Author: Ohart

Pop star Demi Lovato, singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes, rockers The Killers and grime artist Stormzy are set to perform at MTV’s EMAs in London.

 

MTV’s European music awards will also feature performances from Kesha and Camila Cabello. Rita Ora is due to host the Nov. 12 ceremony at London’s SSE Arena, Wembley.

 

MTV said Thursday that awards presenters will include “Game of Thrones” actress Natalie Dormer, teen star Madison Beer and actress Sabrina Carpenter.

 

Taylor Swift leads the race with nominations in six categories, including best video for “Look What You Made Me Do.” Other multiple nominees include Mendes, Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar.

 

Winners are selected by fans across the continent.

 

The EMAs, held in a different European city each year, were last held in London in 1996.
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Human Flow by internationally acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei, highlights the plight of refugees around the world. The Chinese dissident is not the first to make a documentary about the displaced, but his film captures the flow of humanity on a planetary scale. 

Ai filmed in 23 different countries in 40 different refugee camps where people fleeing war, environmental crises and religious persecution were staying. His goal is to show that the flood of refugees has global repercussions.

“You are forcibly robbing this human being of all aspects that would make human life not just tolerable but meaningful in many ways,” says a voice in the documentary.

According to the film, over 65 million people in the world today have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Using cameras attached to drones, Ai Weiwei records humanity’s movement from up high. 

Ai, a renowned artist known for his massive art installations with social and political connotations around the world, is an unassuming, soft- spoken man with a thoughtful expression. Sitting opposite me in one of the studios of the Voice of America, he snaps my picture on his iPhone along with many others he has taken that day of people and exhibits on VOA’s hallways. I feel like an art installation. I ask him what prompted him to make a film about human flow.

“It was serendipitous,” he responds.  

An unexpected opportunity

While vacationing on the Greek island of Lesbos with his family, Ai saw a boat full of refugees approaching. He started filming immediately on his phone.

Known for his political activism against communist China, his imprisonment, torture and subsequent exile, he lives in Berlin now and one would hardly believe that anything could take the Chinese dissident by surprise. But as he relates, filming and living with refugees in makeshift camps was unlike anything he had experienced before. 

“We have been hearing about the refugees all the time in the news. But to see a real group of people come down is very different. You see the children, the women, and you see those elderly people and they are tired, they are frightened, they basically risk their lives, give up everything, to come to just try to find safe conditions. Even though I grew up in a communist society we didn’t see these kinds of things happen. So, for me it is a shock, and I think it’s an opportunity to learn about what really happened. “

Human Flow shows masses fleeing wars, religious persecution, and environmental disasters.  At times his film feels like another one of his enormous art installations, with humanity playing a dual lead, both as a massive organism and as single individuals staring into a camera. The effect is more visceral than intellectual and that is exactly what Ai Weiwei wants to convey.

“We wanted to build an understanding about human flow. Human flow as always happens in human history. In many cases, it is part of our humanity and our civilization,” he says.

Stemming the flow

But the social anomaly of our times, says the filmmaker, is the effort by countries to stem that flow by preventing refugees from crossing borders and integrating into new societies.  After a harrowing sea voyage and days of walking, many refugees from the Middle East make their way to northern Greece, only to be stopped on its border with Macedonia. 

“Over seventy borders have built up their fences and walls and have forbidden any refugee to pass through. So, by doing that, they are really not only stopping  the life line of those refugees to try to find a safe place, even just temporarily across the border and go to another location, but are also putting them in extremely dangerous conditions.”

Ai talks about human smuggling and sex trafficking of a very vulnerable population, mostly of women and children.

At a refugee camp in Turkey, he films an exasperated doctor trying to take care of the young. He points to a baby: “two months old, and born here but he didn’t have any vaccinations.” The deplorable health conditions are one of the many problems plaguing the stateless. A man stands knee high in mud, looking at a cemetery filled with drowned refugees, relatives and friends. He hides his head in his hands and sobs.

A warning for the future

Ai Weiwei warns if we don’t save those people from displacement, entire generations — born without identity, prospects for a better life or a country — will be vulnerable to extremism and radicalization.

“I think, if you see so many children growing up under these conditions, in this 65 million people, now it’s getting much bigger, with 420,000 refugees added from Myanmar, how will these children behave, when they grow up, after they have seen how their parents have been badly treated, unfairly treated, the world watching but doing nothing. What kind of image would remain in their minds?”

Ai Weiwei is very critical of Europe and the United States for lacking empathy, leadership and vision about the refugee issue. He sees the elections of ultra-right governments in Europe and of Donald Trump in the US as dire for refugees worldwide.

“It certainly requires global leaders and also every citizen to be involved to solve the problem,“ he says, warning, if this does not change, no one’s future is safe.
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Years before Elvis Presley became the King of Rock and Roll, the story goes, he lived in a small house up a hill from his elementary school in northeastern Mississippi and played with other kids in a nearby field. Fans now have a chance to buy that old home and land.

The white, wood-frame house and more than 16 acres (6 hectares) of adjoining property are part of an upcoming celebrity auction that includes everything from actress Marilyn Monroe’s dresses to Michael Jackson’s dark fedora.

Want the Army uniform that Tom Hanks wore while filming “Forrest Gump?” It’s in the sale. What about Whitney Houston’s see-through, acrylic piano or the umbrella with a parrot-shaped handle that Julie Andrews carried in “Mary Poppins?” Or Hugh Hefner’s 1973 BMW, purchased with Playboy profits, presumably?

The house, land and other memorabilia are part of an online auction set for November 11 by GWS Auctions, a Southern California company which specializes in the sale of items including estates, fine art and celebrity collectibles.

More than 150 items will be auctioned in all, including other items linked to Presley — his private jet, a 1957 pink Cadillac, a boat named “Hound Dog,” a television he shot up at Graceland and a two-bedroom mobile home from his Circle G ranch.

There’s also a radio once owned by President John F. Kennedy; a dress, nightgown and jumpsuit owned by his late widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; Reese Witherspoon clothing from the movie “Legally Blonde;” and a 1993 Jaguar owned by the late model Anna Nicole Smith.

GWS Auctions owner Brigitte Kruse said all the celebrities’ items have been authenticated in various ways.

“Their possessions are rare, but beyond any monetary value, fans place an emotional value on owning something that came in contact with their idols,” she said.

In the case of the Presley house, Charlene Presley, a relative by marriage, said the structure was initially built by the singer’s father, Vernon Presley, and uncle next to the small home where Presley was born in 1935. That birthplace is the focal point of a park and museum that draw thousands of visitors annually to Tupelo.

The newer house was moved to higher ground about a half-mile away from Elvis’ birthplace around 1942, and the singer and his mother, Gladys Presley, lived there for a time, Presley said.

 

“This house is a house that Elvis and Gladys lived in and he went to school at Lawhon School in the third grade,” she said. “She would walk him to school down this street and around to Lawhon.”

The adjoining property was a playground for Presley, who swam in the creek, played and hunted on the land, according to Presley.

The executive director of the Elvis Presley Birthplace Foundation, Dick Guyton, said five shotgun-style homes — named for their long, narrow design — once stood in the area where Presley’s birth home is still located. But Guyton said he doesn’t know what happened to any of the four other structures, meaning he can’t vouch for the house that’s coming up for sale.

“We don’t have any way to authenticate it,” Guyton said. “We don’t know that that particular house is one that sat here by the birthplace.”

Kruse said members of the Presley family and a longtime employee of Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises have certified all the Presley-related sale pieces.

How much might someone pay for a little house that would normally be worth a few thousand dollars at most? Who knows? But the Presley jet sold for nearly $500,000 in May before it was cleaned up and anyone had located its engines, the auction company said.

Located within a short walk of Presley’s birthplace, the land includes a tract that was going to be developed into a cemetery for Elvis fans more than a decade ago. The project never panned out, and no one has lived in the house for years.

“There’s never really been anything like this,” Kruse said. “It will be interesting to see what this one does.”
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Diana Ross will receive a lifetime achievement honor at next month’s American Music Awards and will celebrate with a performance on the broadcast next month.

ABC and Dick Clark Productions announced the honor Wednesday. It’s the first time the AMAs have given out the award since 2006, when it was presented to Sting. Previous winners include Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Michael Jackson.

 

The 73-year-old Ross tells The Associated Press of the honor: “It took a lifetime to get here, I’m not going anywhere … It’s been a wonderful journey for me of joy and much appreciation.”

 

The Motown legend and former Supremes singer has performed at the AMAs several times and hosted the show twice.

 

The AMAs will air live on ABC from Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 19.
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Amazon Studios says it has accepted the resignation of its top executive, Roy Price, following sexual harassment allegations made by a producer on the Amazon series Man in the High Castle.

Price was put on leave last week and had not been expected to return. An Amazon spokesman confirmed the resignation Tuesday. Albert Cheng, who had been Amazon’s COO, will be the interim chief.

The accusations against Price came in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that is roiling Hollywood. Producer Isa Hackett charged in an account published in The Hollywood Reporter that Price had repeatedly and crudely propositioned her following a 2015 event in San Diego.

A steady stream of women have gone public with accusations against Weinstein after reports by The New York Times and The New Yorker about the misconduct claims of others. But it has spread beyond that disgraced executive, with women across the world saying they’d been harassed through the social media thread “me too.”

Hackett said in a statement Tuesday that she was pleased that Amazon had taken steps to address the issue.

“An important conversation has begun about the need to create a culture in our industry which values respect and decency and rejects the abuse of power and dehumanizing treatment of others,” she said. “This is truly an opportunity to find a better way forward, and ultimately toward a balanced representation of women and minorities in leadership positions.”

Hackett said in her account on Price that he propositioned her during a cab ride, saying, “you will love my [slang for penis].”

She said he persisted at a company party even after she told him she was a lesbian with a wife and children, even standing near her and loudly saying, “anal sex!”

She wrote that she told Amazon executives about it, and the company brought in an outside investigator. She said she hadn’t seen Price at Amazon events involving her shows, which also include the upcoming Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.
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American author George Saunders won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction Tuesday for Lincoln in the Bardo, a polyphonic symphony of a novel about restless souls adrift in the afterlife.

It is the second year in a row an American has won the 50,000 pound ($66,000) prize, which was opened to U.S. authors in 2014.

The book is based on a real visit President Abraham Lincoln made in 1862 to the body of his 11-year-old son Willie at a Washington cemetery. It is narrated by a chorus of characters who are all dead, but unwilling or unable to let go of life.

By turns witty, bawdy, poetic and unsettling, Lincoln in the Bardo juxtaposes the real events of the U.S. Civil War — through passages from historians both real and fictional — with a chorus of otherworldly characters male and female, young and old. In Tibetan Buddhism, the bardo is the transition state between death and rebirth.

Baroness Lola Young, who chaired the Booker judging panel, said the novel “stood out because of its innovation, its very different styling, the way in which it paradoxically brought to life these almost-dead souls.”

Saunders was awarded the prize by Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during a ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.

Accepting his trophy, Saunders said the book’s style may be complex, but the question he posed at its heart was simple: Do we respond to uncertain times with fear and division, “or do we take that ancient great leap of faith and try to respond with love?”

The author said he resisted telling the story of Lincoln, an American icon, for 20 years. But the novel, which took four years to write, turned out to be pointedly timely at a divided time for the United States.

Saunders said Lincoln had “a quiet, confident generosity of spirit.”

“He underwent, I think, a kind of spiritual growth spurt that we don’t see very often,” outgrowing the “lazy, racist attitudes” he was raised with, the author said.

“His compassion and his heart kept growing out even as his own life was becoming more and more difficult,” Saunders said.

“Contrast that with the current administration that seems intent on shrinking the commonwealth of compassion until we can only care about people who are exactly like us. It’s a complete eradication of the American ideal.”

Lincoln in the Bardo is the first novel by the 58-year-old Saunders, an acclaimed short story writer who won the Folio Prize in 2014 for his darkly funny story collection Tenth of December.

A former oil industry engineer who teaches creative writing at Syracuse University in New York state, Saunders is probably best known outside literary circles for a commencement speech he gave in 2013 with the key message “Try to be kinder.” It went viral on the internet, became an animated cartoon and was published as a book.

Booker finalists

He had been bookies’ favorite to win the Man Booker, which usually brings the winning novelist a huge boost in sales and profile.

Saunders beat five other finalists: New Yorker Paul Auster’s quadruple coming-of-age story 4321; U.S. writer Emily Fridlund’s story of a Midwest teenager, History of Wolves; Scottish author Ali Smith’s Brexit-themed Autumn; British-Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid’s migration story Exit West; and British writer Fiona Mozley’s debut novel Elmet about a fiercely independent family under threat.

Saunders is the second American in a row to win the prize, founded in 1969 and until 2013 limited to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth. The 2016 winner was Paul Beatty’s The Sellout.

The move to admit all English-language writers spurred fears among some British writers and publishers that Americans would come to dominate a prize whose previous winners include Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.

Young said the judges “don’t look at the nationality of the writer. I can say that hand on heart — it’s not an issue for us. The sole concern is the book.”

Prize organizers said 30 percent of the 144 books submitted by publishers for consideration this year were American, a figure slightly down from last year.

Young said the five jurors met for almost five hours Tuesday to choose the winner, finally agreeing unanimously on Saunders.

“I’m not going to pretend it was easy,” she said. “We didn’t have any major meltdowns at all. But we did have quite fierce debates.”
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In the past 24 hours, thousands of women have taken to Twitter and Facebook, sharing their personal stories of sexual harassment and assault under the hashtag “Me Too.” The social media rallying cry comes in the wake of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff looks at how this latest social media movement has sparked a global conversation amongst women and men about sexual harassment and assault.
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Jerusalem is one of the most excavated cities in the world, and archaeologists have uncovered 7000 year old stone houses, an Egyptian amulet bearing the name of Thutmose III, and what could be the world’s first landfill. Monday, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced finding the first known Roman-era theatre in Jerusalem’s Old City, a unique 1,800-year-old structure next to the Western Wall. Faith Lapidus has details.
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“Human Flow” by internationally acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei, highlights the plight of refugees around the world. The Chinese dissident is not the first to make a documentary about the displaced, but his film captures the massive flow of humanity on our planet from on high, using drones. Ai filmed in 23 different countries in 40 different refugee camps people fleeing war, environmental crises and religious persecution. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with the artist.
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In the past 24 hours, thousands of women have taken to Twitter and Facebook, sharing their personal stories of sexual harassment and assault under the hashtag ‘Me Too.’ The social media rallying cry comes in the wake of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff looks at how this latest social media movement has sparked a global conversation amongst women and men about sexual harassment and assault.
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The Weinstein Co., mired in a sex scandal, may be putting itself up for sale.

The company said Monday that it is getting an immediate cash infusion from Colony Capital and is in negotiations for the potential sale of all or a significant portion of the movie studio responsible for films like “Shakespeare in Love,” and “Gangs of New York.”

Co-founder Harvey Weinstein was fired by the company last week following allegations of sexual harassment and assault. The allegations span decades.

The fallout has been swift, with Weinstein issuing a lengthy and seemingly tone-deaf apology while losing various honors. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revoked his membership.
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British singer Ed Sheeran has told fans via Instagram that he’s had a bicycle injury and may have to change some concert dates.

The popular singer said Monday he’s had “a bit of a bicycle accident” and is “currently waiting on some medical advice, which may affect some of my upcoming shows.”

 

Sheeran is scheduled to perform a series of shows in Asia starting on Oct. 22.

 

He asks fans to “stay tuned” for further news.

 

The Instagram post showed a photograph of his tattooed arm in a cast.
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Thousands of women are responding to actress Alyssa Milano’s call to tweet “me too” to raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault following the recent revelation of decades of allegations of sexual misconduct by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Milano suggested women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted post the message on Twitter on Sunday. The call to action quickly trended, with notable names like Lady Gaga, Monica Lewinsky and Rosario Dawson identifying themselves as victims. Others shared personal stories.

 

Also tweeting in support was Milano’s former co-star on TV’s “Charmed,” Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of raping her.

 

Milano called the Weinstein allegations “disturbing” in an essay last week, but added that the issue was complicated for her because she is friends with Weinstein’s wife, Georgina Chapman.

 

 
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The Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler museums of Asian art reopened Oct. 15, after being closed for renovations.  The IlluminAsia Festival was a celebration of the reopening featuring art, food and performances.
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In a squat, nondescript brick building on a residential street in Staunton, Virginia, something new is being cooked up. With nary a single Michelin star to its name, and an exterior facade befitting a local hardware store, Chef Ian Boden’s “The Shack” is nonetheless packed with customers, some of whom drove hours to get there. VOA’s Karina Bafradzhian heads deep into the sticks to find out why.
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars, has ruled it will expel the powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein over allegations of sexual abuse.

The 54-member Board of Governors met Saturday to discuss the allegations and voted overwhelmingly to “immediately expel” the mogul famous for his ability to push small, well-made pictures into the Oscars race.

In a statement, the board said the decision to oust Weinstein was “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority.” It also said the expulsion was made “to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.”

It called the allegations that Weinstein traded professional favors for sexual ones “a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.”

WATCH: Observers Looking to Hollywood to Take Lead on Sexual Harassment

​Allegations

Weinstein’s expulsion comes after allegations emerged that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted a number of women over the past three decades.

Earlier this week, the British film academy said Weinstein’s membership in the organization had been “suspended, effective immediately.”

Weinstein was fired Monday by the board of his production company, the Weinstein Co., following an explosive New York Times report just days earlier, in which 13 women accused him of sexually harassing or assaulting them.

On Wednesday, French actress Lea Seydoux and model and actress Cara Delevingne joined the fast-growing list of Weinstein accusers.

Meanwhile, celebrity news website TMZ reported that Weinstein’s daughter called 911 Wednesday morning to say her dad was suicidal.

When officers responded to the call, Weinstein’s daughter Remy, told them no suicidal statements were made, and it was purely a family dispute. TMZ also reports Weinstein planned to leave the country for a rehab center sometime later that day.

New Yorker interview

On Tuesday, another report from The New Yorker emerged, in which three women accused Weinstein of raping them. Actresses Asia Argento and Lucia Evans went on the record in The New Yorker story to accuse Weinstein of raping them, while another woman chose to remain anonymous.

Among the accusers are some of Hollywood’s top stars, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette.

​The New Yorker story said 16 current and former employees at The Weinstein Co. and Miramax, which Weinstein co-founded with his brother Bob, either witnessed or knew of Weinstein’s sexual abuse. According to the report, all of those employees said Weinstein’s sexual deviancy was widely known within the two companies.

The 65-year-old Weinstein oversaw production of many popular films over the past 30 years, including Shakespeare in Love, Pulp Fiction, Sex, Lies and Videotape, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting and The Butler. He ran Miramax and later the Weinstein movie companies with Bob Weinstein.

Weinstein’s fall came quickly after the Times report Oct. 5 of his unwanted sexual advances that stretched over nearly 30 years. The story said Weinstein, who is known in Hollywood for his demanding control of film productions and angry outbursts, had paid confidential settlements to his female accusers.

In a statement last week, Weinstein said, “The way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.” Later, he claimed some of the newspaper’s claims were false and said he would sue for defamation.

​Politics

Weinstein has been a big donor in recent years to Democratic politicians in the U.S., including twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. But with the sexual harassment revelations, Democratic political figures scrambled over the weekend to distance themselves from the disgraced filmmaker.

Several Democrat politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren, have promised to donate money they received from Weinstein to charities supporting women.

Clinton broke her silence on the matter earlier this week, saying she was “shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein.” She addedin a statement, “The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated.”

“Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement Tuesday. “We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories.”

President Donald Trump said over the weekend he’s “known Harvey Weinstein for a long time” and he is “not at all surprised” by the sexual abuse allegations.

Matt Damon’s first film, Good Will Hunting, won him his first Oscar after Weinstein took a chance on a script from Damon and fellow unknown, Ben Affleck.

“We know this stuff goes on in the world. I did five or six movies with Harvey. I never saw this,” Damon told CNN’s Deadline in an interview published Tuesday.

He added later in the interview: “This morning, I just feel absolutely sick to my stomach.”
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The United States’ National Portrait Gallery has announced that two up-and-coming African-American artists, Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, have been selected to paint the official portraits of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

The Smithsonian Institution, parent organization of the National Portrait Gallery, said Friday that President Obama had specifically requested to be painted by Wiley, 40, whose portraits of young black men have made a sharp impact on the art world.

Wiley places his young models in poses reminiscent of famous court painters of previous centuries, such as Diego Velazquez, Peter Paul Rubens, and Hans Holbein. He paints many of his subjects larger than life, using gauzy realism and vivid colors to arrest the viewer’s attention.

Wiley, born in Los Angeles, California, has been considered a successful artist for more than a decade.

His images replace the white subjects of his forbears with handsome young African-American men and women in front of decorative backdrops that resemble wallpaper. Some of the backdrops contain designs that overlap the figure in the portrait, raising questions about whether the subject has power over his environment or is trapped by it.

​Some of Wiley’s subjects are famous, such as rapper-turned-actor LL Cool J, whose portrait shows him seated, larger than life, coolly aloof as he gazes down on his audience in front of a vibrant red and green damask pattern.

In recent years Wiley has conducted what he calls his World Stage project, painting subjects from a variety of far-flung places, such as China, Jamaica, Haiti, Sri Lanka and Brazil. His paintings place people of color in settings where they radiate power, beauty and grace equal to the light-skinned subjects who for centuries were the focus of similar portraits.

First lady’​s portrait

Michelle Obama chose Sherald, winner of the National Portrait Gallery’s annual portraiture competition in 2016, to paint her portrait as first lady.

Sherald is a 44-year-old African-American woman from Baltimore, Maryland, scene of protests in 2015 over the death while in police custody of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man.

With racial tensions still running high in her hometown, Sherald’s portraits, like Wiley’s, focus on her African-American subjects in a way that emphasizes grace, dignity and each person’s unique features.

Sherald’s work is full of poised energy. Some of her images look almost flat, like cutouts, but the faces and bodies of her subjects look as though they were asked to stop and pose in the middle of a movement, a thought or a breath.

The painting for which Sherald won the National Portrait Gallery is called “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)” and features a young black woman dressed in a navy blue dress, white gloves and a striking red hat, holding an oversized white teacup and saucer. The subject looks graceful and relaxed while her eyes bore into the viewer in an unspoken challenge.

The work of both artists examines and challenges ideas about black identity, a prominent concept in the legacy of the nation’s first African-American presidential couple.

National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery and the White House work together at the conclusion of each presidency to commission two official sets of portraits, with one set for display at the White House and one at the National Portrait Gallery. Both collections are in Washington, D.C.

In a statement Friday, Director Kim Sajet said the National Portrait Gallery “is absolutely delighted that Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald have agreed to create the official portraits of our former president and first lady.”

Sajet noted that both artists have been very successful, but more importantly, she said, “they make art that reflects the power and potential of portraiture in the 21st century.”

The portraits are expected to be unveiled in early 2018.
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The impoverished family of Australia’s most famous Aboriginal artist, Albert Namatjira, has been given copyright to his works after years of fruitless campaigning triggered the intervention of a philanthropist.

Namatjira’s vibrant water colors are internationally celebrated for the way he captured the hues of the Western Desert in the center of the country.

One of his paintings was given to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in 1947 on her 21st birthday, and he met the queen during her 1954 coronation tour in Canberra.

Dick Smith, the Australian businessman whose intervention secured the agreement, told Reuters it was the most satisfying philanthropic thing he had done.

“It’s a just cause,” Smith told Reuters Saturday.

Rights sold, lost

Born in 1902 in Hermannsburg, a remote Aboriginal community in central Australia’s West MacDonnell ranges, Albert Namatjira rose to prominence as the first Aboriginal artist to master a Western tradition.

In 1957, he sold partial copyright for his works to a friend, John Brackenreg.

Two years later, Namatjira died and his will passed the copyright remainder to his widow, Robina, and their children. This gave his family a source of royalty income when reproductions of the images were used.

However, his estate executors gave the administration of his will to the public trustee of the state of the Northern Territory, which sold the copyright to Brackenreg’s company, Legend Press, in 1983 without consulting the family, ABC News reported.

All royalty payments to Namatjira’s descendents ceased, and when Brackenreg died, he passed copyright to his children.

Campaign begins

Eight years ago, arts organization Big hART, began campaigning for the return of the copyright.

They put together a theater show called Namatjira, which toured Australia for three years before traveling to London where in 2013 Queen Elizabeth met two of Namatjira’s grandchildren.

News reports caught the eye of Smith, whose father once worked for Brackenreg. Smith persuaded Brackenreg’s children to give copyright to the Namatjira Legacy Trust, which represents the family, for A$1 on Friday. Smith also donated A$250,000 ($197,200) to the trust.

It is the latest in Smith’s long list of charitable acts, which included contributing to the ransom that freed Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, taken hostage in Somalia in 2008.

Sophia Marinos, the chair of the Namatjira Legacy Trust, said the money would benefit the whole Aboriginal community with funds for language and cultural programs.
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Harvey Weinstein, one of Hollywood’s most powerful men, is now disgraced and may eventually face criminal charges involving decades of alleged sexual harassment. Weinstein’s studio has put out blockbuster movies such as “Gangs of New York,” “Pulp Fiction” and “The King’s Speech.” VOA’s Carolyn Presutti takes a look at whether the conversation on unwanted sexual advances is changing in the United States and how that affects the issue globally.
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Following the U.S. decision Thursday to quit the United Nations organization for education, science and culture, Israel announced it too will withdraw. The United States stopped funding UNESCO after the Palestinian Authority was accepted into the agency as a full member. As a member subject to membership dues, the United States accumulated a $600 million debt over the years. But as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, the Trump administration also cited anti-Israel bias as a reason for withdrawal.
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Bruno Mars topped the field of American Music Awards nominations announced Thursday, receiving eight nods, while The Chainsmokers, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd received five nominations apiece.

Mars, The Chainsmokers, Drake, Lamar and Sheeran received nominations for the artist of the year award, the top AMA prize.

Justin Bieber, Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi received four nominations each, including favorite pop/rock song for their hit collaboration Despacito. The video for Despacito, which set the record for most-watched clip on YouTube with more than 3 billion views, was also nominated for video of the year.

Keith Urban led country artists with three nominations. Nominees for the new artist of the year were James Arthur, Niall Horan, Julia Michaels, Post Malone and Rae Sremmurd.

Alessia Cara, Lady Gaga and Rihanna were nominated for the favorite female pop/rock artist award.

The awards show will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on November 19 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC. The AMA winners are determined by a vote of fans.
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Bruno Mars topped the field of American Music Awards nominations announced Thursday, receiving eight nods, while The Chainsmokers, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd received five nominations apiece.

Mars, The Chainsmokers, Drake, Lamar and Sheeran received nominations for the artist of the year award, the top AMA prize.

Justin Bieber, Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi received four nominations each, including favorite pop/rock song for their hit collaboration Despacito. The video for Despacito, which set the record for most-watched clip on YouTube with more than 3 billion views, was also nominated for video of the year.

Keith Urban led country artists with three nominations. Nominees for the new artist of the year were James Arthur, Niall Horan, Julia Michaels, Post Malone and Rae Sremmurd.

Alessia Cara, Lady Gaga and Rihanna were nominated for the favorite female pop/rock artist award.

The awards show will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on November 19 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC. The AMA winners are determined by a vote of fans.
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The 2018 World Cup will be a unique test of soccer’s appeal in the United States.

Will Americans still watch if their national team isn’t there? Fox certainly is hoping so.

The U.S. failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia when it lost at Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday night, and the effects of that defeat may be felt for quite some time. The team, and indeed the whole U.S. Soccer Federation, faces a period of soul searching – but broadcasters, sponsors and tournament organizers also could feel the impact of the Americans’ absence.

Fox, which broadcasts next year’s World Cup, offered only a brief statement Wednesday – which did provide some insight as to how the network likely will promote a World Cup without the U.S.

 

“Last night’s World Cup qualifying results do not change FOX Sports’ passion for the world’s biggest sporting event,” the statement said. “While the U.S. was eliminated, the biggest stars in the world from Lionel Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo stamped their tickets to Russia on the same day, and will battle teams ranging from Mexico to England that have massive fan bases in America.”

 

Fans in the U.S. are familiar with stars like Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar. Top European club teams now have American followings, which suggests that soccer in the U.S. can withstand a short-term slump for the national team.

 

An estimated 26.5 million people in the U.S. watched Germany’s victory over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil, and the 2018 final figures to be a major draw as well. But a U.S.-Portugal match in the group stage of the 2014 tournament had 24.7 million viewers – and that’s the type of interest that might be absent from earlier games in 2018.

 

“It’s going to hurt a little bit,” said Austin Karp, an assistant managing editor of SportsBusiness Daily. “You’re not going to have any buildup there toward the summer, with the U.S. team playing either friendlies – or talk about how the U.S. team is going to do, promotion of the U.S. team on Fox properties like baseball or other spring stuff they might have. … The U.S. matches were some of the strongest audiences for ESPN-ABC the last couple of iterations of the tournament. The final will still be OK.”

 

Fox broadcast the Women’s World Cup in 2015, but next year will be its first time carrying the men’s tournament since winning U.S. English-language World Cup rights back in 2011. Now Fox’s 2018 tournament won’t have the Americans, and ratings for the 2022 event in Qatar could be affected by the fact that it is set to be held in November and December to avoid the searing summer desert heat, instead of its usual calendar spot midway through the year.

 

The U.S. team’s failure to qualify for 2018 dented shares of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. on Wednesday. The stock fell 66 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $26.11. But concerns over Fox’s outlook may be overblown, according to a report from Pivotal Research Group. According to the group’s study, the U.S. team accounted for about 20 percent of ESPN’s total viewing for the 2014 tournament – a significant figure but not an overwhelming one. Fox certainly will miss having the Americans in 2018, but the U.S. played only four games in Brazil last time.

 

“While it might make a difference for the lay viewer who is only going to watch the U.S. games, that’s just a small subset of the total viewing,” said Brian Wieser, a senior research analyst for Pivotal Research Group.

 

So the show must go on for broadcasters – and sponsors are trying to make the best of the situation as well.

 

“Like all American soccer fans, we are disappointed the team will not be participating in the World Cup, but still recognize the huge growth opportunity for soccer in the U.S.,” said Ricardo Marques, a vice president of marketing for Budweiser. “As the official beer of the World Cup and a longtime FIFA partner, Budweiser will continue to tap into our fans’ passion for soccer here and globally.”

Over in Russia, meanwhile, the reaction to the U.S. ouster was muted. American fans have attended the World Cup in droves recently – more than 200,000 tickets for games in Brazil were purchased by U.S. residents. FIFA said Tuesday that the U.S. was among the top 10 countries for ticket applications so far for 2018, along with other non-qualifiers like China and Israel. Some applications by U.S. residents are likely to have been made by supporters of other teams, such as Mexico.

 

Still, many in Russia focused instead on the failure to qualify of neighboring Ukraine, which occasionally had threatened to boycott the tournament over Russia’s backing for separatist groups in eastern Ukraine. Vyacheslav Koloskov, the Russian Football Union honorary president, said the United States’ absence was a missed opportunity to improve Russia-U.S. relations.

 

“The non-participation of the U.S. reduces the chances of players, and indirectly of American fans, to see the transformations taking place in our country,” he told Russian agency R-Sport.

 

Koloskov added that the U.S. team was “nothing special” and so its absence “won’t have any effect on our World Cup in a sporting sense.”

 
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The Qatari president of one of Europe’s most glamorous soccer clubs, Paris Saint-Germain, is under investigation by Swiss prosecutors for suspected bribery of a top FIFA executive to get World Cup broadcasting rights.

 

Criminal proceedings against Nasser Al-Khelaifi, PSG president and CEO of Qatar-owned BeIN Media Group, former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, and an unnamed “businessman in the sports rights sector” was announced by the office of Switzerland’s attorney general on Thursday.

 

The case involves the award of broadcast rights for the next four World Cups from 2018 through 2030.

 

The proceeding against Al-Khelaifi is one of the first direct links to Qatar in sweeping investigations by federal law enforcement authorities in Switzerland, the United States, and France of FIFA, international soccer, and the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding contests.

 

The Paris offices of BeIN Sports were searched by two magistrates from the French financial prosecutor’s office, the federal agency said. They were assisted by investigators from an anti-corruption unit.

 

Properties were also searched in Greece, Italy, and Spain while Valcke was questioned in Switzerland, the Swiss federal prosecution office said. It cited cooperation from a European Union criminal investigation agency.

 

“Multiple premises were searched, assets were seized and interviews were conducted as a result of this joint operation,” the EU body known as Eurojust said in a statement.

 

PSG declined to comment.

 

No suspect was detained on Thursday, said Swiss prosecutors whose work investigating FIFA and suspected money laundering linked to World Cup hosting bids began in November 2014.

 

Then, FIFA gave the Swiss federal office a report and evidence from its then-ethics prosecutor – former U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia – into the dual World Cup bidding contest won by Russia and Qatar.  

 

Al-Khelaifi is alleged to have offered “undue advantages” to Valcke – FIFA’s CEO-like secretary general from 2007 until his firing in January 2016 – for the award of media rights in “certain countries” for the 2026 and 2030 World Cup.

 

Al-Khelaifi and Valcke previously negotiated a deal for the 2018 and 2022 rights weeks after Qatar won the 2022 hosting vote. In January 2011, FIFA announced that Al Jazeera Sports – which later became BeIN – secured the rights for 23 territories across the Middle East and North Africa, including Saudi Arabia.

FIFA has never announced if BeIN also secured any 2026 and 2030 World Cup rights.

 

Swiss prosecutors also allege Valcke received “undue advantages” from a businessman who was not identified to award certain media rights for four World Cups from 2018 through 2030.

 

The criminal proceeding was opened on March 20, but announced only on Thursday, the Swiss federal office said.

 

Al-Khelaifi’s profile has risen in recent weeks as PSG pursued and sealed a world record transfer of Brazil star Neymar from Barcelona for 222 million euros ($260 million).

 

Since FIFA’s much-discredited executive committee picked Russia and Qatar in December 2010, the gas-rich emirate has bought up PSG with sovereign wealth and installed Al-Khelaifi as president. BeIN has also acquired a broad portfolio of rights including from European soccer body UEFA for the Champions League and national team matches.

 

The latest case stemming from the wider investigation of FIFA’s business also saw criminal proceedings opened against Valcke in March 2016.

 

Valcke was the right-hand man to then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter for more than eight years until a swathe of senior executives at soccer’s world body were removed from office in fallout from a U.S. Department of Justice indictment revealed in May 2015.

 

Valcke, a French former TV presenter, was in Switzerland on Wednesday to testify at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in his appeal hearing against a 10-year ban by FIFA for financial wrongdoing and abuse of expenses.

 

FIFA said on Thursday it “fully supports the investigation” by Swiss and other authorities.

 

“FIFA has constituted itself as a damaged party in this investigation,” the Zurich-based organization said.

FIFA is seeking a share of more than $200 million held by the U.S. Department of Justice which secured forfeits from soccer and marketing officials in its ongoing investigation. The DoJ has indicted or secured guilty pleas from more than 40 people.
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An enormous exhibition by the activist artist Ai Weiwei, designed to draw attention to the world’s refugee crisis, is going on view at some 300 sites around New York City.

 

“Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” presented by the Public Art Fund, will be open to the public from Thursday until Feb. 11.

 

A global trend of “trying to separate us by color, race, religion, nationality” is a blow “against freedom, against humanity,” Ai said at a Manhattan press conference Tuesday. “That’s why I made a work related to this issue.”

 

Ai, now based in Berlin, is considered one of the world’s most successful artists.

 

He spent his childhood in a remote Chinese community after his father, a poet, was exiled by Communist authorities. He came to New York City as an art student in the 1980s, then returned to his homeland in 1993, using his art and public platform to address political issues. He was alternately encouraged, tolerated and harassed, spending time in detention and being barred for years from leaving the country.

 

Since his passport was reinstated in 2015, Ai and his team have traveled to 23 countries and territories and more than 40 refugee camps while making a documentary, “Human Flow.”

The New York exhibition will include three large-scale works and ancillary works throughout the city. Ai expressed a special affinity for Manhattan’s Lower East Side, his former home.

Art will be incorporated onto flagpoles, bus shelters, lampposts, newsstands and rooftops. Banners will bear portraits of immigrants from different periods, including historic pictures from Ellis Island. There also will be images from Ai’s “Human Flow” projects.

 

At Central Park’s Doris C. Freedman Plaza, viewers will be able to walk in and around a work titled “Gilded Cage.”

 

The 24-foot-tall symbol of division stands in powerful contrast to one of the most visited urban public parks in the U.S., the Public Art Fund says. “Designed as a democratic oasis and vision of utopia, Central Park has vast open areas, lush forests, and monuments of heroes and explorers,” it says.

Another cage-like structure, about 40 feet tall, is in Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Arch, built in 1892.

 

“When I lived in New York in the ’80s, I spent much of my time in Washington Square Park,” an area that was “a home to immigrants of all backgrounds,” Ai said in a statement.

“The triumphal arch has been a symbol of victory after war since antiquity,” he said. “The basic form of a fence or cage suggests that it might inhibit movement through the arch, but instead a passageway cuts through this barrier — a door obstructed, through which another door opens.”

 

The third large-scale work will be displayed at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, surrounded by some of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. “Circle Fence” features a low, mesh netting around the Unisphere, a 120-foot-diameter globe commissioned for the 1964-65 World’s Fair.

 

The big globe “celebrated both the dawn of the space age and the fair’s broader theme of Peace Through Understanding,” according to the city’s parks department.

 

“Rather than impeding views of the historical site,” says the Public Art Fund, “the installation will emphasize the Unisphere’s form and symbolic meaning, engaging with the steel representation of the Earth.”
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Marvel’s big green Hulk may not be getting his own standalone movie but actor Mark Ruffalo, who plays the current iteration of the superhero, said the character will get a mini arc within three upcoming Marvel movies.

Hulk, the muscle-bound, larger-than-life green alter-ego of scientist Bruce Banner, appears in the upcoming “Thor: Ragnarok,” out in U.S. theaters on Nov. 3, as a gladiator trapped on a futuristic planet and forced to fight Thor.

The Hulk will also appear in 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and its sequel, 2019’s yet-to-be-titled Avengers 4.

“We’ve taken the arc of a standalone Hulk movie and put it into those three movies, consciously,” Ruffalo said.

Ruffalo, who has spent more time as scientist Banner than as the Hulk in the past two Avengers films, said he relished the opportunity to be in character as the Hulk for the majority of “Thor: Ragnarok.”

“This movie is about just breaking free of the forms and rules, and so I got to break free from what we thought Hulk was to a slightly more fleshed-out character,” he said.

The Hulk, who first appeared in comics in 1962, has had his own standalone television shows and movies in the past, notably 2003’s “Hulk” and 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” films, both from Universal Pictures.

The cinematic rights to Marvel’s Hulk superhero are owned by Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, while Walt Disney Co. owns Marvel studios and is behind the current success of the superhero movie franchise.

“Ultimately Universal owns the rights there. I don’t see them like hanging out together any time soon to be like ‘Hey, let’s do another Hulk movie’,” he said.
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