The Daily Dish: April 20

--Lawsuit rumour casts a brief shadow over New Moon. It had been reported by several US sites that producers have been forced to halt production of the highly anticipated Twilight sequel amid accusations of plagiarism aimed at author Stephenie Meyer. However, the author has taken to her personal website to refute the claims saying "I am not being sued. No one has contacted me or my publisher to inform either of us that I'm being sued. I never had a roommate named Heidi. There is no professor in the BYU English department named Dr. Peter Benton (though there is a character on ER by that name). And most of all, I began writing Twilight exactly the way I've told people in countless interviews and events for the past six years: I had a cool dream, I wrote it down, writing it down was really fun, so I kept writing until I had a whole book." So despite rumours to the contrary, filming of the latest film continues uninterrupted and thousands of Twi-hards everywhere breathe a collective sigh of relief.

--Hollywood’s Top Comedians. Forbes magazine has released its list of the most bankable comedy stars and while the economy might be teetering on the brink, all of them continue to pull in impressive numbers of fans to theatres. Adam Sandler gets top spot honours, followed by Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey, Vince Vaughn, Steve Carell, Eddie Murphy, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jack Black and, rounding out the top ten, Robin Williams. Notice something interesting about the names (or genders) of the people on that list? That’s right! No female comedians (Tina Fey, Anna Faris, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks, and Leslie Mann all come to mind) managed to crack the list this year proving that, in Hollywood at least, all things aren’t really all that equal

--SAG members vote for the show to go on. A major strike has temporarily been averted as the entertainment industry’s largest union, the Screen Actors Guild, has reached a tentative deal with Hollywood studios. The Guild directors approved the two-year deal (by a very slim voting margin) with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers which would see an annual 3% pay increase, as well as increased overtime pay. The deal will also see union members sharing in the profits from new media sales, a major sticking point in the year-long negotiations (and one of the key factors in last year’s WGA strike). Things aren’t in the clear yet though, as the deal must still be ratified by the majority of SAG members from across the country. The results of their ballot voting will be made public at the end of May.