Saturday, 31 May 2008

Garraway denies affair with dance partner

TV presenter Kate Garraway has said she and her husband are as in love as ever, dismissing allegations about her relationship with her 'Strictly Come Dancing' partner Anton Du Beke.
In a statement released by her solicitors, Garraway, who is married to psychotherapist Derek Draper, said she had been "extremely hurt" by allegations in a Sunday newspaper.
She said: "Contrary to these insinuations Derek and I are as faithful, happy and in love today as we have ever been.
She continued: "The plain truth is that Anton and I became friends during 'Strictly Come Dancing'."
"Since then we often work and hang out together. For that to be twisted into something else is sad, hurtful and totally untrue."
The 'GMTV' presenter added: "I am extremely upset and hurt by the allegations. I made it clear before publication that there was no truth to them whatsoever.
"Given they were published in any event and continue to be published, I feel I have no option but to take libel proceedings against the newspaper to set the record straight."

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Jim Broadbent - Broadbents Potter Snub

British actor JIM BROADBENT took on a role in forthcoming movie HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE - despite harbouring a dislike for the boy wizard franchise.

The star plays teacher Horace Slughorn in the sixth installment of the films, which are all adapted from J.K. Rowling's book series.

But Broadbent insists he did not accept his role in the penultimate movie out of love for the famous books - admitting that he doesn't even like the Potter series.

He says, "I'm not a massive fan."




See Also

Jay A. Fernandez joins THR

Jay A. Fernandez, who has written the Los Angeles Times' weekly Scriptland column about screenwriters since September 2006, has joined The Hollywood Reporter as a film reporter, editor Elizabeth Guider said.

Kim Kardashian - Kardashian Selling Clothes Accessories For Charity

Hollywood socialite-turned-reality TV star KIM KARDASHIAN is cleaning out her closet for charity.

The former best friend of Paris Hilton, Kardashian will auction off Jimmy Choo boots, Chanel bags and various designer dresses and accessories to raise cash for the Dream Foundation, which grants wishes to the terminally ill.

Kardashian will also take a winning bidder out for lunch and a shopping spree at her DASH store in Calabasas, California.

She says, "It's going to be amazing! These are some of my favourite items... Plus, (you can) bid to have a fantastic lunch with me and my sisters, followed by some personal shopping help from us at our store."

And she's urging other celebrities to follow her lead and use eBay.com's Giving Works resource to help raise cash for unwanted items.

She adds, "You get to do something good... and look good doing it. And, in case you didn't know, anytime you sell something on eBay, you can donate a percentage of your proceeds to charity.

"So clean out those closets and get rid of last season's clothes for a great cause."

Kardashian's eBay.com auction begins on Thursday night (29May08).




See Also

Serenity

Serenity   
Artist: Serenity

   Genre(s): 
New Age
   



Discography:


Pilates Strengthening   
 Pilates Strengthening

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 3


Pilates Balance   
 Pilates Balance

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 3


Buddhist Nature   
 Buddhist Nature

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 1




Comprised of the trio of Malcolm Lane (harp, vocals), Phil Briggs (guitar, vocals), and Rob Sinclair (freshwater bass, vocals), this New Zealand chemical group place out a healthy album of California psychedelia-influenced folk-rock, Slice of Mind. Originally issued in 1972, it was given an roughly evenly hidden CD reprint several decades subsequently.






Deepak Chopra and Adam Plack

Deepak Chopra and Adam Plack   
Artist: Deepak Chopra and Adam Plack

   Genre(s): 
New Age
   



Discography:


The Soul Of Healing Meditations   
 The Soul Of Healing Meditations

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 8




 





Hotline: The Help gets up-'Staged by fans

Speed Racer A Slow Starter Overseas Too


Speed Racer
hit the overseas market with all gaskets blowing. It earned just $12.8 million in
30 countries, to place third at the international box office, behind Iron Man,
which remained the top film with a gross of $39 million in its second week. (It
has now grossed $165 million overseas. With its domestic gross, its worldwide total
has reached $342.1 million after two weekends.) Twentieth Century Fox's What Happens
in Vegas actually earned more overseas than it did in the U.S., drawing an estimated
$23 million in 36 countries.






12/05/2008




See Also

Live: Thomas Ad�s and the L.A. Philharmonic

"If a hoary critic seems to be writing in the vein of a modern publicist," Andrew Porter wrote in the program notes to an early recording of Thomas Adès’ music, it is because "young Adès, like Purcell and Britten, without repeating himself, has freshened and revitalized the mainsprings of modern music." That disc, which opens with the whimsical "Living Toys" and the wistful string quartet "Arcadiana," is 10 years old, and Adès is now 37.

"Living Toys" and "Arcadiana," composed when Adès was in his early 20s and seemingly the brightest kid in Britain, made up the first part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella program at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Tuesday night. The second half was devoted to the U.S. premiere of his latest work, "In Seven Days," a co-commission by the Philharmonic and the Southbank Centre in London, where it was given its first performance last month.

The new piece, which is subtitled "A Piano Concerto With Moving Image," is a dazzling collaboration between Adès and his life partner, Tal Rosner, an Israeli-born video artist. How might another critic steer clear of publicist temptations?

Well, "In Seven Days" isn't much of a piano concerto. Nicolas Hodges was the exciting soloist, but the orchestral writing was so spectacular that he became mostly part of the mix. And spellbinding as was Rosner's abstract imagery, presented on six screens, he now and then fell victim to the music and mimicked it too closely.

But then Rosner has merely succumbed to the same temptation that many of us find increasingly hard to resist. Full of the life of our own times yet so rooted in the past that it feels like family, Adès' music operates on so many different parts of the brain at once that it overpowers critical faculties.

Brightly bopping scores tickle the pleasure centers. Ingenious counterpoint stimulates the logic-leaning synapses of the left brain. Musical fantasy and illogic mess with the right brain. By this point, who has a enough gray matter left for anything else?

If Adès, also a talented pianist and conductor (he led the performances of "Living Toys" and "In Seven Days"), is known for any one thing, it is for not being known for any one thing. "In Seven Days" occupies a more mature space than the earlier works. But the freshness has not grown stale.

"Living Toys" is a hero's life for nerds. Goofy music accompanies a childhood fantasy of fighting bulls, sashaying with angels, dying a champion. The chamber ensemble channels Janácek here and there, yet its silly sounds resemble no other music. The performance with the Philharmonic's New Music Group was sensational.

The Calder Quartet played "Arcadiana," which reimagines olden times. The players limn something Elgar-like, float into old paintings, wander just this side of Ades' beloved Couperin, dip their toes into "The Magic Flute" and late Beethoven.

The accomplishment here, though, is that the music feels modern, the old world as contemporary dream. The Calder, which has just recorded it, grows ever more ravishing.

"In Seven Days" is a sort of ode to Disney Hall and the Southbank's Royal Festival Hall. Rosner shot imagery at both places but, after computer manipulation, little if anything other than the water of the Thames is recognizable. The score, which Adès and Rosner describe as "a video-ballet," follows the story of the Creation. Not too much of that is recognizable either.

Day One is chaos. Day Seven is contemplation. We begin with dappled river current and can maybe imagine the creation of the seas and land, the sun and stars, life, us. Blue in the video kaleidoscope is, I think, the sky; green, the Earth.

The music is full of wonder. The sections of a sizable chamber ensemble get workouts. Piano and percussion are full of pointillist glitter. Horns erupt into an explosion that, tied to the video, updates "2001." Did I also catch a hint of "Star Wars" in the brass and "E.T." calling home in the winds?

Crazy fugues ricochet. The colors amaze. One listens and looks with delight for half an hour. People left the hall with smiles on their faces. Adès will return next season.

mark.swed@latimes.com