Month: January 2019

Popular musical romance “A Star Is Born” – featuring the powerhouse duo of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga – leads the field for Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, which are seen as a major predictor of Oscars success.

Hollywood’s A-listers including Gaga made their way up the silver carpet – in honor of the event’s 25th anniversary – before the gala at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

This year, the SAG Awards come at a key point in the race to next month’s Academy Awards — just after the Oscars nominations, and before voting for the winners begins.

The Screen Actors Guild accounts for a major percentage of the 8,000-odd Oscar voters, so the SAG winners will earn a lot of awards season momentum.

“A Star Is Born,” the latest iteration of the classic Tinseltown story of an aging star and the ingenue he discovers, earned four SAG nominations for Cooper, Gaga, Sam Elliott and best ensemble cast – the top prize.

“BlacKkKlansman,” Spike Lee’s latest film, is just behind with three and could spark a surprise, pundits say, due to the great respect for the veteran US director among Hollywood’s actors.

And superhero juggernaut “Black Panther” could pull a major upset in the best ensemble category – giving its star-studded cast the chance to give the signature “Wakanda Forever” salute from the stage.

One major absentee is Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” — the top Oscar nomination getter was left out of SAG contention.

Longtime Oscar watcher Sasha Stone sees the race as a major toss-up.

“‘A Star Is Born’ could win big, setting it up as once again the season’s frontrunner. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ could win – yes, even still,” Stone wrote on her website, Awards Daily.

But she ultimately put her money on “BlacKkKlansman,” which is based on the true story of a black cop who successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan with the help of his white partner, who acts as his surrogate.

She notes it’s the only film to earn nominations at all the major awards shows and in the key categories, while acknowledging: “We all must agree that it’s a weird year and stats don’t matter.”

Sure bets and toss-ups

In the individual races, best actress is seen by industry experts as a near-lock for Glenn Close, who has taken home a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award so far for her work in “The Wife.”

Outside contenders are Gaga and Olivia Colman, who wowed critics with her portrayal of Queen Anne in the offbeat royal romp “The Favourite.”

For best actor, Christian Bale’s disappearance into the role of former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney in “Vice” is seen as the one to beat.

But Rami Malek’s star-making turn as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody” earned him a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination — and a chance to win on Sunday.

Colman’s co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are nominees, as are “BlacKkKlansman” co-stars John David Washington and Adam Driver.

“Hopefully this film is inspiring people to talk, to communicate,” Washington said on the silver carpet.

In the supporting acting categories, Mahershala Ali (“Green Book”) is expected to continue his march to the Oscars, but the actress trophy is a toss-up, as early favorite Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”) is not nominated.

Many have since put their money on Amy Adams, who plays Cheney’s wife Lynne in “Vice.”

While SAG-winning casts have only gone on to win a best picture Oscar about half the time, the awards are better at predicting best actor winners (79 percent) and best actress (75 percent).

In the television categories, shows will look to build up some momentum ahead of the Emmys later this year.

Those include new Netflix comedy “The Kominsky Method” starring Michael Douglas and the streaming giant’s returning dark drama “Ozark.”

Perennial favorites such as Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel,” powerhouse FX drama “The Americans” and NBC family drama “This Is Us” are also in the mix.

Tom Hanks will give a lifetime achievement award to veteran actor Alan Alda, the star of the long-running TV comedy “MAS*H” who revealed last year that he is battling Parkinson’s disease.

The lineup of presenters includes a who’s who of the nominees – from Cooper, Gaga and Elliott to Chadwick Boseman and Angela Bassett from the “Black Panther” cast.

 
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A New York disc jockey wearing a policeman’s uniform. The outfit is not a costume, it’s the work uniform of New York City Police officer who takes his hobby as a DJ seriously. Lieutenant Acu Rhodes says it started as a casual pastime, but quickly became a serious devotion. So serious that Rhodes, or DJ Ace, turned it into part of the NYPD’s community policing outreach. Evgeny Maslv reports from New York City, in this story narrated by Anna Rice.
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Prolific French composer Michel Legrand, who won three Oscars and five Grammys during a career spanning more than half a century, died Saturday aged 86, his spokesman said.

Legrand lived in a musical whirlwind, with the same appetite for popular music to jazz, from conducting to film.

“Since I was a child, my ambition has been to live completely surrounded by music, my dream was to not miss anything, which is why I have never focused on a single musical discipline,” he said.

He first won an Academy Award in 1969 for the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” from the film “The Thomas Crown Affair”.

He followed that with Oscars for his music for “Summer of ’42” in 1972 and for “Yentl” in 1984.

Legrand, who had been scheduled to stage concerts in Paris in April, died early Saturday with his wife, the actress Macha Meril, his spokesman told AFP.

During his long career, he worked with some of the music world’s biggest stars such as Miles Davies, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Edith Piaf.

He also won five Grammys from 17 nominations, including one for the theme from “Summer of ’42”.

“For me, he is immortal, through his music and his personality”, French composer and conductor Vladimir Cosma told AFP on hearing of Legrand’s passing.

“He was such an optimistic personality, with a kind of naivety in optimism, he saw everything in rosy colours!”

‘A magical world’

Born in Paris on February 24, 1932, Legrand belonged to a family of musicians.

His father, who left the family home when Legrand was just three, was a composer and conductor.

“The world of childhood, mine, was a lonely world, I did not like going to school, I did not like the world of children and adults, I hated to hear ‘eat your soup, go bed’,” he remembered.

At just 10 years old, he entered the Paris Conservatory of music.

“For me, who hated life, when I first came to the Conservatory I crossed the threshold into a magical world where the only question was music”, he said.

He began composing film music in the 1960s with the emergence of French New Wave directors such as Agnes Varda, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy.

He composed the scores for Demy’s “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”) in 1964 and “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” (“The Young Ladies of Rochefort”) in 1967, for both of which Legrand received Academy Award nominations.

He moved to the United States in the 1960s.

“It was a real risk to leave France, landing in Hollywood without real commitment,” he wrote in his 2013 autobiography, describing this step as “part of Russian roulette”.

The father of three children, he married his third wife, Macha Meril, in 2014.

 
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Prolific French composer Michel Legrand, who won three Oscars and five Grammys during a career spanning more than half a century, died Saturday aged 86, his spokesman said.

Legrand lived in a musical whirlwind, with the same appetite for popular music to jazz, from conducting to film.

“Since I was a child, my ambition has been to live completely surrounded by music, my dream was to not miss anything, which is why I have never focused on a single musical discipline,” he said.

He first won an Academy Award in 1969 for the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” from the film “The Thomas Crown Affair”.

He followed that with Oscars for his music for “Summer of ’42” in 1972 and for “Yentl” in 1984.

Legrand, who had been scheduled to stage concerts in Paris in April, died early Saturday with his wife, the actress Macha Meril, his spokesman told AFP.

During his long career, he worked with some of the music world’s biggest stars such as Miles Davies, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Edith Piaf.

He also won five Grammys from 17 nominations, including one for the theme from “Summer of ’42”.

“For me, he is immortal, through his music and his personality”, French composer and conductor Vladimir Cosma told AFP on hearing of Legrand’s passing.

“He was such an optimistic personality, with a kind of naivety in optimism, he saw everything in rosy colours!”

‘A magical world’

Born in Paris on February 24, 1932, Legrand belonged to a family of musicians.

His father, who left the family home when Legrand was just three, was a composer and conductor.

“The world of childhood, mine, was a lonely world, I did not like going to school, I did not like the world of children and adults, I hated to hear ‘eat your soup, go bed’,” he remembered.

At just 10 years old, he entered the Paris Conservatory of music.

“For me, who hated life, when I first came to the Conservatory I crossed the threshold into a magical world where the only question was music”, he said.

He began composing film music in the 1960s with the emergence of French New Wave directors such as Agnes Varda, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy.

He composed the scores for Demy’s “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”) in 1964 and “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” (“The Young Ladies of Rochefort”) in 1967, for both of which Legrand received Academy Award nominations.

He moved to the United States in the 1960s.

“It was a real risk to leave France, landing in Hollywood without real commitment,” he wrote in his 2013 autobiography, describing this step as “part of Russian roulette”.

The father of three children, he married his third wife, Macha Meril, in 2014.

 
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Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Saturday in the centuries-old colonial Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria la Antigua, telling Panama’s priests and nuns to try to find joy in their work despite what he called “wounds of the church’s own sin.” 

He did not specify what he meant by that, but in his message, titled “The Weariness of Hope,” he encouraged members of the clergy to remain faithful despite the frustrations and anxieties of serving the church in today’s world. 

“The Lord knew what it was to be tired, and in his weariness so many struggles of our nations and peoples, our communities, and all who are weary and heavily burdened can find a place,” he said. 

The pope noted that the cathedral in which he spoke had recently reopened its doors after a long renovation. “This restoration has sought to preserve the beauty of the past while making room for all the newness of the present,” he said. “That is how the Lord works.” 

The pope made his address as part of World Youth Day, the Catholic Church’s international youth rally held every two to three years. Several hundred people were estimated to have turned out for the pope’s Way of the Cross procession in Panama City on Friday evening, according to the Associated Press. 

Student priests

On the fourth day of his visit to Panama, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church was also to meet with student priests at the seminary of San Jose.  He was expected to talk with the young men about the dwindling number of men entering the priesthood and the reasons for the declining numbers. Francis has admitted in other locations that sex scandals and cover-ups have contributed to a drop in the number of men seeking religious vocations.    

On Friday, the pope went to a youth detention center, enabling the inmates to participate in World Youth Day.  Francis also heard the confessions of five of the detainees.  

In an emotional homily at the detention center, Francis said he deplored society’s tendency to label people as good or bad, the righteous or sinners. Instead, he said, society should focus on creating opportunities that enable people to change.  

In a veiled swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump and his insistence on a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the Argentina-born pope said of the tendency to label: “This attitude spoils everything, because it erects an invisible wall that makes people think that, if we marginalize, separate and isolate others, all our problems will magically be solved.”  

Francis added, “When a society or community allows this, and does nothing more than complain and backbite, it enters into a vicious circle of division, blame and condemnation.”  
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Pope Francis celebrates Mass Saturday in the centuries-old colonial Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria la Antigua, Panama’s patron saint, as part of World Youth Day festivities.

On the fourth day of his visit to Panama, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church is also to meet with student priests at the seminary of San Jose. He is expected to talk with the young men about the dwindling number of men entering the priesthood and the reasons for the declining numbers. 

Francis has admitted elsewhere that the sex scandals and cover-ups have contributed to fewer men seeking religious vocations.

Later Saturday, Francis and the Archbishop of Panama, Cardinal Jose Domingo Ulloa, are hosting a lunch for 10 young people attending the WYD celebrations.

On Friday, the pope went to a youth detention center, enabling the inmates to participate in WYD. Francis also heard the confessions of the five of the detainees.

In an emotional homily at the center, Francis said he deplored society’s tendency to label people as good or bad, the righteous or sinners. Instead, he said, society should focus on creating opportunities that enable people to change.

In a veiled swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump and his insistence on a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the Argentinean-born pope said of the tendency to label: “This attitude spoils everything, because it erects an invisible wall that makes people think that, if we marginalize, separate and isolate others, all our problems will magically be solved.” Francis added, “When a society or community allows this, and does nothing more than complain and backbite, it enters into a vicious circle of division, blame and condemnation.”
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When thinking about people with cancer, the images that first come to mind are usually dark, sad and depressing. But that’s not what photographer Linda McCarthy sees. With her “Survivors” project, her goal was to put a face on breast cancer, photographing women who survived or are being treated for the disease.

“I wanted to photograph them as whole women not the parts that they see of themselves,” she explained. “So, I didn’t want scars, I didn’t want anything like that. I wanted them to see how beautiful they are. They are survivors, they change their outlook on life and say, ‘Yes, this is me, and I’m a survivor.’ So, you see the transformation going on while I photograph them.”

One of the survivors is Cheryl Listman. The single mother was diagnosed with stage 2-B breast cancer in 2013, and told she had a 40 percent chance of survival. Thinking about her two kids made her determined to not give up and to keep fighting the disease.

The Survivors photography project fit nicely with her attitude.

“I work with women, I help educate women who are going through the journey and just help them navigate through the medical side of it,” Listman said. “When she (Linda McCarthy) asked me, I thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s just another impact that I could have on women.’ And then also I would be able to look back and see how far I came.”

Focusing on the whole woman

The idea of featuring breast cancer survivors came to McCarthy when she was searching for a ballerina to photograph for her portfolio.

“I was introduced to Maggie, who is known as the Bald Ballerina,” she recalled. “She was diagnosed at the age of 23 with stage-4 metastatic breast cancer. So, I met her and asked if I could photograph her, not as a ballerina, but as a beautiful girl who happens to have breast cancer.”

Through the lens of her camera, McCarthy says she has always sought to capture the spirit and essence of her subjects.

To do that, McCarthy offered each of the participants a consultation session. During that time, they opened up and talked about themselves, giving her a chance to get to know them.

The women were also given a makeover. By the end of the session with makeup artist Victoria Ronan, many were surprised — and delighted.

“In some cases, it’s been a very long time since they had makeup on, it’s been a very long time since they had done something for themselves,” Ronan said. “I had a lot of women look in the mirror and just start tearing up. They couldn’t believe how beautiful I’ve made them look.”

When fighting breast cancer, Listman said, it’s helpful to feel beautiful.

“It’s very important because when you go through a horrific journey and treatment, you don’t feel beautiful,” Listman explained. “There is a lot of things done to your body physically, there is a lot of things done to you emotionally, mentally, things that you will never forget that are not pretty. So, when you get to that point in your journey, you feel like a woman again, you feel beautiful, you feel like you’ve accomplished the mission.”
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In her studio in Davidsonville, Maryland, artist Linda McCarthy takes all kinds of photographs: school students, family portraits and headshots. Last year, she started a new photography project, “Survivors.” It focuses on women who survived or are being treated for breast cancer. Faiza Elmasry tells us more about this project. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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It is especially difficult for people with disabilities to find opportunities to develop skills and make a living. But a program in Washington is helping artists with special needs get the kind of training they need to develop their skills and earn an income. Rendy Wicaksana tell us more about the non-profit group, Art Enables and the people it helps.
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For director Bart Freundlich and Julianne Moore, having their film “After the Wedding” premiere opening at the Sundance Film Festival holds a special significance. Moore and Freundlich came to the festival 22 years ago with another film, “The Myth of Fingerprints,” before marriage, children and everything else.

“In between there have been a ton of movies, mainly by her, but some by me,” Freundlich said. “This is something that is really special to me.”

The family drama “After the Wedding” kicked off the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Thursday night in the Eccles Theater. The film is a remake of an Oscar-nominated Danish film from Susanne Bier, and stars Moore as a wealthy businesswoman looking to donate money to an Indian orphanage run by Michelle Williams’ character, while also planning her daughter’s wedding with her husband, played by Billy Crudup.

Things get a little more complicated than that, but the developments are better left seen for oneself.

There was at least one significant change, however. In the original Danish film, Moore’s character was a man, but she gave her husband the idea to flip the gender.

Moore said the switch “deepened” the story for her.

Sundance founder Robert Redford started off the evening reflecting on the origins of the festival, 34 years ago. He recalled a quainter Park City, with only one theater, the Egyptian and just a few restaurants and a library. In the early years, he remembered standing outside the theater, “Trying to hustle people in.”

“People were just wondering why I was there,” Redford laughed. “But finally, slowly things developed.”

Indeed, Redford hardly has to hustle people into theaters anymore at Sundance. Every one of the half dozen opening night films were sold out Thursday.

“Without you there’s nothing,” Redford told the audience. “Thank you for being part of the equation.”
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