The film The Great Debaters was released recently and ACED had the opportunity to chat with three of its fine young actors. Nate Parker (Henry Lowe), Jurnee Smollett (Samantha Brooke) and Denzel Whitaker (James Farmer, Jr.) play three of the four debate team members that went on to win the national championships as depicted in the film.

The Great Debaters chronicles the journey of Professor Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington), a brilliant but violent debate team coach who uses the power of words to shape a group of underdog students from a small African American college in the deep south into a historically elite debate team.

Ever see a guy and say to yourself, "Hey...I'd like to take him home to meet the parents�now where's my furry handcuffs?" No�me neither...but if all handcuffed holiday hostages came like the one in this fun ABC Family flick, I might have second thoughts...er...or not.

Melissa Joan Hart's latest endeavor, Holiday in Handcuffs , is about much more than kidnapping a random good-looking fellow and dragging him to ma's for the holidays however. It is actually humorous, endearing and full of quirky fun.

Hart talks about her thoughts after viewing it for the first time. "I was really impressed and proud of the movie. I thought it would be hilariously funny, but I didn"t expect it to be as sweet as it is. My harshest critic is my 14 year-old sis who said it was 'up there with Elf' as her fave Christmas movie. That"s huge for me!"

Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End will be out on DVD December 4th and director Gore Verbinski had a few things to say about working on the series.

For At World's End, Verbinski found the most satisfaction with the scene involving Jack and a few crabs...and then there are those peanuts, no one really knows the true significance of those (or at least Gore won't admit to it), but I am leaning on symbolism centered around the word "nuts".

If you haven't heard of Bang! Bang! , you will soon. Their latest album, The Dirt That Makes You Drown, is their fourth, and their good old-fashioned rock and roll has caused others to compare the group to the likes of Devo and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Not that Jack Flash, guitarist (he also shares the vocals with bassist Gretta Fine), minds. At least, not that much. "All in all, I would say it's good company to keep. All those bands have a kind of quirkiness to them. The only thing that I would say maybe irks us a little is that we feel there is much more in our sound. It's surprising to me how many influences get overlooked."