Danny Puff

NEW YORK (AP) Elizabeth Olsen will soon be a star-crossed lover she'll star in an off-Broadway version of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet."

Classic Stage Company said Thursday that the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen will help will kick off its 2013/2014 season. There's no word yet on who will play Romeo.

The actress, who has gotten good notices for the films "Silent House" and "Martha Marcy May Marlene," is currently filming the Spike Lee-directed film "Old Boy" opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Brolin.

Her other films include "Liberal Arts" opposite Josh Radnor and Zac Efron, and "Red Lights," with Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver. She and Dakota Fanning also play best friends in "Very Good Girls," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

___

Online: http://www.classicstage.org

Read More

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Thursday will launch a line of products from small, women-owned businesses on its website, its latest push to position itself as a leader in women's economic empowerment.

More than 200 items, from jewelry and iPad cases to coffee beans and apparel, will be sold on the "Empowering Women Together" section of Walmart.com, the world's largest retailer said on Thursday, a day before International Women's Day.

The products currently come from nine countries including Cambodia, Haiti and the United States and include a $9.88 Women's Bean Project soup mix and cornbread mix gift set and a $20 dress from the Rwandan women's company Gahaya Links.

Wal-Mart continues to work on transforming its image from a corporation that critics say underpays workers and does harm with its large stores into an outspoken corporate citizen that hires more veterans, reduces its impact on the environment and works with local suppliers.

The women's items will be part of the "Store for Good," a project Walmart.com is working on for products that do good for others, for consumers or for the environment. Future goods may include eco-friendly items and healthier food, it said.

Walmart.com will highlight the new section of its site on its main page. For now, the goods will only be sold online, not in Walmart stores.

In September 2011, three months after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out women's massive class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the retailer laid out broad plans for women's economic empowerment.

Wal-Mart's goals include spending $20 billion over five years through 2016 with women's businesses that provide goods for the company's U.S. business, up from about $2.5 billion a year previously. It also aims to double sourcing from international suppliers run by women.

Wal-Mart's partners in the Empowering Women Together project include Full Circle Exchange and Global Goods Partners, non-profit organizations that sell products made by women.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Alden Bentley)

Read More

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) A St. Louis-area animal shelter has found a home for a 37-pound cat named Biscuit. It even found him a sympathetic shoulder to meow on.

Operators of the St. Charles County shelter say recent news coverage of the tubby tabby's plight led to more than 100 adoption requests for him.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/10gClxR ) reports that Biscuit will go to live with Ed and Lisa Pyatt next week. The Eureka couple adopted another fat cat, Max, several years ago, and Ed Pyatt says it'll be good for Max to have a buddy.

Biscuit is roughly three times the weight of a normal adult cat and will have to stay on a strict diet. His previous caretakers had to give him up because they could no longer care for him.

___

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

Read More

LONDON (Reuters) - Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has written the music for Armenia's entry to the annual Eurovision Song Contest, bringing a heavy metal pioneer to an event described by the media as a "kitschfest" and "bad taste party".

The musician, a founding member of the influential British band, said the song called "Lonely Planet" was a "demo idea" which was eventually voted Armenia's Eurovision contender.

It is due to be performed by the Dorians in the semi-finals on May 16 in Malmo, Sweden, Iommi said.

Iommi has connections in Armenia as he was one of several rock stars who helped raise funds after a huge earthquake in 1988 killed 25,000 people and let tens of thousands homeless in the then Soviet Armenia.

He was given an order of honour by Armenia during a visit in 2009 and became involved in another project, to re-build a music school there.

Despite critical derision, Eurovision is watched by a television audience of tens of millions each year, and has helped launch the career of one of the biggest acts of all time, Abba, which won in 1974 with "Waterloo".

Last year's Eurovision Song Contest was held in Azerbaijan and won by Swedish act Loreen. The victory means Sweden hosts the competition this year.

Iommi has joined fellow founding members Ozzy Osbourne (vocals) and Geezer Butler (bass) to record Black Sabbath's first new album in 33 years, 13", which is due out in June.

Drummer Brad Wilk joined them after original band member Bill Ward pulled out of the reunion recording over a contract dispute.

The band's plans for a tour in 2012 were scaled back drastically after Iommi was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment for lymphoma.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Read More

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - The professional wrestling community on Wednesday mourned the death of William Moody, a real-life undertaker who gained fame as a wrestling manager with the ring name Paul Bearer.

Moody, 58, who managed the entertainment sport's champion The Undertaker and helped launch the careers of wrestlers Kane and Mankind, died Tuesday night at a hospital in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, according to a hospital employee. The hospital did not release a cause of death.

"WWE is saddened to learn of the passing of William Moody, aka Paul Bearer," the wrestling organisation said on its website.

"Moody made his WWE debut in 1991 as the manager of The Undertaker and went on to become a memorable part of WWE over the course of the next 20 years," the site said.

For his spooky character, Moody wore pasty makeup, carried an urn and spoke in a high-pitched wail. He made his last television appearance for WWE in April 2012, the organisation said.

Angie Daniel-Poteet, co-owner of Coastal Funeral Home and Cremations in Moss Point, Mississippi, where Moody worked for about five years until 2010, described him as an upbeat person who always made time for fans and friends.

"He could still put us in our place with 'that look,'" Daniel-Poteet said on Wednesday, referring to Moody's signature facial expression, a wide-eyed scowl. "But it wasn't serious, and he never trash-talked fellow wrestlers like others in the wrestling community."

Moody earned the respect of both the national professional wrestling and local funeral home communities, said Phillip Gilmer, a close friend and owner of Gilmer's Funeral Home in Mobile.

Moody had been having problems in recent months with breathing and sleep apnea, Gilmer said.

"Bill Moody was a gentle giant, a great person with a heart as big as Texas," he said.

(Reporting by Kaija Wilkinson; Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Dan Grebler)

Read More

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A television consultant claims that former Vice President Al Gore and others at Current TV stole his idea to sell the struggling network to Al-Jazeera.

Los Angeles resident John Terenzio is demanding more than $5 million in a lawsuit quietly filed in San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday.

Al-Jazerra announced Jan. 3 that it would pay $500 million for San Francisco-based Current TV.

Terenzio alleges he first brought the idea of the Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera's purchase of Current TV to board member Richard Blum in July, and he expected to be paid if his plan was used. The lawsuit claims Blum was open to the plan, which Terenzio laid out with a detailed PowerPoint presentation but feared Gore would find such a deal with the oil-rich government of Qatar "politically unappealing."

Neither Gore or Blum, nor their representatives, could be reached for comment late Wednesday.

Gore co-founded Current TV in 2005 with Joel Hyatt, with each receiving a 20 percent stakes in Current, a politically left leaning news and talk network. Comcast Corp. had less than a 10 percent stake. Another major investor in Current TV was supermarket magnate and entertainment industry investor Ron Burkle, according to information service Capital IQ.

Blum, a venture capitalist and husband of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is also an investor in Current TV.

Terenzio claims he presented to Blum "a step-by-step approach for making the sale of the liberal media outlet to Al-Jazeera palatable to U.S. lawmakers, pro-Israel factions, cable operators and, most importantly, the American public."

Terenzio claims he created the English version of China Central Television and reprogrammed it for American audiences. He said he planned to use the same strategies in rebranding Current TV into Al-Jazeera America.

"Blum greeted Terenzio's proposal with enthusiasm, indicating that he and other investors were eager to salvage their multi-million investment in the floundering cable network," Terenzio claims in his lawsuit.

Terenzio said he believes Gore did turn down the deal in July and was "adamant" in rejecting it.

Terenzio's attorney, Ellyn Garofalo, said an "insider" told her client of Gore's rejection but refused to identify that person in a brief email interview Wednesday night. Garofalo represented Dr. Sandeep Kapoor when a jury acquitted him of illegally funneling prescription drugs to Anna Nicole Smith.

Terenzio said Al-Jazeera's January announcement of the sale was the first he heard of it.

Read More

NEW YORK (AP) Filmmakers from Richard Linklater to David Gordon Green to Whoopi Goldberg are bringing films to this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

The New York festival announced the second half of its 89-film slate Wednesday, all in various out-of-competition sections. Some of the films, like Linklater's "Before Midnight" and Green's "Prince Avalanche," will be continuing on the festival circuit after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Others, like Goldberg's documentary "I Got Somethin' to Tell You" on the comedian Moms Mabley, will be showing for the first time.

Other entries at Tribeca include films from Neil LaBute (the domestic drama "Some Velvet Morning," starring Stanley Tucci), Mira Nair (the best-seller adaptation "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," with Kate Hudson) and Neil Jordan (the vampire tale "Byzantium," with Saoirse Ronan).

Documentary subjects range from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking ("Gasland Part II," a sequel to Josh Fox's Oscar-nominated film), Richard Pryor ("Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic"), Bernie Madoff's longtime secretary ("In God We Trust"), Somali pirate hunters ("The Project") and Elaine Stritch ("Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me").

Tribeca will also attract a number of stars, with films featuring Zac Efron (the father-son drama "At Any Price"); Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti (the holiday comedy "Almost Christmas"); John Cusack and Emma Roberts (the sex shop comedy "Adult World"); Melissa Leo (the addiction drama "Bottled Up"); and Julianne Moore (the schoolroom comedy "The English Teacher").

The 12th-annual Tribeca Film Festival runs April 17 through April 28. The festival earlier announced its opening night film as the documentary "Mistaken for Strangers" about the National. The Brooklyn rock band will perform at the premiere, as well.

___

Online:

http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

Read More

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) The impish boy who showed off his dance moves alongside PSY in "Gangnam Style" is hoping to go viral, too.

The 7-year-old nicknamed "Little PSY" is releasing an electro pop song next week through iTunes. The boy whose real name is Hwang Min-woo says he wants to gain global fame like his "big brother," PSY.

Sporting a black suit and a sleek haircut, Min-woo performed at a news conference in South Korea on Wednesday. He is the latest recruit in the increasingly global K-pop industry.

Min-woo is a second-grader and his mother comes from Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the big PSY has released a "Gangnam Style" remix and is continuing his worldwide tour. The video released on YouTube in July has a record 1.39 billion views.

Read More

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When veteran rock band Journey chose unknown Filipino singer Arnel Pineda to become their new frontman it inspired a filmmaker to capture his rise from obscurity in the streets of Manila to performing on arena stages.

"Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey," directed by Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz, picks up Pineda's story soon after he was chosen to join Journey in 2007 after the group saw him on YouTube.

Diaz's documentary film opens in theaters on Friday. She spoke to Reuters about Pineda's story and working with the band.

Q: Were you worried about dealing with all the different personalities of a famous band?

A: My very first film was about the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. She was very powerful and she was difficult. I hung out with her for two months. She ended up suing me because she didn't like the film. After that experience, I thought, I can handle anything now. I can handle rock bands!

Q: What surprised you most about Journey?

A: It was a surprise to me that for such a veteran rock band, they were not used to having cameras ... backstage or in their dressing rooms. I thought rock bands were used to it because of MTV, where backstage and tour buses are open to cameras. But at the height of Journey's fame, MTV was just forming as well. They didn't understand the reality of what full access meant. But at the end of the day, we got it.

Q: Do you consider this a music documentary or more of a documentary about Filipino heritage?

A: I think it transcends all that. It really is a Cinderella story with a very modern twist because of YouTube. This story could not have happened 10 or 15 years ago, not in this way with the help of social media. But at the heart of it, it's a Cinderella story. For non-Journey fans, Arnel's personal history is very compelling.

Q: How so?

A: He was a street kid in Manila. Success happened to him later in his life. I think he was 40 the year he joined the band. He had already lived the rock 'n' roll life, even without the money - the drugs, the women. He saw this as an opportunity for him to really get his life together.

Q: It seems like you really bonded with Pineda. Did it help that you were Filipino?

A: I think so, mostly because of the language. I can speak Tagalog. That first summer when he toured with Journey, he had no entourage. It was just him in his dressing room. We (a crew of five) became his sounding board because no one else was traveling with him. The second year he had a roadie, his wife was traveling with him, and it would have been a completely different dynamic.

Q: In the film Pineda switches between speaking English and Tagalog. Sometimes the same sentence is a mixture of both.

A: We call that 'Taglish.' Taglish is very common in the Philippines. I actually encouraged him to speak Filipino in the documentary. There were certain things I don't think I would have gotten from him emotionally or with such strength and passion if he had to stick to English.

Q: The budget for this documentary was under $2 million. Was it easy to raise the money because of the band's name?

A: I've done three other features and I thought it would be very easy to fundraise for this because (the subject matter) is very accessible, but no. No one believed in us. We were never able to raise the money. So it was on our dime, on our credit cards, small investments from family. The title song, "Don't Stop Believin'" that's us - the crew, me and my producer.

Q: Didn't the band want to kick in some funds?

A: There are certain boundaries you don't cross. This is an independently produced film. If Journey had funded it, there would have been strings attached to it. Money isn't free. The final cut wouldn't have been ours. It would have been deemed a vanity project, which it isn't.

Q: The rock 'n' roll lifestyle is very male-centric. Did being a woman help or hinder you on this film?

A: I think sometimes it was to my advantage. I'm small - 5'1" - so I'm less threatening to people. They allow me more things.(Laughs) So I was allowed in dressing rooms and tour buses. They just say yes!"

(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Patricia Reaney)

(This story was corrected to give full name of filmmaker in the second paragraph and gender in the third paragraph)

Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Snowquester" was a no-show in the U.S. capital, which on Wednesday confirmed its status as the center of winter weather wimpdom.

Unlike the Washington snows of yesteryear - "Snowmageddon" and "Snowpocalypse" in 2010 and 2011 - Wednesday's storm failed to bring the heavy snows and high winds forecast. Before its arrival, wags dubbed this storm "Snowquester" after the budget-cutting sequester that went into effect last week.

As the storm damply spun itself out, the National Weather Service's storm warnings were downgraded to watches, then advisories, and ultimately were canceled. With temperatures just above freezing, a soupy slush covered many roadways by evening rush hour, a sparse affair with little traffic.

While most federal offices were closed to the public, with many government workers authorized to telecommute, those who made it to work offered a bit of snark.

"I realize we are under horrendous snow conditions. I think it's up to half an inch now," Senator Patrick Leahy told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. In his home state of Vermont, he said, there was once a weather forecast calling for "a dusting of snow, no more than five or six inches."

Senator John McCain, one of several Republicans joining President Barack Obama for dinner on Wednesday, joked, "I have a dog sled ready to go to be able to get there because of these terrible weather conditions that we're under."

CANCELLING A SNOWBALL FIGHT

It has almost become a tradition to dump on Washington's neurotic response to winter weather. Obama himself did it barely a week after his first inauguration in January 2009, when his daughters' school was canceled due to icy conditions.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," the new president said, adding that he would have to instill "some flinty Chicago toughness" into Washingtonians: "When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."

The decision to declare a snow day for the federal government is made by the Office of Personnel Management in consultation with the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Administration. For this storm, the alert went out at 3:29 a.m., before a flake had fallen in most areas.

A young tradition in the U.S. capital is a snowball fight in the DuPont Circle neighborhood, a few blocks from the White House. There wasn't enough snow to make that possible this time, and organizers were not amused.

"Well, that's all folks," the Washington DC Snowball Fight Association posted at mid-afternoon, after the predicted five to eight inches of snow failed to materialize. "Sadly, the Noquester promised much & delivered nada. So DCSFA is returning to hibernation mode until next winter."

School children in suburban Maryland just outside Washington had slightly better luck with snowballs, though not with sledding.

"It's good packing," said 10-year-old Jason Kaplan after a snowball fight. But sleds and inner tubes didn't work on slushy local hillsides.

"The sledding was just not working. It (the slush) stuck to the bottom of the sled," said Andy Blower, 11.

"There was a lot of mud," said Kaplan.

The Capital Weather Gang blog, billed on the Washington Post website as "the inside scoop on weather in the D.C. area and beyond," got some heavy online criticism. "#Snowquester perfect name: Advertised as epic disaster. Verifies as annoying disruptive flop no one can agree on. @capitalweather," Bethany_Usher posted on Twitter.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko, additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Rachelle Younglai, Timothy Ryan and Diane Bartz; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Phil Berlowitz)

Read More