The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Vienna rides Conchita wave with Life Ball AIDS charity Posted: 31 May 2014 07:08 AM PDT This year's event takes place as the Austrian capital basks in the victory of the bearded drag queen Wurst earlier this month, which has at least temporarily given it a self-image as a hotbed of tolerance. Skimpy costumes will be de rigeur, and guests wearing costumes the organisers' "style police" judge to be exceptional could win half-price admission to the Vienna ball. Tickets are normally distributed by a lottery and cost 160 euros. The event is inspired by the 15th-century Hieronymus Bosch triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights", which depicts hedonistic revellers in its centre panel and the Garden of Eden and hell on either side. The ball has drawn criticism for using Bosch-like posters featuring a nude transgender model, Carmen Carrera. Photographer David LaChapelle designed two versions, showing Carrera with either male or female genitalia, along with the slogan: "I am Adam – I am Eve – I am me." In response, a vigilante granny has become a media event by going around defacing the exposed parts. Life Ball organiser Gery Keszler said the poster was intended to provoke discussion of acceptance, not to exploit Wurst's Eurovision victory. "The goal of the poster was to reach a dialogue, but the reaction was bigger than we thought," Keszler told Reuters. "For one night, Vienna seems like the centre of tolerance because the Life Ball brings everybody together. Not everything in the world is black or white, it is all a spectrum, and we wanted to present that," he said in an interview. Wurst will perform her winning power ballad "Rise Like A Phoenix" live on the ball's main stage. Other celebrity guests include Courtney Love, Kesha, and Desperate Housewives actress Marcia Cross. The annual ball, now in its 22nd year, has grown from a small gay-community event to a celebrity-studded society fixture. Its cost-free venue, the neo-Gothic Vienna city hall, is the first government building to host an AIDS-related event. The ball raised around 2.4 million euros last year, much of it donated to the Clinton Health Access Initiative to treat and reduce HIV infections in children. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for over 70% of the world's HIV-positive people from an estimated total of 35 million living with the disease worldwide. According to the United Nations, in 2012 2.3 million contracted new HIV infections and 1.6 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses. – Reuters, May 31, 2014 |
| John Malkovich commands the seas as Blackbeard in TV’s ‘Crossbones’ Posted: 30 May 2014 06:55 PM PDT The adventure series that premiered yesterday is a reimagining of the story of the notorious English buccaneer, named for his dark beard and fierce appearance, who terrorised the seas and plundered ships. Blackbeard was killed in 1718, but in "Crossbones", written by award-winning writer Neil Cross who created the British crime drama "Luther", he is still alive years later and determined to get his hands on the newly invented longitude chronometer, a device to navigate the seas. "He's mercurial, charming, witty, sometimes haunted and very, very brutal, but also in a strange way loyal – just a very complex character," Malkovich, 60, said of Blackbeard. Menacing characters are familiar territory for the actor, who was Oscar-nominated in 1994 for his role as the psychotic assassin in the film, "In the Line of Fire", and won acclaim as the evil Colonel Walter Kurtz in the television adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". He also earned an Emmy in 1986, playing Dustin Hoffman's son Biff in the TV movie of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". Malkovich signed onto "Crossbones", which was shot entirely on location in Puerto Rico, after reading the script for the first episode. "I thought it was a excellent piece of writing," he said about the series. Blackbeard's band of marauders nearly steal the chronometer during an attack on an English ship, but their efforts are thwarted by spy Tom Lowe, played by British actor Richard Coyle ("Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"), who poses as the ship's surgeon. Lowe destroys the prized instrument but memorises its code and is taken prisoner to the secret island of Santa Compana, where he must find a way to reassemble it to save his life. Malkovich heads an international cast that includes Lebanon-born actress Yasmine Al Massri in her US acting debut as Blackbeard's love interest, Selima El Sharad. Briton Claire Foy ("Season of the Witch") captures Lowe's heart as the aristocrat Kate Balfour, and Swedish-born Australian actor David Hoflin plays the pirate Charlie Rider. While the English try to track down Blackbeard, Lowe attempts to outwit the scheming pirate, gain his trust and find an opportunity to kill him. "A decent part of the series has to do with how he does or doesn't do that and why. That is the main relationship," said Malkovich. As the two men battle with and against each other the line between friend and foe is blurred. "In a certain way Blackbeard might be a better friend to him than he is to Blackbeard," Malkovich added. – Reuters, May 31, 2014. |
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