Entertaining Posts: 08/31/11

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Mel Gibson settles for $750,000 with Grigorieva

LOS ANGELES | Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:54pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Mel Gibson will pay the mother of his 22 month-old daughter $750,000 and get joint custody of the child, ending a bitter custody and financial dispute that badly damaged his Hollywood career.

The "Braveheart" director and his former musician girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva agreed to a settlement detailed in a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing on Wednesday following a more than year-long war of words.

Judge Peter Lichtman banned both Gibson and Grigorieva from writing books about their relationship, which unraveled in early 2010 amid accusations of violence and extortion.

"I would like to thank your honor for bringing this matter to a reasonable conclusion," Gibson told Lichtman at Wednesday's hearing.

Grigorieva, who had been seeking millions of dollars from the Oscar-winning actor, thanked Lichtman for "the tremendous help to resolve this situation."

The acrimony between the couple became public a year ago when taped phone calls were leaked online in which Gibson was heard ranting, cursing and insulting Grigorieva.

The leak appeared to have been aimed at putting pressure on the actor to increase an initial settlement offer to Grigorieva that was reported to be around $15 million. Los Angeles prosecutors later decided against charging Grigorieva with extortion.

In March, Gibson admitted slapping Grigorieva during an argument and was sentenced to three years probation.

The widely-heard tapes further tarnished a reputation damaged by Gibson's 2006 anti-Semitic tirade following a drunk driving arrest in Malibu.

His manager quit, he lost a cameo role in "The Hangover: Part Two" because other people refused to work with him, and the release of his movie "The Beaver" was delayed and ultimately flopped at box offices in May.

Gibson, who was once estimated to be worth $900 million after a string of hit movies like "Lethal Weapon" and "The passion of the Christ", reached a private settlement with his wife Robyn in June that wrapped up their divorce after 28 years of marriage.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Rapper T.I. released from prison, sent to halfway house

ATLANTA | Wed Aug 31, 2011 1:23pm EDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Grammy Award-winning rapper T.I. was released from a federal prison in Arkansas on Wednesday and will spend the next month in a residential transition facility, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman said.

The Atlanta entertainer, whose real name is Clifford Harris, was sentenced in October 2010 to serve 11 months in prison for violating the terms of his probation after he was arrested on suspicion of possessing the drug ecstasy.

In 2007, T.I. faced a possible 30 years in prison on federal gun charges after he was arrested the same day he was due to have starred at the Black Entertainment Television awards, where he had been nominated for a series of honors.

A judge eventually sentenced him to just one year in jail after he pleaded guilty and agreed to do 1,000 hours of community service, warning young people about the dangers of drugs and gangs -- work for which he was widely praised.

At his sentencing last year, T.I. acknowledged he violated the terms of his probation when police stopped him for a traffic violation in Los Angeles on September 1 and found drugs in his car.

"I screwed up. I screwed up big time and I am sorry," the rapper told U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell during the sentencing.

Federal prisoners typically spend the last portion of their sentences in Residential Reentry Centers, formerly called halfway houses, said prisons spokesman Edmond Ross.

Prisoners normally are assigned to centers in or near their hometowns, he said.

T.I.'s career began as a rapper in 2001 but he then branched out into other areas of the music and film industry, finding success both as a producer and actor.

(Reporting by David Beasley; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

Robert Downey, Jr. and wife expecting first child

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George Clooney explores dirty politics in Venice film

By Mike Collett-White

VENICE, Italy | Wed Aug 31, 2011 9:52am EDT

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - George Clooney explores the dirty side of politics in "The Ides of March," the opening movie at the Venice film festival in which an aide to a presidential candidate learns how dispensable ideals can be.

The Hollywood heartthrob directs and acts in the behind-the-scenes look at a U.S. Democratic primary race, and the world premiere on Wednesday ensures a star-studded red carpet to kick off the 11-day cinema showcase.

Clooney, returning to the theme of politics after directing the 2005 black-and-white picture "Good Night, and Good Luck," played down its relevance to Washington today.

"I don't actually think of this as a political film," the 50-year-old told reporters after a press screening, at which there was muted applause.

"I figure you could literally put this in Wall Street, you could put it pretty much anywhere and it's all the same sort of issues -- it's issues of morality ... of whether or not you are willing to trade your soul for an outcome."

He went on to express sympathy for President Barack Obama, whose job he said he did not envy.

"As for running for president, look, there's a guy in office right now who is smarter than almost anybody you know, who's nicer and who has more compassion than almost anybody you know and he's having an almost impossible time governing.

"Why would anyone really volunteer for that job?"

The Ides of March features Ryan Gosling in the central role of press attache Stephen Myers, a devoted employee to Clooney's governor Mike Morris.

Both characters emerge as morally ambivalent figures faced with stark choices as Myers becomes embroiled in a high-stakes game of sex, power and horse-trading in a critical look at the reality behind political rhetoric.

WASHINGTON IS "VICIOUS"

Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Myers's boss and Paul Giamatti his rival, with Evan Rachel Wood rounding off the main cast as an intern with a dangerous secret.

Giamatti commented on what he saw as a poisonous atmosphere in American politics today.

"Certainly right now Hollywood seems like Candyland compared to Washington," he said. "I mean Washington is so vicious now that it makes Hollywood look like a children's party."

The Ides of March takes its inspiration from Beau Willimon's play "Farragut North," itself loosely based on the 2004 Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean.

While it may prove popular in the canal city where Clooney is a favorite and movies critical of America tend to strike a chord, its reception in the United States where it hits theatres in October is less certain.

Early reviews were generally positive, with Britain's Daily Telegraph giving it four stars out of five.

The evening gala screening marks the opening of the August 31-September 10 event, which promises eagerly awaited movies and A-list stars who will hope the Venice launch puts them in the frame for awards next year.

Thousands of journalists and fans have descended on the Lido island to catch a glimpse of their idols and bring the glamour of the world's oldest film festival to a global audience.

The roll call of celebrities expected this year includes Clooney, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Matthew McConaughey, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and pop superstar Madonna.

Among the hotly anticipated titles are "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" starring recent Oscar winner Colin Firth and Gary Oldman and Briton Andrea Arnold's take on the Emily Bronte novel "Wuthering Heights."

Outside the main competition of 22 films, Madonna brings her second feature film "W.E.," a drama loosely based on American divorcee Wallis Simpson whose relationship with Britain's King Edward VIII led to his abdication in 1936.

Steven Soderbergh promises an all-star cast including Damon, Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Law and Paltrow in "Contagion," about a lethal airborne virus that spreads panic.

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

Free drama of popular protest rocks London stage

Wed Aug 31, 2011 8:37am EDT

(This story contains graphic language)

By Barbara Lewis

LONDON (Reuters) - The spirit of the Arab Spring has found theatrical expression, with the help of one of Britain's celebrated iconoclasts, at a venue next door to the capital's mayor.

Mark Ravenhill, made famous by his 1990s debut play "Shopping and Fucking," has written a modernized version of German playwright Bertolt Brecht's "The Mother," which examines an early 20th-century protest that has taken on contemporary force.

In keeping with Brecht's popularism, there is no entry charge and by the end of the season on September 4, this fable of uprising against oppressive authority will have been performed to more than a quarter of a million people for free.

"There is renewed interest in what happens when people protest and demonstrate," Ravenhill told Reuters of his decision to revive the play.

Ravenhill's first play Shopping and Fucking stirred controversy because of its sexually violent content, but was hailed for its expose of rampant consumerism and as a prime example of the British "in-yer-face-theater" of the 1990s.

Since then, he has worked on a range of projects, including sell-out performances at this summer's Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, and he is writing a libretto for an opera to be staged in Oslo.

For Ravenhill, Brecht has particularly wide resonance and could speak to the Middle Eastern and North African countries that have protested against their governments, beginning with uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt at the start of this year.

"Brecht's plays really travel. They have a fable-like quality," said Ravenhill. "You can really imagine an Arab audience understanding The Mother."

In addition to providing the text, Ravenhill will act one of the play's characters for the final performances of the season.

UNCONVENTIONAL CONTEXT

For him, The Scoop open-air theater next to London Mayor Boris Johnson's City Hall headquarters on the south bank of the River Thames was a particularly appropriate venue.

"It was written to be taken outside the conventional context," said Ravenhill of The Mother, in which a mother, initially politically neutral, becomes a forthright champion of the socialist cause.

"The idea it is totally free creates a really special atmosphere. You get a different audience and you get a different attitude."

The London-based Steam Industry Free Theater Limited, producer of the performances, said the audience has included many who have never before been to the theater, which can be a middle-class bastion.

Provided it can continue to drum up funding in a climate of deep cuts, especially to the arts, the Steam Industry will next year celebrate its 10th season of delivering critically acclaimed free theater at The Scoop.

"There's not a penny available yet there's the expectation we will pull something impressive out of the bag," said Phil Willmott, artistic director of the project.

So far, he said pockets of sponsorship and public donations had been enough for the free theater to keep going "by the skin of its teeth."

Next August's plan to stage the "Oresteia" trilogy, written by Aeschylus, to a non-paying audience many of whom will probably know little about classical Greek drama, could be the most ambitious project yet.

It will again be highly topical as it will coincide with London's 2012 hosting of the Olympic Games, another pillar of classical Greek culture.

The trilogy celebrates "the ethos from which the games were born with the epic Greek drama cycle of the people," said Willmott.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)