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Music's Dr. Dre, Iovine give $70 million to USC academic program

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:16:10 -0400

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine have donated $70 million to establish an entrepreneurial undergraduate program at the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles school said on Wednesday. The gift will create a new degree pulling faculty members from the university's business, fine arts, music and engineering departments. The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation will begin in the fall of 2014 and enroll a first class of 25 students, USC said. Dr. ...

A Minute With: Zachary Quinto on 'Star Trek,' Spock and coming out

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:17:48 -0400

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Zachary Quinto has transitioned swiftly from a television villain into an unlikely action film star in J.J Abrams' rebooted "Star Trek" franchise, playing the series' most recognizable half-Vulcan, Spock. The 35-year-old actor, who gained fame as super-villain Sylar in sci-fi television series "Heroes," will reprise his role as the pointy-eared first officer of the starship Enterprise in "Star Trek Into Darkness," which will be released in theaters on Friday. ...

Human Rights Watch advocate Cynthia Brown dead at 60

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:26:21 -0400

(Reuters) - Cynthia Brown, who played a key role for Human Rights Watch for almost two decades, has died after a battle with cancer, the global advocacy group said. She was 60 years old. Brown, who joined the organization in 1982 as a researcher and became program director in 1993, died Sunday in New York City, Human Rights Watch said on its website. "She was principled and uncompromising — and played a big part in making Human Rights Watch that way," Kenneth Roth, the group's executive director, said in a statement. ...

Actress Gina Lollobrigida's diamonds fetch $4.9 million at auction

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:59:47 -0400

(Reuters) - Diamond jewelry belonging to Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida sold for more than 4.74 million Swiss francs ($4.9 million) on Tuesday in Geneva and set a record for pearl earrings, auctioneer Sotheby's said. Lollobrigida, a leading sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s, said she was selling the jewelry to raise money for stem cell research. A pair of diamond and natural pearl earrings sold for 2.29 million francs ($2.37 million), an auction record. The earrings beat the $1. ...

Steve Carell helps 'The Office' close its doors in moving finale

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:39:15 -0400

By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The doors of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch closed for the last time on Thursday as NBC's "The Office" wrapped up after a nine-season run with a nostalgic finale featuring a long-awaited wedding and the return of the show's biggest star, Steve Carell. Emmy-winning mockumentary "The Office," adapted from Ricky Gervais' British series of the same name, saw a documentary crew filming the daily lives of employees at the Dunder Mifflin paper company, led for several years by hapless boss Michael Scott, played by Carell. ...

Angelina Jolie has double mastectomy to elude cancer

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:23:12 -0400

By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oscar-winning film star Angelina Jolie revealed on Tuesday that she underwent a double mastectomy after learning she had inherited a high risk of breast cancer and said she hoped her story would inspire other women fighting the life-threatening disease. Jolie, an actress who has long embodied Hollywood glamour and has in recent years drawn nearly as much attention for her globe-trotting work on behalf of refugees as for her role as a celebrity mom, disclosed her choice in an op-ed column in the New York Times. ...

DiCaprio's wildlife charity auction brings in $38.8 million

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:39:54 -0400

By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie's auction house raised $38.8 million through a charity art auction and donations, Christie's said on Tuesday, with proceeds to benefit environmental and conservation causes. The 33 works in The 11th Hour Auction organized by the star of the new film "The Great Gatsby" sold for $31.74 million on Monday evening and set 13 records for artists including Carol Bove, Joe Bradley, Mark Grotjahn, Raymond Pettibon and Mark Ryden among others. ...

New York mayoral hopeful Quinn opens up about overcoming bulimia

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:18:23 -0400

By Edith Honan NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn spoke out on Tuesday about her decade-long struggle with bulimia and alcohol abuse after her mother's death from breast cancer. "It was such a challenging time, and it was a time where everything was just bad," Quinn, the speaker of the New York City Council, told an audience at Barnard College. "I thought I was the only 16-year-old girl in the world who had no ability to deal with her mother dying. ...

U.S. TV journalist Barbara Walters announces retirement

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:51:38 -0400

(Reuters) - Trailblazing broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, known for her interviews with world leaders and celebrities and the first woman to co-anchor a U.S. evening news program, said on Monday she will retire in the summer of 2014. With tears in her eyes, Walters, 83, announced her upcoming resignation on "The View," the all-woman show she created in 1997. "I have been on television for over 50 years," she said as her co-hosts watched. "In the summer of 2014 I plan to retire from appearing on television." Walters described her career as amazing, fascinating, and sometimes bumpy. ...

Harvey Weinstein hosts Obama as Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel watch

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:50:57 -0400

By Ira Teinowitz LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It was Harvey Weinstein and President Obama again Monday. Weinstein, a longtime backer of the president, is hosting one of three Democratic fundraisers in New York with Georgiana Chapman that feature comments by the president. Weinstein has his name on one of two of the events sponsored by the Democratic National Committee in private homes, the White House said. Tickets for the event in Weinstein's five-story West Village home ranged from $16,200 to $20,000. Some 65 people showed up, including Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel and Tommy Hilfiger. ...

Documents in case against Internet activist Swartz to be released

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:27:11 -0400

BOSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday ordered the release of previously sealed documents in the criminal hacking case against deceased Internet activist Aaron Swartz. Swartz committed suicide in January before going to trial for allegedly stealing millions of academic articles from a private database using a computer network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Swartz's estate asked for the documents to be released to shed light on what they have termed an overzealous prosecution of the 26-year-old. ...

Ousted Hearst executive Scott Sassa rebounds from sexting scandal with El Rey gig

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:07:40 -0400

By Brent Lang LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Sassa will serve as the English-language cable network's new vice chairman. El Rey is being jointly launched by "El Mariachi" director Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures. Sassa served as the president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication group which oversaw the company's stakes in television properties like ESPN, History and Lifetime. He was brought low last March, however, when he was linked to an extortion plot involving a stripper and a series of sexually charged text messages. ...

Jackie Robinson biopic made pitcher who faced him a villain: daughter

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:33:39 -0400

By Kevin Murphy KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - When a racist pitcher beans Jackie Robinson in the head in the new movie about the first black man to play major league baseball, Sherrill Duesterhaus wants everybody in the theater to know it's a lie. Duesterhaus' father, Fritz Ostermueller, threw the pitch, but it did not hit Robinson in the head and there is no evidence he uttered, "You don't belong here and you never will," as shown in "42," the Warner Bros. Pictures film that opened in April. ...

U.S. judge blocks sale of basketball star Bryant's jersey, rings

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:18:19 -0400

By David Jones NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A federal judge has temporarily blocked an auction house from selling basketball great Kobe Bryant's jerseys, championship rings and other memorabilia worth up to $1 million in a case stemming from a dispute between the Los Angeles Laker and his mother. The All-Star guard has asked the courts to halt the sale of his belongings, which are in possession of his mother, Pamela Bryant, saying he had not been consulted and only learned of the sale in a press release issued by Goldin Auctions. ...

Rapper Psy wows Harvard with global appeal, dance moves

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:30:40 -0400

By Ross Kerber CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - South Korean rapper Psy said he "partied hard" when his dance number drew its first 10 million views on YouTube last summer. Little did he know "Gangnam Style" would become the most-viewed video in the online service's history, with a global following and nearly 1.6 billion views as of Thursday. ...

Heavy metal singer pleads not guilty in California murder-for-hire case

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:22:57 -0400

By Marty Graham VISTA, California (Reuters) - Heavy metal singer Tim Lambesis, the frontman for Christian rock band As I Lay Dying, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a charge of soliciting the murder of his estranged wife. North San Diego County Superior Court Judge Martin Staven set bail for Lambesis at $3 million. He ordered Lambesis to surrender his passport, stay away from his wife Meggan and their three children and remain in San Diego county except to meet with his attorney. If convicted, Lambesis faces up to nine years in prison. ...

Actor Neil Patrick Harris returns to host 67th Tony Awards

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:05:47 -0400

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Neil Patrick Harris will return to host the 67th Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 9th in what will be his fourth stint on the show that honors the best of Broadway, organizers said on Thursday. The Emmy Award winner and star of the TV comedy "How I Met Your Mother," who won plaudits for hosting the Tony Awards last year, said he was very excited to be back. "It'll be more impressive than ever - if my math is correct, it will be 267 times bigger than last year," Harris said in a statement. "Oh wait. No. That can't ... hold on ... carry the one ... ...

DiCaprio, Christie's to hold auction to benefit environment

Fri, 10 May 2013 02:07:13 -0400

By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of the new film "The Great Gatsby," and his foundation have teamed up with Christie's for a charity auction next week to benefit environmental causes. Thirty-three works, many created for and donated to the auction by some of the world's top artists, will go under the hammer on Monday in New York at The 11th Hour Auction, which aims to raise as much as $18 million to protect the last wild places on Earth and their endangered species. "A lot of the works of this quality have never been at auction. ...

A Minute With: Baz Luhrmann on Gatsby, DiCaprio and Jay-Z

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:43:39 -0400

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann brings to life F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel, "The Great Gatsby" which opens in U.S. theaters Friday before unspooling at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15. The film reunites Luhrmann with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he last worked on the big screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Romeo + Juliet" in 1996. DiCaprio stars as Jay Gatsby, a millionaire pining for a lost love, played by Carey Mulligan, during the height of the hedonistic 1920's. Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton also star. ...

Madonna to be honored for top grossing tour at Billboard Awards

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:32:56 -0400

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Madonna will be honored at the Billboard Music Awards show this month for her 2012 MDNA tour, the high grossing concert tour of the year, organizers of the awards show said on Wednesday. The singer will accept the Top Touring Artist award at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 19th for the tour that grossed more than $305 million from 88 sold-out shows and attracted an audience of 2.2 million people. ...

Hip hop star Lauryn Hill gets three months for tax evasion

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:21:53 -0400

By David Jones NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A U.S. magistrate judge sentenced Grammy-winning hip hop artist Lauryn Hill to three months in prison, three months in home confinement and a $60,000 fine on Monday for federal tax evasion. Hill pleaded guilty last year to three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million of income between 2005 and 2007 and faced up to three years in prison. Hill has attributed her failure to pay taxes to years of pressure she experienced as a recording star while raising six children, forcing her to go underground and stay out of the public ...

Mirren, dressed as queen, reads royal riot act to noisy drummers

Mon, 06 May 2013 06:57:23 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - Actress Helen Mirren has delivered another show-stopping performance as Britain's Queen Elizabeth after storming out of a London theatre dressed as the monarch to deliver an expletive-riddled tirade at a group of drummers ruining the play. Infuriated by loud drumming outside the Gielgud Theatre, where Mirren is portraying the queen in the play "The Audience", she burst out in full costume during the interval on Saturday night to tell them to shut up, with a few swear words thrown in for good measure. "I'm afraid there were a few 'thespian' words used. ...

Justin Timberlake announces world tour, new album

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:04:49 -0400

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Justin Timberlake will embark on an international tour in October - his first in six years - and will release 10 new songs at the end of September, concert promoter Live Nation said on Monday. "The 20/20 Experience," the singer's first album in seven years, was released in March and topped the U.S. album charts for three consecutive weeks. He is now planning to release 10 news songs, and out-takes from the March release, in a second installment of "The 20/20 Experience" on September 30, record label RCA said. ...

Witherspoon pleads no contest, video of drunken arrest posted on Internet

Fri, 03 May 2013 14:12:42 -0400

(Reuters) - Academy award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon has pleaded no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct and paid a $100 fine after she was arrested with her husband following an evening out in Atlanta last month. The deputy solicitor of the Municipal Court of Atlanta, Ronda Graham, said in a statement on Thursday that "the pending criminal matters against Ms. Reese Witherspoon and Mr. Jim Toth have been resolved." Toth, 42, entered a guilty plea to drunk driving and received a $600 fine. He must also complete 40 hours of community service. ...

Monty Python star Michael Palin to receive top British TV award

Fri, 03 May 2013 09:34:42 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - Film and television star Michael Palin, who made his name as a founder of comedy group Monty Python, is to receive one of the British entertainment industry's highest accolades. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) said on Friday that Palin, who turns 70 this month, would be presented with an Academy Fellowship at the organization's annual TV awards ceremony on May 12. BAFTA Chairman John Willis said the award recognized the contribution Palin had made to the industry over five decades. ...

Bono's one-time Sydney holiday home sells for record $55.4 million

Thu, 02 May 2013 01:58:12 -0400

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Sydney harborfront mansion has been sold for a record-setting A$54 million ($55.4 million) to a Chinese-born businessman, reinforcing the city's growing status as a hot property destination, newspapers said on Thursday. On the market for six years, the luxurious eight-bedroom "Altona" in exclusive Point Piper was bought in a secret deal with the businessman who currently lives in Melbourne, the newspapers reported. The property and its heated waterside pool and boathouse, rented by U2 rock star Bono in 2006 for a family holiday, was last sold in 2002 for A$28 million. ...

Beyonce, J.Lo to headline London charity concert for women

Wed, 01 May 2013 19:01:19 -0400

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Florence & The Machine are teaming up for a four-hour charity concert in London next month to benefit women's health and education projects around the world. The "Sound of Change Live" concert on June 1 in London's Twickenham sports stadium could fund at least 120 projects supporting girls and women in more than 70 nations, if all the tickets are sold, organizers said on Wednesday. ...

Why the Rock is the first pro wrestler (or athlete) to become a movie star

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:41:30 -0400

By Lucas Shaw NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Ask a group of pro wrestling fans to name their favorite lord of the ring and you might get 10 different answers. Older fans grew up idolizing Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair while newer fans might list Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin and John Cena. Yet ask those same people to pick their favorite wrestler-turned-movie star and the decision gets a whole lot easier. There's only one choice. Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock, has starred in three movies over the past three months, "Snitch," "G. ...

Laura Bush, top country singers headline George Jones memorial

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:48:21 -0400

(Reuters) - Country music legend George Jones will be remembered in a public memorial service featuring former First Lady Laura Bush and a list of speakers and musical performers including Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson on Thursday at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. Jones, whose honky-tonk career spanned more than six decades, died in Nashville last week at the age of 81. The memorial service will be open to the public, the singer's publicist announced. ...

Longest-serving soap actor charged in UK with rape

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:08:29 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - William Roache, the world's longest serving soap actor according to Guinness World Records, was charged on Wednesday with two counts of rape against an underage girl, British prosecutors said. Roache, 81, who plays Ken Barlow in the popular soap opera "Coronation Street", is the latest high-profile figure to be accused of sex crimes in Britain since the death of BBC television presenter Jimmy Savile in 2011. ...