Entertaining Posts: 02/15/11

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Lady Gaga heading for hit, with Madonna's blessing

LOS ANGELES | Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:28pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lady Gaga's new Madonna-influenced single "Born This Way" is expected to storm the U.S. charts this week after record-setting radio play and more than 450,000 downloads, music industry sources say.

And the dance single also has the blessing of Madonna, Lady Gaga said.

"Born This Way" -- which fans and music critics have likened to the 1989 Madonna hit "Express Yourself" -- had sold more than 450,000 downloads in the first three days since its release on Friday, Billboard said quoting industry sources.

It also had a record-setting 4,602 radio plays in the United States, according to Nielsen. That should see the single debut at No.1 when the Billboard Hot 100 charts are released on Wednesday, Billboard said.

Lady Gaga addressed Madonna's influence in an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Monday.

"There is really no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and professionally," the 24-year-old singer told Leno.

"Well, the good news is that I got an e-mail from her people, and her sending me their love and complete support on behalf of the single, and if the queen says it shall be, then it shall be," she said.

Lady Gaga, who won three Grammys on Sunday after a headline-grabbing entrance encased in a giant egg, will make her concert debut on cable channel HBO in May.

HBO said on Tuesday that it would tape the singer's Feb 21 and 22 concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York for a May 7 broadcast.

"Born This Way" is the first single from a new Lady Gaga album scheduled for release on May 23.

The singer and performance artist told Leno on Monday that the opaque egg in which she arrived at the Grammys was in fact a "vessel" and said she had been inside it for three days before her performance on Sunday.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)

Rocker Slash to sell car, guitars in auction

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES | Tue Feb 15, 2011 2:49pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Who wants to dress in Slash's clothes, play his guitars and drive his pristine Corvette Stingray?

The former Guns N' Roses guitarist has teamed up with a Beverly Hills auction house to sell a wide range of personal property to fans and collectors next month.

Buyers with a passion for skulls and dinosaurs will be in luck, along with those whose living rooms would sparkle with exotic Southeast Asian furniture.

A sizable share of the proceeds from the March 26 sale will go to charity, according to Julien's Auctions, which specializes in selling entertainment memorabilia.

Auctioneer Darren Julien said he expected most of the items to end up overseas, particularly in Japan and other Asian markets where Guns N' Roses are still revered.

One of the perils of being a successful rock star for more than 20 years is that money buys a lot of clutter.

"I have a bad habit of collecting stuff that I don't necessarily use," Slash told Reuters, calling from a tour bus en route to a show in Oklahoma.

But a recent house move provided the 45-year-old rocker and his wife, Perla, with the perfect excuse to open their storage closets to fans and to boost the coffers of a local charity for abused and homeless adolescents.

"MONSTER OF A CAR"

The crown jewel is a 1966 Corvette Stingray, estimated to sell for at least $90,000 to $100,000, and described by Slash as "a monster of a car."

It was the toughest item to let go of, because it was the first good car he ever bought just as Guns N' Roses were becoming big stars in the late 1980s, and it is largely in original condition. Fluffy dice are included.

But the car has been sitting in storage while Slash drives new Aston Martins and his wife ferries their two young sons in an SUV. "I know that somebody would love to have that car because muscle cars are very, very popular," he said.

He estimates he has about 100 guitars, and will sell 14 of them at the auction. Among them is a Guild acoustic on which he recorded the band's early ballad "Patience." Also on the block are various custom and one-of-a-kind Telecaster, Stratocaster, Sanchez, Epiphone and B.C. Rich models.

Jackets, T-shirts and jewelry -- with skull motifs in abundance -- are going on sale, and two of Slash's trademark top hats.

And then there are the model dinosaurs, which would thrill any 6-year-old boy and evidently did the same to an adult rock star.

"My house was completely immersed in prehistoric animal lore," when he started dating his wife, Slash said. But she married him anyway.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Cassavetes to direct film about drug dealer Rick Ross

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK | Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:36am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nick Cassavetes, who co-wrote the drug film "Blow" and directed romantic drama "The Notebook," has signed on to direct a new biopic about notorious drug dealer Rick Ross, the director and Ross have confirmed.

Cassavetes and Ross -- also known as "Freeway" Rick Ross -- said the film would explore Ross's masterminding of the crack cocaine trade from his base in Los Angeles during the early 1980s and his claims of being supplied by Nicaraguan Contras.

"My brother was a mercenary. He worked in Central America training the Contras, so in a way the story is personal to me," Cassavetes told Reuters in an email. "The fact that our government may have been complicit in destroying an entire community of people makes the story personal for everyone."

The film will explore the height of Ross' career when he says he often moved 100 kilograms of cocaine every day from his headquarters in the South Central section of Los Angeles and distributed it across the Unites States.

He claims to have been supplied by rebels (Contras) fighting the government of Nicaragua, and the film is expected to touch on the Iran-Contra affair of the late 1980s, when some officials in the administration of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan were convicted of secretly facilitating arms sales to Iran and funneling money to Nicaraguan Contras.

Cassavetes, the son of indie film pioneer John Cassavetes, signed on to write the untitled film in June last year, but only just agreed to direct it several weeks ago.

Cassavetes said that while he did not like comparing past films, "if I had to compare this movie to another that's been made in terms of a feeling, a point of view, maybe 'Traffic'," referring to the 2000 drama that explored the illegal drug trade from a number of different perspectives.

The writer/director has finished a script and hopes to begin shooting this year, but a start date depends on gaining full financing from independent investors, Ross said.

Ross said the film would not touch on his childhood but would focus mostly on his adult life. He spent 20 years in prison, but the film is not expected to center on his time behind bars. Rather, it will cover his career selling drugs.

"We become addicted to the power, the money, the manipulation, the whole lifestyle, the whole drug culture," Ross said about dealers, "And you are going to get to see this in the movie, how a guy goes from being a novice to being a drug expert."

The former drug trafficker, from whom the rapper Rick Ross derived his stage name, said he has talked directly Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg about acting in or producing the movie, but no actor has been signed to star in the film.

Ross said he now travels the country speaking to ex-offenders and rehabilitation programs.

Rocker Slash to sell car, guitars in auction

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES | Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:55am EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Who wants to dress in Slash's clothes, play his guitars and drive his pristine Corvette Stingray?

The former Guns N' Roses guitarist has teamed up with a Beverly Hills auction house to sell a wide range of personal property to fans and collectors next month.

Buyers with a passion for skulls and dinosaurs will be in luck, along with those whose living rooms would sparkle with exotic Southeast Asian furniture.

A sizable share of the proceeds from the March 26 sale will go to charity, according to Julien's Auctions, which specializes in selling entertainment memorabilia.

Auctioneer Darren Julien said he expected most of the items to end up overseas, particularly in Japan and other Asian markets where Guns N' Roses are still revered.

One of the perils of being a successful rock star for more than 20 years is that money buys a lot of clutter.

"I have a bad habit of collecting stuff that I don't necessarily use," Slash told Reuters, calling from a tour bus en route to a show in Oklahoma.

"MONSTER OF A CAR"

The crown jewel is a 1966 Corvette Stingray, estimated to sell for at least $90,000 to $100,000, and described by Slash as "a monster of a car."

Jackets, T-shirts and jewelry -- with skull motifs in abundance -- are going on sale, and two of Slash's trademark top hats.

And then there are the model dinosaurs, which would thrill any 6-year-old boy and evidently did the same to an adult rock star.

"My house was completely immersed in prehistoric animal lore," when he started dating his wife, Slash said. But she married him anyway.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Anna Nicole Smith to crash genteel world of opera

By Mike Collett-White, Entertainment Correspondent

BERLIN | Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:48am EST

BERLIN (Reuters) - The genteel world of opera collides with that of lurid headlines, strip clubs and Playboy Thursday when a new work based on the life of the late Anna Nicole Smith has its premiere at London's Royal Opera House.

"Anna Nicole" is one of the prestigious opera company's riskiest projects yet, both because it leaves Covent Garden open to accusations of sensationalism in a bid to stay relevant and because some of the characters in the story are still alive.

According to the British media, lawyers are nervous, particularly in relation to tabloid star Smith's ex-boyfriend Howard K. Stern whose conviction for supplying her with drugs before her death in 2007 was dismissed last month.

The Royal Opera House has not denied the reports but declined to comment in detail on the work's contents or whether alterations had been made at the last minute for legal reasons.

The press office did confirm that the run of six shows, starting on February 17 and ending on March 4, had sold out.

The company's website called the new work "a celebrity story of our times that includes extreme language, drug abuse and sexual content," and imposed a minimum age of 16.

"This new opera is provocative in its themes, exciting in its bravura style and thrilling with its sheer contemporary nerve," it added in language normally reserved for reality TV.

"Anna Nicole Smith's life made the news -- you can bet this world premiere will too."

DUTCH SINGER IN LEAD ROLE

Smith died aged 39 of an accidental prescription drug overdose in Florida. At the time of her death, the former pin-up model and reality television star was embroiled in a long-running legal battle over the will of her late husband, billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.

They had married when she was 26 years old and he was 89.

Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek will perform the role of the voluptuous blonde in composer Mark-Anthony Turnage's latest work, under the direction of Richard Jones.

The libretto is by Richard Thomas, no stranger to controversy after his musical "Jerry Springer: The Opera" offended many Christians and sparked a record number of complaints when it was aired on BBC television in 2005.

In a recent piece written for the Times newspaper, Thomas admitted to feeling nervous and spoke of the risks involved in putting on a new opera.

"Unlike musicals, operas don't have the luxury of a preview period," he wrote. "There is one dress rehearsal and then BANG -- opening night."

Princess Di's brother Earl Spencer to marry again

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Justin Bieber 3D film might get director's cut

By Pamela McClintock

Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:27am EST

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Looking for a way to feed Bieber Fever at the box office, Paramount is considering releasing a special director's cut of "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" while the film is still in theaters.

The film opened to a better-than-expected $29.5 million across North America last weekend, just $1 million short of Adam Sandler's new champ "Just Go With It."

The redo is a novel idea, since it would give Bieber's rabid girl fan base a reason to go see the movie again. But the logistics are complicated, and insiders caution that the updated version could just as easily be held and released on the web and DVD.

Director Jon M. Chu has been working on the new version, but isn't done. And he's now on his way to Europe with Bieber's team for the premiere of "Never Say Never" in London and then Paris.

Chu will be back by the weekend and work on the special cut. Paramount wants to make a decision by early next week, so that moviegoers will be able to see the updated version during the film's third weekend in release.

Also, Paramount will have to resubmit "Never Say Never" to the ratings board. But since a new rating isn't being requested, the original film could stay in theaters pending the review of the new scenes.

If the director's cut were released in theaters, it would probably play only in 3D runs, since the cost of digital prints is nominal compared to regular prints.

No decision has been made about what footage would be used. One idea is to incorporate scenes that moviegoers expressed an interest in seeing during test screenings. A videographer also has been documenting Bieber.

New York Magazine's Vulture website first reported Paramount's plan.