Earlier this week, Wade Robson sat down in an interview and called Michael Jackson a pedophile.
Howard Weitzman, the attorney for Michael Jackson’s estate has said,
“Mr. Robson has adamantly denied under oath and in numerous interviews over the past 20 years that Michael Jackson ever did anything inappropriate to him. He now wants us to believe that he committed perjury at least twice and has been lying to anyone and everyone about Mr. Jackson since the early ‘90s so he can file a claim for money. Mr. Robson’s transparent lawsuit comes nearly four years after Michael passed. His claim is outrageous and sad.”
Wade alleges that Michael Jackson molested him from aged 7 to 14. He also claims he’s not making these new claims for money, however one can’t argue that it seems suspicious as he filed a civil claim against the Michael Jackson estate last week and has been out of work for over a year having suffered a mental breakdown two years ago.
NEW PETITION
No one can say for sure what the truth is but if Wade is making false allegations, it supports the idea that even in death, Michael Jackson is vulnerable people trying to get a quick paycheck. An interesting, online petition has been started which urges the Michael Jackson’s Estate to sue Wade Robson for Defamation if he loses his claim against the estate.
Copy and Paste the link below to view the petition.
Thomas mesereau who defended Michael Jackson in his 2005 trial where he was acquitted of 10 charges has called Wade’s new claims outrageous citing that he was cross-examined on two occasions.
Ok, there’s been a lot of debate about who was the true king. Whilst Elvis was a great performer and true genius, I Personally believe Michael deserves the title. He revolutionised Pop Music, videos and of course, dance. However, I’m more than glad to hear your thoughts. Who do you think was the true King?
CLICK THE “LEAVE A COMMENT LINK” TO GIVE YOUR VIEW
X-Factor winner, Leon Jackson has just been dropped by his music record label, Sony. The scottish singer made just one album with the corporate label before he was given the unfortunate boot. Leon Jackson was the suprise winner of the 2007 X-factor competition narrowly beating the peculiar operatic hurricane, Rhydian Roberts.
To Leon’s dismay, Rhydian’s career is soaring after selling an impressive 500, ooo copies of his self-entitled debut album. This figure dwarf’s Jackon’s When you Believe, which has sold just 130, ooo since it’s release in December 2007.
Leon may also be fummed to know that fellow X-Factor winner, Leona Lewis was recently paid 1-million dollars for a Phone’s4U concert performance. The gig took place last Saturday at the billionaires mansion in Eccleshall staffs and saw the star take of just 200 people.
It’s instances like Leon’s which make us wonder if the judges should have a say in the final vote. Jackson’s recent firing from his record label alongside Rhydian’s success clearly indicate that the competition fails in it’s own purpose of selecting individual’s with that X-Factor.
With the reccesion taking blows at the entertainment market and executives demanding true marketeable talent, we can expect to see Leon leaping into the wilderness for the next series of “I’m a celebrity, Get me out of here.”
Watch Leon beating Rhydian Roberts to be crowned the X-Factor
An attorney representing an Italian office worker has filed legal papers alleging that the screenplay forThe Curious Case of Benjamin Buttonwas based on a story she wrote in 1994.
Adriana Pichini, a Roman office worker, said the film is coined from her story, “Il ritorno di Arthur all’innocenza” (Arthur’s Return to Innocence).
David Fincher‘s film sees Brad Pitt in the main role of Benjamin Button, a man born with a rare illness that makes him age backwards.
WATCH THE PREMIER OF THE FILM
Though the story was never published, it was officially registered with the proper Italian copyright authorities in 1994 .
According to Gianni Massaro, Pichini’s lawyer, a file was opened with the Rome Tribunal Court. A judge will therefore watch the film and read the story to determine if there are enough similarities to launch an investigation.
Massaro, a fixture in the Italian cinema industry and a former president of the Italian audiovisual association ANICA, said in an interview that he is not sure if Pichini will seek financial damages against Fincher, screenwriter Eric Roth and the film’s producers.
As reported by Reuteurs agency Massaro said, “At this point it’s still a matter of principle.”
It is not clear what authority an Italian court would have in this case, though Massaro noted that the film’s producers, Hollywood studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, both have Italian operations.
No timetable has been set for the judge’s viewing. The rest of Italy will be able to see the film when it goes into nationwide release February 13.
As predicted, the late Heath Ledger won the coveted posthumous Golden Globe Award for Best suppoting actor for his performance in The Dark Knight. The film’s director, Christopher Nolan picked up the award on his behalf.
“All of us who worked with Heath on the Dark Knight accept this with an awful mix of sadness and incredible pride,” Nolan said, after the star-studded audience rose to their feet as the award was announced.
The late actor beat several critically acclaimed nominees including including oscar-winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Tom Cruise
From the moment he stepped into the hearts of teenage-girls in 1999s, Ten Things I Hate About You right up to his portrayal as the diabolical Joker in The Dark Knight, Ledger was critically acclaimed for his ability to dissapear in his roles. The actor, born in Perth, Australia, recieved an Oscar-nomination for his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain.
Watch Heath’s Win for The Dark Knight
Other Winners
Without a doubt, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire was turned out to be the Cinderalla-flick of the night by sweeping 4 awards including the coveted Best Motion Picture Drama Award.
Mickey Rourke’s portrayal in The Wrestler earned him the golden globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, while the Colin Farell recieved the award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his performance in In Bruges.
It’s a great start to the year for Kate Winslet as she picked up both awards for Best Actress (drama) in a lead and supporting role for her performances in Revolutionary Road and The Reader. Sally Hawkins won for best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
As predicted Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir won for Best foreign language film while the award for best animated feature went to Dinsey Pixar’s WALL-E.
A Cinderalla Night?
It appears that the phrase, “just being nominated is an award in itself,” will be echoing for weeks on end. This is probably because the 66th Golden Globes probably had the most notrious, non-winners. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Doubt were the event’s top nominated pitcures all recieving 5 nominatons; none of them won an award.
Personally, I believe all the winners rightfully deserved their awards. I understand that there’s no such word as loosing in such glamourous events, so without any malicious intent, I shall recall a phrase that was regularly during my days in high-school;
Loosing is just a nature’s way of saying you suck.
Singer Alexandra Burke has won this year’s The X Factor, beating four-piece group JLS into second place.
Though the 20-year-old north Londoner made an unsuccessful bid to be in the contest three years ago, tonight she was widely praised for her talent.
Accompanied by international sensation, Beyonce Knowles, the singer performed Leonard Cohen‘s Hallelujah. The track is widely expected to become the Christmas number one.
Watch Alexandra’s final-round-performance
The young singer was presented with a copy of her debut single, and dedicated it “to everyone who voted for me.”
She worked hard for it
After scooping the crown in a much-publicized celebration, grueling X-factor judge, Simon Cowell acknowledged the singer’s talent and efforts saying: “You deserve it.”
The song is now available for download. A physical release is set to hit the shelves early next week.
Burke was mentored by Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole, completing her first season as a judge on the show.
According to X Factor presenter Dermot O’Leary, around eight-million votes had been cast during the final.
The film’s trailer gives it a dark “sin city” look. The publicity photo of a lonesome man standing outside in the cold suggests it’s an inventive attempt to blend animation with classical film noir.
However, Ari Folman‘s animated “war-doc” exceeds our expectations. The impressive textures, sounds and overall plot makes Waltz with Bashir one of this years must-see films.
STORY
At just 19, Ari Folman did national service with the Israeli military forces. He would soon find himself at the centre of a massacre that till now remains one of the darkest points in middle-eastern relations.
After a meeting with an old army friend in the year 2006, Folman can’t stop dreaming about a peculiar battle he had in Beirut.
He finds himself questioning several friends, army-colleagues and psychiatrists to uncover the mysteries of the dream. Without any credible explanation, the troubled filmmaker is forced to question if the battle is a symbolic reference to the tragedies of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Unlike Pixar‘s Cars and Wall-E, Waltz with Bashir proves that animations don’t need to be querky or slapstick. The stunning photography effectively conveys a dark but thrilling moment in the Lebanese-Israeli conflict.
Folman courageously secludes himself from the mainstream by abandoning a conventional storyline. You can forget that this is the year’s best animation (which quite frankly it is) and appreciate it as a genuine cinematic masterpiece.
An actor slit his throat on stage when a prop knife turned out to be a real one. The gory experience took place on Tuesday night.
The actor Daniel Hoevels, 30, was supposed to be portraying a suicide scene in act five of the play `Mary Stuart” by Friedrich Schiller.
Austrian media reported that the actor slumped over with blood gorging from his neck while the audience, who assumed it was all special effects, broke into applause.
Bravery with a bandage
The actor was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment. A doctor told media reporters:
“If Hovels had hit an artery or cut only slightly deeper, he would have died on stage,”
Although many would be traumatized by the alleged murder plot, Hoevels impressed fans by appearing on stage the next night, wearing a bandage around his neck.
Police are investigating whether the knife was a mistake or a murder plot. They are questioning both the cast and any backstage crew who had access to props.
Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee in 1957, Atlanta. At a very young age, he moved from a segregated Georgia to Brooklyn, New York. This early experience clearly influenced his outlook on race, which was to become one of the most noticeable themes in his films.
Throughout the course of his career, Lee has given the world an insight into African-American culture and can well be seen as one of the pioneers of African American filmmaking.
Throughout the 20th century, audiences were given incorrect and many a times negative portrayals of Black culture: television shows such as The Black and White Minstrel Show, for example, presented stereotypical depictions of blacks through their comic routines.
Debut
In 1986, Lee arguably offered a much more authentic African American lifestyle with his début feature She’s Gotta Have It (1986), an African-American comedy about relationships.
The movie, made for only $175000, explored the life of an independent black artist, Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Jones). This feature was provocative as it presented a reversal of gender roles: Lee made males the vulnerable characters that revolve around the central female protagonist.
After the financial success of She’s Gotta Have It and School Daze (1988), Lee went on to make the acclaimed Do The Right Thing (1989). The movie portrayed a neighbourhood on a hot day and the racial conflicts that emerge.
Just as Martin Scorsese’s personal interest with his Italian-American culture influenced his early films such as Mean Streets’ setting of Little Italy, Lee sets his film in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York.
Success
Do The Right thing deals with tension amongst a multicultural community. Lee explains in an interview with Michael Kaufman for New York Times:
“Essentially, what I hoped was that it would provoke everybody, from white to black” Tensions between different groups sizzle in this dark comedy before reaching a tragic climax.
Lee’s gritty view of racial relations was taken to an extreme when he made Bamboozled (2000). It tells the story of a Television producer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) who re-invents the Minstrel Shows.
Racial controversy is exactly where Lee was taking the film as he explained in a later interview with Kaufman: “I wanted to generate discussion about racism because too many people have their head in the sand about the issue.”
Lee’s failure to impress audiences during this period forced him to distance himself from his thought-provoking vision of African-Americanism.
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR BAMBOOZLED
Post 9/11: New theme
Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, American mainstream entertainment hesitated from incorporating the event in its narratives. However, several references to the event were noticeable in Lee’s thrillers, 25th hour (2002) and Inside Man (2006).
Just as suspense surrounded American intelligence on the suspects of the attack, these films employ a sense of ambiguity. Inside Man in particular has the villains and victims dressed alike. The film opens with the thieves’ vehicle making its way towards a major Manhattan bank. Unlike Lee’s regular use of Hip-Hop, this opening scene is accompanied with the Bollywood theme, Chaiyya Chaiyya.
The criminals aren’t Middle-Eastern; rather the constant finger a Post 9/11 society points at this community is emphasised through this.
Lee has successfully re-invented himself as an auteur by changing his themes in order to produce work which is more relevant to modern society.
Since his debut feature, Lee has become a well-known auteur presenting yet re-inventing recurring themes of Gender, Multiculturalism and Race within a New York environment.
He was meant to appear at the Extreme World Championships “Vengance: Night of Champions.” Instead on 25 June 2007, the Professional wrestler took his own life after brutally murdering his wife and seven-year-old-child.
The tragedy called for investigations into the “Roid rage” many wrestlers experience from taking steroids.
Many of Benoit’s co-wrestlers described him as quiet man; a distant character. In an interview with MSNBC, retired Sports entertainer, Bret Hart said:
“I never saw a violent side to him. There was some different explanation for what happened.”
WRESTLING CAREER
During his childhood and early adolescence in Edmonton, Chris Benoit idolized the
Dynamite Kid (Tom Billington). Though not a wrestling fan, his father Michael Benoit encouraged his son by buying him a set of weights for strength and training.
Chris Benoit began his professional career in 1985 in the Canadian based Stu Hart’s stampede Wrestling promotion. Benoit adopted many of Billington’s moves such as the “Diving Headbutt” and the “Snap Suplex.” He eventually paid homage by calling one of his signature moves, “The Dynamite.”
PERSONAL LIFE
Benoit married twice, having two children with his first wife, Martina. The relationship was torn two pieces and Benoit remarried in 1997.
In 2003, his spouse Nancy Sullivan filed for divorce alleging cruel treatment from her husband. She claimed that he would break and throw furniture around. She later dropped the suit, as well as the restraining order filed against her husband.
WWE canceled a scheduled three-hour-long show and replaced the broadcast version with a tribute to his life and career. However the WWE distanced themselves from the wrestlers once he details of the tragedy were uncovered.
The wrestler’s autopsy revealed that he had an elevated level of testosterone, as well as three different steroids (Xanax, Hydro codone and Hydropmorphene) in his system.
The concussions he experienced throughout his career, were used as explanations for his sick actions.
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