LONDON -- Al-Jazeera Intl. has all but conceded defeat in its effort to gain U.S. distribution in time for its worldwide launch Wednesday.
Execs at the nascent English-language offshoot of the Arab broadcaster said Comcast Communications pulled the plug on talks Monday on a deal the net considered essential to gaining a beachhead in the U.S.
The Associated Press last week reported Comcast had pulled out of talks but, in fact, negotiations continued, with Comcast offering to roll out the channel regionally. Comcast is the dominant operator in the Detroit area, which has one of the nation's largest Arab-American populations.
But AJI execs were holding out for a full rollout across all of Comcast's 12.1 million digital subscribers (Comcast has 24 million digital and analog subs), and they believed a deal was imminent.
"We thought we were just awaiting signatures. We feel like we've been led down the garden path. It's a setback for us in the States, but I don't want this to overshadow the fact we've had phenomenal figures in the rest of the world," said one AJI employee who insisted on anonymity.
Sources within AJI speculated the reasons for the pullout had to do with U.S. uncertainty about Al-Jazeera's editorial agenda. Negative portrayals of the situation in Iraq are widely thought to have contributed to the Democratic sweep of the midterm elections.
But Comcast denied the decision had anything to do with politics. "It comes down to a capacity question. We're not adding a lot of new channels," said Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer.
As of last week, Al-Jazeera reportedly also was in talks with Cox Communications, but those won't come to fruition before Wednesday.
Al-Jazeera also had hoped to get carriage on one of the two major satellite TV operators, DirecTV or Dish Network. Dish wants to carry AJI on its Arab-language tier, where it carries the Arabic Al-Jazeera. DirecTV doesn't carry either net, but said it is "keeping options open."
Even without U.S. distribution, Stateside audiences will be able to see the channel on broadband.
AJI execs confirmed they will launch with access to 70 million households worldwide, nearly double their initial target of 40 million.
Distribution deals have been inked in most major territories, including the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland and Australia. AJI execs eventually hope to reach 150 million households worldwide.
AJI's journey to get on the tube has been beset by delays. Originally supposed to launch in spring, its broadcast dates were pushed back to summer, and then fall, as a result of technical difficulties.
The network hired Brit broadcasting legend David Frost, CNN anchor Riz Khan and former "Nightline" correspondent Dave Marash, which generated headlines, but that apparently wasn't enough to assuage wary U.S. operators.
Backroom shuffles also have added to the uncertainty.
In March, Wadah Khanfar, previously managing director of the Arabic-language newscaster, was appointed director general of the entire Al-Jazeera network including AJI, while AJI director of programs Paul Gibb unexpectedly quit in August.
That said, with more than 30 international news bureaus and four AJI global news centers based in Doha, London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur, AJI is attempting to deliver on execs' claims that it is the world's first truly global news channel.
....................................................................................................................................................
Undated file photo of Italian singer and actor Mario Merola, who died at the age of 72 at the San Leonardo di Castellammare di Stabia hospital, near Naples, southern Italy, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006
ROME - Mario Merola, whose dramatic renditions of traditional songs from his native Naples made him wildly popular with Neapolitans for decades, has died in a hospital near the city, officials said. He was 72. Hospital officials said Merola died after suffering a series of heart attacks Sunday.
Thousands of fans streamed to the hospital to pay respects after hearing of his death. He had been admitted a few days earlier to a hospital in Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples, because of worsening cardiac problems, relatives said.
Italy's Sky TG24 TV reported that police had to help control his fans who went to the hospital chapel to view his body. The body was later taken to a church in Naples for a second wake and the funeral will also be held there.
Merola mixed dialogue and singing in stage and TV performances. His voice, melodramatic, sometimes verging on wailing and ripe with passion, reflected the vibrant, emotional personality of Naples and its rich tradition of songs, many of them in Neapolitan dialect.
Born in Naples in 1934, he began helping his family by taking a variety of jobs when he was young, including longshoreman, and his humble origins endeared him to fellow natives of the hardscrabble southern port city.
He influenced many Italian singers and performers, including Massimo Ranieri and, more recently, Gigi D'Alessio, and was considered an excellent talent scout.
Merola liked to perform wearing elegant jackets and was nicknamed "the last of the singers in a jacket."
His popularity spread across the Atlantic, thanks to émigrés from Italy, and Merola had a solid following among many of Italian origin in the United States and Canada.
"He was an exceptional figure, a sweet person, very dear to us," said Peppino di Capri, another singer of traditional Neapolitan songs.
Merola also appeared in films in the 1970s and early 1980s. He also was the voice of cartoon characters in animated films.
....................................................................................................................................................
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is photographed outside the Sydney Opera House during a media event to promote his movie 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,' in Sydney, Monday, Nov. 13, 2006
LOS ANGELES - A make-believe son of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan continues to rule the American box office. Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" took in $29 million to remain the No. 1 movie for a second straight weekend, distributor 20th Century Fox said Sunday. "Borat" raised its 10-day total to $67.8 million.
The top three movies remained unchanged from the previous weekend, with Disney's "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" still in second place with $16.9 million and the Paramount-DreamWorks animated tale "Flushed Away" in third with $16.7 million.
Sony's Will Ferrell comedy "Stranger Than Fiction" debuted as the best of the weekend's newcomers, placing fourth with $14.1 million. Ferrell plays a meek tax auditor suddenly able to hear the voice of a narrator (Emma Thompson) chronicling his life and impending death.
While 20th Century Fox could crow about "Borat," the studio's Russell Crowe-Ridley Scott reunion "A Good Year" flopped, coming in at No. 10 with $3.8 million. "A Good Year" was a departure for the star and director of "Gladiator," a soft romance with Crowe as a London investment shark seduced by the laid-back life at a French vineyard he inherits.
The movie generally was panned by critics, and audiences apparently were not willing to accept broody actor Crowe in a romantic lead, said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox.
Audiences were willing to accept Cohen as Borat, the Kazakh TV journalist he originated on "Da Ali G Show," who jumps to the big screen in a mock documentary about his journey across America.
Crudely funny and raucously satiric, "Borat" was a surprise winner at the box office with a $26.5 million opening weekend, even though it played in only 837 theaters, fewer than one-fourth the number of cinemas for "The Santa Clause 3" and "Flushed Away."
Some box-office analysts had questioned whether 20th Century Fox missed the boat by launching "Borat" in so few theaters, saying the movie could have rung up millions more on opening weekend if it had gone wider.
But Snyder said the buzz from the movie's huge debut proved a great prelude to wider release in its second weekend, when it expanded to 2,566 theaters.
"When a picture takes off like this, you can do it any way you want and you can't screw it up, quite honestly, when a picture becomes a part of the culture like this," Snyder said.
Expanding nationwide after two weekends in limited release, Paramount Vantage's drama "Babel" was No. 6 with $5.65 million. With an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, "Babel" traces the repercussions of a shooting in the African desert on families around the globe.
Sarah Michelle Gellar's supernatural thriller "The Return" opened weakly with $4.8 million to come in at No. 8. Released by Focus Features, the movie was not screened beforehand for critics, generally a sign the distributor expects bad reviews.
MGM's "Harsh Times," a gritty street drama starring Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez, also had a poor debut of $1.8 million, finishing out of the top 10.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," $29 million.
2. "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," $16.9 million.
3. "Flushed Away," $16.7 million.
4. "Stranger Than Fiction," $14.1 million.
5. "Saw III," $6.6 million.
6. "Babel," $5.65 million.
7. "The Departed," $5.2 million.
8. "The Return," $4.8 million.
9. "The Prestige," $4.6 million.
10. "A Good Year," $3.8 million.
....................................................................................................................................................
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061113/ap_en_mo/box_office
Posted on Nov 13, 2006, 10:43 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Third 'Borat' Frat Boy Not Nearly As Litigious As His Drinking Buddies
by
....................................................................................................................................................
[Once again, we must warn you of the possibility that this post may contain spoilers. Please, no angry e-mails about how we've ruined your life by discussing a film you haven't yet seen.] While two of Borat's troika of drunken, racist sentiment-spewing fraternity brothers have reacted to their newfound movie stardom by suing the production for filling them to the eyeballs with booze, locking them in an RV with a suspiciously friendly Kazakh reporter, and assuring them that any uncharitable remarks regarding minorities they might make during the shoot would only be seen on a public access broadcast whose only viewers are a flock of goats somewhere in Central Asia, the third beer-bonger was significantly less scandalized by the experience. In an ABC News Radio interview, the U of South Carolina student shrugs off the whole controversy:
"I got a call from one of my buddies asking me if I wanted to get paid $200 to get drunk, and I said, 'Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.' So I went down and I went though an interview process and I was one of the lucky, I guess -- or the unlucky -- that I got chosen," he said.
"He brought us to a bar, and he told us. ... 'Yeah guys, I hope you have really good stories. ... Don't let me down, just typical frat-guy talk,'" Corcoran said. "He kind of challenged us to shock him."
Unlike the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, however, Corcoran was not upset with the results.
"I don't normally like getting lied to, but am I pissed off? No, not really," he said. "It is what it is. I had a fun time."
See? No big deal, no reason to freak out like his buddies and go out and hire a lawyer. He probably figures that the whole thing about bringing back slavery will blow over pretty fast, and in the meantime, he's gonna get crazy laid by some mad bitches at the next Chi Psi/Tri-Delt mixer (even if his fraternity has officially issued a "not cool, bro" statement) who line up to hear his slightly embellished story about how Borat paid him two hundred bucks to do tequila shots out of his asscrack, a drinking game he referred to as "Throwing the Jew Down the Well."
....................................................................................................................................................
Actor Jack Palance poses in Tehachapi, Calif., in this Jan. 27, 1997 file photo
LOS ANGELES - Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned successfully to comedy in his 70s with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday.
Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. He was 87.
When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess.
"That's nothing, really," he said slyly. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."
That year's Oscar host, Billy Crystal, turned the moment into a running joke, making increasingly outlandish remarks about Palance's accomplishments throughout the show.
It was a magic moment that epitomized the actor's 40 years in films. Always the iconoclast, Palance had scorned most of his movie roles.
"Most of the stuff I do is garbage," he once told a reporter, adding that most of the directors he worked with were incompetent, too.
"Most of them shouldn't even be directing traffic," he said.
Movie audiences, though, were electrified by the actor's chiseled face, hulking presence and the calm, low voice that made his screen presence all the more intimidating.
His film debut came in 1950, playing a murderer named Blackie in "Panic in the Streets."
After a war picture, "Halls of Montezuma," he portrayed the ardent lover who stalks the terrified Joan Crawford in 1952's "Sudden Fear." The role earned him his first Academy Award nomination for supporting actor.
The following year brought his second nomination when he portrayed Jack Wilson, the swaggering gunslinger who bullies peace-loving Alan Ladd into a barroom duel in the Western classic "Shane."
That role cemented Palance's reputation as Hollywood's favorite menace, and he went on to appear in such films as "Arrowhead" (as a renegade Apache), "Man in the Attic" (as Jack the Ripper), "Sign of the Pagan" (as Attila the Hun) and "The Silver Chalice" (as a fictional challenger to Jesus).
Other prominent films included "Kiss of Fire," "The Big Knife," "I Died a Thousand Deaths," "Attack!" "The Lonely Man" and "House of Numbers."
Weary of being typecast, Palance moved with his wife and three young children to Lausanne, Switzerland, at the height of his career.
He spent six years abroad but returned home complaining that his European film roles were "the same kind of roles I left Hollywood because of."
His career failed to regain momentum upon his return, and his later films included "The Professionals," "The Desperadoes," "Monte Walsh," "Chato's Land" and "Oklahoma Crude."
When he appeared as Fidel Castro in 1969's "Che!" about Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, he told a reporter: "At this stage of my career, I don't formulate reasons why I take roles — the price was right."
He also appeared frequently on television in the 1960s and `70s, winning an Emmy in 1965 for his portrayal of an end-of-the-line boxer in "Requiem for a Heavyweight."
He and his daughter Holly Palance hosted the oddity show "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and he starred in the short-lived series "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "Bronk."
Forty-one years after his auspicious film debut, Palance played against type, to a degree. His "City Slickers" character, Curly, was still a menacing figure to dude ranch visitors Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby, but with a comic twist. And Palance delivered his one-liners with surgeon-like precision.
Through most of his career, Palance maintained his distance from the Hollywood scene. In the late 1960s he bought a sprawling cattle and horse ranch north of Los Angeles. He also owned a bean farm near his home town of Lattimer, Pa.
Although most of his film portrayals were as primitives, Palance was well-spoken and college-educated. His favorite pastimes away from the movie world were painting and writing poetry and fiction.
A strapping 6-feet-4 and 210 pounds, Palance excelled at sports and won a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina. He left after two years, disgusted by commercialization of the sport.
He decided to use his size and strength as a prizefighter, but after two hapless years that resulted in little more than a broken nose that would serve him well as a screen villain, he joined the Army Air Corps in 1942.
A year later he was discharged after his B-24 lost power on takeoff and he was knocked unconscious.
The GI Bill of Rights provided Palance's tuition at Stanford University, where he studied journalism. But the drama club lured him, and he appeared in 10 comedies. Just before graduation he left school to try acting professionally in New York.
"I had always wanted to express myself through words," he said in a 1957 interview. "But I always thought I was too big to be an actor. I could see myself knocking over tables. I thought acting was for little ... guys."
He made his Broadway debut in a comedy, "The Big Two," in which he had but one line, spoken in Russian, a language his parents spoke at home.
The play lasted only a few weeks, and he supported himself as a short-order cook, waiter, lifeguard and hot dog seller between other small roles in the theater.
His career breakthrough came when he was chosen as Anthony Quinn's understudy in the road company of "A Streetcar Named Desire," then replaced Marlon Brando in the Stanley Kowalski role on Broadway. The show's director, Elia Kazan, chose him in 1950 to for "Panic in the Streets."
Born Walter Jack Palahnuik in Pennsylvania coal country on Feb. 18, 1919, Palance was the third of five children of Ukrainian immigrants. His father worked the mines for 39 years until he died of black lung disease in 1955.
In interviews, Palance recalled bitterly that his family had to buy groceries at the company store, though prices were cheaper elsewhere.
Yet, he told a Saturday Evening Post writer, he had "a good childhood, like most kids think they have."
"It was fine to play there in the third-growth birch and aspen, along the sides of slag piles," he said.
Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat in a scene from 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' from 20th Century Fox
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Two fraternity boys want to make lawsuit against "Borat" over their drunken appearance in the hit movie.
The legal action filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," in which they made racist and sexist comments on camera.
The young men "engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in," the lawsuit says.
"Borat" follows the adventures of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist character in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels across the United States and mocks Americans.
The plaintiffs were not named in the lawsuit "to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment." They were identified in the movie as fraternity members from a South Carolina university, and appeared drunk as they made insulting comments about women and minorities to Cohen's character.
The lawsuit claims that in October 2005, a production crew took the students to a bar to drink and "loosen up" before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside of the United States.
"They were induced to agree to participate and were told the name of the fraternity and the name of their school wouldn't be used," said the plaintiffs' attorney, Olivier Taillieu. "They were put into an RV and were made to believe they were picking up Borat the hitchhiker."
After a bout of heavy drinking, the plaintiffs signed a release form they were told "had something to do with reliability issues with being in the RV," Taillieu said.
The film "made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community," the lawsuit said.
It names 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., and three production companies as defendants.
Studio spokesman Gregg Brilliant said the lawsuit "has no merit."
The plaintiffs were seeking an injunction to stop the studio from displaying their image and likeness, along with unspecified monetary damages.
"Borat" debuted as the top movie last weekend with $26.5 million.
....................................................................................................................................................
In what we hope completes our multimedia coverage of yesterday's publicity stunt, in which David Lynch mysteriously appeared on the corner of Hollywood and La Brea with a cow and copious promotional signage for Inland Empire, we pass along this clip, submitted by two guys who claim to have been driving by the site and who were so delighted by the bovine/auteur tableaux that they took a moment to talk to the infamously quirky director, capturing on video some Lynchian (really, how do you avoid that word in this context?) wisdom about the provenance of cheese.
....................................................................................................................................................
Kevin Federline appears on the television program 'MuchOnDemand' in Toronto, November 6, 2006
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ur dumped, Kevin Federline -- and you are now part of a growing club of spurned lovers who have been ditched by text message.
A video of Britney Spears' soon-to-be ex-husband apparently getting a text message informing him that the pop princess had filed for divorce became the most viewed item on the YouTube Internet site on Thursday, with more than 1 million hits.
The Web video shows Federline taping a reality television show and talking about Spears being his biggest fan -- until he gets a text message. Then he puts his head in his hands, rips off his microphone and disappears, returning 30 minutes later visibly upset.
Spears, 24, abruptly filed for divorce from fledgling rapper Federline this week after two years of marriage -- and two children -- while he was filming in Canada.
Experts on cell phone and text message use and etiquette said Federline was not the first to be dumped by text -- and certainly would not be the last with rising numbers of teen-ager and 20-somethings using text to avoid confrontation.
"People in their teens and 20s feel more comfortable using a text message to communicate something serious than having to confront someone," said Delly Tamer, chief executive of online wireless retailer LetsTalk.com, which researches phone use.
"It is instant gratification -- and delayed mortification. At some point they will have to yell at each other."
Catching On In The U.S.
The first text message was sent in 1992, according to British industry group Mobile Data Association, with text messaging launched commercially in 1995.
In Britain 95 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds use text messaging regularly. But it is only in the past year or so that text messaging has soared in the United States. Figures from CTIA-The Wireless Association said that 12.5 billion text messages were sent in June this year, up 72 percent from a year ago.
A recent LetsTalk.com survey found 49 percent of U.S. teen-agers now listed text messaging as the most important feature of a cell phone.
No U.S. figures were available to track the use of text messaging to dump partners. But such research has been conducted in Europe and Asia, where the use of text messaging took off earlier than in the United States.
A survey carried out by Swiss messaging services provider Sicap two years ago found that 9 percent of mobile phone users admitted to having dumped a boyfriend or girlfriend by sending a text message.
A survey last October by Macquarie University in Australia found 100 people aged 18 to 35 used text messaging more when relationships began or were in a rocky patch.
Few YouTube viewers seemed to have much sympathy for Federline, 28, although some acknowledged it was tough for the break-up to be so public.
"That was actually sad, For it to be on T.V. WOW. Good for Brit though," said a note from Shadowman25.
....................................................................................................................................................
This file photo originally supplied by CBS shows '60 Minutes' newsman Ed Bradley posing for this 2000 studio portrait
NEW YORK - Ed Bradley, the award-winning CBS newsman who has been a correspondent for "60 Minutes" since 1981, died Thursday. He was 65.
Bradley died of leukemia at Mount Sinai, CBS News announced.
Bradley's long career was marked with an assortment of honors: a Peabody award for a June 2000 report on Africans dying of AIDS, the Paul White Award the same year for his contribution to electronic journalism, a Damon Runyon Award in 2003 for career journalistic excellence.
He collected 19 Emmys, the most recent for a segment on the reopening of the racially motivated murder case of Emmett Till.
Bradley grew up in a tough section of Philadelphia, where he once recalled that his parents worked 20-hour days at two jobs apiece. "I was told `You can be anything you want, kid,'" he once told an interviewer. "When you hear that often enough, you believe it."
....................................................................................................................................................
Daniel Baldwin enters Midtown Community Court in the New York borough of Manhattan in this Monday, May 18, 1998 file photo
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Daniel Baldwin has been arrested on suspicion of stealing a sport utility vehicle.
Baldwin was stopped Wednesday by officers in Santa Monica who saw him in a white GMC Yukon reported stolen in neighboring Orange County, authorities said.
The actor was taken to jail and booked for investigation of grand theft auto. Bail was set at $20,000.
"The car belongs to an acquaintance of Mr. Baldwin, but he had no permission to take it," said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County sheriff's department.
An after-hours call to Baldwin's attorney was not immediately returned.
The 46-year-old actor made news in July when he drove a rented car at more than 80 mph through Los Angeles traffic and crashed into two parked vehicles. In April, he was arrested for investigation of cocaine possession, although prosecutors declined to file felony charges.
Baldwin, brother of actors Alec, Stephen and William, has appeared in the television series "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the movie "Car 54, Where Are You?"
....................................................................................................................................................
[i]
"The car belongs to an acquaintance of Mr. Baldwin, but he had no permission to take it," said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County sheriff's department.[/i]
It's like he's pulling teenage pranks lol. It appears that his girlfriend or someone is like "Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you! Oh! Oh You're taking the car?!? Go ahead! See how far you get!" Then goes inside and reports her car stolen. lol Like a parent about to send their kid to military school. lol The cops bring him back and they're like "Do you want to press charges?" and she's like turning to Daniel Baldwin "I'm waiting for an apology!" lol "And a promise that he'll actually disCUSS things instead of running off all the time!" lol
Posted on Nov 9, 2006, 10:10 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) shares a laugh with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Capitol Hill, November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - When the Democrats take control of Congress next year, entertainment industry lobbyists here are hoping they will be able to wield some influence with a new set of politicians.
The chairmanships of the all-important committees, where most of the heavy legislative lifting gets done, will shift to Democratic hands. Likely committee chairmanships are expected to go to Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., on the Commerce Committee and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., on the Judiciary Committee. The tax-writing Ways and Means Committee likely will be headed by Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.
It is a power shift that President Bush recognized that in his post-election news conference, where he referred to the outcome as a "thumpin'."
"They'll control the committees, and they'll control the flow of bills," Bush said.
It was a power at least one chairman was ready to exert even before he wins back the gavel as Dingell told reporters he didn't plan to be idle. Dingell already was pushing the FCC to make a thorough examination of AT&T's $81 billion merger with BellSouth. The merger has been stalled as Democrats and Republicans on the FCC have split over the deal. GOP commissioner Robert McDowell has not taken a stand on the merger because of a conflict of interest.
"I think it would be in their interest, I think it would be in the interest of the committee, and I think it would be in the broad public interest," Dingell said in an afternoon conference call with reporters.
Dingell's assertiveness on that one issue could be seen as a signal of a more activist Congress. Under Republicans, the congressional oversight function has been most notable for its absence.
Entertainment industry executives have to renew their relationships with the Democrats who now control many of the levers of power, something that might be easier for some.
"I'm trying to contain my joy," MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman told The Hollywood Reporter. "I'm supposed to be above politics in this job, but I think that balance is good. An equilibrium is what the founders had in mind."
Glickman is a former Democratic congressman and was agriculture secretary under President Clinton. He was swept out of office in 1994 when the Republicans blew in.
"I was a Democratic lawmaker, so I have a lot of personal relationships with Democrats," he said. "That doesn't mean I don't have relationships with Republicans. I've felt that with a Republican-controlled Congress, that by and large we were well treated. I didn't detect any ideological agenda with our issues, and I don't think it will be ideological now."
While Glickman seems to have an advantage with Democrats, other industry lobbyists who are Republicans said they expected to work well with the new leaders.
The National Association of Broadcasters, the Recording Industry Assn. of America and the National Cable and Telecommunications Assn. are headed by high-profile Republicans.
Montana Sen. Conrad Burns' loss to Democrat Jon Tester comes as a blow to broadcasters. Burns, a former broadcaster, was one of the industry's most reliable supporters on Capitol Hill.
"In truth, I'm happy and sad about the election," NAB president and CEO David Rehr said. "I'm happy to see Mr. Dingell take over from Mr. Barton, but I'm sad to see Sen. Burns lost."
Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, often sided with the cable industry over broadcasters in the inter-industry fights that shape policy. He also led the fight against media indecency.
Rehr also thought that his industry could make headway with Democrats because they often have been considerate of broadcasters' commitment to public service.
"Republicans tend to be black and white on it seeing the business side, but Democrats tend to recognize the unique role broadcasters play with public service," he said.
Like Rehr, RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol sees some opportunity.
"I think the Democrats are modestly closer to the recording industry than the previous majority," he said. "But what hasn't changed is the legislative math," he said. "You still have to have bipartisan support to move anything."
In the House, that usually means a simple majority in the committees and on the floor. In the Senate, it means getting an agreement by unanimous consent or the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
Bainwol, Rehr and Glickman agreed on at least one point: There will be lots of new lawmakers who will have to learn the ropes.
"No one person controls the agenda of the U.S. Congress. People will have to learn what the industry is about and what it means the national economy."
....................................................................................................................................................
Britney Spears and her husband Kevin Federline are seen here in Los Angeles, February 8, 2006
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop superstar Britney Spears abruptly filed for divorce on Tuesday, citing irreconcilable differences with husband Kevin Federline just two months after the birth of their second child.
Spears, 24, filed a divorce petition in Los Angeles Superior Court a day after a surprise appearance on a late-night TV chat show, showing off a new hair cut, a black mini dress and looking sexier than she has for years.
The date of the separation after two years of marriage was given as Monday. Spears did not seek spousal support but asked for sole custody of her two sons with Federline, one-year-old Sean Preston, and James Jayden, born on September 12.
Neither Spears nor Federline made any comment on Tuesday.
Rumors had swirled for months that the marriage between the pop princess and aspiring rap artist had turned rocky, but Spears said nothing in her Monday evening appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" to suggest that divorce was imminent.
Observers noted, however, she was not wearing her wedding ring and celebrity magazines reported on Tuesday that Spears was a no-show at a New York launch party last week for Federline's first album "Playing With Fire."
In Touch magazine said Spears had been spotted in tears at a New York restaurant last week. Us Weekly said the two had stayed in separate hotels in New York.
In the summer, Spears denied she was estranged from her husband, telling a television interviewer he had helped her weather the ups and downs of her second pregnancy.
In July, she won an apology from the British edition of The National Enquirer, which had reported that Spears was ready to divorce Federline.
Best-Known Celebrities
Spears shot to fame as a teen-age blonde sex kitten in 1999 and has sold more than 70 million albums to become one of the best-known celebrities in the world.
Federline, 28, who was a dancer in her raunchy music videos before their 2004 secret wedding, has lived in her shadow. Often referred to as Mr. Britney Spears, or K-Fed, he has two other children by his former girlfriend, actress Shar Jackson.
The "Baby One More Time" singer put her phenomenal recording career on hold after her wedding and the birth of the couple's first child in September 2005.
But the couple, who live in Malibu, California, continued to make headlines wherever they went. K-Fed was reportedly skipping Dad duties and partying while Spears, struggling with pregnancy weight gain, spent more time with her mother and younger sister.
They chronicled their marriage in a raunchy 2005 TV reality show called "Britney & Kevin: Chaotic" showing home videos of Spears filming Federline naked in a shower and Spears interviewing Federline during a night-time bus ride while she was naked.
Despite complaining of harassment from paparazzi, Spears announced her second pregnancy on a TV chat show and posed nude for Harper's Bazaar magazine when she was six-months pregnant.
In a decision made public on Monday, a Los Angeles judge dismissed a libel suit brought by Spears accusing Us Weekly magazine of fabricating a story about a sexually explicit video the pop star and her husband made together.
The judge said Spears had "put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye."
Spears' marriage to Federline was her second after a 2004 spur-of-the-moment wedding in Las Vegas to a former high school sweetheart that was quickly annulled.
....................................................................................................................................................
Executive Producer of Family Man David Goodman is seen here with a cut out of one of his animated show's characters Peter Griffin
A Hollywood conversation that has dominated much of this decade--regarding the sorry state of affairs for sitcom writers being edged out by more popular and cheaper-to-produce reality programming--continues with an LAT piece that revisits the familiar topic in light of NBC's recent towel-tossing concession of their 8 p.m. timeslot to an almost entirely briefcases-and-yelling-based programming schedule. The debate still falls mainly into two categories: the steadfastly optimistic camp that insists we are just in the midst of an extended audience taste cycle, and the somewhat more pragmatic, "OK, we're pretty much fucked" school of thought:
"I think writers have a lot of reason to be anxious," [Dean Valentine, a former head of Disney's television unit and president of UPN] added. "The world they've been living and writing in no longer exists. The generic sitcom that has been a staple of TV for 30 to 40 years is not coming back."
But David Goodman, executive producer of Fox's hit series "Family Guy," said audiences had not tired of sitcoms, only weak shows.
"I don't want to insult my colleagues, but the reason people didn't watch 'Joey' wasn't because they didn't want to watch comedy," Goodman said, referring to the short-lived "Friends" spinoff.
Point taken, though we're not entirely sure if having Joey pause every few seconds for a, "This reminds me of the time..." non-sequitur flashback sequence to former, Friends-era hilarity would have been the solution to that series' creative shortcomings. And while the prognosis isn't much better over at Fox, where the ancient custom of sitcom breeding is still practiced despite most of the hatchlings arriving stillborn, we'd discourage out-of-work TV comedy writers to indulge the impulse to panic until they receive a surefire sign that they've exhausted every avenue of employment; i.e. CartoonNetwork.com suddenly stops returning their calls to set up a pitch for their Flash animation web series starring the Osmond grandkids as an extended family of multitalented starfish making their way in a subaquatic, all-marine-life Hollywood.
....................................................................................................................................................
25 year old gay porn star Adrian Cortez who plays Borat's son is seen here with an insert of Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat in the corner
[Spoiler Alert: Just skip this one if you haven't seen Borat or haven't already had most of the movie ruined for you by the obsessive press coverage.] Those who have spent the past month or so trapped in a meat locker in an underground bunker deep beneath one of the country's low-Borat-awareness zones zones might conceivably be unaware that the film contains both scripted and unscripted elements, a conceit used to give the movie narrative shape and the audience things to laugh at between incidents with RVs full of racist frat-boys and dinner party hosts stunned to discover their Kazakh guest's seeming unfamiliarity with Western waste-elimination apparatuses. In an attempt to ease the fears of moviegoers still concerned that well-hung minors and prodigiously breasted former Baywatch stars might have been harmed in the making of the film, Radar (shockingly!) reveals that part of Borat's teenage son, whose member dangles incestuously close to his fictional father's face, was played by a completely legal male porn star, while Page Six (world-rockingly!) assures us that Pamela Anderson's security detail almost certainly has been trained in how to instantly stun-gun any fan who shows up to a personal appearance brandishing a hand-embroidered betrothal-bag, despite their relative bungling of their duties in the film's culminating scene. You may return to rediscovering on your own the line between fiction and reality hopelessly blurred by your potentially traumatizing cinematic experience.
....................................................................................................................................................
In this image from TV former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yells at the court as the verdict is delivered during his trial held under tight security in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Sunday Nov. 5, 2006
Two Sunni TV stations shut down
The death sentence in the Saddam Hussein trial has had an immediate effect on the TV biz in Iraq.
The Iraqi government shuttered two Sunni Muslim TV channels on Sunday for allegedly inciting sectarian violence.
Al-Zawraa, owned by Sunni former MP Mishaan Al-Jabouri, and Salahuddin, which broadcasts out of Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, were shut down shortly after the announcement that the former Iraqi president had been sentenced to hang.
Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said that the stations violated a curfew imposed in three provinces by speaking to people in the streets and airing comments that were deemed to "incite violence."
Leader of the small Sunni Arab Front for Reconciliation and Liberation, Al-Jabouri had his parliamentary immunity stripped last month after he was accused of embezzling funds intended for an armed force protecting oil pipelines in northern Iraq.
Speaking from the Syrian capital of Damascus, where he lives, Al-Jabouri echoed his TV station's criticism of Hussein's death sentence for the 1982 killings of 148 people in the Shiite town of Dujail.
"If Saddam had ordered the killing of some hundreds of Iraqi people, the current officials in Baghdad deserve 1,000 death sentences because they cause the daily killing of more than those killed by Saddam," he said.
The Iraq government has increasingly sought to curb TV channels operating in the country.
In July, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned TV stations against broadcasting video that could undermine Iraq's stability.
The government closed Al-Jazeera's Baghdad news office in August 2004, accusing it of inciting violence. The office is still closed, but the station operates in the Kurdish-ruled area of the north.
Rival newscaster Al-Arabiya had its Baghdad operations shut down for a month in September.
....................................................................................................................................................
Former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos prepares for a photo shoot to launch her own fashion accessories called 'The Imelda Collection' at a posh hotel in Manila Monday Nov. 6, 2006
MANILA, Philippines - Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, who made headlines for her vast shoe collection, is embarking on a new project — a fashion line.
The 77-year-old widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos told reporters Monday that she planned to launch "The Imelda Collection" of fashion jewelry and accessories on Nov. 18.
Marcos became notorious for her shopping trips to ritzy shops in New York while her country wallowed in poverty under martial law declared by her husband.
The first of Marcos' designs to be shown to the public are accessories and the jewelry and will "not yet" include shoes, her daughter, Imee Marcos, said.
Lying on a divan in a Manila hotel's seaside garden, Imelda Marcos wore a gossamer top, black pants and several chunky necklaces, rings and bracelet sets from her collection as her grandson Martin "Borgy" Manotoc directed a photo shoot.
"One day my grandson came to me and said, `Mama Meldy, I would like to use your collection to tell the world (about) the real Imelda and the spirit of my grandma,'" she told reporters. "It's only beauty that can feed the spirit."
Imelda Marcos said the items will be inexpensive, costing about $20 to $100, but her daughter said prices and details about the collection are still being completed.
....................................................................................................................................................
Turkey's Internet celebrity, Mahir Cagri, 44, poses with an unnamed fan in this undated but recent file photo provided by him
ANKARA, Turkey - A Turkish Internet celebrity is so convinced he was the inspiration for Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat" character, he's traveling to London seeking an apology and a way to get paid from the film's surprise success.
Mahir Cagri 44, became a cyber celebrity after posting a personal Web site in 1999, featuring unintentionally amusing photos of himself playing pingpong or the accordion and sunbathing in a skimpy bathing suit. Fans were captivated by his broken English and hilarious invitation to women: "Who is want to come TURKEY I can invitate ... She can stay my home."
"The world knows he is copying Mahir," Cagri told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his hometown of Izmir on Monday, minutes before he was to board a plane for Istanbul to appear on a talk show.
"I am not saying this — the world is. I have received so many e-mails from people in the United States who tell me he is imitating me," he said.
Cagri, a freelance journalist, was scheduled to fly to London on Tuesday for meetings with his manager and lawyer there to discuss his options and hold interviews with British newspapers. He hopes to receive an "acknowledgment or an apology" from Baron Cohen.
"The bombshell is going to fall," he said of his London trip. "(Cohen) is making money by using me."
The title character in the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" was first developed for "Da Ali G Show" on HBO. The 20th Century Fox movie took in $26.5 million in the U.S. its opening weekend, more than any other film.
On the commentary track to the DVD of "Da Ali G Show," Baron Cohen says Borat was influenced by someone he met in southern Russia.
"I can't remember his name — he was a doctor" Baron Cohen said. "The moment I met him, I was totally crying. He was a hysterically funny guy, albeit totally unintentionally."
The character Borat has caused outrage among Kazakhs over the way their nation is being jokingly portrayed.
Cagri set up his Web site in the hope of making foreign friends and welcoming guests from abroad to his home. The Turk quickly became a celebrity, much to his surprise. Relishing his fame, Cagri has traveled to Europe and the United States to meet fans on sponsored trips.
....................................................................................................................................................
In this Aug. 19, 2006 file photo, Actor Neil Patrick Harris arrives for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES - Neil Patrick Harris is gay and wants to quell any rumors to the contrary. "(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," Harris tells People magazine's Web site.
The 33-year-old actor said he was motivated to disclose his sexuality because of recent "speculation and interest in my private life and relationships."
Harris stars on the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother." He started on TV as a teen, playing the namesake doctor on the series "Doogie Howser, M.D."
....................................................................................................................................................
Actor Alec Baldwin tries to pass a police cordon near the site where a small aircraft crashed into a high-rise building in New York October 11, 2006
30 Rock's Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Programming, Alec Baldwin, has a storied history of not backing down from fights, whether he's getting all up in the grill of an NYPD officer who disagrees that his celebrity status somehow exempts him from airplane-crash-site cordons, or tattling to a gossip columnist about how a particularly difficult costume designer is a "fruit-salad head." The actor now once again finds himself at odds--this time with the producers of an Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary he was contracted to narrate--and Radar reports that the beastly Baldwin hasn't minced words in registering his displeasure:
After the producers of Running With Arnold, a new documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger, let it be known that they had no intention of granting Baldwin's request to remove his narration from the film, the Running With Scissors star threatened to "shit all over this film in the press." [...]
Baldwin objects to footage in the film implying a connection between Schwarzenegger and Nazism. According to Abrams's notes, obtained by Radar, Gabrawy had offered to screen an early cut of the film for Baldwin before he recorded his narration, but "Baldwin stated that he was a busy and important celebrity and did not have time to watch the film before the recording session."
Hollywood, Interrupted is reporting that the filmmakers compromised by removing some of the Nazi material, but that Baldwin still wasn't satisfied and has issued a cease and desist against using his already-in-the-can vocal track. The Nazi excuse is perceived as a flimsy one--Schwarzenegger's father was a member of the member of the Sturmabteilung division of the Nazi party, a biographical bullet-point that's hard to avoid--and one of the producers told The O'Reilly Factor yesterday that "there's a financial element" to his motives. It remains to be seen if the filmmakers will ultimately bend to the will of their reneging narrator, thereby sparing their labor of love a smelly, suffocating fate beneath an avalanche of Baldwin's "busy and important celebrity" excrement.
....................................................................................................................................................
Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe is seen here in October 2006
Russell Crowe once again indulges his favored hobby--bemoaning his terminal victimhood at the hands of a cruel and unfeeling world--in a recent interview with CBS, in which the actor adds yet another item to the floor-length list of mitigations and provisos appended to his apology for having launched a telephone at the head of a New York hotel concierge. Reports the BBC:
In an interview with CBS, the New Zealand-born Oscar winner claims the US legal system is "open to be misused".
"Where I come from, a confrontation as basic and simple as that would have been satisfied with a handshake and an apology," he said.
Ironically, a handshake was exactly what the actor refused to exchange with his touch-tone-pad-indented victim, after his lawyer flipped out over a planned flesh-pressing ceremony on The Late Show With David Letterman. Instead, Crowe was left to wander the talk show circuit alone, begging forgiveness for an unforgivable act that he would later downgrade to "not that big a deal," and finding himself paying restitutions in the "low six-figures." But in Croweland, where accountability is make-believe and blame deflection the national pastime, it's the U.S. legal system, not he, who is the real villain here, a theme the actor will expand upon in an upcoming interview in which he will finally reveal that it was Justice William Rehnquist, acting on the pernicious encouragement of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who actually launched the device at the front desk employee that fateful night.
....................................................................................................................................................
Novelist William Styron attends a ceremony by the Paris Review Foundation honoring his work at Cipriani in New York in November 2004
NEW YORK (AFP) - William Styron, a prize-winning novelist whose work probed the horrors of slavery in his native United States and the Holocaust during World War II, has died at the age of 81.
Styron, who won the top US literary award for his 1967 novel "The Confessions of Nat Turner" and became a household name in the 1980s thanks to the film of his book "Sophie's Choice," died on Wednesday at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital in Massachusetts.
His daughter Alexandra said Styron, who had been been in failing health for some time, died of pneumonia.
Fellow author Norman Mailer said his work would endure due to its "unique power".
"No other American writer of my generation has had so omnipresent and exquisite a sense of the elegiac. That is no mean virtue in these years," Mailer told the New York Times on Thursday.
Styron's most widely-known work was his 1979 novel "Sophie's Choice," thanks in large part to the film of the same name starring Meryl Streep.
The novel tells the story of a young Polish Jewish woman, whose love life as an immigrant in Brooklyn is haunted by a terrible secret from her past in a Nazi concentration camp.
Streep was to win an Oscar for her role as Sophie, but the novel itself drew criticism as well as praise for Styron.
Some Holocaust survivors felt that a non-Jew could not write from the perspective of a death camp survivor, while feminists had similar misgivings over the issue of a man writing a woman's story.
Styron had run into similar problems in the late 1960s with his fictionalised account of the travails of the real-life Nat Turner, the leader of the most significant black slave revolt in early 19th-century America.
Some black writers felt that Styron, a white whose closest link to Turner was that both were Virginians, had tinged his work with racist assumptions, and ten of them even published a critical counter-blast.
The book nevertheless won the Pulitzer Prize, and established Styron as a leading liberal writer.
William Styron was born on June 11, 1925 in the coastal city of Newport News, Virginia; his father was a shipbuilder and his mother was to die when he was only 13, an event which he said haunted him all his life.
His studies at Duke University were interrupted by World War II, when Styron signed up with the Marines.
He was stationed on the Pacific island of Okinawa, from where he believed he was to take part in a planned invasion of mainland Japan and thus face certain death. The invasion did not take place due to the dropping of atom bombs on the country.
Styron achieved literary success with his first novel, "Lie Down in Darkness," in 1951, but it was "The Confessions of Nat Turner" which brought him both acclaim and notoriety.
Over ten years were to ensue between the publication of that novel and the appearance of "Sophie's Choice," which gave Styron a wide readership in Europe as well as at home.
In 1990 he published his last major work, "Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness," which as its name suggests was an examination of the depression that had haunted Styron all his life.
In tandem with other liberal writers Styron took part in several political initiatives, including a strong support of president Bill Clinton when he was threatened by a sex scandal in 1998, and a visit to Cuba with playwright Arthur Miller in 2000.
In 1983 he served as president of the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Styron is survived by his wife Rose, three daughters, a son and eight grandchildren.
....................................................................................................................................................
Kanye West, left, complains alongside winners Justice and Simian at the MTV Europe Music Awards at The Bella Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark, Thursday Nov. 2, 2006
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Rap star Kanye West was named Best Hip Hop artist but still came off as a sore loser at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
Kanye apparently was so disappointed at not winning for Best Video that he crashed the stage Thursday in Copenhagen when the award was being presented to Justice and Simian for "We Are Your Friends."
In a tirade riddled with expletives, Kanye said he should have won the prize for his video "Touch The Sky," because it "cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons."
"If I don't win, the awards show loses credibility," Kanye said.
The rapper grabbed the Best Hip Hop award earlier in the night in a star-studded event hosted by Justin Timberlake in the Danish capital.
Timberlake won the Best Pop and Best Male awards while the Red Hot Chili Peppers won Best Album. Christina Aguilera was named Best Female artist at the annual awards show broadcast live in 17 countries.
British band Muse won the Best Alternative category, and Depeche Mode earned the Best Group award.
"Wow, guys, this is totally unexpected," said Rihanna as she received the Best R&B award. In September, the 18-year-old music star won the same category in the Music of Black Origin award in London.
The show was split between two venues: a convention hall on the city outskirts where Timberlake was in charge and an outdoor stage on Copenhagen's main square where R&B songstress Kelis introduced the artists.
Rapper Snoop Dogg, Australian band Jets and The Killers of Denmark had crowds jumping up and down in temperatures just above freezing at the outdoor venue.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers were nominated in four categories, but only won one for the album "Stadium Arcadium."
Best song went to Gnarls Barkley for "Crazy."
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen entertained the audience with his English-mangling character Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh TV journalist, and poked fun at Madonna who is trying to adopt an African child.
"My only concern is that this singing transvestite will not be such a good father," Borat said in a mock video link from Kazakhstan.
Other award presenters included R&B singer Cassie, Daniel Craig — the sixth actor to play agent James Bond — Fat Joe, "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville and the Sugababes.
MTV's European awards are held in a different city every year. The winners are selected by fans across Europe.
....................................................................................................................................................
Kanye said he should have won the prize for his video "Touch The Sky," because it "cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons."
At least he has a basic understanding that the more money you throw around, the more right you are.
Posted on Nov 3, 2006, 11:23 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
LONDON (Reuters) - Supermodel Kate Moss, at the center of a cocaine scandal just over a year ago, has won the top accolade in British fashion, but the award has divided opinion and stirred fresh controversy over the celebrity.
The Model of the Year prize at British fashion's answer to the Oscars late on Thursday sealed Moss's recovery from a newspaper story that briefly threatened her career.
In September, 2005, photographs of the 32-year-old model apparently snorting cocaine appeared on the front page of British tabloid The Daily Mirror. Since then, "cocaine Kate" as she was dubbed has returned to the pinnacle of her profession and she was not charged over the allegations.
Some commentators and drug charities are concerned over what the award says about fashion and what signals it sends to young people tempted to use drugs.
But fellow models and celebrities have defended Moss, pointing to her commercial success and her willingness to apologize for her behavior.
"I think it's a bad reflection on the world of fashion," said Jane Ennis, editor of celebrity magazine Now.
"The fact that she has become an even bigger icon since getting into all this trouble is fantastically decadent. Sometimes commercial interests should be set aside to look at the wider picture."
George Ruston, director of Hope UK, a drug education charity in Britain, called the award "unhelpful" and said advertisers were as much to blame as Moss.
But he added that for every young person who looks up to Moss as a role model, many do not, and the problems of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis abuse are worse than that of cocaine.
World Celebrity
Bryan Roberts, analyst at London trend spotting agency Planet Retail, said Moss was one of the world's top celebrities, and, rightly or wrongly, guaranteed column inches.
"She's become a bigger name since the scandal and anyone who affiliates himself with her name will reap the publicity."
And fellow celebrities like actress Sharon Stone and photographer Mario Testino have urged people not to judge a person for what may have been an isolated mistake.
The fashion world remains unapologetic for using Moss as its cover girl and awarding her for professional achievements rather than her private life.
Several fashion houses quickly dropped her from their advertising campaigns, since then she has clawed back contracts and featured in at least 18 major campaigns this season.
Industry experts say she is earning more now than she did before the scandal broke.
....................................................................................................................................................
File photo shows Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes arriving at the fan screening of 'Mission: Impossible III' at the Grauman's Chinese theatre in Hollywood May 4, 2006
MGM unit will produce four pics a year
Nearly a century after United Artists was founded as a studio run by artists, it’s being reborn under the same auspices.
U.A. is being revived and will be run by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, with Wagner serving as chief operating officer of U.A. and Cruise to star in and produce pics for the label, a unit of MGM.
In its new incarnation, U.A. will produce four pics a year, a number that inventually increase. The films will be marketed and distribbed by MGM.
Cruise and Wagner will control the development, production and greenlighting of U.A. films, though will be subject to certain perameters.
Cruise/Wagner Productions had long been based at Paramount, but exited the Melrose lot in August when Paramount would not re-up the deal at the $10 million annual rate the duo had been receiving. The split became national news when Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone publicly chastised Cruise for his "inappropriate" behavior and said the star’s salary was too high considering the current economics of the movie industry.
News is the latest development at MGM since chairman-CEO Harry Sloan took over the studio last year and has been aggressively rebuilding the company into a distribution and marketing entity.
....................................................................................................................................................
LONDON - Kate Moss is on a short list for Britain's Model of the Year — despite a trail of cocaine allegations that lost her millions in modeling contracts.
The British Fashion Awards will announce the award on Thursday night. Moss, 32, is up against two other models, Erin O'Connor and Alek Wek.
"She is currently in 14 ad campaigns and is one of the most prolific models in Britain, if not the world, and has been for the majority of her 15-year modeling career," said Hilary Riva, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, which refused to comment on the potential controversy of the nomination.
Moss lost contracts with H&M, Chanel, Gloria Vanderbilt and Burberry after the Daily Mirror newspaper published images of the model allegedly snorting cocaine with British rocker boyfriend Pete Doherty last year and dubbed her "Cocaine Kate."
After the pictures were published, Moss made a public apology and went to a drug rehabilitation clinic drug in Arizona. Prosecutors decided in June there was insufficient evidence to charge Moss.
Since then, she has made a huge comeback, appearing on every other page of fashion magazines and winning back contracts.
Still, some say giving an award to someone whose career has been pocked by drug allegations sets a bad example.
"To me it's baffling ...," said Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos speaking in Britain this week during an anti-drug campaign.
'Model of the Year' is an industry accolade for the British model who has contributed the most to the international fashion scene over the last year.
"She's the kind of survivor we all want to be," said Jeremy Baker, a fashion expert at London Metropolitan University. "The paradox is that since this time last year the scandal made her a lot better off."
Since the cocaine allegations, Moss has won more than a dozen contracts with Bulgari, Christian Dior, Rimmel cosmetics and perfume Coco Mademoiselle. She has also signed deals with cell phone brand Virgin Mobile and French luxury label Longchamp. Topshop also recruited her to create a new clothing and accessories range, which will be launched in spring 2007.
Magazines including British Vogue and Vanity Fair featured Moss on their front covers in August and September.
Leading press, buyers and industry figures will choose the Model of the Year from a shortlist compiled by Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman and a committee.
There is no money attached to the award.
....................................................................................................................................................
Yeah, I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that the fashion industry condones cocaine, anorexia, bulemia, heroin, or anything else that makes their models "coat hanger" thin. These guys create the standard. If they labeled Kate Moss as bad, what would they have to tell the other models?..."Don't do anything you can to make it happen. Take care of yourself. Stay healthy at least. I don't need a model that will only last a couple of years and burn out. Don't be a 'Gia'." ??
Posted on Nov 2, 2006, 11:03 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Courtney Love Says Mel Gibson Helped Her Get Sober
by
Courtney Love arrives at the film premiere of 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Monday, Oct. 23, 2006
Today on Good Morning America, Courtney Love revealed that Mel Gibson helped her get sober. Too bad; had Gibson decided to instead join together their substance-abusing tendencies, they could have formed a drug-addicted duo so formidable that not even an entire army of sugartitted and Jewish law enforcement officials could've stopped them from taking over the entire Pacific coast.
********************************************************************************************************************* Love Says Gibson Helped Her Get Sober
NEW YORK Nov 1, 2006 (AP)— Courtney Love, who has been sober for 15 months, says Mel Gibson helped her on the road to recovery. Love, the former leader of the band Hole and widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, said Gibson had showed up at a Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel room while she was doing drugs with several men.
"Mel kept coming to the door with this cheesy grin going, `Hi!'" Love said in an interview with Diane Sawyer that aired Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"I just kept looking at him going I can't cuss um, `Blank off!' … I know him and he's a nice guy. It didn't matter who it was. It could have been Jesus. I didn't care," the 42-year-old rocker-actress said.
Love said Gibson, accompanied by addiction counselor Warren Boyd, left with the men "to have a cheeseburger" while Boyd talked to her about seeking treatment.
It wasn't clear when Gibson had intervened. Alan Nierob, publicist for both Love and Gibson, declined comment, in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Gibson sought treatment for alcoholism following his drunken-driving arrest and his rant at a police officer in late July. The 50-year-old actor-director starred in the "Lethal Weapons" movies and directed 2004's "The Passion of the Christ."
In September 2005, Love was sentenced to 180 days at a drug treatment facility for violating probation in three criminal cases. In February, she had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge and was sentenced to three years' probation. She was already on probation in two unrelated drug cases.
Love has written a memoir, "Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love," and says she is practicing Buddhism.
She also said her 14-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, is "fantastic" and doing well in school. "She didn't see me on drugs very often once or twice, maximum," she told Sawyer.
Love has appeared in films such as "Man on the Moon" and "The People vs. Larry Flynt."
NEW YORK Nov 1, 2006 (AP)— Courtney Love, who has been sober for 15 months, says Mel Gibson helped her on the road to recovery. Love, the former leader of the band Hole and widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, said Gibson had showed up at a Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel room while she was doing drugs with several men.
"Mel kept coming to the door with this cheesy grin going, `Hi!'" Love said in an interview with Diane Sawyer that aired Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"I just kept looking at him going I can't cuss um, `Blank off!' … I know him and he's a nice guy. It didn't matter who it was. It could have been Jesus. I didn't care," the 42-year-old rocker-actress said.
Love said Gibson, accompanied by addiction counselor Warren Boyd, left with the men "to have a cheeseburger" while Boyd talked to her about seeking treatment.
It wasn't clear when Gibson had intervened. Alan Nierob, publicist for both Love and Gibson, declined comment, in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Gibson sought treatment for alcoholism following his drunken-driving arrest and his rant at a police officer in late July. The 50-year-old actor-director starred in the "Lethal Weapons" movies and directed 2004's "The Passion of the Christ."
In September 2005, Love was sentenced to 180 days at a drug treatment facility for violating probation in three criminal cases. In February, she had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge and was sentenced to three years' probation. She was already on probation in two unrelated drug cases.
Love has written a memoir, "Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love," and says she is practicing Buddhism.
She also said her 14-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, is "fantastic" and doing well in school. "She didn't see me on drugs very often once or twice, maximum," she told Sawyer.
Love has appeared in films such as "Man on the Moon" and "The People vs. Larry Flynt."
....................................................................................................................................................
source: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=2621970&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
LOL I love the last part about her daughter
"She didn't see me on drugs very often once or twice, maximum," she told Sawyer
You can go ahead and take out "on drugs" Courtney. We know what you mean.
Posted on Nov 2, 2006, 11:01 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Actor Wesley Snipes poses for photographers during the premiere of the film 'Inside Man' in New York in this March 20, 2006 file photo
ORLANDO, Fla. - One of two men indicted with actor Wesley Snipes on eight counts of tax fraud charges was scheduled to appear in a Florida federal court Wednesday, federal authorities said.
Eddie Ray Kahn was detained in Panama on Tuesday and flown back to Florida.
Kahn, who once lived in Sorrento, is accused of promoting tax-evasion schemes through his now-defunct entities, Guiding Light of God Ministries and American Rights Litigators.
According to the Oct. 17 indictment, Snipes used Kahn's tax packages to unsuccessfully claim nearly $12 million in refunds for taxes he paid in 1996 and 1997. Snipes had his taxes prepared by accountants with a history of filing false returns to reap payments for their clients, reports said. As part of the deal, the indictment alleges, the firm, American Rights Litigators, would receive 20 percent of refunds from clients.
Snipes, who had a home in Windermere near Orlando, remains a fugitive. He is apparently in Namibia working on a film. Federal officials have said they are negotiating with Snipes' attorneys to have him surrender.
Douglas Rosile, a Venice, Fla., an accountant who worked on Snipes' taxes, was released by a federal judge in Ocala after he surrendered to authorities Oct. 17.
All three men face conspiracy-to-defraud charges.
..........................................................................................................................................................
Angelina Jolie sits at a hotel in Pune, India, October 6, 2006
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian charity threatened on Wednesday to sue Angelina Jolie for breach of contract, saying the Hollywood star had reneged on a promise to give $1.5 million over five years to wildlife conservation.
However, Stephan Bognar, the Cambodia-based head of the star's Maddox Jolie Pitt Project, said the relationship with Cambodian Vision in Development (CVD) had ended amicably in December because their aid work was "moving on to a new level."
"Angelina and I will be unveiling our new program and commitment to Cambodia in about a month," Bognar told Reuters from the western town of Battambang.
Much of the organization's work would center around community development, rather than wildlife conservation, he said.
Besides accusing Jolie of breaking funding promises, CVD head Mounh Sarath said his organization had taken exception to reported suggestions from Jolie's lawyer that it had stolen some of her donations and was considering a libel action.
"I have been asking Jolie and her lawyer to give me an appropriate answer, but so far no answer," Mounh Sarath told Reuters from the western town of Battambang.
"Now I give her one week and if there is still no answer I will a file suit in the local court of Battambang."
The Oscar-winning actress, who adopted a Cambodian son, Maddox, in 2002, was granted special citizenship of the war-scarred southeast Asian nation last year in recognition of her environmental contributions.
In 2003, Mounh Sarath said Jolie had paid out $350,000 to kick off a long-term project to set up a 20,000 hectare (50,000 acre) wildlife sanctuary in a jungle-clad area once controlled by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge.
It is not clear how much more money was paid out.
..........................................................................................................................................................
Singer Barbra Streisand performs during a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, October 9, 2006
SUNRISE, Fla. - The funny girl wasn't laughing. Barbra Streisand had a drink lobbed at her Monday after a mid-concert skit poking fun at President Bush.
Streisand's publicist, Dick Guttman, said a paper cup filled with some sort of liquid was thrown on stage but apparently did not hit Streisand during her second performance in this Fort Lauderdale suburb.
Streisand's manager, Martin Erlichman, said she shrugged off the incident and responded to the angry audience member by saying: "It's a free country and they're entitled to express their opinion."
It's at least the third time the skit, which includes a George W. Bush impersonator, has angered Streisand's audience. A heckler targeted her at the Philadelphia opening of her 20-city comeback tour, Guttman said, and Streisand made headlines with her response to a jeerer at Madison Square Garden last month.
Erlichman said Streisand, 64, believed the skit was in good fun and noted impersonator Steve Bridges, who wrote it, is a Republican.
"This skit has been so massively covered by media, it's impossible that it still could come as a surprise to any of the Bush admirers who bought tickets," Erlichman said.
Despite the controversy, Erlichman said the skit would remain a part of the tour.
"It stays in the show except for the few performances where Steve has a conflicting commitment," Erlichman said.
Streisand, an outspoken liberal, is touring the country after a 12-year absence from the stage, offering fans a repertoire of her four decades of hits.
..........................................................................................................................................................
Bill Maher Wins 'Too Soon' Award In Local Costume Contest
by
Comedian Bill Maher is seen here attending a Halloween event October 2006 as deceased "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, stingray barb still impaled in his chest
Ours is not to cast judgment upon Bill Maher's choice of costume, nor, for that matter, to say what constitutes an appropriate waiting period before a freak celebrity death becomes fair game for laughs--after all, 40 years still hasn't made it possible to show up to a Hollywood Halloween soirée as a "decapitated Jayne Mansfield" without hearing at least a couple tsks of derision from offended partygoers. Still, if Maher simply had to go to the Playboy Mansion (or whatever monster bimbo bazaar he opted to attend this year) dressed as Steve Irwin with a stingray barb hanging out of his chest, one would have hoped he would have more fully embraced the "tasteless mockery of untimely, recent tabloid deaths" theme by throwing Al Franken in a short, blonde wig, giving him an oversized, prop pill-bottle marked "METHADONE," and introducing everyone to his "bunkmate in celebrity heaven, Daniel Smith."
Hollywood PlagueWatch: 'Evan Almighty' Stage Consumed By Fire
by
An undated photo of Stage 27 on the Universal lot in Universal city, CA
Because we at Defamer at committed to keeping you informed of any disaster, whether man-made or natural in origin, currently besetting your peers, we pass along these two reports of the raging fire possibly still in progress over on the Universal lot:
· "Universal Stage 27, where they have been shooting Evan Almighty for the last few months, is on fire. They have four ladders up against the building and there are at least 15 firemen axing, chainsawing and extinguishing the barn doors. This is also the stage Tom Cruise always uses, and I'm sure there is some symbolism there but I am too smoke-logged to think of it."
· "I got out on the lot to find (on my count) seven fire truck clustered around Stages 22 and 28. The trucks were labeled LAFD, Burbank FD, and, in one case, FDNY. (Odd.) No one on the ground knew what was going on, though one guy said he saw them sprayed water with their hoses. Anyway, I found out eventually a welder on Stage 27 set off a fire and burned up an entire door."
Sure, a welder's unfortunate error is a completely plausible explanation for the conflagration, but we won't completely rule out the possibility that God Himself sparked the blaze, hoping that an unanticipated setback of this scale might help the producers of a movie inspired by one of His favorite Bible stories reach their goal of making The Most Expensive Comedy Story Ever Told.
As always, your updates and cameraphone photography of short-sighted studio personnel trying to extinguish the Creator's latest Hollywood Miracle are appreciated. Developing...
Actors Brad Pitt (R) and Angelina Jolie travel with their adopted son Maddox in a autorickshaw in Pune, India, October 8, 2006
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - An associate of Angelina Jolie has said a lawsuit may be filed on behalf of the Hollywood actress against the head of a Cambodian aid group she alleges misappropriated her donations.
"We are considering filing a lawsuit to recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars that is missing and which he was responsible for," Trevor Neilson, who is the philanthropic and political advisor for Jolie and partner Brad Pitt, told The Associated Press in New York Monday.
Neilson was referring to Mounh Sarath, director of Cambodian Vision in Development, to whom Jolie once gave funds for conservation and community development work in Cambodia.
"We have specific evidence (of) him having taken the money, and we are considering whether to file a lawsuit or press charges against him in Cambodia," he said.
Neilson was responding to Mounh Sarath's allegations that Joile had reneged on an agreement by stopping funds for his group.
Jolie has set up an independent Cambodian organization to administer a conservation project for remote northwestern areas of Cambodia, the director of the new group said Monday.
Jolie terminated the contract with Cambodian Vision in Development and the U.S. conservation group WildAid, which had co-managed the project, in December, said Stephan Bognar, executive director of the Maddox Jolie Project. The new group is named for Jolie's 5-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia in 2002.
The 31-year-old actress has promised up to $1.3 million over five years for the forest conservation program, which was approved by the Cambodia government in 2003.
Neilson denied the actress had broken any agreement with Mounh Sarath.
"The sad reality is that this person who made these allegations was fired because we believe (he) stole" Jolie's donations, he said. He did not elaborate or indicate when the lawsuit would be filed.
On Tuesday, Mounh Sarath denied the allegations and said he is "happily" ready to confront any legal actions from Jolie.
"I will fight any lawsuit to find out the truth and to see if they have any documented proof of the money stolen," he said.
Scenes for Jolie's 2001 movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," were filmed at Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple.
....................................................................................................................................................
Actor Tom Cruise is seen here at a Church of Scientology function in 2004
We're as guilty as anyone of losing sight of this, but before Tom Cruise began dabbling in a variety of new vocations on a more full-time basis--theme-park-greeter-cum-NFL mascot, baby-toupee impresario, and diamond-nippled youth soccer videographer among them--he was a successful actor. Perhaps sensing that his failure to attach himself to an acting gig since being held up as an example of all that's wrong with the Overpriced, Profit-Hogging Star System by cranky by cranky Viacom overlord Sumner Redstone isn't helping the perception he's currently in exile semi-retirement, Team Cruise is apparently letting slip which projects he might be interested in. Reports Variety:
The indie appears to be the favorite: "Lions for Lambs," a political drama revolving around a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Scripted by Matthew Carnahan ("State of Play"), the project is shaping up with Robert Redford likely to direct as well as play a role.
Cruise is being courted to play a congressman and Meryl Streep for a role as a journalist.
Cruise is also eyeing "The Ha-Ha," a Chuck Leavitt-scripted adaptation of a Dave King novel at WB. The actor would play a Gulf War vet rendered mute by his injuries who's charged with the care of a 9-year-old whose mother goes AWOL.
The actor's also been talking to helmer Spike Lee about "Selling Time," a Fox drama about a man who sells back chunks of time in his life for a chance to relive and change the worst day of his life. Lee has met with Cruise several times and is working on a rewrite of a script by Dan McDermott.
As Variety is careful to point out, "There are no guarantees on any pic," meaning that he'll probably taunt us with the prospect he'd take the movie in which he's unable to speak during much of his screentime (can Dakota Fanning still do nine years old?), eventually withdraw his name from consideration, and leave us with nothing but more stories about which centerpieces Katie Holmes has picked out for the wedding until he's ready to pretend he's going back to work again.
....................................................................................................................................................
Perhaps our talk of a mad rush scared you off. Well, don't be scared, and it's not too late - tickets are still on sale and if we all pitch in, we can prevent a cancellation. Anyway, it's not like you have a big indie music festival to attend or anything.
....................................................................................................................................................
Actor Sacha Baron Cohen, as the character Borat, arrives for the U.S. premiere of 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, October 23, 2006
Cohen's 'Bruno' preps for bigscreen makeover
Universal appears to be close to inking a $42.5 million deal for worldwide distribution rights to Sacha Baron Cohen's next project, "Bruno." Pic would be based on his fashion victim alter ego featured in "Da Ali G Show."
Posing as an Austrian TV reporter who's notably gay, Cohen wormed his way into style hot spots like New York's Fashion Week, getting people to say outrageous things about the fashion world, such as condemning the unstylish to concentration camps.
Bidding for Cohen's next pic has attracted interest from multiple studios and comes just before 20th Century Fox opens Cohen's "Borat" this Friday.
Universal had no comment on the deal on Sunday, but its $42.5 million offer for worldwide rights would be a significant increase from the $18 million budget that "Borat" carried. Fact that the price has gone up so high reflects the faith studios beyond Fox have in "Borat." Despite industry tracking that shows low levels of public awareness of the pic, "Borat" has played to raves in early screenings, and industry observers expect the pic to generate significant box office after word of mouth spreads to those uninitiated in the humor of the faux Kazakh journo.
While "Bruno" is expected to shoot in a manner similar to that of "Borat," featuring interview segments with real people unaware that the Bruno character is a put-on, Cohen may have to go beyond the fashion world to find suitable subjects.
In one "Ali G" episode for HBO, Cohen managed to talk his way into modeling underwear at a runway show. After that stunt, his visage is likely well known within the Fashion Week tents. Cohen has taken the character far afield before, however, using the Bruno character's gay mannerism to elicit uncomfortable reactions from college boys on spring break and University of Alabama football fans.
....................................................................................................................................................
In this handout photo provided by CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, anchor and Managing Editor Katie Couric interviews Michael J. Fox about his ads for stem cell research, broadcast on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006, in New York
Michael J. Fox has spoken out in response to Rush Limbaugh's recent accusations that he was exaggerating the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease in a political endorsement TV spot for a candidate who is in favor of stem cell research. Sitting down with Katie Couric--whom, we'd be remiss in failing to point out, would be the actor's mirror image were he to indulge his innermost businesswoman-drag fantasies--Fox explained that the problem was too much, not too little, medication:
"The irony is that I was too medicated. I was dyskinesic," Fox told Couric. "Because the thing about ... being symptomatic is that it's not comfortable. No one wants to be symptomatic; it's like being hit with a hammer." [...]
Fox told Couric, "At this point now, if I didn't take medication I wouldn't be able to speak." [...]
"My mother was visiting that day, was in the back room and she was saying throughout the filming of (the ad) -- and she was talking to my friends back there -- and she was saying, 'he's trying so hard to be still.' And so she was the one actually when the comments were made, she was the only who was really angry, and she said 'I can't even see straight.' I said, 'Mom, just relax, it's OK, don't worry about it.' But it's just not that simple. That's why we're doing this."
We doubt Fox's evocation of his angry, hurt mother will be enough to eke any more sympathy from Limbaugh than he has provided already in the weakly worded retraction on his website. To muster that kind of mea culpa from the recalcitrant radio host would require the kind of heartwrenching performance that only Fox's iconic TV mom, Meredith Baxter, is capable of, having mastered the craft of playing women who display heroic grace under nearly insurmountable pressures from countless, moving turns in Lifetime movies of the week.
....................................................................................................................................................
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, works on his comic strip in his studio in in Dublin, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006
DUBLIN, Calif. - A balding, bespectacled working stiff inexplicably loses his voice — except when speaking in rhyme or pinching his nose. It may sound like a farcical plot for a popular cartoon satirizing American office culture, but "Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams says he recovered less than a week ago from just such an affliction.
"I don't want to give false hope to people who are suffering from the same thing," Adams said, sitting at his drawing tablet in his suburban San Francisco office. "I don't even know if my voice is going to last. Maybe this is an illusion. It came back but in a few days it could go away again forever."
Adams, 49, appears to be a rare example of someone who has largely — but not totally — recovered from Spasmodic Dysphonia, a mysterious disease in which parts of the brain controlling speech shut down or go haywire. As many as 30,000 Americans are afflicted, typically in their 40s and 50s, experts say.
One of the most peculiar aspects of SD is that victims are typically unable to have intimate conversations in their normal voice. Yet they can speak under different circumstances, such as immediately after sneezing or laughing, or in an exaggerated falsetto or baritone, or while reciting poetry, according to SD support groups.
Patients are often so anxious about their speech that they stop breathing or have heart palpitations before trying to articulate their thoughts. There is no known cure — but many victims have improved their speech by changing tenor or pitch, or doing special breathing and relaxation exercises.
"It's extremely frustrating," said Dr. Krzysztof Izdebski, a voice and speech pathophysiologist in San Francisco who has treated more than 800 people with SD. "People who have this problem are tremendously socially handicapped. They look normal and may even say one or two normal words, but they have facial grimaces and they stutter and people think they're having a stroke. Society is very cruel toward them."
SD may be caused by a chromosomal abnormality that results in spasms of the vocal chords. It may cause spasms in the eyes, arms, legs and mouth. Many victims suffer multiple dystonias, or movement disorders.
Nearly three years ago, Adams developed a tremor in his right pinky whenever he tried to put pen to paper. He turned to a digital drawing tablet and stylus, and the spasms disappeared. Dilbert has been computer-generated ever since.
Then, Adams lost his voice in early 2005 following a bout with bronchitis and laryngitis. He withdrew; the thought of going to the grocery store without saying "hi" or "thank you" was depressing. Being unable to scream "fire!" or "watch out!" terrified him.
A specialist finally diagnosed Adams with SD and he began treatments of the tissue-paralyzing drug botulinum toxin. When injected into the muscles around the larynx, Botox — also used to smooth wrinkles — blocks nerve impulses and reduces spasms.
But the injections generally work for just three months. Side-effects include a breathy, inconsistent voice.
Adams, the former Pacific Bell financial analyst whose doodles mocking middle management became one of the country's most popular comic strips, hated the injections.
His only comfort was that he could sing and recite poetry with only minimal gasping and stammering. He decided to recite nursery rhymes every night in hopes of "re-mapping" his brain.
Last weekend, Adams was chanting "Jack Be Nimble" for the umpteenth time when it dawned on him: He wasn't having a stitch of difficulty.
He's been talking ever since — albeit with a raspy, tinny voice that sounds as if he's still recovering from the flu.
Adams isn't the first well-known figure to develop the condition. In 1992, public radio host Diane Rehm developed a scratchy cough, and by 1998 she had to take a four-month leave because her speech had become so tortured. Doctors feared she had throat cancer, Parkinson's disease or Lou Gehrig's disease — until researchers at Johns Hopkins University diagnosed her with SD.
Rehm's voice still sounds distinctly frail and cracked, but she has maintained a radio career. She said other patients should take comfort in the fact that she, Adams and others have recovered much of their speech.
"I had to work so, so hard to finally get it back and be comfortable with it," Rehm said in a phone interview Thursday. "Sometimes I listen to the early radio interviews I did, and it's hard to believe that that voice is mine. I try to do the very best I can."
The protagonist of Adams' comic strip — the bumbling, cubicle-dwelling engineer Dilbert — has long been the artist's alter-ego. While Dilbert hasn't discussed SD in the strip, he and his wry pet, Dogbert, are among the few cartoon characters who lack mouths.
"It's probably a coincidence," Adams said. "But it's a funny one."
....................................................................................................................................................
(l-r) Director Brett Ratner, Actor/Producer Robert Evans and an unidentified man are seen here surrounding pop star Michael Jackson in Florida at a Film Festival in April 2003
Perhaps feeling that he's gleaned all the horndogging wisdom longtime mentor and occasional make-out coach Robert Evans has to offer him, preternaturally hacky Rush Hour fauxteur Brett Ratner has now invited a Hollywood legend whose hot-tub-hosted appetites were even more outsized than those of his beloved teacher to work with him on the latest installment of his signature franchise. Today's Today's Variety reports that fugitive director Roman Polanski has been written into Rush Hour 3, currently shooting in Paris, and will play the part of a policeman who will try to interfere with stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker's efforts to bicker with one another while crashing a variety of comically undersized French automobiles. Var explains how Ratner recruited Polanski for the role:
Director Brett Ratner told Daily Variety that he persuaded Polanski to appear after a chance encounter while in pre-production in Paris. He expressed particular affection for Polanski's stint as an actor and director in 1976's "The Tenant" and the notion of directors such as Orson Welles, Sydney Pollack, Spike Jonze and Albert Brooks working as thesps.
"Roman is my favorite director and my favorite actor, so I asked Jeff Nathanson to write him into the movie," he added.
While Polanski may initially enjoy the attention during his stay on Ratner's set, we suspect he'll quickly tire of the director's repeated and transparent attempts to steal the kind of seduction techniques so unfailingly effective that they necessitate a lifetime exit from the country in which they're practiced. After the tenth instance of Ratner prematurely calling "Cut!" in the middle of a scene to pull aside his actor to ask him, "Yeah, that's a keeper. So tell me again: Do the Quaaludes or the Champagne come first? I can never keep that part straight," Polanski might start to feel a little used.
....................................................................................................................................................
Model Naomi Campbell (C) exits Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City in this June 27, 2006 file photo
LONDON - Naomi Campbell returned to a police station Thursday after allegedly being involved in an altercation the day before, police and news reports said.
Metropolitan Police had said Wednesday that officers were called to an address in central London in the afternoon and arrested a 36-year-old woman at 1:20 p.m. She was released on bail.
Police declined Thursday to say whether Campbell, 36, was involved. But in response to inquiries about her confirmed that "a 36-year-old woman" had returned to a police station Thursday morning and was released on bail until an undisclosed date in December.
The force has a policy of not naming people who have been arrested unless they are charged with a crime.
A statement from the Outside Organization, which represents Campbell, said, "We believe there has been a misunderstanding. Once police have investigated we are sure this will be resolved satisfactorily."
Campbell admitted in 2000 that she attacked her personal assistant Georgina Galanis. The model paid an undisclosed sum to Galanis and was not convicted of a crime.
....................................................................................................................................................
Singer Mariah Carey appears on stage during MTV's 'Total Request Live' show at the MTV Times Square Studios, April 12, 2006 in New York
HONG KONG - Mariah Carey's weekend concert was canceled Thursday because of poor ticket sales and what promoters said were the pop star's "unreasonable demands."
Carey was to perform Saturday at an outdoor space near Hong Kong's Central financial district. Promoter Concerts Asia said it had only sold 4,000 tickets, despite a "substantial" advertising campaign.
"We have decided to cancel the event effective immediately due to both the poor response of public ticket sales and also due to specific last-minute demands which we find wholly unreasonable and not with the best interests of Hong Kong, us and also the fans," said a statement posted Thursday on the promoter's Web site.
Concerts Asia declined further comment, and contact information for Carey wasn't immediately available.
Hits by the 36-year-old Grammy-winning singer include "We Belong Together."
....................................................................................................................................................
NBC Universal Chairman and CEO Bob Wright talks to reporters at a news conference in New York, May 12, 2004
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers need to take entertainment piracy as seriously as they do the theft of intellectual property from other sectors, NBC Universal Chairman and CEO Bob Wright said on Wednesday.
"There is not as much sympathy for ... the entertainment business from Congress as there would be if it was more of a traditional business that was impacted," Wright told a business gathering in Beverly Hills.
"If the paper tomorrow said that Boeing had just announced that a whole series of major engineering drawings on a military plane, a B-1 bomber replacement, had been taken and they were on a Norwegian Web site, the whole place would go crazy.
"The fact that music's being stolen and movies are being stolen doesn't draw that kind of attention. It's the same issue."
He cited a study that showed the six major studios lost $6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005.
NBC Universal, majority-owned by General Electric Co., owns Universal Studios and the NBC television network. The one major weak spot at GE, NBC Universal said last week it would cut operating expenses by $750 million by the end of next year, largely through eliminating 5 percent of its global work force, or about 700 jobs, in coming months.
Wright said politicians were not averse to fighting piracy, but wartime distractions meant Hollywood had to "constantly make sure that there's adequate attention paid" to the problem. He commended officials at the Justice and Commerce Departments for being "on the case."
Wright said other countries would be more inclined to battle entertainment piracy if America took a stronger stand. He expressed concern that countries like Britain and Germany -- which he said already had excellent laws -- were losing the battle, often against well-organized crime syndicates.
While he estimated that 10 percent of entertainment software such as DVDs and videogames were counterfeit in the United States and Japan, "the rest of the world starts out at 15 (percent). And the U.K. is maybe closer to 20 today, and that's only happened in the past two years. ... They're under assault."
....................................................................................................................................................
[i]"There is not as much sympathy for ... the entertainment business from Congress as there would be if it was more of a traditional business that was impacted,..."
"If the paper tomorrow said that Boeing had just announced that a whole series of major engineering drawings on a military plane, a B-1 bomber replacement, had been taken and they were on a Norwegian Web site, the whole place would go crazy."
"The fact that music's being stolen and movies are being stolen doesn't draw that kind of attention. It's the same issue."[/i]
It's the same issue! LOL HA HA HA!! LOL Good one! LOL Yes, Universal movies, NBC shows...should be protected for the safety of our country. Can George W. Bush declare war on downloaders? This is getting serious. Congress needs to treat Hollywood as seriously as they would treat terrorists. lol I'm assuming this generalization of Congressional motives is served up as an excuse for why NBC Universal is going to cut 5% of it's workforce?
Funny, I can't even think of anything that's come out of NBC Universal as of late that anyone would profit from by pirating. "My Name Is Earl" podcasts? Uh, those commercials for Universal Studios theme parks? Oh yeah! They stopped people from putting Saturday Night Live episodes on YouTube...did that almost bankrupt them? Oh I know! It was all those pirated copies of "Man of the Year" you know, that movie where Robin Williams is the president with the George Washington wig? Is that it?
Posted on Oct 26, 2006, 10:05 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Blood Diamond's ProstheticLimbGate is growing only uglier and more limbless: As you may recall, the controversy started with an item in Monday's Page Six in which the producers of the African diamond trade movie were accused of having callously failed to follow through with promises of artificial arms and legs for the film's cast of young amputee extras, a claim director Ed Zwick angrily refuted to LA Weekly's Nikki Finke yesterday, calling the smear "the work of someone who clearly bears the film ill will." Whomever this shadowy "someone" is--our minds run wild imagining a Bond-villain-type named De Beers with one eye and jagged, princess-cut diamonds for teeth--he appears to be at it again, as Page Six follows up today with yet another highly unflattering report. This time, however, they claim that in addition to failing to help pre-existing amputees, the Black Diamond production was also managing to create all new ones:
While Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connolly and Djimon Hounsou were shooting the movie - which depicts the horrors of the 1990s Sierra Leone civil war over control of lucrative diamond mines - special-effects man Edward Visage lost his hand while handling an explosive device called a squib.
One source on the set in South Africa told Page Six, "Warner Bros. was too cheap to bring in a special-effects guy from the U.S. They used a local guy, and there was an accident and the guy lost his hand. It's ironic because they also brought in orphans for extras who had lost their limbs from machete-wielding rebel soldiers in the war - and this guy lost a hand on set."
Despite Page Six's best attempts to stir up further stump-related trouble, they do concede that Visage received excellent medical care, a prosthetic hand and compensation (what's the going rate for Sierra Leone crew unions again?), a clear indication that the makers of Black Diamond have demonstrated that their intentions are honorable. That's more than we can say for that other production employing employing "exotic amputees"--Pirates of the Caribbean 3--whose cattle-called cast of imaginatively severed extras will be lucky to go home with so much as a hot lunch of catered Pollo Loco in their stomachs, much less the latest in prosthetic technology advancements.
....................................................................................................................................................
Members of the Screen Actors Guild will have to pay more money to get more money -- from residuals checks, that is.
SAG's national board approved a referendum late Sunday by a near-unanimous vote that would boost receipts between $5 million and $7 million annually for the guild's $55 million budget.
SAG said the funds are needed for improved processing of residuals checks -- often delivered several months late -- along with bolstering organizing, a new tech department and financing research and campaigns for the upcoming TV/theatrical and commercials contracts, both of which expire in 2008.
If accepted, the dues base would increase from $100 to $116 per year; the initiation fee would rise from $1,474 to $2,211; and the annual earnings cap -- income subject to dues -- would rise from $500,000 to $1 million, with those earnings taxed at 0.25%. Actors earning less than $200,000 would still pay 1.85% of earnings, and members who make between $200,001 and $500,000 would still pay 0.5% of earnings more than $200,000.
The move to hike dues comes two years after members narrowly spurned a dues hike that would have raised an additional $7.3 million annually. That proposal called for base dues to increase by $30 per year to $130 and for work dues to rise from 1.85% to 1.95% for earnings under $200,000 and from 0.5% to 1% on wages from $200,000-$500,000; new-member initiation fees would have jumped from $1,356 to $2,085.
Though SAG spent $4.4 million in a technology upgrade in 2002, delivery of residuals checks hasn't improved. Guild receives more than 200,000 such checks per month, but hasn't ever been able to convince studios and nets to automate the process.
The AFTRA-SAG Federal Credit Union, which has been handling about 20,000 checks monthly, told members in August it would stop direct deposit of the checks as of Dec. 1 after doing things that way for the past three decades. The credit union said the amount of time it was taking for the process was unacceptable, and placed the blame on a lack of automation.
SAG members last approved a dues hike in 1999.
....................................................................................................................................................
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley ceded his crown to Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain on Forbes.com's list as the top-earning dead celebrity.
The list, published on Tuesday, said grunge rocker Cobain earned $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006. Presley wound up in the No. 2 slot with $42 million, down from last year's $45 million.
Forbes.com bases its dollar amounts on licensing deals for using the deceased celebrities' work or image in advertising or elsewhere.
This was Cobain's first time on the list in its six years of publication. Presley has ruled the roost since its inception, said Forbes.com staff writer Lacey Rose.
Cobain's coup was due to his widow, actress and singer Courtney Love, who sold a 25-percent stake in the Seattle grunge group's song catalog to New York music publishing company Primary Wave.
Ranked after Presley is "Peanuts" cartoon strip creator Charles Schulz at $35 million.
Rounding out the top five were Beatle John Lennon at $24 million and groundbreaking physicist Albert Einstein at $20 million, whose estate profited from such licensing deals as the popular "Baby Einstein" educational videos.
Other celebrities on the list include Theodore Geisel, better known as children's book author Dr. Seuss; rhythm & blues pioneer Ray Charles, silver screen legend Marilyn Monroe and reggae superstar Bob Marley.
Past top earners include songwriter Irving Berlin and actor Marlon Brando.
Foxy Brown, whose birth name is Inga Marchand, enters Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006, in New York
NEW YORK - Foxy Brown was sentenced Tuesday to three years' probation for a fight with two nail salon employees, finally ending an assault case that dragged on for more than two years.
Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, tried to withdraw her guilty plea but a judge said the agreement was legitimate and imposed the sentence.
"I'm innocent," Brown argued before Judge Melissa C. Jackson, claiming she felt rushed at the time she made the plea agreement. She also said her previous lawyer had told her she would face jail time unless she agreed to the deal.
Jackson, after listening to last-ditch pleas from the 27-year-old rapper and her attorney, rejected the appeal for a two-week extension and new arguments, instead handing down the sentence worked out in earlier negotiations.
"The purpose of a reargument is not to let the parties go over issues that have already been decided," Jackson said. The judge warned Brown that if she didn't abide by the conditions of her probation, she faced a possible sentence of one year in jail.
Brown, accompanied by a bodyguard and her lawyer, arrived at the courthouse in a black sport utility vehicle. Her outfit included black high heels with little white polka dots, sunglasses and skintight black pants.
During the course of the trial, the rapper hired three attorneys, tried once before to reverse her guilty plea and was threatened with jail time for missing a court appearance Monday. An angry Jackson promised to throw Brown in jail for a year if she didn't show up for the sentencing.
An earlier effort to reach a plea bargain last December had also fallen through.
Brown pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault charges in August for kicking one employee and smacking a second worker in the face on Aug. 29, 2004, in an argument over payment for a manicure at Bloomie Nails.
Brown, whose albums include "Ill Na Na" and "Chyna Doll," is known for her revealing outfits and raunchy lyrics. Under the plea bargain, she is also required to take anger management classes.
....................................................................................................................................................
Rock musician Pete Doherty arrives at court in West London for a hearing in this Jan 11, 2006 photo
ROME - Pete Doherty broke a microphone stand and brandished it before fans during a Babyshambles concert at the Piper club.
Concert organizers said Doherty broke the stand and "threw it up in the air" Monday night, but did not say whether the stand hit anyone.
"During the concert the singer has interacted with the public `in his own way,' but without causing riots or anything," DNA Concerti said in a statement.
Doherty also broke all the instruments onstage during the stormy concert, the daily Corriere della Sera reported Tuesday. No one was reported injured.
According to the newspaper, the band's drummer was hit by an object and forced to leave the stage. Doherty grabbed the microphone stand and brandished it before the fans standing in the first rows.
Doherty, 27, has had a string of arrests in London for drug possession and is undergoing a court-ordered rehabilitation program. He is the on-off boyfriend of Kate Moss.
....................................................................................................................................................
Rapper Snoop Dogg, real name Calvin Broadus, arrives at Heathrow police station in this Thursday, May 11, 2006 file photo
IRVINE, Calif. - Prosecutors are considering charges against Snoop Dogg after authorities discovered a 21-inch collapsible baton in his bags as he boarded a New York-bound flight, authorities said Monday.
The rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, had the baton in his laptop case as he went through a security checkpoint at John Wayne International Airport on Sept. 27, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.
Snoop Dogg, 35, told sheriff's deputies that the baton was a prop for a movie he was filming in New York, Amormino said.
"He had a collapsible baton and it is classified as a dangerous weapon," Amormino said, adding that the stick collapsed to eight inches.
District attorney spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder said her office received the sheriff's report on Monday. She said prosecutors had not yet decided whether to charge Snoop Dogg, who was not arrested.
It wasn't the first time the rapper has had a problem at an airport.
In May, he accepted responsibility for using "threatening words or behavior" in an April brawl at Heathrow Airport in London. Snoop Dogg and five other men were arrested on charges of violent disorder and starting a brawl after some members of the rapper's party were denied entry to British Airways' first-class lounge.
Seven officers received minor injuries — mainly cuts and bruises — and one suffered a fracture to the hand.
British Airways has banned Snoop Dogg from future travel on the airline, it said last month.
Snoop Dogg was convicted in 1990 of cocaine possession and was charged with gun possession after a 1993 traffic stop. Facing a possible three years in prison, he pleaded guilty in exchange for three years' probation and his promise to make anti-violence public service announcements.
He also was acquitted of murder in 1996 following the death of an alleged street gang member killed by gunfire from the vehicle Snoop Dogg was traveling in.
Snoop Dogg's 1993 album "Doggystyle" sold 5 million copies.
....................................................................................................................................................
Seems like the prop could stay in New York if that's where he was filming. And if it was in his checked luggage it wouldn't be a problem. Why did he need to bring the prop with him to his seat?
Posted on Oct 24, 2006, 10:06 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Actress Jane Wyatt us seen in this Aug. 1957 file photo
LOS ANGELES - To the millions watching the 1950s TV show "Father Knows Best," actress Jane Wyatt was the wholesome stay-at-home mom who, the series' title notwithstanding, could be counted on every week to solve crises on the homefront.
"Each script always solved a little problem that was universal," she told The Associated Press in 1989. "It appealed to everyone. I think the world is hankering for a family. People may want to be free, but they still want a nuclear family."
Wyatt, who won three Emmy Awards, died Friday in her sleep of natural causes at her Bel-Air home, according to publicist Meg McDonald. She was 96.
"Ninety-six and a few months old is a wonderful life," her son, Christopher Ward, said Sunday.
Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and '40s, notably as Ronald Colman's lover in 1937's "Lost Horizon." She worked throughout the 1970s and 80s, appearing on TV shows including "St. Elsewhere."
But it was her years as Robert Young's TV wife, Margaret Anderson, on "Father Knows Best" that brought the actress her lasting fame. She gamely delivered lines like "Eat your dinner, dear," or "How did you do in school today?"
She appeared in 207 half-hour episodes from 1954 to 1960 and won three Emmys as best actress in a dramatic series in the years 1958 to 1960. The show began as a radio sitcom in 1949; it moved to television in 1954.
In later years critics claimed that shows like "Father Knows Best" and "Ozzie and Harriet" presented a glossy, unreal view of the American family.
In defense, Wyatt commented in 1966: "We tried to preserve the tradition that every show had something to say. The children were complicated personally, not just kids. We weren't just five Pollyannas."
It was a tribute to the popularity of the show that after its run ended, it continued in reruns on CBS and ABC for three years in prime-time, a TV rarity. The show came to an end because Young, who had also played the father in the radio version, had enough. Wyatt remarked in 1965 that she was tired, too.
"The first year was pure joy," she said. "The second year was when the problems set in. We licked them, and the third year was smooth going. Fatigue began to set in during the fourth year. We got through the fifth year because we all thought it would be the last. The sixth? Pure hell."
The role wasn't the only time in her 60 years in films and TV that Wyatt was cast as the warm, compassionate wife and mother. She even played Mr. Spock's mom in the original "Star Trek" series and the feature "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."
"In real life my grandmother embodied the persona of Margaret Anderson," said grandson Nicholas Ward. "She was loving and giving and always gave her time to other people."
She got her start in films in the mid-'30s, appearing in "One More River," "Great Expectations," "We're Only Human" and "The Luckiest Girl in the World." When Frank Capra chose her to play the Shangri-la beauty in "Lost Horizon," her reputation was made. Moviegoers were entranced by the scene — chaste by today's standards — in which Colman sees her swimming nude in a mountain lake.
Wyatt enjoyed career longevity with her reliable portrayals of genteel, understanding women. Among the notable films:
"Buckskin Frontier" (with Richard Dix), "None But the Lonely Heart" (Cary Grant), "Boomerang" (Dana Andrews), "Gentleman's Agreement" (Gregory Peck), "Pitfall" (Dick Powell), "No Minor Vices" (Dana Andrews), "Canadian Pacific" (Randolph Scott), "My Blue Heaven" (Betty Grable, Dan Dailey) and "Criminal Lawyer" (Pat O'Brien).
"Father Knows Best" enjoyed such lasting popularity in reruns and people's memories that the cast returned years later for two reunion movies. She also remained active on other projects and in charity work.
Wyatt was born in Campgaw, N.J., into a wealthy family in 1910, according to McDonald, her publicist. She was schooled at the fashionable Miss Chapin's school and Barnard College.
She left college after two years to apprentice at the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, Mass., alternating between Berkshire and Broadway and appearing with Charles Laughton, Louis Calhern, Lillian Gish and Osgood Perkins.
In 1935 she married Edgar Ward in Santa Fe, N.M., whom she met while in college. They had two sons, Christopher and Michael.
Her sons said their mother had had health problems since a stroke at 85, but that her mind was sharp until her death. "She continued to go to the theater, loved movies and spent time in her garden. She enjoyed her latter years," said Nicholas Ward.
A funeral Mass was scheduled for Friday, followed by a private burial.
Wyatt also is survived by three grandchildren Nicholas, Andrew and Laura; and five great grandchildren.
....................................................................................................................................................
Madonna's Malawian orphan's father Yohane Banda is seen in this undated photo
One day we will all be able to look back with a smile on the maelstrom of controversy that surrounded little David Banda, Malawi's most adorable demi-orphan, and the strange, leather-bodiced witch-lady who swooped in suddenly to spirit him away. (Perhaps it will require the part-time children's author adapting the entire series of unfortunate events into yet another whimsically illustrated bedtime story.) But as in all classic fairy tales, things tend to get darkest right before the "happily ever after" part, so it's somewhat befitting that the child's very much alive and increasingly media-friendly father has distressingly announced that he had never intended to give his son up permanently. From the NY Post:
"If we were told she wants to take the baby as her own, we would not have consented, because I see no reason why I should give up my son," said Yohane Banda, father of the 13-month-old, David Banda.
"I am just now realizing the meaning of 'adoption,' " said Banda, adding that he had expected Madonna to raise David for him but not keep him as her own. [...]
[H]e explained yesterday that at the time, he believed that "when David grows up, he will return back home to his village."
And so our original speculation--that Madonna had misunderstood the meaning of the Malawian word for "adoption" --turned out to not be the case at all. Rather, it was the senior Banda who was unclear on the terminology, surprised to find that "adoption" in fact implied a permanent transfer of custody, as opposed to, say, being a blanket legal term which refers to "the lending of a child to chameleonlike pop superstar for length of adolescence, upon which they shall be returned with newly acquired knowledge of horse-jumping techniques and hot trends in Parisian techno." Rest assured, however, that we have yet to hear the end of the story, as The Oprah Winfrey Show has announced an upcoming interview with Madonna --the go-to forum for anyone seeking a "let me explain to you how the shit has not hit the fan in quite the voluminous quantities as would initially have appeared"-style of high-profile damage control.
....................................................................................................................................................
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is seen here as Danny Archer in this publicity photo for Warner Bros "Blood Diamond"
Unfortunately, not every visit to Africa by the entertainment industry's goodwill ambassadors results in a Hollywood-quality happy ending like the one still being written about Madonna's selfless semi-orphan acquisition (much more on that shortly). Today's Page Six reports on Warner Bros.' promise to provide the 27 teenage and child amputees they used for atrocity-verisimilitude purposes during the filming of Blood Diamond with prosthetic limbs, a pledge that the studio apparently still hasn't fulfilled since shooting ended back in June:
Young Nkululo Mnisi - whose arms and legs were cut off by machete-wielding rebels - used to be taunted by cruel classmates as "baboon" because of the way he ran on his stumps and crutches. Mnisi told a South African newspaper that the dream that kept him going was the promise of getting artificial limbs so he'd be able to play soccer like a normal child.
But months after filming ended, Mnisi and his fellow amputees were still waiting. When they asked Warner Bros. about the promised prosthetics, they were allegedly told, "You will have to wait for December, when the movie comes out, so we can get some publicity out of it."
A local African charity, Eastern Cape, came to the rescue when it heard of the amputees' cruelly dashed hopes, and outfitted them with limbs paid for by the organization. Eastern Cape has said that if Warner Bros. does finally come through with the money, it will go to 27 other deserving amputees.
A rep for Warner Bros. told Page Six, "We're working on it."
Be shocked if you must at the thought of a Warner Bros. executive telling his assistant "to put a pin in the arms-and-legs thing until December," but really, the most disturbing aspect of this story is those young amputees' selfish demand for their limb-participation months in advance of the movie's release date; their agents undoubtedly explained to them that their prosthetics would be delivered only after their publicity commitments were completed, so this posturing in the tabloids is obviously just an opportunistic power play. As this transparent ploy unfolds, expect young Nkululo to threaten to pull out of a planned premiere-night photo-op playing soccer with star Leonardo DiCaprio in order to gain leverage with the cruelly exploited studio.
