The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| HK brothers plead not guilty to ‘Transformers’ director extortion Posted: 03 Feb 2014 11:38 PM PST Bay was attacked by a man wielding an air conditioning unit and demanding $12,900 compensation for filming in the city's Quarry Bay district on the first day of location shooting in October. Brothers Mak Chi-shing, 27, and Mak Chi-hang, 28, who operate an air conditioner shop, each pleaded not guilty to charges of blackmail and assaulting a police officer at the district court today, the South China Morning Post reported. The court could not immediately be reached for comment. Police had arrested two men surnamed Mak, aged 27 and 28, after the attack on the "Armageddon" director while he was filming "Transformers: Age of Extinction" in the southern Chinese city. Bay had recounted details of the incident at the time in a statement on his website. "Every vendor where we shot got paid a fair price for our inconvenience, but he wanted four times that amount," he said, adding that he told the man and his friends to "forget it". "He didn't like that answer. So an hour later he came by my crew as we were shooting, carrying a long air conditioner unit. He walked right up to me and tried to smack my face. "But I ducked, threw the air unit on the floor and pushed him away. That's when the security jumped on him. But it took seven big guys to subdue him. It was like a Zombie in Brad Pitt's movie 'World War Z' – he lifted seven guys up and tried to bite them," Bay said. The director faced a second extortion attempt within a week of filming in the city, with police arresting a 35-year-old male on suspicion of intimidating a member of Bay's film crew. The fourth instalment of the Transformers franchise starring Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz is scheduled to hit theatres in June. Hong Kong's striking Victoria Harbour is believed to be among the film's locations, along with the city's dense and bustling streets. The court case is expected to go on for three days. – AFP, February 4, 2014. |
| Heroin found in Hoffman’s apartment, says official Posted: 03 Feb 2014 05:09 PM PST The sudden death of the 46-year-old father of three young children, hailed by many as the finest character actor of his generation, has shocked Hollywood and devastated his family. Police said he was found on the bathroom floor in his Manhattan apartment, a syringe in his arm, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. According to US media at least 50 envelopes of heroin littered the $10,000 (RM33,465) a month apartment in plush Greenwich Village, but there has been no official confirmation of the amount of drugs. "Preliminary tests have indicated that the drugs were heroin," a law enforcement official told AFP, without confirming the quantity found. Hoffman was last seen on Saturday and the alarm was reportedly raised by his estranged girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell when he failed to show at a playground to see his children on Sunday. She was also quoted by US media as saying he was high when she last saw him on Saturday afternoon and spoke to him that evening. Police say his death seems to have been the result of an overdose but refused to release further details. New York pathologists have begun the autopsy, but a spokeswoman for the New York City chief medical examiner's office said no further update was expected yesterday. In a career spanning more than 20 years and 50 films, Hoffman mesmerised filmgoers with his portrayal of some of the most repellent and yet electrifying characters of the silver screen. He won a best actor Oscar for his performance as Truman Capote in the 2005 film "Capote" and was nominated for three further Academy Awards as a supporting actor in 2008, 2009 and 2013. Broadway announced that it would dim its lights for one minute at 7.45pm tomorrow in memory of the celebrated actor. Charlotte St Martin, executive director of the Broadway League, described Hoffman as a "true artist who loved theatre". But for all his talent, Hoffman struggled with addiction. Celebrity website TMZ reported that Hoffman admitted in May to falling off the wagon more than a year previously, after two decades of sobriety, starting with prescription pills and escalating to snorting heroin. At the time he said the heroin binge had "lasted a week or so" and that he checked himself into a rehab center for 10 days, crediting "a great group of friends and family" for helping him. But in August he dropped out of shooting the spy thriller "Child 44" for "undisclosed reasons", sparking rumours about his health. The last time he was seen at an official event was at the Sundance Film Festival in the US state of Utah in mid-January, where some witnesses described him as pale and dishevelled. Since his death, it has emerged that he was recently living apart from O'Donnell and their children. The rented apartment in Greenwich Village where he died was close to the family home. Talking about his addiction to drugs and alcohol, he told the CBS show "60 minutes" in 2006: "I was 22 and I got panicked in my life." His family has released a brief statement asking for privacy to mourn their "tragic and sudden loss". Tributes have poured in from fellow actors – as well as from the US Secretary of State. "Hard to believe Philip Seymour Hoffman's gone," the top US diplomat John Kerry tweeted, calling him an "incredible actor (who) really became Capote." "He was a giant talent," said Tom Hanks, who starred with Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War". He had been cast in the final two films of blockbuster franchise "Hunger Games", and industry publication Variety said the movies would be released in November 2014 and 2015 as planned. – AFP, February 4, 2014. |
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