Around The Arts

LOS ANGELES -- Appearing as a Bond girl has proven to be no jinx for Halle Berry, who may be in a spinoff movie featuring the character she plays in the latest 007 outing, "Die Another Day."\nMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer is seriously considering featuring Berry's tough-talking, gadget-toting female spy character "Jinx" in a film of her own. It would mark the first time a Bond movie has generated a spinoff. \nBerry has already agreed to reprising her role and the film's producers, who tightly control the Bond pictures, have given their blessings, according to the trade newspaper Variety. \n"Die Another Day," starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, will be released in theaters on Nov. 22\n'Sopranos' stars to host VH1 Awards\nLOS ANGELES -- Drea de Matteo and Michael Imperioli of "The Sopranos" will host the offbeat VH1 Big in 2002 Awards. \nThe Dec. 15 award ceremony pays tribute to "those moments and people that captivated and inspired us in 2002," according to the cable channel. \nCategories include "Can't Get You Out of My Head," honoring the year's most ubiquitous song, and "Been Caught Scene Stealin," which picks the most unexpected stand-out movie performance. \nIn the "Strange But True" category, nominees include "The Anna Nicole Show," "The Osbournes," "Crossing Over With John Edward," "The Pet Psychic" and "True Hollywood Story." \nWinners are decided by a panel of "tastemakers" from the fields of entertainment, sports and government, along with pop culture consumers, VH1 said. Five categories, including ubiquitous song, are decided by online voting. \nPirated Potter film possibly online\nLOS ANGELES -- Days before the premiere of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,'' the film's producer said it fears pirated copies are showing up on the Internet. \nWarner Bros. said in a statement Tuesday that an illegal copy of the film has appeared on the Internet, which often contains bootleg copies of films, even before they hit theaters. \nThe studio later retracted the statement in a phone call to The Associated Press, saying reports of bootleg copies hadn't been substantiated, but an AP search discovered what appeared to be the movie available on a site hosted in Europe. \nAccording to the site, the film had been downloaded more than 500 times already. Because it takes hours to download such files it was not immediately possible to verify that they contained the movie. \n"The illegal copying and distribution of movies is theft," the studio said. "Warner Bros. takes the threat of Internet piracy very seriously and employs all legal means to contain the unauthorized copying and distribution of our films on the Internet"