Entertaining Posts

Monday, October 3, 2011

Michael Jackson lives again in "Immortal" stage show

By Leila Lemghalef

MONTREAL | Mon Oct 3, 2011 1:48pm EDT

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Michael Jackson's music, moves and imagination live again in Cirque du Soleil's new show "The Immortal World Tour" which opened in Montreal to screams, cries and a standing ovation on Sunday ahead of a 10-month North American tour.

Set to the central image of a "Giving Tree," -- a 300-year-old oak tree at Jackson's former Neverland Ranch home where he used to find peace and inspiration -- dancers bring the "Thriller" singer's signature moves and outfits to life.

Sparkling aerialists fly through images of galaxies in the universe to the pulsing sounds of some 70 hits, rewinding back to the King of Pop's days as a child star with the Jackson Five.

Jackson's mother Katherine, his three children Prince, Paris and Prince Michael II (Blanket), along with several of his brothers attended Sunday's world premiere of the $60 million production. It is one of the biggest projects authorized by the executors of the singer's estate.

"I think it was important not only for the Cirque but our fans to see that we support this as well and that we want to make sure that they capture what our brother was about, and they did that," Marlon Jackson told reporters, in the company of brothers Tito and Jackie.

"I think the reason the legacy is so strong is because we started so young," he added. "Michael went out and did his own thing and even grew it bigger."

Jackson, 50, who died in Los Angeles in June 2009, was a fan of Cirque du Soleil and went to the Canadian entertainment group's first U.S. tent show in 1987, said John Branca, one of the executors of his estate.

"Michael was very excited to meet the performers and they were very excited to meet him, " Branca said. "There's a lot of love and passion for Michael in this show".

"IMMORTAL" SONGS TO BE RELEASED AS ALBUM

Jackson's lead vocals drive "Immortal". His voice comes directly from his master recordings, but the band is live and the music is heard in surround sound.

"I think the songs chose themselves, based on the stories," said musical designer Kevin Antunes ahead of Sunday's premiere.

The original tracks have been re-imagined for the show and will be released as an album in November, Epic Records said on Monday.

The Cirque show opened in the midst of the criminal trial in Los Angeles over the singer's death.

Dr. Conrad Murray -- Jackson's personal physician as he prepared for a series of planned comeback concerts -- denies involuntary manslaughter. His attorneys claim that the singer caused his own death by sneaking himself an extra dose of the anesthetic propofol to help him sleep.

Some 64 international performers take part in the "Immortal" show, directed by Jamie King, who made his debut as a dancer in Jackson's 1992-93 "Dangerous" tour.

Several other members of the creative team -- the largest ever assembled by Cirque du Soleil -- had worked with Jackson, including musical director Greg Phillinganes and choreographer Travis Payne.

The cast has been rehearsing since the end of spring 2011.

The 219-member crew and the equipment's 40-truck cavalcade will travel across Canada and the show will have its U.S. premiere on December 3 in Las Vegas, where it will spend three weeks.

The North American "Immortal" tour is due to wrap up in Chicago in July 2012.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Christine Kearney)

"Knocked Up" star Seth Rogen weds Lauren Miller

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Supreme court rejects Internet music download case

By James Vicini

Mon Oct 3, 2011 10:44am EDT

(Reuters) - The Supreme Court let stand on Monday a ruling that a traditional Internet download of sound recording does not constitute a public performance of the recorded musical work under federal copyright law.

The justices refused to review a ruling by an appeals court in New York that the download itself of a musical work does not fall within the law's definition of a public performance of that work.

The not-for-profit American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) appealed to the Supreme Court. It said the ruling has profound implications for the nation's music industry, costing its members tens of millions of dollars in potential royalties each year.

ASCAP says more than 390,000 composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers in the United States exclusively license their music through the organization. It licenses nearly half of all of the musical works played online, according to the court record in the case.

The federal government opposed the appeal. U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said the appeals court's ruling was correct and comported with common understanding and sound copyright policy.

ASCAP argued that digital downloads were also public performances for which the copyright owners must be compensated. But a federal judge and the appeals court rejected that argument.

At issue was a section of the Copyright Act stating that to perform a work means to recite, render, play, dance or act it either directly or by means of any device or process.

"Music is neither recited, rendered, nor played when a recording (electronic or otherwise) is simply delivered to a potential listener," the appeals court ruled.

Verrilli agreed. He said that the downloading itself was not a performance of the work and the musical work was not played during the transfer.

Washington attorney Theodore Olson, a Bush administration solicitor general, represented ASCAP in the appeal.

He said the appeals court ruling improperly narrowed the right to perform copyrighted musical works publicly and placed the United States in violation of intellectual property treaties and other international agreements.

The Supreme Court denied the appeal without comment.

The appeals court also ruled that fees paid by Yahoo Inc and RealNetworks Inc for licenses to play music on the Internet should be recalculated. That part of the ruling was not at issue before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court case is ASCAP v. United States, No. 10-1337.

(Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Rooney signs off on "60 Minutes" but "not retiring"

LOS ANGELES | Mon Oct 3, 2011 11:17am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In his final regular appearance on the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes," Andy Rooney expressed gratitude for a "lucky" life and thanked his fans, but not without adding a touch of the curmudgeonly grumbling that has become a signature element of his TV essays.

"I've done a lot of complaining here," the 92 year-old Rooney said, "but of all the things I've complained about, I can't complain about my life."

Sunday night's installment of "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" capped a 33-year run for the end-of-show segment in which Rooney famously commented on everything from trivial items -- often displaying collections of household possessions, wanted and unwanted -- to societal issues.

During his valedictory segment, Rooney thanked viewers for their good wishes, while admitting that he's not comfortable with adulation. "I wasn't always gracious about it," he said. "I don't say this often, but thank you. Although if you do see me in a restaurant, please, just let me eat my dinner."

His "60 Minutes" tenure wasn't without controversy. He was suspended without pay in 1990 over on-air remarks that were considered offensive to homosexuals, but quickly reinstated after the CBS show experienced a sizable dip in audience share. Four years later he apologized to viewers for comments about musician Kurt Cobain's suicide that were deemed insensitive.

Rooney, who joined the network in 1949 as a writer for "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts," said on Sunday it was his love of the written word that led him to pursue a career in broadcasting.

"I don't think of myself as a television personality," Rooney said. "I'm a writer who reads what he's written."

He began his 70-year journalism career on the U.S. Army's "Stars and Stripes" newspaper, and his "60 Minutes" essays often included references to his military years and tributes to the men with whom he served during World War II.

"This is a moment I have dreaded," Rooney said of Sunday's farewell telecast. "I wish I could do this forever. ... But I'm not retiring. Writers don't retire, and I'll always be a writer."

(Reporting by Sheri Linden; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Rowan Atkinson back as spoof spy Johnny English

LONDON | Mon Oct 3, 2011 9:03am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Rowan Atkinson is back as bumbling spy Johnny English in the sequel to his 2003 hit, but despite work on comic classics "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Blackadder," the comedian does not find filming much fun.

The 56-year-old, whose television series "Mr. Bean" also made it to the big screen, was on the red carpet in London at the weekend to promote spy spoof "Johnny English Reborn," which hits British theatres on Friday.

"I never find filming particularly fun to be honest," he told Reuters at the event.

"There isn't a tremendous amount of laughter going on when I'm filming because I tend to take it all far too seriously."

In Johnny English Reborn, "the improbable secret agent" is called back into action when his superiors learn the Chinese premier's life is in danger.

Director Oliver Parker said that hit spy series like the Bourne thrillers and the arrival of Daniel Craig as the new James Bond in 2006 had provided more source material for the English character.

"We've had several years of Bourne and the new Bond, so that was a little more meat for us to feed on really," Parker said.

"The first movie I suppose was reflecting much more on Roger, (former Bond actor) Roger Moore, and here we have those two new spies, and it gave us a lot more to play with I think."

Parker and his cast, including Gillian Anderson as Pamela Head and Dominic West as Simon Ambrose, will be hoping for a repeat of the commercial success of the first movie.

"Johnny English," released in 2003, earned $160 million in global ticket sales, according to movie tracking website boxofficemojo.com, on a budget estimated at $40 million.

Early reviews have been mixed to poor, according to critic tracker rottentomatoes.com.

(Reporting by Katharina Urban-Oberberg; editing by Mike Collett-White and Paul Casciato)