LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Palestinian filmmaker on his way to the Academy Awards said on Wednesday he was held at Los Angeles International Airport and threatened with deportation before being allowed into the United States.
Emad Burnat, whose '5 Broken Cameras' is competing for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category, said U.S. immigration officials took him, his wife and 8-year-old son aside when they arrived in Los Angeles from Turkey on Tuesday evening.
'Immigration officials asked for proof that I was nominated for an Academy Award ... and they told me that if I couldn't prove the reason for my visit, my wife Soraya, my son Gibreel and I would be sent back to Turkey on the same day,' Burnat said in a statement.
Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said in a series of Twitter messages that he stepped in to help resolve the situation.
'Although he (Burnat) produced the Oscar invite nominees receive, that wasn't good enough & he was threatened with being sent back to Palestine. ... Apparently the Immigration & Customs officers couldn't understand how a Palestinian could be an Oscar nominee. Emad texted me for help ... I called Academy officials who called lawyers. I told Emad to give the officers my phone # and to say my name a couple of times,' Moore tweeted on Tuesday evening.
Burnat said he and his family were detained for about an hour.
U.S. officials declined to comment on the incident, citing privacy laws.
'Travelers may be referred for further inspection for a variety of reasons to include identity verification, intent of travel, and confirmation of admissibility,' U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. 'The United States has been, and continues to be, a welcoming nation.'
Burnat, a farmer, is the amateur filmmaker behind '5 Broken Cameras,' which documents about five years of protests against land seizures by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in his village of Bil'in in the occupied West Bank. It was co-directed by Israeli activist and filmmaker Guy Davidi.
It is the first Palestinian film to be nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars, according to representatives for the film.
'5 Broken Cameras' is one of five films nominated for an Oscar in the documentary category. One of its competitors is Israeli film 'The Gatekeepers,' which looks at the decades-old Middle East conflict through the eyes of six top former Israeli intelligence bosses.
The Oscars, the highest awards in the movie industry, will be presented on Sunday in Hollywood.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Stacey Joyce)
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Crime lab report confirms Mindy McCready's death a suicide
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - An Arkansas Crime Lab preliminary autopsy confirmed country music singer Mindy McCready's death was a suicide from a single gunshot wound to the head, the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said on Wednesday.
McCready, 37, whose career was overshadowed by substance abuse and suicide attempts, was found dead on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon beside her boyfriend's dead dog. Officials have said she shot the dog.
'It is with the deepest sadness we say goodbye to an extraordinary and gifted talent, a daughter, a mother and friend, Miss Mindy McCready,' McCready's family said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The statement requested a time of 'quiet' for her family and friends and said McCready's 'friends in music' were planning to host a memorial in Nashville soon.
The singer's 1996 debut album, 'Ten Thousand Angels,' sold 2 million copies. Four other studio albums followed. Her fifth album, 'I'm Still Here,' was released to acclaim in 2010.
McCready, though, had a complicated personal life with a history of substance abuse, suicide attempts, family disputes and tragedy. She was in a legal dispute over custody of her oldest son, Zander, with the boy's father at the time of her death.
In November 2011, she left Florida with Zander and fled to Arkansas. McCready's mother, who had custody of the child, filed a missing person report against her daughter and regained custody.
Last month, record producer David Wilson, the father of McCready's son Zayne, who was born last year, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Heber Springs. An investigation was ongoing into his death.
(Editing by David Bailey and Leslie Adler)
McCready, 37, whose career was overshadowed by substance abuse and suicide attempts, was found dead on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon beside her boyfriend's dead dog. Officials have said she shot the dog.
'It is with the deepest sadness we say goodbye to an extraordinary and gifted talent, a daughter, a mother and friend, Miss Mindy McCready,' McCready's family said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The statement requested a time of 'quiet' for her family and friends and said McCready's 'friends in music' were planning to host a memorial in Nashville soon.
The singer's 1996 debut album, 'Ten Thousand Angels,' sold 2 million copies. Four other studio albums followed. Her fifth album, 'I'm Still Here,' was released to acclaim in 2010.
McCready, though, had a complicated personal life with a history of substance abuse, suicide attempts, family disputes and tragedy. She was in a legal dispute over custody of her oldest son, Zander, with the boy's father at the time of her death.
In November 2011, she left Florida with Zander and fled to Arkansas. McCready's mother, who had custody of the child, filed a missing person report against her daughter and regained custody.
Last month, record producer David Wilson, the father of McCready's son Zayne, who was born last year, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Heber Springs. An investigation was ongoing into his death.
(Editing by David Bailey and Leslie Adler)
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Oscar "losers" to go home with $45,000 gift bags
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar nominees who don't end up with a coveted gold statuette at the Academy Awards on Sunday won't go home empty handed after all.
Los Angeles-based marketing firm Distinctive Assets will be handing out its annual 'Everyone Wins at the Oscars Nominee Gift Bag', valued at more than $45,000, to the talented and well-dressed 'losers,' the company said on Tuesday.
Among the items in the gift bags, known as swag bags, are trips to Australia, Hawaii and Mexico, personal training sessions, condoms, a bottle of tequila, hand-illustrated tennis shoes, appointments for injectable fillers and 'portion-controlled' dinnerware for those watching their figure, Distinctive Assets said in a statement.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars, stopped its practice of giving gift baskets to presenters and performers in 2007 after the practice came under closer scrutiny from U.S. tax authorities.
Celebrities who receive gifts and free trips at awards shows are expected to declare them to the Inland Revenue Service as income and pay the appropriate taxes.
The Distinctive Assets gift bag is not endorsed by the Academy but has been creating consolation goodie bags for 11 years now. The bags are delivered to the losing nominees to their homes directly or through their agents or publicists.
This year's 'Not Everyone Wins....' swag bag also includes an under-the-counter water filtration system, acupuncture and aromatherapy sessions, a one-week stay at a fitness and weight-loss retreat, and a one-year membership to London's Heathrow Airport's private VIP service.
Nominees' children also benefit: they get to enroll in professional all-kid circus classes.
The Academy Awards, the highest honors in the movie business, will be handed out a ceremony on Sunday in Hollywood.
(Reporting by Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)
Los Angeles-based marketing firm Distinctive Assets will be handing out its annual 'Everyone Wins at the Oscars Nominee Gift Bag', valued at more than $45,000, to the talented and well-dressed 'losers,' the company said on Tuesday.
Among the items in the gift bags, known as swag bags, are trips to Australia, Hawaii and Mexico, personal training sessions, condoms, a bottle of tequila, hand-illustrated tennis shoes, appointments for injectable fillers and 'portion-controlled' dinnerware for those watching their figure, Distinctive Assets said in a statement.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars, stopped its practice of giving gift baskets to presenters and performers in 2007 after the practice came under closer scrutiny from U.S. tax authorities.
Celebrities who receive gifts and free trips at awards shows are expected to declare them to the Inland Revenue Service as income and pay the appropriate taxes.
The Distinctive Assets gift bag is not endorsed by the Academy but has been creating consolation goodie bags for 11 years now. The bags are delivered to the losing nominees to their homes directly or through their agents or publicists.
This year's 'Not Everyone Wins....' swag bag also includes an under-the-counter water filtration system, acupuncture and aromatherapy sessions, a one-week stay at a fitness and weight-loss retreat, and a one-year membership to London's Heathrow Airport's private VIP service.
Nominees' children also benefit: they get to enroll in professional all-kid circus classes.
The Academy Awards, the highest honors in the movie business, will be handed out a ceremony on Sunday in Hollywood.
(Reporting by Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)
Michael Jackson's teenage son lands U.S. television gig
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The teenage son of late pop star Michael Jackson has signed up to be a correspondent for the 'Entertainment Tonight' television show, following in the footsteps of his show business family.
Prince Jackson, 16, was to debut on 'Entertainment Tonight' on Tuesday, interviewing actors James Franco, Zach Braff and director Sam Raimi as they promote their upcoming film 'Oz the Great and Powerful,' the program said.
Prince, who was born Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., is the oldest of Michael Jackson's three children.
Jackson told the syndicated tabloid news show that he wants to eventually get into the film business.
'I'm looking to become well-rounded as a producer, director, screenwriter and actor,' he said.
Jackson's sister Paris, 14, signed up in 2011 to star in a movie called 'Lundon's Bridge and the Three Keys,' based on a young adult fantasy novel. The film is still in development.
Michael Jackson died unexpectedly at his home in Los Angeles in June 2009 at age 50 from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol and sedatives.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Bill Trott)
Prince Jackson, 16, was to debut on 'Entertainment Tonight' on Tuesday, interviewing actors James Franco, Zach Braff and director Sam Raimi as they promote their upcoming film 'Oz the Great and Powerful,' the program said.
Prince, who was born Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., is the oldest of Michael Jackson's three children.
Jackson told the syndicated tabloid news show that he wants to eventually get into the film business.
'I'm looking to become well-rounded as a producer, director, screenwriter and actor,' he said.
Jackson's sister Paris, 14, signed up in 2011 to star in a movie called 'Lundon's Bridge and the Three Keys,' based on a young adult fantasy novel. The film is still in development.
Michael Jackson died unexpectedly at his home in Los Angeles in June 2009 at age 50 from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol and sedatives.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Bill Trott)
Monday, February 18, 2013
At 80, Yoko Ono sees a world full of new activism
BERLIN (Reuters) - Half a life-time ago, artist Yoko Ono lay in an Amsterdam hotel bed with husband John Lennon, staging a week-long 'bed-in' for peace and feeling they were very alone in their activism.
Today, Ono, whose own energy for campaigning has never tired, sees a world full of activists, maintaining her energy and faith in humanity.
'When John and I did the bed-in, not many people were with us. But now there are so many activists, I don't know anyone who is not an activist,' she told Reuters in an interview in Berlin on Monday, her 80th birthday.
'Even the corporations - John always used to say the corporations need to be with us... Corporations now say 10-20 percent of their profits will go to such and such charity. They have to do that almost for people to feel good about it.'
The late Beatle and Ono's 1969 bed-in to protest against the Vietnam war was repeated in Montreal, Canada. Press attention was huge, but much of it was mocking.
Ono, who gave a sell-out concert in Berlin on Sunday alongside their son Sean Lennon which closed with the anthem 'Give peace a chance', said it was still critical to stand up for peace despite new conflicts in the intervening decades.
'I don't want to be drowning in sadness. I think we have to stand and up and change the world,' she said.
The artist, born to a wealthy Japanese family in Tokyo in 1933, has recently become a passionate opponent of fracking, a controversial procedure which has sharply lifted energy output in the United States but which critics fear pollutes drinking water deep underground and could increase earthquake risks.
'Fracking is an incredible risk to the human race, I don't know why they even thought of doing it,' she said.
Ono, whose birthday is being marked by a major retrospective of her work in Frankfurt, said she feels she is becoming freer in her art.
'My attitude has changed... I'm allowing things to happen in a way I hadn't planned before,' she said.
Asked about her feelings on becoming an octogenarian, she said: 'I'm surprised. It is a miracle in a sense that I am 80, I am proud about it. Not everybody gets there.'
(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson, editing by Gareth Jones and Paul Casciato)
Today, Ono, whose own energy for campaigning has never tired, sees a world full of activists, maintaining her energy and faith in humanity.
'When John and I did the bed-in, not many people were with us. But now there are so many activists, I don't know anyone who is not an activist,' she told Reuters in an interview in Berlin on Monday, her 80th birthday.
'Even the corporations - John always used to say the corporations need to be with us... Corporations now say 10-20 percent of their profits will go to such and such charity. They have to do that almost for people to feel good about it.'
The late Beatle and Ono's 1969 bed-in to protest against the Vietnam war was repeated in Montreal, Canada. Press attention was huge, but much of it was mocking.
Ono, who gave a sell-out concert in Berlin on Sunday alongside their son Sean Lennon which closed with the anthem 'Give peace a chance', said it was still critical to stand up for peace despite new conflicts in the intervening decades.
'I don't want to be drowning in sadness. I think we have to stand and up and change the world,' she said.
The artist, born to a wealthy Japanese family in Tokyo in 1933, has recently become a passionate opponent of fracking, a controversial procedure which has sharply lifted energy output in the United States but which critics fear pollutes drinking water deep underground and could increase earthquake risks.
'Fracking is an incredible risk to the human race, I don't know why they even thought of doing it,' she said.
Ono, whose birthday is being marked by a major retrospective of her work in Frankfurt, said she feels she is becoming freer in her art.
'My attitude has changed... I'm allowing things to happen in a way I hadn't planned before,' she said.
Asked about her feelings on becoming an octogenarian, she said: 'I'm surprised. It is a miracle in a sense that I am 80, I am proud about it. Not everybody gets there.'
(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson, editing by Gareth Jones and Paul Casciato)
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Lady Gaga needs hip surgery, cancels remainder of tour
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lady Gaga canceled the remainder of her 'Born This Way Ball' concert tour to undergo hip surgery, promoters Live Nation said on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old singer announced she was suffering from an inflammation of the joints on Tuesday, but the tour operator said Gaga's injuries were more serious than she realized.
'After additional tests this morning to review the severity of the issue, it has been determined that Lady Gaga has a labral tear of the right hip,' Live Nation said in a statement.
'She will need surgery to repair the problem, followed by strict downtime to recover. This, unfortunately, will force her to cancel the tour so she can heal,' it added.
Gaga has been on the road for two years, traveling across six continents.
On Tuesday, she postponed four U.S. shows saying she was suffering from synovitis that left her temporarily unable to walk. Synovitis is an inflammation of the joints that sometimes follows a sprain, strain or injury.
According to her website, the singer was due to play another 20 dates in the United States.
Live Nation said ticket holders would have their money refunded, starting on Thursday.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
The 26-year-old singer announced she was suffering from an inflammation of the joints on Tuesday, but the tour operator said Gaga's injuries were more serious than she realized.
'After additional tests this morning to review the severity of the issue, it has been determined that Lady Gaga has a labral tear of the right hip,' Live Nation said in a statement.
'She will need surgery to repair the problem, followed by strict downtime to recover. This, unfortunately, will force her to cancel the tour so she can heal,' it added.
Gaga has been on the road for two years, traveling across six continents.
On Tuesday, she postponed four U.S. shows saying she was suffering from synovitis that left her temporarily unable to walk. Synovitis is an inflammation of the joints that sometimes follows a sprain, strain or injury.
According to her website, the singer was due to play another 20 dates in the United States.
Live Nation said ticket holders would have their money refunded, starting on Thursday.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
In newly released love letters, LBJ's sweet side comes to life
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Lyndon B. Johnson was so smitten when he met Claudia Alta 'Lady Bird' Taylor in 1934 that he took her on a first date the very next day -- and asked for her hand in marriage.
Taylor adored her suitor but was worried about rushing into marriage, according to dozens of love letters between the two set to be released for the first time by the LBJ Presidential Library on Thursday, Valentine's Day.
In the pages of about 90 letters that the newly renovated library plans to post on its website, Johnson seems lonely and impatient, persistently urging Taylor to make up her mind. She says she wants to wait until they know each other better, though she also writes that she is afraid of losing him.
'All I can say, in absolute honesty, is -- I love you, I don't know how everlastingly I love you, -- so I can't answer you yet,' Taylor wrote him shortly after they met that September.
Johnson, then 26 and working in Washington, D.C., as a secretary to Congressman Richard Kleberg, met Taylor, 21, through a friend while visiting Texas and asked her for a date the next morning. They had breakfast at the Driskill Hotel in Austin and spent the day sightseeing. That same day, he popped the question, asking her to become his wife.
After he returned to Washington, they spent two and a half months exchanging a flurry of letters and phone calls before going to San Antonio on November 17 to, as she later put it, 'commit matrimony.'
In the letters, Johnson implores her to write to him frequently.
'Give me lots of letters next week,' he wrote to her. 'I'm going to need them. Mix some 'I love you' in the lines and not between them.'
Johnson's letters begin 'My dear' or 'Dear Bird.' She addresses him as 'My Dearest Lyndon' and signs 'Devotedly, Bird.' They sent each other photos. He sent her books.
'I wish you were here this minute because I feel silly and gay and I want to ruffle up your hair and kiss you and say silly things!' wrote Taylor, who had recently graduated from the University of Texas and was living with her father in Karnack, in East Texas.
A few of the letters had been released before, but this is the first time that all of the letters are being made public.
People probably won't be shocked to see a sweet side of Lady Bird Johnson, but reading tender sentiments from her husband, the hard-charging politician, is a different matter, said granddaughter Catherine Robb.
Johnson, who served in the U.S. House and Senate and as vice president, ascended to the presidency in 1963 as the nation grieved over the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Johnson closed out his administration in 1969 under the cloud of Vietnam. He died in 1973.
He was known for giving the 'Johnson Treatment' -- he'd lean in close, push people's buttons and get under their skin.
'I don't think people think of him as being terribly vulnerable,' Robb, an Austin lawyer, told Reuters. In the letters, 'you see a much more personal side of him, much more unguarded.'
For example, he writes to his future wife that he carries a little orange comb in his billfold.
'It is the only thing I have from my little girl at Karnack and when I get lonesome and blue or happy and ambitious I always get pleasure when I look at the little comb and think . just think,' Johnson wrote.
Robb, who had weekly dinners with her grandmother for years before she died in 2007, recalled one meal at the Driskill Hotel - the site of her grandparents' first date.
'I asked her what she thought about this brash, impatient young man who proposed almost immediately and who she put off for a whopping two and a half months,' Robb said. 'She thought it was reasonable to wait an appropriate period of time, but she realized that she didn't want to be without him - he was something so special and this was an extraordinary adventure she was going to enjoy if she said yes.'
Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson honeymooned in Mexico and were married for 39 years. They had two daughters, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb.
(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Taylor adored her suitor but was worried about rushing into marriage, according to dozens of love letters between the two set to be released for the first time by the LBJ Presidential Library on Thursday, Valentine's Day.
In the pages of about 90 letters that the newly renovated library plans to post on its website, Johnson seems lonely and impatient, persistently urging Taylor to make up her mind. She says she wants to wait until they know each other better, though she also writes that she is afraid of losing him.
'All I can say, in absolute honesty, is -- I love you, I don't know how everlastingly I love you, -- so I can't answer you yet,' Taylor wrote him shortly after they met that September.
Johnson, then 26 and working in Washington, D.C., as a secretary to Congressman Richard Kleberg, met Taylor, 21, through a friend while visiting Texas and asked her for a date the next morning. They had breakfast at the Driskill Hotel in Austin and spent the day sightseeing. That same day, he popped the question, asking her to become his wife.
After he returned to Washington, they spent two and a half months exchanging a flurry of letters and phone calls before going to San Antonio on November 17 to, as she later put it, 'commit matrimony.'
In the letters, Johnson implores her to write to him frequently.
'Give me lots of letters next week,' he wrote to her. 'I'm going to need them. Mix some 'I love you' in the lines and not between them.'
Johnson's letters begin 'My dear' or 'Dear Bird.' She addresses him as 'My Dearest Lyndon' and signs 'Devotedly, Bird.' They sent each other photos. He sent her books.
'I wish you were here this minute because I feel silly and gay and I want to ruffle up your hair and kiss you and say silly things!' wrote Taylor, who had recently graduated from the University of Texas and was living with her father in Karnack, in East Texas.
A few of the letters had been released before, but this is the first time that all of the letters are being made public.
People probably won't be shocked to see a sweet side of Lady Bird Johnson, but reading tender sentiments from her husband, the hard-charging politician, is a different matter, said granddaughter Catherine Robb.
Johnson, who served in the U.S. House and Senate and as vice president, ascended to the presidency in 1963 as the nation grieved over the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Johnson closed out his administration in 1969 under the cloud of Vietnam. He died in 1973.
He was known for giving the 'Johnson Treatment' -- he'd lean in close, push people's buttons and get under their skin.
'I don't think people think of him as being terribly vulnerable,' Robb, an Austin lawyer, told Reuters. In the letters, 'you see a much more personal side of him, much more unguarded.'
For example, he writes to his future wife that he carries a little orange comb in his billfold.
'It is the only thing I have from my little girl at Karnack and when I get lonesome and blue or happy and ambitious I always get pleasure when I look at the little comb and think . just think,' Johnson wrote.
Robb, who had weekly dinners with her grandmother for years before she died in 2007, recalled one meal at the Driskill Hotel - the site of her grandparents' first date.
'I asked her what she thought about this brash, impatient young man who proposed almost immediately and who she put off for a whopping two and a half months,' Robb said. 'She thought it was reasonable to wait an appropriate period of time, but she realized that she didn't want to be without him - he was something so special and this was an extraordinary adventure she was going to enjoy if she said yes.'
Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson honeymooned in Mexico and were married for 39 years. They had two daughters, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb.
(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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