The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| China tells off ‘Batman’ star for ‘creating news’ Posted: 21 Dec 2011 06:04 AM PST BEIJING, Dec 21 — China slammed Hollywood actor and "Batman" star Christian Bale today for "creating news" after he was roughed up by security guards as he tried to visit a blind legal activist whose detention has sparked a domestic and international outcry.  Christian Bale: In Zhang Yimou tear-jerker. — Reuters pic Bale was in China for the premiere of his latest film, "The Flowers of War" by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, a lavish and at times graphic tear-jerker about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, which is China's Oscar entry for best foreign language film. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, asked if China had been embarrassed by Bale's actions given the country's hopes for the film to win an Academy award, said it was Bale who should be embarrassed. "If anyone should be embarrassed it's the relevant actor, not the Chinese side," Liu told a daily news briefing, in the country's first reaction to Bale's actions. "What I understand is that the actor was invited by the director Zhang Yimou to attend the movie premiere. He was not invited to any village in Shandong to create news or make a film," he added. "If he wants to create news, I don't think that would be welcomed by China." He did not answer a question about whether Bale's actions might affect the chances of any of his upcoming movies being screened in China. "The Flowers of War" has played to ecstatic audiences in China, and has raked in some 200 million yuan (RM99.6 million) at the box office since being released last week. It gets a limited release in the United States this week, where it has so far garnered unenthusiastic reviews. The fate of Chen, a self-schooled advocate, has become a test of wills, pitting the Communist Party's crackdown on dissent against activists championing his cause and that of artist Ai Weiwei. Chen angered Shandong officials in 2005 by exposing a programme of forced abortions as part of China's one-child policy. He was formally released in September 2010 after four years in jail on a charge of "blocking traffic". China does not take kindly to foreign criticism of its rights record. In 2008, Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at a Shanghai concert after performing her song "Declare Independence", angering the government and local fans alike. As a young boy, Bale starred in "Empire of the Sun", a film set in World War Two about a British family in Shanghai. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Welles’s ‘Citizen Kane’ Oscar sells for RM2.7m Posted: 21 Dec 2011 04:14 AM PST LOS ANGELES, Dec 21 — Orson Welles's Oscar for writing "Citizen Kane" — regarded as one of the best films ever made — sold for US$861,542 (RM2.7 million) yesterday as a hot market for Hollywood memorabilia helped erase memories of an unsuccessful auction four years ago. The best screenplay statuette awarded in 1942 — the only Oscar given to "Citizen Kane" — failed to meet its undisclosed reserve price when it was last up for auction at Sotheby's New York in 2007. At that time it was expected to sell for around US$1 million. Although tarnished by age, the Oscar, sold by Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Saunders on behalf of its anonymous seller, carried a reserve price of between US$600,000 and US$1 million. Bids came in from around the world in what the auction house termed an "exciting" sale. "This is a testament to the popularity of Orson Welles and his magnum opus Citizen Kane," said Nate D. Saunders, owner of the auction house, in a statement. The Oscar has a story worthy of a Hollywood movie in its own right. Welles had lost it, but it resurfaced after his 1985 death when it was put up for auction in 1994 by a cinematographer, who claimed Welles had given it to him as a form of payment. Welles's daughter Beatrice sued and won back ownership of the statue, but she was sued in turn by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the awards, when she tried to auction it in 2003. After a legal battle, Beatrice Welles was given the right to dispose of the Oscar. She sold it to a California non-profit organisation called the Dax Foundation, which tried unsuccessfully to auction it in 2007. In a bid to stop public sales, the Academy in 1950 introduced an agreement that banned winners from selling their Oscars to anyone but the Academy for the nominal sum of US$1. But several pre-1950s Oscars have gone under the hammer in recent years, including the best picture Oscar for the 1939 film "Gone with the Wind", which was sold for a record US$1.54 million in 1999 to Michael Jackson. "Citizen Kane", a 1942 drama about the ruthless pursuit of power, which Welles also directed and starred in, regularly tops US and British lists of the greatest film of all time. In a sign of how heated the memorabilia market has become, auctions of Elizabeth Taylor's collection of jewels, gown, art and memorabilia broke records last week on their way to totalling more than US$150 million worth of live and online sales, Christie's said on Monday. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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