John Travolta

METUCHEN, N.J. - Robert Hegyes, the actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show "Welcome Back Kotter," has died. He was 60. A spokesman at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Mr. Hegyes, of Metuchen, arrived yesterday morning in full cardiac arrest and died. Mr. Hegyes was acting on Broadway in 1975 when he auditioned for "Kotter," a television series about a teacher who returns to the urban New York school of his youth to teach irreverent remedial students nicknamed the Sweathogs.

Actor John Travolta plans to donate a jet plane to a museum in central Georgia. Robins Air Force Base spokeswoman Chrissy Miner says the actor will donate a G-2 Gulfstream executive jet to the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. Museum officials say Travolta, who is a pilot, is donating the plane in honor of his son Jett, who died in 2009. Miner tells the Telegraph newspaper in Macon (http://bit.ly/KYnzY) the plane is now in central Georgia.

Boston-born actor Ben Foster has been tapped to play John Gotti Jr. in the upcoming Barry Levinson film, "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father. " It was rumored the role might be offered to Dominic Cooper , of "Mamma Mia!" fame, but Foster won out. The 30-year-old will star in "Gotti" with Al Pacino , John Travolta , and Kelly Preston .

METUCHEN, N.J. - Robert Hegyes, the actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show "Welcome Back Kotter," has died. He was 60. A spokesman at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Mr. Hegyes, of Metuchen, arrived yesterday morning in full cardiac arrest and died. Mr. Hegyes was acting on Broadway in 1975 when he auditioned for "Kotter," a television series about a teacher who returns to the urban New York school of his youth to teach irreverent remedial students nicknamed the Sweathogs.

AVATAR James Cameron’s long-game gamble pays off — for the most part. The film creates a planet called Pandora, a race of tall, blue cat-people called the Na’vi, and gives them both a dazzlingly colorful rain forest reality — part Rousseau, part George Lucas on inhalants. The 60 percent of the film that comes from the computer is tantalizingly realistic; the roughly 40 percent that’s live action is less convincing. With Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Zoe Saldana.

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey, and in “Old Dogs,’’ we have the season’s blue-ribbon gobbler. A pitiful family comedy about two aging buddies forced to play daddy, it looks exactly like what you’d get if Robin Williams and John Travolta went out, got hammered, scrawled scenes on a bar napkin in random order, gave the napkin to “Wild Hogs’’ director Walt Becker, and filmed it. Trust me, you could do this at home and...

John Travolta adores being John Travolta. He adores himself to smithereens. As if we needed any reminder of this, there’s “From Paris With Love,’’ a collection of explosions and shoot-outs duct-taped to a terrorism plot. This is the sort of asinine action exercise that needs a star to blow up cars and leap from rooftop to rooftop with gusto. So right about the time that Travolta curses out the Charles De Gaulle customs staff, we know this movie has found a reason to be. It’s not simply that Travolta speaks.

With his carefully tended hair, tight trousers and perfect harmonies, Robin Gibb, along with his brothers Maurice and Barry, defined the disco era. As part of the Bee Gees — short for the Brothers Gibb — they created dance floor classics like "Stayin Alive," ''Jive Talkin'," and "Night Fever" that can still get crowds onto a dance floor. The catchy songs, with their falsetto vocals and relentless beat, are familiar pop culture mainstays. There are more than 6,000 cover versions of the Bee Gees hits, and they are still heard on dance floors and at...

NEW YORK — There's an uncomfortable question that rears its sleekly pomaded, well-moisturized, and immaculately trimmed head throughout Morgan Spurlock's new documentary "Mansome," and the answer is not pretty. Are men more vain in 2012 than any previous point in history? The answer: A resounding yes. "We've created this society where what you project externally matters, almost more than anything else," says Spurlock after a screening of "Mansome" in New York last month.

John Travolta's vintage Mercedes sports car has been stolen. Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis tells the Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/oQYJRn) that thieves had about a 10-minute window to make off with the 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280-SL. Lewis says Travolta parked the car on a residential street in Santa Monica Sunday afternoon and stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership for about 10 minutes. When he returned, he found an empty parking spot and no sign of the car. The car was parked in a residential area, and it's not known if the theft was...

John Travolta's vintage Mercedes sports car has been stolen. Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis tells the Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/oQYJRn) that thieves had about a 10-minute window to make off with the 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280-SL. Lewis says Travolta parked the car on a residential street in Santa Monica Sunday afternoon and stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership for about 10 minutes. When he returned, he found an empty parking spot and no sign of the car. The car was parked in a residential area, and it's not known if the theft was captured on video.

Boston-born actor Ben Foster has been tapped to play John Gotti Jr. in the upcoming Barry Levinson film, "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father. " It was rumored the role might be offered to Dominic Cooper , of "Mamma Mia!" fame, but Foster won out. The 30-year-old will star in "Gotti" with Al Pacino , John Travolta , and Kelly Preston .

AVATAR James Cameron’s long-game gamble pays off — for the most part. The film creates a planet called Pandora, a race of tall, blue cat-people called the Na’vi, and gives them both a dazzlingly colorful rain forest reality — part Rousseau, part George Lucas on inhalants. The 60 percent of the film that comes from the computer is tantalizingly realistic; the roughly 40 percent that’s live action is less convincing. With Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Zoe Saldana.

John Travolta adores being John Travolta. He adores himself to smithereens. As if we needed any reminder of this, there’s “From Paris With Love,’’ a collection of explosions and shoot-outs duct-taped to a terrorism plot. This is the sort of asinine action exercise that needs a star to blow up cars and leap from rooftop to rooftop with gusto. So right about the time that Travolta curses out the Charles De Gaulle customs staff, we know this movie has found a reason to be. It’s not simply that Travolta speaks.

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey, and in “Old Dogs,’’ we have the season’s blue-ribbon gobbler. A pitiful family comedy about two aging buddies forced to play daddy, it looks exactly like what you’d get if Robin Williams and John Travolta went out, got hammered, scrawled scenes on a bar napkin in random order, gave the napkin to “Wild Hogs’’ director Walt Becker, and filmed it. Trust me, you could do this at home and...

Actor John Travolta plans to donate a jet plane to a museum in central Georgia. Robins Air Force Base spokeswoman Chrissy Miner says the actor will donate a G-2 Gulfstream executive jet to the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. Museum officials say Travolta, who is a pilot, is donating the plane in honor of his son Jett, who died in 2009. Miner tells the Telegraph newspaper in Macon (http://bit.ly/KYnzY) the plane is now in central Georgia.