News
National Society of Film Critics selects 'The Hurt Locker' as best picture of 2009 at NYC meet
By Associated Press - January 3, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) The National Society of Film Critics on Sunday selected "The Hurt Locker," a film about an elite Army bomb squad unit that works in Iraq to defuse improvised explosives while under the threat of insurgents, as the best picture of 2009. The society, composed of film...
Policies forbidding payment for news interviews grow blurry as outlets vie for access, photos
DAVID BAUDER - January 3, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) Policies forbidding payment for news interviews increasingly seem like the network television equivalent of the 55 mph speed limit: a rule often winked at unless you're heading into a speed trap. Three of the past month's accidental celebrities Jasper Schuringa, who...
SC's Spoleto festival embraces renovated theater for the 2-week celebration of the arts
By Associated Press - January 3, 2010
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) The Spoleto Festival USA will celebrate the reopening of a nearly 300-year old theater with a production that was the first opera performed in the American colonies. Charleston's Dock Street Theatre should be ready to open by the time the two-week festival begins...
Cable TV standoffs leave consumers to pay more for programming, risk losing shows
DAVE CARPENTER - January 3, 2010
CHICAGO (AP) Many questions remain for cable TV viewers nationwide even after Fox and Time Warner Cable settled their noisy spat with a New Year's Day agreement. The deal was good news for more than 6 million Time Warner customers in the short term: College bowl and National Football...
Rap producer Shawty Redd in jail, accused of killing man at his home near Atlanta
By Associated Press - January 2, 2010
McDONOUGH, Ga. (AP) Music producer Demetrius Lee Stewart, known as Shawty Redd, is being held in a suburban Atlanta jail on a murder charge. Henry County Police Capt. Jason Bolton says Stewart was arrested Friday morning. Stewart is accused of shooting 35-year-old Damon...
Muslims, Hindus crank up volume in stereotype-smashing 'Taqwacore' punk rock bands
RUSSELL CONTRERAS - January 3, 2010
WAYLAND, Mass. (AP) Artwork from the Punjab state of India decorates the Ray family home. A Johann Sebastian Bach statue sits on a piano. But in the basement cluttered with wires, old concert fliers and drawings 25-year-old Arjun Ray is fighting distortion from his electric guitar....
Elton John says he's helping Eminem fight drug problems; says rapper doing well
By Associated Press - January 2, 2010
LONDON (AP) Elton John says he has been helping American rapper Eminen fight drug problems for more than a year. John says Eminem is succeeding in his well-publicized battle against substance abuse. John told BBC Radio Saturday that as a recovered drug abuser he is happy...
Kathy Griffin making vulgarity on CNN a New Year's Eve tradition with 2nd quip in 2 years
By Associated Press - January 1, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) For the second straight year, comedian Kathy Griffin ushered in the new year by saying something vulgar on CNN. During the network's live New Year's Eve broadcast from Times Square, Griffin was joking with co-host Anderson Cooper about how to pronounce the first name of "...
'You Light Up My Life' songwriter Joseph Brooks settles lawsuit with married ex-fiancee
JENNIFER PELTZ - January 1, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) The Academy Award-winning songwriter of "You Light Up My Life" has ended his six-figure fight with a former fiancee he accused of conning him out of cash and pricey gifts by hiding the fact that she was already married. A Manhattan judge last week approved a settlement...
Reports: Berlusconi working on new love songs as he recovers from attack
By Associated Press - January 1, 2010
ROME (AP) Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has returned to an old passion of his while recovering from last month's attack at a rally: writing Neapolitan love songs, news reports said. Berlusconi also made his first public appearance since the Dec. 13 attack, going to a shopping mall...
