Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Auctioneers overestimated the power of the dark side. An original Darth Vader costume from oneof George Lucas’ Star Wars movie did not sell at auction Thursday when no bidder offered to pay the reserve priceChristie’s auctioneers said. The outfit - a jetblack helmet, mask and armor - was expected to sell for between $250,000 to $365,000. The reserve price is confidential, but generally it is just under the minimum expected price. Christie’s said bidding stopped at $236,358. The costume is thought to have been made for The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in Lucas’s scifi series, released in 1980. Christie’s did not name the seller, identified only as an American private collector. Meanwhile, a gun used in an advertising campaign for a James Bond movie was sold for more than 10 times its estimated value at Thursday’s auction of movie memorabilia. TheWalther air pistol held by Bond actor Sean Connery in the poster for the 1963 film, From Russia With Love, was sold for $437,206 to an unidentified telephone bidder, Christie’s said.

Adrien Brody says he was reluctantly forced to sue the makers of a thriller film because they failed to pay hisfull salary. U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer in Los Angeles on Monday blocked the sale or use of Brody’s likeness in Giallo until the Oscar winner’s remaining salary is paid. The judge noted in her ruling that the actor was likely to prevail in his $2 million lawsuit against the filmmakers. The actor sued Hannibal Pictures and U.K.-based Giallo Productions Ltd. in October, shortly before Giallo went on sale in the United States. An after-hours phone message left for Martin Barab, an attorney representing the filmmakers, was not immediately returned.