Category: Новини

Novak Djokovic has been cleared by a judge to remain in Australia, ending a five-day standoff between the government and the world’s top-ranked male tennis player over his COVID-19 vaccination status.  

Circuit Court Judge Anthony Kelly Monday overruled the government’s decision to revoke Djokovic’s visa and ordered officials to return his passport and release him from immigration detention.  

However, the Australian government said immediately after the judge’s ruling it could still revoke Djokovic’s visa.  

The 34-year-old Djokovic arrived in Melbourne last Wednesday to begin preparations for the Australian Open, the first of tennis’s four major “Grand Slam” tournaments that begins January 17. He said he had received a medical exemption from two medical panels and Tennis Australia, the tournament’s organizer, from a government requirement that all visitors should be vaccinated against COVID-19. Djokovic, who has been openly skeptical of the vaccine, said he had recovered from a COVID-19 infection in December.  

But the government rejected Djokovic’s exemption and revoked his visa amid a public uproar in Australia, which is battling with a huge spike in new coronavirus cases driven by the omicron variant.  

The ruling allows the Serbian to play for his 10th Australian Open men’s title and a 21st overall men’s Grand Slam win, which would break the tie he shares with his closest rivals, Rafeal Nadal of Spain and Roger Federer of Switzerland.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
…

“The Power of the Dog” and “West Side Story” on Sunday won the top film prizes at an untelevised Golden Globes that was largely ignored by Hollywood, with awards unveiled via a live blog without any of the usual A-list glamour.   

Jane Campion’s dark Western “The Power of the Dog” became only the second film directed by a woman to win the best drama prize. The film also won for best director and best supporting actor for Kodi Smit-McPhee.   

Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake claimed top honors for best comedy or musical, as well as lead and supporting actress prizes for stars Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose.   

Will Smith and Nicole Kidman won the prizes for best actor and actress in film dramas for their turns in “King Richard” and “Being the Ricardos.”   

But none of the stars were present as usual at the Beverly Hilton, with the ceremony held behind closed doors.   

The awards, which are usually closely followed for the immediate boost to box office tallies and Oscar hopes that a Globes win can provide, were hugely overshadowed by a long-brewing row over ethical lapses by the organizers. 

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of 100-odd entertainment writers with links to foreign publications, has been accused of a litany of failings from corruption to racism. 

The Globes are traditionally billed as Tinseltown’s biggest party — in past years, the event was watched by TV audiences of millions, and spawned frenzied debate and memes on social media.   

This year, NBC scrapped its broadcast, the HFPA did not offer a livestream, and the event failed to take off on Twitter, where pop culture fans were more preoccupied with the death of US comedian Bob Saget. 

‘Work to be done’ 

The young stars of “West Side Story” took to Twitter to mark their wins, with Zegler noting that she had been awarded her Globe exactly three years after being cast as an unknown by Spielberg from among 30,000 hopefuls.   

“Life is very strange,” she wrote. 

DeBose thanked the HFPA while cautioning that further reform is needed.   

“There is still work to be done, but when you’ve worked so hard on a project — infused with blood, sweat, tears and love — having the work seen and acknowledged is always going to be special,” she tweeted.    

A Los Angeles Times expose last year found the HFPA had no Black members, opening the floodgates for criticism from across Hollywood including from A-list stars such as Tom Cruise.    

Since the scandal broke, the HFPA has rushed through reforms, admitting its biggest ever annual intake, including several Black and other minority members. 

It has banned members from accepting lavish gifts and hotel stays from studios courting their votes, and highlighted its philanthropic work. 

During the behind-closed-doors ceremony on Sunday, the HFPA tweeted pre-recorded videos from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis praising the group’s community work.   

“I’m proud to be associated with them in this venture,” said Curtis, referring to funding by the HFPA for community programs.   

But celebrities were otherwise conspicuously absent from the proceedings, leaving the Golden Globes website’s live blog to inform readers: “No other awards community shows as much love and generosity to others quite like the HFPA!”  

Oscar hopefuls

Despite the subdued atmosphere surrounding the Globes, three wins apiece for “The Power of the Dog” and “West Side Story” confirm their credentials as contenders for an award season that culminates in March with the Oscars. 

Campion’s “Power of the Dog,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which tackles toxic masculinity in 1920s Montana and was released by Netflix with a limited theatrical run, has received rave reviews.   

Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake flopped at the box office but was also adored by critics. 

Kenneth Branagh, whose black-and-white account of the outbreak of sectarian violence during the late 1960s in “Belfast” is considered a strong award season contender and had jointly topped the nominations, won only for best screenplay.  

Andrew Garfield won best actor in a comedy of musical for “tick, tick … Boom!”, which is based on the semi-autobiographical musical of the same name written by “Rent” composer Jonathan Larson.   

“Succession,” HBO’s tale of about a media tycoon’s warring family, topped the television side with three prizes including best drama. 
…

Bob Saget, a comedian and actor known for his role as a widower raising a trio of daughters in the sitcom “Full House,” has died, according to authorities in Florida. He was 65.

 

The Orange County, Florida, sheriff’s office was called Sunday about an “unresponsive man” in a hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, according to a sheriff’s statement on Twitter.

 

“The man was identified as Robert Saget” and death was pronounced at the scene, the statement said, adding that detectives found “no signs of foul play or drug use in this case. A “#BobSaget” concluded the tweet.

 

Saget was in Florida as part of his “I Don’t Do Negative Comedy Tour,” according to his Twitter feed.

His publicist didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Saget was also the longtime host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
…

If the Golden Globe Awards aren’t on television, will anyone care?

That’s just one of the uneasy questions facing the embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is proceeding with its film awards Sunday night without a telecast, nominees, celebrity guests, a red carpet, a host, press or even a livestream. In a year beset by controversy, the self-proclaimed biggest party in Hollywood, has been reduced to little more than a Twitter feed.

Members of the HFPA and some recipients of the group’s philanthropic grants are gathering at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for a 90-minute private event starting at 9 p.m. ET Sunday. The names of the film and television winners will be revealed to the world in real time on the organization’s social media feeds and website. Special emphasis, they say, will be given to their charitable efforts over the years.

That the organization is proceeding with any kind of event came as a surprise to many in Hollywood. The HFPA came under fire after a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed in February ethical lapses and a stunning lack of diversity — there was not a single Black journalist in the 87-person group. Studios and PR firms threatened to boycott. Tom Cruise even returned his three Golden Globes, while other A-listers condemned the group on social media. 

They pledged reform last year, but even after a public declaration during the 78th show, their longtime broadcast partner NBC announced in May that it would not air the 2022 Golden Globes because, “Change of this magnitude takes time and work.” The broadcaster typically pays some $60 million for the rights to air the show, which ranks among the most-watched awards shows behind the Oscars and the Grammys.

Though often ridiculed, Hollywood had come to accept the Golden Globes as a legitimate and helpful stop in a competitive awards season. And for audiences around the world, it was a reasonably lively night, with glamorous fashion, major stars, the promise of champagne-fueled speeches, and hosts — from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Ricky Gervais — that regularly poked fun at the HFPA. 

After the NBC blow, it was widely expected that the HFPA would simply sit the year out. Hollywood studios and publicists also largely opted out from engaging with the group as they had in years past, with some declining to provide screeners of films for consideration. When nominees were announced last month, few celebrated publicly.

This year Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical drama “Belfast,” about growing up during the Troubles, and Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” a gothic Western set in 1925 Montana with Kirsten Dunst and Benedict Cumberbatch, both received a leading seven nominations, including best picture. HBO’s “Succession” led the TV side with five nominations, including nods for best drama.

Many A-listers got acting nominations as well, including Will Smith (“King Richard”), Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Don’t Look Up”), Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”), Ben Affleck (“The Tender Bar”) and Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”). In a normal year, the nomination would be added to promotional campaigns and advertisements, but this year most chose to not acknowledge the nod.

The press association claims that in the months since its 2021 show, it has remade itself. The group has added a chief diversity officer; overhauled its board; inducted 21 new members, including six Black journalists; brought in the NAACP on a five-year partnership; and updated its code of conduct.
…

Greece this week takes delivery of an ancient fragment that once adorned the Parthenon temple, the country’s most important archeological site. The return from a museum in Italy is being seen as the strongest nudge yet to the British Museum, which holds the largest collection of Parthenon Sculptures and has refused for centuries to return the antiquities to their ancient home.

The marble fragment will be unveiled at the Acropolis Museum Monday, displayed in a full-size representation of the Parthenon’s frieze.

The return is part of a groundbreaking loan deal signed between the Acropolis Museum and the Antonio Salinas Regional Archeological Museum in Sicily, where the artifact has been on display since the 19th century.

 

The Parthenon fragment, depicting the foot of a goddess, will be lent for a four-year period in exchange for a fifth century B.C. headless statue of the goddess Athena and an eighth century B.C. amphora as part of an extensive cultural exchange agreement. The loan period may be extended a further four years, and the fragment’s move to Greece could eventually become permanent.

Sicily’s councilor for culture, Alberto Samonà, said this is an important cultural exchange that can pave the way for even bigger international exhibits organized by the Salinas museum and the Acropolis museum.

Experts in Greece say the loan deal adds to mounting pressure on Britain to follow suit with the so-called Elgin Marbles, a massive collection of sculptures assembled by Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, who in the early 1800s was the British ambassador to the Ottoman empire, which then controlled Greece. Britain bought them from Elgin in 1816 after a parliamentary inquiry into the legitimacy of his ownership.

The dispute marks one of the longest-standing cultural rows in history, with Athens demanding for decades that the British Museum return the marble masterpieces to Greece. Greeks have accused the late British aristocrat of cultural theft.

 

Last week, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mistotakis made a new bid for the return of the sculptures as the Acropolis Museum installed 10 fragments of the Parthenon frieze stored in the capital’s archeological Museum.

The return of the Parthenon Sculptures from the British museum, he said, is a political and ethical issue with international implications. The prime minister said the return is all about healing a wound created violently and illegally by Elgin.

Mitsotakis raised the issue in talks with his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, late last year, offering to lend some Greek historical treasures to the British Museum.

The prime minister’s office has since said the offer is a matter for the British Museum to decide. It added, however, that the marbles were bound to remain in Britain, arguing they were legally acquired and not the subject of an ownership dispute. 
…

Verdell Blackmon showed up for a recent NFL game and left no doubt who she was cheering for that afternoon.

Blackmon’s hair, makeup, nails and dress were bright hues of blue, and Detroit Lions Women of the Pride was printed on her black shirt.

The Lions season ticket holder was one of about 50 women in the team’s Women of the Pride group who attended a pregame party at Ford Field and witnessed Detroit’s first win of the season against Minnesota last month.

Earlier this season, the Women of the Pride had access to the turf before Detroit played at Green Bay and watched the game against the Packers on TVs in a club at Lambeau Field. The group will gather again later this month for a football clinic at Ford Field.

“Female fans are not recognized like they should be in the NFL, and it’s about time that’s starting to happen,” Blackmon said. “We love our teams just as much as the guys do.”

The NFL is starting to recognize that.

More than half of the league’s 32 teams have female fan clubs, according to the NFL, and that doesn’t count Philadelphia and its annual Eagles Academy for Women.

“With women making up just under half of the NFL fanbase, it’s so important for women, at all age ranges, to feel that they belong in football, whether that’s through playing, coaching or fandom,” said Sam Rapoport, the NFL’s senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion. “Though there’s still work to be done across the league in this space, the clubs that do have programming for women and female fan clubs are showing that representation matters and women are and will continue to be an imperative part of the NFL.”

The defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers started the Women of Red six years ago and more than 1,000 women have attended a day at training camp dedicated to them.

Buccaneers co-owner Darcie Glazer Kassewitz, a champion of diversity and inclusion, has made the group a priority. The franchise has made star tight end Rob Gronkowski, coach Bruce Arians and general manager Jason Licht available to the women for on-field drills and Q&A sessions and hasn’t charged a fee for Women of Red membership.

“This sport brings people together, and we take great pride in the connections we’re continually building with our female fans,” said Tara Battiato, Buccaneers vice president of community impact. “Whether through our annual Women of Red events, or how the organization is advancing gender equality through girls’ flag football, college scholarships and career development programs, we believe that football is for everyone.”

In Detroit, female fans paid $129 for Women of the Pride membership and received a ticket for the game against the Vikings, along with a pregame gathering, other events and networking opportunities.

“It’s important to us to reach our fans in all the ways we can and there was an opportunity to tap into what is oftentimes an underserved and powerful subset of our base,” said Emily Griffin, Lions vice president of marketing.

Jacki Jameson was all-in when she received an email from the Lions, even though she lives nowhere near the Motor City.

“I drove 2 1/2 hours to get here and I couldn’t be happier actually,” Jameson said, standing on the turf at Ford Field after getting access to the Lions’ locker room. “This is great, meeting ladies who have the same love for the sport that I do.

“It’s pretty wonderful that they give people this opportunity to go behind the scenes because there’s a lot of female fans out there that honestly deserve some extra perks after being overlooked for so long.”
…

Marilyn Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with husband Alan Bergman on The Way We Were, How Do You Keep the Music Playing? and hundreds of other songs, died at her Los Angeles home Saturday. She was 93.

She died of respiratory failure not related to COVID-19, according to a representative, Jason Lee. Her husband was at her bedside when she died.

The Bergmans, who married in 1958, were among the most enduring, successful and productive songwriting partnerships, specializing in introspective ballads for film, television and the stage that combined the romance of Tin Pan Alley with the polish of contemporary pop. They worked with some of the world’s top melodists, including Marvin Hamlisch, Cy Coleman and Michel Legrand, and were covered by some of the world’s greatest singers, from Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand to Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson.

“If one really is serious about wanting to write songs that are original, that really speak to people, you have to feel like you created something that wasn’t there before — which is the ultimate accomplishment, isn’t it?” Marilyn Bergman told The Huffington Post in 2013. “And to make something that wasn’t there before, you have to know what came before you.”

Their songs included the sentimental Streisand-Neil Diamond duet You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, Sinatra’s snappy Nice ’n’ Easy and Dean Martin’s dreamy Sleep Warm.

They helped write the up-tempo themes to the 1970s sitcoms Maude and Good Times and collaborated on words and music for the 1978 Broadway show Ballroom.

But they were best known for their contributions to films, turning out themes sometimes remembered more than the movies themselves. Among the highlights: Stephen Bishop’s It Might Be You, from Tootsie; Noel Harrison’s The Windmills of Your Mind, from The Thomas Crown Affair; and, for Best Friends, the James Ingram-Patti Austin duet How Do You Keep the Music Playing?

‘The Way We Were’

Their peak was The Way We Were, from the Streisand-Robert Redford romantic drama of the same name. Set to Hamlisch’s moody, pensive melody, with Streisand’s voice rising throughout, it was the top-selling song of 1974 and an instant standard, proof that well into the rock era the public still embraced an old-fashioned ballad.

Fans would have struggled to identify a picture of the Bergmans, or even recognize their names, but they had no trouble summoning the words to The Way We Were: “Memories, may be beautiful and yet / What’s too painful to remember / We simply choose to forget / So it’s the laughter / We will remember / Whenever we remember / The way we were.”

The Bergmans won three Oscars — for The Way We Were, Windmills of Your Mind and the soundtrack to Streisand’s Yentl — and received 16 nominations, three of them in 1983 alone. They also won two Grammys and four Emmys and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Fellow composer Quincy Jones called news of her death crushing. “You, along with your beloved Alan, were the epitome of Nadia Boulanger’s belief that ‘an artist can never be more or less than they are as a human being,’” he tweeted.

“To those of us who loved the Bergmans’ lyrics, Marilyn takes a bit of our hearts and souls with her today,” tweeted Norman Lear, creator of Maude and Good Times.

Marilyn Bergman became the first woman elected to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and later served as the chair and president. She was also the first chair of the National Recorded Sound Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.

Streisand worked with them throughout her career, recording more than 60 of their songs and dedicating an entire album, What Matters Most, to their material. The Bergmans met her when she was 18, a nightclub singer, and soon became close friends.

“I just love their words, I love the sentiment, I love their exploration of love and relationships,” Streisand told The Associated Press in 2011.

On Saturday, she posted a picture of herself with the Bergmans on Twitter, saying they were like family, as well as brilliant lyricists.

“We met over 60 years ago backstage at a little nightclub, and never stopped loving each other and working together,” Streisand wrote. “Their songs are timeless, and so is our love. May she rest in peace.”

The Bergman partnership

Like Streisand, the Bergmans were Jews from lower-middle-class families in Brooklyn.

They were born in the same hospital, Alan four years earlier than Marilyn, whose unmarried name was Katz, and they were raised in the same neighborhood and were fans of music and movies since childhood. They both moved to Los Angeles in 1950 — Marilyn had studied English and psychology at New York University — but didn’t meet until a few years later, when they were working for the same composer.

The Bergmans appeared to be free of the boundaries and tensions of many songwriting teams. They likened their chemistry to housework (one washes, one dries) or to baseball (pitching and catching), and were so in tune with each other that they struggled to recall who wrote a given lyric.

“Our partnership as writers or as husband and wife?” Marilyn told The Huffington Post when asked about their relationship. “I think the aspects of both are the same: Respect, trust, all of that is necessary in a writing partnership or a business partnership or in a marriage.”

Besides her husband, Bergman is survived by their daughter, Julie Bergman. 

 
…

Whether you’re looking to fly through the air with the greatest of ease, explore the aerial arts, or just raise your spirits, the Trapeze School in Washington, DC, will make sure things are looking up. Maxim Moskalkov visited the school and met its many instructors.
Camera: David Gogokhia
…