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MGM has been given another month and a half to meet its debt payments.

According to Variety, lenders were expected to receive the instalment tomorrow, but have instead agreed to suspend demands until mid-May.

This is the fourth occasion since September that financiers to the cash-strapped studio have assented to withhold demands, with a view to giving CEO Stephen Cooper due time to restructure the company.

MGM was originally put up for sale in November, drawing a trio of offers from rival studios. Lionsgate pulled out of the running last week, leaving only Time Warner and Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries left in the chase.

MGM is currently facing debts of around $3.7bn (£2.25bn). The company’s assets include its name and logo, the United Artists operations and a library of over 4,000 titles that features the James Bond series and half of The Hobbit franchise.

How To Train Your Dragon has debuted at the top of the US box office with $43.3 million over the weekend.

The Paramount-DreamWorks animated feature has knocked Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland to second place with $17.3 million.

Also debuting this week is John Cusack’s comedy Hot Tub Time Machine at number three with $13.6 million, while The Bounty Hunter lands at number four, followed by Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and She’s Out Of My League.

Finally, Jude Law’s Repo Men slips to number nine with $3 million and Our Family Wedding claims the tenth spot with $2.2 million.

The US box office top ten in full:

1. (-) How To Train Your Dragon – $43,300,000
2. (1) Alice In Wonderland – $17,300,000
3. (-) Hot Tub Time Machine – $13,650,000
4. (3) The Bounty Hunter – $12,400,000
5. (2) Diary Of A Wimpy Kid – $10,000,000
6. (6) She’s Out of My League – $3,526,000
7. (5) Green Zone – $3,350,000
8. (7) Shutter Island – $3,175,000
9. (4) Repo Men – $3,048,000
10. (9) Our Family Wedding – $2,200,000

Dennis Hopper has been awarded a star on Hollywood’s legendary Walk of Fame.

The 73-year-old was honoured with the 2,403rd star on Hollywood Boulevard on Friday.

The Apocalypse Now star, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, has spent over 50 years in acting.

Hopper was photographed with his 7-year-old daughter receiving the prize.

Hollywood actor Robert Culp, who paired with Bill Cosby in the comedy-adventure TV series I Spy in the 1960s, has died at the age of 79.

Police said he accidentally hit his head while taking a walk outside his Hollywood home.

In I Spy Culp played an agent whose cover was a tennis ace, while Cosby played his trainer.

Culp was prominent on US TV from the late 1950s, more recently appearing on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

I Spy broke ground for US television by being the first programme to feature an African-American (Bill Cosby) in a lead role.

Culp was born in Oakland, California, in 1930.

He got his start in television in the late 1950s before appearing in The Man From Uncle and Outer Limits.

He then landed the role of tennis-playing secret agent Kelly Robinson. Cosby played his coach, Alexander Scott.

I Spy ran from 1965 to 1968. For each of the three seasons he was nominated for an Emmy, but lost each time to Cosby.

He also starred in films, notably the 1969 wife-swapping comedy drama Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

Culp appeared in other TV programmes, including Columbo and The Golden Girls but his next starring role on the small screen was as FBI agent Bill Maxwell in The Greatest American Hero.

More recently, he played the father-in-law in Everybody Loves Raymond.

He was married five times and had five children.

Steven Moffat has suggested that he is not too concerned about the budget cuts on his first series as Doctor Who showrunner.

However, the new executive producer also told BBC News that he could easily spend any amount allocated for the programme.

Moffat said: “There will never be enough money to make Doctor Who. We could spend Avatar‘s budget and still ask for more, because it’s a show that’s set in every point in history and every place in the universe.

“What we think is what we need to achieve, and how we’re to achieve it, given whatever financial circumstance we’re in. A lot of the most iconic things about Doctor Who are a direct consequence of financial shortcomings.”

He added: “They said ‘We’ve got a police box from Dixon of Dock Green – let’s make a box that’s bigger on the inside’, and thus was born the single best idea in all of fiction.

“Budget cuts are tough – I don’t like them, but they force you to be creative. You’ve seen that trailer. Does it look like we’ve had a budget cut?”

Of the new Tardis, he said: “So much was new, it would have been cowardly not to have a new Tardis as well.”

Moffat recently told The Guardian that Doctor Who was “subject to efficiency savings like everyone else”, but added “no one is going to say that it looks cheaper because it doesn’t”.

Steven Moffat has confirmed that none of the major characters from the Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who will appear in his first series.

The new showrunner previously revealed that the Weeping Angels, Daleks and Silurians would appear in Matt Smith’s first year as The Doctor, but moved to rule out a return of the human characters introduced by his predecessor.

Moffat told The Guardian: “The more you back-reference, the more it feels like a sequel and the sequel is ever as good as the original.

“Old favourites can return, provided you can do something new and exciting with them.”

He added: “There are no past characters coming back in this series, but I imagine that kids would love to see Captain Jack meet the new Doctor.”

Off his shift from writer to executive producer, Moffat claimed: “You don’t think of it in terms of a challenge. You think ‘Ooh, wouldn’t it be great to do that!’ and I’m now in the fortunate position of being able to think that and make it happen.”

Alice In Wonderland has continued to top the US box office for a third consecutive week with $34.5 million over the weekend.

Debuting this week are Diary Of A Wimpy Kid at number two with $21.8 million, The Bounty Hunter, starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, at number three with $21 million and Jude Law’s Repo Men in fourth place with $6.1 million.

The rom-com She’s Out Of My League slips to fifth place, followed by Matt Damon’s Green Zone at six and Shutter Island claiming the number seven position.

Finally, in its second week in release the Robert Pattinson romance Remember Me falls to tenth place with $3.3 million.

The US box office top ten in full:

1. (1) Alice In Wonderland – $34,500,000
2. (-) Diary Of A Wimpy Kid – $21,800,000
3. (-) The Bounty Hunter – $21,000,000
4. (-) Repo Men – $6,151,000
5. (3) She’s Out Of My League – $6,015,000
6. (2) Green Zone – $5,963,000
7. (4) Shutter Island – $4,755,000
8. (7) Avatar -$4,000,000
9. (6) Our Family Wedding – $3,800,000
10. (5) Remember Me – $3,300,000