Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

Jodie Foster comes out as gay at Golden Globes

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 18 Januari 2013 | 23.27

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - Hollywood actress Jodie Foster confirmed long-running speculation that she is gay by coming out at the Golden Globes awards on Sunday, but joked she wouldn't be holding a news conference to discuss her private life.

The notoriously private Foster stunned the audience of stars and Hollywood powerbrokers as she accepted a life-time achievement awarded by announcing she was now single.

"Seriously, I hope that you're not disappointed that there won't be a big-coming-out speech tonight," she said, "because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age."

Foster said she had always been up front with trusted friends and family about her sexual orientation.

"But now apparently, I'm told that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference ... that's just not me," she said.

Foster, 50, then talked to her "ex-partner in love" Cydney Bernard, from whom she recently split, and their two sons in the audience.

"Thank you Cyd, I am so proud of our modern family, our amazing sons," Foster said.

Over the years, Foster had come under withering criticism from the gay community for not publicly recognizing she was gay.

The two-time best actress Oscar winner for "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Accused" said she had valued her privacy because of her early acting career, which started at the age of three.

"If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you, too, might value privacy above all else," she said.

(This story is corrected with spelling of Bernard's first name to Cydney in paras 6 and 7)

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy and Mary Milliken; Editing by Jon Boyle)


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lindsay Lohan pleads not guilty to car crash charges

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lindsay Lohan pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to three charges related to a June traffic accident that led a judge to revoke the troubled actress' probation last month.

Lohan, 26, who did not attend the hearing, was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, lying to police and obstructing police when she said she was not behind the wheel of her sports car, which smashed into a truck in Santa Monica, California.

Lohan's not guilty plea was entered in a Los Angeles court by her attorney.

The "Liz & Dick" actress is on probation for a 2011 jewelry theft and could be sent to jail if she is found to have violated the terms of her probation.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Jane Godfrey, who will also preside over Lohan's probation hearing, on Tuesday ordered the actress to attend a January 30 pretrial hearing. A date for Lohan's probation hearing will be set at that time.

Lohan has been in and out of rehab and jail since a 2007 arrest for drunk driving and cocaine possession.

The former "Parent Trap" child star was arrested in New York on a misdemeanor assault charge on the same day that the Santa Monica car crash charges were filed.

The Manhattan district attorney's office has not filed a criminal complaint in the assault case.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Stacey Joyce)


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stuart Scott's cancer back - but he tweets he's fighting hard

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - ESPN anchor Stuart Scott tweeted that his cancer has returned, but that he's fighting hard.

How hard? He went from tweeting Monday night about his health to hosting SportsCenter, as if nothing were wrong. As he hosted, he was inundated with supportive tweets.

"Blessed by prayers... I'm back in the Fight," Scott wrote. "C reared its head again. Chemo evry 2 wks but I'll still work, still work out..still #LIVESTRONG"

In another tweet, he said that after chemotherapy treatments he goes straight to work out, doing either P90X or mixed martial arts.

Scott was treated for cancer in 2007 after doctors found malignant tissue following an emergency appendectomy. He returned to work at ESPN a month later.

In January 2011, Scott began undergoing chemotherapy after more cancerous tissue was removed. He again returned after a month.

Scott has become a symbol of hope for many who have loved ones fighting the disease or who are fighting it themselves. He traded tweets with some of them after his latest announcement.

He also tweeted Tuesday: "Don't like using profanity on Twitter but some of my fav well wishes R the good folks who say #F@$KCancer... I can't spell it out but I AGREE."


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kirk Douglas to receive Lifetime Achievement Honor from publicists

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Kirk Douglas will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th annual ICG Publicists Guild awards luncheon February 22 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the group announced Tuesday.

"No other actor personifies the term 'iconic movie star' more than Kirk Douglas," said Publicists Guild awards committee chairman Henri Bollinger. "His acting talent is the underlining basis for his extraordinary success, but it is also due to his uncanny understanding and appreciation for the role that publicity and promotion play in the ultimate success of movies that made him a box office sensation."

Douglas, 96, has earned three Oscar nominations for Best Actor - for "Champion" (1950), "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1953) and "Lust for Life" (1957) - and a lifetime achievement Oscar from the film Academy in 1996,

He's also received lifetime achievement awards from the American Film Institute, the Screen Actors Guild and the National Association of Theater Owners, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and National Medal of the Arts and a Kennedy Center Award.

Past recipients of the publicists' award include George Burns, Lew Wasserman, Warren Beatty, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, Julie Andrews, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Robert Zemeckis and Carol Burnett.


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, but can he flex Box-Office muscle?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Arnold Schwarzenegger is back at the box office, but will anyone notice? We'll find out on Friday, when he debuts as a kick-ass small-town sheriff in "The Last Stand,' his first starring role in nine years.

When Schwarzenegger famously delivered his "I'll be back" line in 1984, it was as a time-traveling android in "The Terminator." Following his stint as California governor and a very messy divorce from Maria Shriver complete with love child, his return as a box-office force seems almost as unlikely as his role as a time-traveling android.

But Hollywood has embraced the return of California's 65-year-old former "Governator." He has three films coming out in the next 12 months and Universal is developing "Triplets," a sequel to the Danny DeVito-Schwarzenegger comedy "Twins," as well as another "Conan the Barbarian" movie.

But whether the movie going public is as excited as Hollywood about Arnold's return is an open question.

Lionsgate is distributing "The Last Stand," an action film with a reported $50 million budget.

Directed by Korean director Kim Jee-woon and written by Andrew Knauer and Jeffrey Nachmanoff, "The Last Stand" is the tale of an aging border-town lawman drawn into a showdown with a drug cartel kingpin. Johnny Knoxville, Forrest Whitaker and Eduardo Noriega co-star. It was produced by Leonardo Di Bonaventura and was acquired by Lionsgate back in 2009 before Schwarzenegger was involved. Liam Neeson was attached to star at one point.

Lionsgate has proven adept at marketing genre films, including "The Expendables" and Tyler Perry franchises, and last year's "The Possession," and that will help "The Last Stand." Distribution chief Richie Fay tells TheWrap he's confident Schwarzenegger's return will connect with the public.

"I've been in a number of screenings and at the premiere," Fay told TheWrap Tuesday, "and the reaction to the film has been great. People are laughing at his one-liners, they seem very comfortable with Arnold back on the screen in his action mode."

Fay has reason to be bullish. Schwarzenegger's most recent screen appearance was in another Lionsgate entry, the ensemble action film "The Expendables 2," last August. That one has taken in more than $300 million worldwide. And he'll be back - there we go, again - with Sylvester Stallone in "The Tomb," for Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment in September.

Others aren't so sure.

"I can't see this film opening to more than the mid-teen millions," Exhibitor Relations senior analyst Jeff Bock told TheWrap. "There's not a lot of negative buzz, but people aren't dying to see him come back, either. Bottom line, I don't think he'll inspire anywhere the level of passion he once did at the box office."

If Lionsgate is to make money on "The Last Stand," it appears foreign will be critical; analysts see the film topping out at $30 million domestically.

"Schwarzenegger is still a big deal overseas," Bock said, "and that's where this movie will make or break itself.

I could easily see it doing double whatever it does in the U.S."

At this point in his career, the stakes for Schwarzenegger may be higher than they are for the studios. His paycheck for "The Last Stand" is reportedly in the $8 million to $10 million range, with some potential profit participation. That's about half of what he commanded in his heyday for the "Terminator" films, "True Lies" and "Total Recall."

Schwarzenegger's box-office clout was beginning to fade prior to his heading to Sacramento in 2003. His last film, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" made $150 million domestically for Warner Bros. in 2003, but his two previous movies, "Collateral Damage" and "The Sixth Day," topped out at $40 million and $34 million respectively.

Hollywood's expectations have changed, too. Most of Schwarzenegger's hits were big summer movies, with budgets well over $100 million. "The Last Stand" cost half that, and its release on a moderate 2,800 screens in January, typically a soft time for new releases, is no accident. "Ten," Schwarzenegger's third film, is scheduled for release on January 24, 2014, by Open Road Films.

"The Last Stand" is the first of three upcoming openings for action movies with older stars. Warner Bros. is opening "Bullet to the Head," starring Stallone, on February 1. Bruce Willis stars in "A Good Day to Die Hard" from Fox on February 15.


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

A Minute With: Patti Smith on her photography show

TORONTO (Reuters) - Singer Patti Smith is best known for her rock 'n' roll songs from the punk era of the 1970s, but visitors to a new photo exhibition will see a different side of the musician, poet and artist.

The 70 photos in Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) "Camera Solo" show, which runs from February 9 to May 19, include poetic images of gravestones, religious iconography and objects that belonged to dead writers and artists.

"The show expresses a lot about my inner life -- about a certain vision I have of the world, my travels, my aesthetic vision and some of the wonderful things I've seen, the people I've met," Smith said in an interview.

"Hopefully, it will inspire people to learn more about some of the artists or places I've shown, or to embark on their own studies or adventures."

The 66-year-old artist, whose songs include her rendition of "Gloria" and "Because the Night," hopes the Polaroid snapshots will rekindle a sense of appreciation for the commonplace.

The show includes photographs of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's slippers, author Virginia Woolf's bed, writer Susan Sontag's grave and poet Arthur Rimbaud's fork and spoon.

In a 2010 memoir "Just Kids" Smith wrote about her love affair and friendship with Mapplethorpe, which lasted until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1989 at age 42.

Smith, a mother of two was married to guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith who died in 1994. She released the album "Banga" last year and will begin a music tour in Japan.

She spoke to Reuters about the show and Polaroid photography, a pre-digital technique that produces an instant print.

Q: What inspires you as a photographer?

A: "Truthfully, I don't really think of myself as a photographer. I don't have all the disciplines and knowledge of a person who's spent their life devoted to photography. I've been taking pictures most of my life, but more seriously in the last decade ...

"Light inspires me. I'm drawn to architecture -- often graves, statues, trees -- things usually that are quite still ... I've been taking pictures continuously since 1995 until the end of Polaroid film. I'm taking very few pictures now because I have very little film left, most of it expired.

Q: Are your pictures about nostalgia or trying to hold on and remember that person?

A: It's not nostalgia. I'm not really a nostalgic person. I'm memory-oriented, so a sense of remembrance ... All of these things are to bring all these people and things up to date, to walk with us. These are artists, family, people that we love -- people that pass away. We can keep them with us always.

Q: So you aren't out there snapping everything -- you are being quite selective?

A: I never snapped everything. Polaroid by its nature makes you frugal. You walk around with maybe two packs of film in your pocket. You have 20 shots, so each shot is a world.

Q: Was there anything that you learned from Mapplethorpe in doing your photography?

A: "The one thing that we had in common is that both of us had a very good sense of composition. It's the same type of work ethic but I work quite differently. The atmosphere of my pictures is different. I drew a lot from 19th-century photographers and I don't really strive for the things that Robert strived for -- the deepest blacks and the most radiant whites.

"Robert was a real photographer. He was an artist, but he also really immersed himself in every aspect of how to project light in his work. In any event, we had a different eye, but we understood each other.

Q: How would you say photography intersects with your other creative work?

A: I think of myself really as a writer. So perhaps the pictures are somewhat literary, but I think they also stand on their own."

Q: Do you identify with the punk scene, a romantic tradition or is it more organic?

A: "I was involved in the pre- and post-punk scene in the 1970s ... I'm where I am today. I have two grown children, I've experienced a beautiful husband. I'm a widow. I'm doing my work. I feel unfettered by any scene. I feel like I've moved through many scenes, scenes before the punk movement and scenes after the punk movement, and the punk movement is in flux. It's still going on and it was going on before it had the name "punk movement."

Q: How do you reflect on the fact that you not only pushed music forward, but you also pushed things forward for women in the music scene?

A: "I think I work in two worlds. I'll always try to kick through a wall. I did that when I was younger and I still have my way of doing that ... People have said that I've opened up things for women, but look what they've done."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Paul Casciato)


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

In online baby shower, Shakira seeks mosquito nets, vaccines for the poor

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer Shakira and Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué are asking fans to donate gifts like mosquito nets and vaccines for the world's poorest children in an online baby shower to mark the couple's first child.

The 35-year-old Colombian pop star, who is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and the FC Barcelona center back said on Wednesday they had launched a "virtual living room" for purchase of life-saving items which will be distributed to children and communities in some of the poorest parts of the world.

The singer, who has not announced her due date but has posted recent photographs indicating the baby is likely due later in January.

"To celebrate the arrival of our first child, we hope that, in his name, other less privileged children in the world can have their basic needs covered through gifts and donations," the couple said in an announcing the "Inspired Gifts" program.

Fans and supporters can enter the virtual shower and pay for items ranging from a $5 mosquito net, which protects babies from malaria or $10 for polio vaccines for 17 children, to the top-priced $110-item - therapeutic food, which is a peanut-based paste that can save an acutely malnourished child.

The virtual shower can be accessed at http://uni.cf/baby.

Shakira has also been working on her eighth studio album and will fill in for Christina Aguilera as one of the regular coaches for the next season of the U.S. singing competition "The Voice."

Shakira first publicly confirmed her relationship with Piqué in March 2011 and revealed in September that they were expecting their first child.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

"Diff'rent Strokes" star Conrad Bain dies at 89

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Conrad Bain, best known for his role on the 1970s and '80s television comedy "Diff'rent Strokes" as a wealthy, white New Yorker who adopts two young black boys from Harlem, has died at age 89, his daughter said on Wednesday.

Bain, who starred opposite the young Gary Coleman on the NBC sitcom as his adoptive father, Philip Drummond, died of natural causes at a comfort-care facility in Livermore, California, east of San Francisco, on Monday. He was three weeks shy of his 90th birthday, according to his daughter, Jennifer.

Born in Alberta, Bain served in the Canadian Army during World War Two, became a U.S. citizen in 1946 and went on to a career as an actor on Broadway and television. He often played erudite, professional characters such as lawyers, executives, politicians or doctors.

Following a recurring role on the daytime vampire drama "Dark Shadows" as an innkeeper, Bain broke into prime-time comedy with a supporting role on Norman Lear's "All in the Family" spin-off "Maude," which starred Bea Arthur in the title role.

On "Maude," Bain played a conservative physician and next-door neighbor, Dr. Arthur Harmon, who was frequently at political odds with the outspokenly liberal Maude but was best friends with Maude's husband, Walter.

At the end of that show's six-year CBS run in 1978, Bain landed his own sitcom, "Diff'rent Strokes," in which he played Drummond, a rich, widowed industrialist who takes in the two young sons of his housekeeper after she dies, creating a racially mixed family in an era when depictions of such households were rare on TV.

Joining Drummond's 13-year-old daughter, Kimberly, and a ditzy new housekeeper, Mrs. Garrett, the two boys, precocious 8-year-old Arnold, played by Coleman, and his quieter 12-year-old brother, Willis, find themselves in the lap of luxury as they adjust to a new life on Park Avenue.

The show ran for eight seasons, 1978-1986, on NBC, and went into wide re-run syndication around the world. Coleman's oft-repeated line to his brother, "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" became a pop culture catch phrase.

Coleman, who grappled with a series of financial, legal and domestic woes later in life, died in May 2010 at age 42 after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

Bain returned periodically to the stage during the show's network run and reprised the Philip Drummond role on a 1996 episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," which starred Will Smith as a young rapper from a tough Philadelphia neighborhood who ends up living with wealthy relatives in California.

Bain also briefly co-starred on prime-time TV in the 1987-88 season in the Fox network political comedy "Mr. President," as the loyal chief of staff to the title character, played by George C. Scott.

Bain is survived by his daughter and two sons, Mark and Kent.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Dan Grebler)


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

"Dear Abby" advice columnist Pauline Phillips dead at 94

(Reuters) - Pauline Phillips, the "Dear Abby" newspaper columnist who dished out advice to millions of confused, troubled and lovesick readers in America and around the world, has died at the age of 94, her daughter said on Thursday.

Phillips, whose twin sister Esther wrote the rival "Ask Ann Landers" column, died in Minneapolis on Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

"I have lost my mother, my mentor and my best friend," daughter Jeanne Phillips said in a statement released by the syndicator of the "Dear Abby" column, Universal Uclick.

"My mother leaves very big high heels to fill with a legacy of compassion, commitment and positive social change. I will honor her memory every day by continuing this legacy," Jeanne Phillips added

Phillips' family announced in August 2002 that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Phillips had brought daughter Jeanne in to collaborate on the syndicated newspaper column in 1987 and in December 2002 turned over all responsibility for it to her.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey; Editing by Sandra Maler)

(This story corrects name of her sister's column in 2nd paragraph)


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Schilling to sell bloody sock worn in Red Sox 2004 World Series

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, owner of a bankrupt video game company, plans to auction off a blood-stained sock he wore in the historic 2004 World Series championship.

The sock, worn by Schilling in Game Two of the first World Series won by the Red Sox in 86 years, is expected to fetch more than $100,000 when it hits the auction block next month, Chris Ivy, director of sports at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, said on Thursday.

Schilling took the mound after having an unorthodox surgical procedure done on his injured right ankle, enabling him to pitch in Game Two of the team's four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The sock had been on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, since 2004, Ivy said.

Online bidding for the sock will open at $25,000 on February 4, followed by a live auction in New York on February 23, he said.

Last year, the state of Rhode Island sued Schilling and the former head of a state economic development agency over a $75 million loan guarantee the agency made to 38 Studios, a failed video game company owned by the retired baseball player.

The quasi-public agency made the loan in 2010 to lure Schilling, who promised to bring 450 jobs to the economically depressed state from neighboring Massachusetts. The deal was brokered by former Rhode Island governor Donald Carcieri.

38 Studios filed for bankruptcy in June, leaving Rhode Island taxpayers responsible for repaying roughly $100 million, including interest, to private investors who had bought bonds the state issued on behalf of the company.

The lawsuit charges some of the defendants committed larceny and permitted the video game company to rely on financial assumptions that were based on "known false assumptions."

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and David Gregorio)


23.27 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger