Michael Jackson wrongful death trial set to get underway Monday

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The civil trial over the death of Michael Jackson is set to get formally underway next week after jury selection was completed on Tuesday in the $40 billion case that pits the pop star's mother against concert promoters AEG Live.

Six alternate jurors were chosen on Tuesday following the selection a day earlier of a jury of six men and six women for what is expected to be an emotional three-month trial.

The conclusion of the month-long search for a jury set the stage for opening statements to begin in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday.

Jackson's 82-year-old mother, Katherine, is suing AEG Live, the promoters of his never-realized series of 2009 London comeback concerts, for the wrongful death of her son.

The lawsuit alleges AEG Live was negligent in hiring Dr. Conrad Murray to care for the singer while he rehearsed for a series of 50 shows.

AEG Live contends that it did not hire or supervise Murray and that Jackson was addicted to prescription drugs for years before he agreed to do the "This Is It" London concerts.

The concert promoters also argue that they could not have foreseen that Murray, who was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death, posed a danger to the singer.

Jackson, 50, died in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009, from a lethal dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol that Murray was administering for sleep problems. Murray, who is not being sued, formally appealed against his criminal conviction on Monday.

Potential witnesses in the civil trial include Jackson's mother, his two oldest children, Prince, 16, and Paris, 15, as well as Murray, singers Prince and Diana Ross, and Jackson's ex-wives, Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe.

Katherine Jackson and her son's three children are seeking some $40 billion in damages from privately held AEG Live for loss of the singer's earnings and other damages. The final amount will be determined by the jury should it hold AEG Live negligent.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Eric Beech)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gwyneth Paltrow named People's most beautiful woman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow on Wednesday was named the world's most beautiful woman for 2013 by People magazine, knocking pop singer Beyonce out of the top spot.

The 40-year-old mother of two credits a five-day-a-week exercise regimen for keeping her in shape as she grows older.

"It makes me look younger and feel strong," Paltrow told the magazine. "When I first started, I thought, 'I'll never be good at this. This is a nightmare!' But now it's like brushing my teeth, I just do it."

It is the fourth time Paltrow, who is married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin, has been named to the magazine's annual beautiful people issue, but the first time landing the coveted cover as most beautiful woman.

She joins the likes of fellow actresses Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston to top the list.

Paltrow reprises her starring role as Pepper Potts in the action film "Iron Man 3," which opens next month.

The actress has cut back her film work after giving birth to children Apple, 8, and Moses, 7, and released her second cookbook, "It's All Good," this month.

She is also the founder of lifestyle and clothing website Goop.com.

Paltrow won an Oscar for her role as William Shakespeare's muse in the 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love."

The full list of People's "World's Most Beautiful People" can be found on www.people.com/mostbeautiful

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Sandra Maler)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Novelist Banks "stunned" by fan support over terminal cancer

By Li-mei Hoang

LONDON (Reuters) - Scottish author Iain Banks, who announced this month he was suffering from terminal cancer, said he was "stunned" by the messages of support he has received from his fans.

The "Wasp Factory" author said he was deeply flattered and touched by all the responses left on the website Banksophilia, which was set up by his friend Martin Belk.

"Good grief! - what an outpouring of love, affection and respect. I honestly had no idea," he wrote.

"Discovering the sheer extent and depth of the feelings people have expressed on the message board over the past two weeks has been truly astounding," he added.

Banks, 59, said his problems came to light after a visit to his doctor about a sore back. Tests revealed he was not only suffering from jaundice but also cancer in his gall bladder.

He announced his illness on his website on April 3, before he canceled all future public engagements.

The author, who also writes science fiction under the name of Iain M Banks, said that as a late-stage gall bladder cancer patient he is only expected to live for a few months.

Banks has returned to Britain after a short honeymoon with his wife Adele in Paris and Venice to continue working on his new book "The Quarry."

Born in Fife, Banks studied at Stirling University before publishing "The Wasp Factory", his first novel, in 1984.

In 2008, he was named one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 in a list compiled by the Times newspaper.

Banks said he would be looking "seriously" at the medical advice and suggestions made by his fans and would continue to post the occasional update for as long as he is able.

"I feel treasured, I feel loved ... and I can't deny I've been made to feel very special indeed," he added.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

A Minute With: Colin Firth from royal to ordinary "Arthur Newman"

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After winning a Best Actor Oscar for playing a stuttering British royal in 2010 film "The King's Speech," Colin Firth is back on screen as a character who appears ordinary to the point of boring in indie drama "Arthur Newman."

Opening in select U.S. movie theaters on Friday, Firth plays an American man who is dissatisfied with his life and hits the road with a new identity. Things get derailed when he meets Mike (Emily Blunt) a troubled young woman fleeing from her own issues.

Firth, 52, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film and life after his first Oscar win, and the (dimming) prospects of a third "Bridget Jones' Diary" movie.

Q: What made you follow up an Academy Award win with a little indie like "Arthur Newman?"

A: At the time, the title of the film was "Arthur Newman Golf Pro" and I found it so off-putting, it perversely made me more intrigued. I thought by putting 'golf' in the title, the film wouldn't be exactly marketable.

Q: How's that?

A: If you don't like golf, you won't go to see the film. And if you like golf, you're going to be disappointed because it's not about golf. It was almost provocative in how willfully unmarketable it was, so I wanted to see what was inside.

Q: And what did you find?

A: A man who seemed steeped in ordinariness. In fact, he's pronounced to be boring by several characters in the movie. So yes, he really is incredibly boring and that intrigued me. It always has. What is actually going on? What are the dynamics behind somebody languishing in a disappointing suburban life? What heroism is possible?

Q: How do you play someone like that? Where do you look to find a common thread?

A: We trap ourselves in all sorts of ways, however unusual or extraordinary our existence might seem from the outside. There are all kinds of ways in which we find ourselves on a treadmill.

If people dare to test the boundaries and step outside, it's often characterized as running away from problems. But you can't look at it that way. In Arthur Newman's case, in some ways he was probably running in to something that was more awake and more authentic.

Q: You can't possibly have any hint of dissatisfaction after winning an Oscar, can you?

A: That's not true, because you've got the rest of your tasks ahead of you. Of course there's immense reassurance (in having an Oscar) and it does give you a license for a certain freedom to do what you want and not have to prove something.

Q: Did you find that things changed for you after you won?

A: Not quickly. In some ways it's happening now....An Oscar doesn't suddenly work the miracle that manufactures a plethora of great writers who are suddenly ready to come to you with fully financed films, with the right director attached, landing on your table, saying: Take your pick. It's not as coherent as that.

Q: Have you been able to use the Oscar to your advantage?

A: Yes. It definitely opens doors. There are ways in. If you want to reach somebody to get the collaboration on something, they'll talk to you. That's a very powerful difference I've noticed.

Q: Do you like that?

A: Yeah, I do. It's useful. I think that's probably the healthiest way to look at it, rather than have something that gets preserved on a shelf. Take it and use it as a tool. Then it has meaning rather than just something to look back on. You can't live on one moment. And you can't allow either a crisis or a triumph to be the only thing that defines you.

Q: You have a lot of films on your plate due this year and next: Atom Egoyan's "Devil's Knot" and two back-to-back films with Nicole Kidman. What's the status on the sequel to "Bridget Jones' Diary?"

A: We've been teasing people a little bit because there have been plans but they're on ice now.

Q: Are you disappointed?

A: Not in the abstract. I don't spend my life thinking, "I hope there's another 'Bridget Jones.'" I like the character and I like the story. I think (author-screenwriter) Helen Fielding is a wonderful writer. Where she began to take it in this next stage now that we're all older is actually more interesting than it was in some ways back then. So if there's a good story and a good script, I'll think about it on that basis.

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Country singer George Jones dead at 81

By Bill Trott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - George Jones, a classic country singer with a voice full of raw honky-tonk emotion and a life full of honky-tonk turmoil, died on Friday at age 81, his spokesman said.

Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and included hits such as "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "Window Up Above," died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville.

He had been hospitalized since April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure, spokesman Kirt Webster said.

In November 2012, Jones embarked on a farewell tour after a career that produced his first top 10 record in 1955 with "Why Baby Why."

The "Grand Tour" was to conclude in Nashville in November this year, where Jones was to be joined by some of the many stars who influenced him.

News of his death brought tributes from a number of country music's top stars.

"Heaven better get ready for George Jones. He will always be the greatest singer of real country music - there'll never be another," Alan Jackson said on Twitter.

Dolly Parton said, "My heart is absolutely broken. George Jones was my all time favorite singer and one of my favorite people in the world."

"George Jones has passed. Damn. Thought he'd live forever. Let's break out his catalogue and play it all day," said Toby Keith.

Like his idol, Hank Williams, Jones battled addiction. Alcohol and cocaine frequently derailed his career and at one point his reputation for canceling performances earned him the nickname No-Show Jones.

But when Jones did show up and was in good form, listeners were treated to a powerful and evocative voice. Jones was at his best with cry-in-your-beer songs made extra mournful by his masterful phrasing.

As his late contemporary Waylon Jennings put it, "If we could all sound like we wanted to, then we'd all sound like George Jones."

Born in Saratoga, Texas, on September 12, 1931, Jones began performing for spare change as a boy on the streets of nearby Beaumont. Under the influence of Williams, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, he graduated to the rough roadhouses of East Texas.

Jones had an early marriage, a divorce and a stint in the Marines before his first hit, "Why Baby Why" in 1955. His first No. 1 song, "White Lightning," came in 1959, followed by "Tender Years" in 1961.

'THE POSSUM'

The next two decades brought a string of top 10 songs - "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)," "Window Up Above," "She Thinks I Still Care," "Good Year for the Roses," "The Race Is On" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today," which Jones said was his favorite. He also had a successful run of duets early in his career with Melba Montgomery.

Jones, who was known as "The Possum," divorced his second wife in 1968 and the next year married one of country music's most popular singers, Tammy Wynette. The pairing was an enormous professional success for both as they recorded and toured together and Jones began working with Billy Sherrill, Wynette's producer.

During his time with Sherrill, Jones refined his honky-tonk voice and sang more ballads, often with the lush string accompaniment that had become a trend in the country music capital of Nashville.

The marriage to Wynette went bad as Jones' addiction problem escalated and Wynette claimed he once came at her with a gun. They divorced in 1975 but later resumed recording together. Wynette died in 1998 at age 55.

Jones continued to put out hit songs in the early 1980s, even as cocaine compounded his personal tumult. Amid a string of hospitalizations and arrests, he disappeared for days at a time, missed shows and recording sessions and took police on a drunken chase through Nashville.

Jones credited fourth wife Nancy, whom he married in 1983, with helping him clean up. But in 1999 he was seriously injured after driving drunk and crashing into a bridge, leading to another stay in rehab.

At one point Jones was so incorrigible that one of his four wives cleared the liquor from their home and hid all the car keys so he could not go for more. Jones responded by cranking up his riding lawn mower and driving it to a bar - an escapade he chronicled in "Honky Tonk Song."

Although he was heard infrequently on mainstream country radio in the later years of his career, Jones was a sought-after duet partner and won a Grammy for the song "Choices" in 1999.

He also won a Grammy for best male country vocal performance in 1980 for "He Stopped Loving Her Today," and received a lifetime achievement Grammy last year.

(Additional reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville and Jill Serjeant; Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Vicki Allen)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Michael Jackson wrongful death trial set to get underway Monday

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The civil trial over the death of Michael Jackson is set to get formally underway next week after jury selection was completed on Tuesday in the $40 billion case that pits the pop star's mother against concert promoters AEG Live.

Six alternate jurors were chosen on Tuesday following the selection a day earlier of a jury of six men and six women for what is expected to be an emotional three-month trial.

The conclusion of the month-long search for a jury set the stage for opening statements to begin in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday.

Jackson's 82-year-old mother, Katherine, is suing AEG Live, the promoters of his never-realized series of 2009 London comeback concerts, for the wrongful death of her son.

The lawsuit alleges AEG Live was negligent in hiring Dr. Conrad Murray to care for the singer while he rehearsed for a series of 50 shows.

AEG Live contends that it did not hire or supervise Murray and that Jackson was addicted to prescription drugs for years before he agreed to do the "This Is It" London concerts.

The concert promoters also argue that they could not have foreseen that Murray, who was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death, posed a danger to the singer.

Jackson, 50, died in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009, from a lethal dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol that Murray was administering for sleep problems. Murray, who is not being sued, formally appealed against his criminal conviction on Monday.

Potential witnesses in the civil trial include Jackson's mother, his two oldest children, Prince, 16, and Paris, 15, as well as Murray, singers Prince and Diana Ross, and Jackson's ex-wives, Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe.

Katherine Jackson and her son's three children are seeking some $40 billion in damages from privately held AEG Live for loss of the singer's earnings and other damages. The final amount will be determined by the jury should it hold AEG Live negligent.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Eric Beech)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gwyneth Paltrow named People's most beautiful woman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow on Wednesday was named the world's most beautiful woman for 2013 by People magazine, knocking pop singer Beyonce out of the top spot.

The 40-year-old mother of two credits a five-day-a-week exercise regimen for keeping her in shape as she grows older.

"It makes me look younger and feel strong," Paltrow told the magazine. "When I first started, I thought, 'I'll never be good at this. This is a nightmare!' But now it's like brushing my teeth, I just do it."

It is the fourth time Paltrow, who is married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin, has been named to the magazine's annual beautiful people issue, but the first time landing the coveted cover as most beautiful woman.

She joins the likes of fellow actresses Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston to top the list.

Paltrow reprises her starring role as Pepper Potts in the action film "Iron Man 3," which opens next month.

The actress has cut back her film work after giving birth to children Apple, 8, and Moses, 7, and released her second cookbook, "It's All Good," this month.

She is also the founder of lifestyle and clothing website Goop.com.

Paltrow won an Oscar for her role as William Shakespeare's muse in the 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love."

The full list of People's "World's Most Beautiful People" can be found on www.people.com/mostbeautiful

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Sandra Maler)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Novelist Banks "stunned" by fan support over terminal cancer

By Li-mei Hoang

LONDON (Reuters) - Scottish author Iain Banks, who announced this month he was suffering from terminal cancer, said he was "stunned" by the messages of support he has received from his fans.

The "Wasp Factory" author said he was deeply flattered and touched by all the responses left on the website Banksophilia, which was set up by his friend Martin Belk.

"Good grief! - what an outpouring of love, affection and respect. I honestly had no idea," he wrote.

"Discovering the sheer extent and depth of the feelings people have expressed on the message board over the past two weeks has been truly astounding," he added.

Banks, 59, said his problems came to light after a visit to his doctor about a sore back. Tests revealed he was not only suffering from jaundice but also cancer in his gall bladder.

He announced his illness on his website on April 3, before he canceled all future public engagements.

The author, who also writes science fiction under the name of Iain M Banks, said that as a late-stage gall bladder cancer patient he is only expected to live for a few months.

Banks has returned to Britain after a short honeymoon with his wife Adele in Paris and Venice to continue working on his new book "The Quarry."

Born in Fife, Banks studied at Stirling University before publishing "The Wasp Factory", his first novel, in 1984.

In 2008, he was named one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 in a list compiled by the Times newspaper.

Banks said he would be looking "seriously" at the medical advice and suggestions made by his fans and would continue to post the occasional update for as long as he is able.

"I feel treasured, I feel loved ... and I can't deny I've been made to feel very special indeed," he added.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

A Minute With: Colin Firth from royal to ordinary "Arthur Newman"

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After winning a Best Actor Oscar for playing a stuttering British royal in 2010 film "The King's Speech," Colin Firth is back on screen as a character who appears ordinary to the point of boring in indie drama "Arthur Newman."

Opening in select U.S. movie theaters on Friday, Firth plays an American man who is dissatisfied with his life and hits the road with a new identity. Things get derailed when he meets Mike (Emily Blunt) a troubled young woman fleeing from her own issues.

Firth, 52, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film and life after his first Oscar win, and the (dimming) prospects of a third "Bridget Jones' Diary" movie.

Q: What made you follow up an Academy Award win with a little indie like "Arthur Newman?"

A: At the time, the title of the film was "Arthur Newman Golf Pro" and I found it so off-putting, it perversely made me more intrigued. I thought by putting 'golf' in the title, the film wouldn't be exactly marketable.

Q: How's that?

A: If you don't like golf, you won't go to see the film. And if you like golf, you're going to be disappointed because it's not about golf. It was almost provocative in how willfully unmarketable it was, so I wanted to see what was inside.

Q: And what did you find?

A: A man who seemed steeped in ordinariness. In fact, he's pronounced to be boring by several characters in the movie. So yes, he really is incredibly boring and that intrigued me. It always has. What is actually going on? What are the dynamics behind somebody languishing in a disappointing suburban life? What heroism is possible?

Q: How do you play someone like that? Where do you look to find a common thread?

A: We trap ourselves in all sorts of ways, however unusual or extraordinary our existence might seem from the outside. There are all kinds of ways in which we find ourselves on a treadmill.

If people dare to test the boundaries and step outside, it's often characterized as running away from problems. But you can't look at it that way. In Arthur Newman's case, in some ways he was probably running in to something that was more awake and more authentic.

Q: You can't possibly have any hint of dissatisfaction after winning an Oscar, can you?

A: That's not true, because you've got the rest of your tasks ahead of you. Of course there's immense reassurance (in having an Oscar) and it does give you a license for a certain freedom to do what you want and not have to prove something.

Q: Did you find that things changed for you after you won?

A: Not quickly. In some ways it's happening now....An Oscar doesn't suddenly work the miracle that manufactures a plethora of great writers who are suddenly ready to come to you with fully financed films, with the right director attached, landing on your table, saying: Take your pick. It's not as coherent as that.

Q: Have you been able to use the Oscar to your advantage?

A: Yes. It definitely opens doors. There are ways in. If you want to reach somebody to get the collaboration on something, they'll talk to you. That's a very powerful difference I've noticed.

Q: Do you like that?

A: Yeah, I do. It's useful. I think that's probably the healthiest way to look at it, rather than have something that gets preserved on a shelf. Take it and use it as a tool. Then it has meaning rather than just something to look back on. You can't live on one moment. And you can't allow either a crisis or a triumph to be the only thing that defines you.

Q: You have a lot of films on your plate due this year and next: Atom Egoyan's "Devil's Knot" and two back-to-back films with Nicole Kidman. What's the status on the sequel to "Bridget Jones' Diary?"

A: We've been teasing people a little bit because there have been plans but they're on ice now.

Q: Are you disappointed?

A: Not in the abstract. I don't spend my life thinking, "I hope there's another 'Bridget Jones.'" I like the character and I like the story. I think (author-screenwriter) Helen Fielding is a wonderful writer. Where she began to take it in this next stage now that we're all older is actually more interesting than it was in some ways back then. So if there's a good story and a good script, I'll think about it on that basis.

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Country singer George Jones dead at 81

By Bill Trott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - George Jones, a classic country singer with a voice full of raw honky-tonk emotion and a life full of honky-tonk turmoil, died on Friday at the age of 81, his spokesman said.

Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and included hits such as "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "Window Up Above," died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He had been hospitalized since April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure, spokesman Kirt Webster said.

Like his idol, Hank Williams, Jones battled addiction. Alcohol and cocaine frequently derailed his career and at one point his reputation for canceling performances earned him the nickname No-Show Jones.

But when Jones did show up and was in good form, listeners were treated to a powerful and evocative voice. Jones was at his best with cry-in-your-beer songs and his masterful phrasing made them extra mournful.

As his late contemporary Waylon Jennings put it, "If we could all sound like we wanted to, then we'd all sound like George Jones."

Born in Saratoga, Texas, on September 12, 1931, Jones first began performing for spare change as a boy on the streets of nearby Beaumont. Under the influence of Williams, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, he graduated to the rough roadhouses of East Texas.

Jones had an early marriage, a divorce and a stint in the Marines before his first hit, "Why Baby Why" in 1955. His first No. 1 song, "White Lightning," came in 1959, followed by "Tender Years" in 1961.

The next two decades brought a string of top 10 songs - "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)," "Window Up Above," "She Thinks I Still Care," "Good Year for the Roses, "The Race Is On" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today," which Jones said was his favorite. He also had a successful run of duets with Melba Montgomery.

Jones, who was known as "The Possum," divorced his second wife in 1968 and the next year married one of country's most popular singers, Tammy Wynette. The pairing was an enormous professional success for both as they recorded and toured together and Jones also began working with Billy Sherrill, Wynette's producer.

During his time with Sherrill, Jones refined his honky-tonk voice and sang more ballads, often with the lush string accompaniment that had become a trend in the country music capital of Nashville.

The marriage to Wynette went bad as Jones' addiction problem escalated and Wynette claimed he once came at her with a gun. They divorced in 1975 but later resumed recording together.

Jones continued to put out hit songs in the early 1980s, even as cocaine compounded his personal tumult. Amid a string of hospitalizations and arrests, he disappeared for days at a time, missed shows and recording sessions and took police on a drunken chase through Nashville.

Jones credited fourth wife Nancy, who he married in 1983, with helping him clean up. But in 1999 he was seriously injured after driving drunk and crashing into a bridge, leading to another stay in rehab.

At one point Jones was so incorrigible that one of his four wives cleared the liquor from their home and hid all the car keys so he could not go for more. Jones responded by cranking up his riding lawn mower and driving it to a bar - an escapade he chronicled in "Honky Tonk Song."

Although he was heard infrequently on mainstream country radio in the later years of his career, Jones was a sought-after duet partner and won a Grammy for the song "Choices" in 1999. He also won a Grammy for best country performance in 1980 for "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Jones was still touring last year, although an upper respiratory infection and other health problems forced him to postpone shows.

(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Vicki Allen)

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More