RM, V of K-pop group BTS to start mandatory military service

SEOUL -- Two more members of K-pop phenomenon BTS, RM and V, were set to start mandatory South Korean military service Monday, local media reported, with the final two members expected to enlist this week.

All able-bodied men in South Korea must serve at least 18 months in the military.

After a years-long debate about whether BTS deserved an exemption, Jin, the oldest member of the group, enlisted last year and his bandmates J-Hope and SUGA followed this year.

RM and V were set to begin their five-week basic training at an army boot camp in South Chungcheong province on Monday, the Yonhap news agency reported.

RM -- whose full name is Kim Nam-joon and is the leader of BTS -- posted a message to fans late Sunday, saying it will be "a time of learning and new inspirations."

"Goodbye for now. Let us be us, whenever and wherever! Let's meet in the future," he wrote on social media platform Weverse.

V -- real name Kim Tae-hyung -- shared selfies donning his newly shorn, military-approved buzzcut with sunglasses and a scarf.

"It has been a dream to wear sunglasses with a shaved head. I wanted to try it someday and it worked out well," he wrote Sunday on his Instagram account.

The septet has become a global cultural phenomenon, selling out stadiums around the world and dominating key US charts while raking in billions for South Korea's economy and building an international legion of fans known as ARMY.

Their label BIGHIT MUSIC had confirmed in November that the last four members of the group would enlist, but did not disclose additional details.

The two remaining members, Jimin and Jung Kook, are due to enlist on Tuesday, according to local media.

Agence France-Presse

Shakira pays 6.6M euros in another Spain tax fraud case

Colombian superstar Shakira has paid 6.6 million euros ($7.2 million) to a Spanish court investigating her for unpaid taxes, her agent said Friday, just days after she reached a deal to avoid trial in another tax case.

Spanish prosecutors in July opened a second case against the 46-year-old singer, accusing her of using a network of companies, some of them based in tax havens, to cheat Spain's tax office out of some 6.6 million euros in 2018, including interest and adjustments.

Shakira paid the court in August, the agency that represents her told AFP, confirming a report in daily newspaper El Periodico.

The 6.6-million-euro payment does not imply either the singer's guilt or innocence in the case, but is "another demonstration of her willingness to repay her possible debts to the Spanish tax authorities", the newspaper said.

Separately, the "Hips Don't Lie" singer Monday reached a last-minute settlement with Spanish prosecutors to avoid trial for tax fraud on income she earned between 2012 and 2014.

As part of that deal Shakira agreed to pay a fine of 7.3 million euros, equal to 50 percent of the amount of unpaid tax.

She had already paid 17.45 million euros to the Spanish tax authorities to settle her situation in this case.

The singer, who had previously rejected a deal offered by prosecutors, said in a statement she had settled "with the best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight".

Shakira moved to Miami with her two sons in April following her split from former FC Barcelona star defender Gerard Pique.

Agence France-Presse

Usher to headline Super Bowl halftime show

NEW YORK -- Hitmaker Usher will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in February, he and the NFL announced Sunday.

The pop and R&B singer behind chart-toppers including "U Got It Bad," "My Boo," "Yeah!" and "OMG" will helm one of the world's most-watched stages in Las Vegas during the sporting event scheduled for February 11, 2024.

"It's an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list. I can't wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they've seen from me before,” Usher said in a statement.

The 44-year-old from Atlanta is one of best-selling artists of the early 2000s, and more recently has been a draw on the Vegas concert residency scene.

His catalogue of hits includes features from Lil Jon, Ludacris, Alicia Keys and will.i.am., so it's not unlikely his set will include some special guests.

Since 2019 the halftime show during American football's title game has been produced by Roc Nation, the entertainment outfit founded by New York rapper-mogul Jay-Z.

The partnership has resulted in halftimes performed by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, The Weeknd, a hip-hop showcase that included Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, and 2022's career-spanning set by Rihanna.

Since last year Apple Music is the event's main sponsor, having ousted Pepsi after reportedly paying $50 million for the privilege.

The halftime performance slot is one of the industry's most coveted: the Super Bowl is the most-watched US television broadcast.

In 2022 Nielsen estimated the game drew more than 113 million viewers.

That year the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles but it was Rihanna who stole the show: the megastar made her long-awaited return to the stage at halftime, and dominated the conversation after revealing she was pregnant with her second child.

Agence France-Presse

Jungkook, Anitta draw fans to Central Park aid fest despite rain

NEW YORK, United States - Thousands of people gathered in a swampy Central Park for a concert urging global development aid, with Jungkook of BTS fame and Brazil's Anitta highlighting the marathon show's first half.

Jungkook had the poncho-clad crowd screaming and swaying along as he serenaded them with hits including "Still With You" during the Global Citizen Festival marked by a chilly, persistent rain.

Wearing acid wash jeans and a brown shirt, the megastar told fans it was necessary to "make an impact together to make sure everyone, everywhere has access to their basic rights like food and education."

He wasn't billed as a headliner but Jungkook was a major draw of the night: many drenched concertgoers streamed out of the park just after his set ended, even though the evening was set to continue for another three hours.

Earlier in the evening Anitta brought her impressive twerks and dance party of a show to the stage, performing hits including her recent "Funk Rave."

Brazil's biggest pop star called attention to the importance of protecting the Amazon rainforest, reminding fans it's "the lungs of our planet."

She also said just prior to kicking off her booty-shaking set that governments must do more to "protect the people there, the indigenous people, the communities there... whose only reality is the Amazon."

And rappers including Busta Rhymes and Common put on a 50th anniversary of hip hop tribute, one of many that has been put on across the city in recent months.

Still to come are headliners Lauryn Hill and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

- Fight against hunger -

Taking place since 2012 as world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly, Global Citizen distributes tickets for free to supporters who pledge to take actions such as sending letters to their governments in support of development aid.

Pledges came from leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced via video message a $150 million commitment to the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

"We have to fight together against poverty, climate change and for biodiversity," Macron said. "This is why we want to take our part as well."

The Rome-headquartered IFAD is an arm of the United Nations aimed at addressing poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries.

Global Citizen welcomed Macron's commitment in a statement, adding that "much more needs to be done to provide crucial support to millions of smallholder farmers around the world, who produce 70 percent of food in low and middle-income countries."

The institution urged governments to double their climate adaptation funding, and make sure IFAD reaches its funding target of $2 billion by the end of 2023.

Along with Macron, they said Norway had pledged $90 million to IFAD.

Agence France Presse

Taylor Swift, Beyonce reporting jobs trigger controversy

NEW YORK, United States - It's rare for a news outlet to dedicate a reporter to one personality, but the publication USA Today has decided Taylor Swift and Beyonce are phenomena requiring their own beats.

The recent announcement by Gannett, which owns USA Today, that it was seeking two journalists to cover the biggest names in music as if they were running for president triggered both excitement and eyerolls -- and broader conversation about coverage priorities in an increasingly fragmented and financially precarious news media environment.

Gannett, which owns more than 200 daily newspapers, has slashed jobs across local markets over the past several years, laying off six percent of its news division in December.

So news of the Tay and Bey positions struck a nerve.

"I suppose now is a good time to remind Twitter that I'm the only full-time news reporter left at my newspaper that was sold by Gannett in December," said Brad Vidmar on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Vidmar, 41, works for The Hawk Eye, a newspaper in Burlington, Iowa that GateHouse, an investment firm-run publishing company, purchased in late 2016.

In 2019 GateHouse acquired Gannett and took its name, becoming the largest newspaper company in the nation -- and one with a reputation for scooping newspapers before curtailing their resources.

Gannett resold The Hawk Eye to a family-owned media company in late 2022 -- its staff a skeleton of what it once was.

"They just kept cutting and cutting and cutting staff all across the board," Vidmar told AFP. "What you saw was a situation where there are less reporters, reporters forced to take on multiple beats."

Losing local content meant filling the paper with wire stories or stories from the broader USA Today network, he explained.

Vidmar said Gannett's announcement of the Swift job made "my eyes roll."

"They've been downsizing newsrooms for years now, but of course they need somebody dedicated to covering Taylor Swift," he said.

'Shaping a generation'

Gannett said the new positions will be employed by USA Today and The Tennessean, the company's Nashville-based paper.

The aim of the new jobs -- which are in addition to three music reporters The Tennessean now employs -- will be to "capture the excitement around Swift's ongoing tour... while also providing thoughtful analysis of her music and career," Gannett said. Another position is aimed at similarly analyzing Beyonce's impact.

The NewsGuild's New York branch was skeptical, writing on X: "Gannett's strategy to be profitable again: 1) Lay off hundreds of reporters 2) Destroy local news coverage 3) Hire a Taylor Swift reporter."

Lark-Marie Anton, Gannett's chief communications officer, said in a statement to AFP that "these roles do not come at the expense of other jobs," noting that in Gannett's bid to "grow our audience" the company has hired 225 journalists since March and has more than 100 open roles.

"Taylor Swift and Beyonce Knowles-Carter are artists and businesswomen. Their work has tremendous economic impact and societal significance influencing multiple industries and our culture -- they are shaping a generation," Anton said.

Under pressure

Robert Thompson, a media scholar at Syracuse University, said his initial reaction to the new jobs was questioning whether "this is a joke."

But he said after more reflection "I think it would be silly to categorically dismiss this... There are so few things that everybody really kind of knows whether they're fans or not, and Beyonce and Taylor Swift are some of the very rare ones."

The jobs have the potential to allow for "really insightful ways to tell the story of 21st-century America through the lens of its most popular personages," he said.

On the other hand, Thompson acknowledged that negative reaction to the new jobs in light of dwindling local news coverage is reasonable.

"If you were to get a bunch of people together and say, 'We've got X number of dollars, how should they be spent?' Most of them would probably not say the Taylor Swift beat," he said.

"But that doesn't mean that separate from that context there can't be some really good things to come of it."

If performed correctly, the new jobs are not necessarily the "dream" careers some headlines have touted them as, he said.

The fan bases for both Swift and Beyonce are notoriously defensive -- music critics who make even the slightest negative comment about their idols can be doxxed or receive death threats.

And along with the "organized wrath" of Swifties and the Beyhive, the worlds these artists have curated are famously guarded.

Plus, Thompson noted, "the eyes of the profession are going to be on these poor folks when they finally get hired."

"That first piece that they file -- it better be really good."

Agence France Presse

Jessica Chastain backs strikes as she closes political Venice fest

VENICE, Italy -- Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain came to the Venice Film Festival Friday with a provocative new film, "Memory", and an impassioned message in support of the Hollywood strikes by actors and writers.

Chastain said she was "incredibly nervous" about attending the festival amid the weeks-long strikes over pay and concerns over the use of AI, which have brought Hollywood to a standstill.

But actors were too often told "to be quiet in order to protect future working opportunities", she said.

"That is the environment that has allowed workplace abuse to go unchecked for many decades and it's also the environment that has saddled members of my union with unfair contracts," said Chastain, wearing a T-shirt supporting the unions.

Several stars have been forced to skip Venice due to the strike, but Chastain's new film, "Memory" was made outside the Hollywood studio system and so received an exemption from unions to allow promotional work.

In her first role since winning an Oscar for "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" two years ago, Chastain plays a recovering alcoholic who falls for a man with dementia (Peter Sarsgaard).

Variety said the film by Mexican director Michel Franco featured "unforgettable performances", while The Hollywood Reporter praised the film as a "laser-like drama about trauma and connection".

- Biopics trend -

Despite the lack of A-listers, the festival has seen some instant Oscar frontrunners and hard-hitting political dramas at its 80th edition, which concludes Saturday.

Highlights from the 23 entries competing for the top prize Golden Lion include "Poor Things", a feminist reworking of Frankenstein which made Emma Stone a shoo-in for award nominations with her hilarious and shockingly explicit turn as a sex-hungry reanimated corpse.

So are Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan for their roles as conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia in Cooper's elegant biopic, "Maestro".

Biopics were a thing this year: from Michael Mann's long-awaited take on racing car impresario Enzo Ferrari starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, to Sofia Coppola's lauded "Priscilla" about the wife of Elvis Presley.

- Migrant tales -

The jury, led by writer-director Damien Chazelle ("La La Land") and including Jane Campion and last year's Golden Lion winner Laura Poitras -- all three Oscar winners -- may be swayed by more political entries.

Critics have been impressed by two powerful migrant dramas.

"Io Capitano" tells the epic and brutally powerful story of a Senegalese teenager crossing Africa to reach Europe, with newcomer Seydou Sarr wowing audiences in the central role.

And "Green Border" offered a harrowing account of refugees trapped between Belarus and Poland during a real-life crisis on the EU border in 2021.

The jury might wish to reward one of the odder entries, "El Conde" by Chile's Pablo Larrain, which reimagines Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a blood-sucking vampire.

At the more arthouse end of the spectrum was Bertrand Bonello's "The Beast", starring Lea Seydoux, a surreal era-jumping love story with touches of David Lynch that got strong reviews.

The strong competition line-up helped distract from the controversy around the inclusion of Roman Polanski in the out-of-competition section.

As a convicted sex offender, the 90-year-old director was already struggling to find distribution in the US and other countries for his slapstick comedy "The Palace". The disastrous reviews at Venice will not have helped.

Currently holding a resounding zero percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it was variously described as a "laughless debacle" and "soul-throttlingly crap" by critics.

Another director who has been effectively blacklisted in the US, Woody Allen, had a better time with his 50th film (and first in French), "Coup de Chance", which was widely considered his best in at least a decade.

Agence France-Presse

Sinead O'Connor death at London home 'not suspicious': police

LONDON -- Irish singer Sinead O'Connor was pronounced dead Wednesday at a south London residence by police officers responding to reports of "an unresponsive woman," the capital's Metropolitan Police confirmed Thursday.

"A 56-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene... the death is not being treated as suspicious," the force said in a statement which did not name O'Connor, in line with UK policing protocols.

"Police were called at 11:18 hrs on Wednesday, 26 July to reports of an unresponsive woman at a residential address in the SE24 area," the Met noted, referring to a postcode several miles south of central London.

"Next of kin have been notified... A file will be prepared for the Coroner," it added.

In English law, inquests are held to examine violent, unnatural or unexplained deaths. They set out to determine the place, time and type of death, but do not apportion blame.

Agence France-Presse

Hollywood strike forces Venice fest to switch opening film

ROME, Italy - The Venice Film Festival has switched its opening selection, after the movie that had been slated to open pulled out because of the ongoing Hollywood strike, organisers said.

Edoardo De Angelis' "Comandante" will now open the 80th Venice International Film Festival, in place of Luca Guadagnino's "Challengers", the festival said in a statement late on Friday.

"Challengers" featuring US star Zendaya, "will not participate at the Festival following a decision made by the production," owing to ongoing industrial action in Hollywood, it said.

"Comandante" will have its world premiere on Wednesday, August 30 in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema on the island of Lido di Venezia during the opening ceremony.

The change comes two weeks after actors joined a writers' strike, triggering the first industry-wide walkout for 63 years, effectively shutting down Hollywood.

The SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild) went on strike after negotiations to reach a new deal with production studios ended without an agreement.

The union's demands have focused on dwindling pay in the streaming era, as well as the threat to the industry posed by artificial intelligence.

Based on a true story, "Comandante" depicts the rescue of 26 shipwrecked Belgians during World War II by a submarine skipper played by Pierfrancesco Favino.

De Angelis, 44, was behind 2016 film "Indivisibili" and the TV drama series The Lying Life of Adults.

The Venice festival will end on September 9 with the screening of "La sociedad de la nieve" ("Society of the Snow") by Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, the organisers said.

Agence France Presse

Elton John hails fans at emotional final farewell show

STOCKHOLM - Surrounded by emotional fans from around the globe, Elton John hailed them as his "lifeblood" as he gave his final farewell concert in Stockholm after more than 50 years of live performances.

"You know how much I like to play live. It's been my lifeblood to play for you guys, and you've been absolutely magnificent," he told the delighted audience at the arena in the Swedish capital.

Wearing a tailcoat accented with rhinestones and a red pair of his trademark large glasses, the 76-year-old pop superstar sat down at the piano shortly after 8:00 pm to cheers to open his farewell show with one of his most popular songs, "Bennie and the Jets."

He then continued with "Philadelphia Freedom" and "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" to a rapt audience, many of whom were wearing sparkling blue or red glasses.

Playing for more than two hours, John interspersed the songs with moments when he would get up and leave the piano to thank not only his fans but also his band and his crew, some of whom have been with him for more than 40 years.

"I want to pay tribute to these musicians... They're really incredible, they've been with me so long, some of them. And they are the best, I tell you, the best," he said.

Shortly after a rendition of "Border Song" which he dedicated to Aretha Franklin, John's "I'm Still Standing" brought the 30,000 fans at the Tele2 Arena to their feet.

Before he took his encore, John screened a message from Coldplay, who were playing in the western Swedish city of Gothenburg, in which singer Chris Martin thanked him for his career and commitment.

'Amazing show'

"It was amazing. I have no words right now because I haven't processed all the show, but it was amazing," said Anton Pohjonen, a 25-year-old bank worker from Finland.

"You almost start tearing up on his account. But then it feels great to be here," added Swedish teacher Conny Johansson, who bought tickets for the show four years ago.

Excited fans were looking forward to an emotional end to the superstar's glittering live career even before the curtain went up.

"It's going to be very emotional tonight," said Kate Bugaj, 25, a Polish student who admitted she had delayed her Master's exams to follow her musical hero's tour.

Describing herself as a "huge fan", she said it all began the first time she watched "The Lion King", the 1994 Walt Disney film which gave John one of his two Oscar music wins.

Fifty-year-old Jeanie Kincer travelled from Kentucky in the United States for the show.

"I wanted to be here for the end because I was too young to be here in the beginning," she said.

To mark the occasion, she was dressed in red shorts with braces and a red, yellow and brown T-shirt -- almost the exact same outfit John wore for his first concert in Stockholm in 1971.

Sweden's daily Expressen called the final show "an important chapter in the history of rock 'n' roll which is about to end".

The star has been winding down his decades-long live career with a global farewell tour.

He played his last concerts in the United States in May and brought the curtain down on Britain's annual Glastonbury Festival last month.

Saturday's farewell concert was the second consecutive evening the Stockholm stadium hosted the legendary British singer-songwriter for the last leg of his final tour, which began five years ago and was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and a hip operation in 2021.

On his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, John will have given 330 concerts, crisscrossing Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Britain, before closing in Stockholm.

Overall, the tour has seen him perform in front of 6.25 million fans.

Agence France-Presse

DiCaprio-Scorsese epic scores rave reviews at Cannes

CANNES, France — The Hollywood cavalcade descended on Cannes on Saturday, May 20, for the premiere of Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s Native American crime epic, “Killers of the Flower Moon” which received rave reviews.

The three-and-a-half-hour movie sees DiCaprio play alongside Scorsese’s other long-time muse Robert De Niro, and charts a wave of murders among oil-rich Osage Indians in the 1920s and the birth of the FBI.

After hours of waiting in the rain that has drenched the French Riviera town all week, fans went wild as the trio arrived for the premiere alongside several native Americans in traditional outfits.

Co-star Jesse Plemons arrived with his wife Kirsten Dunst, while Salma Hayek, Cate Blanchett, and Tobey Maguire were also present.

Based on a nonfiction bestseller, the film sees DiCaprio play a weak-willed man who marries a wealthy Osage Indian and is drawn into the deadly schemes of his kingpin uncle (De Niro).

Words like “searing”, “triumph” and “masterpiece” were bandied about by critics who managed to get their hands on a ticket.

IndieWire said DiCaprio gives “his best-ever performance,” while The Guardian awarded five stars for a “remarkable epic about the bloody birth of America.”

There were some dissenting notes, with The Times calling it “a damp squib” and Little White Lies saying Scorsese “guts the story of anything that might sully the high seriousness of the subject matter.”

Frontrunners

“Killers of the Flower Moon,” funded by Apple, was screening out-of-competition in Cannes.

It is the first time the 80-year-old Scorsese, who won the Palme in 1976 for “Taxi Driver,” has presented a film here since 1985’s lesser-known “After Hours,” though he served as jury president in 1998.

Elsewhere, the race for the festival’s top prize Palme d’Or was heating up.

More Hollywood royalty walked the red carpet for Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore’s new film “May December,” which looks at the relationship between an older woman and a schoolboy, still married years after their relationship became a tabloid scandal.

An early front-runner is British director Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” a unique and horrifying look at the private life of a Nazi officer working at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Critics were near-unanimous in their praise, Variety calling it “chilling and profound, meditative and immersive, a movie that holds human darkness up to the light and examines it as if under a microscope.”

It was partly inspired by a book of the same name by British novelist Martin Amis, who died on Saturday at 73.

Also well received was “Four Daughters”, a heartbreaking documentary about radicalization within a Tunisian family that is both inventive and engaging.

That may go down well with jury president Ruben Ostlund, last year’s winner for “Triangle of Sadness,” who likes his arthouse films with some lighter touches.

A total of 21 films are in the main competition, which concludes on May 27, including previous winners such as Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda, Germany’s Wim Wenders and Britain’s Ken Loach.

Aging icons

The weather has been untypically wet this year, but Cannes has had no shortage of splashy moments since kicking off on Tuesday with the controversial appearance of Johnny Depp, playing French king Louis XV in “Jeanne du Barry.”

The festival saw an emotional appearance from Harrison Ford, receiving an honorary Palme d’Or at the world premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

And at the risk of turning the event into a festival of aging Hollywood males, there was also an honorary Palme for Michael Douglas, and an appearance from Sean Penn as a grizzled New York paramedic in “Black Flies”.

Agence France-Presse 

Mum and Malaysia celebrate Michelle Yeoh's Oscar win

KUALA LUMPUR – "Malaysia boleh!" cried Michelle Yeoh's mother in a video chat with her daughter minutes after her historic Oscars win was announced -- citing a popular slogan that loosely translates into "Malaysia can do it!"

"I'm very happy... I'm proud of my daughter. She is very hardworking," Janet Yeoh told reporters after her daughter became the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for best actress.

"I'll call her to come back (to Malaysia) and celebrate very soon. Next month is my birthday."

She and other relatives and friends of Yeoh's were gathered at a live screening of the awards ceremony at a Kuala Lumpur cinema, where there were loud cheers, embraces and tears of joy the second the announcement was made.

"It was such a jaw-dropping moment," Yeoh's niece Vicki said. 

"I was speechless, I cried. Everything was, it happened so quickly. We are so happy that she won, that our auntie won...

"We kept telling her: 'You will win... You're going to stand on stage with the golden man," she said, referring to the Oscar statuette.

'Pride of Asia' 

The 60-year-old Malaysian actress won the award for her role in the sci-fi film "Everything Everywhere All at Once," beating Cate Blanchett who had long been favorite to win a third Oscar for "Tar."

"Everything Everywhere" follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner locked in battle with an inter-dimensional supervillain -- who happens to be her own daughter.

Emily Ng, a Yeoh fan, said: "She is the pride not just for Malaysia, but she is the pride of Asia as well."

The former Bond girl was born to Malaysian-Chinese parents in 1962 in the city of Ipoh, 200 kilometers north of Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.

She embraced dance as a child and specialized in ballet, which she studied in England.

On a vacation while visiting family, her mother entered her in the Miss Malaysia contest without consulting her. 

"I agreed to go to shut her up," Yeoh, who went on to win the beauty pageant, told a talk show.

A back injury made her give up her dancing career, but by the mid-1980s, she was using the body control she had learned in ballet to appear in action films alongside the likes of Jackie Chan.

Yeoh was awarded the title of "Tan Sri" by the Malaysian king in 2013, one of the country's highest honorifics bestowed upon civilians.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, where Yeoh worked for a decade before becoming a Hollywood star, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung congratulated Yeoh, calling her a "shining star with impressive achievements."

"This is a testimony to the strong potential of Hong Kong's talents and film industry," he said.

Agence France-Presse

'Everything Everywhere' dominates Spirit Awards week before Oscars

SANTA MONICA, United States — "Everything Everywhere All At Once" swept up yet more film prizes Saturday, as it was named best feature at the Spirit Awards -- one of the last major Hollywood ceremonies before next weekend's Oscars.

The trippy sci-fi won in every category it was nominated, at a ceremony held in a giant tent at Los Angeles' Santa Monica beach to celebrate low- and mid-budget movies.

Its voters granted a whopping seven awards to the film, which was made for around $25 million and became independent studio A24's biggest-ever hit, with a global box office gross above $100 million.

"This is too many. We're so lucky!" said co-director Daniel Scheinert, collecting the night's final prize.

Michelle Yeoh won best lead performance, and Stephanie Hsu won best breakthrough performance.

It is the first year in which the Film Independent Spirit Awards have opted for gender-neutral acting categories.

'Everything Everywhere' wins (nearly) all at SAG Awards

"Michelle, you beat a bunch of men!" yelled Jamie Lee Curtis in the backstage press room.

Curtis was the film's only nominee who failed to win -- losing best supporting performance to her co-star Ke Huy Quan.

Scheinert and Daniel Kwan won director and best screenplay, and the film also won best editing.

The absurdist sci-fi comedy stars Yeoh as the matriarch of a Chinese-American laundromat-owning family, who end up fighting a universe-hopping supervillain while undergoing a tax audit.

"You believed in us. You believed in the masterpiece from the Daniels," said Yeoh, addressing the studio's producers.

"My boys, thank you for writing such an incredible script that gave us the opportunity to be here, to be seen, to be heard."

'So humbling and so cool'

This year's Spirit Awards were held the weekend before the Oscars. Voting for the season-concluding Academy Awards is currently under way.

Final Oscars voting closes on Tuesday, before Hollywood's most coveted golden statuettes are handed out at a glitzy ceremony next Sunday.

Among the films that could receive a late Oscars boost from their Spirit Award wins Saturday were best documentary "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed," best first feature "Aftersun," and best cinematography winner "Tar."

"Women Talking" received the pre-announced Robert Altman Award, which honors a film's director, casting director and overall cast.

But in a repeat of scenes at recent high-profile prizegiving ceremonies from Hollywood's actors', producers' and directors' guilds, the night's big winner was "Everything Everywhere," which cemented its already clear Academy Award frontrunner status.

"It's been so humbling and so cool," producer Jonathan Wang told AFP on Saturday's red carpet.

The movie -- which features characters with hot dog fingers, sex toy-shaped trophies and talking rocks -- has overcome predictions from some pundits that it would prove too bizarre for mainstream audiences and voters.

It leads the nominations at the Oscars, with 11 nods.

"What's happened is a lot of people went out and they gave our movie a chance," said Wang.

"They said 'let's watch it for what it is' and they got past the kind of things that were going to be 'too edgy' for them. And then they were bulldozed by the emotion of it. 

"That's what we wanted to do. So that's the highest compliment -- that we were able to actually do that."

Agence France-Presse

French documentary, Spanish girl clinch top prizes at Berlinale

BERLIN, Germany - The Berlin film festival on Saturday awarded its Golden Bear top prize to a documentary by French director Nicolas Philibert and its best acting award to an eight-year-old girl in what jury chief Kristen Stewart described as a "boundary-pushing" event.

"On the Adamant", coming more than 20 years after Philibert's acclaimed education documentary "To Be and To Have", is about a floating day-care centre for people with psychiatric problems on the Seine in Paris.

Thanking the jury, Philibert, 72, said "that documentary can be considered to be cinema in its own right touches me deeply".

On a night full of surprises, the festival's gender-neutral acting prize was awarded to an eight-year-old, Spain's Sofia Otero.

The young actress won the prize for playing a transgender child in "20,000 Species of Bees," the feature debut from Spanish director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren. 

Critics have lavished praise on the film. Screen Daily, for one, predicted that "arthouse audiences worldwide should respond to the pathos, breadth and humanity of a film that takes a while to build but, when it does, never loses its grip".

Otero, who fought back tears when collecting the award, later told journalists she was "very grateful, very happy".

'Invisible parameters'

Stewart, at 32 the youngest president in the festival's history, said the jury had been asking themselves all week "what makes a movie a movie".

They had set aside "invisible parameters" in awarding the Golden Bear, she said, because "when you focus too much on what something is you tend to lose track of what it does.

"This is a boundary-pushing festival and so it offers us the opportunity to be expansive in how we define those things, how we value works of art, how we categorise them," she said.

There was more success for France as Philippe Garrel, 74, won the Silver Bear for best director for "The Plough", a drama about three siblings from a family of puppeteers coping with the death of their father.

Garrel dedicated the prize to his children and to French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard, "a great master for many of us", who died last September.

Second prize went to "Afire" from German director Christian Petzold, about a group of friends whose holiday retreat to the Baltic coast goes horribly wrong.

Variety called it "wincingly well-observed and acidly funny", while the Hollywood Reporter said it was "a deceptively simple and straightforward but emotionally layered film".

Star power

Coming in third was "Bad Living" by Portugal's Joao Canijo, about several female members of the same family who run a dilapidated hotel and are also struggling with their relationships to one another. 

"On the Adamant" offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of adults and their carers in the Parisian day-care centre, which puts an accent on offering them a creative outlet.

The film is "an attempt to overturn the image we have" of people with psychiatric problems, Philibert said. 

"The cliches are deep rooted. The film tries to unravel them (but) there is a long way to go," he said.

The Hollywood Reporter praised the film's "warmth and enthusiasm", calling it "a portrait of several individuals who, despite their noticeable disabilities, are capable of producing original and moving works of art".

Documentaries are regularly selected in major international film competitions, but rarely win awards.

Last year, the Venice Film Festival awarded its Golden Lion to a documentary about the opiate crisis in the United States by Laura Poitras ("All The Beauty And The Bloodshed").

After two years of a reduced format due to pandemic restrictions, the 11-day Berlinale got back in full swing this year, with A-listers such as Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren and Steven Spielberg walking the red carpet.

The festival, which ranks alongside Cannes and Venice among Europe's top cinema showcases, also marked the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and highlighted anti-government protests in Iran with new feature films and documentaries.

There were 19 films from around the world vying for this year's Golden Bear, which was awarded at a gala ceremony by a jury led by Stewart.

Agence France Presse

R. Kelly gets new 20-year jail term for child porn crimes

NEW YORK, United States - A US judge on Thursday handed disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly a 20-year prison term for child pornography and other charges -- but he will serve most of it simultaneously with a previous sentence.

Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence he received after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

The judge in Chicago -- Kelly's hometown, where he was once seen as a source of pride -- ruled that most of the new sentence would be served concurrently with the previous one, with all but one year taken at the same time.

That Kelly will spend a maximum of 31 years in prison is a win for the defense, which urged in its sentencing memorandum that "a concurrent sentence is what fairness demands," accusing the prosecution of engaging in a "quest to ensure that Kelly never sees the light of day."

His lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, is appealing both of Kelly's federal convictions.

The artist born Robert Sylvester Kelly was convicted in September 2022 on six of 13 counts alleged in the Chicago trial: three counts of producing child pornography and three of enticement of a minor.

The singer known for hits including "I Believe I Can Fly" was acquitted by a federal jury of the seven other counts, including charges that he obstructed justice in a previous trial.

Kelly and two ex-associates had been accused of rigging the singer's 2008 child pornography proceedings in which a jury delivered a verdict of not guilty.

The federal conviction in Chicago came one year after Kelly was convicted in New York of systematically recruiting teenagers and women for sex.

That verdict was widely seen as a milestone for the #MeToo movement: it was the first major sex abuse trial where the majority of the accusers were Black women.

It was also the first time Kelly faced criminal consequences for the abuse he was rumored for decades to have inflicted on women and children.

Agence France-Presse

Bruce Willis diagnosed with untreatable dementia: family

LOS ANGELES - US action hero Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with untreatable dementia, his family said Thursday, less than a year after he retired from acting because of growing cognitive difficulties.

"Since we announced Bruce's diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce's condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia," a statement said.

"Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis. 

"Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead.

"As Bruce's condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research." 

Agence France-Presse

Legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach dead at 94

LOS ANGELES — Legendary American pop composer Burt Bacharach, whose prolific output provided a chart-topping playlist for the 1960s and 70s with hits like "I Say a Little Prayer," has died in Los Angeles aged 94, US media said Thursday.

Bacharach worked with stars such as Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones and also wrote hits such as "Walk On By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose."

Bacharach, who died on Wednesday of natural causes, was known for romantic and melancholic ballads crossing the border between jazz and pop, and regularly topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

A pianist passionate about jazz, he was born on May 12, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri, and studied the art of composition in several American universities.

After his military service, he was hired by Marlene Dietrich as an arranger and musical director for her tours.

In 1957, he met lyricist Hal David, who died in 2012, with whom he would form one of the most successful partnerships in the music industry.

Four years later, they would discover during a recording session a young chorus girl who will become their standard bearer: Dionne Warwick. 

Between 1962 and 1968, they wrote 15 titles that rose into the American Top 40.

The songwriting duo was also acclaimed by Hollywood. In 1970, they won two Oscars for the music of the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and the original song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." 

In 1973, a financial dispute broke out between the two men. For ten years, they spoke only through lawyers and never worked together again. 

Agence France-Presse

Alec Baldwin to face involuntary manslaughter charge over 'Rust' shooting

LOS ANGELES — Alec Baldwin is to be charged with involuntary manslaughter over the accidental shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the low-budget western "Rust," a prosecutor said Thursday.

The film's armorer, who was responsible for the weapon that fired the shot that killed Halyna Hutchins, will also be charged, New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies announced.

If convicted, they both face up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

"After a thorough review of the evidence and the laws of the state of New Mexico, I have determined that there is sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against Alec Baldwin and other members of the ‘Rust’ film crew," Carmack-Altwies said.

"On my watch, no one is above the law, and everyone deserves justice."

Baldwin was holding the Colt. 45 during rehearsals for the film when it discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza in October 2021.

The former "30 Rock" star has insisted he was told by crew that the gun was not loaded.

He has also previously said he did not pull the trigger, though experts have cast doubt on this claim.

A lengthy investigation has looked at how the live round -- and five others -- got onto the New Mexico film set, with attention focused on the armorer and ammunition supplier.

Investigators found the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, had put the fatal round in Baldwin's gun, instead of using a similar-looking dummy round.

In August, Baldwin said he did not believe he would be charged, telling CNN he had hired a private investigator to assess possible culpability.

A raft of civil suits have been lodged in the months since Hutchins' death, with various crew suing and counter-suing.

In October, Baldwin reached an undisclosed settlement with the family of 42-year-old Hutchins.

Agence France-Presse

Actor Jeremy Renner in critical condition after snow plow accident

LOS ANGELES -- Movie star Jeremy Renner, known for his role as Hawkeye in several Marvel blockbusters, was in critical but stable condition following an accident, his representative told US media on Sunday.

Renner had been plowing snow when he suffered serious injuries, a representative told The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.

"We can confirm Jeremy is in critical but stable condition with injuries suffered after experiencing a weather-related accident while plowing snow earlier today," Renner's representative told the outlet, without specifying where the accident took place.

"His family is with him and he is receiving excellent care," the representative, who was unnamed, added.

Renner, 51, has been nominated for two Oscars for his roles in "The Hurt Locker" and "The Town."

He has also appeared as Clint Barton, also known as superhero Hawkeye, in several Marvel films and a recent miniseries.

Renner owns property near Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe, an area near Reno, Nevada that has been hit by winter storms, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He recently posted on social media about severe weather conditions in the area around Lake Tahoe, which borders California and Nevada and is a world-renowned skiing destination.

On December 13, Renner tweeted a photo of a car buried by snow with the caption "Lake Tahoe snowfall is no joke."

Agence France-Presse

Guns N' Roses sues online gun shop for appropriating name

HOUSTON - This ain't no sweet child of mine. 

US rock band Guns N' Roses has sued a company that runs an online gun store named Texas Guns and Roses, charging in federal court that the business appropriated its name unjustly.

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, attorneys for the band said a corporation that runs the online shop was conning consumers into believing the business had something to do with the rock band.

Guns N' Roses "quite reasonably does not want to be associated with Defendant, a firearms and weapons retailer," the lawsuit, filed Thursday, says.

Additionally, the band claimed, the gun dealer "espouses political views related to the regulation and control of firearms and weapons on the Website that may be polarizing to many US consumers."

Guns N' Roses, formed in 1984, is one of the most successful bands of all time and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Its members are Axl Rose, Saul "Slash" Hudson and Michael "Duff" McKagan.

The lawsuit identified Jersey Village Florist LLC as the owner and operator of Texas Guns and Roses, which it said sells firearms and ammunition, scopes, body armor and metal safes, among other items.

The online business is registered at a Houston address and obtained its Texas registry listing in 2016 without Guns N' Roses' "approval, license, or consent," according to the suit.

Lawyers for the rock group are seeking a jury trial and a court order barring the use of the website name as well as unspecified punitive damages.

The online shop did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Agence France-Presse

U2 frontman Bono releases memoir 'Surrender'

NEW YORK, United States - U2's Bono on Tuesday released his memoir "Surrender," detailing the journey from his youth in Dublin to fronting one of the world's most prominent rock bands.

The introspective book is organized across 40 different U2 songs, including 40 original drawings.

The 62-year-old artist born Paul David Hewson is a long-time humanitarian well-known for lending his voice to a variety of causes, including the fight against poverty and AIDS.

In his more than 500-page book, Bono delves in to those ambitions but also his growth as a teenager struck by tragedy -- his mother died suddenly when he was 14 -- and an account of his heart operation in 2016.

He also waxes on the perplexities and finer points of songwriting, and "the pseudo-religious part of being a rock star, how we put the messy in messianic."

"U2's music was never really rock 'n' roll," he writes in the book. "Under its contemporary skin it's opera -- a big music, big emotions unlocked in the pop music of the day." 

The rocker is promoting the memoir with a 14-date book tour entitled "Stories of Surrender," which kicks off in New York this week and includes stops in Chicago, London, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and, of course, Dublin.

"When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I'd previously only sketched in songs," Bono said in a statement when the book's publication was announced earlier this year.

"Surrender is a word freighted with meaning for me. Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept," he continued. "I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist."

"Surrender is the story of one pilgrim's lack of progress... With a fair amount of fun along the way."

Agence France Presse