Willem Dafoe Disses 'Amazing Spider-Man' Reboot.
Willem Dafoe was not impressed by Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man". The actor who plays Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy criticized the reboot project in a new interview with Total Film.
The actor who plays Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy criticized the reboot project in a new interview with Total Film.
"I saw a trailer for the first Spider-Man reboot and I thought, 'This is crazy! It's not shot for shot, but it's the same story,' " the 58-year-old star explained why the movie didn't work for him. "I thought, 'This is sort of a cynical approach to making money!' "
Comparing it to the Raimi series, Dafoe said, "I like Spider-Man, the first one that I was involved in, because although you can argue all sorts of things, from my perspective it was very pure. It really was. The way Sam Raimi approached it, it was pure in its intentions and I think he captured, particularly, Tobey [Maguire] at that particular moment."
He added, "This real, genuine innocence; it wasn't indicated. Then after that it became more difficult because it's hard to achieve that when it's gotten some kind of attention and a certain level of success!"
"The Amazing Spider-Man" series will continue with a second installment due May 2, 2014. Director Webb and lead actors Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone return to their respective posts. Jamie Foxx will play the villainous Electro, and Paul Giamatti will be Aleksei Sytsevich/The Rhino.
Two years after "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", "The Amazing Spider-Man 3" will be out on June 10, 2016 before "The Amazing Spider-Man 4" follows on May 4, 2018.
Sinead O'Connor to Sue Miley Cyrus If She Doesn't Apologize
Sinead O'Connor's feud with Miley Cyrus may end in legal battle. After the 20-year-old singer replied Sinead's open letter with a Twitter post which mocked her past mental health struggle as well as Amanda Bynes', the Irish singer asks Miley to apologize or she will see the "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer's legal team.
In response to Miley's tweet which read, "So if youd like to meet up and talk lemme know in your next letter," Sinead said in her third open letter, "I have no interest whatsoever in meeting you. You had plenty of time yesterday to abuse Amanda Bynes .. an entirely innocent party.. and myself.. who also did nothing to deserve your abuse.. along with every other sufferer of mental health problems and every person who suffered abuse at the hands of priests."
"When you publicly apologise to Amanda and myself and all mental health sufferers as well as all who were abused by priests that will end the matter as far as I am concerned. What you did yesterday was designed to damage me and my career and has caused me enormous distress and harassment and has potential to damage my career, since you deliberately gave the impression those tweets of mine were not two years old but reflect my current condition," she added.
Sinead wrote again, "If you cannot apologize I will have no choice but to bring legal proceedings against you since it is extremely hard to be given work when people think one is suffering from mental illness." The 46-year-old singer previously also told Miley to remove her offending Twitter post.
In her first open letter to Miley, Sinead advised the twerking singer to stop "pimping" herself and rely on her talent. The "Hannah Montana" star, however, took aim at Sinead's past mental health issue in her response, adding, "Sinead. I don't have time to write you an open letter cause Im hosting & performing on SNL this week."
Source-Ace.Showbiz
Madonna Reveals She Was Raped at Knifepoint During Her First Year in New York
Madonna opens up about the obstacle, the violence and the prejudice she had endured when she relocated to New York years ago trying to pursue her dream career as an artist. The Michigan-born singer reveals in the November 2013 issue of Harper's Bazaar that she was raped during her first year in the Big Apple.
"New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back," she spills, "and had my apartment broken into three times. I don't know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time."
Madge gave up her dance scholarship at the University of Michigan to move to NY. "I am not a big fan of rules," she says. "Rules people follow without question. Order is what happens when words and actions bring people together, not tear them apart. Yes, I like to provoke; it's in my DNA. But nine times out of 10, there's a reason for it."
And the Material Girl was unapologetic with her tendency to push the boundaries. "If I can't be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don't really see the point of being on this planet," so she explains. Even when she was younger, she always did "the opposite of what all the other girls were doing."
"That didn't go very well. Most people thought I was strange. I didn't have many friends; I might not have had any friends," she admits. "But it all turned out good in the end, because when you aren't popular and you don't have a social life, it gives you more time to focus on your future. And for me, that was going to New York to become a REAL artist."
She remembers arriving in the city with only $35 in her pocket and working odd jobs to earn a living. She was 19 back then. "It wasn't anything I prepared for," she says. "Trying to be a professional dancer, paying my rent by posing nude for art classes, staring at people staring at me naked. Daring them to think of me as anything but a form they were trying to capture with their pencils and charcoal."
Despite the rough life she had in the city, she's not a quitter, thanks to her rebellious spirit. "I was poised for survival. I felt alive. But I was also scared s**tless," the 55-year-old popstar recalls. "I was defiant. Hell-bent on surviving. On making it. But it was hard and it was lonely, and I had to dare myself every day to keep going."
The "Like a Virgin" hitmaker finally got her big break in early 1980s and was soon known for her antics. "When you're 25, it's a little bit easier to be daring, especially if you are a pop star, because eccentric behavior is expected from you," the mega star explains.
While she understood why her antics caused controversies, she was baffled when her study of Kabbalah in search for a more spiritual life was also scrutinized. "It made people nervous. It made people mad. Was I doing something dangerous? It forced me to ask myself, Is trying to have a relationship with God daring? Maybe it is," she wonders.
But her most "eye-opening experience" came when she was facing backlash while trying to adopt her son David in 2006 from Africa. "I didn't know that trying to adopt a child was going to land me in another s**t storm. But it did. I was accused of kidnapping, child trafficking, using my celebrity muscle to jump ahead in the line, bribing government officials, witchcraft, you name it. Certainly I had done something illegal!" she says.
Calling it "a real low point" in her life, Madge adds, "I could get my head around people giving me a hard time for simulating masturbation onstage or publishing my Sex book, even kissing Britney Spears at an awards show, but trying to save a child's life was not something I thought I would be punished for."
Now she's in happy place "with four amazing children." She says, "I try to teach them to think outside the box. To be daring. To choose to do things because they are the right thing to do, not because everybody else is doing them."
Anoushka Shankar discusses impact of Delhi gang rape
Musician Anoushka Shankar says she was prompted to reveal her experience of sexual abuse after learning of the gang rape and murder of a woman in Delhi.
Shankar, daughter of legendary Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, said in February she had been abused by "a man my parents trusted" in her childhood.
Her revelation followed the fatal attack on an Indian student, for which four men have been sentenced to death.
"Her story is the apex of millions of stories," Shankar told BBC Radio 4.
Speaking on the Front Row programme, she said: "No-one I knew could help being affected by the gravity and intensity of that attack - and if it resonates with something in our experience then obviously it doubles the impact of hearing a story like that.
"I felt quite conscious as an Indian woman that there was a very unique moment happening where the entire world's attention was on sexual violence and on the role and position of women in India.
"I felt almost an obligation [to talk about my experience]. It didn't feel dragged out of me. If I was ever going to talk about my story, that felt like the right moment."
Shankar, 32, took the decision to talk about her experiences in a video, recorded in her London home, in which she appealed for people to support a campaign in memory of the gang rape victim.
"As a child I suffered sexual and emotional abuse for several years at the hands of a man my parents trusted implicitly," she said.
She added the attacks had included "groping, touching and verbal abuse".
Reflecting on the statement, the musician told Front Row's John Wilson: "It was something I never spoke to the media about.
"It had never felt like something relevant in a public context until this moment where I thought 'hang on, it's important for people to realise that this kind of thing can happen to anyone, anywhere'.
"I think there's a class issue in India where there can be an assumption that things like this don't happen to people from upper classes or who are privileged. I think part of what shocked people within India was that [the victim] was a middle-class girl. It's so ridiculous."
The musician has responded to the attack, and tried to address its causes, with a track on her new album, Traces Of You.
She said the song, which references the 23-year-old victim's name in its title, tries to capture a sense of the horror of the attack.
The album, recorded with producer Nitin Sawhney and her sister Norah Jones, also addresses the death of her father last year.
Shankar said her experiences had informed the spirit of the record, and brought a sense of "resilience" to the music.
"It's not necessarily about the passing of my father, it's about me passing through the passing of my father.
"There's a way that we all go through horrible and painful things and I'm not nullifying it in any way when I say we do go on.
"My childhood experiences were one of the big experiences for me [but] I know as a woman I've come through that.
"At some cost, but I've come through it."
St Kitts and Nevis PM Urges Inclusion of Taiwan in United Nations Agencies
St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas’ recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly urged the inclusion of Taiwan in United Nations agencies.
Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is not a member of the United Nations, despite a number of applications.
The country does have diplomatic relations with several Caribbean countries, including Haiti and the Dominican Republic, while the majority of the region supports the People’s Republic of China. With diplomatic ties stretching back 30 years, it has long been a major benefactor of St Kitts and Nevis.
“Taiwan is one of the top 18 economies globally,” Douglas told the General assembly. “In addition, Taiwan has worked assiduously to advance the economic interests of countries such as ours.”
He said that Taiwan had adopted a “very pragmatic approach to its meaningful participation in UN specialized agencies and functional organizations,” pointing to Taiwan’s invitation to attend the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly as an observer.
“Taiwan has a great deal to offer the international community in a vast number of areas,” he said. “Its prolonged exclusion from various United Nations agencies, therefore, serves neither the interests of Taiwan nor those of the global community.”
“In light of this,” he said, “in the interest of greater international understanding and collaboration, my delegation urges the admission of Taiwan to United Nations agencies without undue delay.”
Taiwan has been funding several major projects in the twin-island federation in recent years, including a solar farm at the Robert L Bradshaw International Airport and a number of other green energy projects.
Source-Caribbean Journal
Barbadian hits Super Lotto jackpot
Another Barbadian national has won the Super Lotto jackpot.
Supreme Ventures Ltd confirmed that the jackpot for Friday night's draw was won in the amount of Bd$3.56.
According to Supreme Ventures, the winning numbers for draw #420 were: 02, 16, 22, 30, 32 and Super Ball 1.
Friday night's live draw was held in the Dominican Republic and the delayed broadcast was shown in Jamaica at 9:30 pm.
Supreme Ventures started selling tickets on August 25, 2009 for the Super Lotto multi-jurisdictional game, which is the first game of its kind in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The participating territories are: the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, Anguilla, Antigua, St Maarten, and the US Virgin Islands.
In addition to Barbados, the game has so far produced winners in Jamaica and St Maarten respectively.
Supreme Ventures said that it will provide further details on the winner as soon as they become available.
Stress from finger-rape in Barbados caused her to crash her car on toll road
Jamaican Shanique Myrie looked a composed woman as she sat on a stump near her home on Cassia Crescent, near Marl Road in West Central St Andrew, hours after a historic ruling was made in her favour by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on Friday.
If she was elated at the judgement, which will see her collecting $3.8 million, it did not show on her face.
Two years, six months and 20 days had passed since a woman immigration officer at the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados ordered her to squat before inserting a gloved hand inside her vagina, probing violently and accusing her of going to the island to "steal men" and being a drug mule.
Myrie was then locked in a filthy cell, forced to sleep on a small board cot with another Jamaican woman who was also detained, before both were deported to Jamaica without being given a chance to shower.
The experience took a serious toll on Myrie, who had to seek the help of a psychiatric counsellor to get over the trauma of the ordeal.
"It was not easy. I was very stressed out. I was so stressed that I crashed my car with [my] sisters in it on the Portmore Toll Road one week after I came back. Thankfully, the counselling sessions worked, and I am not as traumatised as I was before. I still have flashbacks, but I have to be strong," she told the Sunday Observer.
Myrie showed remarkable strength of character by coming forward and exposing herself to public scrutiny by being open, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, about the finger-raping ordeal that she was forced to go through.
During that interview, a few days after the March 14, 2011 incident, Myrie was shell-shocked and shattered by the experience.
But now, her bravery has paid off.
"I felt very depressed and ashamed, but I had to have strength because I could not hold that," she told the Sunday Observer on Friday. "What she did to me was very wrong, and I am proud now that I have come forward, as something as disgraceful as that will never happen to another woman in Barbados again. I am proud that I spoke out.
"When I came back and was at the airport, I almost fainted as I cried and cried and cried. Even my friend who picked me up started crying when I told him what had happened to me," she said.
As Myrie spoke, her mother Julene Virgo, sister Antoinette Dacosta, and husband Troy Pusey stood around and seemed pleased that their loved one had finally gained justice for what they described as a terrible act.
"The support from my family has been great. Everybody around here in this community has supported me from day one, and I would like to publicly thank them," Myrie said.
Before the ruling was handed down, negative comments were hurled at her by mischievous persons who questioned her reason for going to Barbados. They also jeered her about the ordeal.
"Those comments used to bother me a lot because people didn't know how hard it was for me," she said.
Myrie was drilled by attorney Roger Forde during the historic sitting of the CCJ in March at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston.
Forde took pot shots at her credibility and sought to paint her as a liar who concocted tales of an ordeal because she was denied entry.
She said that it took great restraint on her part not to get upset in court and remain composed as she was being cross-examined.
"I felt filled with rage, but I realise that he was just doing his job," she said.
Myrie was required to go back to Barbados to point out the woman who defiled her and show officers of the court the nasty room where she was confined for hours without being given food or water.
"When I went back to Barbados I was also filled with rage, especially when I saw the woman who did that to me. I went along with it at the time because I know I was in their country and I never knew what they would do to me. I never wanted them to put any drugs on me so I just went along," she said.
Myrie, while appreciative of the cash she will collect, said that all along her primary objective was not money.
"It was never about money. I could not live with that, and no woman should even think about treating another female like that. I know that things will be better for Jamaicans who travel to that country now. I will never go back there," she said.
Myrie will now be known as the Jamaican woman whose bravery to speak up for her rights forced Barbadian border officials to revamp the way they treat Caricom visitors to their shores who have not broken any laws or will not be a burden on their state.
The executive summary of the CCJ's reserved judgement ordered the country to allow Caricom nationals who are denied entry on those grounds to contact a family member or a representative of their country, to acquire the services of an attorney and also to be informed of the reason for the denial, promptly and in writing.
"The Court held that this treatment constituted a very serious breach of Ms Myrie's right to entry and so she was entitled to be awarded damages," a section of the summary stated.
Source-Jamaican Observer
Warning for Caribbean countries
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries will have to change its modus operandi and the way it thinks about integration in order to deal with a changing global environment, CARICOM Secretary General Irwin La Rocque has said.
Delivering the “Distinguished Open Lecture CARICOM Lecture Series” at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Thursday night, La Rocque said that the region now finds itself at another juncture in the progression of its regional integration movement.
“Our capacity to respond to the various challenges and to exploit such opportunities as they may bring, depend in significant measure, on the extent to which our arrangements can be strengthened. It will require first of all consistent and positive engagement in the areas selected for priority action; secondly, effective decision-making machinery; and thirdly, the capacity to deliver.”
He told the audience, including former CARICOM Secretary general Sir Edwin Carrington, UWI Pro Vice Chancellor and Campus Principal Professor Clement Sankat as well as various European diplomats that instituting change is never easy and it is more difficult if it is attempted in the face of entrenched attitudes and structures.
“That notwithstanding, the Community is engaged in a three year reform process that encompasses every facet of its operations. In short we are changing the way we do business,” La Rocque said, noting that regional leaders last year had agreed it was necessary to re-examine the future direction of the regional integration movement and the arrangements for carrying this forward.
Speaking on the topic “The Status of the Regional Integration Process and His vision for the Future of CARICOM,” La Rocque said this would also include the role and function of the Guyana –based CARICOM Secretariat and the various institutions within CARICOM.
La Rocque who discussed the 40 year history of the integration movement, said that a change facilitation team has been recruited to assist him with this process of change.
The team is now undertaking consultations in member states on the first ever Strategic Plan for the Community.
“These country consultations provide an opportunity for nationals of each member state and associate member to influence the strategic direction of the Community, their Community, our Community. The five year Strategic Plan will set out a common vision and identify our priority areas of focus over the period.
“Critically, it will also address issues of implementability including the roles and responsibilities of all participants in the Community architecture: namely the Conference of Heads of Government; the Ministerial Councils; the bodies, such as the Committee of Central Bank Governors and the Budget Committee; the CARICOM Secretariat; and the Institutions; as well as issues of governance, institutional and operational arrangements and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.”
But he said that the consultations were not taking place in a vacuum with the consultants drawing on approved policies and programmes, including the 2007 Single Development Vision; the Strategic Plan for Regional Economic Development, the priorities articulated by regional leaders and approved policies and action plans in a range of areas, such as agriculture, energy, industry, security, health, youth, ICT and climate change.
Source-CMC
Grenada to hold referendum
The Grenada government says it intends to hold a national referendum for a new constitution next year.
Governor General Dame Cecile La Grenada, delivering the traditional Throne Speech at the start of a new session of Parliament, said Grenada, which obtained its political independence from Britain in 1974, would turn 40 next year.
“Forty years signify growing maturity and a coming of age. It is therefore right and proper that our nation considers the type of constitution that should guide our development for the next 40 years and beyond,” she told legislators.
“Accordingly, my Government, in our Nation’s 40th anniversary of Independence, will put to the people, a referendum on a new Constitution for Grenada. The matters for contemplation and decision will include the structure and composition of our Parliament, accession to the Caribbean Court of Justice as Grenada’s final Appellate Court and other relevant issues,” she said.
Source-CMC
US Commando Raid Targets Militant in Somalia
A United States Navy SEAL team has targeted a senior leader of the al-Qaida-linked militant group al- Shabab in a daring predawn raid in Barawe, Somalia, but authorities say no militant was captured in the raid.
It is also being reported that the SEAL team was forced to withdraw.
Sources told VOA a top al-Qaida militant working with al-Shabab was the target of the attack, but did not name him.
The raid was in response to an attack on a shopping mall two weeks ago in neighboring Kenya. Al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group, has claimed responsibility for the action, which killed at least 67 people.
The mission, first reported by The New York Times, marks the boldest strike on Somali soil since U.S. commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaida mastermind, near the same town four years ago.
Al-Shabab has vowed to carry out other acts of violence against Kenya, unless Kenya withdraws its forces from Somalia.
Kenyan forces entered Somalia two years ago to help battle the militant group, which has been fighting to turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.