Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category

Lebanese star Najwa Karam will join the likes of Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai and Sonam Kapoor, and Hollywood actresses Freida Pinto, Andie MacDowell and Milla Jovovich on the Cannes red carpet this year.

The multi-platinum selling singer, who was recently signed on as an ambassador for L’Oreal Paris, will appear on the red carpet on May 21 in a special dress designed by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad.

tabloid! will be speaking to Najwa about how she’s preparing for one of the biggest red carpet events of the year. Watch this space.

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Story By: by Andrew Lapin

Eddie Redmayne plays a volatile traveling companion of Luli’s who’s a little too friendly.

A tiresome pattern develops early. Luli’s traveling companion, whether it’s con artist Glenda (Blake Lively) or the terrifyingly friendly Eddie (Eddie Redmayne), takes her somewhere unsafe, where she witnesses or partakes in activities representing all the horrors the adult world has to offer: crime, alcoholism, drug use, worse. Then she climbs back into the car with the same near-total stranger who only moments before had placed her in jeopardy.

We are meant to feel sorrow and compassion toward this girl, so unable to bring herself to leave dangerous situations. Except, since we know Luli’s capable of fleeing the dangerous situations at home, the fact that she would continue to so naively trust these people speaks less to her character than to the story’s need to force forward momentum. It’s as if the filmmakers realize there’d be no movie if their protagonist ever stopped to say, “Maybe I should take the bus instead.”

The screenplay is by Andrea Portes, a Nebraska expat and former script reader who wrote the autobiographical 2007 novel that inspired it. Portes’ dark themes, easier to stomach on the page but land mines for the screen, demand a treatment that’s even-handed and direct.

Yet director Derick Martini strikes a tone that’s alternately crass (swooning ballads underscore more horrific moments) and cloying (frequent cutaways to Luli’s colored-pencil fantasies, lest we forget how young she is). The cast holds the gravity of the story at arm’s length like it doesn’t really concern them; they play their characters broadly even when they’re supposed to be showing real emotion.

Who the heck is Hick for? Who would want to witness so many awful things happening to a young girl while a Bob Dylan tune strums in the background? Amazon says customers who bought the book also bought Hounddog. What a double feature that would make.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – To hear Tenacious D tell it, hard rock music is dead and they plan to resurrect it. That’s no joke.

Comedy-rock duo Tenacious D, formed 18 years ago by actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass, drop their third album, “Rize of the Fenix,” next Tuesday, aiming to save what they see as a dying musical genre.

Six years after their last album, “The Pick of Destiny,” they claim to be bringing back “the majesty and the genius” of hard rock while exploring deeper, darker themes on their album. And despite what they see as a bias against their music by some critics because they mix satirical comedy with song, they are completely serious about their newest endeavor.

“Since we had our last album, rock and roll completely died. Thank God for The D, riding in on their white stallions to rescue rock and roll,” Black told Reuters in a recent interview.

“What killed it? Was it Axl Rose in the library with a wrench, or was it Lady Gaga in the pantry with the pliers? We don’t know but we’ll figure it out,” he added.

The title track, “Rize of the Fenix” is a rousing country rock-themed ode to the band’s attempt to “rise again” that expresses Tenacious D’s desire for a chart-topping song, while Black’s favorite, “Senorita,” is a Mariachi-style tale of a damsel in distress named Conchita.

“We’ve dug deep for a lot of the jams, such as “Throw Down,” our major anti-organized religion song, and “Senorita,” a story about a man who falls in love with a woman who can’t let go of her abusive relationship. It doesn’t sound funny … we’re exploring some deeper, darker material,” said Black.

But there is comedy. After all, what would Tenacious D be, without a sense of humor. The songs are divided up by skits such as “Flutes and Trombones,” which features Black and Gass getting into a fight over instruments, while “Classical Teacher” sees Gass getting classical guitar lessons.

Still, Black and Gass say they have serious ambitions to crack the mainstream music market, and they have sought advice from Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters on how to write a hit song.

“I’ve always wanted to have one of those hits on the radio, but we haven’t really been able to crack that code. I think we’re trying this time a lot,” said Gass.

Black is adamant their third album is “in all seriousness, better than any album out there right now.”

“RIZE” TO SUCCESS

Tenacious D was formed in 1994 by Gass and Black in Los Angeles where the duo performed their “mock rock” routines in local bars.

Initially, the success of the band was spurred by Black’s skyrocketing fame as a comedic actor in movies such as “High Fidelity,” “School of Rock” and Peter Jackson’s “King Kong.” Gass, also an actor, hasn’t seen the same level of success in Hollywood, but the duo insist their chemistry remains unaffected by Black’s Hollywood A-list status.

“I go and do some other stuff, but I always come back to the D, because it’s the best stuff, it’s the stuff I get the most satisfaction for … On Tenacious D island, all things are equal, me and Kyle are on level-playing fields,” said Black.

In 1997, Black and Gass performed in an HBO TV show based on their journey as a band, producing three half-hour episodes and two short sketches each that aired through 2000.

As their fame grew, the joke morphed into a serious endeavor, and in 2001, the duo released their debut self-titled album. It featured a backing band comprised of Grohl on drums, The Vandals’ guitarist Warren Fitzgerald, Redd Kross bassist Steven Shane McDonald and Phish keyboardist Page McConnell, and it eventually went platinum, led by the song “Tribute.”

The second album, “The Pick of Destiny,” was combined with a Tenacious D film of the same name and a world tour, but failed to achieve the same level of success of the first album, although the film became a cult hit through DVD sales. To date, the band has sold more than 3 million albums worldwide.

Still, there is a sense of frustration for Black in Tenacious D not being taken seriously as a credible rock band. He feels critics overlook their talents due to the satirical content, but he has faith the band’s loyal fans see them differently.

“I do love (Jack White’s) “Blunderbuss,” I love the Foo, I love Tom Waits, his new record is incredible … and Goyte … but our album is better than all of those, and because we’re clowns, we don’t get that kind of love,” he said.

“In a hundred years’ time, no one will remember Gotye or the rest, but the shining beacon of The D — they’re going to start religions after us.”

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

Sarah Ferguson faces charges of going "against the law in acquiring footage and violating privacy" of five children at one of the orphanages, the Anadolu Agency said. If convicted, she could receive a maximum sentence of 22 1/2 years in prison.

The trial began on Friday, and Ferguson did not attend the opening session, the agency said.

Ferguson, the former wife of Britain’s Prince Andrew, allegedly made an undercover trip to Turkey in 2008 during which she secretly visited the two state-run orphanages along with two British TV journalists. An indictment filed against Ferguson in January said the two journalists are being separately investigated. 

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"If I get compared to Anil chachu, then it means I have achieved a lot already. But I don’t think it’s fair to compare me with Anil chachu because it’s an insult to his body of work," Kapoor, son of well-known filmmaker Boney Kapoor, said.

"Today, he is in Hollywood and he has achieved what people only dream of. Comparisons are inevitable, but it should be of certain equality. Anil chachu is very superior. Comparisons should be done with my peers. I don’t think it will create any pressure."

The 26-year-old, who recently lost his mother Mona Kapoor, claims there is enough space for everybody in Bollywood.

Directed by Habib Faisal, Ishaqzaade also features Parineeti Chopra.

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But after being apart for more than a year, the couple are understood to be rekindling their romance.

Harry, 27, and Davy, 26, have seen each other during the past month, although they are determined to keep things low-key.

"They have been meeting at the homes of friends and at private house parties," says a source. "Chelsy has seen Harry in the past three weeks, although she doesn’t really like talking about it. She’s been very coy.

"It seems to be a relationship with no strings attached. The fact is they are still hugely attracted to each other and never really fell out of love.

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St. Paul: Former 1960s teen pop idol Bobby Vee says he’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

The 69-year-old, born Robert Velline in Fargo, N.D., says on his website that he was diagnosed last year. Vee was catapulted to stardom after the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP "Big Bopper" Richardson in a 1959 plane crash en route to Moorhead, Minn.

Vee and his friends filled in for the trio at the Moorhead performance and soon after that he recorded his first single, "Suzie Baby," for Soma Records in Minneapolis.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://bit.ly/Jzm8cX ) says Vee’s wife of 48 years, Karen Velline, is also dealing with health issues. She’s on a waiting list for a lung transplant.

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The fire burnt in his belly as, aged 10, he watched his parents being arrested. Three years later he spoke at the funeral of a friend executed by the state. Peter Hain became a political activist at a painfully young age, as he witnessed close up the evils of apartheid and the courage of his parents in trying, in their small way, to fight it.

His father hounded out of work, eventually they felt they could fight no more. Leaving the material comforts of South Africa for a life in England, one can feel his sadness. The title of Hain’s memoir, Outside In, is well chosen. Wherever he found himself, he never quite fitted in. In his early 20s he became a leading light in the movement to stop South Africa’s rugby and cricket tours. He became the regime’s public enemy No 1 and, as was revealed later, the object of extensive surveillance by MI5 supervised by Harold Wilson’s Labour government.

The accounts of these incidents are disarmingly understated. Hain describes how in 1972 a letter bomb was sent to the family home in Putney by South African foreign intelligence. It was being opened by his 14-year-old sister, Sally. "Recessed into a thick sheet of balsa wood were hideous metal cylinders and terminals with wires protruding," he writes. "We sat transfixed, expecting it to explode, seconds seeming like ages. Yet nothing happened."

The sometimes clunky writing style reinforces the sense of a passionate young man on a journey. That took him, via the Anti-Nazi League and two failed attempts to enter parliament (beaten by a more ostentatious Chelsea supporter, David Mellor), to the seat of Neath in 1991. He clawed his way up, taking a variety of cabinet positions under Tony Blair and briefly Gordon Brown. Some jobs excited him more than others. In the foreign office under his old friend Robin Cook, he flourished, particularly with his work in Africa.

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Story By: by Milo Miles

Joan Soriano.

Joan Soriano: Tiny Desk Concert

A superb new collection of vintage bachata singles is titled Bachata Roja: Amor y Amargue, and indeed the music itself was originally called amargue — which means “bitterness” — for its slow-moving laments about broken hearts and lonely nights. First recorded at the start of the 1960s, early bachata functioned much like weepy country-Western music in America, popular with Dominican truck drivers and in rural bars. But there was always a restless quality in the style, and soon it moved beyond its roots in Cuban son and bolero ballads to incorporate more dance rhythms.

The Bachata Roja anthology includes songs up to the ’80s, but no matter the date, the selections maintain a potent simplicity and directness, reflecting the downtrodden or celebratory sound of plain lives. One advantage of this lack of clutter is that a few added elements — sweet vocal harmonies, extra percussion or a splash of horns — makes tracks like Ramon Cordero’s “El pajarito” jump out.

Since the ’80s, bachata has blossomed in a manner not unlike salsa in the ’70s. It is now a popular, established style throughout the Caribbean and international capitals like New York. This has not been an entirely beneficial development for the music. Like country music when it went mainstream in the modern era, big-time bachata became facile and larded with glossy sounds. The hit group Aventura too often suggests the latest incarnation of a boy band with some exotic beats and Spanish lyrics.

In a return to the roots of the music, guitarist Joan Soriano has taken the next step and is establishing himself as a bachata neo-traditionalist. He plays amplified guitar and understands the sonic possibilities of the modern instrument. While his accompaniment is never looming and overblown, it’s not folkie-stark, either. Even so, until now, his virtuosity has made him sound rather slick, more studio-bound than his street-corner predecessors. With the new La Familia Soriano, he comes halfway and ends up on the front porch with three singing siblings, brother Fernando and sisters Nelly and Griselda. The comfortable tone of La Familia Soriano and the rotating vocal features help Joan Soriano’s skills on the six-string glisten without being flashy. He has an appealing style, at once declarative and quietly poetic.

But the unquestioned winner on the album is Joan’s duet with Griselda, which delivers all the ease and warmth possible for people who grew up singing together. It turns out the tradition of playing in a musical family is good for the tradition of bachata itself.

Old or new, bachata is here to stay. My feeling is that the strength of the roots will outlast the big stars in the shiny suits.

Pop star Kylie Minogue is to headline the BBC's Proms In The Park concert in September.

Minogue's former record label, PWL, is also staging a concert in Hyde Park this summer, featuring almost every artist who recorded under the Stock Aitken Waterman banner in the 1980s and 90s.

The line-up includes Steps, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley, Sinitta and Sonia – but Minogue's appearance has yet to be confirmed.