French film star Gerard Depardieu was accused this week of headbutting an Italian photographer who tried to snap him in Florence in the company of a young woman.
"Everyone recognized him in the San Lorenzo market and many people took his photo," according to Dario Orlandi.
"I followed him but at a distance with a long lens. When we got to the entrance to Medici chapel, he signaled to me to come over. When he approached me he had his hands in his pockets and without warning headbutted me in the face."
PHOTOS: AFP
Orlandi was taken to the accident department of a local hospital and treated for bruising and told to take four days off work.
Comic movie star Mike Myers will take on the wild-child persona of Keith Moon, the late drummer of legendary British rock band The Who, in a new Hollywood movie about the group, the industry press said.
The star and creator of the Austin Powers spy spoof movies, who last appeared on the big screen in the children's film The Cat in the Hat, has for years harbored dreams of playing the raucous rocker Moon, Daily Variety said.
The movie, which has not yet been given a title, will be produced by The Who frontman Roger Daltrey along with Nigel Sinclair of Spitfire Pictures who have been working on the ambitious project on and off for a decade.
Moon's famed penchant for destroying drum sets and bandmate Pete Townshend's smashing of guitars helped to forge The Who's rebellious image.
"[Myers] was so busy co-writing and playing four characters in [Austin Powers] that the project never quite came together. He is eager to make it happen now," the industry staple quoted sources as saying.
Moon was as wild offstage as on, earning himself a reputation for trashing hotel rooms, cars and friends' homes, often throwing furniture out of high windows and destroying the plumbing with firecrackers.
The hard living caught up to Moon, who died in 1978 at the age of 32 after overdosing on an anti-seizure medication, Heminevrin, taken as part of a program to wean him off alcohol.
A Canadian folk group is suing members of the popular British bands Pulp and Radiohead, and makers of an upcoming Harry Potter movie, their manager said.
The Wyrd Sisters are claiming US$34 million plus damages from entertainment giant Warner Bros, Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, and Johnny Greenwood and Phil Selway of Radiohead.
The three musicians appear in the movie adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as the fictitious Weird Sisters band, a monikor The Wyrd Sisters claim is too similar to their own.
Their "involved, spectacular and memorable" performance in the film threatens to usurp the Canadian band's identity, The Wyrd Sisters said in court documents.
The lawsuit sparked an angry backlash from Pulp and Radiohead fans.
On their Web site, The Wyrd Sisters responded: "If we went somewhere new to play, after this movie is released, how many people would show up expecting the fellows from Radiohead?"
"This band has been our child. We gave birth to her, gave her a name and made many sacrifices to prepare her for the world out there," they said. "Legally and morally, the name is ours."
The Wyrd Sisters also hope to block the November release of the film in Canada.
The group, which currently includes Kathy Brown of the Crash Test Dummies, was formed in 1990 and has released eight albums.
Movie star Tom Cruise and his fiance, actress Katie Holmes, are expecting a baby six months into a whirlwind romance that has turned the once intensely private Cruise into a giddy and very public lover. News of the pregnancy was first reported by People magazine. A statement from Cruise's publicist, his sister Lee Anne DeVette, added: "Tom and Katie are very excited, and the entire family is very excited." Holmes, she said, "has never felt better."
Meanwhile, the film industry is working to launch online movie download services to avoid the same fate as the piracy-ridden music industry, NBC Universal chairman and chief executive Bob Wright said. "It's something we have to do, but it has to be done well. These movies are so expensive we have to be careful ... We're pretty close. Hopefully by the end of this year we'll be able to do that."
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would