Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts

Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal






VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.


Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped in 2006, causing a sensation in Austria and abroad. Priklopil committed suicide.






Kampusch had always refused to respond to claims that she had had sex with Priklopil, but in a German television interview on her 25th birthday last week said she had decided to reveal the truth because it had leaked out from police files.


The film, “3,096 Days” – based on Kampusch’s autobiography of the same name – soberly portrays her captivity in a windowless cellar less than 6 square metres (65 square feet) in area, often deprived of food for days at a time.


The emaciated Kampusch – who weighed just 38 kg (84 pounds) at one point in 2004 – keeps a diary written on toilet paper concealed in a box.


One entry reads: “At least 60 blows in the face. Ten to 15 nausea-inducing fist blows to the head. One strike with the fist with full weight to my right ear.”


The movie shows occasional moments that approach tenderness, such as when Priklopil presents her with a cake for her 18th birthday or buys her a dress as a gift – but then immediately goes on to chide her for not knowing how to waltz with him.


GREY AREAS


Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who plays the teenaged Kampusch, said she had tried to portray “the strength of someone’s soul, the ability of people to survive… but also the grey areas within a relationship that people don’t necessarily understand.”


The British actress said she had not met Kampusch during the making of the film or since. “It was a very isolated time, it was a bubble of time, and I wanted to keep that very focused,” she told journalists as she arrived for the Vienna premiere.


Kampusch herself attended the premiere, looking composed as she posed for pictures but declining to give interviews.


In an interview with Germany’s Bild Zeitung last week, she said: “Yes, I did recognize myself, although the reality was even worse. But one can’t really show that in the cinema, since it wasn’t supposed to be a horror film.”


The movie, made at the Constantin Film studios in Bavaria, Germany, also stars Amy Pidgeon as the 10-year-old Kampusch and Danish actor Thure Lindhardt as Priklopil.


“I focused mainly on playing the human being because… we have to remember it was a human being. Monsters do not exist, they’re only in cartoons,” Lindhart said.


“It became clear to me that it’s a story about survival, and it’s a story about surviving eight years of hell. If that story can be told then I can also play the bad guy.”


The director was German-American Sherry Hormann, who made her English-language debut with the 2009 move “Desert Flower”, an adaptation of the autobiography of Somali-born model and anti-female circumcision activist Waris Dirie.


“I’m a mother and I wonder at the strength of this child, and it was important for me to tell this story from a different perspective, to tell how this child using her own strength could survive this atrocious martyrdom,” Hormann said.


The Kampusch case was followed two years later by that of Josef Fritzl, an Austrian who held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.


The crimes prompted soul-searching about the Austrian psyche, and questions as to how the authorities and neighbors could have let such crimes go undetected for so long.


The film goes on general release on Thursday.


(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, Editing by Paul Casciato)


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Chris Egan, Tom Ellis cast in ABC’s sexy gothic soap pilot






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Poe” star Chris Egan and “Miranda” actor Tom Ellis are ready to get hot and soapy for ABC.


Egan and Ellis have been cast in the network’s drama pilot “Gothica,” billed as a “sexy gothic soap set in present day that weaves together a mythology that incorporates the legends of Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein and Dorian Gray among others.”






Egan has been cast in the role of Dorian (presumably, Gray), while Ellis will play Victor (presumably, Frankenstein).


Matt Lopez (“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “Escape to Witch Mountain”) is writing the pilot, which is being produced by ABC Studios and the Mark Gordon Company.


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Large coats a mainstay for next winter from Milan






MILAN (AP) — Many of the fashions displayed on the Milan runway Thursday had a yesteryear appeal — but with a contemporary edge.


Coats are a mainstay for next winter, many of them oversized with accentuated cuffs — part of a trend toward architectural references in clothing. Fur coats and jackets make the biggest comeback in many a season, perhaps appealing to new markets in cold weather climates, and certainly fitting for the snowy Milan weather.






Many of the styles, from the flared skirts to belted suits, recalled couture favorites from earlier fashion eras. However, the styles were updated by paring down the silhouette and using coarse fabric for elegant wear that in the past has been associated with silkier materials.


Spandex gave a modern glint to looks, including form-fitting dresses, jumpsuits and turtleneck tops, which were softened with sewing details or by coupling them with softer materials like fur and cashmere. For romantic looks, there was lace paired with leather or animal prints for a new twist. Gold lame and sequins add luxury to sensual evening wear.


The palette featured a lot of blues, green, red, some white and flashes of yellow along with mainstay black.


Hardy, practical shoes were a mainstay, but designers aren’t neglecting pretty looks and are still coming up with sandals, pumps and feminine slippers and booties.


Bags tend to be large, but not huge, and no few have a Mary Poppins practicality.


PRADA


The Prada finale was a long luxurious mink coat with ample collar and cuff like the ones the Hollywood divas used to wear in the 1950s. Underneath the model wore a sheer see-through silk dress.


It was only the showiest item of the winter collection presented Thursday evening, based on yesteryear luxury, from the opulent coats to the gilded gowns to the mink wraps.


Miuccia Prada season after season has a fashion vision, and follows it through regardless. This round she revisits vintage couture in a contemporary context.


Coats have extra wide cuffs and are often belted at the waist and flared toward the bottom. Skirts come in wide ballerina styles, as do some the dresses. The jumper dress is another 1950s look, which Prada revisits, even for evening, not to mention the many coat dresses in the collection.


Totally Prada, and anything but retro, was the uneven hemline (one side much longer than the other) that the designer used for daytime belted sheaths as well as gilded, belted gowns.


Fabrics ranged from coarse tweeds to shimmering metallic materials, plus leather and fur. Crocodile takes on new importance when used not only for bags, but also for skirts and even a suit.


The latest Prada shoe, either a sandal or a bootie, has a thick high heel, but a heavy rubber sole.


The sides of the voluminous bags in tweed and leather, including crocodile, were folded in such a way to give the impression of a feline face, perhaps inspired by a video of a cat that was part of the background of the show.


FENDI


Fendi is to fur what Ferrari is to cars. Yet given current concerns about animal rights, the brand has moved from the lavish fur coats that were all the rage in the 1980s to a more discreet way of interpreting fur as fashion.


Fendi creative director Silvia Venturini, daughter of one of the company’s five founding sisters, opted for wisps of fur used as hair decorations, bracelets, or charms hanging from Fendi bags.


Fur also appeared as inserts in a skirt or a dress, or sheered and fashioned into a cozy, but not showy, jacket. Long fur, usually goat, also seen on other runways during Milan’s preview showings, was used to make up a skirt or a cape.


For decades, German born designer Karl Lagerfeld has been working with Fendi, adding his flamboyant designing talent to their creative genius.


This round he offered a constructed slim silhouette, with accentuated shoulders and a knee-length hemline. The look is sophisticated rather than sexy and used deep, dark shades of red and blue, which along with black are becoming the staple colors for next winter.


In the accessory department, Fendi chose to reinvent its iconic handbags, from the clutch bag — this time furry — to a modern version of the Mary Poppins bag.


The shoes are sure to be a winter hit. Whether a pump, a boot or a lace-up, each pair was elaborately decorated, some in fur, and comes with a pointed toe and a glistening mirrored high heel.


BLUGIRL


Blugirl has looks for women feeling both demure and daring at the same time — mixing traditional tartan, peek-a-boo lace and bold leopard prints.


The women’s wear collection for next winter, took as its muse the British style icon Alexa Chung. The label described Chung’s style as “midway between tradition and urban accents, ultra-cosmopolitan, always cool.”


Designer Anna Molinari’s collection started off with a preppy coed look: green, red and navy plaid skirts, sometimes pleated, or pencil pants paired with oversized green sweaters, pullovers or cardigans. Shoes were leather ankle boots, worn with short, dark socks.


The outfits transitioned into more feminine territory. A tartan-printed taffeta bubble skirts paired was with a ruffle-neck lace shirt and topped with a loose-fitting leopard-print jacket, leading off an array of looks combining plaid, lace and leopard. Here the preferred shoe was the pump.


The collection finished with a flash of gold, with sequined evening dresses and skirts.


Dragon and swan motifs gave a nod to Chung’s British-Chinese heritage. Commanding dragon shaped necklaces and Chinese-style jackets offered Asian flair, while sequined kissing swans on evening wear were reminiscent of an English park.


The looks were finished with small shoulder bags in leopard print, tartan or sequins, strapped across the body for the stylish girl-on-the-go.


MAX MARA


The German Bauhaus design school gave a sophisticated clientele functional yet elegant design in everyday objects, like chairs and teapots, as well as living and working spaces. On the runway in Milan, Max Mara struck the same note of functional elegance in its Bauhaus-inspired women’s wear show.


The collection for next winter was, fittingly, highly structured.


The coats alone were a feat of layered and textural complexity. A hooded overcoat, worn open over the shoulders with empty sleeves hanging, accompanied another interior jacket with a nubby texture.


Often, the overcoat sleeves were rolled up to reveal another layer of, say, spandex, which contrasted with the satiny coat lining. Leather patches emphasized rounded shoulders.


Max Mara’s heritage of practical luxury was highlighted by its focus on new camel fabrics for their coats, including spun alpaca and mouflon wool. From super-functional camel, the color palette then progressed to a deep yellow and onward to decidedly urban shades of gray, black and midnight blue — a nod to the Bauhaus inspiration.


The silhouette ranged from skinny pencil skirts paired with long sweaters for the office or loose-fitting pajama pants for relaxed afternoons. Shoes emphasized comfort — sneakers — but were built from luxury materials like suede and leather. Boston bags were made from leather and crocodile prints.


DSQUARED2


Both the masculine and feminine sides of the DSquared2 label were shouting over each other for attention.


The collection for next winter featured over-the-top masculine tailoring balanced with oversized jewels.


For daytime, the look was gangster chic, with loose-fitting men’s double-breasted suits worn with nothing more than a dickey underneath and topped with exaggerated bowler hats — pink with purple ribbon. Pencil skirts paired with belted jackets, one with layered, architectural lapels.


But for nighttime, the mood was more speak easy slinky with silky dresses with an asymmetrical, trailing feather boa hemline or a fur stole — a favorite on Milan runways this season.


Designing twins Dean and Dan Caten showed at night for the first time in a while, giving up their closing day slot.


JUST CAVALLI


Designer Roberto Cavalli drew inspiration for his second line “Just Cavalli” collection, from a recent trip to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, at the foot of the Himalayas.


“Riches there are measured by the values of happiness,” the designer said ahead of the show, which had an ethnic, almost hippie feel to it.


Almost the entire collection came in subdued native prints, fashioned in anything from tunics over pants to colorful evening gowns. Accessories included long silk necklaces like the ones worn by the Bhutan nobility, and a backpack to replace the more urban handbag.


Many designers are featuring fur this round of preview shows, including Cavalli who used it mainly to trim the hoods of his winter parkas. That was enough to draw the wrath of a small group of animal rights activists who disrupted the show holding up signs in Italian saying, “Your fashion is our death,” until they were forcibly removed.


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Kiefer Sutherland named Hasty Pudding Man of the Year






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Kiefer Sutherland has gained his share of accolades throughout his acting career, but none quite like this.


The “24″ star has been named 2013′s Man of the Year by Harvard University‘s Hasty Pudding Theatricals student society, succeeding “The Muppets” actor Jason Segel, who received the honors last year.






Sutherland will be feted with a roast on Friday at Harvard’s Farkas Hall, where he will receive his ceremonial Pudding Pot. If Hasty Pudding tradition is any indication, Sutherland will also dress at least partially in women’s clothes at some point during the event. Which is presumably a rare event for the actor.


“Inception” actress Marion Cotillard, who was named 2013′s Woman of the Year by the theatrical society, was honored at a January 13 ceremony, during which she led a parade through the streets of Cambridge, Mass.


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Focus buys Jeremy Renner as Award-winning journalist Gary Webb






NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “Kill the Messenger,” an upcoming film starring Jeremy Renner as prize-winning journalist Gary Webb, according to a Focus spokeswoman.


Focus will distribute the film domestically and sell it internationally, initiating the deal making at the European Film Market in Berlin later this week.






Michael Cuesta will direct the film from a script by Peter Landesman. Cuesta has made a quartet of films and directed several episodes of successful TV series “Six Feet Under,” “Dexter” and “Homeland.”


Webb’s life took a turn for the worse after what should have been a major professional breakthrough. He wrote a series for the San Jose Mercury News exposing how the CIA permitted Nicaragua’s Contra rebels to smuggle cocaine into the United States. The contras then used the profits to fund a war against the leftist Nicaraguan government. Webb also drew a link between the influx of cocaine and the rise of crack cocaine, a drug that devastated many American cities in the 1980s.


Webb was on the staff of the Mercury News when it won the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for its 1989 coverage of the Bay Area earthquake. However, his 1996 “Dark Alliance” series about the CIA and the Contras generated significant controversy, prompting the Mercury News to back away from it and alienating Webb from the journalistic community.


Webb shot himself to death in 2004.


Renner will both play Webb and produce with Don Handfield and Scott Stuber. The film was once set-up at Universal, making the acquisition by the studio’s specialty label something of a homecoming for the project.


Deadline first reported Focus’ involvement.


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Country singer Gary Allan bests Grammy nominees for Billboard No. 1






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country singer Gary Allan scored his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart on Wednesday, keeping Grammy-nominated favorites from the top spot.


Allan’s ninth studio album “Set You Free” sold 106,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, garnering the singer his best sales week in his 17-year career.






The Billboard 200 is the album chart for all music genres.


Allan, 45, who is a staple within the country music scene, has notched three No. 1 albums in the Billboard country music chart.


The lead song from his new album “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)” started gaining chart popularity in September last year, and Allan’s label decided to push forward the release of the album from March of this year to January.


Allan told Reuters the song struck a chord among audiences with its message of hope. “This is a time when our country needs hope and I think that’s why it’s doing so well,” he said.


Allan’s album kept Grammy nominees The Lumineers at No. 2 with their debut self-titled record, which was released last April but has steadily been rising on the charts after the band picked up two Grammy nominations.


The official “2013 Grammy Nominees” compilation album, the only other new record in this week’s top 10, landed at No. 4 this week after selling 41,000 copies, coming behind the soundtrack for last year’s comedy “Pitch Perfect.”


Allan’s reign atop the Billboard 200 is likely to be short-lived, for Canadian pop phenomenon Justin Bieber’s latest album, “Believe Acoustic” is set to debut at the top next week, making Bieber the youngest artist to score five No. 1 albums.


On the Digital Songs chart, rapper Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” held onto the top spot for a third week, ahead of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” at No. 2 and Lil Wayne’s “Love Me” at No. 3.


Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie,” his first new single in five years, dropped from No. 2 to No. 8 this week on the Digital Songs chart.


(Editing by Philip Barbara)


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Mary Wells, singer of ‘My Guy,’ gets posthumous Rock Hall push






(Reuters) – Mary Wells, Motown Records‘ first female star who paved the way for the success of Diana Ross and The Supremes, shot to fame in the early 1960s only to fade away as a footnote of the longtime Detroit record label.


Now, some two decades after Wells’ death in 1992 at age 49, the singer who scored a No. 1 hit with “My Guy,” is receiving a push for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.






Peter Benjaminson, the author of the first Wells biography, “Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Story of Motown’s First Superstar,” has spearheaded the campaign for the singer, who he said has not received the recognition afforded to the likes of The Supremes or Martha and the Vandellas.


Benjaminson, 67, believes that aside from Wells’ merits as an R&B singer and as Motown’s first big female star, she deserves consideration as a pioneer who crossed the black-and-white racial divide in the United States.


“I think it’s unfair to have Mary, who set the path for so many superstars today, be excluded from an honor like this, which she should’ve gotten a long time ago,” Benjaminson told Reuters by phone from his home in New York’s Harlem neighborhood.


Wells was born into a broken household in Detroit in 1943 and contracted spinal meningitis and tuberculosis at a young age, which left her partially blind and deaf.


After graduating high school Wells set her sights on Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, with a song she wrote herself, “Bye Bye Baby.”


“Gordy kept refusing (a meeting), but she kept persisting,” Benjaminson said. “Finally, he got so annoyed that he asked her to sing it right there … He was so impressed he signed her up the next day as a Motown singer.”


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“Bye Bye Baby,” rose to No. 45 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1960, a rare feat for a black, female singer, Benjaminson said.


“She really paved the way for the other women who came after, including Diana Ross,” Benjaminson said. “She showed how quickly a woman could rise on the charts with Motown.”


Wells was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and 1987, but never made the cut for induction.


“I don’t know what happened in 1986 and 1987, but she’s certainly due the honor this late in the game,” he said.


Benjaminson is hoping first to get Wells inducted into the Legends Hall of Fame at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, a prominent historical venue for African-American musicians.


“I think that would help in getting her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” said Benjaminson, who hopes his book may play a role in resurrecting Wells’ reputation.


Benjaminson has set up a Facebook page called “Induct Mary Wells into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” that urges fans to send letters to the foundation that runs the Cleveland, Ohio-based Hall of Fame (http://www.rockhall.com/).


The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum was established in 1983 and has inducted some 700 performers, songwriters and record producers, chosen by some 600 artists, music historians and industry members.


After scoring other hits such as “You Beat Me to the Punch,” in 1962, Wells landed atop the chart for two weeks in 1964 with “My Guy,” her final Motown hit.


Wells left Motown at the height of her popularity over compensation issues and never found the same success again. She died in 1992 after a battle with throat cancer.


Benjaminson’s biography of Wells, published in November 2012, is his third book on Motown.


(Reporting by Kurt Anthony Krug in Detroit,; editing by Eric Kelsey, desking by G Crosse)


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Wispelwey: Loneliness of the long-distance cellist






LEIDEN, Netherlands (Reuters) – Dutch cellist Peter Wispelwey has recorded the haunting, delightful and soul-uplifting Bach Six Suites for Solo Cello three times and still he’s not finished.


His next, he says, is his “Lost in Translation” version, referring to the Bill Murray movie about an actor coming to terms with an alien culture in Tokyo.






Wispelwey is doing the same, flying into the Japanese capital for recording sessions in the early morning hours.


When it is released, he wants to strew CDs of portions of the Bach suites around Tokyo for people to find them, he told Reuters over a three-course dinner served during intervals as he performed in this Dutch university town.


“That’s my ideal,” he said. “I want the Tokyo preludes, the Tokyo gigues, the Tokyo allemandes.”


At this stage in his career, the 50-year-old Wispelwey who first fell in love with the cello’s growling sound at the age of two while listening to an amateur quartet in which his father played violin, can be indulged.


Growing up in a small country at a time when it did not have much of an established conservatory tradition, he more or less is a self-made cellist, though he has had several of the world’s best teachers, among them compatriot Anner Bylsma.


He made his name in the Netherlands by putting on recitals in his late teens of all the mainstream repertoire for solo cello, renting the hall himself, getting the tickets distributed and playing it all from memory.


He got his international credentials with his first 1990 recording of the Bach suites, for the Channel Classics label, which became one of the gold-standard versions.


His latest, and third version, is unique for tuning his baroque cello, with gut rather than modern steel strings, to a much lower pitch than A at 440 hertz, or slightly higher, which is the standard for modern orchestras, pianos, wind instruments and pretty much everything.


Wispelwey has done it at 397 hertz, a full tone below the modern A tuning, and a semitone, or half tone, below the usual baroque A which is 415 hertz.


There are theoretical reasons, including evidence it was the pitch Bach would have known. But more importantly, the sound world is different.


“If the general public comes in to hear the Bach suites on a baroque cello they need almost an hour just to adjust to that sound world and it’s not surprising,” he said, between gulps of food and before taking a shower to refresh for the continuation of one of the most demanding recital programs, for soloist and audience alike.


“We’re used to a steely, projecting laser beam of a sound and this has shades, it has color and it has the overtones. That’s why we can hear it. It has this very particular shine. but it’s a shine of nobility.”


Here’s what else he had to say about Bach’s appeal today, the mystical “Black Sarabande” and why it can sometimes seem a bit lonely being a cello soloist:


Q: What is it about Bach’s music, written in the early 18th century, that speaks to us three centuries later with such power, if not to say God-like authority?


A: “One is the magic of Bach. Even in the sparse notes of the cellos suites there is a narrative and it becomes more hypnotic the less you hear and the less you hear it filled in. It’s the hypnotic element of being carried away by so little. That said, the concentration of the listener is tunneled and first there’s an emotion of being narrowed but then the opposite happens.


“After an hour that tunnel gives suddenly way to the biggest panorama you’d ever want to see. It starts meaning everything, the small world becomes the big world and everything starts shining and becoming meaningful…Bach’s brain was all over the place all the time. That’s why we’re so eternally intrigued at what kind of creativity was at work there.”


Q: In the Suite No. 5, there’s a movement you call the “Black Sarabande”. Why?


A: “It’s painful, not nice. There is comfort in it but death is there. It’s about blackness, about dust and with the gut C string it sounds like dust, it sounds like throwing something into the grave or a last breath – it’s all there. The first four bars are a sort of solar system, all those notes hanging in space but they are somehow related…It’s dark and light and death and life. It’s so simple that its meaning expands in space. The simpler it is the more meaningful it seems to be.”


Q: Of course you don’t play only Bach – though you play these suites a lot. Two days from now you are doing a Schubert program and you also play modern composers like Ligeti and Crumb. Is it hard finding sufficient repertoire for an instrument which, let’s face it, has never been as big a crowd pleaser as the violin?


A: “It (Bach) does sound like you are playing really serious, profound music, so that’s good, and the other thing of course is the cello repertoire is so small that when we have six pieces by the greatest composer of all time, well, then, of course… There are 15 great cello concertos against 40 great violin concertos. The cello was emancipated (from its accompaniment role) late. Then look at the 20th century. We have Mstislav Rostropovich and suddenly we get this tsunami by the great composers…”


(Editing by Paul Casciato)


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Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace in talks for Soviet thriller






NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace are in talks to star in “Child 44,” a thriller that Ridley Scott and Michael Costigan are producing for Scott Free Productions, individuals with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap. “Safe House” filmmaker Daniel Espinosa will direct from a script by Richard Price, who is adapting Tom Rob Smith‘s novel.


Set in Josef Stalin‘s Soviet Union, the story follows Leo Demidov, a disgraced intelligence agent investigating a series of child murders. The paranoid Soviet government then becomes suspicious of his investigation.






The book, the first in a trilogy, is based on the true story of Ukrainian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.


Hardy will play the officer and Rapace his wife.


The actors will first shoot “Animal Rescue,” a drama that Michael Roskam is directing for Fox Searchlight. Hardy, fresh off a year in big films such as ‘The Dark Knight Rises,” just wrapped “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Rapace, who appeared in 2012′s “Prometheus,” will next be seen in “Dead Man Down.”


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Despite previous beating, Rihanna back with Chris Brown






NEW YORK (Reuters) – It’s official: R&B diva Rihanna says she is back together with Chris Brown, who is still on probation for assaulting her in 2009, saying “It’s different now.”


“I decided it was more important for me to be happy,” Rihanna told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview published on Wednesday on its website.






“I wasn’t going to let anybody’s opinion get in the way of that. Even if it’s a mistake, it’s my mistake,” she said of her renewed romance with singer Brown, 23, that has prompted consternation from fans and celebrity media because of their history.


“After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I’d rather just live my truth and take the backlash,” said Rihanna, 24, adding, “I can handle it.”


The couple’s reconciliation had been rumored for months, even before the pair unveiled a duet, “Nobody’s Business,” in November. That track was included on Rihanna’s latest album “Unapologetic.”


Brown pleaded guilty in 2009 to beating and punching Rihanna. He was sentenced to community service, anger management classes, given a restraining order and is still on probation.


The Barbadian singer told Oprah Winfrey in an emotional interview in August that she and Brown now had a “very close friendship,” and that she still loved him.


“When you add up the pieces from the outside, it’s not the cutest puzzle in the world,” Rihanna admitted to Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands this week with her gracing the cover above the headline, “Rihanna Crazy In Love.”


“You see us walking somewhere … and you think you know. But it’s different now. We don’t have those types of arguments anymore. We talk,” she said. “We value each other.”


But she noted that Brown is on probation with her as well, saying, “He doesn’t have the luxury of (messing) up again.”


“That’s just not an option … And I wouldn’t have gone this far if I ever thought that was a possibility.”


The interview was published three days after Brown’s latest dustup, which involved fellow musician Frank Ocean, over a parking space at a West Hollywood recording studio. Ocean has said he wants Brown prosecuted following the Sunday brawl.


In 2012 Rihanna was rated by Time and Forbes magazines as among the world’s and celebrity arena’s most powerful people.


(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)


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Singer Frank Ocean wants Chris Brown charged over brawl






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rising R&B artist Frank Ocean wants fellow singer Chris Brown prosecuted following a brawl over a parking space at a Los Angeles-area recording studio, authorities said on Monday.


Brown is serving five years probation for assaulting his on-and-off girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 and risks having his probation revoked should charges be filed.






In the incident on Sunday, sheriff’s deputies responded to a call about a fight involving six men in West Hollywood. The deputies cited witnesses as saying that the Grammy-winning Brown, 23, punched Ocean during the brief altercation.


No charges have yet been filed, but Ocean “is desirous of prosecution in this incident,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff‘s spokesman Steve Whitmore.


Ocean, 25, who is nominated for best new artist and best record for “Thinkin Bout You” at the Grammys in February, said on Twitter on Sunday night that he “got jumped by Chris and a couple guys.” He said this resulted in a cut finger.


A representative for Brown has yet to comment.


The “Look at me Now” singer has attempted to rebuild his career and public image since 2009, but his entourage and that of Canadian rapper Drake were involved in a June 2012 brawl in a New York nightclub. No arrests or charges were brought in that case.


Brown and Ocean are both nominated in the best urban contemporary album category at the Grammys, which take place on February 10 in Los Angeles.


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey and Colleen Jenkins; Editing by David Brunnstrom)


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Rock singer Morrissey postpones six more shows due to bleeding ulcer






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British rock singer Morrissey is postponing six performances on his U.S. tour due to a bleeding ulcer, his spokeswoman said on Sunday.


Morrissey is expected to make a full recovery and thanks everyone concerned for their support during this time,” his representative Lauren Papapietro said in a statement.






Morrissey, the former lead singer for 1980s alternative rock band The Smiths, checked into Beaumont Hospital on Friday in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, Papapietro said.


She declined to say if he remains hospitalized.


Due to his bleeding ulcer, Morrissey is postponing his upcoming shows in Asheville, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; Lawrence, Kansas; Clear Lake, Iowa; and Lincoln, Nebraska, Papapietro said.


He plans to resume his tour on February 9 in Las Vegas.


Due to an illness in his band, Morrissey, 53, canceled his show Thursday in Flint, Michigan, and postponed a Friday night performance in Minneapolis and another engagement set for Saturday night in Chicago, Papapietro said.


Morrissey, whose hits include “First of the Gang to Die” and “Irish Blood, English Heart,” toured North America last fall, played some shows in Australia and New Zealand in December and returned to the United States this month.


He kicked off his latest tour with a performance of his unreleased song “Action is My Middle Name” on “The Late Show with David Letterman” in New York.


(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Kevin Gray and Stacey Joyce)


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Kutcher takes on tech idol Steve Jobs in ‘jOBS’






PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Ashton Kutcher says playing Steve Jobs on screen “was honestly one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever tried to do in my life.”


The 34-year-old actor helped premiere the biopic “jOBS” Friday, which was the closing-night film at the Sundance Film Festival.






Kutcher plays the Apple Inc. founder from the company’s humble origins in the 1970s until the launch of the first iPod in 2001. A digital entrepreneur himself, Kutcher said he considers Jobs a personal hero.


“He’s a guy who failed and got back on the horse,” Kutcher said. “I think we can all sort of relate to that at some point in life.”


Kutcher even embodied the Jobs character as he pursued his own high-tech interests off-screen.


“What was nice was when I was preparing for the character, I could still work on product development for technology companies, and I would sort of stay in character, in the mode of the character,” he said. “But I didn’t feel like I was compromising the work on the film by working on technology stuff because it was pretty much in the same field.”


But playing the real-life tech icon who died in 2011 still felt risky, he said, because “he’s fresh in our minds.”


“It was kind of like throwing myself into this gauntlet of, I know, massive amounts of criticism because somebody’s going to go ‘well, it wasn’t exactly…,’” Kutcher said.


While the filmmakers say they tried to be as historically accurate as possible, there was also a disclaimer at the very end of the credits that said portions of the film might not be completely accurate.


Still, realism was always the focus for Kutcher, who watched “hundreds of hours of footage,” listened to Jobs’ past speeches and interviewed several of his friends to prepare for the role.


The actor even adopted the entrepreneur’s “fruitarian diet,” which he said “can lead to some serious issues.”


“I ended up in the hospital two days before we started shooting the movie,” he said. “I was like doubled over in pain, and my pancreas levels were completely out of whack, which was completely terrifying, considering everything.”


Jobs died of complications from pancreatic cancer.


Still, Kutcher was up to the challenge of playing Jobs, in part because of his admiration for the man who created the Macintosh computer and the iPod.


“I admire this man so much and what he’s done. I admire the way he built things,” Kutcher said. “This guy created a tool that we use every day in our life, and he believed in it when nobody else did.”


The film also shows Jobs’ less appealing side, withholding stock options from some of the company’s original employees and denying child support to the mother of his eldest child.


Kutcher still found the man inspiring. Jobs had a singular focus, Kutcher said, and felt like anyone could change the world.


“I don’t know if there’s ever been an entrepreneur who’s had more compassion and care for his consumer than Steve Jobs,” Kutcher said. “He wanted to put something in your hand that you could use and you could use it easily… and he really cared about that.”


___


AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.


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Brooke Shields signs up for a hitch on Lifetime’s “Army Wives”






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Brooke Shields has signed up for the Air Force – or at least the Air Force as it’s portrayed on “Army Wives.”


“Pretty Baby” star Shields will join the cast of the Lifetime series for its seventh season, the network said Thursday.






Shields will play Katherine “Kat” Young, a brash, brilliant Air Force colonel and crack C-17 pilot who clashes with Gen. Michael Holden (Brian McNamara) shortly after arriving at Joint Base Marshall Bring.


But after Young and Holden’s Air Force-Army rivalry gets underway, Holden discovers that Young has a tragic past — and more in common with him than he first thought.


The ABC Studios-produced “Army Wives” returns for its seventh season March 10 at 9 p.m. with a drastically revamped cast. In addition to Shields, singer/actress Ashanti, Torrey DeVitto of “Pretty Little Liars,” Bring It On” alum Elle McLemore and singer Jesse McCartney have joined the cast. Meanwhile, Kim Delaney has departed the series, and former series regular Sally Pressman will only appear “in several episodes” of the new 13-episode season.


“We’re all very excited about season seven, in which a new tribe emerges from the shadow of tragedy,” executive producer Jeff Melvoin said of the upcoming season on Wednesday.


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GLAAD protests Nat Geo’s collaboration with Boy Scouts






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The advocacy group backed a Change.org petition started by Will Oliver, a 20-year-old gay Eagle Scout, that calls on Nat Geo to air a disclaimer clarifying the network’s views before each episode of its new series, “Are You Tougher than a Boy Scout.” It debuts this spring.


“That National Geographic would brush aside countless gay teens suffering at the hands of the BSA, shrugging off injustice as just another ‘point of view,’ is irresponsible,” GLAAD president Herndon Graddick said in a statement. “By airing this program, National Geographic is providing support and publicity to an organization that harms young people simply because of who they are. If the network is truly committed to standing by its non-discrimination practices, it should have no problem airing a disclaimer to that effect.”






Nat Geo did not immediately respond to calls from TheWrap requesting comment.


But in a statement to GLAAD, the network said the show has “nothing to do with this debate” over the Boy Scouts’ LGBT policies.


“As it relates to our upcoming show with the Boy Scouts, we certainly appreciate all points of view on the topic,” Nat Geo said in the statement, “but when people see our show they will realize it has nothing to do with this debate, and is in fact a competition series between individual scouts and civilians.”


GLADD pointed to the Boy Scouts’ October 2012 Progress Report of its National Council Strategic Plan 2011-2015. It cites the Nat Geo series as a “strategic partnership” aimed at promoting the idea that “scouting is ‘cool’ with youth.”


The report states that the Scouts will begin working on marketing plans with National Geographic for “leveraging the show with Scouting audiences and audiences outside of scouting.”


“It’s all too clear that this show is just a marketing ploy, crafted by the BSA to boost dwindling membership and distract Americans from the Scouts’ long history of discrimination,” Graddick said. “National Geographic Channel is the means to that end and must therefore make it clear where the network stands.”


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Adele to perform Bond theme song “Skyfall” live at Oscars






LONDON (Reuters) – British singer Adele will return to the stage next month after a year absence to perform her Oscar-nominated song “Skyfall” at the 85th Academy Awards, the show’s producers said on Wednesday.


The theme tune to the latest James Bond movie was written by Adele and Paul Epworth. It is the first Bond theme to be nominated for the original song award at the Oscars since “For Your Eyes Only” in 1981.






The February 24 show will be Adele’s first live performance since the Grammy Awards last April and the first time she will perform “Skyfall” live, as she has kept a low profile since giving birth to a son last October.


“It’s an honor to be nominated and terrifyingly wonderful to be singing in front of people who have captured my imagination over and over again,” Adele, 24, said in a statement.


“It’s something I’ve never experienced and probably only ever will once!”


She was in Hollywood last month to pick up the Golden Globe for the best original song prize for “Skyfall”.


Adele’s album “21″ scored the rare feat in December of topping all U.S. album sales for the second straight year. She records on the indie record label XL.


(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Patricia Reaney)


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Justin Bieber tops Lady Gaga to rule Twitter






(Reuters) – Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber with his hordes of fans known of Beliebers became the King of Twitter on Tuesday, topping fellow pop star Lady Gaga as the user with the most followers.


Data from TwitterCounter.com showed that the 18-year-old Canadian singer jumped into the lead with 33.33 million followers, topping Lady Gaga’s 33.32 million and ending her two-and-a-half year rule of the microblogging site.






A spokesman from TwitterCounter.com said Lady Gaga has held the top slot on Twitter since August 2010 when she overtook U.S. pop star Britney Spears.


Bieber rose to fame as a baby-faced pop star singing love songs such as “Baby” after being discovered on YouTube in 2008. He has released two No. 1 albums in the past 18 months – the holiday-themed “Under the Mistletoe” and “Believe.”


Bieber was named by Forbes magazine in 2012 as the third-most powerful celebrity in the world and his huge following on Twitter was cited as a reason why marketers need to take notice of the 140-character micro-blogging site.


Lady Gaga has dropped to second in Twitter followed by singer Katy Perry in third with 31.49 million followers then Rihanna and Barack Obama with 26.17 million followers. Britney Spears has slipped to sixth place.


(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Patricia Reaney)


(You can see the Twitter top 100 list http://twittercounter.com/pages/100)


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“Death Wish” director Michael Winner dies aged 77






LONDON (Reuters) – Flamboyant British film director Michael Winner, best known for the “Death Wish” series of the 1970s and 80s, died at his London home on Monday. He was 77.


In a statement released to the media, his wife Geraldine said: “A light has gone out in my life.”






Winner, who reinvented himself in recent years as an outspoken restaurant critic in the Sunday Times, had been ill for some time, and revealed last summer that specialists had given him 18 months to live due to heart and liver problems.


He said in a later interview that he had considered going to the Dignitas assisted-dying clinic in Switzerland.


Winner’s movie career spanned some 40 years and more than 30 feature films, including the successful Death Wish series starring Charles Bronson as a vigilante out to avenge family murders.


He worked with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum and Faye Dunaway, but his success was overshadowed by a divisive image in Britain as a pompous bon viveur who did nothing to hide his wealth.


According to Winner’s official online biography, actor Michael Caine once said of him: “You are a complete and utter fraud. You come on like a bombastic, ill-tempered monster. It’s not the side I see of you. I see a man who has a tremendous artistic eye.”


In its obituary, the Daily Telegrah wrote: “Flamboyant, often boorish, he was, in many ways, his own worst enemy.”


EARLY INTEREST IN SHOWBUSINESS


Born in London in 1935, Winner took an early interest in showbusiness, writing an entertainment column aged just 14 which was published in 30 local newspapers.


According to his website, he studied law and economics at Cambridge University and worked as a film critic as a teenager before entering the world of movies full time in 1956 when he started marking documentaries and shorts.


In the 1960s Winner focused on comedies like “The Jokers” and “I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Isname”, both of which starred Oliver Reed.


The following decade he moved on to crime capers like “The Mechanic” and “The Stone Killer” before the commercially successful Death Wish, which was released in 1974 and spawned several sequels.


The original movie proved controversial for its portrayal of urban violence, but Winner defended a film he always knew he would be best remembered for.


“Death Wish was an epoch-making film,” he told the Big Issue charity publication last year. “The first film in the history of cinema where the hero kills other civilians.


“It had never been done before. Since then it has been the most copied film ever. Tarantino put it in his top 10 films ever made.”


He later turned his hand to food criticism in a typically outspoken column for the Sunday Times called Winner’s Dinners. His last column appeared on December 2 and was titled: “Geraldine says it’s time to get down from the table. Goodbye.”


Winner, whose appearance in adverts for insurance coined the catchphrase “Calm down dear, it’s only a commercial”, founded and funded the Police Memorial Trust following the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.


More than 50 officers have been honored by the trust at sites across the country.


He was reportedly offered an OBE in the Queen’s honors’ list in 2006 for the campaign, but turned it down, saying: “An OBE is what you get if you clean the toilets well at King’s Cross station.”


(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)


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Holy cow! Original Batmobile from TV series sells for $4.2 million






PHOENIX (Reuters) – An Arizona man with a special fondness for caped crusader Batman and his sidekick Robin bought the original Batmobile driven in the iconic television series with a bid of $ 4.2 million at an auction on Saturday.


Rick Champagne, a Phoenix-area logistics company owner, came away with the black, futuristic two-seater featured in the “Batman” series starring Adam West and Burt Ward from 1966 to 1968, following a flurry of spirited bidding at the Scottsdale, Arizona, auction.






“I really liked Batman growing up and I came here with the intention of buying the car,” Champagne, 56, told Reuters in a brief interview moments after he bought the car. “Sure enough, I was able to buy it. That was a dream come true.”


The Barrett-Jackson auction was the first time the car was put up for public sale. In addition to the $ 4.2 million bid price, the buyer will have to pay an additional roughly $ 420,000 in premiums.


The Batmobile is based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura, a concept car built in Italy by the Ford Motor Co.


In 1965, the concept car was bought for a nominal $ 1 by noted customizer George Barris, who had a mere 15 days and $ 15,000 to transform the vehicle for the show. He has owned it ever since.


Barris told Reuters he had supplied vehicles for movies and television shows before, but this one had to be markedly different than the others.


“With every pow, bang, wow, wee, I wanted the car to do something just like the actors,” said Barris, 87, in an interview before the auction. “The car had to be a star on its own. And it became one.”


The car has a V-8 engine and instruments in the steering wheel, plus innovative items like a push-button transmission.


But generations may remember it best for Bat gadgets added for the series, including a car phone and the ability to deploy such things as oil, smoke and nails to thwart villains – not to mention twin rear parachutes for quick Bat turns.


Barris said the vehicle toured the country after the series and a movie and then was housed in a private showroom in California. He said it was time to part with the popular car and let a new owner have the Bat keys.


(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)


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Paul Dano Playing Beach Boys Legend Brian Wilson






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Paul Dano will play Brian Wilson in a new biopic about the gifted, but troubled Beach Boys leader.


Entitled “Love & Mercy,” the film will be directed by Bill Pohlad, who produced “The Tree of Life” and is also the son of billionaire Carl Pohlad, the owner of baseball’s Minnesota Twins. Oren Moverman, who earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for “The Messenger” in 2010, wrote the script for the film.






Dano will play Wilson in his younger “Surfin’ USA” days, but another, as yet uncast actor will play an older version of the singer, presumably taking up the mantle to dramatize the singer and songwriter’s long slide into mental illness and addiction.


Dano has impressed critics with intense turns in movies including 2007′s “There Will Be Blood” and with more lighthearted roles such as last year’s romantic comedy “Ruby Sparks.” He is currently filming “Prisoners” with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal and will next be seen in Steve McQueen’s “Twelve Years a Slave” opposite Brad Pitt.


The star also received a very important blessing after getting the part.


“I am thrilled that Paul Dano has signed on to play me during one of my most creative explosions and most fulfilling musical times in my career,” Wilson said in a statement. “I still can’t believe how cool it is that my life will be portrayed on the big screen and to have Bill Pohlad as the captain of the Sloop John B is amazing.”


John Wells and Claire Rudnick Polstein (John Wells Productions) will produce along with River Road, which Pohlad founded.


Atticus Ross, who won an Oscar for scoring “The Social Network,” is in talks to work on the sound design of the film and the soundtrack, which will feature lots of Wilson hits.


Paul Dano is represented by Anonymous Content and WME.


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