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After the release of “The Twilight Saga: new Moon” fans everywhere were searching for ways to watch “New Moon” online. Pirated versions of the “New Moon” began floating around the Internet just hours after the film’s release. Some websites claimed fans could watch the film online for free after filling out a survey.the website Watchnewmoononline.org cropped up just hours after the film’s release.

According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), illegal distribution of films like “New Moon” take a heavy toll on the film industry. a total of $18.2 billion was lost due to pirated films being leaked online in 2005 alone. Copyright attorney Steve Englund says, “It is certainly illegal to put online copyrighted content like a telecast of a fight or a motion picture without authorization. It is a little more complicated question whether it is illegal to watch it when someone else has put it online.”

Spokesperson for the MPAA, Elizabeth Kaltman, told the “Chicago Sun-Times” that only a criminal “walk into Blockbuster or Wal-Mart or best Buy, wherever they’re selling or renting DVDs, take it off the shelf, put it under their arm and not pay for it.” However, the laws regarding ‘watching’ movies online (not actually distributing them) are blurry. What is clear, is that people who distribute pirated content over the Internet will be prosecuted.

If you really want to watch “New Moon” online, there will be perfectly legal ways to do so in the near future. when the original “Twilight” was released on DVD in the spring of 2009, the film was available through Video-On-Demand immediately. This means that legitimate services like Netflix will likely provide streaming online video when the “New Moon” DVD becomes available.

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Kellan Lutz wasn’t even in that much of Twilight but it was enough to get him obsessed fans. Emmett Cullen may have even less screen time inThe Twilight Saga: New Moon, but the second time around was easier for Lutz. “It’s nice to have that weight off your shoulders,” Lutz said. “I mean, we all are stepping in and giving a face to our characters, which fans already have celebrities, actors, who they envisioned as Emmett or Alice or Bella. It’s nice to have their support, so it’s a huge weight off our shoulders shooting New Moon and then Eclipse.”

Perhaps surprisingly, having a new director on board actually helped Lutz relax. “With having Chris Weitz who’s such a laidback, easygoing director who really had everything so organized, it trickles down. When we feel at ease, with knowing the scene and what he wants out of us and then allowing ourselves to go then to Chris and be like, ‘I want to try it this way’ or ‘what do you think of this?’ He’s so open to all our actors’ decisions. It’s nice to feel like an actor and not a robot. so it felt so easy.”

Not to say anything bad about Catherine Hardwicke. “I loved her. I’m not saying it like that.”

Even though Twilight was a popular franchise, the success of the films has exceeded Lutz’s expectations. “I think that’s what’s really cool. We didn’t know what this would become in a way. We were just actors who fell in love with a script and within doing that, it’s not like a [comic book] hero where you know Green Lantern or Captain America, whoever is that is gonna be famous right off the block. with us, we fell in love with our characters and kind of looked at this as just another job. I know for myself I didn’t know it was a book series. It’s just great to be a part of something for the reasons that we are a part of it.”

Even if paparazzi and fandom come along with that, Lutz has a healthy perspective. “So the paparazzi stops at my front gate. It’s usually kind of crazy have paparazzi step outside your house and the coolest thing with the Vancouver guys are they’re respectable, and they will just ask for a signature or photo and let us go about and go have a cast dinner away from set where we can feel human and we’re out of the white makeup and the contacts. It’s a double-edged sword. I mean, we’re blessed to be actors and have such a loving fan base and the fans are always so great, and they’re giving us presents, which is so crazy because we’re allowed to work because of them. the time they put into making dolls or buying gummi bears or anything like that, it’s very humbling. so it’s really nice to just have everyone who is respectful just understand that it’s a job at the end of the day. We aren’t really these characters in life, and just thank them for everything.”

Twilight is upon us! from the frenzy surrounding the release of the second movie in the smalltown-teen-vampire-romance series, you’d think someone had opened a vein.

The books in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series — Twilight, new Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn — have sold over 85 million copies — a rare home run these days for the publishing industry. the first film, grossed over $385 million domestically, making Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson household names (or, at least households with teenage girls in them), and making the smallish Summit Entertainment a sudden Hollywood powerhouse. the saga’s second installment, New Moon is set to break all kinds of records (if the media’s slavish drooling is any indication…or last night’s $23.6 million box office!). All signs point to this movie being an uber-super-gigatic-mega-hit. Really, it already is.

Like it or not — like any wildly popular series, Twilight has many haters — but the saga is part of our literary zeitgeist (swap “Volturi” for “Muggles” in the must-know nomenclature, and you’re on your way!). just like Harry Potter or Mad Men, I and my colleagues at Mediaite couldn’t help internally casting our favorite media figures as characters in the saga. (After all, if there’s any mythic creature that media characters resemble, we think “soulless vampires” and “werewolves” come pretty close.)

Jessica Gold Haralson, who is a crack expert in all things vampire and werewolf, broke it down and assembled a cast o’ characters including Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Ann Curry, Shep Smith, Anderson Cooper, Erin Andrews, Keith Olbermann and Meghan McCain (and wrote most of this introduction, too). Here’s her take on our immortal, blood-sucking media, Forks style. Warning to the faint of heart: R-Patz ahead.

Charlie Swan: Geraldo Rivera

He’s protective. He’s obsessed with crime. He just looks Dad-like. He’s got a moustache. Bella Swan’s overbearing pop, or Geraldo Rivera? Totes interchangable.

Renee Swan: Kathie Lee Gifford

Stephenie Meyer never explicitly states it in the series, but Bella’s mama is a hot mess. described as “erratic and scatterbrained,” she acts first and thinks later. We picture her as the kind of woman who would flirt inapropriately with Bella’s high school friends after one too many gin and tonics. she has the best intentions, though — but still, Bella is grown-up in that relationship. She’s loud, excitable, and somewhat incomprehensible at times. Sound like a certain 4th hour host to you? (Or at least the SNL version.)

Bella Swan: Ana Marie Cox

In the Twilight saga, almost everyone (except for some meanie vampires) loves Bella Swan. Young, lovely, but with attitude — sounds a lot like Ana Marie Cox, who spread the sunlight of blogging onto the Forks-style darkness of MSM political media. Okay maybe that’s reaching. But she’s maintained her outsider cred even while becoming one of them (oh look, there she is reviewing Palin’s book in the Washington Post!). Ana has way more spine than Twilight’s titular character (and swears more), but they certainly share the ability to collect fans: Cox is one of the top media folks on Twitter with 1.3 million followers and counting (ahead of Newt Gingrich, yo). and that little WaPo icon with Tucker Carlson almost looks like a Twilight poster.

>>>NEXT: Which media members represent the Cullen family? and who gets to be Taylor Lautner with his shirt off?

This post is has been slightly modified from the original posted at Mediaite.com, and continues there.

Follow Rachel Sklar on Twitter: twitter.com/rachelsklar

New Moon director plans to quit Hollywood

New York: new Moon director Chris Weitz, who should be brimming with excitement that his film is already a sell-out before its release, is instead planning to retire from Hollywood. the Oscar nominated film-maker who has made films like About a Boy and the Golden Compass has been put off by the bureaucracy of big movie studios and says he would rather spend his time relaxing and learning new skills, MovieMaker magazine reported. every time I make a movie, Im pretty much convinced its the last time I’m going to be able to do it and that really its a rather silly occupation to undertake. but I think I have maybe one more film in me, Weitz said.

Johnny Depp is once more, the Sexiest Man Alive

Los Angeles: Move over Robert Pattinson and Brad Pitt, the Pirate has struck again. Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp has been voted this year’s Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine. the 46-year-old actor replaced last years winner Hugh Jackman to grab the coveted title for a second time, reported the magazine online. the Pirates of the Caribbean actor who recently topped the list of the Highest Paid Hollywood Stars was also voted the Sexiest Man Alive in 2003. the star has now joined an elite club of two-time title holders with only actors Brad Pitt and George Clooney having matched the feat earlier. in an upset for teenage girls, Depp nudged aside Twilight hottie Robert Pattinson for the coveted title. Kate Coyne, senior editor at People, said, Johnny Depp was someone who was sexy 10 years ago. He’ll be sexy 10 years from now.

(CNN) — Are they or aren’t they a couple? That’s the multimillion-dollar question fueling the “Twilight” franchise.

According to gossip magazines, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have been hooking up, breaking up, making up and shacking up for the past year. And as long as Pattinson and Stewart manage to keep fans guessing about the status of their relationship, they will manage to keep them captivated, helping to drive the box office sales for a movie that could have one of the biggest opening weekends of all time.

“Rob and Kristen become significantly less interesting as they confirm their love. The intrigue over Rob and Kristen stems from their youthful lust, and passion, and on-and-off, whirlwind relationship,” said Jared Shapiro, executive editor of Life & Style Weekly, the first weekly magazine to put Rob and Kristen on their cover. “It’s part of the fascination, that while real, they are also part fantasy.”

Early on in the Rob-Sten (as MTV has begun to call them) mania, the pair issued denials of their love. Stewart claimed that in Rob she had found a “good buddy.” Rob joked that he had asked Kristen to marry him several times but she just kept denying him.

But the press just kept digging, and as “New Moon” and “Eclipse” began filming in Vancouver the press was voraciously searching for any evidence at all that Rob and Kristen were an item: overanalyzing hand-holding on set, a steamier-than-expected love scene. Some outlets even called in body language experts to decode what a foot placement or arm cross meant for their relationship status.

“I must say the more forthcoming they have been lately with their romance, the more satisfying it is for me as an editor,” Shapiro said.

As the opening of “New Moon” has gotten closer, jokes and denials have been replaced by radio silence and indignant how-dare-you-ask-me-thats.

Pattinson was ushered out of a radio interview this week by a handler after radio host Ryan Seacrest dared to ask him about his relationship with Stewart. Pattinson initially tried to work around the question but his staff, angry with Seacrest, gathered the star and told him his time was up.

Journalists who have been granted access to the stars prior to the movie’s release have been told by the film’s publicity team that they were not allowed to ask questions about their love life, especially when it comes to Pattinson and Stewart.

Stewart recently told Entertainment Weekly, “I probably would’ve answered [the romance question] if people hadn’t made such a big deal about it. But I’m not going to give the ‘fiending’ an answer.” (”Fiending” meaning celebrity press, of course.)

Bonnie Fuller, current editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com and former head of magazines such as US Weekly and Star, believes that Stewart and Pattinson are actually a couple, confirmed by photos of the pair holding hands in Paris that emerged last week, but said that the dialogue the romance has created has absolutely helped to fuel the frenzy around the franchise.

“I think the romance is real. Look at the paparazzi pictures of them holding hands. I don’t think they are a set-up,” Fuller said. “Of course it is going to boost ticket sales and I think the producers just had the fortunate situation of having had their stars falls for each other.”

Real or faux, on-set romances don’t always translate into dollars at the box office. Persistent rumors of a love affair between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on the set of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” generated enormous buzz for the film, which opened to more than $50 million in box office sales.

iReport: Share your reviews of “New Moon”

On the flip side, romantic ties between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez could have contributed to the disastrous performance of their joint project, “Gigli,” at the box office. “Gigli” generated only $3 million in its opening weekend.

“Co-star coupling is a mixed bag,” said Borys Kit, senior film writer for The Hollywood Reporter. “Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were dating when ‘Gigli’ became one of the biggest bombs of the decade because they were an unpopular couple to begin with. But on the flip side you had Brad Pitt and Angelina’s romance helping to make ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ a hit.”

This Rob-Sten relationship could be one of two things. it could be a complete fauxmance, with Rob and Kristen playing the part of lovers to raise fan curiosity and drive interest in their films — or they truly could have fallen in love, as so many actors have done before them, while spending endless hours together on the set.

Regardless of whether it is fauxmance or true romance, there is no denying that their refusal to discuss their romantic involvement just makes people hungry for more and drives them into the box office.

“Twilight” grossed more than $400 million in worldwide sales. “New Moon” had the most advance ticket sales of all time, according to online ticketer Fandango.com. The Hollywood Reporter projects that the film will make at least $85 million in its opening weekend.

“Whether they are dating or not is almost incidental at this point,” Kit said. ” ‘New Moon’ is going to be huge regardless of Rob and Kristen dating.”

After months of filming in rain-drenched Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, “New Moon” stars Nikki Reed and Kellan Lutz must have felt right at home in Manhattan as a persistent drizzle lingered over the city. but unlike shoots for their vampire romance, the onscreen duo stayed toasty and dry inside the Times Square Toys “R” Us greeting fans and signing autographs for the final leg of the “Twilight” mall tour.

About 500 lovely ladies and a few fellows (not a surprising ratio by now) waited for hours in a line that snaked around the block, with some like Julianne Castillo and Vanesa Rayes, both 18 from Jamaica, Queens, having been outside since before 6 a.m.

“We got up at four o’clcok in the morning. We were outside by 5:30 in the morning,” Julianne said. “We want to be the first ones on line. That’s when all the excitement is there from the actors. We want to have the energy on that paper.”

Employees helped anxious fans pass the time by posing “Twilight” trivia, with questions like: what is Edward’s vampiric power? Easy peasy, right? Winners were awarded a Volturi crest key chain, one of the many pieces of “Twilight” merchandise featured in the store’s massive shrine display on the second floor. brave fans willing to give up their spot in the queue could filter through the massive exhibit to admire Jacob and Bella’s dirt bikes from the sequel along with a set of Volturi thrones, in addition to the items they could actually take home with them like Edward Barbie dolls, life-size cardboard cut-outs and “New Moon” lunch boxes.

When Nikki and Kellan finally appeared above the crowd on the third floor catwalk, taking their places at the autograph signing table, it was clear from the screams and shrieks of delight that the hours of waiting in the rain had been worth it. unlike the other mall tours, Kellan and Nikki did not participate in a Q&a session, but fans seemed happy enough to get a glimpse of their favorite “Twilight” stars and take home a signed “New Moon” poster. “We love the ‘Twilight Saga,’ said Ivette Obando, 20, from new Jersey who attended the event with friend Jessica Roman, 22, from Harlem. “It’s right here in the city. it was easy.”

Press play below to hear what questions Nikki and Kellan actually want to be asked!

Don’t miss the rest of the stops on the tour Crush has covered, including Hollywood, Illinois, new Jersey, Minnesota , Atlanta. Boston and Phoenix.