Mar
29
‘High School Musical 3′ wins at Kids Choice Awards
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LOS ANGELES – “High School Music 3: Senior Year” graduated with honors Saturday at the Kids Choice Awards.
The Disney musical was selected as the favorite movie by audience votes at the 22nd annual slime-filled Nickelodeon spectacle held inside UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. “High School Musical” star Vanessa Hudgens was also selected as the favorite movie actress.
“Lately, a lot of people have been taking credit for bringing back the musical,” Zac Efron said while accepting the movie’s trophy. “The truth is we’ve known who’s been responsible for bringing back the musical all along. It was you guys!”
The show’s hijinks kicked off with host and “Race to Witch Mountain” star Dwayne Johnson zip-lining over the audience of screaming teens and tweens into a “slime temple.” Johnson proceeded to spray the first row with gooey green slime. Other shenanigans included squirting singer Jesse McCartney with a fake microphone and Will Farrell slipping and sliding down a hill.
Mar
17
Manny’s hammy to keep him out at least a week
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PHOENIX – Manny Ramirez’s hamstring injury will keep him out of spring training games for at least a week.
“We’re just going to lay low till we get rid of this,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre said Monday. “We’re just going to keep him out. I can’t give you a time because I don’t know the time, but it’s certainly going to be through the weekend and probably beyond that.”
Ramirez aggravated his sore left hamstring Sunday while playing the outfield for the first time this spring.
The Dodgers slugger first had trouble with his hamstring last week, when he was scratched from the lineup Thursday in what was supposed to be his exhibition debut. He played Friday as the designated hitter, sat out Saturday and started in left field Sunday against Colorado.
While chasing Troy Tulowitzki’s fourth-inning double into the left-field corner, Ramirez felt his hamstring grab. He was removed from the game when the Dodgers came to bat.
Now, the Dodgers are playing it safe by keeping Ramirez out of games, even though he will continue to hit in workouts.
“A thing we’re certainly not going to attempt to do is take a chance with this, and once you start playing it never goes away,” Torre said.
Torre said if Ramirez gets “a week or so of at-bats, it should be enough” for the slugger to be ready for opening day.
The 36-year-old Ramirez began working out with the Dodgers on March 4, a day after re-signing with the team by agreeing to a $45 million, two-year contract.
Torre said Ramirez is upset about the lingering injury.
“He was frustrated,” the manager said. “He’s always in a good frame of mind pretty much, but he certainly doesn’t like the inactivity.”
Mar
16
LOS ANGELES – Disney’s “Race to Witch Mountain” raced to No. 1 at the weekend box office, bypassing expectations with $25 million in ticket sales.
The PG-rated sci-fi flick starring Dwayne Johnson as a cab driver with a pair of alien teenagers along for the ride topped the R-rated superhero epic “Watchmen,” which earned $18.1 million in its second week.
Mark Zoradi, president of Disney’s motion-picture group, said analysts had predicted that “Race to Witch Mountain,” director Andy Fickman’s re-imagination of the 1975 live-action film “Escape to Witch Mountain,” would fly away with $20 million or less. Now he expects this “Witch Mountain” to maintain a high orbit in theaters with kids on spring break.
“I think audiences this weekend were really drawn to the action adventure of ‘Race to Witch Mountain,’” said Zoradi. “There was also this element of parents over 30 who remembered the original and were drawn to this one, so I think that combination is what helped us exceed what folks in the industry thought this movie was going to do.”
Ticket sales for “Watchmen” plummeted 67 percent from last weekend’s $55.2 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. executive vice president of distribution, said the studio anticipated the big dip for director Zack Snyder’s comic book adaptation about a team of subversive superheros.
“It’s very common with higher profile, highly anticipated movies,” said Goldstein.
Also opening this weekend in wide release was “The Last House on the Left,” the Universal horror remake, which turned up at No. 3 with $14.7 million in ticket sales, and “Miss March,” the Fox Atomic comedy in the No. 10 spot with $2.4 million. 20th Century Fox’s thriller “Taken” remained at No. 4 with $6.7 million in its seventh weekend in theaters.
Factoring in 2009’s higher admission prices, the weekend box office total was down 16 percent compared with last year, making it the first down weekend in six weeks. Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers, does not believe the shift signals the end of 2009’s otherwise stellar year at the box office.
“I don’t think this down weekend reflects any kind of lack of interest by the audience,” Dergarabedian said. “I think it has to do with ‘Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who’ opening a year ago with $45 million. That’s really a tough comparison. Not every weekend this year is going to be up when you have some strong openings like that from last year.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
Mar
15
Sammy Davis Jr.’s widow dies at age 65
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LOS ANGELES – Altovise Joanne Gore Davis, a dancer and actress and the widow of Sammy Davis Jr., has died. She was 65.
Davis died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering a stroke, said Amy Malone, a publicist for her family.
Davis worked her way to the Broadway stage where she met the legendary entertainer when they performed together in the musical “Golden Boy” in 1967.
She became his third wife when they wed in 1970 (Davis was previously married to dancer Loray White and Swedish actress Mai Britt). They adopted a son and remained together until Davis died of throat cancer in 1990 at the age of 64.
After his death she was left to sort through his multimillion IRS tax debt and oversee his troubled estate. Last year, she sued two former business partners in federal court, claiming they tricked her into signing away the rights to the estate. The suit is pending.
Davis is survived by her son Manny.
A private memorial service was being planned.
Mar
12
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Joaquin Phoenix appears to be getting into the act of being a petulant hip-hop star.
He jumped off the stage during a short performance at the LIV nightclub early Thursday morning and confronted an audience member who was heckling him. Security guards dragged him back on stage and escorted him away.
It’s unknown whether the confrontation – and his pledge to quit acting and start rapping – was real or a put-on, but actor Casey Affleck recorded the performance on camera.
In October, Phoenix’s publicist confirmed he was making the career switch. In January he performed at a Las Vegas nightclub and the next month he made a strange appearance on David Letterman’s “Late Show.” Actor Ben Stiller lampooned that appearance at the Oscars.
Hundreds of people packed the nightclub at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel after the doors opened at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
Several of those in the audience said they came just to see Phoenix, who left them cooling their heels for almost four hours while disc jockeys played house and hip-hop music.
Phoenix came out on stage before 2 a.m., smoking a cigarette and wearing a disheveled dark suit, sneakers and his scraggly long hair and beard.
He began rapping to a beat played by the DJ and nodding to the music, although most of the lyrics were unintelligible. Then he responded to someone who appeared to be heckling him in the audience near the stage.
“We have a (double-expletive) in the audience,” he said before jumping into the crowd. It was not immediately clear whether the two men exchanged any blows.
“I saw the guy screaming at Joaquin, and Joaquin just came down,” said Jorge Lledo, 30, of Miami Beach.
Security guards swarmed the scene and dragged Phoenix away.
The bizarre spectacle struck many in the audience as the latest prank in an extended farce staged by Phoenix. Affleck, an Oscar-nominated actor who is also Phoenix’s brother-in-law, is making a documentary about Phoenix’s career shift.
“(Affleck’s) camera was filming the whole time, so it makes me think he has ulterior motives,” said Luis Gendron, 23, of Miami.
“He knows the game he’s playing, and he’s good at it,” Gendron said of Phoenix.
The Miami Beach Police Department did not receive any calls to respond to the scene, said spokeswoman Jenny Velazquez, and records do not indicate an arrest was made.
Mar
12
BAGHDAD – The Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at then-President George W. Bush was convicted Thursday of assaulting a foreign leader and sentenced to three years in prison, provoking outrage among some Iraqis who consider him a hero.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi’s bold act in December electrified many across the Middle East who hailed his defiant act against a president who was widely reviled for his policies in the region, including the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The 30-year-old journalist pleaded not guilty to the assault charge, telling the three-judge panel that “what I did was a natural response to the occupation.”
Reporters and family members were then ordered out of the courtroom for the verdict, which was relayed to them by defense attorneys and a court official. Defense lawyers said al-Zeidi shouted “long live Iraq” when the sentence was imposed.
Some of al-Zeidi’s relatives collapsed after the ruling was issued and had to be helped out of the courthouse. Others were forcibly removed by guards after shouting “down with Bush” and “long live Iraq.”
“This judiciary is not just,” al-Zeidi’s brother, Dargham, said tearfully after the verdict was announced.
Court spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said al-Zeidi received the minimum sentence for the assault charge but could appeal the conviction. He could have received up to 15 years in prison for hurling his shoes at Bush during a Dec. 14 news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Defense lawyers said the judge showed leniency because of al-Zeidi’s age and clean record. But they had hoped for an even lighter sentence, arguing the journalist’s actions constituted an insult rather than an assault.
“The sentence was unexpectedly harsh,” said Yehya al-Eitabi, one of some two dozen defense lawyers who attended Thursday’s hearing. He said they would appeal the verdict.
Many Iraqis interviewed in Baghdad agreed.
“Al-Zeidi should have been honored and not sent to prison,” said Salam Omar, who owns a mobile phone shop in eastern Baghdad.
Nassir al-Saadi, a Shiite lawmaker loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada all-star, said the verdict was too harsh.
“Al-Zeidi was expressing his point of view about Bush in a democratic way. The court should have adopted a more humane approach and released him,” he said.
But Serwan Gharaib, a 37-year-old journalist in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, said al-Zeidi had violated journalistic ethics by exploiting his access to Bush.
“I may understand the suffering of the Iraqi people due to the occupation, but I do not understand the bizarre method of protest conducted by al-Zeidi,” he said.
The journalist has been in Iraqi custody since the shoe incident. Bush quickly ducked to avoid being hit and was not injured. Al-Zeidi was quickly wrestled to the ground by guards and dragged away.
During Thursday’s proceedings, al-Zeidi, wearing a beige suit over a brown shirt and brown leather shoes, walked swiftly to the wooden dock where defendants are kept and greeted the panel of three judges with a nod and a wave.
Presiding Judge Abdul-Amir al-Rubaie asked al-Zeidi to enter a plea.
“I am innocent,” he replied.
The proceedings took place under heavy guard with scores of armed policemen inside the courtroom and the Iraqi soldiers who escorted al-Zeidi waiting outside.
The trial began on Feb. 19 but was adjourned until Thursday as the judges weighed a defense argument that the current charge is not applicable because Bush was not in Baghdad on an official visit, having arrived unannounced and without an invitation.
Al-Rubaie read a response from the prime minister’s office insisting it was an official visit.
Chief defense attorney Dhia al-Saadi then demanded that the charge be dismissed, saying his client’s action “was an expression of freedom and does not constitute a crime.”
He echoed al-Zeidi’s testimony at the previous hearing, saying his client had been provoked by anger over Bush’s claims of success in a war that has devastated his country.
“It was an act of throwing a shoe and not a rocket. It was meant as an insult to the occupation,” the lawyer said.
The judge then turned to the defendant and asked whether he had anything to add.
“I have great faith in the Iraqi judiciary. It is a judiciary that is both just and has integrity,” al-Zeidi responded.
Many people in the region – angry over the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq – have embraced al-Zeidi. They have staged large street rallies calling for his release, and one Iraqi man erected a sofa-sized sculpture of a shoe in his honor that the Iraqi government later ordered removed.
When al-Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush, he shouted in Arabic: “This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
Al-Maliki was deeply embarrassed by the action against an American president who had stood by him when some Arab leaders were quietly urging the U.S. to oust him.
Feb
5
NEW YORK – Not quite Kobe Bryant. Definitely vintage LeBron James.
James scored a season-high 52 points in his 21st career triple-double, joined Michael Jordan as the only visitors with multiple 50-point games at the present Madison Square Garden, and led Cleveland to a 107-102 victory over New York on Wednesday night.
Two nights after Bryant set a record at the present building with 61 points, James was on pace to break it after scoring 20 in the first quarter.
His scoring eventually tailed off a bit, especially after he briefly left the game in the fourth quarter after cramping up, but the skills that make him perhaps the NBA’s premier all-around player remained throughout.
“I don’t go out there for the numbers, I just play my game,” James said. “You guys seen every phase of my game tonight, the scoring, the rebounding, the assists and defensively just trying to attack the opposing team.
“I never thought you could look at the box score and see somebody with 50 with a triple-double, but it’s happened.”
James added 11 assists and 10 rebounds, becoming the first player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 to have a triple-double in a 50-point game. James grabbed his final rebound with under 2 seconds left, then tumbled out of bounds as time expired.
“A pretty impressive triple-double,” Cleveland’s Wally Szczerbiak said. “I bet his fantasy owners are pretty happy.”
They were similar numbers to James’ game in New York last March, when he finished with 50 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Jordan is the only other visiting player to twice score 50 here, with a high of 55 that was the opponent record before Bryant broke it Monday night.
“The sad thing is that I’m sure LeBron said that it’s no big deal to get 61 points,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “I’ll just get a triple-double. (Kobe) didn’t do that.”
Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 15 points, and Szczerbiak had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who have won four straight and eight of nine. They are off until a showdown with Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers are 23-0.
Al Harrington scored 39 points for the Knicks, who fell to 0-2 during they’re referring to as “Dream Week,” games against the Lakers, Cavs and Boston Celtics. David Lee had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The focus on James’ first trip here in November was his free agency in 2010, days after the Knicks made a pair of trades to clear salary cap space for a run at him. This time, the building was still buzzing from Bryant’s performance, and the talk was on whether James could top it.
He said he wouldn’t try – unless the situation called for it.
“We go out and try to win ball games. Myself and Kobe go out and win ball games and sometimes we make games like that,” James said before the game.
“It just so happens where we get high numbers or we make an unbelievable play. It just happens that way. But we’re out there first of all trying to win the basketball game. I never go into a game saying I’m going to try to put up a decent amount of numbers or anything like that. I’ve never been that type of player.”
Yet he was looking for his own shot to start and was ahead of Bryant’s pace early on, draining a jumper at the buzzer to give him 20 points in the first quarter – two more than Bryant had – and Cleveland a 36-24 lead.
“I felt a few shots go in and just continued to try to work that hand and just try to see if I was really feeling hot, and I was able to knock a few shots down,” James said.
The Knicks used a 16-3 spurt to cut a 14-point deficit to 43-42 midway through the second, but the Cavs came out of a timeout with a play that led to an alley-oop pass for James’ dunk. He had 28 in the half, then found Ben Wallace alone for a layup as time expired that sent Cleveland to the locker room with a 57-52 advantage.
Unlike Monday, when the MSG crowd loudly cheered for Bryant, the fans were behind the Knicks in this one. They responded with a spirited performance after being blown out in the previous two meetings with Cleveland – James didn’t even play in the fourth quarter of either – and were down only one with 2 minutes to play.
James then scored on a drive to give him 50 points, and set up Ilgauskas for a bucket that gave the Cavs breathing room at 104-100 with 52 seconds remaining.
Notes:@ Eddy Curry rejoined the Knicks on Wednesday after taking a leave from the team to attend the funeral for an ex-girlfriend and her daughter who were shot to death in Chicago. D’Antoni said he wasn’t sure when Curry, who has been sidelined almost all season because of knee problems, would begin practicing again. … With Delonte West still out and Sasha Pavlovic not with the Cavs because of the flu, Szczerbiak made his second straight start. … Wallace, among the worst free throw shooters ever, airballed an attempt from the line in the first quarter.
Feb
2
TAMPA, Fla. – Bruce Springsteen looked into the camera Sunday night and told the people watching at home to “put the chicken fingers down and turn the television all the way up!”
Then he proceeded to give the Super Bowl crowd and the millions watching on TV three high-energy Boss standards, with the title song from his new album wedged in among them for good measure.
The 59-year-old Springsteen and his E Street Band opened with “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” then without pause ripped through “Born To Run” and “Working on a Dream,” before winding up the set with “Glory Days.”
Springsteen, dressed all in black, came out Sunday night with the considerable challenge of packing the bombastic energy of one of his rollicking, three-hour concerts into an abbreviated Super Bowl halftime set.
That turned out to be no problem. He had fireworks, an expansive stage, about 1,000 people on the field and help from a Raymond James Stadium crowd equipped with small flashlights.
A five-piece horn section helped saxophonist Clarence Clemons blast out “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” and a gospel choir came on stage to back Springsteen, his wife and bandmate, Patti Scialfa, and guitarist Steven Van Zandt during “Working on a Dream,” the title song from his 24th album.
Springsteen is riding a new wave of exposure and popularity, playing for President Barack Obama in Washington before the inauguration, releasing his 24th album this week and winning a Golden Globe award for his song from the Mickey Rourke movie “The Wrestler.”
In 1988, Chubby Checker was the first popular musician to perform at halftime, and Michael Jackson raised the bar in 1993. His sister Janet provided the show’s most infamous moment with 2004’s “wardrobe malfunction.”
Jan
29
WASHINGTON – Mass layoffs involving 50 or more workers increased sharply last year, and large job cuts appear to be accelerating in 2009 at a furious pace.
Boeing, Pfizer, Home Depot and other U.S. corporate titans have announced tens of thousands of job cuts this week alone.
The economy is likely to continue to shed jobs for the rest of this year, even if an economic stimulus bill pushed by President Barack Obama is approved, economists said.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that 21,137 mass layoffs took place last year, up from 15,493 in 2007. That’s the highest annual total since 2001, the last time the economy was in recession, and the second-highest since the department began tracking mass layoffs in 1995.
More than 2.1 million workers were fired as a result of last year’s mass layoffs, the department said.
Large corporations continued to hemorrhage jobs Wednesday, as Boeing Co. said it would cut 5,500 positions, on top of 4,500 layoffs announced earlier this month. Airlines are ordering fewer planes as air travel declines due to the global economic slowdown.
Time Warner Inc.’s AOL division said Wednesday that it is cutting up to 700 jobs, or about 10 percent of the online unit’s work force. IBM Corp., meanwhile, has cut thousands of jobs in its sales, software and hardware divisions in the past week, without announcing specific numbers.
Home Depot Inc., Pfizer Inc. and General Motors Corp. also have announced plans to lay off thousands of workers this week. Companies have announced more than 125,000 layoffs in January, according to an Associated Press tally.
The financial markets, meanwhile, rose Wednesday on news that the government may take additional steps to assist the nation’s ailing banks. The Dow Jones Industrial average rose nearly 201 points, or about 2.5 percent, to 8,375.45.
Still, the current recession, which began in December 2007, likely will result in greater job losses than any downturn since the late 1950s, said Adam York, an economic analyst at Wachovia Corp.
Total employment will drop by 3.5 percent by the end of this year, a sharper decline than the 3.1 percent fall that took place during the steep 1981-1982 recession, York said. Employers cut 2.6 million jobs last year and will likely eliminate more than 2 million this year, he said.
One indication job cuts will continue is that some companies this week have said they will lay off workers without providing additional details.
Government contractor Halliburton Co. said it will reduce its work force, but didn’t provide more information. And Target Corp. said it will cut 500 workers sometime later this year when it closes a distribution center.
President Barack Obama sought to use the mounting employment losses to ramp up support for his $825 billion economic stimulus package, which the House is expected to vote on later Wednesday.
“These businesses that are shedding jobs to stay afloat – they cannot afford inaction or delay,” Obama said Wednesday. “The workers who are returning home to tell their husbands and wives and children that they no longer have a job, and all those who live in fear that theirs will be the next job cut, they need help now.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve acknowledged Wednesday that the economy is continuing to deteriorate and signaled it would use unconventional tools, such as buying longer-term Treasury securities, to cushion the fallout. Such a move could help drive down mortgage rates and provide help to the stricken housing market, economists said.
The Fed also kept the key interest rate it controls at nearly zero and said it would remain at that level for “some time.”
Illustrating the worldwide pain being felt during the recession, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday the global economy will grow by only 0.5 percent this year, the slowest since World War II and a sharp reduction from its projection of 2.2 percent growth in November.
The world economy is hamstrung by potential credit losses of $2.2 trillion stemming from U.S. mortgages and other loans, the IMF said.
“A sustained economic recovery will not be possible until the financial sector’s functionality is restored and credit makers are unclogged,” the IMF said.
The Labor Department said that, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, mass layoffs did drop slightly in December, to 2,275 from 2,328 in November. Mass layoffs are job cuts of 50 or more by a single employer.
But on a nonseasonally-adjusted basis, mass layoffs soared in December to 3,377, up from 2,167 a year earlier, costing 351,305 people their jobs. The government seasonally adjusts many economic indicators to smooth out fluctuations resulting from weather changes, holidays and other predictable factors.
Twelve industries reported record high levels of job losses, the Labor Department said, including construction, mining, manufacturing, transportation services and financial services.
On Tuesday, specialty glass company Corning Inc. said it would cut 3,500 jobs, or 13 percent of its work force, as demand slumped for glass used in flat-screen televisions and computers.
On Monday alone, roughly 40,000 more U.S. workers got the grim news, including 5,000 workers at heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which is buying rival drugmaker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal, and Sprint Nextel Corp., the country’s third-largest wireless provider, each said they will slash 8,000 jobs.
The government will provide another snapshot of the labor market Thursday when it reports how many people filed first-time claims for jobless benefits last week.
Economists forecast that about 575,000 initial claims were filed, down from 589,000 the previous week. Last week’s figure matched a 26-year high reached in November, though the labor force has grown by about half since then.
Jan
22
Mini One Clubman Set to Debut at 2009 Geneva Motor ShowMini One Clubman Set to Debut at 2009 Geneva Motor Show
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The large Mini Clubman certainly isn’t everything seriously new, but the 2009 Mini One Clubman – slated for a debut the current March at the 2009 Geneva motor verify – is. Although Cooper and Cooper S versions are by now on cash in on throughout the globe, the Mini One Clubman supplies European purchasers (not people throughout the pond) further room without supplementary cost.
Like the base Mini One, the Mini One Clubman follows the “less is more” philosophy, sought after to thrifty shoppers. Not one and only performs the new example value additional as opposed to $2000 decreased as opposed to the Cooper Clubman, but it additionally takings 52.3 mpg on the EU combined test span (approximately 43.5 mpg U.S.), that trumps the Cooper and Cooper S Clubmans.
The Mini One Clubman get such a gas miser status in the advantages of a 1.4 liter, 95-horsepower engine. For further yellow points, the car as well employs “Minimalism” technologies these as regenerative braking, Automatic start/stop, and a shift daylight which signals the driver the several boom period to shift.
Both a six-speed manual and a six-speed automatic is able to be to be had when the car launches in the UK at the end of March, but do not assume an U.S. launch anytime soon. As was the situation provided the easy hatchback, Mini feels Americans prefer the additional content and fuel of the Cooper and Cooper S models, and can not shoot the base trim here.