‘Don’t believe rumours,’ says defensive Beiber

Los Angeles:  Troubled singer Justin Bieber denies all allegation of attempted robbery and of humiliating any woman by snatching her mobile phone. Bieber, along with his friends, was playing mini-golf at Sherman Oaks Castle Park and was accused of an altercation with a young woman who he thought was taking photos of him on her mobile phone, reported contactmusic.com.

Beiber denies allegations of 'attempted robbery'. Getty Images The 20-year-old, who was accused of grabbing the unidentified woman's phone when she refused to hand it over to the singer, defended himself and took to Twitter on Wednesday: 

"My mom raised me to be kind to others. I get judged, harassed, and I try to take the high road," he tweeted. Beiber said that his mother, Pattie Mallette, has taught him to be kind to others. "I will continue to be the man my mother raised. I love people and I will try to be kind even when things are not fair. Don't believe rumours.

Thanks for those who stick by me and those that help me grow every day. I love you. I'm human. I feel. I hurt. But I got thick skin too. I can handle it. I love you," said Bieber.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/dont-believe-rumours-says-defensive-beiber-1525651.html?utm_source=ref_article

Justin Timberlake: “I Am America”

Justin Timberlake shared his personal life lessons on Sunday’s season premiere of “Oprah’s Master Class.”

As successful as the singer-actor is, Timberlake revealed that “to always be the novice is exciting to me.”

The performer said he always seeks new things, explaining he wants “to continue to learn from all the things that I’ve been lucky enough to do and to be thankful for it.”

Timberlake opened up about his wide-ranging musical influences, and growing up on a budget in Memphis, Tennessee, where he rarely went to concerts but still fell in love with songs.

“You should understand that I am America,” he declared.

Timberlake also discussed the “bittersweet” decision to go solo, convincing people to support “SexyBack,” and much more.

WATCH:

Justin Timberlake’s Fight to Bring SexyBack

Justin Timberlake’s Decision to Go Solo

Justin Timberlake: I Like Being a Beginner

The Michael Jackson Story Justin Timberlake Never Shared Until Now

What Justin Timberlake Knows For Sure About Hard Work

Music TV Shows Fade

By BILL CARTER

On television at least, it looks as if the beat doesn’t go on.

The phenomenon of music-based television shows, which have dominated the ratings for more than a decade, seems by nearly every measure to be over or in steep decline.

“They flooded the market,” said Simon Cowell, perhaps the individual most responsible for turning amateur singers into superstars, with his roles on “American Idol,” “The X Factor” and “America’s Got Talent.” “There have just been a ton of shows, and something has simply gone awry.”

As broadcast network executives descend upon Manhattan this week to hawk their new programming wares to advertisers in the springtime ritual known as the upfronts, shows filled with music have gone achingly flat.

It is hardly the first time television has burned out a genre through mass imitation and overexposure. Networks rode westerns into the ground. They exhausted the audience with singers trying variety shows. At one point, almost every night had a newsmagazine. And, most famously, ABC ran the sprockets off its game show hit “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” with four episodes a week at its height, leading to a plunge in ratings and its relegation into syndication.

The music genre has been both longer lasting and more potent than most of these examples — until now. 

The show with the starkest reversal of fortune is “American Idol,” a show once so overpowering that rival networks gave up trying to compete with it. Now “Idol,” which spawned the careers of Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson, collects ratings that are even worse than many of the woeful shows it once left in its wake.

 Last week, the onetime blockbuster slid to a new all-time low for one of its performance shows, with only about seven million viewers (one season it averaged more than 30 million) and a puny 1.7 rating in the category its network, Fox, sells to advertisers — viewers between the ages of 18 and 49.

“Idol” once averaged a 12.6 in that group; as recently as 2011 it averaged an 8.6. Even this season, “Idol” started out with a 4.7 rating in that category. And the median age of viewers of the show has grayed drastically: growing from 32 in its first year to 52 this season.

'Frozen' Helps Disney Beat Expectations With Second-Quarter Earnings

by Paul Bond
UPDATED: Shares were advancing as much as 3 percent in after-hours trading as the conglomerate reports 35 percent revenue growth at its film studio.

The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday it earned $1.11 per share, excluding some items, in the second quarter on $11.65 billion revenue, beating expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

Disney was expected to earn 96 cents per share on revenue of $11.24 billion.

A year ago in the same quarter, Disney earned $1.04 per share -- excluding some items -- on revenue of $10.55 billion.

Shares of Disney closed fractionally lower to $81.03 on Tuesday but initially jumped 3 percent in after-hours trading.

The company's "studio entertainment" unit recorded 35 percent revenue growth to $1.8 billion, helped by international theatrical results of Frozen and Thor: The Dark World. Television and subscription VOD titles like Monsters University and Iron Man 3also made big contributions.

Frozen also helped Disney's studio entertainment division report operating income that more than quadrupled to $475 million.

During a conference call with analysts, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Frozen is the best-selling Blu-ray + Digital in history, and he confirmed plans for a Broadway-style stage play of the title.

The fastest-growing unit was "interactive," which posted $268 million in revenue, up 38 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago, the video game Disney Infinity being the primary driver.

The biggest unit, "media networks," posted 4 percent revenue growth to $5.13 billion after cable grew 5 percent but broadcast remained flat. In cable, ESPN, the domestic Disney Channels and A&E Television Networks were standouts.

"Parks and resorts" grew 8 percent to $3.56 billion and "consumer products" was up 16 percent to $885 million, in part due to strong sales of merchandise based on brands associated with the Disney Channel as well as Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and Planes.

Iger told analysts Tuesday that even he and other top executives have been amazed by the "pent-up demand" for more Star Wars movies, the evidence being the attention paid in the media to every new detail about the making of Star Wars: Episode VII, due Dec. 18, 2015. 

He also reiterated that film is a growth industry, especially due to international markets. He predicted China will be the No. 1 film market by 2020.

• FROZEN
• BOB IGER
• THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
• STAR WARS: EPISODE VII

Businesses Burn in Hollywood Fire

by Anthony Kurzweil

Massive flames engulfed a commercial building in Hollywood Tuesday morning that was home to a Payless ShoeSource and several other businesses.

Flames engulfed a commercial building in Hollywood on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (Credit: KTLA)

The two-story brick building caught fire at about 7:09 a.m. near the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Western Avenue (map), according to Katherine Main of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Black smoke coming from the structure was visible from at least 15 miles away, KTLA’s Mark Kono reported as Sky5 was headed to the scene.

Massive flames were burning through the roof of the building and a nearby power pole appeared to have caught fire, aerial video from Sky5 showed.

Firefighters initially attacked the blaze from the perimeter of the building, dousing the flames from the ground and atop ladders.

As the firefight went on, white smoke began to rise from the building at about 8 a.m., aerial video from Sky5 showed.

Crews then began to battle the fire from inside, but went into defensive mode and evacuated the building after about 20 minutes, LAFD Deputy Chief Joseph Castro said at a news conference.

Black smoke was seen rising from a commercial building in Hollywood on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (Credit: KTLA)

One of the concerns for firefighters was the possibility of the pre-1933 building collapsing, Castro said.

Firefighters continued to battle the flames from outside the building.

About 150 firefighters were dispatched to the blaze, which was knocked down after 1 hour and 39 minutes, Main said.

The fire apparently began in an electrical room and spread to the rest of the building, Main said.

The flames had burned close to a cellphone tower located on the roof of the building, video showed.

“The satellites, if they get damaged in any way, shape or form present a potential radiation hazard,” Battalion Chief Steve Ruda said.

A hazardous materials team came out later and put up monitors to ensure there was no leakage of hazardous radiation, Ruda said.

Fire burns dangerously close to a cell tower in Hollywood on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (Credit: KTLA)

The building housed a Payless ShoeSource store and a restaurant, but it was unclear if the businesses were open when the fire started, Main said.

Signage from a gold and silver exchange shop and a cellular service store was also posted on the outside of the building, aerial video from Sky5 showed.

Santa Monica Boulevard was closed near Western Avenue while firefighters worked to put out the blaze.

The eastbound lanes of Santa Monica Boulevard near Western were expected to remain closed, possibly for up to 24 hours, while crews clean up and investigators work to determine the cause of the blaze.

No injuries were reported in the fire.

Spike Lee To Adapt His Feature ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ As Series For Showtime

By NELLIE ANDREEVA
Spike Lee is revisiting his debut feature, 1985′s She’s Gotta Have It, on the small screen. Showtimehas put in development a half-hour series adaptation that updates the film, with Lee set to write and attached to direct. The project is taking a new, contemporary look at the characters and willexplore Lee’s unique and provocative points of view about race, gender, sexuality, relationships, and the gentrification in Brooklyn. Showtime is a fitting home for the project as the pay cable network has built a whole slate of half-hour series that straddle comedy and drama in the tone of She’s Gotta Have It.

Lee made his breakthrough with She’s Gotta Have It, which he shot in 12 days during the summer of ’85 on a budget of $175,000 (watch the trailer below). The film, starring Tracy Camilla Johns as  a young, sexually independent Brooklynite who juggles three suitors (Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Lee), ended up grossing $7,137,502 at the U.S. box office. It helped usher in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and paved the way for other black filmmakers. Lee is repped by ICM Partners.

Obama Movie Posters Arrive in L.A. for President’s Visit

BY: Elizabeth Harrington

Movie posters for a spoof entitled “Saving Barack Obama” have hit Los Angeles ahead of the president’s visit the city.

The posters, which feature President Obama walking into the horizon between a pair of his teleprompters, have appeared on bus stops and benches throughout Los Angeles, including just outside Melrose Avenue, the main entrance to Paramount Pictures. 

The parody film’s poster outside of Paramount Pictures

A parody of Saving Private Ryan the poster says it is “A Steven Spielberg Ploy,” and its tagline reads, “The mission is a fraud.”

The appearance of the artwork coincides with Obama’s visit to Los Angeles on Wednesday to receive a humanitarian award from Spielberg.

Obama will be honored at the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, a Holocaust museum founded by the Hollywood director after he made Schindler’s List.

Obama will receive the institute’s highest honor, the Ambassador for Humanity Award, for his “global efforts to protect human rights, his commitment to education and expanding educational technology, and his work advancing opportunities for all people.”

“President Obama’s commitment to democracy and human rights has long been felt,” Spielberg said. 

The president will speak to “common values and shared responsibilities” at the event, which will be attended by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.).

While he is in town, Obama will also attend a Democratic fundraiser at the home of Alan Horn, the chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, with tickets going as high as $64,000 per couple.

The artwork is part of a larger campaign by anonymous street artists who are filling cities with political messages that oppose the administration. Images with the president golfing and the headline “subpar” appeared in various cities throughout the PGA tour, including at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga.

The advertisements for “Saving Obama” are currently running in the areas surrounding Avenue of the Stars, including across from the Century Plaza Hotel, where Obama will receive his award.

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