Category: Новини

Christopher Plummer, the dashing, award-winning actor who played Captain von Trapp in the film The Sound of Music and at 82 became the oldest Academy Award acting winner in history, has died. He was 91.Plummer died Friday morning at his home in Connecticut with his wife, Elaine Taylor, by his side, said Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager.Across more than 50 years in the industry, Plummer enjoyed varied roles. He was a sophisticated businessman in the film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the voice of the villain in 2009’s Up and a canny lawyer in Broadway’s Inherit the Wind. In 2019, he starred as a murdered mystery novelist in Rian Johnson’s whodunnit Knives Out.But it was his role as von Trapp, opposite Julie Andrews, that made him a star. He played an Austrian captain who must flee the country with his folk-singing family to escape service in the Nazi navy, a role he lamented was “humorless and one-dimensional.” Plummer spent the rest of his life referring to the film as “The Sound of Mucus” or “S&M.”‘Cardboard figure'”We tried so hard to put humor into it,” he told The Associated Press in 2007. “It was almost impossible. It was just agony to try to make that guy not a cardboard figure.”The role catapulted Plummer to stardom, but he never took to leading-man parts, despite his silver hair, good looks and slight English accent. He preferred character parts, considering them more meaty.Tributes quickly came from Hollywood and Broadway. Joseph Gordon-Levitt called him “one of the greats” and George Takei posted, “Rest in eternal music, Captain von Trapp.” Dave Foley, a fellow Canadian, wrote: “If I live to be 91 maybe I’ll have time to fully appreciate all the great work of Christopher Plummer.”Plummer had a remarkable film renaissance late in life, which began with his acclaimed performance as Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s 1999 film The Insider and continued in films such as 2001’s A Beautiful Mind and 2009’s The Last Station, in which he played a deteriorating Tolstoy and was nominated for an Oscar.FILE – Christopher Plummer holds his Oscar for best actor in a supporting role for “Beginners” in the press room at the 84th Annual Academy Awards, Feb. 26, 2012, in Hollywood, Calif.In 2012, Plummer won a supporting actor Oscar for his role in Beginners as Hal Fields, a museum director who becomes openly gay after his wife of 44 years dies. His loving, final relationship becomes an inspiration for his son, who struggles with his father’s death and how to find intimacy in a new relationship.”Too many people in the world are unhappy with their lot. And then they retire and they become vegetables. I think retirement in any profession is death, so I’m determined to keep crackin’,” he told AP in 2011.Plummer in 2017 replaced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World just six weeks before the film was set to hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film — a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer, his third. In 2019, he starred in the TV suspense drama series Departure.There were fallow periods in his career — a Pink Panther movie here, a Dracula 2000 there and even a Star Trek — as a Klingon, no less. But Plummer had other reasons than the scripts in mind.Better hotels, beaches”For a long time, I accepted parts that took me to attractive places in the world. Rather than shooting in the Bronx, I would rather go to the south of France, crazed creature that I am,” he told AP in 2007. “And so I sacrificed a lot of my career for nicer hotels and more attractive beaches.”Plummer performed most of the major Shakespeare roles, including Hamlet, Cyrano, Iago, Othello, Prospero, Henry V and a staggering King Lear at Lincoln Center in 2004. He was a frequent star at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada.”I’ve become simpler and simpler with playing Shakespeare,” he said in 2007. “I’m not as extravagant as I used to be. I don’t listen to my voice so much anymore. All the pitfalls of playing the classics — you can fall in love with yourself.”FILE – Actor Christopher Plummer, shown June 15, 1973, poses for a photo before making his musical debut on Broadway in “Cyrano.”He won two Tony Awards. The first was in 1974 for best actor in a musical for playing the title role in Cyrano, and his second was in 1997 for his portrayal of John Barrymore in Barrymore. He also won two Emmys.Plummer was born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer in Toronto. His maternal great-grandfather was former Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott. His parents divorced shortly after his birth and he was raised by his mother and aunts.Plummer began his career on stage and in radio in Canada in the 1940s and made his Broadway debut in 1954 in The Starcross Story. While still a relative unknown, he was cast as Hamlet in a 1963 performance co-starring Robert Shaw and Michael Caine. It was taped by the BBC at Elsinore Castle in Denmark, where the play is set, and released in 1964. It won an Emmy.Marriages, daughterPlummer married Tony-winning actress Tammy Grimes in 1956, and fathered his only child, actress Amanda Plummer, in 1957. Like both her parents, she also won a Tony, in 1982 for Agnes of God. (Grimes won two Tonys, for Private Lives and The Unsinkable Molly Brown.)Plummer and Grimes divorced in 1960. A five-year marriage to Patricia Lewis ended in 1967. Plummer married his third wife, dancer Taylor, in 1970, and credited her with helping him overcome a drinking problem.He was given Canada’s highest civilian honor when he was invested as Companion of the Order of Canada by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968 and was inducted into the American Theatre’s Hall of Fame in 1986.   
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Donald Trump has resigned from the Screen Actors Guild after the union threatened to expel him for his role in the Capitol riot in January.In a letter dated Thursday and addressed to SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris, Trump said he was resigning from the union that he had been a member of since 1989. “I no longer wish to be associated with your union,” wrote Trump in a letter shared by the actors guild. “As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from SAG-AFTRA. You have done nothing for me.”  The guild responded with a short statement: “Thank you.”  Last month, the SAG-AFTRA board voted that there was probable cause that Trump violated its guidelines for membership by his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. Trump, the guild said, had sustained “a reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists, many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members.” Trump’s case was to be weighed by a disciplinary committee. In his letter, the former president said he had no interest in such a hearing. “Who cares?” he wrote.”While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as ‘Home Alone 2,’ ‘Zoolander’ and ‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’; and television shows including ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, ‘The Apprentice’ — to name just a few!” wrote Trump. “I’ve also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others,” Trump continued.  On Thursday, the Screen Actors Guild announced nominees to its annual awards. Losing guild membership doesn’t disqualify anyone from performing. But most major productions abide by union contracts and hire only union actors.
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Pope Francis Thursday said his thoughts are with musicians and those who work in the music industry whose livelihood has been all but eliminated by restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.In a video message he delivered to an international conference on music, Pope Francis said he knows musicians have seen their lives and livelihoods “upset” by the pandemic and how their work, training and communities have suffered due to COVID-19-related restrictions.He also credited the “significant efforts” made by those musicians who have continued working through the pandemic through virtual or isolated performances. He said those are “valid efforts” not only for music in the church but in concert halls and other places, “music is a service of the community.”The pope said he hoped “this aspect of social life can also be reborn, that we return to singing, playing and enjoying music and singing together.” He said that music, whether through voice, instruments or written compositions, express the “harmony of the voice of God,” and the “symphony” of this universal brotherhood.As Pope, Francis has never showed particular passion for music, unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict, who was passionate about classical music and continued to play the piano even as Pope.
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On frozen lakes and snow-covered fields in Canada’s wilds, magnificent geometric formations have suddenly appeared — the work of a retired headmaster stomping around in snowshoes to beat back pandemic blues. “I start with a shape — a hexagon, a square or a triangle — and draw lines through it or intersecting circles,” Kim Asmussen said in a telephone interview. The 62-year-old spends a lot of time tinkering with sketches in advance, he told AFP, “because once you’ve made a mark in the snow you can’t erase it. It’s not like drawing on a piece of paper. This undated family handout photo obtained Feb. 4, 2021, shows retired headmaster and artist Kim Asmussen in Schreiber, Ontario.”The biggest part,” he explained, “is just figuring out how we’re gonna go about walking it. You have to go back and forth quite a bit to pack the snow.” He started last year and has made 20 snowshoe artworks in and around the town of Schreiber, Ontario, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) northwest of Toronto on the shores of Lake Superior, which he photographs using drones and posts online. The largest measures about 400 meters long. Compass, rope, friends Asmussen said he uses drafting software to create designs and mapping tools to scope out suitable locations to use as canvasses. Then with a compass, a rope for measuring and a team of friends or local students, he sets about stamping out shapes in the snow, which can take up to three days depending on their size and intricacy. “There aren’t many fields in town, but there’re lots of [frozen] lakes around here,” he said. Asmussen said he got the idea while researching snow sculptures online and landed on snowshoe art by acclaimed artist Simon Beck, whose works have graced the mountainsides of Banff National Park, including a giant snowflake, a wolf and a maple leaf.  This aerial view received courtesy of Kim Asmussen on Feb. 3, 2021, shows geometric formations in the snow created by Asmussen near Rongie Lake in Schreiber, Ontario, Canada.”It’s just starting to take off,” said Asmussen, who hopes to popularize the method. “I thought to myself, maybe I can do that too,” he said, adding that it helps keep his mind sharp while getting a bit of fresh air. Sunny holiday substitute Several friends who were prevented from taking their usual winter holidays in sunbelts this year because of travel restrictions volunteered to help. Asmussen said he’d like to involve more people to help pack the snow, but local pandemic restrictions in place since December permit only a maximum of five to gather in groups outside. He is looking to involve more schools and set up a snowshoe art festival and is scouting locations near the TransCanada Highway to showcase artworks to passing truckers and tourists. Ideally, he said, there needs to be 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) of fresh snow in which to mark out a design. Most last only a few days before being covered up by the next snowfall. “I kind of like when it does snow right after [making a formation],” he said, “because you’ve got this new blanket of the snow and you can do it all over again.” 
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An outcry by Hindu nationalists and criminal complaints for allegedly hurting Hindus’ religious sentiment has prompted the director of a new Amazon television political drama to delete scenes that allegedly mocked Hindi deities and a dialogue with derisive references to lower castes.The show, Tandav, released last month here, was widely expected to win many viewers as it boasted of some of the biggest names in Bollywood. But political analysts say the backlash against the TV series has again put the spotlight on a rising tide of Hindu nationalism in India.  “This signals a new political culture supportive of intolerance, of a hardline Hindu ideology which is endorsed by the ruling party,” said Niranjan Sahoo at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, pointing out that members of the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu groups were among those who filed police complaints, voiced strident objections and called for the show to be banned.A Bharatiya Janata Party supporter wearing mask rests on bike as she waits to take part in a protest against The Amazon Prime Video web series Tandav in Mumbai, India, Jan 19, 2021.The TV show is centered on a power-hungry politician bent on becoming India’s prime minister. The scenes that offended Hindu nationalists include one in which a university student plays the role of the Hindu god Shiva and scenes in which characters insult lower castes. One of the police complaints filed in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, ruled by the BJP, also said that the political drama portrays the prime minister’s post in “an indecent manner.” In a statement after the controversy erupted, the show’s director, Ali Abbas Zafar, called the TV series a “pure work of fiction” and said that the cast and crew “unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments.” However, the apology and the deletion of the offending scenes have not assuaged those who have objected to the TV series. A BJP member of Parliament, Manoj Kotak, told VOA the makers of the TV series and actors must face legal action.  
 
“What they did is not pardonable,” he said. “It is not enough to say ‘sorry’ after doing something wrong. You have to be answerable for what has been done.”   
 
Soon after the show went on the air last month, he had said that the show “deliberately mocked Hindu gods and disrespected Hindu religious sentiments.”Tandav is not the only TV series that has angered Hindu nationalists. Objections to a scene in which a Hindu woman and a Muslim man kiss against the backdrop of a Hindu temple in a Netflix TV series, A Suitable Boy, had prompted a police complaint in November in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh by a BJP youth wing member, Gaurav Tiwari, who said the scene “hurt religious sentiments.”  A stand-up comedian, Munawar Faruqui, who was scheduled to give a comedy show in Madhya Pradesh, has been in jail since last month after the leader of a local Hindu group, Eklavya Singh Gaud, complained to police that he had outraged religious feelings. Faruqui had not begun his show when he was arrested. Gaud told reporters later that “he has made indecent remarks on Hindu gods and goddesses in the past.” Three BJP-ruled states have also passed controversial legislation prescribing prison terms for anyone using marriage to force religious conversion.  Dubbed the “love jihad” law, it aims to address concerns among Hindu nationalists that women are being lured into marriage by Muslim men in order to convert them to Islam — critics have dismissed such fears as a “conspiracy” theory. In Uttar Pradesh, several Muslim men have been arrested under the law.Political analysts such as Sahoo say the trend is disturbing.“Filing police complaints, dragging people to courts, this all will have a chilling impact on our democracy, on free speech and creative expression,” he said. There have been growing calls for regulation of content on platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney’s Hotstar as it raises the ire of some amid the growing wave of Hindu nationalism.   BJP lawmaker Kotak said the problem is not just with Tandav.“The way shows on streaming services are portraying sex, violence, abuse, women, Hindu gods and goddesses is not correct,” he told VOA.Kotak is among those who have called on the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to regulate streaming platforms. Unlike films, streaming TV services are not subject to the country’s censorship boards.  India has emerged as a big market for Amazon and other streaming platforms, which, besides airing international shows, are producing a lot of local content as they gain popularity.In the days after the controversy over Tandav erupted last month, an editorial in The Times of India newspaper, “Democracy’s Killjoys,” said, “This bullying of artists and creative expression doesn’t serve India well, culturally or commercially.” “Cinema is a source of immense soft power for India,” the editorial said.Using an abbreviation for “over-the-top media,” which refers to media distributed by internet, the paper said, “The Bollywood-centred OTT industry is booming, generating jobs and new experiential spaces for creators and consumers.“However,” it continued, “censorship, harassment and governmental overreach endanger this India story too, after other India stories have come off the rails.”
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After three years of negotiations with the late controversial art collector Douglas Latchford and his family, more than 100 Cambodian artifacts will be returned to Cambodia, according to the government.How Latchford, a British art collector and co-author of three books on Cambodian art and antiques, built his collection was a topic of art world speculation. He faced accusations of trafficking the artifacts to his homes in Bangkok and London. In November 2019, federal prosecutors in New York City charged Latchford with falsifying the provenance, invoices and shipping documents to transport valuable Khmer-era relics to private collections, museums and auction houses across the world.At the time, FILE – Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat ancient Hindu temple complex stands in Siem Reap province, some 230 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 28, 2012.The first shipment of five artifacts is expected to arrive in late February or early March. Cambodian authorities anticipate these will include a 10th-century sandstone sculpture of Hindu deities Shiva and Skanda, a 12th-century sandstone sculpture of Prajnaparamita – a female deity worshipped during the Khmer Empire – and a bronze statue of a male deity from the late 11th century.Kriangsak said she didn’t anticipate the complexity of the lengthy negotiations.“I am delighted that this complete collection, gathered over many decades, will be returned to their ancestral home in the Kingdom of Cambodia,” she said in the same Culture Ministry statement.In an interview with The New York Times published last week, Kriangsak skirted questions about the accusations and charges levelled against Latchford.“Despite what people say or accuse against Douglas, my father started his collection in a very different era, and his world has changed,” she FILE – Tourists visit the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia, March 14, 2018. Cambodia’s main tourist destination, Angkor Wat, was built between the 9th and 15th centuries.The indictment alleges that Latchford intentionally faked the provenance of antiquities that were the “product of looting, unauthorized excavation, and illicit smuggling” to encourage the sales and boost the prices of merchandise he was putting on the international market.United States federal law enforcement authorities worked with the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts in 2020 to return two statues that were confiscated from an auction house in California in 2017. The U.S. and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding to place import restrictions on archaeological artifacts being taken out of the country.Hab Touch, secretary of state in charge of illicit trafficking and restitution at Cambodia’s Culture Ministry, said the government had negotiated with Douglas before he died last year.“We had worked with [Kriangsak’s] father for a long time,” he said. “His daughter had the willingness and intention to return what she has got from her father to Cambodia.”The official did not comment on the accusations and charges against Latchford.Thuy Chanthourn, who has researched Cambodian artifacts for 30 years, said many artifacts were lost most recently during the civil war in the 1970s and 1980 but also during the late 1800s and early 1900s.“Our ancient objects are not only with Douglas. There are many in Thailand, England, the U.S. and France. They are privately owned,” he said.The artifact researcher claimed that Latchford did not steal the artifacts himself but that they were trafficked to Thailand, which is one of the biggest markets for Cambodian relics.Vong Sotheara, a professor of history at the state-run Royal University of Phnom Penh, said numerous Cambodian artifacts remained in private collections, with many people having small museums to display their antiques.“The rich and millionaires spend their money buying authentic old objects from Cambodia as a hobby,” he said, adding that it was a long process to prove the provenance of these objects so they could be returned to Cambodia.
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American pop star Rihanna tweeted about ongoing farmers’ protests in India this week, sparking attention from other big names on social media and anger from the Indian government.
 
“Why aren’t we talking about this?!” Rihanna tweeted on Tuesday, with a link to a CNN article about ongoing protests.why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtesthttps://t.co/obmIlXhK9S— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 2, 2021The tweet, which has been liked more than a half-million times in the past day, sparked attention from climate activist Greta Thunberg and the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris.We stand in solidarity with the #FarmersProtest in India.https://t.co/tqvR0oHgo0— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) February 2, 2021″It’s no coincidence that the world’s oldest democracy was attacked not even a month ago, and as we speak, the most populous democracy is under assault. This is related. We ALL should be outraged by India’s internet shutdowns and paramilitary violence against farmer protesters,” Meena Harris tweeted.But its reception in India was mixed.
 
In a statement released Wednesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that the issue was a domestic one and accused “vested interest groups” of mobilizing international support against India.
 
“Before rushing to comment on such matters, we would urge that the facts be ascertained, and a proper understanding of the issues at hand be undertaken,” the Ministry said in a statement.
 
“The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible,” the statement went on.
 
The statement claims that only a “very small section” of farmers have protested three new bills, which farmers fear would put them at the mercy of large corporations. However, tens of thousands of farmers have been camped out near India’s capital of Delhi for nearly two months as talks with the government have stalled.India’s Top Court Puts Controversial Farm Laws on HoldProtest leaders adamant that they will not negotiate with court-appointed panel saying all its members are ‘pro-government’ and reiterating that laws must be repealedIndian newspapers have reported that journalists reporting along the Singhu border near Delhi have been arrested or prevented from entering secured areas to report. The Indian government has also reportedly shut down the internet in various parts of the state of Haryana, where many farmers have set up camp.
 
While many Bollywood celebrities have echoed the rhetoric of the ruling party, famous musicians from Punjab — the state known as the “bread basket” of India where most protesters have traveled from — have welcomed the international attention.
 
Diljit Dosanjh, a Punjabi musician and actor who has been vocal in his support of the protests, produced a song called “Riri” in honor of Rihanna less than twelve hours after her tweet.#RIRI#Rihanna ✊?https://t.co/SkyOBC8lLx@Thisizintense@raj_ranjodh— DILJIT DOSANJH (@diljitdosanjh) February 3, 2021The farmers’ protest has emerged as a major challenge for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the government refusing to repeal the laws and farmers refusing to settle for anything less.    
 
The government has defended the laws saying they would modernize agriculture and help farmers raise their incomes by affording them new opportunities to market their produce to private companies.
But farmers say the laws favor powerful corporations and fear they will dismantle the protection afforded by a decades-old system under which the government buys farm produce such as rice and wheat at what is called a “minimum price.”
  
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Hollywood period drama “Mank” got a leading six nominations on Wednesday for the 2021 Golden Globe awards in film, while television shows “The Crown” and “The Mandalorian” will be among those competing for best series.
Streaming service Netflix Inc dominated the nominations in both film, with 22 nods, and television (20) after a year in which the coronavirus pandemic prompted Hollywood studios to push back dozens of their film releases, and many movie theaters were closed for months.
The contest for the Golden Globe best drama film awards will also include modern Great Recession-era story “Nomadland,” 1960s Vietnam War protest drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” #MeToo revenge story “Promising Young Woman and aging family drama “The Father.”
Sacha Baron Cohen’s satire on former President Donald Trump’s America, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm;” the film version of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton;” LGBTQ musical “The Prom;” “Music” and time-loop comedy “Palm Springs” will compete in a separate category for musicals and comedies.
The Golden Globe awards, which kick off a pandemic-era Hollywood awards season, are due to be handed out at a ceremony on Feb. 28, hosted by actors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The nominees and winners are selected by the small Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).
Three of the five directors nominated on Wednesday were women, including Regina King for Black drama “One Night in Miami,” Britain’s Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman” and Chinese-born filmmaker Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland.”
Among the actors nominated were Baron Cohen for “Borat,” the late Chadwick Boseman in his last film role in jazz period piece “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” British actor Riz Ahmed as a drummer losing his hearing in “Sound of Metal” and Frances McDormand for “Nomadland.”
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