R&B star Beyonce Knowles will not be required to follow a strict dress code when performing next month in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, the organizers of her concert said on Friday.
Beyonce, known for her skimpy stage outfits, cancelled her debut concert in Malaysia in protest against the nation's ultra-strict dress code, an industry source said last week.
She has chosen instead to perform in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Nov. 1.
PHOTO: AP
"I expect Indonesians to see this in a positive light. She is a great singer and her stage act is entertaining. Why should we say no to the way she dresses?" said Nia Zulkarnaen, a spokeswoman for the concert promoter.
She said there had been no request from the authorities or from any Muslim group requiring Beyonce to cover up.
"Praise be to God, there has been no such demand. They realize it's positive entertainment for the youth," she said.
PHOTO: AP
Tickets for the show cost between 750,000 rupiah (US$84) and 2.5 million rupiah (US$274).
Some Indonesian singers wear skimpy clothes in their videos and on stage. More than 85 percent of Indonesia's 226 million population are Muslim and most are moderate.
Another star known for showing her skin, actress and pinup model Pamela Anderson, married Rick Salomon, best known as Paris Hilton's co-star in a widely distributed sex video, on Saturday in Las Vegas, according to media reports.
Anderson, 40, who starred in the television show Baywatch, had been married to rockers Tommy Lee and Kid Rock. Salomon, 39, had once been married to Shannen Doherty, of Beverly Hills 90210.
The wedding, with about 60 guests, took place after Anderson's performance at a show at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, Usmagazine.com said.
"Anderson wore a white Valentino mini-skirt; Solomon wore a black tux with a black beenie," it said.
On Anderson's Web site, under the heading "The Adventures of Scum and Pam have begun," Anderson said: "Rick and I are truly grateful. We are toasting the casino right after we get married after my show."
Actor Jim Carrey wasn't in a festive mood Friday when he said the international community was contributing to the brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in Myanmar by failing to take firm action against the military junta that runs the country.
At a news conference near UN headquarters, Carrey urged the UN Security Council to pass a resolution authorizing an arms embargo against the reclusive Southeast Asian nation, saying "this is a government that uses its weapons not in self-defense but against its own citizens." The US has threatened to introduce a UN resolution seeking sanctions against Myanmar, including an arms embargo, but China and Russia remain opposed to council action.
Carrey is one of numerous celebrities who have signed a letter calling on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help win the freedom of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The US Campaign for Burma, which organized the letter campaign, also sponsored a day of action in support of the Myanmar protesters, which included marches in dozens of countries on Saturday.
Carrey said China, India and Russia need to take a leading role in pressuring the Myanmar junta. All three countries are jostling for a chance to get at Myanmar's bountiful and largely untapped natural resources, especially its oil and gas.
"We must start putting human lives above the bottom line," Carrey told reporters. "We cannot afford to lock our doors and windows and ignore the desperate pleas of our neighbors because the bully who abuses them has something we want." "We have the power to bring the bully to reason without violence, and if we don't use that power to condemn his outrageous behavior, we are in fact, sanctioning mass relocation, sanctioning forced labor, sanctioning rape, sanctioning murder, sanctioning the recruiting of child soldiers and encouraging the heroin trade."
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and