NEW ORLEANS (AP) – As residents work to rebuild their lives and homes a year after Hurricane Katrina, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will be frequent visitors to the city, observing the progress.

They were in New Orleans on Thursday, though only Pitt appeared at an afternoon news conference to announce the winner of the design competition he started in April to rebuild hurricane-ravaged neighborhoods using environmentally friendly designs and construction.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time down here,” Pitt said.

Preproduction for his next movie is scheduled to begin in November, and Pitt said he would be in New Orleans for much of January and February for filming.

Around that time, he also hoped to break ground on the first phase of the neighborhood redevelopment project slated for a section of the devastated Ninth Ward, he said.

The winning plan was submitted by Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop APD in New York. It includes designs for six single-family housing units, 12 multifamily units, a community center and play area, and a pedestrian bridge leading from the neighborhood to the top of the levee.

Pitt headed the jury of architects, city residents and others who decided on the top designs that use energy-saving materials such as metal roofing and recycled textiles. More than 100 individuals and architect firms submitted designs for the competition. Six finalists were announced in July, when Pitt got his first up-close look at the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.

He said Thursday he’s still appalled – embarrassed even – that people in many New Orleans neighborhoods cannot return because of the lack of basic services like hospitals and schools.

“This is a social justice issue,” he said. “In a catastrophe, you help the most vulnerable first, and we failed to do that.”

Matt Petersen, president and CEO of Global Green USA, the national environmental organization working with Pitt on the project, said 50,000 homes rebuilt according to the energy cost reduction goals in the competition could save residents as much as $50 million.

Pitt initially contributed $100,000 to help underwrite the contest. It was announced Thursday that he contributed another $100,000 to help cover prize money. The winning team will get $75,000 and two others – Fred Schwartz of Schwartz Architects in New York and Steve Dumez of Esckew-Dumez-Ripple in New Orleans – will receive $7,500 and certificates of excellence.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – Dave Grohl says he plans to make good on an offer to buy beers for two miners who listened to his band, the Foo Fighters, during their ordeal of being buried underground for two weeks.

Grohl said he will catch up with the two men when the band tours Australia in October.

“You know what? I’m not just having one beer with those dudes – we’re going for it,” the 37-year-old rocker told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Thursday. “This is going to be a big night.”

Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, spent two weeks trapped underground when the mine they were working in at Beaconsfield in Australia’s southern Tasmania state collapsed in May. As rescuers painstakingly dug an escape tunnel, the pair were handed music players among other things to help keep their spirits up.

When Grohl heard that Webb had requested that Foo Fighters music be downloaded onto the player, he sent a message of support – and offered to buy them a cold beer.

Webb and Russell, who became celebrities in Australia after their escape, did not immediately comment, but their manager, Sean Anderson, said they would likely be happy to accept Grohl’s offer.

“I’m sure they will be very keen to meet him,” Anderson said.

VENICE, Italy (AP) – No doubt there are plenty of on-screen kisses in store for Daniel Craig as the new James Bond. But none will be more talked about than the one that premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Craig plays one of the men who brutally murdered a Kansas farm family in “Infamous,” which examines Truman Capote’s emotional journey into the minds of two killers that formed the core of his true-crime novel, “In Cold Blood.”

An attachment grew between Capote and confessed killer Perry Smith during the long periods the author spent in Kansas teasing out their story, and in a pivotal moment, the two men kiss.

“I never dreamed I’d kiss James Bond,” quipped Toby Jones, the British actor who plays Capote. “Now that I’ve done it, I say I hope I’m just the first of many.”

Director Douglas McGrath said Craig was not a recognizable screen presence to most moviegoing audiences when he cast the 38-year-old actor for his movie, which also stars Sandra Bullock.

“That isn’t going to be the case in (a few) weeks,” McGrath said.

Craig missed Thursday night’s premiere, reportedly to finish work on the Bond picture, “Casino Royale,” due out in November.

While the Bond movie will enjoy a much wider release, McGrath said the close timing is good for both films – and a good opportunity for audiences to see what Craig is made of.

“For people to see Daniel as Perry Smith, a low-class, uneducated, vile misfit, and then to see him as James Bond … it offers an immediate comparison and shows what kind of range he has,” McGrath said.

“Infamous” was shown out of competition in Venice. The movie was in production just a bit behind last year’s “Capote,” which examines roughly the same period of the author’s life.

McGrath said the studio held his film back so the two movies would not get in each other’s way.

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) – Pete Fountain will return to performing at a casino on the Mississippi Gulf Coast this fall.

The casino, known as Casino Magic before it was battered by Hurricane Katrina, is reopening as the Hollywood Casino. Fountain had packed the casino’s Oak Royale room every Tuesday and Thursday before the storm.

John Jagunich, the casino’s general manager, said “everybody went wild” when Fountain’s return was announced at the pre-opening party Wednesday night.

The 76-year-old jazz clarinetist, a New Orleans native, lost his $1.5 million house in Bay St. Louis, as well as his gold records, memorabilia and 10 musical instruments when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast last year. His New Orleans home also was damaged but has been repaired.

His wife, Beverly, told The Sun Herald newspaper that Fountain, who underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in March, has suffered with a lingering bout of shingles, a painful skin infection, throughout the summer.

“The bypass was a breather,” she said.

On Thursday, Fountain said he was pleased to be back at the casino and, “I don’t even feel the shingles.”

He will perform at the Hollywood Casino starting in mid-October.

Penn National Gaming Inc., the casino’s parent company, renamed the property as “Hollywood” to bring it in line with one of its brands. The “Magic” name was acquired when the company bought the Bay St. Louis property from Pinnacle Entertainment Inc.

The casino has 20 table games, just over 900 slot machines and a six-table poker room. It is located temporarily on the ground floor of the casino’s hotel. Penn National Gaming has plans to build a new casino. Its gambling barge was heavily damaged and will be dismantled.

DEAUVILLE, France (AP) – “The Illusionist,” starring Edward Norton as a magician in early 1900s Vienna, was the opening film of the 32nd annual Deauville Film Festival.

Norton plays the title role in Neil Burger’s story about the power of magic. The movie also stars Paul Giamatti, Rufus Sewell and Jessica Biel.

The festival, which opened Friday at the Normandy resort, is a European showcase for mainly small-budget American films. French director Nicole Garcia is presiding over a nine-member jury, which will announce its prizes Sept. 10.

Other movies to be screened include “World Trade Center,” “A Prairie Home Companion,” “The Black Dahlia” and “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.”

Last year, Paul Haggis’ “Crash” won the top prize at Deauville, then went on to win the Oscar for best picture.