Lights, camera, gossip for movie fans on Web

Years ago, the only way to get the dish on Hollywood was to dig into pulpy, lavishly illustrated tabloid rags and hope for the best -- after all, much of the information was controlled by studio reps hoping to promote their latest projects and stars.

In the age of the Internet, however, movie information is much more accessible, and the power to control entertainment news has shifted from studio PR workers to a rag-tag band of amateur film fans who program their own World Wide Web sites. Some of these new sites act as news sources, dispensing up-to-the-minute news and rumors, while others are reference sites dedicated to archiving parts of film history.

For movie news, few sites have achieved the notoriety of Harry Knowles' "Ain't It Cool News" site (http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com). Knowles is a self-confessed film geek who reports on early film test screenings and publicizes the results, good and bad.

"Ain't It Cool News" opened the door for other movie fans to start up their own film news sites, and helped make Knowles a major source for mainstream movie news coverage. Despite the hype, Knowles' site is in desperate need of an overhaul. In contrast, "Dark Horizons" (http://www.darkhorizons.com), one of Knowles' main rivals, has emerged as a much more engaging source of movie gossip.

One of the site's main benefits is its use of art. While Knowles and other movie site providers rely on a text-driven system, "Dark Horizons" uses never-before-seen film stills and movie posters to illustrate its tidbits.

Most of the content on "Dark Horizons" is short and sweet, and though it won't win any awards for grammar, it's generally better written than most amateur sites.

Not all the major movie sites are obsessed with the rumor mill and big-name stars, however. Many, such as "The Internet Movie Database" site (http://www.imdb.com), actually serve as information sites -- the ones you can turn to in the middle of the night if you just have to know who played "Screaming Passenger No. 4,212" in Titanic.

For those who obsess over the most arcane bits of movie trivia, it's a godsend. With one click, a viewer can scan the filmography of any director, actor or even key grip who's ever set foot in Hollywood.

And, like the other movie Web pages that populate the Internet, you don't have to worry about getting your hands smudged from the tabloid news ink.