Michael Clarke Duncan was one big, irresistible jumble of contradictions.

His presence was formidable, even intimidating: The former bodyguard had a muscular, 6-foot-4 frame, but it was topped by the brightest of megawatt smiles.

Bing: More on Michael Clarke Duncan

His gravelly baritone was well-suited to everything from animated films to action spectacles, but no matter the role, a warmth and a sweetness was always evident underneath.

The prolific character actor, whose dozens of movies included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in "The Green Mile" and box office hits including "Armageddon," "Planet of the Apes" and "Kung Fu Panda," died Monday at age 54. And although he only turned to acting in his 30s, it's clear from the outpouring of prayers and remembrances he received across the Hollywood and sports worlds that his gentle-giant persona made him much-loved during that relatively brief time.

Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancée, reality TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a statement released by publicist Joy Fehily.

Duncan "suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered," the statement said. "Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date."

Tom Hanks, star of 1999's "The Green Mile" -- the film that earned a then-little-known Duncan a supporting-actor nomination at the Academy Awards -- said he was "terribly saddened at the loss of Big Mike. He was the treasure we all discovered on the set of 'The Green Mile.' He was magic. He was a big love of man and his passing leaves us stunned."

"I will miss my friend, Michael Clarke Duncan," comedian and talk-show host Steve Harvey said on Twitter. "What an incredible soldier in God's Plan." Other sad and shocked reactions came from a diverse field that included Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, actresses Alexa Vega, Niecy Nash and Olivia Munn, and former boxing champion Lennox Lewis.

Video: Remembering Michael Clarke Duncan

In the spring of 2012, Duncan had appeared in a video for PETA, the animal rights organization, in which he spoke of how much better he felt since becoming a vegetarian three years earlier.

"I cleared out my refrigerator, about $5,000 worth of meat," he said. "I'm a lot healthier than I was when I was eating meat."

Duncan had a handful of minor roles before "The Green Mile" brought him accolades and fame. The 1999 film, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, starred Hanks as a corrections officer at a penitentiary in the 1930s. Duncan played John Coffey, a convicted murderer with a surprisingly gentle demeanor and extraordinary healing powers.

Duncan's performance caught on with critics and moviegoers and he quickly became a favorite in Hollywood, appearing in several films a year. He owed some of his good fortune to Bruce Willis, who recommended Duncan for "The Green Mile" after the two appeared together in "Armageddon." Clarke would work with Willis again in "Breakfast of Champions," "The Whole Nine Yards" and "Sin City."

His industrial-sized build was suited for everything from superhero films ("Daredevil") to comedy ("Talladega Nights," "School for Scoundrels"). His gravelly baritone alone was good enough for several animated movies, including, "Kung Fu Panda," "Delgo" and "Brother Bear." mong Duncan's television credits were "The Apprentice," "Two and a Half Men," "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and a new series, The Finder."

Michael Clarke Duncan's fiancee says the Oscar nominee for "The Green Mile" has died while being hospitalized following a July heart attack.

Publicist Joy Fehily released a statement from Clarke's fiancée, the Rev. Omarosa Manigault, saying the 54-year-old actor died Monday morning in a Los Angeles hospital after nearly two months of treatment following the July 13 heart attack.

The 6-foot-5, 300-pound Duncan appeared in dozens of films, including such box office hits as "Armageddon," "Planet of the Apes" and "Kung Fu Panda,"

Duncan had a handful of minor roles before "The Green Mile" brought him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. The 1999 film, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, starred Tom Hanks as a corrections officer at a penitentiary in the 1930s. Duncan played John Coffey, a convicted murderer.

Well, it didn't take long for former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to get a meaningful fight at 145 pounds. Late Thursday night, John Morgan of MMAJunkie reported that "The Answer" would step in for an injured Erik Koch and fight Jose Aldo at UFC 153 in October. The nature of Koch's injury was not revealed.

**Update: Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com reports Koch suffered a knee injury.

After some epic battles with BJ Penn and Gray Maynard, Edgar has dropped his last two fights, both to Benson Henderson. Aldo, on the other hand, is undefeated under the Zuffa banner and has won 13 straight fights.

UFC 153 is scheduled for October 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

There’s no way it could be that cold in Los Feliz where Mandy Moore picked up lunch from Little Dom’s restaurant. It was around 90 degrees in SoCal. So, the only obvious explanation for her nipples looking like they could cut through glass is she was getting all hot thinking about me. No need to be embarrassed Mandy. It happens to all the ladies.

It's no secret that as guys, we like action movies. The explosions, the car chases, the guns, the mindless violence – we love it all. And sometimes, it's nice to see an action movie that features a hot chick doing these things. And sure, the greats hold a special place in our heart, like Stallone as Rambo or Schwarzenegger as the Terminator before he suddenly became a politician. Those guys were great. But sometimes there's just too much beefcake in action flicks, and from time to time, seeing a smoking hot woman kick a little ass can be entertaining as hell.

This, of course, requires you to have the ability to suspend your disbelief. It is a bit of a crack up when you see these slender, delicate women beating the hell out of a 250 pound man on the big screen – sorry ladies, but in real life, the odds of that happening are slim to none. This applies to all of the women on this list except for one. You'll know why.


You might know her from... The Fifth Element, Resident Evil, tons of other movies where she doesn't play a genetically modified badass

Milla Jovovich has had one hell of a career. She's done a lot of movies – some better than others. No doubt many of us were first introduced (and attracted) to her in The Fifth Element, which is a movie that real men love. Critics tend to get their collective panties in a pretentious little bunch whenever a new Resident Evil movie comes out, crying through bitter tears that the movies have an incoherent storyline, poor acting, and serve only as a vehicle for the action sequences.

So why, pray tell, are these movies so successful that we're now anticipating the release of the fifth in the series? Because they're awesome, mostly in part due to the hearty spoonfuls of ass-whoop that Milla serves up. Nobody goes to see a Resident Evil movie for the  engaging dialogue or how closely the movies pay homage to the lore of the video game series (they don't, at all). They go because watching a hot women kill hordes of zombies and monsters is fun.


You might know her from... The Devil's Advocate, Aeon Flux, her awesome role as a mentally handicapped girl in Arrested Development

If Charlize continues to take roles such as her latest in the much anticipated film Prometheus, she just might enter the ranks of science fiction princesses like Milla. You might remember her starring role in box-office flop Aeon Flux, because it's yet another prime example of the “movies that are bad but incredibly fun to watch” category.

The movie was based on an animated show that was on in the early 90s on MTV and was only watched by stoners who were at home in the middle of the day. Charlize played the titular character Aeon Flux, who is a freedom fighting rebel against an oppressive government. Plot holes and overly-stylized direction aside, the movie is a great showcase of her chops as an action hero.

It must be a given that if you’re born into the Honey Boo Boo family, you’re going to be dealing with a few abnormalities. Their genes are around 80% recessive. Knowing that, it’s not shocking that the newest member of the family, Kaitlyn who was born to 18-year-old teen mom Anna, came out with four fingers and two thumbs on her right hand (picture). Mama June loves her nonetheless. ”We have embraced [the abnormality]. It makes Kaitlyn more special to us.”

June has been helping raise Kaitlyn while Anna finishes her senior year of high school. ”Sometimes my mama gives me pointers,” says Anna, who declines to name the baby’s father and says he is not in the picture. “Sometimes I just learn on my own.” Haha, pointers. I see what you did there.

The only bad thing about being born with two thumbs is it’s going to be a lot harder for Kaitlyn to decide which one to suck on. On the other hand, she’ll be one of the few people able to give something three thumbs up.

In related news, expect this kid to be as hillbilly as the rest of the family. They’re already dipping the kid’s pacifier in Code Red Mountain Dew before putting it in her mouth. I guess they figure since she’s going to be losing all her teeth anyway, might as well get a head start. “Ain’t no granddaughter of mine gonna fall behind,” said Mamma June.

Randy Jackson will be leaving the American Idol judge’s table and into a mentor role even though the higher-ups don’t think that’s something he’d be good at. TMZ says they’re keeping him around because they need him to hold the show together.

As for who’ll be replacing him, Nicki Minaj’s deal, while not a complete lock, is nearly done. However, there is still the issue of Mariah Carey throwing a hissy fit because there’s a bigger female star than her at the table. But the producers are banking on that because they think conflict and tension is good for the show. Since it is. People eat that stuff up.

AI still hasn’t found their fourth judge yet though. It’s assumed it’ll be someone from the country music world. Hopefully someone not named Taylor Swift. The only thing more annoying than Mariah Carey talking about her Hello Kitty! dolls and Nicki Minaj pretending to have multiple personality disorder is Taylor Swift somehow tying every audition into a story about one of her failed relationships.

Spring Breakers star Ashley Benson’s svelte physique may be the envy of girls all over America, but that doesn’t mean the 22-year-old doesn’t have a few body image hangups of her own!

    I was super nervous before I got the movie and I was worried about it. I talked to [director Harmony Korine] about it and he was like, ‘There’s no need to stress out. You guys are college students in the film and nobody has the perfect body!’… Harmony really wanted us to look like we drank all the time and we partied, because that’s what they did, and he didn’t want us to have perfect bodies.

Is it just us, or did that sound like one of the most flagrant backhanded compliments of all time?

While Benson may have struggled with striping down to her skivvies in front of the camera, she certainly wasn’t the only one on set with a case of the bikini-induced jitters.

    I mean, anytime you’re in a bathing suit, you’re always self-conscious, because people comment… but Harmony made us all feel really comfortable. What was also great was that me, Vanessa, Selena and Rachel were all really comfortable with each other and nobody was commenting or trying to get super skinny. It was just a good group of girls to be around. We were all like, ‘We don’t care if we’re not perfect, and we’re not perfect.’ It was nice.

Well, by Hollywood standards, they may not be “perfect”, but in our eyes they’re pretty darn close!

The cast of Spring Breakers will soon travel to the Venice Film Festival to premiere their flick and Benson says she and her cast mates are more the ready to watch their latest project with a live audience!

    I’ve seen the movie and it’s absolutely amazing, but I can’t wait to see it with people around so I can see their reactions… I’m very excited.

A torrential downpour that struck Charlotte Saturday afternoon damaged the Mount Rushmore-style sand sculpture bust of President Obama — an ominous beginning to what many fear is a plagued convention.

Workers were trying Saturday afternoon to reform the base of the sculpture, built from sand brought in from Myrtle Beach, S.C., pounding and smoothing out the sand that had washed off the facade of the waist-up rendering of the chief executive.

The sand sculpture was protected from above, and Mr. Obama's face didn't see too much damage. But the storm was so strong that its heavy winds blew the rain sideways, pelting the president's right side and leaving the sand pockmarked and completely erasing his right elbow.

Democrats' choice of Charlotte has drawn criticism from unions who don't like North Carolina's labor laws, and the state seems to be tilting away from Democrats politically.

The large Rushmore-style sculpture drew comparisons to Mr. Obama's 2008 convention in Denver, when he accepted his party's nomination on a stage that looked like a Greek temple.

Human Rights activists in Guatemala said Friday that a joint anti-drug operation between U.S. Marines and the nation's army threatens to revive memories of rights abuses during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.

A team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala's western coast this week as part of a joint agreement to catch drug shipments.

"Rural communities in Guatemala are fearful of the military being used to combat drug traffickers because the same techniques are applied that were used in contra (counterinsurgency) warfare," said rights advocate Helen Mack, executive director of the Myrna Mack Foundation. "The historical memory is there and Guatemalans are fearful of that."

Kelsey Alford-Jones of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA noted that Guatemalan armed forces, which were backed by the U.S. during the civil war, committed more than 93 percent of the acts of violence.

It was 50 years ago when the U.S. military last sent any significant aid and equipment into Guatemala, establishing a base to support counter-insurgency efforts during a guerrilla uprising after a CIA-backed coup overthrew democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. The movement led to 36 years of civil war that ended in 1996 with the signing of a peace accords between the government and leftist guerrillas.

The conflict left more than 200,000 dead and missing, 93 percent of them as a result of the activities of state forces and paramilitary groups, a U.N. report said. The U.S. pulled out in 1978.

Guatemalan authorities say they signed a treaty allowing the U.S. military to conduct the anti-drug operations on July 16. Less than a month later an Air Force C-5 transport plane flew into Guatemala City from North Carolina loaded with the Marines and four UH-1 "Huey" helicopters.

If the Marines find suspected boats, they will contact their Guatemalan counterparts in a special operations unit from the Guatemalan navy that will move in for the bust. The Marines will not go along on arrest missions, but they do have the right to defend themselves if fired on, U.S. officials said.

"Marines in Guatemala are in a supporting role and we are providing aerial, communications and logistical support to a regional partner who is currently facing strong challenges with illicit trafficking along its coasts. This is not a new role nor the first time the U.S. military supports a partner in this capacity," said Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department in an email response to an AP query.