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/ 17 October 2007
Madonna’s landmark deal with concert promoter Live Nation marks the latest move by the music industry to find new ways to profit from artists as CD sales slip and the internet changes the way music is delivered. The deal, officially announced on Tuesday, gives the company an all-encompassing stake in her music.
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/ 11 October 2007
Floyd Landis, facing the loss of his 2006 Tour de France title on a doping charge, will take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the cyclist said on his website on Wednesday. Landis will ask the Lausanne-based CAS to overturn the decision handed down on September 20 by a panel of three United States arbitrators.
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/ 25 September 2007
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Clint Eastwood may direct an upcoming Hollywood film based on former South African president Nelson Mandela and his appearance at the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, United States media reported on Tuesday. The drama will see Morgan Freeman portray Mandela, entertainment journal Daily Variety reported.
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/ 23 September 2007
Alice Ghostley, the Tony Award-winning actress best known on television for playing Esmeralda on Bewitched and Bernice on Designing Women, has died. She was 81. Ghostley died on September 21 at her home in Studio City after a long battle with colon cancer and a series of strokes.
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/ 20 September 2007
The judge in the murder trial of Phil Spector on Wednesday abandoned the idea of presenting the deadlocked jury with a reduced charge of manslaughter against the music producer. In a day of complex legal manoeuvrings, both the judge and jury struggled to find a way to proceed in the case, which was stalled after seven days of deliberations.
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/ 18 September 2007
Unbeaten fighters Floyd Mayweather and Ricky Hatton began the build-up to their December 8 duel in Las Vegas with some verbal sparring on Monday. At a press conference in the Hollywood tourist haven of Universal City England’s Hatton and American Mayweather took turns taking pot-shots at each other as they launched a promotional tour.
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/ 17 September 2007
United Sates mob drama The Sopranos said its final farewells when it picked up the top award at the 59th annual Emmy awards in Los Angeles on Sunday at television’s equivalent of the Oscars. The groundbreaking HBO series, which ended in June after an eight-year run, took home the awards for outstanding drama, best writing and directing.
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/ 16 September 2007
Las Vegas police arrested former football star OJ Simpson on Sunday in connection with a hotel room break-in, CNN said. A source with the Las Vegas Police Department told CNN Simpson was taken into custody at the Palms hotel. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in June 1994.
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/ 8 September 2007
Prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence to convict Phil Spector for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson, defense attorneys for the rock legend said on Friday. ”This case exemplifies reasonable doubt,” attorney Linda Kenney-Baden told the nine-man, three-woman jury, which is expected to begin deliberations on Monday.
Potential jurors in a Los Angeles court were forced to do a double-take on Thursday when their court-room duties were enlivened by a jolt of star power in the shape of Brad Pitt. The Hollywood heart-throb reported for jury duty in Los Angeles, his publicist confirmed, before eventually being discharged after the case he was due to hear ended in a plea-deal.
David Beckham’s chances of making his much-anticipated Major League Soccer debut for Los Angeles at Toronto on Sunday are ”slim”, Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said. The 32-year-old former Real Madrid and Manchester United star lacks training time with his new teammates because of a left ankle injury
David Beckham will not play on Saturday for LA Galaxy in a Superliga match in Los Angeles against Chivas of Mexico because of his injured left ankle, the Major League Soccer club announced on Friday. The English superstar only made his Galaxy debut last Saturday in the 78th minute as a substitute because of the nagging injury.
The sponsors want it. The fans are waiting for it. But David Beckham’s debut for Los Angeles Galaxy remains in doubt. Although Beckham’s swollen ankle has responded well to treatment since he arrived in Los Angeles last week, Galaxy officials accept the longer-term picture is much more significant.
The new Harry Potter movie drew lukewarm reviews on Tuesday, but millions of ”muggles” are expected to ignore the critics and turn out in droves for the widest release for Warner Brothers studio. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opened across South Africa, including at the Imax theatre in Pretoria, on Wednesday.
The mysterious late-night calls began a few days after Los Angeles student Shira Barlow replaced a cellphone that she had dropped into a toilet in February. Suddenly Barlow began getting calls from strangers wishing "Paris" a happy birthday and requesting access to the most exclusive Hollywood nightclubs.
A 70-year-old woman was left bruised and bleeding following a clash with a police officer in western Utah state. The woman’s offence? Failing to water her front lawn properly. Violence flared when a police officer issued her a ticket for failing to maintain the garden of her home in Orem, 72km south of Salt Lake City.
David Beckham expects to make his debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy on July 21 in an exhibition match with FA Cup holders Chelsea after recovering from an ankle injury. The 32-year-old midfielder twisted his ankle while playing for England against Estonia in a Euro 2008 qualifying match a month ago.
Pete Sampras is cheering for Roger Federer to win his fifth Wimbledon title in a row and the retired United States tennis legend says he expects the Swiss superstar will shatter his all-time Grand Slam mark. Sampras, speaking in a conference call with reporters, said on Tuesday that he thinks Federer will capture 18 Major singles titles before his career is over.
The Hollywood tradition of product placement will soar to a new level when the Steven Spielberg-produced action film Transformers is unleashed on United States cinema-goers this week. The new movie version of Transformers has become one of the most-talked-about films in years.
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton, who commanded as much attention behind bars as on the Hollywood party scene, regained her freedom on Tuesday after serving three weeks in jail for violating probation in a drunken-driving case. The incarceration of the 26-year-old multimillionaire ignited a worldwide media frenzy and debate about celebrity justice.
Veteran United States actor Morgan Freeman is to play former South African president Nelson Mandela in a drama based around the leader’s appearance at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, it was reported on Friday. Freeman said he was honoured to be given the opportunity of playing Mandela, Daily Variety reported.
A sobbing Paris Hilton was ordered back to jail on Friday as a judge overruled a sheriff’s decision to place the hotel heiress under house arrest for psychological problems after she spent three days behind bars. The slender 26-year-old celebrity trembled and cried quietly throughout the hearing, then broke into loud sobs when the judge ordered her back into custody.
His pompadoured henchman, Silvio Dante, is barely breathing and full of holes; his brother-in-law Bobby is dead and Tony Soprano himself is left in a darkened bedroom, clutching a machine-gun. Even his therapist has dropped him as a patient after being convinced that ”the talking cure” doesn’t work on sociopaths.
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton was released from prison on Thursday for medical reasons after serving just over three days of a 23-day sentence but she will be confined to her home for 40 days, officials said. Steve Whitmore of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office said Hilton had been ”reassigned” though he declined to give specific information on her medical condition.
United States hotel heiress and Hollywood socialite Paris Hilton, known for her non-stop partying and high-society romps, has begun serving a 23-day jail sentence for violating her probation, according to prison records. An entry at the Los Angeles County Inmate Information Centre said Hilton (26) had been processed into the jail system and given a booking number.
Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the Tonight Show and various game shows, has died. He was 76. Reilly died on May 27 in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.
Paul Newman’s career has included winning an Oscar, establishing a food company to fund charities, and operating a restaurant, but he said this week he is retiring from acting. ”I’m not able to work any more as an actor at the level that I would want to,” the Hollywood star (82) told ABC News.
A long time ago, in a Hollywood era far, far away, the story of an intergalactic battle between good and evil took the world by storm — and changed the movie industry forever. Thirty years after Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Han Solo were introduced to the world in Star Wars on May 25 1977, the seismic impact of George Lucas’s science-fiction saga is still being felt.
A federal appeals court has ruled Google does not infringe the copyrights of adult entertainment company Perfect 10 by displaying small versions of its images in search results. However, it said a lower court should reconsider whether Google helps violate copyrights by pointing people to sites that display unauthorised photos.
Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are to join forces to direct and produce a series of three-films based on the beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin, a report said on Monday. Entertainment journal Daily Variety reports in its Tuesday edition that the legendary filmmakers will direct at least one of the films each.
Bernard Gordon, a screenwriter blacklisted during Hollywood’s anti-communist crusade in the 1950s, has died. He was 88. Gordon died on May 11 at his Hollywood Hills home after a long battle with cancer, according to his daughter, Ellen Gordon. ”He was highly principled, scrupulously honest,” his daughter said. ”He could argue anybody under the table.”
The last time Apple chief executive Steve Jobs took on major recording companies, he refused to budge on his 99-cent price for a song on iTunes. As a new round of talks ramp up this month, however, Jobs has opened the door to higher prices — as long as music companies let Apple sell their songs without technology designed to stop unauthorised copying.