Entertaining Posts: 06/07/11

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Michael Jackson concert insurers decline to pay out

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jun 7, 2011 2:55pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The insurers of Michael Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It" London comeback concerts have asked a judge to nullify a $17.5 million policy taken out by promoters, saying they were never told that the singer was taking powerful drugs.

Underwriters at Lloyds of London filed a lawsuit against AEG Live and Jackson's company in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, asking a judge to solve the insurance dispute almost two years after the "Thriller" singer's death.

Jackson, 50, died in Los Angeles on June 25 after rehearsing for the upcoming series of 50 concerts in London. Authorities said he died of a massive dose of the anesthetic propofol and a cocktail of other sedatives and painkillers.

Jackson's personal doctor is scheduled to stand trial in September on charges of giving the singer a fatal dose of propofol as a sleep aid.

The insurance policy was taken out to cover the cancellation or postponement of the London concerts in the case of the death, accident or illness of Jackson.

The lawsuit claimed that AEG, who hired Jackson's physician Dr. Conrad Murray, failed to disclose the singer's medical history to the insurers "including, but not limited to, his apparent prescription drug use and/or drug addiction."

The lawsuit further states that AEG or Jackson or his company knew but did not disclose that Jackson was taking propofol -- an anesthetic that is usually restricted to hospital use ahead of surgery.

It adds that attempts to resolve the dispute with AEG Live outside the courts have failed. "Underwriters therefore request that the policy be declared null and void."

AEG Live, which is privately held, did not return calls for comment on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)

Sienna Miller settles phone-hacking claim

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Nashville marks 40 years of country music festival

By Vernell Hackett

NASHVILLE, Tenn | Tue Jun 7, 2011 9:06am EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - The capital of country music lives up to its nickname beginning on Thursday where some 70,000 fans get the chance to mingle with their musical heroes at the CMA Music Fest.

The June 9-12 music festival, which is celebrating its 40th year, aims to get fans as close as possible to obtain autographs, photo opportunities, and a snatch of conversation with performers.

"Music Fest is a time for all of us to thank the fans and be here for them," said Miranda Lambert, who attended the event as a fan before performing in it as a star.

The music plays practically nonstop in Nashville from 10 a.m. to midnight on stages set up from Fifth Avenue to the Cumberland River and across the river at a stadium.

The projected 2011 lineup of more than 150 performers includes Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Kelly Clarkson, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Billy Ray Cyrus, Gary Allan, Bo Bice, Katie Armiger, Crystal Bowersox, and newlyweds Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton. Veteran performers include Jeannie Seely, Gene Watson and Earl Thomas Conley.

Some fans come year after year, lining up for autograph and photo opportunities with favorite performers at the Nashville Convention Center.

Last year 65,000 attended the festival and fans queued around the convention center to get coveted signatures from Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. This year will find similar scenes as Dolly Parton, Lady Antebellum, Trace Adkins, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, Martina McBride, Randy Travis, Darius Rucker, Kellie Pickler and Easton Corbin sign autographs.

Joe Bonsall of the Oak Ridge Boys has been to every festival from its beginnings downtown in 1972 to its move to the Tennessee Fairgrounds and now back downtown.

"It's just gotten bigger and bigger. Right now, I think being part of Music Fest means more to us than it ever has," Bonsall said.

"Most of our fans save their money all year long to come to Fan Fest. For me to be one of the people they come to see is why I do what I do," said Darius Rucker, front man for Hootie & the Blowfish and also an award-winning country singer.

On the sidelines will be benefit shows and fan club parties, kicked off on Wednesday by Marty Stuart's Late Night Jam featuring Dolly Parton, Mel Tillis and other friends.

"I expect her 'Dolliness' (Parton) to wreck the room and steal the show and I'm not going to let her leave the stage until she does it," Stuart said.

Some artists host extravagant private events, such as Gary Allen's riverboat ride and Randy Travis' concert for just 75 ticket-holders who will pay $225 apiece to hear him perform his new album and talk about his 25 years in the music business.

Reba McEntire told reporters about her first Music Fest in 1977, once known as "Fan Fair" and held at the 10,000-seat Municipal Auditorium in Nashville.

"I think back then I rode to Fan Fair in my car with every piece of clothing I could bum off my college roommate. I didn't have any fancy clothes, but she did because she was in rodeo," McEntire said.

(Editing by Andrew Stern)

Katie Couric signs deal for ABC talk show

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jun 7, 2011 12:33am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Katie Couric has signed a deal with ABC television to host and produce her own syndicated daytime talk show starting in September 2012, ABC said on Monday.

Couric, 54, will also contribute to other ABC News programs starting this summer, anchoring specials and contributing interviews, the Disney/ABC Television Group said in a statement.

The daytime show is as yet untitled but will be produced by Jeff Zucker - Couric's old boss from her days as host of NBC's top-rated morning show "Today".

Couric told ABC News in an interview she hoped the show would be smart and fun and a place where "you can go to make sense of a very complicated world."

"Smart conversation, those are the two words that I would like to aspire to, and also fun conversation," Couric said.

"We'll be running the gamut from everything from serious stories, like a new cancer drug, or what's going on with the deficit and trying to explain it so people can really understand it, to dealing with kids and technology and what is all this technology doing to our children's brains and ability to socialize, to bullying, to fun, popular culture stories."

Couric, known as "America's Sweetheart", ended a five-year stint on May 19 as anchor of rival network "CBS Evening News". On her appointment in 2006, she was the first woman to serve as a solo U.S. network evening news anchor.

The new daytime series will be based in New York. Eight ABC affiliates have cleared their 3pm slots for the new show in September 2012, ABC said.

Couric, one of the best-known personalities on U.S. television, arrived at the CBS evening news show in 2006 in a blaze of publicity. But despite winning a number of awards -- and famously interviewing a stumbling Sarah Palin in 2008 -- she never managed to lift the newscast out of its third place in the ratings war with rivals NBC and ABC.

Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney/ABC Television Group, called Couric "one of television's iconic figures."

"We look forward to having Katie join the best News team in the business, and to working with her to create a dynamic and successful talk show franchise," Sweeney added in a statement on Monday.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)