Stars such as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Glenn Close, Robert De Niro and Viggo Mortensen are on the guest list for the 11-day festival that opens Thursday with an unusually heavy emphasis on music and documentaries.

Pitt is on hand for the premiere of “Moneyball,” a film he has been trying to bring to the screen for years as both star and producer. Directed by Bennett Miller (“Capote”), “Moneyball” casts Pitt as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who rebuilt his team on a shoestring budget applying a fresh statistical approach to find under-appreciated players.

“Baseball had relied on a form of statistics that just hadn’t been questioned, and this discovery that had been around for 30 years but had been dismissed showed that there’s much more to it,” Pitt said. “There’s a lot of talented people out there who aren’t being used.”

Pitt’s “Ocean’s Eleven” pal Clooney stars in two Toronto films, the family drama “The Descendants” from director Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) and his own latest directing effort, the political saga “The Ides of March,” in which he plays a presidential candidate opposite Ryan Gosling as an ambitious press secretary.

Weisz has three films playing Toronto: the 1950s drama “The Deep Blue Sea”; the sexual thriller “360,” co-starring Anthony Hopkins and Jude Law; and the British spy tale “Page Eight,” the festival’s closing-night premiere that co-stars Bill Nighy and Ralph Fiennes.

Fiennes has a second film at Toronto, too. He directed and stars with Vanessa Redgrave and Gerard Butler in the Shakespeare adaptation “Coriolanus.” Redgrave also has another Shakespeare film at the festival, playing Queen Elizabeth I in “Anonymous,” which stars Rhys Ifans as an aristocrat some scholars believe is the actual author of the Bard’s work.

Other highlights among the 260 feature films playing Toronto: Williams and Seth Rogen in actress Sarah Polley’s latest directing effort, the marital tale “Take This Waltz’; Close in the cross-dressing story “Albert Nobbs,” about a 19th century Irishwoman who disguises herself as a male butler; De Niro, Jason Statham and Clive Owen in the action thriller “Killer Elite”; and Mortensen, Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender in the Sigmund Freud-Carl Jung drama “A Dangerous Method.”

Polley, who grew up in Toronto and still lives there, said that unlike industry-dominated festivals such as Cannes and Venice, Toronto draws regular film fans that give filmmakers a sense of how their work might play in the real world.

“The audiences are so enthusiastic,” Polley said. “It’s a great launching pad for a film. You get your optimum audience here. If a film’s not loved by audiences here, it’s probably not going to be loved by an audience anywhere, so it’s a great first shot.”

The 36th Toronto festival is putting music on a pedestal, as well, with documentaries about Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Pearl Jam and U2, the Irish rockers who are the subject of Thursday’s opening-night gala.

In “From the Sky Down,” director Davis Guggenheim (the Oscar-winning Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”) traces the genesis of U2′s 1991 album “Achtung Baby” and follows singer Bono and his band mates today as they prepare for a live performance of those songs.

The festival typically starts with a Canadian film, but “we were looking at a number of ideas of just opening up what’s possible in terms of opening night,” said Cameron Bailey, co-director of the Toronto fest, which also premiered Guggenheim’s 2008 film “It Might Get Loud,” featuring U2 guitarist The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White.

“The fact that it’s Davis Guggenheim is as important as the fact that it’s U2. Our audiences like his films and like his filmmaking. I like how he’s able to get under the skin of these very prominent figures, whether it’s the guitarists in `It Might Get Loud’ or Al Gore or with this one on U2.”

Also on a musical note: Jonathan Demme directs “Neil Young Journeys,” his third concert film featuring the rocker, this time in a solo show at Toronto’s Massey Hall at the end of his tour to promote the album “Le Noise.”

Cameron Crowe combines his two occupations, filmmaker and rock journalist, to direct “Pearl Jam Twenty,” a portrait of the Seattle-area music stars built on rare archival material and candid new interviews with Eddie Vedder and his band mates.

McCartney is at the heart of “The Love We Make,” Albert Maysles’ chronicle of the former Beatle’s preparations for a memorial concert after the Sept. 11 attacks. The film screens at Toronto on Friday, the night before its TV premiere on Showtime and two days before the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.

The attacks left stars, filmmakers, studio executives and fans stranded in Toronto 10 years ago. The festival briefly shut down before resuming with a subdued air.

To mark the 10-year anniversary, all festival screenings on Sept. 11 will be preceded by a four-minute film featuring directors and other industry professionals looking back on that day and its aftermath.

“From the Sky Down” marks the first time the festival has opened with a documentary, and the nonfiction department also offers one of the festival’s most potentially divisive films with “Sarah Palin — You Betcha!”

Director Nick Broomfield (“Biggie and Tupac,” “Kurt and Courtney”) spent 10 weeks during winter in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, where he interviewed her parents, friends, church members and others who have known the former governor and Republican vice presidential candidate.

“The idea was to go with a pretty open mind, not with a lot of preconceptions,” Broomfield said. “It’s almost like we made a diary of what we found rather than going out to nail her.”

The deal, announced jointly on Tuesday by Walsh and Lifetime, will return to the air Walsh’s weekly criminal roundup, which since 1988 has helped bring almost 1,200 fugitives to justice.

The series will return for its 25th season later this year.

“`America’s Most Wanted’ is a seminal program that provides a very valuable service to both viewers and law enforcement agencies,” said Lifetime president Nancy Dubuc. “For more than two decades John Walsh has been leading the fight against crime and it’s an honor to partner with him on bringing back this important show.”

“We’ve often been called the court of last resort,” Walsh said. “Now we are back in the game and ready to saddle up for another season to get justice for victims and put dangerous criminals behind bars.”

In May, Fox announced it was axing “AMW,” citing high production costs. At the time the network said it would present four quarterly specials in the coming season. The first of those specials will air in October, and Fox will follow it with the remaining three, Walsh said.

But Fox’s final weekly “AMW” was telecast in June.

“We kept the hotline and website up, and we’ve caught four guys,” Walsh said. “The viewers didn’t give up on us.”

Since then, Walsh had been in talks to find a new network. The deal with Lifetime was completed Tuesday afternoon, he said.

It was in 1981 that Walsh launched his crime-busting crusade in the aftermath of the abduction and murder of his 6-year-old son Adam. He became an outspoken advocate for tougher laws against sex offenders, more cooperation among law enforcement agencies, and citizen involvement in flushing out fugitives.

He was a former hotel executive with no TV experience, but his TV show premiered in April 1988 on the fledgling Fox network and, little more than a year later, it was the first-ever Fox program to rank first in viewership in its time slot. It remained a fixture on the network after that, and during the 2010-11 season, was seen by an audience averaging 5 million viewers.

In a happy coincidence, on Saturday, Walsh will get a special Emmy Award saluting his show. The Academy of Television Arts Sciences will give Walsh its Governors Award at the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony in Los Angeles. The honor goes to a person or organization that makes a substantial impact or demonstrates an extraordinary use of television.

___

Online:

http://www.amw.com

]]> http://queenzine.com/john-walsh-to-bring-most-wanted-to-lifetime-ap.htm/feed 0 http://queenzine.com/hotel-provides-no-frills-miss-blues-experience-ap.htm http://queenzine.com/hotel-provides-no-frills-miss-blues-experience-ap.htm#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:29:29 +0000 Admin http://queenzine.com/hotel-provides-no-frills-miss-blues-experience-ap.htm CLARKSDALE, Miss. – It’s not the Heartbreak Hotel or the Ritz, and George Washington didn’t sleep there.

But The Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale is widely regarded as a history exhibit of blues music.

And, oh yes. Muddy Waters did sleep there and Bessie Smith died there.

Waters and other blues icons roomed at the Riverside from the 1940s to early 1960s as they made their names in clubs throughout the South. For decades before that, the building was a hospital that served black people during segregation, and it was there that Smith died after an auto accident in 1937.

The former G.T. Thomas Hospital re-opened as the Riverside in 1944 and has established a loyal group of fans who love its authenticity as a “bluesman” hotel.

It’s a simple place: Rooms have single or double beds and there are bathrooms on each of the two floors, one for women and one for men. But there’s no cable TV or Internet access.

“I run a nice, clean and comfortable place,” the hotel’s owner, 71-year-old Frank “Rat” Ratliff, says matter-of-factly.

Mitch Goldstein, who manages the South African musical group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, extolls the hotel’s simple authenticity and says Ratliff definitely underrates the property’s appeal.

“It’s not just a museum, but it is a place that you can sleep in,” said Goldstein, of Cedar Grove, N.J. “Just to know that I spent a night in a room that Muddy Waters slept in is very cool.”

The two-story building consists of the original eight-room former hospital and additional rooms built on, for a total of 21 guest rooms.

“In 1943 my mother, Z.L. Ratliff Hill, bought the property and had it expanded,” Ratliff recalled. “She drew the plans of how she wanted it.”

Ratliff said his mother was a seamstress and arranged to rent the hospital, which was later renovated into the hotel by Thomas, the hospital’s namesake. She later purchased the hotel from Thomas’ widow in the summer of 1957.

The Ratliffs’ living quarters were the former hospital’s rooms and offices, but some of those were made into guest rooms, as well. All of the rooms are equipped with dressers and bed frames that have been around since the first day the doors opened as a hotel. Ratliff has also provided some creature comforts like a small refrigerator, microwave and a television.

“If I put new furniture or change the rooms, it would not appear to be the place the musicians stayed,” Ratliff said. “That’s the way the building was built. It stays like that. If I change it, I might as well close them doors because people want it that way.”

Blues fan and part-time musician Michael Waugh, of Lawrenceville, Ga., agrees. He brought his wife and two young children to spend the night there last December.

“I thought it was incredible,” Waugh said. “I am a huge fan of the blues and was looking for a blues experience.”

The Waughs spent the night in the room used by Waters, and while it took a little time to adjust to the shared bathroom idea, the family took it in stride.

“For me to play my guitar where Muddy Waters played is pretty special. It provides me a bigger connection to the music,” said Waugh, who plans to return to the hotel this year, around the Christmas holidays.

It costs between $65 and $70 per room, per night. “This is a family business and I only go up on the fees when the taxes go up,” Ratliff said.

He also said the bluesmen who stayed at the hotel had their favorite rooms. And while he has no plans to label the rooms, he tells each guest the history of each room and the history of the musicians who stayed there.

Ratliff said he gives each new guest a tour of the hotel and allows them to pick a room at check-in. “When they return, they just go to their rooms, and if they leave something there, it is still there when they return,” he said.

Among the who’s who of blues musicians who have spent time at the Riverside are Ike Turner, Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson II and, of course, Muddy Waters, who lived on the property for several years. The Blind Boys of Alabama also stayed there when passing through the state.

“My mother rented by the week and by the night,” Ratliff said. “She helped them out when they had no money. She fed them or gave them a place to stay when they was broke. And when they needed someone to co-sign on a loan, my mother did that. They always paid her back.”

But even with all that musical talent at the hotel, none of it rubbed off on either him or his mother.

“My mother loved music and tried to play piano. She bought a piano but just pecked on it. She even got me music lessons when I was a kid, but I was not musically inclined,” Ratliff said, laughing.

Ratliff, who worked for 23 years for Wonder Bread bakery, fully took over managing the hotel in 1997 when his mother died. He’s currently grooming his daughter, Zelina L. Ratliff, 40, to continue the tradition.

Clarksdale Mayor Henry Espy is glad to hear that.

Although the building is rough in appearance, and surrounded by shuttered shotgun houses, it is one of the cornerstones to the town’s resurgence, he said.

“When festival times come around, you cannot get into the place,” Espy said. “Tourism is now the driving engine for not only Clarksdale but the Delta.”

And along that line, the city hopes to redevelop property surrounding the hotel to include a park, walking trails, and even a catfish pond. The city is also seeking a grant to help rebuild the housing adjacent to the hotel.

“But we dare not mess with history. We want to keep it authentic,” Espy said. “It is what it is, is how we describe the hotel. So many historic things are gone, and the place has not had a makeover. That would undermine the place, its authenticity.

“People come from all over the world to feel how things were then, to see the river, to see the cotton in the fields and feel the 112 degree heat. They want authenticity,” Espy said. “It is what it is.”

___

If You Go…

RIVERSIDE HOTEL: 615 Sunflower Ave., Clarksdale, Miss.; 662-624-9163. Rates: $65-$70 room, shared bathrooms.

Stunned, I pulled the car off the road and thought about what a good person Berry was and what a good friend she had been to many.

She had suffered bravely through her husband, Tony Perkins, whom she had loved dearly, and had given birth to his two strapping sons, Osgood and Elvis.

After they had grown up, she had moved to Jamaica to begin a new life. She had met a new man who made her feel good about herself and for this I am grateful.

To me, Berry was pure sunshine. Her smile lit up a room. She could comfort like no other. She loved many even those who to me seemed unlovable. She was my friend. And I miss her. Despite her lineage, she was down to Earth.

To the world, Berry Berenson was the daughter of Countess Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor, or better known as Gogo Schiaparielli, the granddaughter of Elsa Schiarparelli and the great grand-niece of the famed art historian Bernard Berenson.

In the late ’60s, Berry and I were introduced in Wyn Handman’s acting class.

He was the director of the American Place Theater. Wyn assigned me to do Blanche in “Streetcar” and Berry was to play Stella.

Berry was pregnant, and when we changed into our costumes in the prop room, I asked if I could touch her belly.

“Of course,” she said smiling, then she laughed, and I knew I had not offended her.

Offending Berry Berenson was close to impossible. I had never touched a pregnant woman’s tummy before, and she afforded me this opportunity. I had never had the good fortune to be pregnant and did not believe in doing this to force a man to marry me.

Berry and I rehearsed our roles in Tony and Berry’s townhouse in Chelsea where Tony, who was always kind, offered us his directorial guidance.

Heather Mac Rae, who was starring in “Hair” on Broadway, was in our class as were: Richard Gere, Brad Davis (who triumphed in “Midnight Express”), Phillip Anglim (who played the “Elephant Man” on Broadway,) Penny Milford (who later was nominated for an Oscar for “Coming Home”), Marisa Berenson (who was Berry’s sister and who later starred in “Barry Lyndon”) and the list goes on.

In 1975, when I was jilted by Claude Picasso and flew back to our apartment in New York with our tiny poodle, Tutu, it was Berry who was one of my friends who comforted me.

She invited me to dinner at their townhouse where we used to play card and board games. Tony liked to play games and we all laughed, which was what I (and we all) needed.

When I wanted acting photos, Berry, who was a talented photographer who shot for Vogue, took beautiful photos of me on the roof on top of their townhouse. During the shoot Tuesday Weld, with whom Tony filmed “Pretty Poison,” stopped by with her baby. Tony and Berry were generous with introductions to their friends and one night invited me to dinner along with Woody Allen.

When I moved to L.A. after testing for a movie, I saw a great deal of Berry as we exercised in the same gym. When “Flash,” my novel about Hollywood and the sexual exploitation of actresses was published, Berry took me to lunch. “I love your writing about sex. It makes me laugh. You are so accepting. Can you recommend any books for my sons to read about sex and open-mindedness.”

She knew I was now in love with Norman Mailer and then asked, “What book of his would you recommend by him that celebrate sex?”

“Ancient Evenings,” I replied. I was flattered when she asked my opinion about good literature and equally flattered when Berry and Tony gave me a dinner party when “Flash” was published. He even invited his celebrated agent, Sue Mengers, who was a fun and charming to meet in an intimate setting.

When Berry accepted Tony had AIDS, she threw a party in Manhattan for his closest friends. We all signed a book for Tony and photos en masse were taken. Smiles were on everyone’s faces. Berry and Tony did not invite frowns. My photo from this party proves this.

One day Berry confided, “With all the friends we have, it makes Tony sad that few will help him get work. “Psycho” has been a blessing and a stigma at the same time.”

It was then that I realized superstars can’t audition and are trapped in trying to secure film parts by working the social scene. Hollywood parties become auditions.

When Tony died, I was living in Manhattan, caring for my mother who had had two strokes, and I was unable to attend his funeral.

When Berry died, I was living in Jeffersonville, Pa., and chose not to go to Berry’s funeral. Fears of the dangers of being in Manhattan after 9/11 haunted me, but also I was never fond of some of her friends. I did not have the love inside me that Berry did to accept the pretense of many of them.

Pretense that can come from a European background. Pretense that reminded me of the Picasso family from whom I had fled filled with shame for having felt that I was not good enough.

Well, it was Berry Berenson who made me feel good enough. Good enough to be her friend. Good enough to touch her pregnant belly. Good enough to accompany her to gym classes. Good enough to be a guest at her home for dinner and good enough to be invited to her beloved husband’s funeral.

Let this remembrance be my tribute to the, caring loving soul of Berry Berenson Perkins.

Stunned, I pulled the car off the road and thought about what a good person Berry was and what a good friend she had been to many.

She had suffered bravely through her husband, Tony Perkins, whom she had loved dearly, and had given birth to his two strapping sons, Osgood and Elvis.

After they had grown up, she had moved to Jamaica to begin a new life. She had met a new man who made her feel good about herself and for this I am grateful.

To me, Berry was pure sunshine. Her smile lit up a room. She could comfort like no other. She loved many even those who to me seemed unlovable. She was my friend. And I miss her. Despite her lineage, she was down to Earth.

To the world, Berry Berenson was the daughter of Countess Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor, or better known as Gogo Schiaparielli, the granddaughter of Elsa Schiarparelli and the great grand-niece of the famed art historian Bernard Berenson.

In the late ’60s, Berry and I were introduced in Wyn Handman’s acting class.

He was the director of the American Place Theater. Wyn assigned me to do Blanche in “Streetcar” and Berry was to play Stella.

Berry was pregnant, and when we changed into our costumes in the prop room, I asked if I could touch her belly.

“Of course,” she said smiling, then she laughed, and I knew I had not offended her.

Offending Berry Berenson was close to impossible. I had never touched a pregnant woman’s tummy before, and she afforded me this opportunity. I had never had the good fortune to be pregnant and did not believe in doing this to force a man to marry me.

Berry and I rehearsed our roles in Tony and Berry’s townhouse in Chelsea where Tony, who was always kind, offered us his directorial guidance.

Heather Mac Rae, who was starring in “Hair” on Broadway, was in our class as were: Richard Gere, Brad Davis (who triumphed in “Midnight Express”), Phillip Anglim (who played the “Elephant Man” on Broadway,) Penny Milford (who later was nominated for an Oscar for “Coming Home”), Marisa Berenson (who was Berry’s sister and who later starred in “Barry Lyndon”) and the list goes on.

In 1975, when I was jilted by Claude Picasso and flew back to our apartment in New York with our tiny poodle, Tutu, it was Berry who was one of my friends who comforted me.

She invited me to dinner at their townhouse where we used to play card and board games. Tony liked to play games and we all laughed, which was what I (and we all) needed.

When I wanted acting photos, Berry, who was a talented photographer who shot for Vogue, took beautiful photos of me on the roof on top of their townhouse. During the shoot Tuesday Weld, with whom Tony filmed “Pretty Poison,” stopped by with her baby. Tony and Berry were generous with introductions to their friends and one night invited me to dinner along with Woody Allen.

When I moved to L.A. after testing for a movie, I saw a great deal of Berry as we exercised in the same gym. When “Flash,” my novel about Hollywood and the sexual exploitation of actresses was published, Berry took me to lunch. “I love your writing about sex. It makes me laugh. You are so accepting. Can you recommend any books for my sons to read about sex and open-mindedness.”

She knew I was now in love with Norman Mailer and then asked, “What book of his would you recommend by him that celebrate sex?”

“Ancient Evenings,” I replied. I was flattered when she asked my opinion about good literature and equally flattered when Berry and Tony gave me a dinner party when “Flash” was published. He even invited his celebrated agent, Sue Mengers, who was a fun and charming to meet in an intimate setting.

When Berry accepted Tony had AIDS, she threw a party in Manhattan for his closest friends. We all signed a book for Tony and photos en masse were taken. Smiles were on everyone’s faces. Berry and Tony did not invite frowns. My photo from this party proves this.

One day Berry confided, “With all the friends we have, it makes Tony sad that few will help him get work. “Psycho” has been a blessing and a stigma at the same time.”

It was then that I realized superstars can’t audition and are trapped in trying to secure film parts by working the social scene. Hollywood parties become auditions.

When Tony died, I was living in Manhattan, caring for my mother who had had two strokes, and I was unable to attend his funeral.

When Berry died, I was living in Jeffersonville, Pa., and chose not to go to Berry’s funeral. Fears of the dangers of being in Manhattan after 9/11 haunted me, but also I was never fond of some of her friends. I did not have the love inside me that Berry did to accept the pretense of many of them.

Pretense that can come from a European background. Pretense that reminded me of the Picasso family from whom I had fled filled with shame for having felt that I was not good enough.

Well, it was Berry Berenson who made me feel good enough. Good enough to be her friend. Good enough to touch her pregnant belly. Good enough to accompany her to gym classes. Good enough to be a guest at her home for dinner and good enough to be invited to her beloved husband’s funeral.

Let this remembrance be my tribute to the, caring loving soul of Berry Berenson Perkins.

Catania’s Garibaldi Hospital, announcing the death, said Licitra never regained consciousness after suffering severe head and chest injuries in the Aug. 27 accident. Doctors had said Licitra crashed his scooter into a wall near the town of Ragusa, apparently after suffering an interruption of blood to the brain while driving.

The hospital said Licitra’s family agreed to make his organs available for transplant.

“So very sad to say goodbye to Salvatore Licitra. I will miss you,” soprano Deborah Voigt, a frequent onstage partner, wrote on her Facebook page.

In separate comments emailed to The Associated Press, Voigt wrote: “This is just heartbreaking. Salvatore was a great singer, but he was also just a really lovely guy. Always ready for a laugh, always light in spirit.”

The singer recalled that Licitra was her “first Dick Johnson,” referring to the tenor role in Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” at the San Francisco Opera in 2010. Voigt sang the role of Minnie in the opera, and she reminisced how Licitra had “held my hand every moment as I stumbled along slaughtering his language!”

“His passing in the fullness of his career hurts,” the La Scala opera house wrote in its own announcement of the tenor’s death.

La Scala noted that Licitra debuted in the famed Milan venue in the 1998-1999 season, with maestro Riccardo Muti conducting him in Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino.”

But it was on the stage of Metropolitan Opera in New York, that Licitra, the Swiss-born son of Sicilian parents, grabbed the world’s attention. He subbed for mega-tenor Luciano Pavarotti in a gala performance in 2002 of Puccini’s “Tosca,” wowing the audience and winning long ovations for his two big arias. The audience’s response brought tears to his eyes.

Italian state TV, giving the news of his death, said Licitra was considered “Pavarotti’s heir.”

Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera’s general manager, hailed Licitra as “one of the greatest natural tenor talents of his generation. His premature death is tragic for his family, friends and loved ones, and his legions of admirers around the world, which include his many fans at the Met.”

La Scala praised Licitra as a “dramatic tenor, with strength.”

“Licitra represented the school and tradition of Italian song, in his natural relationships to words,” the Milan opera house said. “A decade of his personal history was interwoven with our theater.”

The tenor made his debut in Parma, Italy, in 1998.

He had traveled to the Ragusa area in late summer ahead of a September ceremony to receive a local music prize. Licitra’s web site, which carried the news of his death, still listed upcoming engagements, including an appearance later this month in Tokyo.

During his career, Licitra also performed at the Vienna State Opera, Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper, London’s Royal Opera, Paris’ Opera Bastille, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago and several other prestigious venues.

__

Blum contributed from New York.

For Rice and director Curt Morgan, one-upping traditional snow sports movies with their latest film, “The Art of Flight,” meant using the latest cutting-edge equipment, including a high-definition camera that shoots 1,050 frames a second.

It also meant taking bigger risks — such as going to mountains no one’s ever touched and doing tricks no one’s ever tried. At least three snowboarders were hospitalized while filming “The Art of Flight.”

And it meant telling good stories — like when snowboarders had to dive into icy waters high in the Andes of South America to reach their helicopter before it ran out of fuel to fly them out. `”Really scary, we almost died’ — that sort of thing,” Morgan said.

“The Art of Flight” premieres Wednesday at New York’s Beacon Theatre, then screens in selected cities, including Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Montreal and Boston, before concluding the tour Nov. 3 at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts.

The film stars Rice, 28, who is among the sport’s top riders. Morgan, 29, once rode professionally with Rice but gave it up after breaking his back three times.

Morgan eventually founded Jackson, Wyo.-based Brain Farm Digital Cinema, which made “The Art of Flight” and also produced Rice’s “That’s It, That’s All.” That 2008 film broadened the snowboarding film experience by melding big-air tricks with nature and wildlife photography from the far-off places Rice and friends traveled.

“What’s really cool about Brain Farm is their films hit more of the mainstream,” said Waide Hoyt of Standard Films, an industry pioneer. “They bring people who may not watch snowboard movies or purchase them to check them out.”

“That’s the whole challenge here,” Morgan said. “You have a core audience that’s really small. We’re trying to find a way for our stories to transcend to the mainstream. We’re trying to push the boundaries and still hold on to the core.”

Morgan won’t discuss it, but the production budget for “The Art of Flight,” heavily supported by Red Bull and other sponsors, is said to be around $2 million — huge for snowboarding flicks typically shown at festivals or limited screenings.

A big chunk of that budget went for helicopters, sometimes two at a time, with one dropping riders off on narrow ridges and another shooting the action with a high-definition Cineflex camera system.

“People are trying to do something gnarlier to outdo the next person. In turn, you create more challenges and sketchy situations. We’ve set ourselves up for some painful days,” Morgan said.

The new movie includes some of the backstory of those situations, like braving high winds and the prospect of no rescue in the forbidding Darwin Range of southernmost Chile, where a helicopter pilot once told Morgan the devil lives.

“If you get stuck out there, you’re pretty much done for,” Morgan said.

Part of what made it tricky was the helicopter only carried about 120 minutes’ worth of fuel, and it took about 80 minutes round-trip to get to where Morgan wanted to shoot the riders taking on a narrow chute. The movie trailer shows snowboarders tossing their boards across an icy gap and plunging into chilly water so they could get back to their helicopter before it ran out of fuel.

Besides Chile, the movie features backcountry footage from Alaska, British Columbia and Wyoming. The team also spent part of last May shooting at Colorado’s Snowmass ski area after it closed for the season.

All told, Morgan’s crew shot more than 2,600 hours of footage for the movie and eight, one-hour episodes of a planned television show on how Morgan and Rice make their movies. Brain Farm is negotiating with networks.

Any snowboard movie faces the risk of avalanches and bad weather. And it can take weeks to get the right mix of fresh snow, sunlight and calm winds that won’t ground helicopters or toss riders who are launching 50 to 60 feet into the air.

“Any day you get a shot is a good day,” Rice said. “You chip away at an hour-long project five seconds at a time.”

Then there are the injuries.

In January, Scotty Lago, the 2010 Winter Olympics halfpipe bronze medalist, broke his jaw after slamming it against his knee on a landing in the Wyoming backcountry. And Mark Landvik required knee surgery after a bad landing off a backside 360. At Snowmass in May, Canadian Sebastien Toutant broke his ankle while warming up.

But it wasn’t all pain and suffering at the Snowmass shoot. Canadian up-and-comer Mark McMorris successfully landed a rare triple cork, essentially a twisted triple flip. The next day, Landvik, still out of action while recovering from the knee surgery, marched around in a fake mullet and cutoff jeans to lighten the mood. Others launched into slow-motion snow fights and impromptu rapping with a Shake Weight.

Meanwhile, Morgan’s crew manned five video cameras, including a Phantom, which shoots so many frames per second that it can turn four seconds of real-time action into four minutes of slow-motion on a movie screen.

At one point, Lago and others joined Rice riding on custom-built terrain features created by Aspen Skiing Co. staff based on crude sketches by Morgan’s team. The custom features included a tight cluster of shapely, 20-foot-high mounds the riders nicknamed “Gumdrop Land” or “Volcano Land” — at least those were the G-rated nicknames.

Where did the idea for that come from?

“Beer,” Morgan said, adding that Rice originally wanted to jump over ice sculptures, a snow Brontosaurus, and a full-on snow girl.

“It’s very much a fantasy snowboarding movie,” Rice said.

But it’s not ski porn.

“There’s story,” Morgan said. “Porn is just action set to music.”

___

Online:

http://www.artofflightmovie.com/

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Catherine Tsai can be reached at http://twitter.com/ctsai_denver

According to studio estimates Monday, the acclaimed drama about Southern black maids took in $19 million over the long holiday weekend.

That raised the film’s domestic total to $123.4 million.

“The Help” has been a triumph amid a rush of late-summer duds that ended Hollywood’s busiest season. Another batch of new movies this weekend packed in modest-to-small crowds.

Best among the newcomers was Helen Mirren’s Holocaust-revenge thriller “The Debt” at No. 2 with $12.6 million from Friday to Monday.

The sci-fi horror tale “Apollo 18″ opened at No. 3 with $10.7 million. Another fright flick, “Shark Night 3D,” debuted at No. 4 with $10.3 million.

]]> http://queenzine.com/the-help-puts-in-overtime-at-no-1-with-19m-ap.htm/feed 0 http://queenzine.com/mda-telethon-hosts-lewis-retired-from-fundraiser-ap.htm http://queenzine.com/mda-telethon-hosts-lewis-retired-from-fundraiser-ap.htm#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:25:48 +0000 Admin http://queenzine.com/mda-telethon-hosts-lewis-retired-from-fundraiser-ap.htm LAS VEGAS – The hosts of this year’s Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon said Sunday that Jerry Lewis retired from the organization and its yearly fundraiser as they solicited donations and trotted out as much celebrity punch as organizers could muster in the annual program’s first year without the beloved icon.

The comments about Lewis, whose name was synonymous with the telethon since it started in 1966, were the charity’s first since announcing his split from the organization last month.

Lewis publicist Candi Cazau declined comment to The Associated Press when told of the statements that opened the telethon on Sunday.

Inextricably bonded to Lewis, the MDA invoked his name early and often as it sought to raise at least $1 more than the $58.9 million raised last year for neuromuscular research, clinics and summer camp for youngsters known as “Jerry’s Kids.”

Co-host Nigel Lythgoe said during his opening comments that Lewis, 85, seemed to be passing the torch last year when the comedian offered Lythgoe his seat as Lewis took a break and Lythgoe was coming on the air.

“He made such a big point about it. `I’ve never done this before,’ he said,” said Lythgoe, the executive producer of “American Idol.” “I didn’t realize then that he was contemplating retiring.

“And Jerry, and I know you’re watching, when you gave me that chair I know it’s possible to sit on it, but it’s isn’t possible, Jerry, to replace you, sir,” he said. “What you have done for this organization and its families is something close to a miracle and I know that we all want to carry on your legacy.”

Entertainment journalist Jann Carl followed Lythgoe by saying Lewis retired from the telethon this year.

“As Nigel just said, Jerry retired from the telethon this year, but of course, he’s here with us in spirit and in heart, and we will continue to be energized and inspired by what I like to call his towering example,” Carl said. “I mean that.”

MDA spokesman Jim Brown declined comment beyond the hosts’ remarks, but said the six-hour telethon would include more nods to Lewis.

Later, during the show’s first hour, superstar singer Celine Dion mentioned Lewis again during a taped segment, referring to him as a friend as she introduced a cover performance of Journey’s “Open Arms.”

“Jerry, you will always be a hero to the MDA families,” Dion said.

Other celebrities briefly mentioned Lewis throughout the show during cameos sprinkled between a variety of performances, interviews with people touched by muscular diseases and suit-clad corporate representatives touting company philanthropy and partnerships with the MDA. It was a stark contrast from previous years, when the show was as much about Lewis at center stage as the donations themselves.

The Lewis-less telethon began airing live on the east coast Sunday night with an opening number featuring young dancers performing to David Guetta’s “Titanium,” with an introduction from Abbey Umali, the organization’s tween goodwill ambassador.

As the program began, many viewers openly wondered about the split and how the show would be affected.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be the same,” said Denise Miller, 49, of Bloomingdale, N.J., a longtime donor who said she has watched the telethon since she was a teenager.

The MDA announced in August that the showbiz veteran would not take part in the annual telethon and was no longer the organization’s chairman — an unceremonious end to a six-decade association that forged one of the world’s most famous annual TV moments.

Lewis, who’s appeared in scores of films and TV shows as well as produced, directed and taught film, had been chairman of the MDA since the early 1950s, before the famed telethon began. In 1977, Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the telethon and the MDA.

Miller said she planned to still tune in and donate because she wants to support the children — a value she says she learned from Lewis.

“He provided the reason for me to believe that my money is going to a good cause,” she said. “I’m not going to turn my back on the cause of what he’s built because it is, to me, valuable… But I want to see him.”

The telethon staged at the South Point Hotel, Casino Spa in Las Vegas was shortened to six hours from 21 1/2 hours last year. It was broadcast live to the Eastern time zone from 6 p.m.-12 a.m. EDT and tape-delayed in other U.S. zones.

Because of the rolling start times, it was not immediately clear how much the telethon was raising during the show. During the show’s third hour, a marquee near comedian Carrot Top displayed a total of nearly $46 million. But final donation totals won’t be tallied until the show goes off the air in Hawaii.

Rumors flew among those close to the telethon in recent weeks that Lewis might perform the show’s final number, singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” one final time. But Lewis publicist Candi Cazau said he never agreed to any appearance — recorded or live — after the MDA announced he wouldn’t take part in the show or be its chairman.

In May, when the MDA first announced Lewis was retiring as host, the organization said he would stay on as chairman and still appear on the show. It released a statement from Lewis in which the comedian said he would sing the song that has become an annual tradition.

But the statement said Lewis wouldn’t step down as chairman.

“I’ll never desert MDA and my kids,” he said.

Instead of Lewis’ signature song, the finale was to include Jordin Sparks, Richie Sambora and Jon Secada, among others, singing along with 70 children from a Las Vegas choir.

Lewis raised $1.66 billion for the telethon since it started in 1966 from a single station in New York City. It was airing this year on more than 150 stations across the nation.

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Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia.

The damaged statue was a 19th-century copy. A Rome culture official, Umberto Broccoli, said the pieces were recovered and can be reattached to the Moor Fountain.

Security camera footage on Italian TV stations and websites Sunday shows a man climbing in the fountain and repeatedly attacking the statue — one of four large faces at the edge of the fountain — with a large rock. The man struck Saturday morning, when the favorite tourist spot was still relatively quiet, and left before police arrived at the scene. The whole attack lasted less than a minute, according to Italian news reports.

The copy of the original Moor Fountain by 16th-century artist Giacomo della Porta is on the square’s south end. Bernini added the central figure in the 1600s.

Investigators also were looking Sunday into whether the same vandal was behind another attack just a few hours later to another symbol of Rome: the Trevi Fountain. A security camera caught a man hurling a rock at the Baroque masterpiece — though missing its target.

Italian officials have tried to fight vandalism in Rome, installing cameras and sending more police to patrol monuments. But the sheer amount of the Italian capital’s artistic treasures makes the task difficult.

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