The Vatican’s daily newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of the White Album on Friday by dismissing as a “quip” John Lennon’s notorious claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ.
The legendary double album — which came out on Nov. 22, 1968 at the height of the Fab Four’s influence and popularity — was “a magical musical anthology” from a band “full of talent,” L’Osservatore Romano said.
Rather inevitably, its lengthy article kicked off with Lennon’s remark to a London newspaper in March 1966 that “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink ... We’re more popular than Jesus now.”
“It is a phrase that provoked deep indignation at the time, but which sounds today like a quip from a young man from the English working class overtaken by unexpected success,” the newspaper wrote.
The real talent of the Beatles, it said, “rested in their unequalled capacity to write popular songs with a sort of euphoric lightness.”
Pop superstar Madonna and her British husband Guy Ritchie were granted a “quickie” divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable behavior Friday, a month after announcing their eight-year marriage was over.
District Judge Caroline Reid pronounced the decree nisi at the High Court’s Family Division in London during a hearing which lasted barely a minute and was not attended by the couple or their lawyers.
The case — Ciccone ML vs Ritchie GS — was dealt with as a British newspaper reported film director Ritchie would receive no money under an agreed settlement.
Ritchie has expressed relief at the speed of the divorce and stressed that access to the couple’s children and not money was the biggest issue for him, the Daily Mirror said Friday.
“Thank God,” the paper quoted him as saying. “It was never about money — never about her bloody art collection. I just wanted to settle it and move on ... I didn’t raise any objections at any stage until she insisted the children lived permanently in New York.”
He is worth an estimated US$45 million dollars compared to Madonna’s US$446 million fortune.
The couple’s two sons, eight-year-old Rocco and David Banda, three — whom they adopted in Malawi — will split their time between Britain and the US, the Mirror and other papers said.
Madonna’s 12-year-old daughter Lourdes, from a previous relationship with fitness trainer Carlos Leon, is set to stay with her mother in the US.
The court released a document in which Madonna stated that Ritchie’s unreasonable behavior was continuing and that they had not lived together at the same address for six months.
The US government has asked the Supreme Court to reimpose a US$500,000 fine slapped on CBS television for a 2004 broadcast of live images of pop star Janet Jackson’s breast, court documents show.
It is up to the Supreme Court to decide whether it will consider the request.
Prosecutors are asking the high court justices to weigh in on a case that raised eyebrows and stirred passions in the US, where nudity on non-pay television is a no-no in advertising, while rare and limited to late-night hours in television series.
Jackson was performing live at the Superbowl when the attention-getting move took place, in a routine featuring her and fellow performer Justin Timberlake.
The popular press has dubbed the incident “Nipplegate.”
The Federal Communications Commission imposed a US$550,000 fine on CBS for breaking indecency rules.
But after a three-year court fight, a federal court in Philadelphia in July ruled that the network could not be held responsible for Jackson’s actions.
Japan’s once-iconic pop music producer Tetsuya Komuro was released on bail Friday after he was indicted on charges of swindling an investor over copyrights for music that had already been sold.
“I have caused trouble and disturbed you all,” the 49-year-old said, bowing deeply before a horde of photographers and reporters as he stepped out of the Osaka Dentention Center where he had been kept since his arrest on Nov. 4.
He paid the bail of US$315,000 following the indictment by the Osaka district public prosecutor.
“I wish to do my best, if
possible, in music again,” he said.
Komuro allegedly told the investor in mid-2006 that he would sell for US$10 million the copyrights of 806 tunes he had composed and written words for Jiji Press and other media said.
But the rights had been already sold to music publishers, the reports said.
The 48-year-old investor paid Komuro US$5 million as part of the fake contract.
Komuro needed the money to repay huge debt he owed after a number of failed ventures, the reports said. —AGENCIES
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
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