Raymond Chow (鄒文懷), the veteran Hong Kong producer who introduced Bruce Lee (李小龍) and Jackie Chan (成龍) to an international audience, will be honored for lifetime achievement at the fifth Asian Film Awards ceremony today.
Organizers of the Hong Kong event said Friday that the 83-year-old filmmaker was “instrumental in making Asian cinema the global cinematic and box office force it is today.” Chow worked at the famed Shaw Brothers studios before leaving to found Golden Harvest in 1970. The breakaway company jump-started Lee’s career with hits like Fist of Fury (精武門) and Enter the Dragon (唐山大兄). In 1979, it signed Chan, casting him in his first English-language productions, including the star-studded 1981 action comedy The Cannonball Run. Golden Harvest also made the Once Upon a Time in China (黃飛鴻) series starring Jet Li (李連杰).
Working on making himself a global force, Charlie Sheen plans to “riff like an artist” from memory rather than use a script on his 21-date Torpedo of Truth tour next month, delivering a mostly spoken word performance of about 80 minutes, according to one of the show’s producers.
Photo: Reuters
Joey Scoleri told E! News in an interview on Friday that audiences would also get to ask questions of the fired Two and a Half Men actor, and he promised a “wild ride of highs and lows and dark and light and laughter and being surprised.”
Few details have so far been released of the tour, which sold out quickly in several US cities after the massive publicity enjoyed by Sheen’s bizarre rants and his exit from the most-watched comedy on television.
The description on the Ticketmaster Web site for “Charlie Sheen’s Violent Torpedo of Truth Defeat Is Not an Option” show reads merely, “Will there be surprises? Will there be guests? Will there be mayhem? Will you laugh? Will you scream? Will you know the truth? Will there be more?!?! This is where you will hear the real story from the warlock. Bring it. I dare you to keep up with me.”
Scoleri told E! News that Sheen was not using any writers.
“It’s all Charlie. I don’t think it’s a script, as much as he is going to riff like an artist ... He will probably do most of it from memory, he’s that talented.”
“There will be some multimedia, but largely just him and a microphone and he’s going to talk,” he added.
Sheen, who has been in and out of drug and alcohol rehab in the past year, was the highest paid actor on US television before he was fired on March 7 because of what executives called his “dangerously self-destructive conduct.”
Sheen fired back with a US$100 million lawsuit against Warner Bros Television and the show’s producer Chuck Lorre claiming he was wrongfully terminated.
The Hollywood bad boy is giving US$1 per ticket for all his upcoming live stage shows to the American Red Cross. Also donating to the Red Cross is Oscar winner Sandra Bullock, who became the latest to join the cause when the humanitarian organization said on Thursday that she had given US$1 million to help victims of the disaster in Japan.
Several other celebrities and Hollywood studios have also pledged support to the nation.
Pop star Lady Gaga designed a bracelet for Japan relief and within 48 hours it raised US$250,000, with sales ongoing.
Singer Katy Perry is donating sales of glow sticks on her concert tour to Red Cross relief in Japan.
Earlier this week, the Walt Disney Co donated US$2.5 million to the American Red Cross for humanitarian efforts in Japan, and it also said it would match employee donations up to a total of US$1 million.
The donation by Bullock stands out as one of the biggest donations by a single Hollywood star.
In other news, rap artist Nate Dogg, known for his collaborations with such hip-hop stars as Dr Dre, Warren G and longtime friend Snoop Dog, has died at age 41.
The cause of death was not immediately known, but Nate Dogg, born Nathaniel D. Hale, had suffered from recurrent health problems, including strokes in 2007 and 2008, the Hollywood Reporter said.
News of his death on Tuesday was first reported in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, his hometown newspaper, and Snoop Dogg send out a Twitter message on his friend’s passing a short time later.
“We lost a true legend n hip hop n rnb. One of my best friends n a brother to me since 1986 ... I am so sad but so happy I got to grow up wit u and I will c u again n heaven cuz u know d slogan all doggs go to heaven,” he tweeted.
Other entertainers posting tweets included comedian Dave Chappelle and singer Erykah Badu.
A contemporary of Snoop and the late Tupac Shakur (aka 2Pac), Nate Dogg made his recording debut with the single Deeez Nuuuts on Dr Dre’s landmark 1992 album The Chronic, and appeared on 2Pac’s seminal double-disc set All Eyes on Me.
Other collaborators included Eminem, 50 Cent and Ludacris.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless