No budget? No worries As Schwarzenegger Hits Vegas
Judy Lin
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – How is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger killing time between budget negotiations? Vegas, baby!
Schwarzenegger said “Hasta la vista” to his day job for a few hours Wednesday, jetting off to Las Vegas to help friend Sylvester Stallone promote his the new action flick “The Expendables.”
The governor makes a cameo appearance.
Schwarzenegger posted a video on Twitter Thursday showing him at a red-carpet event with Stallone the previous night. He also posted a picture of the two eating sushi.
Last week, Schwarzenegger attended the Hollywood premiere of “The Expendables” at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, where he was met by members of a state workers union upset over his furlough plan.
They held up signs reading: “State Workers Are Not Expendable.”
China Film ‘Aftershock’ Rules Domestic Box OfficeBEIJING (AP) – Disaster drama “Aftershock” has set the all-time domestic box office record for a Chinese film with 532 million yuan ($79 million) in ticket sales, its distributors say.
The Feng Xiaogang-directed drama overtook star-studded propaganda movie “The Founding of a Republic,” which earned 420 million yuan ($62 million), according to distributors Huayi Brothers Media Corporation.
China’s all-time box office champion is James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi epic “Avatar,” which raked in $204 million this year, smashing the previous record held by disaster film “2012.”
China’s box office takings surged 86 percent to $714 million in the first half of the year, lifted by the stunning success of “Avatar” and other popular American imports, along with a boom in the number of screens and rising disposable incomes in major cities. The final year-end box office take is expected to hit $1.5 billion.
However, anxious to protect the revenues of dome stic studios, China effectively limits the country to 20 foreign imports a year.
Although little known in the West, Feng has directed a string of Chinese hits, including the comedies “If You Are the One” and “Big Shot’s Funeral,” along with the Chinese Civil War saga “Assembly.”
“Aftershock” portrays one of the world’s worst natural disasters, the 1976 earthquake that devastated the northern Chinese city of Tangshan killing more than 240,000 people. The movie examines its aftermath through the story of a present-day mother’s three-decade journey to an emotional reunion with the daughter she thought she had lost to the disaster.
Released on July 22, its 135 million Chinese yuan ($20 million) budget – about half provided by the Tangshan city government – was relatively hefty for a Chinese production.
Also released in IMAX format, the movie was a technical breakthrough for the Chinese film industry, drawing on help from visual effects experts from South Korea and the post-production division of French media company Technicolor.
New Zealand’s Weta Workshop – the Oscar-winning design company behind the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy – advised on miniature models that doubled for 1976 Tangshan.
Hollywood Comes to China in Celebrity AuctionLOS ANGELES (AP) – China is getting a piece of Hollywood. Actually, make that hundreds of pieces.
Julien’s Auctions says it will bring the nation its first celebrity memorabilia auction on Oct. 9.
The auction at Ponte 16 in Macau, China, will feature items from Madonna, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee and Marilyn Monroe.
Among the noteworthy lots is a lock of Presley’s hair, Monroe’s size-36C black-lace bra, Jackson’s stage costumes, including a black crystal-encrusted glove, and a dress worn by Princess Diana.
Highlights will be exhibited in Japan and Chile before the October auction.
Bids will be accepted in person, by phone and online.
‘Lost’ Alums Emerson, O’Quinn Pursuing TV projectLauri Neff
NEW YORK (AP) – Michael Emerson confirms he and former fellow “Lost” star Terry O’Quinn are shopping around for ideas for a TV show.
Emerson says they both want something more lighthearted than “Lost.” He hopes the show can acknowledge their “age and frailty.” Emerson says he envisions a show where, if their characters get hit in the face, they “don’t get up for a month.”
The 55-year-old Emerson and 58-year-old O’Quinn are both up for best supporting actor Emmy Awards.
Emerson says he is aware a segment from the “Lost” final season DVD was leaked recently. Even though he stars in it, however, Emerson says he still hasn’t seen it.
The actor, who played Ben Linus in the ABC show that ended in May, says he does not really get the “whole I-have-to-see-it-before-the-rest-of-the-world mania.”
‘Twilight,’ ‘Vampire Diaries’ Dominate Teen ChoiceDerrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (AP) – Maybe they should switch the name to the Vampire Choice Awards?
Bloodsuckers struck another vein at the Teen Choice Awards with “The Twilight Saga” ruling Sunday’s ceremony with 12 wins, including choice fantasy movie and villain, while “The Vampire Diaries” sucked up seven surfboard-shaped trophies at the taped ceremony, which is scheduled to air Monday at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.
“This is what this night is all about,” said a gothed-out Katy Perry. “Vampires.”
The goofy “California Gurls” singer hosted the show with the male stars of “Glee.” Besides going goth, her costume changes included donning hippie garb next to Kevin McHale, being crowned prom queen with prom king Chris Colfer, geeking out with Mark Salling and landing a split as a cheerleader alongside Cory Monteith.
“Tonight is my chance to go back to high school,” said Perry, “although this time people actually like me.”
Voters continued to real ly like “Twilight” stars Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson, who were present to accept their multiple awards, seemingly handed out like candy at the freewheeling ceremony. Of Pattinson’s four wins, one was actually not related to the supernatural saga: choice drama movie actor for “Remember Me.”
“It’s great to win something outside of ‘Twilight,'” said Pattinson.
Throughout the show, funnyman Ken Jeong of “Community” and the upcoming bloodsucker satire “Vampires Suck” lingered inside a coffin on the side of the stage at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Gibson Amphitheatre. Jeong, dressed as his vampire character Daro, only emerged to introduce presenters to the crowd of “bloody teens.”
The awards, which honor celebrities in television, film, music and sports, were selected by over 85 million votes cast online. Other multiple winners included “Gossip Girl,” Ellen DeGeneres, “Pretty Little Liars” and “Wizards of Waverly Place” star Selena Gomez, who picked up trophies in both TV and music categories.
The extravaganza was punctuated with several silly moments. Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, winners in the reality show and reality stars categories for “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” were joined by their rarely seen older sister: Cougar Kardashian, a draged-up George Lopez sporting a dress, wig and pair of heels.
“Oh my God,” exclaimed Lopez. “I got a blister the size of Justin Bieber on my heel.”
The teen sensation wasn’t in attendance at Sunday’s show to retrieve his four awards though. Instead, footage was shown of Shaquille O’Neal presenting Bieber with his trophies for choice breakout artist, male artist, summer music star and pop album at his concert last month in Phoenix before Bieber crooned “U Smile.”
Taylor Swift also won four awards but wasn’t present to accept for choice female country artist, country song for “Fifteen,” country album for “Fearless” and breakout movie actress for “Valentin e’s Day.” Swift, however, did appear in a taped segment in which she mounted one of her surfboard-shaped trophies in a lake.
Winners on hand included choice action-adventure movie actor Channing Tatum for “G.I. Joe” and choice drama movie actress Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side.” While accepting her trophy, Bullock was interrupted by her “The Proposal” co-star Betty White, who shared the choice movie dance award with her for their tribal routine.
“I hate to blind-side you, but I’ve been coming to this show for years,” interjected a grooving White. “If you think you’re fitting in, think again, dear.”
Before the ceremony, sweaty celebs strutted down a red carpet lined with wall gardens bursting with strawberries and other organic goodies. Also positioned along the carpet were fans – the ones that circulate air, not obsessive screams – powered by models pedaling exercise bikes to keep attendees feeling cool.
Levi Johnston, who recently called off his engagement – again – with Bristol Palin, the daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, walked the red carpet with singer Brittani Senser. Johnston said his relationship with Palin as the parents of their toddler son, Tripp, is going well despite their break-up.
“We are doing great,” said Johnston. “I talk to her every day. We keep in touch. Even though with us broken off, it is like we are together. We found a way to work with each other. Things are going good.”
Associated Press Television producer Marcela Isaza contributed to this report.
Netflix To Stream Paramount, Lionsgate, MGM MoviesMichael Liedtke
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Netflix Inc. will pay nearly $1 billion during the next five years for the online streaming rights to movies from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM in a deal that could help convert even more people to the idea of getting their entertainment piped over high-speed Internet connections.
The agreement announced Tuesday marks another breakthrough in Netflix’s bid to stock its online streaming library with more compelling material, so it can keep its subscription service relevant as on-demand video systems supplant its core business of renting DVDs through the mail. The online streaming push also helps the company reduce its postage bill for mailing DVDs.
The deal also makes the three studios’ joint pay TV venture, Epix, immediately profitable.
Streaming movies provide more instant gratification than renting DVDs through the mail or from a store because the video can be delivered within 30 seconds over a high-speed connection. The v ideo isn’t stored on the computer hard drives owned by subscribers; it’s just shown on a connected device, such as video game consoles. The concept has become more popular as more households have gotten high-speed Internet access and Netflix has obtained the streaming rights to more recent movies and TV shows.
Analysts believe the influx of newer movies available for Internet streaming will enable Netflix to maintain its rapid growth of the past two years
Epix, a pay TV channel launched last October by Viacom Inc.’s Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., holds subscription pay TV rights to new releases and movies from its partners’ libraries. The pay TV rights typically start about a year after a movie’s theatrical release. Netflix is getting the rights to stream movies 90 days after they appear on Epix, which is offered through subscription TV providers such as Dish Network Corp. and Cox Communications Inc.
The first crop of movies to be released in Netflix’s streaming library on Sept. 1 include “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” “The Pink Panther 2” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and all of “The Godfather” movies. Over the next few months, “Iron Man 2” and “Star Trek” will also be available for streaming.
The movies will be available for streaming on Netflix for 16 or 17 months, after which the rights will shift to basic cable channels.
Netflix now has movie streaming rights that cover about 46 percent of new releases at the U.S. box office, said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer. He says that’s comparable to what Time Warner Inc.’s HBO gets for its pay TV channel.
Just over 60 percent of Netflix’s subscribers streamed at least 15 minutes of video in the April-June period, up from 36 percent at the end of last year.
Mark Greenberg, the president of Epix, said that the channel had discussed a digital distribution deal with many potential partners including the online video site Hulu, Amazon.com Inc., and Google Inc.’s YouTube, but the Netflix deal made the most sense because it had healthy subscriber revenues.
“We’re putting our bet on Netflix. They’ve done a great job and they’re a great brand,” Greenberg said.
Mailing DVDs remains Netflix’s bread and butter, so the Internet isn’t in immediate danger of choking from Netflix’ expanded online streaming. Still, it represents the company’s growth engine. Netflix management believes the streaming service is the main reason Netflix has added more than 6.5 million subscribers in the past two years.
Netflix, which is based in Los Gatos, Calif., offers unlimited Internet streaming along with DVD mailing for as little as $9 per month, a price that has held steady even as the company has substantially increased its spending to expand its online library beyond 20,000 titles, up from 2,000 just a few years ago.
The company spent $117 million on streaming rights during the first half of this year, up from $31 million during the first six months of 2009.
The new deal adds roughly $200 million a year to that tab. That’s on top of the more than $100 million annually that Netflix will pay Relativity Media LLC for the streaming right s to 12 to 15 movies annually starting in 2011. Netflix finalized that exclusive deal last month.
Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk estimates Netflix will spend $360 million on Internet streaming rights next year. But Sarandos said his company can afford those costs because more streaming means fewer DVDs to mail out, thereby reducing the company’s postage costs, which now run about $600 million a year.
Viacom owns about a 50 percent stake in Epix, while Lions Gate holds about 31 percent and MGM has about 19 percent. Epix lost $90 million in the first half of the year. Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer told analyst Tuesday that combined with other distribution deals, the Netflix licensing fees will make Epix profitable.
Michael Liedtke reported from San Francisco.
MySpace Music Unveils ‘Romeo’ Video App
Ryan Nakashima
LOS ANGELES (AP) – MySpace is further defining itself as a place to find music rather than a catchall social networking site as it launched on Thursday a music video player that plays random videos to match users’ mood.
The MySpace Music Romeo application lets users select from 15 genres such as pop or hip hop and 13 moods including “chill,” ”naughty” and “studying.” Videos play automatically, interspersed with artist images and an advertisement every 15 minutes or so.
Users can “love” videos (thus, the name Romeo), and then get more videos like the ones they choose. But they won’t be able to search for specific songs.
The back-end technology that helps determine recommendations is provided by Australian company We Are Hunted, which scours the Internet for artists and songs with the greatest buzz and mixes that with users’ personal tastes.
According to MySpace Music President Courtney Holt, the randomness of the service will prompt us ers to discover new artists.
“Inevitably if you use this application, you will find an artist that you’ve never heard of before that you will fall in love with,” he said.
The Romeo application launches both as a free app for Apple Inc.’s iPad and as an application that can be played from computer Web browsers.
It won’t be available on the iPhone’s small screen, as Holt said MySpace wanted to maintain the best video-watching experience possible. Recording companies, which have partnered with MySpace on the MySpace Music joint venture, also have been shying away from free, on-the-go offerings that could sap sales on iTunes. Instead, recording companies have been pushing mobile services that offer $10-per-month music subscription plans intended to boost consumer spending overall.
MySpace, a unit of News Corp., plans to launch several mobile apps in the coming months amid an overhaul to freshen its look and focus more on its core under-35 audience. MySpac e, with 120 million users globally, hopes to stay relevant with a younger crowd rather than compete with Facebook, whose user base has ballooned to half a billion and skews older.
Ben Quayle’s New Ad: Obama Worst President EverMichelle Price
PHOENIX (AP) – The son of former Vice President Dan Quayle unveiled a TV campaign ad Wednesday in his bid for Congress in which he calls President Barack Obama “the worst president in history” and tells Arizona voters that he wants to “knock the hell” out of Washington.
Ben Quayle’s provocative ad, aimed at voters in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District ahead of the Aug. 24 GOP primary, was released amid allegations that he posted items under an alias for a racy social website a few years ago.
In the campaign ad, the 33-year-old Quayle faces the camera directly and begins by saying, “Barack Obama is the worst president in history.” Quayle’s generation will “inherit a weakened country,” he says.
He goes on to implore voters to send him to Congress: “I love Arizona. I was raised right. Somebody has to go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place.”
The ad was to begin airing Wednesday on Phoenix-area TV stations, and was posted on the Internet. Quayle’s campaign would not reveal the amount of the ad buy.
Quayle, who is a lawyer and managing director of a Scottsdale, Ariz., investment firm, has never held elected office. But he has emerged as the top fundraiser in the crowded field of 10, and profits from name recognition that comes with being the son of Dan Quayle, the former Indiana senator and vice president under George H.W. Bush.
Recent controversy over the racy website, which was aimed at detailing Scottsdale’s nightlife, has livened up the race, with Quayle’s campaign this week calling allegations that he once was heavily involved in the site a “smear of the sort that has been trafficked by several of the candidates in this campaign for months.” The campaign suggested the allegations, first reported by Politico, might have come from a publicist for one of Quayle’s competitors.
Quayle has admitted that he knew the site’s founder, Nik Richie, and once referred him to a lawyer. W hen asked Tuesday whether he wrote for Richie’s site, Quayle told The Associated Press that he “wrote a couple of satirical and fictional pieces for a satirical website” but that he quit doing so once the website shifted its editorial direction away from satire.
Quayle said he couldn’t recall what his posts involved or when he made them.
Richie said Quayle contributed items in 2007 under the alias “Brock Landers.”
“He was the guy, that you know, people would send pictures to of hot chicks, and he would put together who he thought was that hottest girl and why,” said Richie, whose legal name is Hooman Karamian.
Quayle hopes to replace retiring Republican Rep. John Shadegg in the GOP-leaning district that covers parts of Phoenix and Scottsdale and some rural areas to the north.
Jaguar Rescued From Poachers Stars in Brazil Movie
SAO PAULO (AP) – An endangered spotted jaguar rescued from poachers is one of the stars of a soon-to-released feature film shot in the Brazilian Amazon, officials said Thursday.
The 15-month-old jungle cat named Catarina plays the mother of a lost cub found by two children in “Taina 3” – an adventure story about an 8-year-old Indian girl who dreams of becoming a warrior and battles a timber smuggler bent on exploiting the rainforest.
Natalia Lima of Ibama, the enforcement branch of the Environment Ministry, said agents in the city of Coari rescued Catarina in March from poachers who intended to sell her to foreign tourists for 30,000 reals ($17,000). Lima did not give further details of the rescue or identify the poachers or tourists.
The jaguar spent four months being cared for at Ibama headquarters in Manaus and was then taken to Santarem in the state of Para for filming.
Catarina is an “extremely docile animal who loves being around people, especially children,” said “Taina 3” producer Virginia Limberger. “It was very easy working with her.”
After wrapping up her role in the movie this week, Catarina was taken to her new home, a shelter run by NEX, a non-governmental organization in the state of Goias whose name plays on the words “no extinction.”
Cristina Gianni, the agency’s president, said NEX is also caring for a male jaguar named Chico.
“I hope he and Catarina will form the perfect couple and reproduce,” Gianni said.
Scarlett’s Dresses In Bad Shape, Need Repairs
Jim Vertuno
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – It’s time to find out if fans of “Gone With the Wind” frankly give a damn about the fabulous dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the multiple Oscar-winning Civil War drama.
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin is trying to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O’Hara’s now tattered gowns from the 1939 film.
The Ransom Center is planning an exhibit to mark the movie’s 75th anniversary in 2014, but at the moment most of them are too fragile to go on display, according to Jill Morena, the center’s collection assistant for costumes and personal effects.
“There are areas where the fabric has been worn through, fragile seams and other problems,” Morena said. “These dresses have been under a lot of stress.”
The Ransom Center acquired the costumes – including O’Hara’s green curtain dress, green velvet gown, burgundy ball gown, blue velvet night gown and her wedding dress – in the mid-1980s as part o f the collection of “Gone With the Wind” producer David O. Selznick. By then, they had already been through decades of traveling displays in theaters and had been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
“Film costumes weren’t meant to last,” Morena said. “They are only meant to last through the duration of filming. You won’t find them to be as finished as if you bought something off the rack.”
The costumes are among the most famous in Hollywood history and they played a key role in one of the most popular films ever. “Gone With the Wind” won eight Acadamy Awards.
Yet the green curtain dress – symbolic of O’Hara’s determination to survive – has loose seams and needs structural reinforcement. Others have suffered abrasion and areas where the fabric is nearly worn through.
Leigh wore the curtain dress in three scenes: the jail scene in which Scarlett asks Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, for financial help; as she walks through the str eets of Atlanta with Mammy; and when she meets Frank Kennedy.
Talking about his costume designs for the film in William Pratt’s 1977 book “Scarlett Fever,” designer Walter Plunkett was modest.
“I don’t think it was my best work or even the biggest thing I did,” Plunkett said. “But that picture, of course, will go on forever, and that green dress, because it makes a story point, is probably the most famous costume in the history of motion pictures.”
Donations will be used to restore the dresses and buy protective housing and custom mannequins for the 2014 exhibit, Morena said. The Ransom Center also hopes to send the dresses out on loan.
Donations can be made on the Ransom Center website.
Stallone Premieres “The Expendables” in London
Joana Mateus
LONDON (AP) – Sylvester Stallone premiered his new movie “The Expendables” in London Monday after touring two other European capitals with some of his action-hero studded cast.
Dolph Lundgren and Jason Statham, two of a cast packed with 80’s action stars, joined Stallone at Leicester Square’s Odeon theater red-carpet premiere, lined with rows of fans screaming “Rocky! Rocky!”
“It’s unbelievable,” Stallone grinned. “These guys weren’t even born (then)!”
Though some might question the vitality of a cast largely made up of men well over 40 – a few in their mid-60’s – Stallone said “The Expendables” was a return to authentic action characters in an era dominated by special effects.
“It’s a rapport with the audience. It’s just that you believe what you see and that guy is bigger than the show,” the star said, adding “every generation has to create their own hero and that’s why you have the superhero, it’s evolved. But after “Avatar” it’s li ke, ‘Stop, let’s go back to basics’.”
The actor, best-known for “Rambo” and “Rocky” wrote, directed and starred in the film, in which he leads a gang of mercenaries who get caught up in a plot to overthrow the murderous dictator of a fictitious nation.
The story serves as a backdrop for countless explosions and fight scenes between Sly’s team, which includes Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, former pro wrestler Steve Austin and Ultimate Fighting champ Randy Couture, plus cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Anyone looking to question “The Expendables'” street credentials only needs to glance at the former Rambo star himself for proof that the big screen fights were real enough; he had his neck broken during filming.
The film hits theaters in the U.S. Friday and then opens around the world.
