World News

Aretha Franklin to headline 2008 Newport jazz festival

 NEWPORT, R.I. - Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin will headline the 2008 JVC Jazz Festival.
Festival organizers say the Grammy winner, whose hits include “Respect,” “Chain of Fools” and “I Say a Little Prayer,” will perform her gospel-charged soul Aug. 9 at Fort Adams State Park.

Other performers include jazz saxophonists Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter, best-selling trumpeter Chris Botti, and pianist and composer Herbie Hancock.

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Fox News refers to Michelle Obama as `baby mama’

 NEW YORK - Fox News Channel referred to Michelle Obama as “Obama’s baby mama” in a graphic on Wednesday, the latest in a trio of references to the Democratic presidential campaign that have given fuel to network critics.
The graphic “Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama” was flashed during an interview with conservative columnist Michelle Malkin about whether Barack Obama’s wife has been the target of unfair criticism.

In the past two weeks, Fox anchor E.D. Hill has apologized for referring to an affectionate onstage fist bump shared by the couple as a “terrorist fist jab,” and Fox contributor Liz Trotta said she was sorry for joking about an Obama assassination.

The incidents are further indications of how closely the endless cable campaign chatter is being watched this year. Hillary Clinton’s campaign was angered by what it described as the pro-Obama tilt of some MSNBC commentators. Amid protests, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said he was wrong this winter to say Clinton was a candidate because “her husband messed around.” And MSNBC reporter David Shuster was suspended for two weeks for saying Clinton’s campaign had “pimped out” daughter Chelsea by having her make political phone calls.

“Obama’s baby mama” was never said on the air. Malkin said during her interview that she had seen no gratuitous or cheap shots taken against Michelle Obama by Republican or conservative critics.

Joan Walsh, a columnist from Salon.com, criticized the graphic on Thursday as a slur.

“Do you try to explain that `baby mama’ is slang for the unmarried mother of a man’s child, and not his wife, or even a girlfriend?” Walsh wrote. “Are they racist, or just clueless? Isn’t there racism even in their cluelessness, if somebody didn’t know what `baby mama’ means, but used it anyway? Even at Fox, won’t somebody have to apologize?”

“Baby Mama” also was the title of a recent movie about a woman who hired a surrogate to bear a child. It starred Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, both of whom are white.

Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming at Fox, said in a statement that a producer “exercised poor judgment” during the segment. The producer was not fired; no other disciplinary action was announced.

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Siegfried and Roy welcome new tiger cubs to Vegas habitat

 LAS VEGAS - Siegfried and Roy might want to move the good furniture into storage for a while.
The famed illusionists welcomed five new tiger cubs to their exotic habitat on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday, a move Siegfried Fischbacher said would be therapeutic for Roy Horn, who was critically injured when he was mauled by a 380-pound white Bengal tiger onstage in 2003.

“That gives him a reason to get up in the morning,” Fischbacher said.

Horn did not answer questions from reporters but played with the small tigers, holding them for the cameras, kissing them and nibbling on one’s small ear. The playful, 15-pound, 6-week old cubs were brought to Las Vegas three weeks ago to be part of the longtime duo’s animal breeding program.

The cubs — two white females, two white striped females and a golden male tiger — were to be taken to a nursery for public display at the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage hotel-casino. The exhibit houses lions, tigers, leopards and a black panther.

“Our life is a purpose,” Fischbacher said. “Our purpose is to keep them from extinction.”

Fischbacher said Horn had named the golden cub Svengali because it was a name for a womanizer — and the cub was growing up with four females.

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Jury gets R. Kelly child porn case, adjourns

 CHICAGO - It took six years to get this far, but a jury in R. Kelly’s long-delayed child pornography trial is now deciding whether the R&B singer is guilty or innocent of videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl.
Jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon and continued for three hours. They were told to return Friday morning and were immediately sequestered.

The panel includes the wife of a Baptist preacher from Kelly’s Chicago-area hometown, as well as a compliance officer for a Chicago investment firm and a man in his 60s who emigrated from then-Communist Romania nearly 40 years ago.

As they left the courtroom to deliberate, jurors took the sex tape at the center of the trial with them, and a monitor was set up in the jury room in case they wanted to review it.

Kelly is charged with 14 counts of videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl, who prosecutors say was as young as 13. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. He would also have to register as a sex offender in Illinois.

The 41-year-old superstar, who has pleaded not guilty, was charged in 2002. His trial was repeatedly delayed, once because the judge seriously injured himself falling off a ladder and another time because Kelly had emergency surgery to remove his appendix.

Jurors heard closing arguments on Thursday.

Kelly’s attorney banged on the jury box with his fist, he yelled and he whispered, he laughed and he pleaded for more than in hour in his emotion-filled closing.

At one point, Sam Adam Jr. referred to a defense argument made repeatedly during the trial that a mole on the singer’s back proved he simply can’t be the man in the video.

After displaying a freeze frame of the man’s back in the video — with no apparent mole — Adam walked over to the defense table and placed his hand on Kelly’s shoulder.

“The truth be told, there is no mole … that means one thing,” Adam told jurors, then paused and lowered his voice. “It ain’t him. And if it ain’t him, you can’t convict.”

Prosecutors wrapped up their arguments the same way they began them a month ago: by playing the entire graphic sex tape in open court.

The 27-minute film played on a monitor just outside the jury box — the lights switched off and the blinds pulled across courtroom windows — as Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Heilengoetter read through sections of the indictment.

Both Kelly and the alleged victim, now 23, deny being on the tape. Neither testified at trial. But as the video played Thursday, Heilengoetter told jurors the man on the tape is Kelly and that he controlled the encounter.

At one point in the video, entered into evidence as “People’s Exhibit No. 1,” the female dances and urinates on the floor — the man out of view. Back in view, he has sex with her. In one scene near the end of the video, alluded to in one count of the indictment, the man urinates on the female. At another point, the man hands her money.

Kelly sat across the room from jurors at the defense table in a gray pinstripe suit, his hands folded in front of him. As the sex tape played, he appeared tense, keeping his eyes on the monitor, his mouth drawn tight and his brow furrowed.

“The one person who is responsible is sitting right here,” Assistant State’s Attorney Shauna Boliker said, pointing at Kelly. “What you know now is that this is not a whodunit, but a he-did-it.”

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Marvel hopes to turn green to gold with new `Hulk’

 BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Mount Olympus never had such a potent gang as Marvel Comics, whose vast pantheon ranges from Hollywood A-lister Spider-Man to the murky shape-shifting process server Ditto.
Now producing its own film adaptations for all but a few previously licensed superheroes, Marvel Studios unveils “The Incredible Hulk” on the heels of blockbuster “Iron Man,” whose 2010 sequel will be followed by an ambitious Marvel lineup.

Headlining their own upcoming movies are Norse thunder god Thor, super soldier Captain America and bug impersonator Ant-Man, those adventures culminating in 2011’s Marvel all-star tale “The Avengers.”

With an estimated 5,000 characters and a wealth of stories dating back nearly 70 years, Marvel could spin an endless web of big-screen yarns.

“It’s inexhaustible,” said Gale Anne Hurd, a producer on “The Incredible Hulk” and Ang Lee’s critically drubbed 2003 take on the character, “Hulk.” “What I love is, Marvel is now controlling Marvel’s destiny. They are the greatest caretakers of the characters and the stories.”

Until “Iron Man,” the company watched big movie studios count their millions on superpowered comic adaptations of Spidey, X-Men, Fantastic Four and other Marvel properties. Marvel made some cash by licensing the characters for films, but it was a pittance compared to what studios hauled in on such billion-dollar franchises.

Following George Lucas’ “Star Wars” formula, Marvel now finances movies itself and hires studios to release them for a fee, Paramount distributing “Iron Man,” Universal releasing “The Incredible Hulk.”

Marvel keeps all of the profits and retains lucrative rights for toys and other merchandise based on the films.

“The financial upside on a movie like `Iron Man’ or `Incredible Hulk’ is multiples of multiples of what we had in the old arrangement,” said David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Studios, a division of Marvel Entertainment Inc. “We have the power to greenlight our movies. We set our schedule. We’re not reliant on a third party.”

A few elite franchises — among them Sony’s “Spider-Man” and 20th Century Fox’s “Fantastic Four” and “X-Men” with its upcoming “Wolverine” spinoff — remain under those studios’ control.

That still leaves legions of superheroes for Marvel to put on screen.

Iron Man was a beloved character among fans but far from a household name to general audiences. The comic-book gods smiled on his movie adaptation, though, as all the ingredients came together to create an instant Hollywood franchise.

The manic charm of Robert Downey Jr. made billionaire weapons designer Tony Stark as interesting in a business suit as he was inside the metal contraption he builds to fight bad guys. Downey’s own stints in rehab added a nice nuance to the movie’s boozy Stark.

Director Jon Favreau struck an ideal balance between action and character development, resulting in one of the best-reviewed entries in the onslaught of comic adaptations.

After a nearly $100 million opening weekend in May, “Iron Man” is closing in on $300 million, a mark previously reached only by the “Spider-Man” flicks among comic-book movies.

Though the Hulk was more widely known than Iron Man from the comic books and the TV series starring Bill Bixby, no one in Hollywood expects his new movie to put up those kinds of numbers.

“Previews of this film have been mediocre. The buzz seems to be lacking,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst who follows Marvel for Janco Partners.

The Hulk has been a problem child on the big-screen. The 2003 version, which starred Eric Bana as scientist Bruce Banner and featured a cartoonish Hulk hopping around in the desert, opened with a whopping $62.1 million weekend, then a record for June debuts.

But word of mouth was bad, and the audience quickly dried up, leaving one of Marvel’s standard-bearers in Hollywood limbo.

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Potential jurors questioned in R. Kelly trial

By MICHAEL TARM, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 6 minutes ago
 CHICAGO - Attorneys and the judge in R. Kelly’s child pornography trial began questioning 150 potential jurors Monday, asking what they know about the allegations against one of urban music’s biggest stars.
The 41-year-old R&B singer, known for sexually charged hits like “Bump N’ Grind,” has pleaded not guilty to charges that he videotaped himself having sex with a girl as young as 13.

Kelly remained pokerfaced Monday, appearing at times to scan the faces of the potential jurors and occasionally leaning over to speak with his lawyers.

The selection of the 16 jurors, four of them alternates, will be key for both prosecutors and defense attorneys, said Steve Cron, a defense lawyer from Santa Monica, Calif., who has practiced for 35 years.

“In a case where a celebrity has good and bad public images, it’s critical,” said Cron, who has no link to the Kelly case.

It’s unlikely the defense could pack the jury with R. Kelly fans, because “the prosecution should be successful in excluding them,” he said.

Prosecutors may seek well-educated jurors, which could help their cause if they call technical experts to speak about the videotape, he said.

When the trial gets under way, prosecutors will face a daunting challenge: The girl believed to be on the videotape, who is now 23, says it wasn’t her. And Kelly’s lawyers — including prominent Chicago attorney Ed Genson — haven’t conceded it’s Kelly in the video.

Prosecutors say the videotape was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000, and that the girl who appears in it was born in September 1984. Kelly was indicted on pornography charges June 5, 2002, after the tape surfaced.

If jurors find the Grammy-winning artist guilty, he could go to prison for up to 15 years.

On the first day of the trial Friday, Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan addressed the potential jurors.

“As you know, this is a high-profile case,” he said, according to court transcripts. “And if you don’t know, God love you. You’re probably the only person on Earth that doesn’t.”

The first session lasted about 30 minutes, and reporters weren’t allowed to attend.

Kelly’s lawyers had argued any jury pool has been tainted because of pretrial publicity.

Defense attorney Marc Martin cited a front-page story in Friday’s Chicago Sun-Times about a possible witness. Potential jurors, he said, could not have avoided seeing the article or hearing about it on radio or television.

But the judge denied a defense motion to postpone the trial, which had already been delayed for six years, suggesting that jury selection could weed out any tainted jurors.

Selecting a jury should take about a week, and the trial itself could take several weeks.

Despite defense arguments, Cron said it is possible to find fair and impartial jurors.

“They got a jury for the Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson trials,” said Cron. “They’ll find one for this trial too.”

Although Kelly won a Grammy in 1997 for the gospel-like song “I Believe I Can Fly,” his biggest hits are bawdy ballads like “Ignition” and his current single, “Hair Braider.” He is due to release a new album in July.

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Best-selling book brings back painful memories for Simon

BY CHARLES J. GANS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 11 minutes ago
 NEW YORK - Carly Simon didn’t find it easy reading “Girls Like Us,” the nonfiction best-seller which interweaves her life story with those of fellow singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell and Carole King.
Simon was the only one of the three who agreed to speak to writer Sheila Weller, who relied heavily on interviews with friends and family to tell their life stories.

“I think Sheila did a terrific job and the book is extremely interesting, but it brought back things that I didn’t want to remember and from other people’s voices,” Simon said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I saw things in a way that to me seemed just too harsh, even if they were true.”

The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at Simon’s 1972-83 life-in-a-fishbowl marriage to James Taylor, when they were pop music’s reigning royal couple, as she struggled to get him to break his drug habit while raising their two children, Sally and Ben.

“I know he had a really tough time with drugs and I had a tough time with his drugs, and I had a tough time with Ben who was very, very sick,” recalled Simon. “But I was terribly in love and I got a great deal out of that relationship and … I don’t think I would have changed anything except that I wish that James would have been happier with himself obviously. The breakup of that marriage was incredibly sad and difficult for me.”

Today, Taylor and Simon both live in the country — at opposite ends of Massachusetts — and have ended up recording albums for the same label, Starbucks’ Hear Music, with Simon recently releasing the Brazilian-inspired CD “This Kind of Love.” Their two children are both singer-songwriters like their parents.

The 60-year-old Taylor, who kicked his drug habit shortly after their marriage ended, lives in the Berkshires with his third wife and two young sons. Simon, 62, whose 20-year marriage to writer-businessman Jim Hart ended in divorce last year, lives in the house that Taylor built on a 40-acre spread in Martha’s Vineyard full of flowers and animals.

Taylor does not keep in contact with his former wife and made no mention of their years together in his autobiographical “One Man Band” show released as a CD-DVD last year.

“I’m so erased, so erased,” said Simon. “I don’t think James has forgotten in any way. If he had forgotten, he wouldn’t be behaving in the way he is.”

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Production of ABC’s `Ugly Betty’ moving to NYC

NEW YORK - Production of ABC’s “Ugly Betty” is moving to New York.
The announcement was made Monday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and ABC Studios President Mark Pedowitz. They say the show will take advantage of a 35 percent tax credit from the city and state when it makes the move from Los Angeles.

“Ugly Betty” stars Emmy winner America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, a young woman from Queens who works for a fashion magazine.

The comedy will be filmed in Manhattan and Queens. It is expected to create more than 200 full and part-time jobs.

“Law & Order,” “30 Rock” and “Gossip Girl” are filmed in Manhattan.

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Will Edie ever return to `Desperate Housewives’?

By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - When Edie packed up and left Wisteria Lane at the end of Sunday’s “Desperate Housewives,” viewers were caught by surprise.

The sudden exit of the neighborhood’s blond troublemaker has fans wondering how this plot twist will affect the ABC hit series, and whether Nicollette Sheridan, who has played Edie during its four seasons, will be back.

For weeks, rumors swirled that Sheridan was out of the show. Both ABC and Sheridan’s publicist, Nicole Perna, have been tightlipped in response to inquiries about her imminent departure.

But creator and executive producer Marc Cherry was slightly more forthcoming. Yes, Edie’s gone, he told The Associated Press on Friday. Then he added: “She won’t be back for a few years.”

What could that mean? Hadn’t Cherry already announced he will bring his series to a close at the end of the 2010-11 season, just three years from now?

“We do three more seasons and then it’s done,” he said with a chuckle. “I will tear down all the sets personally.

“I want to be sure that when we leave the air, people still care.”

But right now, what viewers really care about is Edie’s future — if any. Could her return in what Cherry carefully described as “a few years” have anything to do with another recent rumor that “Desperate Housewives” will adopt a “flash-forward” narrative device (akin to the storytelling style on “Lost”), which could restore Edie to the show as seen a few years hence?

“I only address one rumor at a time,” Cherry replied.

Edie bolted on Sunday’s episode when the titular four housewives — Susan, Lynette, Bree and Gabrielle — faced her down after she had pulled one too many schemes against them.

“We’re done,” Susan (Teri Hatcher) told her. “From now on, you are invisible.”

“And we’re gonna make sure every woman in a 5-mile radius knows the kind of c— you pull,” said Gabrielle (Eva Longoria).

Edie tried to apologize.

“Did you hear something?” Bree (Marcia Cross) said as the women strode away. “Neither did I.”

A few minutes later, viewers saw Edie toss a suitcase into her sports car and drive away.

“A climactic scene,” Cherry told the AP.

But as the show nears its two-hour season finale next Sunday, fans are desperate to know: Is Sheridan done? Or is she still part of the show?

“We’ll have to wait until next season and see,” Cherry replied.

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Paul McCartney granted divorce decree

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 13 minutes ago
 LONDON - Sometimes love isn’t all you need. A judge in London granted a preliminary divorce Monday to former Beatle Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. If no one objects, the divorce will be final in six weeks.
 
Mills, 40, will emerge from the rancorous divorce with a settlement of $47.5 million but a reputation damaged by her televised outbursts against McCartney.

Neither McCartney nor Mills was in court Monday, which might have been a good thing. At the end of a hearing in March, Mills stole the show by emptying a pitcher of water on the head of McCartney’s lawyer, Fiona Shackleton.

“Mrs. Shackleton said something under her breath so I cleansed and baptized her,” Mills said afterward. “I thought she looked fantastic — I thought it did her the world of good.”

Mills will retain custody of the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Beatrice. McCartney will retain the bulk of his fortune, estimated by the court at $880 million.

The split makes McCartney, at age 65, the last of The Beatles to get a divorce.

John Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia, for Yoko Ono. Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen, divorced after 10. And George Harrison’s marriage to Patti Boyd ended after 11 years.

But McCartney’s marriage to the former Linda Eastman endured 19 years, until her death in 1998.

He married Mills, whose left leg was amputated below the knee after a 1993 motorcycle accident, in an Irish castle in 2002. They separated four years later.

Last year, Mills claimed in interviews that McCartney had failed to protect her and their daughter from slander, death threats and other abuse, and she accused the media of persecuting her.

In November, she said she had been “treated worse than a murderer or a pedophile,” despite years of work for land mine victims and animal welfare charities.

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