Alan Rickman, the charismatic British character actor who played larger-than-life heroes, villains and Ronald Reagans throughout his 30-year film and stage career, has died from cancer. He was 69.

Oprah Winfrey, who has a small role in Precious director Lee Daniels' upcoming film The Butler, posted this photo of herself hanging out with Alan Rickman and Jane Fonda in costume as Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Harry Potter and The End of the Gravy Train, Part Nine premiered in London today along with most of the British cast, a handful of celebs, and JK Rowling herself. Let's have a look at the festivities, shall we?

Truly Madly Icky: Alan Rickman is well-known for decades' worth of on-screen misdeeds, but the sex scenes in his new film Nobel Son appear to be the first for which the actor has actually felt remorse. "You show up at nine in the morning and you shake the poor woman's hand: 'Hi, nice to meet you,' and then you get at it on the desk," said Rickman, who portrays a college professor with a weakness for nubile grad-student flesh. "It's such a bizarre thing to do. You just move on as quickly as possible. I felt sorry for those women in the sex scenes." The denizens of Century City, meanwhile, are still awaiting his apology for that whole blowing-the-shit-out-of-Fox-Tower thing in Die Hard. At least the Nobel girls had a choice. [WENN]

1) A screening of Bottle Shock, a dramedy about when California beat France in a wine taste test, was hosted by Michael Dunbar of Domaine Chandon and Newton Vineyard on Sunday night at the Southampton Cinema. The film's stars Alan Rickman, Eliza Dushku, and Bill Pullman, along with Bronson van Wyck, Andrew Fry, Devorah Rose, Elizabeth Lindemann, Jill, John, and Whitney Fairchild, Jeanne Greenberg and Nick Rohatyn, and Bettina Zilkha, watched the film followed by food and wine at Savanna's. [PMc]

On the unseasonably warm Saturday night just past, the Meatpacking District was engorged with the usual screeching banshees and washed up frat boys. But, since it was the Tribeca Film Festival and since the film the Nobel Son had premiered earlier in the day, the film's stars Mary Steenburgen, Ted Danson and Alan Rickman were awkwardly chatting in the corner of Tenjune. Outside the venue, the small red carpet and backdrop adorned with various sponsors (tonight: Maxim, Altoids, and CKIN2U) that are endemic to these kinds of things had been strung up and the Grand Guignol had begun. A very paternal looking Bill Pullman answered questions from Fox's Shira Lazar. PR personnel commanded the many big and tall bouncers to guard the Velvet Ropes like the Masada; meanwhile, schlubby co-producers and their trophy wives entered the basement club. We sent Joshua David Stein and the Ansel Adams of peoplescape Nikola Tamindzic to report.