Matthew McConaughey has a well-deserved reputation for being a beefcake who likes to take his shirt off in front of a camera, but his role as Killer Joe (18s) suggests that he has much more to offer than pecs appeal.

'The Dullest Hour' would be a more fitting summation of Chris Gorak’s special effects-laden thriller, which witnesses a devastating alien attack from the perspective of five young people trapped in Moscow.

A man who tried to extort $1.3m (€879,000) from Tom Cruise in exchange for stolen wedding photographs of the actor and Katie Holmes was sentenced to two years’ probation today.

THE road-trip drama Into the Wild received a leading four Screen Actors’ Guild Awards nominations yesterday, including honours for lead actor Emile Hirsch and supporting players Hal Holbrook and Catherine Keener.

Penn, taking a true story about a man (Hirsch) who gives everything up to seek a new life in the wilderness, fashions a curious, yet endlessly fascinating, film of great visual beauty and deep human understanding.

Parts of New York’s World Trade Centre site will be searched again for remains of the September 11 dead after several bones were pulled out of an abandoned manhole this week.

More than two million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV, almost all in sub-Saharan Africa where there is no access to treatment and death is virtually guaranteed, seven leading child advocacy organisations said in a report yesterday.

Socialist Michelle Bachelet placed first in Chilean presidential elections yesterday but will face a runoff against a right-wing businessman who is one of Chile’s richest men.

The Girl Next Door stars Emile Hirsch, as Matt, a goody-goody high school senior with good grades and the world seemingly at his feet.

THERE’S a new Big Six in the grain market, after the Irish Competition Authority’s successful court case against half a dozen farmers, following an investigation into the IFA’s alleged “cartel” activities.

ABOUT 800 September 11 victims are likely never to be identified, the New York City medical examiner's office has said.

Pop Idol finalist Gareth Gates was praised for his choice of tune today by the man who first took the record-breaking song to the top of the charts, Jimmy Young.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani Saturday warned that some of the bodies of the 4,972 missing in the World Trade Center terrorist attack might never be found and announced a massive DNA matching program to help identify those that are recovered.