Kate Hudson

Marian Caldwell has it all. Kind of. At 36, she's the executive producer of a scripted TV show. She's dating the handsome CEO of her network. And she has an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. But Marian also has problems. Among them: The girl she gave up for adoption 18 years ago has just walked back into her life, and she has some questions - questions that will bring up secrets buried deep in Marian's past. So begins "Where We Belong," Emily Giffin's sixth novel, which debuted in late July and zoomed to the best-seller lists, just like her five previous works.

Marian Caldwell has it all. Kind of. At 36, she's the executive producer of a scripted TV show. She's dating the handsome CEO of her network. And she has an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. But Marian also has problems. Among them: The girl she gave up for adoption 18 years ago has just walked back into her life, and she has some questions - questions that will bring up secrets buried deep in Marian's past. So begins "Where We Belong," Emily Giffin's sixth novel, which debuted in late July and zoomed to the best-seller lists, just like her five previous works.

Thankfully, Fool's Gold doesn't live down to its name. Engaging though flimsy, lively though occasionally tone-deaf, it's a movie that thrives on the strength of its affable co-stars and a sense of adventure that provides just enough brio to get audiences through some energy-sapping rough spots. Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson - whose last movie together, 2003's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, brought in more than $100 million at the domestic box office - once again get to play mismatched partners.

Eight and a half reasons "Nine" is a mixed bag: One:: It's underweight. Based on Fellini's exhilarating "8 1/2," "Nine" contains a fraction of the story material even a simple show such as "Chicago" handed its cinematic adapters. On Broadway, with Raul Julia starring in the original, beautiful Tommy Tune staging, "Nine" moved so fluidly you didn't notice what wasn't there. Same with the starring Antonio Banderas. Two:: The movie is shot and edited like a two-hour trailer for itself.

It sounds like the stuff of movies - including Fool's Gold, which is still in theaters - but there really are people who hunt for sunken treasure off the Florida coast and throughout the Caribbean Sea. In fact, a group of treasure hunters from Miami will set sail next week to salvage the Spanish galleon Concepcion somewhere off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Burt Webber Jr., who located the ship in 1978 and recovered $14 million in booty, is leading a 13-member crew that hopes to recover the rest of a treasure that could be valued as high as $100 million.

Starring Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway. Directed by Gary Winick. Released by 20th Century Fox. $29.95; blu-ray $39.95 * (1 star) dvds Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway are two of the most appealing actresses working today: beautiful, smart, talented, endearing. How did they ever get mixed up in a piece of dreck like this? Liv (Hudson) and Emma (Hathaway) are lifelong friends at first thrilled they're both getting married at roughly the same time. But both dream of getting married at New York's Plaza Hotel, and when there's only one date available and both get booked for it (Candice Bergen plays the unfortunate wedding planner)

Alex & Emma is a literary-minded romantic comedy that barely passes English, and flunks chemistry. It's a movie about a novelist writing a novel about another novelist, so it is chock-full of words. But those words are blathered by the sleep-inducing Luke Wilson and the already-snoring Kate Hudson. The words don't stand a chance. Wilson stars as Alex Sheldon, a novelist with a gambling problem. When his bookies strong-arm him about a debt, he realizes he has to finish his new book and collect a check by the end of the month.

Three decades ago, an unreliable auto from Renault could sell well in the United States because the company labeled it Le Car. Fox Searchlight probably won't be as successful with its botched high comedy Le Divorce. This maladroit adaptation of Diane Johnson's novel stars Naomi Watts as an American poet in Paris abandoned by her French husband even though she's pregnant with their second child. Kate Hudson co-stars as Watts' younger half-sister, who lends amoral support while treating the City of Light as her cultural and erotic finishing school.

Eight and a half reasons "Nine" is a mixed bag: One:: It's underweight. Based on Fellini's exhilarating "8 1/2," "Nine" contains a fraction of the story material even a simple show such as "Chicago" handed its cinematic adapters. On Broadway, with Raul Julia starring in the original, beautiful Tommy Tune staging, "Nine" moved so fluidly you didn't notice what wasn't there. Same with the starring Antonio Banderas. Two:: The movie is shot and edited like a two-hour trailer for itself.

Curiosity exacts a nasty price in The Skeleton Key, starring Kate Hudson as a New Orleans hospice worker who doesn't know enough to let a locked door stay locked. Relentlessly atmospheric - the house in which 90 percent of the movie is set, one of those decaying bayou mansions surrounded by humongous live oak trees and engulfed by hanging moss, deserves a co-star credit - The Skeleton Key asks a lot of its audience. Belief must be suspended repeatedly, and a few too many haunted-house conventions are recruited to provide the requisite heebie-jeebies.

Starring Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway. Directed by Gary Winick. Released by 20th Century Fox. $29.95; blu-ray $39.95 * (1 star) dvds Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway are two of the most appealing actresses working today: beautiful, smart, talented, endearing. How did they ever get mixed up in a piece of dreck like this? Liv (Hudson) and Emma (Hathaway) are lifelong friends at first thrilled they're both getting married at roughly the same time. But both dream of getting married at New York's Plaza Hotel, and when there's only one date available and both get booked for it (Candice Bergen plays the unfortunate wedding planner)

Gran Torino * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $29.5 million $40.5 million 5 weeks (1 week here) Rated: R Running time: 116 minutes What it's about: An emotionally scarred and bitter Korean War veteran (Clint Eastwood, above) becomes the unlikely defender of the Hmong brother and sister (Bee Vang, Abney Her) who live next door. Our take: Even for those who've been yearning to see Dirty Harry clean his hands, or have been waiting for another big action hero to play Messiah ever since Paul Newman stretched his arms out crucifix-style in Cool Hand Luke, this movie delivers only the second- and third-hand goods.

... Benjamin Button What it's about : In 1918, Benjamin Button (the never-better Brad Pitt, above) is born with an old face, dilapidated plumbing and wrinkled skin over an infant body. Then he ages backward. Rated: PG-13 The scoop : Every chapter of Button's story brings a fresh air of discovery. And the movie's emotional completeness leaves you poised between sobbing and applauding - it comes from a full comprehension not just of one man's life, but of the intersection of many lives over the course of the 20th century.

It sounds like the stuff of movies - including Fool's Gold, which is still in theaters - but there really are people who hunt for sunken treasure off the Florida coast and throughout the Caribbean Sea. In fact, a group of treasure hunters from Miami will set sail next week to salvage the Spanish galleon Concepcion somewhere off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Burt Webber Jr., who located the ship in 1978 and recovered $14 million in booty, is leading a 13-member crew that hopes to recover the rest of a treasure that could be valued as high as $100 million.

Thankfully, Fool's Gold doesn't live down to its name. Engaging though flimsy, lively though occasionally tone-deaf, it's a movie that thrives on the strength of its affable co-stars and a sense of adventure that provides just enough brio to get audiences through some energy-sapping rough spots. Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson - whose last movie together, 2003's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, brought in more than $100 million at the domestic box office - once again get to play mismatched partners.

Curiosity exacts a nasty price in The Skeleton Key, starring Kate Hudson as a New Orleans hospice worker who doesn't know enough to let a locked door stay locked. Relentlessly atmospheric - the house in which 90 percent of the movie is set, one of those decaying bayou mansions surrounded by humongous live oak trees and engulfed by hanging moss, deserves a co-star credit - The Skeleton Key asks a lot of its audience. Belief must be suspended repeatedly, and a few too many haunted-house conventions are recruited to provide the requisite heebie-jeebies.

SUN SCORE *** There's a surprising touch of ingenuity to How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days that somehow manages to keep the film, about two people forcing themselves to act unpleasant, from being as annoying as they are. It's a relatively simple trick, really, a matter of constantly reminding the audience that they're in on the joke. Thus, there are constant winking asides from stars Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, little to-themselves moments, with no one other than the camera watching, when they let their guard down and act the way they would act naturally (which, in their case, is quite endearingly)

The new version of The Four Feathers would make better sense if battle feathers adorned the head of Djimon Hounsou's African Muslim warrior, who helps the nominal white hero, played by Heath Ledger, regain his self-respect during the British army's mid-1880s crusade against the Islamic fanatic known as the Mahdi. Ledger's character resigns his commission before his regiment is posted to the Sudan; he feels more certain about his impending marriage to his beautiful fiancee (Kate Hudson)

Three decades ago, an unreliable auto from Renault could sell well in the United States because the company labeled it Le Car. Fox Searchlight probably won't be as successful with its botched high comedy Le Divorce. This maladroit adaptation of Diane Johnson's novel stars Naomi Watts as an American poet in Paris abandoned by her French husband even though she's pregnant with their second child. Kate Hudson co-stars as Watts' younger half-sister, who lends amoral support while treating the City of Light as her cultural and erotic finishing school.

Alex & Emma is a literary-minded romantic comedy that barely passes English, and flunks chemistry. It's a movie about a novelist writing a novel about another novelist, so it is chock-full of words. But those words are blathered by the sleep-inducing Luke Wilson and the already-snoring Kate Hudson. The words don't stand a chance. Wilson stars as Alex Sheldon, a novelist with a gambling problem. When his bookies strong-arm him about a debt, he realizes he has to finish his new book and collect a check by the end of the month.