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| China says New York Times reporter broke visa rules, will leave Monday, Jan 27, 2014 07:23 PM PST  China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that a China-based reporter for the New York Times broke rules on residence visas and would be leaving the country before the end of the week, in a case which could sour Beijing's relations with Washington. The issue of media freedom for foreign reporters in China has attracted high-level concern in the United States, especially over worries that the government is denying visas for organizations that carry negative stories about China. Last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden expressed concern, while on a visit to Beijing, over China's efforts to restrict the activities of foreign news organizations. Neither the New York Times Co nor Bloomberg News has been given new journalist visas for more than a year after they published stories about the wealth of family members of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and current President Xi Jinping, respectively. Full Story | Top |
| Quentin Tarantino sues Gawker over links to leaked movie script Monday, Jan 27, 2014 06:34 PM PST  Oscar-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino filed a lawsuit against media outlet Gawker for copyright infringement in a U.S. district court in Los Angeles on Monday, after the website published links to download the script for his latest movie, entitled "The Hateful Eight." Gawker editor John Cook denied the publication had infringed on copyright in a post published on Gawker.com on Monday. He said Gawker did not leak Tarantino's 146-page Western movie script and only published a link to a website where the script could be downloaded. In court documents, writer-director Tarantino claimed Gawker Media promoted and disseminated unauthorized, downloadable copies of the leaked screenplay. Full Story | Top |
| 'Marlboro Man' who later warned against smoking dies of lung disease Monday, Jan 27, 2014 06:09 PM PST By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Eric Lawson, one of several actors who depicted the "Marlboro Man" cowboy in a long-running series of cigarette ads for Philip Morris and later appeared in an anti-tobacco message for the American Cancer Society, has died of lung disease. He was 72, and died at his home in the central California town of San Luis Obispo of respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which the U.S. surgeon general has linked to smoking. Full Story | Top |
| Foundry owner admits to ripping off Jasper Johns sculpture Monday, Jan 27, 2014 03:49 PM PST  By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - A metal shop owner on Monday admitted he tried to pass off a sculpture he made as a Jasper Johns creation, bringing his criminal trial to an abrupt end just days after the renowned modern American painter himself testified as a witness. Brian Ramnarine, 59, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to attempting to sell a bronze sculpture made from a mold of Johns' iconic 1960 work, "Flag," for $11 million. "I think Mr. Ramnarine recognized the government had an overwhelming amount of evidence," said Ramnarine's lawyer, Troy Smith. "He balanced that against his right to fight the case and go to trial, and he recognized that this was his best option." Ramnarine pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud stemming from his attempt to sell the Johns work as well as efforts to sell artwork he falsely claimed had been created by Brazilian-born sculptor and painter Saint Clair Cemin and American pop art sculptor Robert Indiana, most famous for his sculpture "Love." Under the terms of the deal, Ramnarine's lawyers and prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence between approximately eight to 10 years, in prison. Full Story | Top |
| Quentin Tarantino sues Gawker over leak of movie script Monday, Jan 27, 2014 03:30 PM PST  Oscar-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is suing media outlet Gawker for copyright infringement in a U.S. district court in Los Angeles, after the website published links to download the script for his latest movie, entitled "The Hateful Eight." In court documents filed on Monday, writer-director Tarantino claimed Gawker Media promoted and disseminated "unauthorized downloadable copies of the leaked unreleased complete screenplay." The filmmaker is seeking more than $1 million in damages. The lawsuit also names website AnonFiles.com, which the Gawker article linked to, and which contains downloads of Tarantino's 146-page script. The website allows users to upload and download files anonymously, and in its terms and conditions it says users can be held responsible for "illegal and/or copyright infringement material." It adds "do not upload anything that violates local law. Full Story | Top |
| 'Fabulist' Glass may not practice law in California: court Monday, Jan 27, 2014 11:15 AM PST By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Stephen Glass, one of the most infamous fabricators in modern American journalism, has not demonstrated that he is fit to practice law and should not be admitted to the California bar, the state's top court ruled. In a unanimous opinion released on Monday, the California Supreme Court said Glass had not engaged in the kind of exemplary conduct over a long period that would make up for his earlier behavior as a journalist. "Instead of directing his efforts at serving others in the community," the court wrote, "much of Glass‟s energy since the end of his journalistic career seems to have been directed at advancing his own career and financial and emotional well-being." A lawyer for Glass, Jon Eisenberg, said Glass "appreciates the court's consideration of his application and respects the court's decision." Glass's journalism career came crashing down in 1998 when one of his editors received a tip that one story was a fabrication. "On several occasions he told mean-spirited and hurtful lies about real people." Glass wrote a fictionalized account of the events in the book "The Fabulist," and the movie "Shattered Glass" was based on his experience. Full Story | Top |
| Beatles, mass wedding attract big TV audience to Grammys Monday, Jan 27, 2014 11:13 AM PST  Beatles, robots and a mass wedding drew 28.5 million viewers to the Grammy awards television broadcast on Sunday night, the show's second-largest audience in two decades, CBS Corp's broadcast network CBS said on Monday. French electronic-music duo Daft Punk, known for their robot-inspired outfits, took home four awards including album and record of the year, and New Zealand's 17-year-old newcomer Lorde won two, including song of the year. Viewership was up from last year's Grammys, when 28.1 million viewers tuned into the show, and is the second-largest audience for the Grammy telecast since 1993. The 2012 show attracted 39.9 million viewers, the second-largest Grammy TV audience ever, thanks largely to British singer Adele's six wins and performance comeback after throat surgery and the drowning death of singer Whitney Houston in a bathtub in a Beverly Hills hotel the night before show. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-journalist admits hacking at Murdoch paper, rival Sunday Mirror Monday, Jan 27, 2014 09:57 AM PST  By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - A former journalist on Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid and its rival Sunday Mirror has admitted conspiring to hack into hundreds of phones to get exclusive stories about celebrities. Daniel Evans told London's Old Bailey Court on Monday he had been a prolific phone-hacker and that Andy Coulson, one of Murdoch's ex-editors and later Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief, had known what he did before employing him. He is the fourth former journalist from the News of the World to have admitted conspiracy to hack phones, but the first from the rival Sunday Mirror title. Giving evidence at the trial of Coulson and another ex-Murdoch editor, Rebekah Brooks, on charges of conspiracy to hack phones, Evans confirmed he had pleaded guilty last September to the same charge. Full Story | Top |
| Rivals DirecTV and Dish team up to sell customized political ads Monday, Jan 27, 2014 09:15 AM PST  DirecTV and Dish Network Corp, the largest U.S. satellite TV providers that usually compete for customers, announced on Monday that they have joined forces to sell customized ads in a bid to gain a slice of $3.4 billion political ad market dominated by local broadcasters. Technology to deliver customized ads is widely used online by companies such as Google and Facebook Inc, but is only now starting to be offered by TV operators. Dish's chief commercial officer Dave Shull said the companies could start selling spots as soon as February in the lead up to the midterm elections in November. Individual political campaigns would provide the third-party data on the people to target. Full Story | Top |
| Brokeback Mountain opera gives voice to frustrated cowboy love Monday, Jan 27, 2014 08:35 AM PST  By Tracy Rucinski MADRID (Reuters) - When Annie Proulx published "Brokeback Mountain" in The New Yorker magazine in 1997, she had no inkling the tragic cowboy love story would go on to inspire an Oscar-winning film and even an opera. American composer Charles Wuorinen saw the operatic potential of the doomed romance between two Wyoming sheep herders, however, and asked Proulx to write the libretto. "The story embodies a contemporary version of an eternal and universal human problem: Two people who are in love but who can't get it together, who can't make it work," Wuorinen, 75, said before a dress rehearsal in the run-up to the opera's world premiere in Madrid on Tuesday. It's not an ideological piece ... It's just a piece about a universal human problem which doesn't get resolved," he said. Full Story | Top |
| 'Don't worry about me' says France's ex-First Lady Monday, Jan 27, 2014 07:55 AM PST  By Aditi Shah MUMBAI (Reuters) - France's former first lady, Valerie Trierweiler, said on Monday she was doing fine after her split from President Francois Hollande, telling reporters during a trip to India that she felt "useful" doing charity work. That announcement came less than three weeks after the tabloid Closer set off a media storm by publishing photos of what it said was Hollande, 59, making nocturnal visits to the apartment of French actress Julie Gayet, 41. Full Story | Top |
| British TV cook Nigella Lawson faces no action over drugs: police Monday, Jan 27, 2014 06:38 AM PST  By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - British TV cook Nigella Lawson will not face legal action after admitting to a court that she had taken drugs, as a prosecution could deter future witnesses from being truthful, police said on Monday. Lawson, 54, dubbed the "Domestic Goddess" after the title of one of her cookery books, made headlines globally when she told a court she had taken cocaine several times and smoked cannabis at the end of her 10-year marriage to art dealer Charles Saatchi. The pair were acquitted at the end of a three-week trial last December but Lawson's admission to the court led to a police investigation. "The decision has been taken based on a number of factors, including the need for police action to be proportionate, whether further action would be in the public interest, and after consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service," the spokesman said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Phone-hacking trial revelation shocks actor Jude Law Monday, Jan 27, 2014 05:40 AM PST  By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Film star Jude Law told Britain's phone-hacking trial on Monday he was not aware a close relative had been paid to leak stories about him to Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid. During dramatic testimony at the trial of two of Murdoch's former editors, a shocked Law was passed a note with the name of a close family member he was told was selling details to the paper at the time it printed stories about his ex-girlfriend Sienna Miller and her affair with James Bond actor Daniel Craig. I wasn't aware of that." Law, 41, is the most high-profile figure to give evidence at the trial, which began at the end of October last year, of Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, former editors of the News of the World. Full Story | Top |
| British phone-hacking trial revelation shocks actor Jude Law Monday, Jan 27, 2014 05:40 AM PST  By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Film star Jude Law told Britain's phone-hacking trial on Monday he was not aware a close relative had been paid to leak stories about him to Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid. During dramatic testimony at the trial of two of Murdoch's former editors, a shocked Law was passed a note with the name of a close family member he was told was selling details to the paper at the time it printed stories about his ex-girlfriend Sienna Miller and her affair with James Bond actor Daniel Craig. I wasn't aware of that." Law, 41, is the most high-profile figure to give evidence at the trial, which began at the end of October last year, of Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, former editors of the News of the World. Full Story | Top |
| French first lady returns to work with India charity trip Monday, Jan 27, 2014 05:25 AM PST  France's first lady Valerie Trierweiler is returning to charity work with a trip to India, an anti-hunger group said, two weeks after she was hospitalized following a report that Francois Hollande had an affair with an actress. Trierweiler, 48, spent a week in hospital to recover from shock and another week resting in a presidential residence near Versailles after the report was published. Celebrity magazine Closer this month published what it said were images of Hollande making a nocturnal visit to French movie actress Julie Gayet's apartment in Paris. The head of Action contre la Faim, Valerie Daher, said Trierweiler would go ahead with a long planned private trip to Mumbai on Monday to support the French charity against hunger. Full Story | Top |
| Asia's first luxe Nobu Hotel to open in Manila gaming complex Monday, Jan 27, 2014 03:06 AM PST  By Rosemarie Francisco MANILA (Reuters) - Luxury boutique hotel chain Nobu will set up its first Asia hotel in a $1.3 billion Philippines gambling complex operated by Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd, mainly targeting wealthy Chinese punters. The Manila-based City of Dreams casino-resort is a joint venture of Melco Crown and local leisure firm Belle Corp. The Nobu hotel will be one of three in the complex, which aims to open by the middle of the year and will also feature the largest nightclub in the city and a Hollywood-style theme park. "This is a bet on the Philippines and it is a bet on China," James Packer, Melco Crown's director, told reporters during a launch ceremony attended by celebrity Chef Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa and his partner in the hotel group, Hollywood film star Robert De Niro. Full Story | Top |
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