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BRUSSELS (AP & Staff) — Tintin came home to Belgium on Saturday for the world premiere of Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.” If the proverbial intrepid reporter was more than a cartoon and movie character, he would have been pushing and shoving amid all the other hometown reporters lining the red carpet. Instead, Tintin and his creator, the late Herge, were the stars of the show, and Belgian Princess Astrid gave the occasion an old-world royal touch amid the movie nobility headed by Spielberg. The movie is rolling out first across Europe and elsewhere before hitting the United States by the Christmas movie season. “To highjack Tintin and bring it to America first, and then release it overseas second, would be something that would not have even occurred to us,” Spielberg said. “From the outset, the plan was to give Tintin back to the countries where Tintin was the most beloved.” The director has been riding a wave of support from local critics despite opening in a tradition-bound nation ready to pounce on any desecration of its cultural icon by Americans. “Action adventure and slapstick: Spielberg’s Tintin movie has it all,” was the headline Saturday in the De Morgen paper. Spielberg bought the rights to the character in the 1980s — and three decades of waiting for the result ended with “what they call in the movies, a happy ending,” said cartoon and movie expert Hugues Dayez. And the Belgian government even made Spielberg a Commander in the Order of the Crown. For Spielberg, a happy ending will mean the movie is such a box office success that a sequel becomes unavoidable. Together with “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, he will be ready. “We have chosen the next story. We have a screenplay that is being written right now,” Spielberg said, refusing to say which of Herge’s two-dozen Tintin books he would take. The books have sold over 220 million copies around the world. The first movie tells how Tintin discovers a key to a treasure by accident, then is sent fleeing evil criminals across the world, with the drunken sailor Captain Haddock in tow. The tough part might be selling to 21st century kids a bygone world where good and evil were so clearly cut and where Jamie Bell’s Tintin, enhanced in performance-capture technology, is virtuous without even a whiff of vice. [...]
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LONDON (AP & Staff) — He introduced wartime Britain to the percussive rhythm of the rumba, so capturing the nation’s imagination that its young princess chose his songs for her public dancing debut. Bandleader Edmundo Ros, 100, died peacefully in his sleep, his family said Saturday. Born in Trinidad to a Venezuelan mother and a Scottish father, Ros’s musical career began in the Venezuelan army but took off after he moved to London in 1937. His five-piece Rumba Band was a runaway hit, playing for high society and international royalty. His music was so popular that then-Princess Elizabeth had her first public dance to the sound of Ros’ band in the 1940s. As queen, she would award him the Order of the British Empire for his services to entertainment. Ros was effectively London’s “ambassador for Latin American music,” his son Douglas told . Ros was a prolific artist, making more than 800 recordings over the course of his career. His 1949 number, “The Wedding Samba,” sold 3 million copies. His band was a fixture at Regent Street’s Coconut Grove club, which he bought in 1951 and which counted Britain’s Princess Margaret, Monaco’s Prince Rainier and Sweden’s Prince Bertil among its regulars, according to the musician’s website. The club’s demanding standards — ladies wearing broad-brimmed hats or trousers were denied admittance — kept the clientele exclusive through the 1950s, but the relaxation of Britain’s gambling laws in the 1960s began to hit his takings. Ros sold the club and later retired to the Spanish resort city of Alicante, where he died on Friday night, according to a family statement. Douglas Ros said a private funeral ceremony would take place in Spain.
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NEW YORK (AP & staff) — Folk music legend Pete Seeger and ’60s folk singer Arlo Guthrie joined Occupy Wall Street demonstrators Friday in their campaign against corporate greed while residents near the protest park encampment pushed to regain some peace and quiet in their neighborhood. Seeger joined in the Occupy Wall Street protest Friday night, replacing his banjo with two canes as he marched with throngs of people in New York City’s tony Upper West Side past banks and shiny department stores. The 92-year-old Seeger, accompanied by musician-grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger, composer David Amram, and bluesman Guy Davis, shouted out the verses of protest anthems as the crowd of about 1,000 people sang and chanted. They marched peacefully over more than 30 blocks from Symphony Space, where the Seegers and other musicians performed, to Columbus Circle. Police watched from the sidelines. Occupy Wall Street began a month ago in lower Manhattan among a few young people, and has grown to tens of thousands around the country and the world. A recent Associated Press-GfK poll says more than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protesters, and even more — 58 percent — say they are furious about America’s politics. But the encampment at Zuccotti Park has become more than a tolerable nuisance, some neighborhood residents say. At a meeting Thursday, they complained of protesters urinating in the streets and beating drums in the middle of the night. Some called for the protesters to vacate the park. The area’s community board voted unanimously for a resolution that recognized the protesters’ First Amendment rights while calling for a crackdown on noise and public urination and defecation. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and state Sen. Daniel Squadron said in a statement that the resolution was “an attempt to establish a sensible framework that respects the protesters’ fundamental rights while addressing the very real quality of life concerns for residents and businesses around Zuccotti Park.” Asked about Occupy Wall Street on WOR Radio on Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the protesters’ leaderless structure has made it difficult to negotiate with them. Occupy Wall Street spokesman Han Shan, who has served as a liaison between protesters and local elected officials, agreed the protesters needed to be better neighbors. Shan, who attended the meeting, promised to limit the noise. At Columbus Circle, Seeger and friends walked to the chant of [...]
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LOS ANGELES (AP & staff) — For several moments, the milky white substance that authorities say killed Michael Jackson dripped down into an IV line a few feet away from jurors. Sometimes the drops fell fast, until their rate was slowed by the Columbia University researcher and professor who for three days has testified about the drug and its effects on the King of Pop as he died. The demonstration, with the anesthetic propofol dripping harmlessly into a water bottle, was one of the final scenes prosecutors presented Thursday to jurors hearing the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. On Friday, Murray’s lead attorney will finally get his chance to question the expertise and assumptions laid out by Dr. Steven Shafer, the prosecution’s final and one of its most important witnesses. The Houston-based cardiologist has pleaded not guilty. After days of testimony and demonstrating the type of IV drip that was likely present in Jackson’s bedroom in his final hours, Shafer bluntly responded to a question about Murray’s culpability. “He has been entrusted by Michael Jackson to look after his safety every night and he has failed,” Shafer said. Sitting in the courtroom, watching and listening to it all was Shafer’s former teacher and longtime colleague, Dr. Paul White, who will testify for the defense. Shafer opened Thursday’s testimony by saying he was “disappointed” in his former instructor, who earlier this year had written in a report that he thought it was possible Jackson had died after swallowing a dose of propofol. Shafer told jurors that medical studies dating back to 1985, performed on animals as varied as rats, dogs, monkeys and more recently, humans, had shown that propofol if swallowed wouldn’t produce sedation or any ill effects. White has been taking notes throughout Shafer’s testimony and his observations will likely influence lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff when he begins his cross-examination Friday afternoon. Shafer also attempted to discredit another defense theory — that Jackson may have swallowed eight lorazepam pills in the hours before his death without Murray’s knowledge and that authorities overlooked it. He said the amount of lorazepam that was found in Jackson’s stomach was “trivial.” The only explanation that supported all the evidence — including the items found in Jackson’s bedroom, the singer’s autopsy results and Murray’s lengthy statement to police — is that Murray gave the singer propofol on an IV drip and left [...]
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AMSTERDAM (AP & staff) — A Dutch court Friday rejected a suit brought by one of the Netherlands’ best-known gangsters seeking to block the release of a film about the 1983 kidnapping of beer tycoon Freddy Heineken. Willem Holleeder, dubbed “The Nose” in the Dutch media, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in kidnapping Heineken and his chauffeur and holding them captive in soundproof cells in an Amsterdam warehouse for three weeks until his family paid a $36 million ransom. Though all four kidnappers were eventually caught, about 20 percent of the money was never recovered. Holleeder’s lawyers claimed the movie “The Heineken Kidnapping,” starring Rutger Hauer as the victim, would damage Holleeder’s image by making him appear more sadistic than he really is. In a summary ruling, judge Wil Tonkens of the Amsterdam District Court rejected the suit without comment and said she will publish her reasoning Oct. 28. Lawyers for producers IDTV Film had argued the movie is a fictionalized version of events. Holleeder, now 53, is not named in the movie, and filmmakers said they merged his character with that of another of the four real-life kidnappers — although one of the actors resembles Holleeder physically, including the prominent nose that is the source of his nickname. The defense lawyers also argued Holleeder has little reputation left to lose. He launched the suit from his cell in a high-security prison where he is serving a new nine-year sentence on unrelated extortion charges. One of his victims was real estate magnate Willem Endstra, who had given a statement to police about a shakedown by Holleeder. Endstra’s subsequent murder in 2003 has not been solved. IDTV lawyer Jens van den Brink said halting the €4.7 million ($6.4 million) production just days before its Oct. 24 release would have been financially ruinous. Heineken’s family also declined to cooperate with the filmmakers. He had inherited a small family concern and built it into the world’s third-largest brewer. After the kidnapping, Heineken became more reclusive and was believed to be the Netherlands’ richest man, worth $3.6 billion when he died of pneumonia in 2002. The two other living kidnappers have also said they don’t want the film to go forward. The fourth, Cor van Hout, was slain in an unsolved gangland killing in 2003. An American film based on the Heineken kidnapping also is under negotiation with a [...]
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LOS ANGELES (AP & staff) — Lindsay Lohan’s arrival at the morgue for community service — Take Two — had a better result Friday as the actress was quickly put to work after showing up early. News helicopters hovered over the coroner’s facilities and cameras greeted her black sport utility vehicle when Lohan reported for duty, one day after officials turned her away for being 40 minutes late to an orientation session. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Lohan arrived “real early” Friday, completed her orientation and was put to work before 8 a.m. She had been ordered to report at the coroner’s facilities at 7 a.m., but Lohan’s publicist, Steve Honig, wrote in an email that the actress had been outside for more than an hour before it opened. Lohan must complete 16 hours of custodial work at the morgue before a Nov. 2 court hearing. She will be expected to mop floors, clean and stock bathrooms, and wash dirty sheets, coroner’s officials have said. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner revoked Lohan’s probation during a contentious court hearing Wednesday after the judge learned the “Mean Girls” star had been fired from doing community service at a women’s shelter. Sautner ordered Lohan to complete 360 hours at the center and 120 hours at the morgue in April as punishment for taking a $2,500 necklace without permission. Lohan later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge related to the necklace and served 35 days on house arrest. It is Lohan’s second time doing service at the morgue — she initially completed a program there after a pair of drunken driving arrests in 2007. She has consistently struggled with completing the terms of her sentence.
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BRUSSELS (AP & staff) — Tintin always is flawless, courageous and heroic — right up to the point of being cartoonesque. That left British actor Jamie Bell, 25, with the challenge of turning the character into a believable, flesh-and-bones intrepid reporter for Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.” Granted, Bell’s acting was enhanced by performance-capture technology, which layers computer animation onto actors to add a veneer of recognition as well as the atmosphere of the old comic books populated by villains and heroes. Still, it was daunting. “For Tintin, his palette, the colors aren’t as rich,” Bell acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press. Tintin is a character dreamed up 80 years ago by Belgian artist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name of Herge. Now Tintin has to come alive on the screen in an age where 10-year-kids know all about irony, sarcasm and the fact that vice and virtue are often much more intertwined than adults let on. Spielberg and Bell are trying to take these kids back in a time machine, to Europe deep in the 20th century, when things seemed simple and straightforward. Bell says he loved playing “a great heroic character that is straight-laced, old-fashioned and doesn’t rely on anything but just natural instinct. I don’t think we see those kind of heroes anymore.” Bell was in Tintin’s home town of Brussels for Saturday’s world premiere of the movie, which will roll out across Europe and elsewhere before hitting the United States by the Christmas movie season. “The Secret of the Unicorn” is rollicking ride from one haphazard event — Tintin’s buying an old model ship — to dangerous fights on a rusty cargo ship to exotic desert adventures, all spiced with a dash of humor and chase scenes that have become a Spielberg hallmark. Bell’s character is never far from Andy Serkis’ Captain Haddock, a cursing alcoholic prone to fits of self-pity and flourishes of bravado. In cartoon terms, it was casting Mickey Mouse alongside Donald Duck. Was Bell ever jealous of Serkis’ right to wreak havoc? “Yes, of course, but you cannot have one without the other. If we were both like that …it would turn into such slapstick,” he said. Instead, the order of the universe is turned on its head as the boy reporter becomes the adult in this situation. “Tintin is the parent and [...]
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NEW YORK (AP & staff) — Demi Lovato will perform the national anthem at Game 5 of the World Series. Lovato will belt out the anthem on Monday. The Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals are tied 1-1 in the seven-game series. Lovato got a boost from her big sister Dallas, who tweeted during Game 1 that her younger sister should sing the national anthem during the Major League Baseball championship series. Game 3 airs Saturday and all games are being broadcast on Fox. Lovato, the former star of the Disney Channel’s “Sonny With a Chance,” released her third album “Unbroken” last month.
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DETROIT (AP & staff) — Court records show acclaimed crime novelist Elmore Leonard is divorcing his wife of 18 years. The Detroit News reports (http://j.mp/q3iWLm ) Thursday that he and Christine Leonard split earlier this year and she filed for divorce in May. Oakland County Circuit Court records say Christine Leonard cited a breakdown in the marriage for unspecified reasons. Elmore Leonard’s attorney Gerald Cavellier calls it “pretty standard as divorces go.” Christine Leonard’s attorney Joseph Aviv says Judge Edward Sosnick disqualified himself from the case because he presided over the couple’s wedding. A trial is set for Dec. 12. The 86-year-old Leonard, who lives in suburban Detroit, has written more than 40 Westerns, crime novels and mysteries. Many of his books — notably “Out of Sight,” ”Get Shorty” and “Be Cool” — have become films.
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NEW YORK (AP & staff) — Tyler Perry has gotten plenty of criticism from some who feel his popular movies don’t reflect well on the black community. But Al Sharpton says Perry’s critics are “proper Negroes” who don’t understand regular black folk. Sharpton’s National Action Network honored the filmmaker Wednesday night in New York City at its second annual Triumph Awards with its Chairman’s Award. Sharpton lauded the creator of movies including “Madea’s Family Reunion” and “Why Did I Get Married,” saying he “never lost his authenticity.” Perry said he was grateful for the honor, and chastised those who have criticized his characters as stereotypes. He said he has the “ear of the people” and his critics need to stop running from “our parents and our grandparents and our uncles.”
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NEW YORK (AP & staff) — The Wall Street protest against economic inequality has a chaotic and complicated relationship with media that has helped spread its message across the world from a small Manhattan park. Like the demonstrations themselves, Occupy Wall Street’s media operation has no clear leader or simple message. Some of its volunteers work to help reporters whose cameras and microphones dot Zuccotti Park, even as many protesters express an aversion toward the press. A red-flowered umbrella and flimsy blue tarp hanging over two tables marked the centerpiece for the media operation, amid sleeping bags and circulating crowds. “It’s triage,” said Bill Dobbs, a veteran liberal activist who is one of about two dozen volunteers who take shifts at the press area. There is no central phone number and Dobbs’ cellphone voice mail tends to be full. The media volunteers have counted at least 500 outlets that have sent reporters to the park, including a New Zealand newspaper, a college newspaper from Texas and a documentary filmmaker from Australia. Trucks from television networks were parked Wednesday along a narrow street next to the park, their transmitters reaching for the sky. If asked, the volunteers work as “fixers” for reporters who want to interview specific types of people — for example, a student overloaded with college loan debts or a middle-age person out of work, said Jeff Smith, a volunteer who works in advertising. Last weekend the group held “media training” sessions for protesters, not necessarily to push a certain message but to give tips in dealing with combative reporters, said Beth Bogart, a documentary filmmaker and volunteer. The media volunteers try to meet daily to discuss what is going on. No one has really taken the lead role, and Dobbs said that’s intentional. “We try to avoid accumulating power in that way,” he said. A dry-erase board near the media center advertised the day’s schedule of events: “coordinating meeting”; “direct action group meeting”; “burlesque.” Nearby, a knot of reporters and demonstrators stood in a circle around one of the day’s celebrity visitors: the Rev. Jesse Jackson. His visit wasn’t advertised. Others who have dropped by to support the protesters include Susan Sarandon, Kanye West, Mark Ruffalo, Penn Badgley, Tim Robbins and Michael Moore. Julianne Pepitone, a reporter for CNNMoney.com who has been covering the protest since it started, said Wednesday that in the early days, media volunteers would [...]
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WOODSTOCK, N.Y. (AP & staff) — Photographer Barry Feinstein, who captured behind-the-scenes images from rock’s golden age and shot iconic album covers for Bob Dylan and George Harrison, has died in upstate New York. He was 80. Agent Dave Brolan says the Woodstock resident died early Thursday. He’d suffered various ailments and was hospitalized with an infection. Feinstein’s best known images include the skinny, side-glancing picture of Dylan on the cover of 1964′s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and of Harrison sitting among garden gnomes on his 1970 solo album, “All Things Must Pass.” But Feinstein had a varied career that ranged from shooting Hollywood stars like Steve McQueen and Judy Garland to top rock stars of the 1960s and 1970s. Feinstein is survived by wife Judith Jamieson and two children from previous marriages.
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LOS ANGELES (AP & staff) — Michael Jackson’s personal physician was giving the pop superstar a modern drug to help him sleep, but a prosecution expert told jurors Wednesday that in doing so he violated ancient principles for conduct between doctors and patients. Dr. Steven Shafer, an expert in the anesthetic propofol that Jackson’s doctor had been using as a sleep aid, said there were 17 violations by Dr. Conrad Murray that each put Jackson’s life at risk. Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He was Jackson’s personal physician for roughly two months before the singer’s unexpected death in June 2009. The cardiologist’s attorneys will cross-examine Shafer on Thursday. Many of the violations concerned modern life-saving equipment that Murray lacked when he gave Jackson propofol in the bedroom of his rented mansion, but Shafer said among the cardiologist’s worst transgressions was he put his own interests ahead of Jackson’s. Since Ancient Greece — and probably before — Shafer said societies had held doctors to high standards. He quoted the Hippocratic oath, “‘In every house where I come, I will enter only for the good of my patients.’” Instead of honoring the ancient creed, Murray came to Jackson’s rented mansion nightly and gave the singer propofol, a drug as a sleep aid, a use it was never intended for, Shafer said. He likened the Houston-based cardiologist to an employee, akin to a housekeeper, who wouldn’t tell his boss no. “Saying yes is not what doctors do,” he testified. “A competent doctor would know you do not do this.” Shafer, a Columbia University professor and researcher who helped write the guidelines and warnings included with every vial of propofol, repeatedly said Murray’s actions were unconscionable, unethical and illegal. He frequently travels to lecture on propofol’s effects, and his testimony took a global view Wednesday as he described attending anesthesia conferences in China, research from Canada, and how hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt showed doctors interacting with patient. But he said Murray’s case is unlike any he’s seen before. “We are in pharmacological never-never land here, something that was done to Michael Jackson and no one else in history to my knowledge,” he told jurors. Shafer’s testimony tied together pieces of prosecution’s case against Murray laid out over four weeks. The professor reminded jurors that Murray had bought more than four gallons of propofol to use on the singer during his employment, [...]
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LOS ANGELES (AP & staff) — A judge revoked Lindsay Lohan’s probation and she was led away in handcuffs, after the actress was ousted from a community service assignment at a women’s shelter. She was released a short time later from Airport Courthouse after $100,000 bail was posted, according to her spokesman Steve Honig. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner hammered Lohan during a tense proceeding Wednesday and urged her to complete a minimum of 16 hours of her community service at the county morgue before her next scheduled hearing Nov. 2. At that time, Sautner will decide whether Lohan should serve her fifth stint behind bars. Lohan was released early due to jail overcrowding four previous times. “There has been violation after violation,” Sautner said. “We’re dealing with someone on probation,” said Lohan’s attorney, Shawn Holley. “Most people on probation don’t always do things perfectly.” A city prosecutor recommended jail time, but Sautner put that decision off until next month’s hearing when Lohan’s probation officer and other officials will testify about her efforts to complete her sentence. “If jail meant something in the state of California now, maybe I’d put her in jail,” Sautner said. The development marked the latest legal problem for the 25-year-old Lohan, who was given probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a misdemeanor theft case this year. “Lindsay is hoping this matter will be resolved on Nov. 2 and the court will reinstate probation and allow her to continue fulfilling her community service,” Honig said. Lohan had been ordered in April to serve 360 hours at the Downtown Women’s Center, an agency that helps homeless women. Nine of Lohan’s appointments at the center were “just blown off” and she “showed up once and left after an hour,” Sautner said. Lohan has since started serving hours with the American Red Cross, but Sautner said that would not count because it was not part of her sentence. During the roughly 40-minute proceeding, the judge admonished Lohan for failing to show up for her four-hour appointments at the women’s center and for taking six months to complete a court-ordered Shoplifters Anonymous course. The judge also questioned how Lohan could have complied with her court-ordered weekly psychological counseling when she was traveling in Europe from Sept. 9 to Oct. 5. “I don’t know how she did that in person every week,” said Sautner. Lohan, aside from a role [...]
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NEW YORK (AP & staff) — She would know: Going out with Woody Allen was like being in a Woody Allen movie, Diane Keaton writes in an upcoming memoir. The Academy Award-winning actress starred with Allen in such favorites as “Sleeper” and “Love and Death” and got an Oscar for “Annie Hall,” in which her baggy-panted WASP meshed unforgettably with Allen’s patented schlemiel. Allen and Keaton dated for a few years and remain close. “I was his endearing oaf. I had him pegged as a cross between a ‘White Thing’ and the cockroach you couldn’t kill,” Keaton, 65, writes in “Then Again,” which comes out next month and is excerpted in the November issue of Vogue, arriving at newsstands Oct 25. “We shared a love of torturing each other with our failures. His insights into my character were dead-on and hilarious. This bond remains the core of our friendship and, for me, love.” Keaton writes that she met Allen in 1968 when they worked together in Allen’s stage comedy “Play It Again, Sam,” roles they re-enacted for the 1972 film version. Allen is the divorced neurotic who channels the spirit of Humphrey Bogart to help with his love life. The actress falls for him in the script and soon did the same in real life. “How could I not? I was in love with him before I knew him. He was Woody Allen. Our entire family used to gather around the TV set and watch him on Johnny Carson. He was so hip, with his thick glasses and cool suits,” she writes. “But it was his manner that got me, his way of gesturing, his hands, his coughing and looking down in a self-deprecating way while he told jokes like ‘I couldn’t get a date for New Year’s Eve so I went home and I jumped naked into a vat of Roosevelt dimes.’ “He was even better-looking in real life. He had a great body, and he was physically very graceful.” Like scenes out of “Annie Hall,” ”Manhattan” and so many other Allen comedies, Allen and Keaton took in art-house films such as Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona,” checked out German Expressionist art on Madison Avenue and visited a Diane Arbus exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. In what for Allen must have been a sign of true love, he even recommended an analyst. “Woody got used to me. He couldn’t [...]
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ATLANTA (AP & staff) — Georgia State University has announced that rapper Rick Ross, who was hospitalized last week, has canceled a planned concert there. Georgia State officials said in a statement that the rap artist notified them that he’ll be unable to perform at Friday’s GSU homecoming concert in downtown Atlanta. GSU’s statement said Ross suffered two seizures last week while attempting to travel to various performances in the Southeast. School officials say ticket refunds will be made available.
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TORONTO (AP & staff) — A former doctor who admitted that he stalked Canadian country star Shania Twain had yet another outburst on Wednesday after he was denied bail. A judge “quite reluctantly” denied Giovanni (John) Palumbo’s request to be freed while he awaits his next court date on Nov. 15, citing an insufficient release plan. After Justice Richard Schneider reached that conclusion, Palumbo — who has been an animated presence throughout his trial, twice previously interrupting Twain’s video testimony with loud protestations — swore under his breath before shouting at the court. “You know you’re all very sick, you really are — it’s so sad,” Palumbo said. “Have fun, because I’m going to keep having fun, wherever I am. … What a bunch of psychopaths. Woo hoo. “Shame, shame, shame. Shame on all of you!” Last month, Palumbo pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and one count of failure to comply with a court order. He pleaded guilty after listening to testimony from Twain. Prosecution lawyer John Flaherty requested at the time that Palumbo undergo a psychiatric evaluation before sentencing. While Dr. Helen Ward’s report concluded that Palumbo suffers from bipolar disorder and a narcissistic personality disorder, she also deemed him criminally responsible for his actions. But after Palumbo testified earlier this week, Flaherty asked for further clarity on the evaluation and Schneider agreed it was necessary. Ward will testify on Nov. 15, and Palumbo could face sentencing. Last month, Twain testified via video link and described the numerous lovelorn letters Palumbo had mailed to her residences in Ontario and Switzerland, and discussed the feelings of fear and vulnerability conjured by his unwanted visits. He was seen at her family cottage, her grandmother’s funeral and at the Juno Awards in March, where he was arrested. He’s remained in custody since then. A day after Palumbo told court about the uncomfortable conditions he has endured in jail, Schneider expressed some regret in extending his incarceration. Defense lawyer Gary Barnes had proposed that Palumbo would return to his last residence, Toronto’s Royal York hotel. He added that Palumbo would abstain from contacting Twain and would agree to pursue any treatment plans deemed necessary by the court. However, no one in Palumbo’s family volunteered to care for him and Schneider said “some degree of supervision” might have been necessary for his release. “Nobody at this juncture wants to see Mr. Palumbo in custody [...]
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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP & Staff) — A recently discovered manuscript by Eugene O’Neill that’s based on a suicide attempt by the playwright has been acquired by a library at Yale University. All copies of the one-act play, “Exorcism,” were assumed to be lost until a researcher sifting through another writer’s papers discovered the manuscript earlier this year. O’Neill, who died in 1953, is the only American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. The Beinecke (BYE’-nik-ee) Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale purchased the script for an undisclosed amount. Curator Louise Bernard says the play set in 1912 intimates the overwhelming role that suicide would take in O’Neill’s personal life. The play appears in the Oct. 17 issue of The New Yorker magazine and will be published next year by the Yale University Press.
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LOS ANGELES (AP & staff) — The trial of the doctor charged in Michael Jackson’s death will resume Wednesday after days of delay, with jurors hearing from a leading expert on the powerful anesthetic that authorities contend killed the King of Pop. Dr. Steven Shafer’s return to the stand on behalf of the prosecution comes after testimony was halted for three and a half court days. Time off was initially given to accommodate the Columbia University professor’s schedule, but his father died and the delay was extended. Shafer is the prosecution’s final witness in its case against Dr. Conrad Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. A judge canceled testimony Tuesday to give defense attorneys time to research new test results conducted by coroner’s officials on the level of the sedative lorazepam in Jackson’s body. Murray’s attorneys have claimed that lorazepam levels found in the singer’s stomach contents suggested he may have taken several pills in the hours before his death without his doctor’s knowledge. Murray has admitted giving Jackson doses of propofol in the pop superstar’s bedroom as a sleep aid. Murray’s attorneys have said that the amount of propofol their client gave Jackson on the day of his June 2009 death was too small to cause the icon’s sudden death at age 50. Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said Monday that the new results from the coroner’s office show that levels of lorazepam in Jackson’s body were lower than the defense claimed and were inconsistent with the theory Murray’s attorneys had presented to jurors. Lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff said Tuesday that he was seeking additional testing from an independent lab to confirm or disprove the coroner’s results, but that it would take several days for the defense to get the answers it needs. Walgren agreed that he would not raise the issue of the new tests until after the defense team presents its case. Murray’s attorneys will begin calling witnesses Friday. They plan to call 15 witnesses, who will include police detectives, character witnesses and Randy Phillips, the head of AEG Live, the promoter of Jackson’s planned series of comeback concerts. Chernoff said many of the witnesses will be brief and the defense should rest its case by Wednesday. Murray’s attorneys are also going to call one of Shafer’s colleagues, Dr. Paul White, as an expert to try to counter the prosecution’s case. Prosecution witnesses [...]
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LOS ANGELES (AP & staff) — Norman Corwin, a creative giant of the Golden Age of Radio whose programs chronicling World War II are milestones in broadcasting, has died. He was 101. Corwin died Tuesday at his Los Angeles home of natural causes, according to the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism where Corwin remained a writer in residence until his death. During a career that spanned more than 70 years, Corwin wrote, produced and directed for radio, television, film and the stage. His insightful writing earned Emmy and Golden Globe awards. He received an Academy Award nomination for his script for the 1956 film “Lust for Life,” the biography of Vincent van Gogh starring Kirk Douglas. But radio was Corwin’s true passion. “I find it difficult to turn down an offer to be heard,” he said in a 2001 interview on public radio. “Whether it’s an anniversary, whether it’s on the ending of a war, whatever the subject, I am ham enough to enjoy communicating to people, to an audience.” Actor William Shatner, who narrated several of Corwin’s later radio programs, called him a legend and his hero. He is “the poetic soul of discretion and a monument to artistry in America,” Shatner once said. Throughout the 1940s, Corwin was well known to millions of Americans who depended on radio for their link to the world. His work during that so-called Golden Age of Radio ran the gamut of creative offerings, from variety shows to dramas, comedies to documentaries. Some of his most acclaimed programs dealt with World War II and provided perspective about a war being fought thousands of miles away. His writing brought the country together, inspiring patriotism, hope and optimism. He joined CBS in 1938 at the height of the radio network’s glory, working with such broadcasting greats as Edward R. Murrow and Howard K. Smith. While his early work was behind the microphone, Corwin eventually turned his focus to writing, producing and directing. In 1941, he wrote “We Hold These Truths,” a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights featuring the voices of Lionel Barrymore, Walter Brennan and Orson Welles. It was broadcast simultaneously on all four radio networks days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “We Hold These Truths” was added in 2005 to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, formed to honor sound recordings of unusual historical merit. [...]
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LONDON (AP & Staff) — It was fourth time lucky for British writer Julian Barnes, who won literature’s Booker Prize on Tuesday after a contest that had as many insults, rivalries and bitter accusations as a paperback potboiler. Barnes, a finalist on three previous occasions who once described the contest as “posh bingo,” finally took the 50,000 pound ($82,000) prize with “The Sense of an Ending,” a memory-haunted novel about a 60-something man forced to confront buried truths about his past after the unexpected arrival of a letter. Former British spy chief-turned-thriller writer Stella Rimington, who chaired the judging panel, said the 150-page novel “spoke to humankind in the 21st century.” She said it was “almost an archetypal book of our time” that examined the unreliability of memory and how little we know ourselves. “It is exquisitely written, subtly plotted and reveals new depths with each reading,” she said. Barnes, one of Britain’s most critically acclaimed novelists, was previously nominated for “Flaubert’s Parrot” in 1984, “England, England” in 1998 and “Arthur and George” in 2005. The 65-year-old writer conceded that “in occasional moments of mild paranoia” he had wondered if forces were working against him ever winning. “I’m as much relieved as I am delighted to receive the 2011 Booker Prize,” he said, thanking his publishers “for their wisdom and the sponsors for their check.” Barnes had been the strong favorite to win the award, attracting half of all bets laid through bookmaker William Hill. He beat five other finalists. Three were British — Stephen Kelman for “Pigeon English,” A.D. Miller for “Snowdrops” and Carol Birch for “Jamrach’s Menagerie.” Two Canadian novels rounded out the shortlist: “The Sisters Brothers” by Patrick deWitt and “Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan. One of the English-speaking world’s most high-profile literary prizes, the Booker is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the 54-nation Commonwealth of former British colonies. Founded in 1969, it is officially called the Man Booker Prize after its sponsor, financial services conglomerate Man Group PLC. It always attracts colorful commentary and controversy, but this year’s contest has been particularly combative, with critics accusing the five judges of dumbing-down after Rimington said the finalists had been chosen for readability. The shortlist drew criticism for excluding some of the year’s most critically lauded books, including “On Canaan’s Side” by Ireland’s Sebastian Barry and “The Stranger’s Child” by Britain’s Alan Hollinghurst. And a group [...]
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SALT LAKE CITY(AP & Staff) —The family from cable television’s polygamous “Sister Wives” reality show has told a federal judge in Utah how much they’ve been hurt by the threat of prosecution under the state’s bigamy law. Kody Brown and his wives wrote in new court papers that they’ve lost jobs, were forced to move to Nevada and suffered harm to their reputations after police launched an investigation last year after the fall 2010 launch of their TLC show. In July, Brown and wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robin, filed a lawsuit challenging Utah’s bigamy law in Salt Lake City’s U.S. District Court. They contended that the law is unconstitutional and unfairly applied to polygamists. “Because the Browns are open about their polygamist lifestyle, the criminal bigamy statute has the effect of publicly labeling them as presumptive felons,” the Brown’s Washington, D.C.-based attorney, Jonathan Turley, wrote in court papers filed Monday. “The statute further brands them as immoral and societal outsiders.” The court papers were a response to petition filed by the Utah Attorney General’s Office asking a federal judge to dismiss the case. It wasn’t clear on Tuesday whether a judge would issue a decision based on the court pleadings or schedule a hearing for oral arguments. State prosecutors contend the Browns — who haven’t been charged — aren’t facing any real harm and won’t likely face prosecution, because the state has rarely prosecuted individuals for bigamy without also prosecuting underlying crimes, such as underage marriages, abuse or welfare fraud. But the Browns said the harms to their family are real and that the public statements of Utah County prosecutors actually support their contention that prosecution remains a threat. In one magazine article, for example, Deputy Utah County Attorney Donna Kelley said “the Browns have definitely made it easier for us by admitting to felonies on national TV.” Turley contended that such statements have had a “chilling effect” on the family’s right to free speech, influencing what they can say publicly or on their television show, and curtailing their ability to practice their religion. Affidavits from Kody, Meri and Janelle Brown detailed the financial impact on the family. Those included a loss of sales accounts for Kody Brown and the termination of Meri Brown’s employment because her bosses were concerned about the criminal investigation and the public statements suggesting she was a felon. “Our continued labeling as presumptive felons [...]
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NEW YORK(AP & Staff) —ABC’s “Modern Family” may not be the top-rated comedy on television, but it’s the one most viewers catch up with on their digital video recorders. Through the first two weeks of the season, the Nielsen Co. said an average of 4.5 million viewers watched a recording of “Modern Family” after it first appeared on the air. That lifted the show’s viewership from nearly 14 million people who watched it live to 18.5 million. It was the prime-time program that got the biggest lift when Nielsen’s measurement of who watches on DVR within seven days is added in. Networks are increasingly watching this new ratings measurement as DVR penetration increases. Eight shows besides “Modern Family” saw their audiences grow by more than 3 million when the DVR statistics were added. Six are on CBS, led by “Two and a Half Men.” ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and Fox’s “Terra Nova” picked up significant time-shifted viewing. By percentage, the two-week champ was Fox’s “Fringe.” It airs live on Fox on Friday night, when many of the network’s young viewers are out, and saw its viewership increase by 45 percent from 3.3 million to 5 million with DVRs added in. NBC’s ratings this season are abysmal, but one ray of light is that the network’s “Parenthood,” ”Prime Suspect” and “Up All Night” increased their audiences by more than 30 percent through DVRs, Nielsen said. The DVR numbers could be the difference between life and death for marginal series. ABC’s just-canceled “Charlie’s Angels” had virtually the same live audience as its new “Pan Am” last week, but during the first two weeks of the season the percentage of people who watched “Pan Am” on DVR was more than twice that of “Charlie’s Angels.” In what’s becoming a pattern, CBS dominated live viewing again last week with 16 of the top 25 shows in Nielsen’s ranking. A strong newcomer was ABC’s comedy “Last Man Standing,” which landed in the top 10 with its premiere, evidence of actor Tim Allen’s enduring popularity. For the week in prime time, CBS led with an average of 10.6 million viewers (6.7 rating, 11 share), Fox had 9 million and ABC had 8.6 million (both 5.5, 9), NBC had 6.4 million (4.1, 7), the CW had 1.7 million (1.1, 2) and ION Television had 940,000 (0.6, 1). Among the Spanish-language stations, Univision led with an average of 3.2 [...]
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TEMPLE, Ga. (AP & Staff) — Authorities say hip-hop star Soulja Boy is facing a drug charge after police stopped his rental car in the west Georgia town of Temple on Interstate 20. Temple Police Chief Tim Shaw tells The Associated Press that police stopped the rented Cadillac Escalade early Tuesday morning. He said officers found marijuana inside. Police say the car was stopped because a light was not working. The artist, also known as DeAndre Cortez Way, was booked into the Carroll County Jail on charges of marijuana and firearms possession. His bond was set at $10,000. Shaw said that based on what he knows of the arrest, all five occupants of the car were very cordial. Carroll County officials say Way is represented by attorney Kip Jones, who had no comment when contacted.
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LOS ANGELES (AP & Staff) — Muscleman-turned movie star-turned California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is back before the cameras. He’s on the New Mexico set of “The Last Stand,” playing the starring role as a small town border sheriff. The actor posted a message on his Twitter account late Monday saying, “Fantastic first day on the set of The Last Stand. Big thanks to the crew – keep up the great work.” The Lionsgate studio says Schwarzenegger plays a former Los Angeles police officer who ends up sheriff of a small border town after a botched operation. The movie is a modern day Western about convicts making their way to the Mexico border through New Mexico after escaping from a Las Vegas prison. “The Last Stand” is being directed by Kim Jee-Woon.
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