Who's in

Zhang back in uniform

Rising star Zhang Hanyu, who spearheaded the band of brothers in Assembly (Jijie Hao), which grabbed 260 million yuan ($36 million) at the domestic box office, is to be an officer again in The Cold Flame (Feng Huo).

Set to premiere on March 7, the film tells the story of an officer and a 14-year-old girl in the chaos of war in 1944. Zhang said his role in Assembly was like strong liquor, while Cold Flame is more like a cup of green tea in the morning. The former has a strong impact visually and mentally, while the latter is more comfortable and cozy.

Zhang took the role in 2005, two years before he starred in Feng Xiaogang's Assembly. The art house film with a budget of only 2 million yuan ($270,000) was not intended as a cinema release, until Zhang rose to prominence in Assembly.

Britney reunited with sons

For the first time in nearly two months, the beleaguered pop star had face-to-face contact with sons Sean Preston and Jayden James, on Saturday morning, a court-monitored visit, sources confirm to E! News.

The boys, who have primarily resided at Federline's home in Tarzana since October, were packed into his gray Dodge Viper truck by a bodyguard and shuttled to Spears' home on the Studio City-Beverly Hills border around 9 am.

The visit lasted until noon, at which point the boys were driven back to Federline's, wearing smiles on their faces.

Aside from Spears and a court-appointed monitor, there were several other key personnel on hand, including: Britney's father, Jamie Spears, a Federline security guard, and a lawyer from the Luce Forward law firm, which is handling Britney's conservatorship for Jamie Spears.

According to an insider, the 26-year-old pop star was not permitted to take the boys, ages 2 and 1, into another room without the others watching.

The ground rules for the visitation were hammered out on Friday night, by lawyers for Luce Forward and ex-husband Kevin Federline.

"None of this would have happened if Jamie Spears had not been involved. That's for sure," Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told E! News. "He gets a lot of credit for helping make this happen. But we've worked very hard with the conservator lawyers, as well, to make this all work."

Raspberries for Lohan, Murphy

Eddie Murphy and Lindsay Lohan were crowned the worst actors of 2007 at the Golden Raspberry Awards on Saturday and, perhaps not surprisingly, neither star showed up to accept the spoof Oscars.

For their lack of acting prowess, the veteran comic and the young actress with the hard-living reputation each won three gold spray-painted Razzie trophies worth $4.89 each.

The annual honors were announced by the Golden Raspberry Foundation at a presentation that pokes fun at the Academy Awards ceremony that is to be held on Sunday.

In a camp opening number, Dan Campbell and Paula Einstein donned '50s dresses and black "beehive" hairdos and sang: "The worst of last year are trembling with fear," and throughout the show clips were shown of the biggest Hollywood howlers of 2007.

Murphy, who starred in the critically savaged comedy Norbit, set a record by winning three of the four worst acting categories. Despite bad reviews, moviegoers turned out for the film, which took in $158 million at worldwide box offices, based mostly on Murphy's popularity.

Lohan won two worst actress awards for playing twins in I Know Who Killed Me, a film that was named worst of the year.

She also won worst screen couple for a scene in which she appears opposite herself in the tale about psychically linked siblings stalked by a serial killer.

I Know Who Killed Me, a major box office flop with a $9 million take worldwide, won eight of nine Raspberries for which it was nominated, breaking a record of seven wins previously held by Showgirls and Battlefield Earth.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 02/26/2008 page18)