Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017

Cher to sing ‘Believe’ at Billboard Music Awards this month orty-two years after he stepped Stallone responded that Wepner bene- life together after he was released from into the ring against Muhammad fited by making public appearances as prison and later convinced him to sue. FAli as a 40-to-1 underdog, Chuck “the real ,” but later settled. A While Wepner admits he did a bad job Wepner’s business card still has a pic- spokeswoman for Stallone said he auditioning after a night of partying ture of the moment when he knocked wasn’t giving interviews ahead of the when Stallone tried to give him a part as down the champ. For the film. Schreiber said that it’s hard to look his sparring partner in “Rocky II,” the last boxer, it gave him brief hope that he at some of the parallels between Rocky straw was not being considered for a could win. For Ali, it led him to start Balboa and Wepner and not think that part in the Stallone and Robert De Niro fighting with a vengeance, eventually Stallone was inspired by Wepner’s life. film “Cop Land,” which filmed near taking an exhausted Wepner out with 19 “But I also know from talking to Bayonne. seconds left in the 15th and final round. that he thought the “I sued for $15 million, fuhgeddabou- For Sylvester Stallone, the overmatched fighter was an amalgamation of several dit, I didn’t get a minute percentage of underdog’s fight was a moment of fighters,” Schreiber said, “and that prob- that,” Wepner said. “Stallone and I are needed inspiration while writing the ably the biggest inspiration to him was friends now. We had to go to court. That script for “Rocky.” sort of his own battles as an artist, that was just business. I love Sylvester, I think Stallone became a superstar and was really the inspiration for the charac- he’s great. I think his moves are great.” became an iconic charac- ter.” Schreiber, who said he was drawn “Chuck” director said her will sing her late 1990s anthem “Believe” at the ter. Wepner reeled off a few more wins Billboard Music Awards this month. Dick Clark and continued his day job as a liquor CProductions announced yesterday that Cher also salesman, while living a hard-partying will receive the ICON Award at the May 21 event in Las lifestyle that led to prison. Wepner’s life Vegas, where the singer is completing a residency at the story has now arrived on the big screen Park Theater at Monte Carlo. It will be her first awards with playing the Bayonne show performance in more than 15 years. Bleeder in “Chuck,” which opens on Other artists set to take the stage at the Billboard Friday in and Los Angeles Awards include Drake, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Celine before expanding nationwide starting Dion, Lorde, Nicki Minaj, Imagine Dragons, Georgia next week. Line and John Legend. The show will air live on ABC from “Everyone says to me, ‘Oh, Chuck, T-Mobile Arena. — AP finally you got your due,’” the 78-year- old Wepner said from his living room in Bayonne, the working-class town across the harbor from New York where he grew up. “You know what, I’ve been liv- ing large for 42 years. I fought Ali in ‘75, I went 15 rounds, I had him down, and then they made the movie ‘Rocky.’ I was the inspiration. I haven’t been waiting around.” Wepner and Balboa’s story share similarities - low-level working class fighters getting a shot at the File photo shows former boxer Chuck Wepner talks to The Associated Press in champ. But while Rocky went on to beat his home in Bayonne, NJ. — AP the Ali-like in their “Rocky to Wepner’s life as a cautionary tale of that while there are similarities between II” rematch, Wepner turned to a life of fame and celebrity, said that storytellers Wepner and Rocky, Stallone’s character partying and cocaine. He pleaded guilty often exploit real people to create their was “much more low-key, much more to drug charges in 1987 and served two narratives. “And I think that’s OK,” he insecure. Chuck Wepner has no insecuri- years of a 10-year sentence. said. “I think that’s the nature of art and ties. He’s so confident.” Falardeau said Staff members test the stage at the International Like Rocky’s fight with ’s storytelling. Some stories stay very close that Stallone gave the filmmakers his Exhibition Centre in Kiev. — AP Thunderlips character in “Rocky III,” to the truth ... but I think we should also OK. Just as important, Falardeau says: As Wepner was thrown out of the ring by feel the license to expand on some the movie ends with Schreiber’s Wepner wrestling legend Andre the Giant at things and express ourselves as fits the and Watts’ Linda walking down the Eurovision host Ukraine issues Shea Stadium in New York in a 1976 person that’s creating the story.” boardwalk, he stops for a Polaroid photo fight. Unlike Rocky, Wepner also fought “Chuck” also stars “Mad Men’s” in front of a Rocky statue outside of a stamp with 2016 winner Jamala a bear. Wepner sued Stallone in 2003, Elisabeth Moss as Wepner’s second wife Planet Hollywood. Falardeau said arguing that he improperly used his and as his third wife, Linda. Stallone lent the statue to the filmmak- kraine’s postal service yesterday announced the issue of a name to promote the “Rocky” films. It was Linda who helped Wepner get his ers from his personal collection. — AP stamp honoring 2016 Eurovision winner Jamala as the Ucountry gears up to host this year’s televised song compe- tition in Kiev. The ethnic Tatar singer from Ukraine’s Russian- annexed Crimea brought the annual festival to Kiev by winning last year’s closely-contested competition in Stockholm. The 33- Stars Wars fans say, year-old instantly became a national heroine for performing a powerful ballad about the Soviet Union’s repression of Tatars in the peninsula seized by Russia from Ukraine in March 2014. ‘May the 4th be with you’ Jamala’s victory was especially sweet for Ukrainians because she came from behind to pip Russia’s entry at the very end of vot- ozens of fans costumed as Jedi knights, stormtroop- black-helmeted arch villain, Darth Vader. “None of my own ing by fans from across Europe and national juries. “We take pride ers of the Galactic Empire and protagonist Luke friends showed up today, but I’ve made new ones here. I in the talent of Jamala, a Ukrainian people’s artist,” the Ukrpochta DSkywalker thronged central Taipei yesterday to cele- chose Darth Vader because I think he’s very handsome.” postal service said in a statement on its official Facebook page. It brate Star Wars Day, the 40th anniversary of the sci-fi film This year’s event featured a duel with light sabers at the also posted a picture of the stamp that features a brown-hued franchise. Costume parties, movie marathons and fun runs Living Mall, a shopping mall with a giant orb that resembles signed portrait of Jamala looking off into . are among the events being mounted worldwide to cele- the film’s Death Star space station, organizers said. The stamp is worth four hryvnias ($0.15 / 0.14 euros) and will brate the space saga. Fans on social media tweeted “May “Taiwan people love movies and they love sci-fi movies, go on sale today. It costs slightly more than two hryvnias to send the 4th be with you”, parodying the Star Wars catchphrase, and very early on they were fans of Star Wars,” said a regular letter inside Ukraine. Eurovision’s semi-finals are on May “May the force be with you.” Makoto Tsai, 32, a film director and co-organizer of the 9 and 11. The final will be held on May 13. The entire event is In Taiwan’s capital, fans took the day off from work to event. This year is the 40th anniversary of the original expected to draw a global television audience of more than 200 pose in costume for photographs at landmarks such as the 1977 film written and directed by George Lucas and star- million as well as vast numbers of additional viewers online. Kiev iconic Taipei 101 tower and the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. ring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, who is preparing for 20,000 international fans to arrive in a city that “I liked Star Wars since I was small,” said Annie Tseng, a 40- died last year and is best known for her role as the intrepid only three years ago witnessed a bloody pro-EU revolution in year-old communications specialist dressed as the series’ Princess Leia Organa. — Reuters which Ukraine severed its ties with old master Russia. — AFP