Hobbit trailer has been released. Now they just have to get through another 12 months until the first of the two films is out.
Television New Zealand is scrapping its AMP Business breakfast programme in the latest upheaval for the news department.
The Breakfast show - featuring Corin Dann and Petra Bagust - will be moving back
[1] Keri Hulme Her novel The Bone People won the
[1] Adam Lambert. Photo Reuters 
Not all of pop marvel Britney Spears' ex husbands are popping corks over her recent engagement announcement.
Jason Alexander, who
It's been out for less than a day but Peter Jackson's hyped first Hobbit trailer has been viewed millions of times - and everyone
Cameron Douglas, the wayward son of one of Hollywood's most star-studded acting families, fought back tears as a judge rejected a plea
Take it from Sean Penn: Never discuss politics in polite company - or airport terminals. It'll end in
1. Lonely Boy - The Black Keys: It was supposed to star both
Once a year a document called The Black List is released.
Far from harkening back to Hollywood's darkest time (when suspected communists were
David and Victoria Beckham have ordered images of their leaked Christmas card to be removed from the internet.
The power couple had
Michael Laws will return to the airwaves in 2012, RadioLive and MediaWorks say.
The controversial broadcaster and host of the 9am-12pm show
The 38-year-old actress - who has three movies, 'Young Adult', 'Snow White and The Huntsman' and 'Prometheus', set for
Kris Humphries was booed as he returned to the basketball court last
The kids' holiday specials begin with Prep & Landing, and finally, The Mentalist we've been waiting for.
The Mentalist
Prep & Landing (TV2, 7.00pm). You know it’s nearly Christmas when they’re dragging out the
The Aussie SAS allows cameras in to record its brutal selection process, and a seasonal Blackadder that never gets old.
SAS: The Search for Warriors
Prep & Landing 2 (TV2, 7.00pm). Slight change from our listing
Comedy for the Christmas season, and its the end of the world as we know it in the final episode of V.
She has a tail: Anna in V
Comedy Christmas Special: A Feast of Funny
A nightmare of excessive tulle consumption on My Big Fat Gypsy Christmas, and The X Factor heads towards its finale. Shame.
My Big Fat Gypsy Christmas
Coronation Street (TV1, 7.30pm). What Recession Britain looks
The Royle Family: Joe’s Crackers (UKTV, Sky 006, 7.30pm). Another Christmas of tiny expectations and undreamt dreams with Britain’s other Royle family. In this special, Dave and Denise worry that their gift of a
The Santa Clause 3: the Escape Clause (TV2, 7.00pm). There is one? Phew. (2006) 4
Christmas with the Kranks (TV3, 7.30pm). What is it with Tim Allen (all those Santa Clauses …)
Saturday Morning Christmas Eve Special (Radio New Zealand National, 8.10am). Kim Hill and producer Mark Cubey wrap up the year with a light and fruity mix of interviews old and new, reminiscences, shout-outs, music
Community has a deeply personal, stop-motion animated Christmas. With pterodactyls. Also, Doctor Who is on Graham's couch.
Community
The X Factor (TV3, 7.30pm). The final!
Community (Four, 8.00pm). Community’s Christmas special involves singing and
HARD work on the part of a Gisborne DJ/percussion duo means that local punters can tonight get down and dirty or, perhaps more accurately, good and glowy. SHE is, apparently, coming to Gisborne next year to officially open the retirement village that bears her name but, due the heftiness of her performance fee, she won’t be performing here. With the support of
THIS time a year ago, Gisborne’s Rory White was running around carrying out the myriad of tasks that were required to put together the Summer Sesh mini music festival. He wasn’t much of a musician
[1] Singer Britney Spears and boyfriend Jason Trawick are engaged. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/Files 
Get ready for some surf and sun: The Beach Boys are reuniting.
The founding members of the classic
The summer of cricket begins. Yes. And the beautiful, satisfying movie Up.
Up
Cricket (Sky Sport 1, Sky 030, 2.00pm). Sky Sport is calling it the Summer of Cricket, and there does seem rather
TV3 has pulled off a PR coup by enticing three top journalists away from TVNZ this week.
Following closely behind TVNZ political
It's the summer of celebrity weddings. Barely three weeks after star All Black Dan Carter married Honor Dillon, another All Black and
Even before setting foot in Australia, Paul Henry's big mouth has been getting him into trouble. His boasts of a
Former Olympic rower Rob Hamill is baffled a documentary which follows his journey to seek justice for his murdered brother has been largely overlooked in New Zealand.
The feature-length film
The daughter-in-law of Rupert Murdoch is being tipped to become Paul Henry's new co-host on Australian television.
Sarah Murdoch quit as presenter and producer on the highly successful Australia's Next
Hugh Hefner had "mixed emotions" about Lindsay Lohan posing for Playboy.
The 'Mean Girls' actress appears on the front cover of this month's edition of the raunchy men's magazine
Britney Spears is engaged.
The Criminal hitmaker's boyfriend Jason Trawick surprised Spears her by proposing early, and will celebrate her saying yes by throwing a huge party at the
Melbourne doctors will keep music guru Molly Meldrum in a coma into next week as they try to ease the swelling on his brain.
Meldrum, 65, remains in a critical yet stable condition in The Alfred
More swords and sorcery in Camelot, and Kim Hill's final show for the year.
Camelot
Camelot (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.30pm). The swords and sorcery genre has taken off since Spartacus: Blood and Sand made
Equal parts Fellini and Woody Allen, Di Gregorio's follow-up to 2009's Mid-August Lunch doesn't have quite the same freshness - it's slightly less compact, despite
Sixteen years on from the first big screen revival,
She might forever be known as Fatal Attraction's bunny-boiling Alex or
Among the many jobs comedian Rhys Darby has had of late is
If it's summer, it must mean Dave Dobbyn: on
[1] Also suspended was his passage through the inevitable convolutions of love, work and family life that would have
[1] Kora. Photo supplied. It will be held in
This is an unauthorised autobiography. In keeping with the controversial nature of everything he does, Assange, after collaborating with the publisher and ghost writer, decided to renege on the deal he had made, and refused
AD70 Roman troops sacked Jerusalem, destroying the Second Temple and hunting down those few who managed to flee the city.
Some took refuge with the Sacarii, Jewish rebels led by Eleazar ben Ya'ir
I was so engrossed with the subject material during a first reading of Diane's Keaton's Then Again, that I forgot to take notes; and this from someone who'd never seen a Keaton movie.
As a general rule I try to avoid describing a book by reference to others, particularly when such a comparison is presented on the back cover.
Rules are made to be broken; in
[1] 
[1] 
[1] 
[1] 
A new book offers a round of applause to a range of like-minded folk, Shane Gilchrist reports.
Folk music might be
