Author: Ohart

In the violence-wracked, Indian-administered state of Kashmir, photojournalists have been capturing the daily lives of people and telling their stories to the outside world for many years. 18 journalists and media personnel have been killed covering the three-decade old armed conflict in the disputed Himalayan region. Like much of South Asia, the industry is predominantly staffed by men but that’s changing. VOA’s Yusuf Jameel reports with narration by Bezhan Hamdard.
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It’s been around for decades, but, unlike regular 3D, virtual reality (VR) has yet to make a big impact in the movie industry, something a maker of Hollywood animations believes can change – if the films are good enough.

Eric Darnell, who co-wrote and directed the “Madagascar” movies, showed his own VR film at the Venice Film Festival this week, “Crow: The Legend,” in which the viewer is immersed in the story of a mythical bird that has to fly to the sun to bring back warmth to the Earth.

With a voice cast that includes Oprah Winfrey, John Legend and “Crazy Rich Asians” star Constance Wu, “Crow” is hardly an amateur affair, but Darnell’s Baobab Studios will be giving the movie away rather than selling it, as a way to generate interest in the medium.

“I don’t expect it’s going to be today or six months even,” he said of when VR might go mainstream.

“The technology has to get better, headsets have to get cheaper, the content has to get better and that’s at least as important as anything else,” Darnell told Reuters. “It’s a chicken and an egg thing. You can make all the great headsets you can but if there’s not great content … what’s the point?”

Darnell said he was attracted to VR after becoming “a little bit stale” making regular animation.

“When I put a VR headset on, it just blew me away and it reminded me of the first time I saw computer animation back in the early 80s … (That) launched a whole career for me and so when I put that headset on it reminded me of what I felt like

back then.”

In “Crow”, based on a native American legend, the viewer wears a VR helmet and hand-controllers to join the bird on its adventure, using the hands to send waves of virtual energy to help it on its way.

“I think the way we are really going to get there is by putting the viewer inside the story,” Darnell said. “Not just playing a story for them, putting them inside the story so that other characters recognize that the viewer is there and that it means something to them, that you are in their world.”

The Venice Film Festival runs from Aug. 29 to Sept 8.
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Chris Stapleton topped the list of finalists Tuesday with five nominations for the 52nd annual Country Music Association Awards.

Stapleton is vying for entertainer of the year, male vocalist of the year, single of the year for “Broken Halos,” album of the year for “From A Room: Volume 2″ and song of the year for “Broken Halos.” It was his third nomination for entertainer of the year and fourth consecutive for male vocalist.

Producer and musician Dann Huff received four nominations, including musician of the year, single of the year for “Drinkin’ Problem,” album of the year for “Graffiti U,” and album of the year for “Life Changes.” Huff has won musician of the year three other times.

Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Dan + Shay, Florida Georgia Line, Chris Janson, Miranda Lambert, Midland, Thomas Rhett and Keith Urban each received three nominations. This is Urban’s 14th nomination for male vocalist of the year.

The year’s biggest country song, “Meant To Be,” by pop-country crossover artist Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line was nominated for single of the year. Other nominees in that category were Stapleton’s “Broken Halos,” ″Drinkin’ Problem” by Midland, Aldean’s “Drowns the Whiskey” featuring Miranda Lambert, and D + Shay’s “Tequila.”

Lauren Alaina, Luke Combs, Chris Janson, Midland and Brett Young were nominated for new artist.

The nominations were announced from entertainer Luke Bryan’s restaurant and bar in Nashville on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“Anytime you’re nominated for entertainer of the year, it’s so rewarding,” Bryan said. “You get to share it with your fans.”

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will host the show on Nov. 14.
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Mourning fans lined up for a last glimpse of the Queen of Soul on Tuesday as singer Aretha Franklin’s hits played from loudspeakers outside the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, where her body will lay in repose ahead of her funeral.

Franklin died last week at the age of 76 from pancreatic cancer in Detroit, where she began her career as a child singing gospel in the New Bethel Baptist Church choir. Her soaring voice, seared with emotion, would become the inspirational standard for other singers to match.

“Aretha made a lot of women look at themselves differently and changed how a lot of men looked at women,” Alma Riley, 67, said after waiting in line outside the visitation for nearly three hours. “That is particularly important today when we see such a lack of respect.”

Franklin’s body was displayed in an open casket, dressed in red shoes and a red dress, according to fans who emerged.

The preacher’s daughter first topped the charts in 1967 with “Respect,” her no-nonsense reworking of a modest hit for Otis Redding into an enduring anthem for feminism and the civil rights movement.

Chaka Khan, Jennifer Hudson, Ronald Isley and Stevie Wonder, among others, are due to sing at her funeral on Friday at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who had Franklin sing at his 1993 inauguration celebrations, will be among the speakers. She also sang at former President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but moved to Detroit as a small child as the city became a refuge for black Americans in the mid-20th century escaping racist Jim Crow segregation laws in southern states.

The city, which would become synonymous with the secular outgrowth of gospel music known as soul, is treating Franklin’s death as the passing of royalty, with a week of mourning, including a free tribute concert at a park on Thursday evening.

While Friday’s funeral is closed to the public, the streets outside are to be lined with dozens of pink Cadillacs, the Detroit-built luxury cars. Franklin sang of cruising through the city in a pink Cadillac in her 1985 hit “Freeway of Love,” which earned her one of her 18 Grammy Awards.
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Argentinean basketball star Manu Ginobili is retiring after a stellar 23-year career, 16 of them with the National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs, where he won four championship rings.

The 41-year-old Ginobili announced his retirement Monday in a brief message on Twitter: “IMMENSE GRATITUDE to everyone (family, friends, teammates, coaches, staff, fans) involved in my life in the last 23 years. It’s been a fabulous journey. Way beyond my wildest dreams.”

Ginobili joined the Spurs in 2002 after eight years playing in his native Argentina and in Italy, and led the franchise to NBA titles in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014 alongside teammates Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, known affectionately as the “Big Three.” Ginobili also led Argentina to a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Duncan retired in 2016, while Parker joined the Charlotte Hornets in the off-season as a free agent. 

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver led the outpouring of tributes to Ginobili Monday, calling him a “pioneer who helped globalize the NBA” and “one of basketball’s greatest ambassadors.”
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Every year, Indonesians from teens and grandads, to mechanics and students, gather in eastern Java to celebrate their love of the iconic Italian Vespa scooter.

For some, it’s an “extreme” kind of love, where the vehicles are customized to resemble metallic monster bikes straight out of a Hollywood dystopia.

Hundreds of enthusiasts travel to the festival in Kediri to show off their creations — ranging from restored vintage Vespas to Mad Max-style tanks fitted with fake machine guns, a dozen extra tires, or eerie stuffed toys as hood ornaments.

To enter into competitions at the festival, every customized vehicle must have a Vespa engine and most contestants try to retain the brand’s iconic fairing — the curved front of the scooter.

But other embellishments are up to the owners and their budgets. While many can only afford scrap metal or reused material found at a junkyard, others splash out.

Peded, a 43-year-old grandfather who has been modifying Vespas since the 1990s, says he likes his scooter to “tell a story.”

“I love decorating Vespas to the extreme, but I don’t like using trash,” said Peded, whose Vespa sports massive buffalo horns from the Toraja tribal land on Sulawesi island.

The three-day festival, now in its third year, is one of several held across the country. Highlights include a contest to pick the best-looking entry and dirt-track races for the speedier bikes.

The enthusiasts attract glances and smiles from locals because of the designs of their elaborate Vespas.

As the vehicles are often unlicensed, many travel at night to avoid traffic police. Mechanical problems arise, with some of the more ramshackle machines often breaking down.

Mostly, the gatherings are about catching up with fellow Vespa-lovers and having fun.

“We are independent, but we gather like a community,” said Julia Ningsih, 19.

“Extreme Vespa guys, we stick together. If we have trouble on the road, they will wait and help us out until we can ride again,” she added.
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Ben Kingsley said he didn’t portray Adolf Eichmann out of love or admiration. Rather, he wanted to “nail him to the gates of Auschwitz.”

 

The Oscar-winning Kingsley, who has tackled historical figures before, including Mahatma Gandhi, Otto Frank and Simon Wiesenthal, said playing Eichmann in “Operation Finale” produced an entirely different feeling in him.

 

“With Gandhi, I loved him. With Simon, I loved him. With Otto, I loved him. With Itzhak (Stern), I loved him. But him — I’ll nail you to the gates of Auschwitz. I’ll put you up there so everyone can see what you did, what you stood for and who you are,” Kingsley told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

 

The story takes place 15 years after the end of World War II. A team of Mossad agents travel to Argentina with the extremely dangerous mission of smuggling Eichmann out of the country to bring him to justice in Israel.

 

Eichmann, wanted for war crimes, was living in the South American country after escaping Germany at the end of the war. He was the main architect of the Final Solution, the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews that led to more than six million deaths.

 

“I put him into the camera for you to judge him, for you to see. I’ve let go of him and I dedicated my performance to Elie Wiesel and the millions who lost their lives under his command,” Kingsley said.

 

“Rather than saying to the man that I portrayed, ‘I am doing this for you,’ because I certainly wasn’t, I used to say to Elie Wiesel, ‘I’m doing this for you,’ because I know that Elie and other survivors said quite rightly that if we forget the six million, we are murdering them all over again.”

 

In the film, the rhetoric spoken by Eichmann bares an eerie similarity to the vicious debates currently surrounding the immigration issue in the United States and across the globe. Kingsley sees the film as a cautionary tale and hopes that audiences “will have thoughts after the seeing the film that they did not have before.”

After protests by neo-Nazis and white supremacists last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, Kingsley thinks it’s important to not forget the lives lost in the Holocaust, so it doesn’t happen again.

 

“Memory is vitally important, truth and memory. I’m quoting now Elie Wiesel, whom I met on several occasions. I loved his company. It was definitely being in the company of what I would say would be comparable to an Old Testament prophet. I felt that also when I was in the presence of Simon Wiesenthal for all those months when I portrayed him. And Simon, quite clearly said that it could happen again. And so did Elie in his heroic pessimistic moments.”

 

“Star Wars” star Oscar Isaac took a break from shooting the latest installment in the franchise to attend the recent New York premiere of “Operation Finale.”

 

“I flew in from a galaxy far, far away where we’re shooting in London,” he said.

 

Isaac plays Nazi-hunting Mossad agent Peter Malkin. He also drew parallels between the rhetoric of Eichmann and the vicious debates of today on immigration.

 

“You start to hear a lot of similar language, and it’s so, so powerful what a demagogue can do. How he can whip up just normal people, not monsters, not psychopaths — just regular people to hate,” Isaac said.

 

Isaac is also an executive producer on the film.

 

Nick Kroll, who plays a Mossad administrator, agreed the film is a cautionary tale.

 

“We have to be aware of the fact that holocausts are still going on and that we must do our part to protect people from genocide,” he said.

 

The film hits theaters Aug. 29 and also stars Melanie Laurent, Lior Raz and Joe Alwyn.
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The word for the night was “heat.” With that prompt, spoken word artists delivered poems about love, sex, gangs, street food, public transport and even a trip to the barbershop.

Sipping beer and rum, the fashionable 100-strong crowd in this open-air performance space just off Ariapita Avenue, the bustling heart of Trinidad’s capital, snapped, clapped and cheered on the verbal dexterity.

The monthly slam poetry event is one of several cultural offerings that have emerged in recent years to liven up the slack period between the annual Carnival celebrations that flood Port of Spain’s streets with costumed revelers.

Trinidad and Tobago’s cultural ecosystem still revolves around Carnival, hooked to Ash Wednesday in February or March.

But arts advocates, creative entrepreneurs and government officials are seeking ways to stimulate a year-round scene that could build an economic alternative for a country otherwise dependent on oil and natural gas.

“I see the creative sector as being key in diversifying our national economy,” said Calvin Bijou, chairman of state-owned cultural promotion enterprise CreativeTT.

Besides rich oil and gas reserves, the twin-island Caribbean country has a wealth of cultural talent.

It is the birthplace of steel pan, widely believed to be the only non-electric, acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century, and the origin of calypso.

Those musical traditions blend with folk crafts like wire-bending and costume design in Trinidad’s world-famous Carnival. Since 2014, it has brought an annual average of 36,000 visitors to the island, who spend some TTD 324 million ($48 million).

But spreading culturally driven economic activity throughout the year is a tough task, and has sparked debate over whether a small island state should focus on audiences at home or abroad.

Backyard Theatre

The spoken word event, “True Talk No Lie,” began in 2013 to capitalize on the Carnival off-season.

It runs from March through November, when the cultural calendar heats up again, with parties showcasing the latest soca hits ahead of the next Carnival.

Poets hit the stage at The Big Black Box, a re-purposed backyard in the former residence of a respected playwright.

Multimedia production outfit 3canal renovated the space in 2014 as a simple “black box” theater with a mango tree soaring through the roof.

In the off-season, the venue hosts weekly live shows and rehearsals for annual productions.

It has also become an incubator for taking Trinidadian arts abroad. Two of 3canal’s rising stars toured Pride and carnival events in Britain and the Netherlands this summer, and ensemble members will perform at the National Theatre of Scotland in November.

In the run-up to Carnival, there are nightly rehearsals for 3canal’s annual show, culminating in Friday night “backyard jams” where spectators can get a taste of the work in progress.

Inside the restored gingerbread house, 3canal maintains a recording studio, office and merchandise store. Having its own infrastructure has allowed the ensemble to escape the constraints of Trinidad’s seasonal cultural scene.

“The convenience of having your own base out of which to explore, express and experiment can’t be beat,” 3canal’s artistic director Wendell Manwarren told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as dancers rehearsed in the courtyard.

“With our new album, we could luxuriate and take our time – as opposed to that Carnival pressure cooker.”

The Big Black Box has joined a cluster of historic residences converted for cultural use within a few blocks of each other in the Woodbrook neighborhood.

A decade ago, a trio of creatives established an artist residency program called Alice Yard. In 2011, Medulla Art Gallery opened to showcase contemporary Caribbean art, while older establishments like the Little Carib Theatre, built in 1947, round out the scene.

Carnival remains the center of gravity for some activities like the #1000mokos project in Alice Yard, which teaches a new generation of stilt walkers – moko jumbies in Carnival parlance.

Visual art is less in thrall to the Carnival rhythm, finding a larger audience through the quiet season. In May, a show opening and talk by an up-and-coming painter packed out the subterranean Medulla gallery.

Global or Local?

But as Trinidad’s cultural scene grows, it faces a key question: should it prioritize local audiences or export abroad?

For Rubadiri Victor, president of the Artists’ Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago and a former advisor to the arts minister, the answer lies overseas.

When in government from 2013-2014, he fought unsuccessfully to expand the mission of Pan Trinbago, the world body for steel pan set up by Trinidad, to “make pan and rhythm sections the festival music of Planet Earth.”

He wanted the country’s best steel pan bands playing the world’s top festivals, including the dozens of Caribbean-style carnivals in cities globally, which he estimates generate some TTD 15 billion ($2.23 billion) in revenues per year.

He pointed to examples of Trinidadian cultural success abroad – from several Olympic opening ceremonies choreographed by Carnival artist Peter Minshall in the 1990s and early 2000s, to the popular steel pan band that accompanied fans to Germany for Trinidad’s first-ever World Cup appearance in 2006.

But exporting Trinidadian culture requires public funding and support, Victor noted. “If you don’t have those enablers, it’s just difficult,” he said.

3canal’s Manwarren is more interested in local audiences.

“We tend to focus too much on outside validation,” he said. “We need to break through to ourselves.”

The government, meanwhile, is trying to straddle both lines.

It runs youth programs to teach steel pan, maintains a national artist registry, and coordinates mentorship by master artists – including Manwarren, who teaches live show production.

It hopes to offer funding for artists to showcase their skills abroad, but lacks a national cultural policy that would streamline such opportunities, though public consultations are underway to develop one.

“The cultural has to be seen as a political tool and priority, alongside energy, trade and manufacturing,” said Ministry of Arts official Marlon De Bique.

($1 = 6.7070 Trinidad & Tobago dollars)
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Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as “The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot in the Park” and his “Brighton Beach” trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91.

Simon died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia in New York, said Bill Evans, his longtime friend and the Shubert Organization director of media relations.

 

In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was the American theater’s most successful and prolific playwrights, often chronicling middle class issues and fears.

 

Starting with “Come Blow Your Horn” in 1961 and continuing into the next century, he rarely stopped working on a new play or musical.

 

The theater world mourned his death, with actor Josh Gad calling Simon “one of the primary influences on my life and career.” Playwright Kristoffer Diaz said simply: “This hurts.”

 

Simon’s stage successes included “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Plaza Suite,” “Chapter Two,” “Sweet Charity” and “Promises, Promises,” but there were other plays and musicals, too, more than 30 in all. Many of his plays were adapted into movies and one, “The Odd Couple,” even became a popular television series.

 

For seven months in 1967, he had four productions running at the same time on Broadway: “Barefoot in the Park”; “The Odd Couple”; “Sweet Charity”; and “The Star-Spangled Girl.”

 

Simon was the recipient of four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center honors (1995), four Writers Guild of America Awards, an American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement honor and, in 1983, he even had a Broadway theater named after him when the Alvin was rechristened the Neil Simon Theatre.

 

In 2006, he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which honors work that draws from the American experience. The previous year had seen a popular revival of “The Odd Couple,” reuniting Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick after their enormous success in “The Producers” several years earlier.

Simon received his first Tony Award in 1965 as best author, a category now discontinued, for “The Odd Couple,” although the comedy lost the best-play prize to Frank D. Gilroy’s “The Subject Was Roses.” He won a best-play Tony 20 years later for “Biloxi Blues.” In 1991, “Lost in Yonkers” received both the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. And there was a special achievement Tony, too, in 1975.

 

Simon’s own life figured most prominently in what became known as his “Brighton Beach” trilogy: “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound”, which many consider his finest works . In them, Simon’s alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, makes his way from childhood to the U.S. Army to finally, on the verge of adulthood, a budding career as a writer.

 

Simon was born Marvin Neil Simon in New York and was raised in the Bronx and Washington Heights. He was a Depression-era child, his father, Irving, a garment-industry salesman. He was raised mostly by his strong-willed mother, Mamie, and mentored by his older brother, Danny, who nicknamed his younger sibling, Doc.

 

Simon attended New York University and the University of Colorado. After serving in the military in 1945-46, he began writing with his brother for radio in 1948 and then, for television, a period in their lives chronicled in Simon’s 1993 play, “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.”

 

 
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John Cronin has never been one to let disability hold him back. The 22-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., was born with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental and intellectual delays. Motivated by his family’s love and encouragement, Cronin teamed up with his father 18 months ago to open a business. But not just any business. John’s Crazy Socks sells, you guessed it, socks. And as Faiza Elmasry reports, it’s a business worth $4 million. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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These are strange and confusing times in Washington. Political operatives meeting with Russian lawyers, a White House at odds with its own intelligence community. But the Washington intrigue appears to be driving renewed interest in the secretive world of spies. And that’s just fine with the new director of Washington’s International Spy Museum. Reporter Ardita Dunellari paid a quick visit to the Spy Museum to speak to a former spy who is now the museum’s director.
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The metalcore band We Came as Romans says vocalist Kyle Pavone has died at 28.

 

The Troy, Michigan, group tweeted about the death Saturday, saying: “Kyle’s tragic loss came too early in his life and those of his bandmates. All are devastated by his passing.” The death was confirmed by a band publicist, Amy Sciarretto. No further details about the cause were released.

 

A group of friends founded the band under another name in 2005. Pavone joined in 2008. The group’s 2013 album,”Tracing Back Roots” hit No. 8 on the Billboard 200 album chart and No. 1 on Billboard’s independent album chart.

 

A week ago, Pavone tweeted a line from the band’s song “Promise Me”: “Will i be remembered or will i be lost in loving eyes.”
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Musician Jamey Turner chose an unconventional career path by becoming a glass harpist. He plays music with glasses filled with water. He uses his fingertips to rub the rim of the glasses to create a range of musical tones. VOA’s Deborah Block watched Turner play the glass harp in Alexandria, Virginia, where people seemed to be awestruck by the sounds he created.
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Crazy Rich Asians, a romantic comedy by filmmaker Jon Chu, showcases lavish sets and beautiful, rich people. Set against the exotic and ultramodern backdrop of Singapore, the film rewards its audience with an uplifting modern day fairy tale. But what makes this Hollywood film stand out, is its all Asian cast and the clear message: Not all Asians are the same.

Based on Kevin Kwan’s book of the same title, the film starts with a young Asian couple in New York. Rachel Chu, played by Constance Wu, an Asian American economics professor at New York University. Nick Young is from Singapore. Having dated for over a year, the couple is starting to get serious about each other but have yet to take the next step. NIck, played by Henry Golding, invites Rachel to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. Nick’s idea is to introduce Rachel to his family.

As the couple sets out for Singapore, what Rachel does not know is that Nick is the scion of one of the city-state’s wealthiest families and one of its most eligible bachelors. Before she even gets there, her picture has gone viral on social media, and as soon as she arrives, she becomes the target of many wealthy young women who aspire to marry Nick.

Nick’s formidable mother Eleanor Young, played by Michelle Yeoh, feels that American-born Rachel, played by Constance Wu, is not suitable for her son. She rejects the young woman’s American values of independence and self-determination as an affront to Singapore’s traditionalist values.

Rachel’s and Nick’s relationship unfolds against the sophisticated backdrop of the Asian island’s exotic landscape, and mouthwatering culinary creations. Their relationship is tested but grows despite the antagonism and cruelty Rachel faces from Nick’s mother and her snobbish friends.

Throughout the bitter sweet roller coaster, the cast features funny, quirky, and serious characters, among them, Hip Hop artist Awkwafina. She plays Peik Lin Goh, Rachel’s former roomate and friend from the States now living in Singapore. Peik Lin helps navigate Rachel through various cultural hurdles and provides comic relief. The cast is impeccably dressed, impossibly rich, and all of them, Asian.

Lead actress Constance Wu touts the all Asian international cast of the film. “I love the fact that we have Asians from Australia, from England, from Costa Rica, from America, from Singapore, from Malaysia, we have Asians from all over.”

Wu says the film moves away from the clichéd image of the Asian as a disenfranchised minority in the US. “So frequently Hollywood thinks that Asians are this one monolith. Like there isn’t a difference between Asian Asians and Asian-Americans. Or British Asian, or Australian Asians. And there is a difference! Because there is a cultural difference. The fact that this movie really differentiates that, it’s something that doesn’t happen a lot.”

The film’s message and its lavish cinematography appears to have paid off. Crazy Rich Asians has become a box office hit – elevating the hopes of cast and fans that Asian actors are finally becoming part of Hollywood’s mainstream. A day after the film’s premiere in Singapore, Victoria Loke, who plays wealthy socialite Fiona Cheng, spoke to VOA about the film’s success.

“During filming,” she said, “we never really thought about how big an impact that was going to make. So many Asian-American audiences have messaged us separately as actors, our director, our producers, thanking us for having a stake and being a part of this representation of the Asian American community.”

Despite the film’s box office success, Loke said it also has had its share of criticism.

“There has been a lot of conversation in Singapore and Asia about how this film only represents the 1 percent of Singapore: she said. “There are a lot of people who don’t relate to that. This is about Crazy Rich Asians, it’s about a very small niche, and of course there will be lot of fair criticism about the fact that it doesn’t represent fully the entire population. ”

Representative or not, the film has played to sold out theaters in Asia and the U.S. And Victoria Loke confirmed that the film has already been green-lighted for a sequel.
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Robin Leach, whose voice crystallized the opulent 1980s on TV’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” died Friday. He was 76 

Leach’s family said through a public relations firm that he died in Las Vegas, where he made his home.

Leach had a stroke in November while on vacation in Mexico that led to a months-long recovery, much of which he spent at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio before returning to Las Vegas in June. 

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which ran Leach’s columns before he became ill, said he suffered another stroke Monday. 

“Champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was Leach’s sign-off at the end of every episode of his syndicated show’s decade-long run that began in 1984.

The catchphrase captured excesses and sometimes gaudy style of the 1980s, a time before oil billionaires, titans of industry and Wall Street traders gave way to sneaker-wearing tech execs as the world’s richest people.  

Leach appeared occasionally on the show, but he and his unmistakable English-accent narrated throughout, taking wishful viewers on tours of mansions with diamond-crusted chandeliers, yachts with Jacuzzis, and champagne that ran to four figures. It was much like rap videos would do in future decades. 

Leach and producer Al Masini coined the catchphrase and conceived of the show. 

“He asked me if I could get magnates T. Boone Pickens or Sam Walton to do the show,” Leach told The Huffington Post in 2016. “In my naivete, I said, ‘Of course.’ And thus, ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.’” 

Leach said in later years that someone still shouted “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” at him almost daily. He was constantly parodied, and like other distinctive voices of the age like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Howard Cosell, everyone had a Leach impression. 

“Saturday Night Live” consistently satirized him through the years, with Harry Shearer as a subdued Leach hosting “Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich and Famous” in the 1980s, and Dana Carvey as a brash, shouting Leach on “Weekend Update” in the 1990s. 

Even decades later, in 2011, Snoop Dogg spotted Leach at a news conference in Las Vegas and was thrilled, rushing to grab the mic and breaking out his impression, touting his career earnings in an over-the-top English accent. 

“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” was the core of Leach’s career that spanned six decades and included stints with CNN, People magazine, Entertainment Tonight and the Daily Mail, where he began as a writer in Britain at 18. 

In the mid-1970s, he tried out TV as a regular contributor to “AM Los Angeles” with hosts Regis Philbin and Sarah Purcell, and found his calling. He became a regular on television’s morning news and entertainment shows, practicing a sort of tabloid journalism that was more celebratory and light-hearted than tawdry. He often became friends with the celebrities he covered. 

Then, in 1984, he landed “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and gained his own fame. The gaudy show became wildly popular, but never with critics. 

“They wrote that television had reached an all-time-low,” Leach told The Huffington Post. “But I looked at the ratings every Monday morning, and I was rubbing my hands with glee.”

He was also an executive producer and occasional writer on the show, and hosted a brief spinoff, “Runaway with the Rich and Famous.” 

For the show’s final year, with producers looking to liven up the aging property, he had a younger co-host, actress Shari Belafonte. The show was retitled “Lifestyles with Robin Leach and Shari Belafonte” but the new look didn’t save it. 

In 1999, Leach went to Las Vegas to work with celebrity chefs at the Venetian casino-resort, and made the move permanent, becoming a fixture in the city as he covered the destination’s entertainment and lifestyles for America Online and his own website. He also wrote for the Las Vegas Sun and, most recently, for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

He made frequent appearances on the celebrity reality TV circuit, hosting VH-1’s “The Surreal Life: Fame Games” and appearing on the celebrity editions of “Wife Swap” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” 

He was among the founders of the Food Network, selling his equity for a big payday when the channel took off. 

Married once and divorced, Leach spent much of his later years in the company of his three sons, Steven, Rick and Greg, and several grandchildren. 

“There is this image of a guy in a hot tub, drinking champagne with two buxom blondes,” Leach told the Las Vegas Sun in 2011. “But that is not the real me. I am a father, and I am a grandfather, too.” 
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Jon Chu’s romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” showcases lavish sets and beautiful people. Set against the exotic and ultramodern backdrop of Singapore, the film rewards its audience with an uplifting modern day fairy tale. But what makes this Hollywood film stand out is its all Asian cast. VOA’s Penelope Poulou looks at the movie’s box office success and the significance it has on the Asian community.
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John Lennon’s killer has been denied parole for a 10th time and will remain behind bars for at least two more years.

Mark David Chapman appeared before New York’s parole board on Wednesday. In a denial decision obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the board said it had determined Chapman’s release “would be incompatible with the welfare and safety of society and would so deprecate the serious nature of the crime as to undermine respect for the law.”

Chapman, 63, shot and killed the former Beatle outside Lennon’s Manhattan apartment on Dec. 8, 1980. He is serving 20-years-to-life in the Wende Correctional Facility in western New York.

“You admittedly carefully planned and executed the murder of a world-famous person for no reason other than to gain notoriety,” the parole panel wrote in its denial decision. “While no one person’s life is any more valuable than another’s life, the fact that you chose someone who was not only a world renown person and beloved by millions, regardless of the pain and suffering you would cause to his family, friends and so many others, you demonstrated a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life and the pain and suffering of others.”

It said releasing Chapman would not only “tend to mitigate the seriousness of your crime,” but also would endanger public safety because someone might try to harm him out of anger or revenge or to gain similar notoriety.

As Chapman faced the parole panel Wednesday, politicians and fans called for his release to be denied during a rally at Strawberry Fields, Lennon’s memorial in Central Park across from his former home.

Jonas Herbsman, the attorney for Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

A transcript of the parole hearing wasn’t immediately released. At previous hearings, Chapman has said he still gets letters about the pain he caused and was sorry for choosing the wrong path to fame.

Chapman will be up for parole again in August 2020.
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Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson and country singer Faith Hill will sing at the funeral of Aretha Franklin in Detroit next week, her publicist said Thursday.

They will be joined by R&B singers Chaka Khan, Ron Isley, Fantasia and Yolanda Adams at the funeral for the late Queen of Soul, publicist Gwendolyn Quinn said in a statement.

Franklin, 76, died last week of pancreatic cancer in her Detroit home. Her Aug. 31 funeral will be held at Detroit’s 4,000-seat Greater Grace Temple, which was the venue for the 2005 funeral of civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

The funeral will be limited to family, friends, dignitaries and special guests.

Thousands of members of the public are expected to pay their respects to Franklin during three days of viewing of her casket at Detroit’s Museum of African-American History, and at the New Bethel Baptist Church where a teenaged Franklin sang in the gospel choir.

The 18-time Grammy-winning singer of hits like “Chain of Fools” and “Respect” was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but grew up in Detroit and retained strong links to the city.

Her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, was a minister at the New Bethel Baptist Church for more than 30 years and Franklin honed her singing skills in the church choir.

Franklin’s second son, Edward Franklin, will also sing at the funeral, along with the Aretha Franklin Orchestra and the Aretha Franklin Choir, Quinn said.

Detroit news media on Thursday reported plans by Greater Grace Temple church leaders to bring in dozens of pink Cadillacs to line the streets for next Friday’s service. Franklin sang about cruising joyously in a pink Cadillac in her 1985 hit “Freeway of Love.”
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George Clooney can raise a glass, even if he’s not starring in any hit movies.

 

The 57-year-old tops the 2018 Forbes’ list of highest-paid actors with $239 million in pretax earnings. Forbes credits up to $1 billion that a British conglomerate said it would pay for Casamigos Tequila, which Clooney co-founded in 2013 with two entrepreneurs. The actor’s wealth also includes additional earnings from endorsements and older movies.

 

The rankings include on-screen and outside earnings.

 

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ranked second with $124 million pretax. Forbes says a huge social media following helped Johnson nearly double his 2017 earnings because he’s able to negotiate an extra seven figures over his standard contract for promotion.

 

Robert Downey Jr. was third with $81 million, followed by Chris Hemsworth with $64.5 million and Jackie Chan’s $45.5 million.

 
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Shaki was 18 when she died, too young given the life expectancy of a giraffe. Ruth the rhinoceros was recovering from an infection until she fell, was stuck for hours in thick mud and then died.

The recent deaths have fueled charges by conservationists that an attempt by the Buenos Aires’ government to turn a 140-year-old zoo into a less intensive “eco-park” and relocate most of its 1,500 animals to sanctuaries has been a poorly planned disaster.

A coalition of more than a dozen environmental and veterinary groups has issued a letter denouncing a “state of abandonment” at the site, where about 200 animals have died since 2016. And more recently, a former zoo director filed a complaint demanding an investigation into the deaths of Shaki and Ruth, arguing that a lack of resources and the stress from nearby construction work contributed to their demise.

“A year ago, I said that this institution was not Noah’s Ark, but the Titanic on its course to be shipwrecked,” said Claudio Bertonatti, ex-director of the Buenos Aires zoo and consultant for the Fundacion Azara non-governmental organization. “Today, we’ve crashed into an iceberg.”

​Opened in 1875

The zoo was inaugurated in 1875 on what was then a quiet patch on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. It was later a favorite haunt of Argentine novelist Jorge Luis Borges, who was fascinated by the tigers and wrote about them in his books. But as the megalopolis grew, the zoo became surrounded by an urban sprawl of busy avenues with honking buses and screeching cars near the animal enclosures, where on a recent day a solitary lion spent his time chasing his tail in circles.

The antiquated enclosures were widely considered inhumane by modern standards, as were the noisy environment and pollution, and pressure from animal rights groups grew to close the zoo.

“The situation of captivity is degrading for the animals, and it’s not the way to take care of them,” said Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta when he announced the zoo’s closure in 2016.

But the task remained to find new homes for the animals, hundreds of which still remain behind bars at the site in noisy limbo two years later.

Improvements made

Developers of Eco Park, as the site is now called, say there have been improvements to the enclosures and the 45-acre (18-hectare) site has been closed to the public, reducing the stress on the animals. Some 432 of them have been transferred so far, including two grizzly bears sent to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado, three alligators to Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary in Georgia and a Fiji crested iguana to the San Diego Zoo.

City officials acknowledge that the process of closing the zoo has proved more difficult than they originally thought. Legislation had to be enacted to set standards and authorize the transfers. Experts feared that many animals were so zoo-trained that they would die if moved, even to wild animal preserves. Other animals were not transferred because of difficult logistics — they were too large or too tall to travel.

Shaki and family

That was the case of the giraffes: Shaki, her partner Buddy and their calf, Ciro. Nothing, however, indicated that Shaki was at risk of death. Giraffes in the wild live to about 25 years.

“The truth is that she was an adult female, but she had many years ahead of her,” said Guillermo Wiemayer, a veterinarian who has worked at the former zoo for more than a decade.

Shaki began showing signs of what appeared to be abdominal pain around 9 a.m. on July 24. Six hours later, the giraffe was dead. The necropsy found an ulcer in the wall of the animal’s stomach that ultimately led to peritonitis.

Ruth’s death

It occurred just 10 days after Ruth died following an infection in her vulva that later spread. Wiemayer said the rhinoceros had been breathing heavily and had diarrhea. She also suffered what he said were some “scratches” after she was attacked by a male rhinoceros. But overall, Ruth’s condition had improved.

Then, the enclosure flooded, she slipped and got stuck in the mud. For more than six hours, her keepers made a desperate attempt to rescue her using four-wheel-drive vehicles and other machinery. By the time they got Ruth out, she was too weak.

Wiemayer denied that the deaths of the animals were related to changes in their food or stress from construction near their enclosures, saying that the work had ended months before.

“While they’re under our care, we try to give them the best quality of life possible,” he said near Ciro, while the young orphaned giraffe extended its long dark-grey tongue during feeding time.

“But we know that unfortunately, we live with life and death.”

Complaint filed

The complaint filed by Bertonatti to a special unit of prosecutors that deals with environmental matters includes video showing rats and cockroaches in the enclosures of some of the park’s animals.

The park’s developers acknowledged that the footage was shot inside the park, but said it was years before city officials took it over in 2016. Rodents, they said, are inevitable since food is often out on the open, but they have hired a company and also gotten advice from a university to help them deal with infestations.

“Until the deaths of the giraffe and the rhino, there had never been criticisms in regards to the well-being of our animals,” said Gonzalo Pascual, deputy secretary of the environment and public spaces, who is in charge of the Eco Park project, which will have interactive learning modules, green spaces and the animals that can’t be transferred.

“We have more than 130 people focused on the well-being of the animals,” he said. “Nowhere in the world do you have the amount of professionals per animal that we have here at the Eco Park.”
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The southeast African country of Malawi has no film schools and no cinemas. But self-taught Malawi directors have still won international prizes for their films, seven of which are nominated for the African Movie Academy Awards this September in Rwanda. As Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre, Malawi’s filmmakers are working hard to build their own “Mollywood” film industry.
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Ohio State Wednesday night suspended head football coach Urban Meyer three games for mishandling domestic violence accusations, punishing one of the sport’s most prominent leaders for keeping an assistant on staff for several years after the coach’s wife accused him of abuse.

The move followed a two-week investigation into how Meyer reacted to accusations that former Buckeyes assistant Zach Smith abused his ex-wife, Courtney Smith. Zach Smith was fired last month after she asked a judge for a protective order.

Courtney Smith alleged her husband shoved her against a wall and put his hands around her neck in 2015. The university put Meyer on paid leave and began its investigation after Courtney Smith spoke out publicly, sharing text messages and photos she traded in 2015 with Meyer’s wife, Shelley Meyer. Shelley Meyer is a registered nurse and instructor at Ohio State.

“I followed my heart and not my head,” Meyer said, quickly reading a written statement to reporters during a news conference after his punishment was announced. “I should have demanded more from him and recognized red flags.”

Trustees discussed the decision to punish Meyer in a marathon meeting of more than 12 hours Wednesday while Meyer awaited the decision. Athletic director Gene Smith, who is not related to Zach or Courtney Smith, was also suspended from Aug. 31 through Sept. 16. Both the athletic director and Meyer apologized and said they accepted the punishments.

“I should have done more and I am sorry for that,” Meyer said.

Meyer will miss Ohio State’s first three games against Oregon State, Rutgers and No. 16 TCU.

The investigation prompted Meyer to insist he followed proper protocols after learning of the 2015 accusations. But he also acknowledged lying to reporters a week earlier when he said he hadn’t heard of the incident until shortly before he fired Zach Smith. 
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It started with an angry tweet. But by Wednesday, the #MeQueer hashtag had morphed into a global online storm with thousands of LGBT people taking to Twitter to detail their experiences of verbal abuse, sexual attacks and physical violence.

Comments ranged from criticism of media representation to descriptions of assault.

“Nearly crying because you saw yourself represented in a tv show for the first time,” wrote @LizKilljoy.

“Being beaten so hard that your nose bleeds like hell for just coming out as trans to your dad,” tweeted @homolordt.

Taking inspiration from the #MeToo movement’s spotlight on sexism and sexual violence, Hartmut Schrewe, a Brandenburg-based writer, first used the #MeQueer hashtag on August 13.

“My husband is my husband and not my buddy. #Homophobia#MeQueer,” he tweeted.

Schrewe told Reuters by email on Wednesday that he had been moved to act by a telephone conversation between his husband and a colleague in which Schrewe was described as his partner’s “buddy.”

“I had had enough,” he said. “I wrote about this on Twitter and then the hashtag went viral.”

Schrewe said he was overwhelmed by the response, with posts pouring in from around the world.

“It is wonderful that so many queer people have shared their experiences,” he said. “We need to be more visible and loud. I hope this can reach Uganda, where being queer can kill you, or countries like Russia, Indonesia, Iran or Turkey, where being queer is so dangerous.

“I never expected #MeQueer to get so big.”

Reports of abuse

Last month, the British government published a survey of some 110,000 LGBT people in which two in five said they had experienced verbal or physical violence in the past 12 months.

According to British LGBT rights group Stonewall, 53 percent of trans people aged between 18 and 24 suffered some form of abuse over the same period.

Elsewhere in Europe, statistics are difficult to find as many countries, such as Ireland, do not have specific hate crime legislation.

Violence against LGBT people is still “really widespread,” said Nick Antjoule, head of hate crime services at Galop, a British LGBT anti-violence and abuse charity.

The rise of social media had acted as a catalyst, he added.

“Online hate speech is a huge problem alongside the rise of the far right,” Antjoule said.

A spokeswoman for Brussels-based LGBT rights group ILGA-Europe said that over the summer there had been reports of attacks on gay communities in Northern Ireland, Greece, Armenia and Lithuania.

“This underlines why the introduction and full implementation of LGBTI-inclusive hate crime laws across the European region is so vital,” she said.
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Mary J. Blige, Naomi Campbell and Judith Jamison are among the recipients of the 2018 Black Girls Rock awards.

 

Queen Latifah will host the show, which will be taped Sunday at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

 

Blige will receive the star power award. Campbell will be presented the black girl magic award, while Jamison will receive the living legend award for her work in dance and choreography. Other honorees include Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe and Tarana Burke of the #MeToo movement.

 

The program will honor Aretha Franklin in a tribute and include performances by Yolanda Adams, Tamia, H.E.R., Victory Boyd and Jacqueline Green of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.

 

BET Networks will air the special celebrating the accomplishments of black women on September 9.
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Idris Elba stirred fans’ hopes, then left them shaken.

The British actor helped fuel speculation that he will be the next James Bond last week when tweeted a selfie and wrote “my name’s Elba, Idris Elba,” echoing the famous 007 catchphrase.

Many Elba fans have campaigned for the star of “The Wire” and “Luther” to be the first black Bond.

But now Elba has denied he’ll be replacing Daniel Craig as 007. Asked by a reporter from ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” if she was looking at the next Bond, Elba promptly replied: “No.”

Craig has starred in four Bond films and is set to return in the still-untitled “Bond 25.”

On Tuesday, Craig and the producers announced that director Danny Boyle had left the film due to “creative differences.”
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“Crazy Rich Asians” celebrated its Asian premiere in Singapore on Tuesday night, with local-born stars such as Fiona Xie delighted to be bringing the film home to the city where it was filmed.

“I’m so looking forward for every Singaporean to watch this because Singapore is so beautiful on screen. Everybody (in Hollywood) was like, is this CGI? Does this place really exist?,” Xie, who plays gold digging opera star Kitty Pong, told reporters.

“This is a homecoming!” she said.

The film, the first Hollywood movie in 25 years with an all-Asian cast, is a rare Hollywood showcase of Asian identity and culture, which the filmmakers hope will be enjoyed by moviegoers of all backgrounds.

The romantic comedy about an Asian-American New Yorker who goes to Singapore to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy and tradition-bound family of Chinese descent is based on the 2013 best-selling book of the same name by Kevin Kwan.

The Warner Bros. film directed by Jon M. Chu, launched above expectations, garnering $34 million in just five days.

The film, with a mostly eastern Asian cast, has drawn criticism for not representing Singapore’s multi-ethnic society.

“The film is set in Singapore, where 15 percent of the population are Malay and 7.4 percent are Indian, and none of them are represented in the film except as the background help,” said activist and journalist Kirsten Han on Twitter.

However, others saw it as an opportunity to tell other diverse Singapore stories.

“This movie is going to open more doors for us to tell the world more Singapore stories,” 19 year-old university student, Andrea Raeburn told Reuters at the premiere.

The film’s producer, John Penotti also shared similar sentiments:”We hope this starts a very long-running trend celebrating Asian-focused films that play around the world, that’s exactly the hope for the portrayal of Asians, that’s exactly what is starting to happen. There are many more stories, this is just one,” he said.
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