For the aging, gruff patriarch of his father-son road trip "Nebraska," Alexander Payne tried to lure Gene Hackman out of retirement and considered the likes of Robert Duvall and Jack Nicholson. Bruce Dern calls them "the obvious guys."

"He said to me, 'I got an idea. Let's surprise them with you,'" Dern recalled of learning from Payne that he had the part. Payne, he says, continued: "'You haven't done this. You haven't done anything like this. Let's have fun. Let's knock their socks off.'"

Netflix is hoping this weekend's release of the resurrected TV series "Arrested Development" will draw more subscribers to its Internet video service.

The award-winning show about the dysfunctional Bluth family returns Sunday, seven years after Fox cancelled the series. The revival coincides with Netflix's own resounding comeback from a customer backlash over price increases and shareholders' worries about rising expenses. The adversity had raised doubts about the company's management and future.

It's considered the Holy Grail of comic books: Action Comics No. 1 from 1938, featuring the debut of Superman. And David Gonzales found one mixed in with old newspapers insulating a house he was renovating in a small town in Minnesota.

Gonzales did some research that confirmed the comic with a cover showing the Man of Steel holding a car over his head was valuable, though it's not worth as much as it could have been.

Actress Amanda Bynes appeared disheveled in a long blond wig and sweats Friday in a criminal court where she was charged with reckless endangerment after police said she heaved a marijuana bong out the window of her 36th-floor Manhattan apartment.

The 27-year-old former child star was arrested Thursday evening, after building officials at her midtown apartment called police to complain she was rolling a joint and smoking pot in the lobby.

Syrian forces entered a key objective north of the besieged central town of Qusayr on Saturday, the army said, battling rebels inside the former military airport of Dabaa.

"The Syrian army infiltrated Dabaa airport from the northwest, and now fighting is taking place inside the airport after they broke the rebel defense lines," an army source said.

Cypriot authorities have lifted restrictions on money withdrawals and transfers for international clients of another two foreign banks active in the crisis-hit country.

The Finance Ministry said Friday that limits no longer apply to Lebanon's Byblos Bank SAL and Jordan's Arab Jordan Investment Bank SA.

Academy award-winner Marion Cotillard gave her all and even learned another language to play a Polish woman struggling with the realities of 1920s New York in James Gray's terse offering, "The Immigrant."

The gritty drama, which premieres Friday at the Cannes Film Festival and is competing for the Palme d'Or, was filmed in part on the almost mythical Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants stepped off the boat to America in search of a better life, captured with stark beauty by cinematographer Darius Khondji.

Police say actress Amanda Bynes has been arrested in New York City after she threw a marijuana bong out of a window.

Police say an apartment building official called police Thursday to complain that Bynes was smoking marijuana and rolling a joint in the lobby.

In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day.

It's the latest advance from the booming field of regenerative medicine, making body parts in the lab.

Google's new music service offers a lot of eye candy to go with the tunes. The song selection of around 18 million tracks is comparable to popular services such as Spotify and Rhapsody, and a myriad of playlists curated along different genres provides a big playground for music lovers.

The All Access service represents Google's attempt to grab a bigger piece of the digital music market as more people stream songs over mobile phones. Such services are also meant to further wed smartphone users to Google's Android operating system, where the search leader makes money from advertising and transactions on its digital content store, Google Play.