Josh Schwartz is well-versed in teen drama and genetically gifted frenemies, but how will he handle mutant superheroes and rabid fandom?
Schwartz, creator of Gossip Girl and The O.C., has been tapped by 20th Century Fox to pen X-Men: First Class, a reboot of the Marvel franchise featuring a new group of genetically enhanced youngsters undergoing instruction at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.  First Class will be the small-screen achiever’s first foray into a major theatrical production.
The 32-year-old writer-producer is expected to inject the new addition to the X-Men canon—which soon will include X-Men Origins: Wolverine and another prequel focusing on the villainous Magneto—with his finely honed flair for showcasing teenage angst and modern coming-of-age sensibilities.
And while the possibility of directing the flick was posed to him, Schwartz has opted to stick to writing for now, according to Variety.

Prince has been ordered to pay nearly $58,000 (£37,000) to a man who claims the star failed to pay him for editing work and unreturned equipment.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has issued the judgement in favour of video editor Ian C Lewis after a brief trial last month.
Mr Lewis sued Prince and his company, Paisley Park Enterprises, last October.
The star’s lawyers withdrew from the case and he was not represented during the trial.
The judgement fell well short of the $1m (£634,000) in damages that Mr Lewis was seeking.
Court documents show the judge also denied Mr Lewis’s claim that Prince and his company broke a $25,000 (£15,900) computer because no receipts were provided.
The singer played a 21-date residency at London’s O2 Arena last year.

South African singing legend Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, after being taken ill in Italy.
She had just taken part in a concert near the southern town of Caserta, the Ansa news agency reported.
The concert was on behalf of Roberto Saviano, the author of an expose of the Camorra mafia whose life has subsequently been threatened.
Ms Makeba appeared on Paul Simon’s Graceland tour in 1987 and in 1992 had a leading role in the film Sarafina!
Ms Makeba was born in Johannesburg on 4 March 1932 and was a leading symbol in the struggle against apartheid.
Her singing career started in the 1950s as she mixed jazz with traditional South African songs.
She came to international attention in 1959 during a tour of the United States with the South African group the Manhattan Brothers.
She was forced into exile soon after when her passport was revoked after starring in an anti-apartheid documentary and did not return to her native country until Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

Deftones bassist Chi Cheng is in a coma with serious injuries after being involved in a car accident Tuesday in Santa Clara, Calif.
Frontman Chino Moreno writes on the band’s website that Cheng remains in “serious but stable” condition following the wreck, but declines to give further details.
“I am on my way up North right now to be by his side along with the rest of our band mates and family,” he says in a blog post. “Chi is one of the strongest people I know, and I’m praying that his strength will get him through this. Please say a prayer for him as well.”
The singer later told the Sacramento Bee newspaper that his 38-year-old mate was in a coma in a San Jose Hospital.
The Deftones formed in 1988 and constant touring and songs featured on the soundtrack to the movie The Crow: City of Angels helped their debut album, Adrenaline, find a wide audience upon its release in 1995. The Sacramento-based rockers plan to release their next disc, Eros, in early 2009.

Yesterday’s Presidential Election was one of the most exciting in recent memory.  And when the dust settled, Barack Obama was named as the first black President of the United States.
In a rally at Chicago’s Grant Park, the President Elect stated, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

Oprah Winfrey is among the many voters casting their ballots early. The vocal Barack Obama supporter voted yesterday in Chicago, waiting “an hour and 12 minutes,” she said on her show today. “I heard two women saying, “There’s Oprah, you know who she’s voting for.”
Winfrey said the experience was “emotional.” She decided to take part in early voting because she is taping shows Tuesday and was afraid she’d get stuck at the polls. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that she did a little dance as a group of polling workers together shouted out her name when it was her turn to vote.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel has died at his home in Chicago, aged 96, his son has announced.
He was renowned for relating US history through personal stories from a cross-section of society in books such as Working and Division Street:America.
Born Louis Terkel, he won a Pulitzer in 1985 for his chronicling of World War II in his oral history, The Good War.
“My dad led a long, full, eventful, sometimes tempestuous, but very satisfying life,” his son said.
For four decades, Studs Terkel entertained listeners on his Chicago-based radio show.
Born in 1912 in New York to Russian Jewish parents, Studs Terkel moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois, eight years later where he spent most of his life.
His prodigious career spanned acting, writing and broadcasting, but it was for his oral histories that he became best-known.
In his 1970 book Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, the writer assembled recollections from across the socio-economic spectrum, from prison inmates to the wealthy.
Terkel’s working methods were perhaps best illustrated by the subtitle of Working, published in 1974: “People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do”.

Funbiz has learned that Paves was rushed to the hospital early this morning after being injured by paparazzi while leaving a popular restaurant with Jessica Simpson and her entourage.
“There were so many paparazzi waiting for Jessica and trying to get a picture of her that they all started pushing,” says an onlooker. “Jessica was ducking down and Ken Paves and her other male friend were trying to cover her and that’s when Ken was hit in the face with a camera.”
The perfectly coiffed group was leaving Madeo restaurant at 12:15 a.m. Sunday morning when they were mobbed by waiting paparazzi. Paves’ face was cut during the melee.
A source tells us that it seemed like Ken didn’t really think much of the blow to the eye at first.  “He seemed shocked at first,” says a source. “He said something to the photographer like ‘dude, you just hit me’ but that’s all he really said before getting into the car.”