Niki Taylor Gives Birth to Fourth Child

Niki Taylor It's a boy -- again -- for Niki Taylor. The model and her husband, former NASCAR driver Burney Lamar, welcomed a son on Wednesday, People reports. Niki Taylor expecting baby No. 4 Rex Harrison was born at 11:03 a.m. and weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces. No word on what inspired the name, but Rex Harrison is also the famed actor who played Prof. Henry Higgins in the big-screen adaptation of My Fair Lady. Baby Rex joins sister Ciel, who's 2 1/2, and 16-year-old twin brothers Jake and Hunter, who are Taylor's children from a previous marriage. Taylor wed Lamar in December 2006. What do you think of the name Rex Harrison?

'Oz' Munchkin Karl Slover dies

Karl Slover, who performed among the Munchkins in 1939 classic film "The Wizard of Oz," died Tuesday in Dublin, Ga. He was 93.Some-feet-5 Slover performed charge trumpeter within the Munchkins' band.He made an appearance in a "Wizard of Oz" festival in Chesterton, Ind., in September and signed autographs.A local of what's the Czech Republic, Slover was 2 ft tall at 8, and the father sent him to operate inside a traveling show. He transformed his surname from Kosiczky to Slover, the title from the family that possessed the circus where he labored, and grew to become a united states citizen in 1943.Slover, who had been 21 when he made an appearance in "The Wizard of Oz," also had roles in "They Gave Him a Gun" (1937), classic screwball comedy "Discussing Baby" (1938), "Block-Heads" (1938) and all sorts of-midget Western "The Terror of Small Town" (1938) he performed an infant a couple of years later in Billy Wilder's classic alcoholic-bender film "The Lost Weekend" (1945).A lot more lately, Slover made looks in many "Oz"-related documentaries, including "We are Off and away to Begin to see the Munchkins" (1993), "I Married a Munchkin" (1994) and "Reminiscences of Oz" (2001). Younger crowd made an appearance on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "Entertainment Tonight."(Connected Press led for this report.) Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

Craig Josephson steers sci-fi pic

Upright Films has joined with producer Craig Josephson with an untitled sci-fi project with brothers and sisters David and Ian Purchase pointing. Script has been composed by Edward and Chris Borey ("Continue") with Upright financing the expansion. Particulars are now being stored under systems. Upright partners Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen will produce alongside Josephson. Annie Marter, who introduced the project to Upright, will professional produce together with Alexander Youthful for Josephson Entertainment. The Acquisition siblings directed video clip "Avoid City 17." "We are very centered on developing studio-quality fare and saw this like a great chance to jump in a top quality project in the ground-up,Inch Cohen stated. Josephson created "Enchanted" and "Existence as you may know It."CAA reps the Boreys and also the Purchases. It'll represent the film's distribution privileges. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Lightning strikes with 'Columbus,' 'Brake'

Lightning Entertainment has sold multiple territories for its thriller "Columbus Circle" and its Stephen Dorff actioner "Brake."Deals were announced Sunday at the American Film Market."Columbus Circle," directed by George Gallo and starring Selma Blair, Amy Smart, Giovanni Ribisi, Jason Lee and Kevin Pollak, centers on a reclusive young heiress who's endangered when she's befriended by the glamorous new owners of the apartment next door. Telemunchen bought all rights to German-speaking markets; Key2media bought TV for Spain; and Fox/Star TV bought pay TV for Pan Asia.Nonstop bought all Scandinavia rights to "Brake" and BooGee snagged all Korean rights. BooGee also bought Korean rights to horror-thriller "Bloodwork," which also sold in Benelux to Three Lines Pictures.Quality Filmes bought all Latin American rights to action comedy "Cat Run" excluding Brazil, where it sold DVD rights. Eagle Films acquired all rights for the Middle East for "Brake, "Bloodwork," "Boy Wonder," "The Trouble with Bliss," "Top Cat," and "Wrath" along with a presale on Andrew Traucki's "The Jungle." Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Jane Fonda within the court docket of Law Suit

An Edgemar Center for your Arts presentation from the play by 50 percent functions written and directed by Terry Jastrow. Co-director, Michelle Danner. Sets, Chris Stone costumes, Raffel Sarabia lighting, Juliet Klanchar. Opened up up March. 14, 2011. Examined November. 5. Running time: 105 MIN.Jane Fonda - Anne Archer With: Terrence Beasor, Robert Promote, Mark Gadbois, James Giordano, Jonathan Kells Phillips, Chauntae Pink, Ben Shields, Don Swayze, Steve Voldseth.It's a mixed verdict for "Jane Fonda within the court docket of Law Suit.In . The actress's little-known, unrecorded 1988 confrontation with veterans still furious at "Hanoi Jane" is imagined by author Terry Jastrow as type of a canned documentary pageant, with stock types mouthing attitudes rather than figures growing and changing. The evening never quite catches fire, but just like a primer round the Vietnam era fitness center abroad it's pretty interesting, probably especially so for people who never were living through it. Production's ace inside the hole can be a riveting range of film clips broadcast overhead - contemporary news reviews footage in the infamous excursions to North Vietnam - to help bring time to vivid existence, itself almost justifying a vacation to the Edgemar Center for your Arts. Nevertheless the dramatic event is pallid. Waterbury, Conn. protesters would flummox local location shooting in the P Niro co-starrer "Stanley & Iris." The pic got made as planned signifies something fundamental happened through the June 18 powwow at St. Michael's Episcopal Chapel, but Jastrow's version doesn't really convince. It's too chronologically structured, more Robert's-Rules-tidy than we'd expect connected having a true-to-existence verbal brawl. Had less vets been incorporated in this particular version in the meeting, it might have been better to assign them identifiable personas and distinct viewpoints. Since it is, the seven antagonists - believably impersonated with the ensemble selected by Jastrow and co-director Michelle Danner - remain largely a blur. Each alternates between antagonism and sympathy toward Fonda (Anne Archer) in manners impossible to chart. Archer herself can be a rather one-dimensional Joan of Arc, ringingly re-creating such famous moments since the "Klute" Oscar acceptance and Tokyo, japan, japan Rose-tinged broadcast from Hanoi. But though reliability and regret come through in virtually equal measure, Fonda just like a character could not make any more genuine discoveries through the running time in comparison towards the ex-soldiers. Everything feels designed, the developments pre-processed. Round the evidence here, the entire incident boiled lower to individuals lyrics from Vietnam-era pop hit "Achieve In the Darkness": "I understood a man which i did not be mindful ofOrAnd eventually this person afflicted me with a call/We sitting and discussed things on our mind/Now this person he's a buddy.In . A cheerful sentiment, while not a very scintillating anyone to witness being carried out out. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Warner Bros. Hires Michael Starrbury to Rewrite 'Fully Automatic' Script (Exclusive)

Michael Starrbury has been hired to rewrite Fully Automatic, an action movie from Silver Pictures set up at Warner Bros. The project, set up as a spec by Randy Feldman in 2002, centers on two smart-mouthed rookie cops who team up with a female Delta Force operative to stop a mercenary who's stolen a cache of weapons. The project is aimed to be in the tone of a classic buddy action movie but made for today's audiences. Joel Silver and Andrew Rona are producing with Silver Pictures' Alex Heineman and Ethan Erwin exec producing. The interesting aspect here is Starrbury who, unlike many other screenwriters, is ratcheting up a screenwriting career in his 30s and while living in Minneapolis, MN, as opposed to being in his 20s and living in a guest house in Los Angeles. In between dropping his two kids off at school, Starrbury, repped by CAA, Caliber Media Co and attorney Rob Szymanski, has sold a half-hour comedy pitch to ABC with Peter Tolan and Michael Wimer producing and before that, developed a pilot at Comedy Central called Black Jack that Rough House produced and David Gordon Green directed. His big break came when he wrote an indie drama titled The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, and which caught the attention of George Tillman. Tillman is making it his next directorial effort and will shoot it in spring 2012. Now, with Fully Automatic, Starrbury has jumped into the studio world. Silver Pictures, meanwhile, is behind next months' Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows and Project X, a comedy it produced with Todd Phillips which opens in March. Warner Bros.

Downton Abbey Bought for just about any Third Season

Donton Abbey Much like Season 2 of Downton Abbey reaches its conclusion inside the U.K., Britain's ITV introduced Thursday it's commissioned another season of eight episodes. [Spoiler alert: The following includes particulars about Season 3's period of time.] Downton Abbey 2 Spoilers: Mary and Matthew's relationship, a completely new housemaid as well as the Great War Season 3 continues the adventures in the Crawley family in addition to their servants throughout 1920-21. It's prone to air sometime next season. Inside the U.K., the second season finale airs Sunday, but American audiences will have to hold off until Sunday, Jan. 8 to even begin watching Season 2, that's set round the First World War. The initial season in the series was became a member of to the TV movie/miniseries Emmy category and won several Emmys, including ones for Maggie Cruz, Elizabeth McGovern, Costuming, Pointing, Cinematography, Writing, Appear Editing, Single-Camera Editing, Casting, Art Direction and Outstanding Miniseries. Are you currently presently psyched for additional Downton Abbey along the way?