Month: December 2017

Grief-stricken fans braved Seoul’s winter cold on Thursday to bid farewell to Kim Jong-hyun, the lead singer of top South Korean boy band SHINee, who died in hospital in a suspected suicide.

Weeping, wailing and embracing one another, young men and women dressed in grey and black lined the road as the hearse carrying Kim’s coffin left the hospital.

“I am so sad that I cannot even cry. My heart aches so much”, 18-year-old Chinese fan Chen Jialin said.

Fellow singers, including SHINee’s Minho and members of bands Super Junior and Girls’ Generation, joined the funeral procession.

Kim, 27, was found unconscious next to burning briquettes on a frying pan inside a serviced residence in Seoul on Monday, police told Reuters.

Yonhap news agency had reported that the singer sent a final message to his sister asking her to “let me go.”

Kim spent nearly a decade as one of five members of SHINee, one of the most popular bands in the country, as well as a solo artist. His death was a massive blow to the worldwide fan base that Korea’s K-pop music has attracted in recent years.

K-pop is the rage in Asia and other continents, with a song by the group BTS maintaining a spot on the Billboard 200 for seven weeks as of the end of November.
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Cities around the United States are getting ready for Christmas. And when it comes to the season’s decorations, New York City stands out for turning Manhattan’s streets into a big, dazzling holiday display. Faiza Elmasry has this report narrated by Faith Lapidus.
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Clifford Irving, whose scheme to publish a phony autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes created a sensation in the 1970s and stands as one of the all-time literary hoaxes, died after being admitted to hospice care. He was 87.

Irving’s wife, Julie Irving, confirmed that he died Tuesday at a hospice near his Sarasota home, The New York Times reported. She said he had been admitted there after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a week earlier.

A novelist of little note in 1971, Irving conned McGraw-Hill publishers into paying him a $765,000 advance for a book about the reclusive Hughes. His elaborate ruse became the subject of the 2006 movie “The Hoax,” starring Richard Gere.

Irving served 17 months in federal prison for fraud after Hughes emerged to condemn the work as a fabrication. The bogus autobiography wasn’t published until 1999, when it was printed as a private edition.

‘It became an adventure’

The scam “was exciting. It was a challenge. It became an adventure,” Irving told the Los Angeles Times in 2007.

The International Herald Tribune called the fake autobiography “the most famous unpublished book of the 20th century.” Time magazine dubbed Irving “Con Man of the Year” in a 1972 cover story.

Irving said the idea of fabricating an autobiography of Hughes came to him after reading a magazine article about the billionaire’s eccentric lifestyle. Hughes’ hermit-like obsession with his privacy all but guaranteed that the “gorgeous literary caper” would succeed, Irving wrote in “The Hoax,” his 2006 account of the scheme.

“Hughes would never be able to surface to deny it, or else he wouldn’t bother,” he wrote.

Rising skepticism

At the time of the hoax, Hughes had long withdrawn from his life as a powerful industrialist, aviator and filmmaker. He reportedly lived the final 10 years of his life, from 1966 to 1976, in near-total seclusion, even neglecting personal hygiene to avoid contact with the outside world.

Hughes’ intense aversion to publicity gave rise to skepticism about Irving’s claims to have interviewed the billionaire.

Irving insisted that he had several clandestine meetings with Hughes. He submitted to a lie-detector test and produced documents purportedly from the billionaire, including a handwritten letter written to McGraw-Hill.

The letter, forged by Irving, was deemed authentic by handwriting analysts hired by McGraw-Hill. At that point, the publisher decided to move forward with the book.

Irving put the cash advance into a Swiss bank account, opened in the name Helga R. Hughes.

The unraveling

The deception unraveled when investigative reporter James Phelan, writing a book about Hughes, recognized passages of his work in an excerpt from Irving’s manuscript of the autobiography.

Hughes himself then surfaced to conduct a telephone conference with reporters during which he repudiated Irving’s story and said that he never met him. His lawyer sued Irving and his publisher.

At the urging of McGraw-Hill, Swiss authorities investigated the Helga R. Hughes bank account and learned that the deposits had been made by Irving’s wife, Edith.

Irving and his collaborator, Richard Suskind, were indicted on fraud charges and were found guilty in June 1972. In addition to his prison term, Irving returned the $765,000 advance to McGraw-Hill. Suskind was sentenced to six months and served five.

Edith Irving served a total of 16 months in U.S. and Swiss jails for fraud. She left jail announcing her intent to file for divorce.

Irving was unhappy with the movie version of his escapades and asked to have his name removed from the credits as a technical adviser.

“Movie Clifford has the energy of a not-too-bright psychopath. If I were that man, I’d shoot myself,” he wrote on his website. “The movie is best thought of as a hoax.”

Background, books

Born in 1930, Irving grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He attended public schools and his boyhood friends included William Safire, the late columnist and speechwriter for President Richard Nixon.

He attended Cornell University and stayed on for a year after graduation in 1951 on a creative writing fellowship. He worked odd jobs after leaving academia and traveled to Europe, where he finished his first novel, “On a Darkling Plain.”

He moved in 1962 to an artists’ colony on the island of Ibiza off the east coast of Spain. It was there that he wrote “Fake!” the story of art forger Elmyr de Hory. The reviews of the book were favorable, but it sold fewer than 30,000 copies.

In all, Irving wrote more than a dozen books. In recent years, he and fifth wife Julie lived in Mexico, Colorado and Florida.
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Throughout the year, young members of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps beautify the city — cleaning and planting trees, and creating trails and green spaces in the city. They get a break at the holidays to share holiday cheer. 

“We all come together to have fun,” says Corps member Chrishana Cameron, 21, who was enjoying the festivities at one of the Corps’ job sites. “It’s not always about work,” she said of the holiday celebration. 

Some members bring their young children. Others bring parents, brothers and sisters, and the youngsters all receive presents from Santa Claus.

The nonprofit organization helps young people at risk, says staff member Alex Lopez, a senior program director who once belonged to a street gang and served five years in prison.

“I made a mistake,” he says, “but I use that as a tool to reach out to the young people and let them know that I’ve been there, done that.” 

Lopez joined the Corps in 1991.  He was later hired to a staff job and became a supervisor. 

“Whatever they’re going through,” he says of the young recruits, “I use my experience to lead them in the right direction.”

The program combines job training and education.  “I dropped out of high school,” recalls staff member Denise Haynes, who grew up in the Watts neighborhood. I made some bad choices in my life, but I didn’t know you can turn all those things around.”  After joining the Corps in 1997, she completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

The LA Conservation Corps was founded in 1986 by Mickey Kantor, a Los Angeles lawyer who would later serve as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton.  Modeled on the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, it is one of many groups that offer job training and a second chance to 26,000 young people around the United States.

There are many kinds of youth corps, says Jimmie Cho, LA Conservation Corps board chairman. Some focus on the city, and others on rural regions. Cho says “it’s really all about service and working to invest in other people.”

Corps members in Los Angeles say the work is hard but rewarding, and the holidays are a time to celebrate their accomplishments with co-workers and family.
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Laurie Metcalf has won three Emmys and a Tony Award in her nearly 40-year year career, but the veteran stage and screen actress still feels uncomfortable in front of a camera.

She says even after all her years on “Roseanne,” she still finds that a camera recording her makes her feel inhibited.

Metcalf is also feeling out of her element as a serious Academy Award contender for her role in the film “Lady Bird,” in which she plays the mother to a 17-year-old daughter who is going through a selfish phase.

The 62-year-old actress has already gotten supporting actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globe Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards. She says she’s flattered by the attention, which she also calls surreal. And on January 23, she might add the coveted Oscar nomination to her resume too.
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While most musicians seek to avoid a frosty reception at concerts, for Norwegian composer and performer Terje Isungset a chilly feeling is nothing to fear: he performs with instruments he makes himself out of ice.

A recent performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall featured a set including ice horns, ice drums and an “iceofone” — an ice xylophone — accompanied by the vocal stylings of singer Maria Skranes.

He sees his work as being about more than making music, since he also aims to display the beauty and fragility of ice.

“I see it as a part of something bigger. It’s not me and my project and my ego — it’s the elements,” he told Reuters.

The Norwegian, equipped with a background in traditional Scandinavian music and jazz, makes his instruments using chainsaws and pick axes.

Founder of an ice music festival in Norway, Isungset plays at about 50 festivals and concerts a year, many in the cold conditions of Norway, Canada or Russia.

At concerts in warmer climes, however, hotter temperatures can pose difficulties, as spending any more than 50 minutes at room temperature could damage the instruments.

All of the instruments for the London show were made in Norway and shipped over in special containers, highlighting the fact that, when it comes to making ice instruments, not any old water will do.

“If ice is from polluted water it doesn’t sound that good. If it’s from tap water it doesn’t work because there’s some chemicals in it,” he said. The best ice, he said, was from 2003 in the north of Sweden, adding “I’m very interested in that ice.”
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The Associated Press recently caught up with a few celebrities and asked them about their favorite holiday cards from fellow notables.

Hugh Jackman of The Greatest Showman wouldn’t name any names, but he said some cards are remarkable. He even rates them. Liam Neeson, who stars in The Commuter, really appreciates a certain sender every Christmas season: Steven Spielberg. Neeson said Spielberg has never forgotten his birthday or Christmas since the two did Schindler’s List together.

Rebecca Ferguson wasn’t shy about a little name dropping: Tom Cruise. Of her Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation co-star, she says he has a signature cake he sends for birthdays that he claims is healthy but really isn’t.
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A judge on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit brought by a choreographer who alleged Michael Jackson molested him as a child, resolving one of the last major claims against the late singer’s holdings.

Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff’s summary judgment ruling against the now-35-year-old Wade Robson found that the two Jackson-owned corporations, which were the remaining defendants in the case, were not liable for Robson’s exposure to Jackson. He did not rule on the credibility of Robson’s allegations themselves.

Robson’s attorney, Vince Finaldi, said he strongly disagrees and plans to appeal.

Robson, a native of Australia who has worked with Britney Spears and NSYNC, met Jackson when he was 5 years old.

He testified in Jackson’s defense at the singer’s 2005 criminal trial, saying he had spent the night at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch more than 20 times and usually slept in Jackson’s room, but Jackson never molested him. Jackson was acquitted in that trial.

Then in 2013 about four years after the singer’s death, Robson sued the Jackson estate for what his attorneys described as molestation that spanned a seven-year period.

A court ruled in 2015 that Robson had filed his lawsuit too late to get any of Jackson’s estate. That left two remaining defendants, both corporate entities owned by Jackson in his lifetime: MJJ Productions, Inc., and MJJ Ventures, Inc.

The judge ruled Tuesday that those two corporate defendants could not be held responsible for Robson’s exposure to Jackson, the way a school or the Boy Scouts can be found liable for bringing together an abusive adult and a child victim.

Finaldi said the reasoning sets a dangerous precedent.

“What the judge is saying is that you if own a corporation or a company, you can hire people, use these people to facilitate your sexual abuse, use them to facilitate victims,” Finaldi told The Associated Press by phone. “So long as you’re the sole owner of that corporation, the corporation can’t be held liable.”

Jackson estate attorney Howard Weitzman said in a statement that he “believes the court made the correct decision in dismissing Wade Robson’s claim against it. “In my opinion Mr. Robson’s allegations, made 20 plus years after they supposedly occurred and years after Mr. Robson testified twice under oath — including in front of a jury — that Michael Jackson had never done anything wrong to him was always about the money rather than a search for the truth.”

Finaldi replied that the Jackson camp’s interest in the truth was “hollow.”

“If someone’s trying to search for the truth, why not let the lawsuit proceed?” Finaldi said. “Why not exonerate him and let a jury decide.”

During the criminal trial, Robson bristled at testimony by other witnesses that they had seen Jackson molest him.

“I’m telling you nothing happened,” Robson testified at the time when a prosecutor challenged him.

Another Robson attorney said when his lawsuit was filed that stress and sexual trauma led Robson to finally accept that he had been molested by Jackson.
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