'Wonka' ends the year No. 1 at the box office, 2023 sales hit post-pandemic high

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NEW YORK -- Hollywood closed out an up and down 2023 with “Wonka” regaining No. 1 at the box office, strong sales for “The Color Purple” and an overall $9 billion in ticket sales that improved on 2022’s grosses but fell about $2 billion shy of pre-pandemic norms.

The New Year’s weekend box office this year lacked a true blockbuster. (This time last year, “Avatar: The Way of Water” was inundating theaters.) Instead, a wide array of films – among them “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” “The Boys in the Boat,” “Migration,” “Ferrari,” “The Iron Claw” and “Anyone But You” – sought to break out over the year’s most lucrative box-office corridor.

The top choice, though, remained “Wonka,” Paul King’s musical starring Timothée Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka. In its third weekend, the Warner Bros. release collected an estimated $24 million Friday through Sunday and $31.8 million factoring in estimates for the Monday holiday. That brings the film’s domestical total to $142.5 million.

That bested Warner Bros.’ own “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which, like previous DC superhero films, is struggling. James Wan’s “Aquaman” sequel starring Jason Momoa took in $19.5 million in its second weekend to bring its two-week haul to a modest $84.7 million including New Year’s Day estimates.

The original “Aquaman,” which ultimately surpassed $1.1 billion worldwide, had grossed $215.4 million over a similar period in 2018 – more than double that of the sequel. Internationally, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” added $50.5 million.

Weekend sales only tell part of the story this time of year. From Christmas through New Year’s, when kids are out of school and many adults aren’t working, every day is like Saturday to film distributors.

“The Color Purple,” Blitz Bazawule's adaptation of the 2005 stage musical from Alice Walker's novel, debuted on Monday and led all movies on Christmas with $18 million. Through the week, the Warner Bros. release has grossed $50 million, including $13 million Friday through Sunday. That’s a strong start for the crowd-pleaser starring Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.

The roughly $100 million production, which boasts Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones (all from the 1985 film) as producers, should play well through awards season. It's nominated for several Golden Globes and expected to be in the Oscar mix.

“We saw this opportunity to go wide at Christmas since there were so few movies and we were confident the movie would be well received,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “Going into the competitive landscape that's so thin in January and February, the excitement of awards season could really help ignite a bigger box office.”

Despite a blockbuster-less holiday frame, the last weekend of the year pushed the industry past $9 billion in box office for the year in U.S. and Canadian theaters for the first time since before the pandemic. Ticket sales on the year were up 21% from 2022, according to data firm Comscore.

Still, it was a mark that seemed more easily within reach during the summer highs of Barbenheimer when both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were breaking box-office records.

The enormous success of those two films changed the trajectory of Hollywood’s 2023, but so did the monthslong actors and writers strikes. Those forced the postponement of some top films (most notably “Dune: Part Two” ), diminishing an already patchwork fall lineup with few guaranteed ticket-sellers. One exception was the last-minute addition of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which set a new record for concert films.

This year, Hollywood needed Swift and every penny to reach $9 billion. It crossed that threshold Saturday, with one day to spare. That total, though, still doesn't come close to the $11 billion-plus years that preceded the pandemic. The number of wide releases in 2023 came about 20 films shy of those released in 2019.

The production delays caused by the strikes could have an even greater impact on 2024. Several top releases have already been postponed until at least the following year, including “Mission: Impossible” and “Spider-Verse” sequels. After a rocky year for Marvel and a string of less predictable hits, Hollywood will have to hope it can adapt to changing audience tastes – and that another “Barbie” is lurking somewhere.

"It's an $11 billion business. We're climbing our way back," said Goldstein. “This next year is going to be a big challenge because of the strikes. But we're seeing very clearly in 2023, when there are movies out there that people want to see, they come.”

Meanwhile, a host of releases sought to capitalize over the holidays – and most succeeded.

“This crop of seven wide releases at the end of the year, they got us over the hump of $9 billion,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “This final push of the year provided great insight into what audiences are looking for. It's movies big and small. It's different types of movies."

Though “Wonka” won out as the family movie choice for the holidays, Universal Pictures’ “Migration” is attracting young audiences, too. The animated movie from “Minions”-maker Illumination notched $17.2 million in 3,839 theaters in its second weekend, and $59.4 million since opening.

“The Boys in the Boat,” the George Clooney-directed sports drama, grossed $24.6 million since opening Dec. 25. The Amazon MGM Studios release, about the U.S. men’s crew in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, wasn’t a smash with critics (58% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore. “The Boys in the Boat,” which cost about $40 million to make, could hold well in coming weeks.

Though romantic comedies have largely migrated to streaming platforms, Sony Pictures' “Anyone But You” is proving the genre can still work in theaters. The film, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, collected $9 million in its second weekend to bring its total to $27.6 million through Monday.

Sean Durkin's wrestling drama “The Iron Claw" is also performing well. The A24 film, starring Zac Efron, Holt McCallany and Jeremy Allen White, has grossed $18 million since opening Dec. 22, including $5 million on the three-day weekend. The film dramatizes the tragic story of the Von Erich family.

Michael Mann's “Ferrari," a project the director sought to make for three decades, took in $10.9 million since launching in theaters on Monday, including $4.1 million for the weekend. While that ranks as one of the biggest debuts for indie distributor Neon, it's nowhere near what a movie that cost close to $100 million to make needs to turn a profit.

The film, starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, has been celebrated by critics, but appears likely to follow Mann's previous film, 2015's “Blackhat” ($19.6 million worldwide against a $70 million budget), as a commercial disappointment.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Wonka,” $24 million.

2. “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” $19.5 million.

3. “Migration,” $17.2 million.

4. “The Color Purple,” $13 million.

5. “Anyone But You,” $9 million.

6. “The Boys in the Boat,” $8.3 million.

7. “The Iron Claw,” $5 million.

8. “Ferrari,” $4.1 million.

9. “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” $2.9 million.

10. “The Boy and the Heron,” $2.5 million.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle at: http://jakecoyleAP

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January 01, 2024 at 05:17AM

Shecky Greene, legendary standup comic, improv master and lord of Las Vegas, dies at 97

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LOS ANGELES -- Shecky Greene, the gifted comic and master improviser who became the consummate Las Vegas lounge headliner and was revered by his peers and live audiences as one of the greatest standup acts of his generation, has died. He was 97.

His widow, Marie Musso Green, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her husband died early Sunday at their home. She said her husband of 41 years died of natural causes.

Those who saw Greene in his decades of comedy dominance on the Vegas Strip in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s said that with a mic in his hand he could roam a room and work a crowd like no other.

He couldn’t wait to abandon written jokes for the shared thrill of improv.

“I’ve never had an act,” Greene told the Las Vegas Sun in 2009. “I make it up as I go along.”

Greene made huge fans of his fellow entertainers including Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, and, most famously, Frank Sinatra, who hand-picked him as his opening act for a stretch. Greene couldn’t resist the gig with the biggest star in America at the time, but the two big personalities butted heads frequently, and the relationship ended with the comic taking a beating from the singer’s cronies at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach.

It led to his most famous joke:

“Frank Sinatra once saved my life,” Greene would say. “A bunch of guys were beating on me and Frank said, ‘OK that’s enough.’”

Sinatra wasn’t actually there, Greene later said, but the beatdown was real. Also true was the oft-repeated story of Greene driving his Oldsmobile into the fountains at Caesars Palace in 1968, a consequence of what he conceded was a serious alcohol problem and a dangerous desire to go for a drive when he was a few drinks in.

He got a famous joke out of that moment too, later saying that when the cops arrived at his submerged car, whose windshield wipers running, he told them, “No spray wax please!”

With a body like a linebacker’s, a wit as quick as lightning and a voice that suggested he could’ve been a lounge singer instead of a lounge comic, Greene in the course of a night would plow through dozens of impressions, do extended riffs at audience members’ tables and turn musical standards into parody songs on the spot.

Tony Zoppi, who for decades was entertainment director of the Riviera Hotel, said Greene was the finest comic mind he ever saw.

“He’ll walk out on a stage and do an hour off the top of his head,” Zoppi told the Los Angeles Times. “A waitress dropped a glass — he did 15 minutes.”

He made appearances in films including 1967’s “Tony Rome” with Sinatra, 1981’s “History of the World Part I” with Mel Brooks, and 1984’s “Splash” with Tom Hanks, showed-up on network sitcoms including “Laverne & Shirley” and “Mad About You,” and was a constant guest on talk and variety shows.

But he never really clicked on the screen. He needed a crowd he could interact with, and a whole night to woo them. That meant never becoming as famous as comic contemporaries like Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett or Carson. But he pulled the same six-figure-a-week paychecks as they did for live shows.

Born Fred Sheldon Greenfield, Greene took to singing, acting, making jokes and doing mock accents while growing up on the North Side of Chicago.

He served in the Navy in World War II in the Pacific.

On returning to Chicago, he went to community college and thought he might become a gym teacher, but started doing comedy nightclub gigs for money.

An offer of a two-week gig at the Prevue Lounge in New Orleans turned into a six-years stint.

He did his first show in Las Vegas in 1953. He found he and the Strip were a perfect match, and within a few years he owned the town. In 1956, he opened for a young Elvis Presley at the New Frontier.

“The kid should never have been in there,” Greene told the L.A. Times in 2005. “He came out in a baseball jacket. Four or five musicians behind him had baseball jackets on. It looked like a picnic. After the first show they switched the billing, and I headlined.”

Greene would remain a Vegas mainstay, his playgrounds places like the Riviera and the Tropicana, for the next 30 years.

From 1972 to 1982 Greene was married to Nalani Kele, a dancer whose show, the Nalani Kele Polynesian Revue, was a long-running nightclub hit. And in 1985, he married Marie Musso, daughter of jazz saxophonist Vido Musso.

Greene gained his share of national fame eventually. He could fill Carnegie Hall, and guest-hosted both Carson’s “Tonight Show” and “The Merv Griffin Show.”

He grappled with addictions to both drinking and gambling, neither ideal for a man who spent most of his time in Las Vegas. He also struggled with what were later diagnosed as severe depression and panic attacks, both of which made it increasingly difficult to perform as he got older.

Greene moved to Palm Springs in an attempt at retirement in his late 70s in 2004, but the stage still had appeal, and he returned for a stint in Las Vegas at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in 2009.

Returning to a city now dominated by the likes of Celine Dion and Cirque du Soleil, Greene found he could stroll through casinos anonymously.

“I’m a legend,” he told the Sun in 2009, “but nobody knows me in Vegas anymore.”

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January 01, 2024 at 02:17AM

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II announces she will abdicate the throne on Jan. 14th

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January 01, 2024 at 02:02AM

John Pilger, Australia-born journalist and filmmaker known for covering Cambodia, dies at 84

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LONDON -- John Pilger, an Australia-born journalist and documentary filmmaker known for his coverage of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, has died, his family said Sunday. He was 84.

A statement from his family, posted on X, formerly Twitter, said Pilger died on Saturday in London.

“His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved dad, grandad and partner," the statement said.

Pilger, who has been based in Britain since 1962, worked for Britain's left-leaning Daily Mirror newspaper, broadcaster ITV’s investigative program “World In Action” and for the Reuters news agency.

He won an International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences award for his 1979 film “Year Zero: The Silent Death Of Cambodia,” which revealed the extent of the Khmer Rouge’s atrocities. He followed that with a 1990 documentary titled “Cambodia: The Betrayal,” which examined international complicity in the Khmer Rouge remaining a threat.

He also won acclaim for a 1974 documentary looking into the campaign for compensation for children after concerns were raised about birth defects when expectant mothers took the drug Thalidomide.

Pilger was known for his opposition to American and British foreign policy, and he was also highly critical of Australia’s treatment of its Indigenous population.

In more recent years, he campaigned for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has fought a lengthy battle against extradition to the United States.

Kevin Lygo, managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, described Pilger as “a giant of campaigning journalism” who offered viewers a level of analysis and opinion that was rare in mainstream television.

"He had a clear, distinctive editorial voice which he used to great effect throughout his distinguished filmmaking career. His documentaries were engaging, challenging and always very watchable," Lygo said.

“He eschewed comfortable consensus and instead offered a radical, alternative approach on current affairs and a platform for dissenting voices over 50 years," he added.

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December 31, 2023 at 11:02PM

Paula Abdul accuses 'American Idol' producer Nigel Lythgoe of sexual assault in lawsuit

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LOS ANGELES -- Paula Abdul has accused former “American Idol” producer Nigel Lythgoe of sexually assaulting her in the early 2000s when she was a judge on the reality competition show, according to a new lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles also accuses Lythgoe of sexually assaulting Abdul after she left “American Idol” and became a judge on Lythgoe's other competition show “So You Think You Can Dance."

A lawyer for Lythgoe did not immediately respond Saturday to an emailed request for comment on the allegations.

The Associated Press generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Abdul has done.

In a statement Saturday, Abdul's lawyer Douglas Johnson applauded the singer and dancer for speaking out publicly.

“It was clearly a difficult decision to make, but Ms. Abdul knows that she stands both in the shoes and on the shoulders of many other similarly situated survivors, and she is determined to see that justice is done,” Johnson said.

The lawsuit states Abdul remained silent for years about the alleged assaults out of fear of retaliation by "one of the most well-known producers of television competition shows.”

Before “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” on which Lythgoe served as a judge for 16 seasons, he was a producer on the British show “Pop Idol,” which became a global franchise that includes the U.S. iteration starring Abdul.

According to the lawsuit, the first sexual assault occurred while Abdul and Lythgoe were on the road filming auditions for an earlier season of “American Idol,” which premiered in 2002.

Abdul says Lythgoe groped her in the elevator of their hotel after a day of filming and “began shoving his tongue down her throat." Abdul pushed him away and ran to her hotel room when the elevator doors opened.

“In tears, Abdul quickly called one of her representatives to inform them of the assault," the lawsuit says, "but ultimately decided not to take action for fear that Lythgoe would have her fired from American Idol.”

Abdul, a Grammy- and Emmy-winning artist, starred as a judge for the first eight seasons, leaving in 2009.

In 2015, Abdul became a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance," appearing alongside Lythgoe.

Around that time, Abdul alleged in the lawsuit, Lythgoe forced himself on top of her during a dinner at his home and tried to kiss her. Abdul said she again pushed Lythgoe away and immediately left.

Abdul left the reality show after two seasons. She has not worked with Lythgoe since.

The lawsuit also accuses Lythgoe of taunting Abdul about the alleged assaults, saying to her years later that “they should celebrate" because “the statute of limitations had run.”

Abdul filed the suit days before the Dec. 31 deadline of a California law that opened a one-year window for victims to file lawsuits involving sexual abuse claims after the statute of limitations has run out.

More than 3,700 legal claims were filed under a similar law in New York that expired last month.

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December 31, 2023 at 08:41AM

British actor Tom Wilkinson, known for 'The Full Monty' and 'Michael Clayton', dies at 75

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Tom Wilkinson, the Oscar-nominated British actor known for his roles in “The Full Monty,” “Michael Clayton” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” has died at age 75, according to his family

LONDON -- Tom Wilkinson, the Oscar-nominated British actor known for his roles in “The Full Monty," “Michael Clayton” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” has died, his family said. He was 75.

A statement shared by his agent on behalf of the family said Wilkinson died suddenly at home on Saturday. It didn't provide further details.

Wilkinson was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his work in 2001's family drama “In The Bedroom” in 2001 and in the best supporting actor category for his role in “Michael Clayton,” a 2007 film that starred George Clooney.

He is remembered by many in Britain and beyond for playing former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper in the 1997 comedy “The Full Monty," about a group of unemployed steel workers who formed an unlikely male stripping act.

Wilkinson appeared in dozens of other movies, including “Batman Begins,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and “Valkyrie."

The actor was recognized for his services to drama in 2005 when he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire.

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December 31, 2023 at 01:17AM

Bollywood celebrates rocking year, riding high on action flicks, unbridled masculinity and misogyny

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NEW DELHI -- Bollywood has made a financial comeback this year worthy of one of its traditional singing-on-top-of-the-hills moments.

India’s Hindi language movie industry made an impressive recovery after a pandemic-driven slowdown, audience fatigue with big studio productions and Bollywood megastars, and streaming platforms taking away a large chunk of viewership.

According to consultancy firm Ormax Media, the cumulative box office in 2023 pulled in $1.3 billion, making it one of the best-grossing years of all time.

Indian moviegoers — both the masses and niche film lovers — are back in theaters and the massive commercial success of big-ticket Bollywood films has set at ease fears that Mumbai’s glitzy dream factory was losing its shine.

As one of the largest film producers in the world, India rolls out more than 1,500 movies yearly, its diverse storytelling traditions reflected in its prolific cinematic entertainers.

The films that made the cut this year were a mixed bag of visual delights. Some portrayed the classic Bollywood larger-than-life spectacles, others were action-filled spy thrillers with top-billing movie stars. Many included stylized special effects, slickly choreographed romantic songs filmed in stunning locales, and pulsating music that had fans cheering and dancing in cinema halls.

More than anything, the year belonged to India’s beloved superstar, Shah Rukh Khan, whose son was jailed amid controversy in a narcotics case in 2021 and subsequently cleared of the charges. Khan's global fandom welcomed him back like never before, with his movies pumping the box office numbers.

The year began with his movie “Pathaan,” which made more than $100 million worldwide, according to The Numbers website. Then came "Jawan," which raked in nearly $136 million worldwide. And the year is ending with yet another, titled “Dunki.”

“Very grateful to all the people around the world who have given me soooo much love as an entertainer,” Khan recently posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“This year Shah Rukh Khan has almost single-handedly revived cinema, very similar to what Tom Cruise did in Hollywood with his ' Top Gun '” last year, said Nikhil Taneja, co-founder of the youth-centered media organization Yuvaa and host of the popular YouTube show, “Be A Man, Yaar.”

Other blockbusters of the year include the heavily criticized “Animal” featuring actor Ranbir Kapoor, “Gadar 2” with actor Sunny Deol, and Salman Khan’s “Tiger 3.”

It was also a year when hyper-masculinity overwhelmed Bollywood, often wrapped in misogyny and aggressive nationalism.

Angry young men have always been a staple of Indian movies but the excessive, fantasized screen violence this year took it to another level. Almost all 2023 Bollywood hits were filled with anger and violence, and led by alpha male protagonists with rippling muscles and blazing guns brandished on screen as they went on a bone-crunching rampage to vanquish their enemies.

Even Shah Rukh Khan, known as the king of romance, embraced the gun and gore while playing a spy fighting a militant outfit in “Pathaan” and a vigilante battling institutional injustices in "Jawan."

While Khan’s soft machismo remained nurturing and women-friendly even in his action flicks, many critics slammed the superhit movie “Animal” directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga for glorifying the toxic masculinity and misogyny of its twisted leading man. The film is moving toward a $100-million run at box offices worldwide, its production company, Bhadrakali Pictures, said.

“Violent men do exist in the real world and a violent man can certainly be the central character in a film — the issue here, as always, is the manner of the portrayal, the script’s indulgence towards him, the humour and coolth written into his fictional character, and the various means used to give him an allure despite his violent ways,” film critic and author Anna MM Vetticad wrote in a blog post.

India has the world’s largest young population, who also make up the majority of movie watchers. In a country where movie stars have a cult-like following, and movies reflect as well as shape mass behavior, making dehumanizing violence and casual sexism aspirational can be damaging, observers said.

The country’s National Crime Records Bureau reported more than 445,000 cases of crimes against women in 2022, an increase of 4%. “Cruelty by Husband or Relatives” accounted for more than 31% of such crimes, the report said.

“Today what we see is the detachment of violence from emotional purpose,” in the movies, wrote social commentator Santosh Desai in the Times of India newspaper. “Given that politically, there is great comfort with maintaining more traditional gender roles, this emphatic assertion of masculinity might take us back in time."

Taneja, the Yuvaa organization co-founder, has been holding roadshows to reach out to young Indians about what he calls “positive masculinity." He said some films "feed into every single bias” of the viewer, whether it was misogyny or a villain of a different religion.

“When they see such films, they can relate to what they see in their homes where their fathers are misogynistic. They are patriarchal to their mothers. They see a certain kind of gender imbalance and they start believing it,” he said.

However, other successful films this year showcased a less angry, more accommodative masculinity, said Taneja.

Karan Johar’s “Rocky aur Rani kii Prem Kahaani,” or "Rocky and Rani’s love story," won praise from most critics for its gender politics and for challenging male stereotypes and prejudices. The film went on to make nearly $45 million at box offices worldwide, according to the Bollywood Hungama website.

The answer lies in steering the public discourse away from movies that “aim to provoke only for the act of triggering," toward those that espouse other versions of modern Indian masculinity, Taneja said. “We need to have more conversations about the alternates — positive, empathetic and gentle masculinity — and push them more.”

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December 30, 2023 at 10:41AM

Kathy Griffin files for divorce ahead of her fourth wedding anniversary

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LOS ANGELES -- Comedian Kathy Griffin has filed for divorce from longtime partner Randy Bick just shy of the couple’s fourth wedding anniversary.

Los Angeles Superior Court records show Griffin filed for divorce Thursday, citing irreconcilable differences.

The pair dated for several years before marrying on New Year’s Day 2020. They have no children together, and Griffin’s filing says a prenuptial agreement dictates how their assets should be divided.

Griffin, 63, was a star of the NBC series “Suddenly Susan” and poked fun at her celebrity on “My Life on the D-List.”

Bick has worked as a marketing executive and began dating Griffin in 2011.

Griffin was previously married. She accused her former husband of stealing from her on “Larry King Live” in 2006, and says she put their troubles into her act.

The filing was first reported Friday by celebrity website TMZ.

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December 30, 2023 at 07:47AM

Cher asks court to give her conservatorship over her adult son

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LOS ANGELES -- LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cher has filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son's money, saying the 47-year-old's struggles with mental health and substance abuse have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.

The Oscar and Grammy winning singer and actor on Wednesday filed the petition in Los Angeles Superior Court that would give her temporary control of the finances of Elijah Blue Allman, her son with musician Gregg Allman.

Cher's petition says that Elijah Allman is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.

Reached through his attorney, Elijah Allman said in a phone call with The Associated Press, "I am well, and able, and of sound mind and body."

He declined to say whether he planned to oppose the petition, or give any further comment.

A court-ordered conservatorship is “urgently needed,” Cher's filing says. A judge scheduled a January hearing on the issue.

The filing explicitly seeks to keep control of Elijah Allman's finances from his wife, Marieangela King, from whom he filed for divorce in 2021.

The two remain legally married. A filing from King in October says the couple had agreed to pause the divorce proceedings and work on their marriage, but she had not seen him in person in six months.

Cher's petition says the couple's “tumultuous relationship has been marked by a cycle of drug addiction and mental health crises" and that she believes King “is not supportive of Elijah's recovery.”

Emails seeking comment from an attorney for King and representatives for Cher were not immediately returned.

Cher has two sons, one from each of her marriages — 54-year-old Chaz Bono with the late Sonny Bono, and Elijah Allman, who is the former singer and guitarist of the band Deadsy and is known professionally as P. Exeter Blue.

Conservatorships, known in some states as guardianships, allow courts to give relatives or others control over a person's money and, at times, their life decisions after they are deemed not competent to make such decisions for themselves.

The issue became widely known when what began as a temporary conservatorship over Britney Spears became a years-long legal saga and fight with her father.

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December 29, 2023 at 08:02AM

Hit-Boy enters Grammys with producer nod while helping father navigate music industry after prison

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LOS ANGELES -- When Hit-Boy walks the Grammy red carpet, he expects to proudly strut into the Feb. 4 awards ceremony with his father beside him for the first time.

For three decades, Hit-Boy’s dad was in-and-out of prison, with his recent stint lasting nine years until his release several months ago. With his father’s newfound freedom, the super producer — who has worked with music heavyweights from Jay-Z, Nas and Kanye West — is focused on strengthening their father-son bond while navigating the music industry together.

Hit-Boy has the Grammys and a producer of the year, non-classical nomination in his sights. He's had three songs involving Brent Faiyaz, Blxst and The Alchemist. He also produced three Nas albums, including “King’s Disease III,” which is up for best rap album; one with Musiq Soulchild; and his two “Surf or Down” albums, which featured the producer as a rapper and his father on several tracks under the stage name Big Hit.

When Hit-Boy first heard about being a nominee again, he felt an instant “wave of emotions.” He was one of the most productive producers this past year compared to others in his category - which includes Jack Antonoff, Metro Boomin, Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and Daniel Nigro.

“I literally broke down in tears,” said Hit-Boy, a three-time Grammy winner through Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “… In Paris,” Nipsey Hussle’s “Racks in the Middle” and Nas’ album “King Disease.” He's worked with top performers including Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Drake, Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande and Jennifer Lopez.

But for Hit-Boy, this past year was different.

“When I really look back and had that moment to reflect, I was like ‘Wow, I didn’t have the biggest artists in the world that's going to stream," he said. “They are going to make it work. I was working with artists that don't have million-dollar budgets behind them."

Throughout the year, Hit-Boy said he worked mostly with Nas and his father, Big Hit, who recorded his lyrics for the intro on “Surf or Down Vol. 1" while incarcerated. After his father's release, Hit-Boy took him directly to the studio — where they both laid down tracks.

This month, Big Hit, 52, released his debut album “The Truth is in My Eyes,” which features Snoop Dogg, Benny The Butcher, Musiq Soulchild, Dom Kennedy, The Alchemist and Mozzy. He said it was tough being away from his son and watching his success from afar.

“It was torture just knowing the kind of impact I could've had and what I missed in his life,” said the rapper, who was arrested during a traffic stop in Illinois in 2014. Turns out, he had an outstanding warrant, which stemmed from a hit-and-run accident in Los Angeles that left several people injured.

At the time, Hit-Boy said his father was gaining positive momentum and made good impressions with the likes of Jay-Z and 50 Cent before his arrest, which the producer called devastating.

“I thought about how I could have shaped and molded him,” Big Hit said. “Being a wonderful addition. Instead of bringing him down, I could have tightened him up. But I still did my best in the situation where I was at. But we're pushing full speed ahead. We're bridging that gap.”

Since Big Hit's release, Hit-Boy has been laser-focused on keeping his father busy and spending time with him almost daily while creating an independent lane for their careers. The producer said he's funded “every single thing since he touched down.”

“It’s bigger than just doing the music," Hit-Boy said. "I’m creating that network, helping them to have a workflow. I’m spending money on these marketing plans. I’m coming with all the best ideas I can. Every day is an adventure. My whole life, he’s got out and went back in. Stressed out that he might do something to jeopardize it again. It’s part of that brainwork where you just got to hold it down and financially. I wanted to build, put together pieces that would bring people completely into his world.”

Hit-Boy said several labels have offered Big Hit deals, but they turned them down. The producer said they'll be better off on their own for now.

“They wanted to put some cool money in his pocket,” Hit-Boy said. “But I’ve been in the game since I was 19. He got locked up at 19 until he was in his 30s. Now, I’m in my 30s and I’m locked up in the industry, because I’m still to this day in a bad publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group. I would feel so crazy to let my dad get caught up with these same systems, the same ways and ideologies that I’ve been fed since I was a kid. I just can’t go for it.”

Hit-Boy, 36, and his team decided against releasing Big Hit's new album on digital stream platforms. He wants people to buy directly from them, which according to his team has so far worked out.

“We got physical CDs. We’re not going to do any DSPs, no streaming,” the producer said. “I’ve been seeing a lot of people complain about that. Snoop just went on a platform and talked about how he got a billion streams, but only earned about $40,000 or $45,000. I feel like if we sell 10,000 CDs, we’re going to blow that out the water. We’re going to start small. We don’t need to have a billion streams, because that might only equate to 10,000. We’re going to let people buy the music directly from us.”

Hit-Boy said he and his father are making music, doing business together like he always wanted. If he could win a Grammy with his dad, mother and young son in attendance, it would mean the world to him.

“Every time I won a Grammy, he was locked up," he said. “That would be dope to win. I'm going to speak it into existence.”

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December 29, 2023 at 02:02AM

Amazon Prime ads on movies and TV shows will begin in late January

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If you are an Amazon Prime Video user, get ready to see ads on movies and TV shows starting next month.

Prime will include ads beginning on Jan. 29, the company said in an email to U.S. members this week, setting a date for an announcement it made back in September. Prime members who want to keep their movies and TV shows ad-free will have to pay an additional $2.99.

Amazon is also planning to include advertisements in its Prime service in the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as Canada, Mexico and Australia next year.

The tech giant follows other major streamers –- such as Netflix and Disney –- who have embraced a dual model that allows them to earn revenue from ads and also offer subscribers the option to opt out with a higher fee.

Amazon said in its email that it will “aim to have meaningfully fewer ads” than traditional TV and other streaming providers.

The ads, the company said, “will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”

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December 28, 2023 at 07:11AM

Young Russian mezzo bids for breakout stardom in Met's new 'Carmen'

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NEW YORK -- Aigul Akhmetshina likes to describe herself as “just an ordinary girl from a small village in the middle of nowhere in Russia.”

Not quite.

Akhmetshina started performing folk songs of her native Bashkortostan while still a toddler. Her family couldn’t afford a piano, so her first instrument was a button accordion. At 14, she left home to study singing in Ufa, the nearest large city more than 100 miles away, where she supported herself at odd jobs like handing out flyers while walking on stilts.

Now 27, this “ordinary girl” is taking on one of the highest-profile operatic assignments imaginable: Headlining a new production of Bizet’s ever-popular masterpiece “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera opening on New Year’s Eve.

It hasn’t been an easy journey from Ufa to New York. Along the way, Akhmetshina has had to overcome multiple setbacks, including failures in vocal competitions, an auto accident that left her unable to sing for months, then staking her hopes on a trip to Moscow only to be told by a conservatory that she wasn’t good enough for a scholarship.

“I’m very stubborn, but when you constantly hear you’re not talented enough, you start thinking maybe it’s true,” Akhmetshina said in an interview. “All my achievements happened because I always had people around me who believed in me more than I did.”

Among those people she counts her teacher in Ufa, Nailya Yusupova, who remains her vocal coach, and artists’ manager Marcin Kopec, who first heard her on a “scouting audition” in Russia when she was still a teenager.

“I remember her entering the room, a very confident young lady. She was recovering after the car accident and was wearing a neck collar,” Kopec recalled. “When she opened her mouth, I immediately sat straight. The color of the voice was like a dark chocolate, warm and beautiful.”

Kopec later arranged for David Gowland, head of the Royal Opera’s young artists program in London, to hear her, and Gowland saw enough potential to bring her to London, where she arrived not speaking a word of English.

Her big breakthrough came in 2017 — appropriately with her very first performance as Carmen — in Peter Brook’s condensed version of the opera.

“Her singing and acting gave us a gloriously sultry Carmen,” wrote William Hartston in the Daily Express. “Her strong voice and confident, seductive manner were perfect for the role.”

She went on to triumph in the full work at the Royal Opera, then took a three-year break from the role to explore the bel canto repertory.

But right now Carmen is back with a vengeance.

“I started the season with it in September in Munich, then October in Berlin, now it’s here, after that it’s London, then Glyndebourne, then one more that hasn’t been announced,” Akhmetshina said. “I call this year Fifty Shades of Carmen because I have so many.”

Listening to Akhmetshina talk about the role — a charismatic, fiercely determined woman who doesn’t play by society’s rules — it sounds at times almost as if she’s describing her own life, minus the tragic ending.

“It’s about a woman from a difficult past, a difficult childhood who also dreams about a happy future,” she said. “I’m a fighter. I had to be, and when you have to prove that you own your place, that gives you extra strength.”

That view fits well with director Carrie Cracknell’s gritty production, which moves the action from 19th century Seville to post-industrialist America where many of the men are unemployed and resentful of the women who have jobs. The cigarette factory where Carmen works has become a munitions factory, and Escamillo, the dashing rival to Don Jose for Carmen’s affections, is a rodeo champion instead of a bullfighter.

“I think Aigul has a totally instinctive profound understanding of the world of Carmen,” Cracknell said. “Partly because she has battled so hard to get to this place at such a young stage in her career. The role requires a ferocity and a complete commitment to the story, and Aigul really has that.”

Still, it might seem a gamble to build a new production around so young a singer. She made her debut here just last season in the relatively small role of Maddalena in Verdi’s “Rigoletto.”

But Met general manager Peter Gelb is betting on her.

“Aigul has a rich and gorgeous voice, strong theatrical instincts and presence, and the courage to go for it all on stage,” Gelb said. “Everything in opera is a risk, but Aigul is as close to a sure thing as there is.”

In fact, Gelb has already hired her for future seasons to sing Rosina in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” and Dalila in Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila.” Down the road, she expects to take on Princess Eboli in Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” and then, perhaps in 10 years or so, the two most dramatic Verdi mezzo roles — Amneris in “Aida” and Azucena in “Il Trovatore.”

“Carmen,” also starring Piotr Beczala as Don Jose, soprano Angel Blue as Micaela, bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as Escamillo and conducted by Daniele Rustioni, runs through Jan. 27, with another set of performers taking over in the spring. The Jan. 27 matinee will be broadcast Live in HD to movie theaters worldwide.

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December 27, 2023 at 11:41PM

The Golden Globes: How to watch, who's hosting and other key things to know

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The Golden Globe Awards are back on the first Sunday in January with plenty of behind-the-scenes changes aimed at cementing a yearslong comeback effort.

The show is known for its boozy celebration of film and television and as an early stop for awards season contenders. Scandals have led to a membership revamp and a new broadcaster for the Jan. 7 show, but a key question remains: Will viewers tune in?

Here's what to know about the 81st Golden Globe Awards.

Viewers in the United States can catch the ceremony, broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. It will air beginning at 5 p.m. on the West Coast.

The three-hour show will have a strong lead-in since CBS is airing an NFL game directly before the Globes.

CBS says the show will air on its app and stream on Paramount+, but there's an important caveat. Only Paramount+ subscribers with the Showtime add-on will be able to watch the show live. Otherwise, it'll be available on the streaming platform on Monday.

The 81st Golden Globe Awards will be the first major broadcast of awards season, with a new home on CBS. And while to audiences it might look similar on the surface, it’s been a tumultuous few years behind the scenes following a bombshell report in the Los Angeles Times. The 2021 report found that there were no Black members in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which voted on the awards.

Stars and studios boycotted the Globes and NBC refused to air it in 2022 as a result. After the group added journalists of color to its ranks and instituted other reforms to address ethical concerns, the show came back in January 2023 in a one-year probationary agreement with NBC. The network did not opt to renew.

In June, billionaire Todd Boehly was granted approval to dissolve the HFPA and reinvent the Golden Globes as a for-profit organization. Its assets were acquired by Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, along with Dick Clark Productions, a group that is owned by Penske Media whose assets also include Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and Billboard.

Comedian Jo Koy, who has headlined several Netflix specials and starred in last year's comedy film “Easter Sunday,” will host the Globes.

Organizers cited his “infectious energy and relatable humor" in announcing Koy would headline the event.

Hosting the Globes typically requires serving a mix of biting humor to the audience of film and television stars and keeping the ceremony from getting too sloppy.

Previous hosts include Ricky Gervais, whose jokes were particularly caustic, the duo of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and last year's emcee, Jerrod Carmichael.

“Barbie” is the top nominee this year, followed closely by “Oppenheimer.”

The films reflect one unique aspect of the Globes — they split the top film winners into two categories. With Greta Gerwig's “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer” leading the way, it gives the show a chance to capitalize on the Barbenheimer craze that boosted theaters in 2023.

Films nominated for best motion picture drama include “Oppenheimer,” Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”

In the best motion picture musical or comedy category, “Barbie” was joined by Ben Affleck's “Air,” Cord Jefferson's “American Fiction,” Alexander Payne's “The Holdovers,” Todd Haynes' “May December” and Yorgos Lanthimos' “Poor Things.”

“Succession” was the top-nominated television program, with nine nods including for series stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin, followed by Hulu’s “The Bear.”

For the full list of nominees, click here.

The Golden Globe Awards had long been one of the highest-profile awards season broadcasts, second only to the Oscars.

The show was touted as an A-list party whose hosts often took a more irreverent tone than their Academy counterparts. It also only honored the flashiest filmmaking categories — picture, director, actors among them — meaning no long speeches from visual effects supervisors or directors of little-known shorts.

But the voting body was a small group of around 87 members who wielded incredible influence in the industry and often accepted lavish gifts and travel from studios and awards publicists eager to court favor and win votes.

Some years, the HFPA were pilloried for nominating poorly reviewed films with big-name talent in hopes of getting them to the show — the most infamous being “The Tourist,” with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. In the past decade, they’ve more often overlapped with the Oscars. The show also recognizes television.

Before the expose and public relations crisis though, no one in the industry took much umbrage with who was voting on the awards. The show had become an important part of the Hollywood awards ecosystem, a platform for Oscar hopefuls and was, until recently, a reliable ratings draw. As of 2019, the broadcast was still pulling in nearly 19 million viewers. In 2023, NBC’s Tuesday night broadcast got its smallest audience ever for a traditional broadcast, with 6.3 million viewers.

The group nominating and voting for the awards is now made up of a more diverse group of over 300 people from around the world.

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December 27, 2023 at 11:26PM

Disney says in lawsuit that DeSantis-appointed government is failing to release public records

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ORLANDO, Fla. -- Disney has filed a lawsuit claiming that the oversight government for Walt Disney World, which was taken over by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year, has failed to release documents and properly preserve records in violation of Florida public records law.

Disney said in the lawsuit filed Friday that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, often referred to as CFTOD, has been so slow in fulfilling its public records duties that it has failed to respond completely to a request the company made seven months ago when it paid more than $2,400 to get emails and text messages belonging to the five district board members appointed by DeSantis.

Disney, DeSantis and the DeSantis appointees already are battling for control of the government in two pending lawsuits in federal and state court.

The public records lawsuit is asking a judge to review any documents that the district claims are exempt from being released, declare that the district is violating state public records law and order the district to release the documents that Disney has requested.

“CFTOD has prevented Disney from discovering the actions of its government through public records requests, in violation of Florida law,” said the lawsuit filed in state court in Orlando. “The Court should grant Disney relief.”

An email was sent to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District seeking comment.

The new lawsuit claims that the district is failing to follow public records laws in other ways, such as allowing the DeSantis-appointed board members to use personal email addresses and texts for district business without a process for making sure they are preserved and failing to make sure board members don't auto-delete messages dealing with district business.

The feud between DeSantis and Disney started last year after the company publicly opposed the state’s so-called don’t say gay law, which bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The law was championed by DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. In retaliation, DeSantis and Republican legislators took over the district Disney had controlled for more than five decades and installed five board members loyal to the governor.

Around 50 out of about 370 employees have left the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District since it was taken over in February, raising concerns that decades of institutional knowledge are departing with them, along with a reputation for a well-run government.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on X, formerly known as Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP.

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December 27, 2023 at 05:11AM

Book Review: Ralph Nader profiles corporate leaders he sees as role models in 'The Rebellious CEO'

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Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has built his life's reputation on his fights with corporate America. But it turns out there are some CEOs he actually likes.

At least that's the premise of “The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right,” Nader's look at executives who he says “stood against the gray crowd” by putting a premium on social responsibility as much as they did on profits. The dozen leaders he profiles are presented as models for businesses on how to balance both those needs.

The brief biographies of the CEOs give Nader a chance to highlight what he sees as the shortcomings of today's corporations. But, surprisingly, he commends the CEOs profiled for not forgetting the bottom line and notes that all of them insisted “nothing would be possible if they didn't pay attention to profits.”

The chapters are sprinkled with Nader's anecdotes from his interactions with the CEOs profiled, and leans on their own writings as well. The CEOs highlighted include Ray Anderson, the carpet-tile manufacturing executive who was spurred to set sustainability goals for his company, and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard's support for conservation efforts.

Nader also praises CEOs for their work at the consumer level, including Southwest Airlines — though also noting its cancellation of more than 16,000 flights last year over the holidays that eventually led to a multi-million settlement.

Nader strays into adulation at times, but the book offers an interesting perspective on business leadership from one of the most well known antagonists of corporations.

___

AP book reviews: https://ift.tt/BITnZ2z

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December 27, 2023 at 03:18AM

For a new generation of indie rock acts, country music is king

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LOS ANGELES -- Singer-songwriter Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine,” plays out like a whispered dirge.

The song is gothic lounge music for a listener who only has about two minutes to have their heart broken — a silky soft slow burn stacked with a choir, organ, bass and most critically, pedal steel guitar, the kind favored by country and western purists.

In no way does that description scream “mainstream hit,” and yet, for 12 weeks, it has been on the Billboard Hot 100, an unusual metric of success for a wholly independent artist. And for 10 weeks, her indie rock-meets-chamber pop-meets-country held the No. 1 position on Billboard’s TikTok trending chart.

Mitski is not from the American South, though her discography has long considered small town U.S.A. and she relocated to Nashville a few years ago to mine the geography’s humanity. (“Valentine, Texas” from last year’s “Laurel Hell” album is an example, but there are many.)

She is, of course, not the first indie artist to explore weeping Americana sounds. Many of the leading acts in contemporary indie rock pull from the South – like Mitski – or hail from there, like soloists Angel Olsen and Waxahatchee, or groups like Plains, Wednesday and two-thirds of the Grammy-nominated band boygenius. Lucinda Williams ’ “too country for rock ‘n’ roll, too rock ‘n’ roll for country” style is a clear predecessor; and every few generations, it seems like a great new band pulls from alt-country's narrative specificity.

Interestingly, indie rock's current adoption of country comes at a time of increased global interest in country music. According to the Midyear Music Report for data and analytics platform Luminate, country music experienced its biggest streaming week ever this year, a whopping 2.26 billion.

The genre has historically been enjoyed by English-speaking Americans, but their reporting shows growth in non-Anglophonic territories such as Philippines, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, and Vietnam.

In March 2023, Spotify launched a new playlist dedicated to the phenomenon of country-influence in indie rock titled “Indie Twang.” It's curated by Carla Turi, Spotify’s folk and acoustic music editor, who says the playlist was the result of conversations dating back to summer 2022, when they noticed growing “country influence in indie rock,” as she calls it. It's a legacy that extends to the late 2010s when country iconography started cropping up in spaces not-traditionally considered country: everything from Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” to Mitski’s 2018 album “Be the Cowboy.”

“I also think, through the lockdown we experienced in 2020, listeners sort of emerged craving more organic-sounding music as a way to connect with others,” she continued. The indie twang playlist was born out of all of that, amplified by successful indie artists like Ethel Cain and Plains.

“I’m seeing this space as a kind of movement, rather than a trend,” she adds. “The sound will always have its peaks and valleys. I do think that the fanbase, overall, continues to grow. I think that this sort of surge of Americana and singer-songwriter music here in the States has shifted listening habits across the entire country.”

In 2023, these indie artists offer an alternative to the pop-country acts dominating mainstream charts like Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, and Jason Aldean. The movement is led by female performers, for one, and artists who don't immediately fit into a traditional genre format.

They also offer an alternative to traditional images of indie rock: instead of shying away from their geographic identities — like moving to New York and smoothing out to “y’alls” and “ma’ams” from their speech and music — they’re embracing them. Banjos and lap steel abound. Songs about God, rural roads, trucks, guns, humidity, and crickets do, too.

Like Turi, Jess Williamson of Plains sees the connection to country music from a more traditional indie rock audience as a post-COVID-19 lockdown revelation. “We saw people leaving cities, moving to smaller towns and out to the country. We saw people in cities baking bread, starting herb gardens, craving something simple, nostalgic, and that feels good,” she said.

“On tour, we covered ‘Goodbye Earl’ by the Chicks, everyone is singing along, and that’s the least cool s--- I can imagine. People are through being cool and are embracing who we are and what we really like. And for a lot of people, that’s country music.”

She says she had to leave the South in order to return to it and fully appreciate her love for both it and country music, the way “Texans leave and then immediately get a tattoo of the state of Texas,” she says, laughing.

Karly Hartzman, frontperson of the Ashville band Wednesday, has never left North Carolina. “I think where we live is inseparable from our music at this point. Of course, we are influenced by country music, but country music sounds and feels the way it does because of the environment it’s made in. A great country song feels like where it’s from,” she says.

Wednesday's 2023 full-length “Rat Saw God” made AP's best albums of the year list for its alt-country rock sensibility, where pulling the listener into the quiet parts of a Carolinas hometown is as much a part of the sonic fabric as lap steel or guitar fuzz or a poetic line sung out of key.

Hartzmann adds that the complications of living in the South are “the stereotypes … which are founded of course. The politics, the racism, and the inequity,” she says. “I’m strongly against leaving this place ’cause I disagree with the politics of those in power, though. It’s invigorating cause I feel empowered to fight against that (expletive), especially for those who are unable to do that themselves here.”

She says the South is her “favorite place on Earth" — beyond its influential music — but the appeal to stick around and create there is economic, too, which may have an impact on indie artists pulling from country sounds.

“I think affordability is a big factor for people trying to make it from their hometowns now instead of moving to big cities,” she says. “The internet makes that possible, obviously.”

It also means, for listeners on an Indie Twang playlist, or those at a rock club in a major city or a honky tonk in a small town, new approaches to familiar Southern sounds are more accessible than ever before.

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December 27, 2023 at 12:41AM

56 French stars defend actor Gerard Depardieu despite sexual misconduct allegations

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PARIS -- More than 50 French performers, writers and producers published an essay Tuesday defending film star and national icon Gerard Depardieu amid growing scrutiny of his behavior toward women during his five-decade career. Advocates for sexual abuse victims expressed dismay at the outpouring of support.

Depardieu was handed preliminary rape and sexual assault charges in 2020 following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould, and has been accused by more than a dozen other women of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them. Depardieu denies wrongdoing, and called the essay ‘’beautiful.’’

Published Tuesday in the conservative-leaning Le Figaro, it was signed by figures including former first lady and singer Carla Bruni, Depardieu’s former partner Carole Bousquet, and actors Pierre Richard, Charlotte Rampling and Victoria Abril. Two dozen of the 56 signatories were women. Many are from Depardieu’s generation; he is 74.

A recent documentary outlined accusations of sexual misconduct by 16 women against Depardieu, and showed the actor making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea. The France-2 documentary prompted calls by some to stop airing Depardieu’s films, which include classics of modern French cinema.

In response, Tuesday’s essay says: ’’We cannot remain silent in the face of the lynching targeting him, the torrent of hate being dumped on his personality.

‘’When Gerard Depardieu is targeted this way, it is the art (of cinema) that is being attacked,’’ it said. ‘’France owes him so much. ... Depriving ourselves of this immense actor would be a drama, a defeat. The death of the art. Our art.’’

Paris lawmaker and feminist Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu said the signatories are experiencing a ‘’denial of reality.’’ She said she would have preferred for them to support initiatives against sexual violence instead.

’’They are refusing to see what this man did … because he is an artist,″ she told broadcaster France-Info.

Emmanuelle Dancourt, whose #MeTooMedia group supports sexual misconduct victims in the media industry, said on BFM television that the essay’s message is particularly painful for victims of sexual abuse by powerful men.

French President Emmanuel Macron also drew ire when he said last week that Depardieu ’’makes France proud.″

The recent documentary includes a segment where Depardieu is heard making crude sexual comments about a young girl riding a horse. Macron suggested that the segment could have been edited in a misleading way. France Televisions, which broadcast the documentary, later said that the segment in question was authenticated by a bailiff who viewed the raw footage.

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December 27, 2023 at 12:26AM

TV actor Kamar de los Reyes of 'One Life to Live' and 'Call of Duty' dies at 56

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Kamar de los Reyes, a television, movie and voice actor best known for playing a gang member-turned-cop in the soap “One Life to Live” and a villain in the video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II," has died in Los Angeles at 56, the family announced.

De los Reyes died Sunday following a brief battle with cancer, according to a statement from Lisa Goldberg, a publicist for de los Reyes’ wife, Sherri Saum.

In “One Life to Live,” de los Reyes starred as Antonio Vega, a former gang member who became a lawyer and then a cop, alongside Saum. In the popular video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II," he played the villain Raul Menendez. He also had roles in Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow,” ABC’s “The Rookie” and CW's “All American.”

The family statement said that at the time of his death, de los Reyes was filming “All American” — and had recently shot roles in Marvel’s upcoming “Daredevil” series and Hulu’s yet to be released “Washington Black,” starring Sterling K. Brown.

De los Reyes was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Las Vegas. According to a biography provided by the family, he caught the bug for acting when he arrived in Los Angeles in the late ’80s. Early roles include playing Pedro Quinn in the 1994 off-Broadway play, “Blade to the Heat,” and Ferdinand in director George C. Wolfe’s production of “The Tempest” for Shakespeare in the Park.

On the big screen, de los Reyes appeared in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” playing Watergate burglar Eugenio Martinez, as a secret service agent in “Salt," with Angelina Jolie, and in “The Cell” with Jennifer Lopez.

“De los Reyes lived in Los Angeles, however, his heart never left Puerto Rico,” the family statement said, adding that the actor had been active in the recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The actor is survived by wife Saum and three sons, Caylen, 26, and twins Michael and John, age 9.

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December 26, 2023 at 08:26AM

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6

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Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6:

Dec. 31: Actor Anthony Hopkins is 86. Actor Sarah Miles (“The Big Sleep”) is 82. Actor Barbara Carrera (“Never Say Never Again”) is 82. Guitarist Andy Summers of The Police is 81. Actor Ben Kingsley is 80. Singer Burton Cummings of The Guess Who is 76. Actor Tim Matheson is 76. Actor Joe Dallesandro (“The Limey”) is 75. Bassist Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith is 72. Actor James Remar (“Dexter”) is 70. Actor Bebe Neuwirth (“Madam Secretary,” “Cheers”) is 65. Singer Paul Westerberg is 64. Actor Val Kilmer is 64. Guitarist Ric Ivanisevich of Oleander is 61. Guitarist Scott Ian of Anthrax is 60. Actor Gong Li (2020’s “Mulan,” “Memories of a Geisha”) is 58. Singer-actor Joe McIntyre of New Kids on the Block is 51. Cellist Mikko Siren of Apocalyptica is 48. Singer Psy is 46. Drummer Bob Bryar (My Chemical Romance) is 44. Drummer Jason Sechrist of Portugal. The Man is 44. Actor Ricky Whittle (“American Gods”) is 44. Actor Erich Bergen (“Madam Secretary,” ″Jersey Boys”) is 38. Musician Drew Taggart of The Chainsmokers is 34.

Jan. 1: Actor Frank Langella is 86. Singer-guitarist Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish is 82. Comedian Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) is 81. Actor Rick Hurst (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 78. Rapper Grandmaster Flash is 66. Actor Renn Woods is 66. Actor Dedee Pfeiffer (“Cybill”) is 60. Actor Morris Chestnut (“The Brothers,” ″The Best Man”) is 55. Singer Tank is 48. Actor Eden Riegel (“The Young and the Restless”) is 43. Bassist Noah Sierota of Echosmith is 28.

Jan. 2: TV host Jack Hanna (“Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild”) is 77. Actor Wendy Phillips (“I Am Sam”) is 72. Actor Cynthia Sikes (“St. Elsewhere”) is 70. Actor Gabrielle Carteris (“Beverly Hills, 90210″) is 63. Actor Tia Carrere is 57. Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is 56. Model Christy Turlington is 55. Actor Taye Diggs (“The Best Man,” ″How Stella Got Her Groove Back”) is 53. Actor Renee Elise Goldsberry (Broadway’s “Hamilton”) is 53. Singer Doug Robb of Hoobastank is 49. Actor Dax Shepard (“Parenthood”) is 49. Sax player-guitarist Jerry DePizzo Jr. of O.A.R. is 45. Singer Kelton Kessee of Immature and of IMX is 43. Musician Ryan Merchant of Capital Cities is 43. Actor Kate Bosworth is 41. Actor Anthony Carrigan (“Barry,” “Gotham”) is 41. Musician Trombone Shorty is 38. Singer Bryson Tiller is 31.

Jan. 3: Actor Dabney Coleman is 92. Singer-songwriter Van Dyke Parks is 81. Singer Stephen Stills is 79. Bassist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin is 78. Actor Victoria Principal is 74. Actor Mel Gibson is 68. Actor Shannon Sturges (“Port Charles”) is 56. Jazz saxophonist James Carter is 55. Contemporary Christian singer Nichole Nordeman is 52. Musician Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk is 49. Actor Jason Marsden (“Ally McBeal”) is 49. Actor Danica McKellar (“The Wonder Years”) is 49. Actor Nicholas Gonzalez (“The O.C.”) is 48. Singer and former “American Idol” contestant Kimberley Locke is 46. Actor Kate Levering (“Drop Dead Diva”) is 45. Actor Nicole Beharie (“Sleepy Hollow”) is 39. Drummer Mark Pontius (Foster The People) is 39. Singer Lloyd is 38. Guitarist Nash Overstreet of Hot Chelle Rae is 38. Actor Florence Pugh (“Don’t Worry Darling,” “Little Women”) is 28.

Jan. 4: Actor Barbara Rush (“Peyton Place”) is 97. Actor Dyan Cannon is 85. Country singer Kathy Forester of the Forester Sisters is 69. Guitarist Bernard Sumner of New Order (and Joy Division) is 68. Actor Ann Magnuson (“Anything But Love”) is 68. Country singer Patty Loveless is 67. Actor Julian Sands (“24”) is 66. Singer Michael Stipe of R.E.M. is 64. Actor Dave Foley (“NewsRadio,” ″Kids in the Hall”) is 61. Actor Dot Jones (“Glee”) is 60. Actor Rick Hearst (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) is 59. Former Pogues singer Cait O’Riordan is 59. Actor Julia Ormond is 59. Country singer Deana Carter is 58. Harmonica player Benjamin Darvill of Crash Test Dummies is 57. Actor Josh Stamberg (“The Affair,” “Drop Dead Diva”) is 54. Actor Jeremy Licht (“Valerie”) is 53. Actor Damon Gupton (“Empire”) is 51. Actor Jill Marie Jones (“Girlfriends”) is 49. Actor D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”) is 44. Singer Spencer Chamberlain of Underoath is 41. Comedian-actor Charlyne Yi (“House,” “Steven Universe”) is 38. Singer-actor Coco Jones is 26.

Jan. 5: Actor Robert Duvall is 93. Singer-bassist Athol Guy of The Seekers is 84. Former talk show host Charlie Rose is 82. Actor Diane Keaton is 78. Actor Ted Lange (“The Love Boat”) is 76. Guitarist Chris Stein of Blondie is 74. Actor Pamela Sue Martin (“The Poseidon Adventure,” ″Dynasty”) is 71. Actor Clancy Brown (“Highlander,” ″SpongeBob SquarePants”) is 65. Actor Suzy Amis (“Titanic”) is 62. Actor Ricky Paull Goldin (“All My Children,” “Guiding Light”) is 59. Actor Vinnie Jones (TV’s “Deception,” film’s “X-Men: The Last Stand”) is 59. Drummer Kate Schellenbach (Luscious Jackson) is 58. Actor Joe Flanigan (“Stargate Atlantis,” ″Sisters”) is 57. Dancer and talk show host Carrie Ann Inaba (“The Talk,” “Dancing with the Stars”) is 56. Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age is 56. Singer Marilyn Manson is 55. Actor Shea Whigham (“Fast and Furious 6,” ″Boardwalk Empire”) is 55. Actor Derek Cecil (“House of Cards,” ″Treme”) is 51. Actor-comedian Jessica Chaffin (“Man with a Plan”) is 50. Actor Bradley Cooper is 49. Actor January Jones (“Mad Men”) is 46. Actor Brooklyn Sudano (“My Wife and Kids”) is 43. Actor Franz Drameh (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) is 31.

Jan. 6: Singer Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds is 73. Country singer Jett Williams is 71. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson (“Mr. Bean”) is 69. Singer Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge is 65. Chef Nigella Lawson is 64. Singer Eric Williams of BLACKstreet is 64. Actor Norman Reedus (“The Walking Dead”) is 55. TV personality Julie Chen is 54. Actor Danny Pintauro (“Who’s The Boss”) is 48. Actor Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel”) is 43. Actor Eddie Redmayne (“Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,” ″The Theory of Everything”) is 42. Comedian Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”) is 40. Actor Diona Reasonover (“NCIS”) is 40. Singer Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys is 38.

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Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6
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December 26, 2023 at 02:41AM

Taylor Swift celebrates Christmas Day by watching Travis Kelce and Chiefs play Las Vegas

Repost Ent dalamlima.blogspot.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Pop superstar Taylor Swift walked into Arrowhead Stadium alongside Santa Claus on Monday to watch her boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce as they played the Las Vegas Raiders in a Christmas Day showdown.

Swift and Kelce have become one of the hottest celebrity couples in the world since they began dating early in the season, and the 12-time Grammy Award-winner has watched her boyfriend numerous times at Arrowhead Stadium.

This time she showed up in a festive red shirt under a black jacket with St. Nick by her side.

Swift wasn't the only celebrity in Arrowhead Stadium on Monday. Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark, the reigning AP women's player of the year, was on the sideline for pregame warmups. She swapped jerseys with Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice.

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AP NFL: https://ift.tt/RMeUtGp

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December 26, 2023 at 02:26AM

China approves 105 online games after draft curbs trigger massive losses

Repost Ent dalamlima.blogspot.com

BANGKOK -- China’s press and publications authority has approved 105 new online games, saying it fully supports the industry after proposed curbs caused massive losses last week for investors in major games makers.

The National Press and Publication Administration issued a statement on its WeChat social media account Monday saying the approvals by the Game Working Committee of China Music and Digital Association were “positive signals that support the prosperity and healthy development of the online game industry.”

Tencent's “Counter War: Future” and NetEase’s “Firefly Assault” were among games approved.

Draft guidelines for curbs on online gaming had caused share prices of video game makers like Tencent and Netease to plunge on Friday, causing losses of tens of billions of dollars and dragging Chinese benchmarks lower.

The administration's guidelines said online games would be banned from offering incentives for daily log-ins or purchases. Other restrictions include limiting how much users can recharge and issuing warnings for “irrational consumption behavior."

On Friday, Netease's Nasdaq-traded shares fell 16.1% while it's Hong Kong-traded shares sank 25%. Tencent's closed 12% lower. Huya Inc., a smaller online games maker, lost 10.7% on the New York Stock Exchange. Overall, the companies lost tens of billions of dollars in market value.

Hong Kong’s market was closed Monday for the Christmas holiday. Share prices in Shanghai were flat.

The Press and Publication Administration said that in 2023, 1,075 game version numbers had been issued, of which 977 were domestically produced and 98 were imported.

It also cited a “2023 China Game Industry Report” that it said showed sales revenue for the domestic online games market exceeded 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) in 2023, with the number of people playing the games reaching 668 million.

“The Game Working Committee hopes that member units will take this opportunity to launch more high-quality products, promote high-quality development of the online game industry, and contribute to promoting cultural prosperity and development and building a culturally powerful country,” it said.

China has taken various measures against the online games sector in recent years.

In 2021, regulators limited the amount of time children could spend on games to just three hours a week, expressing concern about addiction to video gaming. Approvals of new video games were suspended for about eight months but resumed in April 2022 as a broader crackdown on the entire technology industry was eased.

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China approves 105 online games after draft curbs trigger massive losses
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December 25, 2023 at 05:41PM