jeff bridges

'Big Lebowski' cast reunites for Blu-ray release

Mark it here, dude.

Yes, after a long wait, "The Big Lebowski" has finally coming to Blu-ray, and it looks really good.

To promote and celebrate the launch, cast members reunited last night at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, where a crowd of over 1,500 fans greeted them for an onstage press conference that featured Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, and Julianne Moore reflecting on the film that was released in 1997 and has since turned into a cult classic (see photos of the event below).

Here's the quick skinny on the Limited Edition release:

Available for a limited time with an all-new 28-page companion book featuring an exclusive interview with Jeff Dowd--the real-life inspiration for The Dude--Jeff Bridges' personal, on-set photography, a film timeline, trivia and much more. In addition to all-new features exclusive to the Blu-ray release, The Big Lebowski Limited Edition Blu-ray also offers a digital copy of the film that can be viewed anywhere at any time on the consumers' choice of devices including laptops, tablets, smartphones as well as Internet-connected TVs and set-top boxes.

It's also worth noting that the bonus features include "The Lebowski Fest: An Achiever's Story," which takes an "in-depth look at the popular Lebowski Festival," which co-sponsored the cast reunion along with Universal. Check out our photos (click on image to start slideshow).

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The 404 726: Where Jeff and Scott get dirty together in Vegas (podcast)

The new year is coming up, which means everyone here at CNET is gearing up for CES 2011, including our laptop editor Scott Stein, who joins us to chat about what to expect at next year's biggest technology trade show.

Perhaps the most anticipated event for us at CES 2011 is all the gambling we plan to do in order to make up for last year's financial losses. Jeff and Scott got a little too excited last year and lost some money right when we got to Las Vegas, so this year we'll be sure to avoid the dealers holding flaming skulls and and play by the book!

Google has released its own year end wrap-up for most popular search terms for 2010 in an report called Google Zeitgeist. Turns out that ChatRoulette, the Web site that paired strangers together in a random video chat, was the fastest rising term of 2010, beating out the Apple iPad and Justin Bieber that took second and third place.

Conversely, many search engines fell from popularity since last year, and Google reveals that "swine flu" was the fastest falling search term around the world this year, followed by the bank Washington Mutual and tween favorite Twilight:New Moon. And Michael Jackson, last year's top search query, dropped to the ninth spot in Google's list of falling results.

Google also reveals bizarre sentences queried in 2010 that question if a horse can have OCD, why you can't stand on the sun's surface, and whether or not ninjas are better than pirates.

Protesters in the UK attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla yesterday, and CNN was on the scene to cover the security breach, but check out this video of a messy programming error halfway through the broadcast.

Someone at the station must have queued the infamous bathroom scene from Dumb & Dumber for another segment, because even the news anchor is surprised at the display and promises to edit out the hilarious mistake from the final broadcast. That being said, expect the video for today's episode to feature many, many cuts to said clip.

Finally, thanks to Austin from Luke that has some fashion tips for me in today's video voice mail. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Richard Branson's quest for shiny iPad stardom

NEW YORK--There must be something squirreled away in the human brain that is hard-wired to go absolutely bonkers at the sight of anything that's shiny, slick, and begging to be touched. That, after all, is how Apple CEO Steve Jobs sells products.

But an iPad is only as good as the things you can do on it, and in this sense the device is implicitly a bit of a challenge, an Everest to climb or an English Channel to swim, for developers and entrepreneurs: What can you do on this? How can you take advantage of the features it … Read more

Jeff Bridges on 'Tron,' 3D, and gadget addiction

VENICE, Calif.--Sitting across from me, Jeff Bridges leans back into his chair, looking almost through me as we begin to chat about reprising his role as fictional game developer (and geek icon) Kevin Flynn in "Tron: Legacy."

This past weekend, we're sitting here in an executive office inside Digital Domain, the special-effects studio that's in charge of the dazzling effects seen in the highly anticipated sequel that picks up 28 years after the events of the 1982 classic. The entire room is a light brown and bathed in soft incandescent light, making Bridges, in his … Read more

Report: Daft Punk to score 'Tron 2.0'

For a certain kind of geek, there's no more important film than Disney's 1982 cult hit "Tron."

The story about a man trapped inside a computer who must continually fight for his life by riding light-bikes across a digital playground didn't do so well at the box office but gained a massive following in the years since.

Now, Disney is working on "Tron 2.0," a sequel to the original, and word is that the studio has chosen Daft Punk, the French electronica duo that is itself a cult favorite, to write the … Read more