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| Pearl Jam's former manager sentenced to prison for theft, paper reports Friday, Feb 28, 2014 07:10 PM PST (Reuters) - Pearl Jam's former financial manager, who used his position with the rock band to steal $380,000, was sentenced on Friday to 14 months in prison at a court hearing in Washington state, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. Rickey Charles Goodrich, 55, had initially faced 33 theft charges but in December he pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree theft, the paper reported on its website. Goodrich was chief financial officer at Pearl Jam's Seattle-based management company, Curtis Management, before he was fired in September 2010. Full Story | Top |
| Fashion disaster? Downpour douses Oscars red carpet Friday, Feb 28, 2014 04:00 PM PST By Mike Davidson LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The most glamorous of all runways, the 500-foot-long Oscars red carpet, might be a fashion disaster on Sunday. A rare heavy rain storm on Friday in Southern California has soaked parts of the red carpet laid down on Hollywood Boulevard, where movie stars and Tinseltown powerbrokers will make their grand entrance to the Academy Awards, film's highest honors. Dozens of workers spent the morning securing the red carpet from the pelting rain and overflowing street gutters 48 hours before hundreds of attendees will parade designer gowns, extravagant jewels and tailored tuxedos. Workers cleared pools of water that had collected atop the tent built to shield stars from the rain while others hustled to plug any leaks and a team wielding squeegees pushed standing water out of the protective plastic over the red carpet. Full Story | Top |
| Comcast would consider a spinoff of subscribers: source Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:33 PM PST  Comcast is considering spinning off the 3 million subscribers it has offered to divest as part of its proposed $45.2 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, into a publicly traded company, according to sources familiar with the matter. The sources, who did not want to be named because the plans are private, said that Comcast had not yet made a decision and this is just one option it is considering. Comcast has said it is willing to divest 3 million subscribers to reduce U.S. regulators' competitive concerns. Comcast has said it plans to submit documents on its proposed Time Warner Cable acquisition to U.S. regulators by the end of March, when antitrust and public interest reviews will be launched. Full Story | Top |
| 'Frozen,' famous musicians in fierce fight for best song Oscar Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:02 PM PST  By Phil Furey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A recent Grammy winner, a legendary rock band, a Broadway star belting out a girl-power ballad and an impossibly cool indie rocker have found themselves at the juncture of one of the most compelling Oscar races of the year: best original song. "Let It Go," from Disney's blockbuster animated film "Frozen." "The song category is the most interesting category in my opinion, and it's drawn the biggest campaigning this year," said Matthew Belloni, executive editor of trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter. The remaining four contenders span a wide spectrum of genres: Grammy winner Pharrell Williams' upbeat R&B ditty "Happy" from "Despicable Me 2," Broadway star Idina Menzel's inspirational interpretation of "Let It Go," indie rocker Karen O's dreamy ballad "The Moon Song" from "Her," and U2's rock-infused "Ordinary Love" from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom." All four acts will lend their star power on the Oscars stage on Sunday to sing the nominated tunes. Full Story | Top |
| Stolen Cuban art works in Miami, part of Havana museum heist? Friday, Feb 28, 2014 02:46 PM PST By David Adams and David Quinones MIAMI (Reuters) - Almost 100 Cuban art works have apparently been stolen from the country's national art museum, and some are turning up in Miami, according to one of the city's leading gallery owners. Art dealer Ramon Cernuda, a prominent collector of Cuban art who in the past has identified stolen pieces, said he has uncovered 11 paintings in Miami that belong to Havana's National Museum of Fine Arts, believed to be part of a larger trove of purloined pieces. Cernuda said his calls to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana prompted an investigation there three weeks ago, when officials confirmed more works are missing. Full Story | Top |
| Philip Seymour Hoffman died of accidental overdose: official Friday, Feb 28, 2014 02:29 PM PST  By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found in his New York apartment on February 2 with a needle in his arm, died of an accidental overdose of drugs, the New York City Chief Medical Examiner said on Friday. The cause of death was acute drug intoxication, including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine, according to Julie Bolcer, spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's Office. She added that it is the final determination in Hoffman's death. A drug overdose had been suspected when Hoffman, 46, was discovered in his apartment along with dozens of small plastic bags containing a substance believed to be heroin. Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Memorable Oscar night high points and faux pas Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:48 AM PST By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The job of hosting the Academy Awards telecast, one of the most prestigious and demanding assignments in Hollywood, falls for a second time on Sunday to comedian and talk-show star Ellen DeGeneres, who made her debut as Oscar emcee in 2007. DeGeneres, only the second woman to fly solo as Oscar host - Whoopi Goldberg was the first - will be judged against a wide range of previous performances, including her first, when she drew mixed reviews for a low-key, breezy, daytime-TV style. Despite DeGeneres's flair for putting those around her at ease, some critics complained that her playfulness, including several routines in which she ventured into the audience to clown with the likes of Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood, was an unsuitable fit for the Oscars. The following are some notable high points and faux pas from years past: Bob Hope, who hosted or co-hosted the Oscars a record 18 times between 1940 and 1978 but never took home a statuette for any of his film roles, opened the 1968 show by saying, "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as they're known at my house, Passover." Jerry Lewis, a co-host in 1959, did his manic best to keep the proceedings going when the show ran 20 minutes short. Full Story | Top |
| Grey skies don't deter Rihanna at Paris fashion week Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:43 AM PST  By Alexandria Sage PARIS (Reuters) - Rainy skies did not deter the fashionistas from gathering this week in Paris - with singer Rihanna this season's front-row "It" girl - as the Fall/Winter ready-to-wear collections promised cold weather looks to warm the iciest of hearts. As winter refused to say goodbye in the City of Light, Dior head designer Raf Simons resuscitated his "flower woman" on Friday, this time sheathing her in doubled-breasted power suits with white laces up the sides. Still, the audacious fabric and colour combinations, such as emerald green and fuchsia, kept fans of the house of Dior buzzing, and Rihanna, who sipped champagne from the front row at Lanvin the night before, slipped backstage to schmooze with Simons. Designer ready-to-wear, or pret-a-porter in French, is an 85-billion-euro ($116 billion) global business, according to Euromonitor, and the fashion week that runs from Tuesday through to March 3 is a major advertising weapon for brands. Full Story | Top |
| Soprano Netrebko pulls out of 'not right' London 'Faust' Friday, Feb 28, 2014 08:58 AM PST  By Michael Roddy LONDON (Reuters) - Russian soprano Anna Netrebko has pulled out of a mostly sold-out production in April of Gounod's opera "Faust" at the Royal Opera House in London, saying that "the role is not right for me". The opera house announced the move on Friday. Her publicist said there was no rift between the soprano and the opera house. Netrebko, one of the world's leading sopranos, was to have sung the lead female role of Marguerite with an all-star cast including Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja in the title role, Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel as Mephistopheles and British baritone Simon Keenlyside as Valentin. Full Story | Top |
| Renowned Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia dies at 66 Friday, Feb 28, 2014 08:29 AM PST  By Raquel Castillo and Elisabeth O'Leary MADRID (Reuters) - Paco de Lucia, the influential Spanish guitarist who vastly expanded the international audience for flamenco and merged it with other musical styles, died suddenly of a heart attack on Tuesday evening in Mexico. The 66-year-old virtuoso, as happy playing seemingly impossible syncopated flamenco rhythms as he was improvising jazz or classical guitar, helped to legitimise flamenco in Spain itself at a time when it was shunned by the mainstream. Born Francisco Sanchez Gomez, he became famous in the 1970s after recording the bestselling album "Entre Dos Aguas", becoming the first flamenco musician to perform at Madrid's opera house Teatro Real in 1975. Paco's albums such as "El Duende Flamenco de Paco de Lucia" and "Almoraima" reinvented traditional flamenco. Full Story | Top |
| Hollywood's Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher engaged: reports Friday, Feb 28, 2014 08:05 AM PST  (Reuters) - Hollywood stars Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are engaged to be married, according to U.S. Weekly and the E! entertainment news website. The two, who have been dating for about two years, appeared together on the popular television sitcom "That '70s Show." Photographs on the US Weekly and E! websites taken of Kunis on Thursday in Los Angeles show her sporting a large diamond ring on her left hand. Kutcher, 36, is divorced from actress Demi Moore. He appears in the TV sitcom "Two and a Half Men" and starred last year in the movie "Jobs." Kunis, 30, appeared in the movies "Ted" in 2012, "Black Swan" in 2010 and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" in 2008. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Murdoch British CEO Brooks paid official for Saddam anthrax story Friday, Feb 28, 2014 06:44 AM PST  By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, the ex-chief executive of News Corp.'s British newspaper arm, told a London court on Friday she had paid a public official for a story about former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein planning to attack Britain with the poison anthrax. Brooks, who is on trial on charges of sanctioning such illegal payments, said she agreed to pay for the 1998 report when she was deputy editor of Rupert Murdoch's Sun tabloid because there was an "overwhelming public interest" to do so. On Thursday, Brooks admitted she had authorized payments to public officials, something which is illegal, on a "half a dozen" occasions from 1998 to 2009, a period which covered her time as time as editor or deputy of Murdoch's British tabloids, the Sun and News of the World. Appearing for a sixth day in the witness box at London's Old Bailey court, Brooks said the public official, who was later revealed to be a chief petty officer in the Royal Navy, had called the paper about the threat from Saddam and the deadly poison anthrax. Full Story | Top |
| Oscar favorite 'Frozen' leads red-hot animation field Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:23 AM PST  By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The first Academy Award for an animated feature film was a special honor given to Walt Disney in 1939 for the innovation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Child actress Shirley Temple presented Disney with a full-sized gold Oscar statuette and seven miniature ones. The studio founded by the animation pioneer, Walt Disney Animation Studios, has never won the Oscar for best animated feature, a category created in 2002. "Frozen" will compete for Oscar gold with films that include box office hits "The Croods," a caveman comedy from DreamWorks Animation SKG, and the yellow minions of Universal Pictures' "Despicable Me 2," produced by relative newcomer Illumination Entertainment. Full Story | Top |
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