lifestyle WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015

Music & Movies Fox calling an end to ‘American Idol’ ox is lowering the curtain on “American Idol,” ending a Personalities like Adam Lambert and Clay Aiken also became series that dominated television throughout the 2000s household names after competing on “Idol.” Walden said there Fand made stars of the likes of Simon Cowell, Kelly are no specific plans yet, but that several former contestants Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. The network announced yes- and judges have already expressed “a lot of enthusiasm” for terday that “American Idol” will go off the air after its 15th sea- coming back and celebrating the show’s legacy in its final son next spring. The cast from the past seasons, with Ryan year. Seacrest as host and Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry “We’re going to deliver a really special season next year,” Connick Jr as judges, will return for a season-long celebration Newman said. The series averaged 12.69 million viewers dur- of the show’s history. ing its initial run in 2002, but exploded quickly thereafter, “American Idol” faded over the past few years, eclipsed in reaching a peak average of more than 30 million viewers each the music competition genre it pioneered by “The Voice” on episode in 2006, according to the Nielsen company. It contin- NBC. Personnel changes didn’t help, and neither did tinkering ued averaging more than 20 million viewers an episode with the format, as the show fell victim to what usually kills off through the 2011 season, when its popularity declined. Its star most television series - old age. Still, it was a solid performer at Fox was eclipsed this season by the music-based soap for a Fox network that struggles in the ratings. Dana Walden, opera “Empire,” which will launch its second season in the fall. co-chairman and CEO of the Fox Television Group, described it So far this year, “American Idol” is averaging 9.15 million view- as a “pretty emotional decision” to end “American Idol.” ers per episode, Nielsen said. The show will run in a similar for- Fox and the show’s producers were discussing how the mat next season as it has this year, airing Wednesday and series would continue, but ultimately “we all arrived at the Thursday nights starting in January for the beginning stages, conclusion that it was time to bring the show to an end,” said then once a week on Thursday for the second part of the sea- Gary Newman, co-chairman and CEO. “But we wanted to do it son, Fox said. — AP in a way that was special and celebratory.” “Idol” was a quick hit, with fans following contestants who sought the prized “yellow ticket” to Hollywood and a chance at stardom. In the early years, “American Idol” also showed many of the cringe- worthy auditions of contestants with no hope of winning, but has generally resisted those recently.

Peak average Simon Cowell, the Brit with a tart tongue and honest assessments, became a star as judge, along with his fellow From left to right, singer Keith Urban, originals, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. The big-voiced singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, and Clarkson became a major pop star after winning “Idol,” and singer Harry Connick, Jr arrive on set of Underwood is a solid performer on the country charts. ‘American Idol’ in Los Angeles. — AP Tom Hanks Thriller ‘The Circle’ gets financing from image nation

mage Nation Abu Dhabi has come on board perils of life in a digital age where privacy is to fully finance the Tom Hanks thriller “The obsolete. ICircle.” “The Spectacular Now” director James Image Nation and Parkes Macdonald have Ponsoldt is helming the adaptation of Dave also partnered on the upcoming feature docu- Eggers’ novel. IM Global is handling internation- mentary “He Named Me Malala,” directed by al sales on the film, which will be shopped at Davis Guggenheim and to be released world- Cannes. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA wide by Fox Searchlight. Ponsoldt is repped by will jointly rep US rights. The film will be pre- Brillstein Entertainment Partners and attorneys sented by Image Nation in association with Andrew Hurwitz and Alan Sacks at Frankfurt Parkes MacDonald Productions. Hanks, Gary Kurnit Klein & Selz. Vikander is repped by Goetzman for Playtone, Anthony Bregman for UTA, Tavinstock Wood Management and Actors Likely Story, and Ponsoldt will produce. in Scandinavia. — Reuters Alicia Vikander (“Ex Machina”) will also star alongside Hanks, with shooting starting this Conductor Sir Simon Rattle gestures prior to a dress rehearsal for Richard Wagner’s opera August in California. Eggers’ novel focuses on a ‘Goetterdaemmerung’ which was part of the Salzburg Easter Festival in Salzburg, Austria. — AP young woman who’s hired for a big job in an online monopoly called the Circle, which links users’ personal emails, social media, banking and purchasing with their universal operating Berlin Philharmonic fails system. The novel turns into a thriller about the Tom Hanks

to elect new chief conductor Film Review usicians from the prestigious and Birmingham symphony orchestras, and Berlin Philharmonic failed to elect curly-haired Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, Mtheir next chief conductor Monday 34, who is nicknamed “the Dude” and now after more than 11 hours of suspense-filled conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic. ‘You Are My Sunshine’ secret voting and discussions but will try Another strong contender has been the again “within a year”. “I must unfortunately musical director of the Berlin State Opera, tortuous, tawdry pulp romance set in bittersweet experience of a couple who can’t stop tell you that we haven’t reached any result,” Argentine-born Israeli Daniel Barenboim, Shanghai and San Francisco and strung out breaking and making up, the film fails to convince Romantic shenanigans orchestra board member Peter Riegelbauer 72, although he recently said he was not a Aover 10 years, “You Are My Sunshine” feels audiences of why they love each other so much. On Already poorly developed on an emotional lev- told reporters, adding there had been sev- candidate. like a puzzle with half the pieces missing. The film’s a 2005 ferry boat to Alcatraz, Chinese student el, the film further disrupts its own momentum and eral rounds of voting. mainland Chinese co-helmers-TV journeyman Yang Mosheng (Yang) illegally solicits tourists to get their sequential logic with a series of flashbacks tracing “We must continue the process, that will Secret vote Wenjun and A-list artist-manager Ronald Huang- photos taken by her. Before there’s time to say how the couple first met in college in 2002. There’s happen within a year,” he added. The The Berlin Philharmonic-founded in demonstrate little grasp of cinematic technique or “cheesy,” the time frame leaps ahead to 2015, and really nothing off-the-wall about their romantic orchestra’s 124 permanent musicians had 1882 and seen by many as the best orches- artistic taste here, while leads Huang Xiaoming and she’s back in her native Shanghai. shenanigans other than oodles of ickiness, epito- been called to a church building in the tra in the world-is unique in that its musi- Mini Yang generate less chemistry than two Amazingly, knowing how to handle a Polaroid mized by Mosheng force-feeding Yichen durian south west of the German capital at around cians chose their chief conductor them- strangers trapped in an elevator. Still, the avid pop- camera was enough to land her a career as fashion candy (just because in Chinese, the malodorous 0800 GMT for the highly-anticipated ballot selves while elsewhere it is boards and ularity of Gu Man’s online source novel and its TV photographer for the city’s most chic style maga- fruit puns with “lingering love”). to choose a successor to Britain’s Sir Simon trustees, or sometimes politicians, who drama spinoff have kept this bigscreen adaptation zine. At a supermarket, she runs into old flame From there, the yarn becomes an all-out pot- Rattle in 2018. Members are sworn to decide. In the secret vote, the orchestra’s blazing bright at the domestic B.O., where it’s Yichen (Huang), now a hotshot corporate lawyer. boiler, revealing shady connections between secrecy and are even required to leave their members were to first propose a list of can- earned about $45.2 million in a week. As the film When she sees him dating his foster sister Yimei Yichen’s deceased parents and Mosheng’s mayor mobile phones and any recording devices didates, then discuss them and vote to cre- will barely make sense to anyone who’s not a die- (Angelababy), it throws her into such a tizzy that dad, Zhao Qingyuan (Yao Anlian), and stepmother, outside for the conclave, often likened to a ate a shortlist, followed by rounds of voting hard fan of the franchise, overseas prospects are she knocks over a mountain of merchandise. As in Madame Pei (Joan Chen). For a while the film gen- papal election, minus the white smoke. until one candidate emerges with a “clear much cloudier. “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the sight of a femme tripping erates some suspense, raising the question of The global community of classical music majority”. Viewers who’ve seen Guo Jingming’s “Tiny over herself proves more arousing than any plung- whether Yichen might be forced to choose aficionados has been abuzz for weeks The exact number of votes cast for each Times,” China’s most lucrative novel-to-screen phe- ing neckline, leading to the first of many electrify- between love and revenge, but the dramatic arc about who will take up the baton and candidate is kept secret. Once a candidate nomenon, may wonder if they’ve slipped back into ing stare-downs. Again and again, they bump into ultimately flatlines. The appearance of Mosheng’s assume the title of artistic director in Berlin- is picked, a member of the voting commit- the same artificially gilded and emotionally vacant each other-or rather, he stalks her, howls at her for ex-husband, Ying Hui (Tong, still speaking awful the mystery heightened by the fact that tee calls the person to offer him or her the world-no surprise, since both films are rolled out by leaving him seven years ago, and overpowers her English), raises expectations of love-triangle “every living conductor” is a potential can- job. The vote would normally have been Le Vision Pictures and sport the same upscale look with his embraces. shenanigans, but it turns out to be just an excuse to didate. After initially keeping the location held in the Philharmonie in central Berlin. manufactured by Taiwanese stylist Rosalie Huang recount Ying and Mosheng’s hipster life in sunny of the ballot secret, the Philharmonic noti- But a special ceremonial concert is due to and lenser Randy Che. “You Are My Sunshine” even California. The denouement and epilogue leave fied journalists to meet at 1200 GMT at the take place in the building today to mark 50 stars “Tiny Times” heroine Mini Yang, once again many loose ends dangling, but few will care. Protestant Jesus Christ Church in Berlin’s years of diplomatic relations between playing a flaky, simpering woman-child who thrives The performances don’t benefit much from the leafy southwest to await the announce- Germany and Israel, forcing unusually tight on the abuse of powerful men, with the flamboy- crudeness of the characterizations. Yichen exhibits ment, warning them to prepare for “possi- security measures. ant best friend again played by Hsieh Yi-lin. bipolar traits, flying into a rage one moment, break- bly a long wait”. With a rags-to-riches segment set in California ing down in tears the next; by turns starchy and News of an appointment had initially ‘Hardest, best job’ where Tong Dawei plays a budding IT entrepreneur, weirdly menacing, Huang keeps you guessing as to been slated for around 1200 GMT, then for Rattle, who has led the “Berliner the film also tries to appropriate crowd-pleasing whether he’ll kiss Mosheng or hit her. Flapping two hours later. But it was then further Philharmoniker” since 2002, will take over as elements from “American Dreams in China,” which about saucer-eyed, Mini Yang strains to convince as delayed several times through the evening, chief conductor of the London Symphony paired Tong with Huang. While the film lacks any- a ditzy babe. As Yichen’s intern-cum-personal-bar- as musicians huddled inside the red-brick Orchestra in 2017. He will spend the year thing resembling its own identity, its runaway suc- tender, Tao (formerly of Korean boy band EXO) cul- church, a space which the orchestra has after that commuting to London from cess indicates that mainland viewers still haven’t tivates a metrosexual image copied from Japanese repeatedly used for performances and Berlin-where he lives with his third wife, grown tired of college nostalgia, or glossy produc- manga “The Black Butler,” to gratuitous effect. Hsieh recordings since World War II. Riegelbauer mezzo soprano Magdalena Kozena, and tions with a melodramatic/lifestyle-magazine sensi- phones in her perf as the bossy bestie, a role she’s said discussions has been conducted in an their young family-before finally handing bility. (The film enjoyed 33% of screening slots on repeated ad nauseum in every mainland romantic “amicable, cooperative atmosphere” but over the Berlin baton. The 60-year-old opening day, while arthouse offerings like Wang comedy she’s done. that there were “quite fundamentally vary- Liverpudlian, with his characteristic mop of Xiaoshuai’s “Red Amnesia” and Sylvia Chang’s Of the pedestrian tech credits, most grating is ing positions” among the musicians. white hair, said recently that Berlin was “Murmur of the Hearts” were squeezed with only the indiscriminate backlighting, which cloaks faces “simultaneously the hardest and best con- 1%.) in a yellowish brightness; some shots are held so Secret ballot ducting job in the world.” With still three long they morph into freeze-frame. Music provides Among the names being talked about more years to go in the German capital, he Emotional level an overdose of Jimmie Davies’ iconic song (suppos- have been Berlin native Christian said his time in its iconic concert hall, the The Chinese title, from Gu’s Web fiction, trans- edly Mosheng’s favorite), while the sound mix is Thielemann, 56, now at the Staatskapelle Philharmonie, has been “exceptional”. — AFP lates as “Why are the flutes and sheng (Chinese muddled and deafening. — Reuters Dresden, who favors German composers reed instrument) silent?”-an homage to a famous Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms and verse in 1930s romantic poet Hsu Chih-mo’s “On Richard Strauss. Others include Latvian Leaving Cambridge.” Try as it might to evoke the Andris Nelsons, 37, who heads the Boston Hollywood accused of gender bias in hiring women directors he ACLU of Southern California and the national ACLU anecdotal accounts gathered from 50 women directors. opportunity to succeed.” Recent research by the University of two decades. “Blatant and extreme gender inequality in this Women’s Rights Project said yesterday they are asking Fewer women are working as directors today than two Southern California’s Media, Diversity & Social Change large and important industry is shameful and unacceptable,” Tfederal and California civil rights agencies to investigate decades ago, according to the organizations. They estimate Initiative found a general perception in Hollywood that stories said Melissa Goodman, director of the ACLU SoCal’s LGBTQ, what they call “the systemic failure” to hire women directors in that, in 2014, women represented only 7 percent of directors by or about women are more niche than mainstream, and Gender & Reproductive Justice Project. — AP the film and television industry. The organizations have com- on the 250 top-grossing films. That is 2 percentage points low- therefore less profitable. A recent study by USC and the advo- piled statistical evidence of what they term “dramatic dispari- er than in 1998. Ariela Migdal of the ACLU Women’s Rights cacy group Women in Film shows women have represented ties” in the hiring of women. These findings are bolstered by Project said, “Women directors simply aren’t getting a fair fewer than 5 percent of directors of top films during the past