Hard-working Nicolas Cage stars in Crusade thriller

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON | Tue Jan 4, 2011 7:06am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Nicolas Cage is working hard because he has to, but his latest turn as a mediaeval knight in "Season of the Witch" is about more than just paying the bills -- it is a welcome throwback to his childhood.

The supernatural thriller set in plague-stricken 14th century Europe opens in British and U.S. theatres on Friday, and Cage fans will see the "Leaving Las Vegas" star in the unfamiliar surroundings of a period drama.

"For some reason I kind of got swept up in a certain modern and contemporary style of acting and drama, like 'Bad Lieutenant'," the 46-year-old Oscar winner told Reuters in a recent interview to discuss the film.

Season of the Witch follows "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog's cop drama in which Cage plays the kind of emotionally intense, borderline unhinged character for which he has won most acclaim.

"This (Season of the Witch) was my first chance to really go into the source, the childhood.

"When I was living in California ... my father built this wooden castle for me as a boy and I remember I really got in touch with my imagination there -- I was a sorcerer or I was a knight and because of the castle ... my mind would automatically go toward mediaeval things."

Another reason for taking on the role of the war-weary Crusader Behmen was a change of scenery from the stifling Louisiana interiors of Bad Lieutenant. Season of the Witch took the cast and crew to Hungary and the Austrian Alps.

"I wanted to be in nature, I wanted to be on a horse and in the snow and that's one of the wonderful things you can do as a film actor, you can literally just snap your fingers and be in another dimension and be in a forest."

BEST ACTOR OR WORST?

Cage and co-star Ron Perlman, of "Hellboy" fame, spend much of their screen time on horseback as they escort a young girl, suspected of being a witch and the cause of the plague, to a remote monastery where the action-packed denouement takes place.

The picture, directed by Dominic Sena, blends road movie and buddy film with supernatural thriller and period drama, and has critics wondering if it will be a hit or miss for an actor who divides audiences and exasperates even his most loyal fans.

"Since winning the best actor Oscar ... for Leaving Las Vegas, Mr. Cage has seemingly been choosing roles by throwing darts at a script-covered wall," wrote the New York Times in its cultural preview of the new year.

Cage shrugged off his fluctuating form.

"It's kind of exciting," he said. "It's exactly where I want to be, if you can always keep a little bit of mystery about it. If they can say in the same sentence that I'm the best and I'm the worst, then I think I might be doing something right."

Cage, part of the Coppola movie dynasty, is one of Hollywood's highest paid actors earning $28 million in 2009, according to Vanity Fair estimates.

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Oprah's OWN wins over cynics but many fans lost out

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jan 3, 2011 4:30pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oprah Winfrey's bold gamble on her OWN TV network debuted to mostly positive reviews and encouraging audience numbers at the weekend, winning over some cynics with its feel-good tone.

But many stalwart Oprah fans expressed dismay that they could not receive the new OWN network without paying to upgrade their cable television packages -- money that several said they could not afford.

The OWN network, a joint venture between the influential talk show host and Discovery Communications that is aimed mostly at middle-aged women, made its debut on Saturday after three years of planning.

According to preliminary Nielsen figures, OWN was watched by an average one million Americans in prime time on Saturday, and was the third biggest ad-supported cable network with women aged 25-54.

Daytime talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show", on free-to-air ABC, attracts about six million U.S. viewers daily. Winfrey, 56, will end the show in the fall of 2011 to focus on OWN.

Initial OWN programing included a behind-the-scenes show about the making of the last season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show", lifestyle advice from the likes of Dr. Phil MGraw and Suze Orman, and the first of a series of in-depth interviews with celebrities including record producer Jay-Z and journalist Diane Sawyer.

New York Times reviewer Alessandra Stanley called the channel a "no cynicism zone" which had "not a snicker of malice or a hint of raillery." Caryn James at Indiewire noted that beneath the "huge amount of lifestyle fluff" there was "a surprising layer of substance."

Media blogger Dan Abrams, a former general manager at cable news channel MSNBC, said his skepticism over whether OWN could create a clear identity in a crowded market had been overcome.

OWN's mission of self-discovery and celebration of one's own "best self" has impeccable timing, Abrams said.

"Weary Americans have grown fatigued with the national sports of bickering and finger pointing. Many are now seeking out a safe place on television far removed from the partisan hectoring, staged altercations and alcohol-induced 'hook-ups' that have come to dominate the airwaves," Abrams wrote in a column for his Mediaite.com website.

Matt Zoller Seitz at Salon.com said he was won over, to his surprise. "We won't just watch OWN; we will gaze upon it with awe and affection and marvel at the sweet magnificence of its founder," he said.

OWN is available in some 80 million homes, or 67 percent of U.S. households, on the channel that used to be occupied by Discovery Health. But many of Winfrey's millions of loyal fans were upset to find they could not access OWN without forking over hundreds of dollars extra to cable TV providers.

"I just cannot tell you how disillusioned (Oprah said "watch, watch, watch my new network") & disappointed. Oprah, did I miss the show that told us your new network was gonna cost us (the viewer) $$$$." wrote joeyskc on the OWN message boards on Monday.

A fan in New Orleans congratulated Winfrey on the new venture, but was concerned that "many people in our area will not be able to watch" the pay-to-view OWN channel. "We love you and will miss you," added Chey925.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Michael Jackson doctor faces death charge in court

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jan 3, 2011 2:18pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prosecutors this week begin offering evidence that Michael Jackson's doctor is responsible for the pop star's death in a case that could hinge on who gave the singer a fatal dose of a powerful drug he used for sleep.

Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's physician in 2009, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death, and a Los Angeles judge on Tuesday starts the preliminary hearing -- largely seen by legal experts as a formality -- to determine if enough evidence exists to bring the physician to a full trial.

Jackson, one of the best-selling recording artists of all time who generated hits like "Thriller" and "Billie Jean," died of a prescription drug overdose on June 25, 2009, at age 50, after suffering cardiac arrest while in bed at his rented mansion.

Murray has admitted injecting Jackson with the powerful anesthetic propofol, which has been determined to be a key factor in his death. The drug is used mostly in hospital settings, but it was given to Jackson at home as a sleep aid.

Prosecutors hope to paint the doctor, who was hired by a concert promoter to care for Jackson before a series of performances, as a man who was in financial trouble and would irresponsibly give the singer drugs to keep his paycheck.

Murray has pleaded not guilty, and last week defense attorneys indicated they may focus on a mysterious syringe found near Jackson to explore whether someone other than Murray injected the singer with the fatal dose of propofol.

Some experts are skeptical about that possible defense, which is based on the assumption that Jackson, an admitted drug abuser, could have administered the propofol to himself.

"It plays to what people perceive Jackson was about and that he might have done it, but it's hard to see how it occurs without Murray having some role in it," said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School.

PRELUDE TO A TRIAL?

Last week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor cleared the way for the defense to test residue from syringes and an intravenous tube used to administer drugs to Jackson.

Following Jackson's death, the Los Angeles County coroner determined that propofol and the sedative lorazepam were the main drugs that caused Jackson's death.

In their investigation, police and prosecutors focused on Murray and whether he had given Jackson too many drugs when the doctor should have known better.

Evidence in Jackson's death has been outlined in search warrant affidavits, but prosecutors will present more of their case against Murray in the preliminary hearing, which the doctor's attorneys say could last two weeks.

That would be even longer than the one-week preliminary hearing for football great O.J. Simpson's notorious 1995 trial on a charge he murdered his ex-wife, Levenson said. Most preliminary hearings in Los Angeles last a few hours at most.

In the end, the judge in the Murray case is largely expected to order a full trial because the burden of proof on prosecutors is low at a preliminary hearing.

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

"Usual Suspects" star Pete Postlethwaite dies

LONDON | Mon Jan 3, 2011 7:31am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Pete Postlethwaite, the Oscar-nominated British actor, has died, a spokesman said on Monday. He was 64. He died in hospital in Shropshire, western England, on Sunday after suffering from cancer.

"He had been unwell off and on for around two years and not worked as frequently as normal during the past year because of the cancer and its side effects," the spokesman said.

Postlethwaite had been described by director Steven Spielberg as "probably the best actor in the world today." The two worked together on the movies "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "Amistad."

He was nominated for an Oscar for his role in "In the Name of the Father," the 1993 film about the wrongful convictions of the so-called Guildford Four for an Irish Republican Army bombing.

Other notable film credits included "Brassed Off," "The Usual Suspects" and "Inception," while on stage he played the lead in "King Lear" in 2008 at Liverpool's Everyman, the northern English theater where he began his career.

Postlethwaite was well known for his political activism, appearing as front man in the climate change film "The Age of Stupid" and arriving at the 2009 London premiere on a bicycle.

Actor Bill Nighy, who performed with Postlethwaite at the Everyman in the 1970s, paid tribute to "a rare and remarkable man. I was honored by his friendship -- he is irreplaceable," Nighy was quoted as saying by the BBC.

One friend, who asked not to be named, paid tribute to "a man of enormous dignity and integrity.

"He was self-deprecating, enormously funny and had little time for fame or celebrity. The biggest love of his life was not acting, it was his family."

Postlethwaite is survived by his wife Jacqui and two children Will, 21, and daughter Lily, 14.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Mike Collett-White; Editing by Louise Ireland and Kate Kelland)

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's lower leg to be amputated

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jan 3, 2011 12:29am EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was admitted to hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday to undergo a partial amputation of her right leg, her husband told Reuters.

Gabor, believed to be 93 and in ill health since July when she broke her hip, has been infected by a lesion that turned gangrenous, her husband Frederic Prinz von Anhalt said.

After doctors warned she would die unless her leg was amputated above the knee, Gabor was "screaming and yelling" about wanting to spend New Year's Eve at home for her traditional celebration of champagne and caviar, he said.

She was finally admitted to UCLA Medical Center and was being prepared on Sunday evening for surgery, he said.

Gabor faces obvious complications because of her age but a successful operation could add a few years to her life, said her spokesman John Blanchette.

As an actress, the Hungarian-born Gabor is best known for her roles in the 1950s movies "Moulin Rouge" and "Lili."

Along with her sisters Eva and Magda, she was a fixture on Hollywood's social circuit where she called everyone "dah-ling" in her thick accent.

She has been married nine times and earned a degree of infamy in 1989 when she served a three-day jail term for slapping a Beverly Hills policeman who had pulled her over. Unbowed, she emerged from jail complaining about the food.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting