Los Angeles, Apr 19 (AP/UNB) —Actor Jason Momoa on Wednesday released a video in which he shaved off his signature beard and mustache in order to promote recycling. He started by saying farewell to his "Game of Thrones" and DC characters Drogo and Arthur Curry.

Momoa said he thought he last shaved in 2012.

The 39-year-old says he wanted to do it to "bring awareness that plastics are killing our planet." He says aluminum is the one thing that can save it and he promoted his own line of sparkling water in aluminum cans.

Momoa says "there's a change coming and it's aluminum."

The Environmental Protection Agency's most current data from 2015 showed nearly 55 percent of aluminum beer and soft drink cans were recycled compared to 30% of plastic bottles.

Los Angeles, Apr 18 (AP/UNB) — Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are officially single, though more work is left before the terms of their divorce are final.

Los Angeles Superior Court documents show that Judge John W. Ouderkirk entered a judgment Friday, saying the couple is no longer married. Her name was also restored to just Jolie, not Jolie Pitt.

The couple's lawyers had asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning that two married people can be declared single before all issues in the divorce are agreed upon.

It's not clear what issues remain unresolved in the divorce, but Jolie has filed papers saying Pitt wasn't paying sufficient child support, which his attorneys disputed.

The 43-year-old Jolie and the 55-year-old Pitt have six children. They were married in 2014, and Jolie filed for divorce in 2016.

Dhaka, Apr 16 (UNB) – ‘Bagania’ (Garden of Memories), a documentary by Humaira Bilkis, will be screened at the auditorium of Goethe-Institute on Thursday.

It will be screened at 5pm under the ‘Through Her Eyes’ initiative which provides a space to watch and discuss films with the country’s women filmmakers. It will be followed by a discussion.

Bilkis has used her long-term relationship with the migrated tea plantation workers of north-east Bangladesh as the subject matter of ‘Bagania’.

The Dhaka-based documentary filmmaker’s interest in filmmaking is anthropocentric and she interested in finding qualities in a non-fiction genre by using creative treatment of actuality.

Currently, she is working on her documentary ‘Bilkis and Bilkis’ based on her relationship with her mother in the changing context of Bangladeshi society.

Los Angeles, Apr 16 (AP/UNB) — Georgia Engel, who played the charmingly innocent, small-voiced Georgette on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and amassed a string of other TV and stage credits, has died. She was 70.

Engel died Friday in Princeton, New Jersey, said her friend and executor, John Quilty. The cause of death was unknown because she was a Christian Scientist and didn’t see doctors, Quilty said Monday.

“I know the world will be sad and sorry. She touched so many people,” said her agent, Jacqueline Stander.

Engel was best known for her role as Georgette on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” the character who was improbably destined to marry pompous anchorman Ted Baxter, played by Ted Knight.

Engel also had recurring roles on “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Hot in Cleveland.” She was a five-time Emmy nominee, receiving two nods for the late Moore’s show and three for “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

She was “the sweetest, kindest, dearest woman. And crazy talented. I will miss her,” Valerie Bertinelli, who starred in “Hot in Cleveland,” said in a Twitter post.

Georgia Bright Engel was born in July 1948 in Washington, D.C., to parents Benjamin, a Coast Guard officer, and Ruth Engel. She studied theater at the University of Hawaii.

Her prolific career included guest appearances on a variety of series, including “The Love Boat,” ″Fantasy Island,” ″Coach” and “Two and a Half Men.” Her “Hot in Cleveland” role reunited her with Betty White, her co-star in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1972-77) and “The Betty White Show” (1977-78).

Engel appeared on Broadway in plays and musicals including “Hello, Dolly!”, “The Boys from Syracuse” and, most recently, “The Drowsey Chaperone” in 2006-07. She starred in an off-Broadway production of “Uncle Vanya” in 2012.

Engel could be as upbeat as the fictional Georgette, as was demonstrated during a panel discussion last year promoting the 2018 PBS special, “Betty White: First Lady of Television.”

She recalled that a possible “Everybody Loves Raymond” spinoff set to include her and Fred Willard never come to fruition, which she called a great disappointment.

“But if that hadn’t happened,” she said, “I wouldn’t have been able to star” in writer-actor Bob Martin’s “Drowsey Chaperone,” which led to her custom-tailored role in Martin’s “Half Time.” The musical, about older adults who school themselves in hip hop to perform in half-time shows, was staged in New Jersey last year.

“It’s given me such joy,” said Engel, who had hoped to see it move to Broadway.

Her real-life voice was as sweet as the one familiar from her screen roles. “What you see is what you get. That’s not a character voice — that’s our girl,” a smiling White said in a 2012 interview with Engel, calling her a “pure gold” friend and colleague.

Engel’s final credited television appearance came last year in the Netflix series “One Day at a Time.”

Funeral services for Engel, whose survivors include her sisters Robin Engel and Penny Lusk, will be private, Quilty said.
 

"No one is ever really gone," says the voice of Luke Skywalker in the first teaser trailer for "Star Wars: Episode IX," which audiences finally learned will be called "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" Friday at a fan event in Chicago.

The closely guarded film from director J.J. Abrams will put an end to the Skywalker saga that began over 40 years ago, but even as characters and actors have passed on, the footage shown at Star Wars Celebration suggests that as with all "Star Wars" films, death is just a technicality a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Mark Hamill's Skywalker may have died at the end of the most recent installment but his voice dominates the teaser trailer, telling someone, possibly Daisy Ridley's Rey, that, "this is your fight now." And audiences got a tantalizing tease from another figure from the past: Emperor Palpatine from the original and prequel trilogies, whose ominous laugh closes out the promotional spot.

Carrie Fisher's Leia Organa is back as well, despite the actress's untimely passing in Dec. 2016, thanks to unused footage from "The Force Awakens" which Abrams was able to craft into its own narrative for this new film.

"You can't just recast and you can't just have her disappear," Abrams said. "The idea of having a CG character wasn't even an option."

He's currently in the process of editing and adding visual effects to the film which will hit theaters on Dec. 20 and said that despite Fisher's death, "We're working with her every day."

"Princess Leia lives in this film in way that is mind-blowing to me," Abrams said.

Abrams was joined on stage at the event by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and actors and droids alike including Ridley, Oscar Isaac (Poe), John Boyega (Finn), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), newcomer Naomi Ackie, who plays a character named Jannah, Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and even Billy Dee Williams, who reprises his role as Lando Calrissian in the new film after decades away.

"How did I find Lando again?" Williams said. "Lando never left me."

"Star Wars" superfan Stephen Colbert moderated the panel, doing his best to get the tight-lipped cast and creators to reveal anything about the film. Although no one cracked under pressure, Abrams did reveal some previously known details, like the fact that "The Rise of Skywalker" will pick up "some time" after the events of "The Last Jedi."

"This is an adventure that the group goes on together," he teased, although he wouldn't reveal whether or not that meant the group on stage or some other combination.

"This movie is about this new generation and what they've inherited, the light and the dark," Abrams added. "As they face this greatest evil, are they prepared?"

Besides Hamill, another person who wasn't in attendance was Kylo Ren actor Adam Driver. Ren is the son of Han Solo and Leia, making him and his mother the only known Skywalkers left.

When prodded about what will happen with the complex relationship between Kylo and Rey, Ridley demurred, "I guess the Kylo and Rey thing, we'll have to see."

She added: "I think I can confirm there are no more semi-naked Kylos." That's a reference to the scenes of a shirtless Driver in "The Last Jedi" that surprised fans.

Although fans are salivating for any morsel of information, the panelists stayed as vague as possible, and kept things light-hearted debating questions like "who's a better pilot: Poe or Han" and even taking a break so that the audience could sing an unprompted Happy Birthday to Ridley, who turned 27 on Wednesday.

Kennedy, quoting George Lucas, said however that "Episode IX" is indeed the third act of a three-act structure.

But, predictably, there are still more questions than answers when it comes to "The Rise of Skywalker," especially what will come after.

The Lucasfilm and Disney collaboration has proved to be a lucrative one since Disney purchased the company in 2012 for $4 billion. Disney's first two "Star Wars" films, "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi" and its spinoffs, "Rogue One" and "Solo," have already grossed more than $4.8 billion at the worldwide box office.

As of now, there is a future for "Star Wars" on the big screen, but details are sparse and dates are non-existent. "The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson is working on a new "Star Wars" trilogy and "Game of Thrones" showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are also at work on a "movie series."

Lucasfilm is expanding its small screen universe too beyond "The Clone Wars" with the Jon Favreau-directed series "The Mandalorian," which will be available on Disney's streaming service, DisneyPlus, when it launches on Nov. 12, and there will be a "Rogue One" spinoff series focused on Diego Luna's character Cassian Andor. With the company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox's entertainment properties, too, Lucas' original trilogy and prequels will also be available on the service.

But who's got time to think about the future when there are over two minutes of brand new footage from "The Rise of Skywalker" to dissect?