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| Rising artists kick off Coachella ahead of headliners Outkast Friday, Apr 11, 2014 07:44 PM PDT  By Piya Sinha-Roy INDIO, California (Reuters) - A slew of rising artists and bands kicked off the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday, ahead of the much anticipated reunion of hip-hop duo Outkast headlining the first night of the three-day festival. Grammy-winning Outkast, formed by Atlanta rappers Andre 3000 and Big Boi, last worked together on 2006 album "Idlewild." But ahead of their headlining set late on Friday, music lovers watched artists such as Ellie Goulding, Grouplove, ZZ Ward and Aloe Blacc perform in the open field of the festival, against the backdrop of the Southern California desert. Coachella is the first major festival of the summer live music scene, and is often an important stop for an artist on the rise, as the festival has helped launch artists into the U.S. mainstream industry. Recent success stories include Florence + The Machine, and electronic music DJs Skrillex and Calvin Harris, the latter two both returning this year. Full Story | Top |
| Settlement reached over Mickey Rooney burial Friday, Apr 11, 2014 03:26 PM PDT  A Los Angeles judge on Friday approved a settlement between the estranged wife of late golden era Hollywood star Mickey Rooney and the conservator of his estate, ending a legal tussle over where the actor will be buried, the conservator's attorney said. Rooney, who died on Sunday at age 93, will be buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, the same resting place of silent film stars Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks, according to the settlement approved by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lesley Green, attorney Vivian Thoreen said. Full Story | Top |
| The Obamas earned $500,000 last year but income drops Friday, Apr 11, 2014 12:41 PM PDT  President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle reported half a million dollars in income for 2013, down from the previous year as revenues from his best-selling books continued to fall, according to their tax returns released by the White House on Friday. The Obamas earned $503,183 last year and after deductions had an adjusted gross income of $481,098. They paid $98,169 in federal taxes, or 20.4 percent, and donated nearly $60,000 to charities, the documents showed. In comparison, the Obamas reported income of $662,076 and paid $112,214 in federal taxes at a rate of 18.4 percent for 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Final book in 'Divergent' trilogy to be split into two films Friday, Apr 11, 2014 12:36 PM PDT  The final book in the "Divergent" trilogy will be split into two movies, Lions Gate said on Friday, following the same formula the studio used for the upcoming final installments of "The Hunger Games" series. "Divergent," a dystopian thriller based on the young adult book series by author Veronica Roth, stars Shailene Woodley and was released last month, grossing $116.6 million so far at the U.S. box office. Lions Gate will release the final two installments of "The Hunger Games" franchise, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" starring Jennifer Lawrence, in November, followed by the second part in November 2015. "The Hunger Games" series has so far grossed $1.5 billion in global ticket sales. Full Story | Top |
| Actress Gillan plays with perceptions in ghostly thriller 'Oculus' Friday, Apr 11, 2014 12:20 PM PDT  By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A haunted mirror, a murderous father and two siblings seeking revenge form the plot for the new supernatural thriller "Oculus," which blurs perceptions and reality with ghostly scares. "Oculus," out in the United States and Canada on Friday, follows a young woman, Kaylie, who reunites with her brother Tim after his release from an institution where he was held for a decade for killing their father, who had murdered their mother. Kaylie is convinced that a large ornate mirror in their home caused the mental instability and subsequent demise of her parents, and is determined to clear her father's name of murder by proving the mirror is haunted by a manipulative entity. "Kaylie is not running from the entity, she's running to it, and the worse it gets, the more happy and excited she gets because it's verifying everything that she believed, so it's just counteracting everything that we're used to," said British actress Karen Gillan, discussing her character. Full Story | Top |
| Tribeca Film Fest offers eclectic mix of documentary, indie films Friday, Apr 11, 2014 10:21 AM PDT  By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than a decade after it was launched to revitalize lower Manhattan following the September 11 attacks, the Tribeca Film Festival has become a showcase for documentaries and independent films as well as a testing ground for new talent and digital innovations in cinema. The festival kicks off on Wednesday with "Time Is Illmatic," a documentary about the American rapper Nas and the making of his groundbreaking 1994 debut album "Illmatic," from which he will perform after the screening. More than 85 feature films including documentaries were selected from 6,117 submissions, and will be screened during the festival that runs through April 27. "It was never intended to be just a film festival that would have just films or certain types of film," Robert De Niro, an Oscar-winning actor and co-founder of the festival with film producer Jane Rosenthal, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Rodin sculptures meet Mapplethorpe photos in Paris art show Friday, Apr 11, 2014 08:24 AM PDT  By Johnny Cotton PARIS (Reuters) - A new exhibition exploring connections between beloved French sculptor August Rodin and controversial U.S. photographer Robert Mapplethorpe has brought a hint of seedy 1980s New York to the heart of Paris. Much of Mapplethorpe's work includes monochrome nudes of male models - often his lovers - while Rodin is celebrated as a pioneering modern sculptor of the second half of the 19th Century whose masterpieces include "The Thinker" and "The Kiss." Despite the artists' differences, exhibition curator Helene Pinet said there were valid reasons for bringing the two together under one roof in a show that has just opened at the Musee Rodin. Echoes of Rodin's celebrated "The Walking Man" - which lacks arms and a head - are found in Mapplethorpe's study "Michael Reed," which presents a man walking with his arms and head shrouded in shadow. Pinet stressed that Mapplethorpe never was known to have talked about Rodin, an early champion of photography and an avid collector. Full Story | Top |
| London art exchange lets collectors buy shares of a Banksy Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:52 AM PDT But the Banksy paintings and Shepard Fairey print point to a serious art gallery. My Art Invest opened its doors in East London on Thursday, providing art collectors with a front for an online trading platform where they can buy shares in works by important street artists for as little as 5 pounds. "For me, it's very, very, very important that everybody can put a foot in the art market." He called My Art Invest "Gallery 2.0" and indeed, upon entering, would-be buyers are given iPads they can use to check the price and availability of shares, and make purchases. The global art market totaled $65.9 billion (39.3 billion pounds) last year, an increase of 8 percent and the highest level since 2007, according to a report by the European Fine Art Foundation. Full Story | Top |
| A Minute With: Football's Arian Foster on acting and NFL draft Friday, Apr 11, 2014 04:09 AM PDT  By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Houston Texans running back Arian Foster tests his Hollywood acting skills on the big screen as a college football player waiting for his name to be called at the annual NFL draft in the film "Draft Day," which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday. Foster, 27, a three-time Pro Bowl selection in his five-year pro career, is one of the sport's noted underdog success stories, having been passed over in the 2009 draft after playing at the University of Tennessee. Foster spoke with Reuters alongside his "Draft Day" co-star, Terry Crews, who played briefly in the NFL before turning to acting. Together they talked about the career transition for NFL players once they leave the game, the draft and their beefs with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, now facing pressure from athletes wanting to unionize. Full Story | Top |
| Sue Townsend, British author of 'Adrian Mole' books, dies Friday, Apr 11, 2014 02:55 AM PDT British author Sue Townsend, who found international fame chronicling the travails through life of self-obsessed "Adrian Mole", has died aged 68, her publishers said on Friday. Townsend, who had to dictate novels in her later years after losing her sight because of diabetes, passed away peacefully at her home in Leicester, central England, after suffering a stroke, Penguin Books said in a statement. She found success after penning the "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13-3/4" in 1982, detailing a boy's comedic exploits as he dealt with adolescence against the backdrop of Margaret Thatcher's time as prime minister. "Sue Townsend will be remembered as one in a handful of this country's great comic writers," said Tom Weldon, chief executive of Penguin Random House. Full Story | Top |
| Sue Townsend, author of 'Adrian Mole' books, dies Friday, Apr 11, 2014 02:47 AM PDT British author Sue Townsend, who found international fame chronicling the travails through life of self-obsessed "Adrian Mole", has died aged 68, her publishers said on Friday. Townsend, who had to dictate novels in her later years after losing her sight because of diabetes, passed away peacefully at her home in Leicester, central England, after suffering a stroke, Penguin Books said in a statement. She found success after penning the "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13-3/4" in 1982, detailing a boy's comedic exploits as he dealt with adolescence against the backdrop of Margaret Thatcher's time as prime minister. "Sue Townsend will be remembered as one in a handful of this country's great comic writers," said Tom Weldon, chief executive of Penguin Random House. Full Story | Top |
| Bernstein in letters - gifted, gay and loved by his wife Friday, Apr 11, 2014 01:07 AM PDT By Michael Roddy LONDON (Reuters) - It may be one of the saddest but most loving letters written by a woman to a man - Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre telling her future husband, conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, she knows he is homosexual but wants to marry him anyway. The letter, in which Montealegre says "you are a homosexual and you may never change", is among hundreds in a recent volume "The Letters of Leonard Bernstein" edited by English music scholar Nigel Simeone, who previously wrote a book about Bernstein's famed Broadway musical "West Side Story". For the volume of letters, 650 of them in a book of almost that many pages, Simeone said he had sifted through some 10,000 in the U.S. Library of Congress written by the prolific Bernstein, with missives dating from his youth until his death in October 1990, and from his correspondents. "I ended up with what I thought had something to say about him, about his music or his career or his family that were of interest." The resulting volume contains letters to and from many of the big names in music of the past century, including the composer Aaron Copland, who was an early influence, conductor Serge Koussevitsky, who helped give him a start as a conductor, and the composer David Diamond, who was a close friend. Full Story | Top |
| KISS, Nirvana, Hall and Oates inducted by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Friday, Apr 11, 2014 12:34 AM PDT  By Chris Michaud NEW YORK (Reuters) - Flamboyant rockers KISS, singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, grunge band Nirvana and chart-toppers Hall and Oates entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday but the original KISS quartet did not perform. Also inducted were country rock star Linda Ronstadt, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and did not attend, and Cat Stevens, the British musician known as Yusuf Islam after converting to Islam and shunning the stage for decades. Full Story | Top |
| Sans persona, new kind of Colbert steps up to CBS 'Late Show' Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 11:51 PM PDT  By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A new kind of Stephen Colbert will be coming to late-night network television as he succeeds CBS's "Late Show" host David Letterman next year, capping the generational shift in late-night TV's landscape across U.S. networks eager to attract younger viewers and online followings. Colbert, 49, who made his mark satirizing political conservatives on his Comedy Central weeknight cable show "The Colbert Report," said on Thursday he would drop his known persona of a dim-witted, big-egoed conservative pundit. I'm looking forward to it," Colbert said in a statement. There is a measure of risk in abandoning a groundbreaking formula for the comedian whose Emmy-winning show has attracted a strong audience among young viewers, a coveted group that CBS is surely eyeing with its choice of Colbert. Full Story | Top |
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