Paul Rudd is nobody's "Idiot Brother"

Thanks to hits such as "Knocked Up," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Paul Rudd has become one of the most reliable comic actors in Hollywood, unafraid of embracing slightly dorky who make people laugh.

In his new film, "Our Idiot Brother" opening on Friday, he embraces his inner hippie and shares the screen with three high-powered actresses (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer) playing his neurotic New York sisters. His character -- the under-achieving, homeless, Croc-wearing brother Ned -- wreaks havoc in their lives.

Rudd recently sat down with Reuters to talk about portraying the easy-going Ned, the joys of tie-dyed T-shirts and why he's not shy about kissing dogs.

Q: "Our Idiot Brother" sounds like a very broad comedy, but it's not, is it.

A: "Not at all. There's lots of drama. You hear the title and see the main character with his beard and long hair, but I don't think Ned's an idiot. He's a gentle soul, and makes some idiotic decisions -- there's no getting around that. But we wanted to make it very clear he's living his life a certain way, and it's a conscious decision. He has an ethic he subscribes too, and it's not always easy for him. The cracks show in some scenes, and that's important. You don't want it to look like he's just out to lunch."

Q: After he's busted for selling pot to a cop and gets out of prison, Ned moves in with each of his sisters and chaos ensues. How much of you is in Ned? Can you relate to him?

A: "I can. It's not me, but there are parts that are. I like to think of myself as being optimistic and happy, although not as much as Ned, which is good and bad. The moment I read it, I wanted to do it, and I also felt it'd be a fun world to live in for a couple of months -- and it was. I was very happy making this movie because of Ned."

Q: So he rubbed off on you a lot?

A: "He did. I'm not a Method actor, I don't need to be called by the character's name. I don't take roles home with me. But when it ended, I actually went without shaving for a while and dressed in a similarly horrible fashion."

Q: You wore Crocs?

A: (Laughs) "No -- I drew the line at Crocs! But I wore cut-off shorts and flannel shirts. I've never owned anything tie-dyed in my life, but there was one tie-dyed shirt I wore in the movie with this hippie-dippy print that was so extreme. I still wear it. And had I seen this shirt before doing this movie, there's no way I'd have kept it."

Q: You have three sisters and an ex-girlfriend to contend with -- too many women on set, or was it fun?

A: "It was fun because I knew them all. I was already friends with just about everyone in the cast, and had been for years."

Q: Does that make it easier or harder?

A: "Much easier, especially with a movie like this -- not a long shoot. And we shot in New York where I live, so I could literally walk outside and start work some days. But it was incredibly hot and humid, so there was a lot of sweating and people getting patted down. And I got a chance to hang out with people like Steve Coogan, who plays Emily's cheating husband. I've been a major Steve Coogan fan for many years, so I was thrilled to get the chance to meet him and get to know him a bit."

Q: You have great screen chemistry with the dog, and there's a lot of kissing between you two. Sweet breath?

A: (Laughs) "Yeah, pretty sweet, in the way a golden retriever would have sweet breath. Now, I may have offended the dog, as I think I'd dipped into some hummus earlier, but I don't think the dog would judge me. I'm actually a big dog lover, and a golden retriever's particularly lovable. Growing up I always had dogs, so the dog-kissing scenes didn't gross me out."

China recalls bullet trains in new blow to technology

China's second-biggest train maker will recall 54 bullet trains used on the new showcase Beijing-Shanghai line for safety reasons, the firm said on Friday, dealing a fresh blow to the nation's scandal-plagued rail system.

The recall of the trains by China CNR Corp Ltd comes three weeks after 40 people were killed in a high-speed rail crash, which triggered public fury, unusually bold media coverage and a freeze on approvals for new railway projects.

China's high-speed rail drive was until recently held up by senior government officials as a trophy of the nation's technological prowess. Now it has become a political albatross, drawing scorn from many citizens long frustrated with the hulking railways ministry.

China's fast-growing microblog websites have served to amplify that public anger, and the recall drew more catcalls on Sina's popular Weibo site (http://weibo.com).

"Wasn't this locomotive the most advanced type, and put into use only after many tests? So how come the problems were discovered after they were put into operation? What a miracle," wrote one Weibo user.

"Can we also recall the Ministry of Railways?," asked another.

Officials blamed July's crash first on a lightning strike and then on faulty signals technology. But on Friday, Chinese media quoted a senior investigator as saying the crash also exposed management failings and could have been avoided.

"There were serious flaws in the system design that led to an equipment failure," said Luo Lin, the minister of China's State Administration of Work Safety, who is leading the probe.

"At the same time, this exposed problems in emergency response and safety management after the failure occurred," the Beijing Times cited Luo as saying.

"This was a major accident involving culpability that could have been totally avoided," he said.

Industry analyst Lu Zhou said the recalls added to signs that China's high-speed railway boom faced bleak times.

"The government is putting a sudden brake on China's high-speed railway story, and we must wait for the bad days to pass over," said Lu, an analyst with Everbright Securities in Shanghai who follows China's high-speed railway train makers.

"A Great Leap Forward-style movement in China's high-speed railway is changing abruptly to a period of silence, and that could last a few years," he said.

The Great Leap Forward was Mao Zedong's disastrous effort in the late 1950s to catapult China into communist prosperity.

But China could not afford to curtail train investment in the longer-term, said Luo.

"After all, China's railway system can't go back to the old days of shabby green cars," he said.

RECALL COULD HIT STEEL, CEMENT DEMAND

The recall and a decision to cut the top speeds of bullet trains nonetheless reflected a rethink by government leaders jolted into considering the risks of high-speed rail growth, said Zhao Jian, an expert on rail at Beijing Jiaotong University who has long criticized the bullet train expansion.

China has been working for years to develop a high-speed rail network to rival Japan's famed bullet trains, and last year investment on the sector hit a record high of 749.5 billion yuan ($117.2 billion).

Japanese bullet trains have not had any accidents involving injuries or deaths since they started running in 1964, according to a Transport Ministry official in Tokyo.

Even before last month's crash and resulting furor, China's railways sector was under a cloud. The railways minister, Liu Zhijun, a key figure behind the boom in the sector, was dismissed in February over corruption charges that have not yet been tried in court.

As well as the embarrassment for the ruling Communist Party, the slowdown in high-speed rail building could bite into demand for steel, said UOB Kay Hian commodities analyst Helen Lau.

Passengers waiting to board bullet trains from Beijing to Shanghai said they were not worried by news of the recall.

"The risk of an accident is definitely greater on these fast trains, but flying isn't any safer," said Zhang Kelong, a building materials salesman who said he was taking the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed service for the first time.

The government is stepping up safety demands, he noted.

"So the likelihood of another accident happening is small," he said. "Let's just say I would have to be very unlucky for that to happen."

Train maker CNR's President Cui Dianguo said the CRH380B-trains had "experienced a number of quality failings," and the recall would lead to a cut in services on the 1,318 kilometer (820 mille) Beijing-Shanghai route, which takes about 5 hours.

In an earlier statement, the state-owned company said it found faults in signaling systems, sensors and communications components on the trains, which it blamed for delays in service.

Cui did not say how many services would be cut. But the rail ministry said it would reduce the number of trains using the high-speed line by a quarter, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

CNR's rival, China South Locomotive, built both of the trains involved in the crash last month.

The worries over high-speed rail are likely to force central government leaders to drastically reform the Ministry of Railways, possibly merging it into a transport super-ministry, said Zhao, the Beijing professor.

The ministry thwarted an effort to do that a few years ago.

"Now, it's going to happen sooner or later," said Zhao, referring to the merger. "That's the whole direction of reform, and it won't change. But I don't know when it will happen."

(Additional reporting by Zhou Xin, Sally Huang, Michael Martina and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Ken Wills and John Chalmers)

Reynolds and Theron break up

Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Charlize Theron have ended their brief summer romance, UsMagazine.com reported Friday.

Reynolds, the 34-year-old star of "The Proposal" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," is recently divorced from actress Scarlett Johansson.

Theron, 36, broke up with her longtime beau, actor Stuart Townsend, in January 2010.

UsMagazine.com said Reynolds and Theron ended their relationship in late July after a few months of dating.

"He only wanted something casual but she's in a rush to settle down, have kids and start a family since she's getting older," a source told the celebrity news Web site.

"[Theron] didn't take it very well when he broke it off. She knows deep down that it wouldn't have worked, but she is pretty bummed out about it all."

"They're both too busy," a friend of Theron told UsMagazine.com. "And they were hardly ever together anyway."

Jay-Z calls West his brother

U.S. rapper Jay-Z confirmed rumors claiming he and Kanye West don't always get along, but he insisted he still regards the recording artist as his brother.

Although the pair recently collaborated on the CD "Watch the Throne" and are planning a concert tour to support it, some media reports have said there is tension between the two because of differing visions for their joint project.

The Hollywood Reporter said Jay-Z addressed the buzz during an interview this week with radio station Hot 97 in New York.

"Kanye's my brother," Jay-Z said. "Yes, we get on each other's nerves. That's part of pushing each other. ... People don't like to be pushed. It's annoying. ... So, of course, there are times when we're in the studio, we're yelling, but that's about it."