Agent Mark Roesler released the following statement announcing the death of Bettie Page:

Los Angeles, December 11, 2008 – Bettie Page, sweet-smiling legendary 1950s pin-up queen with the killer curves and coal-black bangs, died today of pneumonia at a Los Angeles area hospital. She was 85 years old. She suffered a heart attack one week ago and never regained consciousness. Her popularity as an underground, guilty pleasures phenomenon has continued to soar despite the fact that the reclusive Page disappeared almost a half century ago, leading many to believe that one of the most photographed individuals of the 20th century was already dead.

As the model who many have argued raised cheesecake to an art, Page combined exuberant, wide-eyed innocence with confident, sometimes aggressive sexuality. VANITY FAIR praised the playfully seductive Page as “our Über-pin-up.” The NEW YORK TIMES has declared that today “her star shines more brightly than it did in her brief heyday from 1950 to 1957.” PLAYBOY immortalized Page as one of its inaugural centerfolds and recently named her “the model of the century, yet she remains one of its best kept secrets.” In a recent TVGuide.com poll, Bettie Page was voted the “ultimate sex goddess,” outscoring others such as Marilyn Monroe.

Born on April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee, Bettie (spelled “Betty” on her birth certificate) Mae Page was the second child of six born to Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle. The family was poor, moved often, and as a child, Page frequently found it necessary to take charge of her siblings. On several occasions they were dispatched to an orphanage. Life was hard. They were raised in the Church. Page owed her extraordinary looks and high intelligence to her parents, but it was a mixed blessing. Her mother did not want her. Her father molested her.

Page and her two sisters grew up movie fans who enjoyed acting out memorable scenes from whatever “picture show” they had just been to see. “I’ve been a movie hound my whole life,” Page said. “That’s how I started learning to pose, when my little sisters asked me to mimic photos of movie stars we’d seen in the magazines and newspapers.” They would experiment with different hairdos and makeup styles. At an early age Page learned to sew at the local community center; it was a skill with a practical application years later when she designed and made her own costumes, lingerie and bikinis to wear while modeling. She was the salutatorian of her high school graduating class. She was also program director of the dramatics club, secretary-treasurer of the student council, co-editor of the school’s newspaper and yearbook, and voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by her classmates. (more…)

Tonight, the Batman: The Brave and The Bold episode airing at 8 p.m., “Invasion of the Secret Santas”, introduces Red Tornado and the villainous Fun Haus.

Red Tornado will be a recurring hero and is voice by award winning Corey Burton, while Gary Anthony Williams (Boston Legal) guest stars as Fun Haus.

The synopsis:

In this week’s episode, the evil Fun Haus plans to steal Christmas with his army of robot Santas and killer toys including Dynamite Dolly and the Presto Play Pals!  Red Tornado teams up with Batman to save the day and in the process, finds his holiday spirit.  In our weekly teaser, Batman and Blue Beetle throw Sportsmaster a perfect strike when he sets up a deadly game with human bowling pins at the alley!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid will be directed by Thor Freudenthal (Hotel for Dogs) according to The Hollywood Reporter. Casting continues to find a fresh face to portray the junior high school student who writes the diary. There was an open call back in October with no teen yet selected.

The Fox 2000 film will be produced by Nina Jacobson.

Jeff Kinney’s  characters gained life on the web before Harry N. Abrams’ Charlie Kochman brought the stories to print.  There are now two books plus a related activity title already on sale.  The third book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, is due out in January.

The series tell of  “the life of pre-adolescent Greg Heffley, a smart aleck who frequently gets caught up in escapades at school and with his family.”

Top Cow Productions, Inc. announced Wednesday that due to popular demand, redesigned and rebranded hardcover copies of the Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 and The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 are scheduled to be in comic shops on December 17. Softcover editions will be available December. 24.

The Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 collects Witchblade issues #1-50 and a complete cover gallery. The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 collects The Darkness vol. 1 Preview and issues #½-40, Tales of The Darkness issues #½-4, Witchblade/The Darkness issue #½, The Darkness vol. 2 issue #1, The Darkness: Wanted Dead one-shot and a complete cover gallery. Both books are an impressive 1,280 pages, and both hardcover editions feature bonus posters on the reverse side of the slipcovers.

The books were first printed in 2006 and immediately sold out. Demand for more copies was high, which prompted Top Cow to reprint the books after a complete rebranding of the company’s entire trade paperback line was complete.

“It’s taken us a bit longer to get the Compendium’s back into print, but the redesigned look was well worth the wait,” said Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik. “Plus, the price cannot be beat. Fifty comics for 60 bucks! Just another way Top Cow is giving you more than the competition.”

Copies of the compendiums can be ordered through local comic shops using the following Diamond item numbers:

Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 Hardcover ($99.99)
Witchblade Compendium Vol. 1 Softcover ($59.99)
The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 Hardcover ($99.99)
The Darkness Compendium Vol. 1 Softcover ($59.99)
 

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who has been a part of every incarnation of her husband Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, has signed on to reprise her role as the computer voice in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek according to Variety.

As an actress, Majel Barrett was cast as Number One in the original television pilot but NBC had issues with a female as the second-in-command.  She was recast as Nurse Christine Chapel for the three seasons of the series and animated show that followed. She did a variety of voices for the show including the computer.

She reprised the computer voice for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.  Her voice work was also heard in the feature films and she appeared as Chapel in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: IV: The Voyage Home.

Barrett-Roddenberry also played Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9.

Not long before the buzz started on Watchmen, another graphic novel was also on just about everyone’s Must Read list, and it still is. Jeff Kinney’s Diary Of A Wimpy Kid is one of the cool comic creator success stories soon to be a major motion picture. In an exclusive interview, Jeff tells how it all got started and where The Kid really comes from,  plus:

• Batman Black & White on iTunes
• New Battlestar Webisodes
• Can you guess the #1 Most Awesome Sci Fi Themed Music Video? We bet you can’t!

All that and more – but only when you Press the Button!

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!

Tomoko Ninomiya’s Nodame Cantabile manga is moving to the big screen according to Variety. The story of a pianist and an apprentice conductor who have a torrid romance has already been a television series and the leads, Juri Ueno and Hiroshi Tamaki, will reprise their parts for two feature films according to Variety. Their television director Hideki Takeuchi will join them on the features.

Shooting on the first feature is scheduled to begin in May, taking the couple around Europe for five months. Toho and NTV anticipate releasing the first in December 2009 and the second feature the following spring.

The best-selling manga led to the television series in October 2006 and has been a growing success in Janapan.

NTV has produced a successful series of films based on Death Note and is shooting a trilogy,  20th Century Boys, based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga about “a convenience store clerk who discovers that the disastrous prophecies he wrote as a boy are coming true. The first part, released at the end of August, has earned $42 million.”

Deadline Hollywood reports that the Blu-ray edition of The Dark Knight sold 600,000 copies on Tuesday, its first day of release.

“By contrast, Marvel/Paramount’s Iron Man sold 250,000 Blu-ray discs when it premiered on September 30th and ended up selling 400,000 Blu-ray units in its first week,” Nikki Finke wrote.

The film had already been named the #1 movie downloaded via Apple’s iStore.

“The Dark Knight was not only 2008’s best DVD sales day, but is also likely to be 2008’s bestseller of the year by next week with a projected number of 7 million units,” she continued.

The film is poised to break the $1 billion at the global box office and continues to set records.  With a rerelease announced for January 23, the film will continue to generate huge profits.

With Awards season just beginning, the new is likely to continue.  Already today, Heath Ledger earned a posthumous Golden Globe nomination for his work as the Joker.