NEWS ARCHIVE [page 8]
LIVE 8 BILLED AS THE WORLD'S GREATEST CONCERT [7/3/05]
The world's biggest music stars united in concerts around the globe on July 2, 2005 to put pressure on political leaders to tackle poverty in Africa. Concerts in 10 cities, including London, Barrie, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome and Moscow played to hundreds of thousands of people. A TV audience of several hundred million were watching the gigs, ahead of the G8 summit of leaders next week. Bob Geldof said the day had been "full of hope and possibility and life". In London Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Sir Elton John and Sting all performed. In Philadelphia, with host Will Smith, Destiny's Child, Jay Z and Bon Jovi were among the big name performers. In Canada, Bryan Adams and Neil Young entertained the crowd, while the Pet Shop Boys played in front of Red Square in Moscow. In Tokyo, which had been the first of the concerts to start, Bjork performed, while in Berlin Green Day were among the big name stars. In Johannesburg the biggest cheer of the night was for former leader Nelson Mandela. He told the crowd that the G8 leaders had a "historic opportunity to open the door to hope and the possibility of a better future for all".
 
GAY SLUR SHELVES REGGAE CONCERT [BBC.CO.UK, 6/29/05]
A reggae festival in Paris has been cancelled after complaints about anti-gay lyrics of singer Sizzla. The Garrance Reggae Festival featuring Sizzla was called off "because of the risk of public disorder", according to the event's organizers. Six of the singer's eight planned concerts in France have so far been cancelled.
 
SOUL SINGER LUTHER VANDROSS DIES [BBC.CO.UK, 7/2/05]
American soul singer Luther Vandross has died at the age of 54, two years after suffering a major stroke. One of the leading romantic singers of his generation, he sold 25 million albums and won dozens of awards. Even after his stroke in 2003, he kept recording, winning four Grammys for his final album Dance With My Father.
 
FOUR TOPS' BENSON DIES OF CANCER [BBC.CO.UK,  7/2/05]
Renaldo "Obie" Benson, a member of Motown singing group the Four Tops, has died, aged 69, from lung cancer, in the Detroit hospital. He was diagnosed after having a leg amputated due to circulation problems. The Four Tops sold over 50 million records and had hits including Reach Out (I'll be There). They last appeared together in April on US TV's Late Show With David Letterman.
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50 CENT [6/26/05] - Thanks for the "love" you extended Toronto while here shooting your feature film "Get Rich Or Die Tryin".
 
PRODUCERS TO PREDICT LIVE 8 BROADCAST [6/25/05]
Producers of the upcoming Live 8 said Saturday the shows will be shown around the world in what they billed as the largest-ever broadcast of a live event. Broadcast on television, radio, the internet, and even mobile phones will be accessible to a potential audience of 5.5 billion people, or 85% of the world's population. "This monumental live broadcast is without a doubt the largest global live transmission in history, spanning the entire world, and importantly will be the first to truly embrace the powerful broadband internet," Live 8 executive producer Kevin Wall said. The eight July 2 concerts in cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, Rome and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be broadcast in more than 140 countries.
 
MUSIC PROMOTER, CHET HELMS, DIES [AP,  6/26/05]
Chet Helms, the revered father of the 1967 Summer of Love and a music promoter who launched the career of singer Janis Joplin, has died of complications from a stroke. He was 62. Helms was the founder and manager of the Big Brother and the Holding Company with Joplin as its lead singer.
 
GAS STATION OWNER CASHES IN 1.4 MILLION PENNIES [AP,  6/24/05]
FLOMATION, Ala - Edmond Knowles started out saving pennies in a 5-gallon can. Thirty-eight years later, he was storing them in four 55-gallon drums and three 20-gallon drums - nearly 1.4 million in all. Knowles, who runs a gas station, cashed them in Wednesday, pocketing $13,804.59 after they were counted at a bank.
 
ACADEMY INVITE FOR RAY STAR FOXX [BBC.CO.UK,  6/25/05]
Actor Jamie Foxx, who won an Oscar for his role in Ray earlier this year, has been invited to join the organization which hands out the awards. Foxx is one of 112 people who have been offered membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. New members will be inducted into the organization at an invitation-only reception on 21 September.
 
MUSIC AWARD SHOWS IN TORONTO [6/20/05]
The 1st Annual Toronto International Reggae Music Awards held on Sunday, June 19, 2005 at the York Event Theatre, was a huge success based on comments from participants and organizers. Rich Kid and Shelly James won Best Reggae Music Video with "In The Mix" and Casper won Dancehall Album of the year with "Flip Deh Mood". Jah Beng who is in town promoting his cd "River of Healing" was in attendance. Congrats to all the winnners! While the MuchMusic Video Awards, held on the same day and attended by national and international superstars had stargazers camped outside the CHUM-City building on Queen Street trying to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars. The Backstreet Boys are in town. K-OS won four awards - two for music video clips taken from his acclaimed album "Joyful Rebellion", a shared award for best director on "Man I Used To Be", MuchVibe Award for best rap video and best cinematography trophy for director of photography Adam Marsden. "Crabbuckit" won best pop video.
 
PICASSO'S LOVER TO SELL SKETCHES [BBC.CO.UK,  6/18/05]
A former lover of Pablo Picasso is to sell 20 sketches by the artist at an auction in Paris later this month. The selection of artwork is estimated to be worth up to $2.4m (£1.3m). Genevieve Laporte, 79, had a secret two-year affair with Picasso, whom she first met as a student when she interviewed him for a school newspaper. "He was a tender man, respectful, intelligent, timid," said Ms Laporte. "Not at all the abominable snowman we're used to hearing about." Picasso sketched many pictures of Ms Laporte while on holiday in St Tropez in 1951 at the height of the couple's affair, when she was 24. Many sketches bear the inscription "For Genevieve".
 
700,000 DOWNLOAD BEETHOVEN MUSIC [BBC.CO.UK,  6/17/05]
Nearly 700,000 listeners of BBC Radio 3 downloaded live performances of Beethoven's first five symphonies, with number one proving the most popular. The music was performed as part of The Beethoven Experience on Radio 3 and free downloads were available for a week-long trial. The remaining symphonies - six to nine - will be available to download for seven days after they are broadcast later this month.
 
NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL IS SO BIG . . .  [AP,  6/12/05]
The New York Asian Film Festival — always one of the high points of the movie year — has grown so big it needs two theaters. "I don't think we can get any bigger," fest honcho Grady Hendrix enthused about this year's shindig, which kicks off Friday. Among the 31 flicks from Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, India and the Philippines unreeling at Anthology Film Archives (the fest's longtime home) and the just-added Imaginasian are Mind Game, One Nite in Mongkok, Kekexili, A Snake of June, Samaritan Girl and Godzilla Final Wars. Godzilla is guaranteed to be one of the fest's hottest tix. The 28th Japanese feature about the big guy with wiggling tentacles and fiery bad breath, is being touted by its producers in Tokyo as the last Godzilla flick. But they've said that before. The New York Asian Film Festival unspools Friday through June 26 at the Anthology (in the East Village) and June 24-July 2 at the Imaginasian (on the Upper East Side).
 
BACKSTREET BOYS TO BEGIN TOUR JULY 22/05 [AP,  6/11/05]
The Backstreet Boys will launch a 28-city tour to promote their new album, "Never Gone", which is set for release Tuesday. The tour will open July 22/05 in West Palm Beach, Fla. and end Sept. 21/05 in Portland, Ore. "Never Gone" is the first studio album from the Backstreet Boys in almost five years. Tickets go on sale to the public June 17/05.
 
BABE RUTH SALE CONTRACT SELLS FOR $996K [AP, 6/10/05]
NEW YORK - The 'cursed' 1919 contract that shipped Babe Ruth from Boston to the Bronx sold at auction Friday for a staggering $996,000, delighting its owner - a die-hard Yankees fan - and a hunger-relief group designated to receive financial windfall from the sale. "I was prepared to pay almost whatever it took," said Pete Siegel, head of Manhattan-based Gotta Have It Collectibles, after his winning offer. The five-page typed contract recorded the unprecedented deal blamed for dooming generations of Red Sox fans to heartbreak as victims of "The Curse of the Bambino". The Red Sox, with Ruth, had won the World Series one year earlier. They wouldn't taste a title again until last year, when "The Curse" was finally broken with their World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
 
SPIELBERG PREMIERE GETS NEW VENUE [BBC.CO.UK,  6/5/05]
The World premiere of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds has been moved to a new venue in Tokyo due to security fears. There are reports the premiere of the Tom Cruise film had been cancelled altogether, however distributor UIP said that was untrue. A statement by UIP said the screening on 13 June would now take place at the Virgin Roppongi as it was more central. The new film, based on HG Wells classic about a Martian invasion, is to be released worldwide on 29 June.  In a statement released on its website earlier in the week, UIP said: "To our regret, we have decided to cancel the showing because of safety concerns." - - - more on Spielberg - - Steven Spielberg has been voted the greatest director of all time by movie magazine readers, beating peers Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese. The Schindler's list director topped a poll of 10,000 Empire Magazine readers. Hitchcock, who directed Psycho and Rear Window, came second while The Aviator film-maker Scorsese was third.
 
COLDPLAY ALBUM SETS ONLINE RECORD [BBC.CO.UK,  6/4/05]
British rock band Coldplay have set a record for internet pre-orders with their new album X&Y. The record, which has been at the top of Amazon's UK chart since March, has surpassed the mark set by singer Dido's 2003 album Life For Rent. The album is widely tipped to go straight in at number one on 12 June when the charts are revealed.
 
MICHAEL JACKSON TREATED IN EMERGENCY ROOM [AP, 6/5/05]
Michael Jackson was taken to an emergency room Sunday for treatment of a back problem that has plagued him throughout his molestation trial, a spokesman said. Jackson, accompanied by a bodyguard, arrived at the Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital about five miles from his Neverland ranch at about 2:30 p.m., spokeswoman Raymone K. Bain said. Bain said stress contributed to the entertainer's back problem.
 
SONY ORDERED TO PAY MEAT LOAF [AP,  5/28/05]
Sony Music was ordered to pay $5 million for not putting a Cleveland record company's logo on Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album. "Today, David beat Goliath," said Cleveland record executive Steve Popovich, who hugged jurors after Friday's decision. A former talent scout who helped Epic Records land such superstars as Michael Jackson, Boston and The Charlie Daniels Band, Popovich created Cleveland International Records in 1977 and signed singer Marvin Lee Aday — stage name Meat Loaf. He got Epic, a CBS Records subsidiary, to release "Bat Out of Hell," which sold more than 30 million copies and was among the most popular records of all time. Sony, which bought out CBS, paid $6.7 million to Popovich and others at the now-defunct Cleveland company in 1998 to settle a lawsuit over album royalties. The settlement required Sony to place the Cleveland International Records logo on future Meat Loaf albums, but Sony delayed for more than a year. Sony claimed the omission was a mistake that it was later corrected. Sony planned to appeal Friday's decision.
 
PRODUCER MERCHANT BURIED IN INDIA [BBC.CO.UK,  5/29/05]
Merchant Ivory producer Ismail Merchant, who died last week, has been buried in India. Relatives and friends attended the funeral in Merchant's home town of Bombay on Saturday afternoon. Merchant, who made acclaimed period films such as Howards End, A Room With A View, and Remains of the Day with James Ivory, died on Wednesday aged 68. Merchant died in a London hospital but the cause of death was unclear. A spokesman said the Indian-born producer had suffered from stomach problems over the past year. Merchant Ivory won six Oscars since the pair's famous partnership began in 1961 with German-born screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Merchant met Ivory in a New York coffee shop and their first film, The Householder, was based on a novel by Prawer Jhabvala. Their films helped revive audiences' tastes for period dramas, and helped actress Emma Thompson win a best actress Oscar for the 1992 film Howards End. Merchant produced almost 50 films for the company and turned his hand to directing on a handful of occasions. The collaboration went on to earn them a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema.
 
OLIVER STONE ARRESTED [AP, 5/28/05]
Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and driving while intoxicated, police said Saturday. Stone, 58, was arrested Friday night at a police checkpoint on Sunset Boulevard after showing signs of alcohol intoxication, police Sgt. John Edmundson said. A search of his Mercedes turned up drugs, Edmundson said. He did not specify what kind, but Lt. Micaela Garland said police confiscated pills that were being analyzed at a lab. Stone was released Saturday morning after posting $15,000 bail. In 1999, the filmmaker pleaded guilty to drug possession and no contest to driving under the influence and was ordered into a rehabilitation program. Stone's films include the recent "Alexander," "JFK" (1991) and "Natural Born Killers" (1994). He won Academy Awards for directing in 1989 for "Born on the Fourth of July" and in 1986 for "Platoon," which also won the Oscar for best picture. He lives in Santa Monica.
 
TV's RIDDLER ACTOR GORSHIN DIES [BBC.CO.UK,  5/19/05]
Actor Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler in the Batman TV series, has died at the age of 72. A renowned impressionist, Gorshin had long-running show in Las Vegas as well as a long list of TV and film credits. His final role in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation will be broadcast in the US on Thursday. He died on Tuesday having "put up a valiant fight with lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia," his wife Christina said in a statement. Gorshin played the dastardly Riddler from 1966 to 1969, opposite Adam West as Batman.
 
BELGIAN DRAMA AWARDED PALME D'OR [BBC.CO.UK,  5/21/05]
Belgian drama L'Enfant (The Child) has won the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes film festival. It beat 20 other films to the prestigious award at the annual event. L'Enfant is a gritty urban tale of a young couple living on the breadline in France, directed by brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Western Dardene. The Cannes film festival is the world's most prestigious film industry gathering, attracting more than 40,000 movie industry workers every year.
 
ACTOR FREEMAN IN ANTI-PIRACY MOVE [BBC.CO.UK,  5/20/05]
Film-makers must act quickly to prevent online piracy hitting the movie industry, actor Morgan Freeman said. "It is too late when the public is two or three steps ahead of you, and then you are playing catch-up," he said. Independent film firms were likely to develop the technology to protect new movies, he told Cannes film festival. Earlier this year the European Film Piracy Summit in London was told that movie piracy cost the industry $7 billion in 2003.
 
U.S. MOVIE GROUP WARNS CHINA OF PIRACY FALLOUT [REUTERS,  5/21/05]
The industry group representing the major Hollywood studios said on Saturday it has warned Beijing of an increasingly restless Congress and possible trade consequences if China does not do more to fight piracy. Dan Glickman said he delivered the message to heads of various government departments in Beijing this week during his first visit to China as new chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Glickman took over the job last year from industry veteran Jack Valenti leading a group whose members include Walt Disney Co., Time Warner's Warner Bros., Sony's Columbia Pictures and Viacom's Paramount Pictures. The MPAA estimates about 95 percent of all DVDs sold in China are pirated, costing the industry $280 million last year.
 
BOLLYWOOD OFFER FOR SHOAIB AKHTAR [BBC.CO.UK,  5/14/05]
A leading Bollywood producer has offered Pakistan's top cricket star Shoaib Akhtar a lead role in his next film, Gangster. The producer, Mahesh Bhatt, who has worked with Pakistani actors before, is meeting Akhtar in Karachi next week to persuade him to accept the role. According to him, Akhtar is amused and surprised by the offer, but is willing to read the script. The proposed film is about an underworld mafia boss who is betrayed by the girl he loves. Bhatt and his director, Anurag Bose, believe the flambouyant cricketer has a lot of raw emotion, animal magnetism and "the vulnerability of a chile" - qualities which they believe are needed to essay the gangster's role. Shoaib Akhtar, who has been recently left out of the Pakistani national team on a tour of West Indies, has appeared in a commercial currently being shown on Indian television.
 
DAVE CHAPPELLE SAYS HE'S NOT CRAZY [AP, 5/15/05]
Comedian Dave Chappelle wants to set things straight: "I'm not crazy. I'm not smoking crack," he tells Time magazine in an interview more than a week after his hit Comedy Central show was suspended and the rumors started to fly. "I'm definitely stressed out", said Chappelle, who took off last month to South Africa for a "spiritual retreat", leaving his fans - and even his agent and publicist - wondering where he went. "You hear so many voices jockeying for position in your mind that you want to make sure that you hear your own voice", he said. "So I figured, let me just cut myself off from everyone, take a minute and pull a Flintstone - stop a speeding car by using my bare feet as the brakes."  The 31-year old comedian said he fled to stay with friends in Durham because he wasn't happy with the direction of the show, which is behind only "South Park" as Comedy Central's most watched program. "If you don't have the right people around, you're moving at a million miles an hour, you can lose yourself", he said. Everyone around me says, "You're a genius, you're great, that's your voice, but I'm not sure they're right".  Writer's Note: Talk to Bill Cosby, he can provide good advice on how to stay in the game.

 

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