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Joan Rivers in serious condition says comedian's daughter

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 31 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

Joan Rivers remained in a New York City hospital Friday, one day after going into cardiac arrest at a doctor's office.

Melissa Rivers said in a statement Friday that her mother was "receiving the best treatment and care possible." She also thanked Rivers' fans and friends for their support.

"My mother would be so touched by the tributes and prayers that we have received from around the world," Melissa Rivers said. "Her condition remains serious ... We ask that you continue to keep her in your thoughts as we pray for her recovery."

The Mount Sinai Hospital said it had no updates Friday. On Thursday, hospital spokesman Sid Dinsay confirmed that Rivers had been taken there that morning.

New York City police officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly name Rivers, said she was taken to the hospital just after 9:30 a.m. Thursday. It was unclear why she was visiting the doctor's office.

Health concerns put show on hold

The comedian with a half-century of show business under her belt has spawned a reputation for often-snarky red carpet fashion commentary. A show she had scheduled Friday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, has been postponed.

Rivers spoke at an employee event at Time Inc. in New York on Wednesday night and appeared healthy, practically jogging when she walked in to take her seat, Shira Blum, an online project manager, said Thursday.

"She seemed totally healthy," Blum said. "She was very energetic, hilarious, funny. And it was such a shock, a surprise to hear the news this morning."

Rivers took questions and said she wakes up every morning and "is thankful that everything works," Blum said.

'Donate my body to Tupperware'

An early and outspoken proponent of cosmetic surgery, Rivers' drastically altered her appearance over the years — and found plenty of material for jokes. ("I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.")

The host of Fashion Police on E! network, Rivers also presides over an online talk show, In Bed With Joan and co-stars with her daughter on the WEtv reality show, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?

Joan Rivers 1980's headshot

Promotional portrait of American Joan Rivers, circa 1980s. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Her latest book, Diary of a Mad Diva, was released this summer.

In 2009, Rivers emerged as the winner of NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice. A documentary, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, premiered in theatres in 2010.

The New York native originally entered show business with the dream of a theatrical career, but comedy became a way to pay the bills while she auditioned for acting roles.

"Somebody said, 'You can make six dollars standing up in a club,"' she told The Associated Press in 2013, "and I said, 'Here I go!' It was better than typing all day."

After proving herself in comedy clubs as a rarity — a woman comedian — Rivers was a smash on her first booking on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1965. "God, you're funny," Carson told her.


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Mint unveils four new Superman coins at Fan Expo 2014

The Royal Canadian Mint on Friday unveiled four limited-edition Superman coins, reproducing colourful iconic images from DC Comics' book covers.

Three of the new coins have been minted in silver, with face values of $10, $15 and $20 and the fourth in gold with a face value of $100. The mint is only producing 10,000 of each silver coin, and the gold coin is limited to a run of 2,000.

The coins were unveiled at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto by a federal minister who said he grew up with the "fantastic" adventures of Superman.

Justin Monk as Superman

Justin Monk dressed as Superman was on hand to unveil four new collector coins featuring Superman at Fan Expo in Toronto on Friday, August 29, 2014. (Jesse Johnston/The Canadian Press)

House Leader Peter Van Loan was also quick to point out the Man of Steel's Canadian roots, saying Superman's co-creator was Joe Shuster of Toronto.

"Folks of my generation will know him as a cousin of the famous comedian Frank Shuster of the Wayne and Shuster duo and Joe Shuster was, of course, born in the city," said Van Loan, who brought his daughter and son along to the unveiling.

The new coins are based on art that graced comic book covers in 1938, 1972, 2001 and 2012, including Action Comics .1, which features Superman hoisting a green car above his head in "arguably the most famous comic book of all time," the mint said.

The other coins feature images including Superman's alter ego Clark Kent pulling back his shirt to reveal the S-Shield and Superman in the "classic iteration of his costume," taking to the skies with his cape fluttering behind.

Their launch follows the release last year of seven Superman coins to mark the hero's 75th anniversary.

"By celebrating Superman, we are highlighting the fact that many Canadians share a love of comic books and admiration for one of the world's greatest pop culture heroes," said Patrick Hadsipantelis, vice-president of marketing at the mint.

He said the new coins exemplify the mint's internationally renowned craftsmanship.

The coins are on sale online now and will be available in Canada Post outlets and at other distributors starting next week. The silver coins retail between $69.95 and $109.75 while the 14-karat gold coin sells for $750.95.

Hadsipantelis said there had been international interest in the coins, but they are only available for sale to customers in Canada and the United States under the terms negotiated with DC Entertainment, which owns DC Comics.

However, there is no restriction in reselling them, he said.

The mint says the silver coins are limited to 10,000 each and the gold coin to just 2,000.

Toronto's Fan Expo runs through Saturday. 


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'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' draft released

An unused chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been released — 50 years after Roald Dahl's much-loved children's novel was first published.

The fifth chapter, from a 1961 draft, describes an extra room in the factory called the "Vanilla Fudge Room," which features a "colossal jagged mountain" made of fudge.

The draft also featured more children, and showed that Charlie originally went into the factory with his mother, not his grandfather.

The chapter was published in the Guardian newspaper Saturday with the permission of the Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd., an organization that manages his legacy.

The book, which follows young Charlie Bucket's adventures inside Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, has sold millions of copies and inspired several film versions and a West End musical.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The fifth chapter, from a 1961 draft, describes an extra room in the factory called the 'Vanilla Fudge Room.'


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TIFF 2014: Young Canadian filmmakers to watch

Slater Jewell-Kemker dropped out of high-school when she was 16 to become a filmmaker. Now, at just 22-years old she is making her debut at The Toronto International Film Festival with her psychological thriller Still.

The 16-minute dramatic short centres on a young woman who meets multiples of herself after a walk with her abusive boyfriend turns deadly. 

A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre's director's lab, it's not Kemker's first film festival. But, she says, being accepted into TIFF provides open access to a community of people that shape and influence movies on a global scale.

'It's a key that opens doors and confidence that you actually belong there.'- Slater Jewell-Kemker, director, Still

"As a young filmmaker you get this magical filmmakers' pass that gets you into events, parties and films. It's a key that opens doors and confidence that you actually belong there."

"You can go up to someone that you've been admiring for years, feel you can converse with them and won't be taken as a stalker fan."

Besides the feeling of accomplishment that comes from TIFF's acceptance, Kemker is happy to be a role model for other youth interested in filmmaking. "I definitely have a lot of younger girls come up to me that are excited about the idea that there's someone not that much older than themselves, a woman, being a filmmaker."

TIFF 'the gold standard'

It's also Sol Friedman's debut at TIFF. Friedman is the animator behind Day 40, an anti-creationist dark comedy about the story of Noah's Ark told from the perspective of the animals.

Sol Friedman

Sol Friedman's short animated film Day 40 is an anti-creationist dark comedy about the story of Noah's Ark told from the perspective of the animals. (Juan Manuel Garcia)

"It's the gold standard," he says.  "If you get approval from TIFF, people at the very least will watch your film. It gets your foot in the door and that's hugely important if you want to get play at important festivals."

Beyond the prestige that comes from having his short film at TIFF, Friedman is looking forward to hearing the reaction from the audience.

"It's a divisive film so I'm particularly excited to see how people react to it at an acclaimed festival and get feedback right away," says Friedman. 

The 'goosebumps' moment

Growing up in Calgary and living in Vancouver, Randall Okita felt TIFF was far away and surrounded by a cloud of "elite awesomeness."

Now, with The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer, his fourth screening at the festival, he says having TIFF's stamp of approval has allowed him to strengthen his clout as a filmmaker.

Randall Okita

Randall Okita's The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer is his fourth film at TIFF. He says the exposure has strengthened his clout as a filmmaker. (Joyce Wong)

"People know and approve that stamp. I've been a part of festivals that people aren't aware of but I've also played at TIFF. Therefore, people know there must be some level of quality in the work that's being done here."

There's also the magic that comes with watching one's film with an audience.

"When the film starts I take a tiny peek back and see all the faces light up. That's the goosebumps, that's the moment you dream about," he said.  

It scrambles your brain

After winning the award for best Canadian first feature film at TIFF 2013 for Asphalt Watches, filmmakers Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver have been around the world screening their debut film. 

With a schedule jam packed with parties and meetings ​Ehman and Scriver say they were too busy to have expectations during last year's festival. 

"Now we're catching a ride with the movie," said Ehman. "It feels like once you're on a festival like TIFF it's a total springboard to showing it around the world because we don't even apply to festivals and they just ask us."

Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver

Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver won Best Canadian First Feature Film at TIFF 2013 for Asphault Watches. (CBC News)

Now, the filmmakers are working on a storyboard for their next movie thanks to a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

But Scriver says they got the biggest big boost from meeting with fellow filmmakers: "Other people really wanted to help us and give us advice. There were lots of warnings. It scrambles your brain and makes you paranoid and nervous but it's still quite sweet."

The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 4-14.

Follow CBC Arts coverage of the festival here.


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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt get married

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 29 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married Saturday in Correns, France, a spokesman for the couple says.

Jolie and Pitt wed in a small chapel in a private ceremony attended by family and friends at Chateau Miraval. In advance of the nondenominational civil ceremony, Pitt and Jolie obtained a marriage license from a local California judge. The judge also conducted the ceremony in France.

Chateau Miraval

Pitt and Jolie's civil ceremony took place in a chapel at their 17th-century chateau in the south of France. The couple reportedly leased the $60 million dollar estate in Provence in 2008 before buying it 2011. (Philippe Laurenson/Reuters)

The couple's children took part in the wedding. Jolie walked the aisle with her eldest sons Maddox and Pax. Zahara and Vivienne threw flower petals. Shiloh and Knox served as ring bearers, the spokesman says.

Jolie and Pitt's wedding caps years of rampant speculation on when the couple would officially tie the knot. Both had publicly said that they planned to.

"It's an exciting prospect, even though for us, we've gone further than that," Pitt told The Associated Press in an interview in November 2012. "But to concretize it in that way, it actually means more to me than I thought it would. It means a lot to our kids."

This is the second marriage for Pitt, who wed Jennifer Aniston in 2000. They divorced in 2005.

Jolie was previously married to British actor Jonny Lee Miller for three years in the late '90s and to Billy Bob Thornton for three years before divorcing in 2003.

Both Jolie and Pitt are prepping movies. Jolie's second directorial effort, the World War II odyssey Unbroken, will be released in December. Pitt stars in the upcoming World War II drama Fury, due out Oct. 17.


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Joan Rivers 'resting comfortably,' says comedian's daughter

Joan Rivers remained in a New York City hospital Friday, one day after going into cardiac arrest at a doctor's office.

Melissa Rivers said in a statement Thursday that her mother was resting comfortably. She did not elaborate on the 81-year-old comedian's condition. She offered thanks for an outpouring of "love and support" and asked for continuing thoughts and prayers.

The Mount Sinai Hospital did not immediately respond to request for comment Friday. On Thursday, hospital spokesman Sid Dinsay confirmed that Rivers had been taken there in the morning.

New York City police officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly name Rivers, said she was taken to the hospital just after 9:30 a.m. Thursday. It was unclear why she was visiting the doctor's office.

Health concerns put show on hold

The comedian with a half-century of show business under her belt has spawned a reputation for often-snarky red carpet fashion commentary. A show she had scheduled Friday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, has been postponed.

Rivers spoke at an employee event at Time Inc. in New York on Wednesday night and appeared healthy, practically jogging when she walked in to take her seat, Shira Blum, an online project manager, said Thursday.

"She seemed totally healthy," Blum said. "She was very energetic, hilarious, funny. And it was such a shock, a surprise to hear the news this morning."

Rivers took questions and said she wakes up every morning and "is thankful that everything works," Blum said.

'Donate my body to Tupperware'

An early and outspoken proponent of cosmetic surgery, Rivers' drastically altered her appearance over the years — and found plenty of material for jokes. ("I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.")

The host of Fashion Police on E! network, Rivers also presides over an online talk show, In Bed With Joan and co-stars with her daughter on the WEtv reality show, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?

Joan Rivers 1980's headshot

Promotional portrait of American Joan Rivers, circa 1980s. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Her latest book, Diary of a Mad Diva, was released this summer.

In 2009, Rivers emerged as the winner of NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice. A documentary, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, premiered in theatres in 2010.

The New York native originally entered show business with the dream of a theatrical career, but comedy became a way to pay the bills while she auditioned for acting roles.

"Somebody said, 'You can make six dollars standing up in a club,"' she told The Associated Press in 2013, "and I said, 'Here I go!' It was better than typing all day."

After proving herself in comedy clubs as a rarity — a woman comedian — Rivers was a smash on her first booking on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1965. "God, you're funny," Carson told her.


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Kai Ko, actor arrested with Jackie Chan's son, released

A Taiwanese actor arrested on drug charges along with the son of Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan was released Friday after two weeks in detention, amid a broad anti-drug crackdown in China's capital that has ensnared several celebrities.

Kai Ko emerged from a Beijing detention center before dawn and into a scrum of reporters from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Followed to his hotel by the press pack, a visibly agitated Ko challenged one reporter to a fight before retreating inside an elevator.

Kai was considerably more composed at an afternoon news conference in which he appeared with his parents and agent and apologized for smoking marijuana.

"I was wrong on this issue. I made a mistake. There is no excuse for it. I was wrong," Kai said.

"I never realized that Kai Ko is more than just a name for myself. It also means a lot to those who support and love me. It was out of my expectations that anything concerning 'Kai Ko' could have such a big impact on others," he said, before bowing with his parents and agent in a sign of contrition.

Jaycee Chan still detained

The 23-year-old was arrested on Aug. 14 along with Jaycee Chan, son of the Hong Kong martial arts superstar. The arrests drew enormous media attention in the Chinese-speaking world and Kai's news conference came amid speculation about how his career as an entertainer and brand spokesman might be affected.

Jaycee Chan and Kai Ko

Chinese police say Hong Kong actor Jaycee Chan (left) and Taiwanese movie star Kai Ko tested positive for marijuana and admitted using the drug. (Tyrone Siu and Steven Chen/Reuters)

Police said both actors tested positive for marijuana and admitted using the drug, and that 100 grams of it were taken from Chan's home.

While Ko was given a sentence of 14 days in administrative detention — standard for those caught doing drugs — 31-year-old Jaycee Chan remains in detention and faces a potentially much heftier penalty for having shared drugs with others.

Chan, whose mother is former Taiwanese actress Lin Feng-jiao, was raised in Los Angeles and has appeared in about 20 films, most of them low-budget Hong Kong and mainland Chinese productions.

Jackie Chan has publicly apologized for his son's drug use and pledged to work with him on his recovery.

Stars snared in drug crackdown

Ko, whose real name is Ko Chen-tung, rode to fame after his 2011 coming-of-age film You Are the Apple of My Eye. The role won him a Best New Performer award at the Golden Horse film awards in Taiwan, considered the most prestigious in Chinese-language cinema.

Ko also played the boyfriend of one of the protagonists in China-produced Tiny Times 3.0, a huge hit with young female audiences that knocked Transformers 4 from the No. 1 spot in the mainland's box office last month.

The arrests of Ko and Chan came amid a major offensive against drug-related crime in Beijing that has seen a 53.2 percent rise in investigations in the city to more than 1,800 since January, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

More than 8,400 suspects have been detained during that time, an increase of 78.7-percent over the same period last year, Xinhua said.


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Playboy model Brandi Brandt jailed for drug role

Former Playboy model Brandi Brandt was sentenced to up to six years in prison Friday for being part of a drug smuggling ring that brought cocaine to Australia.

Brandi Brandt

Brandi Brandt, seen here on the cover of the August 1989 edition of Playboy magazine, was married to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx for 7 years. At her sentencing Friday, her lawyer says the 45-year-old has 'had it tough.' (Playboy Enterprises)

Brandt, who was once married to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, pleaded guilty in April to a charge of conspiring to import drugs. Prosecutors said she was part of a drug syndicate that hid packages of cocaine on Qantas and United Airlines passenger planes that flew from California to Sydney in 2007.

Employees of an airline catering company allegedly collected the packages after the planes landed.

The California-born Brandt, 45, was accused of conspiring with others to import the cocaine between July and December 2007.

Defence attorney Phillip Boulten pleaded for leniency, acknowledging that Brandt had made some poor decisions, but arguing she'd had a hard life with a dysfunctional upbringing. On Friday, District Court Judge Peter Zahra said Brandt's role was "substantially lower" than others involved in the ring.

"She's had it tough — she had a pretty mixed-up childhood," Boulten told the court during a sentencing hearing earlier this month. "She was using drugs as a teen, her father was using drugs. ... She replicated, in some sense, the lifestyle of her parents."

In the years between the drug ring's bust and her arrest and extradition to Australia in 2013, she'd reformed her life, gotten off drugs and found a job, Boulten said.

"She is unlikely to ever be in trouble again," he said.

Brandt will be eligible for parole in November 2016.


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BET apologizes to Beyoncé for 'stupid' joke about Blue Ivy

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 28 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

BET has suspended a producer after a joke about Beyoncé ​and Jay Z's daughter that aired Monday on the network's music video countdown show, 106 & Park.

A source at the network, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not allowed to discuss the matter publicly, said the producer was suspended after a remark about 2-year-old Blue Ivy's hair.

On Monday's show during a segment about Blue Ivy's hypothetical thoughts during Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, guest host Karrueche Tran said: "I really did wake up like this, because my parents never comb my hair."

Blue Ivy joined her mother onstage at the VMAs.

Stephen Hill, BET's president of music programming and specials, publicly apologized on Twitter.

"Last night on 106 & Park there was a stupid, unthoughtful joke made about a young child," Hill tweeted.

Hill also said the network privately apologized to Beyoncé and Jay Z.

BET didn't immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday.

Tran, who has dated singer Chris Brown on and off, tweeted Tuesday that she did not write the joke. She wrote: "Now y'all know I LOVE me some Beyonce and Blue Ivy!"

Hill also tweeted that it was not Tran's fault.

"We also apologize to her for putting her in that position," he wrote.


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Ron Mann's Altman the only Canadian film at Venice

Ron Mann is Canada's only representative at the world's oldest film festival. His highly-anticipated documentary, Altman, is the single Canadian film selected to screen at the prestigious Venice International Film Festival.

The annual exposition kicked off Wednesday with the world premiere of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu​'s Birdman

Mann's 95-minute portrait of Robert Altman offers an intimate glimpse into the life of the legendary American filmmaker — a man whose cinematic achievements include classics such as M*A*SH, The Player, and Gosford Park.

ALTMAN TRAILER from filmswelike on Vimeo.

Altman, however, isn't in the 19-film race for the festival's coveted Golden Lion prize​. It will screen out of competition in the festival's classics section, which for Mann is where the film belongs.

"It's really the first film festival for this film and I think it's the right place, for sure," he said.

Robert Altman

Director Robert Altman, seen here in a portrait for the 2006 Sarasota Film Festival in Florida, died later that year in Los Angeles. He was 81. (Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)

Altman's wife, Katheryn, co-produced the film. According to Mann, she's the only critic whose opinion really matters.

"There's a tremendous responsibility for representing someone else's art," Mann explained.

"When I showed Kathryn the film, she went through a box of tissues. She loved the film. For me, that was the most important thing."

The 71st Venice International Film Festival runs through Sept. 6.

A retrospective of Robert Altman's work runs through Aug. 31 at TIFF Cinematheque.


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Emmanuel Jal, former child soldier, relives painful past in The Good Lie

By the time he was nine, Emmanuel Jal knew how to fire a gun and go onto a battlefield, a young recruit on the front lines of a bloody conflict.

Decades removed from his life as a child soldier in Sudan's civil war, memories of the harrowing ordeal remain fresh for the 34-year-old Toronto-based musician, whose mother was killed by government forces. It's a painful past he revisits while portraying a Sudanese refugee in The Good Lie.

"There are some quiet flashbacks, certain scenes that take you back to how life was then. Those are the slightly difficult parts," Jal said in a recent phone interview.

Reese Witherspoon and Ger Duany

The Good Lie's Reese Witherspoon and Ger Duany. The film, helmed by Canadian director Philippe Falardeau has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 7. (Bob Mahoney/TIFF)

"Then you come back and remember that you're in the present."

Helmed by Canadian director Philippe Falardeau, The Good Lie will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 7. The story is a fictionalized account of Sudan's Lost Boys, documenting the arduous journey of children who travelled for countless kilometres in unforgiving conditions to seek refuge from the conflict.

Jal — who hails from South Sudan — portrays Paul, part of a tight-knit group given the chance of a fresh start as they migrate from a Kenyan refugee camp to the U.S. An employment agency counsellor (Reese Witherspoon) enlisted to help them find jobs forges an unlikely bond with the newcomers and winds up taking them under her wing.

"I think it's going to create conscious awakening," Jal said of the film. "It's a way that makes even the work of any person who has suffered easier because human beings, we are the same all over the world. We empathize about other people's pain. ... When somebody's situation has hit you hard, you don't think twice — you act."

Many died along the way

The childhood struggles of the Lost Boys depicted in The Good Lie bear similarities to Jal's own life

Jal's father sent him to Ethiopia with the promise of education looming in the neighbouring nation. His lengthy journey proved treacherous.

'I didn't know what the war was about. I was still a kid. I fought for the wrong reasons.'- Emmanuel Jal, actor and former child soldier

"A lot of kids died of starvation on the way. Some died of dehydration. Some were eaten by wild animals," recalled Jal, who was the subject of the 2008 documentary War Child and a book of the same name. "Crossing the rivers was also difficult because we had hippos that don't eat people but they would just smash kids, and crocodiles, too, were ambushing us to eat us."

Jal eventually ended up being conscripted into service as a child soldier with Sudan People's Liberation Army. He was fuelled by memories of his village burning and family members claimed by the war to endure the challenging training process.

"I didn't know what the war was about. I was still a kid. I fought for the wrong reasons."

He later joined others who plotted their escape from the front lines, a journey that bore grim similarities to his initial trek to Ethiopia with many dying along the way. Jal became so consumed by hunger he even contemplated cannibalism.

Smuggled into Kenya

Upon arrival in the Sudanese town of Waat, he met British aid worker Emma McCune whom Jal said risked her life smuggling him into Kenya.

"(She) put me in school. I was wearing women's clothes because there was no clothes for me to wear," Jal recalled of McCune who died in a car accident in Nairobi in 1993.

"I was wearing her trousers. They were too big for me so we had to take a belt of hers and make many holes so that it could tighten (around) me. And I had to wear her shoes ... so I wore women's boots as well. I didn't know the difference," he added with a chuckle.

Rather than being consumed by the tragedy which marks his past, Jal has forged ahead and found both a career and creative outlet in music.

From tragedy to the top of the charts

In 2005, his first album Gua ("peace" in his native Nuer tongue) saw the title track catapult to the top of the charts in Kenya, earning the young performer a spot in the Live 8 concert in the U.K. In 2008, he was introduced by Peter Gabriel prior to taking the stage at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebrations in London, with the music icon saying Jal had "the potential of a young Bob Marley."

'My weapon now is my mike. It's my music. It's more powerful than an AK-47'- Jal, on finding a creative outlet in music

"I was doing it for fun because it kept me busy from the nightmares. So music became my therapy," said the acclaimed hip-hop artist who has collaborated and performed alongside artists including Gabriel and Grammy-winning R&B stars Alicia Keys and Joss Stone.

Two songs from Jal's new album The Key, due out on Sept. 9, will also be heard on The Good Lie soundtrack: Scars with award-winning Canadian songbird Nelly Furtado and We Fall, featuring fellow hip-hop artist McKenzie Eddy. This fall, he'll embark on a tour of North America and the U.K.

"My weapon now is my mike. It's my music. It's more powerful than an AK-47," said Jal.

"And what is my war? What am I fighting for? Peace. And what is peace but justice, equality and freedom for all. Anybody who is oppressing anybody is an enemy for peace."


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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt get married

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married Saturday in Correns, France, a spokesman for the couple says.

Jolie and Pitt wed in a small chapel in a private ceremony attended by family and friends at Chateau Miraval. In advance of the nondenominational civil ceremony, Pitt and Jolie obtained a marriage license from a local California judge. The judge also conducted the ceremony in France.

Chateau Miraval

Pitt and Jolie's civil ceremony took place in a chapel at their 17th-century chateau in the south of France. The couple reportedly leased the $60 million dollar estate in Provence in 2008 before for buying it 2011. (Philippe Laurenson/Reuters)

The couple's children took part in the wedding. Jolie walked the aisle with her eldest sons Maddox and Pax. Zahara and Vivienne threw flower petals. Shiloh and Knox served as ring bearers, the spokesman says.

Jolie and Pitt's wedding caps years of rampant speculation on when the couple would officially tie the knot. Both had publicly said that they planned to.

"It's an exciting prospect, even though for us, we've gone further than that," Pitt told The Associated Press in an interview in November 2012. "But to concretize it in that way, it actually means more to me than I thought it would. It means a lot to our kids."

Brad Pitt

Five days after their secret nuptials, Brad Pitt was seen wearing his wedding ring Thursday while promoting his new movie Fury in Dorset, England. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

This is the second marriage for Pitt, who wed Jennifer Aniston in 2000. They divorced in 2005.

Jolie was previously married to British actor Jonny Lee Miller for three years in the late '90s and to Billy Bob Thornton for three years before divorcing in 2003.

Both Jolie and Pitt are prepping movies. Jolie's second directorial effort, the World War II odyssey Unbroken, will be released in December. Pitt stars in the upcoming World War II drama Fury, due out Oct. 17.


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2014 Emmys: Breaking Bad, Modern Family named top shows

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 27 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

The final season of Breaking Bad proved a winner at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, with star Bryan Cranston winning again as best dramatic actor, and the show taking home best drama honours.

Bryan Cranston won for the fourth time for his portrayal of meth kingpin Walter White, following earlier acting nods for supporting actors Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn. The show also won for best writing in a drama series.

"Thank you for this wonderful farewell to our show," creator Vince Gilligan said of the series about a teacher-turned-drug kingpin.

The show's gains came at the expense of critically acclaimed True Detective, which won a directing award for Cari Joji Fukunaga, but was otherwise left out.

Cranston was chosen as best actor over the likes of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey of True Detective, with McConaughey looking to win an Oscar and Emmy in the same year.

Cranston previously won three years in a row beginning in 2008.

Repeat winners in fashion

Modern Family was once again the king of comedies, winning for a fifth consecutive year, tying a winning streak set by Frasier.

Julianna Margulies picked up her second Emmy for her portrayal of The Good Wife. Margulies now has three career Emmys, having won earlier in her career on ER.

She was among a number of repeat winners on Monday night.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus-Emmys

Julia Louis-Dreyfus accepts the award for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for her role in HBO's 'Veep' onstage during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Monday. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Jim Parsons was back on familiar ground as well. The star of The Big Bang Theory on CBS won for best actor in a television comedy, his fourth Emmy. That tied Parsons on the all-time comedy list with Michael J. Fox and Kelsey Grammar.

Parsons was up against Ricky Gervais, Matt LeBlanc, Don Cheadle, Louis C.K. and William H. Macy

Julia Louis-Dreyfus took home her fifth career Emmy, a third consecutive best actress in a comedy win for HBO's Veep. She previously won Emmys for Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

The comedy veteran beat out Lena Dunham, Edie Falco, Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy and Taylor Schilling.

Ty Burrell and Allison Janney received Emmys for their supporting work in comedies.

Burrell, the Modern Family dad, notched his second win and fifth nomination. 

Janney won as best supporting actress in a comedy, for the first season of CBS's Mom.

Louis C.K. was also rewarded early on in the show, with an outstanding writing nod for his FX series Louie.

Fargo, Normal Heart recognized

Paul won for the third consecutive time for his portrayal of Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, beating out the likes of Peter Dinklage, Jon Voigt and Josh Charles.

Emmys-Paul-Cranston-Gilligan

Aaron Paul, left, Vince Gilligan and Bryan Cranston pose at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles after Breaking Bad broke away in the awards tally. (Casey Curry/Invision for the Television Academy/AP )

Paul was followed on the podium minutes later by co-star Gunn, a winner for supporting actress in a drama for the second consecutive year. Her competition included Christina Hendricks, Maggie Smith and Christine Baranski.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who was not in attendance, was deemed the best actor in a miniseries or movie winner for Sherlock: His Last Vow on PBS.

Jessica Lange was named best actress in a miniseries or movie for American Horror Story: Coven, an FX production.

Fargo landed the Emmy Award for this year's best miniseries. The FX drama, inspired by the 1996 Coen brothers film, was chosen over American Horror Story: Coven, Bonnie & Clyde, Luther, Treme and The White Queen.

The Normal Heart, the HBO production featuring Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo in starring roles and based on Larry Kramer's 1980s play about the beginning of the AIDS crisis, was named best television movie.

The other contenders for TV movie were Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, Killing Kennedy, Sherlock and The Trip to Bountiful.

'Brightest star': Crystal salutes Williams

Billy Crystal followed the "in memoriam" segment by paying tribute to longtime friend and occasional collaborator Robin Williams, who died earlier this month.

Crystal-Williams-Emmys

Billy Crystal, right, first met Robin Williams when both were standup comedians in the mid-1970s. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

"I used to think if I could put a saddle on him and stay on for eight seconds, I'd be OK," said Crystal of performing onstage with Williams.

"It's very hard to talk about him in the past, because he was so present in all of our lives," Crystal added. "For almost 40 years, he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy."

The "in memoriam" tribute to industry members who have died in the past year flashed images of stars including James Garner, Ruby Dee, Sid Caesar, Carmen Zapata and Elaine Stritch as singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles sang Smile.

Late Night host Seth Meyers presided over the showcase for television's best at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, held on a weeknight for the first time in 40 years.

Noting that the Emmys moved to Monday night to avoid a conflict with Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, host Meyers said that MTV doesn't really specialize in videos anymore.

"That's like network TV holding an awards show and giving all the trophies to cable and Netflix. That would be crazy," Meyers joked.

Netflix had two shows poised to make history as the first ever produced for the internet to take home a top series honour: Orange is the New Black and House of Cards.

Other notable winners on Monday:

  • Directing, Comedy Series: Gail Mancuso, Modern Family, ABC.
  • Directing, Drama Series: Cari Joji Fukunaga, True Detective, HBO.
  • Reality-Competition Program: The Amazing Race, CBS.
  • Writing Drama Series: Moira Walley-Beckett, Breaking Bad, AMC.
  • Writing, Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special: Stephen Moffat, Sherlock: His Last Vow, PBS.
  • Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Coven, FX.
  • Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Martin Freeman, Sherlock: His Last Vow, PBS.
  • Variety Series: The Colbert Report, Comedy Central.
  • Writing, Variety Special: Sarah Silverman, Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles, HBO

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Oscar Peterson statue vandalized with golden tears

The National Arts Centre has handed surveillance video to Ottawa police after vandals defaced a statue of late jazz icon Oscar Peterson early Tuesday morning.

Rosemary Thompson, the centre's director of communications, says the video shows two young people spraying the bronze figure outside the centre sometime after midnight.

ottawa-100616-abernethy-oscar-peterson-by-kporter

Ruth Abernethy oversaw the installation of her Oscar Peterson sculpture outside the National Arts Centre in 2010. ((Kate Porter/CBC))

"They had a spray can and they sprayed his eyes with golden paint," Thompson said.

"We love Oscar. He is a beloved statue. He's an icon of Canadian culture and probably one of the greatest jazz pianists in the world and we're sorry that this has happened," Thompson said.

Thompson tweeted a photo just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, saying the statue had been cleaned off and all that remained were some final touches.

She said they're not sure of a motive and don't expect any permanent damage has been done.

On Wednesday, the statue was back to normal.


  • On mobile? Click here to see a photo of the Oscar Peterson sculpture back to normal.

Canadian sculptor Ruth Abernethy created the 600-kilogram tribute to Peterson in 2010. The NAC raised $300,000 in private donations to pay for it.

It is installed in one of the centre's exterior walls with a space for visitors to sit down next to Peterson on the piano bench. 

Peterson, who grew up in Montreal, died in December 2007 at age 82 after a 65-year career.


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Neil Young files for divorce after 36 years of marriage

Neil Young has filed for divorce from his wife of 36 years, Pegi, which was first reported Tuesday by Rolling Stone.

Young, 68, filed a petition for dissolution of marriage on July 29, according to the report.

The couple were married in 1978 but famously met four years earlier when she was working as a waitress in northern California.

"She used to work in a diner, Never saw a woman look finer," Young sang on Unknown Legend, from 1992's Harvest Moon. "I used to order just to watch her float across the floor."

Pegi Young sang backup on her husband's albums and, beginning in 2007, has released three albums of her own.

Food and Farm Farm Aid

Pegi Young & The Survivors are shown performing with her husband Neil Young during the Farm Aid 2013 concert in Saratoga, N.Y. (Hans Pennink/The Associated Press)

The couple have two adult children — a daughter, and a son who has cerebral palsy. That inspired them to co-found The Bridge School in 1986 to help educate children born with severe physical disabilities.

Bridge School benefit concerts have taken place every year since, with another planned for Oct. 25-26 in Mountain View, Calif. 

Young, per usual, has been busy with a number of projects this year. Earlier this year he released a cover song project, A Letter Home, recorded at Jack White's studio.

He's also been heavily involved in developing Pono, a high-quality audio music player, and has said he is combing the vaults for another archival release of previously unheard material.

The singer-songwriter — who was born in Toronto but also spent part of his youth in Winnipeg and Omemee, Ont., — was briefly married in the late 1960s, and lived with actress Carrie Snodgress in the early 1970s.

Young and the late Snodgress had one son, who also has cerebral palsy, but a milder form than his younger brother.

A hearing on the divorce filing is scheduled for Dec. 12, according to the San Mateo, Calif., court website.


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Céline Dion fans post touching tribute for René Angélil

New

'We've always known that Céline has never been alone,' says international message

CBC News Posted: Aug 27, 2014 11:12 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 27, 2014 11:12 AM ET

Members of an international group of Céline Dion fans have come together to send an emotional tribute to the Quebec-born singer's husband, René Angélil, who is battling cancer.

The 10-minute tribute was posted on YouTube on Monday, nearly two weeks after Dion announced she was putting her career on hold to care for Angélil.

Incorporating Dion's music and pictures of the couple, fans from as far way as Czech Republic, Lebanon and Tahiti recognized the 72-year-old's contribution to Dion's career:

CELINE DION

International singing star Céline Dion leans on husband René Angélil's shoulder as he responds to a question at a news conference in Montreal in September 1999, in his first public appearance after undergoing cancer treatments. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

"Thank you for everything you have accomplished," the message reads. "We've always known that Céline has never been alone on stage, that you two were and have always been a team."

​Angélil stepped down as Dion's manager in June after 30 years. He has been treated for cancer a number of times, most recently in December.

A message on Dion's official website responded to the tribute with gratitude:

"Thank you to Ashley Berner from the United States and all the wonderful fans from around the world for creating this beautiful video honouring René," the statement reads. Berner is among the fans shown in the video.

"It is a very touching way to show your love and support."

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.


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2014 Emmys: Breaking Bad, Modern Family named top shows

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 26 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

The final season of Breaking Bad proved a winner at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, with star Bryan Cranston winning again as best dramatic actor, and the show taking home best drama honours.

Bryan Cranston won for the fourth time for his portrayal of meth kingpin Walter White, following earlier acting nods for supporting actors Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn. The show also won for best writing in a drama series.

"Thank you for this wonderful farewell to our show," creator Vince Gilligan said of the series about a teacher-turned-drug kingpin.

The show's gains came at the expense of critically acclaimed True Detective, which won a directing award for Cari Joji Fukunaga, but was otherwise left out.

Cranston was chosen as best actor over the likes of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey of True Detective, with McConaughey looking to win an Oscar and Emmy in the same year.

Cranston previously won three years in a row beginning in 2008.

Repeat winners in fashion

Modern Family was once again the king of comedies, winning for a fifth consecutive year, tying a winning streak set by Frasier.

Julianna Margulies picked up her second Emmy for her portrayal of The Good Wife. Margulies now has three career Emmys, having won earlier in her career on ER.

She was among a number of repeat winners on Monday night.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus-Emmys

Julia Louis-Dreyfus accepts the award for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for her role in HBO's 'Veep' onstage during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Monday. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Jim Parsons was back on familiar ground as well. The star of The Big Bang Theory on CBS won for best actor in a television comedy, his fourth Emmy. That tied Parsons on the all-time comedy list with Michael J. Fox and Kelsey Grammar.

Parsons was up against Ricky Gervais, Matt LeBlanc, Don Cheadle, Louis C.K. and William H. Macy

Julia Louis-Dreyfus took home her fifth career Emmy, a third consecutive best actress in a comedy win for HBO's Veep. She previously won Emmys for Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

The comedy veteran beat out Lena Dunham, Edie Falco, Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy and Taylor Schilling.

Ty Burrell and Allison Janney received Emmys for their supporting work in comedies.

Burrell, the Modern Family dad, notched his second win and fifth nomination. 

Janney won as best supporting actress in a comedy, for the first season of CBS's Mom.

Louis C.K. was also rewarded early on in the show, with an outstanding writing nod for his FX series Louie.

Fargo, Normal Heart recognized

Paul won for the third consecutive time for his portrayal of Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, beating out the likes of Peter Dinklage, Jon Voigt and Josh Charles.

Emmys-Paul-Cranston-Gilligan

Aaron Paul, left, Vince Gilligan and Bryan Cranston pose at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles after Breaking Bad broke away in the awards tally. (Casey Curry/Invision for the Television Academy/AP )

Paul was followed on the podium minutes later by co-star Gunn, a winner for supporting actress in a drama for the second consecutive year. Her competition included Christina Hendricks, Maggie Smith and Christine Baranski.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who was not in attendance, was deemed the best actor in a miniseries or movie winner for Sherlock: His Last Vow on PBS.

Jessica Lange was named best actress in a miniseries or movie for American Horror Story: Coven, an FX production.

Fargo landed the Emmy Award for this year's best miniseries. The FX drama, inspired by the 1996 Coen brothers film, was chosen over American Horror Story: Coven, Bonnie & Clyde, Luther, Treme and The White Queen.

The Normal Heart, the HBO production featuring Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo in starring roles and based on Larry Kramer's 1980s play about the beginning of the AIDS crisis, was named best television movie.

The other contenders for TV movie were Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, Killing Kennedy, Sherlock and The Trip to Bountiful.

'Brightest star': Crystal salutes Williams

Billy Crystal followed the "in memoriam" segment by paying tribute to longtime friend and occasional collaborator Robin Williams, who died earlier this month.

Crystal-Williams-Emmys

Billy Crystal, right, first met Robin Williams when both were standup comedians in the mid-1970s. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

"I used to think if I could put a saddle on him and stay on for eight seconds, I'd be OK," said Crystal of performing onstage with Williams.

"It's very hard to talk about him in the past, because he was so present in all of our lives," Crystal added. "For almost 40 years, he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy."

The "in memoriam" tribute to industry members who have died in the past year flashed images of stars including James Garner, Ruby Dee, Sid Caesar, Carmen Zapata and Elaine Stritch as singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles sang Smile.

Late Night host Seth Meyers presided over the showcase for television's best at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, held on a weeknight for the first time in 40 years.

Noting that the Emmys moved to Monday night to avoid a conflict with Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, host Meyers said that MTV doesn't really specialize in videos anymore.

"That's like network TV holding an awards show and giving all the trophies to cable and Netflix. That would be crazy," Meyers joked.

Netflix had two shows poised to make history as the first ever produced for the internet to take home a top series honour: Orange is the New Black and House of Cards.

Other notable winners on Monday:

  • Directing, Comedy Series: Gail Mancuso, Modern Family, ABC.
  • Directing, Drama Series: Cari Joji Fukunaga, True Detective, HBO.
  • Reality-Competition Program: The Amazing Race, CBS.
  • Writing Drama Series: Moira Walley-Beckett, Breaking Bad, AMC.
  • Writing, Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special: Stephen Moffat, Sherlock: His Last Vow, PBS.
  • Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Coven, FX.
  • Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Martin Freeman, Sherlock: His Last Vow, PBS.
  • Variety Series: The Colbert Report, Comedy Central.
  • Writing, Variety Special: Sarah Silverman, Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles, HBO

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Leonardo DiCaprio nominates Stephen Harper to do ice bucket challenge

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has nominated Prime Minister Stephen Harper to do the ice bucket challenge.

DiCaprio was in northern Alberta last week visiting the oilsands to do research for an environmental documentary.

The Oscar-nominated star of "The Wolf of Wall Street" posted a video on his Facebook page of him doing the ice bucket challenge with two First Nations chiefs.

"Hello from Lake Athabasca, we're here learning about the Canadian tar sands," the actor wrote in the accompanying post.

"We took a moment to join the #IceBucketChallenge movement in support of the ALS Association. My friends Chief Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation challenges Dave Collyer president of Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Chief Courtoreille of the Mikisew Cree First Nation challenges Mark Little of Suncor Canada and The Sierra Club President Michael Brune challenges Shell CEO Ben van Beurden."

Afterward, DiCaprio called out Harper to do the same.

"And me? In addition to a donation from my foundation, I challenge Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper."

Harper's press secretary says the prime minister had been already challenged by others last week to either dump a bucket of ice water over his head or make a donation, and he's made a donation to the ALS Association.

The association raises money for Lou Gehrig's disease research and assistance.

"The Prime Minister was challenged by others last week and posted the following message on Twitter: @pmharper: Thanks everyone for the #IceBucketChallenge nominations. Laureen & I will be making a donation to support the @ALSassociation," Carl Vallée said in an email to The Canadian Press.

"Obviously, the donation has been made since (to ALS Canada)."

Since the ALS Association began tracking the campaign's progress on July 29, it has raised more than $53.3 million from 1.1 million new donors in what is one of the most viral philanthropic social media campaigns in history.

DiCaprio has a long history of involvement with the environment.

He sits on the boards of several international conservation organizations and started an environmental charity foundation in 1998.

The controversial oilsands development near Fort McMurray has seen a string of high-profile visitors in recent years.

They include human rights leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, musician Neil Young and Oscar-winning film director James Cameron.


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Rogers, Shaw launch rival Netflix-like service Shomi

TV Remote Control

Rogers and Shaw have unveiedl their Shomi streaming service, pitching it as a rival to Netflix. (iStock)

A new subscription video-on-demand service with 11,000 hours of popular TV shows was unveiled today in Toronto by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications.

Shomi is a joint venture of Rogers and Shaw, and will initially be available to their internet or TV customers.

Users will be able to access the service on tablet, mobile, online and through Xbox 360. At any one time, two internet-enabled devices and one set-top box can be streaming video from Shomi in a single home.

Shomi will launch in the first week of November at a suggested retail price of $8.99 per month, the same price as Netflix after its price rise announced earlier this year.

Shomi will offer 340 TV series and 1,200 movies, with 30 per cent Canadian content.

Shomi has past-season streaming rights to popular contemporary TV shows including:

  • Modern Family
  • Sons of Anarchy
  • Sleepy Hollow
  • Shameless
  • 2 Broke Girls

"We keenly understand the media landscape is rapidly changing and that viewers are looking for greater flexibility when it comes to what they watch and how they watch it," Barbara Williams, senior vice-president for content at Shaw Media, said in a statement.

Although the company is a joint venture of Shaw and Rogers, it will operate as a stand-alone entity. With almost one third of anglophone Canadians already subscribing to Netflix, it will be a struggle for the service to attain a significant subscriber base. 

However, both companies need a strategy to build their businesses, as traditional cable sales are flat, with the big operators poaching each other's customers and more Canadians considering cutting the cord altogether.


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Al Pacino to zombies, 5 things to watch for at the Venice Film fest

It has Al Pacino and zombie girlfriends, Owen Wilson and Lars von Trier.

The 71st Venice Film Festival opens this week, bringing 11 days of high art and Hollywood glamour to the canal-crossed Italian city.

Twenty films are competing for the coveted Golden Lion prize — 19 of them world premieres — and several dozen more will jostle for the attention of critics and audiences at an event that mixes adventurous fare from international auteurs with mainstream movies seeking awards-season momentum.

Here are five films, trends and themes to watch for:

Birdman takes off

The festival — and the annual awards-season battle — kicks off Wednesday with the world premiere of Alejandro González Iñárritu​'s twisted comedy Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).

Anticipation is high for the film that promises to mix the bold, surrealism-tinged sensibility of Inarritu (Babel21 Grams) with inspired casting — former Batman star Michael Keaton plays a past-his-prime actor struggling to move beyond his best-known role as an iconic action hero. Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts also star.

Pacino double-take 

The revered veteran stars in two Venice films, handily screening on the same day and both infused with bittersweet longing.

Al Pacino in The Humbling

Al Pacino plays an aging actor having an affair with a younger woman in Barry Levinson's The Humbling, which makes its North American premiere at TIFF. (TIFF)

In David Gordon Green's Manglehorn, Pacino plays a small-town Texas locksmith pining over a long-lost love. In Barry Levinson's The Humbling — adapted from a Philip Roth novel — he's an aging actor having an affair with a younger woman, played by Greta Gerwig.

Also doing double duty are Ethan Hawke — starring in Andrew Niccol's drone-warfare drama Good Kill and Michael Almereyda's Shakespeare adaptation Cymbeline — and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who appears in Benoit Jacquot's romantic drama Three Hearts and von Trier's explicit Nymphomaniac.

America's uneasy conscience

Two competition entries look at issues troubling America's soul: war and economics.

Ethan Hawke in Good Kill

Ethan Hawke stars in Andrew Niccol's drone-warfare drama Good Kill with Mad Men's January Jones. The film heads to TIFF after making its world premiere in Venice. (TIFF)

In Gattaca director Niccol's Good Kill, Hawke plays a drone operator who grows disillusioned with remote warfare. Mad Men's January Jones also stars.

Ramin Bahrani's subprime mortgage drama 99 Homes stars Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) as an evicted man battling to get his home back. The cast also includes Michael Shannon and Laura Dern.

Unpredictable auteurs

Like its rival Cannes, the Venice film fest embraces actors and directors who are adventurous, unpredictable or down-right ornery. This year the festival is honouring James Franco, presenting the prolific American actor-director with the heroically titled Glory to the Filmmaker Prize.

Franco also will also premiere The Sound and the Fury, his second adaptation of a William Faulkner novel, at an out-of -competition festival screening. It has an impressive cast that includes Seth Rogen, Tim Blake Nelson and Jon Hamm. But the elliptical Faulkner is not easy to adapt and Franco's screen version of the Southern scribe's As I Lay Dying received a decidedly mixed response from critics.

Willem Dafoe in Pasolini

Willem Dafoe stars as the legendary Italian filmmaker, poet and novelist Pier Paolo Pasolini. (TIFF)

Other directors sure to provoke include Abel Ferrara, competing for the Golden Lion with Pasolini, a film about the outrageous life and violent death of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, starring Willem Dafoe.

And Danish bad-boy von Trier is likely to bore and thrill in equal measure with the director's cut of his over-the-top sexual odyssey Nymphomaniac.

High arts meets Hollywood

It's the blend of big-name stars and cinematic surprises that makes festivals like Venice special.

New features are on tap from exciting international filmmakers, including Russian director Andrei Konchalovksy's The Postman's White Nights; Turkish-German director Fatih Akin's The Cut; Red Amnesia from China's Wang Xiaoshuai; and Tales by female Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad.

And if there were a prize for best title of the festival, it would certainly go to Swedish director Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence.

But it's not all art and existentialism. The schedule also includes Joe Dante's Burying the Ex — a zombie rom-com starring Anton Yelchin and Ashley Greene — and She's Funny That Way, a Peter Bogdanovich-directed Broadway comedy with Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots and Kathryn Hahn.


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2014 Emmys: Will Orange is the New Black laugh last?

Written By Unknown on Senin, 25 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

Television's biggest stars will strut their stuff in Los Angeles tonight as the industry observes the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.  

Late Night funnyman Seth Myers will preside over the small screen love-in, which airs on a weeknight for the first time in 40 years.

HBO's fantasy drama Game of Thrones goes into the competition with 19 nominations, followed closely by the shot-in-Calgary drama Fargo with 18, and FX's bewitching thriller American Horror Story: Coven with 17.

Tonight's real drama, however, may come the race for best comedy with Netflix's prison series Orange is the New Black threatening to unseat four-in-a-row Emmy winner Modern Family.

Time for a new winner?

Laverne Cox

Orange is the New Black actor Laverne Cox says it's time for a new show to win best comedy, and is up against multiple winner Modern Family, among other shows. (Bryan Bedder/Logo TV/Getty Images)

Netflix raised some eyebrows by submitting Orange in the comedy category, but the strategy may pay off for the streaming service as it gives it potential winners in two main categories. (Its Washington political drama House of Cards is on the board again this year in the outstanding drama category.)

Despite its dismal setting in a female prison, many critics predict Orange will get the last laugh. ​

Orange star Laverne Cox admits she loves the cast of Modern Family, but the trailblazing transgender actress explained to The Associated Press that she thinks "it's time for a new show" to win best comedy, and she's pulling for her own show to do it.

Other nominees in the comedy category are:

  • The Big Bang Theory
  • Louie
  • Modern Family
  • Orange Is the New Black
  • Veep
  • Silicon Valley

Best drama series:

  • Breaking Bad
  • Downton Abbey
  • House of Cards
  • Mad Men
  • Game of Thrones True Detective

Actor in a drama series:

  • Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
  • Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
  • Woody Harrelson, True Detective
  • Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
  • Jon Hamm, Mad Men
  • Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom

Actress in a drama series:

  • Claire Danes, Homeland
  • Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
  • Robin Wright, House of Cards
  • Kerry Washington, Scandal
  • Julianna Margulies, Good Wife
  • Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex

For a full list of nominees and winners see the official Emmy website.​

Remembering Robin Williams

The star-studded broadcast will also pause to remember Robin Williams, the Hollywood and TV star who died in a suicide at his home two weeks ago. His longtime friend and fellow comedian, Billy Crystal, slated to oversee a special tribute section of the show.

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast from the Nokia Theatre starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.


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Beyonce owns the MTV Video Music Awards, Miley Cyrus wins Video of the Year

Miley Cyrus has won the Video of the Year award at the MTV Video Music Awards for her hit Wrecking Ball.

The skin-and-soul-baring video reportedly has nearly 700 million views on YouTube since debuting last September.

Unlike last year's VMAs, when Cyrus twerked and danced shockingly onstage, she took a back seat Sunday night by sending her guest, who said he was homeless, onstage.

However, the highlight of the show came courtesy of Beyoncé, who closed the evening with an epic nearly 20-minute performance. She was joined onstage by her husband and daughter, which brought her to tears.

Beyoncé sang and danced in a metallic leotard — while Blue Ivy and Jay Z watched from their seats — as the diva declared: "MTV, welcome to my world."

The family was onstage together as Beyoncé accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award. Jay Z called her the "greatest living entertainer."

A teary-eyed Beyoncé thanked her fans and looked at her daughter and husband, telling them she loved them.

Nicki Minaj helped open the MTV Video Music Awards with a Bang as she brought her Anaconda video to life with a rump-shaking performance and had a wardrobe malfunction when she performed with Ariana Grande and Jessie J.

Winners include:

  • Miley Cyrus: Video of the Year/Wrecking Ball
  • Fifth Harmony: Artist to Watch/Miss Movin On
  • Lorde: Best Rock Video/Royals
  • Drake: Best HHip-Hop Video/Hold On
  • Ariana Grande: Best Pop Video/Problem
  • Ed Sheeran: Best Male Video /Sing
  • Katy Perry: Best Female Video/Dark Horse
  • 5 Seconds of Summer: Best Lyric Video/Don't Stop

Minaj first wore a green top and shorts, rapping, dancing and exciting the crowd — except Rita Ora, who stared blankly when the camera panned by. But when Minaj performed Bang Bang, the rapper was far more subdued as she held the front of her outfit together after a long split appeared.

Grande kicked off the show with a performance of her EDM hit, Break Free in a Beyoncé-inspired leotard.

Toronto rapper Drake brought home the Top Rap Video award.

MTV president Stephen Friedman said in a statement just hours before the show that the network would air a 15-second spot focusing on race in hopes of spurring a discussion about the events surrounding the Aug. 9 shooting death of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

2014 MTV Video Music Awards Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj performs at the MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Sunday in Inglewood, Calif. (Matt Sayles/Invision/Associated Press)

Michael Brown became an instant symbol of racial injustice as protesters flooded into the streets of Ferguson, Mo. The federal government has launched an investigation.

"It's a call to action to our audience that we have to confront our own bias head-on before we can truly create change," Friedman said.

The announcement only added to the buildup to what is annually one of music's most dramatic and unpredictable awards shows.

Days before the big show, Azalea slipped offstage while performing Fancy at a MTV benefit concert, later posting the video on Instagram and making fun of herself. At a rehearsal, a show worker fell from one of the winding, sloping platforms on the stage at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., which reopened in January after a $100-million makeover.

And rap mogul Suge Knight was wounded in a shooting early Sunday at a West Hollywood nightclub for an unofficial pre-VMA party hosted by Chris Brown.

The back-to-back drama made the popular awards trend on social media even before an award was handed out, though trophies often take a back seat at the VMAs, which are all about the moments.


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Richard Attenborough dead at 90

Acclaimed actor and Oscar-winning director Richard Attenborough, whose film career on both sides of the camera spanned 60 years, has died. He was 90. 

Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough in Flight of the Phoenix in 1965. (Wikipedia)

The actor's son, Michael Attenborough told the BBC that his father died Sunday.

Among his most famous works were the 1982 Indian epic Gandhi, which went on to win eight Oscars including best director and best film, and the science fiction adventure Jurassic Park. But those achievements were just two of many highlights in his distinguished career.

Attenborough was one of the most familiar faces on the British arts scene, appearing in a many major Hollywood films and also directing a series of movies. He was also known for his extensive work as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, and other humanitarian causes

British Prime Minister David Cameron issued a statement calling Attenborough "one of the greats of cinema."

"His acting in Brighton Rock was brilliant, his directing of Gandhi was stunning," Cameron said.

Attenborough won an Academy Award for best director with Gandhi in 1982, only one of many highlights of a distinguished career as actor and director.

With his abundant snow-white hair and beard, Attenborough was one of the most familiar faces on the British arts scene — universally known as "Dickie."

As a director, Attenborough made several successful movies, from Oh What a Lovely War in 1969 to Chaplin and Shadowlands in the 1990s. But his greatest success was Gandhi, a film that was 20 years in the planning and won eight Oscars, including best picture.

Dramatic range

The generation that was introduced to Attenborough as an avuncular veteran actor in the 1990s — when he played the failed theme park developer in Jurassic Park and Kriss Kringle in a remake of Miracle on 34th Street — may not have appreciated his dramatic range.

Attenborough and Plummer

Director Richard Attenborough, left, looks at cast member Christopher Plummer as they do interviews at the gala for the movie Closing The Ring at the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto Sept.14, 2007. (Mike Cassese/Reuters)

A small, energetic man with a round face that remained boyish even in old age, he was perfectly cast at the start of his career as the young sailor or airman of British movies during and after the Second World War.

In his 1942 film debut as a terrified warship's crewman in In Which We Serve, a 19-year-old Attenborough made a small part into one of the most memorable roles in the movie, which won the Best Picture Oscar.

In 1947, Attenborough gave one of the best performances of his career as the menacing teenage thug Pinkie in Brighton Rock, the film version of Graham Greene's novel.

In his 1942 film debut as a terrified warship's crewman in "In Which We Serve," a 19-year-old Attenborough made a small part into one of the most memorable roles in the movie, which won the Best Picture Oscar.

In 1947, Attenborough gave one of the best performances of his career as the teenage thug Pinkie in "Brighton Rock," the film version of Graham Greene's novel. Attenborough's baby face and air of menace combined to make it one of his most memorable roles.

His youthful appearance nearly cost him the lead role in the original cast of The Mousetrap, because its author, Agatha Christie, didn't think he looked like a police detective. But he starred with his wife, actress Sheila Sim, when the hit play opened in November 1952 and stayed for 700 performances.

Enters production

In 1959, Attenborough joined fellow actor Bryan Forbes in film production. The Angry Silence in 1960 was their successful debut, with Attenborough playing a strike-breaking factory worker. It was one of the first of the gritty, working-class films that heralded Britain's "new realism" of the 1960s.

Together, Forbes and Attenborough produced Whistle Down the Wind in 1961 and The L-Shaped Room in 1962. Their last film, 1964's Seance on a Wet Afternoon, won Attenborough Best Actor awards from the London Film Critics and British Film Academy.

In the meantime, he had appeared as a prisoner of war in 1963's The Great Escape — known for its classic ensemble cast, including Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson — and starred in Guns at Batasi, for which he won another British Film Academy award. In 1967, he won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in The Sand Pebbles.

In 1969, Attenborough turned to directing with Oh What a Lovely War, a lampoon of the First World War, which won a Golden Globe award as best English-language foreign film. Three years later, he made Young Winston, the story of Winston Churchill's early life.

By the mid-1970s, Attenborough had become a director who only occasionally acted. It was said that he took acting jobs to help finance the movies he wanted to direct.

But his return to directing in the 1977 war movie A Bridge Too Far was an expensive disaster, despite its cast of international stars. The following year, the heavy-handed 1978 thriller Magic was a failure despite the talents of Anthony Hopkins.

A Chorus Line, Attenborough's 1985 film of the long-running stage musical, also took a critical beating. And, more recently, 1996's In Love and War, failed to win much critical support.

Attenborough was often thought to be at his best when trying to coax the finest work from actors. Gandhi made a star of its little-known leading man Ben Kingsley, and Denzel Washington won an Oscar nomination for 1987's Cry Freedom.

Debra Winger was nominated for an Oscar and Anthony Hopkins gave one of his best performances in Shadowlands, a small, subtle film that won Attenborough perhaps his greatest critical praise.

Attenborough, son of a university principal, was born Aug. 29, 1923, into a family with strong liberal views and a tradition of volunteer work for humanitarian concerns.

One of his younger brothers is naturalist David Attenborough, whose nature documentaries have reached audiences around the world.

Humanitarian efforts praised

Richard Attenborough was a tireless defender of the British film industry. His artistic and humanitarian efforts were rewarded with several international prizes, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Prize in 1983.

He was knighted in 1976, and 17 years later received a life peerage, becoming Baron Attenborough of Richmond upon Thames.

His later years were marked by a horrendous personal tragedy when he lost his daughter Jane and granddaughter in the tsunami that hit Thailand the day after Christmas in 2004. The heart-broken Attenborough said he was never able to celebrate the Christmas holidays after that.

He had been in frail health since a fall at his house in 2008, and spent his last years in a nursing home with his wife.

He is survived by his wife, Sheila Sim, their son and a daughter.


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CBC-TV reveals fall 2014 primetime lineup

New

Five new shows and stalwart favourites hit CBC-TV starting in September

CBC News Posted: Aug 25, 2014 11:01 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 25, 2014 11:15 AM ET

Maggie Gyllenhaal's hit spy thriller The Honourable Woman, gritty western drama Strange Empire and sci-fi event series Ascension help kick off CBC Television's fall 2014 primetime lineup.

The public broadcaster unveiled its seasonal schedule Monday outlining when Canadians can expect to see five new shows and eleven returning CBC fan favourites.

Season kicks off in September

Stephen and Chris

CBC Television is kicking off its fall 2014 season with brand new episodes of its flagship daytime lifestyle series Steven and Chris, every Monday through Friday at 2 p.m. (2:30 NT) beginning Sept. 22. (CBC)

The season starts off with new episodes of CBC's flagship daytime lifestyle series Steven and Chris weekdays at 2 p.m. (2:30 NT) starting Sept. 22.

The mood gets dark when the sun goes down on Mondays. Armchair sleuths can get their Murdoch Mystery fix when the show returns to its 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) time slot. The edgy frontier drama Strange Empire follows, but in this western all the men have disappeared and the women are in charge.

Catch The Rick Mercer Report on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) followed by This Hour Has 22 Minutes at 8:30 p.m. (9:00 NT) starting Oct. 7. (CBC)

​Jokes and drama Tuesdays

Comedy fans can count on one hour of laughs on Tuesdays with CBC favourites The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes returning with new episodes starting Oct. 7.

Maggie Gyllenhaall will bring her critically-acclaimed project The Honourable Woman at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT). The series makes its premiere on Monday Sept. 29 before settling into its Tuesday time slot.

The 1960s sci-fi drama Ascension, starring Battlestar Galactica actress Canadian Tricia Helfer ​and Cougar Town's Brian Van Holt joins CBC primetime Tuesdays starting Nov. 25.

Dragons' Den returns with new dragons: restaurant magnate Vikram Vij, and rock star of Canadian finance Michael Wekerle. (CBC)

New Dragons and refreshed favourites

Allan Hawco launches the final season of Republic of Doyle on Wednesdays starting Oct. 15. Then, it's deal time in the Dragon's Den featuring two new dragons: Vikram Vij and Michael Wekerle who are replacing Kevin O'Leary and Bruce Croxon. ​

Other shows returning this fall to CBC primetime: Doc Zonethe fifth estateHeartland, Marketplace, and The Nature of Things.

How smart are you?

The search for the nation's brightest kicks off on Sept. 28 with Canada's Smartest Person. Hosts Jessi Cruickshank and Jeff Douglas return each Sunday at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) for one-hour of high-impact competition that promises to raise the bar for TV quiz shows. 

CBC Selects follows with the premiere of Australian legal drama Janet King beginning Oct. 5.

Visit FALLforCBC.ca for exclusive behind-the-scenes videos of CBC's fall prime-time series.​


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Who's the Emmy boss? Why showrunners are TV's real stars

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 24 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

Television is basking in the glow of another golden age. Need proof? A glimpse at this year's Emmy nominees should do the trick. 

Hit series like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and Orange is the New Black are each up for a dozen or more golden statuettes on Monday night. 

Not only are these shows examples of TV's shift toward high-quality story-driven drama, but they also represent the rise of a new kind star: the television showrunner.

Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan and Orange in the New Black's Jenji Kohan are approaching household name status, and some industry insiders are attributing the increase in first-rate shows to the rise of the showrunner.

Conducting the symphony

Dexter creator and Hemlock Grove showrunner Chic Eglee says his job is about setting tone:

Chip Eglee

Chic Eglee is the creator of the hit show Dexter and showrunner for the second season of Hemlock Grove. He says a showrunner's job is about setting tone. (CBC News)

"A writing staff is like a symphony. There are all these different voices going on," Eglee explains. 

"The job of a showrunner is to really sit back and conduct the symphony. To blend all those different voices"

Embracing the showrunner model

In Canada, however, television producers are just starting to embrace the showrunner model, and some believe it's the answer to why Canadian drama hasn't yet reached its full potential.

Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis are the creators of the new CBC spy drama Camp X. They're also showrunning the production that's currently filming in Hungary.

Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis

The creators of the new CBC spy drama Camp X, Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis, say television is more story driven than maybe it used to be. (CBC News)

Speaking from Budapest, Ellis told CBC Arts reporter Deana Sumanac that Canadian TV is becoming more story driven than it used to be.

"We've traditionally had television series that are spearheaded by people who know how to put the money together. That's because it's such a terribly complicated thing to do in television."

Camp X is an emotionally charged adventure drama set in the midst of Second World War espionage and covert operations.

The eight-episode, one-hour series is set to air in early 2015.

For the full story on the rise of the showrunner, watch CBC Arts reporter Deana Sumanac's report Sunday on The National.


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Leonardo DiCaprio visits Alberta's oilsands

Leonardo DiCaprio is the latest name of A-list of celebrities who have visited Alberta's oilsands.

DiCaprio is in Fort McMurray for a few days to tour the oilsands for an environmental documentary he is working on, a source who did not want to be named told CBC News. 

They said DiCaprio wanted to see the oilsands first-hand and learn more about their impact. 

The Oscar-nominated star of The Wolf of Wall Street has a long history of environmental activism.

He currently serves on the board of the World Wildlife Fund and Natural Resources Defence Council and started his own environmental charity foundation in 1998. He also lent his voice to a documentary called Carbon, which was released online Wednesday. 

DiCaprio isn't the first high-profile visitor to check out the oilsands development in northern Alberta.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the fight against apartheid, met with First Nations representatives in Fort McMurray in May. 

Neil Young has been an outspoken opponent to the oilsands and has raised money for a First Nation fighting expansion in northern Alberta. 

James Cameron also toured in the oilsands in 2010, saying they need more regulation.


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Luka Magnotta film pulled from Montreal film festival

A documentary film about Luka Magnotta has been pulled from Montreal's World Film Festival just weeks before his murder trial is set to begin.

The film, Sex, Fame and Murder: The Luka Magnotta Story, was created by Canal D Investigation and, according to a Marble Media press release, promised to take an "up close and personal look into the life of this fame-hungry individual."

Magnotta is accused of killing and dismembering Jun Lin, a Chinese student living in Montreal, in 2012.

According to film distribution company Marble Media, the documentary features analysis from journalists, attorneys, police and an FBI criminal profiler.

The company also said it would focus on Magnotta's past as an adult film entertainer and his online presence.

A partial publication ban was put on the Magnotta trial after production began on the film.

The Montreal World Film Festival said it pulled the film from its programming this year in consultation with Canal D so as to not interfere with Magnotta's trial.

"The decision was made so that the distribution of this documentary is not used as a pretext during the judicial process to ensure decisions are rendered in the most fair and unbiased manner possible," a statement from the film festival read.

The World Film Festival runs from Aug. 21 to Sept. 1. Magnotta's murder trial is set to begin Sept. 8.


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Winnie the Pooh saga turns 100 years old today

One hundred years ago today a Canadian soldier adopted a black bear cub and named it after his adopted hometown of Winnipeg, launching the saga of Winnie the Pooh.

Lt. Harry Colebourn, a Canadian veterinarian and soldier with the Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, came across the orphaned female bear cub on Aug. 24, 1914.

"It's such a fascinating story to me that something from such a different, ancient time and far away is so directly connected to this city of ours," said Mary Anne Appleby, a Winnipeg author who penned the 2011 biography Winnie the Bear.

As the story goes, when Colebourn's troop train stopped in White River, Ont., he met a hunter who had shot and killed the bear cub's mother, without whom the cub was almost certain to die.

Colebourn offered the hunter $20 for the cub, whom he named Winnipeg Bear to commemorate the city where he had lived before the war. The name was soon shortened to Winnie.

Winnie accompanied Colebourn to England, where the cub played with Canadian soldiers during their off-hours in their encampment on the Salisbury Plains.

Colebourn later donated Winnie to the London Zoo, where the bear inspired the creation of A.A. Milne's famous children's book character. Winnie died at the zoo in 1934.

The Winnie the Pooh story endures a century later. A survey in the United Kingdom named Milne's book the most beloved children's book of the past 150 years, while the "silly old bear" came in second to Anne of Green Gables' Anne Shirley in CBC Books' Great Canadian Character Showdown.

Appleby, whose father was a close friend of Colebourn's son, says this weekend is a time to celebrate a wee bear that has become a household name.

"I just want to try and get this story out there as much as I can because I think, you know, in Winnipeg we're quite familiar with it. The rest of Canada doesn't know it as well," she said.

Appleby said in conducting her research, she came across a rare short video of Winnie eating an orange at the London Zoo.

Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park is home to the Pooh Gallery, which houses a permanent collection of Winnie the Pooh artifacts and memorabilia.

Featured prominently in the gallery is the painting Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Pot by E.H. Shepard, the original illustrator of Milne's series.

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, viewed the painting during their visit to Winnipeg in May.

A bronze statue of Colebourn and Winnie is located at the park's Nature Playground.


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Jann Arden admits to 'low shots' in fight with radio station

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 23 Agustus 2014 | 22.19

Jann Arden concedes that, in anger, she "threw some low shots" at the masterminds of a Calgary radio station that was dramatically shortening pop songs, but she argues that she needed to take a strong stand for young artists.

The station, 90.3 AMP (CKMP) announced Tuesday that it was abandoning its "QuickHitz" format switch, which involved truncating tunes in order to give listeners "twice the music."

Newcap Radio vice-president of programming Steve Jones said the strategy met with much "curiosity" as well as "numerous legal threats from a variety of different directions."

The scheme was also greeted by overwhelming online blowback, including from Calgary chanteuse Jann Arden, who launched a profane and days-long Twitter campaign against the idea.

'I will insult, I will do whatever I can'

After news that the station had abandoned its plan, however, Arden said she has "respect" for "all those guys" managing the station.

"I can't fault them for trying to make money, for trying to keep people employed, for trying to keep their building paid for," the friendly songstress said Thursday in a telephone interview. "I was mad. I was on Twitter hurling insults, but one of my (tweets) was: 'I will bully, I will intimidate, I will insult, I will do whatever I can to draw attention to what this is, and it's absolutely nothing personal to any of the people who work at the station.

"(They're) putting food on the table for kids, and are good people."

Still, the Insensitive singer's empathy hasn't lessened her disdain for the concept itself, which she calls "a disaster."

'I took a lot of beatings. It's not for the faint of heart — let's put it that way'- Singer Jann Arden on the vitriol she received from critics

Though the 52-year-old stresses that she wasn't the one to shift her displeasure to the legal realm, she's also not surprised that artists would react unfavourably to having their work indiscriminately chopped up without their involvement.

No lawsuits, but matter not dead

Jones told The Canadian Press on Tuesday that while no lawsuits were ever launched, there was much "swashbuckling" to that effect. He didn't immediately respond to an interview request Thursday.

"I think before it got out of hand, everyone just kind of needed to take a step back and say, 'Hey, if you want to edit songs, I'm absolutely fine with it — if the artists that you're playing have given you their permission. Really, if Joe Blow wants to say: 'Go for it, two-minute version?' Awesome," said Arden.

AMP Calgary radio station

90.3 AMP radio says it gave up the 'Quickhitz' format after realizing the potential for lawsuits from the music industry. (CBC)

"But please make sure you have their permission. Because if you don't, that's a whole different story."

The eight-time Juno Award winner has more than 102,000 followers on Twitter and has previously exhibited a flair for inciting reaction. Previously, she made headlines for ranting against Via Rail after a flap involving her pup Midi and also for issuing what read like a defence of celebrity chef Paula Deen, then-embroiled in a scandal over allegedly racist behaviour.

So Arden wasn't surprised when waves of vitriol arrived from those who disagreed with her radio stance.

"I took a lot of beatings. It's not for the faint of heart — let's put it that way," said Arden, who will launch an extensive Canadian tour Sept. 4 in Victoria and also co-host the Canadian Country Music Association Awards on Sept. 7.

"But my shoulders are broad. And when it comes to art, it's a very, very easy thing to stand up for. It's very easy to stand up for music and especially young people that are afraid of retribution, that are afraid of reprisals.

"I'm like, (hell), I've had my day at radio," she added, in fact using a saltier expression. "You do whatever you want to me. It's not about me. It's about someone who just signed a record deal that's desperate to get their song on the radio."

The matter isn't completely dead, however.

Earlier in the week, Jones mused that he may re-examine the concept in the future, aided by more input by "some of the various stakeholders in the industry," and try to nurture the idea of snack-sized songs back to fruition at some "later" date.

Arden, of course, is deeply skeptical it will ever work.

"I don't think people want to listen to music that way. I don't," she said.

"God, if you were in an office with that on all day and you were a dentist? You'd be drilling through people's jawbones."


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