Sure Tom Cruise was awesome playing a cocky pool hustler in the Scorsese film The Color of Money, but what if his pool cue doubled as a lightsaber?

VIDEO: Tom Cruise with a Lightsaber (via Collegehumor.com)

(Who do you trust more to bring sexy back?)

The droids and celebs come out for a night to celebrate Samuel L. Jackson receiving the 2008 American Cinematheque Award. Artoo, accompanied by his counterpart, translator, and traveling companion C-3PO, was nice enough to send along a few snapshots of his star-studded night to Starwars.com. The ceremony airs on AMC December 9th with special appearances by the maker himself, George Lucas.

Read the full article with more photos here:
Droid Report from Beverly Hills (Starwars.com)

Not to be out-geeked by The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, on the Dec. 1 episode of The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert wagged his finger at the National Toy Hall of Fame curator Christopher Bench for inducting the stick into the museum and called it “all natural, the perfect price.”

Colbert says of Bench:

Wrong! Free is never the perfect price! Retailers depend on holiday toy sales but thanks to Mr. Bench here, parents are gonna realize that sticks literally grow on trees. He makes me so mad I want to poke him in the eye, with not a stick, but a Star Wars Force FX authentic replica lightsaber. (Waves lightsaber around.) Just $79.99!

Check out the full episode on Hulu.com:
VIDEO: The Colbert Report
(Colbert waves the lightsaber at around 11:30)

Get your own Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber at Star Wars Shop.

It’s no secret that director J.J. Abrams is a lifelong Star Wars fan. Star Wars references have popped up on his show Lost, so it was only a matter of time before they appeared in his latest endeavor, Fringe.

In this week’s episode called “Safe,” F.B.I. agent Olivia Dunham reveals to the character Peter Bishop the nickname she had in boarding school.

Olivia: “I guess I’ve always just enjoyed being on my own. Even when I was in boarding school they used to call me Han.”

Peter: “As in Solo? That’s cute. At least you had a nickname.”

Watch the full episode here on Hulu.com:
VIDEO: Fringe: “Safe” (Episode 10, Season 1)

Read more about Fringe and Star Wars here:
J.J. Abrams Talks Fringe, Cattle and Star Wars (Starwars.com)

Looks like a lightsaber is now more than just “an elegant weapon for a more civilized time.” Professor Kishan Dholakia and Dr. Frank Gunn-Moore from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland have recently developed a “lightsaber-like” tool which can be used to fight cancer cells in the body.

The device — which is only a couple of millimetres square — fires a laser beam so accurately that it can puncture a hole in an individual cell, allowing drugs to enter and do their work much more effectively.

Dr Gunn-Moore says, “You could think of these as tiny lightsabres like they had in Star Wars inside your body. We can use lasers to punch tiny holes exactly where we want them. We can produce a rod of light — sometimes described as a sword — that can even go around objects. It really does sound like science fiction.”

Read the full article here:
Star Wars-style “lightsabre” to fight cancer cells developed
(via Entertainment and Showbiz)

As we here at LucasArts ramp up to the release of our history to the public in book form, our favorite fan sites are beginning to take notice. The much-beloved International House of Mojo has gone over the book itself with a fine-toothed comb and obviously fallen in love with it quite readily. To quote:

What will interest many people is the wonderful amount of previously unseen concept art, storyboards, puzzle flow-charts and other cool behind-the-scenes stuff for many of LEC’s games. There’s Steve Purcell’s alternate Monkey Island 2 covers, some of Peter Chan’s storyboards from Grim Fandango, the original Full Throttle logo and the notes for adjustment, designs for most of the creatures in The Dig, and even a letter from George Lucas praising the team after the success of Rebel Assault. For a lifelong Mojo reader, this is heaven. 

I’m glad they enjoyed it as much as myself. Coffee table books are sadly rare for us gamers, and one as well-crafted as this deserves a place in any gamers home.  To read the rest of their review, head over to MixNMojo.com and give it a read.

Rob Smith, the author of the book, should be proud. Even the most hardcore fans loved it. That’s saying something!

Think Hasbro’s new Millennium Falcon toy was a huge cut above the original 1970’s version? Well, it looks like one enthusiast has upped the stakes and served up a professionally detailed, screen-accurate version of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy by enhancing the toy with some model-weathering know-how.

From the auction description:

This craft has been totally repainted by a professional and is now screen accurate! Lots of time and detail went it to authenticating the Falcon right down to is grill vents. References come from many sources to include Magic of Myth and productions stills. The cockpit is repainted to match up with the screen version and looks awesome! Pictures just don’t do this auction justice! The entrance ramp was repainted to look more like the movie version! Med bay was painted to look more realistic and most of the Falcon was weathered to give it that rustic feel that the ship truly had!

The auction closed without any bidders, but we’ll admit, we were pretty tempted to pick this up for the Online office! Check out the original auction here.

Last night on The Daily Show, show host Jon Stewart did his share to talk about Black Friday by rubbing it in our faces that he beat out holiday shoppers to a C-3PO bobblehead.

He’s also a tad worried about the recession, now that he claims to have bought a lifesize Millennium Falcon made of LEGOs.

VIDEO: The Daily Show
(watch from 2:10 to 3:11)

(photo from San Francisco Bay Area Murals: Communities Create Their Muses 1904-1997 by Timothy W. Drescher)

words: Bonnie Burton

When Star Wars debuted in theaters everywhere in 1977, fans everywhere couldn’t get enough of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Han Solo, Darth Vader and the droid duo of C-3PO and R2-D2. Fans paid tribute to their favorite characters with filk songs, comics, fanzines and street art.

During this time, San Francisco artist and muralist Xavier Viramontes joined other artists from the Galeria de la Raza to send positive messages to neighboor kids living in the Mission District. They had become frustrated with all the billboards promoting cigarettes and liquor, so they “appropriated” one of the street-level billboards on Bryant Street by painting over it with positive messages for the community. Over the years the billboard has been home to murals painted by both local and guest artists.

In 1977, Viramontes painted his “Avoid Junk Food” billboard which featured none other than the helpful droids C-3PO and R2-D2 as they explained which healthy foods are good sources of minerals and vitamins.

Check out the full image here.

The billboard has since be repainted, but you can learn more about it and other murals in the book San Francisco Bay Area Murals: Communities Create Their Muses 1904-1997 by Timothy W. Drescher, published by Pogo Press.

It was a short week, what with the Thanksgiving holiday, but there was still enough content to cover your plate. A look back at what you may have missed on StarWars.com last week when you weren’t either bargain-hunting or in a food coma.

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