Chaz Bono returns to OWN, blasts "penguin" jibes

LOS ANGELES | Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:10pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Chaz Bono may have been booted off "Dancing With the Stars" this week, but he will be back on television next month in a second documentary on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) about his life as a transgender man.

Bono, the only child of actress and singer Cher, is the subject of a one-hour special called "Being Chaz", which looks at his life with girlfriend Jennifer Elia following his female-to-male sex change, OWN said on Wednesday.

The November 27 documentary, a follow-up to the 2011 film "Becoming Chaz", will also chronicle Bono's preparation for his controversial debut as the first transgender celebrity on the TV ballroom contest "Dancing with the Stars".

Viewers voted Bono off the TV show on Tuesday after six weeks following a bashing by judges of his "Phantom of the Opera" tango. Judge Bruno Tonioli called Bono "a cute penguin."

Bono, 42, whose inclusion on the dance show triggered a call for a boycott by a conservative Christian group, fired back on Wednesday.

"I got a lot of references from him (Tonioli) about things that would indicate the fact that I'm overweight, you know, a roundness. I was called a basketball, a penguin, an Ewok, and I just didn't appreciate it," Bono said on TV talk show "Good Morning America."

"If you want to critique my dancing and give me some constructive advice so I can try to improve the next time that I'm there, that would be great. But I don't really know how to be less penguinish, and so I kind of took offense to that," he said.

Gay and lesbian rights group GLAAD said in a statement that Bono "has helped countless people better understand what it means to be transgender. He should be commended for both his courage and determination."

When "Becoming Chaz" was first broadcast on OWN in May, it was watched by more than 705,000 viewers, giving the fledgling cable channel one of its biggest audiences since its January launch.

OWN said that it would also broadcast "I am Jazz: A Family in Transition" -- about an 11 year-old transgender girl and her family on November 27.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Michael Jackson doctor's patients vouch for him

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES | Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:06pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Patients of Michael Jackson's doctor described the physician on Wednesday as generous and kind as the defense sought to show a different side of the man charged in the singer's 2009 death.

Dr. Conrad Murray has admitted giving Jackson the anesthetic propofol -- the drug deemed the chief cause of his death -- as a sleep aid but he denies involuntary manslaughter or gross negligence.

Murray's treatment of heart patients at his practices in Las Vegas and Houston was the focus of testimony at his trial in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

"I believe that Dr. Murray is not getting a fair shake," said Andrew Guest, 48, of Las Vegas, who was treated by Murray for a heart condition. "I believe he needs support and I appreciate his kindness, his caring and I'm alive today because of that man."

Another four patients said Murray was a thorough and caring physician. They also described him as generous and said he would occasionally treat patients for free.

Gerry Causey said Murray not only operated on him in Las Vegas but became his best friend afterward.

The hearing got emotional at times. When Causey was leaving the courtroom he shook hands with Murray and moved to embrace him but was cut short by an admonition from the judge.

Ruby Mosley, a resident Acres Homes, a community of mostly poor elderly people in Houston, said Murray opened a cardiology practice there after the death of his father, who also was a doctor.

"If this man had been greedy, he never would have come to an area, a community like Acres Homes, 75 percent of (residents) poor, on welfare and Social Security where he was making less than where he was in Vegas," Mosley said.

Murray wiped his eyes with a tissue during Mosley's testimony.

Under cross examination from a prosecutor, the patients said Murray did not treat them for sleep problems.

Also on Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor advised Murray that he has a right to testify, even though his attorneys have said they do not plan to call him to the stand.

Murray, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Jackson, 50, died in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009.

After almost four weeks of prosecution testimony, the defense is expected to wrap up its own, much shorter, case this week.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bill Trott)

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A Minute With: Johnny Depp and his "Rum Diary"

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES | Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:13am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Taking a break from his blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, Johnny Depp turns to a low-key role for his new project: starring in and producing "The Rum Diary."

Due in U.S. theaters on Friday, it is based on his friend Hunter S. Thompson's book of the same name.

After portraying a version of Thompson in the 1998 film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," Depp again becomes the gonzo journalist's alter ego in "Rum Diary," playing the fictional journalist Paul Kemp in Thompson's pre-gonzo years working in Puerto Rico.

The film, set in 1960s, tells the story of Kemp, an American journalist who travels to the Caribbean island to write for a local newspaper. While enjoying a rum-filled lifestyle, he falls for the attractive fiancee (Amber Heard) of a shady businessman (Aaron Eckhart).

Depp spoke to Reuters about Thompson, who committed suicide in 2005, his own connection to the Caribbean and his next role as Tonto in "The Lone Ranger."

Q: You and Hunter were such good friends. Whose idea was it to turn "The Rum Diary" into a movie?

A: "It was his idea to produce it as a film. I found the manuscript (in his home). We were reading it, sitting cross-legged on the floor and he said, 'We have to make this into a film and produce it together.' I said 'Sure,' never knowing that we would full-on go through with it."

Q: What was the next step?

A: "Hunter and I had all these horrendous meetings. We weren't accustomed to doing a song-and-dance to try and drum up money. We'd be sitting with bottles of Chivas (Scotch whisky) and these (potential financiers) would arrive completely shocked and confused."

Q: How did you keep Hunter's spirit alive on the set?

A: "I wanted Hunter's spirit to permeate (the set) and I wanted everybody to know that Hunter was there. We had his chair with his name on it. We had his script with his name on it. We had a bottle of Chivas with a high ball glass, tumbler filled with ice. We had his cigarettes, his cigarette filters, his ashtray ..."

Q: Did you do anything with them?

A: "(Director) Bruce (Robinson) and I would dip into the Chivas and put it behind our ears so we had Hunter with us. Two weeks in, everyone was dipping."

Q: Does playing Hunter come naturally to you?

A: "Yeah, almost too naturally!"

Q: How did you and Hunter first meet and bond?

A: "I first met him when he walked into the Woody Creek Tavern waving a giant cattle prod and a Taser gun ... He invited me back to his place, and I was admiring a nickel plated shotgun on his wall, 12 gauge. He says, 'Wanna shoot it?'

Q: Did you?

A: "Well, It was about 2:30 in the morning and then he said, 'Let's build a bomb!' So we built bombs out of propane tanks with nitroglycerin, took it out in the backyard and I shot it. It exploded into, like, an 80-foot fireball.

"I think that was kind of my initiation. Had I potentially flubbed the shooting of the bomb, it might have been a different story. But I hit it dead on, square on and he was so happy. (laughs) From that moment on, it was nonstop."

Q: You shot 'Rum Diary' and the 'Pirates' films in various Caribbean locations, and now you have your own island there too. Do you feel a special connection to the Caribbean?

A: "I do. It's one of the most welcoming places in the world I've been to. The ultimate irony is that I was given an opportunity to do a pirate movie back in 2003 that even Disney thought was gonna crap out. That was the thing that allowed me to buy my dream, to buy the island -- a pirate movie!"

Q: Which changed everything for you on many levels.

A: "It's nuts. It's really nuts. I took a left when everybody said, 'take a right' and things happened somehow. I really didn't instigate any of it. It's pretty wild."

Q: Now you're about to play Tonto in "The Lone Ranger."

A: "I know the character pretty well so far. The main thing with Tonto is the fact that 60 plus years in Hollywood, the Indians have been treated like second and third class citizens. And I can't abide. So Tonto has to take the bull by the horns, in a way. But in his own way, a special way, and not the very obvious way."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Patricia Reaney)

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Winehouse had high alcohol levels in blood: inquest

LONDON | Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:07am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer Amy Winehouse had more than five times the legal driving limit of alcohol in her blood when she died on July 23 aged 27, British media reported on Wednesday.

The "Rehab" and "Back to Black" singer had 416 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, according to the findings of an inquest into her death, compared with the legal driving limit of 80 mg.

A hearing in London also learned that Winehouse, who battled drug and alcohol addiction throughout her brief but successful career, had not drunk alcohol in July until the day before she died.

The findings backed reports shortly after her death that the Grammy award-winning artist had been trying to deal with her addiction but ran the risk of complications from binge drinking.

A security guard checked on Winehouse at 10 a.m. on the day she died at her house in Camden, north London, and thought she was asleep. He checked again at 3 p.m. and called the emergency services.

The inquest ruled that she had died of "misadventure."

Members of her family, including her father Mitch, were present at the inquest, but made no comment to awaiting media as they left. A statement was expected to be released later on Wednesday.

Winehouse's last filmed performance was in Serbia in June, when she was jeered by the crowd as she struggled to perform her songs and stay upright. Her management then canceled all her scheduled performances.

Results from toxicology tests released in August showed there were no illegal substances in Winehouse's system when she died.

"Toxicology results returned to the Winehouse family by authorities have confirmed that there were no illegal substances in Amy's system at the time of her death," a spokesman for Winehouse said at the time.

"Results indicate that alcohol was present but it cannot be determined as yet if it played a role in her death."

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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