BALTIMORE, April 1 (UPI) -- A suburban Baltimore YouTube star credits his film-imitating work on the video-sharing site with jump-starting his Hollywood career.

Brandon Hardesty, whose YouTube video imitating a sequence from "There Will Be Blood" was featured on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," said his solo re-creations of famous Hollywood scenes helped him snag a role in "Bart Got a Room," an independent film featuring William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines that is set to premier at New York's Tribeca film fest this month, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"I just did it, you know, for fun," Hardesty said of his scene re-creations, which include famous scenes from "Goodfellas" and "Full Metal Jacket." "Everyone's got scenes they act out for friends, right?"

Brian Hecker, director of "Bart Got a Room," said Hardesty was brought to his attention via his Joe Pesci imitation.

"One of my producers knows Joe Pesci, and Joe was saying how ticked off he was that people were imitating him," Hecker told USA Today. "So my producer plugged Pesci's name into YouTube, and Brandon came up immediately. He shot me the link and said I had to take a look."

Woman wards off captor with perfume

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, April 1 (UPI) -- Police said a Corpus Christi, Texas, woman who was held prisoner in her car for more than two hours escaped her captor after spraying him with perfume.

Police Cmdr. David Torres said a man forced the woman to drive him around the city and stole $80 and a cell phone from his victim before fleeing after she doused him with Elizabeth Arden Red Door perfume, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported Tuesday.

Torres said the man, who wielded a knife with black tape on the handle, had tricked his victim into stopping her car by lying down in front of the vehicle.

"It's not common for someone to lay himself in front of a vehicle -- he should be glad the driver was paying attention and stopped," Torres said.

Police are searching for the suspect, who was described as a black man in his early 40s standing between 6 feet and 6 feet 3 inches tall.

GOP convention drinkers could sip later

ST. PAUL, Minn., April 1 (UPI) -- Republican national convention-goers could watch the sun rise while ordering a tequila sunrise if Minnesota lawmakers OK a bill extending the drinking time.

Up for consideration in the Minnesota House of Representatives is a bill that would push back the 2 a.m. last call to 4 a.m. for establishments within a 10-mile radius of the convention site in St. Paul, Minn., a blog of The New York Times reported. The bill would expand the hours and allow Sunday alcohol sales -- normally banned -- for 11 days surrounding the Sept. 1-4 gathering.

"Las Vegas is open all night long and New Orleans is open till dawn," said Rep. Phyllis Kahn, D-Minneapolis and a proposal co-sponsor. "I spend a lot of time in cities like New York and Montreal and they all seem to have later drinking times."

If a watering hole objects to a later closing, it is free to close at 2 a.m.

"The 2 a.m. closing hour is actually pretty common," Kahn said. "But Paris and London barely have closing times at all."

Beer pizza dough headed for competition

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, April 1 (UPI) -- A Canadian pizza maker bound for an international competition in Las Vegas says beer in the dough is one of the aces up her sleeve.

Before setting off for this week's International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas, Diana Coutu of Winnipeg, Manitoba, representing Canada at the event, told the Winnipeg Sun her choice was Moosehead beer for the dough.

"Canadians are known around the world as happy-go-lucky beer drinkers, so why not," she said.

She flew out of Winnipeg Monday night with a Moosehead cooler packed with supplies of beer, sauce made from marinated tomatoes, dry-cured pepperoni and a mix of low-fat mozzarella and herbed Havarti cheeses, the report said.

"Pepperoni is still the No. 1 topping ordered in every corner of North America," Coutu said.

There are 70 pizza makers vying for the title before the conference winds down Thursday, the event Web site said.