Entertaining Posts

Friday, November 25, 2011

Michelle Williams talks Marilyn, Matilda and musicals

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES | Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:01am EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michelle Williams takes on the iconic role of Marilyn Monroe in the indie film "My Week with Marilyn." Currently in theaters, the film is based on Colin Clark's book of the same name and chronicles his time spent working with Monroe while she was in England shooting the romantic comedy "The Prince and the Showgirl" in 1956.

Williams sat down with Reuters to talk about portraying Monroe, the film, shooting her current role of Glinda the good witch in Sam Raimi's "Oz: The Great and Powerful" and her six-year-old daughter Matilda with late actor Heath Ledger.

Q: Did you have an awareness of Marilyn Monroe and her starpower when you were younger?

A: "I was interested in her, but then I kind of lost track of her over the last 10 years or so. I had a poster of her up in my room. It wasn't a picture of her as the icon, it was a picture of her looking like an ordinary joyful girl. So I definitely had some kind of connection. (Working on this film) reignited whatever initial, sort of, attraction I had to her when I was a teenager."

Q: Did you do your own singing in the film?

A: "Yes and my mother is going to be so excited when she sees this. She always wanted me to sing and dance. I had so much fun doing that!"

Q: So doing a musical could be in the cards for you?

A: "I would love to. What's so liberating about singing and dancing is that it turns your head off. You coast on this wave of muscle memory. You literally can't think while you're performing. There's a kind of transcendence to it. I think maybe that's why Marilyn was so especially talented at it. Her singing and dancing are unparalleled and her musical numbers are just breathtaking."

Q: The film used many of the same locations in shooting "Prince and the Showgirl." Did that add to the production?

A: "There was a lot of synchronicity. We shot in the actual Parkside house (that Marilyn lived in). My dressing room at Pinewood was Marilyn's actual dressing room. That was so special. The stage where she shot that song and dance number was the stage where I shot mine. So many of the props in our movie were in the original 'Prince and the Showgirl' movie."

Q: Did it ever feel ghostly?

A: "Well, it's all energy. And it's what you make of it. I like to make things out of nothing! (laughs) I like to spin things out of thin air, so that stuff works for me."

Q: Did you wear wigs for the part, or grow out your hair?

A: "I wore wigs, but I had to keep my hair really bleached underneath because it would show through the wigs. My eyebrows had to be dark and they were reshaped. You go through so many grotesque phases making movies (laughs). I never really feel quite like myself. I just feel like a mutant -- always halfway in between some other person and myself. I don't know what belongs to me and what doesn't!"

Q: After filming ended was it hard to let go of Marilyn?

A: "I think when you work in a way that really gets under your skin, its not an easy break. You make a little extra room for these people that you play and then they leave. You're left with this hollow space. I wish I could play her again."

Q: Does your daughter Matilda come to set?

A: "She comes with me everywhere."

Q: How do you balance getting into character and then going home at the end of the day to be a mom?

A: "What works for me is to have a commute from where we live to where I work. So that in the morning, I leave the house behind and walk clean and fresh into my professional life. And then the same thing on the way home. I find that a 20 or 30 minute commute makes a kind of passageway for me that I need."

Q: You're currently shooting "OZ," playing Glinda. Matilda must love coming to that set.

A: "It's the best thing professionally that's happened to us. It has brought her on board my work in a way that wasn't possible in a movie like 'Marilyn' or 'Blue Valentine.' On those, there was no space for a kid to come visit and be a kid. (With 'Oz') she comes every single day after school because it's like a playground. She says, 'There's only one good witch and it's my mom.' She's very excited about it."

Q: It's interesting that you said the project was the best thing to happen professionally to "us" not "me."

A: "Definitely. Every choice that I make is about how it's going to affect our life -- where it films, how long it is, what else is going on in her year, what's the last job I did, how much time I've had off in between, how much time we had to really deeply connect and how long can we sustain a period of time where I'm working. So when 'Oz' came along, it was very clear to me that it was the right decision for us."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

UK inquiry shines light on rough tabloid trade

By Kate Holton and Keith Weir

LONDON | Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:49am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Stalking children, rummaging through bins, bullying and deceit -- the tricks of the tabloid newspaper trade are being laid bare at a public inquiry that is giving Britons a sobering insight into how their appetite for gossip and scandal is satisfied.

Analysts and members of the industry say the revelations are highly damaging and will likely further harm newspaper sales, especially for the popular tabloid titles, and will inevitably lead to tighter regulation of an industry that polices itself.

"I think this has been the most damaging week to the British tabloid newspapers that I can remember," Max Clifford, the country's most high profile publicist, told Reuters.

"People are disgusted, offended and I think a lot of people will say that they just won't buy tabloid newspapers."

Prime Minister David Cameron ordered the inquiry into media practices in July amid a public outcry over widespread phone hacking at the now closed News of the World tabloid, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp media empire.

Appearances this week by actor Hugh Grant and Harry Potter author JK Rowling have been broadcast live on rolling news channels and exposed how newspapers scrapping for survival in a declining market ruthlessly target public figures.

"I think an awful lot of people who have bought the News of the World, who still buy the Mail and the Sun and the Mirror will be absolutely horrified by what they've seen -- that this is the way they get the stories that they've been reading," said Steven Barnett, professor of communications at Westminster University in London.

"The Germans love gossip, the Italians can't get enough of it. The difference is they don't condone a culture within some parts of the press which simply exploits other people's lives for their own profit."

Grant, star of "Four Weddings and a Funeral," said a section of the press had become toxic over the last 20 or 30 years.

"Its main tactic being bullying, intimidation and blackmail. And I think that it's time that this country found the courage to stand up to this bully now," he said.

Having thrown down the gauntlet, Grant found himself effectively accused of lying by the mid-market Mail newspaper group when he said he believed its Sunday edition newspaper had hacked his phone.

INNOCENT VICTIMS

The inquiry, headed by senior judge Brian Leveson, extends well beyond phone hacking and has a remit of examining the culture, practices and ethics of the media.

While celebrities have commanded most of the attention, the most moving testimony has come from people unwittingly thrust into the public eye as victims of crime.

Sally Dowler, whose teenage daughter Milly was murdered in 2002, described how she was duped into believing the missing schoolgirl was still alive when a call went through to a previously full voicemail box.

In fact, her phone had been accessed and messages deleted. News Corp last month agreed to pay the Dowlers 2 million pounds ($3 million) over phone hacking claims.

"The public are becoming aware of ordinary members of the public being crucified and that's what results in the loss of circulation," said publicist Clifford, who last year won an out of court settlement from the News of the World over hacking.

"It was Milly Dowler that shut the News of the World."

Data suggests many Britons have given up on Sunday newspapers after News Corp closed its scandal-hit title in July.

Daily Mail reader Bridget Sach said the press should focus on bigger issues like rising unemployment.

"We've all got lives to live. We all make mistakes," Sach, 56, told Reuters in central London. "I'd rather hear news."

Industry analysts said the newspapers would have to launch their own publicity campaigns to defend their reputations and remind readers of the good they can do, in exposing hypocrisy and corruption.

However, changing the mindset in the media -- old and new - is likely to prove hard.

Rowling was driven away from the court on Thursday with photographers chasing her down the street looking for a final image. And on the Twitter micro-blogging website a new star was born, when a telegenic young woman lawyer featured prominently in TV shots at the Leveson inquiry.

"#womanontheleft" was how Carine Patry Hoskins was described on Twitter before the mainstream media followed up and extended her 15 minutes of fame.

(Additional reporting by Li-mei Hoang; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Author JK Rowling says "spiteful" UK press hounded her

By Kate Holton and Michael Holden

LONDON | Thu Nov 24, 2011 2:12pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling told a public inquiry into British media standards on Thursday she was forced to move house because of tabloid harassment and had been made to feel like a hostage in her home after she gave birth.

During two hours of evidence, Rowling revealed a note had been slipped into her young daughter's schoolbag by a journalist and that she had chased a paparazzo photographer down the street when he tried to take a picture of her with her children.

Rowling, who is protective of her three children's privacy and has regularly complained to the press, said if you did stand up to certain newspapers about their behavior, they could be "spiteful" and seek retribution.

"This doesn't apply to the whole of the press but the attitude seems to be utterly cavalier, indifference, what does it matter, you're famous, you're asking for it," she said.

The Leveson inquiry, held in London's High Court, has proved compelling viewing this week as a host of public figures from actor Hugh Grant to families involved in notorious murders have explained how they have suffered at the hands of newspapers.

It has shone a critical light on Britain's aggressive tabloid press, which engages in a ruthless hunt for stories to prop up otherwise flagging sales, splashing on the sex lives of politicians and the stars of film, TV and sport, to whet the appetite of celebrity-obsessed Britons.

Appearing nervous at first and speaking softly, Rowling revealed that two years after the launch of the first of the hugely successful Harry Potter books in 1997, she had been forced from her home.

UNTENABLE

"It had become untenable to remain in that house," she said, saying photographers and journalists had besieged her home, details of which had been published by papers. "I was a sitting duck for anyone trying to find me."

She spoke of her fury at finding a letter from a journalist in her 5-year-old daughter's schoolbag and her outrage when the headteacher at one of her children's schools was contacted to try to glean details about the final book in the Potter series.

Clearly what angered her most were photos taken of her children, particularly one of her eldest daughter in a swimsuit.

"A child, no matter who their parents are, deserves privacy," said Rowling, whose seven Harry Potter books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and spawned a record-breaking film franchise, and has been billed as the world's first author billionaire.

The inquiry was ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron after it emerged that people working for the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid had hacked into the phones of thousands to secure stories, prompting a national outcry.

But the probe has already broadened its focus to look at wider ethical issues. At the heart of the dispute between the press and those it reports on is what constitutes public interest and whether a person's presence in the public eye justifies a wider invasion of their privacy.

HYPOCRISY

The press argues that it needs minimal regulation to enable it to expose wrongdoing and hypocrisy, but those appearing have said that freedom of speech has been seen as a green light to report anything, so long as it boosts sales.

One of those most damaged by Britain's tabloid press was Max Mosley, the former head of Formula One, who appeared on the front page of the News of the World in 2008 engaged in what the paper falsely described as a Nazi-themed sex orgy.

Mosley, 71, later won a payout from the newspaper and has publicly led the debate on the right to privacy.

The result of the story, he said, was that his son returned to taking drugs and died in May 2009. Photographers then took pictures as he entered his son's house shortly afterwards.

"What to me was so horrifying was there was no sense that this matters," he said of the photographers, explaining that the story had severely affected his son, who was struggling with drug abuse. "They have no human feeling at all," he said.

Earlier actress Sienna Miller said she had been placed under a "web of surveillance" by a tabloid newspaper which listened into her messages and read emails, prompting her to accuse family and friends of leaking stories to the press.

The 29-year-old star of movies such as "Layer Cake" and "Alfie" whose on-off relationship with actor Jude Law became staple tabloid fodder said she had been spat at and abused by paparazzi seeking a reaction.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Prosecutors seek four years in jail for Jackson doctor

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:47pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to sentence Michael Jackson's former doctor to the maximum four years in prison for his involuntary manslaughter conviction in the singer's 2009 death.

In a separate court filing, defense attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray, 58, sought to convince Los Angeles trial judge Michael Pastor to sentence their client to probation.

The dueling legal papers come in advance of a hearing on Tuesday at which Pastor will issue his sentence for Murray, who is currently in jail awaiting that court date.

Jackson was found lifeless at his mansion on June 25, 2009, about three weeks before he was due to begin a series of comeback concerts in London.

Murray was at the singer's house and had given him the powerful anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid, which medical examiners said was the chief cause of his death.

Doctors testified at the trial that propofol, which is often used for surgery, should never be given in a home setting without adequate staffing and equipment.

In seeking to justify their request for a maximum prison sentence of four years for Murray, prosecutors David Walgren and Deborah Brazil argued that the doctor took advantage of Jackson's trust in him, all while being under salary for $150,000 a month.

"Instead of utilizing his medical knowledge and training to provide Mr. Jackson with proper medical care, the defendant acted as an employee and as a drug dealer and completely corrupted the trust necessary in a proper doctor-patient relationship," prosecutors stated.

Defense attorneys said in their court papers that Murray's "background and character" warrant a sentence of probation, not prison time. They also cited his history of treating poor patients regardless of their ability to pay.

"Dr. Murray has been described as a changed, grief-stricken man, who walks around under a pail of sadness since the loss of his patient, Mr. Jackson," defense lawyers stated.

Legal experts have said that, because of overcrowding in California prisons, Murray may spend as little as a few months behind bars regardless of what he receives as a sentence.

California adopted a new law in October that sends low-risk prison inmates to county jails, and in turn officials who run Los Angeles county jails have been releasing inmates early because of a lack of space.

"It will be very difficult to achieve an appropriate sentence of incarceration for Dr. Conrad Murray," Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, whose office prosecuted the case, told reporters earlier this month.

In addition, an attorney for Jackson's estate said in a court filing that the singer would have earned $100 million had he completed all 50 shows at London's O2 arena that he was scheduled to perform before his death.

Murray has been in jail since November 7 awaiting his sentencing hearing, due to a decision by Pastor to not allow him to remain free until that upcoming hearing.

That decision was made on the same day that a Los Angeles found Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter after a six-week trial.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Nicki Minaj named Billboard's "Rising Star"

LOS ANGELES | Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:27pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer and rapper Nicki Minaj was named Billboard's 2011 Rising Star on Wednesday, following her international success this year with her album, "Pink Friday."

Minaj, 28, who is signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment, took the opportunity of Billboard's announcement to confirm her next album on Twitter.

Set for release on February 14, Valentine's day next year, Minaj's second album will be called "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded," after the rapper's alter ego, Roman Zolanski.

The New York native stormed the Billboard charts this year, becoming the first artist to have seven songs in the Hot 100 singles chart at the same time, including hits such as "Your Love," "Super Bass" and "Fly" featuring Rihanna, while "Pink Friday" reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

"Nicki Minaj has established herself as a force in hip-hop and pop music, and we're thrilled to recognize her accomplishments over the past year," said Billboard's editorial director Bill Werde on Billboard.com.

Minaj is the fourth recipient of the award, following Jazmine Sullivan in 2010, Lady Gaga in 2009 and Colbie Caillat in 2008, and will join country music star Taylor Swift, who was named Woman of the Year, to collect the award at the annual Billboard Women in Music event in New York on December 2.

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