Danny Puff

MADRID (Reuters) - Alfredo Di Stefano may have kicked a ball about with Argentine compatriot Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected Pope Francis I last week, when they were growing up around the same time in Buenos Aires, the Real Madrid great has said.

Di Stefano, who is just over 10 years older than the 76-year-old Bergoglio, wrote in his regular column in sports daily Marca on Monday that the pair had gone to the same school and lived close to each other in the Argentine capital.

"As you can imagine his election filled me with enormous joy," Di Stefano wrote.

"The Pope was probably one of those kids with whom I played football in the street," he added.

"In the neighborhood we put together proper matches with everyone against everyone until it got dark.

"You'll have to ask him because at that time I was the famous one, from when I was very small, as I belonged to the River Plate youth academy, everyone knew me."

Di Stefano is widely considered one of the greatest players of all time and helped to turn Real Madrid, the La Liga club he joined in 1953, into one of the world's leading sides.

One of Pope Francis's predecessors, John Paul II, who died in 2005, was a goalkeeper in his youth.

(Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Clare Fallon)

Read More

HONG KONG (AP) Michelle Yeoh is happy to be honored with the "Excellence in Asian Cinema Award" but says she hopes there's no hidden message.

She asked, "I hope it's not their way of telling me that I need to retire?"

The star of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and last year's Aung San Suu Kyi biopic "The Lady" is being honored at the Asian Film Awards on Monday night.

Speaking to reporters a day earlier, Yeoh said she's happy to receive the award where her career started, in Hong Kong.

And while she acknowledged she's long heard rumors of a "Crouching Tiger" sequel, she says she's yet to see a script or other plans on the project. The 2000 original was directed by Ang Lee and won four Academy Awards.

The recent reports have attached kung fu star Donnie Yen to the unconfirmed sequel, and Yeoh said she's a fan and would welcome the opportunity to work with him if a project is developed.

The Hong Kong film festival's opener Sunday was "Ip Man: the Final Fight," the latest film about martial arts master Ip Man. Lead actor Anthony Wong and actress Zhou Chou Chou were among stars walking the red carpet.

Veteran Hong Kong directors Johnnie To and Ronny Yu are also premiering works at the festival, which features "Infernal Affairs" director Andrew Lau.

The festival closes in April with the Iranian film "Closed Curtain," which is fresh off a win for best script at the Berlin Film Festival.

Read More

LOS ANGELES (AP) Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose buildings have been praised for their fluid beauty and balance between the physical and virtual world, has won the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the prize's jury announced Sunday.

The 71-year-old architect joins such masters as Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano and Wang Su in receiving the honor that's been called architecture's Nobel Prize. Ito, the sixth Japanese architect to receive the prize, was recognized for the libraries, houses, theaters, offices and other buildings he has designed in Japan and beyond.

He accepted the honor by saying that whenever he's done designing a building, he becomes "painfully aware of my own inadequacy, and it turns into energy to challenge the next project."

"Therefore, I will never fix my architectural style and never be satisfied with my works," he said in a statement.

"Toyo Ito's architecture has improved the quality of both public and private spaces," said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who served on the Pritzker Prize jury.

"It has inspired many architects, critics and members of the general public alike. Along with all others involved with the Pritzker Prize, I am very pleased that he has received the award," Breyer said in a statement.

Some of Ito's notable creations include the curvaceous Municipal Funeral Hall in Gifu, Japan; the transparent Sendai Mediatheque library in Miyagi, Japan; the arch-filled Tama Art University Library in suburban Tokyo; the spiral White O residence in Marbella, Chile; and the angular 2002 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London.

"His buildings are complex, yet his high degree of synthesis means that his works attain a level of calmness, which ultimately allows the inhabitants to freely develop their life and activities in them," said Chilean architect and Pritzker Prize jury member Alejandro Aravena.

Ito began his career at Kiyonori Kikutake & Associates after he graduated from Tokyo University in 1965. He founded his own architecture firm in 1971. His works have been exhibited in museums in the United States, England, Denmark, Italy, Chile and numerous cities in Japan.

Ito will receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion at the formal Pritzker ceremony May 29 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation, the Pritzker Prize was established in 1979 by the late entrepreneur Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, to honor "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture."

The Pritzker family founded the prize because of its involvement with developing Hyatt Hotel properties around the world and because architecture was not included in the Nobel Prizes. The Pritzker selection process is modeled after the Nobels.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang/.

Read More

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Natalie Maines is starting out nervous on stage, almost 10 years to the day that the Dixie Chicks spitfire slammed then-President George W. Bush and forever changed the fate and fortunes of the country superstars.

On this night she barely speaks between songs.

Her hair slicks up in a punkish pompadour. She looks slimmer than when the Dixie Chicks began a hiatus in 2007 that may never end. The crowd at the South by Southwest music festival to hear Maines perform her solo debut "Mother" for only the second time is a healthy size, but it is also far from a packed house.

"We missed you, Natalie!" one fan hollers.

Maines smiles but doesn't banter back.

"I ask myself, 'Why is that? What are you doing, girl?'" Maines told The Associated Press the next morning at a downtown Austin hotel. "I think right now I have so much to remember. This is the most guitar I've ever had to play."

Now 38 and a solo artist for the first time in her career, Maines is candid about the past and guarded about the future. Ask whether the Dixie Chicks will ever record new music again, she curls in her chair with tense energy and declines to predict.

"I think I thought time would heal and that I would come around. But just like the song says, I'm still waiting," said Maines, pulling a lyric from the band's defiant 2006 smash single "Not Ready to Make Nice."

Fellow Chicks Emily Erwin and Martie Maguire don't needle her to reunite in the studio, Maines said, but she acknowledges that choosing the solo project "Mother" as her first album since 2006 may not have been their first choice. "I'm pretty sure they would rather I be making a Dixie Chicks record, but they would never say that, thank God," Maines said.

Now rehash her takedown of then-President Bush in 2003 and well, on second thought, don't bother.

Maines does that herself.

"Good thing I'm not a told ya so kind of person or I might point out that 10 years ago today I said GWB was full of bull and I was right," she tweeted on March 10, three days before her first South by Southwest performance.

When the Texas-born Maines told a London crowd at the start of the Iraq invasion she was ashamed to be from the same state as Bush, the Dixie Chicks became pariahs of the country music industry that vaulted them to stardom. Radio stations blackballed the Dixie Chicks from playlists and legions of fans turned their backs.

The Dixie Chicks stayed firm during the backlash, and released "Taking the Long Way" in 2006 that won five Grammys and was a best-seller despite being largely ignored by country radio. Maines now refers to the group as "tainted" but is still open to performing live with the Dixie Chicks, and two shows are scheduled in Canada this summer.

Those concerts will be a different sound than "Mother." The album is Maines putting her take on covers that span from Pink Floyd (the album title borrows from "The Wall"), Eddie Vedder's "Without You" and Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should've Come Over."

Guitar virtuoso Ben Harper produced the album and performed with Maines at SXSW for a lively show that skewed far more on the side of rock and Americana than the bluegrass and country combination of the Dixie Chicks. Maines first played at the 2,700-seat Moody Theater that is the home studio for Austin City Limits a big and tough venue to fill at SXSW, given the 2,200 other artists all vying for attention.

Maines doesn't expect to win back fans that Dixie Chicks lost, and isn't sure who will embrace her different sound now.

"I like what the three of us had together," Maines said of the Dixie Chicks. "I did what was required. It felt like my job. I felt like a businesswoman in the industry I was in. I feel like I accepted that and waved that country flag but always felt like I was holding on to who I was, and we were still considered rebellious in the Top 40 country market. But it was news to me that people thought I was something I wasn't.

"The cat just feels out of the bag now," Maines said. "I'm not sure I can go back to that."

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Read More

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) How did Prince close out South by Southwest Music Festival's weeklong showcase of rock n' roll?

By naturally throwing a totally different kind of party: a grooving, brass band-backed funk fest that stretched to 3 a.m. and outlasted many fans lucky enough to get inside the exclusive show that also featured A Tribe Called Quest.

As Justin Timberlake and the Smashing Pumpkins headlined other SXSW wrap-ups nearby, Prince prevailed as the toughest ticket Saturday night by performing for only 300 people in his first appearance at the annual music festival that drew 2,200 bands and artists this year.

Prince towered over them all but his concert at the tiny La Zona Rosa club that sits on the fringe of the SXSW mayhem was no grandiose spectacle. He performed for 2 hours on a spartan stage behind a giant video board. He contentedly played bandleader instead of superstar, often disappearing backstage for stretches as the band jammed.

"They called our people and said they wanted some funk in Austin," said Prince, before belting out the last bars of a gentle rendition of "Purple Rain."

A 12-piece brass band joined the latest incarnation of Prince's New Power Generation for a run of hits like "1999" and "Cool" that jammed with a soulful backbone. The show began with the band making a Mardi Gras-style march onto the stage, only to have their horn blasts drowned out by shrieks upon fans sighting Prince in a magenta, high-collared shirt and snug black blazer.

Organizers warned the crowd three times before the show that taking pictures was forbidden. Fans who flaunted the rule were scolded by security or told to scram. Even simply using a cellphone was banned at the concert thrown by phone-maker Samsung, though promoters worked the crowd beforehand, offering customers fresh phone batteries or device test-drives.

Prince never played guitar during the set. Nor did he perform his new single "Screwdriver" that debuted earlier this year, opting instead for funk covers: Curtis Mayfield's "We're a Winner" and Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Until You Get Enough" among them as the night dragged on and weary fans made their way to the exits early.

"Don't make me hurt you. You know how many hits I got?" Prince said during the first of several pseudo-set closers, before launching into another encore.

Green Day, Dave Grohl, Vampire Weekend, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks also starred at SXSW this week.

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber.

Read More

CHICAGO (AP) She inspired a novel and a movie starring Robert Redford when in 1949 she lured a major league ballplayer she'd never met into a hotel room with a cryptic note and shot him, nearly killing him.

After the headlines faded, Ruth Ann Steinhagen did something else just as surprising: She disappeared into obscurity, living a quiet life unnoticed in Chicago until now, more than a half century later, when news broke that she had died three months earlier.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Friday that Steinhagen passed away of natural causes on Dec. 29, at the age of 83. First reported by the Chicago Tribune last week, her identity was a surprise even to the morgue employees who knew about the 1984 movie "The Natural," in which she was portrayed by actress Barbara Hershey.

"She chose to live in the shadows and she did a good job of it," John Theodore, an author who wrote a 2002 nonfiction book about the crime, wrote in an email Sunday.

The story, with its elements of obsession, mystery, insanity and a baseball star, made it part of both Chicago's colorful crime history and rich baseball lore.

The story began with what appeared to be just another young woman's crush on Eddie Waitkus, the Chicago Cubs' handsome first baseman. So complete was this crush that the teenager set a place for Waitkus, whom she'd never met, at the family dinner table. She turned her bedroom into a shrine to him, and put his photo under her pillow.

After the 1948 season, Waitkus was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies a fateful turn. "When he went to the Phillies, that's when she decided to kill him," Theodore said in an interview.

Steinhagen had her chance the next season, when the Phillies came to Chicago to play the Cubs at Wrigley Field. She checked into a room at the Edgewater Beach Hotel where he was staying and invited him to her room.

"We're not acquainted, but I have something of importance to speak to you about," she wrote in a note to him after a game at Wrigley on June 14, 1949.

It worked. Waitkus arrived at her room. After he sat down, Steinhagen walked to a closet, said, "I have a surprise for you," then turned with the rifle she had hidden there and shot him in the chest. Theodore wrote that she then knelt by his side and held his hand on her lap. She told a psychiatrist afterward about how she had dreamed of killing him and found it strange that she was now "holding him in my arms."

Newspapers devoured and trumpeted the lurid story of a 19-year-old baseball groupie, known in the parlance of the day as a "Baseball Annie." Among the sensational and probably staged photos was one showing Steinhagen writing in her journal at a table in her jail cell with a framed photograph of Waitkus propped nearby.

A judge determined she was insane and committed her to a mental hospital. She was released three years later, after doctors determined she had regained her sanity.

Details about the rest of her life are sketchy. She lived with her sister in a house just a few miles from the hotel where she shot Waitkus. A neighbor told Theodore that Steinhagen said she worked in an office for 35 years but never revealed her employer. And she made an effort to conceal her privacy, often refusing to answer the phone or come to the door when Theodore knocked.

Chris Gentner, a neighbor who used to help the Steinhagen sisters with chores, said he only found out who she was 15 years after they began living nearby.

"I found out through my ex-wife I'm not sure how she found out and I looked (Steinhagen) up online. And as soon as I saw (her photograph) online I said, 'That's her,'" Gentner said.

The 1984 movie was based on a novel by Bernard Malamud that was inspired by the story. Theodore's 2002 book was entitled "Baseball's Natural: The story of Eddie Waitkus."

Waitkus, who played the season after he was shot, helping the Phillies win the National League pennant, decided not to press charges in 1952 when Steinhagen was deemed sane. The trial would have likely made banner headlines particularly since Malamud's novel was released in 1952 so Watikus' decision almost certainly assisted Steinhagen's disappearance into obscurity.

He died in 1972, 12 years before Redford portrayed Roy Hobbs, the character inspired by Waitkus.

"He hardly ever talked to his family about Ruth," Theodore said.

Read More

LONDON (AP) Celebrities like J.K. Rowling and Hugh Grant accused the British government on Sunday of letting down the victims of media intrusion and urged tough new measures to rein in Britain's unruly press.

Lawmakers are to vote Monday on rival plans for tougher controls in the wake of the country's phone-hacking scandal.

The Conservative-led government says it will propose a new press watchdog with the power to levy fines of up to 1 million pounds ($1.5 million). But hacking victims say the regulator must be backed by a new law to give it real teeth something Prime Minister David Cameron opposes.

"Harry Potter" author Rowling who testified previously to a media ethics inquiry about the impact of intrusive media upon her family said she and other victims felt they "have been hung out to dry" by the government.

Grant, who won damages for phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid, said hacking victims supported a rival plan by the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party for stronger media measures. The actor said lawmakers "promised victims to do right by them, and they have that chance on Monday."

Debate about how to control the press has raged in Britain since revelations in 2011 that tabloid journalists had eavesdropped on voicemails, bribed officials for information and hacked into computers in a relentless quest for scoops.

The scandal has brought the demise of one newspaper Murdoch's News of the World along with dozens of arrests and resignations, scores of lawsuits against Murdoch's media empire and a public inquiry into media ethics.

That inquiry, led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson, last year recommended the creation of a strong press watchdog body dominated by non-journalists and backed by government regulation.

But negotiations between Cameron's Conservatives and others over how to implement those recommendations have stalled amid an increasingly acrimonious debate. Politicians are divided about whether a new press watchdog should be set up through legislation as recommended by Leveson or through a Royal Charter, an executive act that does not require a vote in Parliament.

Proponents say passing a law will put the watchdog on a firmer footing and give it more power to discipline rogue newspapers. Opponents believe that passing a media law would endanger the country's free press.

In fact, the proposals aren't all that different. A new law would set up an independent press watchdog, not control the media directly. And the regulator would only have the power to impose fines or demand published apologies from newspapers not to stop articles being published.

But the language of the debate has been fierce, with opponents fearing the demise of Britain's free press and advocates seeing a bullying media riding roughshod over people's rights.

"The idea of a law a great, big, all-singing, all-dancing media law ... would have been bad for press freedom, bad for individual freedom," Cameron said.

Rowling accused the prime minister of letting down hacking victims by ignoring Leveson's proposals.

"I believed David Cameron when he said that he would implement Leveson's recommendations 'unless they were bonkers,'" she said. "I did not see how he could back away, with honor, from words so bold and unequivocal.

"Well, he has backed away, and I am one among many who feel they have been hung out to dry."

Read More

NEW YORK (AP) "Oz the Great and Powerful" is living up to its name at the box office.

Walt Disney's 3-D blockbuster has led all films for the second week in a row, taking in $42.2 million according to studio estimates Sunday. Sam Raimi's prequel to the L. Frank Baum classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" also took in $46.6 million overseas, leading to a two-week worldwide total of $281.8 million.

That makes "Oz" easily the biggest hit of 2013 so far.

Among the weekend's debuts, the Halle Berry thriller "The Call" far exceeded expectations with a $17.1 million opening for Sony. The Steve Carell magician comedy "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" fared worse, opening with $10.3 million for Warner Bros.

Read More

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After making the transition from child star and boy band heartthrob to movie star, Justin Timberlake is returning to music with his first album since 2006, cementing his grown-up status with a record inspired by his new marriage.

Timberlake, 32, officially releases "The 20/20 Experience" on Tuesday. But the 10-track record of smooth love songs with a throwback R&B sound is already No. 1 on the iTunes charts after it was streamed online last week.

The album is Timberlake's first since "FutureSex/LoveSounds" which spawned hit pop singles "Sexyback" and "What Goes Around...Comes Around."

Although lead single "Suit & Tie," featuring rapper Jay-Z, failed to meet sales expectations on its first week of release in January, the album is expected to sell well following weeks of promotion including a Grammy Awards show performance and a stint by Timberlake on TV sketch show "Saturday Night Live."

Industry sources cited by Billboard said "The 20/20 Experience" could sell 500,000 copies in its first week, and easily give Timberlake the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album charts.

"The 20/20 Experience" sees Timberlake embracing his status as a married man after his wedding to actress Jessica Biel in October 2012.

The singer draws on lazy summer romances for the majority of his songs, with slow-tempo swing rhythms on tracks such as "Pusher Girl Love," where Timberlake describes his addiction to a girl.

Jason Lipshutz at Billboard magazine gave the album an 88 out of 100 rating, saying that while the singer did not replicate the edgy pop sounds of earlier hits on his "FutureSex" album, he "has offered us something more complicated, although no less accessible."

Rolling Stone magazine's Jody Rosen praised the singer for being "such a charismatic and effortlessly appealing singer, dancer and showman," and called the album "Timberlake's neo-soul record."

FROM HEARTTHROB TO ENTREPRENEUR

Timberlake has barely put a foot wrong in his transition from child star in the "Mickey Mouse Club" to popular boy band N'Sync, through to solo entertainer, actor and entrepreneur.

He has appeared in movies "The Social Network" and "Bad Teacher;" launched his own record label, Tennman Records; added clothing designer to his credits with label William Rast; and invested in social networking site MySpace.

His all-rounder status was showcased last week on "Saturday Night Live," where he sang, danced and acted - and boosted ratings for the NBC show to a 14-month high.

In July he will embark on a "Legends of the Summer" tour of North American stadiums along with Jay-Z, and the pair will headline a London music festival in the same month.

While "Don't Hold The Wall" - a steamy dance floor track with explicit connotations - harkens back to Timberlake's "Sexyback" days, Biel is often at the forefront of the singer's mind in the new album. "That Girl" is a sweet throwback R&B love song, while new single "Mirrors" is an ode to his new wife.

Los Angeles Times reviewer Mikael Wood gave the album three out of four stars, saying "Timberlake holds (the album) together too, with lyrics that stay resolutely on the topic of romance."

Not all critics are swooning. Alexis Petridis of Britain's Guardian newspaper gave "The 20/20 Experience" three out of five stars, but slammed Timberlake's lyrics, which he called "awful."

"It's not that the lyrics are exclusively about sex; it's that Timberlake writes about it in a way that suggests he's desperate to add some kind of musical equivalent of the Bad Sex award to his six Grammys and four Emmys," Petridis said.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

Read More

LOS ANGELES (AP) The third season of "American Horror Story" will be subtitled "Coven," and add actress Kathy Bates to the series' ensemble, according to the TV anthology's co-creator, Ryan Murphy.

"We're far enough along in the writing that I can tell you what it's about," Murphy announced to more than 1000 of the show's fans who attended the PaleyFest panel on the series Friday night at the Saban Theatre in Los Angeles.

Murphy ("Nip/Tuck," ''Glee," ''The New Normal") confirmed there would be witches in the new season, but failed to reveal any more plot specifics. "It's a really cool story that we've been talking about for a couple of years, actually, and this seemed the year to do it," he continued, dropping one more tidbit:

After filming the first two seasons on lots and soundstages, parts of the series three will be shot in New Orleans.

"The fun thing about doing the show is researching what are the really haunted places in America, because every year the institution is one of the lead characters," Murphy explained. "The first year was Murder House, and this year was Asylum. We have another couple doozy locales."

Joining Murphy on the panel were "American Horror Story: Asylum" cast members Frances Conroy, Naomi Grossman, Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Lily Rabe as well as executive producers Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear. Before the event, it had been reported that Conroy, Lange, Paulson, Peters and Rabe were confirmed to be a part of the third season.

Previously, Murphy had also said Lange would be playing a "glamor cat" in her latest "Story" role. When Lange was asked about that new character, she replied, laughing, "I don't know what a 'glamor cat' is, but I am excited about it."

Late in the event, the ensemble's latest major cast addition was introduced to the audience: the Oscar-winning Bates ("Misery"), who said she was a big fan of the series and a longtime friend of Lange. Joked Murphy, "You know, I love a good Oscar winner," referring to two-time Academy Award honoree Lange, and adding that he and Lange had thought of Bates as this season-three character for some time. "So I pitched (Bates) this cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs character. I said, 'I know you have a lot going on. And we're way, way, way far ahead, but think about it for a couple weeks, and call me or write me.' And my phone rang an hour later: 'I'm in.'"

"I've always been fast," Bates injected, chuckling.

Continued Murphy, "The only thing I'll say about the part is, you know, I wanted to see a lot of scenes with Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates going at it. So, that's what you're going to see."

Murphy also said he was considering a vampire-themed 'Horror Story,' and that "I have been talking to John (FX network president and general manager John Landgraf) about doing a companion piece to 'American Horror Story,' so I think it would be really cool to do a couple different incarnations of the idea. So, we've been talking about that, but I can't talk about it."

"American Horror Story: Coven" will premiere this fall on FX.

____

Online:

http://www.fxnetworks.com/ahs

____

Follow Michael Cidoni Lennox on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeCLennox

Read More