Danny Puff

LOS ANGELES (AP) A Los Angeles judge set the stage Thursday for trial of a civil suit by Michael Jackson's mother against concert giant AEG Live.

Katherine Jackson claims the company negligently hired the doctor later convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death and failed to oversee him. She and the singer's two eldest children are expected to testify about the singer's last days.

Legal rulings by Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos anticipated a three-month trial that will revisit events preceding the singer's death from an anesthetic overdose in 2009.

Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of manslaughter for administering the drug propofol, is not named in the lawsuit. But the judge agreed to allow him to be brought to court from jail to testify outside the jury's presence. He has said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. But lawyers said he could possibly talk about non-criminal issues.

The judge said jury selection would begin April 2 and attorneys estimated the search for a panel could be long and difficult because of the notoriety of the parties and the estimated length of the trial.

The judge granted several plaintiff's motions and rejected a few.

She refused to bar AEG from raising the subject of child molestation charges against Jackson from years ago. Lawyers for his mother claim it's irrelevant because he was acquitted.

Katherine Jackson's attorney, Kevin Boyle, argued that "There is nothing more prejudicial than dropping that bomb in court, mentioning child molestation."

But Palazuelos said she would allow testimony that Jackson became despondent and reliant on drugs because of the charges.

She refused to approve inquiry into the finances of Jackson's siblings and barred any testimony about a claim that Katherine Jackson was kidnapped by family members and taken to Arizona last year.

She wouldn't permit AEG lawyers to ask questions about possible discord in the marriage of Katherine and Joe Jackson and she barred any inquiry into the identity of the biological parents of Jackson's three children.

Katherine Jackson's suit seeks hundreds of millions of dollars from AEG including $200 million in non-economic damages, including emotional distress.

The case centers on whether AEG did an appropriate investigation of Murray and whether they controlled him while he was preparing Jackson for a series of concerts in London.

During arguments, the question arose of why Katherine Jackson did not sue Murray. Attorneys disclosed that Jackson's son Prince and his daughter, Paris, testified in depositions that they believed Murray was "a good person" and didn't want him sued. But Katherine Jackson, who had the decision, testified it was financial, they said.

The judge said AEG could have sued Murray as well.

"The same questions can be asked of you," she told AEG lawyers. "Why didn't you sue him?"

"Because we're not required to," attorney Marvin Putnam said.

The judge called the issue "a side show."

"He has no money and that's why they're not suing him," Putnam said.

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By Poornima Gupta and Ronald Grover

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Technology giants Apple, Google and Amazon are furiously maneuvering for position in the online music business and looking at ways to make streaming profitable, despite the fact that pioneer Pandora has never made a profit.

It has been more than a decade since the iPod heralded the revival of Apple and presaged the smartphone revolution, even as music-sharing site Napster was showing the disruptive power of the Internet in the music business.

Now Google, Amazon.com Inc and Apple are among the Silicon Valley powerhouses sounding out top recording industry executives, according to sources with knowledge of talks and media reports. Streaming service Pandora is spending freely and racking up losses to expand globally. Even social media stalwarts Facebook and Twitter are jumping on the bandwagon.

All of them see a viable music streaming and subscription service as crucial to growing their presence in an exploding mobile environment. For Google and Apple, it is critical in ensuring users remain loyal to their mobile products.

Music has been integral to the mobile experience since the early days of iTunes, which upended the old models with its 99-cent per song buying approach. Now, as smartphones and tablets supplant PCs and virtual storage replaces songs on devices, mobile players from handset makers to social networks realize they must stake out a place or risk ceding control of one of the largest components of mobile device usage.

About 48 percent of smartphone users listen to music on their device, making it the fourth most popular media-related activity after social networking, games and news, according to a ComScore survey of mobile behavior released in February. Users ranked a phone's music and video capability at 7.4 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being most important purchase consideration factor, according to the study.

"Music is very strategic for the various electronic devices Samsung manufactures," said Daren Tsui, CEO and co-founder of streaming music service mSpot, which Samsung bought last year to create the Music Hub service now available on Galaxy smartphones in the United States and Europe.

"By owning it, we can absolutely customize the music experience and leverage the fact that it's not just a service but there's also a hardware component."

In January, Beats Electronics, the startup co-founded by recording supremo Jimmy Iovine and hip-hop performer-producer Dr. Dre, and backed by Universal and Warner Music, announced a new streaming-subscription service dubbed "Daisy" to take on Pandora and Spotify starting this summer.

Now, industry insiders expect Apple, Google and other technology titans to jump into the fray. Apple is talking with music labels about tacking a subscription service option onto iTunes, sources have said, while Google is said to be planning a YouTube subscription music service, according to media reports.

"There are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we're looking at that," a YouTube spokesperson said, but declined to comment on any specific negotiations.

Apple declined to comment.

Microsoft is already promoting its Xbox Music service. Their entry promises to catalyze an industry shake-up and propel music streaming further into the mainstream.

"ITunes was great but it needs a step forward," Iovine, chairman of Universal Music's Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records, told the AllThingsD conference in February. "There is an ocean of music out there that people want."

MOBILE MUSIC LOVERS

Music streaming, or playing songs over the Internet, has in recent years begun to come into its own as listeners increasingly choose to stream songs from apps like Pandora via their smartphones, rather than buy and store individual tracks.

The ad-free subscription model, where consumers pay a flat fee for near-unlimited listening time, is relatively new and quickly gaining popularity.

Pandora, one of the pioneers, is now trying to convert users of its free ad-supported radio service into subscribers. It says mobile users account for more than two thirds of its music, up from just 5 percent of listener-hours three years earlier.

Subscription services are expected to have crossed the 10 per cent mark as a share of total digital music revenues in 2012 for the first time, according to a recent report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the recording industry worldwide.

Consumers spent $5.6 billion worldwide for digital music in 2012, an increase of 9 percent, offsetting the decline in CDs and other physical ways to provide music. That gave the industry its best growth since 1998, albeit a miniscule 0.3 percent, according to the IFPI.

Pure buyers "have to spend hundreds of dollars a month on music, which most people can't afford to do," Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek told Reuters in an interview last week at South-by-Southwest Interactive. "It's pretty obvious that the access model or the subscription model is a much better proposition for most people."

U.S. consumers will stream an estimated 100 billion tracks this year, says David Bakula, senior vice-president for client development and analytics for Nielsen Entertainment.

"The big question is who has the business model to make it work," said Bakula, a former executive at Universal Music, one of the four major music labels. "The first ones in the market may not be the winners."

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently met with Iovine and other Beats executives to find out more about that business. It is unclear if Apple will join Beats' Project Daisy.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Making money off music streaming is difficult. Leading players Pandora and Spotify, despite attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in financing and millions of subscribers, have never reported a cent of profit.

No less a personage than Steve Jobs himself was a skeptic.

"Never say never, but customers don't seem to be interested in it," the late Apple co-founder and online music visionary told Reuters in a 2007 interview. Apple's current executives have not publicly stated their views on streaming music.

Pandora, which went public in 2011, now has 67 million monthly listeners worldwide - a 41 percent jump from a year ago - together listening to more than 13 billion hours of music.

But its losses more than doubled to $38.1 million in the year to January 31, 2013, hurt by the high cost of standard streaming licenses that typically have a per-track royalty model. This has forced Pandora, which relies mainly on advertising for revenue, to cap free mobile listening at 40 hours per month.

It and other music services such as Clear Channel Communications' iHeartRadio are now urging lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to pass the "Internet Radio Fairness Act," which would set royalty rates for subscription music services using the same standard that has so far been applied to other forms of radio.

But a group of 125 musicians, including Billy Joel and Rihanna, are speaking up against it, arguing that the bill would cut by 85 percent the amount of money an artist receives when his or her songs are played over the Internet.

The issue of how recording labels and musicians will be paid is one of the biggest roadblocks to growth. Competition will almost certainly force a shakeout, with winners and losers.

That could accelerate once major technology companies like Amazon and Google flex their marketing muscles, not to mention Apple with its ability to leverage its enormous base of online music buyers. The California gadget giant is unlikely to cede its lead in selling music without a fight.

While streaming could undercut sales of music tracks, Apple has always maintained that if there is potential for cannibalization of its products, the gadget maker would rather be in charge than let others in on it.

Finally, Microsoft has a large audience of Windows and Xbox players to whom it can promote Xbox Music Pass, a $9.99 a month service it launched in October. The software giant has declined to talk about its future plans in this area.

Bring it on, says Ek from Spotify.

"It's rare that gigantic companies figure out a new way to do something peripheral," Ek said. "I don't believe the world will only be controlled by a Google or an Apple. It will be companies who are great at games like EA, at films like Netflix, or at music like Spotify."

(Additional reporting by Gerry Shih in San Francisco; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

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By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Online game publisher Zynga Inc relaunched its website on Thursday, allowing users to play its games without first signing on to Facebook, a significant step toward establishing its independence from Facebook Inc.

The relaunch of Zynga.com is the latest step in the slow dissolution of a special partnership that once bound two of the most influential players in the social Internet industry.

Tim Catlin, general manager of Zynga.com, told Reuters he believed Zynga's players wanted to create unique player names that were not tied to their Facebook accounts, which displays their real names.

"You had to use your Facebook account to play previously, but this is going to change going forward," said Catlin, who added that existing players will still be able to log in with their Facebook accounts.

New players, however, will be able to easily sign up without using Facebook credentials - long a hallmark of many Zynga games.

"We've been able to greatly streamline that process," Catlin said of the new Zynga.com website, which has been in the works for the past year.

Founded in 2007, Zynga achieved a searing growth rate in its early years by exclusively tapping Facebook's network to gain new users while offering games directly within Facebook.com web pages.

For several years the companies enjoyed a lucrative and symbiotic relationship, with Zynga deriving close to 90 percent of its revenues from Facebook games, while Facebook received roughly 15 percent of its income in the form of fees from Zynga.

But Zynga's competitive advantage on the world's largest social network gradually shrank as other publishers entered the market, and the company's leadership has been faulted for not diversifying away from Facebook's platform earlier.

Last year, Facebook and Zynga announced that they agreed to amend a longstanding deal that had given Zynga special privileges on the Facebook platform.

Rather than relying on Facebook's communications features, Zynga has focused on building out features of its own such as its "social stream," a bar that is displayed within games to connect players to each other.

Zynga shares were up less than 1 percent at $3.38 after hours.

(This story was fixed to correct name of Zynga general manager to Tim instead of Tom in third paragraph and to say Zynga and Facebook amended deal instead of that deal had expired in 10th paragraph )

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by David Gregorio)

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NEW YORK (AP) Veteran newsman Ted Koppel, who reports on Friday's "Rock Center" about young offenders in adult prisons, said NBC hasn't done Brian Williams and his young newsmagazine any favors with its scheduling shuffles.

The show debuted on Halloween 2011 and now airs on Friday after previously being on NBC's schedule for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

"Just when you think somebody might figure out when it's on and want to see it the next week, they move it to another place," said the former "Nightline" anchor. "That's not helpful, and I think Brian deserves more support than that."

He said Williams is "a powerhouse of a guy, and I think he's going to emerge triumphant in the end."

"Rock Center" has been averaging 3.8 million viewers a year this season, although it recorded less than 2.8 million last week in its Friday at 10 p.m. time slot, the Nielsen company said.

Koppel does about four or five stories a year for "Rock Center," in addition to some writing, work at National Public Radio and lecturing.

His story on Friday talks about thousands of youngsters placed in solitary confinement in adult prisons. They're sent to these prisons out of a public desire to see people who commit adult crimes punished like adults. To protect them against violence and sexual predators in prison, they're kept apart from the general population.

But being placed in solitary confinement creates its own set of problems, Koppel said. His story focuses on the experiences of Kevin Demott, a Michigan man with mental health issues who attempted armed robbery at age 13 and was kept in solitary for many months.

"I'd been interested in prison-related stories for a long time, and I had no idea we had so many kids in adult facilities," Koppel said.

Despite NBC's ratings problems, network TV still carries plenty of power to get the issue in front of people, he said.

"If a couple of million people end up seeing this piece on Friday night, and 1 percent may be moved to do something about it and say, 'this is crazy, we've got to get these children out of prison...,' then hallelujah, God bless the network."

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(Reuters) - Porn actor Harry Reems, who made his name starring opposite Linda Lovelace in the 1972 movie "Deep Throat", has died at the age of 65, according to his wife Jeanne.

She told the New York Times that her husband died on Tuesday in hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was reported to have been battling multiple health issues, including pancreatic cancer.

His death comes just months before the release of "Lovelace", a biographical film starring Amanda Seyfried in the title role and Adam Brody as Reems which will put the spotlight back on one of the 1970s' most active porn actors.

Reems's rollercoaster life off set reads like a script for a Hollywood movie as he transitioned from the marines to porn movies to alcoholism and then to religion and suburban life.

He was born Herbert Streicher into a Jewish family from Brooklyn, New York, and joined the Marine Corps after school.

After leaving the marines, he struggled to make a career as a stage actor in New York so, needing money, worked in a number of pornographic films.

But his breakthrough came when director Gerard Damiano hired him as lighting director on "Deep Throat". The original male lead failed to show up so Reems stepped in, playing a doctor helping Lovelace with a sexually sensitive area in her throat.

"Deep Throat" was the first porn film widely shown in theatres and made an estimated $600 million at the box office -- although Reems claimed he only received $800 for his role.

It also became the nickname for a source who helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein investigate the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation.

But the film also caused much outrage and Reems was convicted of obscenity in 1976. He admitted that the prospect of a five year jail sentence and trial put him under enormous pressure and set him on a path to alcoholism.

He launched a high-profile appeal backed by celebrities including Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty and the conviction was eventually overturned.

Reems, with a bushy black moustache and hairy chest exposed by his open shirts, went on to star in several other porn movies after "Deep Throat" but demand for his services started to wane by the 1980s as his battles with alcohol increased.

By the mid-1980s he was bankrupt, drinking heavily and homeless. It was not until 1989 that he sobered up, converted to Christianity, obtained a real estate license and married Jeanne in 1990.

In a 2005 interview with the Guardian, Reems described his battle with alcohol, his regret at going into the porn industry and the way his life had changed since he became sober.

"I'm happier today than ever. I saved my own life. I'm content with the way I conduct myself with my marriage, my home, my business," said Reems.

"I live in a small town where everybody knows everybody and nobody thinks of me as a porn actor."

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yoko Ono has taken up arms against gun violence with a raft of Twitter postings, including a photograph of blood-stained glasses apparently worn by John Lennon when he was shot and killed more than 30 years ago.

"Over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980," Ono, the former Beatle's widow, tweeted.

Below the message she included a photo of what appears to be Lennon's blood-stained eyeglasses, perched on a ledge with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.

Lennon was shot and killed outside the Dakota apartment building in Manhattan as he and Ono returned to their home. Ono still lives there.

The bold text above the graphic photo is black, except for the words "Over 1,057,000" and "John Lennon," which appear in bright red.

Ono posted several more messages, including: "The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 33 years our son Sean and I still miss him. Yoko Ono Lennon," and "31,537 people are killed by guns in the USA every year. We are turning this beautiful country into a war zone."

Earlier this week, Ono tweeted filmmaker Michael Moore asking for his support.

"Michael Moore @mmflint Join me to kick off a mass movement against gun violence from your living room on Sat March 23 - Yes! love, yoko".

In other Twitter messages Ono, 80, linked an Oxfam video about global arms and the ammunition trade, a newspaper article on actors joining the anti-gun movement and a YouTube video of the parents of girl killed in a shooting.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Maureen Bavdek)

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WASHINGTON (AP) Simon and Garfunkel's song "Sounds of Silence," which was written amid the turmoil following President John F. Kennedy's assassination, will join Chubby Checker's 1960s dance hit "The Twist" as two of 25 recordings selected for preservation at the Library of Congress.

These are just a few sounds of the 20th century being added to the National Recording Registry on Thursday for long-term preservation due to their cultural, artistic and historic importance. The library said Checker's rendition of "The Twist" became a symbol for the energy and excitement of the early 60s after "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark chose Checker to record a new version of the song.

Later, the 1966 album "Sounds of Silence" by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel was a hit in its day but not before the duo struggled and split early on. Their song "The Sound of Silence" from the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago this year had initially flopped but it became a hit after it was re-edited as a single. That prompted the duo to reunite and quickly record another album under a similar title.

Garfunkel, 71, told The Associated Press he's thrilled and flattered to have his work preserved in the Library of Congress. He said the hit album was a life changer for him and Simon. "Da da dee, da dee, da dee," he sang in an interview.

"There's something fundamentally appealing about the simplicity of those lines," Garfunkel said.

"When you look at the little mesh, wire microphone ... and you address people on the other side of the mic, you hope that your performance will be special, and you hope that it will have lasting power," he said, adding that he remembers thinking in the 60s that "if we do really good and give a very special performance to these great Paul Simon songs, we might last right into the next century and be appreciated."

Their words and their tune have taken on special significance in American culture. Hearing Simon sing "The Sound of Silence" on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, NBC newsman Tom Brokaw briefly struggled for composure. The music, he said, evokes memories.

This is the kind of impact the library was looking to preserve, "to celebrate the richness and variety of our audio heritage," said Librarian of Congress James Billington in announcing the selections.

The recording that received the highest number of public nominations for this year's registry was Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon." The library said it was notable as an example of "brilliant, innovative production in service of the music."

Other selections included the original 1949 cast album for "South Pacific" and the soundtrack to the popular 1977 movie "Saturday Night Fever," starring John Travolta and featuring the Bee Gees, which revived the disco craze.

The selections span from 1918 to 1980 and represent nearly every musical and recording category.

Recordings by Will Rogers, Jimmie Davis and President Dwight D. Eisenhower capture part of the political climate of their eras. In 1931, Rogers' radio broadcast at a low point in the Great Depression included a folksy chat with President Herbert Hoover to kick off a nationwide unemployment relief campaign. Davis' 1940 recording of "You Are My Sunshine" became his election campaign theme song while running for governor of Louisiana. It became one of the most popular country songs of all time and the state song of Louisiana in 1977.

Eisenhower's voice was carried in a prerecorded message in 1958 carried by the first communications satellite launched on a U.S. rocket. Eisenhower's message of peace to the world transmitted from space was touted as a victory in the space race after the Soviet Union launched a satellite the year before.

Van Cliburn's Cold War piano performance in Moscow when he won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition at 23 also was selected. At the time in 1958, Time magazine noted his appearance and tour of the Soviet Union "has had more favorable impact on more Russians than any U.S. export of word or deed since World War II."

Earlier this year, the Library of Congress unveiled an extensive plan to help libraries and archives nationwide preserve recorded sound to guard against losing historic recordings. It's proposing 32 recommendations to Congress on actions to preserve endangered audio.

For his part, Garfunkel said he's still working, writing poems, putting together a book and singing. He said he's working to regain his voice after having vocal troubles. And he said he's ramping up to get back to the stage and wouldn't rule out a reunion with Simon when the time is right.

"Who knows what the future brings?" Garfunkel said. "This is my old buddy, the first friend I made in life."

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Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat .

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LOS ANGELES (AP) For a moment, Lily Tomlin was 73 going on 40.

In the comedy "Admission," starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, Tomlin plays the young-at-heart seventy-something feminist mother of Fey's university admissions officer.

"When we first sat down, I think I'm their age," Tomlin recalled. "They started asking me about 'Nine to Five' and '(The Incredible) Shrinking Woman.' Ha ... they were like 10, 12 years old (when I did those things)."

Like "Admission," which opens Friday, Tomlin's story is very much that of a daughter and mother. Born Mary Jean Tomlin, the comic and actress has been paying homage to her mom since the start of her career, when she adopted "Lily" as a stage name.

"(She) lived to be 91 and was somewhat infirmed by the time she was in her late 80s," Tomlin said. "But she still was funny and wonderful and sweet, so I doubt she felt that old, either."

On her current ABC sitcom "Malibu Country," Tomlin plays the swingin' mother of a newly single daughter (played by Reba McEntire). Tomlin said she asked that her character be renamed Lillie Mae. "I wanted to play someone that age who was just full of life."

Much of Tomlin's life has been spent with writer and life partner Jane Wagner.

Contrary to recent reports, talk-show legend Johnny Carson "didn't out me or try to out me," Tomlin clarified. "He was just being a host and saying conventional stuff. You know: 'You're not married. Don't you want to have children?' ... (These were things) they would ask a female in the early '70s."

Being out, at least within showbiz circles, certainly hasn't hurt Tomlin's career, which includes five Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Grammy Award, two Peabody Awards and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

"I was speaking at (the late Texas governor) Ann Richards' school in Austin," Tomlin remembered, noting that the youngsters only knew her as the voice of the inspirational Ms. Frizzle on the 1990s kids cartoon show "The Magic School Bus."

"One little girl stands up, she had to be 9 years old, and she said, 'Well, what do you think you've contributed to the world with your work?' And I was just stopped dead cold. And I finally said to her, 'I hope that I've made people feel connected to one another.'

"And I'd so hoped that she'd had more knowledge of my career so she could say, 'Well, frankly, here's what I think,'" Tomlin added, with a laugh.

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

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NEW YORK (AP) Famed director Martin Scorsese wants New York's mean streets to keep some of their grittiness.

The "Gangs of New York" director has joined an effort to curb redevelopment of the Bowery. That's the former skid row near where Scorsese grew up.

Scorsese wrote to New York City Planning Commission Chairwoman Amanda Burden last week. He praises the neighborhood's grittiness, ambience and vivid atmosphere.

Scorsese is backing a plan that would limit the height of new development on the east side of the Bowery to eight stories. The plan also calls for preservation of several historic buildings.

Planning Department spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff tells the Daily News (http://nydn.us/148vMyr ) the agency has not made a ruling. She says the department recognizes and appreciates the Bowery's historic value.

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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Thirteen minutes into the movie, CIA agent Tony Mendez asks supervisor Jack O'Donnell what happened to a group of Americans when the U.S. Embassy was stormed in Tehran.

"The six of them went out a back exit," O'Donnell tells Mendez, played by Ben Affleck. "Brits turned them away. Kiwis turned them away. Canadians took them in."

That's the only mention of New Zealand in "Argo," but it is rankling Kiwis five months after the Oscar-winning film was released in the South Pacific nation. Even Parliament has expressed its dismay, passing a motion stating that Affleck, who also directed the movie, "saw fit to mislead the world about what actually happened."

New Zealand joins a list of other countries that have felt slighted by the fictionalized account of how a group of Americans was furtively sheltered and secreted out of Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But nations such as Iran and Canada were much larger participants in the historical event the movie depicts.

The strong reaction in New Zealand indicates the country remains insecure about its own culture, said Steve Matthewman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Auckland. People are prone to bouts of unwarranted outrage when somebody from abroad says something bad about the country, he said, and simpering enjoyment when they say something good.

"It's touched a really raw nerve," Matthewman said. "We do seem in New Zealand to be oversensitive to how the rest of the world perceives us."

The movie's New Zealand reference may not be totally fair but has an element of truth.

Some in New Zealand have taken those words "Kiwis turned them away" as implying the country did nothing to help. Published interviews indicate that diplomats from Britain and New Zealand did help by briefly sheltering the Americans, visiting them and bringing them food, even driving them to the airport when they left.

Yet those interviews also indicate that both countries considered it too risky to shelter the Americans for long. That left the Canadians shouldering the biggest risk by taking them in.

Lawmaker Winston Peters, who brought last week's uncontested motion before Parliament, said New Zealanders are unfairly portrayed as "a bunch of cowards," an impression that would be given to millions who watch the movie.

"It's a diabolical misrepresentation of the acts of courage and bravery, done at significant risk to themselves, by New Zealand diplomats," he said.

During Oscar media interviews last month, Affleck told reporters: "Let me just start by saying I love New Zealand, and I love New Zealanders." He added that "I think that it's tricky. You walk a fine line. You are doing a historical movie and naturally you have to make some creative choices about how you are going to condense this into a three-act structure."

Affleck could not be reached for comment this week.

Matthewman said the reference may have provoked New Zealanders because the country prides itself on being generous and hospitable. People have a reputation for doing things like picking up hitchhikers and inviting them into their homes for a week, he said.

Small countries like New Zealand that are far from the world's centers of power are often shaped by bigger countries like the U.S. and often look to them for affirmation, Matthewman said. It's interesting to note the different reaction Affleck got in Britain, Matthewman said, which was arguably equally maligned in the movie.

"They give the guy a BAFTA in Britain and bash him in New Zealand," he said, referring to the best director prize Affleck won at the British Academy Film Awards.

Some in Britain, however, have criticized "Argo's" reference to that country, and some in Canada are upset the CIA gets credit at the expense of the Canadians, a claim backed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. And Iran is planning to sue Hollywood for the movie's alleged "unrealistic portrayal" of that country, according to Iranian media reports.

Yet while Iran and Canada are central parts of the movie, the New Zealand reference could easily be missed at least by outsiders.

Patrick Gower, the political editor for TV3, one of two main television news stations in New Zealand, wrote in a blog that Affleck should apologize after he "deliberately slammed" the country.

"Some people will say I'm being oversensitive here," he wrote. "But in my opinion, what Affleck has done just isn't right."

The controversy was not reflected in box-office receipts. "Argo" has done well in New Zealand, earning just over $1 million. As of this week, the film has earned $92.3 million internationally and $135 million in North America.

National carrier Air New Zealand has even extended an olive branch to Affleck by offering to fly him to the country as its guest. Airline spokeswoman Marie Hosking said this week it has yet to hear back from him.

Prime Minister John Key, meanwhile, has tried to sound a note of reason.

"New Zealand, I think, sees itself as a country that always wants to lend a hand to help people," he told reporters recently. "But in the end, this is Hollywood, and they do make movies. And a bit like when they transfer a book to a movie, often it's a little bit different. So, look, I think we've made our point and we should probably move on."

But the country doesn't seem ready to move on quite yet.

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Follow Nick Perry on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nickgbperry

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