Entertaining Posts: 10/25/11

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Michael Jackson top earner among dead celebrities

LOS ANGELES | Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:52pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson was named this year's top-earning dead celebrity on Tuesday in a list compiled by financial website Forbes.com, earning the title for the second year in a row following his death in 2009.

"Thriller" singer Jackson, who died aged 50 of a drug overdose, is estimated to have earned $170 million in the past year, which also places him as the second highest-earning pop music act this year, dead or alive, Forbes.com said.

Jackson's physician at the time of his death, Dr. Conrad Murray, is currently on trial in Los Angeles, charged with involuntary manslaughter for administering the powerful anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid for the singer in Jackson's home. Murray has pleaded not guilty.

Jackson, whose name has rarely been out of the media headlines due to his sudden death and its cause, has seen sales of albums and memorabilia increase in the past year.

The theater group Cirque Du Soleil has mounted an extravagant show called "Immortal" that is based on the singer's life and music. Earlier this month, a tribute concert in Cardiff, Wales, lured tens of thousands of fans.

The King of Pop is followed closely by the King of Rock 'n' Roll Elvis Presley placed second on the list with earnings of $55 million. Like Jackson, Presley's estate has also benefited from Cirque du Soleil, who produced "Viva Elvis" in tribute to the late singer.

Hollywood's golden age pin-up girl, Marilyn Monroe, who died at age 36 in 1962, earned near $27 million, placing her third on the list.

Sultry screen icon Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away in March 2011 aged 79, was placed fifth after reportedly earning $12 million, with a large portion coming from the sales of her popular fragrance, "White Diamonds."

The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list by Forbes takes into account any deceased famous figure who has earned at least $6 million between October 2010 and October 2011.

The full list can be viewed on Forbes.com at www.forbes.com/deadcelebs.

(Reporting and Writing by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing Bob Tourtellotte)

Lindsay Lohan plans to pose in Playboy

LOS ANGELES | Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:29pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan may have found a way to pay some of her mounting legal bills with a planned agreement to pose nude for Playboy magazine, a source who knew of Lohan's plans said on Tuesday.

Celebrity news outlets TMZ.com and Access Hollywood reported that Lohan, who has faced numerous legal charges in recent years including theft, will appear in the men's magazine and that a photo shoot had in fact already taken place.

Lohan's mother, Dina Lohan, told the website X17online.com "the photo shoot went well," at a Beverly Hills mansion.

A Playboy spokeswoman declined to comment, and a spokesman for Lohan said he would "neither confirm or deny" the reports about the "Mean Girls" star who rose to fame in Disney movies.

One source told Reuters the deal was not yet final, meaning anything could happen including Lohan not appearing. Speculation about the actress posing nude for the magazine has been reported previously but never materialized.

Still, details leaked out on Tuesday. TMZ reported Playboy initially offered Lohan $750,000, but the actress wanted $1 million. Playboy countered with a deal that approached that figure, TMZ said, citing unnamed sources.

Lohan's mother also told X17 that she fully supported her daughter's decision to pose, which according to the media reports has been in the works for months.

Yet Lohan currently has a lot on her mind. The actress has been in and out of legal trouble since a drunk driving and drug conviction in 2007. Just last week, she had her probation on a 2011 stolen necklace charge revoked after she neglected her community service sentence.

At that trial, her attorney Shawn Holley said Lohan was having trouble finding work in the United States and was forced to travel to several European cities for employment.

Lohan is due back in a Los Angeles courtroom on November 2 to determine if she violated probation, which could mean jail.

The Playboy spread, if it occurs, would not be Lohan's first nude magazine photos. She appeared partially naked in a New York magazine in 2008 for a piece referencing Marilyn Monroe's famous 1962 shoot with photographer Bert Stern.

Monroe also famously appeared as a Playboy centerfold.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; editing by Chris Michaud)

Stallone sued, accused of stealing screenplay

NEW YORK | Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:27pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Action movie star Sylvester Stallone is accused in a lawsuit of copying another writer's screenplay to make "The Expendables," a movie about mercenaries hired to defeat a military dictator.

The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday by writer Marcus Webb, who said the screenplay for "The Expendables" is "strikingly similar and in some places identical" to his work entitled "The Cordoba Caper."

Webb seeks unspecified damages for copyright infringement and an order from the court stopping further infringement in any sequel by Stallone, his credited co-author David Callaham, Millennium Films, Nu Image Films and Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation.

Representatives of Stallone and other defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.

"The Expendables" -- produced by Millennium and Nu Image and distributed by Lions Gate -- was released worldwide on August 13, 2010. It featured a cameo appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger after he left his post as California governor, along with other aging action heroes Stallone and Jet Li.

According to the lawsuit, Webb registered "The Cordoba Caper" screenplay and a short story with the same title and plot with the U.S. Copyright Office in June 2006. Between 2006 and 2009, the lawsuit said, the screenplay was made widely available by Webb for consideration in the movie industry.

"There can be no dispute that Stallone and/or Callaham had access to and copied protectable elements of the screenplay," the lawsuit said.

"The Cordoba Caper" tells the story of a team of elite, highly-trained mercenaries hired to defeat General Garza, a rogue army general of a small Latin American country," the lawsuit said.

The court document provides details of the ways in which Webb sees similarities between his screenplay and the released movie, including the opening "with a hostage rescue at sea, off a foreign coast, which has nothing to do with the main plot."

It said the main villain in both is a General Garza, a military dictator with a notorious human rights record.

Webb said he has been deprived of benefits from the screenplay such as potential earnings from the production, distribution and performance of "The Expendables."

"Expendables 2," a sequel to "The Expendables," is due for release on August 17, 2012. (See here).

The case is Marcus Webb v Sylvester Stallone, et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-7517.

(Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Doctor accused in Jackson's death won't testify

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Boyz II Men still making music after 20 years

By Sabrina Ford

NEW YORK | Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:33am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In 1991, Boyz II Men arrived on the pop music scene with their own brand of R&B that peppered Motown-like harmonies with New Jack Swing, a genre that fused R&B, hip-hop and pop music.

The following year their wrenching ballad "End of the Road" sent the Philadelphia natives to international superstardom, and on Tuesday, the band releases "Twenty," a double-disc album of new and revisited material commemorating the 20th anniversary of their debut album, "Cooleyhighharmony."

"Twenty" reunites Wanya Morris, Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman with "End of the Road" producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Their latest single, "One Up for Love," the video for which premiered last Friday, was produced by Edmonds.

"There's a song for every person, a song for each day," Boyz II Men singer Wanya Morris told Reuters.

"It's autumn so the leaves are changing and it gives me a 'So Amazing' vibe," he added, referencing a new mid-tempo track produced by the hitmaking duo Tim & Bob.

"Tomorrow, if I'm feeling more romantic," Morris continued, "I may want to listen to something like 'Slowly,'" which is the album's slinky ballad that also was produced by Tim & Bob.

The 20-song collection is comprised of 12 new original tracks and eight newly-recorded versions of classics like "Motownphilly," "I'll Make Love to You," and "On Bended Knee."

"When we first did the songs they were just given to us and we went into the studio and got it done," explained Nathan Morris. "But now we've been singing them for so long and even experienced some of the stuff that we've been singing about ... we're able to express them a lot better."

CHANGING TIMES

The group marvels at how far they -- and the record industry overall -- has changed in 20 years.

"When we came out there wasn't even an Internet! No Internet!" said Wanya Morris. "Everything is digital now and it's easier to get your talent out fast."

But Wanya is careful not to discount celebrities like Justin Bieber whose career was launched on YouTube.

Bieber, who was born the same year that Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You" was a hit, counts the group among his influences, and he and Boyz II Men recorded a song together for the teen star's upcoming Christmas album.

" was the perfect avenue for us to do something different because it's the type of record that doesn't matter how old you are or who you are, it doesn't matter, as long as the song sounds great," said Wanya Morris.

While many Boyz II Men-inspired acts such as 98 Degrees have come and gone in the last two decades, Wanya Morris attributes his group's longevity to their homegrown bonds. The trio met while students at The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts.

"Most of the time you have solo artists that come together to form a group, and they're often contrived by a record label or a manager -- just four or five guys who look like models or TV stars," said Wanya. "Boyz II Men, we came together through music."

To be sure, there have been differences among the group over the years. Originally a quartet, the group saw the exit of original member Michael McCary in 2003.

Although health issues were cited at the time, Nathan Morris says now that McCrary "kind of got lazy" and that "it wasn't an amicable separation."

Now, the band struggles with being called legends because, they say, there is much more music to come.

"Legendary status is usually reached at the end of your career. We're just beginning a new chapter in ours," said Wanya Morris. "We hope that title is still representative of who we are when we put out the record 'Forty'!"

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)