Sly gets busted up, Gerard gets off and Sam Mendes goes into Bondage (maybe)

News Hound's stand-in Houndette sniffs out some astounding New Year's stories on the internet and keeps you in the frame.

Sam Mendes, the director of deep-thinking dramas such as Revolutionary Road and American Beauty, shocked the movie world - and just about anyone who's ever watched a Bond movie - with the news that he's in talks to direct the super-spy's latest action-packed outing. What next? His missus (aka Kate Winslet) as Moneypenny?

63-year-old Rocky star Sylvester Stallone is still taking the blows, sustaining a hairline fracture of his neck during filming of his latest movie The Expendables. How's that for growing old disgracefully?

Scotsman Gerard Butler escaped a disgrace of his own - and a possible six-month stint in the slammer - when an LA judge dropped battery charges against him http://youtube.com/v/rA10RDU9quU