LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Warner Bros. has announced plans for a $100 million cable car to take tourists from its studio lot to the iconic Hollywood sign, an area increasingly choked by tourist traffic. The company, one of Tinseltown’s “Big Six” film distributors, told city officials on Monday it would put up the entire funding for the “Hollywood Skyway.” The six-minute ride would extend more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Warner’s base […]
Entertainment
Stan Lee drops $1bn lawsuit against company he started
Comic book legend Stan Lee has terminated a $1 billion lawsuit alleging that the entertainment company he co-founded had tricked him into signing away his image rights. The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May, accused POW! Entertainment CEO Shane Duffy and co-founder Gill Champion of failing to disclose fully to Lee details of the firm’s 2017 sale to Camsing International. The entertainment icon contended that they took advantage of him at a […]
Drake crushes streaming record for top US album of year
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – Hip-hop superstar Drake’s latest album “Scorpion” has crushed the record for streaming to post the biggest week so far this year on the US chart. “Scorpion” was streamed nearly 746 million times in the United States on audio platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music in the week through Thursday, tracking service Nielsen Music said. The tally easily surpassed fellow rapper Post Malone’s “beerbongs and bentleys” which set an […]
Emmy nominations set to be a race between old favorites
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – Television industry watchers are expecting past winners to relive old glories Thursday as Hollywood’s awards season kicks into high gear with the announcement of the Emmy nominations. The Television Academy’s 22,000-plus members were given two weeks in June to sift through a crowded field of several thousand entries for the small-screen equivalent of the Oscars. Critics agree that it hasn’t been a vintage year for new TV, with very […]
‘Ant-Man and Wasp’ fly to top of North American box office
HOLLYWOOD, United States (AFP) — The Disney/Marvel film “Ant-Man and the Wasp” swatted away competition over the weekend, logging $76 million in ticket sales in North America, according to industry estimates on Sunday. The buzzy film, a sequel to 2015’s “Ant-Man,” has outpaced that movie’s opening weekend by about 33 percent in ticket sales, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported. It is the 20th release in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe series of comic book movies, and […]
Justin Bieber engaged to model Baldwin: reports
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Trouble-prone pop star Justin Bieber will be a married man after popping the question to model Hailey Baldwin whom he has dated for one month, reports said on Sunday. The 24-year-old Canadian heartthrob, who has become better known for his off-stage antics, proposed to the 21-year-old over dinner Saturday night at a restaurant in The Bahamas, the celebrity news site TMZ said. The site quoted witnesses at the restaurant, […]
Dystopian ‘Sorry to Bother You’ affirms vitality of black cinema
by Catherine Triomphe Agence France-Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP)–With its dystopian story of racial exploitation behind the veneer of modern America, “Sorry to Bother You,” the first movie by the rapper Boots Riley, is showing the fresh vitality in African American cinema. The movie, which hits US theaters on Friday, comes a year after the runaway success of “Get Out,” the first feature film by Jordan Peele about a town of wealthy white people […]
Nobel cancels peace prize concert for lack of funds
OSLO, Norway (AFP) – The traditional concert after the annual awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 in Oslo will not be staged this year due to financial difficulties, the organisers said Tuesday. “There will be no Nobel Peace Prize concert” in 2018, said a statement from theNobel Institute, Warner Bros Norway and the Gyro Event company. “The decision emerges from a wish to re-think the concert format and content but also reflects […]
‘Cats’, ‘Phantom of the Opera’ choreographer Gillian Lynne dies at 92
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British choreographer Gillian Lynne, who was best known for her work on the long-running musicals “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera, has died aged 92, her husband said. Lynne died on Sunday at the Princess Grace Hospital in London. “She leaves behind a huge legacy & is adored by many,” her husband, actor Peter Land, said on Twitter, paying tribute to his “dearest wife & friend & love for […]
‘Jurassic’ dinos shake earth, boost North American box office
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – Big-grossing films “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Incredibles 2” again dominated the North American box office this weekend, but two new entrants beat expectations to place third and fourth, according to industry estimates on Sunday. Universal’s latest earth-stomping dinosaur movie took in $60 million for the three-day weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported. The superhero-family-next-door of “Incredibles 2,” a Pixar/Disney animation, earned $45.5 million. Together they helped estimated industry […]
Westlife’s Shane Filan to return to PHL for solo concert in September
(Eagle News)–Shane Filan is coming back to Manila. The lead singer of popular boyband Westlife will be performing greatest hits and more on Saturday, September 15, at the KIA Theatre. Fans will hear songs that include “Swear It Again,” “Uptown Girl,” “If I Let You Go,” “World of Our Own,” among others. Filan has embarked on a solo career since Westlife. He last performed a solo concert in the country in 2013, when he was promoting […]
Kendrick Lamar vows no complacency after Pulitzer
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – Kendrick Lamar has vowed to resist complacency and stay creative after he became the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In his most extensive remarks since he was announced as the prestigious award’s recipient in April, the 31-year-old told Vanity Fair magazine in an interview published Thursday that any good news “motivates me to do more.” “I don’t want to get complacent. If you asked seven […]