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HOLLYWOOD (Reuters) - Monsters University, the prequel to Pixar's 2001 animated blockbuster Monsters, Inc., scared up US$82 million in weekend ticket sales to easily outdistance the week's other new movie, the big-budget apocalyptic thriller World War Z, which came in with an impressive haul of US$66 million.

World War Z, the story of a zombie pandemic starring Brad Pitt, was Pitt's biggest opening weekend ever, easily outpacing the US$50.3 million for Mr. And Mrs. Smith.

Last week's top movie, the Superman reboot Man Of Steel, was third with ticket sales of US$41.2 million.

Monsters University, featuring the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman as monsters who flunk out of the college's scare program, continued the tradition of hugely successful films produced by Pixar, a unit of the Walt Disney Co.

It was Pixar's 14th consecutive film to head the box office for the weekend it premiered in theaters, according to Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com's box office division, easily outpacing industry projections of a US$70 million weekend.

"It definitely exceeded our expectations," said Dave Hollis, executive vice president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios. "The first film was so beloved and set such a high bar so we're ecstatic."

Hollis said Monsters University was boosted by word of mouth.

"It's turned into a bit of a date night option," he said. "And there haven't been a lot of family options in the marketplace."

Distributed by Paramount Pictures, World War Z was delayed from its initially planned December release after the studio decided to reshoot the final third, pushing its budget from US$170 million to more than US$200 million, according to published reports.

Paramount said the film, which Pitt produced, cost US$190 million to produce. Pitt stars as a former U.N. crisis specialist called upon to help defeat zombies who threaten to take over the planet.

The film had been forecast to rack up ticket sales of about US$50 million, according to Hollywood.com's box office division, while the studio said it was looking to the high 40s, given the competition from Monsters and Man Of Steel.

"I don't think there's a person on the planet who thought this would open at US$66 million," said Don Harris, Paramount's president of distribution. "These are pretty heady numbers."

"We're in really good shape" heading into the lucrative peak summer season weeks including the July 4 holiday, Harris said.

"And we certainly broadened the audience," he added, noting the film's 51 percent female-49 percent male audience breakdown, unusual for a big budget summer action film.

Man Of Steel, which stars British actor Henry Cavill as the muscled superhero, has generated domestic ticket sales of US$210 million, already more than 2006's Superman Returns, which starred Brandon Routh and took in just over US$200 million.

Directed by Zack Snyder, the current version was distributed by Warner Bros.

This Is The End, the apocalyptic comedy written by star Seth Rogen and his childhood friend Evan Goldberg, collected US$13 million to take fourth place in the United States and Canada.

Now You See Me, starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg as magicians who evade the police after high-profile robberies, was fifth with ticket sales of US$7.9 million, pushing its total domestic take to just under US$95 million.

Despicable Me 2, which opens July 3 in North America, had a strong debut in Australia where Universal opted to open the film early to coincide with winter school holidays. The film took in US$4.3 million, added to US$2.1 million from paid previews last week.

ROME (Reuters) - The body of actor James Gandolfini, who died of a heart attack in Rome last week, was flown out of Italy on Sunday on a flight bound for New York, Rome airport authorities said.

Gandolfini, best known for his leading role in the Emmy-winning series The Sopranos, was found dead in his Rome hotel late on Wednesday.

The actor's body left Rome's Fiumicino airport on a private flight, an airport official said.

Family friend Michael Kobold, speaking to reporters in Rome, thanked the Italian authorities and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for helping to accelerate procedures.

Gandolfini was on holiday in Italy with his 13-year-old son and was due to attend the closing of the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily on Saturday. An autopsy showed had died of natural causes.

Gandolfini's performance as New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano made him a household name and helped usher in a new era of American television drama.

Since The Sopranos ended its six-season run in June 2007, Gandolfini had appeared in a number of big-screen roles, including the crime drama Killing Them Softly and Zero Dark Thirty, a film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Gandolfini had been working on an upcoming HBO series, Criminal Justice, and had two films due out next year.

LONDON (Reuters) - American R&B singer Robin Thicke has notched up a fourth week at the top of the British pop charts with his summer hit Blurred Lines, the compiler said on Sunday.

The Official Charts Company said Thicke sold a further 133,000 copies of the single over the last week to bring total UK sales to 718,000, the year's second biggest selling track.

The song, which features vocals by U.S. artists T.I. and Pharrell Williams, has already been a number one hit in the United States and around the world.

Second place on the weekly single chart went to American singer Jason Derulo's new release The Other Side.

London-based rapper Dizzee Rascal was the second highest new entry at number five with Goin' Crazy, a collaboration with British singer Robbie Williams.

On the album charts, U.S. rapper Kanye West secured the number one position with his new entry, Yeezus. It was his first British number one album since Graduation in 2007.

Last week's top-selling album, 13, by heavy metal veterans Black Sabbath, fell one spot to second place.

JAPAN(Reuters) -- Korean boy group 2PM has nabbed a trophy at MTV’s Video Music Awards Japan (MTV VMAJ 2013) for the second year in a row.

2PM’s second Japan studio album LEGEND OF 2PM won Best Album of the Year at MTV VMAJ 2013, which held its star-studded awards at Chiba city’s Makuhari Messe last Saturday night, 2PM’s agency JYP Entertainment said in a statement the following day.

Proving their overwhelming popularity in the country, the six-member group took the honour after beating out famous pop artists Linkin Park, Carly Rae Jepsen, One Direction and Japanese artist Nishino Kana.

“It was such an honor to join other great artists at the last year’s awards and we’re so grateful for this big award again this year. We feel sorry that we are unable to show up at the awards due to our Korea concerts but promise to show you better performances in the future,” 2PM members were quoted as saying.

2PM had grabbed Best Group Video awards at MTV VMAJ 2012 with the music video of I’m Your Man, the title tune to their first Japan full-length album REPUBLIC OF 2PM.

The idol group wrapped up their Asia tour 2PM LiVE TOUR What Time Is It? with two sold-out Korea shows over the weekend, and are revving up for their vigorous individual activities in and out of Korea.

The upcoming live-action Archie movie is gonna make your life so sweet; here’s our wish-list for the cast.

YOU may not realise this, but Archie Comics, publisher of numerous titles featuring iconic comic-book teen Archie Andrews and his pals, has been around for more than 70 years.

That’s right, it was founded in 1939 and Archie made his first appearance in a comic strip in 1941, and has since become one of the most successful – not to mention popular – franchises in the publishing world.

The Archie comics appeal to a wide range of readers globally, thanks to their easy storylines, simple, colourful artwork and wholesome characters. The everyday lives of a bunch of high school kids in a small town called Riverdale is surprisingly interesting to many people. Or perhaps it is just the fuss-free reading, and the convenience of those digest versions, that attract us to it.

And, not to be disgusting, but Archie also makes for great “toilet reading”.

Recently, Warner Bros announced that it will produce a live-action version of Archie; Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is currently working on the script, while Jason Moore (who did last year’s Pitch Perfect) has come on board as the director.

In essence, the story will revolve around Archie and gang and is set in modern-day Riverdale. It is the first time in 72 years that Archie has ever been made into a live-action film, although there was one unfortunate made-for-TV flick sometime in the 1990s featuring the characters as messed-up grownups....

Casting has yet to be done, but here are some actors who might fit the bill playing the main characters.

Archibald “Archie” Andrews
Physical trait: Redhead, freckles
Dream cast: The thing about Archie is that while he isn’t the best-looking guy of the bunch, his charm and innocence always get the girl. This makes young hearthrobs like Zac Efron and Josh Hutcherson unsuitable for the role, and natural redhead Rupert Grint now looks a little too “old” ... and British. It’s a toss between Logan Lerman and the baby-faced Nathan Kress for Archie. They probably need to colour their hair, though.

Forsythe Pendleton “Jughead” Jones III
Physical trait: Stick-thin, tall
Dream cast: Archie’s best friend Jughead is quite sarcastic and is not too fond of girls, at least not in a romantic way. He’s usually grumpy, especially when he’s hungry. The moody 180cm-tall Ezra Miller has Jughead’s physique but the actor’s indie background suggests that he probably won’t be interested in playing the character. There’s also Kodi Smit-McPhee (pic), who’s a little shorter than what is required but surely there are camera tricks to give him the extra height.

Betty Cooper
Physical trait: Blonde, girl-next-door looks, homebody
Dream cast: Even though she’s one of the easiest characters to cast because she looks like any other blonde actress, it will also be harder to make a decision. Based on career backgrounds, Caroline Sunshine, Sierra McCormick and Olivia Holt (pic) are the top contenders for Betty. But the only way to truly cast this role is to match the actress with the actor playing Archie.

Veronica Lodge
Physical trait: Dark hair, slightly tanned
Dream cast: She’s the rich bratty girl who is used to having things her way all the time. But she’s also sweet and at times, kind, too. Selena Gomez comes to mind for this role, although she still doesn’t seem “glamorous” enough. There’s also Victoria Justice, but she seems too goody-two-shoes to play the sometimes conniving Veronica. Naya Rivera and Heather Morris are good choices, but they’re a little old (even though they play teenagers on Glee). One other name to consider is 16-year-old Zendaya Coleman (pic), who, based on her acting in TV shows like Shake It Up, has the right attitude for Veronica.

Reginald “Reggie” Mantle
Physical trait: Well-built, handsome, dark hair, smug look
Dream cast: Drake Bell would have made a great Reggie ... if this movie was made five years earlier. Leo Howard (pic) is also a good choice but there’s something about his face that’s just not “evil” enough. Not that Reggie’s evil, but he is a prankster and Archie’s biggest frenemy.

Other characters we’d like to cast:

Waldo Weatherbee – Jim Broadbent

Gertrude Grundy – Emma Thompson

“Big” Moose Mason – A blonde Taylor Lautner

Dilton Doyle – Asa Butterfield

Richie Ren is the featured Music VIP on 988 this week.

When it comes to life in prison, we only know what we have watched on TV shows and in movies. Here in Malaysia, the prison system is different from the US. Do you know visitation is allowed twice for the first month and only once subsequently for prisons in Malaysia? Find out more about the life of prisoners in Malaysia in 988’s The Feature (Mon-Tues, 9am-10am)

Also on 988 this week >Morning Up VIP (Wed-Fri, 9am-10am) Starting his career as a DJ in a radio station in Hong Kong, Brian Chow Kwok Fung has rise up the rank to station manager. Chow said that the most embarassing moment in his career as a DJ was when he interviewed Jacky Cheung but failed to record the interview. He had to plead Cheung to redo the interview. A man with many talents, Chow produced the song Boat Of Love (Tong Zhou Zhi Qing) performed by Jacky Cheung and Eason Chan.

>Music VIP (Mon-Fri, 2pm) A good man, caring father, helpful friend. Whenever he has a concert, his friends will support him from the front row. 988’s guest this week is Taiwanese star Richie Ren Xian Qi. Find out more about this affable singer on Music VIP.

> Special - Music Gets Crazy (Mon, 1pm-4pm) Only two more months before CN Blue‘s first ever concert in Malaysia. To all the “Boice” out there, tune in to 988 today for a lovely surprise. CN Blue’s Blue Moon World Tour will be held on 24 August at Stadium Negara.

For more information, log on to www.988.com.my

Tangled mess: The cast of The Danny Crowe Show (clockwise from top) Khaz Shamia, Malik Taufiq, Erin Marie, Adeline Ong, and (middle) Rosheen Fatima find their twisted tales tangled as they fight to get the attention of the eponymous Danny Crowe

The lure of becoming reality TV stars sets off a dark and wacky adventure in this British comedy.

YOU are what you eat, you become what you watch.

For siblings Peter and Tiffany, the leads of British playwright David Farr’s dark comedy The Danny Crowe Show, a diet of trashy, scandal-mongering reality television has driven them to want to become stars of the eponymous TV show.

Set in the small town of Bury in England, the play revolves around Peter and Tiffany who live with their death-obsessed mortician father, whose Addams Family-grade weirdness have caught the eye of Magda, a scout for The Danny Crowe Show.

The Danny Crowe Show itself acts as an analogue for the Jerry Springer Show, where people contest to be the freak of the week.

In the upcoming local staging by Electric Minds Project, director Alex Chua seeks to dissect the craving for fame and how far people will go to get their 15 minutes in the limelight.

“If that carrot of TV stardom was dangled in front of you, how far would you fall to get it and why would you even do so? I think people would be surprised with each others’ reasons,” said Chua in a recent interview.

The show plays at Damansara Performing Art Centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, starting this Thursday.

He assures that the localisation has taken out the unnecessary British-isms, but avoided making it too Malaysian either.

“We avoided making it preachy, we’re not criticising reality TV ... just exploring why people are so desperate to get on it,” shared Chua.

For actor and musician Nick Davis, who plays Peter, he easily identifies with his character, saying the sense of desperation to be famous is an all too familiar hunger.

“I base that hunger on how I am with my music. I’ve the same drive to get my music out there and draw Peter’s emotion from that drive. In most roles I play, I tend to draw from my own experiences and feelings,” said Davis, whose forays into music include being the frontman of Malaysian rock band Roosevelt and recently, a solo project.

Co-star Rosheen Fatima reveals that she doesn’t share Nick’s thirst for fame.

“I’ve never really wanted to be a star, I feel rather shy on most days,” she said, earning incredulous looks from Chua and Davis.

“Well, I did want to audition for the Asian edition of The Amazing Race for the chance to travel, but I wouldn’t want cameras in my bedroom. What happens in there deserves privacy,” admitted Rosheen.

Rosheen plays the role of Tiffany, Peter’s younger sister, though in reality the 29-year-old actress is four years older than her on-stage brother.

“He (Davis) really treats me like a younger sister: He bullies me endlessly. It’s downright abusive,” she joked.

The second child among seven siblings, Rosheen draws from real-life experiences about dealing with brothers. Surprisingly, Davis is an only child though he seems “in character” occasionally punching Rosheen lightly on the shoulder during the interview.

Originally, Rosheen had been cast as Lynette, a victim of a botched plastic surgery that seeks to sell her story to The Danny Crowe Show, setting her up as the competition to Peter and Tiffany.

“They auditioned another girl for Lynette after Rosheen. She declined. I read the script and loved Lynette and happened to express how I felt about the script to Nick. It was Nick who encouraged me to approach Alex. I did and the rest is history,” said Erin Marie.

Like Peter and Tiffany, Lynette is a fellow native of Bury, desperate to escape from the doldrums of small town life.

Chua feels that everyone has something they desperately want and need to help them escape from the dull reality of the everyday, be it a dream job or a plane ticket out of town.

“The magic of reality TV is that any ‘normal’ person can be on it. It makes everyone believe that they could be a TV star. Anyone can be famous like how American Idol offers fame or infamy to the winners and losers.

“Even if we judge the contestants, we’re vindicated because it’s on reality TV,” said Chua.

“Reality TV may be trash, but it’s great trash,” he added with a laugh.

Davis continued: “People like drama and that’s why they like this ‘trash’. MTV Real World was one of the first reality shows I remember and not much has changed since then.”

Rosheen opines that while American game shows tend to be gross and mean, the Japanese took it to another level.

“I remember this show where contestants stand out in the snow in their underwear, across from a hot bowl of noodles. First one to break and go for the noodles loses. It was mad, seeing these full-grown men freezing, staring at noodles in the snow and crying. You could see snot icicles!” said Rosheen.

Marie reasons that it’s fair to laugh at other people’s pain, as long as you’re open to being laughed at, too. To that effect, The Danny Crowe Show challenges its audiences to laugh at its cast and perhaps learn to laugh at themselves.

The Danny Crowe Show is playing at the Damansara Performing Art Centre, Empire Damansara, Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya, Selangor at 8.30pm from June 27 to 29, with a 3pm matinee on June 29 and 30. Tickets are from RM23- RM33. Call 012-284 2389 or visit www.dpac.com.my.

It’s going to be a day of fun in the sun for a cause! Most of us take for granted what we have on a daily basis. The Star Radio Group’s Red FM, Capital FM, Suria FM and 988 will embark on its first integrated charity event on June 30 called A Big Charity Day (ABC Day) at The Square, Publika in Kuala Lumpur to raise funds for two homes in dire need of assistance.

The two homes – Pertubuhan Kebaikan Anak-Anak Yatim Al-Nasuha and Angels Charity Home – provide shelter and guidance to those who have either been orphaned or rescued from broken homes. Without public assistance, these homes struggle to provide for the kids.

Kak Umi who runs Pertubuhan Kebaikan Anak-Anak Yatim Al-Nasuha, says, “We want to get a more comfortable house for the kids, but we can’t afford it. One of the major challenges we currently face is to pay rent each month as our expenses per month totals up to RM20,000.”

The announcers from all four stations will be there in full force.

The Red FM and Capital FM announcers will perform an improv comedy show, much like Whose Line Is It Anyway. Live for the first time, JJ and Lil’ Kev from The Red Breakfast WTF will perform “Potong Line”, their parody of chart topper Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines.

Suria FM announcers will be performing their very own dikir barat while 988 announcers will have a sing-and-dance show. All four stations will have outdoor broadcasts from Publika.

Ever dreamed of being on air, with people listening to what you have to say and share?

At ABC Day, all four stations will be holding live auditions for people who would like to be announcers. This is your chance to show off your gift of the gab.

Come on down and show off your talent! Along with announcer performances and the chance to try out to be the next big hit on radio, there will be a Thrift Store with designer items up for grabs, a book and toy sale and delicious baked treats on sale, too.

To buy all these items, purchase voucher books on the day of the event worth RM20 or RM50.

Do come over and join the fun for a good cause on June 30. This event is supported by Ah Huat White Coffee, Chatime, Foodpanda, Havaianas, Lennox Firm Up Plus Collagen, Life Centre, Massimo, Oloiya, Tropicana Twister and Yakult Ace Light.

Not only must Nik Wallenda be physically sound for this feat, he must be mentally prepared as well.

Daredevil Nik Wallenda attempts to walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope ... without a harness.

UNDOUBTEDLY it will be one of the most daring and captivating live events in history – Nik Wallenda, known as “The King Of The High Wire” – will traverse the majestic Grand Canyon, without using a harness.

Scheduled to take place tomorrow (June 23 in the United States), Discovery Channel will capture this nerve-racking, nail-biting event on the live show Skywire Live With Nik Wallenda.

Wallenda, 34, will walk 460m above the Little Colorado River – a height greater than the Empire State Building – and spanning a distance of 380m. This will be the highest he’s ever attempted on a tightrope.

In addition to the staggering height and distance, Wallenda will have to battle wind gusts of up to 32km per hour.

“The stakes don’t get much higher than this,” said Wallenda in a phone interview with a group of international journalists recently.

“The only thing that stands between me and the bottom of the canyon is a two-inch thick wire. I’m looking forward to showing the audience a view of the canyon they’ve never seen before.”

He said that this latest event will be the fulfilment of a lifelong dream to walk at such a great height as well as a chance to honour his great-grandfather, the legendary Karl Wallenda, who died after falling from a tightrope in Puerto Rico in 1978.

The Grand Canyon, one of America’s most visited tourist destinations, provides a spectacular backdrop to the event. For weeks in his hometown of Sarasota, Florida, the aerialist and holder of half a dozen world records, has been practising for what will be his biggest feat yet.

Wallenda and his team are focused on creating the conditions he’ll likely face at the Grand Canyon. The Florida heat, while humid as opposed to arid, is almost similar, with temperatures rising 32°C by mid-morning.

But the winds that pass through Grand Canyon walls pose another challenge. However, with detailed and intense practices, Wallenda said that the canyon’s winds won’t scare him.

“I’m not scared of them, but I have to respect it. I respect the fact that what I do is very dangerous. You know, people always ask what is the last thing you do before you get on the wire.

“Well, I give my wife and kids a kiss and tell them I love them. But the same thing happens when I get up in the morning and I head out to the gym. I kiss and hug them and tell them I love them, because we all never know when our last day will be. It’s just as easy to get hit by a car.”

While he has devoted a lot of time practising, Wallenda knows he had to be mentally prepared as well.

“It’s probably more important than to be physically prepared. The physical part comes very naturally because I’ve done it so long. But the mental part is something that I do have to work on and a lot of it comes from just meditating.

“I’ll visit the area where I’m going to walk. And I’ll sit there on the overlook and I imagine myself making my way across that cable and successfully making it to the other side, hugging my wife, my kids, my father, my mother. That helps me prepare mentally.”

Wallenda comes from a long line of family members who have done this dangerous stunt. But that’s not exactly what he wants for his three children.

“My family has done this so long, for seven generations and 200 years, naturally, everyone thinks I want my kids to do this. But the truth is, I don’t want my kids to do this.

“I want my kids to do what their heart desires, and if their heart desires to do this, I will gladly teach them the proper way of doing this and make sure it’s as safe as possible.”

> Skywire Live With Nik Wallenda airs tomorrow at 8am on Discovery Channel (Astro Ch 551).

Motown Record Corporation’s Hitsville, U.S.A. in Detroit, Michigan was turned into the Motown Historical Museum in 1985.

Motown churned out a sound and style that has come to define popular music.

THERE are magical places in this world. Some of them are natural wonders. Some of them are architectural achievements. And some of them are locations where something special happened.

In the case of a house on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, something special happened again and again … and again. During the 1960s, this two-storey home served as Hitsville, U.S.A. – the primary recording studio (and headquarters) for the Motown Record Corporation. During Motown’s blockbuster decade, Hitsville’s Studio A produced the majority of the label’s hits, from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ The Tracks Of My Tears to The Supremes’ Where Did Our Love Go to The Temptations’ My Girl and hundreds of others.

A few years ago, my wife and I visited this pop music landmark, which has been operating as the Motown Historical Museum since 1985. I don’t know what I expected Motown’s headquarters to look like. (Where could these immaculate sounds have come from: a gleaming skyscraper or a stately mansion, perhaps?) It was surprising to find this legendary studio tucked away on a moderately busy urban street with old homes and wide lawns – house, house, house, Motown.

We entered the Motown complex and joined a tour, just as the guide was providing background on the company’s founder, Berry Gordy Jr. The Detroit native had been a songwriter in the 1950s, but realised that he could make more money as a record label owner. In 1959, with US$800, Gordy started the label that would become Motown – which, by the way, is short for “motor town,” a nickname for Detroit because of its automobile manufacturers.

It didn’t take long for Gordy to find success, scoring his first national hit in 1960 with Barrett Strong’s Money (That’s What I Want), and Motown’s first No 1 with The Marvelettes’ Please Mr. Postman in 1961. The latter was one of the hundreds of thousands of songs recorded in the building we were touring. Gordy had bought it in 1959, put offices on the first floor, created a studio in the garage and moved his family in upstairs.

Gordy’s success was notable for more than just his good business sense and musical taste. Gordy was an African-American record executive selling music by black artists to an audience of many races. This was no easy achievement in 1960s America, which was sharply divided because of tensions between whites and blacks. While some black musicians had found mainstream success, only a few had a prolonged impact and virtually none released music on a label that was owned and operated by a black man.

Gordy was all too aware of his musicians’ importance as ambassadors for the black community in the United States (and, later, around the world). In concert and on TV, artists such as The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas and Stevie Wonder were dressed in sharp suits and glittering dresses (which they called “uniforms” and are on display in the museum). The stars took artist development classes in which they were taught to speak and act like royalty in an effort to counteract the prevailing stereotype of uneducated and unrefined black youths.

Not that any of that would have mattered if the music wasn’t any good. Under Gordy’s leadership, writers and producers such as Smokey Robinson, Norman Whitfield and the team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland forged the “Motown Sound” – a hybrid of pop and soul with instantly memorable melodies and intricate instrumentation. The label’s hits sounded like nothing else.

As we learned on the tour, those hits were no accident. Gordy reigned supreme over the company’s quality control. To determine what he might release, he would hold listening sessions with teenagers from the neighbourhood. Gordy would conduct his “sandwich test.” Our tour guide laid out the sce-nario: after a new song played, Gordy would walk over to a teenager and ask, “If you had 50 cents, would you by that record or a sandwich?” If the answer was a sandwich, he thought that the song needed more work. But, if the teenager responded, “What kind of sandwich?” he knew he had a potential hit.

And then our tour came to the room I had been waiting for: the recording studio. Saying that the studio used to be a garage doesn’t really convey how tiny this place is. It’s hard to imagine some of the vocal groups having room to move around, much less enough space for Motown’s legendary “house band,” known as The Funk Brothers. To give us an idea of how a recording session felt, our guide lined up five men from the group under the microphones, got them swaying in rhythm and forced a little bit of My Girl out of them. I felt a little of the Motown magic as the guide encouraged the whole group – white and black, young and old – to sing along. We all knew the words.

This was fun for us, but it was hard work for the people who toiled during Motown’s heyday. At the studio’s apex, employees worked in shifts at Hitsville, U.S.A., keeping the studio open 22 hours each day. Groups would come back from a tour, record a bunch of new songs, and then head out on the road again. Like the auto manufacturing facilities that also called Detroit home, Motown was a factory.

Assaf, winner of the Arab Idol contest in Beirut.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Jubilant Palestinians took to the streets in their thousands early Sunday after singer Mohammed Assaf won a pan-Arab singing contest that has had millions of viewers fixed to their TV screens since March.

Saturday's televised victory was the first such success for a Palestinian entertainer and sparked an unprecedented response in the occupied territories.

Assaf, winner of the Arab Idol contest in Beirut, dedicated the win to "the Palestinian people, who have been suffering for more than 60 years from (Israeli) occupation".

"Mohammed Assaf is the Arab Idol!" called out the presenter of the show, modelled on the Western Pop Idol contest, as coloured confetti rained down on the cheering audience.

Immediately after his win, Assaf was named Youth Ambassador for UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees and named Palestinian goodwill ambassador by president Mahmud Abbas.

The handsome, tuxedo-clad Assaf, 23, won after weeks of anticipation from his army of followers, who had been glued to big screens in cafes and restaurants across Gaza and the occupied West Bank, listening as his powerful voice propelled him through the competition every weekend.

His mother, wearing a traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, wept as she wrapped the Palestinian black, green, white and red flag around her shoulders.

Spontaneous celebrations broke out in Gaza, Assaf's home, and in the West Bank, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets. Huge posters of the Gazan singer have festooned the streets, the singer becoming a source of pride for Palestinians everywhere in recent months.

Each edition of the twice-weekly show, aired by the pan-Arab MBC channel in Beirut, has been followed with increasing anticipation, with social networks mobilising to boost the number of votes for their favoured candidate.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah the celebrations after the final results were announced spread to the tomb of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"The mood is undescribable. Everyone is celebrating. Thank you, Mohammed Assaf, for bringing joy to our hearts. We haven't felt this joy in a long time," Gaza resident Mohammad Dahman told AFP via the Internet.

In Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, celebrations turned sour as young Palestinians clashed with Israeli police. Several people were arrested.

In northern Lebanon, Palestinian refugees in the Beddawi camp fired gunshots into the air and took to the streets, honking their car horns to celebrate Assaf's win.

Across the southern city of Sidon, there were celebrations too, said an AFP journalist.

Born in Misrata, Libya, Assaf grew up in the overcrowded Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's poorest and most densely-populated places where Israel severely restricts the movement of people, goods and financial aid.

The Islamist Hamas movement, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, disapproves of what it considers un-Islamic shows, such as Arab Idol, but has not officially clamped down on support for Arab Idol or Assaf.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas phoned Assaf during the contest to offer him encouragement, the official Wafa agency said.

In a previous episode of the programme, popular Lebanese singer and jury member Ragheb Alama had described Assaf as "the best rocket" to have come out of Gaza, and as "a rocket of peace, not war".

Announcing Assaf's nomination as regional ambassador for youth minutes after his win, the agency's chief Filippo Grandi said: "All Palestinians share in his success. Mohammed's music is a universal language and speaks to all of us. How fantastic that a Palestine refugee from Gaza should bring us all together in this way."

On the Israeli side, army spokesman Avichai Adraee congratulated the young Palestinian singer in a tweet in Arabic.

Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza in 2006 after militants there seized an Israeli soldier.

It was further tightened in mid-2007 when the Islamist Hamas movement took control of Gaza, then eased somewhat following the international outcry after Israel's botched raid on a humanitarian flotilla bound the enclave. - AFP

James Joseph Gandolfini, Jr (1961 – 2013)

It is impossible to imagine Tony Soprano without the brilliance of James Gandolfini.

James Gandolfini, the most important actor in the most influential television series of the last decade-and-a-half, died suddenly on Wednesday, in Italy.

He was only 51, and though he has been a busy working actor – in film, on stage as well as on TV – for two decades, and had (with writer David Chase) created a character for the ages, he was also at what – especially in light of an early death – felt like the beginning of his career.

Even though he spent the years of The Sopranos and afterward taking parts that told the world there was more to him than a New Jersey mob boss – that is to say, waste management consultant – its length and depth, its cultural mass, guarantee that Tony Soprano is the role for which he’ll be most remembered.

Tony was more than a character, of course; he was the fulcrum of a shared experience, the instrument of a new age of television. Breaking Bad and Walter White owe him everything.

If it is impossible to imagine The Sopranos without Tony – indeed, the show ended with what is generally, if not unanimously, taken to represent the snuffing out of his consciousness – it is also impossible to imagine Tony without Gandolfini.

The casting was bold and almost subversively counterintuitive. In the normal way of Hollywood, where physiognomy is destiny, Gandolfini might have spent his life in the sort of supporting roles that had earlier defined his career, limited by his ethnicity, his bulk, his encroaching baldness.

Among its other gifts to television, The Sopranos demonstrated that star quality does not depend upon Hollywood’s narrow conception of good looks. (Even in gangster films, the leads have traditionally been conventionally handsome. In The Sopranos, by contrast, the too-handsome character was always somehow to be regarded with suspicion.)

Gandolfini was only 37 – or, in acting-life terms, already 37 – when The Sopranos premiered in January 1999. (Its six seasons took until 2007 to complete.)

He had played thugs and gangsters before, across the 1990s, in films including True Romance, Terminal Velocity, The Juror and Get Shorty. But this was something different: a bad man in a psychological crisis triggered by a family of ducks leaving his backyard pool – a character that could easily have become a joke (not that there wasn’t comedy to be played) in the hands of a lesser actor.

Tony was, as the situation demanded, a villain, hero, sex symbol and slob. He was a put-upon son, a concerned if misguided father, a philandering though not-exactly-disloyal husband, a frequently exasperated boss, a person of more than average intelligence but limited vision, a thug not without sensitivity or a sense of humour and, in ways that mattered to the audience, at least, better than the men who surrounded him.

It was always a little bit of a shock, in the Sopranos years, to see the actor as himself, to find him relieved of Tony’s spiritual heaviness, the Dorian Gray crust of sins he wore just beneath the skin when he played the character. With Tony Soprano, he emphasised mass and force, but like many big men – like, Oliver Hardy, say, whom he could have played with aplomb – Gandolfini was light on his feet, graceful and elegant in spite of his size.

It’s instructive to watch him in the first episodes of The Sopranos’ sixth season, when, in a coma, he dreamed himself an “ordinary person”, or as the sensitive gay hit man he plays in The Mexican, or lip-syncing Engelbert Humperdinck in John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes, or as the fond, if demanding father in Not Fade Away, the film that reunited him with David Chase.

There was a softness, and a sweetness to Gandolfini – qualities that, indeed, may have been what kept Tony Soprano bearable company through the years. Because even taking the part of a most violent man, he could not hide, or chose not to, what was clear for us to see: that he was an artist. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

WASHINGTON (AFP) - One of America's premier documentary film festivals got underway late Wednesday with a fresh look back on the life and times of John F. Kennedy based on moving condolence messages to his widow.

Letters To Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy marries archival footage with poignant words of sympathy from the 800,000 letters sent to Jacqueline Kennedy in the two months after JFK's assassination 50 years ago this November.

It set the tone of the American Film Institute's AFI Docs festival, which over five days will unspool 53 documentaries, many of them with a distinct political flavor, in theaters in Washington and surburban Silver Spring, Maryland.

Highlights include Herblock: The Black And The White, a biopic of the iconic Washington Post political cartoonist, and Documented, in which journalist Jose Antonio Vargas describes his life after outing himself as an illegal migrant.

Directed by Oscar winner Bill Couturie, Letters To Jackie grew out of an eponymous anthology of condolence letters and telegrams to the former first lady compiled by Ellen Fitzpatrick, published two years ago.

Reading off-camera the selected two dozen or so letters from grief-stricken Americans from all walks of life is a constellation of Hollywood stars from Betty White, 91, to Hailee Steinfeld, 16.

"When this tragedy struck, I felt like Peter Pan when Tinker Bell was dying," wrote one letter-writer gripped by a sense of helplessness. Another declared by way of a postscript: "I wish I could get my hands on that assassinator."

Others in the film's largely female cast of voices include Berenice Bejo, Jessica Chastain, Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst, Anne Hathaway, Melissa Leo and -- conveying the words of a US army lieutenant in Berlin -- Channing Tatum.

"What I find so amazing is that common people sit down and they spill their heart out," said Couturie prior to a gala evening screening at the Newseum, a museum in downtown Washington dedicated to journalism.

"There is so much compassion, so much wisdom, it makes you so proud to be a human being, and in some cases to be an American," added the filmmaker, an Oscar winner in 1990 for his AIDS film Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt.

"These letters had a way of trying to show there is so much more that brings us together than pulls us apart."

With lots of mood music plus home movies from the Kennedy clan's Cape Cod summer holidays, the film at times feels hagiographic, before Martin Luther King appears to remind viewers how Kennedy sometimes wavered on civil rights.

Couturie also prudently makes a point of underscoring JFK's role in escalating the United States' fateful involvement in the Vietnam war, as well as poignant references to the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

Supporting the project was Steven Spielberg's production house Amblin Entertainment and the TLC cable channel, which plans to air it this autumn when the United States alongside commemorations of Kennedy's death.

For her first-ever role on TV, US actress Liv Tyler has picked The Leftovers, with its mysterious storyline by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof.

The series, currently being developed for HBO, revolves around the remaining residents of a small town called Mapleton devastated by the sudden and inexplicable disappearance (referred to as "the Rapture," biblical or otherwise) of their friends and neighbours.

Liv Tyler (pic) is to play Meg, a young woman looking for a way out of her engagement to get married. That makes her an ideal target for a cult called the Guilty Remnant, whose members take a vow of silence.

Justin Theroux will co-star as the town's police chief and father of two struggling to maintain a semblance of normalcy in the wake of the Rapture.

Lindelof, the co-creator and erstwhile scripter and showrunner of Lost, is working on the screenplay with Tom Perrotta, the author of the novel The Leftovers.

Assuming the drama does get aired, The Leftovers will be Liv Tyler's first stint on TV. The daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has had quite a prolific movie career since the 1990s, gaining fame particularly for her portrayal of Arwen in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

(Relaxnews)

The new sitcom The Crazy Ones (pic) will join the Thursday night comedy lineup alongside The Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men on CBS in the US.

American TV's Fall 2013 season will officially debut on September 23, following the broadcast of the 65th Emmy Awards on CBS. The nation's most watched channel will kick off its new schedule with the premiere of the ninth and final season of How I Met Your Mother.

Next up are the third season of 2 Broke Girls and Mom, a new sitcom with Anna Faris, followed by Hostages, an original drama series starring Toni Collette and Dylan McDermott.

NCIS will be back on Tuesday, September 24 for its eleventh season, alongside its spin-off, NCIS: Los Angeles (5th season), and Person Of Interest (3rd season). The following day, CBS will launch the ninth season of Criminal Minds and the 14th of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

The seventh run of The Big Bang Theory will be unveiled starting on Thursday, September 26, along with the new The Millers with Will Arnett (Arrested Development) and The Crazy Ones, featuring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. The evening concludes with Two And A Half Men and Elementary.

On Friday, September 27, viewers will discover the fourth seasons of Hawaii 5-0 and Blue Bloods. The Good Wife and The Mentalist will be back on Sunday, September 29.

In addition, CBS has already announced the launch date of its new mid-season drama, Intelligence.

Directed by Josh Holloway, aka Sawyer from Lost, the show will run for 15 episodes starting on February 24, 2014.

(Relaxnews)

James Franco and Mila Kunis star in Oz The Great And Powerful, one of the movies that is currently on offer via Astro Best.

There are now even more reasons to stay home and watch television.

TELEVISION is fast becoming a one-stop entertainment centre for many people these days. Apart from the long list of shows available to viewers, you can also listen to music, play games and watch movies on your television set.

In some cases, you can even use your TV to surf the Internet and book a taxi!

Recognising this, Astro has added 11 new channels to its broadcast, and introduced five new package options for customers to choose from. Among the new channels are Maya, Hua Hee Dai, Quan Jia, HBO Family, HBO Signature and HBO Hits (all available in HD), as well as Comedy Central, WE tv, Lifetime, Star Vijay, and Raj TV. There are also two new sports channels added to the line-up.

Some of these channels have been up and running since March, with Lifetime being the most recent one to go live; Hua Hee Dai and Maya are the last to be launched on June 24. However, Astro has attained five more new channels which will kick off in the months to come.

“We are committed to providing the best viewing and customer experience to Astro’s growing customer base with greater choice of content. Across our multiple products and services, we offer a breadth of content packages spanning multiple genres, which we believe appeal to all customer segments in the urban and rural areas,” said Astro’s chief commercial officer Liew Swee Lin, at the launch of the Astro Lifestyle Centre in Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur.

At the centre, new and existing customers would be able to get all the information they need about the new packages, and even have a glimpse of what each channel offers. Of course, you can also browse Astro’s website, or call the hotline number. “We would like to ensure that our customers have a great experience with Astro at all touch points,” added Liew.

Aside from the new additions, Astro has also pumped up its list of movies available via the Astro Best and Astro First services. In case you don’t already know, these two channels allow viewers to “buy” the latest local, regional and even international movies and watch them in the comfort of their own home.

Customers can now watch local and regional blockbusters on Astro First two weeks after the movies open at the cinemas, like the recently-released Kil, Awie’s Bikers Kental, Aaron Aziz’s Lari and Get Together, a comedy from Taiwan. So, if you’re a closet Awie fan and can’t bring yourself to watch the really silly Bikers Kental (which also stars Zizan Razak) in public, you can now check it out via Astro First.

Meanwhile, those who are constantly busy and simply cannot find the time to head to the cinemas and watch movies can now enjoy them on TV via the Astro Best service. It’s pretty convenient, and you can even hold your very own private movie viewing party at home, for example, and watch (in HD!) with friends or family members – you need to get your own popcorn and drinks, of course.

The movies featured on Astro Best are mostly Hollywood blockbusters that were released on the big screens about six months earlier; normally, it takes at least a year for these movies to go from cinema to TV. This is possible because of a partnership between Astro and studio giants like The Walt Disney Company and Lionsgate.

Among the latest movies that are currently on offer include the psychological thriller Side Effects starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum, fantasy drama Cloud Atlas, Warm Bodies, Beautiful Creatures and Disney’s colourful Oz The Great And Powerful.

“The response for Astro First and Astro Best has been overwhelming, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak. To date, we have garnered a staggering 6.2 million buys of movie titles collectively,” explained vice president of Astro Content Agnes Rozario, in a press release.

She also said that the company is working with more partners to expand its movie line-up.

For more information on these services, check out their Facebook page (“AstroWorldOfMovies”) or visit www.astro.com.my.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Robert Downey Jr., who has gained huge box-office success with his portrayal of Iron Man, has signed on to star as the superhero in the next two installments of the The Avengers, Marvel Studios said on Thursday.

Downey, 48, was one of the main stars of the 2012 all-star superhero film The Avengers, which united Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor and the Black Widow.

The Avengers, made by Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios, became the third highest-grossing film of all time, with US$1.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

Downey is expected to be joined by Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson in reprising their superhero roles for The Avengers 2.

The Avengers 2, set for release on May 1, 2015, will be directed by Joss Whedon. Marvel said the film would reunite the superheroes from the first film, as well as introducing Marvel characters never seen in film before.

The three Iron Man films starring Downey from 2008 to 2013, have grossed more than US$2.4 billion at the worldwide box office.

Iron Man 3 released last month has become the highest-grossing film of the year, with US$1.2 billion in global ticket sales, and the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, Marvel said in a statement.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In front of a screaming crowd of fans, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez was honoured for her musical accomplishments on Thursday when she received the 2,500th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lopez, a New York City-native born to Puerto Rican parents, gave an emotional speech to the crowd gathered to see her receive the terrazzo and brass star along Hollywood Boulevard, saying she was overwhelmed.

"This all feels, I don't know, kind of surreal, but so real. It's awesome," Lopez said, fighting back tears as she received her star in front of the W Hotel in Hollywood.

Lopez, 43, who began her career acting in the 1986 film My Little Girl and gained recognition for her portrayal of late singer Selena in the 1997 biopic Selena, has built a multi-faceted career as an actress, singer, fashion designer and reality television judge on Fox's talent show American Idol.

Lopez has sold more than 70 million albums worldwide in a recording career that began in 1999 with the critically acclaimed debut album On The Six. She is set to release her eighth studio album this fall.

Among those attending the ceremony on Thursday were Lopez' boyfriend, 26-year-old dancer Casper Smart; rapper Pitbull, who has collaborated with Lopez on numerous dance-pop hit songs including On The Floor; actress Jane Fonda; and former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe.

Fonda, who starred with Lopez in the film Monster-In-Law, said that while Lopez's star was for music, "she should have an entire block of stars" for her ambitious career.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The remains of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of sci-fi fantasy television series Star Trek, will head for the final frontier next year. Scotty will be going along with him.

Rodenberry's cremated remains, along with those of his wife, Majel, and actor James Doohan, who played starship engineer Scotty in the original 1960s Star Trek series, will be launched into deep space in November 2014 by the memorial spaceflight company Celestis.

They will be part of a cargo that will include other cremated remains, written messages and samples of DNA in capsules sent by the general public, Celestis said on Thursday.

"What's very cool about this is that it's science fiction meeting reality," Celestis spokeswoman Pazia Schonfeld said.

The messages and remains will be placed on a spacecraft called a solar sail, which is powered by sunlight and made to withstand high temperatures, and headed for orbit around the sun, Celestis said.

The solar sail's journey will be captured by cameras on board the craft and streamed live online.

The flight will not be the first time the remains of Roddenberry, who died in October 1991 at age 70, and Doohan, who was 85 when he died in 2005, have been in space.

Roddenberry was part of Celestis' inaugural flight in 1997, when his remains were taken on a trip into space before returning to Earth. An urn containing some of Doohan's remains were sent into space in 2012.

Members of the public are invited to join Roddenberry and Doohan on Celestis' Sunjammer Voyager Mission, submitting names for free and samples of writing or messages at a price. Sending cremated remains into deep space starts at US$12,500.

The Heat – An uptight FBI special agent, Sarah Ashburn, is forced into a collaboration with Shannon Mullins, an unpredictable detective from Boston to track down a Russian mobster and drug lord at large. Starring Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy (pic), Michael Rapaport, John A. Baker Jr and Tony Hale.

White House Down – Cale goes to the White House with his daughter for a job interview. Although the interview doesn’t turn out as he expected, the policeman finds himself in the middle of action when a heavily armed group take over the White House. Starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal.