Eco-activist rock musician thinks local, acts global

By Nick Olivari
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's a long way from rock and roll to eco-activist but Chuck Leavell, most recently keyboardist for The Rolling Stones, believes the two are anything but mutually exclusive.
Leavell, 57, said while the 60's are best known for the music and sexual revolutions, in a smaller but equally important way there was greater recognition that people had to start taking care of the environment.
His most recent incarnation is as a co-founder of The Mother Nature Network, an environmental news and information website that launched in January 2009.
As well as director of environmental affairs and a board member, he hosts two video series on mnn.com: "Love of the Land," in which he discusses sustainability and conservation issues, and "The Green Room," a series in which he interviews fellow celebrities about the environment and their philanthropic work.
"For a long time, Americans were apathetic to these issues, but people are waking up and there is a sincerity to making changes," Leavell said.
Leavell has long lived the environmental creed, with much of his personal commitment stemming from 1981 when his wife, Rose Lane, inherited family land in aptly named Twiggs County, about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta, Georgia.
"I realized I had the responsibility to be a good steward of this land," Leavell said.
BALANCE AND SENSITIVITY
Studying what would be best for the property while continuing his career as a musician he settled on tree farming, doubling the property to 2500 acres over time with a focus on southern yellow pine, a pine native to the southeast United States.
His commitment has been such that Leavell and his wife were named Outstanding Tree Farmers in 1999 by the American Forest Foundation's Center for Family Forests.
"Trees are the most important resource we have," Leavell said. "We learn how to take care of then, they can take care of us."
Counting the benefits of trees, from use as building material through to natural filtration of air and water, he said experience with his own land led to the current advocacy work.
As an economic realist, Leavell emphasizes that environmental policy must be just one of many competing goals.
"It seems to me there has to be a balance between natural land and land we develop," he said. "a sensitivity in the way we run our municipalities and urban areas."
Though concerned that recession may put environmental issues on the back burner as happened in the 70s, Leavell suggested that this time there is a strong commitment from the nation's leaders to smart, strong and sustainable economic growth. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Israel honors German soldier from "The Pianist"

By Jacob Comenetz
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German army officer who helped Jews during World War Two and was featured in the Oscar-winning film "The Pianist" was posthumously honored by Israel at a ceremony in Berlin on Friday.
The story of how Captain Wilhelm Hosenfeld saved the life of Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman received worldwide attention through Roman Polanski's 2002 film, which won three Academy Awards and many other prizes worldwide.
Hosenfeld is one of the few German World War Two soldiers to receive the title "Righteous among the Nations," an honor given by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to people who helped Jews avoid death in the Nazi genocide that killed 6 million.
Yad Vashem announced in February that Hosenfeld would receive the honor, which has been given to over 22,000 people. The sons of both Hosenfeld and Szpilman attended the ceremony in Berlin.
Hosenfeld, one of 460 Germans honored by Yad Vashem, was in the Nazi-occupied Polish capital from 1940 to 1944. He served as a sports and culture officer in Warsaw but was also involved in some interrogations.
"The rescuer of Jewish life who we honor today through his courageous act showed that there were people in uniform, even under a dictatorship and under terror, who stood up for humanity and compassion," said Ilan Mor, Israel's deputy ambassador.
Born in 1895 and raised in a pious Catholic family, Hosenfeld joined the Nazi party in 1935 and was drafted into the armed forces shortly before Germany invaded Poland in 1939.
In Warsaw he recorded the brutality of the German occupiers against the Polish and Jewish local population in his diaries and letters. They showed he had expressed his "horror at the extermination of the Jewish people" by the country that he served, Yad Vashem said.
"We have brought an eternal curse on ourselves and will be forever covered with shame," he wrote. He also risked his life to save Szpilman and another Jew, Leon Warm, by providing false documents, shelter and assistance until the end of the war.
Hosenfeld was captured by the Red Army near the end of the war and perished in a Soviet prison in 1952.
A certificate and medal were presented to Hosenfeld's son.
"We're aware of the fact that this is the highest honor the state of Israel awards to non-Jews," Detlev Hosenfeld said.
Andrzej Szpilman, whose father Wladyslaw died in 2000, said of Hosenfeld: "He was a person who helped very many different people from the beginning of the war, regardless of their origin, their religion or race."
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: Reuters

Frank Lloyd Wright's famed Ennis House to be sold

By Christopher Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Frank Lloyd Wright's famed, long-endangered Ennis House, which served as a location for films such as "Blade Runner," is putting out a "for sale" sign with a $15 million asking price, Christie's said on Friday.
The 6,000-square-foot Los Angeles estate is being sold by the Ennis House Foundation, which recently completed the initial phase of a stabilization and restoration project after years of decay and damage from earthquakes and torrential rains. In March 2005, it was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's most-endangered list.
"Our goal has always been to be a good steward of the house," said the foundation's president, James DeMeo.
"We've made a lot of progress, but at this point a private owner with the right vision and sufficient resources can better preserve the house than we can as a small nonprofit," he said, explaining the decision to place the historic home on the market.
Perched atop a hill in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles just south of Griffith Park, the Mayan-inspired estate built in 1924 from some 27,000 16-inch concrete blocks is one of only four of the legendary American architect's "textile block" homes.
"I fully support the Ennis House returning to private ownership," said Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson of the architect.
"My grandfather designed homes to be occupied by people. His homes are works of art. He created the space, but the space becomes a creative force of its own and uplifts when it is lived in every day," said Wright, a member of the Ennis House Foundation's board of directors.
The last private owners donated the house, which officials said would require a further $5 million to $7 million for preservation, to a public trust in 1980.
Another of the foundation's directors, film star Diane Keaton, will likely assume a public role in the sale of the house, which also has been used in episodes of television shows such as "Twin Peaks" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
The sale is being handled by Hilton & Hyland and Dilbeck Realtors, with assistance from Christie's Great Estates, a subsidiary of Christie's auction house.
Wright, who died in 1959, was one of the world's most prolific architects, designing homes, churches and office buildings like the Johnson Wax headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, as well as public spaces including the famed white spiral of New York's Guggenheim Museum, now celebrating its 50th anniversary.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
(please visit our entertainment blog via www.reuters.com or on blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)

Source: Reuters

Old Hound Dogs Leiber & Stoller up to new tricks

By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - If Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had not become two of the most influential songwriters in pop music, they could have earned a decent living as a stand-up comedy duo.
Almost 60 years after an awkward first meeting that set them on the road to vast fame and fortune through such tunes as "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand By Me" and "Poison Ivy," the pair have developed a finely honed routine.
Stoller supplies the anecdotes, and Leiber, the lyricist, injects the spicy wit. The system worked well for their new memoir, "Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography," in which the boogie-woogie boys trade old war stories.
In a recent conversation with Reuters, the 76-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees were asked if the project exposed divergent, Rashomon-style memories of the same event.
"Constantly, all the time," said Stoller. "That's because I have a very good memory. And he doesn't."
"But I have a very fertile imagination," countered Leiber.
"You bet," replied Stoller.
"And that makes up for what I cannot remember," Leiber concluded.
The back-and-forth goes on for 300 pages in their book, with collaborator David Ritz playing referee.
"They're like Catskill comics. I didn't have to do much," said Ritz, who has previously co-authored memoirs for the likes of Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. "They're used to arguing, so I got in there and began arguing with them. The arguments, for the most part, were positive."
ELVIS, BEATLES
The sparks that have flown between Leiber and Stoller also ignited the career of the Coasters, for whom they wrote and produced all of the doo-wop act's hits, including "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown" and "Along Came Jones."
Elvis Presley, the Drifters, Ben E. King and Peggy Lee were also among their many satisfied clients. Their 200-plus tunes have also been covered by everyone from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Joni Mitchell and Liza Minnelli.
Raised on the East Coast, Leiber and Stoller came to Los Angeles with their families during the 1940s. They met in 1950 when they were 17. Leiber phoned Stoller and suggested they work together. Stoller was reluctant, but was inadvertently mesmerized when Leiber showed up at his doorstep.
"He had one blue eye and one brown eye," Stoller said. "I'd never seen that before ... I forgot to say anything for a long time. I was just staring at him." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Just a Minute With: Sandra Bullock's "Proposal"

By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress Sandra Bullock says romantic comedies are bad and she is fighting against her latest movie, "The Proposal," being put in that category.
In "The Proposal," which will be released in U.S. theaters on Friday, Bullock plays a Canadian book editor who declares she is engaged to her unsuspecting assistant, played by Ryan Reynolds, to avoid deportation from the United States.
She spoke to Reuters about why she made the film, what she thinks of romantic comedies and the restrictions women face in the film industry.
Q: What have you been doing for the past couple of years?
A: "I have been told that I have been gone for two years. I just haven't been in this business, in front of the camera. I have other things that are my business that I love to do ... but aren't in front of cameras. I made this film. I produced another film. I have businesses, restoring architecture that I turn into businesses when I am done.
"I just opened a bakery and a Viennese pastry shop in an old restored building in Austin. We also have our restaurant there. I'm always working. I'm always on some construction site because that's what I love, it's my art form, the restoration of architecture, so I'm always doing something, just not in the media all the time."
Q: How did you come to make "The Proposal"?
A: "Pressure, pure pressure. I didn't want to read it ... it's categorized as romantic comedy because we women are only allowed to do one of four categories and that's it.
"But I didn't want to read it. And they said 'Look, just as a favor, read it so we can legitimately say no thank you to it.' And I read it and I was laughing and I don't ever find anything funny. And I didn't look at it as a romantic comedy. This is a comedy that has romance elements in it, but it's something completely different.
"It goes back to the olden days of comedy where it's smart and it's about the characters and you don't go 'this is about finding love and losing love.' It has nothing to do with that but in the end what happens when you're not looking for it there it is. It was just funny.
"I was a little open then just to hearing what they said and I figured they would screw up the casting. Then they brought up Ryan (Reynolds) who I have known for a long time. As soon as they said Ryan it made it even harder because I could visualize how we could do the comedy because we work very similarly.
"To find your comedic match, I have had it once with Hugh (Grant) and I have had it with other actors on a smaller scale, but when you find that you can't pay for that and it just made it hard to say no. I just don't want it to be called a romantic comedy because they're bad. They're neither romantic nor funny. It's just a lame word for most mediocre films."
Q: But you have had a lot of success with roles in romantic comedies?
A: "'Miss Congeniality' was a romantic comedy, I call that a buddy flick. It's a new kind of film. If you really think about it; it wasn't about romance, it was about her saving her friend at the beauty pageant. Men do films like this, 'The Proposal' or 'Miss Congeniality,' all the time and they're considered comedies and there's always love in it. There's always love in it. There's always a relationship. I would like to help create a broader spectrum of categories where the writing gets better. There are great writers out there."
Q: Are you finding it more difficult to find roles as you get older? Continued...
Source: Reuters

Larry David takes acting turn for Woody Allen

By Mark Egan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - While many A-list stars list Woody Allen as the director they most want to work with, comedian Larry David was not fawning for a chance to collaborate with the creator of such hits as "Annie Hall," "Manhattan" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
"It wasn't really a burning ambition. Acting is not the top of my list of things to do," said David, who made his name as co-creator and writer of the hit 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld" and now improvises a self-caricature in the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Indeed, the 61-year-old said he thought Allen was making a mistake by casting him in Allen's new film, "Whatever Works."
"I was a little intimidated at first, I didn't want to be the guy to screw up Woody Allen's movie," David said, insisting he is not really an actor at all. "I called him up and I said, 'I think you are making a mistake.'"
While David calls the movie a Woody Allen "gem" and insists he is "very pleased and satisfied" with it, few critics agree.
"On the plus side, Allen avoids the creepy ventriloquist effect of a younger actor mouthing his words and intonations by choosing as raucously individualistic a performer as David," Variety wrote of the film, which opens on Friday.
"But by forcing David, a total improviser who rarely delivers scripted lines, to incant impossibly long monologues ... Allen the director loses sight of what works."
David has completed filming and is now editing the seventh season of his television show "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which starts up on HBO in September. He said he does not know if this season will be its last.
During its upcoming season, he says he fights with Rosie O'Donnell and has episodes with top stars of "Seinfeld."
David says the rude, abrasive character he plays on his show is him, but without the social boundaries of real life, and that people often mistake him for his TV incarnation.
That, he says, gives his liberty to behave like his TV character. "I can be a little more honest. If they treat me like the character, they will get the character," he says.
People often tell him funny things that happened to them, thinking it would be great material for his show.
"They are never any good," he said. "Now I just tell people, 'Don't tell me, I don't want to know,' and they think I'm rude."
(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Source: Reuters

Federal gay marriage challenge has Hollywood style

By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The story of two famous U.S. lawyers from opposite ends of the political spectrum banding together to launch a bold and unexpected fight for gay marriage sounds like it could have been written in Hollywood.
In many ways, it is.
A handful of political filmmakers led by a Democratic consultant have crafted a gay rights challenge they hope will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case which has its first hearing in a federal San Francisco court on July 2 could quickly make gay marriage a national right, or, some veteran gay rights advocates fear, cripple the movement.
The team has political experience, winning referenda in California in particular, and has brought together real-world firepower in the form of Ted Olson and David Boies, the lawyers who faced off in the 2000 election vote recount that led to George W. Bush's presidency.
What sets them apart is the willingness to take on a court case that advocates steeped in the cause have avoided.
"Patience is a virtue I've quite frankly never possessed -- if patience is a virtue," said Chad Griffin, 35, who began his career in the political big leagues more than a decade ago as the youngest person to work on a president's West Wing staff.
"History is on our side, law is on our side," added Griffin, who is gay.
Rob Reiner, the "When Harry Met Sally" director and advocate for children's health, and Bruce Cohen, the producer of "Milk," a film about the first openly gay elected politician in California, are two of the six-member board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, founded for the court challenge.
HIGH STAKES
Despite losses in California courts and at the ballot box, gay rights advocates have made major strides in recent months with marriage and domestic partner rights in a number of states, especially in the Northeast.
President Barack Obama's Justice Department this week argued in a federal case against recognizing same-sex marriage, but Obama on Wednesday extended some federal rights to gay partners of federal workers in what he called a first step to end discrimination against gays and lesbians.
The federal judiciary is widely seen as conservative, and gay rights movement leaders have argued that a gradual approach to change public opinion and win in states would be crucial preparation for a challenge in the Supreme Court, which gauges public opinion in such morality-linked cases.
But with a swing vote in the nine-member Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, already ruling in favor of gays in two important cases -- and no signs of court conservatives retiring soon -- the Los Angeles-based filmmaker group decided to act.
"You get into the habit, which I think is a good one, of going for it," said Cohen. "From the political world we bring the knowledge that there is no such thing as a sure thing. From the Hollywood world, everything is a one in a million chance." Continued...
Source: Reuters