BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Israeli-Argentine conductor Daniel Barenboim called on classical musicians Thursday to take elitism out of their art and make it available to the masses, as he will be doing at the weekend with a free concert. [Continue]
LOS ANGELES, USA (AFP) – Two Los Angeles movie executives found guilty of paying 1.8 million dollars in bribes to win the right to manage the Bangkok International Film Festival were jailed for six months, justice officials confirmed. Gerald Green, 78, and Patricia Green 55, who were convicted last September on charges of conspiracy, [Continue]
BUDAPEST (AFP) – Former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon and heavy metal legends Iron Maiden were among the headline acts at Hungary’s six-day Sziget music festival, which kicked off Wednesday. The 54-year-old Lydon — better known as Johnny Rotten in his days as lead singer with the Pistols — will be performing with his band [Continue]
NAPA, California (AFP) – Julia Roberts bit off more than she could chew when filming “Eat Pray Love,” her new movie about a woman who indulges her taste buds during a year-long journey of self-discovery. The film takes its name from Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling 2006 memoir about a divorcee who spends four months in [Continue]
SALZBURG, Austria (AFP) – What better way for the Salzburg festival to celebrate its 90th anniversary than with a new production of an opera by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, two of the festival’s founders. “Elektra” was their first collaboration in a partnership that would eventually last 23 years and result in [Continue]
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – It took a pair of bungling desk cops played by Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg to knock Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Inception” from its three-week perch atop the North American box office over the weekend, early figures showed Sunday. Buddy comedy “The Other Guys,” about two officers who take over a [Continue]
MADRID (AFP) – Spain’s economic crisis has forced authorities to cut back on traditional summer festivals, employing disc jockeys instead of live performers and cancelling fireworks displays, a news report said Sunday. “We’ve noticed a big slowdown. In the last two summers, the budgets for major festivals has fallen an [Continue]
HONG KONG (AFP) – A group of Hong Kong filmmakers have started shooting what they claim will be the world’s first 3D pornographic film, a report said Sunday. The 3.2 million-US-dollar ’3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy’, set for release in May, has already generated interest in a host of Asian film markets, as well [Continue]
