Entertaining Posts: 09/16/11

Friday, September 16, 2011

Reality TV's Tareq Salahi seeks divorce from Michaele

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Ryan Gosling turns tough guy for thriller "Drive"

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES | Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:24pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ryan Gosling may be one of Hollywood's hottest leading men and a heartthrob at that, but he doesn't shy away from tough-guy violence. In fact, he finds it suits him sometimes as in his newest film, "Drive."

In the film that opens in theaters on Friday, Gosling plays a Hollywood stuntman who becomes embroiled in a heist gone wrong. The high-octane thriller also has a John Hughes-inspired, sentimental young romance between Gosling and his co-star, Carey Mulligan.

"I always wanted to make a violent John Hughes movie. I love John Hughes movies, I love "Pretty in Pink" but I always thought if there were head-smashing in it, it'd be the perfect movie," Gosling told Reuters.

The 30 year-old actor was nominated for an Oscar in 2007's "Half Nelson" playing a drug-addicted school teacher, and he has won over critics, fans and Hollywood players with performances in a wide range of independent film dramas such as "Blue Valentine" and "Lars and the Real Girl."

Yet, Gosling said it was hard finding a filmmaker with a shared vision for the romantic thriller "Drive," until he ran into Dutch director Nicolas Winding Refn whose credits include the "Pusher" crime dramas and "Bronson," about prisoner who assumes the personality of movie action hero Charles Bronson.

In "Drive," Refn avoids Hollywood glitz and portrays a dark side to the City of Angels in this thriller.

"I saw Nicholas' work and I knew that he would have the same sensibility," said Gosling.

DRIVEN TO LOVE

Gosling's character, known simply as the mysterious 'Driver,' is a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for anyone who wants to hire his driving services and his intricate knowledge of Los Angeles' back streets.

Leading a largely transient and solitary life, the Driver finds himself drawn to his neighbor Irene (played by Carey Mulligan), a mother-of-one whose husband is in prison.

When Irene's husband Standard (played by Oscar Isaac) is released from jail, the Driver decides to help ex-con clear his debts. But events take a wrong turn and the Driver finds himself in danger.

Throughout "Drive," Gosling conveys most of his character's feelings and emotions through pensive gazes, as his character is given very little dialogue.

"I don't think you need all this talking in movies. Sometimes it's easier to get the point across if you're not saying something," said Gosling. "For me anyway, it (dialogue) gets in the way. so it was a real relief to just take that out, and people can just watch it and make their own assessments of what they think the characters are going through."

The film premiered at the Cannes film festival in May where Refn was named best director, and critics have so far been favorable. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy calls Gosling's performance a "bid to enter the iconic ranks of tough, self-possessed American screen actors -- Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Pearl Jam opens up on 20 years of rock fame

By John McCrank

TORONTO | Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:43pm EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - Cameron Crowe's documentary "Pearl Jam Twenty" takes viewers on a 20-year behind-the-scenes journey with a band that has reached the top of the rock 'n' roll pantheon while refusing to embrace the spotlight.

"It's more than just a rock documentary," Academy Award winner Crowe said of the film he pieced together from over 1,200 hours of archived footage and recent interviews.

Highs like Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder slow-dancing with Nirvana's Kurt Cobain beneath a stage while Eric Clapton plays "Tears in Heaven" above intersect lows like the suffocation deaths of nine fans at the band's Roskilde, Denmark concert in 2000, throughout the two-hour film.

"I'm still emotionally coming down from parts of it," guitarist Mike McCready said in an interview along with the rest of the band and Crowe following the premier of the documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

"I had to sit down a while ago because I was overwhelmed ... much like a concert, but even more so."

Crowe, director of "Jerry Maguire" and a rock journalist in Seattle in the '80s, spent three years making the film. It hits movie screens worldwide on September 20 for a one-night showing, then runs for a week in select markets starting on September 23.

The Seattle-based group is also releasing a 384-page book and a 29-song soundtrack to mark its first two decades. A DVD of the documentary with extra footage will follow.

There are points in the film where the band appears near collapse, such as during its battle against Ticketmaster in the mid-90's, or the Roskilde tragedy, which drummer Matt Cameron said was for him the most wrenching part of watching the film.

"But it's an important part of our story too, of our survival, because we could have easily thrown in the towel," he said. "It brings memories to the front by sort of reliving it with an audience. That catharsis was very real with all of us."

TWENTY YEARS OF FAME

The birth of Pearl Jam followed the drug overdose of Andrew Wood, the charismatic singer of Mother Love Bone, in 1990. That group's guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament later hooked up with McCready and Soundgarden's Cameron. Together they brought in Vedder, a surfer from San Diego, to sing.

Pearl Jam played their first show six days later.

Fame came quickly, but the band turned their backs on it. Vedder did not want to make videos, and in his acceptance speech for best hard rock performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards, he said, "this doesn't mean anything."

Twenty years on, Pearl Jam is ready to open up about its rise to fame and struggle to avoid its trappings.

"We've kept it all pretty tight," Gossard said, adding that at this point, "it's good to not be afraid to kind of let out some stuff and let people in to see how the process works and what the personalities are like."

In the film, Cameron interviews the band members in their homes, and Gossard has a hard time finding any Pearl Jam paraphernalia. All of the band members have side projects that keep them busy, from Vedder's ukulele album, to Cameron's work on a new Soundgarden CD, and Ament's new band Tres Mts.

"When we do put on the shoes that we wear in this band, it's such a treat," Ament said. "We're not always under the lights and when we played Montreal the other night, I was like, 'Oh my God, wow! This is the most insane thing ever!'"

The band squeezed in TIFF just days into a 22-date tour.

They played a two-and-a-half hour set in Toronto on Sunday to a sold-out arena that ended with an epic version of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," featuring "uncle Neil" himself wailing away with the band to the thrill of the crowd.

Pearl Jam has worked with Young in the past and credits the nearly 66-year-old with being a major inspiration. Vedder attended Young's premier before dashing off for Pearl Jam's second sold-out Toronto concert on Monday.

Back in 1991, when the band played their first show, they had eight songs.

"Now we can play, literally, almost 140 songs at any given time," Vedder said. And do they have another 20 years in them?

"I dare you to come up and try to keep up with me, Matt, or any of us," Vedder said.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Bluesman Willie "Big Eyes" Smith dies at age 75

CHICAGO | Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:03pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grammy-winning blues musician Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, who was a longtime sideman for Muddy Waters, died of a stroke on Friday in Chicago at age 75, according to a statement on his website.

Smith's death comes less than six months after the passing at age 97 of blues master Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins, with whom Smith shared a Grammy win this year in the best traditional blues album category for their 2010 release "Joined at the Hip."

Smith said backstage at the Grammy Awards that he first met Perkins as a boy and was glad to have found success recording with his elder. "To tell you the truth, right now I'm one of the happiest men on earth," he said at the February event.

While the Grammy win at age 75 was Smith's first, he had previously had a long career playing with the late blues legend Muddy Waters.

Born in Helena, Arkansas, in 1936, Smith went to Chicago at age 17 and heard Waters playing for the first time. He later joined Waters' band as a drummer in the early 1960s.

In 1964, Smith was forced to pack up his drum kit for a time and he supported himself with odd jobs such as driving a taxicab in Chicago, according to a profile on his website.

But Smith rejoined Waters' band in 1968 and played with him through the 1970s, the period when Waters won his six Grammys.

Aside from the drums, Smith also played the harmonica and sang. In the 1980s, he performed in the Legendary Blues Band with Perkins, Louis Myers, Calvin Jones and Jerry Portnoy.

Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy, said in a statement that Smith was a "great, versatile Chicago bluesman" who "made an indelible impact" on the blues genre.

"Our sincerest condolences extend to his family, friends, fans and all who will continue to appreciate his rhythm and riffs for generations to come," Portnow said.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Peter Bohan)

Charlie Sheen admits he was not "winning" but losing

LOS ANGELES | Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:27pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Six months after his very public firing from TV's top-rated comedy, Charlie Sheen admitted that he was out of control and not really "winning" during the ensuing media frenzy, but losing.

In television appearances, the 47-year-old actor appeared calm, clearheaded and repentant about the events surrounding his March dismissal from the CBS comedy "Two and A Half Men."

"I couldn't really put out the fire, so I had to keep fueling it," Sheen said on Friday on NBC's "Today" show. He told host Matt Lauer that he regrets claiming he had "tiger blood" and "Adonis DNA," calling them jokes and metaphors that he never really believed.

Discussing his new outlook with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show," Sheen claimed he's eager to "lead by example again" -- in sharp contrast to his erratic behavior earlier this year, which he described as being the "reluctant conductor" of a runaway train;

Sheen had been TV's highest-paid actor for his role as Charlie Harper, a womanizing bachelor on the sitcom "Two and a Half Men." He was fired after a public dispute with CBS and Warner Bros. television executives, during which he lashed out at show creator Chuck Lorre.

Afterward, he posted videos on the Web in which he bragged about his "winning" ways and the "tiger blood" in his veins.

"I would have fired my ass too," Sheen told Leno. "Well, maybe not like they did."

The actor's firing and subsequent public behavior followed a series of incidents in late 2009 and 2010 that landed him in legal trouble and in rehab for drug and alcohol abuse.

It was when he was fired that Sheen "realized I was pretty much losing," he told Leno on Thursday, adding the humorous dig, "I thought I could come back -- kind of like you did."

Not only did Sheen say he bears no ill will toward everyone involved with "Two and A Half Men," but he'll be watching the show on Monday, when it premieres with Ashton Kutcher as his replacement -- Sheen's character having been killed off to make way for the change.

His character's demise notwithstanding, he said on "The Tonight Show" that he'd welcome the chance for a guest spot on the show. "I'd be completely on board for that."

The reconfigured "Two and a Half Men" airs the same night as Comedy Central's roast of Sheen, which will include appearances by Mike Tyson, William Shatner, guitarist Slash and Sheen's estranged wife, Brooke Mueller.

Despite the "very biting" humor during the roast, the actor told Leno that "it was a celebration for a life that has presented itself as being very roastable."

(Reporting by Sheri Linden; Editing by Jill Serjeant)

Bocelli marks another milestone with NYC concert

By Richard Leong

NEW YORK | Fri Sep 16, 2011 1:25pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Star singer Andrea Bocelli dazzled thousands with his signature brand of pop and opera in a cold, wet night in New York City's Central Park, which will be etched in his memory as an important career milestone.

The Italian tenor considers Thursday's free concert, which 60,000 had been expected to attend, as one that keeps him squarely in the footsteps of other opera stars including Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo who also have performed on the stage of the famed park.

"Most of (my) important milestones happened in New York," the 52-year-old told Reuters through an interpreter before the concert.

Bocelli, who has sold 70 million records worldwide, has performed at other famous New York venues including Lincoln Center and Madison Square Garden. But a free concert in Central Park is always a special event for performers as well as New Yorkers.

"Things are all things one would hope for. This is something I'm doing for the city," he said.

Among the biggest concerts held in Central Park were the ones by Garth Brooks in 1997 and Paul Simon in 1991. Each of them drew more than half a million people.

Thursday's concert goers including billionaire Donald Trump were entertained for more than two hours. The music accompanied by the New York Philharmonic was a mix of well-known arias such as "La donna e mobile" and Italian and American pop songs.

Bocelli alternated his solos by singing duets with his "friends" who included sopranos Ana Maria Martinez and Pretty Yende, violinist Nicola Benedetti, bass baritone Bryn Terfel and flutist Andrea Griminelli.

He acknowledged the diverse audience which braved the inclement weather. "In spite of the rain and cold, you are heroes," he told them.

The crowd jumped to their feet late in the show when pop star Celine Dion arrived on stage in a glittery, white gown to sing a hit duet she recorded with Bocelli, "The Prayer."

That was followed by a duet of "New York, New York" with American crooner Tony Bennett, with whom Bocelli recently recorded for the first time. Their song, "Stranger in Paradise," will appear in Bennett's upcoming CD, "DUETS II".

Bocelli said he was fond of his time spent with Bennett. "I got to know about the man behind the legend," he said.

Bocelli closed out the night with his signature song "Con te partiro (Time to Say Goodbye)" and Puccini's "Nessun dorma" to standing ovations.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Paul McCartney posts wedding banns in London

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON | Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:16am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney posted wedding banns this week at Westminster Register Office in Marylebone, central London, the same venue where he married his first wife Linda over 40 years ago.

The banns allow McCartney to marry New York heiress Nancy Shevell any time 16 days after the September 14 posting at the Register office. It will be McCartney's third marriage.

Shevell, 51, who is divorced, and McCartney, 69, are believed to have begun dating after the Fab Four singer's bitter split with second wife, former model Heather Mills.

The banns list the couple as James Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell. He gives his profession as "business executive" and his multi-millionaire future wife is listed simply as an "executive."

McCartney was happily married for 29 years to American photographer Linda Eastman until her death of breast cancer in 1998. He said at the time that he and Linda had spent just 11 nights apart during their marriage.

The couple tied the knot at the same register office on March 12, 1969, and were greeted by hundreds of fans who had waited outside to catch a glimpse of one of the most famous figures in pop.

McCartney's marriage to Mills was less happy. The couple wedded in 2002 in a lavish ceremony at Castle Leslie in Ireland estimated by celebrity magazines to have cost around $3.2 million.

But four years later they confirmed they had separated, blaming media intrusion into their private lives, and in 2008 the couple divorced.

A judge had to rule on the size of the divorce settlement after the couple failed to reach an agreement themselves.

Mills was eventually awarded 24.3 million pounds, which at the time equated to $48.7 million, ending one of the most acrimonious breakups in showbusiness history.

Mills had sought five times as much and said McCartney was worth 800 million pounds. The judge ruled his fortune at the time was half that amount.

McCartney's partnership with John Lennon in The Beatles in 1960s Britain produced some of the most famous and enduring pop songs of the past 50 years.

The "Hey Jude" singer has five children. He has a son, two daughters and a stepdaughter from his marriage to Linda and a daughter from his union with Mills.

McCartney's spokesman declined to comment on his wedding plans when asked this week about press rumors of an impending ceremony.

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

Political satire "Butter" drips with ambition

By Julie Gordon

TORONTO | Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:03am EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ambition and folk art collide in director Jim Field Smith's comedy, "Butter," which uses a state fair butter carving competition to satirize the divisiveness of American politics.

The British comedian-turned-filmmaker crafts the story of Laura Pickler, a woman who steps into her husband's shoes as a competitive butter sculptor after he is pressured into retirement in order to give someone else a chance to win.

For Pickler, played with pitbull edge by Jennifer Garner, being the better half of Iowa's most popular butter artist is just the first step toward an eventual future in politics.

But standing between her and the Governor's mansion is Destiny; a young, black foster child whose prodigal talent and passion for butter carving whip the crowd, and local judges, into a frenzy. It's up to Pickler to put Destiny down.

"To a certain extent it's about ambition," Field Smith told Reuters. "It's about this ambitious woman who will stop at nothing and she's got her blinkers on."

The parallels to the 2008 Democratic primary race, which pitted political heavyweight Hillary Clinton against relative newcomer Barack Obama, are blatant, though Pickler seems to have more in common with Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann.

In fact, the film's executive producer, Harvey Weinstein, went so far as to issue a statement at the movie's Toronto premiere earlier this week, inviting Bachmann to co-host an Iowa screening with him.

"We could take some math classes in the morning to help balance the budget, brush up on the constitution in the afternoon, play some ping-pong and then maybe some verbal ping-pong on gay rights and women's rights," Weinstein's statement read.

"Butter", which is Field Smith's second feature film, came out of the recent Telluride film festival with decent buzz, but has been dogged by negative reviews in Toronto.

Pitched as a satire by its backers, the characters are often so extreme that some critics have accused it of being mean spirited.

"I think comedy and satire are the best at a point of extremes," said Field Smith. "Everything has been pushed into this almost gladiator space and so I think that is something that the movie satirizes. It's become like a blood sport."

As for the lukewarm reviews, Field Smith said the proof is in the pudding -- or in this case, in the standing ovation the film received at its Toronto premiere.

"Comedy's a very subjective thing," he said. "Not everyone's going to like the movie, I think the majority will."

(Reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)