People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2016

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Guests arrive for the opening ceremony of the 38th Moscow International Film Festival at Moscow’s Rossiya theatre on June 23. (AFP)

In this May 13, 2015 file photo, singer-songwriter James Taylor poses for a portrait in New York. This year’s Ken-nedy Center honorees include musi-cians who span genres including pop, rock, gospel, blues, folk and classical — and an actor known for his extraor-

dinary range. (AP)

LOS ANGELES: Legendary has won an auction for the movie project “Bad Blood” with Jennifer Lawrence at-tached to star.

“Bad Blood” will be written and directed by “The Big Short” director Adam McKay. Lawrence will play Elizabeth Holmes, founder of contro-versial blood testing company Theranos.

The value of Theranos has plunged following news that the company is under investigation for inaccurate test-ing. Holmes has continued to stand by Theranos.

Producers are McKay, Will Ferrell and Kevin Messick through their Gary Sanchez company, along with Law-rence. McKay and Charles Randolph won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in February for “The Big Short.”

The package drew bids from several studios — including Paramount, which distributed “The Big Short” — and production companies. (RTRS)

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LOS ANGELES: Katherine Heigl has announced she is pregnant with a baby boy due in January.

The child will be the third for the 37-year-old actress and her 36-year-old husband, musician Josh Kelley. The couple has two adopted daughters, 7-year-old Naleigh Moon and 4-year-old Adelaide Marie Hope.

Heigl announced the birth on Instagram and her lifestyle website, www.thoseheav-enlydays.com . She said she and Kelley are “full of high hopes and bubbling anticipation.” Heigl said she and Kelley were considering adoption again, fostering or pregnancy, if it was possible. Kelley said on Instagram he “can’t wait to hold this little nugget.” (AP)

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BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY: Christie Brinkley is selling her New York estate for $30 million.

Newsday reports the 20-acre estate in the Hamptons is called Tower Hill.

Real estate agent Enzo Morabito of Douglas Elliman says the property

in Bridgehampton includes an eight-bedroom main house.

He says the house is built around a 100-year-old, 50-foot observation tower and has views of Connecticut, the Atlan-tic Ocean and “the curvature of the earth.”

The paper says Brinkley, a longtime resident of eastern Long Island, has had the property on and off the market since 2002 at asking prices starting at $25 million.

It did not say where the supermodel

plans to live if she sells the estate. (AP)❑ ❑ ❑

TOULOUSE, France: A French court on Thursday ordered the extradition of US rapper Freddie Gibbs to Austria, where he is accused of rape, his lawyer

Michael Malka said.The 34-year-old rapper from Gary,

Indiana, was arrested on June 2 shortly before a planned concert in the south-western French city of Toulouse, one of a string of European tour dates.

Gibbs, whose real name is Fredrick Tipton, was the subject of a European arrest warrant issued on May 31 for an alleged rape in Austria in 2015.

According to Austrian media, citing prosecution sources, Gibbs is accused of drugging two women who came back-stage after a July 6 concert in Vienna, before taking them back to a hotel where they were allegedly raped by the rapper and one of his security agents. (AFP)

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LOS ANGELES: The Bucheon Inter-national Fantastic Film Festival, Asia’s largest genre fi lm festival, announced a huge 302 title lineup for its 20th edition.

American actor-director Matt Ross’s Cannes prize-winning family drama “Cap-tain Fantastic” will open the festival on July 21. Closing the festival will be Yeon Sang-ho’s latest animated feature “Seoul Station,” a prequel to Yeon’s Cannes live action fi lm “Train to Busan.”

In celebration of the 130th anniversa-ry of Korea-France bilateral relations, the festival will dedicate a showcase to French company Gaumont. Other special programs include a David Bowie tribute, and a Nakashima Tetsuya retrospective. (RTRS)

(From left): Indian Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, Indian actress Sonakshi Sinha and Indian actress Deepika Padukone attend the press conference for the 17th edition of IIFA Awards (International Indian Film Academy Awards) in Madrid on June 23. The IIFA Awards are presented annually by the International Indian Film Academy to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in Bollywood, the

Hindi language film industry. (AFP)

O’Connor may be in asuicidal state: policeCHICAGO, June 24, (AFP): Offi-cers were on the lookout Thursday for Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, after receiving a tip that she may be in a suicidal state, the Chicago Police Department told AFP.

The department said it had sent an “advisory message” to its units to be on the lookout for the musi-cian, although it was not actively searching for her.

According to US media, a Dub-lin police sergeant contacted Chi-cago earlier in the day to warn that O’Connor had made life-threaten-ing statements about jumping off a Chicago bridge. The 49-year-old songstress already created a stir last month when she failed to return from a bicycle ride, but was ultimately found safe in the Chi-cago suburbs one day later.

‘The Godfather’ trilogy star’s honor arguably overdue

Pacino, Eagles among Kennedy Center honoreesWASHINGTON, June 24, (AP): This year’s Kennedy Center honorees in-clude musicians who span genres in-cluding pop, rock, gospel, blues, folk and classical — and an actor known for his extraordinary range.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday that actor Al Pacino, rock band the Eagles, Argentine pianist Martha Ar-gerich, gospel and blues singer Mavis Staples and singer-songwriter James Taylor will be honored for influencing American culture through the arts.

For the Eagles, the recognition will be bittersweet. The band was tapped for the honor last year but postponed its appearance because of founding member Glenn Frey’s failing health. Frey died in January, about a month after the honors gala.

For Pacino, the star of “The Godfa-ther” trilogy who has long been regarded as one of the great American actors, the honor is arguably overdue. Many of his peers who became leading men in adven-turous 1970s Hollywood have already been honored, including Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Robert Redford.

Kennedy Center president Debo-rah Rutter, who’s had the job for two years, said she didn’t know why Pacino hadn’t been selected sooner.

“When I called and invited him, it was an enthusiastic yes,” Rutter told The Associated Press. “You could say all of them are overdue or all of them are exactly at the right moment. We have a great opportunity to recognize people who are still active and yet have accomplished so much.”

The honorees will be celebrated at a gala on Dec 4, featuring performances and tributes from top entertainers. The

show will be broadcast on Dec. 27 on CBS.

HonoreesMARTHA ARGERICHBorn in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the

pianist was a child prodigy who gave her first concert at age 8 and moved to Europe with her family as a teenager to continue her studies.

She made her US debut in 1965 at Lincoln Center in New York. Since then, she has been considered one of the world’s most prominent pianists. Her repertoire includes performances of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Shostakovich. She has won three Grammy awards.

Argerich, 75, said in a statement that her mother always dreamed that she would study and perform in the United States.

“My late mother would be very proud today, and I would like to share this wonderful tribute with her,” Arg-erich said.

EAGLESOne of the most successful rock bands

of all time, the Eagles have sold more than 120 million albums with their sig-nature laid-back sound, and their 1976 greatest hits album is the second biggest-selling album of all time, trailing only Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Co-founders Frey and Don Henley began writing songs together while touring as members of Linda Ron-stadt’s backup band. They co-wrote most of the band’s biggest hits, includ-ing “Hotel California,” and they shared lead-singing duties.

While the band’s meticulously craft-ed soft rock is always associated with

Southern California, Frey originally hailed from Michigan, Henley is from Texas and Joe Walsh was born in Kan-sas. Timothy B. Schmit, who joined in 1977, is the only native Californian.

The band was active from 1971-1980 before reuniting for a 1994 con-cert, “Hell Freezes Over,” that was re-corded for a live album. Afterward, the Eagles began touring again.

AL PACINOBorn in East Harlem and raised in

the South Bronx, Pacino, 76, began to draw notice for his onstage work in the late 1960s, and he won his first Tony award in 1970. With his daring choices and deep immersion into his roles, Pac-ino was among the 1970s movie stars who redefined what a Hollywood lead-ing man could look and sound like.

He had just one major film role to his credit when writer-director Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Michael Cor-leone in “The Godfather.” He reprised the role two years later in the ground-breaking sequel, “The Godfather Part II,” and he received Oscar nominations for both performances.

Pacino also starred in two other 1970s classics, “Serpico” and “Dog Day Afternoon.” He worked sparingly in the 1980s but had another string of memorable starring roles in the 1990s, including “Scent of a Woman,” for which he won his first Oscar after sev-en previous nominations. Other credits include “Heat,” “Donnie Brasco” and “The Insider.” More recently, he’s done memorable work in television, playing real-life figures Jack Kevork-ian and Phil Spector.

MAVIS STAPLESStaples, 76, got her start as part of a

family gospel band, singing alongside her four siblings with her father, “Pops” Staples, on guitar. Her father was a friend of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Staple Sisters’ covers of contempo-rary pop hits became a soundtrack for the civil rights movement. They had No. 1 hits with “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again.”

In her more than 60 years as a re-cording artist, Staples has also worked in genres including soul, folk, pop, rock, R&B and hip hop. Prince wrote two albums for her in the late 1980s. She has also collaborated with Bob Dylan — who at one point asked her to marry him — Van Morrison, Bruce Hornsby, Chuck D., Willie Nelson and Jeff Tweedy. Both Staples and Tweedy are Chicago natives.

JAMES TAYLORThe son of a physician, Taylor,

68, was raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and he developed his sig-nature finger-picking guitar style in part because he was first trained as a cellist. Paired with his warm baritone voice, his lyrical playing was featured on classic songs including “Fire and Rain” and “Something in the Way She Moves.”

His career got off to a fitful start in the late 1960s as he struggled with drug addiction, and “Carolina in My Mind,” which later became one of his signature tunes, didn’t sell well upon its initial release. He gained critical and popular success with the 1970 album “Sweet Baby James,” which featured vocals from Carole King, a Kennedy Center honoree last year.

His greatest hits album, released in 1976, went on to sell more than 11 mil-lion copies.

Variety

Film

Gibbs Brinkley

Bluegrass pioneer

Music legendStanley deadNASHVILLE, Tenn, June 24, (Agencies): Ralph Stanley, a pa-triarch of Appalachian music who with his brother Carter helped ex-pand and popularize the genre that became known as bluegrass, has died. He was 89.

Stanley died Thursday at his home in Sandy Ridge, Virginia, be-cause of difficulties from skin can-

cer, publicist Kirt Webster said.

A l t h o u g h he influenced g e n e r a t i o n s of musicians t h r o u g h o u t his long ca-reer, Stan-ley brought his old-time

mountain mu-sic into a new

century when he was featured in the soundtrack for the popular film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” in 2000, for which he won a Grammy.

Stanley was born and raised in Big Spraddle, Virginia, a land of coal mines and deep forests where he and his brother formed the Stanley Brothers and their Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946. Their fa-ther would sing them old traditional songs like “Man of Constant Sor-row,” while their mother, a banjo player, taught them the old-time clawhammer style, in which the player’s fingers strike downward at the strings in a rhythmic style.

Heavily influenced by Grand Ole Opry star Bill Monroe, the broth-ers fused Monroe’s rapid rhythms with the mountain folk songs from groups such as the Carter Family, who hailed from this same rocky corner of Virginia.

The Stanleys created a distinc-tive three-part harmony that com-bined the lead vocal of Carter with Ralph’s tenor and an even higher part sung by bandmate Pee Wee Lambert. Carter’s romantic song-writing professed a deep passion for the rural landscape, but also reflected on lonesomeness and per-sonal losses.

Songs like “The Lonesome River,” uses the imagery of the water to evoke the loss of a lover, and “White Dove,” describes the mourning and suffering after the death of a mother and father. In 1951, they popularized “Man of Constant Sorrow,” which was also later recorded by Bob Dylan in the ’60s.

Truth“Ralph Stanley was elemental.

His voice was freshwater, wind, sky, and stone,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Dr Ralph is revered by Bob Dylan, Rob-ert Plant, Elvis Costello, Gillian Welch, Ricky Skaggs, and most anyone else equipped to handle the unfiltered truth.”

The brothers were swept into the burgeoning folk movement and they toured the country playing folk and bluegrass festivals during the ’60s, including the Newport Folk Festival in 1959 and 1964.

But when Carter died of liver disease in 1966, Ralph wasn’t sure he could continue. His brother had been the main songwriter, lead singer and front man, and Ralph, by his own account, was withdrawn and shy, although he had overcome some of his early reticence.

“Within weeks of his passing, I got phone calls and letters and telegrams and they all said don’t quit. They said, ‘We’ve always been behind you and Carter, but now we’ll be behind you even more because we know you’ll need us,’” Stanley told The Asso-ciated Press in 2006.

After Carter’s death, Ralph drew even deeper from his Appalachian roots, adopting the a cappella sing-ing style of the Primitive Baptist church where he was raised. He re-formed the Clinch Mountain Boys band to include Ray Cline, vocalist Larry Sparks and Melvin Goins. He would change the lineup of the band over the years, later including Jack Cooke, and mentored younger art-ists like Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs.

Also:LOS ANGELES: Conductor and composer Harry Rabinowitz, who worked on more than 60 films in-cluding as the conductor on “Chari-ots of Fire,” has died at the age of 100, according to the BBC.

Rabinowitz was born in Johan-nesburg in 1916, and moved to England in 1946 to study at Lon-don’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

He served as head of music at BBC TV Light Entertainment in the 1960s, and as head of mu-sic services at London Weekend Television in the 1970s. In 1977 he was awarded a national honor, the MBE.

He composed scores for many TV shows including “Reilly: Ace of Spies,” for which he received a BAFTA nomination in 1984.

Obits

Stanley