MuncangEntertainment News Update
Beyonce splits from father as music manager
Los Angeles – Beyonce and her father, Matthew Knowles, have decided to end his long stint as the manager of her career, they announced Tuesday.The move increased speculation that the singer and actress could hand over responsibility to her husband, rap mogul Jay-Z.Knowles has managed his daughter’s career since he formed the girl group Destiny’s Child around Beyonce’s prodigious abilities. Both of them stressed that the end of their business relationship would have no bearing on their personal ties.”I have only parted ways with my father on a business level,” Beyonce said in a statement
Hitchcock screen star Farley Granger dies
New York – Actor Farley Granger, who left a life as a burgeoning Hollywood star in favour of a career on Broadway, has died aged 85 at his Manhattan home, The New York Times reported Tuesday.Granger was best known for his appearances in two early Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, Rope in 1948, and Strangers on a Train in 1951.He was widely tipped to become one of the great male stars of the era. However, he turned his back on Hollywood studios in 1953, balking at the demands of his contract and the roles chosen for him by MGM, and left for New York to work on the stage.Granger had only a moderately successful career on Broadway, with notable performances in Talley & Son, The Crucible and The King and I.”I love getting laughs,” he said in 1982 of his penchant for theatre over film. “Next to sex, laughs are the best things in the world.”
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s acting debut posted online
Paris - Model, musician, first lady … and now movie star?Carla Bruni-Sarkozy hits the big screen this summer, when the French first lady makes a cameo appearance in Woody Allen’s new film Midnight in Paris, the trailer of which was posted on the internet Tuesday. The film features an American couple played by Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams, who find themselves drifting apart during a romantic holiday in Paris.In one scene shown in the trailer Bruni-Sarkozy, dressed in trousers, tee-shirt and jacket, is seen acting as a guide at the Rodin Museum of sculpture.The film, which also features Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard, will premiere on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival on May 11.The part is Bruni-Sarkozy’s first real acting role. The 43-year- old former model had small roles in the 1994 film Pret-a-Porter and the 1998 film Paparazzi, each time playing herself
Prince Harry on trek to North Pole ahead of royal wedding
London – Britain’s Prince Harry arrived in northern Norway Tuesday to take part in a charity walk to the North Pole with four disabled soldiers injured in the war in Afghanistan.The 26-year-old prince, who is the patron of the Walking With the Wounded charity, will join the group for the first five days of their 320-kilometre trek across polar ice amid arctic temperatures.Participants will drag sledges with 100 kilograms of basic necessities, and sleep in tents on the ice.The walk, which is to be recorded for BBC television, is expected to raise 2 million pounds (3.2 million dollars) for the charity. It will start on Friday.Harry, third in line to the throne, and an officer in the Household Cavalry, is expected to return on April 5, well in time for the wedding of his older brother, Prince William, to Kate Middleton, on April 29.
Schwarzenegger to return to showbiz as The Governator
Los Angeles – Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning to showbiz as The Governator, a comic book and cartoon superhero who fights crime, helps the needy and exposes corruption, the former California governor and action movie star has revealed.The Austrian-born muscle-man, who left the California governor’s office this January after a two term limit, told Entertainment Weekly that he was working with comic book legend Stan Lee to develop the character that will mix the real life of the actor/politician with the superhuman exploits of the characters he’s played in films.”It takes my entire career, if it’s body building, if it’s acting, if it’s the governorship and combines it into one,” Schwarzenegger said in a video interview posted on EW’s site. “The Governator is designed to fight crime, to fight natural disasters – this guy will jump and solve the problems.”Lee said that in the series, Schwarzenegger decides to become a crime fighter after leaving the governor’s office and builds a Batman-like Arnold Cave as a “secret high-tech crime-fighting center” battling the evil organization Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men), Lee said.Schwarzenegger said he would have preferred to run for president than become a cartoon character, but the US Constitution does not allow him to run for the highest office since he’s foreign-born.”Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here in a leather jacket, I’d be dressed up in a suit,” he said
Australian rockers Men at Work to pay for plagiarized riff
Sydney – Australian band Men at Work stand to lose royalties after their record company lost its appeal against a lower court ruling that the chart-toppers plagiarized the flute riff for their 1982 hit Down Under.Last year, EMI Music Publishing Australia Pty lost a copyright case brought by Larrikin Music Publishing Pty, which argued that that the reggae-inspired song lifted the flute part from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, a song it owns and which was written for a Girl Guides jamboree by schoolteacher Marion Sinclair in 1934.Larrikin, which bought the rights to children’s song Kookaburra in 2002, was granted 5 per cent of royalties by the lower court.The Melbourne band has earned millions of dollars in royalties from Down Under, a song used by national airline Qantas and among the most popular Australian songs of all time.It was the soundtrack of Australia’s successful tilt at yachting’s America’s Cup in 1983 and featured in the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Rihanna reveals bondage kink in Rolling Stone interview
Los Angeles – Pop star Rihanna has dished up her personal secrets in a new interview with Rolling Stone, revealing that she likes to be tied up and spanked, and that she never needs to talk to ex-boyfriend Chris Brown again.The singer, 23, appeared on the cover of the music industry journal clad in a sexy pair of spray-on shorts, and revealed that she is just as daring in her real-life sex games.”Being submissive in the bedroom is really fun,” she said. “You get to be a little lady, to have somebody be macho and in charge
Malaysian gay-themed movie a smash hit at the box office
Kuala Lumpur – A controversial gay-themed movie raked in more than 1 million ringgit (322,580 dollars) within its first five days in Muslim Malaysia, surprising the producer and critics alike, the official Bernama news agency reported Wednesday.Dalam Botol, which translates as “In a Bottle,” opened to packed houses after being cleared by government censors.The film tells the story of a man who gets a sex change to satisfy his male lover, only to be jilted by that same partner.The heartbroken protagonist then falls in love with a young woman, but is unable to continue in that relationship due to her sex change.Producer Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman said she was pleasantly surprised that the movie had such strong support from local viewers.Critics were divided over the story, with some saying it depicted a negative image of homosexuals and transgender people, while others welcomed it as a breakthrough in the strictly censored local film industry.Raja Azmi said the film neither encourages nor discourages homosexuality, but merely portrays a reality in Malaysian society.The movie is based on a true story of a friend, she said.Film censors in mainly Muslim Malaysia frown on the depiction of homosexuality, making exceptions in the past only when the gay characters repent or are killed off.
Website pays 950,000 dollars for Beatles rip-off
Los Angeles – A website that sold recordings of The Beatles for 25 cents has settled a lawsuit with record label EMI for 950,000 dollars.BlueBeat.com claimed its unlicensed music files were legal because they were not exact recordings of the songs but “psycho-acoustic simulations” – artificially reconstructed sound waves that only sounded like the originals.However, a judge ruled in December that the BlueBeat’s argument was invalid – calling it “obscure and undefined pseudo-scientific language that appears to be a long-winded way of describing sampling.”According to the Los Angeles Times, the settlement covers BlueBeat’s sale of Beatles songs as well as tunes from other EMI acts like Radiohead.
Stockholm cashes in on Millennium trilogy films
Stockholm – The production of the movies based on best- selling Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy has generated jobs and other spinoffs for Stockholm, a new study said Thursday.Some 90 million kronor (14 million dollars) was spent on wages and services, hotels, transportation as well as rental of locations in the greater Stockholm region during the making of the trilogy, the report compiled by the Swedish-based Cloudberry group said.The three films have been seen by some 20 million cinema goers worldwide.