最新報導的部落格

A new Alba: ‘I’m just really driven by passion. Before, I was just happy to have a job. I took the best opportunities. I guess it was more about quantity than quality,’ says Jessica Alba.

Social media fan and actress Jessica Alba tries her best to shed her ‘sex kitten’ image.

JESSICA Alba, who a few years ago told the media she was trying to strike the word “sexy” from the description of her roles – sexy dancer, sexy surfer, sexy government official – seems to be doing a rather poor job of changing her image.

At age 32, Alba will be reprising the role of exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, the sequel to the crime thriller Sin City (2005). She will also be coming back as smouldering immigration agent Santana in Machete Kills, the sequel to the action movie Machete (2010). Both films will be released in the United States this year.

The actress will be in Singapore to co-host the inaugural Social Star Awards, along with actor Jeremy Piven, tonight.

Alba, who in the mid-2000s regularly topped hottest-body and sexiest actor polls (despite a no-nudity clause in her contracts), laughs and plays it coy when she is told that she is still playing sex kittens.

“Am I? I had no idea,” she says in a phone interview from Los Angeles. She is still trying to make a change, she explains.

“I’m certainly a lot more thoughtful about my choices when it comes to acting work and I’m just really driven by passion. Before, I was just happy to have a job. I took the best opportunities. I guess it was more about quantity than quality,” she says.

But now, as a mother of two daughters – aged five and two – with husband, movie producer Cash Warren, she has to “make different choices”, compared to when she was younger and hungrier. She is also the founder of The Honest Company, a toxin-free household products firm.

“I don’t have the same kind of mentality about work. I really am more driven by passion and enthusiasm to work with filmmakers,” she says.

When she takes a role now, she wants to be able to inject her life experience into it, something she was not able to do when she was younger.

So while Nancy Callahan might be the same character as in the 2005 hit movie, Alba says she was able to shape the character with Robert Rodriguez. The director of Sin City and its sequel also directed her in Machete and its sequel, as well as 2011 action comedy Spy Kids: All The Time In The World.

“It’s pretty awesome and it’s something that I’ve never done. I’m really excited how it turned out, and it was such an awesome experience when I was shooting it,” she says.

Alba is active on social media, and does not stick to a strict schedule when it comes to updating her Twitter (@jessicaalba), Facebook or Instagram accounts.

“It may be just random, depending on how I feel or what’s happening that day, some days I don’t post anything at all, some days I post several things,” she says.

She is aware that celebrity posts are scrutinised, so she makes sure to err on the side of caution. Working in Hollywood has taught her the value of discretion.

“Living in Los Angeles and being an actor, being in the public eye, I’m used to it, compared to other people. I’m pretty good at minding my Ps and Qs,” she says.

Being able to speak directly to the world through social media is liberating, she says. Too often, the traditional media distort the truth about her.

“I get to control my voice and it’s authentic, and everything that I put out there is me. Nothing is being misconstrued. That’s nice and that’s something a lot of people like about social media.” – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

Action star Vin Diesel melts like a marshmallow in the presence of his daughter.

ACTOR and producer Vin Diesel readily admits that if you want to be “the biggest star in the world, you have to be really selfish”, which is why he was late in starting his family.

“My twin brother started his family 15 years before me. But with all the travelling and living abroad to do movies, it took me awhile,” Diesel tells the Asian press in Manila.

Diesel was there, along with fellow Fast & Furious 6 castmates Michelle Rodriguez, Luke Evans and Gina Carano, to attend the movie’s red carpet premiere in the capital of the Philippines last week.

The 45-year-old actor has a five-year-old daughter, Hania Riley, with long-term girlfriend, Mexican model Paloma Jimenez, as well as a son.

“My daughter is my queen. She’s everything to me, to the point that if I don’t send her a video saying where I am or what Daddy is doing, I’d get in trouble,” he shares with a smile.

He admits that his daughter can turn him from a muscle man to a marshmallow man in an instant.

“Becoming a father was a very powerful transition, for me, like it would be (for) anyone. And I waited a long time because the industry is so demanding,” he says.

Diesel adds that this transition into a family man has a lot to do with The Fast And The Furious franchise.

Hania was born during the shooting of Fast & Furious (2009), her brother during the shooting of Fast Five (2011). Diesel’s co-stars Gal Gadot (who plays Gisele Yashar), Elsa Pataky (Elena Neves), and director Justin Lin also had their children during the filming of the sequels.

Diesel, who plays lead character Dominic Toretto in the franchise, says: “The theme of the saga is so strong with family that it kind of seeps into your real life.

“It’s beautiful to see the children of the next generation play together.”

Although the heart of the movie is about family, the series has always been primarily known for its adrenaline-inducing action scenes involving cars.

Ever since Diesel came back on board the franchise for the fourth movie, Fast & Furious, he has pushed for the conceptualising of the sequels in sets of trilogies.

The fourth to sixth movies are considered one trilogy, to which Diesel points out that the 2009 short movie Los Bandoleros, written and directed by himself, serves as a prequel.

The next three movies, Fast & Furious 7, 8 and 9, are also being treated as a trilogy.

This, Diesel says, is despite the fact that the series does not have ready material behind it, like the current blockbuster superhero adaptations, or The Hobbit trilogy, based on JRR Tolkien’s book.

He says: “This is a homegrown IP (intellectual property), probably the first of its kind.

“Universal... for that matter, any studio in Hollywood, has never pulled it off before. The superheroes in most movies don’t wear street clothes.”

Diesel explains that filming movies in a trilogy allows them to be creative and dream of incredible action sequences that can be spread out over a few movies, and also work them out in a practical manner for filming.

For example, the production team is already thinking of how to film a car race on the Great Wall of China, which is planned for Fast & Furious 8.

According to Diesel, filming for Fast & Furious 7 will commence in the next few months in Los Angeles.

However, it might take some time for the following sequels to come out, as Diesel has committed to several other projects in the meantime, which include Hannibal The Conqueror, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and Kojak.

Fans will get to see Diesel in another sequel later this year as he reprises the titular role in the sci-fi flick Riddick, scheduled to be released in September.

n Fast & Furious 6 opens today in cinemas nationwide.

Related Story:
Back by popular demand

Big break: George Takei was cast as Mr Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek television series in 1965.

Sci-fi fans adore him for his role in Star Trek. He’s also one of today’s funniest guys on Facebook.

Japanese-American actor George Takei’s fame rests almost entirely on one character he played on TV and in movies since the 1960s – helmsman Hikaru Sulu aboard the USS Enterprise in the science-fiction franchise Star Trek.

The Star Trek connection alone does not explain his current popularity in the social media world.

Dubbed the funniest guy on Facebook by Forbes magazine last year, Takei, 76, has built a rapidly growing fan base with more than four million likes on his Facebook fan page and 656,000 followers on Twitter (@GeorgeTakei).

And he did this in only about three years.

How did he become one of the biggest breakout stars on social media?

Takei says it all stemmed from his desire to produce a musical based on “a little-known chapter of American history” – the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

An audience base was needed for it and he thought, why not turn to social media to find one.

“The force of my fanbase at the time were sci-fi geeks and nerds and so I had to build from that. I started out by saying funny things about sci-fi and throwing in a few cute kitty pictures, and that caught on and my audience grew.

“I’ve also been an activist for a lot of civil rights and human rights issues and my audience grew a little bit more. But I had no idea it was going to grow this rapidly and grow this large. Here we are now with more than four million fans,” he says in a phone interview. Takei is set to attend Singapore’s Social Star Awards, which is happening tonight.

The openly gay actor is an ardent supporter of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community, and has won awards for his contributions to US-Japanese relations.

Takei’s Facebook fans regularly comment and share his funny posts about Star Trek and other aspects of science-fiction culture. Some of his kitty pictures with hilarious captions attract as much as 93,000 likes and 70,000 shares.

His YouTube videos – such as Fifty Shades Of Takei, where he reads excerpts from best-selling erotica novel Fifty Shades Of Grey, and The George Takei Happy Dance, which sees him bust disco-dancing moves to LMFAO’s hit number Sexy And I Know It – have attracted more than a million views each. He also had a new book out last year, called Oh My!!! (There Goes The Internet).

In comparison, his former colleague William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek, has 226,000 Facebook fans and gets only a few hundred likes for most of his posts.

Takei’s original objective for boldly going into Twitterverse has been achieved, too.

Last year saw the successful premiere of the musical Allegiance which he stars in, alongside Lea Salonga and Telly Leung. It is inspired by his own experience growing up in an internment camp during his childhood days.

The musical wound up breaking box-office records in San Diego, California, and was crowned “best musical” at the San Diego Theatre Critics Awards. It will hit Broadway soon.

Busy with rehearsals, Takei admits he needs help to keep his Facebook page active, getting help from his partner, Brad Altman, and a group of dedicated interns.

He says: “You can’t do this all alone, what’s important is the consistency to be there posting daily. I spend the weekends preparing the material, but the daily conscientious contact with my fanbase is carried on by Brad and the interns.”

Born in 1937 to Japanese-American parents in Los Angeles, George Hosato Takei started his career as a working actor in Hollywood in the 1950s.

In 1965, he got his big break when Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry cast him as Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek television series.

The series went on to become one of the most influential science-fiction TV shows in history, spawning several spin-off series, numerous games, toys and comics, and a slew of feature films under the multi-billion dollar Star Trek franchise.

The latest movie instalment is Star Trek Into Darkness, currently showing in cinemas nationwide.

Takei says he has not seen the movie but praised American actor John Cho, 40, who plays Hikaru Sulu in it and also in the previous movie, Star Trek (2009).

Takei says jokingly: “Cho got cast as Sulu for the last movie and I got a phone call from him to have lunch. He was quite concerned about taking on the role and how to deal with Star Trek fans because they are now a legion and he knows about the phenomenon.

“I told him, ‘Don’t worry, you’re a talented actor, you’re going to do a great job and it won’t be very long before I’ll be known as the old guy who played John Cho’s part’.”

He adds cheekily: “Actually I’m green with envy because he got to do that galactive sky dive which I never got to do on Star Trek.”

Asked what he would have done if he had not landed the role of Hikaru Sulu in the 1960s, Takei, who holds a degree in architecture, says with the tongue-in-cheek humour his Facebook fans are familiar with: “Well, actors have egos, so letting that ego go, I would have found another wonderful opportunity. I would have made it into a huge success, and I would have global fan following.”

He adds that he wants the world to remember him firstly for his work as an actor, and his legacy to be “a person who worked to make this place a better, fairer world”.

“I know my tombstone is going to read in great, big letters: ‘Here lies Hikaru Sulu’, and in smaller letters: ‘aka George Takei’.” – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

All smiles: Sammi Cheng, who battled depression for three years, is now rejuvenated and have a positive outlook in life.

The amiable Sammi Cheng speaks about how her battle with depression changed her life and career.

IT seems almost unfair to call Sammi Cheng a “veteran Hong Kong singer and actress”. Even at the age of 40, she has not lost any of her trademark vibrancy and carefree, amiable attitude.

Heck, she doesn’t even look 40. When we met her recently at the OSIM uAngel launch at One Utama, she looked as radiant and energetic as ever, despite a hectic day of meeting fans and conducting interviews.

She may still seem as young and pretty as she did two decades ago when she made her debut as a fresh-faced singer in Hong Kong, but in terms of her career, she has certainly come a long way.

Cheng made her debut at a singing competition at the tender age of 16, where she was spotted by label scouts, and then went on to become the most decorated singer in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry.

She also turned out to be a pretty good actress as well, starring in hits such as My Left Eye Sees Ghosts, Summer Holiday, and Johnny To’s Needing You, in which she was nominated for the best actress award at the 2001 Hong Kong Film Awards. She was even nominated for the best actress award at the 2005 Venice International Film Festival for her role in Everlasting Regret, alongside international actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabelle Huppert and Monica Bellucci.

Unfortunately, the pressures of superstardom eventually got to her in 2005. Suffering from severe depression, she decided to take a sabbatical and get away from the pressures of the showbiz industry. The hiatus lasted about 1,000 days, and in that period, Cheng managed to pull herself out of the rut through a combination of religion (she became a reborn Christian) and family support.

“When I was in depression, even my own family didn’t know what was happening with me, because I never told them anything. But they were always there beside me, and that helped me a lot,” she recalled.

Cheng reckons that she emerged from those three “lost years” a better and more positive person. “I think we all need to make a conscious choice to be more positive, even though it is really hard to be like that all the time. Those three years helped me learn how to pull myself up,” she said, adding that everyone needs someone to confide in and talk to. “We all need someone to trust, to talk to and share your experiences and problems with. It doesn’t matter if it is your sister, boyfriend or husband... we all need someone to talk to.”

Despite having more than 20 years of experience under her belt, Cheng believes there are still plenty of new experiences she has yet to go through. For instance, she claims to have a set of new ideas and themes for her future concerts (though she won’t be holding one in Malaysia anytime soon, unfortunately), and she would also like to take part in a theatre production one day.

Although Cheng denies that there is a difference between the way she approaches her work pre- and post-depression, she admitted that she has since learned to be a lot more relaxed about it.

“My fire and passion for my work has not changed, but I now have a different point of view in terms of my goals and results,” she said. “In the past, I would try my very best to achieve everything in order to get the best result. But now, I am more at peace with myself.

“I used to think and fret constantly, and would always try to accomplish everything on my own. These days, my mind is always completely blank! After all the work each day, I would just leave it behind and get on with my life,” she said, adding that even her fans have asked her not to push herself too much. “Some fans have come up to me and asked me not to work so hard! They’d say, ‘Don’t give your 100%, 98% is enough!’” she said with a laugh.

“But that’s the way I am ... although the work can get tough sometimes, I still get a great sense of accomplishment and happiness knowing that I gave it my all. That part of me has not changed at all – no matter what I do, I will always give it everything I have.”

The dashing Luke Evans relishes playing a villain.

Being the new guy is never easy. Before Luke Evans could even properly introduce himself to his fellow castmates from Fast & Furious 6, he was put in handcuffs, got hit in the face a few times by Paul Walker, and engaged in a macho standoff with Vin Diesel. Talk about a memorable introduction!

The Welsh actor says: “I remembered being quite scared that day, because I hadn’t really been introduced to anyone from the team, and I knew I had to come in and face all of them, and do a scene where it was almost to the end of the movie and we hadn’t shot the (other parts of the) movie!”

He says that that’s where the challenge and ability of being an actor come in. “(You have) to think and process everything that you should have done by that point, so as to inform that character and give all that experience to the performance,” Evans says about shooting scenes out of sequence.

“That was hard enough in itself; then having to be handcuffed and punched in the face by Paul Walker and eyeballed by Vin (Diesel), and then they say, ‘Cut,’ and you go ‘Nice to meet you’,” he remembers.

Evans plays the villain in Fast & Furious 6, the latest instalment in The Fast And The Furious series.

His character, Owen Shaw, is a former British SAS (Special Air Forces) major, specialising in vehicular warfare, and who now runs his own successful criminal gang.

In addition, he has recruited Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) who was thought to have died in the fourth movie. Ortiz survived a murder attempt, but now has amnesia.

“Owen is the core theme of the film; the objective of the good guys is to catch this villain and to get Letty back,” Evans says.

When asked if he enjoyed making a villain like Owen Shaw likable, he says: “I think it’s good sometimes to play a bad guy that actually can be liked by an audience.

“They can be entertained by his villainous nature, and I hope I’ve done that with Owen Shaw. I hope people look at the bad guy and think, well, as bad guys go, he’s a really good bad guy.” – Tan Shiow Chin

Michelle Rodriguez nearly went on strike during 2009’s Fast & Furious because she thought that her character Letty Ortiz was going to be killed off.

But producer and co-star Vin Diesel assured her then that Ortiz was too important a character to the series to die.

Having said that, the series’ fans also made a strong outcry for Ortiz’s return to the series, which she does in the new Fast & Furious 6.

Speaking to the press in Manila, Rodriguez says: “Just to know that you were asked to come back by fans, and by colleagues and people that you care about, makes you want to prove yourself and do the best that you possibly can.

“So there was a lot of pressure, and you know what? Not for one minute did I forget the responsibility that came with it.”

She adds that she hopes people will like the final product, because she worked hard on making it right.

When asked how she handles the pressure of such high expectations, the actress replies: “By making sure you’re always giving your best, and that you’re never giving less than that.

“And that just allows you to be calm, and that allows you to accept what’s to come. After you give your best, it’s out of your control, it’s in God’s hands.”

Rodriguez’s character Ortiz survives a murder attempt in the fourth movie, but returns with amnesia in the latest film. So much so that she currently works for the movie’s villain, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans).

But Oritz’s former lover Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and friends are not about to let her go so easily, making her retrieval the crux of the movie.

Related Story:
Daddy cool

Place your bets: (From left) Fly Guy, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, JJ and Lil’ Kev at the Red FM studio yesterday.

If there is one lesson to be learned, it is never to mess with Air Asia’s group chief executive Tan Sri Tony Fernandes. He’s raking up a list of “victims”. First, it was Virgin Airlines boss Sir Richard Branson. And now it’s radio personalities JJ and Lil’ Kev.

On their morning show The Red Breakfast WTF, the deejays had Fernandes on air to talk about The Apprentice Asia. Little did they know that they would end up losing a bet to Fernandes. And now, they will have to dress up as flight attendants for a six-sector Air Asia flight.

“We thought we would win!” said JJ. “He said he was a ‘walkaround manager’, who knows every member of his staff. So we wanted to test his claim.”

They got Fernandes to call Tune Hotel in Penang to try and get a room for free, just by introducing himself as “Tony Fernandes” to the front desk. To their surprise, he managed to do it.

“He said all the staff members know his voice,” said JJ.

Are they scared after what happened with Branson? For Lil’ Kev, it’s “been there, done that”.

“When I was with another radio station, I lost a bet as well and dressed up as a female flight attendant and even appeared on the cover of a magazine,” remembered Lil’ Kev.

The duo have a choice, to dress up as either male or female flight attendants. They will also have to go for training.

“We’re going to be serving nasi lemak and drinks, but the safety demonstration is going to be weird,” JJ laughed.

Meanwhile, Red FM’s Dude, Where’s My Car Grand Finals will be held at The Empire Shopping Gallery in Subang Jaya on May 25. The winner will drive home in a shiny red Honda CR-Z. The event, hosted by JJ and Lil’ Kev, will be broadcast live on Red FM.

Red FM is a subsidiary of Star Radio Group.

No joke! Harith Iskander and Michael Veerapen are experimenting with a genre called musical comedy.

Funnyman Harith Iskander and musician Michael Veerapen experiment with a new theatrical genre at the PJ Laugh Fest.

COMEDIES can span across many mediums and as one of Malaysia’s leading stand-up comedians, Harith Iskander is renowned for his brand of slapstick.

Rrrrrolling tongue and expressive face aside, the cherubic humorist is now experimenting with something he calls musical comedy.

Teaming up with jazz musician Michael Veerapen, the pair will present Don’t Drop The Baby next week at the PJ Laugh Fest.

“When I started doing stand-ups 21 years ago, I was experimenting. It worked. At that time, there was only Instant Cafe Theatre and Rafique Rashid. So, we’ll see if this works. This is the first in the world! We didn’t do any research so I’m just saying it until someone else comes along and refutes this,” said Harith in a recent interview.

The initial idea for a musical comedy came about when Harith was doing the narration for the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra’s Peter And The Wolf.

“A narrator is almost like a musical instrument. You have to narrate according to the music’s highs and lows,” he added.

Later, the idea resurfaced when he directed Lat: Kampung Boy Sebuah Musical in 2011. That sparked the idea of putting a soundtrack to his stand-up routine. However, he was clueless as to how to go about it so he called Veerapen, who was the music director for Lat, and had collaborated with Harith previously.

Also present at the interview, Veerapen explained, “We’ve both got similar minds and ideas. Lat was a real challenge for the creative team because there were so many people involved but it was a success. So every new venture is a challenge.”

Harith added, “This time it’s only the two of us. Although he’s just a few years older, we have many common things we remember from school despite growing up in different states.”

Instead of getting someone else to open his show, Harith decided to do it on his own. The duo has been rehearsing these past two months to perfect the musical.

“I’ve performed at the PJ Laugh Fest with Douglas Lim the past three years, but we split this year. He wants to do his own show. He doesn’t want to open for me anymore!” joked Harith. “People ask me if I’m going to be singing. Errr ... yes, this is a musical!”

While Veerapen is tasked with composing the music, what else does he do?

“Harith sings really well, but I don’t sing and I can’t sing,” said Veerapen.

I shoot him an incredulous look. How can musicians not sing? They can at least keep pitch, I argue. Ask him why, prodded Harith. Then Veerapen blurted out the truth.

“When I was young, I used to have an angelic voice before it broke. My dad loved to hear me sing falsettos and he would insist I sing while my sister played the piano.

“I could have been in the Vienna Boys Choir! One day my friends came to ask me for a game of badminton and they saw me (singing). They started poking fun and laughed mercilessly. I was so traumatised I never sang again,” he confessed.

However, Harith offered, “Let’s just say Michael will have a microphone during our show.”

Musically, it’s not all jazz, says pianist Veerapen, who’s played in rock and pop bands but enjoys jazz.

“It’s not just jokes-song-jokes-song. It blends together and is like a play – there is a beginning, middle and an end. The music augments the jokes. It’s about myself and the fact that I have a son. Unlike my previous shows, this is sort of a theatre piece with stand-up elements,” revealed Harith.

“I used my son’s (Zander Xayne) picture in the Don’t Drop The Baby poster to attract people because babies are ultimate attention grabbers. You can’t just put two old fellas in there! Having said that, Zander does feature a lot in the musical.”

Incidentally, the name for the show came about while the duo were doing a publicity photo shoot and Zander was getting restless in Harith’s arms. The photographer, as Harith remembers, kept saying, “Careful, don’t drop the baby!”

The 90-minute show will incorporate songs, dances, visuals and magic.

Veerapen added, “We’re charting new ground. If it works, we can expect others to go into the genre.”

Now in its third year, PJ Laugh Fest, kicked off on May 15 and will conclude on June 9. Among the remaining highlights are Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones (theatre, May 23-26), Silly Cinema (film, May 24), Funny Fables (children’s book reading, May 25-26), D’Arranged Marriage (storytelling, May 30), Men In Tutus (dance, June 6-9) and The Talkative Turtle & Other Stories (children’s theatre, June 7-9).

● Don’t Drop The Baby plays from May 27-29 at PJ Live Arts, 2A-3, Block K, Jaya One, Section 13, No. 72A, Jalan Universiti, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Showtime: 8.30pm. Tickets: RM60 and RM80. For more information, visit tix.my or call 017-228 9849 (2-BUY-TIX).

MOSCOW: A jailed member of the Pussy Riot radical rock group on Wednesday announced she was going on hunger strike in protest over the authorities' failure to allow her to attend a parole hearing in person.

Maria Alyokhina told a court in the city of Berezniki by video link from her prison camp that she was going on hunger strike and ordering her lawyers to pull out of the parole hearing until she was brought to the court in person, Russian news agencies reported.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar winner Ang Lee canceled his plans to direct the pilot of new U.S. television series Tyrant, saying on Tuesday that he needed to rest after spending four years working on 3D fantasy-adventure film Life Of Pi.

Lee, 58, signed on to direct the pilot of the drama series for cable network FX in March, shortly after winning the Best Director Oscar for Life Of Pi.

"It is one of the most brilliant ideas for a series that I've seen and one about which I was very excited," Lee said in a statement. "However, after spending over four years making and promoting Life Of Pi, I have recently realized that I need some rest."

Tyrant tells the story of an American family that is pulled into the workings of a restive Middle Eastern nation, and Lee was slated to begin filming the pilot this summer.

It would have been the Taiwanese-born director's first foray into television.

Tyrant is produced by Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff, who also are producers on Showtime's Emmy-winning counter-terrorism thriller Homeland.

FX, which did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment, is owned by Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corp.

The highly creative piece Space shows a scenario familiar to many Malaysians: LRT commuters engrossed in their mobile phones.

NOSTALGIA. Life and death. Pressure and frustration. Gender relationships.

These were some of the themes explored during University Malaya Dance Company’s (UMa Dance) Contemporary Dance Showcase 2013 held at UM’s Experimental Theatre last week.

The showcase was a delightful watch, due to its creative choreography and the inspiring passion of the dancers involved. Indeed, it was sometimes difficult to believe that some of the performers were still students, given the sheer quality of some of the talent on display.

UM’s biannual showcase also serves as a platform for students to create, manage and present a stage production during a semester, as well as introduce and promote programmes offered by UM’s Dance Department.

The showcase kicked off with Rusuk, choreographed by Azura Abal Abas. Inspired by Adam and Eve, the experimental piece focused on the issue of equality among man and woman in fulfilling their religious duties to God, as well as complete and support each other. This notion of gender complementariness was elegantly displayed in the high symmetry of the dancer’s movements and formations.

This was followed by Moment, choreographed by Syafizal-Syazlee Salehuddin, a piece exploring pressure, restraint and release.

This dance proved extremely captivating to watch, particularly due to the amazing strength and agility of its dancers, who performed the dance’s many flips, cartwheels and supports almost effortlessly.

The piece’s narrative was also strong, with a single male dancer (the choreographer himself) initially being constrained by his fellow dancers. As the dance progressed, the single dancer broke away from these limits, eventually even shunning music to deliver an unrestrained, free performance.

Another piece featuring a strong narrative was So What?, which explored mixed emotions of pressure, frustration, happiness, sorrow and surrender.

Choreographed by Muhammad Syafiq Hambali, the heavily breakdance-influenced piece told the tale of a boy’s frustration at his poor academic results and his attempts to reach out, which eventually end in pointlessness. The piece proved electrifying to watch, mostly due to the inspired choreography, which was performed well by the three young dancers.

Abadi, choreographed by Khairulazhar Mohtar, was a moving piece illustrating the human life cycle and mortality. Dressed in black Malay traditional attire, the dancers twirled and moved in circles, emphasising the cyclical nature of life and death. Their slow and deliberate movements reflected all the major stages of a life: cradling their arms to suggest infancy, leaping and bounding in the energy of youth, moving in pairs at courtship.

The piece also featured one of the loveliest, most surreal moments of the night: a slow descent of a rain of paper umbrellas, an elegant illustration of the passage of time, as well as an imaginative reminder of the starkness of mortality. No matter how hard we endeavour to protect or shelter ourselves, the afterlife comes for us all.

For a dose of fun, Remembrances, which was jointly choreographed by Leng Poh Gee and his students, was an interactive highlight. Every part of the piece evoked images of nostalgia for bygone days and carefree days of youth.

The programme ended with Space, choreographed by Hii Ing Fung,which explored notions of personal space and human interaction through a scenario familiar to most Malaysians, commuters on the LRT immersed in their mobile phones. What was most engrossing about Space was how it took commonplace actions – SMSing, shoving for a seat, moving on a fast speed- and turned it into gripping performance art.

All the dancers and choreographers involved definitely have the potential for greater things. Here’s hoping subsequent showcases continue to maintain this standard.

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer George Michael remains in hospital under observation for head injuries, five days after a car accident, his publicist said on Tuesday.

"I can confirm that George (pic) remains in hospital but purely as a standard precaution for observation because he suffered some bumps and cuts to his head. But he's making good progress, he's fine and he's really looking forward to getting home," the spokeswoman said.

British media have reported that the 49-year-old former Wham! front man fell out of a car he was travelling in on the M1 motorway just outside London during rush hour - the latest of a string of recent accidents and health scares.

The tabloid Sun newspaper interviewed a woman who said she had skidded to a halt after the singer fell out of the vehicle in front of her, and that she had used her car to shield him from other vehicles.

"There was a nasty cut on his forehead and the back of his head. There was blood all down his face and on his teeth," the Sun reported driver Katherine Fox as saying.

Last year, the Careless Whisper singer cancelled a tour of Australia due to "major anxiety" brought on by a 2011 battle with severe pneumonia in Vienna, where he was treated in intensive care for a month.

Michael has sold an estimated 100 million records over his career, but in the past few years has hit the headlines for his personal life more often than for his music.

In 1998 he was arrested in California for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet. He has also had a number of run-ins with British police for possession of narcotics, and served time in jail for driving under the influence of cannabis.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Country singer Kelly Pickler won the 16th season of ABC's Dancing With The Stars on Tuesday night, winning over judges and TV audiences with her graceful style and high-jumping jives with partner and professional dancer Derek Hough.

Pickler, who first grabbed attention as a contestant on American Idol in 2006, screeched and jumped up and down when she learned she had won. Fellow finalist Jacoby Jones, an NFL player, hoisted her on his shoulders to celebrate.

Pickler beat out Jones, former Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, and actress Zendaya, who goes by her first name. The show began with 12 celebrity contestants including singer Winona Judd and former Olympic skater Dorothy Hamill, who were paired with the show's professional dancers.

Inspired by the British show Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing With The Stars has remained popular with American TV audiences since its debut in 2005, though its ratings have slipped over time.

The show's judges award points to the couples based on their dance routines, which are weighed equally with audience votes to select the winner.

Just like old times: Ant (in white jersey) and Dec performing – as PJ & Duncan – during the big reunion segment of their variety show, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

American Idol is finally over ... at least for now.

AMERICANS cast their vote last week and Candice Glover won. Thus ends another long and boring season of American Idol (Star World and 8TV).

(Cue frantic cheers and leaps of joy from audiences all over the world.)

Will this be the last that we see of the long-running reality-based singing competition? Last Friday’s finale saw the show’s lowest ever ratings (14.3 million viewers in the United States, which is a 33% drop from last year’s already dwindling number); that’s a clear indication of American Idol’s decreasing popularity.

Some put the blame on the judges – apparently, two bickering divas sandwiched between dull, docile men make for horrible TV viewing – while others think the contestants are just too boring and not good enough. Whatever it is, fixing this “problem” will not be an easy or a cheap task for Fox, the network that runs the show. Apart from acquiring new judges (Randy Jackson has announced his exit, while the others have yet to confirm anything), the network also has to search for a variety of contestants that viewers will remember from the first time they appear on screen.

Also, bring back Simon Cowell.

Another variety show that has been around for more than a decade is Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV Choice), hosted by the irrepressible duo, Anthony “Ant” McPartlin and Declan “Dec” Donnelly. Last weekend’s programme was a very special one, especially to those who were big fans of British pop music at the beginning of the new millennium.

But before we get into that, let’s find out what makes Saturday Night Takeaway such a fun show. First of all, it’s a variety show for the people. Studio audiences get the chance to win wonderful prizes, like a holiday for the whole family, a car, a state-of-the-art dishwasher... The contestants need to do some things before they can get their hands on the prize, of course, but they are usually very easy like a general knowledge quiz, sing the winning Eurovision song, etc.

Apart from giving away prizes, Ant and Dec also send their teams out all over Britain, Wales and Ireland to give folks a chance to win tickets to attend the live show, which is shot in London. Actually, they send “The Super Computer”, a gigantic machine fitted with a camera and a screen. If you were interested in going to Saturday Night Takeaway, all you need to do is stand in front of The Super Computer and do whatever it tells you to. At the end of it, you will receive one of two sets of tickets that either say “lucky” or “unlucky”. It’s a funny segment in itself, because the things that people do rank from hilarious to really, really stupid.

Anyway, back to last week’s special show. For the live performance segment, Ant and Dec got three of Britain’s top pop groups of the last decade together on stage – 5ive, Blue and Atomic Kitten! It was sort of a promotional stint for another special programme that ITV2 had produced, called The Big Reunion, which put these three groups alongside 911, B*Witched, Honeyz and Liberty X.

To add to the fun, Ant and Dec decided to put on their old digs and bring back the good old days of PJ & Duncan! (Before they were Ant & Dec, the duo was known as PJ & Duncan, a pop group that was known for their funky pop-rap tunes.) PJ & Duncan – Ant is PJ, Dec is Duncan – played their biggest hit, Let’s Get Ready To Rumble. After not performing for so many years, PJ & Duncan did very well, jumping around the stage like how they used to and never skipping a word or a beat.

Ah, nostalgia. It can’t be beat. n Do you think American Idol deserves another season? Do you think more British variety programmes should be shown on other TV channels in Malaysia? Tell us on Twitter (@MyStarTwo).

CAPITAL FM’s Reconnect contest, which began its run on May 6 and will end this Friday, has garnered a lot of response from its listeners.

There are a lot of things to be won from the contest, including a hair makeover courtesy of Albert Nico, products from Kiehl’s and Lancome, as well as vouchers for belly dancing classes.

Reconnect is basically a memory game that is played on the air. To help you keep track, just download a grid template from capitalfm.com.my and follow the progress of the game on air. You need to tune in to Talk Of The Town (6am-10am, weekdays), The Jam Break (4pm-9pm, weekdays) and Groovedown (8pm-midnight, weekdays) for your chance to participate.

Capital FM listener Jess Wu took the challenge and won a holiday package from Bukit Gambang Resort City in Kuantan, Pahang worth RM3,000. With the help of the grid, Wu managed to guess the right combination. “After learning about this competition, I checked out the website for more information and printed out the grid. I carried this grid with me everywhere, noted down everything!”

Visit capitalfm.com.my for more information.

Captal FM is a subsidiary of Star Radio Group.

The Sofa Spudniks turns two this week! We can’t believe it, really. We were going through all our past articles, trying to decide how we should celebrate our anniversary and ended up laughing at some of the ideas we’ve come up with thus far which have received positive responses from siblings, workmates, gym friends and even ex-bosses, some of whom have left us comments and suggestions ... woohoo! Then our entertainment editor, Gordon Kho, came up with a brilliant idea to give our readers a challenge; We’ve cooked up a little crossword using all our favourite TV programmes as the ingredients!

If you’ve been reading The Sofa Spudniks regularly over the last couple of years, this puzzle will be a breeze. If you haven’t (please tell us why???), we hope it will be an enjoyable challenge, at least.

Television has been such a big part of our lives, and yes, though the method in which we consume these brilliant shows may have changed over the years, one thing has remained the same: We love TV. Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy our little crossword challenge. HBO and Cinemax have graciously offered some merchandise to be given away to our readers. We’ve got notebooks, laptop backpacks and T-shirts to give to the first five all-correct entries. So, get to it! Send your entries to: The Sofa Spudniks, Entertainment Desk, Star Publications (M) Bhd, Menara Star, 15 Jalan 16/11, 46350 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Across

2. This brother and sister may have been all teeth, but the duo sang their way into our hearts in the 1970s. What’s their famous family name.

4. Indra’s all-time favourite serial killer. Here’s a hint: he is bloody good!

5. The Starks, Lanisters, Baratheons, Targaryens all hail from the fictional land of ?

9. In The X-Files, what was Fox Mulder’s password? (spell it out).

13. Every week, Arrow gets bent all out of shape (believe me, I’m not complaining) trying to rid his city of baddies. What city does he live in?

16. One of Ann Marie’s favourite actors while growing up, was once married to one of Charlie’s Angels, and starred in this (initially) black-and-white TV series based on a 1956 novel.

17. Ridge’s one true love on The Bold And The Beautiful (Indra’s guilty pleasure before our TV stations unceremoniously yanked the show off the air! Sob!).

19. Chicago Code is all about some arresting officers. What are they?

20. In The Big Bang Theory, who owns a comic book store?

Down

1. Who doesn’t love Richard Castle, the handsome and funny (and filthy rich) mystery novelist on Castle? But, Castle’s actual name is Richard Alexander …… (Guess his surname!)

3. In the opening credits to this TV show, you are assaulted by words such as Artificial Intelligence, Precognition, Teleportation and Cybernetics. Who created the sci-fi series and also wrote its opening theme music?

6. Before Homeland, Damian Lewis was a fine fruit-eating cop on what short-lived show?

7. When Sam Malone grew up, he became rather villainous. Name his character on Damages.

8. No need for the sixth degree here. This TV deputy police chief is married to Kevin Bacon in real life. Name her character in the show.

10. Ann Marie’s love for solving puzzles was inspired by Jim Hutton who starred in a TV show which aired in Malaysia in the 1970s about a mystery writer who assisted his father on cases. Name the writer, who also shared his name with the title of this TV series.

11. Which famous TV character never left home without his Swiss Army knife and some duct tape?

12. Blast from the past: One of everyone’s favourite miniseries from a while ago was ….. Of Green Gables.

14. Nathan Fillion, a favourite of both Indra’s and Ann Marie’s, flew a spacecraft in a short-lived sci-fi TV series. What was the spacecraft called?

15. This bald and beautiful one, now getting on in his years, started his career on television. He has a string of blockbuster movies to his name in which it has been proven that it is very hard for him to die. What TV series gave him his big break?

18. A chef on TV who lives in Canada and loves using fresh produce shares her surname (almost) with an obnoxious, terrible little girl, the daughter of a grocery shop owner, on a 1970s American Western drama based on a series of children’s books. What is the chef’s surname?

Fresh groove: Dance educator James Kan has a new piece programmed for the 10-day MyDance Festival, which starts May 24, at various locations in the Klang Valley.

Show Off! – the Fifth MyDance Festival – brings you the best from the local dance community.

WHAT better way to attract attention than to flaunt what you have. The upcoming fifth MyDance Festival themed Show Off, however, is no exercise in self praise, but an invitation for Malaysian dancers to show off for each other as well as for the wider audience, explained MyDance Festival co-producer Bilqis Hijjas in a recent interview.

“Often as artists we get so caught up in our own worlds, creating our own work, that we forget to be interested in what other people are doing.

“It’s imperative that we keep in touch with the broader arts community, to make friends and networks outside our tempurung (shell) that can lead to deeper, more engaged art works,” Bilqis said.

She summed it up as a festival for dancers, as well as for other Malaysians, who may not have realised how deep and diverse the Malaysian dance community really is.

“The dance community in Malaysia is incredibly vibrant and active, especially considering what little money that is available.

“In Malaysia most dancers are passionate amateurs, but their contributions and creations are truly breathtaking. Many dance productions tend to be small in size and have limited visibility because of limited production budgets, but creatively and artistically they are stars,” enthused Bilqis.

The 2013 MyDance Festival covers both contemporary and classical dance over a space of two weeks (May 24 to June 2) spanning multiple locations in Kuala Lumpur, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya in Selangor and the newly opened Damansara Performing Art Centre (also in Petaling Jaya, Selangor). Unlike in the 2011 Festival, the organisers MyDance Alliance opted to focus on Malaysian artists, cutting back on the international troupes.

“The festival runs on an absurdly small budget – RM 20,000 in all – which all comes from our savings, so we have to make do with assistance in kind whenever we can. All the performers also perform for free, which is an incredibly generous contribution,” added a grateful Bilqis, who is also MyDance Alliance’s president.

“A festival, and indeed any performance, is a huge amount of work, which we do because we love the art work and the sense of enhanced community that this event brings.

“Our aim is to produce a professional result that audiences will enjoy and which will enrich people’s lives. But as we are volunteers and want this festival to be a long-term sustainable event, we also need to enjoy what we do. If it wasn’t fun, we wouldn’t do it,” she noted.

To get this year’s MyDance Festival off the ground, Alliance has partnered with DBKL. The festival is also backed by venue sponsors The Club @ Bukit Utama, Aswara and DPac, and supported by the British Council Goethe-Institute and accommodation sponsor Rimbun Dahan.

“We are also extremely grateful for the dance companies involved. These are companies of the highest level, including such well-known names as Sutra Dance Theatre and the Hornland Dance Theatre from Sarawak, which hosts the Sibu International Dance Festival.” The festival’s programmes are divided into three parts: theatrical performances with showcases by emerging choreographers and established dance companies, dance caught on camera with feature-length and short film screenings, plus a chance for the audience to get involved through a flash mob and a Show Your Partner tea dance where enthusiasts are invited to take their partners for a literal spin.

“Our philosophy is that everyone can dance, in their own way, and there is a kind of dance out there to suit everybody!” she said, advising potential audiences not to be afraid that they might not understand the dance or feel that they could be missing something.

The MyDance Festival 2013 runs from May 24 to June 2, with free, paid shows and master classes at various locations, including Damansara Performing Arts Centre, The Club @ Bukit Utama, Panggung Bandaraya and Aswara in Kuala Lumpur. Full details and schedules at: mydancefestival.net. Festival hotline: 017 310 3769.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Disney said on Monday it will produce a new Star Wars animated series to air on television in the fall 2014, giving fans of the science-fiction franchise fresh stories before the next live-action film hits theaters in 2015.

Star Wars Rebels, based on George Lucas' multibillion dollar film franchise, will be set in the two decades between the events of the third and fourth films, where the Empire becomes a dominant force in the galaxy, Disney said.

"I think Star Wars Rebels will capture the look, feel and fun that both kids and their parents love about Star Wars," Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said in a statement.

The animated series, which will premiere on the Disney Channel and shown across Disney XD channels around the world, will come before a new Star Wars film in 2015.

Star Wars: Episode VII, to be directed by J.J. Abrams, is the first of three new Star Wars films announced by Disney in October 2012, when it purchased George Lucas' Lucasfilm company for US$4.05 billion.

Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon since the first film was released in 1977, making characters such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader, and phrases like "May the force be with you" part of popular culture.

Anticipation is building among the vast Star Wars community for the new film, which will be filmed in Britain. The six-film franchise has grossed more than US$4.4 billion at the worldwide box office.

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. singer Prince has signed a new deal with Kobalt Music Group to market and distribute his future work without giving up control over his rights, the company said on Monday.

The singer-songwriter, who is famed for changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in a wrangle over musical rights, will release his own work as well as a slate of new music by other artists that he produces, Kobalt said.

The announcement came just hours after the 54-year-old Prince was given a Billboard Icon Award (lifetime achievement) and rocked the Billboard Music Awards ceremony with a version of his Let's Go Crazy dressed in electric green trousers and sporting an Afro hair style.

Kobalt, which is also a global independent music publishing company, launched an artist and label services division in 2012, allowing artists to maintain ownership of their work and control over when, how and where they will release their music.

Traditional labels often take ownership or part-ownership of the artist's material and often dictate how it is used, an increasingly important sticking point in an industry where digital music can be instantly available.

"This new venture gives Prince the flexibility and freedom he's always sought in a label partner," Kobalt President Richard Sanders said in a statement.

The Grammy award-winning singer will also provide artist development and recording services for newly signed artists that Kobalt will market and distribute.

The man who played Captain America is going to replace Justin Long, who was initially tapped for the part, in a film adaptation of Stephen King's short story The Ten O'Clock People, reports Deadline.com.

Chris Evans is in the running to play a man trying hard to quit smoking. Smoking only on his 10am cigarette break causes a strange chemical imbalance in his body, with the supernatural effect of enabling him to see that powerful members of our society are in fact inhuman monsters.

Tom Holland, a specialist in the horror genre and in adapting Stephen King for the screen, will direct this independent feature.

Set in Boston, Massachusetts, The Ten O'Clock People was first published in 1993 in King's short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

(Relaxnews)