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2008/10/23

Beyonce would like to be known as "Sasha Fierce"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Just like the "Seinfeld" episode where George wanted everyone to call him "T-Bone," Beyonce Knowles would like to be known by a bold new name.
The R&B singer has christened herself "Sasha Fierce" for her new double album, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," due in U.S. stores on November 18, and has released a lengthy justification for the comical moniker.
"I have someone else that takes over when it's time for me to work and when I'm on stage, this alter ego that I've created that kind of protects me and who I really am," the former Destiny's Child frontwoman said in a statement.
"Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I'm working and when I'm on the stage."
Additionally, she has set up a cryptic MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/sashafierce) that gives a "lucky person" the opportunity to receive a personal message and a gift bag valued at $500.
As George found out, nicknames usually do not work when they are self-bestowed. His colleagues thought he should be called Koko the monkey. In real life, rapper Eminem had better luck with his alter ego "Slim Shady," which he said came to him while he was on the toilet.
Beyonce released her previous solo album, "B'Day," to coincide with her 25th birthday in September 2006. It debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart and yielded the No. 1 single "Irreplaceable."
"I Am ... Sasha Fierce" will be distributed by Columbia Records, a unit of Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)]



2008/10/19

'Max Payne,' 'Chihuahua,' 'Bees' out-poll 'W'

LOS ANGELES – Movie-goers elected a "W," but it was Mark Wahlberg, not George W. Bush. Wahlberg's action flick "Max Payne" debuted with $18 million to outdo Oliver Stone's film biography of George W. Bush, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Stone's "W." actually ran fourth, opening with $10.6 million to finish behind the family comedy "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (No. 2 with $11.2 million) and the chick flick "The Secret Life of Bees" (No. 3 with $11.1 million).
"For me, an Oliver Stone film about George Bush doesn't necessarily scream big box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "A film like this is very tough to gauge, but this is exactly what I thought it would do."
Lionsgate's "W.," starring Josh Brolin as Bush, came in well behind the $18.7 million debut of Stone's last movie, 2006's Sept. 11 saga "World Trade Center." That movie opened in nearly 3,000 theaters, about 900 more than "W.," however.
Playing in 2,030 cinemas, "W." averaged a solid but unremarkable $5,197 a theater, compared with a $6,334 average for "World Trade Center." "W." was shot on a modest budget of $25 million.
The film had been on political junkies' radar since Stone put "W." on the fast track less than a year ago so he could have it out before the November election. Stone started shooting in May, his five-month turnaround time remarkably short by Hollywood standards, where major movies can take a year or more.
If he needed more time, Stone contractually had the option of releasing the film around the time Bush leaves office in January.
But with two weeks until the election, this is prime time for a Bush biography, said Steve Rothenberg, Lionsgate head of distribution.
"We felt it was very important to release the film after the presidential debates but before the election," Rothenberg said. "We felt interest in the election would be at its height, and interest in George W. Bush would be much greater now than after January. We feel we have a good corridor over the next two weeks."
The movie received mixed reviews, with critics surprised at how relatively tame it turned out coming from liberal firebrand Stone, who made the paranoia-laden presidential tales "JFK" and "Nixon."
Brolin's Bush has some buffoonish moments, but Stone showed empathy for the president, casting him as a man with serious daddy issues but an unshakable relationship with wife Laura to fall back on.
Among the weekend's other new movies, 20th Century Fox's "Max Payne" averaged $5,332 in 3,376 theaters and Fox Searchlight's "The Secret Life of Bees" did $6,945 in 1,591 cinemas.
Disney's "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," which had been the No. 1 movie the previous two weekends, raised its total to $69.1 million.
Adapted from the video game, "Max Payne" stars Wahlberg as a New York City cop hunting the killers of his wife and child.
"The Secret Life of Bees" stars Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo in a drama about a troubled teen learning life lessons through the beekeeping operations of three Southern sisters.
"Max Payne" had a predominantly male audience, "The Secret Life of Bees" played to women, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" continued to grab family crowds and "W." was the choice for politically minded adults.
"You've got all kinds of pictures out there," said 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston. "When this business is great is when there are a lot of different pictures out that people want to go see."
Hollywood's overall revenues rose for the fourth-straight weekend. The top-12 movies took in $86.4 million, up 10 percent from the same weekend 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.
1. "Max Payne," $18 million.
2. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," $11.2 million.
3. "The Secret Life of Bees," $11.1 million.
4. "W.," $10.6 million.
5. "Eagle Eye," $7.3 million.
6. "Body of Lies," $6.9 million.
7. "Quarantine," $6.3 million.
8. "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," $3.9 million.
9. "Sex Drive," $3.6 million.
10. "Nights in Rodanthe," $2.7 million.
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Benson, Thielemans honored as NEA Jazz Masters

NEW YORK – Guitarist George Benson had a chance to reconnect with his jazz roots when he was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of its 2009 Jazz Masters. But it was another newly minted Jazz Master, Belgian-born Toots Thielemans, who provided the most moving moment at the NEA's annual ceremony to present the nation's highest jazz honor.
Thielemans, 86, accompanied by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, played a moving version on harmonica of "What A Wonderful World," which he dedicated to his "musical guru," Louis Armstrong.
Thielemans, whose harmonica has been heard by generations of children on the "Sesame Street" opening theme, said he got hooked on jazz during the German occupation in the 1940s, when he first heard recordings of Armstrong with the Mills Brothers.
"How are you going to follow that?" quipped another new Jazz Master, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, 81, who took the stage Friday night at the Rose Theater right after Thielemans to perform the ballad "Body and Soul" with the orchestra.
Thielemans is the first European-born musician, harmonica player and baron (he was given the title in 2001 by King Albert II of Belgium) to be named an NEA Jazz Master. He recalled the warm welcome he received from African-American jazz musicians after he settled in the U.S. in 1952 — from singer Dinah Washington, who cooked him a soul food dinner, to pianist Billy Taylor, who let him sit in with his band at a New York club while he was waiting for his musicians' union card.
"I figured he was going to play the guitar, but he pulled out his harmonica and he just killed all of the people who heard him at that time, because nobody was playing jazz harmonica like that," said Taylor, a 1988 Jazz Master, in presenting the award to Thielemans.
Benson, 65, recalled his humble roots in Pittsburgh as he thanked his stepfather, who hand-made his first electric guitar when he was a teenager and introduced him to Benny Goodman's recordings with electric guitar pioneer Charlie Christian.
Benson, whose singing on such crossover pop and R&B hits as "This Masquerade" later overshadowed his earlier work as a straight-ahead guitarist, then displayed some swinging jazz chops when he performed the ballad "Stella By Starlight" with the orchestra.
The ceremony also recognized the other 2009 Jazz Masters: drummer Jimmy Cobb, 79, who played on such landmark albums as Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" and John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" but was also known for his sensitive accompaniment of vocalists Washington and Sarah Vaughan; and Snooky Young, 89, the veteran big band trumpeter whose career includes a 25-year stint with Doc Severinsen's "Tonight Show" orchestra.
Rudy Van Gelder, the first recording engineer to be named a Jazz Master, was honored for his work on such seminal recordings as Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and Sonny Rollins' "Saxophone Colossus."
The stylistically versatile JALC orchestra was able to accomodate requests from each new master. Cobb sat in on drums to play "Can You Read My Mind," John Williams' love theme from the 1978 "Superman" movie, and Van Gelder was recognized with "Stolen Moments" from the 1961 Oliver Nelson album "The Blues and the Abstract Truth."
This year marked the first time that Jazz at Lincoln Center hosted the Jazz Masters awards ceremony, which was a centerpiece of the annual International Association for Jazz Education convention before that organization declared bankruptcy this year.
"We're honored to do it because it's in direct line with our mission," said trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, JALC's artistic director, in an interview before the ceremony. "We have a history and a tradition of playing with the masters and of respecting the great contributors to the art form."
Dana Gioia, who will be stepping down as NEA chairman in January, expanded the Jazz Masters program during his six-year tenure by doubling the number of honorees each year from three to six, sponsoring tours by Jazz Masters and producing short features for broadcast on Sirius XM Radio.
With JALC, the NEA developed a Web-based jazz curriculum that has reached an estimated 7.5 million students since its launch in January 2006.
"Jazz is America's greatest single musical tradition," Gioia said in an interview, "and I don't see the purpose of having a National Endowment for the Arts unless jazz is one of the things that we support seriously."