October 7, 2011
‘Simpsons’ actor: Cut my salary to keep show going
NEW YORK (AP) – One of the voice actors on “The Simpsons” says he’s willing to cut his salary by 70 percent to keep the show going in exchange for a taste of the production’s profits.
Harry Shearer is one of six actors who provide voices for the animated characters on Fox’s Sunday night show. He said Friday that producers turned down his offer.
Twentieth Century Fox Television spokesman Chris Alexander says the company will not comment.
The negotiations are said to threaten the future of the comedy, which entered its 23rd season last month.
Shearer provides the voices for the characters of Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and others.
Cars.com Ad Buy in Super Bowl XLVI
CHICAGO – Cars.com said Friday that it is returning to the Big Game for the fifth consecutive year. With one 30-second commercial during the third quarter adding to its ‘Confidence’ campaign. DDB Chicago, the site’s advertising agency of record, will develop the spots.
“Advertising during the largest television event of the year has been a successful awareness-building strategy for us over the last four years,” said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com. “We see this year’s commercial as another important investment in our brand, translating the enormous audience into new Cars.com customers and opportunities for advertisers.”
Early home movie test prompts Cinemark threat
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Cinemark, the nation’s third-largest movie theater chain, is threatening to boycott the release of Universal Pictures’ “Tower Heist” if the studio goes ahead with a test to rent the movie to home viewers for $60 a pop three weeks after its debut in theaters.
Cinemark says it is in its best business interests to decline to screen the film at its nearly 300 theaters, which operate under the brands Cinemark, Century Theatres, CineArts and Tinseltown.
Universal, a division of Comcast Corp., is aiming to make up for lost DVD sales. But theater chains are against new offerings that could cut into box-office ticket sales.
Universal announced Wednesday it would test the offering to Comcast digital cable subscribers in Atlanta and Portland, Ore., next month.
Aussie band loses appeal on ‘Down Under’ ruling
By Kristen Gelineau
SYDNEY (AP) – Australian rockers Men at Work on Friday lost their final court bid to prove they did not steal the distinctive flute riff of their 1980s hit “Down Under” from a children’s campfire song.
The High Court of Australia denied the band’s bid to appeal a federal court judge’s earlier ruling that the group had copied the signature flute melody of “Down Under” from the song “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.”
“Kookaburra,” a song about Australia’s famous bird of the same name, was written more than 70 years ago by Australian teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition. The song went on to become a favorite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada. The wildly popular “Down Under” remains an unofficial anthem for Australia.
Sinclair died in 1988, but publishing company Larrikin Music – which now holds the copyright for “Kookaburra” – filed a copyright lawsuit in 2009.
Last year, Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson ruled that the “Down Under” flute riff replicated a substantial part of Sinclair’s song. The judge later ordered Men at Work’s recording company, EMI Songs Australia, and “Down Under” songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert to pay 5 percent of royalties earned from the song since 2002 and from its future earnings.
The court didn’t specify what the 5 percent penalty translates to in dollars. Larrikin wasn’t able to seek royalties earned before 2002 because of a statute of limitations.
Lawyers for Men at Work’s recording companies maintained the band hadn’t copied anything, and vowed to fight the ruling. But Friday’s decision from the High Court ends the band’s chance to appeal.
“Larrikin welcomes the decision and looks forward to resolving the remaining issues between the parties,” Adam Simpson, a lawyer for Larrikin, said in an email.
Mark Bamford, a lawyer for EMI, called the High Court’s decision disappointing.
“Down Under” and the album it was on, “Business As Usual,” reached No. 1 on the Australian, American and British charts in early 1983. That year, Men at Work won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Isabelle Huppert teams up with Asian directors
By Sam Kim
BUSAN, South Korea (AP) – French actress Isabelle Huppert says curiosity has drawn her to Asia and helped her discover the region’s innovative talents.
Huppert made inroads into Asia as an actress this year when she starred in Filipino director Brillante Mendoza’s “Captured.” In the thriller, she plays a hostage taken by a group of terrorists.
Huppert has appeared in more than 90 productions since making her screen debut in 1972. She received the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her 2001 role in “The Piano Teacher.”
She told reporters Friday that she is now working with South Korean director Hong Sang-soo on a new film.
“Since the very beginning, I’ve been attracted to going on the road,” she said on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival. “I was never willing to stay in my country. I wanted to travel.”
Huppert said she noticed a “kind of proximity” between French and South Korean movies when she discovered Hong’s “Woman Is the Future of Man,” a satirical 2004 movie about two men and their mutual former girlfriend.
Huppert said she began to approach Asia “out of curiosity” and is impressed by its filmmakers’ “capacity to invent.”
“It’s alive. It’s vivid,” she said.
Asian films have been gaining international prominence with the success of directors like China’s Zhang Yimou, South Korea’s Park Chan-wook and Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Huppert is among the most-nominated actors in France’s annual Cesar competition, comparable to the Academy Awards, and was head of the Cannes Film Festival jury in 2009. Earlier this year, she was honored with the Stockholm Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award.
Huppert is one of dozens of guests adding to the glamor of the nine-day Busan film festival that kicked off Thursday.
Korean War still haunts SKorea’s top filmmaker
By Sam Kim
BUSAN, South Korea (AP) – The Korean War ended nearly 60 years ago, but it still haunts South Korea’s most celebrated filmmaker.
Speaking in an interview Friday on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival, Im Kwon-taek said he did not imagine he would be so successful when he was a boy selling combat boots on the streets of Busan while the city was besieged by North Korean forces in a 1950 attack.
“The brutal scenes of the war are still hard for me to swallow,” Im said, recalling the 1950-53 war that has left Korea divided between north and south to this day.
Im said his cinematic philosophies have kept changing since he shot his first film in 1962, but he has devoted his decades-long career to restoring a sense of humanity through movies.
Winner of a best director award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for “Chihwaseon” – a movie about a 19th-century Korean painter – the 76-year-old is considered the most prolific and respected of South Korean filmmakers.
Im said that ideologies sparked the Korean War, “but we gained nothing but devastation and a line that still divides us.”
“Humans deserve to live like humans. I have tried to deliver the message that no ideology is worth the loss of humanity.”
Tension along the military demarcation between North and South Korea still runs high. It intensified when North Korea bombarded a front-line South Korean island last year and killed four people. South Korea also holds North Korea responsible for the sinking of a warship that left 46 sailors dead last year.
Im has received numerous awards at home and abroad and has made more than 100 movies in his career. But he said suffering from the Korean War is so deeply engraved in him that he is doubtful he can make a film that can fairly portray the conflict. Instead, he encouraged younger directors to tackle the Korean War, saying they can be more objective.
During the nine-day festival, Im will be joined by other internationally acclaimed directors like France’s Luc Besson, Japan’s Shunji Iwai and Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and movie stars like South Korea’s Jang Dong-gun, Japan’s Joe Odagiri and China’s Tang Wei, according to organizers.
The Busan International Film Festival will close next Friday with Japanese director Masato Harada’s “Chronicle of My Mother.”
Tipster in Hollywood publicist murder wants rewardLOS ANGELES (AP) – The tipster who led police to the killer of a Hollywood publicist last year is suing to collect the $125,000 in reward money that he has been unable to get from the two men who offered it.
In the suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the tipster, identified only as John Doe, said Harold Matzner and Michael Levine, two friends of victim Ronni Chasen, have reneged on their promises to pay $100,000 and $25,000, respectively, for information solving the case.
Chasen, 64, was driving home through Beverly Hills from a movie premiere party on Nov. 16, 2010, when she was fatally shot in her car. The hit-style killing in sedate Beverly Hills shocked Hollywood circles.
Police had few leads until a tipster called “America’s Most Wanted” with the name of Harold Martin Smith, a career criminal. Doe said he lived in the same Hollywood apartment complex as Smith and statements that Smith made to him led him to conclude that Smith committed the crime.
“America’s Most Wanted” passed the tip to Beverly Hills police. When police confronted Smith at the apartment building on Dec. 1, 2010, he fatally shot himself.
Detectives definitively closed the case in July, concluding that Smith was indeed the killer and acted alone in what was likely a bungled robbery attempt.
In a letter to Doe’s attorney included as an exhibit in the lawsuit, police Sgt. Michael Publicker wrote that Doe’s “sole assistance” led to Smith’s identification.
Despite that, Matzner and Levine have refused to pay the reward they offered, said the suit, which accuses them of fraud and breach of contract.
Matzner, who is chairman of the Palm Springs Film Festival, told the Palm Springs Desert Sun that he will not pay the reward because Smith was not arrested and convicted as the reward terms stipulated. He said he’ll donate the money instead to a charity.
Jobs said little about pancreatic cancer struggleMarilynn Marchione, Chief Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Steve Jobs managed to live more than seven years with a rare form of pancreatic cancer that grows more slowly than the common kind. But his need for a liver transplant two years ago was a bad sign that his troubles with the disease probably were not over.
The Apple founder long kept information on his illness behind a firewall, and no new details emerged immediately after his death.
However, medical experts unconnected with his care say Jobs most likely needed the transplant because his cancer came back or spread. They said his death could have been from cancer, the new liver not working, or complications from immune-suppressing medicines to prevent organ rejection.
A liver transplant can cure Jobs’ type of cancer, but “if it were to come back, it’s usually in one to two years,” said Dr. Michael Pishvaian, a gastrointestinal cancer specialist at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Jobs declared he was cured after surgery in 2004 for an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, a much more treatable form of pancreatic cancer than the more common form of the disease that killed actor Patrick Swayze two years ago.
But the Apple chief never revealed whether the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes or liver, or how extensive his surgery was. Many doctors speculated he had a Whipple procedure, in which part of the pancreas, part of the small intestine and in some cases part of the stomach are removed and the digestive system is reconstructed.
“It is a big operation but it can be performed very safely by experienced surgeons at experienced centers,” said Dr. Steven Libutti, director of the Montefiore-Einstein Center for Cancer Care in New York City.
Several years later, Jobs was dramatically thinner and gaunt. In January 2009, he attributed those problems to a hormone imbalance and said there was a simple treatment for it. A few weeks later, he went on a medical leave and then had a liver transplant that was kept secret for two months.
Even then, Jobs would not say why the transplant was needed, though doctors said spread of his cancer to the liver was the likely explanation.
Usually transplants aren’t done for people with cancer, but “there is some support for the idea that a liver transplant can be curative” for a neuroendocrine tumor as long as the cancer has not spread beyond the liver, Pishvaian said.
Average survival for people with neuroendocrine tumors that have spread is seven to eight years, and some patients have survived 20 to 30 years, said Dr. Martin Heslin, cancer surgery chief at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
It was not to be for Jobs.
In January, he announced his third and final leave of absence, and resigned in August.
$60 home movie? Sure, but it’s still in theaters
By Ryan Nakashima, Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Movie studio Universal Pictures and its new parent, cable TV giant Comcast, will test out giving film buffs a chance to watch a movie that is still in theaters from the comfort of their living rooms. But the price tag for a single movie could have consumers spitting out their popcorn: $60.
The test involves “Tower Heist,” a PG-13 rated comedy caper starring Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller due out Nov. 4.
Subscribers of Comcast Corp.’s digital cable service who have a high-definition TV that live in Atlanta and Portland, Ore., will be able to rent the movie starting Nov. 23 and watch it unlimited times in a 48-hour window.
Studios are looking for ways of making revenue amid sagging DVD sales but want to avoid hurting box office results.
A.C. Nielsen Jr. dies at 92WINNETKA, Ill. (AP) – Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who led the company that grew into an international market research firm known for producing the TV ratings known as “the Nielsens,” has died at the age of 92.
Nielsen died Monday in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka. His family says he’d suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
Nielsen joined his father’s company, A.C. Nielsen Co., in 1945 after serving in World War II.
He became the company’s president in 1957 and took over as chairman in 1975 before stepping down in 1983 to become chairman emeritus. In that role, he engineered the company’s sale to Dun & Bradstreet Corp. for $1.3 billion in stock in 1984.
The company later was acquired by VNU, a Dutch publishing company.
Director Von Trier facing French charges for Hitler rantCOPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Danish film director Lars von Trier says he’s facing charges of violating a French law against justification of war crimes over statements he made about Adolf Hitler during the film festival in Cannes.
In a brief statement Wednesday, von Trier says that “Due to these serious accusations I have realized that I do not possess the skills to express myself unequivocally and I have therefore decided from this day forth to refrain from all public statements and interviews.”
The director says he was questioned by Danish police Wednesday in connection with charges made by the prosecution of Grasse in France.
Von Trier was ejected from the Cannes Film Festival in May after expressing sympathy for Adolf Hitler at a news conference for his film “Melancholia.”
Firefighters won’t be disciplined for porn shoots
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Firefighters who allowed porn producers to use Los Angeles fire trucks in sex films won’t face discipline.
The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/ojZTMO ) reports the City Charter prevents the Fire Department from taking disciplinary action for incidents that are more than 2 years old.
The fire truck porn shoots were first reported last month by KNBC-TV (http://bit.ly/qeqHHp ).
Fire Chief Brian Cummings, who ordered an investigation after the TV report, wrote to Councilman Dennis Zine saying the two incidents occurred on or before 2008 and the charter prevented him from taking action.
One incident involved Firehouse 63 in Venice. The fire truck was used for a film starring adult actress Charley Chase, who is shown climbing on the vehicle.
The other film involved Firehouse 41 in Hollywood.
Academy, LACMA take step toward movie museum
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art have taken a step toward establishing a museum dedicated to motion pictures.
In a joint statement Tuesday night, the Academy’s Board of Governors and LACMA’s Board of Trustees announced an agreement to sign a memorandum of understanding to establish a movie museum at the former May Company building, now known as LACMA West.
The memorandum clears the way for the two organizations to discuss details of a contract and for the Academy to begin developing plans for fundraising, design, exhibitions, visitor experience and modifications to the 300,000 square-foot building.
The statement says the Academy hopes to sign a long-term lease for the facility and will retain autonomy over all aspects of the museum.
‘Nemo,’ ‘Mermaid,’ ‘Beast’ and ‘Monsters’ go 3-DLOS ANGELES (AP) – “Finding Nemo,” ”The Little Mermaid” and two other animated Walt Disney tales are following “The Lion King” into 3-D mode on the big-screen.
Disney announced Tuesday that the 3-D reissues will begin Jan. 13 with 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast,” the first animated feature ever nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards.
The studio will follow with 3-D re-releases of 2003’s “Finding Nemo” on Sept. 14 of next year, 2001’s “Monsters, Inc.” on Jan. 18, 2013, and 1989’s “The Little Mermaid” on Sept. 13, 2013. “Monsters University,” a 3-D prequel to “Monsters Inc.,” comes out June 21, 2013.
Disney’s 1994 hit “The Lion King” far exceeded the studio’s expectations in a 3-D theatrical reissue, pulling in $80 million domestically since debuting Sept. 16.
Spielberg to film ‘Lincoln’ scenes in RichmondBob Lewis, Political Writer
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The Capitol of Virginia, onetime seat of the Confederacy, is being converted for a few weeks more in keeping with how it looked at the close of the Civil War – for filming scenes from Steve Spielberg’s major production, “Lincoln.”
Spielberg and members of his production company were guests Monday night of Gov. Bob McDonnell at Virginia’s Executive Mansion, just a few hundred feet from the state Capitol.
On the grounds of the 200-year-old seat of Virginia government, the grass is going without mowing in spots for some weeks to give it a more natural appearance at the request of the filmmakers. Lincoln visited Richmond after the fall of the Confederacy in 1865, shortly before his assassination.
Rita McClenny, head of the Virginia Film Office, said Spielberg’s moviemakers will be filming on Capitol Square in Richmond and other locations including Petersburg this fall through December. The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln.
Richmond’s urban area and the Capitol complex in particular have served as the set for movies many times before. The Capitol’s South Lawn and the South Portico, which were initially designed by Thomas Jefferson, doubled as the White House exterior in “Dave.” The interior doubled as the interior of the U.S. Capitol for the film “The Contender.”
It also was a stand-in for official Washington in the films “G.I. Jane,” ”First Kid” and “The Jackal.” Its building interiors also served as the gloomy environs for “Hannibal.” And the region assumed an 18th century look for HBO’s miniseries “John Adams.”
Scott Roth’s Contract As ADG Executive Director RenewedLOS ANGELES — The contract of Scott Roth, Executive Director of the 2,000-member Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800), has been renewed for three years to 2014 by the Guild’s Board of Directors, it was announced today by ADG President Tom Walsh. Roth has held that position since 1997.
Prior to ADG Roth was a labor lawyer from 1978-81, serving as West Coast counsel for the National Association of Government Employees. From 1983-88 he was associate general counsel for the Directors Guild of America. He obtained his law degree at UCLA. He is married to Grace Reiner, a legal affairs vice president at Disney Channel.
Following recent mergers the 75-year-old ADG now represents Production Designers, Art Directors, Scenic and Graphic Artists; Set Designers and Model Makers; Illustrators,; and Storyboard, Matte and Previs Artists.
Argentines pick cowboy film to compete for OscarBUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – A film about a guilt-wracked assassin who spends the rest of his life on horseback in penitence after killing a man will represent Argentina in the competition to be nominated as one of the best foreign-language films in the next Academy Awards.
Argentine film academy president Juan Jose Campanella says “Aballay, el hombre sin miedo” (Aballay, a man without fear) by Fernando Spiner has received 22 of 66 votes from academy members, edging out the favorite, “Un cuento Chino” (A Chinese Tale), starring Ricardo Darin.
Spiner told reporters on Monday that he feels enormously flattered to be nominated.
He said among the film’s merits is that “it’s a very Argentine story, and it includes great acting.”
Phoenix-based TV pitchman dies in federal custodyPHOENIX (AP) – A U.S. Marshals Service spokesman says a Phoenix-based TV pitchman charged with running a nationwide scheme to sell essentially worthless Internet-based businesses has died in an apparent suicide while in federal custody.
Spokesman Matt Hershey says Donald Lapre was found dead in his cell at a Florence facility Sunday morning. His trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Hershey says the death remains under investigation.
A grand jury indicted Lapre in June on 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and promotional money laundering. He was accused of overseeing and promoting the opportunity through his company called “The Greatest Vitamin in the World.”
The government says at least 220,000 victims in the scheme were defrauded of nearly $52 million.
Lapre’s death was first reported by Fox 10 News in Phoenix.
‘Arrested Development’ announces new show, movie
By Emily Fredrix
NEW YORK (AP) – The Bluth family’s frozen banana stand may be back in business.
At an “Arrested Development” reunion Sunday at the New Yorker Festival, the creators and cast announced plans for a new TV show that spins off the short-lived but critically acclaimed TV show, which went off the air in 2006 after just three seasons. They also discussed more concrete plans for a much-awaited movie.
Creator Mitchell Hurwitz said the spinoff will feature nine or ten episodes focusing on each character and leading up to the movie. The first scene of the movie will be all the characters reunited.
The Fox show, which suffered low ratings despite its rabid fan base, starred Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Portia de Rossi. They played members of a dysfunctional family who ran a collapsing real estate development company and frozen banana stand.
Shooting for the TV show is tentatively set to begin next summer.
The movie doesn’t have a release date, Hurwitz said, adding that the creative aspects have been largely worked out, but the business side is still being negotiated.
“We’re all game,” he said. “We’ve hated being coy, but we’ve been trying to put together this ambitious idea.”
Beatles photographer Robert Whitaker dies at 71
By Jill Lawless
LONDON (AP) – Photographer Robert Whitaker, who shot some of the most famous – and infamous – images of The Beatles, has died at the age of 71.
Whitaker’s friend, photo archivist Dave Brolan, said he died of cancer Sept. 20 in Sussex, southern England.
Whitaker took scores of well-known pictures of The Beatles, including the controversial “butcher” cover of the 1966 American album “Yesterday and Today.”
The image of the Fab Four in white coats surrounded by decapitated dolls and slabs of raw meat proved too strong for record company Capitol, which ordered the cover withdrawn soon after the album’s release.
The record was rereleased with an inoffensive picture of the band sitting on a steamer trunk. Originals are coveted by collectors and can sell for thousands of dollars.
Whitaker – a fan of surrealism – later said the image was a meditation on fame and an attempt to shake up the band’s image, inspired by a dream “about The Beatles being ripped to shreds by all these young girls when they came out of a stadium.”
Born in Harpenden, southern England in 1939, Whitaker emigrated to Australia in his early 20s and was working as a photographer in Melbourne when The Beatles visited the country in 1964. He was assigned to photograph manager Brian Epstein for the Jewish News; Epstein was so impressed with the resulting image of himself adorned with peacock feathers that he offered Whitaker a job as staff photographer for his company, NEMS.
The job involved photographing “Merseybeat” acts including Cilla Black and Gerry & The Pacemakers, as well as capturing The Beatles – onstage, backstage, in planes and hotel rooms and all manner of locations – over more than two years. He covered the band’s final world tour in 1966 and took the pictures used on the collage-style cover of the “Revolver” album.
After parting company with The Beatles, Whitaker photographed Mick Jagger on the sets of the films “Performance ” and “Ned Kelly,” helped create the psychedelic cover for Cream’s “Disraeli Gears” album and worked on the influential underground magazine Oz.
Increasingly wary of being pigeonholed as a “pop” photographer, Whitaker moved into news, covering the Vietnam War and other conflicts for publications including Time and Life. He also spent time photographing his artistic hero, Salvador Dali.
In the 1970s he moved to the English countryside, where he farmed and raised cattle.
Whitaker compiled several books of his Beatles photographs, including “The Unseen Beatles” and “Eight Days a Week.”
He is survived by his wife, Sue, and three children.
Mexican film director Inarritu honored in Zurich
ZURICH (AP) – Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has picked up a special honor for a body of work that includes this year’s Oscar-nominated “Biutiful,” the haunting tale of a cancer-stricken father.
The director acclaimed for movies such as “Babel” and “Amores Perros” received a Golden Eye award for career achievement Saturday night from the Zurich Film Festival.
It is the first time the festival has given one of its top awards to a Mexican director.
Inarritu’s movies have been nominated for 10 Oscars and feature his well-known style of interweaving several simultaneous plot lines.
The festival in Switzerland’s biggest city ends Sunday after drawing an estimated 45,000 visitors.
Lawyer denies report that Travolta met Gotti widowNEW YORK (AP) – A lawyer for John Gotti’s son is denying a report that actor John Travolta met with the mob boss’ widow to seek her blessing for his upcoming movie role as the mafia kingkin.
The New York Post reported that Travolta went to the family’s New York City home on Sept. 22 to meet with widow Victoria Gotti and son John “Junior” Gotti.
But Junior Gotti’s lawyer, Charles Carnesi, said that Victoria wasn’t home when Travolta visited.
A Post spokeswoman said the newspaper stands by its story. A Travolta spokesman says the actor has no comment.
The Post story was first challenged by former Post reporter Jerry Capeci in his newsletter ganglandnews.com.
“Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father” is set to start shooting in January.
