Clay Aiken officially joins US congressional race

This Nov. 3, 2013 file photo shows former “American Idol” contestant Clay Aiken at the Broadway opening of “After Midnight”in New York. Aiken officially filed Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, to run for Congress in North Carolina, saying that he wants to help end the gridlock in Washington and that no single political party has all the answers. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) — Singer Clay Aiken, a former “American Idol” runner-up, officially filed Thursday to run for Congress in North Carolina, saying that he wants to help end Washington’s paralysis and that no single political party has all the answers.

The openly gay performer, a Democrat, turned in his paperwork to seek the Republican-held seat. Aiken, who lives in the Raleigh-Durham area, announced his bid three weeks ago and must first try to win the Democratic primary in less than 10 weeks.

The district, which covers areas outside Aiken’s native Raleigh, is considered Republican-leaning. But Aiken said the district’s voters want to choose the candidate who believes “we’re not going to have success just based on one party or the other — that we all have to work together.”

“They are enthusiastic about seeing change,” he added later.

Aiken, who finished second to Ruben Studdard in TV’s 2003 “Idol” competition, became a sensation a decade ago, with supporters called “Claymates” a common sight at his concerts.

Aiken said he’s not anxious about whether rough politics are ahead, saying he’s been through a lot the past decade. He’s released several albums and performed on Broadway. The 35-year-old also worked a special education teacher, UNICEF representative and presidential commission member on education.

On Thursday, Aiken surrounded himself with family and former teachers while speaking to reporters.

Aiken announced in 2008 that he’s gay and has a son conceived through in-vitro fertilization with a female friend. He’s said he doesn’t believe his sexual orientation will play a role in whether people vote for him.

“I am comfortable with myself. I am comfortable with the campaign we’re running,” Aiken said. “I am positive that people are going to vote for the person who they think will do the best job, who they think can win in November.”

While shunning the politician label, Aiken said he’s been interested in politics for a long time. He recalled how in the early 1990s he interviewed a senator for a project and invited a congressman to his Raleigh school.

Aiken said lowering unemployment and veterans issues are among his top priorities. He said he thinks some changes can be made to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law but doesn’t want to repeal it. Aiken supports abortion rights and considers his political philosophy in the broad middle between political extremes — he says he was once a registered independent voter.

Winning the seat will be a challenge. Republican Mitt Romney won 58 percent of the vote in the district in the 2012 presidential race, according to a North Carolina Chamber analysis. Analysts say Aiken stands a decent chance to win the Democratic primary, but the district boundaries drawn by Republicans will make it difficult for any Democrat to win in November.

If Aiken manages to win his party’s nomination, he could face an incumbent weakened by her own primary. Ellmers, a two-term congresswoman, faces her a challenge from a conservative radio talk show host, and she has been criticized by limited government tea party forces who helped her get elected as not conservative enough. She narrowly defeated an incumbent Democrat in 2010, before the district was redrawn to become more safely Republican.

A Web video announcing Aiken’s campaign Feb. 5 has received several hundred thousand hits on YouTube.

Clay Aiken officially joins US congressional race

Source: Mb.com.ph (February 28, 2014 at 09:27AM)

Continue...

Angelina Jolie wows Oscar rehearsal actors

In this Nov. 16, 2013 file photo, actress and honoree Angelina Jolie receives the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 2013 Governors Awards in Los Angeles. The 38-year-old Oscar winner came to the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, to run through the lines she’ll say in front of millions at the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2, 2014. Afterward, she hung around chatting to show producers and introduced herself as “Angie” to a group of college students serving as trophy carriers this year. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, file)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — To the world, she’s a humanitarian, superstar actress and half of Hollywood’s most glamorous couple.

But to the workers who met Angelina Jolie Thursday at Oscar rehearsals, she was just “Angie.”

The 38-year-old Oscar winner, who was honored with the film academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award last year, came to the Dolby Theater to run through the lines she’ll say in front of millions on Sunday. Afterward, she hung around chatting to show producers and introduced herself as “Angie” to a group of college students serving as trophy carriers this year.

“You’ll help make the night a fun night,” she said warmly to the star-struck students. One told her, “You were great out there.”

“I didn’t fall!” Jolie replied with a smile, confessing that the silver peep-toe pumps she paired with capri pants and a sweater for the rehearsal are her actual show-day shoes.

“After you’ve done this a few times, you learn to wear the shoes you’re going to present in,” she said.

She also learned she needed the teleprompter text to be made a bit larger.

“I used to wear glasses,” she said.

Jolie presented an award on stage, and when a rehearsal actor stepped up to claim it, she gave him a hug.

“For this rehearsal only,” he said, “I am one lucky bastard.”

Angelina Jolie wows Oscar rehearsal actors

Source: Mb.com.ph (February 28, 2014 at 09:24AM)

Continue...

Jim Lange, ‘The Dating Game’ host, dies

This Jan. 16, 1986. file photo shows host Jim Lange, left, congratulating Connie and Steve Rutenbar of Mission Viejo, Calif., after they won $1 million on the TV show ” The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime”. Lange, the first host of the popular game show “The Dating Game,” has died at his home in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 81. He died Tuesday morning after suffering a heart attack, his wife Nancy told The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. (AP Photo/File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jim Lange, the first host of the popular game show “The Dating Game,” has died at his home in California. He was 81.

He died Tuesday morning in Mill Valley after suffering a heart attack, his wife Nancy told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Though Lange had a successful career in radio, he is best known for his television role on ABC’s “The Dating Game,” which debuted in 1965 and on which he appeared for more than a decade, charming audiences with his mellifluous voice and wide, easygoing grin.

He also played host to many celebrity guests. Michael Jackson, Steve Martin and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others, appeared as contestants.

Even a pre-”Charlie’s Angels” Farrah Fawcett appeared on the program, introduced as “an accomplished artist and sculptress” with a dream to open her own gallery.

The show’s format: a young man or woman questions three members of the opposite sex, hidden from view, to determine which one would be the best date.

The questions were designed by the show’s writers to elicit sexy answers.

“I’ve never been out on a date before. What do two kids like us do on a date?” a teenage Michael Jackson asked one of his potential dates on a 1972 episode of the show.

“Well, we’d have fun,” the girl answered. “We’d go out to dinner, and then I’d go over to your house.”

Lange was born on Aug. 15, 1932, in St. Paul, Minnesota, where at 15 he discovered a passion for local radio after winning an audition at a local station.

“They wanted a boy and a girl,” he said in a 1992 interview with the Bay Area Radio Digest. “They wanted the boy to do sports and the girl to do the dances and stuff that was going on in the Twin Cities — very sexist — and play music once a week.”

He hosted that show for two years before attending the University of Minnesota and doing a three-year stint in the Marines, according to the Bay Area Radio Museum.

His big break on network TV came in 1962 when he was made an announcer and sidekick on “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.”

Later, after “The Dating Game” brought him national recognition, he also hosted the game shows “Hollywood Connection,” ”$100,000 Name That Tune” and “The New Newlywed Game.”

Lange also worked as a disc jockey for decades in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Lange is survived by a sister, five children, two stepchildren and four grandchildren.

Jim Lange, ‘The Dating Game’ host, dies

Source: Mb.com.ph (February 28, 2014 at 09:21AM)

Continue...

First Egyptian film at Oscars not shown at home

This photo released by Netflix/Noujaim Films shows Khalid Abdalla, left, and Ahmed Hassan in the documentary film, “The Square.” The film by director Jehane Noujaim and producer Karim Amer is nominated for an Oscar for best documentary feature. The 86th Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, March 2, 2014, in Los Angeles.(AP Photo/Netflix/Noujaim Films)

CAIRO (AP) — Directors of Egypt’s first Oscar-nominated film will be walking the red carpet at the Oscars ceremony next week in Los Angeles, but most Egyptians have yet to see the hard-hitting movie that chronicles the country’s unrest over the past three years.

Far from being widely celebrated in Egypt, the film has not been shown at Egyptian film festivals or theaters after running into problems with censorship authorities. The filmmakers say they have been blocked because of their portrayal of the country’s military-backed governments. They still hope to get approval for wider distribution.

“It’s a kind of politics disguised in bureaucracy,” said Karim Amer, the film’s producer, taking a line that one of the film’s central character uses to describe the government’s counter-revolutionary actions.

“The Square,” named for Tahrir, or Liberty Square, is built around the geographic focal point of the uprising, where millions of Egyptians gathered to protest Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the rule of the generals who succeeded him and now-deposed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. It recounts the country’s recent turmoil, beginning when Mubarak stepped down in 2011 through August 2013, right before security forces stormed two protest camps of Morsi supporters, killing hundreds.

The filmmakers tell the story through the eyes of three protesters hailing from different backgrounds. The self-described revolutionaries are Ahmed Hassan, a streetwise idealist; Khalid Abdalla, a British-Egyptian Hollywood actor raised abroad by his exiled activist father; and Magdy Ashour, a member of Morsi’s Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed and labeled a terrorist organization by the government installed by the military.

The movie follows their ideological trajectories, from hope and exuberance to disappointment and disillusion.

Ashour grows apart from the Brotherhood. He goes to protest in the square even after the group has prohibited members from demonstrating because, he says, the demands of the revolution have still not been met by the country’s interim leaders. Abdalla struggles to convince his exiled father that his activism will bear fruit, and Hassan suffers a head injury while throwing rocks at security forces and falls into a depression.

“The good and free people are being called agents and traitors, and the agents and traitors are being called heroes,” Hassan narrates over scenes of ambulances carrying away wounded protesters.

The film’s director, Jehane Noujaim, who grew up in Egypt, said she wanted to tell the story in a way that would let viewers in 50 or 100 years feel “that energy and that spirit of being in the square.”

The footage includes graphic images of bloodied bodies getting smashed by military vehicles, police dragging a protester’s limp body across the street and other scenes of brutality. At one point, a protester kneels on the sidewalk, weeping, with the blood of comrades on his hands.

“Our army is killing us. They are killing us,” the protester says. “They’ve forgotten Egypt.”

That depiction of the Egyptian military, which removed Morsi in July, is the reason the filmmakers believe the film has not been licensed for showing in Egypt.

But the project has gained acclaim in the West, winning audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival and at Toronto and Montreal festivals. It was acquired last year by subscription service Netflix.

In Egypt, it’s only available through YouTube and illegal downloads. After the academy announced the Oscar nominations, the film was hacked and released on the Internet. Amer estimates that more than 1.5 million people have watched it online.

“What’s been fantastic is to see the overwhelming ability of the Internet to show truth from fiction,” he said.

Ahmed Awad, undersecretary to the Minister of Culture and head of censorship, told The Associated Press that the film has not been banned in Egypt for any political reasons. He said it was not shown because the film’s producers did not file the proper paperwork. He called the filmmakers’ accusations of repression “propaganda” designed to attract more attention.

“I am very happy about the Oscars, because it’s a very high level of art,” Awad said. “We are not against the film, but there are laws. I can’t make exceptions.”

Noujaim said that the team submitted the film to censorship authorities in September and received verbal permission to show it at a festival. But, she explained, the film never received an official letter to that effect, and the filmmakers did not feel comfortable proceeding without a formal permit given the tense political climate. She said they are appealing and submitting additional paperwork.

Some Egyptians who have seen the film say it is designed more for educating a Western audience than interpreting the country’s recent history, that it glosses over some events and does not capture the nuance of post-revolutionary politics.

Joe Fahim, an Egyptian film curator and critic, said the film is not an artistic masterpiece, but he believes it’s an important film for Egyptian audiences because it can serve as a record of the country’s political upheaval.

“It’s a reminder of the turbulent history of the past three years,” Fahim said.

Noujaim, who last month received a Directors Guild documentary award for “The Square,” said the film is ultimately an ode to the activists who made the revolution happen.

“That’s the only thing that’s ever worked — a dedicated few that stick to their principles, stick to every battle, and once in a while, they’re able to inspire the majority,” she said.

Despite the setbacks, Amer added, what’s fundamentally changed in Egypt is that “the young Egyptian voice that’s been born in that square is unwilling to give up, and I think that’s what our film chronicles and shows.”

First Egyptian film at Oscars not shown at home

Source: Mb.com.ph (February 28, 2014 at 09:17AM)

Continue...

Oscars expect sun, but ready for rain on show day

Johnny Tamayo pushes an Oscar statue as preparations are made for the 86th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014. The Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 2. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oscars are usually blessed with standard Southern California weather: sunshine and blue skies.

That could be the case again this year, but not until the first major storm to hit Los Angeles this winter gives the area a major dousing.

The National Weather Service predicts heavy rain Thursday night and Friday, with showers Saturday that could continue through Oscar Sunday.

“We’re prepared to welcome our guests regardless of the weather,” said Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spokeswoman Teni Melidonian, adding that she expects clear skies for the big show.

Hollywood Boulevard is already blanketed with red carpet, which is protected with plastic wrap. The whole arrivals area — the carpet, fan bleachers, interview stages and photographers’ risers — is topped with a clear plastic tent that stretches from the intersection of Hollywood and Highland boulevards to the front of the Dolby Theatre.

That’s standard practice, said Joe Lewis, associate producer of the red carpet pre-show.

“We’re as prepared as we can be,” he said.

His team constructed new rain gutters for the plastic tent this year to help keep the carpet pristine during the storm.

“There’s no perfect science to rain planning,” Lewis said. “It’s going to leak. There’s going to be rain. We’re just trying to keep it as dry as possible for show day.”

Even if Sunday promises perfect weather, things have to dry out by Saturday night for Lewis’ team to remove the tent. Prep work continues overnight through Sunday morning, he said, with lots of props and gear that need to stay dry.

“There is a point of no return, and we believe that is somewhere between 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday night. That is every year,” he said. “Last year was the first year in a couple decades that we never put any tents up at all. We’re not as fortunate this year.”

Drought-stricken California needs the rain, of course, even if Oscar prefers sunshine.

Oscars expect sun, but ready for rain on show day

Source: Mb.com.ph (February 28, 2014 at 09:12AM)

Continue...

‘Norte’ special screenings at Ayala Malls Cinemas in March

Sid Lucero and Archie Alemania in a scene from 'Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan'.

Ten months after its world premiere, the internationally acclaimed film “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” will finally get a local theatrical release courtesy of Ayala Malls Cinemas.

Moviegoers in Metro Manila and Cebu can soon watch director Lav Diaz’s latest masterpiece, which recently figured in several international polls listing the best films of 2013.

Special screenings in select Ayala Malls Cinemas are scheduled for March 11 (Trinoma), March 18 (Cebu), March 25 (Greenbelt 3) and March 31 (Glorietta 4). All screenings begin at 6:30 PM. The four-hour film will be shown with English subtitles.

To buy tickets in advance, email pauline@origin8media.com or lirycpaolodelacruz@gmail.com.

Starring Sid Lucero, Angeli Bayani, and Archie Alemania, “Norte” premiered last year at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it became the festival’s second best-reviewed film.

A loose adaptation of the classic Russian novel “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the film has been picked up for distribution in France, the U.S., and the U.K.

“Norte” was cited as one of 2013’s top ten films by the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound (ranked 9th), La Internacional Cinefila (ranked 6th), and Artforum (ranked 1st, 7th, and 9th by three of the five critics polled by the magazine).

James Quandt, senior programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival, hailed “Norte” as the best film of the past year.

In a nod to the recent steady outpouring of cinematic gems from the country, the Artforum contributor noted that “Lav Diaz’s Dostoyevskian mini-epic… may prove the greatest work of the Philippine New Wave.”

Pulitzer prize-winning critic Wesley Morris called the film “an honest-to-goodness masterpiece”.

‘Norte’ special screenings at Ayala Malls Cinemas in March

Source: InterAksyon.com (February 28, 2014 at 09:01AM)

Continue...

Body of flamenco legend Paco de Lucia flown home to Spain

Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucía peforms in Algeciras, the musician’s native city in southern Spain, on September 9, 2006 (AFP/File, Jose Luis Roca)

CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) – The body of flamenco guitar virtuoso Paco de Lucia was flown home to Spain on Thursday, two days after the 66-year-old musician died of a heart attack in Mexico.

Born Francisco Sanchez Gomez, the guitarist died of a heart attack on Tuesday after feeling unwell while playing football on a beach with his eight-year-old son near the Caribbean resort of Playa del Carmen.

He was repatriated on a flight to Madrid, accompanied by his wife and two children, and is expected to arrive there on Friday after a layover in New York, the Spanish consul in Cancun told AFP.

De Lucia has a home in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, where he spent much of his time in the past few years.

A tribute is being organized in Madrid’s Royal Theater. He will be buried in his home town of Algeciras in southern Spain on Saturday.

De Lucia brought flamenco to a world audience with his speedy fingerwork, which is credited with modernizing the gypsy tradition of his native Andalusia by absorbing jazz and pop influences.

Body of flamenco legend Paco de Lucia flown home to Spain

Source: Mb.com.ph (February 28, 2014 at 09:05AM)

Continue...

Rose Fostanes wants to perform with Charice

Rose Fostanes (AP)

First-ever “X Factor Israel” Rose “Osang” Fostanes hopes to do a concert with international singing sensation Charice while the former is in the Philippines.

“Nagagandahan talaga ako sa boses niya (Charice), talagang napakagaling niya,” Osang said in a report on Thursday’s “Unang Balita.”

Both singers are openly lesbians and with girlfriends – Osang with longtime partner Mel Adel, while Charice with Alyssa Quijano.

The Pinay caregiver arrived in the country on Wednesday and will be staying for a week because of her tight schedule in Israel. She has several offers to do concerts there and in Australia, and she is preparing to record her debut album.

“Ngayon po nagsisimula na ’yung paggagawa ng album at marami pong offer na gumawa ng concert lalo na din po sa ibang bansa,” Osang related in a separate interview on “Umagang Kay Ganda.”

On the tracks off her upcoming album, she said, “Bali may ginawang mga kanta at may kukunin sa live shows (ng ‘X Factor Israel’).”

Osang is still adjusting to her sudden rise to fame.

“Nakakapagod. ’Di kasi ako sanay sa ganito. Dati paggising mo sa umaga, caregiver lang. Paggising mo sa umaga aasikasuhin mo lang ang alaga mo. Ngayon, hindi (na ganon).”

Rose Fostanes wants to perform with Charice

Source: Mb.com.ph (February 28, 2014 at 07:58AM)

Continue...

Kardashian confronts tradition at elite Vienna ball

At 24, Olga Goreglyad is a veteran of society balls around Europe but her ambition will not be fulfilled until she dances on Thursday night as a debutante at Vienna's Opera Ball - something celebrity guest Kim Kardashian will not be doing.



Kardashian confronts tradition at elite Vienna ball

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 07:12AM)

Continue...

'Son of God' takes different tack than 'Passion'

LOS ANGELES — Ten years after "The Passion of the Christ," Jesus is returning to movie theatres with a gentler, more inclusive approach.



'Son of God' takes different tack than 'Passion'

Source: Philstar.com (February 28, 2014 at 05:03AM)

Continue...

Paul McCartney honored at NME awards

Beatles legend Paul McCartney received a standing ovation at the NME awards ceremony in London on Wednesday, where he accepted the influential British magazine's special prize honouring his 50-year-career.



Paul McCartney honored at NME awards

Source: Inquirer.net (February 28, 2014 at 12:14AM)

Continue...

No Oscar nod, no problem: Whitaker works on craft

Forest Whitaker isn't much bothered by being one of the season's biggest Oscar snubs.



No Oscar nod, no problem: Whitaker works on craft

Source: Inquirer.net (February 28, 2014 at 12:09AM)

Continue...

Why Tado's widow rejected Florida bus insurance money

Lei Jimenez, the widow of activist-comedian Arvin "Tado" Jimenez, explained on Thursday why she refused to accept insurance money from a bus company following the deadly bus crash in Mt. Province that killed her husband and 14 others.



Why Tado's widow rejected Florida bus insurance money

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 02:46AM)

Continue...

What Miss Bikini Philippines says about Roxanne's claim

Organizers of Miss Bikini Philippines on Thursday clarified its ties with former contestant Roxanne Acosta-Cabanero, who mentioned her stint in the 2010 pageant in her rape complaint against actor Vhong Navarro.



What Miss Bikini Philippines says about Roxanne's claim

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 02:30AM)

Continue...

Why some celebrity parents won't let kids join showbiz

Magkahalong saya at intriga ang mundo ng showbiz. Kaya ilang showbiz parents ang nagdadalawang isip at hindi pabor sa pagpasok ng kanilang mga anak sa showbiz.

Why some celebrity parents won't let kids join showbiz

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 01:53AM)

Continue...

Could DiCaprio finally win coveted Oscar?

LOS ANGELES - Could this finally be Leonardo DiCaprio's year?



Could DiCaprio finally win coveted Oscar?

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 01:33AM)

Continue...

Flamenco guitar legend Paco de Lucia dies at 66

CANCUN - Paco de Lucia, the Spanish guitar virtuoso who brought flamenco to a world audience, has died of a heart attack aged 66 while playing with his son on a Mexican beach.



Flamenco guitar legend Paco de Lucia dies at 66

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 01:30AM)

Continue...

Prize in honor of late US actor Hoffman

NEW YORK - An annual prize will award $45,000 to a playwright in honor of Oscar-winning American actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died this month from a suspected heroin overdose.



Prize in honor of late US actor Hoffman

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 01:28AM)

Continue...

Why Vilma rates Angel '9 out of 10'

Veteran actress and Batangas Governor Vilma Santos is throwing her full support behind the rekindled romance between her son, Luis Manzano, and actress Angel Locsin.



Why Vilma rates Angel '9 out of 10'

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 01:25AM)

Continue...

'Die Hard' director released from jail

LOS ANGELES - "Die Hard" director John McTiernan was released from prison Tuesday after nearly a year behind bars in connection with a wire-tapping scandal, his wife said.



'Die Hard' director released from jail

Source: ABS-CBNNews.com (February 28, 2014 at 12:59AM)

Continue...