Jessie J dominates UK's MOBO music awards

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer Jessie J won four MOBO awards on Wednesday, dominating the prizes that celebrate music of black origin.

The 23-year-old, who is white, scooped the Best UK Act, Best Album ("Who You Are"), Best Newcomer and Best Song ("Do it Like a Dude") categories.

She only failed to make it five wins from five nominations at the awards ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland, when Tinchy Stryder and Dappy won the best video prize with the song "Spaceship."

Tinie Tempah won the Best Hip Hop/Grime category, while Adele was named Best R&B/Soul Act.

Rihanna fought off competition from the likes of Beyonce and Bruno Mars to win the Best International Act Award. All winners were voted for by fans via mobo.com and media partner outlets.

Following is the full list of winners:

- Best UK Act - Jessie J

- Best Newcomer - Jessie J

- Best Hip Hop/Grime Act - Tinie Tempah

- Best Video - Tinchy Stryder and Dappy/Spaceship

- Best International Act - Rihanna

- Best Song - Jessie J/Do It Like a Dude

- Best Album - Jessie J/Who You Are

- Best Reggae - Alborosie

- Best Jazz Act - Kairos 4tet

- Best African Act - Wizkid

- Best Gospel Act - Triple O

- Best R&B/Soul Act - Adele

- Outstanding Contribution to Music- Boyz II Men

- BeMOBO Award - Youth Music

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Jill Serjeant)

View the original article here

Read rest of entry

Finance whiz and music lover to be Bertelsmann CEO

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bertelsmann, Europe's largest media company, said its Chief Financial Officer Thomas Rabe will take over as chief executive at the start of next year, succeeding Hartmut Ostrowski.

Ostrowski, who took the helm in 2008, will take a seat on Bertelsmann's supervisory board, the company said, adding Ostrowski was making the switch for personal reasons.

The move comes as a surprise as Ostrowski's term ran until December 2012, although Bertelsmann -- best known for its TV arm RTL and publisher Random House -- has traditionally decided to extend contracts for top jobs a year before they end.

In March, Ostrowski said he was happy to continue his work until retirement, which at Bertelsmann would have been in seven years, when he turns 60.

It was an open secret that CFO Rabe had been on the lookout to become a CEO at Bertelsmann or elsewhere. But whenever he was in talks to leave, the media group had persuaded him to stick it out at Bertelsmann.

The tall and lanky Rabe, who towers over Ostrowski, had been in talks to lead commercial broadcaster ProSieben, RTL's main rival in Germany, but was persuaded to stay.

Later Rabe was touted as a potential candidate to head German retail group Haniel, but again he ended up staying with Bertelsmann.

"It's high time that he takes on this position," said a person who has worked closely with him but declined to be named.

"All in all he has been a financial officer for 11 years, first at RTL Group then for all of Bertelsmann ... I think he is what the company needs right now," the person said.

Rabe and Ostrowski were known to be at odds partly due to their different styles and personalities, but company sources have said the two had put their differences to rest.

FASTEST GROWING

Ostrowski has spent almost his entire career working for Bertelsmann at the group's headquarters in the small northern German town of Guetersloh, less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Bielefeld, where he was born.

He made a name for himself running Bertelsmann's services unit arvato, which became the group's fastest-growing business, branching out from media-related services into call centers, financial clearing houses and mobile services -- setting himself up for the CEO post.

As CEO Ostrowski had been welcomed as stable and dependable, especially during the financial crisis, but he was also seen by some analysts as lacking vision.

Rabe, on the other hand, was born in Luxembourg, worked internationally, speaks several languages and is known to be a sharp, analytical thinker.

"He really goes out and digs in, for example when Bertelsmann ended the music joint venture with Sony, he found a nugget that he could grow," the person said, referring to Bertelsmann music rights publishing arm, which is prospering under Rabe's leadership.

Rabe is known for his love of music having played bass in a punk rock band in his youth. When time permits, he can be seen cycling through Berlin, where he lives part time.

Rabe earned the respect of the Mohn family, which controls the company founded over 175 years ago, when he managed the buyout of Belgian investor GBL.

At Bertelsmann he diligently worked on reducing its mountain of debt to a manageable pile, leaving the group free to again consider acquisitions.

Rabe, 46, previously worked for the EU Commission in Brussels and Germany's Treuhandanstalt, the federal agency that privatized East German enterprises.

"He really is brilliant," a company source said, adding: "I think we are in for an interesting time."

(Editing by David Holmes)

View the original article here

Read rest of entry

Brad Pitt production raided by Hungarian SWAT team

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Brad Pitt might be gunning for a hit with his upcoming horror drama "World War Z," but the Hungarian government would prefer that he not do it with actual weapons.

According to Us Weekly, a SWAT team from Hungary's anti-terrorism department raided one of the film's production warehouses and confiscated 85 fully functional weapons -- the majority of them assault rifles.

According to the magazine, the weapons bore paperwork indicating that they were non-functional, and it's not yet known who is responsible for the snafu.

The guns were reportedly flown in via private plane Monday. An official for the Hungarian government told Us that they were wrapped in a parcel addressed "from a company to an individual."

No matter who's to blame, Hungary's anti-terrorism unit is taking the matter seriously.

"Guns like these are highly illegal to transport even if they were to be used as stage guns, which hopefully they weren't," Hajdu Janos and Zsolt Bodnar, the director and deputy director of Hungary's anti-terrorist force, told the magazine.

In addition to starring in "World War Z," which chronicles the aftermath of a zombie war, Pitt also serves as a producer on the film.

Matthew Fox co-stars in the project, slated to hit theaters on December 21, 2012.

Neither Paramount Pictures nor Plan B Entertainment, the production company behind "World War Z," immediately responded to TheWrap's request for comment.

View the original article here

Read rest of entry

Director Von Trier questioned over Hitler remarks

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Director Lars Von Trier said he was questioned on Wednesday by Danish police for possibly breaking French law when he joked about Nazis and Hitler at the Cannes film festival in May.

In a statement, the controversial 55-year-old added that he would not make any more public statements or give interviews.

"Due to these serious accusations I have realized that I do not possess the skills to express myself unequivocally and I have therefore decided from this day forth to refrain from all public statements and interviews," he said.

The acclaimed film maker's remarks during a press conference in Cannes prompted the festival to expel him, an unprecedented move that could severely hamper his attempts to finance and make movies in the future.

Documents obtained by Reuters showed that a French court had asked Danish authorities to question Von Trier as part of a preliminary investigation into whether he had incited racial hatred.

It is not believed that he has been charged, although his own statement mentioned "charges made by the prosecution of Grasse in France from August 2011 regarding a possible violation of prohibition in French law against justification of war crimes."

The Danish police spokesman familiar with the issue was not immediately available for comment late on Wednesday.

FALL FROM GRACE

The award-winning director of films like "Breaking the Waves," "Dancer in the Dark" and "Antichrist" had been a favorite in Cannes before his remarks made during a press conference to promote his latest picture "Melancholia."

The apocalyptic vision of the end of the world was warmly received by critics, as was the performance of lead actress Kirsten Dunst. She went on to pick up the best actress prize at the festival's closing ceremony.

Organizers at Cannes, where Von Trier had previously won the top Palme d'Or award, decided to ban him after he jokingly called himself a Nazi and Hitler sympathizer.

His remarks angered Jewish groups, but many festival goers said the punishment was unduly harsh on a director who was apparently speaking in jest and in English, not his first language.

Responding to news of the police questioning, the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants said they believed that Von Trier's remarks were wrong but not criminal.

"Holocaust survivors were offended by Von Trier's vile and insensitive remarks but do not believe he harbors pro-Nazi sympathies that merit criminal prosecution," said Elan Steinberg, vice president of the group.

"He is guilty of bad taste in the quest for cheap self-promotion and for this he should be condemned and exposed. His lack of concern for the traumatized victims of Nazi brutality is disgraceful.

"Nevertheless, his behavior is more childish than criminal. He should grow up."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White in London, Nick Vinocur in Paris and Mette Fraende in Copenhagen; writing by Mike Collett-White)

View the original article here

Read rest of entry

Bjork: New album fuses music, technology, nature

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Icelandic star Bjork says her new album fuses the natural world and iPad apps to invent a music genre she calls an "appbox."

"Biophilia" — and a host of applications representing specific tracks on the album — are out Monday, and are meant to immerse listeners in a complete audio-visual experience.

Speaking to AP ahead of the launch, Bjork said she sees "the structure and shapes of songs" during the creative process.

That led her to work with a team of iPad app designers and musicians. She describes the app technology as "more like an accessory," and says many fans will listen to the album in a traditional way.

The beauty of Bjork's homeland is an inspiration. The singer says the link between the environment and music is "effortless and natural."

___

The iPad is made by Apple Inc.

View the original article here

Read rest of entry

Clooney, Gosling shine in "Ides of March"

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Moneyball" pushes the theory that baseball games aren't won by the best players but rather by those who can just consistently get on base. And now comes "The Ides of March" to remind us that nothing in politics -- not ideas, not image, not intelligence -- matters as much as winning elections.

And you really don't want to know the lengths to which people will go to score that victory.

Our guide through the sausage-making hell that is political primary season is Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling), a hotshot young consultant who's already a seasoned veteran of this world.

While he's generally a cool customer, Stephen is obviously starry-eyed about the campaign of Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney), the kind of liberal dream-candidate who's politically viable only in the movies.

He's an atheist who wants to phase out combustible-engine cars in the next decade, but we're supposed to believe that the GOP thinks Morris is more of a threat in November than his Democratic opponent. So if Dennis Kucinich looked more like George Clooney, he'd be president now?

As Morris and his team, run by Paul (Philip Seymour Hoffman), try to figure out how to curry favor with power broker Sen. Thompson (Jeffrey Wright) without promising him the Secretary of State job, Stephen gets a call to secretly meet with Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), the campaign manager for Morris' rival.

If you've seen Beau Willimon's play "Farragut North," on which this film is based, you might have wondered why the trailers completely reveal Stephen and Paul's rendezvous, and the repercussions it has on Stephen's career, when that's essentially the whole story.

But "The Ides of March," written by Clooney and Grant Heslov and Willimon, takes the play as merely the launching pad for a whole other plotline involving Stephen's dalliance with an intern (Evan Rachel Wood) who sets in motion a series of events in which Stephen will learn the hard way how far he -- and Morris -- will go to remain atop the political heap.

While it's not nearly as quotable as "Sweet Smell of Success," "Ides" frequently reminded me of that earlier classic in its portrait of the corrosive nature of power, and the soul-killing acts that people will commit to get or to keep it. We see Stephen as experienced and anything but starry-eyed, but over the course of the tale, his trajectory grows ever more dark and cynical.

Clooney's principal ability as a director is his skill for assembling talented casts and getting their best work, and that's certainly on display here. The actor himself nails the I-feel-your-pain empathy of so many contemporary politicians, and even when he's cornered and squirming, Governor Morris never completely drops the public mask he shows to the cameras.

Gosling reminds us of the dictum that acting is all about listening and reacting -- Stephen is cagey enough to understand the gamesmanship of the most innocent conversation, even if that skill fails him when he needs it most, and we see the negotiations going behind every furrowing of his brow.

Hoffman and Giamatti are two of our most compelling screen actors these days, and I wish they'd gotten more opportunities to face off here, but they're still fascinating in their separate corners. Marisa Tomei feels completely convincing as a New York Times reporter constantly angling for a story, and Jennifer Ehle once again nails a small role (as Mrs. Morris) that makes you remember her as the lights come up. (Ehle is one of the few actresses today so willing to hide herself in her work that I never recognize that it's her until I see her name in the closing credits. And in this day of overexposed celebrity, that's very much a good thing.)

While Clooney brings many strengths to the director's chair, he's not much of a visual stylist. Not that he has to bombard the audience with razzle-dazzle, but a little more attention in this area could certainly liven up a film that too often betrays its stage roots. His most exciting movie to look at, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," was also one of his least financially successful, and it would be a pity if that film's failure at the box office scared him away from moving the camera more.

The timing couldn't be better for a movie that reminds us that even the most "trustworthy" of politicians more likely than not sold out a good chunk of their principles at some point or other on their way to high office.

"The Ides of March" knows better than to try and offer any solutions to the current political process, but -- like the Occupy America protests currently unfolding from coast to coast -- sometimes it's enough just to highlight the problems that need fixing.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

View the original article here

Read rest of entry

Ex-Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh found dead in Chicago

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Mikey Welsh, the former bass player for the alternative rock band Weezer, was found dead in a Chicago hotel, a police spokeswoman said on Sunday.

Workers at the Rafaello Hotel found Welsh unresponsive and not breathing when they went to his room on Saturday afternoon after he failed to check out as scheduled, spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said.

Welsh, 40, who left the band a decade ago, had been in Chicago to attend Weezer's appearance at RiotFest on Sunday night, a concert that will go on as scheduled, the band said on its website in notifying fans of his death.

"As sad as it is to think about, we know Mikey would never want the rock stopped on his account -- quite the contrary in fact," the band said.

Welsh left the band in 2001 after a well-publicized nervous breakdown, resurfacing later as an artist and painter.

"His chapter in the Weezer story ... was vital, essential, wild, and amazing," the band said, calling him "a unique talent, a deeply loving friend and father."

Welsh said in a posting on his Facebook page earlier in October that he was looking forward to meeting up with the band in Chicago.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office conducted an autopsy on Sunday and listed the preliminary results as pending toxicology tests. It sometimes takes two months for the results of toxicology tests.

(Writing by David Bailey. Edited by Peter Bohan)

View the original article here

Read rest of entry