News Updates

Every year a new audience is introduced to "A Christmas Story," the 1983 movie about a Depression-era family that became an unlikely Christmas classic when TBS started playing it nearly around the clock every holiday season. Peter Billingsley memorably played Ralphie, the bespectacled blond boy who wanted just one thing for Christmas: a Red Ryder BB gun. Now Billingsley is all grown up and making movies himself, and talking in depth about "A Christmas Story" for the first time. Monday night, ABC's "Nightline" caught up with Billingsley on the occasion of the world premiere of "A Christmas Story: The Musical" in Seattle . Billingsley, who produced the musical and hopes it gains a wider audience in other cities, talked about the role that still gets him recognized on the street regularly. [ See also: Extreme holiday light displays ] "No one wanted to make it," Billingsley says of the film today. "It was, you kno...

You can hardly blame No. 37 Pearland (Texas) High for pulling out all the stops in its 28-24, upset victory over No. 5 ranked Euless Trinity (Texas) High in the Class 5A Division I state championship. After all, the Trojans entered as one of the nation's most feared and balanced teams, while undefeated Pearland has been an upstart throughout its postseason run. Besides, trick plays are all the rage , and the one the Oilers pulled off was an instant classic, as you can see below. That's right, Pearland sold a gimmick known as "The Dead Man" play so well that it successfully got a man-on-man matchup for their blazingly fast, huge wide receiver on the outside by simply pretending a play wasn't happening. And that touchdown was absolutely essential, too. The 54-yard pass from quarterback Trey Anderson to powerful wide receiver Sam Ukwyachu gave the Oilers a 21-10 lead in the third quarter , a hole big enough that Trinity could never fully recover. [ More ...

Carol Anne Riddell, the former TV reporter and one-half of the newlyweds who have been widely criticized for participating in a Sunday New York Times wedding feature that detailed how the couple had broken up their previous marriages in order to be together, said she regrets nothing. Riddell told Forbes on Tuesday : "We did this because we just wanted one honest account of how this happened for our sakes and for our kids' sakes. ... There was nothing in the story we were ashamed of." But now it seems like her groom, advertising executive John Partilla, has some misgivings --  about agreeing to let the Times profile him, that is. "I think if we had had an indication afterwards of the nerve it would have struck," he told Page Six , "we obviously would not have shared our life in any way publicly." As The Cutline's sibling blog, The Lookout, said on Monday , the Times' Vows column is "typically a place where the s...

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – Zara Phillips, the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth, is to marry England rugby player Mike Tindall, the royal family said Tuesday. No date was given for the wedding of 29-year-old Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips. The announcement comes a month after Prince William, the elder son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, said he would marry his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton in April. Complete coverage of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding on Yahoo! News Phillips was considered something of a "royal rebel" when she was younger, having her tongue pierced as a teen-ager. However she went on to follow in her mother's footsteps enjoying a successful horse riding career. In 2006, she won an individual gold on her horse Toytown at the World Equestrian Games in Germany, helped Britain win a team silver and was voted BBC sports personality of the year. ...

SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose above $90 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies dropped more than expected for a second week, which suggests demand is improving. Benchmark oil for February delivery was up 19 cents to $90.01 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 45 cents to settle at $89.82 on Tuesday. The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories fell 5.8 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had forecast a drop of 2.4 million barrels. Inventories of gasoline decreased 2.9 million barrels and distillates rose slightly, the API said. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday. The EIA said last week that supplies dropped 9.9 million barrels the previous week, the biggest drop in eight years. Oil price...

WASHINGTON – The Senate is poised to approve a nuclear arms pact with Russia, handing President Barack Obama a huge victory on his top foreign policy priority. Passage of the New START treaty appeared assured after 11 Republicans joined Democrats in a vote Tuesday to end debate on the pact. That signaled that Obama should have the two-thirds majority he needs when the Senate votes on final approval Wednesday. [ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ] The approval would mark a big comeback for Obama's arm controls efforts after the treaty appeared all but dead just weeks ago. It also would allow Obama to continue efforts to improve relations with Russia. Ratification would mark a third recent major political victory for Obama, even though his Democratic party was trounced in last month's congressional elections. In recent days he won passage of a bipartisan tax deal and a vote ending the ban on gays openly serving ...

In the greatest tennis carpool ever, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal drove together to an exhibition match in Zurich. Federer picked up the world's top-ranked player at the airport and took a jaunt through downtown before heading to the stadium. Nadal arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday morning for the first of two exhibition matches this week with Federer, his long-time rival. He was met on the airport runway by the all-time winningest Grand Slam champion and then hopped in Fed's red Mercedes SLS AMG with gullwing doors (retail price: around $200,000). [ Rewind: Nadal's $500,000 watch stolen from locker ]  The world's top-ranked players are competing in an exhibition on Tuesday afternoon in Zurich and then will fly to Madrid for another exhibition in Nadal's native Spain on Wednesday. Both matches will be broadcast by ESPN2 (Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. ET; Wednesday, 1 p.m. ET). Proceeds from the exhibitions will go the player...