TheSunNews.com: Celebrities

NY fracking foes: will become lobby if necessary

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:49 EDT

Artists Against Fracking said neither the group nor supporters Yoko Ono or Sean Lennon have been told to register as lobbyists in their campaign against gas drilling in New York, but will if necessary to continue their work.

A good-government advocate and two lobbying experts said the state should review whether Artists Against Fracking and its supporter-celebrities should be registered as lobbyists.

The group and nearly 200 entertainers connected with it aren't currently registered lobbyists, a search by The Associated Press of the database of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics shows.

PSY to revise song over worry it may offend Arabs

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 03:13 EDT

PSY says he will change the title and lyrics of his potential "Gangnam Style" follow-up over worries it could offend Arabs.

The announced title for the song can be written as "Assarabia" or "Assaravia" in English. It's slang used by South Koreans to express thrills. It suggests no ethnicity or body part, but worries have risen that Arabs might misinterpret the title and find it derogatory.

PSY said Monday on a South Korean social media website that he has decided to change the title. Some lyrics also will change.

Holmes tells Allure she hopes 2013 is 'peaceful'

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:19 EDT

Katie Holmes doesn't talk about her split from actor Tom Cruise but she does say she hopes this year is better than the last.

The actress tells Allure magazine she wants 2013 to be "a peaceful year for a lot of people."

She goes on to cite some of 2012's major headlines like Hurricane Sandy and the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, adding she hopes "it's a good year for everyone."

China's homegrown hit films struggle overseas

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:40 EDT

The surprise hit in Chinese theaters last year was a low-budget, wacky road-trip comedy that even beat out global blockbuster "Avatar" to become the country's highest-grossing film ever. But "Lost in Thailand" found just a paltry $57,000 during its U.S. theatrical release.

The film that earned 1.26 billion yuan ($200 million) in China joins other homegrown hits that have flopped internationally, and is the latest sign that while the country has become a box-office superpower, it faces a harder task fulfilling its leaders' hopes that its studios will be able to rival Hollywood for global influence.

Action-comedy "Let the Bullets Fly," starring Chow Yun-fat, grossed $111 million at home but $63,000 in the United States, while action-fantasy "Painted Skin: The Resurrection," starring Donnie Yen, earned $113 million domestically but $50,400 in the U.S., according to Hollywood.com.

Thirty Seconds to Mars debuts single in space

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:54 EDT

Rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars wanted the announcement for their latest studio album to be out of this world. And that's where the album's first single debuted.

"Up in the Air" was sent to the International Space Station for an exclusive listening Monday. It will be released Tuesday on Earth.

The new album, "Love Lust Faith + Dreams," will be available May 21.

Lohan will go to rehab as part of plea deal

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:29 EDT

Lindsay Lohan isn't headed back to jail - but she won't be free to party for a while either.

The troubled 26-year-old actress accepted a plea deal on Monday in a misdemeanor car crash case that includes 90 days in a locked-down rehabilitation facility that she won't be able to leave.

Lohan, who has struggled for years with legal problems and been briefly jailed five times, pleaded no contest to reckless driving and lying to police who were investigating the accident involving the actress in June along Pacific Coast Highway.

Bank buys R&B star R. Kelly's Chicago-area home

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:39 EDT

R&B star R. Kelly's Chicago-area mansion has been sold for $950,000 in a foreclosure auction.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports (http://tinyurl.com/cg7bup2) that Kelly's Olympia Fields home was sold Monday to J.P. Morgan Chase, which already held the mortgage. Chase set the opening bid at $950,000, then submitted the only offer.

The property once was valued at more than $5 million. Last year, Chase stated in court files that Kelly still owed about $3 million on the 11,140-square-foot home. Once a judge approves the deal, the bank can put it on the market.

Review: Much-hyped Palma Violets delivers on debut

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:54 EDT

Palma Violets, "180" (Rough Trade)

There were lots of whispers and mumbles about Palma Violets before the release of its debut album '180' in home country Great Britain, and quite rightly so.

The quartet really is bringing something fresh to a somewhat stale chart with growling guitars and pounding drums, and there isn't anything quite like it kicking around at the moment.

Music Review: Anthrax covers 1970s rock on new EP

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:18 EDT

Anthrax "Anthems" (MRI/Megaforce)

There's a revelation on Anthrax's "Anthems" EP: Rush's music is annoying, no matter who plays it.

The speed metal kings, driven by drummer Charlie Benante's infatuation with early Neil Peart, chose Rush's "Anthem" as the inspiration for their eight-track EP in which they cover classic 1970s rock bands that influenced them. Suffice it to say the jarring stop-and-start timing and riffing of a Rush song doesn't work with the heaviest of heavy metal bands, either.

Gergiev fund embezzlement case postponed

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:02 EDT

A court in Moscow has postponed initial hearings in the case of two men charged with embezzling 245 million rubles ($8 million) from the charitable foundation of renowned conductor Valery Gergiev.

The foundation's former director Igor Zotov and his alleged accomplice Kazbek Lakuti are charged with siphoning off the money to buy six apartments in an elite building in Moscow.

Moscow's Tverskoi Court was to begin hearings in the case on Monday, but postponed them for procedural reasons until April 4.

China's 'Mystery' honored at Asian Film Awards

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:29 EDT

Chinese melodrama "Mystery" and veteran Filipino performers Nora Aunor and Eddie Garcia were honored with the top prizes at the Asian Film Awards.

The film directed by the often-censored Lou Ye tells the story of a middle-age woman who plans to take revenge on her husband after discovering his infidelity.

Lou said backstage Monday night that the award was an encouragement to the whole team who worked on the film, including photographers and art directors. "Mystery" also took home the award for best newcomer, Qi Xi, and best screenwriters.

Pair accused of plotting to kill singer Joss Stone

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:54 EDT

Prosecutors said Monday two men accused of plotting to rob and kill soul singer Joss Stone planned to decapitate her, then dump her body in a river.

The suspects, Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool, were arrested in June 2011, close to the singer's house after suspicious neighbors reported them to police. They never reached her house.

Opening the case at Exeter Crown Court, prosecutor Simon Morgan told a jury the pair, aged 32 and 35, set off from their home in Manchester with a samurai sword, knives, a hammer, black bags and gloves for Stone's house in Devon. The men were allegedly part of a gang that hatched the plot, but other members could not be traced.

New lovers announced for Broadway's 'Once'

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:55 EDT

There will be two new star-crossed lovers at "Once" on Broadway.

Producers of the hit show said Monday that Tony Award-winner Steve Kazee and Tony nominated Cristin Milioti will leave the show after Sunday's performance.

That date will also mark the end of the run for original cast members Will Connolly and Elizabeth A. Davis, who earned a Tony nomination as a supporting actress.

Review: The Ocean Blue strong with 'Ultramarine'

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:08 EDT

The Ocean Blue, "Ultramarine" (Korda)

It's been more than a decade since Pennsylvania's The Ocean Blue released a full-length album and the quartet makes no secret that "Ultramarine" came together in bits and pieces as members David Schelzel, Bobby Mittan, Oed Ronne and Peter Anderson recorded here and there. Singer and songwriter Schelzel referred to it as a record done at a "glacial pace." It was worth the wait.

The 12 songs on "Ultramarine" recall the sincere clarity of the band's self-titled 1989 debut and 1991's "Cerulean" with songs that soar with grace, blend cascading guitars and rich keyboards with lyrics that manage to evoke sentimentality, optimism and an appropriate romantic longing without being cloying or grating.

Woman who lost downloading case says she can't pay

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:05 EDT

A Minnesota woman at the center of a long-running court fight over the unauthorized downloading of copyrighted music said there's still no way she can pay record companies the $222,000 judgment she owes after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal Monday.

The justices did not comment on their decision. Attorneys for Jammie Thomas-Rasset, of Brainerd, argued the amount was excessive.

The music industry filed thousands of lawsuits in the early to mid-2000s against people it accused of downloading music without permission and without paying for it. Almost all the cases settled for about $3,500 apiece. Thomas-Rasset is one of only two defendants who refused to pay and went to trial. The other was former Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum, who also lost and was ordered to pay $675,000.

Painting identified as Rembrandt self-portrait

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 05:32 EDT

A painting donated to Britain's National Trust by the estate of a wealthy supporter has been identified as a Rembrandt self-portrait worth 20 million pounds ($30 million), the heritage body said Monday.

The painting was given to the trust in 2010 by the estate of Edna, Lady Samuel of Wych Cross, whose property-developer husband was a major collector of Dutch and Flemish art. It hangs in Buckland Abbey in southwest England, the former home of 16th-century seafarer Francis Drake.

The portrait of the artist wearing a cap with a large white feather was long thought to have been done by one of Rembrandt's pupils and was credited as in the "style of" the 17th-century Dutch master.

Review: `Croods' is simple but dazzles visually

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:09 EDT

Cavemen - they're just like us! - or so "The Croods" seems to be saying with its familiar mix of generational clashes, coming-of-age milestones and generally relatable laughs.

The animated adventure features a strong, star-studded cast and dazzles visually in wondrously colorful, vibrant 3-D, but the script doesn't pop off the screen quite so effectively. The overly facile message here is: Trying new things is good. It's a useful notion for kids in the crowd to chew on, but their older companions may be longing for something more substantive. Still, "The Croods" is both brisk and beautiful, and should be sufficiently entertaining for family audiences for whom few such options exist these days.

"The Croods" might be especially resonant with young female viewers, with a strong, resourceful teenage girl at its center named Eep (voiced by Emma Stone in her usual charming rasp). It's the prehistoric era, and while the rest of Eep's family prefers the comforting safety of hiding fearfully inside a cave, with only sporadic outings for group hunts, she longs to see what's outside those stone walls.

Poet Ponsot, 91, wins lifetime achievement award

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:28 EDT

Poet, teacher and translator Marie Ponsot has won a $100,000 lifetime achievement award.

The Chicago-based Poetry Foundation announced Monday the 91-year-old Ponsot has been awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

Ponsot has written six books of poetry and translated more than 30 books from French into English. Her previous honors include the Robert Frost Poetry Award and the National Book Critics Circle award.

Elegant, elegiac essays from Bosnian-born writer

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:53 EDT

"The Book of My Lives" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), by Aleksandar Hemon

Srebenica. Sniper Alley. Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. If memories of the Bosnian war are starting to fade, you'd do well to pick up a copy of Aleksandar Hemon's "The Book of My Lives."

The Bosnian-born writer, who came to America through a cultural exchange program and sought political asylum when the siege of Sarajevo blocked his return, is an elegant and funny writer who, amazingly, didn't write in English until he moved here in his late 20s, in 1992.

New roles for Racette and Meade at DC Opera

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:38 EDT

Two American sopranos - one established, one up-and-coming - showed off their considerable talents in roles new to them at the Washington National Opera over the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, Patricia Racette gave a moving, richly sung performance as the impetuous young beauty who becomes a courtesan and then dies in exile in Puccini's first breakout hit, "Manon Lescaut." On Friday night, Angela Meade brought her prodigious gifts to perhaps the most daunting role in the bel canto repertoire, the Druid priestess in Bellini's "Norma."

"Manon Lescaut" proved by far the more satisfying performance overall. Racette, a noted interpreter of "Madame Butterfly" and "Tosca," saved this Puccini role until now, in her late 40s. It's a deceptively difficult part because it puts strenuous demands on the soprano's voice and requires her to enact the arc of Manon's career in four short acts. Racette was perhaps least effective in the opening scene, where the soloists tended to get lost amid the bustle of the crowd. But she took firm hold in Act 2 as the kept woman of a wealthy old man, bringing glamour to her gavotte and wistful elegance to the aria "In quelle trine morbide," as she reflects on her lost love, the Chevalier des Grieux. In the final scene, her bright soprano imbued the great lament, "Sola, perduta, abandonnata," with searing emotion and exquisite control, notwithstanding some widening vibrato at the very top.