Author: Ohart

Diana Ross might be singing “Stop! In The Name of Gloves” by the time she’s done performing at New York City’s super chilly Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which forecasters say could be the coldest ever.

 

John Legend, Martina McBride and the Muppets from “Sesame Street” are also slated to perform in the frigid cold. Windy conditions are also expected and officials will be monitoring wind to see if giant character balloons such as SpongeBob and Charlie Brown can fly safely.

Police say they’re ready to order the 16 helium-filled balloons to a lower altitude or removed entirely if sustained winds exceed 23 mph (37 kph) and gusts exceed 34 mph (54.7 kph). There have been mishaps and injuries in the past when gusts blew them off course.

 

The National Weather Service is projecting temperatures in the low 20s (-3.9 to -6.7 Celsius) and sustained winds of up to 20 mph (32.2 kph) with gusts to 30 mph (48.3 kph), just inside the safe zone for the balloons to fly.

Thursday has the potential to be New York City’s coldest Thanksgiving since 1901, when the temperature only got as high as 26 degrees (-3.33 Celsius). The coldest on record was in 1871, when the warmest it got was 22 degrees (-5.5 Celsius).

 

The Macy’s parade didn’t start until 1924.

 

New York City has issued an extreme cold weather alert and is urging anyone going outside to wear hats, scarves, gloves and layered clothing and to keep their fingertips, earlobes, and noses covered to prevent frostbite.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill said thousands of officers will be stationed along the parade route. They include counterterrorism teams with long guns, plainclothes officers mixed in with the crowd and a new squad of K-9 teams that can sniff out explosives from a few hundred feet away.

 

The parade runs 46 blocks from the west side of Central Park to Macy’s flagship store in midtown Manhattan.

 

The parade features about 8,000 marchers, including high school bands from across the country, and two-dozen floats culminating with the arrival of Santa Claus. The performances will be shown on the NBC telecast, which starts at 9 a.m. EST.

 

Ross, 74, will perform a song from her new Christmas album and will be joined on her float by her some of her family members, including daughter Tracee Ellis Ross, a star of ABC’s “Black-ish,” and actor son Evan Ross.

 

Others in the lineup include Bad Bunny, Kane Brown and Ella Mai, Pentatonix, Rita Ora, Sugarland, Anika Noni Rose, Barenaked Ladies, Leona Lewis, Fifth Harmony’s Ally Brooke, Bazzi, Ashley Tisdale and Carly Pearce.

 

 
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Retailers will once again offer big deals and early hours to lure shoppers into their stores for the start of the holiday season. But they’ll also try to get shoppers out of their stores faster than ever by minimizing the thing they hate most: long lines.

Walmart, Target and other large retailers are sending workers throughout their stores to check out customers with mobile devices. And at Macy’s, shoppers can scan and pay for items on their own smartphones.

Retailers hope the changes will make in-store shopping less of a hassle. Long lines can irritate shoppers, who may leave the store empty handed and spend their money elsewhere, or go online.

“I’m all about quick and convenient,” says Carolyn Sarpy, who paid for a toy basketball hoop on a mobile device issued to a worker at a Walmart store in Houston. Sarpy says she “will turn around and walk out” of a store if she sees long lines.

Walmart says workers will stand in the busiest sections of stores, ready to swipe customer credit cards when they are ready to pay. To make them easier to find, workers wear yellow sashes that say, “Check out with me.”

The world’s largest retailer first tested the service in the spring at more than 350 stores in its lawn and garden centers. It fared well, Walmart says, and expanded the program for the holiday season.

Retailers are trying to catch up to technology giants. Apple, for example, has let those buying iPhones, laptops and other gadgets in its stores to pay on mobile devices issued to workers. And Amazon has been rolling out cashier-less convenience stores in San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle.

Barbara Kahn, a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, says shoppers know the technology is out there for faster shopping. “That makes them even more impatient,” she says.

The true test of their success will be whether retailers can handle the big crowds who are expected to turn out for Black Friday weekend. The day after Thanksgiving is expected to be the busiest shopping day this year, according to retail analytics company ShopperTrak. The Saturday after Thanksgiving also ranks in the top 10.

“The biggest pain point on Black Friday is standing in line,” says Jason Goldberg, senior vice president of commerce and content practice at consulting group SapientRazorfish.

J.C. Penney, which has been offering mobile checkout for years, says it sent an additional 6,000 mobile devices to stores this year so workers can check shoppers out quicker, like when lines get long on Black Friday. Other stores are testing it for the first time: Kohl’s says iPad-wielding workers will roam 160 of its more than 1,100 stores.

Macy’s, which announced its program in May, says customers need to use its mobile app to scan price tags and pay. After that, they have to go to a mobile checkout express line and show the app to a worker, who then removes security tags from clothing.

Target’s mobile checkout program, which is being rolled out to all its 1,800 stores, is similar to Walmart’s. Target says that at its electronics area, where there are usually two cash registers, four workers will be sent with handheld devices to help ring up customers buying TVs, video games and other devices.

“This is about servicing the guest however they want and as quickly as they want,” says John Mulligan, Target’s chief operating officer.

 
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Favorable weather is helping get the Thanksgiving travel rush off to a smooth start.

 

By midday Tuesday, just a few dozen flights had been canceled around the U.S. That’s fewer cancelations than many regular travel days.

 

The AAA auto club predicts that 54.3 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home between Wednesday and Sunday, the highest number since 2005 and about a 5 percent increase over last year. AA says 48 million will drive and 4.7 million will fly.

 

Looking at a longer, 12-day period, the airline industry trade group Airlines for America predicts that a record 30.6 million people will fly on U.S. carriers, up from 29 million last year. That’s more than 2.5 million per day.
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Months after comic Michelle Wolf angered Trump administration officials with her blistering routine at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the group said on Monday it would feature a historian, not a comedian, at next year’s event.

The WHCA said Ron Chernow, who has written biographies of presidents George Washington and Ulysses Grant and founding father Alexander Hamilton, has been asked to speak on freedom of the press at next year’s black-tie affair in April.

“Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to the basics,” Chernow said in a statement released by the WHCA. President Donald Trump has repeatedly derided some media organizations as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people.”

The decision breaks with the association’s long-standing tradition of having a comic roast the president and the press at the dinner, and it drew a sharp response from Wolf.

“The @whca are cowards. The media is complicit. And I couldn’t be prouder,” she said on Twitter.

Presidents traditionally have been given the floor to make their own humorous remarks before the comic speaks. But President Donald Trump, who frequently found himself the target of jokes when he attended before he ran for office, including by then-President Obama, has refused to attend the dinner his first two years in office.

Wolf angered Trump administration officials last April with jokes that many felt were caustic and overly personal, saying of presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway “all she does is lie” and ridiculing press secretary Sarah Sanders’ eye makeup.

It was not the first time comics at the dinner have riled their targets. Stephen Colbert, Wanda Sykes and Seth Meyers have spoken at the dinner and also had their detractors.

But Wolf’s jabs at Trump administration officials prompted the New York Times to question in a headline last April: “Did Michelle Wolf kill the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?”

Although the dinner has become a high-profile event on Washington’s social calendar, it is primarily a fund-raiser to earn money for college journalism scholarships, journalism awards and to pay for other programs sponsored by the WHCA, which represents journalists covering the White House.

“While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian,” Chernow said, “I promise that my history lesson won’t be dry.”
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The Calgary city council on Monday unanimously declared Canada’s 2026 Winter Olympics bid dead, after residents roundly rejected its proposal to host the Games in a referendum.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said ahead of the council vote that he was “disappointed” in the outcome of the referendum — after nearly two years of bid preparations — but accepted the will of the people.

Calgary’s withdrawal now leaves only Milan and Stockholm in the running when the host city is announced in June in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The council’s announcement came after residents of the city at the foot of the Rocky Mountains last week came out 56.4 percent to 43.6 percent against bringing the event back to Calgary, which staged the 1988 Winter Games.

A tally of 304,774 ballots released by the city showed 171,750 voting against staging the Games, with 132,832 in favor.

The referendum result came after frenzied campaigning which saw pro-bid campaigners fail to convince residents that the city should bankroll a Can$390 million ($295 million US) chunk of the bill for hosting the event.

Bid officials had said bringing the Olympics back to Calgary would provide an economic boost to the city while giving it a chance to shine under a global spotlight.

But opponents cast doubt on the projected revenues from the Games, fearing massive cost overruns, higher property taxes and less funding for other municipal projects.
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The small town of Utqiagvik, Alaska, is the northernmost town in the United States. Entertainment is scarce and so is the list of jobs. A lot of locals still hunt and fish, and there is room for art here as well. As Natasha Mozgovaya reports, indigenous carvers have been creating beautiful figurines, intricate miniature sculptures and jewelry from very Alaskan materials.
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While the Space Needle may be the most recognizable structure in Seattle, Washington, there is another spectacular and futuristic building nearby: Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture. Initially built as a tribute to the legendary Seattle rock musician Jimi Hendrix, it now celebrates American contemporary pop culture as a whole. One display is dedicated to the Marvel Comics Super Heroes, whose creator, Stan Lee, died at 95 earlier this week. Natasha Mozgovaya gives us a look.
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Fashion changes, trends come and go, but jewelry is always present in people’s lives in one way or another. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art just opened a new exhibition dedicated to the history of jewelry and the role it plays in people’s lives. Headdresses and earrings, brooches and belts, necklaces and rings, old and new, traditional and provocative, jewelry never cease to surprise and amaze. Nina Vishneva reports. Anna Rice narrates.
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The weight of legacy hangs heavily over Creed II. Not just for most of the characters, who must come to grips with their own family histories, but also for the filmmakers, tasked with making a sequel to a successful spin-off of a beloved franchise. It would put any film on the ropes. Not this one.

Creed II pulls off a rather amazing feat by adding to the luster of its predecessor and propelling the narrative into a bright future while also reaching back to honor its past, resurrecting unfinished business from Rocky IV and adding a dash of Rocky III. Pound per pound, the sequel might even be better than its predecessor.

Steven Caple Jr. replaced Ryan Coogler in the director’s chair this time, but there is plenty of continuity: Michael B. Jordan returns as Adonis Creed, with Sylvester Stallone by his side as former heavyweight champ and trainer Rocky Balboa. Also back: Tessa Thompson as Creed’s love interest, Phylicia Rashad as Creed’s mom, and Wood Harris as a coach. Max Kellerman is ringside again as color commentator.

The sequel pits Creed against man-mountain Viktor Drago, the son of Ivan Drago, who killed Adonis Creed’s father, Apollo Creed, in the ring in Rocky IV. That stirs up trauma for Rocky, who feels responsible for the elder Creed’s demise. Rocky went on to avenge the death by beating the elder Drago, but we also now learn what that disgrace meant for the Dragos. This film is about ghosts as much as it is a meditation on fatherhood. At one point, Kellerman says the showdown between the sons of Creed and Drago is almost like a Shakespearian drama and — laugh if you must — it feels sort of right here.

Desire — or lack of it — plays a key role in Creed II since we meet young Adonis as the new champion, at the top. Viktor Drago is at the bottom, hauling cement in Ukraine and burning for family redemption. “My son will break your boy,” Ivan Drago threatens Rocky, who sort of agrees. “When a fighter’s got nothing to lose he’s dangerous,” he warns Creed. “Listen, that kid was raised in hate. You weren’t.” Dolph Lungren returns as the elder Drago and there’s even an appearance by Brigitte Nielsen, who plays Drago’s wife in 1985 and was a real-life wife of Stallone. (Talk about keeping it in the family.)

Caple matches Coogler’s moody, gritty vision of a brutal sport conducted by mostly honorable men trying to outwit each other. There’s plenty of gore, slo-mos of smashed heads and Rocky trademarks — the glorious montages with uplifting music as fighters prepare for their shot in the ring. (Prepare to look away if you are fans of massive truck tires — many get horrible beat downs.)

Stallone got his mitts on the script — after having had a role penning all the Rocky films but sitting out writing Creed — and teams up with Cheo Hodari Coker, creator of the Netflix superhero hit Luke Cage. Onscreen, Stallone returns with his dark fedora and small bouncing ball, shuffling about and mumbling, allowing his sad eyes to do the bulk of his acting. It’s in the small moments between crusty Stallone and cocky Jordan where the film finds its sweet spot. “What are you fightin’ for?” the elder man asks the younger.

Jordan proves again that he’s a film force to be reckoned with, capable of searing and savage intensity and yet also goofy softness. This time, his swagger is tested and he must overcome intense pain and anguish. Watching him get up off the canvas again and again will make even the most uncharitable viewer cheer. As Adonis, he wants to carve his own legacy away from his father’s: “This is our chance to rewrite history. Our history,” Creed tells Rocky.

Thompson and Rashad both temper the piles of testosterone onscreen as women who steer and guide the young Adonis. Thompson’s character is battling progressive hearing loss and that is handled intelligently by the writers. There’s even a scene when Adonis is punched so hard that he falls in silence and looks over at her, both connected for a moment in enveloping quiet.

The filmmakers, meanwhile, are creating their own family legacy. Both Creed films share the same composer (Ludwig Goransson), art director (Jesse Rosenthal), special effects coordinator (Patrick White), costumer (Rita Squitiere) and location manager (Patricia Taggart). The films even have the same barber for Jordan (Kenny Duncan). And Coogler didn’t go far — he’s an executive producer.

But while a Creed III is almost guaranteed, there may be dangers ahead if the filmmakers choose to keep reopening old wounds or plundering story lines from the past. And the creep toward more cinematic bombast needs to be watched vigilantly. (Remember how nuts the last few Rocky films got?) Having said that, this spin-off franchise is clearly in very good hands — ones that are heavily wrapped, protected by a glove and aiming for your gut.
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Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman has often put his life on the line while filming award-winning documentaries such as Cartel Land, chronicling wars of Mexican drug cartels, and throwing a light on the atrocities of the Islamic State group in City of Ghosts.

Now, Heineman is releasing his first feature film, A Private War, about another subject close to his heart: Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin, who staked her life on the war fronts of Sri Lanka, Iraq and Syria in order to bring attention to the plight of war victims. 

In A Private War, Oscar-nominated actress Rosamund Pike transforms herself into Colvin, a gritty, fierce, inquisitive American journalist who dedicated her life to reporting on atrocities around the world. 

Pike evokes the journalist’s inexorable drive to cover wars to show the world the plight of war victims and bring truth to light. She also portrays Colvin as a person suffering from PTSD and addiction to alcohol and to her job. And there was the physical toll. Colvin lost her left eye in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Sri Lanka in 2001. 

Her actions, presence

“Getting into her physicality, which meant changing everything, I had to learn to smoke convincingly, because for Marie, everything was better with a cigarette — every conversation, every car drive,” Pike told VOA. “I had to see the way with which she gestured with her hands — she had these wide-apart fingers. I had to work out how the eye patch made her angle her head differently — how she could penetrate you and sear you with one eye as good as someone else could dress you down with two.” 

In an onscreen soliloquy about her inner demons as Colvin, Pike outlined the personal conflicts that defined the British journalist. 

“I fear growing old, but then I also fear dying young,” she said. “I am most happy with a vodka martini in my hand, but I can’t stand the fact that the chatter in my head won’t go quiet until there is a quart of vodka inside me. I hate being in a war zone, but I also feel compelled, compelled, to see it for myself.” 

WATCH: ‘A Private War’ Examines War Correspondent’s Physical, Psychological Scars

Regarding Colvin’s heavy drinking, Pike said, “Should we even call it alcoholism? I really had to judge and walk a very fine line and find out where the truth lay, because it is not that we are defining her by a drinking problem. But she clearly had one.” 

Filmmaker Heineman described his deep connection to Colvin. A storyteller who took grave risks to document drug cartels and IS to the world, he wanted to do justice to the complexity of Colvin’s character and her courage as she unflinchingly reported from Homs, Syria, in 2012 during Bashar al-Assad’s heavy bombardment of the city. 

This is where Colvin lost her life. Through Colvin’s commitment, Heineman said he wanted to show the risks that journalists take to uncover the truth to the world. 

Power of storytelling

“Journalists are the bedrock of a free and independent society. You might not always agree with what they say, but the fact that journalism has been politicized, as our whole world has been politicized and our countries have been politicized and divided, is really sad to me,” the filmmaker said. “The fact that journalists have been demonized in this country, in other countries, the fact that a journalist was recently obviously killed, in Turkey [Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi], I think that’s one of the reasons why I make films. 

“I think film, journalism, storytelling has the ability to bring people together to create dialogue, to create two sides of a conversation,” he told VOA. 

As a documentarian, Heineman wanted to give this real-life texture to his film. In a scene where Colvin discovers a mass grave in Iraq, the local women and men gathered around mourning are real victims of war.  

“The women in that scene were Iraqi women crying about real trauma that they experienced, and at the end of that scene, like in any documentary that I made, something unforeseen happened: They started chanting and doing this prayer for the dead,” Heineman said. 

Pike related a similar experience she had while filming an unscripted scene with a refugee woman huddled with her kids in a safe house. The scene was depicting the siege of Homs. 

Through an interpreter, the woman told Pike how she fed her baby only sugar and water because she could not produce milk to breastfeed after the trauma of losing one of her kids to a bomb attack.  

“Then the woman said to me as Marie — and it was caught on camera — she said, ‘I don’t want this, please, I don’t want this just to be words on paper. I want the world to know that a generation is dying here. I want the world to know my story.’ ”  

Pike said that at that moment, she felt what drove Colvin — the journalist’s grave responsibility to bear witness to people’s suffering, no matter the cost.  
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Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman’s film “A Private War,” about Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin, brings attention to the danger journalists face reporting on the plight of war victims. VOA’s Penelope Poulou describes how and why “A Private War” was a labor of love, a docudrama delving into Colvin’s psyche.
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Cicely Tyson received her first and only Oscar nomination in 1972. It was for best actress for her work in “Sounder,” which she thinks of as her first major role. She wasn’t called to the stage that year — Liza Minnelli was for “Cabaret” —  but now 45 years later, Tyson is finally getting her Oscar.

 

“It is an emotionally wrenching matter to me,” Tyson said.

 

Tyson, 93, is no stranger to awards and honors. She’s won three Emmys (two in the same year for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” and one for “The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All”), a Tony award (for “The Trip to Bountiful”), been a Kennedy Center honoree and, in 2016 was given a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. Now she can add one more award to that list as she prepares to accept her honorary Oscar at the 10th annual Governors Awards Sunday in Hollywood.

 

“I come from lowly status. I grew up in an area that was called the slums at the time,” Tyson said. “I still cannot imagine that I have met with presidents, kings, queens. How did I get here? I marvel at it.”

 

When film academy President John Bailey called her to inform her that the Board of Governors voted unanimously to give her the award, she “went to water.”

 

“It is the last thing in the world that I ever expected,” Tyson said, thinking, “I hadn’t done a major movie since ‘The Help.'”

 

Tyson has worked since the 2011 film, with roles in “Last Flag Flying’ and the television show “How to Get Away With Murder,” but ‘The Help’ was the last film that had anyone mentioning her name alongside Oscar. Oprah even called her and predicted she’d get a nomination, to which she responded: “My role was two seconds!’

 

“I am extremely grateful to the Board that they even know my name,” Tyson added with a hearty laugh.

 

She is being honored Sunday along with publicist Marvin Levy and composer Lalo Schifrin.

 

Born in Harlem, Tyson started out as a model and theater actress, eventually landing a role in the film “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” in 1968. Her pursuit of acting caused a rift with her mother, who disapproved, but Tyson said she was her “motivating force.”

 

“I was determined to prove her wrong,” Tyson said.

 

Plus, she learned quickly that she had a larger purpose than just acting. On the press tour for “Sounder,” which took her to parts of the United States that she hadn’t yet been to, she remembers a man in a press conference telling her that watching the film made him realize that he was prejudiced.

 

“He said, ‘You know, I could not accept the fact that your older son was referring to his father as daddy. That’s what my son calls me,'” Tyson said. “And I thought to myself, `My God. My God.’ It was those kinds of experiences as I went across the country promoting ‘Sounder’ that made me realize that I, Cicely Tyson, could not afford the luxury of being an actress. There were some issues that I definitely had to address and I chose my profession as my platform.”

 

It led to a lifetime of activism and humanitarianism off screen. Tyson even has a performing arts school named after her in New Jersey and frequently goes on tour to speak to children. On screen Tyson has portrayed women like Coretta Scott King and Harriet Ross Tubman. She decided early that she would only take jobs that “speak to something,” which is also why she ends up saying “no” a lot.

 

“My honorary Oscar proves to me that I was on the right track and I stayed on it,” Tyson said.

 

And while most of the time “no” works, sometimes it doesn’t. Tyson tried to say no to wearing a terrifically large hat to Aretha Franklin’s funeral only to be overruled by her designer. The hat would become a viral highlight.

 

“I never thought in my career that I would be upstaged by a hat! And I did not want to wear it,” Tyson said. “I said, ‘I can’t wear that hat, I will be blocking the view of the people behind me, they won’t be able to see and they’ll call me all kinds of names.’ He just looked at me and said, ‘Put the hat on.'”

 

She came around, eventually, thinking of the hat as homage to Franklin’s appearance at Obama’s inauguration.

 

As for whether or not she’ll don a similarly spectacular piece of art on her head Sunday night at the Governors Awards? Tyson just laughs.

 

“Oh no!” she said. “I won’t even mention it to him.”
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When Marvin Levy says he never expected to get an Oscar, it’s not false modesty. It just wasn’t a possibility.

 

Levy is one of the most respected publicists in Hollywood, with more than a half century of experience at companies like MGM, Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks and Amblin. His four-decade partnership with Steven Spielberg is the stuff of legend, having worked on campaigns including “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Back to the Future,” “Schindler’s List” and “Jurassic Park.”

He’s also been a member of the public relations branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for years and even served on its board of governors, which is why he knows for a fact that no publicist’s name has ever even been put forth for honorary Oscar consideration. Until this year.

 

He compared it to a sports agent winning an MVP award.

 

“It was way out of left field for me. I couldn’t have imagined it,” Levy said with a laugh. “It’s not like I could say ‘Gee, I’d love to get that one day.’ It was not on my to-do list.”

 

Levy will be accepting his golden statuette at the Governors Awards in Hollywood Sunday, along with actress Cicely Tyson and composer Lalo Schifrin. His longtime friends and colleagues Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will also be receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

 

Born and raised on the east side of Manhattan, Levy never set out to be a publicist specifically, but he always liked writing and had a way with words. One of his first jobs was writing questions for a TV quiz show. He was fired when his “big ticket” question got answered too early in the season.

 

His first publicity job was at MGM in New York, where he was so far down on the ladder he never even got to travel to Los Angeles. And while he doesn’t remember the first film he worked on, he remembers one of the last, the one that made him think, “I’ve got to get out of here.” It was the 1962 remake of “Mutiny on the Bounty.”

 

“The lion wasn’t roaring too much at that point,” Levy said, and he found his way to legendary publicists Arthur Canton, Bill Blowitz and then Columbia Pictures which eventually took him to California. It was during that time that he first started working with Spielberg. He was told he was only to concentrate on “Close Encounters” and the hot young filmmaker who was fresh off of “Jaws.”

 

“That started it, and here we are 41 years later,” Levy said. “He’s been such a tremendous part of my life.”

 

The partnership was sealed after both he and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” were pushed aside at Columbia and he continued on with Spielberg and Kennedy.

 

Levy has stories for days about film sets he’s been on. There was “The Deep” where he invited journalists to observe filming in scuba suits underwater. And then there was Hurricane Iniki that bonded him for life with everyone on the set of “Jurassic Park.” (“I tell you if you ever get stranded or in an emergency, hope that you’re with a film crew because they have everything!”).

 

He’s had a few run ins with some “not very nice” actors who he’s had to tote around to media appearances, and remembers the ones who were always late. Ever the professional, he won’t dish on names, but he will say that some of his favorite people to work with have been Cyd Charisse and Shirley MacLaine.

 

And while many films that Levy has worked on have gone on to win Oscars for the filmmakers and actors, he still remembers the heartbreak when “Saving Private Ryan” lost the best picture trophy to “Shakespeare in Love” at the 71st Academy Awards.

 

“That was the toughest night of my life in terms of the business,” Levy said.

 

Immediately after the disappointment, he had to put on “as straight a face as I could” and host a table at the Governors Ball. But he takes pride in the fact that the film is still beloved and now considered a classic.

 

In fact, many of the films Levy has worked on are having second lives with anniversary releases, including “Schindler’s List,” which is coming to theaters starting Dec. 7 for its 25th anniversary. It’s made for some serious deja-vu for Levy who finds himself approving press releases, artwork and publicity for films he worked on decades ago.

 

“I live my life in rewind,” Levy laughed.

 

Not everything is in the rear-view mirror, though. Levy is looking forward to watching Spielberg tackle one of the few genres he hasn’t done — the musical, with “West Side Story.”

 

“How lucky can you be? I mean it,” he said. “We work for the best filmmaker around.”
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It’s official: 2018 is toxic.

Oxford Dictionaries has chosen “toxic” as its international word of the year.

Oxford University Press monitors changes in the English language and each year selects a word that catches the annual mood.

Oxford’s lexicographers said it’s “the sheer scope of its applications that has made it the standout choice.”

Traditionally defined as “poisonous,” Oxford said people are also using the word to describe relationships, workplaces, politics and habits.

“Toxic” beat out “gas-lighting,” defined as ”manipulating someone by psychological means into accepting a false depiction of reality or doubting their own sanity,” and “orbiting,” which means ”the action of abruptly withdrawing from direct communication with someone while still monitoring, and sometimes responding to, their activity on social media.”

Last year’s top choice was “youthquake,” recognizing the power of the millennial generation. In 2016, it was “post-truth,” defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotional and personal belief.”
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Chris Stapleton won the most awards at the 2018 Country Music Association Awards and had the show’s best performance, almost capping a perfect night.

That was until Keith Urban surprisingly won the top prize — entertainer of the year — moments before the three-hour show wrapped Wednesday night.

Urban’s actress-wife, Nicole Kidman, was in tears as the singer walked onstage to collect the award at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Baby girl, I love you so much,” he said. “I’m shocked beyond shocked.”

Urban last won entertainer of the year in 2005 and also beat out Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney for the prize.

“I wish my dad was alive to see this,” the Australian performer said.

Four awards for Stapleton

Stapleton, however, cleaned house at the CMAs, winning four awards including male vocalist, song and single of the year.

“I want to thank my kids who put up with me being gone quite a bit and not getting to be as a good daddy that I would always like to be,” said the father of four and soon to be five since his wife, singer-songwriter Morgane Stapleton, is pregnant.

Stapleton also won the performance of the night: His supergroup featuring Mavis Staples, Maren Morris, Marty Stuart and his wife gave a soulful and powerful performance of “Friendship,” a song made famous by Pop Staples, the iconic singer’s late father. They then performed “I’ll Take You There,” jamming onstage along with a choir. They earned a standing ovation from the audience.

When Stapleton won single of the year, where he won as both a performer and producer, earlier in the show, he said he was “thinking about the people in California right now” and he wants to “dedicate this award to them.”

He was referring to the 12 people who were killed at a Southern California country music bar last week, who were also honored at the top of the show when Garth Brooks led a moment of silence as the names of the victims were displayed on the screen.

“Tonight let’s celebrate their lives. Let the music unite us with love,” Brooks said.

The CMAs, which aired on ABC, also took time to honor those affected by the deadly wildfires in California.

“We send our love to you,” said Carrie Underwood, also mentioning the “brave firefighters.”

​Underwood wins female vocalist

Underwood worked triple-duty as co-host, performer and nominee at the CMAs. She was teary-eyed when she won female vocalist of the year.

“Thank you God. I have been blessed with so much in my life,” she said. “Thank you family. Thank you country music. Thank you country music family. … It’s all about family around here.”

She kept the positive and uplifting theme of the show going when she gave a rousing performance of her song “Love Wins.” It features the lyrics, “I believe you and me are sisters and brothers/And I believe we’re made to be here for each other.”

​Album of the year goes to Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves, the only woman nominated for album of the year, won the prize for “Golden Hour.”

“This is really, really crazy timing — 10 years ago today I moved to Nashville. That’s so crazy,” she said.

“I’m so proud of it,” she said of the pop-leaning country album, which was inspired by Sade, the Bee Gees and others. “It’s inspired by this beautiful universe, and all of you, and mostly love.”

Light-hearted moments

Dan + Shay lost in all four categories they were nominated in but gave an impressive performance of their hit “Tequila.” When Brothers Osborne won vocal duo of the year, John Osborne said, “I thought this was going to go to Dan + Shay. Make some noise for those boys.”

“I don’t know why we keep winning this,” John Osborne said when he first walked onstage.

“If this was in Florida there definitely would be a recount,” added T.J. Osborne, which earned laughs from the crowd.

Luke Combs, who has the year’s most-streamed country music album, sang onstage with a red cup in his hand and won new artist of the year.

“God, I love country music, man,” Combs said.

Brooks performed a touching new song dedicated to his wife, Trisha Yearwood, who was teary-eyed and was hearing the song for the first time. Recent Country Hall of Famer Ricky Skaggs performed alongside Brad Paisley and Urban.

Underwood and Paisley returned as CMA hosts for the 11th time this year, telling jokes at the top of the show, which ranged from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” to Underwood’s pregnancy.

Underwood seemingly revealed a secret about the child, saying it will be a “Willie” after Paisley repeatedly asked about the sex of the baby.
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Sigrid Nunez’s “The Friend,” a meditative novel about grief, books and, not least, a Great Dane named Apollo, has won the National Book Award for fiction.

Other winners Wednesday included Jeffrey C. Stewart’s “The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke” for nonfiction and Justin Philip Reed’s “Indecency” for poetry.

On a night when those honored had roots throughout the world, from Peru to Japan, Elizabeth Acevedo’s “The Poet X” won for young people’s literature, and Yoko Tawada’s “The Emissary,” translated by Margaret Mitsutani, won for translation, a category newly revived.

Nunez, author of such previous novels as “Salvation City” and “The Last of Her Kind,” noted in her acceptance speech that she didn’t seek community when she became a writer, but unexpectedly found it.

“I thought it (writing) was something I could do alone and hidden, in the privacy of my own room,” she said. “How lucky to have discovered that writing books made the miraculous possible, to be removed from the world and be part of the world at the same time.

“And tonight how happy I am to feel a part of the world.”

Judges, who include writers, critics and other members of the literary community, chose from more than 1,600 books submitted by publishers when considering the awards. Winners in the competitive categories each receive $10,000. In translation, the prize money is divided between the author and translator.

Honorary medals were presented to novelist Isabel Allende and to Doron Weber of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “Parks and Recreation” actor Nick Offerman hosted the ceremony and benefit dinner in Manhattan, presented by the National Book Foundation.
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Idris Elba’s daughter has been chosen as the Golden Globe Ambassador to assist with the glitzy awards ceremony.

 

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Wednesday that 16-year-old Isan Elba will assume the ambassador title for the 76th annual Golden Globes Awards in January. Her 46-year-old father was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine last week.

 

An ambassador is traditionally the child of a celebrity and assists with award presentations, handing out trophies to winners and escorting them off stage.

 

Elba is the second ambassador chosen after last year’s selection of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s daughter, Simone Garcia.

 

The HFPA rechristened the role, formerly known as Miss Golden Globe, in 2017. The association wanted to expand the role to help recognize the HFPA’s philanthropic efforts throughout the year.
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Two journalists who helped cover the confirmation process of Brett Kavanaugh are working on a book about the newest Supreme Court justice.

 

Portfolio says Wednesday that it has a deal with New York Times reporters Kate Kelly and Robin Pogrebin for “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh.”

 

The publisher says the book will focus on the “many unanswered questions” about Kavanaugh, who faced allegations of sexual harassment and assault stemming from his years in high school and college. Kavanaugh was narrowly confirmed in October after he and Christine Blasey Ford, who said that he had attempted to rape her during a party when they were in high school, both spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kavanaugh denied any wrongdoing.

 

Pogrebin said in a statement that a “fuller picture” of Kavanaugh was needed.
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Fans are paying tribute to Marvel Comics’ legend Stan Lee at his Hollywood Walk of Fame star in Los Angeles. Lee – the creator of many superheroes – died on Monday at 95. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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Three months after her death and 46 years after she first recorded it, Aretha Franklin’s live gospel concert is coming to the big screen.

“Amazing Grace,” filmed in January 1972 when the Queen of Soul was just 29 years old, follows Franklin over two nights giving a concert at the New Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

Belting out gospel songs like “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Climbing Higher Mountains” and an 11-minute version of “Amazing Grace,” Franklin brought churchgoers and guests (including Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger) to their feet.

But Franklin herself stands still, saying little in the 90-minute film.

“It’s a church service. It’s basically just our aunt standing there singing,” Sabrina Owens, Franklin’s niece and executor of her estate, told Reuters Television.

“She doesn’t have much conversation with anybody beyond some of the technical crews that’s around her. At some point she asked about a key and other point she asked about water, but she’s just basically standing there singing, giving her all, doing what she does best,” said Owens, who is also a producer on the film.

The service was released as an album in 1972, becoming a best-seller for Franklin. But the film languished for years over problems with synchronizing the visuals and the audio. Advances in technology made it possible to fix that issue and producer Alan Elliott, who took over the project some 10 years ago, got agreement from Franklin’s estate following the singer’s death in August to finally release the film.

Owens said Elliott told her about the film some three years ago. “I had never even heard about it and he sent me the link, and I was like, ‘Oh wow! This is really good.'”

“Amazing Grace” got its world premiere in New York on Monday, winning warm reviews, and will get a limited release in the city and in Los Angeles in late November and early December, making it eligible for Hollywood’s awards season.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper said the film is “a spine-tingling sensation” while the Hollywood Reporter called it “somewhat shapeless as a movie… But it does contain moments of bliss.”
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The ‘Pink Legacy’, a diamond weighing just under 19 carats, fetched a record 50.375 million Swiss francs ($50 million) as it outshone all other auction lots at Christie’s in Geneva on Tuesday.

Graded “vivid”, the highest rating for a pink diamond’s color, the gem is internally pure with a rectangular cut, and mounted on a platinum ring.

Once owned by the Oppenheimer Family, who built De Beers into the world’s biggest diamond trader, the diamond had a pre-sale estimate of $30 to $50 million. The identity of the seller was not disclosed.

Vivid colored diamonds are the most strongly saturated gems, displaying the optimum hue of the stone. Most pink diamonds of this color weigh less than one carat, the auction house – which was holding its semi-annual jewellery sale – said.

Christie’s said the ‘Pink Legacy’ achieved a new per-carat record for a pink diamond, and was the second most expensive one ever sold at auction.

($1 = 1.0073 Swiss francs)
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For the second straight year, President Donald Trump will not be attending the Kennedy Center Honors celebrating cultural achievement.

 

Neither Trump nor first lady Melania Trump will be at the Dec. 2 event, Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s director of communications, said Tuesday.

 

Grisham also told The Associated Press it was “not likely” any new winners of the National Medal of Arts, National Humanities Medal or National Medal of Science would be announced before the end of the year. She said the remaining weeks of 2018 are “the busiest time of the year for the East Wing.”

 

Tuesday’s announcements continue the Trump administration’s unprecedented distance from the arts and science communities. No arts or humanities medals have been announced or handed out since September 2016, when Barack Obama was president — the longest gap by months since the awards were established in the mid-1980s. No science medals have been given since May 2016.

 

Other presidents, including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, have missed Kennedy Center ceremonies. Trump is the first to miss them twice.

 

Grisham cited scheduling conflicts: Trump is scheduled to attend the G20 summit in Argentina at the end of the month. Had he come to the Kennedy Center, it’s unlikely he would have been warmly welcomed by at least some of the honorees, who include Cher and “Hamilton” playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, both sharp critics.

 

Last year, honoree Norman Lear said he would boycott the event if Trump was there. The White House then announced the president and first lady would not be going “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”
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Thousands of firefighters in California are battling deadly wildfires in the northern and southern parts of the state. At least 44 people have died as a result of the fires. Many more have lost their homes. 

The wildfires in Southern California have been sweeping through many affluent communities near Los Angeles. Some evacuated residents are now returning home. Among them are celebrities who posted their thoughts and experiences on social media.

Actor Gerard Butler posted a video on his Twitter page, showing the charred and blackened remains of homes in his Malibu neighborhood. 

“It’s like a war zone, heartbreaking,” he said in the video. 

Other celebrities tweeted status updates. Singer and actress Miley Cyrus also lost her home in Malibu’s beach community. In a tweet, she wrote, “My house no longer stands but the memories shared with family and friends stand strong.” 

The wildfires also forced actress Alyssa Milano and director Guillermo del Toro to evacuate as they updated their fans on Twitter. 

Del Toro wrote about the home of his collection of fantasy and horror memorabilia: 

As the wildfires burned for days, thousands of firefighters were mobilized to contain the blaze. 

“I’ve been doing this job for 31 years and probably in the last five, maybe seven years, every year seems to get worse. A lot of that has to do with the recent drought and the drought that we’re still going through. And with that, that drought killed a lot of vegetation. And so, that dead vegetation is prone to burning, obviously,” said Cal Fire Unit Chief Scott Jalbert. 

Low humidity and high winds also contributed to what has made the wildfires so devastating to residents.  
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Mira Sorvino believes the key to eradicating sexual misconduct lies more in preventative education than in “naming and shaming” the perpetrators.

 

The Oscar-winning actress was one of the first to come forward with allegations of abuse against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, and her resilience has not wavered.

 

She wants to work with students — from younger grades to the end of high school — to make them understand consent and their physical rights.

 

“So we don’t raise boys — because it’s mostly boys who do this, some girls, but mostly boys — who turn into men who commit these heinous crimes,” Sorvino told the Associated Press during a recent interview while promoting her role on the new season of the Sony Crackle series, StartUp.”

 

Sorvino agrees that the culture has changed over the past year, but feels there’s a long way to go, especially when bad behavior is validated in entertainment.

 

“That was sort of taught to us by like ’80s movies culture like ‘Sixteen Candles’ or ‘Porky’s’ or ‘Animal House’ which made it OK to commit date rape and it was the women’s fault because she was drunk rather than, ‘That’s date rape. How could you possibly take advantage of somebody who can’t even speak?'” she said.

 

She added: “That’s not cool. That’s not fun. But that’s what my generation of guys were brought up on. I mean I was brought up watching those movies, so we’ve got to change the culture. It can’t just be punishment and naming and shaming, it’s got to be prevention because that’s what we really want. We want no one victimized,” Sorvino said.

 

Sorvino has found some solace as a prominent voice in the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. Advancements by these organizations have become a rallying cry for women victimized over the years by varying degrees of sexual misconduct. On Dec. 1, she will join the Mika Brzezinski-led line-up for the “Know Your Value” event in San Francisco, which is designed to support and empower women.

 

She’s kept acting, too. In “StartUp,” Sorvino plays a quirky NSA agent with a deadly side that tries to take down a dark-web site to find a terror cell. The series raises questions about online privacy and the government. It’s currently streaming on Sony Crackle.

 

She also has helped lobby for legislation in California that provides protections and opportunities for women and girls. Three of the bills presented under the proposed #TakeTheLead legislation have been enacted into law after being singed by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

 

And she has bigger plans in mind, namely a change to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for women.

 

“This year coming up I really want to see the Equal Rights Amendment passed. It’s nuts that we don’t have explicit equality in the constitution,” Sorvino said.
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U.S. billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates will launch an ‘Our Global Goals’ partnership with the Japan Sports Agency in an effort to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by publicizing them through the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the world’s second-richest person, has devoted much of his time in recent years to his family foundation, which aims to help reach the SDG objectives, including ending extreme poverty and combating climate change by 2030.

At an event in Tokyo on Friday, Gates said he was linking up with an Olympic Games for the first time to use it as a way to increase awareness of the SDGs and also urged Japan to become a world leader in aid and development.

The initiative has become an official Tokyo 2020 Olympics program.

“Countries like Japan will need to continue to invest generously, actually even more generously than they currently are,” the 63-year-old Gates said.

“Today, Japan spends around 3-5 percent of its aid budget on global health, so there is an opportunity to do even more.

“The sports community in Japan is fast approaching an exciting moment, as the eyes of the world will be on Tokyo as the Olympics get nearer,” he said.

“I am excited that you are using this opportunity to raise awareness and be ambassadors for a better world.”

Gates, who was joined on stage by Tokyo 2020 President and former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, did not release many details on Friday but plans to launch the program in 2019 as the buildup to the Games intensified.

“The opportunity for Japan is, even in a time when many countries are turning inward, to continue to say that we need to help those that are not doing as well,” said Gates.

“Continuing to commit to the Global Fund, continuing to commit to increase what they are doing with vaccines and polio is also part of that.

“The whole world loves sports and we have to be creative in how we take those amazing achievements and use that to remind people that there are some who are facing big challenges.”

Gates said in April he would invest $1 billion through 2023 to fund research and development efforts in combating malaria.

According to the World Health Organization, there were 216 million cases of malaria worldwide, causing 445,000 deaths in 2016, the most recent year with available data.
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Ever been on a blind date with a rock star? How about four of them?

That was Grammy-winning producer Paul Epworth’s experience when he initially met up with Mumford & Sons to see if he and the four rockers could vibe, and possibly create not just music, but magic together.

“It was all a bit like a series of blind dates to see how we hit it off. It took us a couple of sessions before we found out what the best method was. The chemistry felt really good all throughout the process,” Epworth said.

“We went on a couple of dates,” said band leader Marcus Mumford. “We did sessions before Christmas, which led to pretty much the final version of the song called ‘Slip Away,’ which is on the record. And we just felt like he was exactly the person we needed to help steer this ship for this fourth record. And we’ve never enjoyed recording more.”

The result is the 14-track “Delta,” to be released Friday.

The band started writing new music after the album “Wilder Mind” was released in 2015, even though one of the “Delta” songs is six years old. Mumford said they tried to re-work the old track “about 400 times.”

“It’s called ‘Forever’ — ironically,” he said.

“It wasn’t called ‘Forever’ before. After the 600th time,” chimed in Winston Marshall, who plays banjo and electric guitar.

Epworth was part of the solution. The band says when they didn’t know what to do, he did.

“They were open to giving me a bit of space to run with stuff [and] try out what I had in mind,” Epworth said. “It definitely made me feel like I was essentially a fifth member of the band.”

The London group said they were familiar with Epworth’s work — the producer is best known for crafting Adele’s monster hit “Rolling in the Deep” and also winning an Oscar with the British vocalist for the James Bond theme song, “Skyfall.” Epworth’s credits also include songs with Coldplay, Florence + the Machine, U2, and Foster the People as well as lesser known acts such as Glass Animals, Bloc Party and Plan B.

Markus Dravs produced the band’s 2009 debut, “Sigh No More,” and its follow-up, 2012’s “Babel,” which won the album of the year Grammy. Both records reached multiplatinum status and launched hits on the pop and rock charts. “Wilder Mind,” produced by James Ford, still had rock hits but only went gold.

Epworth’s fifth member status proved invaluable for “Delta,” mainly recorded at Epworth’s The Church Studios in London.

“[Paul] would just come back one day and be like, ‘That is not your upbeat rock song. That is your downbeat piano ballad.’ We’d be kind of just blindsided by the moments of sheer visionary,” said multi-instrumentalist Ben Lovett.

“Especially for a band of four collaborators — to have that person to help, decision-tie-breaker, those sort of moments [are important],” Lovett added. “If it were to be that we kind of fell out with our producer, it would be fine because we could leave the situation. If we fall out with each other, we’ve got a major problem. Luckily that’s been something we’ve been able to avoid.”

The songwriting process for each track on “Delta” varied — each of the band members work on songs individually and then bring them to the group.

Mumford said over the years he’s learned how to be a better team player and let everyone’s voice be heard.

“In the old days there was a sliver of immediacy and I think a slight immaturity, creatively. … If someone else had a different idea, I personally had less patience for it than I do now,” he said. “Now, I trust these guys’ creative instincts so much. If they’ve got a different idea [and] it doesn’t chime with me straight away, I’m intrigued to see where it goes.”

One of the ideas that came from Lovett was “If I Say,” a beautiful, building rock song, where the string arrangement and orchestra shine brightly. Lovett said he wrote the song “in a dream that I had whilst I was going through a bunch of stuff.”

“I was halfway between grappling with a divorce but also being in a new relationship,” he continued. “The song questions a lot about commitment and about the power of commitment.”

Personal experiences are what drove the overall songwriting behind the album, bassist Ted Dwane said.

“We write autobiographically. A lot has happened to us in our personal lives in the past few years and the overriding theme felt like entering the world,” Dwane explained. “It felt like leaving the security of youth and innocence and manning up, basically.”

Mumford & Sons, who formed in 2007 and started out as a live band, will get a chance to showcase the new songs on their 60-date “Delta” Tour, which kicks off in Dublin on Friday and lands in the U.S. on Dec. 7 in Philadelphia.

They said another way they were inspired to write new songs came from listening to other artists’ music in the studio.

“We’ll constantly be introducing each other to new music like, ‘Listen to this song here’ and we’ll turn it up loud,” Mumford said. “Wins and I once had a very late, quite drunken night in London, demoing for the previous album where we listened to [Don Henley’s] ‘The Boys of Summer’ about five times really loud and then tried to record our own. We called it ‘Lads of Summer.’ It’s a monstrosity. We should have put it on the record though.”

“Maybe on the next one,” Marshall said. “By the way, I [expletive] love that song.”
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