You gotta laugh. In the press release for Pearl Harbor, the new mega-budget flick about the surprise Japanese attack that destroyed the United States Pacific Fleet in 1941 and brought the US into World War II, there is a profile of producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Anthony Quinn, the Mexican-born Hollywood star who carved a niche playing larger-than-life, good-hearted ruffians, most famously Zorba the Greek, died in a Boston hospital yesterday, aged 86. His death, from respiratory failure, was announced by the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. "I was proud to call him a friend," Mr Cianci said.
The notion of people’s lives overlapping each other’s has almost become a genre on its own. Examples such as <i>Short Cuts</i> by Robert Altman and <i>Love’s a Bitch</i> by Alejandro Gonz‡lez I-‡rritu come to mind. Though not always high on drama, as the latter was, they do create some tension about how and when individuals will cross paths.
Making a cast of thousands seem like an understatement, <b>The Emperor and the Assassin</b> is about Ying Zheng (Li Xuejian), heir to the throne of the kingdom of Qin. He and his concubine Zhao (Gong Li) come up with a clever plot that will ultimately unify a then fragmented China. She will set up an assassin from the neighbouring Han kingdom whom he will then expose.
Glenda Daniels The Commission for Gender Equality has put the land restitution programme at the top of its agenda for the coming gender summit to be held in August. The commission wants to sensitise land reform policy about gender issues, and to devise strategies to ensure land access and security of tenure for rural women […]
Glenda Daniels Charges of brutal police assault will be heard in the Johannesburg High Court next week when Andrew Phillips, owner of the brothel The Ranch, brings a civil claim against the Ministry of Safety and Security. The assault charges will be backed up by allegations of extortion and bribery, including how police forced prostitutes […]
The Poetry Africa Festival continues in Durban this weekend, and arrives in Johannesburg next week. Presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, it takes place at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, University of Natal, and at the Windybrow Theatre in Johannesburg. At 7pm on Friday June 1, South Africa’s Madala Kunene, Amina Said of Tunisia, Taban […]
Jane Rosenthal Plettenberg Bay and the Paradise Coast by Patricia Storrar (TJM Publishers) Patricia Storrar, the well-known historian of the southern Cape, earned her stripes in 1974 when she debunked myths surrounding George Rex of Knysna. Now she has drawn on her previous research to explore new areas in this book, which is further enhanced […]
Fred Esbend Faced with a R600-million debt crisis, attempts by the Port Elizabeth metro council executive mayor Nceba Faku to fast-track into operation a R20-million contract with a company for debt recovery has landed him in hot water. Last Thursday he came close to facing a revolt by his council for not discussing the contract […]
Greg Mills ‘We have almost 35-million and one citizens of African descent. Last year the total US-African trade approached $30-billion, and America is Africa’s largest single market. The United States is the leading foreign investor in Africa. More than 30000 Africans are studying in the US today. Our pasts, our presents and our futures are […]