Oscar campaigner dies

Murray Weissman, who helped lead a generation of Hollywood publicists in their transition from press agent to Oscar campaigner, died in Los Angeles on Monday. He was 90.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, his family said. Dances With Wolves (1990), The English Patient (1996), Shakespeare In Love (1998), Chicago (2002) and Crash (2004) were among the Oscar-winning movies backed by his campaigns.

Redford death a hoax

Robert Redford, 79, is alive and well, his publicist said on Thursday, calling reports on Twitter that the actor had died "a sick hoax". A tweet purporting from Britain's Sky News said Redford had died after falling off a golf buggy in California.