Danny Puff

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress and singer Selena Gomez breaks out of her squeaky clean Disney Channel image to star in the independent film "Spring Breakers" for filmmaker Harmony Korine.

In the film, which opens in wide release Friday, Gomez stars as a young girl who is part of a quartet of college students whose spring break in Florida takes them from parties to jail and a criminal underworld.

Gomez is best known as pop star Justin Bieber's ex-girlfriend and the star of Disney's "The Wizards of Waverly Place," which ended its four season run last year. She recently returned to the channel for a reunion film, "The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex."

Gomez, 20, spoke to Reuters about her career, growing up and transitioning into more adult roles.

Q: Harmony Korine has a reputation for shocking his audience with movies like "Kids," "Gummo" and "Trash Humpers." Weren't you nervous about doing this film?

A: I was more excited and enticed. When I auditioned for Harmony, we talked about how he wanted to leave my lifestyle behind and have me go on this adventure with him. I knew it was going to be crazy, but I was comfortable with it.

Q: What do you mean by lifestyle? The squeaky clean Disney lifestyle which was totally flipped upside down in this movie?

A: It was more that Harmony wanted an innocence because he thought it would be creepier. I agree with him.

Q: You spend most of the film in a skimpy bikini. Did you feel self conscious?

A: When we did the spring break scenes, we were surrounded by hundreds of spring breakers in bikinis who wore even less, so that was okay. I was more uncomfortable in the scenes where I was (in a bikini) getting arrested, in jail and in the pool hall with strangers. It added vulnerability and helped me feel grossed out, which was what my character is supposed to feel.

Q: For someone who started her career on the pre-school show "Barney & Friends" and spent her teen years on the Disney Channel, this must have been unlike any other acting job.

A: It was completely liberating. (Up until this film), everything I've been a part of definitely has been a bit more processed, like how many pieces of jewelry I have on, what my hair looks like. With Harmony, I never wore makeup and he never cared about my hair.

Q: After an experience like that, you must come out the other side feeling like you've grown and changed somewhat.

A: I think that's a really good way of putting it because I feel like I did grow up shooting this. This was the first movie I shot by myself without my mom coming. It was the first time I got to improvise as much as I have.

And to work with someone like James Franco, it was the first time I was around someone of that acting caliber. Harmony believed in me and pushed me to be a better actor, so there's a special place in my heart for Harmony for sure.

Q: You've got a couple of other films in the can - the action film "The Getaway," a cameo in the horror film, "Aftershock." Now that your film career is taking off, why did you go back to Disney for a reunion with your "Wizards" cast?

A: I missed them. I missed the channel, I missed everybody on the show. It was a big part of my life that I'm thankful for. That's where I started so I wanted to go back.

Q: Your younger fans can't see "Spring Breakers." Was this TV movie your way of giving them something new as well?

A: It always made me happy that we got to bring families together every night. I love having that connection with the younger audience and I missed that feeling.

Q: How do you chart a film career from this point on?

A: I'm actually taking a complete turn now and going in to music. My album comes out this summer and I'll be touring. I always structure my music and tours in a way that is geared for my fans and supporters that have been there from the beginning. My music is definitely the kind I would want them to hear.

Q: How do you balance between moving forward into more adult roles while bearing in mind that you are role model to many young girls?

A: It's a very awkward transition to make. I want to challenge myself and (my choices) may not be appropriate for a young audience. I'm choosing movies that I feel are artistically fun and creative. I hope people are appreciative of the work I do. I feel like I'm doing the best I can and hopefully it works out.

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Vicki Allen)

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NEW YORK (AP) An English-language edition of a 2010 book co-authored by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, will be published in May.

Image Books, a "Catholic-interest" imprint of Random House Inc., announced Tuesday that "On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family and the Church in the 21st Century" will come out May 7. The book was co-written by Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

According to Image Books, "On Heaven and Earth" includes discussions between the two religious leaders on everything from atheism and euthanasia to abortion and globalization. A Spanish-language edition was released in Latin America and Spain in 2010 by Random House Mondadori. Vintage Espanol, also a Random House imprint, will publish the Spanish edition in North America.

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LONDON (Reuters) - The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has cancelled an experimental concert by extreme metal band Napalm Death, fearing the noise level could damage the 104-year-old building.

Ceramic artist Keith Harrison from the V&A, the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, collaborated with Napalm Death on a set to be played through a sculptural sound system which would disintegrate under decibel stress.

But museum officials said the one-off performance, scheduled for Friday in the V&A's Europe Galleries, had been cancelled out of concern it was not only the intended sculpture that would be damaged.

"A further safety inspection has revealed concerns that the high level of decibels generated by the concert would damage the historic fabric of the building," a museum statement said.

"The V&A is committed to an exciting programme of exhibitions and events but the safety of our visitors and building remains our priority at all times."

Napalm Death, a self-described "grindcore" band which has released 14 albums since forming in Birmingham in central England 30 years ago, said the project aimed to merge extreme metal and art.

The band, whose last album included songs like "Leper Colony" and "A Gag Reflex", is listed by Nielsen SoundScan as the seventh best-selling death metal band in the United States.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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NEW YORK (AP) Despite a busy week with the selection of a new pope, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts collectively had 11 percent fewer viewers than the week before and a glance outside the window reveals the primary reason why.

The simple act of moving the clock ahead one hour for daylight saving time is costly for the broadcasts, since the hour that turns from darkness to light happens to be the hour in which they are shown in most of the country.

It's not just a one-week phenomenon. The newscasts will have to deal with smaller audiences until the clocks are pushed back in the fall.

"What it shows is that a large proportion of the people that watch the news are not watching because they watch the news," said news consultant Andrew Tyndall. "They're watching it because they happen to be home when the news is on."

Both NBC's "Nightly News" and ABC's "World News" lost a million viewers from week to week, the Nielsen Co. said. The "CBS Evening News" lost 600,000. That's a total of 2.6 million, or a little more than the entire audience for the NBC sitcom "Community" last week.

While the situation isn't unusual, each newscast lost more viewers in the week-to-week comparison than they did between 2012 and 2011.

"This is part of a predictable cycle every year, so we know to expect a slight dip in viewership when people are enjoying longer hours of daylight," said Patrick Burkey, executive producer of "Nightly News." ''We approach the broadcast with the same mission every day regardless of what time the sun sets."

"Nightly News" had an average of 8.1 million viewers last week (5.4, 11). ABC was second with 7.2 million (4.9, 10) and CBS had 6.4 million viewers (4.3, 9).

In prime time last week, an estimated 10.4 million people watched Sean Lowe propose to Catherine Giudici in the finale of season 17 of "The Bachelor." That's up 13 percent over the audience that watched last year's finale, with an even bigger increase among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that ABC considers most important for its advertisers.

Meanwhile, PBS reported that the third season of "Downton Abbey," which concluded last month, represented the most-watched drama on the public broadcaster in all time.

CBS averaged 8.6 million viewers (5.5 rating, 9 share) in prime-time to win the week. Fox had 6 million viewers (3.6, 6), ABC had 5.8 million (3.8, 6), NBC had 3.8 million (2.5, 4), the CW had 1.19 million and ION Television had 1.15 million (both 0.8, 1)

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.3 million viewer average (1.8, 3), Telemundo had 1.3 million (0.7, 1), UniMas had 480,000 (0.3, 0), Estrella had 190,000 and Azteca 90,000 (both 0.1, 0)

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of March 11-17, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.9 million; "Person of Interest," CBS, 14.34 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 13.44 million; "NCIS," CBS, 13.18 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 12.18 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 11.95 million; "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 11.93 million; "Elementary," CBS, 11.33 million; "The Bible," History, 10.87 million; "The Walking Dead," AMC, 10.84 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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NEW YORK (AP) A man who initially recanted sex abuse allegations against the former puppeteer of the "Sesame Street" character Elmo has sued him, alleging the entertainer lured him into drug-fueled sex when he was 16.

"I was taken advantage of by someone a lot older, and manipulated," Sheldon Stephens, who's now 24, told a Manhattan news conference on Tuesday.

He said he had met puppeteer Kevin Clash at a networking event for models and actors, and was later brought by limousine from his home in Pennsylvania to a New York apartment. There, Stephens said, Clash smoked crystal meth while giving the teenager another recreational drug.

In a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Pennsylvania, Stephens accused the 52-year-old Clash of sexual battery for childhood sexual abuse; travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct; and coercion and enticement to sexual activity. Stephens is asking for unspecified damages and coverage of his legal expenses.

Clash's attorney, Michael Berger, said in a statement Tuesday that his client denies any wrongdoing. He said Stephens already admitted he had had an adult consensual relationship with Clash.

Three other men also are suing Clash, alleging underage sex. Clash resigned from "Sesame Street" in November.

Stephens first made the allegations last year. His lawyer, Jeff Herman, said Stephens recanted over the possibility of a settlement, but none was ever reached. Herman said his client would not discuss details of any possible agreement.

Stephens said at the news conference that he was 22 when the relationship ended. He said he only took action after watching "Sesame Street" with his young nieces.

"When I started to realize my nieces were idolizing this character, it just disgusted me inside because I knew what had happened to me," Stephens said.

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By Himank Sharma

(Reuters) - BlackBerry inventors Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin are pairing again to launch a $100 million fund to incubate and commercialize quantum science technologies capable of spearheading the next wave of computing.

Lazaridis, who stepped down as co-CEO of BlackBerry in January, 2012, is known for his passion for physics.

Last year, he launched the Quantum-Nano Centre, a research facility in Waterloo, Canada, to promote discoveries in emerging technologies underpinning quantum computing. He said he wanted Waterloo to become the hub of quantum technology.

"Nothing you see in the classical technology world can prepare you for what you will see in the quantum technology revolution," Lazaridis said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Our belief in the power of quantum physics to transform society inspired us to develop a strategy some 12 years ago that led to the world-class quantum research capability that exists."

Known as Quantum Valley Investments, the private fund would provide financial and intellectual resources to inventors and entrepreneurs working on quantum technologies.

Advocates for quantum computing technology say it works orders of magnitude faster than classical computing and has the potential to revolutionize fields such as drug development.

While the discipline has remained mainly an academic concept since its introduction 30 years ago, investors have begun to see commercial opportunities.

In 2012, D-Wave Systems, a Vancouver-based company working on quantum-computing applications received $30 million from Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos's venture investments and an investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency.

A quantum computer should be able to tap the peculiar properties of matter itself to do calculations at the atomic level, doing away with the need for a transistor and allowing it to do massive numbers of calculations simultaneously.

(Reporting by Himank Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Paul Tait)

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NEWARK, N.J. (AP) "Sitting there in the park," Philip Roth wrote in "Goodbye Columbus, "I felt a deep knowledge of Newark, an attachment so rooted that it could not help but branch out into affection."

On the novelist's 80th birthday Tuesday, Newark returned the sentiment to one of its most celebrated natives.

The city that played a seminal role in many of Roth's novels played host to a series of events honoring Roth, including a conference of scholars, a bus tour, an exhibit of Roth's personal photos and a birthday party Tuesday night at the Newark Museum, where Roth cuts a cake made to look like a stack of books.

"Newark has been to Roth's writing what whaling is to Melville," said Rosemary Steinbaum, dean of instruction at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston, N.J., and a photo exhibit curator.

"Philip Roth: An Exhibit of Photos from a Lifetime" opened Tuesday at the Newark Public Library. Many of Roth's personal photographs are featured: Roth and his brother eating popsicles at the beach as children, Roth acting in plays at Bucknell University, surrounded by friends including the writer William Styron, and photos of Roth's brother, parents and grandparents.

Roth was born and raised in Newark's Weequahic neighborhood, populated almost entirely by Jewish families at the time. Roth would bike back from its library with books in tow and attended the neighborhood's art deco high school. The city features prominently in his novels, including "American Pastoral," ''Nemesis," ''The Plot Against America" and "Portnoy's Complaint."

The Philip Roth Society held a symposium called Roth(at)80, and many members who dedicated careers to studying Roth, but never visited Newark, piled on three tour buses that wound through the city streets.

Liz Del Tufo, president of the Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, started giving Roth bus tours in 2005. She and the society were instrumental in getting Roth to celebrate his birthday in Newark.

"Whenever Liz Del Tufo calls him (Roth), which is at least monthly, he says, 'Am I 80 yet?'" said Roth's biographer, Blake Bailey.

Del Tufo narrated a tour that was as much a history of Roth's life in Newark as it was an account of the city's past. Each time the bus entered a neighborhood or passed a building that played a role in one of Roth's works, the bus stopped and Del Tufo asked a passenger to read a pertinent passage.

After leaving Newark Museum blocks away, the bus pulled over on Washington Street, parallel to Washington Park.

"Down Washington Street, behind me, was the Newark Museum I could see it without even looking; two oriental vases in front like spittoons for a rajah, and next to it the little annex to which we had traveled on special buses as schoolchildren," a man read in part from "Goodbye Columbus." Passengers applauded when he finished.

The bus continued past the Essex County Courthouse, mentioned in "I Married a Communist," and went down Clinton Avenue. It drove through the Olmsted-designed Weequahic Park and Roth's old neighborhood, where large homes gave way to more modest structures as the bus chugged up a hill.

It pulled over in front of Weequahic High School and everyone aboard was asked to recite a chant from "Portnoy's Complaint."

"Ikey, Mikey, Jake and Sam

We're the boys who eat no ham

We play football, we play soccer

And we keep matzos in our locker!

Aye, aye, aye Weequahic High!"

Passengers burst out laughing and got off the bus to snap photos in front of the high school. Blocks later they bounded off the bus to see Roth's childhood home, now a yellow-sided structure with faux rocks on the front and a small sign proclaiming it a historic site.

"It's remarkable how many monuments from his literature are here," said Michael Kimmage, a Roth scholar at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Sarah Shieff, a professor of Jewish literature at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, flew to Newark for the event with her husband. Roth's descriptions of places were foreign to Schieff, a New Zealand native, and seeing Newark was a way to round out her study.

"This is a way of putting it in three dimensions," she said. "He writes his settings incredibly vividly. It's a bonus to see them in the flesh."

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Lil Wayne has been released from a Los Angeles hospital after a mystery health scare and was returning home, the president of the singer's record label said.

"Thanks to Cedar Sinai (sic) for everything!!! (Lil Wayne) has been officially released and is headed home .... God is great," Mack Maine, a rapper and president of Young Money Entertainment, which Lil Wayne owns, said on Twitter late on Monday.

Celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Lil Wayne, 30, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on March 13 after suffering a series of seizures and said that the "Lollipop" rapper spent several days in intensive care.

Lil Wayne's spokeswoman said last week that the rapper was "recovering" but declined to say what he was suffering from.

The rapper's publicist and record label did not return requests for comment on his condition on Tuesday.

Fellow rappers, including Nicki Minaj and Drake, were photographed entering the hospital over the weekend. Minaj was carrying a set of balloons into the hospital.

Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., has suffered several unexplained seizures in the past few months, including two in January while on a plane flight.

The New Orleans rapper began his professional career at the age of nine, when he became the youngest artist to be signed by Cash Money Records.

Lil Wayne has released nine studio albums over a two-decade career and has become one of the biggest names in rap music.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Henry Bromell, an Emmy Award-winning executive producer for the TV series "Homeland," has died, a representative said Tuesday. He was 66.

Bromell died Monday at a Los Angeles area hospital, Peter Benedek, his longtime agent and friend, said Tuesday.

The cause of death could not be confirmed.

Last year, Bromell shared in Emmy and Golden Globe best-drama awards for Showtime's "Homeland." In 1992, he won a Humanitas Prize, given to work that meaningfully explores the human condition, for the TV drama "I'll Fly Away."

Bromell was "an immensely talented and prolific" writer and producer, Showtime said in a statement. His other TV credits included "Northern Exposure," ''Chicago Hope," ''Rubicon" and "Brotherhood."

"Henry was a profoundly decent and generous man. A great writer and a great friend," ''Homeland" executive producers Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon said in a statement. "Everybody here at 'Homeland' is grieving, and we will miss him beyond words."

He is survived by his wife, Sarah, and sons William and Jake, Benedek said.

Funeral plans were not immediately announced.

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Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lynnelber

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By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After Danny Boyle's prominent role at last year's London Summer Olympics, the British filmmaker is back in the spotlight with his first film since 2010's "127 Hours."

"Trance," which had its world premiere in London on Tuesday, stars James McAvoy as Simon, a man who teams with a criminal (Vincent Cassel) to steal a painting, but who suffers a blow to the head which causes him to have no memory of where he hid it.

A hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) is brought in to help, but as Simon's subconscious mind is probed more deeply, the more the lines between truth, lies and suggestion are blurred.

Part caper, part psychological thriller, "Trance" is another radical departure from Boyle's previous work, which has ranged from the story of a Mumbai teen's rise from the slums in Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire," to a man trapped under a boulder in "127 Hours," to the horror thriller "28 Days Later."

Yet Boyle feels his films are not all that different from one another.

"The truth is, they're all the same," he told Reuters in an interview in Los Angeles. "Basically it's always about a guy who faces insurmountable odds and overcomes them. And that's where you get a lift at the end of the movies."

"Trance," said Boyle, follows that same vein, except "you don't know which" of the three main characters will be overcoming the odds when the movie starts.

The film will be released in the UK on March 27, and on April 5 in the United States.

Boyle, 56, initially planned on shooting the film in New York before he was asked to be the artistic director for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

Instead, he shot "Trance" in the British capital at night while working on the Olympics ceremony during the day.

LEVERAGING OSCAR AT OLYMPICS

Little did Boyle realize that he would be the one who faced insurmountable odds in a personal tale where his only weapon in taking on the Olympics became his Academy Award for directing the 2008 film "Slumdog."

In an upcoming book about his Olympics experience, Boyle talks of chaos behind the scenes and arguments with organizers over penny-pinching on costumes and musical instruments, and a dispute over a sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical Co.

The memoir "Danny Boyle: Creating Wonder" will be published in April. According to excerpts that ran in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper last weekend, Boyle came close to walking away from the Olympics job over a decision by Britain's Defense Ministry to deploy ground-to-air missiles on buildings close to the Olympic stadium in a crowded area of East London.

"There's so many people who are so paranoid and so corporate," Boyle told Reuters of the multiple cooks in the Olympic kitchen. "They want to head for safety first and you have to make sure they don't distort the show."

"I did bash people over the head with the Academy Award (win)," he continued. "I was shameless. You wouldn't have recognized me in some of those meetings because I was not a very nice guy."

Boyle, who describes himself as normally "very affable," said he had to trot out his Oscar credentials in order to protect his vision, and when he felt he was being manipulated by London Olympics organizers.

"They're so terrified for the wrong headline, that you offer them the ultimate headline, which is, 'OK, we'll walk away then, shall we?' That's not going to read very well in the newspapers!"

Ultimately, Boyle's vision - which included a much-talked about skit involving Queen Elizabeth and Daniel Craig as James Bond - prevailed and was the most-viewed Olympic opening ceremony in both the United States and Britain.

"'Trance' kept us sane," Boyle said of his schedule at that time. "It seems curious saying that about a film that's sort of about insanity in a way. But it was crucial to our sanity during the Olympics that we were able to do this film."

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; editing by Jill Serjeant and Matthew Lewis)

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