Tom Cruise tells Oprah he’s happily married

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Tom Cruise returned to the Oprah Winfrey show on Friday and talked about his love for Katie Holmes, but this time he was denying marital problems instead of jumping on the couch to prove his passion for the young actress.

“That’s laughable to me,” Cruise said when Winfrey told him there was speculation that “what you and Katie have is not real.”

It was the first time Cruise appeared on the show since his couch-hopping stunt three years ago drew a flood of satire and ridicule.

“It was something that I just felt that way, and I feel that way about her. That’s just how I felt,” he said in the interview aired on Friday.

Tibetan envoys head for China talks

Two envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, are on their way to China for “informal” talks aimed at ending the crisis in Tibet.

Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen had arrived in Hong Kong, on their way to mainland China for the talks, according to Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama.

The meetings, scheduled for Saturday, will be the first reported face-to-face contact between the two sides since unrest erupted in Tibet on March 10, after a Chinese government crackdown.

Tories kill access to information database

The federal Conservatives have quietly killed an access to information registry used by journalists, experts and the public that users say helped hold the government accountable.

The Coordination of Access to Information Requests System, or CAIRS, is an electronic list of nearly every access to information request filed to federal departments and agencies.

Originally created in 1989, it was used as an internal tool to keep track of requests and co-ordinate the government’s response between agencies to potentially sensitive information released.

Now, users mine the database to do statistical studies, fine tune phrasing on new requests and discover obscure documents — often using the information against the government.

“It was really a tool designed to make government more open,” said CBC investigative journalist David McKie.

Fugitive lion found, fed

The lion that was roaming the western Quebec bush for two days until his capture on Thursday will now call Quebec’s Granby Zoo home.

Zoo workers confirmed Boomer, a six-month-old African lion, will move to the facility near Montreal.

“Officials quickly wanted to find a place that was safe, where he would be well treated and comfortable,” said spokeswoman Catherine Page. “We’re very happy to provide this service and accept him.”

Hollywood actors, studios extend labour talks again

LOS ANGELES — The Screen Actors Guild and major Hollywood studios said on Friday they had agreed to extend their contract talks again, this time on a day-by-day basis, with the aim of closing a deal by next Tuesday.

The announcement, coming as the parties neared a previous self-imposed deadline, revived hopes they could avoid renewed labour unrest in an entertainment industry still recovering from a 100-day screenwriters strike that ended in February.

The current three-year SAG contract covering 120,000 film and TV actors expires on June 30. But the union is under strong pressure to reach an early settlement in order to dispel strike jitters that continue to disrupt the film industry.

By prior agreement, SAG and the studios’ bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, had planned to keep their sessions going through Friday, capping nearly three weeks of talks.

At midday, however, the two sides issued a brief notice saying they would “extend their negotiations on a day-to-day basis” through next Tuesday, with a day off on Sunday.

YTV rides the youth musical wave

Is it any wonder that Canada’s first mainstream musical on film is a Canadian nod to the tween High School Musical phenomenon?

YTV’s King of the Camp takes place during that very Canadian coming-of-age ritual: summer camp. It pits the snobby counsellors (rich city kids) against the feisty maintenance staff (local townies), and never the twain shall meet. At least, not until the new kitchen boy (played by Justin Stadnyk) falls for Cindy (Ashley Carter), one of the cuter camp leaders. But before things can fall into place, there are seven song and dance numbers and two ballads to watch.

Musicals “happen to be a hip genre right now,” says Jocelyn Hamilton, vice-president of content at Corus Kids, who adds that this is YTV’s first original movie. “We’re trying to be relevant at all times to what our audience is looking for.”

Since HSM took off in early 2006, followed by HSM 2 last summer, and now intense speculation over the feature-film end to the trilogy, YTV’s young-adult audience has been hooked on the musical. Much of the $118-million (U.S.) box-office success of last year’s Hairspray can be pegged to the already primed young audience, and its parents.