Avril Lavigne has been given permission to perform in Malaysia despite being deemed likewise sexy by the government there earlier this week.
The Muslim nation's Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry proclaimed earlier this week that the Canadian singer would not be allowed to perform deuce days before the country will celebrate its Independence Day because "It's non in the spirit of our National Day.
But it seems they�??ve had a change of meat, and the show will go on as scheduled on August 29, says Lavigne.
"Well, I've actually been approved by the government to play a record," she told MTV. "I've already sold 10,000 tickets there, so I will be going to put on a concert for the fans. They tend to, you know, sometimes not want Western artists in their nation. I regard that, just at the same time, you recognize, there's people that listen to music there and want to see their idols and stuff, so it's all good: been approved by the governing and [I'm] going to go commit on a show and have fun."
Other artists to have similar experiences with the Malaysian government include Gwen Stefani and The Pussycat Dolls.
--By our New York staff.
Find out more around NME.
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Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Sean Connery -- License to "Kill Adversary"
UPDATE: Sir Sean reps want us to ready one matter clear -- very exonerate. The thespian does NOT own the property in question -- it's owned by his son, Stephane, and Sean's been a guest "on limited occasions." Got that?
Sean Connery sounds like 007 -- even when he's talking to his lawyers. Sheerioushly.
TMZ has obtained a hilarious letter that reveals Sean's strategy in dealing with those plaguey downstairs neighbors whom Connery's son has been battling for age. His lawyer writes Sean told him he wants to "kill the resister." Cue imitation.
We contacted the adversary-killing attorney -- no word. And nothing from MI-6 either.
More information
Sean Connery sounds like 007 -- even when he's talking to his lawyers. Sheerioushly.
TMZ has obtained a hilarious letter that reveals Sean's strategy in dealing with those plaguey downstairs neighbors whom Connery's son has been battling for age. His lawyer writes Sean told him he wants to "kill the resister." Cue imitation.
We contacted the adversary-killing attorney -- no word. And nothing from MI-6 either.
More information
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Treatment Corrects Severe Insulin Imbalance In Animal Studies
�Researchers let used
a drug to achieve normal levels of blood refined sugar in animals genetically
engineered to
a drug to achieve normal levels of blood refined sugar in animals genetically
engineered to
Friday, 27 June 2008
The Children of Huang Shi
Barely remembered by his fellow countryman, but revered to this day by the Chinese, George Hogg was an Oxford-educated adventurer who led 60 war orphans on a 700-mile trek during the Japanese occupation of China to prevent them from falling into the hands of the advancing occupying forces. In director Roger Spottiswoode�s leisurely retelling of this heroic feat, Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is introduced sneaking into Nanking in 1937 to report on the three-sided war between the Japanese, Chinese Nationals and Chinese Communists. Upon his arrival, Hogg witnesses Japanese soldiers execute hundreds in cold blood. With the aid of Communist resistance leader �Jack� Chen (Chow Yun-Fat) and Red Cross nurse Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell), an injured Hogg is taken to recuperate at a school in Huang Shi. Once better, Hogg plans to tell the world what�s happening in China. But he takes such a shine to the orphans that he decides to stay as the school�s headmaster. Soon, though, news spreads that Japanese troops are marching toward Huang Shi. Hogg has no choice but to take the orphans on a months-long journey--with rough terrain and bitter weather ahead of them--to find a safe place to live and learn. Let�s ignore the fact that pretty-boy Rhys Meyers struts through the Second Sino-Japanese War looking more like a fashion-conscious playboy on vacation than a war correspondent dodging bullets and bombs. The hunkiest Henry VIII ever--sorry, Eric Bana--downplays the onscreen Hogg�s evident superior complexity in order to react to the horrible circumstances he�s found himself in with the appropriate amount of fear, compassion and resourcefulness. On the other hand, Yun-Fat acts like he�s in Apocalypse Now. He gleefully spouts war-isn�t-hell Kilgore-isms, even though his fervor and glibness are out of place in a film that treats the war with obvious grave solemnity. The tough-as-nails Mitchell does serve as something of a calming influence whenever she�s around Yun-Fat. Unfortunately, sparks don�t fly between Mitchell and Rhys Meyers, making it impossible to buy into their perfunctionary romance. Honestly, Rhys Meyers generates more heat with the sublimely regal Michelle Yeoh, whose black marketer is taken with this most charming customer. Too bad Yeoh doesn�t share any moments with her Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon costar Yun-Fat. Of the orphans, the stone-faced Guang Li makes the greatest impression as a warrior among children who rightfully fears Hogg will usurp his authority. �We�re all something different in China,� Pearson tells Hogg. That certainly holds true for Hogg. Beyond serving as a CliffsNotes-style history lesson in the Second Sino-Japanese War, The Children of Huang Shi asks what it takes during a time of conflict to transform an observer to a participant, a pacifist to an advocate of war. Actually, it doesn�t take much for the reporter portrayed here to abandon his personal and professional principles. Even if director Roger Spottiswoode pulls no punches whenever he places Hogg in harm�s way, our hero�s swift conversion from impartial bystander to unlikely savior would still probably be laughed at by the hardened war correspondents in the director�s superior Under Fire. Sadly, after depicting the horrors of war with bloody and brutal honesty, Spottiswoode falls into the trap of presenting Hogg as the all-knowing, all-sage Westerner out to rescue 60 �savages� not just from the Japanese but from themselves. The students don�t teach anything of value to Hogg. Even his relationships with a select few students aren�t as fully explored as those he shares with Pearson and Chen. That�s not to say that the much-anticipated journey across the Gobi Desert isn�t inspirational. It is, even if it seems more rushed and less eventful than expected. The Children of Huang Shi isn�t as powerful or compelling as Schindler's List, but there�s no denying that it may help Hogg receive the recognition he deserves outside of China for his selfless actions during a war that he had no vested interest in.
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Thursday, 19 June 2008
Friday, 13 June 2008
My Winnipeg
Cult director Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) revisits his boyhood in Winnipeg, casting 1940s femme fatale Ann Savage in the role of his mother.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Sheen: 'Richards Tried To Sabotage My Wedding'
Charlie Sheen has accused ex-wife Denise Richards of using her reality show to try to sabotage his wedding to Brooke Mueller. Denise Richards: It's Complicated first aired on , just days before Sheen and Mueller tied the knot in a Los Angeles ceremony . Sheen is convinced the show and Richards' promotional duties - which brought their bitter divorce and custody battle back into the public eye - were meant to coincide with the wedding. He tells OK! magazine, "I think it's no accident that whatserface chose this time to do what she did. It's pretty obvious that Brooke and I, through our actions and union, are moving on with our lives. Perhaps somebody else should consider the same." Sheen also vows to move on now he is remarried, and never mention Richards' name again: "I'm tired of talking about her and all her shenanigans. It is what it is. I don't even care any more. I'm going to take a public stand to basically never utter her name publicly again, and I think if that's known it will put an end to some of the drama.
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Saturday, 31 May 2008
Leona Lewis - Fascinating Fact 5345
British singer LEONA LEWIS has been awarded the Kylie Award for Next International Crossover at the 2008 NewNowNext Awards, which celebrates gay pop culture. The event will take place in New York on 7 June (08).
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Friday, 30 May 2008
Djivan Gasparyan and Erkan Ogur
Artist: Djivan Gasparyan and Erkan Ogur
Genre(s):
Folk
Discography:
Fuad
Year:
Tracks: 10
Blaze Ya Dead Homie
Sinatra Widow Snubbed At Stamp Ceremony
Frank Sinatra's widow Barbara was banned from a ceremony in his honor on Tuesday, reportedly because of a long-running row with the late star's children. A new postage stamp bearing the star's face will be unveiled at three ceremonies; in Las Vegas, New York and his native Hoboken, New Jersey, attended by his son Frank Jr. and daughters Tina and Nancy. But their stepmother, former Las Vegas showgirl Barbara Marx Sinatra, has been refused an invitation to any of the events. Family friend Bob Milang blames tension between Barbara and the children for the missing invitation, and adds that political figure Jose Serrano - who lobbied for the stamp - played a role in uninviting her. Milang tells the New York Post, "I'm upset with (Jose) Serrano because (Barbara) is a woman who was married to Sinatra for 22 years, and here she is being snubbed. I know Serrano is close to Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr. He plays dumb and he doesn't have the courtesy to return a phone call." But Serrano tells the newspaper, "The invites went out from the Postal Service. I'm not doing the inviting. I'm lucky to be invited myself."See Also
Odes Of Ecstasy
Artist: Odes Of Ecstasy
Genre(s):
Metal: Gothic
Metal
Discography:
Deceitful Melody
Year: 2000
Tracks: 8
Embossed Dream In Four Acts
Year: 1998
Tracks: 6
Rohff
Live: Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
Kevin Puts’ new Piano Concerto, which the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra commissioned and performed Sunday evening at UCLA's Royce Hall, puts on a good show. A young American composer with an ear for glittery textures, Puts did what he could to please an audience. And he did what he could to make things impossible for Jeffrey Kahane, the orchestra's music director, who conducted from the keyboard.Titled "Night," the concerto is in three connected movements during which busy day leads to an evening of meditative self-reflection and then the fanciful midnight hour. Out of the utopia of the night, as the composer, 36, described it during a pre-concert discussion, animals start scurrying. A concerto intended to be conducted by the soloist calls for modesty. "Night" begins innocently, with a pulse in the keyboard and lovely figuration. But before long, the pianist needs more hands than nature provides. The solo writing is virtuosic. Kahane lunged for the keys and lunged at the orchestra to give cues. Percussion lent a helping hand, clanking away at the pulse now and then. The concertmaster, Margaret Batjer, conducted when she could as well.
There are very nice things in "Night." Each movement starts out well, with the piano defying the pulse in interesting fashion. The middle one begins as a dreamy nocturne, a fantasy around off-center descending scales, each note treated by Kahane as a small pearl. The piano writing glistens. But each movement becomes increasingly derivative as it progresses. In the busy passages of "Dies Irae," the opening, Prokofiev never seems far away, and Rachmaninoff comes to the rescue in a swelling climax. For the syncopated finale, called "Midnight Toccata," John Adams' "Grand Pianola Music" showed the way. Kahane is the main selling point for the concerto. A champion of Puts, particularly in Denver, where he is music director of the Colorado Symphony, Kahane exhibited the kind of good cheer Sunday that no audience can resist. The concert began with Handel's Concerto Grosso in F from the Opus 6 set, conducted by Batjer, and ended with a brilliant reading of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony. Things are looking up for LACO. Earlier this year, the orchestra made its first European tour in 30 years. It concluded its 11th season under Kahane on Sunday with playing on a uniformly high level. Beethoven's descriptive ideas for the "Pastoral" were not clever -- a day in the woods, a babbling brook, prancing peasants, a thunderstorm and the clearing of the clouds. Nearly as hyperactive here as he was in the concert, Kahane emphasized visceral playing and bright colors. As had been the case all evening, the orchestra seemed to have no agenda other than to provide immediate pleasure, and the "Pastoral" burst with life. But Beethoven always had something up his sleeve, and so did Kahane.Perhaps because he's a pianist too, Kahane the conductor has a special way with Beethoven. He articulates very clearly. He doesn't exaggerate. He relies on a beautiful tone to draw the ear. Underneath, he creates a flow that subtly prepares a listener for spiritual revelations to come.That was the case with this "Pastoral." The last movement emerges as a glowing hymn to nature, which Kahane illuminated with such warmth that the glow lingered as an afterglow. Puts' utopian night is made of inner thoughts that last as long as the music. Beethoven's utopian day encompasses the Earth and felt eternal. mark.swed@latimes.com
There are very nice things in "Night." Each movement starts out well, with the piano defying the pulse in interesting fashion. The middle one begins as a dreamy nocturne, a fantasy around off-center descending scales, each note treated by Kahane as a small pearl. The piano writing glistens. But each movement becomes increasingly derivative as it progresses. In the busy passages of "Dies Irae," the opening, Prokofiev never seems far away, and Rachmaninoff comes to the rescue in a swelling climax. For the syncopated finale, called "Midnight Toccata," John Adams' "Grand Pianola Music" showed the way. Kahane is the main selling point for the concerto. A champion of Puts, particularly in Denver, where he is music director of the Colorado Symphony, Kahane exhibited the kind of good cheer Sunday that no audience can resist. The concert began with Handel's Concerto Grosso in F from the Opus 6 set, conducted by Batjer, and ended with a brilliant reading of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony. Things are looking up for LACO. Earlier this year, the orchestra made its first European tour in 30 years. It concluded its 11th season under Kahane on Sunday with playing on a uniformly high level. Beethoven's descriptive ideas for the "Pastoral" were not clever -- a day in the woods, a babbling brook, prancing peasants, a thunderstorm and the clearing of the clouds. Nearly as hyperactive here as he was in the concert, Kahane emphasized visceral playing and bright colors. As had been the case all evening, the orchestra seemed to have no agenda other than to provide immediate pleasure, and the "Pastoral" burst with life. But Beethoven always had something up his sleeve, and so did Kahane.Perhaps because he's a pianist too, Kahane the conductor has a special way with Beethoven. He articulates very clearly. He doesn't exaggerate. He relies on a beautiful tone to draw the ear. Underneath, he creates a flow that subtly prepares a listener for spiritual revelations to come.That was the case with this "Pastoral." The last movement emerges as a glowing hymn to nature, which Kahane illuminated with such warmth that the glow lingered as an afterglow. Puts' utopian night is made of inner thoughts that last as long as the music. Beethoven's utopian day encompasses the Earth and felt eternal. mark.swed@latimes.com
Grotesque
Artist: Grotesque
Genre(s):
Metal: Death,Black
Discography:
In The Embrace Of Evil (Best Of, Compilation)
Year: 1996
Tracks: 11
Jessica Simpson Slams Dallas Cowboys Fans
Jessica Simpson insists she is not a bad luck charm for Tony Romo and his team the Dallas Cowboys, and she slammed fans who believe her presence at games is responsible for making her boyfriend’s football team lose.
Devotees of the Texas team turned on Simpson after her quarterback beau Romo under performed during games when she was watching in the stands.
She was even mocked by U.S. president George W. Bush last month, when Super Bowl champions the New York Giants visited him in Washington D.C.
Bush told the team, who beat the Cowboys in a game Simpson supposedly jinxed: "We're gonna send Jessica Simpson to the Democratic National Convention."
But Simpson insists she had nothing to do with the team's bad performances, telling Glamour magazine: "I don't know - other than me wearing my man's jersey and cheering him on. And him not playing the way he would've hoped and all of a sudden I'm to blame.
"That was ludicrous. I don't understand why they think that I would be a distraction to Tony. Do they really think he can see way far up in that box? No. He's the most focused person I've ever dated."
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'Sarah Marshall' Actor Russell Brand's Stand-Up Show Isn't Forgettable At All
The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles is legendary for being host to wild parties, crazy celebrities and more than its fair share of debauchery. But enough about Russell Brand's stand-up performance there on Sunday.
"The Roxy has seen performances from the Sex Pistols, Bob Marley, Guns N' Roses," the English actor and comic told MTV News in his upstairs dressing room immediately following his set. "And in fact, there are pictures of these people screwed to the walls because the people that come here cannot be trusted not to steal pictures off the walls. I bet people steal paint," he continued, chuckling. "I bet people peel paint off with butter knives and then try to reapply it to the walls of their houses."
All joking aside, Brand is of course primarily known in America for petty theft: stealing scenes from co-stars Kristen Bell and Jason Segel as a supporting player in the recent "Sarah Marshall."
"Of course [Americans have] seen me in 'Sarah Marshall,' if they're alive!" Brand laughed. "If they've got lungs and kidneys, we can assume that [they've seen me]. It's a given. It's on the national curriculum: Breakfast, go watch 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' come home, remember scenes from 'Sarah Marshall.'"
It certainly seems that way to Brand, given how his profile has skyrocketed in America since the release of the film. "It's gotten a bit better since the popularity accumulation," he said. "I'm now able to use public transport for free."
But Brand, perhaps surprisingly, would like to be known mainly for his stand-up, he revealed, calling it -- and not acting -- his "first love."
"Stand-up and Stacy Boatman," he joked. "You never really get over that — your first love. I've treated stand-up comedy better because, Tracy Boatman, I did steal [from her]." (Editor's note: We suspect this Stacy/Tracy person may be fictional.)
We kid about the debauchery and partying mentioned earlier, by the way, but only because Brand does as well. An admitted former drug addict, Brand uses wild experiences from his own life as a template for his comedy, a twist on the "confessionals" of most comics who tend to focus on the mundane and trivial.
"[My comedy is basically] a man talking about his life, about embarrassing incidents, in the vain hope that by opposing, ends them," he said — loosely quoting from "Hamlet" — of his routine, which features a reference to both heroin and Shakespeare in the same sentence. "It's the culmination of a lifetime of work if you do confessional, biographical stand-up comedy."
So how did Brand's act go over?
"It went really well as a matter of fact," he asserted. "People laughed when they were supposed to laugh, cheered when they were supposed to cheer and hurled missiles when pertinent."
Brand will return to the Roxy for stand-up performances the first three Sundays in June.
The MTV Movie Awards will air live on MTV on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, with MTV News' "Coming Attractions" preshow kicking the evening off at 7:30 p.m. ET! Find all the latest updates on nominees, presenters, performers, voting, contests, movie exclusives and much more at MovieAwards.MTV.com. And check out Movies.MTV.com for the latest movie news, trailers, photos and more!
Check out everything we've got on "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."
Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, reviews, interviews and more.
Want trailers? Visit the for the newest, scariest and funniest coming attractions anywhere.
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Bob Marley - Mourners Pay Tribute To Marleys Mum
Thousands of mourners turned out to pay their last respects to late reggae singer BOB MARLEY's mother CEDELLA BOOKER on Sunday (27Apr08).
The mother of the One Love hitmaker died in her sleep earlier this month (09Apr08) at her Miami, Florida home, aged 81.
The native Jamaican's body was flown back to be buried on the island and was draped in blue, red, yellow and black cloths - the colours of the Rastafarian faith - and displayed in Kingston's National Stadium.
One of her sons from her second marriage, to Richard Booker, told mourners at the event, "She read her bible every day and listened to gospel music every evening."
Booker is survived by two children and several grandchildren, including Ziggy Marley, who won four Grammys with his band the Melody Makers.
Bob Marley died of a brain tumour in Miami in 1981, aged 36.
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