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| Amazon leaps into home entertainment fray with $99 Fire TV Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:05 PM PDT  By Jennifer Saba and Deepa Seetharaman NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc made a play for the increasingly crowded home entertainment arena by unveiling the $99 "Fire TV" video and game streaming device on Wednesday, with hopes of boosting its main online retail business over the longer term. The square device, which just about fits in the palm of one hand, streams content from Netflix Inc, Hulu and other video services - much like Apple TV or Google Inc's Chromecast. It also offers a prominent platform for Amazon's own fast-growing streaming video service as well as its growing slate of original television programs and games. Amazon will also sell a separate controller for gaming that costs $39.99. Full Story | Top |
| 'Frozen' soundtrack keeps Shakira from top of Billboard chart Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 01:14 PM PDT  Hip-shaking Colombian singer Shakira was no match for Disney's animated princesses on the weekly Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday as the "Frozen" movie soundtrack continued its reign at the top. The "Frozen" soundtrack, released in November 2013, sold 161,000 copies last week, bringing its total U.S. sales to 1.8 million, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. Billboard said 1.5 million of "Frozen" soundtrack sales were in 2014, making it the year's biggest selling album so far. The "Frozen" soundtrack, which features the Oscar-winning song "Let It Go," is the 20th album to spend eight weeks at No. 1, coming in behind Adele's Grammy-winning record "21," that clocked the longest chart-topping run with 24 non-consecutive weeks at the top of Billboard 200. Full Story | Top |
| N.Y. restaurant's fragile Picasso fate hangs in court Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 11:55 AM PDT  By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) - The question of whether a fragile Picasso painting that covers a wall in New York City's Four Seasons Restaurant will crumble if taken down to allow repairs went before a state court judge on Wednesday. The dispute between the restaurant's landlord and the painting's owner takes place in a grand setting: Midtown Manhattan's Seagram Building, the landmark International Style tower designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that opened in 1958. Real Estate developer Aby Rosen, who has owned the building since 2000, wants the Picasso taken down from its prominent space overlooking the rich and powerful who dine at the Four Seasons on the ground floor. The 19-foot-high (5.8-meter-high) unframed painted theater curtain depicting figures overlooking a bullring has been displayed in a hallway between two dining rooms since the restaurant's 1959 opening, earning it the name "Picasso Alley." The limestone wall on which it hangs has been damaged by moisture and steam from the kitchens on the other side, Andrew Kratenstein, a lawyer for Rosen, told the court. Full Story | Top |
| New Ai Weiwei exhibition unveiled in Berlin but artist can't attend Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 11:54 AM PDT  By Sarah Marsh BERLIN (Reuters) - Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's biggest solo show, featuring a reproduction of the white cell where he was held for 81 days by Chinese authorities, was unveiled on Wednesday in Berlin without Ai in attendance because the government still has his passport. "Ai Weiwei - Evidence", which sprawls through 18 rooms at the Martin-Gropius-Bau museum, is a deeply political exhibition of his conceptual art. An outspoken critic of the Chinese government's record on free speech and human rights, Ai did not attend the show's news conference as the Chinese government retained his passport after his release. His detention prompted an international outcry and Germany was among those countries that have asked for his release. Full Story | Top |
| 'Island of Lemurs' explores majesty of endangered species in film Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 11:03 AM PDT  By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After the animated lemur King Julien of "Madagascar" captured kids' attentions with his eccentricity, a new film takes them to the real, isolated world of the singing, dancing, mischievous lemurs. "Island of Lemurs: Madagascar," out in IMAX theaters on Friday, takes audiences on a 3D adventure into the exotic habitat of the lemurs on the island of Madagascar, the only place in the world where they exist in the wild. The 40-minute film, narrated by Morgan Freeman, explores and educates on the wide-eyed lemurs, a family of primate species that has been around for more than 60 million years, and the journey they took from Africa across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, where they found a thriving natural habitat. The film follows primatologist Patricia Wright as she strives to save certain lemur species from extinction, finding mates for the few left in the dense Madagascar forests. Full Story | Top |
| 'House of Cards,' HBO docs and PBS headline Peabody winners Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 10:55 AM PDT  Netflix political thriller "House of Cards" and jail house comedy-drama "Orange Is the New Black," along with a trio of HBO documentaries, headlined the winners of the annual Peabody Awards, the oldest and one of the top honors in broadcasting. The Peabody Awards recognize the best in television, radio, Internet broadcasting, producing organizations and individuals. "House of Cards," which was the first online-streaming show to win an Emmy award, was praised for Netflix's unique approach of releasing all the season's episodes at once. "Netflix took binge viewing to a new level and obliterated the idea that a hit TV show needs a slot in prime time," the Peabody panel said. Full Story | Top |
| U2, Everly Brothers music chosen for U.S. recording registry Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 10:16 AM PDT  Music by Irish rock group U2, jazz musician Art Blakey and rock-'n-roll singers the Everly Brothers are among 25 sound recordings being added this year to the U.S. Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The Library of Congress, the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, preserves the best existing version of each recording on the registry. "These recordings represent an important part of America's culture and history," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in a statement. "As technology continually changes and formats become obsolete, we must ensure that our nation's aural legacy is protected." The list includes U2's 1987 album "The Joshua Tree," the Everly Brother's 1960 hit "Cathy's Clown," Blakey's "A Night at Birdland" album from 1954, and the original 1979 recording of the musical "Sweeney Todd" by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Full Story | Top |
| Chris Evans on 'Captain America' and handling fame Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 09:28 AM PDT  By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - With a suit of stars and stripes, and a loyal Marvel fan base behind him, actor Chris Evans once again brandishes the shield of superhero Captain America in a new film. In real life, the actor finds himself at odds with the demands of fame. Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios sequel "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," out in U.S. and Canadian theaters on Friday, thrusts the patriotic superhero into battle with an elusive enemy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Stolen Gauguin painting found in Italian retiree's kitchen Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 09:20 AM PDT  By Eleanor Biles ROME, April 2 (Reuters) - A painting by French post-Impressionist Paul Gaugin that was stolen in Britain in 1970 has turned up hanging in the kitchen of a retired factory worker in Sicily, Italian police said on Wednesday. With it was a second missing painting by Pierre Bonnard, another French avant garde artist of the late 19th century, that the owner bought along with the Gaugin at an auction in 1975 for only 45,000 lire (23.24 euros). The Gauguin oil-on-canvas, whose value police estimated at 10 to 30 million euros, is very different from the colorful paintings of Tahitian native women he produced after leaving Europe for Polynesia in the 1890s. "These two masterpieces have unique, unimaginable stories," Culture Minister Dario Franceschini told reporters when the pilfered paintings were displayed at his ministry on Wednesday. Full Story | Top |
| TV's Willard Scott of 'Today' show marries at 80 Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:26 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Television personality Willard Scott, a former weatherman who has been with NBC's "Today" morning news show for more than 30 years, has wed his longtime girlfriend at the age of 80. Scott and Paris Keena were married in Fort Myers, Florida, on Monday, according to Today.com, which posted a picture of the smiling couple. A former disc jockey and weatherman in Washington, D.C., Scott is known for his happy birthday wishes for centenarians on the "Today" show. His first wife, Mary, died in 2002. Scott and Keena first met in 1977. ... Full Story | Top |
| 'Veep' taps deeper into D.C.'s dysfunction for third season Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:09 AM PDT  By Eric Kelsey WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif (Reuters) - Armando Iannucci, the creator of HBO's political satire "Veep," remembers a visit he made to the U.S. State Department for research on the show. Behind the imposing facade of the Harry S. Truman Building, the furniture in the bosom of international power was pathetic, he recalls. That incongruence of power juxtaposed with its foibles and imperfections lies at the heart of "Veep," the send-up of political ambition in the Washington fishbowl that enters its third season on Sunday with Vice President Selina Meyer eyeing another run for the presidency. The series on the Time Warner Inc-owned premium cable network stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina, the divorcee restless with her lack of real power and surrounded by a coterie of yes-men and yes-women who try to balance the demands of their job with their own agendas. Full Story | Top |
| Summer movie sequels equal profits for Hollywood studios Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:05 AM PDT  By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Captain America, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Transformers are storming back into movie theaters, returning in sequels to save the world from mass destruction, while at the same time churning out profits for movie studios. Hollywood will pack 13 sequels into theaters over the next 20 weeks. The parade begins on Friday, when Captain America dons his red-white-and-blue superhero suit for the U.S. debut of Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," and continues through summer, Hollywood's most lucrative season. Full Story | Top |
| 'Mrs Hemingway' explores pain and passion of writer's four wives Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 01:54 AM PDT  By Angus MacSwan LONDON (Reuters) - For a writer who explored the world of men without women, Ernest Hemingway certainly liked to have women around him. The Nobel Prize-winning author had four wives in all with barely a day between each changeover, as well as friendships with Ava Gardner, Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich. That's a role that's subservient to the big-game hunter, the deep-sea fisherman, the war correspondent," said Naomi Wood, whose novel "Mrs Hemingway" has just been published. The four shared good times and bad with him in Paris, Key West, Cuba and Spain, suffered his philandering, moods and drinking, and loyally supported him until someone new caught his fancy. Full Story | Top |
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