The self-confessed German cannibal who killed a consenting man and ate his body parts is to seek a legal ban on a low-budget feature film telling the story, a lawyer said on Monday, three days before a retrial is due to begin in Frankfurt, Germany.
Armin Meiwes, 44, is serving an eight-and-a-half year prison term after being convicted two years ago of manslaughter. Prosecutors obtained a retrial after complaining that he should have been convicted of murder. The case attracted worldwide attention.
The unauthorized movie is reportedly set for release in Germany on March 9 and is entitled Rohtenburg, similar, but with a letter H added, to the name of the small town where Meiwes lived and carried out the bizarre act in a ramshackle manor house.
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Lawyer Harald Ermel said Monday in Rotenburg that Meiwes had not consented to the making of the film, where he is played by Hollywood-based German actor Thomas Kretschmann. The lawyer said his client resented his portrayal as a "bestial killer."
An award-winning Indian documentary-maker sued New York City this week because police ordered him to stop filming in public last year and held him for four hours, apparently suspecting he was plotting an attack.
The New York Civil Liberties Union, acting as lawyers for filmmaker Rakesh Sharma, believes it is the first suit to challenge police restrictions on taking pictures in public following the Sept. 11 attacks.
It alleges Sharma's constitutional rights to free speech and against unreasonable search and seizure were violated.
Sharma has won numerous international film awards for the documentaries Final Solution, on the killing of Muslims in the northwest Indian state of Gujarat in 2002 and 2003, and for Aftershocks, on the 2001 earthquake in Kutch, Gujarat.
He was taking video with a hand-held camera in midtown Manhattan for a project about New York taxi drivers last May when he was stopped by a plainclothes officer, questioned on the sidewalk, taken in for more questioning and had his camera damaged, the federal lawsuit alleges.
Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is pregnant with a child fathered by movie co-star Brad Pitt, his spokeswoman said on Wednesday, finally confirming a romance that has become one of Hollywood's most talked-about open secrets.
Publicist Cindy Guagenti also confirmed reports that Pitt has filed papers to become the legal adoptive father of Jolie's two adopted children, son Maddox, four, and daughter Zahara, who is about 11 months old.
Guagenti acknowledged Jolie's pregnancy but declined to give further details, including when the baby was due.
Representatives for Jolie were not available for comment.
News of Jolie's pregnancy was first reported on Wednesday by People magazine, which quoted the actress as telling a charity worker in the Dominican Republic, where she is working on a movie, "Yes, I'm pregnant."
Acclaimed Hollywood and Broadway stage actors Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane were this week honored with twin stars laid into the pavement on Hollywood's prestigious Walk of Fame.
The pair, who starred in the stage version as well as the new film remake of Mel Brooks' The Producers, were awarded the 2,299th and 2,300th stars on the famous strip of sidewalk in front of about 100 of the comedy duo's fans.
Mel Brooks, who wrote the original 1968 film version of The Producers, then adapted it into a hit Broadway musical in 2001, and then remade it again for the newest film version, also spoke at the glittering unveiling ceremony.
The musical tells the story of two theatrical producers who plan to produce the biggest flop ever, believing they can make more money from a failure than a success. The plan backfires, however, when their play becomes an unexpected hit.
Lane last month won a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of producer Max Bialystock in the new film, a role which won him a Tony Award on Broadway.
Double Oscar-winner Hilary Swank has separated from her husband of more than eight years, actor Chad Lowe, the actress's publicist said.
"Hilary and Chad have decided to separate but they are hopeful they'll be able to get through this tough time," Swank's spokesman Troy Nankin said in a statement.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50