CultureStyle

Viral video a stealth promo for "Robot Chicken"

2009-07-01T12:13:00.000+04:00

(MEYER, ROBOT, CHICKEN, WRITER, GREEN, EPISODE)

By Nellie Andreeva
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A viral video billed as "Breckin Meyer Responds to Perez Hilton" plays like a parody of Hilton`s video statement about his recent run-in with the Black Eyed Peas in Toronto. But in fact it`s a stealth promo for an upcoming "Robot Chicken" DVD release.
Since being released Wednesday on FunnyOrDie.com (www.FunnyOrDie.com) and later on AdultSwim.com (www.AdultSwim.com), the clip of actor/writer Meyer, which features Zac Efron, has nabbed about 370,000 views.
It was written by "Robot Chicken" creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich and head writer Tom Root to tease Adult Swim`s unusual marketing campaign for the DVD release of the animated series` extended "Star Wars Episode II" special.
Green and Senreich are donning skates to host an eight-city roller-rink tour across the U.S. The admission-free events will feature performances by hip-hop band Gym Class Heroes and appearances by "Robot Chicken" writers, producers and voice cast members, including Meyer, as well as guest bands.
Sponsored by Boost Mobile, Adult Swim`s "Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II" Roller Skating Tour kicks off August 1 in Los Angeles, with stops in Las Vegas, Denver, Kansas City, Mo., Indianapolis, Richmond, Va., Philadelphia and New York.
"Grab your friends, your couples skate partner and some kneepads," Green said. "We`re coming to your town! Or at least to a major market somewhat close to your town."
To heat things up, "Robot Chicken" will hold a preview party July 25 during Comic-Con in San Diego with a guest DJ. It`s open to the public.
"When Seth first pitched the idea of throwing roller-skating parties around the country, I rolled my eyes and laughed at him," Senreich said. "Now that we`re actually going to do it, I`m in awe of its absurdity and can`t wait to attend. It fits with the randomness of our `Robot Chicken` show."
The "Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II" DVD, which features 15 minutes of never-before-seen footage, will be released July 21. The final nine new episodes of the show`s fourth season begin July 26.
(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)
Original article

ABC goes old-media to promote "Castle"

2009-07-01T12:01:00.000+04:00

(SEASON, CASTLE, AUTHOR, MYSTERY, NOVEL, HYPERION)

By James Hibberd
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As television networks brainstorm dizzying high-tech ways to promote shows online and via social networks, ABC is adopting a decidedly retro medium to excite viewers for the upcoming second season of "Castle": a book.
Because the show`s protagonist, Richard Castle, is a best-selling author of mysteries, what more appropriate tie-in than to publish a mystery novel credited to the character?
The first chapter of Castle`s novel "Heat Wave" will debut August 10 on ABC.com.
The network will post the first half of the book, a chapter a week, for 10 weeks. The full novel will be published September 29 by Disney sister company Hyperion. The story apparently is a stand-alone mystery with elements that relate to the on-screen story.
The show`s second season premieres in late September.
The network teamed with Hyperion for 2006`s "Lost" tie-in "Bad Twin" and "The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer," which tied in to the ABC miniseries "Rose Red." The real author of "Heat Wave" is not being unveiled.
(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)
Original article

Aerosmith drummer writes of "Hitting Rock Bottom"

2009-07-01T11:49:00.000+04:00

(AEROSMITH, KRAMER, PEOPLE, ABOUT, HAMILTON, ALBUM)

By Gary Graff
DETROIT (Billboard) - Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer says he wrote his new book, "Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top," in order "to be entertaining, but at the same to ... help people."
Kramer tells Billboard.com that "Hit Hard," which was published Tuesday (June 30), is the result of a four-year process with writers William Patrick and Keith Garde. The book, which includes a forward by Motley Crue`s Nikki Sixx, chronicles the drummer`s substance abuse problems, his psychologically scarring relationship with his father and a similarly tumultuous, "co-dependent" battle with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. Kramer hopes that the book will shed some light for those dealing with the same issues in their lives.
"My desire to help people plays a strong part in my character," Kramer says. "Because I`ve been allowed to do what I`ve done via Aerosmith, I`d like to be able to carry it on as I get older, on another level. Whatever that may be is really unbeknownst to me -- maybe some sort of a lecture series or circuit or whatever -- but I know that it will come."
Kramer says that Tyler -- whose own autobiography, "Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?," has been pushed from an October publication date to the summer of 2010 -- was supportive during his bandmate`s book-writing process. "When I was trying to tell him about some of the stuff that was in the book, his comment was ... `Hey, man, as long as it`s the truth, I don`t care,`" Kramer recalls. "And that`s pretty much where Steven is at. He`s about the truth."
Bassist Tom Hamilton, who Kramer portrays in "Hit Hard" as perhaps his closest friend in Aerosmith, calls his rhythm section partner`s tome "pretty amazing. It`s a really hard-hitting book ... but there`s also a lot of neat references to people that we knew when the band started and things that happened that I forgot about. So it has some real entertainment value, too."
Aerosmith as a band collaborated with author Stephen Davis on 1997`s "Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith," but Hamilton says he does not anticipate each member of the Boston quintet bringing out his own book.
"Right now my passion is expressing myself through music," Hamilton says. "I think the thing to do is to be the last one to write a book. That way you can let everybody else put things in their book that are gonna make you mad, and then you can answer back and (have) the last word."
Aerosmith is on the road with ZZ Top until mid-September and performing its 1975 album "Toys in the Attic" during the shows. The group plans to return to work on its next album with producer Brendan O`Brien after the tour.
(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)
Original article

"Gravity" takes off as ABC series

2009-07-01T11:26:00.000+04:00

(GRAVITY, NETWORK, DRAMA, EXECUTIVE, PRODUCER, PARRIOTT)

By Nellie Andreeva
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - ABC is "Defying Gravity." The network has picked up the 13-episode adventure drama starring Ron Livingston.
"Gravity," whose cast includes Laura Harris, Christina Cox, Malik Yoba and Florentine Lahme, is set in the near future and revolves around eight astronauts from five countries who undertake a mysterious six-year mission through the solar system.
The internationally produced series -- also set to air on Canada`s CTV, Germany`s ProSieben and the BBC -- hails from familiar ABC contributors: creator/executive producer James Parriott, who served as an executive producer on ABC`s "Grey`s Anatomy" and "Ugly Betty," and executive producer Michael Edelstein, former executive producer of the network`s "Desperate Housewives."
Slated to air on ABC this summer, the show is a co-venture of Fox TV Studios (FtvS) and Vancouver-based Omni Film Prods., whose Brian Hamilton and Michael Chechik also executive produce.
Along with "Mental" and "Persons Unknown," "Gravity" is one of three drama series that FtvS produced independently with international partners in the past year. It`s the second, after "Mental," to land a U.S. distributor and the first to go somewhere other than a Fox-affiliated network.
FtvS is in advanced talks with cable networks for "Persons," with a sale expected during the next couple of weeks.
Unlike "Persons" and "Mental," which were existing pilot scripts at FtvS originally developed for other networks, "Gravity" was developed specifically for the company`s international producing model.
"We`re excited about being pioneers in doing television a different way," said Edelstein, who got the ball rolling on the project more than three years ago when he caught a repeat, on Discovery Channel, of the BBC docudrama "Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets," about an international crew of astronauts on a trip through space.
He acquired the rights to it from British producer Impossible Pictures and approached Parriott, with whom he worked on ABC`s drama "Threat Matrix."
If "Gravity" does well on ABC and FtvS` foreign broadcast partners, Parriott and Edelstein hope to do more seasons of the show.
"I have the first three seasons blocked out, and I know the ending of the series," Parriott said.
(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)
Original article

"Casanegra" shows storied city in realistic light

2009-07-01T09:39:00.000+04:00

(LAKHMARI, THROUGH, CASANEGRA, ABOUT, CHARACTERS, KARIM)

By Natasha Senjanovic
TAORMINA, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - The likes of Bogey and Bergman are nowhere to be seen in Nour Eddine Lakhmari`s tour through the nocturnal underbelly of Casablanca, or "Casanegra," as the city`s underclasses call it. Lakhmari picked up the prize for best director at the Taormina festival for this film about two childhood friends, young men striving to rise above the surrounding squalor.
Moroccan films usually are relegated to art-house cinemas, but "Casanegra" is hip, stylish and engaging enough to break out further -- if it weren`t for its two-hour running time. Lakhmari takes too long to set up the main premise, and then too long to see it through, though offering some Coen-esque characters and social criticism along the way.
The film begins with the protagonists running from the police, then flashes back to explain how they got there. Adil (Omar Lotfi) lives with his mother and violent stepfather and dreams of moving to Sweden. Karim (Anas Elbaz) is secretly in love with an older, upper-class French woman, and his family struggles with the burden of his sick father.
The two make petty money through petty crimes, some for local heavy Zrirek (a deliciously over-the-top Mohamed Benbrahim), whose sadism is equaled only by his neurotic love for his little dog.
The more street-smart Karim is leery of getting further involved with Zrirek, but Adil needs to score big to buy fake documents for Sweden, and hopes to take his buddy with him. You know things will go downhill when Adil talks his friend into accepting just one big job that will solve all their troubles.
The film caused a scandal at home, presumably for offering a different view of the infamous city. Like Lakhmari`s antiheroes, no one in the developing or developed world wants to work menial jobs anymore, and class divisions widen especially in poorer countries. Even Karim, the brains of the duo, would rather continue selling contraband cigarettes than gut fish for his father`s exploitative former employer.
The acting from newcomers Lotfi and Elbaz is first-rate. Their chemistry is good, and they easily walk that fine line of making audiences care about two characters with relatively flexible morals. Shot mostly at night, the film has a palette of mostly seedy yellows and washed-out blues.
Original article

O`Neal leads mourners at Farrah Fawcett funeral

2009-07-01T06:55:00.000+04:00

(ANGELES, SERVICE, FAWCETT, CANCER, STEWART, CHURCH)

By Laura Isensee
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Ryan O`Neal led friends and family in a private funeral service on Tuesday for actress Farrah Fawcett, who died last week aged 62 after a long and public battle with cancer.
O`Neal, the long-time companion of the "Charlie`s Angels" star, was one of the pall-bearers and gave a reading at the service at Los Angeles Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Redmond O`Neal, the "Love Story" actor`s 24-year-old son with Fawcett, was allowed briefly out of jail where he is being held on drugs possession charges to attend the funeral service. Redmond also gave a bible reading, according to a program made available to the media.
Fellow "Charlie`s Angels" star Kate Jackson, former model Cheryl Tiegs and rocker Rod Stewart`s ex-wife Alana Stewart were also among the mourners. Fawcett`s Los Angeles cancer doctor, Dr. Lawrence Piro, delivered the eulogy with Stewart.
Fawcett`s coffin was taken into the church as a quartet of musicians played "Amazing Grace" and Irving Berlin love song "Always", according to the program.
Outside the downtown Los Angeles church, a few dozen fans watched as Fawcett`s casket was taken inside, covered with sprays of bright yellow flowers that seemed to reflect the sunny smile and golden hair that made Fawcett a worldwide star 30 years ago.
Fawcett died in a Los Angeles hospital on Thursday with O`Neal and Stewart at her side after a long struggle to beat anal and then liver cancer. A personal video diary chronicling her cancer treatments was broadcast on U.S. television in May.
Watching from the street, Karla Dishon, 47, told Reuters outside the church she had come to pay tribute to Fawcett -- a star whose hairstyle she had copied as a teenager like millions of others around the world.
"All the girls did -- wavy, pretty, surfer, California girl hair," Dishon said. "She is an icon and she is a very beautiful woman, and I think it`s too bad that we lost her so young."
Original article

Michael Jackson "Suit of Lights" glove up for sale

2009-07-01T06:44:00.000+04:00

(JACKSON, AUCTION, MADDALENA, PROFILES, HISTORY, SHELL)

Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - He was famously called "The Gloved One," and now anyone can slip their hand into one of only two Michael Jackson electric-white gloves that could sell in the six figures, an auctioneer said on Tuesday.
Joseph Maddalena, who heads auction house Profiles in History, said the item was consigned by glove designer Ted Shell and worn by the singer on the Jacksons` 1984 Victory Tour.
"Michael Jackson is `The Gloved One.` That`s his nickname. That is one thing he`ll be remembered for," said Maddalena, who said the glove comes with a letter of authenticity from Shell.
Jackson died suddenly last Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest at age 50.
Over the years, he wore many gloves when he performed, of course, but the glove being sold by Profiles in History is one of only two made for Jackson`s "Suit of Lights" on stage.
Shell not only designed the glove, but he went on the Victory Tour to protect and maintain the glove. After the tour ended, Jackson gave him one glove and kept the other, according to Maddalena.
The glove is emblazoned with bugle beads, Austrian crystal rhinestones and fitted with 50 small lights powered by a small battery placed in the cuff of the glove.
The glass light bulbs were wired on separate circuits making them twinkle at random for added visual impact on stage -- now that`s one hot glove.
"I estimate (the value) at $60,000 to $80,000, but it could sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars," Maddalena said, noting the fervor over items owned by the King of Pop due to his death could easily push the price up.
In fact, a recent sale by Julien`s Auctions of 21 items of Jackson memorabilia brought in more than $200,000. One painting with an estimated sales value of $1,500 sold for $20,000, according to Julien.
The illuminating white glove being sold by Maddalena is just one of many Jackson items that will go up for sale at the Profiles in History auction set for October 1 and 2, 2009.
Maddalena said other items include costumes Jackson wore on stage, a platinum record for the 20 millionth copy of "Thriller" and a fedora the singer wore that says on the headband that it was made expressly for Jackson.
(Editing by Dean Goodman)
Original article

Family discussing Jackson tribute show: promoter

2009-07-01T06:33:00.000+04:00

(LONDON, MICHAEL, JACKSON, FAMILY, PHILLIPS, BEFORE)

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - The promoter of Michael Jackson`s planned run of 50 concerts in London wants his family to stage an all-star show in his memory and said on Tuesday he had discussed the idea with them.
Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, also said Jackson appeared to be fit and ready to perform the day before he died last Thursday, aged 50, after suffering cardiac arrest.
"At some point the world needs to see this production, and I would imagine if we could do it, it would be done as a tribute with the family ... but also other stars who loved Michael and were influenced by him," Phillips told Sky News.
"But the world needs to see this production, and it`s done," he said, referring to the spectacular that Jackson and AEG Live created for the run of shows at London`s O2 Arena which had been scheduled to open on July 13.
"We`re discussing that with the family and obviously the sooner the better."
Countering suggestions that Jackson was in poor health and should not have been pushed to rehearse for a series of physically demanding concerts, Phillips said he had spoken to the star the day before he died.
"He gave me a hug and whispered into my ear: `Now I know I can do this`, he was that engaged."
Photographer Kevin Mazur told Reuters earlier that Jackson had been "full of energy" at rehearsals in Los Angeles.
"A picture tells a story," he said, referring to images he took in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 23, two days before Jackson`s death. They were released to the media this week.
"He was just the same old Michael and when he hit the stage he was full of energy, happy, very upbeat, having fun."
Phillips said AEG Live was considering releasing footage of Jackson rehearsing in order to prove this point.
FINANCIAL FALLOUT
Insurance experts have said AEG Live, which has offered full refunds to the 750,000 people who snapped up tickets to the Jackson shows, faced sizeable financial losses. Phillips conceded that hiring Jackson had been a risk.
"When you`re in business like we are, you take risks all the time and in the case of Michael Jackson ... we thought it was an acceptable risk.
"We had (insurance) coverage and stuff like that. We probably will be fine financially from this but, right now, we`re trying to do the best thing for the estate." Continued...
Original article

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Family discussing Jackson tribute show: promoter

Michael Jackson gets more bizarre after death

2009-07-01T05:02:00.000+04:00

(JACKSON, REPORTS, PUBLIC, MOTHER, FAMILY, NEVERLAND)

By Jill Sergeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bizarre in life, Michael Jackson`s complex personal affairs are taking even stranger twists in death, with sketchy reports on Tuesday of plans for an elaborate public memorial and questions over the parentage of his children.
After five days of television replays of Jackson`s hit songs and glowing tributes to his musical genius, attention has turned to the murkier side of the "Thriller" singer.
Celebrity website TMZ.com, which broke the news of Jackson`s death, reported the entertainer was not the biological father of his three children and that his ex-wife, Debye Rowe, was not the genetic mother of the eldest two.
A 2002 will signed by Jackson was reported to have been turned over to his family but its validity was unclear. The attorney said to have the will, John Branca, did not return calls for comment.
In that will, the King of Pop was said to have left the bulk of his multimillion-dollar estate to his three children and his mother Katherine but cut out his father, Joe, who Jackson had accused of beating him as a child.
Several media reports said Jackson`s body would be driven to his Neverland Valley Ranch near Santa Barbara in Central California on Thursday ahead of a public viewing this weekend.
One story in Britain`s Sun newspaper said Jackson`s body would first be driven through Los Angeles in a glass-sided horse-drawn carriage, complete with a matching glass coffin.
None of the reports could be verified with the many managers, lawyers and spokespeople who claimed to speak on behalf of Jackson or his family since his sudden death after cardiac arrest on June 25, at the age of 50.
Several California public safety officials said they had not yet heard from the Jackson family, although they confirmed they were meeting to discuss a possible service at Neverland.
Tom Barrack, chief executive of Colony Capital LLC, the private equity firm that co-owns Neverland, issued an open letter to the people of Santa Barbara County asking them to prepare for "a global drama of epic proportion."
BURIED IN BAD MEMORIES
Yet the theme park-style ranch, a four-hour drive northwest of Los Angeles, was the site of the infamous sleepovers Jackson held with young boys that led to unproven charges of child molestation in 1993 and a 2005 trial. Now shuttered and emptied, Neverland was abandoned by Jackson after the trial.
Despite his charisma on stage, Jackson was largely reclusive off stage. He relied on an ever-changing series of aides to fend off curiosity about his two brief marriages and changing physical appearance -- all of which led the British media to dub him "Wacko Jack" some 15 years ago.
"This is a story that`s going to last and develop and get bigger in the next year," TMZ managing editor Harvey Levin said on Tuesday. "You`re going to see quite the show here."
Among the extraordinary claims Tuesday, celebrity magazine Us Weekly said the biological father of Michael Jr, 12, and Paris, 11, was Jackson`s Beverly Hills dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein, for whom Rowe once worked. The identity of the surrogate mother of Prince Michael II, 7, has never been known. Continued...
Original article

Related articles:
Michael Jackson gets more bizarre after death

Family discussing Jackson tribute show: promoter

2009-07-01T04:50:00.000+04:00

(LONDON, MICHAEL, JACKSON, FAMILY, PHILLIPS, BEFORE)

Michael Jackson gets more bizarre after death

2009-07-01T01:45:00.000+04:00

(MICHAEL, JACKSON, DEATH, CHILDREN, BIOLOGICAL, MOTHER)

By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bizarre in life, Michael Jackson`s complex personal affairs are taking even stranger twists in death, with reports on Tuesday questioning the parentage of his children and what caused his untimely demise.
After five days of television replays of Jackson`s most famous hits and glowing emotional tributes to his musical genius, attention has turned to the murkier side of the "Thriller" singer.
Celebrity website TMZ.com, which broke the news of Jackson`s death, reported the entertainer was not the biological father of his three children and that his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, was not their genetic mother.
Citing multiple but unnamed sources, TMZ said all three children were conceived "in vitro" but that neither Jackson`s sperm nor Rowe`s eggs were used.
Rowe was quoted as saying in 2004 that Jackson was not the biological father of Michael Jr, 12, and Paris, 11, but she had been assumed to be their mother. The third child, Prince Michael II, was born in 2002 and the identity of his surrogate mother has never been known.
Rowe`s lawyers did not return calls for comment.
Celebrity magazine Us said the biological father of Michael Jr and Paris was Jackson`s dermatologist, for whom Rowe once worked.
None of the claims could be verified by the parade of managers, lawyers and spokespeople who said they spoke on behalf of Jackson or his family during his career and who have resurfaced since his death on June 25 at the age of 50.
INHERITANCE
The question of parentage is important because the children stand to inherit a share of what is believed to be the pop star`s multimillion-dollar estate. Whoever has guardianship over the three children will control the money.
Jackson`s mother Katherine won temporary guardianship of the children and control of his estate on Monday until a July 6 hearing.
Despite his long career, Jackson was largely reclusive off stage. He relied on an ever-changing series of aides to fend off curiosity about his two brief marriages, controversial relationships with young boys and changing physical appearance -- all of which led the British media to dub him "Wacko Jacko" some 15 years ago.
"This is a story that`s going to last and develop and get bigger in the next year," TMZ managing editor Harvey Levin said on Tuesday. "You`re going to see quite the show here."
Lacking a focal spokesperson, reports on Tuesday of Jackson`s funeral arrangements trickled out piecemeal, with conflicting sources speaking of a public viewing at Jackson`s Neverland Valley Ranch in central California on Friday or Saturday, or possibly both.
A cause of death has not yet been determined. Results of toxicology tests are not expected for about 4-6 weeks but speculation is rife that Jackson`s death will be attributed to his prescription drug use. Continued...
Original article

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Jackson`s mother wins temporary control of estate

Michael Jackson`s body to return to Neverland: reports

2009-07-01T00:08:00.000+04:00

(JACKSON, CALIFORNIA, ACCORDING, SANTA, BARBARA, SERVICE)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson`s body will be driven to his Neverland Valley Ranch in central California as early as Thursday with public viewing being set for later this week, according to media reports on Tuesday.
A motorcade of as many as 30 cars is expected to accompany Jackson`s body to his ranch, which is located near the town of Los Olivos, north of Santa Barbara, according to reports by TV network CNN and celebrity website TMZ.com, citing police officials.
Entertainment news website E! News cited a Santa Barbara Sheriff`s department spokesman as saying meetings were now taking place with the California Highway Patrol to discuss security for the trip from the Jackson family home in Los Angeles to Neverland Valley.
A spokesman for the Santa Barbara County`s sheriff`s office was not immediately available to comment, nor were representatives for Jackson`s family.
Pop superstar Jackson, whose hits include "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" died suddenly of cardiac arrest last Thursday.
Jackson`s birthplace of Gary, Indiana, also is planning a memorial service for the deceased singer on July 10, according to a spokeswoman for the Gary mayor`s office.
Lalosa Burns, spokeswoman for Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, said the memorial service would take place at US Steel Works sports stadium, and that more details would follow. She did not have any information about the service being planned in California.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
Original article

Avant-garde German choreographer Pina Bausch dies

2009-06-30T22:30:00.000+04:00

(GERMAN, CHOREOGRAPHER, BAUSCH, DANCE, DIRECTOR, COMPANY)

By Sarah Marsh
BERLIN (Reuters) - German choreographer Pina Bausch, whose work is credited with revolutionizing the language of modern dance, died on Tuesday after being diagnosed with cancer only days earlier. She was 68 years old.
Bausch, artistic director of the Wuppertal Dance Theater, earned world renown for her avant-garde performances and choreographies mixing dance, sound and fragmented narrative.
"Just the Sunday before last, she was standing on stage with her company in the Wuppertal Opera house," the dance-theater company, which she had led since 1973, said on its website.
It said Pausch had been diagnosed with cancer only five days before her death.
"Unlike almost no other, she broke out of traditional structures in dance, modernized classical ballet and coined her own, idiosyncratic style," German Vice-Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.
Bausch choreographed and staged her own pieces, such as Cafe Mueller and Viktor, and performed in films by iconic film directors Federico Fellini and Pedro Almodovar.
The German choreographer had been preparing to work together with director Wim Wenders on what was being called the first 3-D dance feature, a project named "Pina."
From Paris, where Bausch often performed, the city`s Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and France`s Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand issued statements of condolence.
"The world of dance is in mourning today after the loss of one of its most brilliant representatives," Mitterrand said.
Pina Bausch began her dance studies at the age of 14 at the Folkwang School in Essen, where she studied with several teachers, including the German expressionist choreographer Kurt Jooss.
Bausch went to New York in 1960 to study at The Juilliard School, later becoming a member of the Metropolitan Opera`s ballet company.
In 1962, Bausch returned to Germany where she became a soloist in the newly-formed Folkwang Ballett. In 1973 she became artistic director and choreographer at the newly founded Wuppertal dance-theater company.
"Pina Bausch continually pushed the boundaries of what we call dance," said John Neumeier, the director of the Hamburg ballet company. "I simply cannot imagine a successor to Pina Bausch." (Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by James Mackenzie in Paris; Editing by Noah Barkin)
Original article

Koons, with eye for pop, brings Popeye show to UK

2009-06-30T21:17:00.000+04:00

(KOONS, SERIES, POPEYE, SYMBOL, INFLATABLE, THROUGH)

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - Artist Jeff Koons has presented a series of Popeye paintings in London, saying the cartoon hero born of the 1929 Depression was a symbol of self confidence, before adding enigmatically: "May be art is the spinach."
The 54-year-old American, one of the world`s most successful artists dubbed the "king of kitsch" for his shiny, balloon-like creations and references to pop culture, is marking the first major survey of his work to be held in a public English gallery.
"Jeff Koons: Popeye Series" opens at the Serpentine Gallery in London on July 2 and runs until September 13.
As well as the Popeye canvases, it features a series of Koons`s trademark casts of inflatable toys in the shape of lobsters, walruses, turtles and monkeys.
Some of them appear to be pushing through wire fencing or garden chairs in what some critics see as a symbol of people determined to get through the recession.
"I always see a little bit of my father in Popeye," Koons told reporters at a preview of the show.
"But something that`s not so personal is that it`s `I yam what I yam`, and it`s this self-acceptance.
"And for art to function ... you first have to trust in yourself and when you trust in yourself you can follow your interests and follow them on a profound level."
Speaking of his fascination for inflatable animals, which he reproduces in minute detail using aluminum and paint, he added:
"In our own life we`re inflatables. We take a breath as a symbol of optimism, we exhale and it`s a symbol of death. We`re in a permanent state of being optimistic."
"FEEL-GOOD ART"
Koons said he wanted his art to make the viewer feel good about life.
"Art`s this vehicle that connects you with human history and that`s what these works are about. I want the viewer to come into contact with the work and to feel that everything about their life to that moment is perfect, absolutely perfect."
Another recurring theme in the show is the inflatable lobster, a reference to surrealist Salvador Dali`s use of the animal in his art as well as his elongated mustache.
In the 2003 canvas "Elvis," the creature is painted over two images of a semi-naked woman staring voluptuously at the viewer, a sexual reference that also runs through Koons` art. Continued...
Original article

U2 launch world tour in Barcelona on giant stage

2009-06-30T21:05:00.000+04:00

(BARCELONA, MILLION, WHICH, SHARPLY, UNITED, STATES)

By Ben Harding
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Irish rock group U2 kick off their first tour in three years on Tuesday, playing to 90,000 fans in Barcelona on one of the biggest concert stages ever built.
Over the next four months U2 will perform to an estimated three million fans in 31 cities across Europe and North America, with more dates expected to be announced next year.
The " U2 360 Tour" lives up to its name with a round stage which fans will surround inside FC Barcelona`s Nou Camp stadium.
Around 500 ticket holders slept outside the venue on Monday night hoping to grab a spot right by the stage when the doors open, local media reported.
That will be easier this time around, organizers say, with the new stage concept giving more fans a clearer view as well as allowing for more people, meaning lower ticket prices during the recession.
The U2 360 Tour is reported to be the group`s most expensive to date, costing an estimated $100 million, but industry experts suggest it could be money well spent.
Live performance is becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for major acts like U2 as sales of physical CDs declines sharply and online piracy remains rampant.
Billboard, an authoritative music industry publication, believes the U2 360 Tour could become one of the highest grossing ever, possibly eclipsing its 2005-6 Vertigo tour which earned the band $389 million.
GRAND STATEMENT
The stage, which takes 120 trucks to transport, is another grand statement from the four rockers who have won more Grammy awards than any other band.
On the Zoo TV tour, huge video screens overloaded fans with flashing images of pop culture. On the PopMart tour lead singer Bono appeared from inside a 12 meter glitterball shaped like a lemon.
The abiding visual memory on this tour is sure to be the "Claw," a four-legged "monster" that towers 50 meters over the band`s heads and on which the sound system is mounted.
Bono, plus guitarists The Edge and Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr on drums will be showcasing their 12th studio album, "No Line on the Horizon."
Reviews of the record, which mixes trademark atmospheric guitars with more eclectic sounds from Morocco where it was partly recorded, were generally good, and it went straight to No. 1 in 30 countries including the United States and Britain.
Early sales in the United States, however, were sharply down on those for U2`s previous album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," released in 2004.
(Editing by Mike Collett-White and Paul Casciato)
Original article

First $1 million find for U.S. Antiques Roadshow

2009-06-30T20:54:00.000+04:00

(MILLION, APPRAISAL, ANTIQUES, ROADSHOW, RECORD, STATEMENT)

By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman who inherited some Chinese carved jade from her father has scored the first $1 million appraisal from experts on the U.S. television program "Antiques Roadshow," the producers said on Monday.
In a record for the show, four pieces of Chinese carved jade and celadon from the Chien Lung Dynasty (1736-1795), including a large bowl crafted for the Emperor, were given a conservative auction estimate of up to $1.07 million.
"For 13 years, we`ve been hoping to feature a million-dollar appraisal on `Antiques Roadshow;` it`s been our `Great White Whale,`" executive producer Marsha Bemko said.
"We`re thrilled that, despite this year`s slow economy, `Roadshow` finally captured this elusive trophy," she said in a statement released by Boston-based production company WGBH, which licensed the format from the British show of the same name produced by the BBC.
On both shows, members of the public bring in items to be appraised by professionals in the hope of discovering that junk from the attic is actually a valuable treasure.
A spokeswoman said the appraisal was a record for the U.S. show, which is not affiliated with the BBC original. According to British media, the BBC`s version had its first million pound appraisal ($1.655 million) last November -- a scale model of Anthony Gormley`s artwork, "The Angel of the North."
The statement said the owner of the jade inherited the collection from her father, who bought the objects in the 1930s and 1940s, while stationed in China as a military liaison.
She brought them to an "Antiques Roadshow" event in Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday.
Asian arts appraiser James Callahan said the fine quality of the pieces indicated they were not made for tourists.
"He was rewarded by finding a mark on the bottom of the jade bowl that translates as `by Imperial order,`" the statement said.
The previous highest appraisal on the show was a 1937 painting by American Abstract Expressionist artist Clyfford Still, found in Palm Springs, California, in 2008. The painting had been given a retail estimate of $500,000.
The appraisal of the jade items will be shown in the next series of "Antiques Roadshow" starting January 4 on PBS, the producers said.
Original article

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First $1 million find for U.S. Antiques Roadshow
First $1 million find for U.S. Antiques Roadshow

"No Clothes" brings together comics, politicos

2009-06-30T09:58:00.000+04:00

(COMEDY, FORMER, SECRETARY, PRODUCERS, USCAF, ASPEN)

By Georg Szalai
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - "The News Has No Clothes," a stage show mixing politics and comedy and featuring comedian Lewis Black and former White House press secretary Dana Perino, might be the next late-night television format.
Veteran comedy producers and masterminds of the defunct U.S. Comedy Arts Festival (USCAF) in Aspen, Colorado, are returning to the mountain resort as part of this week`s Aspen Ideas Festival to try out their idea. If the stage show works, its producers hope to pitch the concept -- described as "The View" and "Politically Incorrect" meet the vintage BBC show "That Was the Week That Was" -- to TV networks for a possible late-night slot.
The first trial Thursday will feature co-hosts Perino (press secretary for President George W. Bush), Black, comedian D.L. Hughley, public radio host Kurt Andersen and "Daily Show" correspondent Larry Wilmore. It will include video packages by the Onion. Among the issues to be debated are the role of the news media, the economy, President Obama`s performance and the culture wars. Guests for specific topics will include former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. The show also will feature stand-up performances.
The team behind the idea includes Joe Lang, director of festival producer Jazz Aspen Snowmass and former local producer for USCAF; Craig Minassian, assistant press secretary and director of TV news in the Clinton White House and USCAF director; Robert Morton, former executive producer of "Late Show With David Letterman" and Comedy Central`s "Chocolate News"; and Stu Smiley, executive producer of "Flight of the Conchords" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" and a USCAF founder.
"So many late-night shows are single-person and host-driven," Morton said. "But you can plug various talent into this format."
The Aspen experiment also is a sign of the times. Facing cutbacks in the television development and pilot process, the producers decided to take matters into their own hands by taping the show, with the goal of showing it to networks themselves.
(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)
Original article

Jackson`s mother wins temporary control of estate

2009-06-30T06:43:00.000+04:00

(ANGELES, JACKSON, KATHERINE, CHILDREN, ESTATE, COURT)

By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson`s mother Katherine on Monday won temporary guardianship of the late singer`s children and control of his estate as a legal battle over his kids, money and belongings began to take shape.
Katherine Jackson won the first round in what could become a protracted fight over an estate that could be valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It is unclear if Jackson drew up a will before he died.
Questions about the singer`s health prior to his death resurfaced Monday when Celebrity Website TMZ.com reported that Los Angeles County coroner officials returned to Jackson`s rented home looking for more medication.
Four days after the singer`s death from cardiac arrest, his father, Joe Jackson said the family was awaiting results of a second, private autopsy, and he expected to get details "real soon." He said funeral arrangements had not been made.
"We don`t have a timeframe for that (the funeral) because I want to see how this autopsy is coming out," Jackson said after a family meeting at his home in suburban Los Angeles.
Two autopsies have been carried out on Jackson`s body, one by the coroner`s office and a second by a private pathologist. Speculation about what caused Jackson`s heart to stop has centered on his prescription drug use, but toxicology tests are expected to take several more weeks.
The pop star died on Thursday at his rented Los Angeles home, days before kicking off a string of concerts in London that were designed to revive a career grounded by his 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation charges.
On Monday, promoters AEG Live released pictures from a dress rehearsal two days before Jackson`s death. Jackson looks thin, but much like his typical singing and dancing self. AEG Live declined to comment on reports it had video footage of the rehearsals that could be released on DVD.
JACKSON`S MOM WINS TEMPORARY CONTROL
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Monday approved the appointment of Katherine Jackson as temporary guardian of Prince Michael, 12, Paris Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7, pending a hearing next week.
Katherine Jackson was also named "special administrator" of her son`s estate until a July 6 hearing, but the court order stipulated that she was not to take possession of money or property, except as permitted by the court.
In her court filing, Katherine Jackson said she was seeking control of funds "for the exclusive use of the decedent`s children" and was concerned about bank accounts controlled by unnamed "third parties."
Jackson was reported to be as much as $500 million in debt when he died, but his estate has been estimated at $1 billion or more and is likely to rise following his death. Court papers list the value of the estate as "unknown."
His two eldest children were from his marriage to Debbie Rowe and the third is from an unidentified surrogate mother. In court papers, Katherine Jackson said the children had "no relationship with their biological mother," and it was unclear whether Rowe would also seek custody of the kids.
"Whoever has ultimate custody of these children, who are probably going to be the beneficiaries of his estate, will get control of his money to care for the children. So to that extent, whoever the permanent guardian will be will have tremendous sums of money to take care of the children," entertainment attorney Jerry Reisman told Reuters. Continued...
Original article

Hip-hop stars looking for love on VH1 shows

2009-06-30T06:31:00.000+04:00

(SERIES, DENTON, CHILLI, LIVING, SEASON, PROJECT)

By James Hibberd
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - VH1 is giving two female hip-hop artists their own reality series -- Sandra "Pepa" Denton of Salt-N-Pepa and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas from TLC.
The as-yet-untitled series are scheduled to premiere in 2010. Eight half-hour episodes have been ordered for each.
The "Pepa" series follows Denton as she begins her to search for love after living a celibate life for years.
"Chilli" from R&B group TLC is also searching for romance and has enlisted the help of Brooklyn relationships expert Tionna Smalls.
The network has also renewed "Celebrity Fit Club" for a seventh season and "Sober House with Dr. Drew" for a second season.
Recently VH1 also announced new primetime series including Jessica Simpson`s "The Price Of Beauty;" a series about the family and career of "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino; "The OCD Project," about obsessive-compulsive patients living together; and "The Aspen Project," a docusoap set in one of the wealthiest communities in the world.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Original article

Comic-Con boasts heavy TV lineup

2009-06-30T06:19:00.000+04:00

(COMIC, EVENT, PROGRAM, FIRST, PANEL, MIDSEASON)

By James Hibberd
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - TV studios plan a strong presence at Comic-Con, the annual fan convention that seems to feature a greater number of series each summer.
Next month`s lineup at the San Diego confab includes a few titles beyond the usual sci-fi and fantasy genres. Procedurals such as Fox`s "Bones" and USA`s "Burn Notice," Fox`s musical "Glee" and Discovery`s "MythBusters" are in the mix.
Warner Bros. TV is bringing 11 shows to the event, the most the studio has featured.
"Comic-Con is the one place where Warner Bros. cross-divisionally presents a face to the consumer," said Lisa Gregorian, the studio`s executive vp marketing.
One returning WBTV program is CBS` "The Big Bang Theory," which the studio brought to the event for the first time last year. Most sitcoms would not be a good fit for the Comic-Con crowd, but the geek-friendly "Big Bang" drew an enthusiastic response. The studio hopes to make a panel for the show a regular event, particularly after its ratings surged last fall.
When selecting programs for Comic-Con, Gregorian said any show with a mythology automatically belongs, and even genre series not premiering until midseason should screen.
"Our philosophy is that if it`s ready, and it`s great, and you`re not making a lot of changes to it, you should show it to the fans," said Gregorian, whose midseason program "Human Target" will be shown.
ABC Studios is hosting at least seven panels, including one for the final season of ABC`s "Lost," credited as the first TV show to launch at Comic-Con.
ABC takes a different approach to its "Lost" panel. Instead of simply screening footage and answering questions, the event is a carefully planned production that typically includes specifically shot footage and surprise guests.
"We`ve been working on the `Lost` panel for literally months," said Mike Benson, executive vp marketing at ABC Entertainment. "We want the audience to experience `Lost` in a fully entertaining way."
This year, ABC is extending that approach to panels for its new dramas "V" and "Flash Forward."
"We don`t like to just stick people on a panel and have them answer questions," Benson said. "We feel like we have to do more for the audience than just promote the show. By having that experience, it gets them talking about the panel more."
20th TV is offering about nine panels, including those for Fox`s new animated comedy "The Cleveland Show" and the newly revived "Futurama."
NBC Universal has at least eight programs, but most are for Sci Fi Channel and USA, with the studio planning only a "Heroes" panel for NBC. ("Chuck," produced by WBTV, also will have a panel.) The studio`s apocalyptic midseason drama "Day One" will not be shown -- an NBC Universal spokesperson said it is "too early" -- but there will be some buzz-building marketing.
In one network`s case, Comic-Con itself will be used as programing. G4 will broadcast what is billed as the first televised panel in the event`s history. Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira will host the two-hour "Star Wars Spectacular," including a table read of a new "Clone Wars" script.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)
Original article

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Comic-Con boasts heavy TV lineup

Michael Jackson fans hold candlelit vigil in Moscow

2009-06-30T05:42:00.000+04:00

(JACKSON, MICHAEL, DEATH, WHILE, SEVERAL, FAILED, AFTER)

Michael Jackson, the King of pop
Michael Jackson - pop music legend
Russia had special romance with Michael Jackson - expert
Fans sing Michael Jackson’s songs on Los Angeles streets
MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) - A crowd of Michael Jackson fans held a candlelit vigil outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow overnight, placing flowers and pictures by the wall.
A steady stream of fans has been visiting the site to pay respects since Friday morning, when news of the King of Pop`s death broke.
Among the many messages placed among the flowers and candles is one in colored chalk that reads: "Michael Jackson, we will love you forever! Rest in peace, King."
About 100 cards have been stuck to the wall with images of Jackson, while portraits tied with black ribbons line the pavement. One of the cards carries the message: "Michael lives, and will live forever."
Jackson`s death of a heart attack at the age of 50 has dominated the global media over the past three days, and social networking and video sites have been flooded with tributes. While grieving fans have been celebrating Jackson`s musical legacy, several questions have arisen over the circumstances of his death.
Los Angeles police have held an "extensive interview" with the cardiologist who tried to resuscitate Michael Jackson before his death.
Dr Conrad Murray reportedly disappeared several hours after Jackson`s death on Thursday, and failed to sign a death certificate.
The Rev Jesse Jackson, a long-serving politician who has been maintaining close contact with Michael Jackson`s family, told reporters that the doctor had failed to speak to relatives after the death, and that many questions remained unanswered.

Original article

Michael Jackson autopsy `permissible` says top Russian Muslim

2009-06-30T05:30:00.000+04:00

(JACKSON, MICHAEL, THEIR, 50, DEATH, GIZATULLIN, WORLD)

Pop icon Michael Jackson dies at 50
Michael Jackson sets London concerts
Talk Of TheTown: Jackson on top
Michael Jackson turns 50
MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Performing autopsies on famous Muslims such as Michael Jackson is acceptable in order to establish their cause of death, a senior Russian mufti told RIA Novosti on Friday.
"He was a great world figure who worked for the sake of love and peace. His work belongs to the entire world community. And now doctors and specialists must have their say," said Damir Gizatullin, the deputy head of the Council of Russian Muftis.
Jackson, who died in Los Angeles on Thursday of a heart attack at the age of 50, is believed to have accepted Islam in 2007.
Gizatullin added that Jackson`s millions of fans had to be sure of the cause of death, so as to avoid "rumors and worry."
While Islamic tradition dictates that a believer must be buried before sundown on the day of his or her death, Gizatullin said that, "In today`s global world, Muslims live in different parts of the planet, and it is very difficult to bury a person on the same day. This is very tough and this requirement is not always fulfilled."
Jackson, born near Chicago in Gary, Indiana, spent almost his entire life in the public eye, shooting to stardom in the 1970s with the Jackson 5, a pre-teen Michael and brothers stunning the U.S. with their vocals and synchronized dance routines. The group, who recorded for Motown, was the first to see their four debut singles reach the top of the U.S. charts.
As an adult, his Thriller album sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, making it the best selling album of all time. However, his later career was hit by allegations of child abuse and financial difficulties.

Original article

`King of pop` Michael Jackson dies at 50

2009-06-30T05:18:00.000+04:00

(JACKSON, MICHAEL, 50, US, THEIR, BROTHER, ALBUM)

Pop icon Michael Jackson dies at 50
Michael Jackson sets London concerts
Talk Of TheTown: Jackson on top
Michael Jackson turns 50
MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Michael Jackson, the U.S. pop star whose career spanned five decades, has died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was 50.
Emergency services were called to his Beverly Hills home at 12.21 p.m. on Thursday (19.21 GMT), the TMZ.com website said. He was pronounced dead some three hours later at the UCLA medical centre.
His death came shortly before he was about to take part in series of comeback concerts in London.
His brother, Jermaine, told journalists that doctors had attempted to revive the singer for more than an hour.
"The family request that the media please respect our privacy during this tough time," he added.
Jackson, born in Gary, Indiana, near Chicago spent almost his entire life in the public eye, shooting to stardom in the 1970s with the Jackson 5, a pre-teen Michael and brothers stunning the U.S. with their vocals and synchronized dance routines. The group, who recorded for Motown, was the first to see their four debut singles reach the top of the U.S. charts.
As an adult, his Thriller album sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, making it the best selling album of all time.
His later career was hit by allegations of child abuse and financial difficulties.
"Today, the world has lost one of the most influential and iconic figures in the music industry. From his performances with the Jackson 5, to the premiere of the `moonwalk` and `Thriller,` Michael was a pop phenomenon who never stopped pushing the envelope of creativity," California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

Original article

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Stone Age bone flute could be world`s oldest musical instrument

2009-06-30T05:06:00.000+04:00

(FLUTE, FOUND, IVORY, HOHLE, CONARD, CAVERN, FIGURE)

MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - A 35,000 year-old bone flute found by archeologists in southwest Germany is the world`s oldest known musical instrument, the Nature Journal said.
The flute, made from a vulture wing bone, is about 21 cm long and 8 mm wide, and has five holes and a notched end. It was found by a team of scientists led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard in the Hohle Fels cavern to the west of the city of Ulm last year. Along with the flute, scientists also found fragments of two other flutes made of ivory, presumably from a mammoth tusk.
An ivory flute fragment was also found during excavations at another site, some 25 km northwest of Ulm.
"The modern humans that came into our area already had a whole range of symbolic artifacts, figurative art, depictions of mythological creatures, many kinds of personal ornaments and also a well-developed musical tradition," Professor Conard was quoted as saying.
The Hohle Fels cavern made headlines in May after the same team discovered a female ivory figure, possibly the world`s oldest human figure. Other discoveries included animal carvings and a stone object that archeologists say could be a prehistoric "sex toy."

Original article

Bon Jovi makes "Stand" with Iranian protest video

2009-06-30T04:54:00.000+04:00

(VIDEO, IRANIAN, MADADIAN, SESSION, FARSI, SAMBORA, RECORD)

By Gary Graff
DETROIT (Billboard) - A new version of Ben E. King`s "Stand By Me" featuring Jon Bon Jovi dueting in Farsi with exiled Iranian singer Andy Madadian, is making the rounds as an online video.
The track`s co-producer, Don Was, says the video is meant to send "a musical message of worldwide solidarity" to the Iranian people in the aftermath of the country`s recent disputed election.
Was tells Billboard.com that the session, which took place last Wednesday in Los Angeles, was spurred by a conversation he had with Madadian about "whether there was something we could do just to send out a little message of solidarity, remembering the `60s, believing music can change things."
When they arrived to record the song, they found Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora and John Shanks, who`s producing their next album, sitting outside and having lunch.
"They asked what we were doing, I told them, and Jon said, `Look, man, if you do it right now we`ll do it with you,`" Was recalls. "So we did."
Madadian -- who`s lived in the U.S. since the Iranian revolution of 1979 -- and Bon Jovi duet on the song, with both men singing the first verse in Farsi. Sambora plays a guitar solo, with Was on bass, Patrick Leonard on keyboards and Jeff Rothchild on drums.
"We just cut it," Was says, "and the video is the session. It took about four hours and just fell into place nicely." The video, which features footage and still photos from the session, went up on Was` portion of My Damn Channel (www.mydamnchannel.com) on Saturday and was quickly disseminated via MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other sites. At the end of the video Madadian and Bon Jovi stand next to each other, with the latter holding a sign saying "We are one" in Farsi.
"It is not for sale," Was says. "It wasn`t intended to be on the Billboard charts, wasn`t meant to be a hit record or even pressed on a CD. It`s intended to be downloaded and shared by the Iranian people. The whole idea was to get it into Iran and tell them...to carry on, that the world is watching and we`re with you."
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Original article

TV "pitchman" Mays had heart disease, no trauma

2009-06-30T03:41:00.000+04:00

(HEART, TAMPA, DISEASE, TV, TELEVISION, AFTER, FLORIDA)

By Robert Green
TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Billy Mays, well known for pitching a variety of products in U.S. television commercials, had heart disease but did not appear to have suffered head trauma in a rough airplane landing prior to dying in his sleep on Sunday, a medical examiner in Florida said on Monday.
The bearded, black-haired Mays, 50, who gained fame as an enthusiastic TV "pitchman" advertising an array of commercial products, was found dead by his wife at their home in Tampa, Florida.
On Saturday, Mays was among the passengers aboard a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia that landed roughly at Tampa International Airport after apparently blowing a tire.
Mays told local TV shortly afterward that objects had dropped from the ceiling of the plane upon impact and he had received a blow on the head, although he said at the time he felt fine.
In a preliminary statement on Monday after an initial autopsy, Hillsborough County medical examiner Vernard Adams said his examination found that Mays had "hypertensive heart disease," which refers to heart disease caused by high blood pressure, but "there was no evidence of any head trauma."
Adams said this heart ailment "was certainly capable of causing the sudden death." He said Mays had died in his sleep.
"It`s not unusual for persons with heart disease to die this young," Adams said, adding that a formal report on the cause of death would be issued only after the results of toxicology tests were considered.
Toxicology tests can show the presence of drugs in the body.
Tampa police said no foul play was suspected.
Executives from the television home-shopping industry praised Mays` role in promoting TV salesmanship.
"DRTV (the direct-response television industry) has grown to be a $300 billion business during the last 20 years, and Billy Mays played a key role in making this possible," Julie Coons, president and CEO of the Electronic Retailing Association, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Robert Green; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Will Dunham)
Original article

First $1 million find for U.S. Antiques Roadshow

2009-06-30T03:28:00.000+04:00

(APPRAISAL, MILLION, ROADSHOW, ANTIQUES, STATEMENT, BBC, WHICH)

First $1 million find for U.S. Antiques Roadshow

2009-06-30T03:16:00.000+04:00

(APPRAISAL, MILLION, ROADSHOW, ANTIQUES, STATEMENT, BBC, WHICH)

Rock legends form new band, call it Chickenfoot

2009-06-29T17:43:00.000+04:00

(CHICKENFOOT, HAGAR, SMITH, CHART, WE`RE, CHILI, PEPPERS)

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - Some of the biggest names in rock have banded together to form a new supergroup. They call it Chickenfoot, a name they readily admit is "silly."
While the name may not be to everyone`s taste, Van Halen veterans Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani rose high in the U.S. charts with their eponymous debut album this month.
"We called ourselves Chickenfoot as a kind of a joke, and people started digging it, and so Chad`s going, `Let`s start a real band`," Hagar said during a boisterous interview with the band in London, where they performed during a European tour.
"Joe had a band called the Squares -- all of a sudden Chickenfoot sounded like a really good name," Hagar joked.
Hagar and Anthony used to jam together at Hagar`s club in Mexico, and when Smith joined them, they gelled. Smith, who still plays for the Chili Peppers, suggested forming a group, and Satriani was invited as the final piece in the jigsaw.
The four members of Chickenfoot have sold tens of millions of records and played thousands of gigs between them over the years, but the childlike enthusiasm for their latest venture comes from starting all over again.
"We`re a new band, even though we`ve got names, we`ve all been in other bands," Hagar told Reuters. "So we have to kind of let the world know who Chickenfoot is, I think."
Bass player Anthony added that he took exception to the term "supergroup."
"For me, when I hear the name supergroup I think of some pre-fab type of thing ... If the chemistry is not there you can be the best musicians, best players there are, it`s not going to come out the way I think this came out.
"This was born out of friendship, it was more organic in that sense."
The band has played a series of small gigs in the United States before flying to Europe for a tour, and returns to North America winding up its travels at the end of September.
"We`re a new band and when you`re a new band you start and play clubs and you play to your fans," said Smith. "We`re not playing stuff from Van Halen, or Joe, or Chili Peppers, we`re just playing Chickenfoot."
CHART SUCCESS
Chickenfoot`s debut album, released earlier in June, opened at No. 4 in the U.S. pop chart and No. 1 in the independent music chart. It maintained its position in the main chart the following week before slipping to No. 7 in the latest list.
"It`s the first time I`ve ever been up in that territory, above the clouds," said Satriani, who is embroiled in a copyright infringement suit with British band Coldplay over its hit single "Viva La Vida." Continued...
Original article

Young, Springsteen give Hyde Park rock masterclass

2009-06-29T17:30:00.000+04:00

(YOUNG, SPRINGSTEEN, STAGE, LONDON, PLAYED, VERSION, SONGS)

By Angus MacSwan
LONDON (Reuters) - If Mount Rushmore featured rock `n` rollers instead of U.S. presidents, the faces of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen would surely be carved there.
The two elder statesmen showed just why they are venerated by fans of all ages at the Hard Rock Calling festival in central London`s Hyde Park this weekend in performances brimming with passion, energy and timeless songs.
To cap it all, Sir Paul McCartney joined Young on stage for his encore, literally bowing at his feet as the Canadian played a feedback-drenched version of the Beatles "A Day in the Life."
Now aged 63 and 59, neither Young nor Springsteen has let up the pace in recent years. Both have released new albums in the past several months which had their moments even if they did not reach the heights of past classics.
They each took prominent positions against former U.S. President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Springsteen campaigned hard for Barack Obama and played at his presidential inauguration.
Politics was largely absent from the Hyde Park shows though as they focused on entertaining the summer crowds in London, after headlining the Glastonbury Festival earlier in the week.
Young took to the stage on Saturday night looking like an old mountain man seeking shelter from a storm, with his bedraggled, thinning hair, craggy features and muttonchop sideburns. Not known for indulging his audiences, he played a crowd-pleasing set which drew heavily on "Harvest," his best-known album, and the guitar-heavy "Everybody Knows this is Nowhere."
He kicked off in his "Godfather of Grunge" persona with a crunching version of "Hey, Hey, My, My" and its refrain "it`s better to burn out than to fade away." He then stormed though a number of hard rockers, delighting rapturous fans, before switching to a mellow mood with a run of country-flavored numbers including "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man," as night fell on the park.
Young finished with a blazing version of "Rockin` in the Free World," uncharacteristically leading the crowd in a bout of arm-waving and leaving his black guitar wailing feedback, its strings shredded.
McCartney, an old friend, bounded on stage to join Young for the encore of "A Day in the Life," hugging Young and dancing around him. The two were clearly having fun.
Among the crowd was Beth Harley, a 26-year-old archaeologist, who had just arrived from Turkey on Saturday morning to see Young. She said she had grown up listening to his music as her parents played it all the time.
"It`s got a lot of edge. The songs don`t seem to age. It still seems relevant to what`s going on now," she said.
If Young is a willful eccentric, Springsteen is the great showman who delivers every time.
Taking the stage with the mighty, black-clad E. Street band, he launched into The Clash song "London Calling," bellowing its refrain "we live by the river" loud enough to be heard just down the road at Buckingham Palace. He then moved into more familiar territory with "Badlands" and the pace didn`t let up for the next three hours.
Springsteen ran around the stage, danced, and strutted along a special platform to get close to the fans and collect signs with song requests. He sang plenty of old favorites, switching from songs on the dreams and struggles of the working man to joyful sing-alongs. Continued...
Original article

Comic-Con boasts heavy TV lineup

2009-06-29T11:36:00.000+04:00

(PANEL, STUDIO, COMIC-CON, ABC, EVENT, TV, PROGRAM)

By James Hibberd
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - TV studios plan a strong presence at Comic-Con, the annual fan convention that seems to feature a greater number of series each summer.
Next month`s lineup at the San Diego confab includes a few titles beyond the usual sci-fi and fantasy genres. Procedurals such as Fox`s "Bones" and USA`s "Burn Notice," Fox`s musical "Glee" and Discovery`s "MythBusters" are in the mix.
Warner Bros. TV is bringing 11 shows to the event, the most the studio has featured.
"Comic-Con is the one place where Warner Bros. cross-divisionally presents a face to the consumer," said Lisa Gregorian, the studio`s executive vp marketing.
One returning WBTV program is CBS` "The Big Bang Theory," which the studio brought to the event for the first time last year. Most sitcoms would not be a good fit for the Comic-Con crowd, but the geek-friendly "Big Bang" drew an enthusiastic response. The studio hopes to make a panel for the show a regular event, particularly after its ratings surged last fall.
When selecting programs for Comic-Con, Gregorian said any show with a mythology automatically belongs, and even genre series not premiering until midseason should screen.
"Our philosophy is that if it`s ready, and it`s great, and you`re not making a lot of changes to it, you should show it to the fans," said Gregorian, whose midseason program "Human Target" will be shown.
ABC Studios is hosting at least seven panels, including one for the final season of ABC`s "Lost," credited as the first TV show to launch at Comic-Con.
ABC takes a different approach to its "Lost" panel. Instead of simply screening footage and answering questions, the event is a carefully planned production that typically includes specifically shot footage and surprise guests.
"We`ve been working on the `Lost` panel for literally months," said Mike Benson, executive vp marketing at ABC Entertainment. "We want the audience to experience `Lost` in a fully entertaining way."
This year, ABC Studios is extending that approach to panels for its new ABC dramas "V" and "Flash Forward."
"We don`t like to just stick people on a panel and have them answer questions," Benson said. "We feel like we have to do more for the audience than just promote the show. By having that experience, it gets them talking about the panel more."
20th TV is offering about nine panels, including those for Fox`s new animated comedy "The Cleveland Show" and the newly revived "Futurama."
NBC Universal has at least eight programs, but most are for Sci Fi Channel and USA, with the studio planning only a "Heroes" panel for NBC. ("Chuck," produced by WBTV, also will have a panel.) The studio`s apocalyptic midseason drama "Day One" will not be shown -- an NBC Universal spokesperson said it is "too early" -- but there will be some buzz-building marketing.
In one network`s case, Comic-Con itself will be used as programing. G4 will broadcast what is billed as the first televised panel in the event`s history. Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira will host the two-hour "Star Wars Spectacular," including a table read of a new "Clone Wars" script.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Original article

A tale of two L.A. festivals

2009-06-29T11:24:00.000+04:00

(FESTIVAL, FILMS, LAFF, AFI, YELDHAM, SCREENINGS, WHICH)

By Kirk Honeycutt
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Hollywood might be the heart of English-language moviemaking, but when it comes to film festivals, the city lacks a major-league franchise.
Not that Los Angeles has no film festivals. One of its two big ones, the Los Angeles Film Festival, successfully wrapped its 2009 edition Sunday. But the casual movie fan couldn`t be blamed for puzzling over the identities of the two festivals, LAFF and AFI Fest. However, recent leadership changes at both fests and economic realities of the recession might more forcefully define those identities.
LAFF, which has settled into the cozy confines of Westwood Village and nearby venues for several editions, is produced by parent organization Film Independent (FIND). Rebecca Yeldham, producer of such films as "The Motorcycle Diaries" and "The Kite Runner," came on board as festival director only three months before the current edition began, following the resignation of Rich Raddon.
Although she did inherit a significant support network in FIND exec director Dawn Hudson and LAFF director of programing Rachel Rosen, the wrapped fest was a learning experience for her. Where things go from here is, as she put it, "to be determined."
At the moment, the festival is a bit of this and a bit of that. But like AFI Fest, you won`t find many acquisition execs at its screenings. Neither festival tends to premiere must-see indie films. In its recent edition, LAFF showed several Sundance hits, and even in its narrative competition -- a place where one would expect new films -- "Turistas" played at Venice last year. The fest also included splashy premieres of such studio films as "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Public Enemies" to bring crowds to Westwood.
Yeldham did open the festival for the first time with a world premiere of a film without a distributor. "Paper Man" did the trick: It attracted an audience filled with film scouts, studio execs and heads of independent companies.
Yeldham pronounced herself pleased with the results -- "It was a magical night for the audience and the filmmakers," she said -- but reviews of the film were tepid, and few of the execs at opening night were seen during the remainder of the festival.
Because major premieres of new works are unlikely only a few weeks after Cannes has wrapped, LAFF seeks to create "events." These range from a screening of a restored print of the 1971 cult film "Billy Jack" to "Poolside Chats" at the W Hotel and "Festival Conversations" at various venues where festivalgoers interact with filmmakers, writers and others.
Yeldham promises to increase such events. The way of the future, she said, can be seen in the new Artist in Residence component, where "The Kite Runner" novelist Khaled Hosseini and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne curated favorite films and participated in discussions related to those selections.
Yeldham insisted that despite being a production of FIND, "we want the Los Angeles Film Festival to be a celebration of cinema from wherever the films may come, not just American independent filmmaking."
Across town, AFI Fest plays the role of the city`s long-established festival. For more than 23 years, the festival has been presented by the American Film Institute. Its declared ambition has been to survey cinema from around the globe. Coming near year`s end, AFI Fest tends to be a roundup of the most significant films of the year. But, again, few new films.
Rose Kuo came aboard as artistic director last year following the departure of Christian Gaines. AFI Fest, which runs October 30-November 7, will undergo significant changes, some, Kuo said, dictated by "new economic realities."
The festival is moving its main venue from the ArcLight Cinemas to Grauman`s Chinese. The festival will shrink from 11 days to nine and offer free tickets to all screenings.
"We are asking the public who can be part of our philanthropy to be a patron and contribute to the festival," Kuo said. "Those who can will get a pass, which gives priority entry at the door. All individual tickets to general screenings will be complimentary for all screenings, including a limited number of individual gala tickets."
If all major L.A.-based film curators -- which would include LAFF, AFI and the city`s two cinematheques, the American Cinematheque and UCLA Film & Television Archive -- came together with studio support to create a single festival, it might rival such attention-grabbers as Austin`s South by Southwest or even Sundance. But organizational egos and branding needs always have prevented the formation a superfestival in L.A. Continued...
Original article

"Reaper" actress corners "Copper"

2009-06-29T11:12:00.000+04:00

(PEREGRYM, WHICH, ABC, COPPER, REAPER, DRAMA)

By Nellie Andreeva
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Reaper" co-star Missy Peregrym landed the lead role on the Canadian cop drama "Copper," which will air on ABC.
Billed as "Grey`s Anatomy" set in the world of rookie cops, "Copper" centers on Andy McNally (Peregrym), a newly minted cop fresh from the academy and the daughter of a homicide detective. She is anxious about her first day on the job, which doesn`t go as well as she had wished.
Montreal-born Peregrym most recently played the female lead Andi on the CW`s supernatural dramedy "Reaper." She also co-starred on the ABC drama "Life as We Know It" and had recurring roles on "Heroes" and "Smallville."
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Original article

"Bruno" is Borat-lite, and a little tedious

2009-06-29T10:23:00.000+04:00

(BRUNO, BORAT, BARON, COHEN, COHEN`S, FUNNY, AUSTRIAN)

By Kirk Honeycutt
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - We all knew Borat. Borat was a friend of ours. Bruno, you`re no Borat.
Unfair to be sure, but because everyone is going to compare Sacha Baron Cohen`s "Bruno" to his insanely funny "Borat," let`s be honest: While pushing the PC envelope in new and imaginative ways as well as the MPAA`s R rating, especially insofar as the male member is concerned, "Bruno" is only intermittently funny and all too often the "ambushes" of celebrities and civilians look staged. The movie is even a tad -- dare we say it? -- tedious.
Admirers of the British comic`s gifts for caricature and improvisation and nearly everyone who found themselves laughing uncontrollably at Baron Cohen`s unrepentant anti-Semitic Kazakhstani in "Borat" probably will turn out for Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles` latest mockumentary. So boxoffice should be solid for Universal`s July 10 release. It`s unclear though whether Baron Cohen can continue to bring his TV characters into the real world, or something approximating it, without diminishing results. Based on the evidence here, such results seem inevitable.
For one thing, where the focus was laser-sharp in "Borat," it`s fuzzy in "Bruno." Bruno, for those really out of step with modern culture, is Baron Cohen`s gay Austrian fashion expert with his own TV show, "Funkyzeit." Early in the movie, Bruno makes such a disastrous spectacle of himself at a designer`s show during Milan Fashion Week, he is schwarz-listed.
He abruptly decides to go to Los Angeles, accompanied by his lovelorn assistant, Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), to become a celebrity. One`s heart sinks right there. "Borat" zeroed in on bigotry and Western hypocrisy for its satire. The target of Hollywood and vacuous celebrityhood has so many quivers in its bull`s-eye, there is nothing left to hit.
Perhaps a victim of his own success, Baron Cohen probably is too well know to get away with so many sneak attacks on unsuspecting people no matter how he transforms himself physically. A few times in "Bruno," one senses a real victim. More often, especially with such demi-celebrities as Paula Abdul or LaToya Jackson but even with a determined dominatrix, one senses a more than willing victim.
In a recording session that ends the film, where everyone from Elton John to Snoop Dogg to Sting to Bono shows up, the film drops any pretense that these are not invited guests.
Baron Cohen has better luck outside of L.A. In the Middle East, Bruno does get chased by angry Hasidic Jews. And in trying to mediate a panel featuring an Israeli and Palestinian leader, his mixing up of Hamas and hummus is genuinely funny.
Bruno`s adopted African baby paraded before a black audience is not funny. It`s embarrassing, as is any joke that bombs, yet the comic keeps going back to it nevertheless. This is one of several instances where an audience might experience both exasperation and tedium with the comic`s relentless act of running a joke into the ground.
Bruno`s attempt to go hetero, assisted by two Christian ministers who specialize in such conversions, yields better results. Even here, though, Bill Maher beat him to the punch with "Religulous."
Borat was, despite his cheerful bigotry, somehow a lovable character. His questions sprang from the sweet innocence of a third-world bumpkin wallowing in isolated ignorance. With Bruno, you mostly feel annoyed. A gay Austrian fashionista would be no ignorant rube. He would be sophisticated, savvy and certainly aware of prejudices against gays. Would he really prance semi-naked through Middle Eastern holy sights?
The calculations behind Baron Cohen`s ambushes too often are mean-spirited. We sense, as we never did with Borat, the comic behind the character. Especially when his accent keeps changing -- from an unconvincing Austrian to his own British and even to a whisper of Borat himself.
Consequently, the character`s gayness reads false. Baron Cohen needs to spend more time in certain gay bars if he wants to learn how to do "flamboyant" and "fabulous." It`s a ghost of the real thing.
Tech credits are just fine for what essentially is an un-reality show.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)
(please visit our entertainment blog via www.reuters.com or on blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)
Original article

Disney star Ashley Tisdale gets edgy on new album

2009-06-29T10:11:00.000+04:00

(TISDALE, NEW, ALBUM, WANTED, WARNER, GUILTY, PLEASURE)

By Mikael Wood
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Ashley Tisdale knows it sounds silly, but her new album has a lot to do with the color of her hair.
"For the last few years everyone has thought of me as Sharpay," the 23-year-old singer/actor says, referring to her blonde-and-bubbly character in Disney`s smash "High School Musical" films.
"So after I`d finished all the promotion for `High School Musical 3` I dyed my hair back to its original color. I`d been a blonde for five years; Disney wanted us to be those characters. But the new songs I was working on felt edgier, sort of back to how I was before `High School Musical.` I wanted to show people a side of me they haven`t seen before."
Tisdale accomplishes that -- well, sort of -- on "Guilty Pleasure," due July 28 from Warner Bros. Like her 2007 debut, "Headstrong" (which, according to Nielsen SoundScan, has sold 471,000 copies in the United States), the new 14-track set offers plenty of catchy choruses and lyrics about boys.
But with songwriting and production credits from "American Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi, among others, "Guilty Pleasure" is a more mature, guitar-driven outing than the dance-pop "Headstrong." In the opener, "Acting Out," she promises to "break these chains" over driving bubble-punk drums, while the lead single, "It`s Alright, It`s OK," could be the younger sister of Pink`s "So What."
"A lot of the songs on the album are about survival and staying strong," says Tisdale, who co-wrote four cuts. "I really wanted it to be a statement and a reflection of what I`ve been through over the past year and how I`ve grown up."
Warner Bros. senior VP of marketing David Grant says the first component of the label`s album rollout was revealing Tisdale`s new look with a relaunch of her Web site in March and the cover of Cosmopolitan`s April issue. "We wanted to create a conversation and then follow quickly with the music," he says.
According to Grant, "High School Musical" fans have aged along with Tisdale, and they still constitute a significant portion of her audience. "But she`s taken it beyond that, too," he says. For "Headstrong" the label targeted tweens; this time, "we`re definitely looking to teenage girls."
Social-networking technology plays a central role in the label`s plans to reach that demographic. Tisdale is an especially avid Twitterer, with more than 750,000 followers.
"She`s very protective of it in terms of it sounding authentic," according to Warner Bros. senior VP of new media Jeremy Welt. "There have been a couple of times where we`ve said to her, `Hey, why don`t you mention so-and-so?` and she`s told us, `I wouldn`t say that.`" (What would she say? One recent Tweet read, "Happy fathers day!!! Goin to dinner with my family and the most amazing dad ever! I love you daddy!")
Facebook and MySpace also figure into Warner`s new-media campaign, the latter particularly as an "important streaming partner," Welt says. MySpace is streaming two tracks from "Guilty Pleasure," and Grant expects the site to feature the entire album before release date.
In the realm of retail, Grant says Target and Wal-Mart will sell exclusive editions of the album with bonus material, while a direct-to-consumer version will feature six posters and two extra songs.
Once "Guilty Pleasure" is out, Tisdale says she hopes to tour the United States and Europe (where the set was released earlier this month). "This album is so important to me," she says. "I really want to support it as much as I can. You put your heart and soul into something and it makes you a little bit vulnerable. It is who I am -- hopefully people will like that."
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)
Original article

Canadian rockers Billy Talent eye foreign success

2009-06-29T09:59:00.000+04:00

(TALENT, BILLY, CANADA, ALBUM, BAND`S, ACCORDING, III)

By Robert Thompson
TORONTO (Billboard) - Most guitarists would be perturbed to discover that their label was issuing their band`s latest album with a bonus CD of the songs stripped of the guitar.
But the guitarist with Canadian rock group Billy Talent looked at the bigger picture and realized the bonus disc -- complete with chord chart -- would allow bedroom dreamers raised on "Guitar Hero" to play along.
"I`m pretty sure no one has done it before," Ian D`Sa says. "When I was a kid I would have killed to be able to play along with the vocals, bass and drums on `Led Zeppelin IV.` I think this opens the boundaries between the band and our fans."
It shouldn`t surprise anyone that amateur guitarists are fans of the band`s mix of hard rock and punk. The act`s latest album, "Billy Talent III," produced by Brendan O`Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam), hits stores via Warner Music Canada July 14 in Canada, where the band is already an arena-size draw.
Billy Talent`s primary markets are Canada and Germany. The band`s two previous albums, "Billy Talent I" and "Billy Talent II," sold 330,000 and 280,000 copies in Canada, respectively, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In Germany -- where "III" will be released July 10 -- the band`s first two albums have shipped 460,000 copies, according to Warner.
Warner Music Canada president Steve Kane says the United Kingdom is a priority for the label, as part of an overall European strategy. There, sales stand at 48,000 for "I" and 61,000 for "II," according to the Official Charts Co.; "III" will be released July 13.
"We need to superserve a lot of markets in Europe, but we can`t take Canada and Germany for granted," he says. "In the U.K. I think we`re one radio song away (from mainstream success)."
The band has had limited success in the United States despite significant touring commitments for its first two albums, which have sold 120,000 and 59,000 U.S. copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The band`s manager Pierre Tremblay, senior VP at Nettwerk Music Group, says Billy Talent`s reputation as a top live act should help it make inroads in the U.S. market, and then onward to Australia and New Zealand.
"This will take some patience," Tremblay adds. "Billy Talent isn`t just some pop act that you can throw a lot of money at and land on radio."
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)
Original article

Related articles:
Canadian rockers Billy Talent eye foreign success

Canadian rockers Billy Talent eye foreign success

2009-06-29T09:46:00.000+04:00

(TALENT, BILLY, CANADA, ALBUM, BAND`S, ACCORDING, III)

Jackson`s final hours puzzle doctor, family

2009-06-29T06:31:00.000+04:00

By Mary Milliken and Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The personal physician at Michael Jackson`s side when he died told police he did not inject the singer with painkillers that friends say might be behind the King of Pop`s death on the brink of a comeback bid.
A lawyer for Dr. Conrad Murray told Reuters on Sunday that the cardiologist found Jackson, 50, unconscious in his rented mansion on Thursday and tried to revive him.
"The doctor was surprised when this happened. He didn`t know why Jackson stopped breathing," said Edward Chernoff, the attorney who accompanied Murray during three hours of police questioning on Saturday.
Los Angeles police said after questioning Murray that they do not consider him a suspect, and law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times the meeting revealed "no red flag" of criminal activity.
As the case remains shrouded in mystery, the entertainment world geared up for its first big tribute to the pop star at the BET awards on Sunday. Top performers rushed to Los Angeles to appear at the show, modified at the last minute to honor Jackson.
The Jackson family holed up in their L.A. compound making plans for a funeral that could take place on Wednesday, possibly at the pop star`s famous Neverland estate in California, family friend Stacy Brown said.
Brown told Reuters that a family source said Jackson had received an injection of the narcotic painkiller Demerol shortly before paramedics were called to the mansion.
`FAMILY HAS QUESTIONS`
"They have been concerned about his addiction to medicines for years," said Brown, who co-wrote the book "Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask."
"It`s been no family secret that they`ve been trying to get him help for his addiction," she said.
Chernoff said Murray "never prescribed nor administered Demerol to Michael Jackson," adding that Murray was paid by concert promoter AEG Live in the lead-up to the singer`s long-awaited comeback concert series.
The family carried out its own autopsy on Saturday after the Los Angeles Coroner said it would need four to six more weeks to determine the exact cause of death.
Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who was with the Jackson family last week, told People magazine that the family had questions.
"There is a concern about what happened the last 12 hours of Michael`s life," said Jackson, who is not related to the family. "The doctor has shown some bizarre behavior."
Chernoff said Murray was unaware of any underlying health problems that could have led to the singer`s death. Continued...
Original article

BET Awards pay tribute to Michael Jackson

2009-06-29T06:19:00.000+04:00

By Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The BET Awards kicked off on Sunday night with a musical tribute to Michael Jackson in which host Jamie Foxx did Jackson`s famous moonwalk and sung his hit song "Beat It" in a classic King of Pop costume -- red leather jacket and one white glove.
Oscar-winning actor and singer Foxx told the packed house in Los Angeles` Shrine Auditorium the awards program would honor Jackson, the music star who died suddenly last Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest at his rented Los Angeles home.
"We`re going to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us, and we shared him with everybody else," Foxx told the crowd.
"I`m going to moonwalk tonight -- going to moonwalk from here, all the way to there, for Michael Jackson," Foxx said, pointing across the stage.
He then performed the backwards shuffle dance step that Jackson made famous, but Foxx didn`t even come close to mastering the move. In fact, he tripped.
The awards given annually by the BET television network honor the best African American singers, actors, actresses and athletes. This year`s show was revamped at the last minute due to Jackson`s death, and many early performers and winners dedicated their awards to Jackson and his family.
A member of 1970s brother band the Jackson 5 and a global star, Jackson`s 1982 smash "Thriller" is the best-selling album of all time and the superstar was a major influence on R&B, hip hop and many other forms of music.
"He is one of our heroes. As African Americans, we are not going to let everybody beat him up," music mogul and rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs said of Jackson ahead of the show.
While the 50-year-old Jackson was loved by many, he lived a reclusive live in his final years, and in the 1990s he was twice accused of child molestation. One claim was settled out of court, and the second accusation resulted in a criminal trial. Jackson was acquitted of charges in the second case.
His death continues to be shrouded in questions of prescription drug use and, although an autopsy was performed, it will be four to six weeks before an official cause of death can be determined after toxicology tests are completed.
Family patriarch Joe Jackson told the CNN television network outside the show that there were still "a lot of concerns about what happened" in final hours of son`s life.
But inside the Shrine, the show focused on glorifying Jackson`s life. In fact, Foxx noted that as in New Orleans, where people celebrated a person`s life after his or her death, the BET Awards audience would be encouraged to party.
Early winners included Day 26 for best music group, basketball star LeBron James for best athlete, and Lil Wayne for best male hip hop artist.
(Reporting by Bob Tourtellott; editing by Todd Eastham)
Original article

Connery blasts BBC at Edinburgh film awards ceremony

2009-06-29T01:39:00.000+04:00

By Ian MacKenzie
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Actor Sean Connery lashed out at the BBC for its coverage of the awards ceremony at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) on Sunday when he handed out the prizes.
The EIFF award for the best new British feature film went to Moon, a "creepy, poignant and funny" sci-fi film directed by Duncan Jones. The film, which received a prize of 20,000 pounds, stars Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.
Connery, a festival patron who gained worldwide fame for his portrayal of British secret agent James Bond, told a packed audience on the final day of the EIFF that the BBC had 300 technicians at the current Glastonbury pop and folk festival in southwest England.
"Not one (technician) at the Edinburgh International Film Festival," he said.
"It affects us all, it certainly affects me, and I think we should do something about it."
The BBC said in response: "BBC news outlets covered the Edinburgh International Film Festival on radio, TV and online. Obviously Glastonbury is a huge live music, arts and performance event and cannot be compared as like for like."
It said the BBC would cover the Edinburgh international arts festival and T in the Park pop concert later this summer.
In Moon, Rockwell`s character has almost ended his three-year solitary posting mining fuel for earth on the moon with thoughts of returning to the planet and his family.
But as his return date approaches, life on his self-contained world takes a startling turn. The jury praised Moon for its "singular vision and remarkably assured direction"
The award for best performance in a British feature film went to Katie Jarvis for her role as 15-year-old Mia in Fish Tank, "an intense and surprising story of love, lust and family."
Jarvis turned 18 last week and said this was her best birthday gift.
Easier With Practice, directed by American Kyle Patrick Alvarez took the best new international feature award featuring sex, love and loneliness over the phone.
Best documentary award was taken by Aliona Van der Horst of The Netherlands with a lament for cult Russian poet Boris Ryzhy, who committed suicide in 2001 aged 26.
American director and writer Cary Jojo Fukunaga won the new director award for Sin Nombre centered on Honduran teenager Sayra and her involvement with a dangerous gang member on the run.
The Edinburgh film festival, which opened on June 17, has as one of its major aims discovering and promoting new talent in the industry. Continued...
Original article

Michael Jackson set to make chart history, again

2009-06-28T08:00:00.000+04:00

By Keith Caulfield
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Michael Jackson will once again make music history next week as many of his albums are poised to shake up the Billboard charts with incredible sales increases.
The impact of Jackson`s shock death on Thursday was felt immediately in the marketplace. Industry sources report that the demand for Jackson`s albums were so high, many stores simply ran out of his CDs.
The albums with the greatest sales increases -- at least on the physical side of things -- look to be his greatest hits packages "Number Ones" and "The Essential Michael Jackson" along with the expanded reissue of "Thriller." The sets, released between 2003 and 2008, were the three Jackson albums that perhaps had the most stock available in stores.
In the digital realm, where the supply problem doesn`t exist, Jackson`s songs and albums swarmed the top of the constantly-updating best sellers lists in both the iTunes` and Amazon`s online music stores. At one point on Friday in the iTunes Store, nine out of the top 10-selling albums and 40 of the top 100-selling songs were by Jackson.
The three aforementioned albums, along with Jackson`s classic studio sets "Off the Wall," "Bad" and "Dangerous" all will likely zoom into the upper region of Billboard`s Top Pop Catalog Albums chart next week. Initial reports of Jackson`s album sales from Thursday alone indicate that one of his albums -- possibly "Number Ones" -- will easily fly to No. 1 on the chart next week. Last week, the set -- which also was his top-selling album of the week -- was at No. 20 on the Catalog chart with 4,000 sold.
To compare, last week`s No. 1 on the Catalog chart was TobyMac`s "Portable Sounds" with 9,000 copies sold. Sources say that at least one of Jackson`s albums sold more than double that amount just on Thursday.
Nielsen SoundScan`s tracking week ends at the close of business on Sunday (28). Billboard and SoundScan`s new weekly charts will be released on Wednesday, July 1.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman)
Original article

Michael Jackson`s family seeks second autopsy

2009-06-28T06:35:00.000+04:00

By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson`s family gathered at his parents` suburban Los Angeles home on Saturday to make funeral arrangements for the troubled King of Pop amid reports that they are seeking a second, independent autopsy.
The entertainer`s father, Joseph, issued a statement calling his son`s death "one of the darkest moments of our lives" and urging fans not to despair.
Jackson`s body was returned to his family on Friday night after an examination by the Los Angeles County coroner`s office failed to determine what killed the 50-year-old entertainer, pending toxicology tests that were expected to take weeks.
Meanwhile a lawyer for Dr. Conrad Murray, who was at Jackson`s rented mansion in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles when he collapsed, said the physician had agreed to answer questions from police detectives.
"Dr. Murray intends to fully cooperate with investigators and law enforcement as they attempt to piece together what happened," attorney Bill Stradley told Reuters in an interview.
"Contrary to what has been out there, Dr. Murray has been cooperating with authorities from the outset and will continue to do so," Stradley said. "The impression that he has been hiding from authorities, that`s not correct."
Murray was desperately trying to revive Jackson when paramedics arrived and he rode with the singer in an ambulance to the hospital where the pop star was pronounced dead.
Police have said they wanted to further question Murray, a Houston-based cardiologist, about the circumstances of Jackson`s death but had not been able to arrange an interview.
Murray`s silver Mercedes was towed from the home where Jackson died so detectives could search it for evidence and medication.
MOVING VANS EMPTY HOME
The celebrity website TMZ.com reported that a second autopsy was underway at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, on the orders of the Jackson family.
Speculation has centered on Jackson`s use of prescription drugs and reports that he was injected with the narcotic painkiller Demerol shortly before he went into cardiac arrest.
Coroner`s officials have said that with no outward signs of trauma to Jackson`s body or evidence of foul play, they would have to wait for the results of toxicology tests and other studies to establish a cause of death.
Few other details were released about the autopsy`s findings, but Fox News reported on its website that investigators had found his body to be healthier and stronger than they had expected, with some scarring on the face.
Moving van crews emptied the rental home of Jackson`s belongings, reportedly on the orders of his father, Joseph, who was concerned they would be stolen. Continued...
Original article

"Transformers" sequel tramples on box office

2009-06-28T06:23:00.000+04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The "Transformers" sequel was well on its way to becoming the biggest hit of the year so far after selling a better-than-expected $126 million in tickets during its first three days at the North American box office, distributor Paramount Pictures said on Saturday.
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," a follow-up to the smash robot hit of 2007, is on course to challenge the seemingly impregnable five-day opening record of $203.8 million set last year by Batman sequel, "The Dark Knight."
The biggest movie of the year so far is "Star Trek," which has grossed $244 million in seven weeks of release across the United States and Canada.
A clearer picture of "Transformers"` trajectory will emerge on Sunday, when the Viacom Inc-owned studio issues sales estimates for the weekend. Earlier in the week, Paramount had conservatively forecast a five-day haul in the $130 million to $150 million range. But industry pundits countered that a tally of at least $175 million was more likely. The film reportedly cost about $200 million to make.
The $126 million figure covers sales for Wednesday through Friday. The film earned $60.6 million on its first day, breaking the old record for a Wednesday release of $44 million set by "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" in 2007. It fell just short of the all-time single-day record of $67 million, set last year on a Friday by "The Dark Knight."
The "Transformers" sequel earned $36.7 million on Friday. Nine movies have made more than that on a Friday, but that was their first day of release.
The film also opened worldwide on Wednesday, but got an early start last weekend with a No. 1 bow in Britain and No. 2 in Japan behind a local release.
The first "Transformers" was the third-biggest film of 2007 in North America, ending up with $319 million. It opened on the Monday before the July 4 holiday, so comparisons are difficult. They have plenty in common though: director Michael Bay reunites with young stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Robots rampage across the landscape, and things explode.
Critics were mildly favorable toward the first film, but mostly appalled by the sequel, according to Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com ), a Web site that analyzes reviews.
Original article

Hello Goodbye: Jackson`s Beatles rights at risk

2009-06-27T17:36:00.000+04:00

By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Beatles For Sale?
The Fab Four`s prized catalog -- specifically 267 songs mostly written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney -- is embarking on a long and winding road of ownership uncertainty following the death of Michael Jackson on Thursday.
The pop singer and Sony Corp`s Sony Music arm operated a lucrative joint venture that either owns or administers the copyrights to about 750,000 compositions written by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers.
Industry analysts estimate that Sony/ATV Music Publishing is worth at least $1 billion, making Jackson one savvy entertainer. His initial investment cost him $47.5 million in 1985. Music publishing is considered a license to print money. Not quite as exciting as the piracy-ravaged recorded-music side, it involves collecting royalties from such diverse avenues as downloads, radio airplay and videogames.
But mystery now surrounds the beneficial ownership of Jackson`s stake. According to a lawsuit filed in 2002 by a creditor, he secured bank loans totaling $270 million two years earlier using both his Sony/ATV stake and the copyrights to his own songs as collateral.
Jackson lived an extravagant lifestyle, even as his commercial appeal dwindled amid damaging child-abuse allegations and changing music tastes. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2005 that his cash reserves ran so low earlier that year that he worried about paying his electric bill. The paper reported earlier this month that he had racked up about $500 million of debt.
"VERY COMPLEX" VALUATIONS
A clearer picture of his finances will emerge during the administration period of his estate that usually lasts about 18 months, said Renee Gabbard of the law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in Costa Mesa, California.
Jackson`s executors will evaluate his assets, file the estate tax return and invite creditors to submit invoices, said Gabbard, who has a number of wealthy clients with entertainment-related estates.
The process of valuing estate assets, especially intellectual property like music copyrights, is "very complex" and often takes "quite a while," said Gabbard.
"When you have entertainers and musicians they usually have quite extensive royalty contracts. It`s very tough to put a value on a catalog of songs," she said.
Jackson and Sony formed their joint venture in 1995, with the singer contributing ATV Songs, whose 4,000 tunes included most of the Beatles catalog. He had bought ATV a decade earlier from Australian businessman Robert Holmes a Court, famously outbidding McCartney in the process.
Jackson was not involved in the day-to-day operations of Sony/ATV, but as a lover of the songwriting process was known to be "incredibly proud" of the company and its fast growth, according to a publishing industry source.
A spokesman for Sony/ATV declined to comment.
His stakes in both Sony/ATV and in Mijac, which holds his own copyrights, were owned by trusts. It was not clear if they were irrevocable or not. If they are revocable, then they could be dismantled to satisfy creditors, Gabbard said. Continued...
Original article

Michael Jackson death still unsolved after autopsy

2009-06-27T06:27:00.000+04:00

By Dan Whitcomb and Laura Isensee
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Doctors conducted an autopsy on the body of Michael Jackson on Friday but could not immediately determine what killed the "King of Pop," amid reports he had been injected with a narcotic painkiller shortly before collapsing.
Jackson was in full cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at his rented mansion in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, with his personal physician trying desperately to revive him.
The 50-year-old pop superstar was rushed to nearby UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead without regaining consciousness.
"The cause of death (determination) has been deferred, which means that the medical examiner has ordered additional testing such as toxicology and other studies," Los Angeles County Coroner`s spokesman Craig Harvey said. "Those tests we anticipate will take an additional four to six weeks."
Speaking to a throng of reporters outside the coroner`s office, Harvey said, "There was no indication of any external trauma or indication of foul play to the body of Mr. Jackson."
Police said they were seeking to question Jackson`s personal physician, identified by news media as Houston-based cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray.
Jackson`s body will be released to family members after they choose a mortuary for funeral arrangements, Harvey said. There was no immediate word on when he would be laid to rest.
Celebrity website TMZ.com, citing an interview with an unidentified "close member" of the Jackson family, reported the entertainer was injected with Demerol about half an hour before he went into cardiac arrest.
DAILY SHOT OF DEMEROL?
TMZ, citing family members, said Jackson received a daily shot of Demerol, a narcotic painkiller, and that the family believed his death was caused by an overdose of the drug.
Detectives searched Jackson`s home and impounded Murray`s Mercedes from the driveway, saying it might contain evidence.
An unidentified man called a 911 emergency phone line from the mansion at 12:21 p.m. local time, saying Jackson was unconscious and not breathing.
In excerpts from the call released by authorities, the caller said the physician was the only other person present and was frantically performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the unconscious Jackson without results.
"He`s pumping, he`s pumping his chest but he`s not responding to anything, sir, please," the man said.
A senior law enforcement official told ABC News that Jackson was "heavily addicted" to the painkiller Oxycontin and was injected daily with that medication, along with Demerol. Continued...
Original article

Michael Jackson feared he`d "end up" like Elvis: Lisa Marie

2009-06-27T06:14:00.000+04:00

By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson`s former wife Lisa Marie Presley said on Friday the pop star was a tortured soul who once predicted that he would "end up" like her father, the late rock icon Elvis Presley.
Writing on her MySpace blog, Presley also ripped into reports in the media that her relationship with Jackson was contrived, saying they split because she could not save him from self-destructive behavior.
"Our relationship was not a `a sham` as is being reported in the press," Presley, 41, wrote in the blog posting, which was verified by her spokesperson.
She called it an "unusual relationship" but added: "Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much."
Presley, the only daughter of the original "King of Rock `n` Roll" and a performer in her own right, describes having a conversation with Jackson about her father`s August 16, 1977 death. Elvis Presley died at age 42 of a heart attack after years of drug use.
"At some point he (Jackson) paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty: `I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did.`"
Presley wrote that she tried to deter Jackson from the idea, but he shook his head and nodded "as if he knew what he knew" and would not be dissuaded.
"As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play the exact scenario I saw happen on August 16, 1977 happening again right now with Michael (a sight I never wanted to see again), just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted," she said.
Presley wrote that she and Jackson`s family tried to save him from "the inevitable, which is what just happened" but she became overwhelmed and had to end their relationship.
"I became very ill and emotionally/ spiritually exhausted in my quest to save him from certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him," she wrote.
(Editing by Will Dunham)
Original article

Jackson leaves hefty debts, unrealized comeback

2009-06-26T23:51:00.000+04:00

By Nichola Groom and Yinka Adegoke
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Along with a vast musical legacy and legions of adoring fans, pop superstar Michael Jackson leaves behind a mountain of debt and an unfulfilled comeback many hoped would rake in millions and erase his financial troubles.
The King of Pop died suddenly on Thursday at the age of 50, after a career spanning 40 years that included the biggest-selling pop album of all time, "Thriller."
Despite taking in hundreds of millions of dollars as one of the most successful pop musicians of all time, Jackson racked up about $500 million of debt, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
His top assets, however, including copyrights to his own songs and a stake in the Beatles` song catalog, are worth more than $1 billion, according to a music industry source.
Jackson`s career and image were tarnished by his mounting financial and legal troubles in recent years [ID:nN25299926].
Known for huge shopping sprees for toys and antiques, Jackson was accused by an accountant during his 2005 trial on child molestation charges of spending $20 million to $30 million more than he was bringing in per year.
The lavish lifestyle was made possible in part by a $200 million loan secured by his stake in the Beatles catalog. Jackson owned the music in a joint venture with Sony Corp known as Sony/ATV. Jackson refinanced those loans in 2006 in a bid to stave off insolvency.
In addition, Jackson last November had to hand over the title on his Neverland estate in California to a company made up of himself and Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust Colony Capital LLC, the firm that holds his $23 million loan on the property.
Colony Capital has been sprucing up the ranch and planned to sell it, according to the Journal. Colony Chief Executive Tom Barrack told the newspaper last month the estate could fetch $70 million to $80 million, or more if Jackson`s career were revitalized.
In a statement on Thursday, Barrack said he was "deeply saddened" by Jackson`s death, but did not comment on the impact on Colony`s business.
PLANNED BIG COMEBACK
To help turn around his financial fortunes, Jackson was planning a major comeback in London this summer, 12 years since his last tour.
AEG Live, which was promoting the 50-concert run at the 02 Arena, stands to lose as much as $40 million if its insurance is not substantial enough to cover what it has already spent on the production, Billboard reported, and one attorney said the company would not be able to recover any of those costs from Jackson`s estate.
"The concert promoters can`t sue the estate," said Bob Rasmussen, dean of the Gould Law School at the University of Southern California. "Once he dies, he doesn`t have any obligation to perform."
AEG, wholly owned by privately held Anschutz Co, will also certainly miss out on the $400 million the company estimated it could raise through a 3 1/2-year plan to work with Jackson. Continued...
Original article

Michael Jackson`s death hits tour promoter, ticket holders

2009-06-26T20:38:00.000+04:00

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - Michael Jackson`s sudden death could prove a major blow to AEG Live, promoter of his eagerly awaited run of 50 London concerts, as well as to fans who paid well over the odds to get hold of coveted tickets.
The residency at the O2 Arena had been due to begin on July 13, and organizers have yet to decide exactly how they handle refunding tickets bought directly from themselves or authorized dealers, not to mention tickets bought from unauthorized dealers, online auction sites and ticket touts.
AEG Live`s British website issued a brief statement on Jackson`s death and added: "A further announcement for ticket holders will be made in due course."
Paying back the face value of some of the estimated 750,000 tickets sold is unlikely to be AEG Live`s only headache.
The company is reported to have invested $20-30 million on the production already, not including any advance to Jackson.
And the O2 Arena, which appears on AEG`s list of sites it owns or operates, is now faced with 50 empty nights, some of which it will struggle to fill at such short notice.
AEG Live`s financial exposure will depend partly on how well insured it was for the 50-concert run.
According to industry experts, the concert promoter, a subsidiary of Anschutz Entertainment Group, initially found demand among insurers when the concerts were announced in March.
"I think what happened was that when AEG Live`s broker started going to the market to cover the original 10 dates, the appetite was there," said Jonathan Swift, editor of the specialist Post publication.
"But when the tour started escalating into more dates, people were not so keen."
HEATH CONCERNS
Doubts were voiced in March about Jackson`s ability to perform a long residency amid concerns over his health, and they persisted until his sudden death Thursday.
In March, AEG Live chief executive Randy Phillips was quoted by the Telegraph newspaper as saying the company would be prepared to self-insure.
At the time of the announcement, he told Reuters that Jackson had passed a four-and-a-half hour physical examination by independent doctors. He also said Jackson could gross "well over $400 million" under a long-term deal with AEG.
Media reports have estimated AEG Live`s potential liability from the concerts at up to 300 million pounds, although company representatives in Europe could not be reached for comment. Continued...
Original article

"Old Boy" proceeds despite legal scuffle

2009-06-26T10:21:00.000+04:00

By Gavin J. Blair and Park Soo-Mee
TOKYO/SEOUL (Hollywood Reporter) - Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are moving forward with plans for a remake of "Old Boy" despite a complex, behind-the-scenes rights wrangle involving the Japanese publishers of the original manga and the Korean producers of Park Chan-Wook`s 2003 cult hit.
Futabasha, publisher of the manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya, has filed a case against Show East in Seoul, alleging the Korean company never had the right to negotiate a remake.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that Show East has shut down and its CEO, Kim Dong-Ju, has disappeared. Big Egg, a co-producer of the ultra-violent revenge flick, has also closed up shop, and its former staffers are unreachable.
"We haven`t been able to confirm that Show East is bankrupt, and at this stage we`re not sure what effect this will have on the legal case," said a spokesperson from Futabasha in Tokyo, who noted that legal proceedings had begun last week.
South Korean sales company Cineclick Asia, which represented Show East`s "Oldboy" in international territories, actually negotiated the remake deal with Universal.
Universal brought in Roy Lee`s Vertigo Entertainment, which has made a specialty of Asian film remakes, to produce the picture, and then Mandate acquired the rights from Universal.
DreamWorks, in one of its first moves in the wake of its November separation from Paramount, secured remake rights from Mandate, which remains involved in the project.
DreamWorks had no comment on the dispute between Futubasha and Show East.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Original article

"Old Boy" proceeds despite legal scuffle

2009-06-26T10:09:00.000+04:00

Farrah Fawcett, 1970s sex symbol, dies aged 62

2009-06-26T08:44:00.000+04:00

By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie`s Angels" television star whose big smile and feathered blond mane made her one of the reigning sex symbols of the 1970s, died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. She was 62.
Fawcett, who first vaulted to stardom by an alluring poster of her in a red swimsuit, was diagnosed with anal cancer in late 2006. It spread to her liver in 2007, proving resistant to numerous medical treatments in Germany and California.
"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," Fawcett`s long time companion, actor Ryan O`Neal, said in a statement.
"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."
Fawcett`s death in a Los Angeles hospital came just six weeks after the TV broadcast in May of a video diary she made chronicling her battle with cancer and her final months.
Called "Farrah`s Story," the documentary was effectively a self-penned obituary by the actress, who was bedridden and had lost her famous hair by the time it was shown.
O`Neal said she had wanted to tell her story on her own terms. Earlier this week, O`Neal said Fawcett had agreed to marry him before her death, but a marriage never took place, a spokesman for the actress and O`Neal said.
Fawcett, born February 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, was an art student in college before she began modeling, appearing in shampoo ads.
She started guest-starring on TV in the late 1960s and appeared on the television hit "The Six Million Dollar Man" after marrying the show`s star, Lee Majors, in 1974. The couple divorced in the early 1980s.
ANGEL CULTURE
Fawcett`s career took off thanks to a poster of her posing flirtatiously with a brilliant smile in a red one-piece bathing suit. It sold millions of copies and led to her being cast in 1976 in "Charlie`s Angels," an action show about three beautiful, strong women private detectives.
As the tanned and glamorous Jill Munroe -- part of a trio that included Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson -- Fawcett was the hit show`s most talked-about star. She left "Charlie`s Angels" after only one season but lawsuit settlements brought her back to guest-star in subsequent years.
"Farrah had courage, she had strength and she had faith. And now she has peace as she rests with the real angels," Smith said in a statement.
Fawcett`s face appeared on T-shirts, posters and dolls. She came to epitomize the glamorous California lifestyle and inspired a worldwide craze for blown-out, feathered-back hair.
The New York Times once described that hair as "a work of art ... emblematic of women in the first stage of liberation -- strong, confident and joyous." Continued...
Original article

"Transformers" in high gear already

2009-06-26T08:32:00.000+04:00

By Gregg Kilday
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Debuting Wednesday to an estimated $60.6 million, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" already has begun its triumphal rounding of the box office bases that should see it set a record or two by weekend`s end.
Once Michael Bay`s sequel to the 2007 hit based on the Hasbro toy line staked out the upcoming weekend, there was never any question that it would dominate overall sales. Competitors steered clear of the date, with only Warner Bros. fielding the feel-good weepie "My Sister`s Keeper" in a modest bit of counterprogramming.
So the new "Transformers" -- machine-tooled with the help of a budget said to have approached $200 million -- isn`t really competing against the other current releases: The Paramount release is out to do battle against the record book.
If Paramount`s first-day sales estimate holds, the sequel already can claim the distinction of the biggest Wednesday opening ever. It vaulted ahead of 2007`s "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which bowed to a one-day gross of $44.2 million.
It came unexpectedly close to challenging "The Dark Knight," which holds the records for biggest opening-day gross and best single-day gross: It collected $67.2 million when it opened last year on a Friday. And it squeezed ahead of 2007`s "Spider-Man 3," which debuted to $59.8 million, which had enjoyed runner-up status to "Knight" in the best single opening-day list.
"Transformers`" accelerated takeoff was turbo-charged with the help of $16 million from midnight screenings, included in that $60.6 million opening number.
Entering the weekend, the Paramount/DreamWorks co-production -- which is looking to draw in a wide audience base with the help of its fast-rising stars, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox -- looks on track to surpass the debut of the first "Transformers," which opened on a Monday evening and collected $155.4 million in its first 6-1/2 days. By the close of business Sunday, the sequel probably will have passed that mark and in just its first five days.
In doing so, it also would overshadow 2004`s "Spider-Man 2," which holds the record for the best Wednesday-through-Sunday opening with $152.4 million.
"Transformers" still would have a hard time challenging "Dark Knight" for the best five-day gross of all time, $203.8 million. "Dark Knight" was a hit with the fans and critics. Not so "Transformers," which as of Thursday had a low-ball 22 percent approval rating at Rottentomatoes.com.
But Bay`s movies have never depended on critics. During the Friday-to-Sunday portion of its debut, the first "Transformers" pulled in $70.5 million. If its sequel maintains its momentum, it will best that number, attracting $80 million-$90 million and possibly more as it heads toward a five-day gross of at least $150 million-$175 million.
The holdovers at the multiplex will have to settle for doing business in "Transformers`" shadow. Disney`s rom-com "The Proposal," last weekend`s top grosser, Warners` breakout comedy "The Hangover" and Disney/Pixar`s animated "Up" should all move down a notch, as they register numbers in the high-teen millions.
"Sister`s Keeper," starring Cameron Diaz in the tale of a family dealing with one daughter`s leukemia, is aiming to lure older female moviegoers from the "Transformers" juggernaut. One of its selling points is that it`s directed by Nick Cassavetes, who directed "The Notebook," a leggy, summer sleeper. "Keeper," though, is probably looking at a gross around the $10 million mark for its opening weekend.
For the handful of moviegoers who turn a deaf ear to "Transformers," the specialty arena will host several new titles.
Miramax will present Stephen Frears` period romantic drama "Cheri," starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates and Rupert Friend.
Roadside Attractions may benefit from the world`s focus on events in Iran as it releases Cyrus Nowrasteh`s "The Stoning of Soraya M.," which examines the plight of one Iranian woman. Continued...
Original article

King of Pop Michael Jackson is dead: official

2009-06-26T05:22:00.000+04:00

By Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing but whose musical genius was overshadowed by a bizarre lifestyle and sex scandals, died on Thursday. He was 50.
Jackson was pronounced dead at about 2:26 p.m. PDT (5:26 EDT) after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest, said Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner`s office. The cause of death was not known and an autopsy would likely take place on Friday, he said.
Jackson`s sudden death had been reported earlier by U.S. media, which said he was taken ill at his home and rushed to the hospital by paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived.
Known as the "King of Pop," for hits that included "Thriller" and "Billie Jean," Jackson`s dramatic, one-gloved stage presence and innovative dance moves were imitated by legions of fans around the world.
He transformed music videos and his lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, made him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.
But Jackson`s belief that "I am Peter Pan in my heart", his preference for the company of children, his friendship with a chimp, his high-pitched voice and numerous plastic surgeries also earned him critics and the nickname "Wacko Jacko."
Jackson, who had lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation, had been scheduled to launch a comeback tour from London next month.
Quincy Jones, who helped arrange the music on the album "Thriller" and produced the "Off the Wall" album, told MSNBC: "I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news."
"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don`t have the words. I`ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."
SOLD-OUT SHOWS
Jackson had been due to start a series of concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months. The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.
"Rarely has the world received a gift with the magnitude of artistry, talent, and vision as Michael Jackson," said Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy in a statement.
"He was a true musical icon whose identifiable voice, innovative dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and sheer star power carried him from childhood to worldwide acclaim."
There were concerns about Jackson`s health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.
Outside the hospital in Los Angeles about 200 fans and reporters gathered on Thursday, waiting for confirmation of Jackson`s death or condition. Continued...
Original article

Farrah Fawcett, 1970s sex symbol, dies aged 62

2009-06-25T23:01:00.000+04:00

By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie`s Angels" television star whose big smile and feathered blond mane made her one of the reigning sex symbols of the 1970s, died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. She was 62.
Fawcett, first vaulted to stardom by an alluring poster of her in a red swimsuit, was diagnosed with anal cancer in late 2006. It spread to her liver in 2007, proving resistant to numerous medical treatments in Germany and California.
"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," Fawcett`s long time companion, actor Ryan O`Neal, said in a statement.
"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."
Fawcett`s death in a Los Angeles hospital came just six weeks after the TV broadcast in May of a video diary she made chronicling her battle with cancer and her final months.
Called "Farrah`s Story," the documentary was effectively a self-penned obituary by the actress, who was bedridden and had lost her famous hair by the time it was shown.
O`Neal said she had wanted to tell her story on her own terms.
Fawcett`s close friend Alana Stewart, ex-wife of rocker Rod Stewart, told Entertainment Tonight after leaving the hospital on Thursday; "I just lost my best friend. Her death was very peaceful."
Fawcett, born February 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, was an art student in college before she began modeling, appearing in shampoo ads.
She started guest-starring on TV in the late 1960s and appeared on the television hit "The Six Million Dollar Man" after marrying the show`s star, Lee Majors, in 1974. The couple divorced in the early 1980s.
ANGEL CULTURE
Fawcett`s career took off thanks to a poster of her posing flirtatiously with a brilliant smile in a red one-piece bathing suit. It sold millions of copies and led to her being cast in 1976 in "Charlie`s Angels," an action show about three beautiful, strong women private detectives.
As the tanned and glamorous Jill Munroe -- part of a trio that included Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson -- Fawcett was the hit show`s most talked-about star. She left "Charlie`s Angels" after only one season but lawsuit settlements brought her back to guest-star in subsequent years.
Fawcett`s face appeared on T-shirts, posters and dolls. She came to epitomize the glamorous California lifestyle and inspired a worldwide craze for blown-out, feathered-back hair.
The New York Times once described that hair as "a work of art ... emblematic of women in the first stage of liberation -- strong, confident and joyous." Continued...
Original article

Studios wary of Oscar`s new best-picture rule

2009-06-25T12:33:00.000+04:00

By Elizabeth Guider
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - If ever there were a time that the town needed a jolt of adrenaline, Wednesday was it -- but from, of all places, the staid, mostly predictable Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences?
What everyone thought would be another sleepy announcement about an arcane rule change in the documentary or foreign language category turned into the headline of the day -- opening up the Oscar race to 10 best picture nominees.
The rationale is not that hard to fathom: The awards telecast has been dwindling in the ratings for a decade; at the same time, folks have been carping about the tilt of the noms -- too arty, too downbeat, too too -- or the exclusion of comedies or the relegation of animation to its own category. Some had even hazarded aloud that, of all things, the Golden Globes were the guys with the right idea, even if their 10 best pic noms are bifurcated by genre.
So with one masterstroke, all the goal posts have been shifted.
Most folks were gobsmacked by the news, with many -- think all those filmmakers who believe their films have been snubbed -- applauding the stratagem. As for wannabe Oscar consultants, now is the time to hang out that shingle.
"I think (Academy president) Sid Ganis has a great marketing mind and that this is a brilliant move," media consultant Michael Levine said. "After all, the biggest sin these days is irrelevance, and whether the expansion ultimately resonates with the public or not, the move will get a lot of attention. Sometimes you just have to do something bold to re-energize a classic brand."
But from a different perspective, longtime Oscar maven Tony Angellotti, who now consults for Universal and Disney Animation, thinks the move could well dilute "both the quality and the impact of the award. I would imagine the studios are grieving over this. They`ll have to spend more money and not likely see a return -- just what they don`t need in a recession."
In fact, one studio executive compared the Academy bombshell to getting doused with a bucket of cold water. He confided that he has enough trouble every awards season figuring out whom they have to satisfy with an Oscar campaign and which talent they can safely neglect or do less for.
"Were we behind this move by the Academy? No way," one top studio executive said. "We`re going to have to spend more money in marketing campaigns for one or more unlikely winner, and mostly there`s very little financial upside even when we do win. All of this takes enormous time and energy, and now it`s extra time and energy."
Another studio executive shook his head in dismay. "This likely means more filmmakers will want to see their movies open late in the year so they can still be in release during the crucial period between nominations (February 2) and the actual telecast (March 7). It`s simply going to clog up the distribution pipeline or mean we have to consider re-releasing one title or another. Don`t even mention what it might do to DVD campaigns."
The studio naysayers were reluctant to speak for the record, however, as they know that the town has become obsessed with and obsessive about awards. They do not want to appear churlish.
The most obvious contingent of happy faces might very well be the talent behind, say, "Up." Almost certainly a shoo-in in the still-to-remain animation category, the Disney/Pixar hit now stands a much better chance of getting into the top 10 noms as well. So too -- given what`s out there so far this year -- is a film like "Public Enemies," Michael Mann`s upcoming period actioner about John Dillinger, which is well crafted and acted, neither too arty nor too populist.
Other pictures that could benefit are the little gems that have "a small but passionate fan base," as another consultant put it, a la "Once" or "The Visitor" or more ambitious movies that got overlooked because they came out at the wrong moment or whatever -- think "Revolutionary Road."
Whatever the consensus around town about the Academy`s bias, the organization has never really turned its back on well-made commercial movies; it just doesn`t have much of a feel or appreciation for warmed-over popcorn -- meaning sequels and other material derived from nonliterary sources like, you guessed it, those proliferating comic-book adaptations.
That`s why the sixth (or whatever it was) iteration of Batman, meaning "The Dark Knight," did not make it into last year`s best picture list, not because the Academy was appalled by how much money the film made. Continued...
Original article

Oscars` best picture race: 10 in 2010

2009-06-25T12:09:00.000+04:00

By Gregg Kilday
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - There will be 10, count `em 10, nominees for best picture when the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards are announced February 2.
In a move designed to let more movies share in the limelight that surrounds the contenders for Hollywood`s top award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday announced a rule change that doubles the number of movies that will be welcomed into the best picture category.
Academy president Sid Ganis characterized the move as a "return to the past" when the Academy regularly spread its largesse out among 10 -- and sometimes even more -- best picture nominees.
Speaking to the media at the Academy`s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Ganis on Wednesday was flanked by posters listing the 10 nominees for 1939 -- widely regarded as the high-water mark for quality studio releases. That year, the lineup ranged from Westerns ("Stagecoach") to sophisticated comedies ("Ninotchka") to melodramas ("Dark Victory") to all-time classics like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "The Wizard of Oz" and eventual winner "Gone With the Wind."
"Suppose you had to narrow that field down to five nominees? Which of these films would you keep? Whichever five movies you selected, you`d be losing five extraordinary films," Ganis asked rhetorically.
While the Academy hasn`t nominated 10 films since 1943, momentum for the course correction grew out of this year`s Oscar show. Its producers, Larry Mark and Bill Condon, made a concerted effort to acknowledge the whole range of movies produced during the past year in an effort to reach out to a wider audience.
In their post-show autopsy, they encouraged the Academy to consider opening up the best picture category, and the committee that reviewed the show championed the idea, recommending it to the board, which approved the change with virtually no opposition.
The move also comes in the wake of the howls of outrage from fans of last year`s "The Dark Knight," which earned eight nominations but didn`t crack the best picture circle. Arguably, a wider field of nominees would have included that movie, which also had a lot of critics in its corner. And if more popular entertainments are in the running for the big prize, that could in turn benefit the Oscarcast ratings, which have been in general decline, although they did experience an uptick in February.
Ganis acknowledged that "in discussions about this, we talked about what might have happened, and I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words `Dark Knight` did not come up."
One idea that didn`t fly in the internal discussions: Arriving at 10 pictures by nominating five dramas and five comedies, a la the Golden Globes.
"It`s about the best picture -- not the best something picture," Ganis said. "It`s a singular honor."
By sticking to one best picture category, the Academy also avoids being drawn into debates about whether a given film is properly considered a comedy or a drama. But Ganis did suggest that comedies, continually short-changed come Oscar time, could benefit.
"In casting a wider net, who knows what`s going to turn up," he said. "Maybe even a comedy in that group of 10."
Ganis, who will step down as Academy president this summer after four consecutive terms, insisted that having 10 noms "does not dilute" the honor. Pointing out that about 300 films are eligible each year -- in 2008, the number that qualified for best picture consideration was 281 -- he argued that to be one of 10 nominees is still an achievement.
Academy executive director Bruce Davis also said that the board was given assurances that including 10 best picture nominees would not result in a longer show. That assurance will be put to the test when the Oscars take place March 7.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)
Original article

"Watchmen" director`s cut headed to theaters

2009-06-25T11:44:00.000+04:00

By Borys Kit
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The director`s cut of "Watchmen," featuring an additional 25 minutes of footage and the death of a supporting character, will receive a limited theatrical rollout during the weekend ahead of its July 21 home-video release.
The superhero saga, which was considered to be a bit of a box office disappointment during its first go-round in March, will screen in Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis and Dallas.
The rollout will culminate with a special screening July 25 at the Comic-Con International confab in San Diego, taking advantage of a Blu-ray Disc feature that will allow any viewer in North America to watch the movie at the same time as the audience at Comic-Con, see and hear director Zack Snyder comment on the movie, and even ask questions. The screening will then be archived and will be able to be accessed for future viewings.
"Comic-Con, it isn`t just comic book fanatics, it`s cinephiles as well. It`ll be cool to discuss what people are thinking," Snyder said at a "Watchmen" press day, held Wednesday at Warner Bros., where the news was unveiled.
The day was designed to showcase a bonus Blu-ray feature called Maximum Movie Mode as well as features to be seen in Snyder`s Blu-ray release of "300: The Complete Experience."
The theatrical rerelease is unusual, given that the costly movie grossed just $107.5 million domestically. Critics were also divided about the movie, with some saying it was too slavish to the graphic novel`s many devotees.
Snyder, however, stood by it. "I`m proud of the movie. It does everything I wanted it to," he said.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Original article

"Public Enemies" a missed opportunity

2009-06-25T07:53:00.002+04:00

By Kirk Honeycutt
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Michael Mann's John Dillinger movie "Public Enemies" is slow to heat up and never quite comes to a boil.
The elements are certainly here with the always charismatic Johnny Depp as the Depression-era bank robber and, in some quarters, idolized Robin Hood and Marion Cotillard, off her Oscar win, as his lady friend. But Mann and co-writers Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman never crack the meaning of John Dillinger.
The film veers between fact and legend, sticking mostly with facts but still unable to bring its protagonist into focus as either an amiable sociopath or a true antihero. He winds up being just a guy who robs banks, which is probably all he ever was, so why such a lavish production? John Milius accomplished as much if not more with "Dillinger" in 1973 at the cost of probably two scenes in "Public Enemies."
Since there's nothing in the marketplace right now like "Public Enemies," Universal should recoup the reported $80 million budget between domestic and international box office. But the film lacks the juice promised by the teaming of such extraordinary filmmakers with a cast as large as a Hooverville encampment.
There is both too much going on here and not enough: Multiple jail breaks, frequent bank robberies, deadly shootouts with G-Men, bodies everywhere. But you'd probably have to read the source material, a book by Bryan Burrough, to understand the significance of many scenes.
Dillinger breaks out of "escape proof" Crown Point, Ind., jail, driving off in the female sheriff's (Lili Taylor) own car. The shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin is a fiasco for the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation, which allowed Dillinger to escape.
Incensed G-Man Melvin Purvis (a stoic Christian Bale) figures Dillinger will foolishly head back to Chicago, so his men watch the apartment of Dillinger's half-French dame Billie Frechette (Cotillard) around the clock. She still eludes them. Purvis' men finally do arrest her, but Dillinger drives away from the scene without anyone noticing him. This sets up the famed betrayal of the "Lady in Red," which was actually a yellow dress.
So many of the era's personalities parade before the cameras -- look, there's Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) getting shot at long range by Purvis; there's famed bad guys Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) and "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Garrett) plotting jobs with Dillinger; there's crime boss Frank Nitti (Bill Camp) growing tired of Dillinger's juvenile shenanigans; there's young J. Edgar Hoover (a stiff Billy Crudup) just getting his feet wet!
You can't keep them all straight and a muddy soundtrack doesn't help. Depp got his own sound technician according to the end credit roll yet you still can't hear him. Between mumbled lines and busy music cues much of the film's dialogue is indistinct.
The anticipated points are made about how both Dillinger and Hoover track their own publicity. The Dillinger-Frechette love match is built up into something it probably never was. Indeed the woman, Polly Hamilton (Leelee Sobieski), Dillinger fatefully attends his last picture show with is believed to be his new girlfriend at the time.
What's missing is an investigation into character. Who are all these people? Why do they matter to us now?
The great Depression bank robbing movie "Bonnie and Clyde," to which "Public Enemies" will undoubtedly be compared, kept the focus narrow and intense and somehow spoke to its counter-culture era. "Public Enemies" sprawls everywhere with too many characters and winds up being mostly a history lesson unrelated to anything in the zeitgeist.
Mann oversees top-drawer work by cinematographer Dante Spinotti, production designer Nathan Crowley and tremendous second unit personnel. The strategies, setups and shoot-outs are terrifically staged, but the human element goes missing.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Oscars' best picture race: 10 in 2010

2009-06-25T07:53:00.001+04:00

More Oscar contenders
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By Gregg Kilday
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - There will be 10, count 'em 10, nominees for best picture when the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards are announced February 2.
In a move designed to let more movies share in the limelight that surrounds the contenders for Hollywood's top award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday announced a rule change that doubles the number of movies that will be welcomed into the best picture category.
Academy president Sid Ganis characterized the move as a "return to the past" when the Academy regularly spread its largesse out among 10 -- and sometimes even more -- best picture nominees.
Speaking to the media at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Ganis on Wednesday was flanked by posters listing the 10 nominees for 1939 -- widely regarded as the high-water mark for quality studio releases. That year, the lineup ranged from Westerns ("Stagecoach") to sophisticated comedies ("Ninotchka") to melodramas ("Dark Victory") to all-time classics like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "The Wizard of Oz" and eventual winner "Gone With the Wind."
"Suppose you had to narrow that field down to five nominees? Which of these films would you keep? Whichever five movies you selected, you'd be losing five extraordinary films," Ganis asked rhetorically.
While the Academy hasn't nominated 10 films since 1943, momentum for the course correction grew out of this year's Oscar show. Its producers, Larry Mark and Bill Condon, made a concerted effort to acknowledge the whole range of movies produced during the past year in an effort to reach out to a wider audience.
In their post-show autopsy, they encouraged the Academy to consider opening up the best picture category, and the committee that reviewed the show championed the idea, recommending it to the board, which approved the change with virtually no opposition.
The move also comes in the wake of the howls of outrage from fans of last year's "The Dark Knight," which earned eight nominations but didn't crack the best picture circle. Arguably, a wider field of nominees would have included that movie, which also had a lot of critics in its corner. And if more popular entertainments are in the running for the big prize, that could in turn benefit the Oscarcast ratings, which have been in general decline, although they did experience an uptick in February.
Ganis acknowledged that "in discussions about this, we talked about what might have happened, and I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words 'Dark Knight' did not come up."
One idea that didn't fly in the internal discussions: Arriving at 10 pictures by nominating five dramas and five comedies, a la the Golden Globes.
"It's about the best picture -- not the best something picture," Ganis said. "It's a singular honor."
By sticking to one best picture category, the Academy also avoids being drawn into debates about whether a given film is properly considered a comedy or a drama. But Ganis did suggest that comedies, continually short-changed come Oscar time, could benefit.
"In casting a wider net, who knows what's going to turn up," he said. "Maybe even a comedy in that group of 10."
Ganis, who will step down as Academy president this summer after four consecutive terms, insisted that having 10 noms "does not dilute" the honor. Pointing out that about 300 films are eligible each year -- in 2008, the number that qualified for best picture consideration was 281 -- he argued that to be one of 10 nominees is still an achievement.
Academy executive director Bruce Davis also said that the board was given assurances that including 10 best picture nominees would not result in a longer show. That assurance will be put to the test when the Oscars take place March 7.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Blink-182, Weezer to headline free Virgin fest

2009-06-25T07:53:00.000+04:00

By Mitchell Peters
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - After months of speculation about the fate of the 2009 Virgin Mobile Festival, organizers have made an announcement that should please music fans who've felt the economic pinch of the recession: this year's event is free.
With headliners Weezer and Blink-182, organizers say 35,000 free tickets will be given away to the newly branded Virgin Mobile FreeFest, to be held August 30 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md.
Other acts scheduled to perform on the festival's two main stages and dance tent include Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, Jet, the National, Girl Talk, the Bravery, the Hold Steady, St. Vincent, Wale, Taking Back Sunday, Holy F*ck, Pete Tong, Danny Howells and Lee Burridge.
"The idea was to do something that nobody else is doing," Seth Hurwitz, chairman of independent concert promoter I.M.P., tells Billboard.com. "It really comes from a sincere desire to make people happy."
Tickets to the 2009 Virgin Mobile FreeFest will be available to the public on June 27 through ticketmaster.com. Virgin Mobile customers and previous ticket-buyers to Virgin Mobile Festivals will be sent an e-mail that gives them the first crack at obtaining free tickets from June 25-26. Organizers declined to say how many of the festival's tickets will be set aside for those people.
Ticketmaster has also agreed to waive its convenience fees for concertgoers who pick up their tickets at the Merriweather Post Pavilion or the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Fans will also have the option to pay Ticketmaster to deliver their tickets. In light of recent controversies surrounding ticketing fees, Hurwitz, whose company will promote and produce the event, is curious to see what choice fans will make.
"I'm pretty excited about seeing how many people really prefer to pay Ticketmaster to deliver their ticket," he says. "Convenience charges originated with people having the option to pay to have tickets brought to them, instead of them having to go to the ticket. So we wanted to get back to basics on that."
The concept of hosting a free festival came from executives at Virgin Mobile USA. Virgin Mobile USA senior director of brand marketing and innovation Ron Faris says "all the bad news about the economy and the layoffs" was the main reason behind the company's decision to help cover costs of the festival.
"We wanted to put something out there that would put a smile on people's faces," Faris tells Billboard.com. "That was the genesis around why we did this." He declined to reveal financial deals about the company's involvement in the festival.
Last year's third annual Virgin Mobile Festival was held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on August 9-10. The non-free event -- which attracted approximately 60,000 fans over two days -- featured headliners Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots, among other acts.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Cameron Diaz takes a motherly turn in new movie

2009-06-25T05:53:00.002+04:00

By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Cameron Diaz has never been a mom, but in her new movie "My Sister's Keeper" she faces a choice no mother would want, which is one reason the actress known mostly for comedic skill stepped into the serious drama.
In the movie opening in U.S. theaters on Friday, Diaz portrays a mom whose daughter suffers from leukemia. So, she gives birth to a genetically engineered second daughter in order to take life-saving umbilical cord blood from the younger sibling and give it to the sick one.
But family relationships are upended when, as girls, the little sister sues her parents to block them from making her give a kidney to her dying sister. Diaz's character, a former lawyer named Sara, fights her 11-year-old daughter's attempt at "medical emancipation" in the serious family drama.
The role is far from Diaz's parts in feel-good movies such as romantic comedy "There's Something About Mary," action-packed "Charlie's Angeles" or voicing the role of Princess Fiona in the "Shrek" animated movies.
Yet Diaz, 36, told Reuters she doesn't see herself as one kind of actress or another -- comedic or dramatic -- and she looks to her own youth in working class neighborhoods of Long Beach, California, for lessons in how real life can get messy.
"I don't feel I've ever played the same person twice. Even though I might have done a couple of comedies or a couple of romantic comedies, the characters are all very different to me," she said.
Nick Cassavetes, son of the late groundbreaking independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, directed "My Sister's Keeper" and said he always saw Diaz for more than her bubbly on-screen personality in fluffy Hollywood tales.
"This is a really wonderful actress and over the next few years you're going to see, she's going to be borne out to be one of the finest actors of our generation," he said.
STRONG SUPPORTING CAST
Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin, 13, plays younger sister Anna, who is forced to serve as a donor to the older Kate, played by Sofia Vassilieva, 16, who stars in TV's "Medium."
A hotshot attorney (Alec Baldwin) takes Anna's legal case, and faces off against Sara in court. As Kate's health spirals downward, tensions in her family become increasingly strained.
Cassavetes, director of 2004 romantic drama "The Notebook," has a personal connection to the story since his own daughter has lived with a congenital heart defect since birth.
"To work with somebody who was so familiar, so intimate with this situation, this story, made it really easy to trust him," Diaz said about the director.
Diaz said that while it may seem to some of her fans that she leads a soft life in Hollywood, growing up in Long Beach gave her "street smarts."
"The place that I came from it was very urban. There was a lot of lessons to be learned," she said. "I didn't grow up in a protective, sheltered life by any means." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Oscar organizers expand film nominee list

2009-06-25T05:53:00.001+04:00

By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar organizers on Wednesday unveiled plans to expand their list of best film nominees to 10 from five, broadening the group of contenders for the world's top film honors.
The Beverly Hills-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which gives out the Oscars, or Academy Awards, annually honors the best movies, actors, actresses, directors and other filmmakers in a gala ceremony that is watched by tens of millions of people around the world.
"We will be casting our net wider and in casting that net wider, who knows what will turn up?" Academy President Sid Ganis told reporters at a news conference.
The Academy has come under scrutiny from movie fans in recent years because many nominees for best film have been adult-oriented dramas that play mostly in art houses and, as a result, do not lure the huge crowds or draw the big box office of major studio releases aimed largely at kids and teenagers.
For instance, 2008's best film nominees included political drama "Frost/Nixon" which made $27 million at box offices while last year's top-grossing movie at $1 billion worldwide, Batman thriller "The Dark Knight," failed to be nominated.
As a result, industry insiders see a disconnect between Oscar voters and typical movie fans, and they worry that declining viewership in the Oscar telecast results from the lack of widely popular movies being nominated.
Ganis told reporters that "casting that net wider" means that films like "Dark Knight" or animated movies, documentaries or foreign films had a better chance at getting nominated.
He said boosting TV viewership was not a key factor in the Academy's decision, noting that U.S. viewership was up about 13 percent at 36 million for this past February's telecast compared to an all-time low 32 million the year before.
A record 55 million people tuned in to watch blockbuster "Titanic" sail off with the best picture award a decade ago. In 2004, 43.5 million fans watched popular "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" win 11 Oscars, including best film.
The Academy noted its expansion takes it back to the start of the awards in the late 1920s and 1930s when there were routinely 10 nominees. The 1943 Oscar ceremony, which saw "Casablanca" walk off with best movie, was the last with 10. In 1934 and 1935, there were 12 nominees.
The number of nominations for best director, best actor, best actress and other key roles will remain at five.
Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards covering 2009 movies will be announced on February 2 next year and the Oscar ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 7.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Eric Walsh)

Source: Reuters

Sexy? Yes. Megan Fox says it's part of "Transformers"

2009-06-25T05:53:00.000+04:00

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By Edwin Chan
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two years ago few people knew her face, much less her name. But now Megan Fox of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," is among Hollywood's hottest actresses whose sex appeal has won millions of fans.
While many of the 23-year-old's peers might want to avoid the label "sex symbol" for fear it would obscure their acting talent, Fox, whose new "Transformers" sequel debuts in theaters on Wednesday, is just the opposite.
She thinks being sexy has its advantages. It helped get Fox her start in 2007's original, big-budget action flick "Transformers" from director Michael Bay, and that has led her to her other parts where she is now achieving what she set out to do in Hollywood -- become a real actress.
"Women in movies, in general, are sexy -- especially in Michael's movies. And if you want to make movies that people want to see, that's part of it. That's part of the formula," Fox told reporters at a recent news conference.
Bay, who was sitting with her, chimed in: "It's called summer fun. It's a robot movie."
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is based on the popular toys and cartoons about shape-shifting cars which morph into "autobots" that fight alien "decepticons" who want to control Earth. In the 2007 movie, the decepticons got thrashed in the final battle. Now, they're back to avenge their losses.
The effects-filled movies are aimed mostly at young men, and with that in mind Bay hired the attractive brunette from Tennessee to co-star as the movie's main love interest, Mikaela Banes, who favors tight jeans and even tighter t-shirts.
OPENING SHOT, OPENING DOORS
Bay, ever willing to indulge fan tastes, has made sure Fox's first appearance in "Revenge of the Fallen" has an impact. As Mikaela, the lanky actress is filmed from behind, sprawled on a motorcycle in hotpants and motorcycle boots.
"We got that first shot out of the way, just to get it out for the young boys...and moved on," Bay said.
Before 2007, most of Fox's work had been small parts on TV and in movies, but fan buzz from the smash hit "Transformers" ($700 million global box office) catapulted her to stardom.
"The movie, its success and how well it was received has opened a lot of doors for me, career-wise," Fox said.
Fox wants to be more than just a pretty face in Hollywood's next big action flick, and when "Transformers" "opened a lot of doors" for her, she took advantage.
She will soon star opposite Oscar-nominees Josh Brolin and John Malkovich in sci-fi Western "Jonah Hex", due to hit theaters later this year. In September, she headlines supernatural comedy "Jennifer's Body", penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody ("Juno").
"I've been able to be a part of films I don't really feel like I deserve to have been a part of," she said, in a nod to her lack of experience. Continued...
Source: Reuters

"Transformers" sequel on track to beat first film

2009-06-24T09:54:00.001+04:00

By Gregg Kilday
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Autobots and Decepticons begin slugging it out at the box office Wednesday as "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," Michael Bay's sequel to his 2007 hit, opens for business.
The Paramount/DreamWorks production is invading 4,626 theaters in North America, including 169 Imax locations. In many locations, screenings were expected to start just after midnight.
Since its box office domination is assured -- most competitors stayed away from confronting "Transformers" head-on -- the only question now is how muscular the alien robot tale, based on the Hasbro toy line, will be.
The first "Transformers" grabbed $155.4 million in its first seven days. By the end of this weekend, its sequel could hit a number in that same neighborhood -- but in just five days.
"This looks like it could be one of the biggest Wednesday openers -- with a shot of being the biggest," Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore said, predicting a five-day haul in the $130 million-$150 million range.
Paramount's competitors are betting the five-day number could climb higher than that, but Moore said, "'Transformers' should open bigger than the first one, but to forecast beyond that is a little insane."
Comparisons are tricky since the two "Transformers'" movies are adopting slightly different rollout patterns.
"T1," debuting in 4,011 theaters, opened on a Monday evening on July 2, 2007, and played through the Fourth of July holiday, which that year fell on a Wednesday. Fanboys flocked to the movie's Monday showings, which took in $8.8 million, and momentum built for its Tuesday and Wednesday screenings, dipped a bit on Thursday, and then rallied for a Friday-Sunday weekend of $70.5 million.
"T2" is forgoing early evening screenings -- movie theater owners have to wait until a minute after midnight to throw the switch -- so grosses from those midnight shows will roll over into the movie's opening Wednesday figure, which could rise to $35 million-$40 million. The Friday-to-Sunday number should outdo that of the first movie, checking in at $80 million-$90 million.
The suspense will be whether the newest "Transformers" can set a record along the way.
The five-day record for a Wednesday opener belongs to 2004's "Spider-Man 2," which notched $152.4 million. "Transformers" is likely to find itself in similar territory.
The mark for the biggest first five days, which belongs to "The Dark Knight" -- a Friday opener that raked in $203.8 million in its first five days -- is expected to stand.
Similarly, "Knight" also holds the record for biggest single-day and opening-day gross: $67.2 million, and that's another record that almost any film would be hard-pressed to topple.
Set "Knight" aside, though, and "Transformers" looks pretty formidable on its own terms. While Bay has been worrying that the studio hasn't gotten the word out, that doesn't appear to be the case. Tracking is coming on strong, and there is evidence that the movie's potential audience has expanded.
Movietickets.com reported Tuesday that the film, which now accounts for 93% of the online ticket seller's sales, had sold out more than 600 performances nationwide, including 274 midnight showings. Continued...
Source: Reuters

"Friends" stars reunite online

2009-06-24T09:54:00.000+04:00

By Andrew Wallenstein
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A "Friends" reunion of sorts is coming to the Internet courtesy of Lexus.
The carmaker is launching a second season of "Web Therapy," an online comedy series starring Lisa Kudrow for its branded-entertainment network, L Studio. Returning June 23, "Therapy" will feature Kudrow's fellow "Friends" alum Courteney Cox as a guest star. Don Roos directs.
With the release of 15 new short-form episodes of "Therapy," Lexus has also retooled its strategy to syndicate the series to iTunes, YouTube and Hulu. When L Studio launched last September, all of its content was confined to the website, which has also since been redesigned to incorporate high-definition video that loads faster and can be shared on social networks.
Kudrow, who won a Webby Award in June for outstanding comedic performance for "Therapy," stars as Fiona Wallice, a shrink who employs pretty shaky methods on a clientele she counsels over Webcam. In addition to Cox, Kudrow will play opposite Alan Cumming, Steven Weber and Victor Garber in the second season.
Beginning with the July 6th episode, Cox plays a psychic who seeks Wallice's help because the dreams she relied on to deliver her psychic vision no longer occur. It's a comic wink to the role played on CBS' "Medium" by her sister-in-law Patricia Arquette -- Cox even alludes in character to the famous family into which she married. "Good god, how many of them are there really?" she jokes about the Arquette clan.
While episodes will continue to be available at LStudio.com, bundles of three episodes will be available on iTunes for $1.99; a season pass for "Therapy" will cost $7.99. On YouTube and Hulu, Lexus will be in the unusual position of being an advertiser who will sell spots within "Therapy" to other advertisers.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Adam Lambert's new album challenges 'Idol' producer

2009-06-24T07:52:00.000+04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Adam Lambert's debut album is coming out much earlier than planned, some time this summer.
That's great news for fans of the "American Idol" runner-up, but it could be a big headache for some of the major corporations behind the talent show, who have been beaten to the punch by a pair of small, indie labels.
Before he became a household name, the flamboyant singer spent three years recording songs for Los Angeles-based Wilshire Records. The label has joined forces with Hi Fi Recordings to release the 11-track album "On With the Show" this summer. An exact release date will be announced shortly.
The first single, "Want," went on sale at digital music retailer iTunes on Tuesday. Lambert co-wrote nine of the songs, working mostly with Madonna's guitarist, Monte Pittman.
"American Idol" producer 19 Entertainment issued a brief, businesslike statement attributed to Lambert in which he is quoted as saying, "The work I did back then in no way reflects the music I am currently in the studio working on."
"It doesn't surprise us, but it doesn't make us feel good," Hi Fi Chairman and CEO John Hecker told Reuters on Tuesday. "For some reason it's scaring Goliath, and I don't know why."
He said Lambert attended a post-production session last month, as "American Idol" reached its climax, and that the singer was "blown away" by what he heard.
It wasn't supposed to be like this in the highly controlled "American Idol" organization. The winner and the runner-up from each season, along with some other finalists, score deals with a Sony Corp label through 19 Entertainment, which is owned by media firm CKX Inc.
Their albums are released with great fanfare in the fall. If they're lucky -- and the odds are against them -- the stars will go on to enjoy Grammy-winning success like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
In Lambert's case, the stakes are high for both sides. The openly gay singer is one of the more colorful performers to emerge from the teeming "American Idol" pool of wannabes. His shock defeat at the hands of Kris Allen this past season that ended in May only added to his mystique, while a Rolling Stone magazine cover story gave him a hint of credibility.
Hecker denied some fans' assertions that Lambert was being ripped off, saying the singer stands to make "a ton of money" through a royalties arrangement commensurate with deals for major artists. Lambert will not only receive songwriting royalties, but he also co-owns the copyrights with Wilshire, Hecker said.
But wait, there's more. Hecker said the recording sessions yielded enough material for a second album, which will also see the light of day eventually,
A spokesman for 19 Entertainment did not respond to an email seeking further comment.
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: Reuters

Adam Lambert's new album challenges "Idol" producer

2009-06-24T05:53:00.000+04:00

Pop culture items fetch high prices at NY auction

2009-06-24T03:53:00.000+04:00

By Chris Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Sgt. Pepper's souvenir poster signed by the four Beatles sold for $52,500 at a Christie's auction of pop culture memorabilia on Tuesday, along with an array of rock, punk and grunge-era items that fetched strong prices.
The sale of some 300 items, from handwritten Bob Dylan lyrics to actor Bob Crane's leather jacket from the 1960s television comedy "Hogan's Heroes" took in a total of $650,863, including the auction house's commission.
Some 70 percent of the offerings found buyers, Christie's said.
Items from grunge and early punk rock days did especially well, said Simeon Lipman, Christie's head of pop culture.
Kurt Cobain's Sears bass guitar sold for $43,750, while a classic black leather motorcycle jacket signed by members of Nirvana and Soundgarden fetched $12,500, more than half again its high pre-sale estimate.
A pair of AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott's handwritten lyric notebooks from the late 1970s was bid up to $35,000.
"With memorabilia, nostalgia really drives the prices. Even in an unstable economy you'll see peaks for certain pieces," said Lipman, who cited Crane's jacket, which sold for $40,000 or twice its high estimate, as an example.
Offbeat items also fetched high prices, like a five-pair set of handcuffs and keys owned by escape artist Harry Houdini which sold for $25,000.
The prop scissorhands used by actor Johnny Depp in the film "Edward Scissorhands" went for $16,250, while Marlon Brando's signed "Godfather" script fetched $10,625.
Handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan from "With God on Our Side" sold for $25,000.
Despite the five-figure prices, there were bargains as well. A full outfit consisting of leather blazer, shirt, trousers, belt, shoes and glasses worn by actor Peter Dinklage in the 2007 film "Death at a Funeral" sold for just $25.

Source: Reuters

Ed McMahon dies at 86

2009-06-23T19:52:00.000+04:00

By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ed McMahon, a fixture on U.S. late-night television for 30 years as the full-throated announcer and sidekick for Johnny Carson on NBC's "The Tonight Show," died on Tuesday at age 86, his spokesman said.
The veteran TV personality, best known for his nightly introduction of Carson in a deep, booming voice with the drawn-out line, "Heeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" died at a Los Angeles-area hospital, spokesman Howard Bragman said.
"He died early this morning with his wife and loved ones by his side," Bragman said.
McMahon had been battling pneumonia and other illnesses. Bragman declined to confirm or deny reports that the performer had been diagnosed with bone cancer.
Outgoing, affable and possessing a robust, baritone voice, McMahon began his career with stints as a bingo caller, carnival barker and boardwalk pitchman before becoming a broadcast announcer and TV host.
Trained as a U.S. Marine fighter pilot during World War II, he flew missions in Korea in the 1950s.
He went on to become one of the most celebrated sidekicks in TV history as Carson's right-hand man on "The Tonight Show" starting in 1962, stopping in 1992 when Carson retired as host.
The gregarious McMahon, a frequent comic foil for the Carson during ad-libbed banter at the top of the show, was familiar even off camera for his "Hi-oooooh!" and frequent guffaws at Carson's monologue jokes, especially when a punch line fell flat.
Carson died in January 2005 at age 79.
ENDURING CATCHPHRASE
McMahon's signature introduction of Carson endured as a catch-phrase. Jack Nicholson's maniacal character in the 1980 movie thriller "The Shining" announced "Heeeeeeere's Johnny!" as he burst through a door to menace his wife with an ax.
McMahon was a leading figure on several other television shows, including the syndicated talent show "Star Search," which helped launch the careers of a number of well-known performers, including comedian Dennis Miller.
The long-time co-host of Jerry Lewis' annual telethon benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association, McMahon also became well-known as the presenter of the American Family Publishing sweepstakes prize and as a pitchman on numerous TV commercials.
McMahon made headlines a year ago when he defaulted on a $4.8 million mortgage on his six-bedroom Beverly Hills mansion, although he later found a buyer for the house to avoid foreclosure.
The television star blamed his financial woes on having broken his neck about 18 months earlier, leaving him unable to work. He also sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, accusing the hospital of failing to diagnose the neck fracture and botching two subsequent operations. Continued...
Source: Reuters

"Transformers" aims to recharge U.S. box offices

2009-06-23T05:54:00.000+04:00

By Edwin Chan
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Big-budget "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" hits U.S. movie theaters on Wednesday, aiming to recharge box offices in a summer season that has lost momentum after 2009's strong start.
Early reviews are mixed for director Michael Bay's effects-filled story of an alien vs. robot war on Earth that follows 2007 smash hit "Transformers," which raked in more than $700 million worldwide for its backers at DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, a unit of media giant Viacom Inc.
But movies like "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" are widely considered to be immune from negative criticism in their first weekend at box offices because, generally speaking, their core audience of mostly young men rarely read reviews.
In fact on Monday, movie ticket site Fandango.com reported that hundreds of midnight showings ahead of Wednesday's debut already are sold out, and advance sales on Fandango are double what they were at this same time ahead of "Transformers."
That is good news for Hollywood and for DreamWorks and Paramount. The movie cost $195 million to make, Bay told reporters at a news conference last week.
"Year-to-date box office is great, but summer-to-date we're actually down in attendance ... I don't think there is anything wrong with movies, it's a typical summer season, but the first quarter was so strong," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box Office.
SUMMER HEAT?
Hollywood's summer films, which can make up as much as 40 percent of overall annual box office tallies in the United States and Canada, started the first weekend of May with the launch of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."
Since then, about $1.68 billion worth of tickets have been sold, which is roughly equal to the same point one year ago. Attendance, however, is off 2.1 percent and the average ticket price is up to $7.35 compared to $7.18 last year.
Year-to-date, U.S. and Canadian ticket sales remain up a strong 10 percent at $4.8 billion compared to $4.3 billion at the same point last year and attendance is up about 8 percent.
The difference, box office watchers said, was 2009's first quarter, which was exceptionally strong with surprise hits such as "Paul Blart: Mall Cop." May and June saw a few key films like "Angels & Demons" fail to make a big mark with fans.
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" features toy cars that transform into robots and battle aliens who are looking to control Earth. Shia LaBeouf returns to his starring role as Sam Witwicky, a geeky boy with a sexy girlfriend (Megan Fox) and an otherworldly Camaro that shifts into an alien-fighting robot.
Critics say LaBeouf does an able job, but with a dizzying array of alien robots loudly morphing into military hardware and blasting away at enemies, he's given too little to do.
Variety called the movie "longer, louder and perhaps 'more than your eye can meet,'" compared to its 2007 predecessor.
Others blasted the story. "Characters and comedy are in short supply in a plot that's basically an Indiana Jones-style search for a buried treasure," the Hollywood Reporter said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Chris Brown gets probation for assault on Rihanna

2009-06-23T03:53:00.001+04:00

By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - R&B singer Chris Brown pleaded guilty on Monday to assaulting his former girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, in an agreement with prosecutors that calls for him to spend five years of probation and attend courses on domestic violence.
Brown, singer of the hits "Run It" and "Kiss Kiss," will be formally sentenced August 5. He had faced four years in prison if convicted in a trial on charges of assault and a making a criminal threat. There was no plea deal on a second charge.
In addition to the probation and the domestic violence course in his home state of Virginia, Brown also must perform 180 days of community service.
He was ordered to keep his distance from Rihanna, 21, who was in the courthouse on Monday and prepared to testify against him.
Brown, 20, showed no emotion as his high-profile defense lawyer Mark Geragos told Los Angeles Judge Patricia Schnegg of the plea agreement with prosecutors.
Dressed in a gray suit, the singer was accompanied into the courtroom by his mother and an entourage of supporters.
"I think it's commendable that you took responsibility for your conduct, sir," Schnegg told Brown.
He was accused of beating Rihanna, whose hit songs include "Umbrella," in a rented Lamborghini after the two attended a swanky music industry party in February on the eve of the industry's Grammy Awards.
A police photo of Rihanna's bruised and battered face taken after the incident was leaked to the media but details of what happened that evening have been scant. Brown's plea means that evidence against him will not be heard in an open court.
"Rihanna believes this is a fair and just resolution to this case," her attorney Donald Etra told reporters outside the courthouse following the hearing. He said Barbados-born Rihanna learned of the plea about an hour before the hearing was set to begin Monday afternoon.
L.A. District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the plea was similar to other cases for first-time offenders like Brown and prosecutors had discussed it with Rihanna.
(Additional reporting by Laura Isensee, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Bill Trott)

Source: Reuters

Springsteen, Ticketmaster battle escalates

2009-06-23T03:53:00.000+04:00

By Ray Waddell
NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Bruce Springsteen's manager has come out swinging against the Newark Star Ledger and Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller following a news report that the rocker's organization kept many of the best tickets to a recent show out of the public's hands.
The Ledger reported last week that about 2,300 total tickets for a May 21 performance at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., were held back for "friends of the band, the record label and the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority, which operates the venue."
Diller was quoted in the New York Post as saying Springsteen "has been one of our most vocal critics on our ticketing policies and while he's more than entitled to his opinion, it seems minimally fair-minded to point out that in the concert that created the battle, where Ticketmaster apologized for making a technical mistake, it seems that Mr. Springsteen held back from his fans all but 108 of the 1,126 tickets closest to the stage," Diller said.
The entire fracas dates back to February 6 Springsteen on-sale chaos for the Izod show, where the Springsteen camp claimed Ticketmaster directed fans to its in-house secondary site TicketsNow in a "bait-and-switch" maneuver.
In his response, posted Monday on Springsteen's Web site, Landau says Springsteen's holds "had nothing to do at all with the breakdown of Ticketmaster's system. When fans were redirected to TicketsNow, "an undetermined but large amount of money flowed into TicketsNow (and eventually Ticketmaster) even though there were still tickets at normal prices yet to be made available on Ticketmaster. We perceived this to have been a major abuse of our fans, complained about it mightily, and added that because of behavior like this, the pending merger of the number one ticketing company and number one management company (both owned by Ticketmaster) with the number one venue owner and operator (Live Nation) might not be such a hot idea."
Landau says a public apology from Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff "which apology we promptly and graciously posted on our site" substantiates the Springsteen camp's position when coupled with the volume of complaints received by New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, whom "ultimately secured a consent degree from Ticketmaster, in which they promised that some of their practices ("glitches") with regard to its sister company TicketsNow will never be repeated."
Landau calls the Ledger piece "the same article that the Star Ledger runs whenever we do a few indoor shows in New Jersey" and Diller's spin as "flatly untrue. He is merely using the time honored tradition of blowing smoke to distract attention away from Ticketmaster's already acknowledged responsibility for their "glitches" on February 6, the on-sale date of the two Izod Center shows."
Regarding holds by Thrill Hill, Springsteen's touring division, "Perhaps the first thing to be said is that when we play New Jersey, our fans know that we are usually going to do more than two indoor shows in order to ensure, among other things, that during the course of a tour, Springsteen tickets will be plentiful so as many fans as possible will have a chance to get great seats (hence the five upcoming shows at Giants Stadium.) As our fans also know, we have kept all of our tickets under $100 and do all that we can to ensure that as many as possible are sold at face value."
Landau admits to "significant holds" in New Jersey, as well as New York and Los Angeles" (which indeed is a common industry practice for major tours), saying the holds are for band members and their families, the Springsteen organization, the label, reviewers, radio stations, and charities.
Then he offers the following charge: "Unlike some Ticketmaster managed artists, no tickets are held for high dollar resale on TicketsNow, or through any other means."
Springsteen's ticketing practices have "evolved over more than 30 years of experience. Does anyone seriously imagine that any element of these practices caused Ticketmaster to redirect ticket requests to TicketsNow for the Izod Center shows? What would our incentive have been? It's not we who earned vastly larger sums when fans paid way over the face value of the tickets. It was Ticketmaster/TicketsNow."
Landau admits such public airing of Springsteen's business is uncharacteristic of the organization. "But we do get upset when we see fans being taken advantage of, as they were on February 6," he says. "So, when that stuff stops happening (and the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow problems surrounding our recent show in Washington D.C. shows that these issues are far from resolved) we will stop complaining. And when the facts cease to be misrepresented, we will stop explaining."
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

TV drama stars thrive in dark roles

2009-06-22T17:55:00.002+04:00

By Ray Richmond and Matthew Belloni
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Gone are the days when being a leading man on television meant being the most likable guy onscreen.
TV actors now get to show their skills with dark, complex characters -- even on broadcast network shows. The Hollywood Reporter gathered six fine examples of TV's new actor elite -- Simon Baker (CBS' "The Mentalist"), Bryan Cranston (AMC's "Breaking Bad"), Laurence Fishburne (CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"), Michael C. Hall (Showtime's "Dexter"), Denis Leary (FX's "Rescue Me") and Bill Paxton (HBO's "Big Love") -- to discuss the grind of series work and the good fun in playing bad guys.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: YOU ARE ALL THE LEADS ON HOURLONG SHOWS. WHAT IS THE TOLL ON YOUR LIVES?
Bill Paxton: I drive from my house to make the call on Monday morning and I'm lucky to see my house before 2 o'clock in the morning on Friday night. It's a monastic kind of existence. I just stay in a hotel out there (in Santa Clarita, Calif.). I feel like a weird monk. The hardest thing is to go from such an intense work situation to just all of a sudden, that's it.
Bryan Cranston: What you'll find (on) all of these shows, we're all working 12 to 13 to 14 hours a day. If you can do a 12-hour day, you can go home and be with your family.
Simon Baker: Twelve hours, you can have an existence.
Denis Leary: On "Rescue Me," we do four-, six-, eight-, 10-hour days. When (showrunner) Peter (Tolan) is directing, we do six-hour days sometimes.
Laurence Fishburne: How is that possible?
Leary: Because these actors have been there from the beginning. They are all really good at their characters and they're fantastic with each other.
Baker: You just did five (seasons). We're a first-year show, so part of the struggle is constantly trying to find the tone within the writers' room (and with directors). Director A may be a fantastic director but doesn't necessarily get the tone. We like to try to do a little bit of mucking around.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: DO YOU GUYS HAVE A LOT OF FREEDOM TO SHAPE THE DIALOGUE OF YOUR CHARACTERS?
Fishburne: We've got a collaborative thing going on at "CSI." There is always a writer on set. You can always say, "I think we need to tweak this."
Michael C. Hall: When new people come in, if they only know me from the show they're like, "I'm afraid you might kill me." So they are a lot more open to my suggestions. (Laughter) And I don't sway them from thinking that. But I try to honor what the writers write. And my job, first and foremost, is to try to make work what I see there. With the voiceover element, I probably have more to say.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: DENIS, YOU ARE SORT OF A HERO TO THE FIREFIGHTER COMMUNITY, EVEN THOUGH YOUR CHARACTER IS AN INSANE PERSON. WHAT'S THAT ABOUT?
Leary: There are plenty of firefighters who don't like what we portray. My character is based on two guys -- one of them is a technical adviser on the show -- and the crew is based on a particular crew. They all know almost every single fire, event, is taken from stuff from those guys. We wanted to do a school bus fire and I called Terry Quinn, our technical adviser, and he said: "I'm at one now, I'll call you back." So that's where we get the fires. Even this year, we have a thing where one of the younger firefighters opens a bar with another firefighter, which actually comes from this crew. Their goal was to meet chicks. (Laughing) So there are chiefs that wouldn't want us to tell this stuff, but that's where the best stuff is. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Sitcom actresses juggle family, careers

2009-06-22T17:55:00.001+04:00

By Ray Richmond
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - There are now more high-profile roles for women in primetime comedies than at any time since perhaps the 1970s heyday of "Mary Tyler Moore," "Maude" and "Laverne & Shirley."
The Hollywood Reporter gathered six of the funniest examples of the trend: Christina Applegate (ABC's "Samantha Who?"); Jane Krakowski (NBC's "30 Rock"); Julia Louis-Dreyfus (CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine"); Mary-Louise Parker (Showtime's "Weeds"); Amy Poehler (NBC's "Parks & Recreation") and Sarah Silverman (Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program") to debate how to star on a hit comedy series and keep your sanity.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: IS IT POSSIBLE TO SLIP IN AN ACTUAL LIFE DURING PRODUCTION OF A HIT COMEDY SERIES?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Well, I do a multicamera series, which I think is a lot easier than what these ladies are up to. We have two or three 12-hour days every week, but not five, which I think is what you have to put up with in a single-camera show.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: WAS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU TO DO A MULTICAMERA SHOW FOR THE REGULAR SCHEDULE?
Louis-Dreyfus: Actually, it's pretty much just for the money.
Amy Poehler: The Benjamins. Call them the Benjamins.
Louis-Dreyfus: No, but it was important because while I adore single-camera comedy, and the look of it is so fantastic, considering the life I have with my kids I couldn't pull that off.
Mary-Louise Parker (whispering): What the f--- is a single-camera comedy?
Sarah Silverman: It's like a show where there isn't a live audience. It's kind of an old term. Single-camera and three-camera.
Parker: I really am this stupid, by the way. I have two kids, so it's tough. It limits you. I can't really do much of anything else aside from the show or I'd never see my kids. Or I could just have someone else take care of them. I mean, they're super-duper cute.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: DO THE MOMMY DUTIES MAKE IT TOUGHER FOR AN ACTRESS TO BE THE STAR OF A SERIES?
Poehler: It's a pretty crushing schedule for me, like 14 hours every day. I'm in every scene. Plus I'm the producer on it as well, so we're casting and writing and stuff all weekend. And yes, I have a baby, too. It's trying to figure out how to balance all of these things. You just depend on a lot of help and a lot of good advice from people.
Jane Krakowski: Tina (Fey) astounds me because she wears all of the hats on ("30 Rock") and is raising a child. She'll shoot the show all day and then go home and write until like 2 in the morning. And then her daughter will bop in at 6 a.m. going, "Hi Mommy!" I really don't know how she does it.
Poehler: She has a heroin problem. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Daughtry prepping new album next month

2009-06-22T17:55:00.000+04:00

By Ann Donahue
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Chris Daughtry is famous -- hard not to be, what with the "American Idol" thing and the heartthrob thing and Grammy Award nomination thing and the gazillion records sold thing.
But he still tries to be a normal guy. He runs errands when he's home in North Carolina; a favorite pastime is taking his kids to the movies. And it was when he saw "Alvin and the Chipmunks" in the theater with his children that he realized his life had reached the point where weird is the new normal.
"Whoa! Whoa! This chipmunk is oversinging my song," he says with a wince, recalling the dog-whistle-octave stylings of Alvin on "Feels Like Tonight" in the film. "There were runs everywhere. I didn't even know what it was until the chorus."
It's been an impressive couple of years for Daughtry, both the man and the band, which includes Josh Steely on lead guitar, Brian Craddock on rhythm guitar, Josh Paul on bass and Joey Barnes on drums. The group's self-titled first album sold 4.4 million copies since its release in November 2006, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and eventually hit No. 1 after nine weeks.
The album was a perfect storm of the commercial and the creative. It paired Daughtry's gigantic fan base from "American Idol" -- on which he was the fifth season's fourth-place finalist in 2006 -- with the set's instantly winning "Guitar Hero"-worthy guitar riffs and lyrics.
The group's second album, "Leave This Town," set for release July 14, gets a leg up from this foundation; it's another record full of songs that make you want to roll down the car windows and bust a vocal cord or two while trying to match Daughtry's gravelly wail. But there's one key change to the music: Daughtry -- the band -- created this album, instead of it being the work of Daughtry the brand.
The first album was created on the run with session musicians, while Daughtry was touring on the annual "American Idol" summer trek.
"Leave This Town," by contrast, was a much more collaborative process that came together in a couple of months, without any deadline pressure from the label.
The cover of the first album showed Daughtry alone, front and center, with blurred, anonymous bandmates in the background. On the cover of "Leave This Town," the faces of all of the band's members are clearly seen.
While Daughtry remains the band's primary songwriter, he worked with Steely and Craddock on several tracks, as well as longtime friends of the band like Nickelback's Chad Kroeger and Brian Howes, who co-wrote "Over You" for Daughtry's first album. The first single, "No Surprise," co-written with Kroeger, currently stands at No. 48 on the Hot 100.
"You're looking for something that's obviously going to be radio-friendly," Daughtry's manager Stirling McIlwaine says of the first single. "The second requirement is, 'Will it be a great launching point for the campaign? Will it tell people he's back? Does it have the signature Daughtry sound?' That's the song that raised its hand."
The leading contender for the second single is the ballad "Life After You," a plaintive take on loss that will start being worked to radio in the fall.
And while Daughtry's voice and rock riffs still play center stage to most of the album's tracks, several songs take some creative chances. Daughtry wrote "You Don't Belong" on his own; it's a hard-driving song that wouldn't sound out of place on an Alice in Chains album. And "Tennessee Line," featuring a fiddle and vocals from Vince Gill, fits comfortably in the country-rock crossover space, a la Lady Antebellum.
The band's camaraderie was very much evident in a recent encounter --they finish each other's sentences and mock each other with good-natured snark. Two of them are wearing the same boots, which of course draws jeers from the rest of the band.
Sure, Daughtry gets the lion's share of the attention -- that inevitably falls on the lead singer, Borns notes -- but Steely reveals that fans have made Web sites dedicated to all of the band's members. ("Yeah, like, we're the New Kids on the Block," Paul says.) Continued...
Source: Reuters

Brad Pitt baseball drama strikes out

2009-06-22T15:59:00.000+04:00

By Borys Kit
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Just days away from the start of shooting, Columbia has taken Steven Soderbergh's baseball drama "Moneyball" starring Brad Pitt off the field.
Pulling the plug this close to production is extremely rare for studios but sources said Columbia's president of production Amy Pascal wasn't comfortable with the script, which had changed considerably since the movie was greenlit.
The decision, which was made Friday, mystified many since the picture was crewed up and scheduled to start shooting this week, with some wondering how issues with the script could give a studio cold feet so late in the game.
Steven Zaillian and Soderbergh wrote the screenplay (with the most recent barely a week old), adapting Michael Lewis' nonfiction book about the Oakland Athletics and their GM Billy Beane, who assembled a contending ballclub despite having a payroll much lower than other Major League teams.
Pitt and comedian Demetri Martin were the major actors cast, with other roles to be played by actual baseball players. Soderbergh also shot interviews with real baseball figures, which were going to be interspersed between the narrative.
Pascal had not seen the interviews and some insiders suggest there was a disconnect about the kind of baseball drama the exec and the filmmaker wanted to make. Pascal was leery, the sources said, fearing the film lacked emotion.
Pascal is a big fan of the book and allowed Soderbergh to shop the project over the weekend to Warner Bros., which once housed Soderbergh's shingle Section Eight, and Paramount, home to Pitt's Plan B. The companies would have to act fast as the production and its staff can only sit idle so long. If no one snags the package, Columbia could take another crack at it, and try to sync up Soderbergh's and the studio's vision.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Harold Ramis looks back at "Year One" from Day One

2009-06-22T15:57:00.000+04:00

By Martin A. Grove
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In the beginning there was nothing. Then Harold Ramis got an idea.
That was in the summer of 2005. His comedy "Year One" opened this weekend via Columbia Pictures with Jack Black and Michael Cera as lazy hunter-gatherers on a Biblical epic road trip after being kicked out of their primitive village. The film opened at No. 4 with a solid $20.2 million.
Inspiration? Mel Brooks' "The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Man."
"I loved the conceit of putting characters with a contemporary consciousness in an ancient world." It all sounded funny to Ramis, who definitely knows "funny" after "Caddyshack" and "Ghostbusters."
Another influence: A mid-'70s PBS documentary he recalled about how Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons co-existed for thousands of years and must have met.
"I was working with John Belushi and Bill Murray at the time at National Lampoon and I directed them in an improv," he told me. Murray's Cro-Magnon was "his usual contemporary hipster and John played the Neanderthal like a moronic thug." There was "a nice Abbott & Costello quality" that stuck in Ramis' head.
Inspiration struck: "Why not do something set in the ancient world and invest the characters with my own consciousness?" Genesis supplied the story.
"I imagined the hunter-gatherers living in a virtual Garden of Eden with one rule -- 'Don't eat the fruit from that tree.'"
Naturally, a guy like Jack Black "would have to eat the fruit. So it's not only the story of every comic hero, it's actually the story of every adolescent."
To Ramis, Genesis is "one epic journey after another as well as one dysfunctional family after another. So I set these characters in motion, expelled them from their Garden paradise."
The first people they meet are Cain & Abel. Genesis doesn't tell us much about them, so Ramis made it a classic sibling rivalry and Cain's a bit of a sociopath.
There was going to be an episode with Noah, but that was scrapped. Not only would it have been expensive to create a flood and build an arc, but "Steve Carell's 'Evan Almighty' had just been out and, I thought, sort of burned a lot of Noah."
But that didn't matter. There's lots of other good stuff in Genesis -- like Abraham & Isaac. "They're the next important people they meet. Despite every warning by Abraham that God will destroy Sodom for its iniquities, it just makes them want to go to Sodom even more."
In November 2005, Ramis was ready for a studio deal. He had "a loose three acts, which is all I ever want to tell anyway. I always feel people pitch too much. As long as a studio feels you can do it, they don't want to hear too many details."
But always give 'em a marketing hook. "It could be the greatest idea in the world, but if they can't sell it, it's no good to them." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Forecast fine for Jack White's Dead Weather

2009-06-22T15:56:00.000+04:00

By Cortney Harding
NEW YORK (Billboard) - It all started with a lost voice and a missing tour bus. Alison Mosshart sings for the Kills, the dirty blues-rock band that opened for the Raconteurs last fall, when Jack White lost his voice.
White's hoarseness came near the end of a fairly cataclysmic tour for both White and Mosshart; the White Stripes/Raconteurs frontman injured his back, and the Kills' tour bus driver disappeared with the group's bus. (A week later the bus was found in a Los Angeles parking lot and the driver was arrested in February in Miami.)
"I was wearing the same clothes I'd been in for a week, because the bus still hadn't been found," Mosshart says. To get their minds off their mishaps, White suggested an impromptu end-of-tour jam session in Nashville.
"We had one day left with her before she had to go to New York and we were in Nashville together so we said, 'Why don't we record a 7-inch?'" White says. "We had absolutely no energy left and were completely burned out."
And so the Dead Weather was born, with White on drums, Mosshart on vocals, Raconteur Jack Lawrence on bass and Dean Fertita -- a member of Queens of the Stone Age who tours with the Raconteurs -- on guitar.
"We burned the candle at three ends, and all of a sudden we had four songs done," Mosshart says. "And then we just kept going and going, and all of a sudden, we were this new band with this new record. I couldn't believe how kind of natural it felt."
The "supergroup's" album, "Horehound," comes out July 14 on White's label, Third Man Records; it will be distributed by Warner Music. For an album that was spawned from frenzied late-night sessions, it doesn't sound at all slapped-together. It's a deep, sludgy collection that recalls early Led Zeppelin and includes a dark, bluesy cover of Bob Dylan's "New Pony."
"For that song, we were just seeing how we could attack it and what we could get from it," Mosshart says. "We were kind of assuming we wouldn't even put those songs out. But they turned out really fiery and electric, so we kept them. I don't think we ever would have said that we'll put a Dylan song on this album. We'd never premeditate that, but it just came out so powerful."
The band starts its U.S. tour July 13 in Washington, D.C., and will spend the rest of July and August on the road. It will play clubs on this outing, despite the fact that White's name alone could draw much larger audiences.
"It's good to pay your dues a little bit with the band," White says. "We would never be so presumptuous to do something like move to Nashville and try to book our first gig at the Ryman Auditorium."
The band members rush to add that the birth of their new project doesn't signify the death of the Kills, the Raconteurs or the White Stripes. Sprawled on a velvet couch in a suite at New York's Gramercy Park Hotel, Mosshart takes another drag on a cigarette and explains that the Kills are in the process of writing their fourth release, after putting out an expanded version of their first album, "Keep on Your Mean Side."
WHITE'S RECORD STORE
For his part, White is taking on James Brown's title as "the hardest working man in showbusiness." He recently opened a Nashville music complex that recalls the setup of old-school labels like Stax: recording studio in back, record store in front, office on the premises. His excitement about his new building is contagious, and his eyes brighten and he leans forward when he explains his vision for the label. And while plenty of musicians talk about their love of vinyl, White set up the Third Man store to sell it exclusively.
But not as a collector's item. "We gave all the people who attended the Third Man opening-night event 7-inches with a handmade cover that had pictures of the band," he says. "Right up until the end I was mixing the album, while behind me three people were painting and cutting up photographs and making records. We gave those to people in the record store of the Third Man building that day. We had them in white envelopes and people were afraid to open them and I was like, 'Cut those open! Play these records!'"
Besides the store and studio, the Third Man complex contains a space for photo shoots -- complete with dark room -- and an area for live performances. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Sandra Bullock tops box office after 10 years

2009-06-22T05:57:00.000+04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sandra Bullock achieved her first No. 1 movie in 10 years at the weekend box office as moviegoers across the United States and Canada said yes to "The Proposal," which also marked her biggest opening.
The Walt Disney Co romantic comedy sold an estimated $34.1 million worth of tickets during the three-day period beginning June 19, the company said on Sunday.
"It definitely met and exceeded our expectations," said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group. "In a summer with a lot of sequels, it's always nice to have an original movie."
"The Proposal" also earned $10 million from 10 foreign markets, with No. 1 bows in Australia ($3.3 million) and Russia ($2.8 million) leading the way.
Bullock last went to No. 1 in North America with the 1999 film "Forces of Nature," which co-starred Ben Affleck. Her previous best opening was $17.6 million for her most recent film, "Premonition," in March 2007.
The 44-year-old actress stars as a book executive who fakes an engagement to her lowly assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to avoid deportation to her native Canada. The laughs ensue when she meets his parents, with "Golden Girls" veteran Betty White stealing the show. Anne Fletcher ("27 Dresses") directed. Disney declined to reveal the budget.
Critics' reviews were mixed, but exit surveys were strong, Disney said. Men accounted for 37 percent of the audience, a surprisingly large turnout for a romantic comedy.
Its reign likely will be short-lived, though, with "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" opening worldwide on Wednesday through Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures.
"HANGOVER" PERSISTS
After two weekends at No. 1, "The Hangover" slipped to No. 2 with $26.9 million. The hit bachelor-party comedy now has banked $152.9 million, according to Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. Pictures.
The only other new release in the top 10 was the Jack Black prehistoric comedy "Year One," which came in at No. 4 with $20.2 million, in line with the expectations of its distributor, Sony Corp's Columbia Pictures.
The $60 million film, from "Groundhog Day" director Harold Ramis, stars Black and Michael Cera ("Juno") as hunter-gatherers banished from their primitive village.
Just ahead of it, at No. 3, was Disney's Pixar-produced cartoon "Up" with $21.3 million. It has earned $224.1 million after four weekends, surpassing the $223.8 million lifetime total of Pixar's 2008 Oscar-winning smash "WALL-E."
Zoradi said he expected "Up" to pass 2004's "The Incredibles" ($261 million) to become the second-biggest Pixar film after 2003's "Finding Nemo" ($340 million). Comparative data are not adjusted for inflation.
Rounding out the top five was Columbia's "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" with $11.3 million. Denzel Washington and John Travolta star in the hijacking thriller, which has earned $43.3 million after 10 days.
Director Woody Allen's 40th film, "Whatever Works," starring "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood, earned $281,000 from nine theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The best comparison is with his 2005 comeback, "Match Point," which opened to about $400,000 in eight theaters on its way to $23 million. "Whatever Works" was released by Sony art house unit Sony Pictures Classics.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source: Reuters

"Transformers" director rips studio in leaked memo

2009-06-22T05:56:00.001+04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Powerhouse Hollywood director Michael Bay, who returns to theaters worldwide on Wednesday with a "Transformers" sequel, has blasted the marketing efforts of the film's studio, Paramount Pictures.
In a memo sent last month to top brass at the Viacom Inc unit, and published on Sunday by celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, Bay complained there was no buzz surrounding "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
"Right now we are not an event. We are just a sequel, which is very different. There is no anticipation. Remember back to 'Spider-Man 2' -- it was everywhere," he wrote.
Bay added that advance word on the $200 million robot extravaganza in publications like Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times had been an "abject failure," and he described as "lame" a plan for him to preview a small clip at the MTV Movie Awards this month.
"I cannot figure if this is a cash issue with your company? Is there some clever idea why we are not spending? I'm not sure," he said. "I'm sure though the movie will do fine, but not to your internal expectations because right now we are fooling ourselves by being cocky."
But in a second e-mail, sent June 6, Bay compared Paramount to a family and thanked the executives for "busting your butts and bringing your 'A game' for the release of Transformers."
A Paramount spokeswoman declined to comment other than to point out that the latter e-mail "clearly speaks to a differing stance than the former." Two of the top production executives on Bay's e-mail list were coincidentally ousted on Friday amid a failure to speed up production of in-house movies.
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is the follow-up to "Transformers," which earned $708 million worldwide in 2007. Bay, 44, recently told Forbes magazine that he earned $80 million from that film.
Early reviews of the latest film have been unfavorable. In Britain, where the film debuted at No. 1 this weekend, The Guardian newspaper said the 150-minute movie was "like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan."
(Reporting by Dean Goodman, Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Source: Reuters

Indian films in New York create Bollywood-on-Hudson

2009-06-22T05:56:00.000+04:00

By Jui Chakravorty Das
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Millions of moviegoers in India recognize the neon signs of Times Square as easily as the Taj Mahal, due to the growing popularity of "Bollywood" movies shot in the United States, particularly in New York.
By making movies in one of the world's most expensive cities, producers risk big losses but can score big rewards by appealing to India's fascination with foreign worlds.
Despite its high costs, New York, more than any city outside India, offers easy access to resources such as Indian extras, trained Indian dancers and Indian production teams, say experts on Bollywood, the $2 billion-a-year industry known for movies featuring elaborate music, costumes and sets.
The term Bollywood combines the names of India's commercial and Hindi film capital Bombay, now renamed Mumbai, and Hollywood, the global center of commercial movie production.
Such films have occasionally been made in cities such as Miami, Johannesburg and Sydney, but nine mainstream Bollywood movies have been shot in New York since 2003, eight of them since 2006 alone. Two more are in the offing.
That number is significant, given that the scripts are based on stories that could have just as easily been shot at home, experts say.
Coming this month from one of India's largest production houses is a movie titled "New York," which capitalizes on the city's instant recognizability, director Kabir Khan said.
"One shot of New York, and you know this is New York," he said.
Big-budget Bollywood productions, using distinctive backdrops such as the Brooklyn Bridge or Grand Central Terminal, cost between $12 million and $15 million. This is expensive by Indian standards, but just a fraction of the cost of a mainstream Hollywood film, which often tops $100 million.
A similar movie made in India would cost half of that or less, said Atit Shah of New Jersey-based Bollywood Hollywood Productions, which provides crews, equipment, extras and vendor agreements for U.S.-based Bollywood shoots.
One of the earliest hits shot in New York, "Kal Ho Naa Ho" or "Tomorrow May Never Come," cost about $7 million to make, according to director Karan Johar, a pioneer of New York-based Bollywood dramas. The movie made about $13 million.
"Kal Ho Naa Ho" featured a Hindi rendition of Roy Orbison's 1964 classic song "Pretty Woman" shot in the New York Borough of Queens, with dozens of local Indians as extras. The ethnically diverse Queens is home to more than 50,000 Indians.
LOOKING FOR CAUCASIAN DANCERS
Bollywood movies typically have a half dozen songs, and filmmakers look for Caucasian rather than Indian dancers to reinforce the foreign locale, said Pooja Narang, founder of a New York-based Bollywood Axion dance company.
"They usually ask for white dancers trained in a variety of styles, including Indian," she said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Miley Cyrus fights scalpers with paperless tickets

2009-06-21T13:54:00.000+04:00

By Ray Waddell
NASHVILLE (Billboard) - As Miley Cyrus prepares to hit the road this fall, the spotlight is shining on what was once a relatively minor piece of the touring puzzle: the ticket.
Or in this case, the lack thereof. Cyrus' tour will use paperless tickets, and that's causing a commotion, mostly among the scalpers who infamously made so much money from her last tour.
The 2007-08 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds trek grossed $55 million and sold about 1 million tickets to 70 shows reported to Billboard Boxscore. But it also provided outraged parents with a bitter introduction to secondary vendors, who scooped up tickets and sold them at huge markups. The resulting controversy made Cyrus the poster child for what many perceived as an out-of-control resale market.
Now Cyrus' fall tour will make history as the first arena-level trek to embrace paperless ticketing in an attempt to thwart resellers. As is the case with airlines, those who purchase the tickets must be on hand with their credit card to gain admission.
"The focus was, 'How do we take all the information we gathered last time out and do a better job of it?'" says Jason Morey, Cyrus' manager and president of Morey Management Group, an affiliate of Ticketmaster Entertainment's Front Line Management. "It was important to us to address the issue of demand. We thought that of every single option that was available out there, this was a really viable option, to go with the paperless ticketing."
Those associated with the tour say public feedback has been generally favorable and that tickets are selling well, with nearly 500,000 purchased already. The fact that they're not blowing out immediately as they did on the last tour is evidence that brokers aren't flooding the system, they say.
Meanwhile, secondary market players are crying foul, protesting that they're being shut out from buying Cyrus tickets, or at least hindered, and predicting entrance chaos, and a consumer backlash, at concerts.
Sean Pate, director of communications at the secondary market leader StubHub, says the number of tickets sold by resellers during the 2007-08 tour has been overstated. "There was a lot of misperception that brokers had gobbled all the available inventory and posted it on StubHub or anywhere else," he says. "The reality was that StubHub sold roughly 5%-6% (of seats) at any one of the venues she played in terms of the total seats in the arena."
Don Vaccaro, CEO of the secondary ticket aggregator Ticket Network, wonders aloud whether paperless ticketing might violate antitrust laws.
"Ticketmaster's actions are trying to restrain the secondary market from dealing in Miley Cyrus tickets and restraining consumers from being able to sell their rights to admission to that venue," Vaccaro says.
Morey disagrees. "Scalping is a really important issue to Miley," he says, "but really the focus is about giving the regular fan an opportunity to buy a really good ticket at face value."
Cyrus is not the first major touring act to turn to paperless ticketing. For AC/DC's North American tour last year, some 3,000-4,000 tickets per show were paperless. At a Metallica show in September at the O2 arena in London, all tickets were paperless. Both operations went smoothly, according to Ticketmaster chief technology officer Brian Pike.
"Most of the lines ran at roughly the same speed as a normal night," Pike says. "When people come with four tickets, it's actually sometimes faster than scanning four different pieces of paper. We think this technology has been well-tested and is ready for this challenge."
Chuck LaVallee, director of music relations for StubHub, begs to differ. "On AC/DC they were swiping cards and shoving fans through," he says. "If they didn't have time to check IDs on 3,000 tickets, they're not going to have time to check them on 18,000. I think the whole thing's a mess."
A PERFECT TEST CASE Continued...
Source: Reuters

"Idol" champ Sparks ready for "battle"

2009-06-21T07:52:00.000+04:00

By Monica Herrera
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Even Jordin Sparks knows how giddy she sounds.
As the 19-year-old "American Idol" champ rattles off a list of favorite tracks from her new album "Battlefield" -- due out July 21 on 19 Recordings/Jive Records -- her excitement is contagious. "I can't wait for you to hear them," she says. "I'm sure you can hear the smile in my voice."
There are plenty of reasons why Sparks is so happy. She's been able to give her second set more attention than her 2007 self-titled debut, which was recorded in four weeks and rushed to stores soon after the Phoenix, Ark., native won "American Idol." That album sold 1 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
This time, Sparks spent four months writing and recording, entering the studio in January. "I knew I'd be able to get more involved because we had the time," Sparks says. "It's an amazing feeling to put my experiences on paper, and all of a sudden it becomes a song."
Like Sparks' debut, "Battlefield" leans heavily toward midtempo pop ballads with some songs skewing into R&B territory. The title track, produced and co-written by Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, debuted at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week after Sparks introduced it on "Idol."
Another standout track is the Dr. Luke/T-Pain collaboration "Watch You Go," the only song that features another artist. "It's got a slow, urban vibe," Sparks says of the song, "but don't worry -- I don't think my voice is in AutoTune."
Choosing "Battlefield" as the first single was a bold decision, since the song finds Sparks straying from her cheery demeanor and singing assertively about the dark side of love. Her new manager says it fit with their strategy to present Sparks in a new light.
"Jordin started out as the youngest 'American Idol' winner and had all the blessings that come with that," says Kevin Jonas, who's also the manager (and father) of the Jonas Brothers and handles Sparks with his partner Phil McIntyre. "But now it's important for Jordin to tell everyone, 'I am a strong woman and I have something to say.'"
A longer lead for Sparks' second album means more time to promote it, which is another big change for her and the label.
"It is a challenge for the company overall, because initially it's very reactionary," Lisa Cambridge-Mitchell, senior VP of marketing at Jive Label Group, says of Jive's efforts to market debut albums by "Idol" winners. "With this project, we were able to start talking about our strategy in March."
Sparks is booked to perform on "Good Morning America," "Live With Regis and Kelly" and "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," and the label has partnered with the young plus-size women's fashion chain Torrid to host album-listening parties.
Jive also will release a deluxe version of "Battlefield" for $22.98 that features a bonus DVD with behind-the-scenes footage of the singer recording in the studio and working out with her new personal trainer. Extra footage will be picked up by AOL as exclusive content.
Dictating the rollout of all this is Sparks' upcoming tour with the Jonas Brothers, a 52-date run that kicked off Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
As expected, Sparks is relishing all these opportunities and the ones that will likely follow. "This tour is massive, and I feel very blessed to be a part of it," she says, adding that she hopes to keep bridging the gap between pop and R&B hits well into the next phase of her career. "I'm in a really great position right now. I know that's weird to say because there has to be that growth and evolution, but I want to stay right where I am."
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Hollywood studio Paramount axes top executives

2009-06-21T01:52:00.000+04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures, which suffered the first big bomb of the summer last weekend with an Eddie Murphy comedy, has fired its top production executive after barely 18 months in the job.
The Viacom Inc-owned studio said on Friday it would replace Paramount Film Group president John Lesher with former DreamWorks production chief Adam Goodman. Also out is production president Brad Weston.
Paramount, which is struggling to regain its momentum after a lengthy reliance on co-productions led to a major shakeup four years ago, did not cite a reason for the latest personnel shift in its statement.
The studio has the top film of the year so far in North America with "Star Trek," but its slate has otherwise been boosted by films from partners such as DreamWorks Animation ("Monsters vs. Aliens"). The unrelated DreamWorks Pictures has also been a major supplier, but it quit Paramount last year, leaving Goodman behind at Paramount.
Murphy's "Imagine That," which Paramount said cost $55 million to make, has earned $9.2 million after eight days.
Paramount will likely top the worldwide box office next weekend with "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," although the sequel is a legacy of its DreamWorks partnership.
Goodman becomes the third executive to oversee all of Paramount's film production since studio chairman and CEO Brad Grey arrived at the studio in January 2005 with a mandate to produce more films in-house. Lesher, who had been closely involved with such Oscar-winning arthouse fare as "Babel" and "There Will Be Blood," took over as head of the film group in early 2008.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: Reuters

Adam Lambert pre-"Idol" album due this summer

2009-06-20T11:52:00.000+04:00

By Monica Herrera and David J. Prince
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Good news for Adam Lambert fans. But possibly not as good for the "American Idol" runner-up and his label bosses.
A small indie label will release Lambert's debut album this summer, months before Lambert's "official" debut on 19 Recordings/RCA Records is expected to reach stores.
Depending on who you believe, Lambert is either "blown away" by the material on the unofficial release, or is distancing himself from the project.
Entitled "On With The Show," the album was co-written and recorded by Lambert before his turn on the talent show. It will be released by Hi Fi Recordings/Wilshire Records.
The first single, "Want," is streaming now on the Hi Fi Web site, and according to the company's CEO John Hecker, the rest of the tracks will sound similar.
"The music's amazing," said Hecker. "There are some uptempo (songs), there's some that rock a little more, and there are some songs on the same tip as 'Want.' It's a real album that's coming out, not just a conglomerate of a bunch of songs. This is all original material -- as a matter of fact, Adam wrote a lot of it."
According to Hi Fi, Lambert even visited the Wilshire Records studio in Los Angeles as recently as last month to hear it. "He was in the Wilshire Records studio right before the finale actually, and he was blown away by the material," Hecker said.
Hi Fi did not notify 19/RCA about its intent to release Lambert's debut album before announcing the news on Friday. "I bet they know now," Hecker said.
Later, Lambert issued a statement through 19. "Back in 2005 when I was a struggling artist, I was hired as a studio singer to lend my vocals to tracks written by someone else," he said. "I was broke at the time and this was my chance to make a few bucks, so I jumped at the opportunity to record for my first time in a professional studio. The work I did back then in no way reflects the music I am currently in the studio working on. I'm thrilled to be working with some of today's hottest songwriters and producers and can't wait for people to hear what my music really sounds like."
Lambert is working with Lady GaGa producer RedOne and with ex-Evanesence songwriter David Hodges on the 19/RCA album.
Hecker said he was "100%" confident that his company has the legal right to debut its Lambert album before 19/RCA does theirs. "We would never put anything out that wasn't fully owned by the parties involved with all the rights secured. We were really careful."
He declined to discuss financial details, "but I can tell you that Adam will share in the success."
Hecker said he was approached by Wilshire Records about releasing Lambert's material soon after the singer made his first appearance on "Idol" in January.
"When they first discussed it with me I was really hesitant, because usually when there's music that's been recorded earlier, the stuff isn't so good. This stuff is unbelievable. We saw that it was the right thing for fans to hear this music. We're doing everything on the highest level, from the mixes to how we're promoting it."
Hi Fi Recordings is the label home of Melinda Doolitle, who finished third on Season 6 of "American Idol" and was a favorite contestant of Simon Cowell.
(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Allen Toussaint rediscovers New Orleans on new album

2009-06-20T03:17:00.000+04:00

By Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - R&B legend Allen Toussaint has done with his music what America has been forced to do since Hurricane Katrina laid waste to his hometown -- take a new look at what is in danger of fading away.
His new album is a collection of New Orleans classics such as "St. James Infirmary" and songs from outside the Big Easy that Toussaint reworked into the style he grew up hearing, like Thelonious Monk's "Bright Mississippi," from which the album takes its name, "The Bright Missisippi."
The result is a departure from 1960s and '70s Rhythm & Blues and pop tunes for which the 71-year-old pianist and composer is famous, hits such as Lee Dorsey's "Working in a Coal Mine" and the Rolling Stones' "Fortune Teller."
But if the album differs from Toussaint's best-known work, it couldn't be closer to his roots in New Orleans, a city undergoing a slow recovery from the 2005 hurricane. There, the traditions of marching bands and jazz funerals have endured.
"There's been a resurgence of this kind of music," Toussaint said. "Also, I'm very glad about the New Orleans traditional jazz brass bands who help keep this genre alive, even though it's a little rougher than what we're doing on this particular album."
The soft-spoken Toussaint recently spoke with Reuters by phone before heading on tour to St. Paul, Minnesota, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Calgary, where on June 22 he headlines a jazz festival with Big Easy stalwarts, Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
LEADING LIGHTS OF JAZZ
"The Bright Mississippi" is filled with performances by leading lights of today's jazz scene, including clarinetist Don Byron, who joins Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer Toussaint for the trip through old New Orleans with the song, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee."
In a bit of musical irony, Toussaint's new songs offer his fans a fresh look at older tunes such as "Egyptian Fantasy" penned by jazz pioneer Sidney Bechet and "Winin' Boy Blues" from the masterful Jelly Roll Morton.
The idea for "The Bright Mississippi" came from long-time collaborator Joe Henry, who also produced Toussaint's 2006 record with Elvis Costello, "The River In Reverse."
Katrina, and the bungled response to the natural disaster, loomed large over "River," which debuted at the first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival after the storm.
But now Toussaint, whose own house was destroyed in the flooding that followed the hurricane, is optimistic about the city's recovery and the state of its music scene.
While musicians have struggled -- many still live hours outside the city and return to play -- efforts like the Musicians Village, spearheaded by singer Harry Connick Jr., and other programs have been bringing them back, Toussaint said.
"I'm excited about it, because we're flexing new muscle," he said. "Things we didn't know we could do are being done, so the future looks really good."
A high-note to emerge from the Katrina debacle has been that the public reacquainted itself with New Orleans' unique people and culture, he said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Eco-activist rock musician thinks local, acts global

2009-06-19T23:19:00.000+04:00

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"

2009-06-19T21:18:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-19T14:01:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-19T00:02:00.003+04:00

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"

2009-06-19T00:02:00.002+04:00

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

2009-06-19T00:02:00.001+04:00

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

2009-06-19T00:02:00.000+04:00

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

The machines rise again in tedious "Fallen"

2009-06-18T14:01:00.000+04:00

By Ray Bennett
LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - Designed to give devoted fans of the 2007 "Transformers," which grossed more than $700 million worldwide, more of the same, Michael Bay's sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is a nonstop whirl of flying, battling and crashing machinery.
Characters and comedy are in short supply in a plot that's basically an Indiana Jones-style search for a buried treasure, in this case a 1,000-year-old matrix that will give life back to Optimus Prime, one of the alien robots who is on the side of humans in their fight against the evil Decepticons who are out to destroy them.
With Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox back as the leads and massive battles involving ships, planes, tanks, rockets and industrial-level shape-changing machines, the Paramount release, which opens stateside Wednesday (June 24), will make another huge dent in the global box office.
With its intelligence at the level of the simple-minded, however, the film is not likely to attract moviegoers who seek something more than a screen filled with kaleidoscopes of colored metal. Fanboys will no doubt love it, but for the uninitiated it's loud, tedious and, at 147 minutes, way too long.
LaBeouf's nerdy character, Sam, is off to college in this one. He barely has time to meet his new roommates before the war games begin. Fox's hot-chick car mechanic, Mikaela, has come to visit, and the two are soon off on the international hunt for the missing matrix.
Sam's nitwit parents (Kevin Dunn, Julie White) are on holiday in Europe. They also get involved, along with college fellow Leo (Ramon Rodriguez) and Simmons (John Turturro), a former agent who now works at his mother's butcher shop. Rainn Wilson ("The Office") is wasted in one scene as a snarky professor.
Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel return as stalwart soldiers, and there's the expected army of assorted vehicles and mechanical implements that can become nasty metallic beasts in a flash. The long climax takes place in the Egyptian desert, with ancient secrets to be found inside the pyramids and explosions all around.
Bay's team of four editors stitch together smashing but meaningless images, though it's as difficult to make out which machine is which as it is to tell what anyone is saying. The noise level -- not helped by Steve Jablonsky's relentless score -- is super-intense, and everyone yells lines at high speed. Because nothing they're saying makes any sense, it's hardly important.
LaBeouf gets little chance to show what charm he might have. Fox has little to do except look great in a tank top and tight jeans while running in slow motion through flying sand.

Source: Reuters

Cohen camps it up as Queen's guard for UK premiere

2009-06-18T04:22:00.003+04:00

By Cindy Martin and Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen adopted his latest guise as an outrageous gay Austrian fashion reporter on Wednesday for the London premiere of "Bruno," which hits cinemas in most territories next month.
Hoping to replicate the success of his surprise 2006 box office hit "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," the 37-year-old has been typically over-the-top in promoting Bruno.
On Wednesday evening he led a brass band and dressed as a camped-up member of the Queen's guard, complete with towering bearskin hat, sleeveless red tunic revealing his midriff, ultra-tight black hotpants and knee-length boots.
Sticking to his habit of appearing only in character, he addressed the crowd in central London and called Bruno "the most important movie starring a gay Austrian since 'Terminator 2,'" a joking reference to Austrian Terminator star, and now California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Cohen has also appeared naked on the cover of the latest edition of GQ magazine and last month staged a successful publicity stunt at the MTV Movie Awards in the United States.
After spinning in a harness above the audience at the show, he landed face down in the lap of rap artist Eminem, exposing his naked buttocks in the process.
Eminem stormed out, although he has since confirmed that he was in on the joke.
Asked about the GQ cover shot, Cohen told Reuters at the premiere: "I didn't even know they were filming that. I would never have posed. I don't try to get attention myself. The last thing I wanted would be to be the most famous Austrian since Hitler."
Asked what he wanted to do next, he replied: "Ich really want to win a Nobel prize."
And of his previous big screen incarnation, he said:
"You know, I just saw this movie called 'Borat'. To be honest, I found it a really offensive portrayal of a foreigner. There's a guy who acts it apparently called Sacha Baron Cohen. That guy is clearly gay."
Fans flocked to Borat, a fake documentary about a Kazakh journalist traveling across the United States that used comedy to expose bigotry. It earned $128 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices and $133 million in other countries.
Bruno is also a "mockumentary" that follows the fashion reporter after he loses his job in Austria and goes to America looking to become a celebrity.
His unscripted encounters with everyday Americans and prominent figures, who think he is real, often prompt strong reactions to Bruno's in-your-face sexuality.
While Universal Pictures, the studio behind Bruno, has said the film's intention is to satirize homophobia, some gay advocates are worried that Cohen could reinforce negative stereotypes about homosexuals.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: Reuters

Walt Disney museum to focus on man behind brand

2009-06-18T04:22:00.002+04:00

By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Walt Disney is a global brand with film studios and theme parks bearing his name, but now his family are unveiling a museum to tell the story of the animation pioneer they say has been lost behind the trademark.
The Walt Disney Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization established in 1995 to promote education and writing about Disney as well as scholarships in his name, will open the Walt Disney Family Museum on October 1 in San Francisco.
"My father's name is probably one of the most well-known names around the world, but as the 'brand' or trademark has spread, for many, the man has become lost," Disney's daughter and museum founder, Diane Disney Miller, said in a statement.
The museum will trace Disney's life from his birth in Chicago and childhood in Missouri to his move to California in 1920s, where he married and his animation career took off with the creation of the "Mickey Mouse" character.
Among the exhibits on display will be early animation drawings, film clips, scripts, cameras and many of Disney's numerous Academy Awards, including an honorary Oscar in 1939 for his first feature length animation film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
There will also be a model of the Disneyland theme park he first envisioned, quite different from the park that opened in California in 1955, and a model of the Lily Belle train that ran on half a mile of track around his Hollywood home.
"Visiting my grandpa was pretty fun," Walter Miller, the foundation's president, recalled at a launch of the museum in New York on Wednesday.
REVOLUTIONIZED ANIMATION
"Perhaps my grandfather's greatest gift, without question his greatest pleasure, was to bring imagination to life," he said. "He never lost that childhood sense of wonder and of curiosity."
Disney, whose other movies included "Cinderella," "Bambi" and "Mary Poppins," which mixed live action and animation, died in 1966.
John Canemaker, an Academy Award winning animator and animation studies professor at New York University, said at the launch that Disney's development of "personality animation," beginning with Mickey Mouse, revolutionized the industry.
"Within a remarkably short period of time, a mere decade, Disney set the course for animation in the 20th century and beyond," Canemaker said.
"There would be no 'Toy Story' and no Pixar (Walt Disney Co's animation studio) without Disney personality animation, nor other studios that yield to the pantheon of stories and characters that fascinated throughout the years," he said.
Richard Benefield, executive director of the museum, said the Walt Disney Co had made their resources and archives available to the foundation and loaned several exhibits to the museum.
"Walt Disney reached people because he was a magical story teller," he said. "Now it's our turn to tell his story, to narrate the life of someone whose name is often confused with a brand and to present him simply as a human being with an extraordinary vision."
(Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: Reuters

Black Eyed Peas dominate U.S. charts

2009-06-18T04:22:00.001+04:00

By Keith Caulfield
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - The Black Eyed Peas scored their first No. 1 album on the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday, buoyed by heavy promotion for their first release in four years, and also claimed the top two spots on the singles chart.
The hip-hop act topped the Billboard 200 with "The E.N.D.," which sold 304,000 copies during the week ended June 14, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the group's best sales week ever.
Their previous set, 2005's "Monkey Business," bowed at No. 2 with a then-best 291,000. Believe it or not, the Black Eyes Peas have hit the top 10 only twice: their first two releases -- 1998's "Behind the Front" and 2000's "Bridging the Gap" -- both missed the top 50. It wasn't until the group recruited Fergie for "Elephunk" in 2003 that it hit the big time. That album, powered by three top-40 singles, peaked at No. 14 and spent 106 weeks on the chart.
It was hard not to know that the Black Eyed Peas had a new album last week, thanks to heavy promotion from Target. The retailer carried an exclusive version of the album that featured additional tracks and flooded the airwaves with a commercial touting the new set.
Over on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the Peas debuted at No. 2 with "I Gotta Feeling" and held at No. 1 for an 11th week with "Boom Boom Pow." It's the first time any act has occupied the top two slots on the Hot 100 with songs from the No. 1 album of the week since OutKast did it in February 2004. They were Nos. 1 and 2 on the Hot 100 with "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move," respectively, while "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" spent its seventh (and final week) atop the Billboard 200.
Last week's albums champ, the Dave Matthews Band's "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King," slipped to No. 2 in its second week with 128,000. Eminem's "Relapse" was down one at No. 3 with 87,000, while "super group" Chickenfoot's self-titled debut album was unchanged at No. 4 with 79,000 copies.
Latin quartet Aventura entered the Billboard 200 at No. 5 with "Last." The disc sold 47,000 copies, the act's best sales week ever.
Lady GaGa's "The Fame" climbed two slots to No. 6, also with 47,000, while the "Hannah Montana" movie soundtrack slipped one to No. 7 with 46,000. Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" dropped three to No. 8 with 41,000 (down 21 percent).
Mos Def's newest, "Ecstatic," started at No. 9 with 39,000 -- his second top 10 set. Former Pretty Ricky member Pleasure P's solo debut, "The Introduction of Marcus Cooper," entered at No. 10 with just under 39,000.
Overall album sales totaled 6.34 million units, down 0.6 percent compared to the sum last week (6.39 million), but down 31.7 percent compared to the same sales week of 2008 (9.29 million). (Why down so much? It's partly because Lil Wayne notched the biggest sales week of 2008 for an album when his "Tha Carter III" bowed with 1,006,000.)
Year to date album sales stand at 161.4 million, down 14 percent compared to the same total at this point last year (188.6 million).
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Judge halts "Catcher in the Rye" spin-off for now

2009-06-18T04:22:00.000+04:00

By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday temporarily halted publication of a novel using characters from J.D. Salinger's classic "The Catcher in the Rye" written without the original author's permission.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts issued a temporary restraining order against publication for 10 days at which time she would rule on whether to grant Salinger's legal request to ban its publication in the United States.
The case involves a book entitled "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye" by a Swedish author, Fredrik Colting, written under the nom de plume John David California that was due to come out later this year.
The new work features a character named "Mr. C" based on Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the 1951 classic.
Salinger, 90, who has lived for decades out of the public eye, sued this month to block its publication.
"This is a case where a sequel has been created without the author's permission," his lawyer, Marcia Paul, told the judge.
Paul said the case was about the right to keep Holden Caulfield "frozen" under Salinger's copyright.
But a lawyer for Colting argued the book came under a fair use exception because it was literary commentary or parody.
"Over the past 60 years he may have become famous ... but that doesn't make him a specially copyrighted character," Edward Rosenthal said of Holden Caulfield.
"This book does comment on Catcher in the Rye and J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield," Rosenthal said.
Colting's book examined the fictional relationship between Salinger and Mr. C and was therefore not a sequel.
"The Catcher in the Rye" has been hailed as a classic coming-of-age novel and is commonly taught in American high schools. It begins with Caulfield leaving the boarding school he's been kicked out of and spending a few days wandering around New York. Colting's book begins with Mr. C leaving a retirement home 60 years later. Both end near a carousel in Central Park.
The judge called the books "substantially similar," noting other characters contained in both books and similar sayings and settings including New York parks and museums.
But Rosenthal, who admitted that Mr. C was based on Caulfield, said Colting's book was "not about what happened to Holden Caulfield but it is about J.D. Salinger trying to deal with this character."
Salinger, who has health problems, was not present in court. Since publishing two novellas in 1963, the reclusive author has published little, although a former lover said he wrote every day and had completed two novels. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Happy Together, again: rocker relives glory daze

2009-06-17T22:21:00.001+04:00

By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - They say that if you can remember the '60s, you weren't really there.
But Howard Kaylan, the lead singer with the psychedelic pop band the Turtles, found himself in the center of the action, cavorting with the likes of the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.
And his memory is undiminished. In fact, he is about to release a DVD dramatizing the Turtles' 1967 adventures in "Swinging London" shortly after his band attained its own short-lived stardom with the No. 1 hit "Happy Together."
Kaylan, 61, hopes the comedic film, "My Dinner with Jimi," set for a June 23 release via Rhino Entertainment, will be merely the first of many stories he gets to share about his psychedelic exploits.
"As long as I have the will power and love power to tell these stories, I'll try. I want to share some revealing stories about those people in those days without getting my legs broken," he joked.
Kaylan, who lives in Seattle and plies the oldies concert circuit, began writing "My Dinner with Jimi" in 2001, aiming to show how a "fat little American kid" got to mix with rock 'n' roll royalty. The low-budget movie, directed by Bill Fishman, hit the film-festival circuit two years later.
"We met Graham Nash, Donovan, Brian Jones and the Beatles all on the same night," Kaylan recalled. "I wound up having dinner with Hendrix at 4 a.m."
The first half of the film shows Kaylan and bandmates muddling through the Los Angeles club scene and running into the likes of Jim Morrison, Mama Cass and Frank Zappa. After "Happy Together" tops the charts, they venture to London, reuniting with their old friend Nash.
In an intriguing sequence, Nash plays them an advance copy of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" and introduces them to the Fab Four. But the Turtles also find themselves on the receiving end of John Lennon's acrid wit, to the embarrassment of his bandmates.
Kaylan's "bleary-eyed 20-year-old self" is portrayed in the film by Justin Henry. Actor Royale Watkins offers a convincing turn as Hendrix, while Turtles co-founder Mark Volman is played by Jason Boggs, and Lennon by Brian Groh.
Kaylan is finishing up a memoir, "How Not to Be Me," which he hopes will be turned into another film. It would depict his encounters with Bob Dylan and Zappa, as well as the band's historic yet chaotic 1970 White House performance at the request of first daughter Tricia Nixon.
"We didn't want to do it because we were so anti-Nixon and so anti-war, but our manager, who was Bill Cosby at the time, said it was like an invitation to sing before the Queen," said Kaylan, noting the president was not there for the performance, which he describes as a "social nightmare."
FLO AND EDDIE
The Turtles dissolved in litigation over the ownership of the band's name and rights to master tapes later in 1970.
Kaylan and Volman went on to join Zappa's Mothers of Invention under the names "Flo and Eddie" since the litigation prevented them from using their names. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Sirius XM slated to launch iPhone app

2009-06-17T22:21:00.000+04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sirius XM Radio subscribers will be able to download software on June 18 that lets the satellite radio service's programing play on Apple Inc's iPhone.
"Beginning tomorrow, the (iPhone) App will be available," a customer service representative for the New York-based company said on Wednesday.
The iPhone service, which can also be used by iPod Touch Wi-Fi users, will be free for Sirius customers who subscribe to its Internet option. Others will have to pay about $3 month, the representative said.
The move is seen an important way for Sirius to gain and retain subscribers, by providing easier access to its news, talk, music and sports programing through means other than its traditional satellite-based platform.
Sirius already has about 19 million subscribers to its pay radio system, but its biggest source of new user is the when consumers buy cars with satellite radios built-in.
But last month, Sirius attributed a quarterly decline in customers to poor automotive sales, and predicted a "noticeable hit" to its subscribers in the current quarter for the same reason.
Sirius faces both big opportunity and tough competition in Apple's App store. Apple has sold more than 40 million of its iPhones and music-playing iPod Touches to date, with a substantial portion in U.S. where Sirius's nationwide broadcasts are concentrated.
But several of the most popular applications available in Apple's App store include free Internet music services such as Pandora and Slacker, as well as iheartradio, which is supported by the terrestrial radio industry.
Sirius, whose subscribers pay a fee of about $13 a month, had previously said the App would launch in the second quarter of this year. An official spokesman for Sirius, one of the largest U.S. subscription services, did not immediately return requests for comment.
Shares of Sirius rose in afternoon trading, climbing to 34.8 cents a share, up about 8 percent.
(Reporting by Franklin Paul; Editing by Derek Caney)

Source: Reuters