lifestyle WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2014

Music & Movies

Taylor Swift cancels Thai gig after coup

ountry-pop star Taylor Swift has cancelled an upcoming The 24-year-old pop diva is due to tour the region as part constitution. Swift has other concerts in Shanghai, Tokyo, sold-out concert in politically turbulent Thailand, the of her “Red Tour” in the coming weeks. Thailand’s powerful Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore in May and Csinger confirmed yesterday, after the army took control military ousted the civilian government of former premier June. — AFP of the country and imposed a curfew and martial law. Swift Yingluck Shinawatra Thursday following months of street was due to play at the Impact Arena on the outskirts of the protests. The kingdom has been repeatedly rocked by rival capital Bangkok on June 9, but organizers announced it had demonstrations from enemies of Yingluck’s divisive brother been cancelled “due to recent events in Thailand”, according to Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, as well as his “Red File photo shows Taylor Swift arrives at a post on the Thai Ticket Major website. “I’m sending my love Shirt” supporters. the 49th annual Academy of Country to the fans in Thailand. I’m so sad about the concert being Thailand’s junta has curbed civil liberties and restricted the Music Awards at the MGM Grand canceled,” Swift said in a post on Twitter. media, imposed a nightly curfew and abrogated most of the Garden Arena in Las Vegas. — AP Christopher Lee releases metal album, aged 92

orror film legend Christopher Lee, who turned 92 yesterday, is celebrating the milestone by releasing Ha heavy rock mini-album entitled “Metal Knight”. The Dracula actor is a long-time devotee of heavy metal-a genre partly inspired by the sort of horror films he starred in-and has already several album releases under his belt. “I associate heavy metal with fantasy because of the tremen- dous power that the music delivers,” explained Lee, who possesses a booming, classically-trained bass voice. Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi presented the “Lord of the Rings” star with the Spirit of Metal prize at the Golden Gods Awards in 2010 for his services to metal music. In December, the “Star Wars” actor became the old- est ever performer to place in the US Billboard singles chart with his record “Jingle Hell”. “Metal Knight”, to be released on Monday, features four tracks and three alternative edits. This file picture Two songs are from the “Man of La Mancha” musical: “I, Don taken on May 15, Quixote” and “The Impossible Dream”. 2014 shows British The others are “The Toreador March” from Georges music legend Paul McCartney gets Bizet’s opera “Carmen”, in its original French, and “My Way”, McCartney upon popularized by Frank Sinatra. “As far as I am concerned, his arrival at the Don Quixote is the most metal fictional character that I Haneda airport in back to health, know,” said Lee. “Single handed, he is trying to change the A picture dated December 16, 2011 shows British actor Christopher Lee smiling during a Tokyo.—AFP world, regardless of any personal consequences. It is a ceremony where he was presented with the Insignia of Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts wonderful character to sing”. — AFP et Lettres honoring his contribution to the fields of art and literature at the residence of leaves Japan the French ambassador to Britain in London. — AFP usic legend Paul McCartney has recovered from a virus that forced the cancellation of his Asian tour Mand has left Japan, the concert organizer said yes- terday. McCartney “has recovered well enough to travel on Russia bans historically false film an airplane,” said an official from Kyodo Tokyo, the organiz- ‘ ’ er of the Japanese leg of the “Out There” global tour. “According to the information that we have, he left Japan yesterday” for an undisclosed destination, he said. The for- on Stalin deportations of Chechens mer Beatle arrived in Japan on May 15 and was due to play four sold-out dates in Tokyo and Osaka. But the 71-year-old pop veteran cancelled all his gigs as ussia has refused to permit the release of a film about well as the South Korean leg of the tour, saying he had the mass deportations of entire ethnic groups on been taken sick with an undisclosed virus. The called-off RStalin’s orders during World War II, calling it anti- concerts included one at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan Hall that Russian and a falsification of history. The historical drama would have marked his first return to the venue since shot in Chechnya details how the Soviets forcibly deported appearing there with The Beatles in 1966. The cancella- the whole Chechen nation and the related Ingush group-half tions generated an outpouring of good wishes from fans a million people-from their homeland in the North Caucasus of the Liverpool-born musician-one of two living members to Central Asia in the winter of 1944, accusing them of lack- of The Beatles. — AFP ing loyalty to the state. A culture ministry official condemned the film as a “histor- ical falsification” in a letter shown to AFP by the film’s scriptwriter and producer, Ruslan Kokanayev. “We consider the film will promote ethnic hatred,” wrote Vyacheslav Telnov, director of the ministry’s cinema department, in the letter in response to a request for a release certificate. Titled “Ordered to Forget”, the film was intended to mark the 70th anniver- sary of the deportations this year. The culture ministry, which licenses cinema releases, sin- gled out a massacre depicted in the film in which 700 people were burnt to death in the Chechen mountain village of Khaibakh in 1944. The ministry said it had searched three Russian state archives including the files of the NKVD security The history graduate from Chechen State University in A handout undated forces that carried out the deportations and Stalin’s personal Grozny also denied that the film could incite ethnic hatred of still photo provided files. “As a result of the investigation, no documents were dis- Russians. “The film can’t be anti-Russian because it doesn’t by Ruslan covered proving the fact of the mass burning of residents,” say one nation killed another nation,” he said. “Some Russians Kokanayev shows a the ministry said. behaved well towards those deported.” scene from ‘Ordered “This allows us to conclude that claims of this ‘event’ are a Russia under President Vladimir Putin has increasingly tak- to Forget’. — AFP historical falsification.” An advisor to Culture Minister Vladimir en on the mantle of the Soviet Union and prides itself on its Medinsky, Larisa Khon, told the Kommersant daily the min- victories while downplaying the millions of deaths under istry had not taken a final decision on the film and would car- Stalin’s forced industrialization, collectivization and prison ry out a further expert assessment. The ministry did not camps. Putin has voiced opposition to debate on history and respond to a request for comment from AFP. is overseeing the creation of a single history textbook series to be used by all schools. ‘A generally accepted fact’ The film is a “full-length feature film, the first Chechen But Alexander Cherkasov of rights group Memorial told film,” said Kokanayev. Unusually for a movie maker, the 52- AFP the Khaibakh massacre “is considered a generally accept- year-old works as the head of a municipal district in ed fact.” “On February 23 (1944), snow fell in the mountains Chechnya. The film was financed by “private investors in US actor Tom Cruise poses during the photocall of the film ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ yesterday and it was difficult to move the people out on foot. They Grozny and Moscow,” he said. “We didn’t have any financing in central Rome. — AFP brought out the men, but set fire to those who could not from the (state) budget.” It stars several acclaimed actors walk,” Cherkasov said. “It is only possible to argue about the including Roza Khairullina, who last year won best actress at numbers of the dead.” The ministry “apparently acted on the Russia’s prestigious Golden Mask theatre awards. The film’s principle: let’s not get ourselves into trouble,” Cherkasov said. makers have submitted it to a number of film festivals both in Cruise pushes ‘Edge of The film’s makers were taken aback by the decision. “I did- Russia and abroad, including the Moscow International Film n’t expect it because we were sure we’d get a distribution Festival and the Venice Film Festival. — AFP licence, because these facts are known,” Kokanayev said by Tomorrow’ to its limits telephone from the Chechen capital Grozny. “I intend to con- test this ban,” Kokanayev said. “We will go to court and show hree premieres, in three cities, on only ing impossible, really seemed like it would be a that we are in the right.” one day. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are great way to finish,” Liman says. Cruise and Tpushing their own limits to promote their Blunt joke about who will have more stamina latest movie “Edge of Tomorrow.” The tour starts staying awake on the day. “Because I have a today with an early London premiere, moving baby, I’m not sleeping as much anyway,” Blunt African-American cowboy on to Paris and ending in New York. Film stars says. are used to jetting around to launch their proj- “You’ll be like unconscious. But I’ll be there,” ects but not usually on the same day. Blunt, the Cruise counters. Cruise and Blunt were talking crooner Herb Jeffries dies 31-year-old actress known from “The Devil on the rooftop of a London hotel, overlooking Wears Prada,” says it is typical of her co-star. the opening location of the movie, where the erb Jeffries, the first African-American musical revue “Jump for Joy” alongside “When I heard about the premiere idea of main character is flown in to Trafalgar Square. It singing cowboy to appear in movies in Dorothy Dandridge in Los Angeles. His popu- three in one day I just said ‘that’s Tom’s idea,’” was the first time a helicopter has ever landed Hthe 1930s, died of heart failure Sunday lar solo hits “When the Swallows Come Back she says. “Edge of Tomorrow” is a combination in between the famous fountains, next to morning at a Los Angeles hospital. He was to Capistrano” and “Basin Street Blues” were of action, science-fiction, a war movie and a Nelson’s Column - something Cruise still gets 100. His death was confirmed by Raymond released after he’d served in World War II. love story, directed by Doug Liman. Cruise, 51, excited talking about. Despite shooting around Strait, who worked with Jeffries on his not- Jeffries appeared in nine films and on televi- plays military PR man Major William Cage, a the clock, the stars took time out when Blunt yet-published autobiography titled “Color of sion shows like “Hawaii Five-O” and has a star quick-talking coward who is forced to fight for invited Cruise to a trendy London sex club to Love.” Jeffries, who was born Umberto on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was humanity against an alien invasion. Blunt is the celebrate Matt Damon’s birthday - a story she Valentino in Detroit in 1913 and was of inducted into the Western Performers Hall of poster girl for the army, a highly-trained warrior revealed on Jimmy Kimmel’s US chat show. Sicilian, Irish and Ethiopian decent, appeared Fame in 2004. and the only person who can help him when Cruise laughs off the fact that she has now told as a horse-riding good guy with a thick mus- Strait said Jeffries recently had several sur- he starts living the same day over and over everyone. “He thought it was going to be a tache in a number of ‘30s westerns including geries that “just wore him out.” He added that again, never reaching the tomorrow of the title. more civilized night,” Blunt says. “But it was fun.” “Harlem Rides the Range” and “Harlem on the Jeffries “believed in one world and one peo- Shot in the UK at Warner Brothers ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ is in UK cinemas on Friday Prairie,” a musical that featured an all-black ple and was one of the most generous people Leavesden Studios, director Doug Liman says and opens in the US on June 6. — AP cast that included actor Spencer Williams. I’ve ever met. He was always funding some- three premieres in twenty-four hours is nothing Jeffries was known for his luscious bari- thing or doing something for kids.” Jeffries is In this Friday, Sept 24, 2004 photo, Herb Jeffries, a singing compared to what they achieved on set. “‘Edge tone. In the 1940s, he performed as a mem- survived by his fifth wife, Savannah; three cowboy hero of the silver screen, right, is congratulated by of Tomorrow’ was an impossible movie to make ber of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and daughters; and two sons. — AP jazz great Gerald Wilson following dedication ceremonies - harder than anything I’ve ever done before. released his signature tune “Flamingo.” In for Jeffries’ star on the Walk of Fame in the Hollywood sec- So, having a premiere day that starts off sound- 1941, he appeared in Ellington’s all-black tion of Los Angeles, on his 93rd birthday. — AP