Entertaining Posts

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Fans, stars tweet the blues over Winehouse death

LOS ANGELES | Sat Jul 23, 2011 8:50pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Soul singer Amy Winehouse, who died unexpectedly at age 27, received numerous tributes on Saturday from ordinary fans around the world and music luminaries ranging from Tony Bennett to producer Mark Ronson.

The "Rehab" singer whose problems with substance abuse were well-documented, died at her home in London, and while it appears she has lost her battle with drink and drugs, an official cause of death has yet to be determined.

Nevertheless, fans speculated that she became another in a long list of singers, actors and other celebrities whose problems in the public limelight led to their demise -- Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Heath Ledger.

Winehouse was the top trending topic on Twitter where many tweets read like this one from gigglinben: "meh hate waking up to hear amywinehouse is gone...dreaded it for ages...so young & so much talent sadly gone..hope she finds peace"

CRIerPourMoi posted: "her beautiful voice will be sorely missed. so unfortunate her disease got the best of her. RIP..."

The British singers' talent was discovered when she was 16, and her debut album "Frank" in 2003 earned acclaim. But it was her second CD, 2006's "Back to Black" that made her a star.

The record produced a string of memorable tunes, including "You Know I'm No Good," "Love Is a Losing Game" and "Rehab," which contained the line: "They tried to make me go to rehab. I said 'no, no, no.'" The album reached No. 1 in Britain and earned Winehouse five Grammys, pop music's highest honors.

RONSON CALLS WINEHOUSE "SOULMATE"

Ronson, the "Back to Black" producer, tweeted that Winehouse "was my musical soulmate & like a sister to me. this is one of the saddest days of my life."

Indeed, Twitter was alive with tributes from a who's who of the music world. Rapper and media mogul Diddy said "RIP Amy Winehouse" on the social network website and rocker Pete Wentz sent out "super sad to hear about the news. RIP. never take life for granted."

Some tweets had a harsher tone, such as this from mattissotrendy: "It's sad when anyone dies, but I find it hard to respect a drug addict. No matter how talented they were".

But singer/songwriter and Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas sought to pour cold water on many of the more sarcastic remarks by tweeting, "So many people saying that because it's not a surprise that Amy Winehouse passed, it's not sad. I hope you have more compassion for friends."

Music legend Tony Bennett, who recorded the classic pop standard "Body And Soul" with Winehouse last March, issued a statement calling her "an artist of immense proportions.

"I am deeply saddened to learn of her tragic passing. She was an extraordinary musician with a rare intuition as a vocalist and I am truly devastated that her exceptional talent has come to such an early end," Bennett said.

The U.S.-based Recording Academy, which gives out the Grammys, also issued a statement calling Winehouse "a dynamic performer and musician who seamlessly blended rock, jazz, pop, and soul and created a sound all her own."

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

UK "Rehab" singer Winehouse found dead: report

LONDON | Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:27pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer Amy Winehouse, whose hit single "Rehab" became the anthem for troubled celebrity culture, has been found dead at her home in north London, Sky News reported on Saturday.

Police said they had found the body of a 27-year-old woman at a home in Camden Square, north London, after being called by ambulance services around 1500 GMT.

"Inquiries continue into the circumstances of the death at this early stage. It is being treated as unexplained," a police spokesman said. A spokesman for the singer could not immediately confirm she had died.

Police had cordoned off the leafy street outside Winehouse's home in Camden, where around 20 onlookers had already gathered along with media photographers and camera crew.

Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983, to a Jewish family with a history of jazz musicians. She was discovered by soul singer Tyler James at the age of 16 and in 2003 her debut album "Frank" was released, to general acclaim.

Her second album "Back to Black" was released in October 2006 and reached the No. 1 spot.

The album's hit single "Rehab" contained the line: "They tried to make me go to rehab. I said 'no, no, no.'"

(Reporting by Tim Castle and Mike Collett-White)

Friday, July 22, 2011

Timberlake, Seyfried talk "In Time" at Comic-Con

By R.T. Watson

SAN DIEGO | Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:05pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - By now, most anyone who knows anything about Comic-Con International knows it has become a grand platform from which Hollywood's studios launch promotional campaigns for upcoming films and television shows.

A problem, for reporters and bloggers trying to cover those launches, is that having seen only brief clips of the films or TV shows, it's often hard to discuss them in a serious way.

But Reuters sat down with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried on Thursday for a brief chat to ferret out the details of their upcoming action film, "In Time," which is set for release in October of this year.

From its description, the movie sounds like an old-fashioned crime thriller, only it is set in the future and people stop aging when they're still young and pretty -- which is perfect for a Hollywood movie. Here's what Timberlake and Seyfried had to say about "In Time."

Q: Justin, do you get to kill anybody in this movie?

Timberlake: "Maybe. (To Seyfried) Wait, do I kill anybody in this movie?"

Seyfried: "Yeah, you kill four."

Timberlake: "Yes I do."

Q: How does that make you feel, killing somebody?

Timberlake: "Feels good. But they were all bad, okay? They were all bad guys."

Q: You can prove that?

Timberlake: "Yes."

Q: Amanda, do you get to kill anyone?

Seyfried: "I shoot somebody."

Q: They don't die?

Seyfried: "Not because I shot them."

Q: Okay, so, there's some shooting and killing. Shifting gears, had you two hung out at all before starting this movie?

Timberlake: "We actually worked on another film called 'Alpha Dog.'"

Seyfried: "Kind of."

Timberlake: "Okay, we didn't actually work together. We were just in the same movie together. As a matter of fact, there are four actors in this movie that were in 'Alpha Dog.'"

Seyfried: "Olivia (Wilde)," "Vincent (Kartheiser)," and the two of us."

Q: They say good work often comes when actors have great 'chemistry' on screen. You two certainly seem to have it, here. Had you established any sort of chemistry before the movie?

Timberlake: "Amanda's really attractive so I don't have trouble having chemistry with her."

Seyfried. "That's not true."

Timberlake laughs

Seyfried: "C'mon...Is it my nose?"

Timberlake: "That's so attractive."

Q: Okay, let me try this: Amanda, what's unique about the character you play in "In Time'?

Timberlake: "Not really anything."

Seyfried: "Not true. She lives in a very rich world, she has all the time she would ever need. She could be immortal, but she doesn't want to be, she's bored. It's meaningless to her. She wants something exciting. She finds her place in the world, and what she wants out of life by going on the run and losing all the time she has."

Q: Justin, Did you get that from her performance?

Timberlake: "I did."

Q: Did Amanda out-act you?

Timberlake: (laughs) "She certainly tried, every scene... No, I'm kidding."

Seyfried: "No. I did. At least, I tried."

Timberlake: "She's great in the movie. I love Amanda as a person and as an actor, and I think so much of her gift as an actor comes from her being a good person. I think this is the best performance I've ever seen from her."

Seyfried: "No."

Q: So many actors talk about hating to "do press." If you had a choice between a long press conference or Chinese water torture, what would it be?

Timberlake: "I'd take the Chinese water torture."

Seyfried: "Oh, c'mon press conferences are fun -- when they are only one hour...when they're two, mmmmmmm..."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

David Hasselhoff swaps life with namesake for TV show

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES | Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:13pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Everyone knows David Hasselhoff, right? The acting, singing former "Baywatch" star with a 30-year Hollywood career.

Think again. David Haseloff is a 27 year-old electrical technician and landscaper from a small Texas town who has never set foot in Los Angeles. That is, he never had until TV producers with their next big idea came calling.

Hasselhoff and Haseloff -- the latter has only one "s" in his surname -- trade lives and lifestyles for the first episode of the new CBS television series "Same Name", starting on Sunday.

Boxer Mike Tyson, comedienne Kathy Griffin and football star Reggie Bush are some of the other celebrities who trade places with their little-known namesakes in later episodes for the cross between "Wife Swap" and "The Simple Life".

Hasselhoff, 59, saw the program as a chance to show people the real man behind the TV image. As am electrical technician and landscaper, he gets to put his muscled physique to good use with several days of manual labor in Lake Jackson, Texas, and several nights of broken sleep caused by his namesake's young baby.

"When you are a David Hasselhoff, or a Bruce Willis or a Brad Pitt, people get a view of us from what we do on TV, or from the press," the actor told Reuters.

"So when I got an opportunity to go to Texas -- where a lot of my family lives -- I thought I would love to meet some other Hasselhoffs and see if they have the same values as we do. We are a very close family, and we have a lot of respect for the work ethic," he added.

THE HOLLYWOOD LIFE

The Texas Haseloff, who has had a lifetime of being teased about his name, got the keys to a Beverly Hills mansion, several flashy cars, the services of the actor's housekeeper, agent, bodyguard, personal trainer and personal assistant, and a night out in Los Angeles entertaining the David Hasselhoff fan club.

"I never thought being a celebrity would be so hard," he says on the show, adding that he previously imagined that stars simply sat around their mansions all day. "It's been fun but I have no desire to be a celebrity."

Away from the limelight, former "Knight Rider" star Hasselhoff is both awed by his new family's struggles to make ends meet and elated to meet dozens of assorted cousins, grandparents, uncles and children who share his famous name.

Hasselhoff said the swap was an eye-opening experience for both sides. But he added; "My conception of their life was not nearly as surprising as their conception of my life."

"They were surprised at all the travel, all the hard work, the boot camps, the voice classes, the agents and managers, the bad press, the good press, the stuff you have to endure in this business."

Although the two families changed lives for just a week, they appear to have formed a more lasting bond. Hasselhoff presented the family with several lasting mementos and tickets to one of his concerts in Germany, and he said the two men remain in touch.

"The paychecks are different but the bills are the same and the values and the hard work is the same. They are working for their family over there, and I keep hustling and working and reinventing myself for my kids," Hasselhoff said.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Cash-strapped Lohan hit with $1 million lawsuit

LOS ANGELES | Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:21pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lindsay Lohan was sued on Thursday for $1 million for an alleged assault on an employee of the California rehab center where the actress spent three months in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.

Dawn Bradley claimed in a civil lawsuit, which was posted on celebrity news website TMZ.com, that Lohan yelled at her, threw a phone, grabbed her wrist and twisted it when asked to submit to a breathalyzer test in December at the Betty Ford Center near Palm Springs.

Bradley claimed she suffered "significant injury" to her wrist as well as "post-traumatic stress syndrome requiring several therapy sessions."

Bradley, who no longer works at the clinic, is seeking damages of $1 million as well as medical expenses.

Prosecutors in Riverside County decided earlier this year not to file criminal charges against Lohan over Bradley's allegations, citing insufficient evidence. Bradley had told investigators she did not want charges filed.

Lohan, 24, spent three months at the Betty Ford Center last year after failing a random drug test. The actress has been in and out of rehab and jail multiple times for violating her probation in a 2007 drunk driving and cocaine possession case.

The "Mean Girls" actress, who served 35 days house arrest in Los Angeles earlier this summer for stealing a gold necklace, was due back in court on Thursday for a probation hearing.

Her once promising Hollywood career has been sidelined by drug and alcohol problems but she is due to start filming a movie about New York crime boss John Gotti in the fall with co-stars John Travolta and Al Pacino.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)