最新報導的部落格

PILTON, United Kingdom: Tens of thousands of revellers watched the Rolling Stones make an energetic Glastonbury festival debut after half a century in the music business.

"If this is the first time you've ever seen the band, do come again," an almost 70-year-old Mick Jagger told a cheering crowd Saturday, most of whom were not yet born when the Stones played their first gigs.

Jagger began his highly anticipated set at the festival in southwest England in a glittering green sequined jacket with the 1968 classic "Jumpin' Jack Flash" to a backdrop of fireworks.

The Stones' frontman prowled and pranced around the main Pyramid stage for more than two hours of music that included crowd-pleasers from the veteran rockers' 1960s and 70s heyday.

Country-style song "Factory Girl" was given a makeover to become "Glastonbury Girl" and refer to festival traditions including the gumboots often worn against the English mud.

Jagger donned a black ostrich feather cloak for "Sympathy for the Devil" as fire burst out of the top of the pyramid and a giant mechanical phoenix atop the stage came to life.

"The old black magic still crackles," wrote a reviewer for the Observer newspaper.

Fans had claimed their spots up to 12 hours ahead of the show, which culminated with bouncing encores of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Satisfaction".

Guitarist Keith Richards and former band member Mick Taylor each performed showcase tunes.

The mostly young audience, many wearing Stones T-shirts and masks, danced and sang along.

"It was amazing," said Kathy Dixon, 26, who works in music management in London.

"It felt like lots of generations were coming together. It felt very special -- almost spiritual," she said.

"They look as young as they were in the sixties," said 22-year-old marketing professional Walter Hudson, from Oxford.

"The only place you can see their age is in their skin -- their energy is the same."

Glastonbury, the country's most popular celebration of music and performing arts, is now in its 43rd year.

Organiser Michael Eavis is said to have spent years persuading the Stones to appear.

"We've waited a long time for the Stones to play. For them to be here is brilliant," Eavis's recorded voice told the audience as he introduced the band, one of the world's top-selling acts.

Organisers had expanded the viewing area as a large proportion of the 135,000 festivalgoers on the sprawling 900-acre farm sought to witness this small piece of music history.

The Glastonbury festival, held at Worthy Farm in Somerset, southeast England, began as a hippie gathering of 1,500 people in 1970.

It now has 58 stages and formal accommodation ranging from pre-assembled tents to glamorous yurts costing several thousand pounds.

It continues to sell out months in advance even though Britain's unpredictable weather often transforms it into a mudbath.

The Stones, once icons of rebellious youth, have been playing a series of North American dates on their "50 and Counting" tour ahead of several British concerts this summer.

Reports said Jagger had undertaken a gruelling fitness regime to prepare for his Glastonbury act before flying in by helicopter on Friday.

The bandmates tweeted a series of photos of themselves at the festival, with Jagger showing off his yurt accommodation while guitarist Ronnie Wood proudly displayed red rain boots bought for the occasion.

Festivalgoers could also catch vintage acts Primal Scream and Elvis Costello on Saturday, as well as younger first-timers such as acclaimed Californian trio Haim.

Broadcasters reported that third in line to the throne Prince Harry, 28, was spotted at the festival site on Saturday, along with footballer Wayne Rooney, supermodel Kate Moss and other British stars.

The three main days of the festival conclude Sunday with a headline set from folk band Mumford and Sons. - AFP

When you are caught in a tight situation, Jamie Foxx knows that it’s best to be in it with the sexiest man alive.

Channing Tatum suits up to play an all-American hero in White House Down.

WHEN he was 18, Channing Tatum earned a living as a stripper and used his tips (mostly crumpled US$1 bills) for his daily spending. Now at 33, he is said to be worth US$14mil (RM42mil), as his recent starring films, which include Magic Mike (a film based on his days as a young stripper), have each made more than US$100mil (RM300mil) at the box office.

He’s on a roll, too, what with four movies scheduled to open from now till 2014. Not bad for a guy who was really happy to be paid US$400 (RM1,200) for five days’ work as a backup dancer in Ricky Martin’s She Bangs music video, way back in 2000.

Despite the massive change in lifestyle and salary, one thing remains the same with Tatum. From the start, he has cultivated a reputation for being a super-nice guy. This leads to him making lifelong friends with folks he works with in every project. Today, Tatum is still very much a down-to-earth guy, and this comes through even via this webchat interview from Cancun, Mexico, for the film White House Down.

It’s this quality that convinced director Roland Emmerich to cast Tatum as John Cale, an ex-military man who finds himself against a force that’s terrorising the White House and President of the United States (played by Jamie Foxx). According to Emmerich, Tatum is perfect for the role as he embodies everything that Cale is, an ordinary guy who is funny, smart and knows what he wants, but is faced with an extraordinary situation.

Tatum has other traits of course, which his co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal has noticed. She spills at a press conference in Cancun: “Channing is sexy, funny and lovely. It was fun to play those scenes (with him). I would sort of think, ‘So many women wish that they could just touch him’ and I would actually touch him. Sort of to do it for everybody, you know?”

Channing Tatum released this picture of his baby girl, Everly, and wife, Jenna Dewan, on Facebook.

Needless to say – whether out of discomfort or simply his good nature – Tatum is only too willing to downplay any excessive compliment paid to him by cracking jokes at his own expense. Hence his reaction when asked about his “2012 Sexiest Man Alive” title from People magazine: “I would give it to (Foxx) any day of the week. Look, it’s happening. Whether it’s going to happen this year or next year, it’s coming.”

Refusing to keep quiet (or wanting to egg Tatum on), Foxx jumps in with: “Don’t let him try to get off the subject. He is the sexiest man alive! And what that means is, there is not a man breathing right now who’s as sexy as this man. You saw the way he was standing in the pose. I got the pose, I just didn’t get the cover.”

At that point, both try to up the other by striking the “pose”, only to have it end up comically. Emmerich, seated between them, sighs and deadpans: “See what I went through on this movie.”

Foxx adds: “I will tell you what my daughter says is sexy about him. My daughter’s 19 years old, and she flips out over him, for more than one thing. That he’s good looking. He dances, of course. Magic Mike went through the roof. I don’t know if he knows it, but she’s hooked on going to male strip clubs now. But what I think women find sexy about him is, when he’s in a movie, he has that quality where he, you know, really cares. I think that quality goes a long way. That, to me, is what people are really responding to. Not only women dig it, but men admire that too.”

It’s obvious Tatum has made yet another friend in Foxx over the course of filming White House Down. The two continued to hang out long after the project ended, and they even have a song called Channing All Over Your Tatum, which they performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live in February. It is also released as a proper music video on the show’s website recently.

This chemistry translates onto the film as well – two men trying their darndest to stay alive, save the day and everyone they love.

Foxx explains: “It’s about the relationship between these guys and everything that is pending – he’s at a crossroads, and (my character) is at a crossroads too. These two guys come together, and they figure it out ... and it’s a beautiful thing to see.”

Besides the relationship between their characters, White House Down also explores Cale’s estranged relationship with his young daughter, Emily (Joey King), who is caught in the middle of the mayhem unfolding at the White House. While Tatum responded to the film’s subject of terrorism, he also acknowledged the emotional aspect of the character and what he is trying to accomplish in that tough moment, especially as a father.

Tatum says: “Cale is a man who is trying to save the free world through the love of his daughter. And that’s sort of all he thinks about – patriotism and the love of his daughter. Every decision he made was because of his daughter; that was the thing that made me understand the movie.”

White House Down signals the first time Tatum tackles the role of a father on the big-screen. In real life, Tatum and his wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum have just become parents to a baby girl, Everly Elizabeth Maiselle Tatum.

At the time of this interview, it was just a month away before the Tatums were due to welcome their daughter. The actor shares his feelings at that point: “I don’t think anybody can really be prepared for fatherhood. I’ve gotten a lot of advice. I’ve read books. I’ve seen documentaries. I’ve watched movies. I’ve ultimately been like, all right, look, this is just going to happen and I’m terrified and excited. And, just ready, you know.

Someone told me that nine months is the perfect amount of time to go through all the stages that you’re going to go through. The whole thing, the lead up is very stressful. Extremely stressful. (But) I’m ready for it to happen.”

White House Down is now showing in cinemas nationwide.

Channelling Channing

Channing Tatum is on the up and up in Hollywood.

Step Up (2006)

Tatum’s first leading role, is where he plays a rebellious hip-hop dancer. Although he has an athletic background, the actor felt nervous about the role as he is not a professional dancer like his co-stars. The movie is also significant because it introduced him to his wife, Jenna Dewan.

Fighting (2009)

Like the title suggests, the film involves a lot of fighting. So much so that Tatum ended up with a broken nose during one of the more physical scenes. He plays Shawn MacArthur, who is just a little too good at bare-knuckle fighting.

G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra (2009)

The actor plays Captain Duke Hauser, who is part of an elite military unit known as G.I. Joe. Tatum was offered the role after Sam Worthington turned it down. Tatum did not want it at first, as he felt it was “glorified war”, but changed his mind after reading the script and his buddy – Joseph Gordon-Levitt – encouraged him to take the role. Wise move.

Dear John (2010)

Tatum is still in soldier mode for this romantic drama based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel. He plays “a strapping Special Forces hunk” who falls in love with a student. This is his first serious tear jerker, which co-stars Amanda Seyfried.

The Eagle (2011)

We are beginning to wonder if he’s being typecast, as he plays yet another soldier here. This time however, it is set during the Roman Empire circa 140AD. This centurion named Marcus travels with a slave (Jamie Bell) to find out what happened to a missing legion and its symbol, a golden eagle. Here’s some interesting trivia: both Tatum and Bell had their breakthrough roles playing dancers (Step Up and Billy Elliot respectively).

The Vow (2012)

Another weepie romantic drama in which Tatum wears this really awful hipster straw hat while courting Rachel McAdams’ character. It becomes painfully obvious that Tatum is much better off playing hell-raising soldiers. Or a dancer. Someone should make a movie of Tatum as a dancing soldier!

21 Jump Street (2012)

Who knew Channing Tatum could pull off comedy? Jonah Hill must’ve, because he convinced Tatum to take on the role for this film even though Tatum passed on it twice. They play a pair of incompetent police officers who return to high school as teenagers to bring down a drug ring. Notice how often Tatum actually passes on roles that are good for his career?

Magic Mike (2012)

The film is loosely based on Tatum’s experiences as a stripper before moving to Hollywood to pursue acting. His character in the film is called Magic Mike, but the moniker he went by when stripping was Chan Crawford.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

Get this; the release of this film was pushed almost a year as the studio wanted to include more scenes with Tatum. Apparently, test audiences wanted more scenes between him and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. You know you have hit big time when the studio wants more scenes of you.

White House Down (2013)

Tatum headlines this film with Jamie Foxx. He plays an ex-military man who goes to the White House for a job interview. He ends up springing into action when the President’s home is invaded by baddies. This movie sounds almost similar to Olympus Has Fallen (released earlier this year). Can Tatum entice audiences to the cinema? That will be the test of his star power.

Hold steady: Wong Ka Kui’s legacy has gone beyond music.

Twenty years ago today, Asia lost one of its greatest rock stars. We remember the musical genius that was Beyond’s Wong Ka Kui.

I am still free and still myself,
I will forever sing my songs,
No matter how far away I go
– Lyrics from the song Vast Seas, Clear Skies by Beyond, written by Wong Ka Kui

I REMEMBER the day I found out Wong Ka Kui died. A friend of mine, who was also a fan of Beyond, announced to my class, almost tearfully, that Ka Kui had passed away. I remember my usually noisy and chaotic classmates at the time instantly quieting down, and then sitting sombrely at their desks, pondering the depressing news.

We didn’t want to believe it – after all, this was the immortal Beyond we were talking about. Together with his bandmates (brother and bassist Ka Keung, guitarist Paul Wong Kun Jong and drummer Yip Sai Wing), Ka Kui enthralled us with songs about upholding one’s culture and beliefs, living life to the fullest and never compromising on one’s ideals and principles.

Back then, the Internet was non-existent, and the only source of entertainment news we had came from the newspapers. Without the immediacy of Twitter, Facebook, or even the convenience of mobile phones, it was hard for us to verify how true the news was.

But as I read about the tragedy later in the newspapers, about how the 31-year-old had fallen from a stage while filming a show in Japan, how he hit his head and fell into a coma, and how he passed away a few hours later from severe internal bleeding, it finally hit me – the heart and soul of Beyond was gone forever.

To the teenage me back then, Ka Kui’s death was more devastating than even that of Kurt Cobain, who died just a year later. After all, Beyond was one of the greatest, nay, THE greatest rock bands Hong Kong has ever produced. Led by Ka Kui, the band’s music was a shining beacon of light in a music industry filled with generic love songs, manufactured pop stars and unoriginality.

Founded by Ka Kui and Yip in 1983 (Paul and Ka Keung joined the band later), the band’s story is a good old rock and roll tale of hardship, persistence and defiance in the face of familial and financial pressure.

They paid to make debut album Goodbye Ideals out of their own pockets, and the band continued to struggle (despite a strong underground following) until they finally made a breakthrough with 1987’s The Arabian Dancing Girl album. After that, they became an enigmatic mainstay in Hong Kong’s otherwise predictable Cantopop scene.

Being the band’s primary songwriter and lead vocalist, Ka Kui was unsurprisingly the figurehead of the band, and to his credit, he never let success get to his head. Throughout his career, he and the rest of the band held steadfastly to their rock and roll principles, writing songs that highlighted social and political issues, racism, poverty in Africa, and above all, the importance of never giving up on your dreams.

After his death, the remaining members of Beyond chose to carry on as a trio. During an interview with The Star before a concert in Kuala Lumpur back in 1996, Ka Keung explained their decision to continue as a threesome rather than find a replacement for Ka Kui.

“It won’t be easy finding another person who will fit in with our music and style. Since that is the case, we might as well remain a threesome,” said Ka Keung back then.

“It is difficult to express our feelings regarding the loss of a good friend and comrade. But Ka Kui will always be around, in spirit, of course,” Sai Wing added.

Although they managed to release several criminally underrated albums as a threesome, there was always a sense it just wasn’t the same without Ka Kui.

Beyond officially disbanded in 2005, with all three members going on to pursue different musical paths. They recently announced that they won’t be getting back together even for the band’s 30th anniversary this year.

Wong Ka Kui’s death on this very day 20 years ago was a massive blow to Asian music in general, and there has arguably never been a rock band with the influence or popularity of Beyond ever since.

In the West, the list of gifted musicians who died young include Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. For his impact on Asian music and unwavering rock and roll spirit, Wong Ka Kui surely deserves to be on that list as well.

(From left) Wong Ka Keung, Wong Ka Kui, Yip Sai Wing and Paul Wong of Beyond in their heyday.

Besides being the 20th anniversary of Wong Ka Kui’s death, it has also been 30 years since Beyond was formed. We celebrate the band’s legacy by highlighting the 10 greatest songs they have ever released:

Hoi Fut Tin Hong (Vast Seas, Clear Skies)

This is without a doubt the greatest Beyond song made even more poignant and significant by the fact that it’s one of Beyond’s last ever hits before Ka Kui’s death.

This will always be the song Beyond will be remembered by, and what a magnificent song it is.

From the gloriously soaring melody and meaningful lyrics to Ka Kui’s impassioned vocals and Paul’s magnificent guitar solo at the end, this is the truest testament to Ka Kui’s genius and what a big loss his death was to the Asian music scene.

Guong Fai Shui Yuet (Glorious Years)

Who says Cantopop ballads have to be about love all the time? One of the band’s signature hits, the lyrics touch on racism and Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Deeply intellectual and moving, this remains one of the greatest songs Ka Kui ever wrote.

Amani

One of their biggest hits, this song is further proof of just how different Beyond’s music was from other Cantopop acts. Amani, which is Swahili for “peace”, was a moving anti-war anthem inspired by a trip to Africa with an NGO in 1991, from which they came back deeply affected by the poverty and suffering of the people there.

Dai Dei (Great Land)

Their breakthrough hit. In 1988, this was the band’s biggest hit since they formed in 1983. Included in the band’s third album, Secret Police, the song was Beyond’s biggest hit ever at the time, and won them the first of many Hong Kong musical awards.

Hei Foon Nei (Love You)

Even their love songs were different. Ka Kui wrote this song as a dedication to an ex-girlfriend whom he left in order to pursue his rock and roll dream.

The bridge, in which he acknowledges that he never considered her pain while he selfishly pursued his dream, is one of the most heart-breaking lines in a Beyond song ever.

Zoi Kin Lei Xiong (Goodbye My Dreams)

Considered one of their classics, this song about chasing their rock and roll dream was already a huge hit in the underground scene even before it was included in Secret Police. The song meant a lot to Ka Kui especially, who once famously announced during a concert that he got so emotional after writing the song that he could not sleep for a few nights.

Bat Zhoi Yau Yi (Never Doubt Again)

A soaring declaration of the band’s belief and never-say-die attitude (Paul’s opening guitar riff ranks as one of their most memorable ever), this song was the main theme for Beyond’s Diary, a semi-autobiographical film about the band’s struggle to achieve fame.

Zan Dek Ngoi Nei (I Really Love You)

Despite the title, this is actually a tribute to mothers, and the sacrifices they make for their children. The chorus features Ka Kui singing about how thankful he is to his own mother for encouraging him to never give up on his dream, and to “never give up even after falling down”.

Chiong Seng (The Great Wall)

The lead single from their heavier, much underrated Continue The Revolution album in 1992, this hard-hitting rocker tells the story of an “ancient ruined wall in the Far East” enclosing an “ageing country”.

Said to have been partly inspired by the Tiananmen incident in 1989, this was probably the most politically charged song they ever recorded, made even more powerful by the steely defiance in Ka Kui’s vocals.

Sui Yuet Mou Seng (Years of Silence)

Actually a song Ka Kui wrote for female singer Connie Mak Kit Man in 1988, Beyond re-recorded this song for one of their albums, and the result was a far cry from the original singer’s more folk-ish, standard Cantopop version.

Arguably one of Beyond’s hardest rocking songs, this proved that despite their commercial success, they were still willing to stick to their roots and keep rocking on.

LOS ANGELES: US pop veteran Prince and singer-actress Jennifer Lopez are among the artists invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the body which runs the Oscars announced Friday.

Lucy Liu, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and British actress Emily Mortimer were also among 276 new members invited to join the film industry's most prestigious club, as was veteran French actress Emmanuelle Riva.

Directors invited include Benh Zeitlin, who made last year's Oscar-nominated "Beasts of the Southern Wild," and Todd Phillips, of the blockbuster "Hangover" movies, the last of which came out in May.

"These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Hawk Koch, head of the Academy, which has some 6,000 members who vote annually for the Oscars, the climax of Hollywood's awards season.

"Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide. I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy," he added.

Other actors invited include Chris Tucker ("Silver Linings Playbook"), Rebecca Hall ("Iron Man 3"), Sandra Oh ("Sideways"), Milla Jovovich ("Chaplin") and Jason Schwartzman ("Moonrise Kingdom").

"Purple Rain" star Prince was invited with other fellow musicians, including Ramiro Belgardt ("Star Trek Into Darkness"), Jennifer Dunnington ("The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"), and Aaron Lael Zigman ("Sex and the City").

The new members, in categories including everything from cinematographers and producers to make-up artists and publicists, "have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures," said the Academy.

The new members will be welcomed into the Beverly Hills-based Academy at an invitation-only reception in September. -AFP

Hong Kong-born, London-based indie/ folk singersongwriter Emmy The Great has a new batch of songs to make heads turn.

Touring has made Emmy The Great feel sure of herself.

She has released two acclaimed albums which have appeared on music critics’ “best of” year-end lists, but up until recently, Hong Kong-born, London-based indie/folk singer-songwriter Emmy The Great has never felt like a true musician.

“I feel like I have been introverted in my music career,” the 29-year-old said in an interview at The P’ Club Group, a lifestyle and furnishings store at High Street Centre in Singapore earlier this month.

She was in Singapore to perform at a party at the same venue.

“I’m no introvert, but it’s been very hard work trying to break into a world that you don’t understand completely. I’m not a natural musician.”

But the past two years of touring have changed her, and the new batch of songs that she is currently working on reflects her new approach to making music.

“I finally feel confident enough to call myself a musician and look outward. The way the world has changed, we converse in new ways, the Internet has changed the way that we think and I just want my music to reflect that.

“I don’t want to be sitting next to some analogue machine saying “let’s recreate the 1960s”. I want to live now and this is going to go out of date soon, so let’s make it quickly.”

Born Emma-Lee Moss to an English father and a Chinese mother, her 2009 debut album, First Love, was one of the New York Times’ Top 10 albums of the year.

Her 2011 sophomore effort, Virtue, garnered more praises, with the BBC describing it as an “extraordinarily confident work”.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, she moved to London, where she is now based, when she was 12. Her onstage monicker was from a nickname that her university schoolmates had for her.

Moss, who is single, has also made music with some of the more notable names in the British indie scene, such as Noah & The Whale, Lightspeed Champion and Kate Nash. One of her most frequent collaborators is Tim Wheeler, frontman of popular Britpop band Ash and the two of them released a Yuletide album, This Is Christmas, in 2011.

She is most excited when talking about her recent collaboration with one of her musical heroes, Graham Coxon, guitarist of seminal British band Blur. Together with Wheeler, the three are working on a soundtrack for an upcoming British film about a fictional Britpop band called The Wanderers.

“I am obsessed with him. My life got so much better by watching my guitar hero play. I went home that night after the recording and bought every single guitar pedal that he had,” she says with a laugh. – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

Killer mother: Keri Russell plays a mother who is also a KGB agent in The Americans. The series also stars Matthew Rhys.

Keri Russell may not look like your typical mum in her new TV show, but neither does she look like a spy.

Keri Russell doesn’t seem to age. She looks the same today as she did back in 1998 when she played a lovesick college student on the TV series Felicity.

Russell might not look older, but at 36, she’s the right age to play a mum in the new FX series The Americans.

Her character has a perfect life: a loving husband, two children, a home in the suburbs. Oh, and an arsenal of weapons hidden in her home.

The series – set during the early days of the Ronald Reagan administration – has Russell and co-star Matthew Rhys playing Russian KGB agents who have posed as good Americans for almost 15 years.

The series deals with how the couple is torn between loyalty to the Motherland and parenthood. Russell’s character, Elizabeth, remains the most devoted to Mother Russia.

“I love that I’m not the likable one, the relatable one, on the show,” Russell says. “Elizabeth is not the best mum. She loves her children so much but she’s not warm and fuzzy. She’s had to compartmentalise major aspects of her life for obvious reasons. Raising kids in a place where she doesn’t want to live is part of it. She doesn’t want her children to be in this place, in this culture.”

Russell calls Elizabeth “a good soldier”. That point becomes clear early in the series. Nothing – absolutely nothing – is off limits when it comes to spying. She’s able to accomplish some missions – some very sexual in nature – because while she’s been married for years, to her the relationship is just an act.

There are hints that Elizabeth’s devotion is born out of dark elements in her past. But Russell knows her character won’t get any sympathy and that she has a tough job ahead.

Russell’s finding great fun in unravelling the emotions Elizabeth is feeling. That’s because she generally gets cast in much lighter roles without a lot of action.

The Americans is a 180-degree swing from her last TV series, where she starred with Will Arnett in the short-lived Running Wilde. About the only comparison is that she’s a mum in both.

The role is so different for Russell that she thought the script was sent to her as a joke, especially considering she had just had a baby and wasn’t actively looking for work.

Once it was explained to her that the idea of casting her was to get away from the stereotype of female Russian spies as being lanky, big-lipped and dark, she became intrigued.

“I would ride my bike around Brooklyn and think about the script. It’s so not just a straight procedural, but has so many different elements that I’m still figuring it out. In the end, it was a role that interested me. I kept coming back to what this relationship must be like,” Russell says. “Then, to top it off, there’s the spy fantasy element where you do get to have sex with other people and it’s OK.

“The marriage is what interested me the most.” – The Fresno Bee/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

It’s been hard to avoid Andrea Riseborough on the big screen this year. The 31-year-old British actress, who first gained notice in this country in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky and Madonna’s W.E., has had four films released in the space of two months – Oblivion, Welcome To The Punch, Disconnect and the thriller Shadow Dancer.

“Every job is a milestone,” Riseborough says, fresh from the New York set of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s all-star comedy, Birdman.

“That first chance to work with Mike Leigh, or just taking a day of work in a Roger Michell movie (Venus), joining Birdman to work with Inarritu, I’m adding up the milestones, the steps along the path. An actor’s career is always a work in progress, nothing that you should ever let yourself get caught up in as it’s happening.”

Riseborough, having cut her teeth working with the improvisational Leigh, is a writer as well as actress.

But when documentary filmmaker James Marsh pitched her the fictional feature Shadow Dancer, which has her playing a damaged, dedicated IRA member in 1990s Belfast whom British agent Clive Owen sets out to “turn”, the writer in her became an eraser.

“I was unclear about who Collette was, because in the original script, she talks an awful lot. Too much, I thought.

“I had a grasp of the situation she was in but not the person that she was. I think I took the role just to figure out who she was. If I didn’t commit to the film, I’d never do the research and I’d never figure her out.”

Her research made her realise “she should speak less and less and do more with her eyes. In that part of the world, even now, people are very economical with their words. They lived in a very dangerous and paranoid place for a very long time. Her silences give her an authenticity. People didn’t talk. Talking could get you killed.”

With cop thrillers, science fiction, period-piece dramas and contemporary dramas on her resume and a quartet of projects at various stages of completion, one credit that stands out is Birdman, a comedy about a washed-up screen superhero who stages a Broadway show to make his comeback.

Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis and ex-screen superheroes Edward Norton and Michael Keaton also star. Can Riseborough hold her own in a comedy?

“Oh, I’ve been doing comedy since I was, what, nine? I did Magicians (2007). Well, that didn’t work as well as it should have, but it was supposed to be a comedy.” – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Devo drummer Alan Myers was more than a ‘human metronome’.

Chances are when you’re reading about percussionist Alan Myers, the word “metronomic” will be used. Myers, whose drumming for punk band Devo came to define the band’s off-kilter sound, died on Monday after a battle with brain cancer.

Musician Ralph Carney, who was friends with Myers, announced the news on his Facebook page: “Alan Myers passed yesterday from cancer. He was Devo’s best drummer and one of the first people to teach me about jazz. I cry...”

To call Myers a human metronome, though, is to suggest a drummer focused on keeping a steady, consistent beat.

Myers could do that and more, but his internal metronome contained secret compartments, switches that could drive odd time signatures, weird breakbeats, perfectly timed chaotic bursts.

Like one of his admitted inspirations, John “Drumbo” French of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Myers understood rhythm so well that he worked as much silence and absence into his sound as he did crazy fills.

Myers was Devo’s third drummer, joining in 1976 before the band released its Brian Eno-produced debut, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, and remained in the band until the mid-1980s. He played on all the Akron, Ohio-born, Los Angeles-based Devo’s most mind-bending material, including the deconstructed version of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction that first propelled them onto the national stage, Whip It and Girl U Want.

Isolate Myers’ playing on Satisfaction and wonder on his focus: the circular time signature and the way it upends the entire notion of the original.

On the tripped-out Swelling Itching Brain, Myers goes virtually invisible, driving a minimalist, one-drum-at-a-time rhythm, sparse but effective.

Which isn’t to say that Myers couldn’t keep a groove. On the contrary, his rhythms were incredibly steady and true.

Drummer Josh Freese, who has performed with Devo on their recent tours and recordings, tweeted about Myers’ influence: “RIP Alan Myers. 1 of my all time favs. An underrated/brilliant drummer. Such an honor playing his parts w/Devo. Godspeed Human Metronome.”

And Gerald Casale, Devo co-founder, also remarked on Myers’ passing (and couldn’t help implying that others in Devo were responsible for his departure): “RE: Alan Myers. I begged him not to quit Devo. He could not tolerate being replaced by the Fairlight and autocratic machine music. I agreed.”

Casale followed that tweet with a few others: “In praise of Alan Myers, the most incredible drummer I had the privilege to play with for 10 years. Losing him was like losing an arm. RIP!!”

He concluded: “Alan, you were the best – a human metronome and then some. A once-in-a-lifetime find, thanks to Bob Mothersbaugh. U were born to drum Devo!” – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Capital FM’s announcers, (from left) Deborah Raj, Priscillia Seelan, Joanne Kam and Xandria Ooi walked the talk at their Life Class: How To Brand And Market Yourself workshop.

It was a life lesson, but Capital FM’s self-empowerment workshop was also rip-roaring fun.

WHEN she walks, she commands attention. Wearing a pretty top, black pencil skirt and high heels, her head is held high. She carries herself well and doesn’t shy away from eye contact. Instead, she sends out a smile that brightens up her face and is enhanced by the rosy glow on her cheeks.

First impressions count. Creating a lasting effect is very important in today’s competitive environment, where everyone is trying to stand out, hoping to create opportunities and achieve their goals which will ultimately lead to a successful career and happy life.

Capital FM’s listeners were invited to their first workshop last Saturday, themed Life Class: How To Brand And Market Yourself. Only 40 listeners were invited to attend this exclusive workshop. Held at Paradox Art Café, in Petaling Jaya, the ladies were welcomed by Capital FM announcers Joanne Kam, Xandria Ooi, Deborah Raj, Non, Sheela and Priscillia Seelan.

Workshop attendees learned how to create a winning lasting impression. During the four-hour workshop, Zarina Zainal, the resident life coach on Capital FM, offered tips on how to let a person’s image speak their brand.

Jynn Looi, from Benefit cosmetics, demonstrated on a listener how to create a stunning and simple day look. Zarina explained it was more than just clothing or a look. Personality has to shine through the clothes and the makeup. It’s about the way women carry themselves and how they engage people, prioritising the message that needs to be sent out.

At the end of the session, the ladies were served a delicious lunch, topped with sweet treats and live music playing in the background. Each participant walked away feeling empowered and with a bag full of goodies. Melanie Lai, who attended the workshop, had this to say: “I learnt how to take it to the next level, so I can be a strong woman inside and out.” Eevon Lai, another inspired listener, said, “I love the way the workshop was conducted. I soaked up every bit of fun and information. “

Fret not if you missed out on this workshop. This is only the first of many to come.

Stay tuned to Capital FM, (88.9 in the Klang Valley), for information on upcoming events. Capital FM is also available at capitalfm.com.my, on HyppTV and through the Capital FM app available on IOS and Android platforms.

The Heat gleefully breaks the rules of the macho buddy cop film.

The Heat has all the elements you’d expect from a buddy cop movie – the oil-and-water partnership, the car chases, the wisecracks – and a few you wouldn’t. For instance, a scene involving Spanx.

Faithfully conforming to the macho genre made famous by movies such as Bad Boys and Lethal Weapon, The Heat is also – curiously – summer’s only studio film built around female leads: Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.

“If someone asks what you wanna do and you don’t really wanna work, you pick the most far-fetched thing,” Bullock said. “This was it, a pairing where everyone was equal and you had these storylines that weren’t girly. ... It had depth and humour and balls and action. It was just something I saw the boys getting to do.”

Directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) from a script by Parks And Recreation writer Katie Dippold, The Heat pairs Bullock as Sarah Ashburn, an uptight FBI agent in ill-fitting suits, with McCarthy as Shannon Mullins, a brusque Boston cop who dresses like a 1980s lady rapper. Instead of romantic pining, the story’s emotional undercurrent comes from the loneliness of women who are very good at their jobs.

“It wasn’t a movie written for two guys,” Feig said. “It was funny in a way women are funny and touched on themes of female friendship, professional women in the workplace who have chosen career over family and kids.”

On-screen, Bullock and McCarthy play goofy but capable everywomen, and in a joint interview, they slipped easily into their public personae, sharing photos of their young children, bickering about texts – “You don’t answer, that’s just a fact,” Bullock said. “I’m better at texting than anything else I do,” McCarthy responded – and assessing how much teasing a reporter could withstand. “I bet we could push you pretty far,” Bullock said, with a twinkle.

Were it not for the presence of enough publicists behind the hotel room door to launch a presidential campaign, it would be easy to forget that these are two of the most powerful women in Hollywood, with the ability to get movies greenlighted and to approve their directors and co-stars.

Once they attached themselves to The Heat, the project went from script to shooting in a matter of weeks – an accelerated progression in a town where even favoured scripts linger in development for years.

That both women are older than 40 – a demographic Hollywood typically ignores – and that McCarthy’s body doesn’t conform to Size 0 industry norms makes their shared success that much more unusual.

Bullock, 48 and McCarthy, 42, have both risen on that ineffable quality that creates movie stars and sometimes presidents – they seem like they’d be fun to get a beer with. Bullock, the Virginia-born daughter of a Pentagon contractor and an opera singer, came up in the 1990s, propelled by a tomboyish charm in movies such as Speed and Miss Congeniality before winning an Oscar for playing the brassy Southern mother in 2009’s The Blind Side.

McCarthy, raised on a farm in Illinois, performed in the LA-based improv comedy group Groundlings and has appeared on TV shows such as Gilmore Girls and her current programme Mike & Molly but is a more recently minted star on the big screen.

She emerged in a breakout role as a rambunctious and occasionally lewd member of a wedding party in 2011’s Bridesmaids and solidified her status this year as a star who can open a movie by playing a crook who plagues Jason Bateman’s character in the surprise hit Identity Thief.

For Bullock, the increasingly prominent role of women in big-screen comedies is a heartening change from when she emerged in Hollywood 20 years ago. Much of that change she attributes to the rise of writer-performers such as Dippold and McCarthy, who is shooting and starring in a comedy for Warner Bros called Tammy, which she co-wrote with her husband, actor Ben Falcone.

“It does still feel Wild West-ish. Carol Burnett was doing all her writing. You had those iconic women who did it, but they were the exception,” Bullock said. “I hope one day we don’t say ‘Women in comedy’, ‘Men and comedy’, they just go ‘Who was in it?’.”

The actresses had never met until Bullock called McCarthy in her trailer on the Identity Thief set to see whether she was interested in playing Mullins. As in any screen pairing, chemistry would be critical – The Heat calls for their characters to evolve from elbow-flinging rivals to glass-clinking buddies over less than two hours.

“You have to instantly bond, instantly create a relationship in this weird world that we’re in,” Bullock said.

“She was game for anything,” McCarthy said. “It was fun to poke and jab at her.”

“We had a safe word,” Bullock said. “Peaches.”

In person, Bullock was the alpha female, McCarthy more reserved – in stark contrast to the naughty, all-id characters she often plays.

One thing both women share is a willingness to wield their bodies on-screen in unflattering ways: In The Heat, Bullock is all angles – elbows and knees and pin-straight hair, and McCarthy is a lady linebacker, barrelling after criminals in MC Hammer pants.

“It’s those weird quirks to me that make someone who they are,” McCarthy said. “A lot of times, especially for women, all of the tools are taken away. You have to look perfect, act perfect, you’re perfectly poised, you’re always appropriate. I don’t know anyone who’s like that, but also you’ve taken away all the tools to be funny or to be odd.”

In one scene, Ashburn and Mullins drunkenly dance in a bar – Feig provided a choreographer, but the actresses dismissed the idea, fearing the dance would not be sufficiently awful.

“We have to be the butt of the joke,” McCarthy said. “If you’re outside commenting or winking ... no, you’re the ass. You are the joke. You have to take the hit.

“The more you can take the hit, the funnier it is for people watching ... just out of sheer relief that, ‘I’m not the one who ripped her pants’.” – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Artisans of classic pop: She & Him started out as a side project for M. Ward (left) and Zooey Deschanel.

On a Tuesday afternoon in the basement studios of Capitol Records, She & Him was recording a volley of live tracks for a few radio station sessions. Singer Zooey Deschanel finished an umpteenth take of the duo’s single I Could’ve Been Your Girl, and she felt that something was sounding a little false.

“Do you have any ribbon mikes? We’re just not used to sounding digital,” she told the session engineer. “Maybe an RCA-77?”

That specific taste in microphones showed her technician’s ear – and the craftsmanship that goes into the winsome summery music she makes with longtime collaborator M. Ward.

With the release of She & Him’s fourth album, Volume 3, even once-skeptical audiences are coming around and admitting that they are real artisans of classic pop.

She & Him began as a side gig carved out of Deschanel’s and Ward’s respective acting and solo musical careers in 2008, but the act has since become as big a venture as the duo’s day jobs.

As might be expected of an actor-fronted band, there was plenty of early groaning (it’s hard to read much about the band without Deschanel’s New Girl tagline “Simply Adorkable” popping up somewhere). But her voice was undeniable – a bright, resonant instrument with a hint of Patsy Cline – and Ward’s pristine, tasteful arrangements conjured the AM of decades gone by.

The robust and immaculately written Volume 3 should put any last grumbly holdouts on notice. The album is the duo’s most “produced” yet, full of the old Hollywood string arrangements and brass lines and stacked harmonies that make a simple tune take on new shades.

But it’s also home to some of Deschanel’s most acute and acidic songwriting.

The first lyrics on the album, from I’ve Got Your Number, Son, are as self-aware a depiction of dysfunction as a songwriter can ask for: “What’s a man without all the attention? Well, he’s just a man ... who am I without all your affection? Well, I’m a nobody too.”

The jaunty, family-band singalong Together quietly implies that, well, love stinks and nobody really understands anybody: “We all go through it together, but we all go at it alone.”

“We’re always talking about that mix of happy-sad, where a dark melody gets an upbeat lyric or vice versa,” Deschanel said. “I love that Beatles song And I Love Her for that reason. I find sadness and strife to be so much more interesting with an upbeat melody.”

Of course, it’s hard to hear a song like that or the album’s single I Could’ve Been Your Girl without reading subtext from her recent real-life divorce from Death Cab For Cutie and Postal Service singer Ben Gibbard (a subject she doesn’t talk about in interviews).

But that very public pain lends some even darker corners to songs that on the surface seem aglow with nostalgia and sweetness.

“People who say, ‘There’s no grit there,’ have no use for someone like Sam Cooke or the Beach Boys,” Ward said. “The productions are rich because her songs are rich.”

To listen to the duo tout the emotional virtues of diminished chords and the deep cuts of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry (whose Baby gets a cover treatment on the album) is to hear two lifelong students of the best American songwriting at work.

Yes, they know their arsenal of hipster-cute endearment is deep – watch Deschanel’s vamping in her self-directed video for I Could Have Been Your Girl for proof.

Few are immune: At Tuesday’s session, one radio interviewer took his last seconds with the duo to have Deschanel record a congratulatory message for his daughter’s recent track-team accomplishments.

But She & Him knows that clean fun and serious skill aren’t opposed in pop music. They’re both necessary, and committed miserabilists can go jump in a lake.

“I remember having this friend in school who said she didn’t like the Beach Boys,” Deschanel said. “And in that moment I knew we couldn’t be friends anymore.” – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

The Lone Ranger – Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp update the 1949 TV series, with director Gore Verbinski behind the camera. Lawyer John Reid turns into a masked vigilante with the help of Native American warrior Tonto.

Despicable Me 2 – Like the 2010 movie, the sequel is filled with comic talents including Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Russell Brand and Steve Coogan. Everyone’s favourite villain, Gru, must now help the Anti-Villain League to take down a super-criminal.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Channing Tatum has been enjoying a stellar rise to movie stardom over the last few years, and even if White House Down isn't the explosive hit he's hoping for, his career is showing no signs of flaming out any time toon.

While White House, Roland Emmerich's US$150 million exercise in the art of CGI destruction, is only on track to rake in around US$30 million at the domestic box office this weekend, Tatum has at least three other potential moneymakers in some level of production.

The biggest of the three, at least in size and scope, is Jupiter Ascending, the next sci-fi spectacular from Matrix directors Lana and Andy Wachowski.

Tatum stars opposite Mila Kunis in Warner Bros.' summer 2014 release, which follows a destitute woman (Kunis) targeted for assassination by the Queen of the Universe because her very existence threatens to end the Queen's reign over the cosmos. Tatum will expand his action star power as a genetically engineered ex-military hunter who arrives on Earth to track Kunis down.

Although Tatum's showbiz success has been steadily increasing since he made young women swoon as a troubled breakdancing janitor in 2006's Step Up, the 33 year old proved his comedic chops in last year's breakout comedy hit, 21 Jump Street, which he also executive produced.

Following a hilarious cameo in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's This Is The End, Tatum hopes comedy fans will once again flock to see him go undercover alongside Jonah Hill in 22 Jump Street - another project that should assure Tatum has a strong summer showing next year.

And just as Tatum proved his worth as a funny person, Foxcatcher - a wrestling drama based on a tragic true story - should elevate his thespian status in the eyes of the most serious filmmakers.

Tatum stars in Moneyball director Bennet Miller's next film as Olympic Wrestling Champion Mark Schultz, whose brother, Olympic Champion Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo), is killed by paranoid schizophrenic John duPont (Steve Carell). Columbia Pictures is releasing the Annapurna Pictures production on October 15.

Tatum is also busy building his producing credits, which began with the 2010 documentary Earth Made Of Glass, followed by the 2011 ensemble high school reunion flick, 10 Years. Tatum's company, 33andOut Productions, is developing Peter Pan origin adventure, Neverland, which Gavin O'Connor (Warrior) will direct for Sony Pictures.

Most recently, Tatum has set his ambitions toward making it on the small screen, too. He is attached to executive produce a television pilot written by actor Nick Zano. Still untitled, the project is in very early stages of development at Warner Bros. Television. The half-hour, multi-camera comedy is based on Zano's own experience being raised in a multi-generational house of seven women in New Jersey.

Still want more Tatum? Cross your fingers 20th Century Fox can close a deal with him to appear alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the theatrical adaptation of classic musical, Guys And Dolls.

So with a bevy of projects on the heels of release, entering production, or graduating from development, the Magic Mike star's future appears to be brighter than a strobe light flashing in a Florida strip club.

Stop and stare: OneRepublic, led by main man Ryan Tedder (front), to bring the party to Sunway Lagoon’s Surf Beach, Petaling Jaya in Selangor on Oct 31.

Linkin Park, Yuna and OneRepublic for concerts in Malaysia.

IF you’ve had enough of hipster-infested music festivals, K-pop music extravaganzas and the lack of full-length concerts heading our way, then you’re in for a treat. Well, make that three. Recently, American rock band Linkin Park announced it will be returning to Malaysia for a concert.

The band is bringing its Living Things World Tour to the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 19.

Formed in 1996, the Californian band rose to fame with the release of its debut album Hybrid Theory (2000). The best-selling album spawned hit singles like Crawling, Papercut, In The End, and One Step Closer. The band’s latest album Living Things, released last year, debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 charts in the United States.

Fans can look forward to seeing vocalist Chester Bennington, drummer/percussionist Rob Bourdon, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell, deejay Joe Hahn and co-vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda for a night of rocking mayhem in Bukit Jalil.

This is the band’s second appearance in Malaysia. In 2003, the band played a concert at Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur for over 25,000 fans.

Tickets for Linkin Park’s Living Things World Tour in Malaysia are available through www.ticketcharge.com.my.

After Linkin Park, fans can also look forward to LosAngeles-based Malaysian singer-songwriter Yuna returning home for three orchestra-backed shows (Sept 6-8) at Istana Budaya in KL.

Yuna, who kickstarted her major label career (Verve Records) in the US earlier this year, already has her Sixth Street digital EP and new single I        Wanna Go gaining attention in the global pop scene. Any homecoming gigs by this indie darling are bound to be sold-out affairs. More info: www.istanabudaya.gov.my.

OneRepublic’s first proper show in Malaysia is another treat. The American pop-rock band will play Sunway Lagoon’s Surf Beach, Petaling Jaya, Selangor on Oct 31. Formed in 2002, the band consists of vocalist Ryan Tedder, guitarist Zach Filkins, bassist Drew Brown, drummer Eddie Fisher and keyboardist Brent Kutzle.

The band’s debut album Dreaming Out Loud in 2007 featured hit singles Apologize and Stop And Stare. OneRepublic also appeared at the MTV Asia Awards in Genting in 2008.

The upcoming show is set to showcase material from its latest album Native, which has a more dance-orientated groove.

Tickets to OneRepublic’s Native Tour stop in Malaysia are available at www.ticketpro.com.my.

In other concert news, R&B star Alicia Keys is due to play a concert in Kuala Lumpur in November. More details soon.

Seen and heard: If Lance Reddick looks familiar, that is because he has starred in many TV shows including Fringe, Oz and Lost.

Lance Reddick talks about working his way up to White House Down.

Though he always felt something was pushing him toward acting, Lance Reddick ignored it. His dad was an attorney, and Reddick was on his way to becoming a classical music composer. Then something went awry.

“I always knew I had a thing when it came to acting but never took it seriously. I just thought people who wanted to be actors were silly,” he says in the sunny patio restaurant of a hotel in Pasadena, California.

It may have been silly, but Reddick has managed to parlay that tom-foolery into a full blown career with memorable performances in TV shows like Oz, Fringe, Lost and The Wire and his new movie, White House Down.

For a guy who was too shy to even consider performing, he somehow beat the odds. He studied music composition at the prestigious Eastman School of Music, the piano his instrument. “Because my parents wanted to give me what they didn’t have, I grew up around a bunch of affluent white kids,” says Reddick.

“So everybody’s parents were lawyers and doctors, bankers and architects. I didn’t really get it. Now I do.” He developed his first taste for music at an Episcopal elementary school when he started singing with the choir. “A lot of black people grow up singing gospel music. I grew up singing Gregorian chants and 16th century motets,” he grins.

Still, he left Eastman before he graduated. “I realised I was in denial and I really wanted to be a rock star,” he says.

“So, I got married straight out of school, moved to Boston because my wife at the time was from there. Two years later my daughter was born. And I found myself working three jobs, seven days a week.”

He still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. But an excruciating back injury changed all that. “I was lifting a big bundle of newspapers, but it wasn’t the lifting itself, it was the exhaustion. I’d come from a double shift of waiting tables to a double shift of delivering newspapers and I delivered the Wall Street Journal in downtown Boston ... I just cranked it up for about 24 hours, and I was just exhausted and something went,” he says.

“At the time I was used to working on adrenaline and I worked out every day – even with all I had going on. So when I was in pain or exhausted I just ignored it and kept going.”

Two weeks later he awoke unable to get out of bed. Fourteen days of bed rest forced him to re-evaluate his life.

“It sounds crazy but I thought, ‘Well, I know the recording studio I’m working with is taking me for a ride. It’s time for me to admit that to myself. So let me start from scratch. I can sing and I can act. So let me try to act ...’ I went on a couple of musical theatre auditions and realised that wasn’t me, so I started going on straight auditions and getting cast and getting cast and getting cast.”

Though at one time he was co-starring in three shows at once, it wasn’t always so easy. Married with a daughter, 24, and a son, 19, he and his first wife split in 1997. (He has since remarried).

“She made three times the money I did,” he recalls. “God rest her soul, she passed away a couple years ago, but she was a brilliant artist, really talented. We didn’t make it, but she was a great lady,” he sighs.

“Six months after she left, I got The Siege and I was ducking the landlord. And I had the kids every other week, so I was borrowing money to buy groceries. I got The Siege, then I got I Dreamed Of Africa, then went to the Guthrie and got to play Marc Antony (in Julius Caesar.) I came back home to New York and didn’t work for six months. For somebody who’s always doing a side job or has a trust fund or savings, it’s one thing. But I didn’t ... The only reason I didn’t quit was I didn’t have any alternatives. What was I going to do, wait tables? The only way to get out of the situation I was in was to make it.” – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> White House Down, starring Channing Tatum and Lance Reddick, opens in cinemas nationwide today. Read Star2’s interview with Tatum this Sunday.

Thrash metal legends Metallica hardly need a new album to fill up venues. It’s been nearly five years since its last album Death Magnetic was released, but that hasn’t made the band any lesser in terms of box-office might. Wherever Metallica roams, the shows sell out.

Outside upcoming gigs in South Korea, Japan and China in August, Metallica has confirmed its only concert date in this region at Changi Exhibition Centre in Singapore on August 24.

Metallica’s show is also the first concert which will take place at the Changi Exhibition Centre, with public shuttle service (for a fee) organised by show promoters LAMC Productions.

The band last played in this part of the world in 1993 with a sold-out show at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Formed in San Francisco, United States in 1981, Metallica ranks as one of the most commercially successful rock bands in history, having sold 110 million albums worldwide. The band has released nine studio albums, including classics like Master Of Puppets (1986), ... And Justice for All (1988) and Metallica (1991).

Metallica, which includes frontman James Hetfield, 49, drummer Lars Ulrich, 49, guitarist Kirk Hammett, 50, and bassist Rob Trujillo, 48, has indicated a new album is due later this year, with maverick producer Rick Rubin tipped to return to the producer’s seat again. Rubin worked on Death Magnetic in 2008.

In October, the band releases Metallica – Through The Never, a hybrid of 3D concert movie and fictional feature film, starring actor Dane DeHaan.

For heavy metal fans in the region, the Aug 24 date in Singapore is the one that matters – a chance to catch these legends in the flesh.

Tickets for Metallica’s concert in Singapore are priced at S$188 (RM474) and S$148 (RM373). They will go on sale from June 28 via www.sistic.com.sg.

Emma Watson is keen to step away from her past at Hogwarts – but not to jump on to the celebrity rollercoaster.

IF the Harry Potter franchise was one of the most overwhelming cinematic phenomena of recent history, the films’ plucky Hermione, Emma Watson, shows no sign of being swamped by her past.

The actor’s latest foray beyond Hogwarts sees her as part of a young ensemble cast for Sofia Coppola’s latest work, The Bling Ring, which opened the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section back in May.

Speaking before the premiere, Watson said: “Harry Potter feels like such a long time ago; so much has happened in the last three or four years, but obviously it’s still very present, it’s still being played in people’s living rooms. I’m not trying to run away from it ... but it’s that I’ve had such an amazing three or four years having a chance to transform into new roles and work with new creative people.”

Watson, who also took a role in 2011’s My Week With Marilyn and will appear in Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic Noah, added that she had relished the chance to work in a freer fashion: “I am used to really having to stick to my lines because people know them by heart, so it was lovely just to be able to ad lib or improvise.”

Coppola’s film is based on the true story of a group of suburban Los Angeles teenagers, some from privileged backgrounds, who stole luxury goods from the houses of the rich and famous out of a desire to possess their wardrobes and lifestyles.

Watson researched her role, she said, by watching reality TV shows such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians and The Hills. She said: “It wasn’t so much about the stealing, it was more that they wanted to pretend for two hours that they were Paris Hilton. That they were living that lifestyle for real.”

Among their most prominent targets was Hilton – whose front door key they found under her doormat. Between October 2008 and November 2009, the group stole more than US$3mil (RM9.4mil) worth of items, including “a stash of Rolexes” from British actor Orlando Bloom, according to an account by one of the real “bling ring”, Nick Prugo. The teenagers used Google Maps to identify escape and entry points and social media to know when the celebrities were away from home. They also boasted of their new possessions on Facebook.

The real Hilton makes a brief appearance in a film that piles on the ironies: her home was used as a location, so we see her jewels and designer clothing; the Louis XIV-style armchairs heaped with cushions screenprinted with her face; and her “nightclub room” complete with its own poledancing pole.

Having a film made about their exploits might be regarded as the final victory for the real-life “bling ring” – but according to Coppola, that was far from her intention. “I changed the names of the characters because I didn’t want to make them more famous,” she said, adding that it was “not a documentary” and she was “not too concerned with the reactions” of the people on whom the story is based.

Coppola was born into celebrity as the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola; Watson had it thrust upon her as a child. But Watson distinguished herself from the celebrities touched on in the film. “There are celebrities that create a brand and create a business and a whole job, a whole life, out of other people’s interest in their lives, and then there are celebrities or people who have a craft or a trade,” she said.

“As long as people understand the difference, then it’s okay,” she said.

Coppola added that what had drawn her to the story was that “it could not have happened 10 years ago” and depended on the rise of social media and a celebrity-news cycle.

“There’s so much information, and a lack of privacy: these kids knew so much about the people that they felt they (really) knew them. They knew what they were having for breakfast.” – Guardian News & Media