Arts

Demi Lovato is celebrating five years of sobriety.

 The 24-year-old singer celebrated with an Instagram post on Wednesday. She writes that “it’s been quite the journey,” adding, “so many times I wanted to relapse but sat on my hands and begged God to relieve the obsession.”

 

Lovato’s personal struggles have been well-documented. In 2010, she left a tour with the Jonas Brothers and entered rehab for an eating disorder and self-mutilation. She has also said that she used drugs and alcohol to self -medicate.

 

Lovato says she has bipolar disorder and has been an advocate for mental health awareness.

 
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Britain’s Prince William is taking flak for going on a ski holiday instead of attending a major royal engagement with his family.

Criticism mounted after footage emerged of 34-year-old William busting late-night dance moves in the Verbier, Switzerland, this week.

 

It has fueled claims from the tabloid press that the second in line to the throne does not work hard enough. The tabloid Sun used the headline “Throne Idle.”

 

William was skiing while his 90-year-old grandmother Queen Elizabeth II and other senior royals attended a Commonwealth Day service in London on Monday.

 

An official record of royal engagements says William has carried out royal duties on 13 days this year, compared with 18 for Prince Harry and 24 for the queen.

 

William also works part-time as an air ambulance pilot.
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Expanding ties between China and the United States form the backdrop of Lisa See’s latest novel, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, a book about China’s growing prosperity, cross-cultural adoption and, the author says, the enduring bond between mothers and daughters.

See chronicled the Chinese experience in California in a 1995 book, On Gold Mountain, and she says the West Coast state remains a cultural crossroads. It is also the source of ideas for fictional stories like that in her new novel.

“My husband and I were walking to the movies,” See said, “and we saw ahead of us an older white couple with their teenaged Chinese adopted daughter walking between them.”

The image of a carefree family, with the daughter’s long pony tail swaying back and forth, would lead to a tale of inter-cultural adoption amid growing commercial ties between the United States and China.

See is the author of such best-selling novels as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls.

Precise research

Her books are all based on on-the-ground research. A tea-tasting demonstration in the United States would inspire her to visit Yunnan Province, China, a tea-growing region near the Burmese border, which also led to the writing of this novel.

“They have more varieties of plant life in that one province of China than all together in the rest of the northern hemisphere,” she said. “They have more species of animals in that one province of China, which is only 4 percent of China’s overall land mass.”

The biodiversity also applies to human beings: Yunnan is home of half of China’s 55 ethnic minorities, and includes a tea-growing hill tribe called the Akha. See met an Akha family whose daughter collected stories from village elders, and the writer was fascinated.

“She just told us these unbelievable stories about her family, about the neighbors, about her own experience,” See said. By the end of one day, she knew that she wanted to write about the Akha.

Not ‘precious enough’

See’s novel concerns an Akha woman named Li-yan who gives birth to a daughter out of wedlock. Defying a local custom that calls for the child’s death, she takes the infant to an orphanage, and the girl, renamed Haley, is adopted and raised by an American family. Over time, Haley questions her identity, as do the real-life adoptees that See met in her research.

“There was one girl who summed it up for me when she said, ‘I know I’m lucky and I know my parents love me and I know I’m the most precious person in our family, but I wasn’t precious enough for my birth parents to keep.’”

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane explores this tension as the story unfolds in both America and China, where Haley’s birth mother rides a wave of prosperity when Chinese products, including a rare local tea, find a worldwide market.

The separate paths of mother and daughter bring both to Los Angeles, where See says she is inspired in her writing by her own family connections and her partial Chinese background.

“I have red hair and freckles,” she said, “but I actually grew up in a very large Chinese American family here in Los Angeles. I have about 400 relatives here,” she said, “about a dozen that look like me. The majority are still full Chinese.”

See’s books tell the stories of Chinese and Chinese Americans, and her fiction focuses on women. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane follows these themes as it looks at changes that prosperity has brought to one ethnic community in China.
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Malawi’s football governing body, the Football Association of Malawi, or FAM, says it is pulling out of the 2018 African Nations Championship, as well as the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations because of lack of funds.

The announcement this week came after the Malawi government turned down FAM’s request to employ a foreign coach and provide funds for the national football team to prepare for the two international competitions.

The Malawi government rejected the football governing body’s proposals soon after parliament’s midterm budget review cited a reduced allocation to the Ministry of Sports, from $3 million to $1 million.

“They are looking for the government to sponsor the hiring of an expatriate coach who will be costing the government $14,000 every month for the next three years,” Henry Mussa, the Minister of Sports, told VOA. “So we simply said, ‘No, currently let’s continue with our professional local coaches we do have.'”

But FAM officials said in a statement they expected the expatriate coach to drill the current crop of players to international levels for a better team performance. They also said the expatriate coach would mentor local coaches so that they can take over the team at the end of his contract.

Charles Nyirenda, a sports analyst and former General Secretary of Football Association of Malawi, told VOA that foreign coaches have never changed anything about Malawi’s football.

“We have had several foreign coaches here who have flopped,” he said. “Malawi’s best-ever results at continental level were a bronze medal in All African Games in 1987. At that time, it was Mathews Mwenda [a local coach] who got us to that level and we have never performed that good ever since.”

Malawi would face a fine from the Confederation of African Football for withdrawing from the continental games, according to Nyirenda.

“You can’t come in, and then go out,” he said. “They fine you and also they put a period of two to three years’ suspension, which is the lost time in terms of the development of the game. And the rest of the world will laugh at us.”

Local freelance sports journalist Patrick Lunda disagreed, saying withdrawal was the only way for FAM to make government authorities listen.

“It’s a good move because these competitions are very costly and involving,” he said. “They need to travel, they need allowances, preparations; if they are not sure for funding from government, what’s the point of participation.”

Sports minister Mussa says the government has yet to make its final decision on the matter.

“Look, the withdraw is not due yet,” he said. “It is only at the end of March. The other one is sometime in April. As a parent ministry, I have requested for a second round of discussions [with FAM officials] earmarked for Friday, this week.”

FAM’s president and the general secretary were reportedly outside the country. Its vice president, James Mwenda, told VOA he cannot comment on anything unless delegated.

“I am not mandated to speak,” Mwenda said.

Malawians hope government will reconsider its decision and meet FAM’s requests for the betterment of football in the country.
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A prized violin that was stolen and missing for 35 years, recently returned to the concert stage for the first time since being recovered in 2015. The exquisite Stradivarius, made in the 18th century, belonged to virtuoso violinist, Roman Totenberg. One of Totenberg’s former students played the violin this week in its first public concert. VOA’s Deborah Block has more
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with first daughter Ivanka Trump as a guest, welcomed a new musical that celebrates Canadian compassion and openness following the September 11 attacks.

Trudeau and Trump and some 120 ambassadors from around the world attended the show “Come From Away” Wednesday night at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, in one of the cities where the bulk of the 3,000 people on 9/11 died.

The musical is set in the small Newfoundland town of Gander, which opened its arms and homes to about 7,000 airline passengers diverted there when the U.S. government shut down its airspace. In a matter of a few hours, the town was overwhelmed by travelers from 38 planeloads and dozens of countries and religions, yet locals went to work in their kitchens and cleaned up spare rooms.

‘Lean on each other’

In remarks before the show, Trudeau got on the stage and said he was pleased that, “the world gets to see what it is to lean on each other and be there for each other through the darkest times.”

The show got a standing ovation, including from Trump, who sat beside Trudeau and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. Also in attendance was Jean Chretien, a former Canadian prime minister. Trump was seen clapping along happily as the band played at the curtain call.

The actors did not acknowledge the special audience, but one afterward was still buzzing.

“When do we have the opportunity to share a story about kindness, gratitude and love that takes place in a country that is known for opening their hearts to people,” said actor Rodney Hicks. “It just meant the world to all of us.”

‘There for those tough times’

Trudeau, who champions global free trade and has welcomed 40,000 Syrian refugees, was celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary of its Confederation to reaffirm the special friendship between Canadians and Americans.

“Our friends are there for those tough times, when you lose a parent or a loved one, when you get knocked off your path at a difficult moment in your life. Where you go through difficult times, that’s when you turn and you lean on your friends,” he said. “That ultimately is what this story is all about — being there for each other.”

In the show, a cast of a dozen play both residents and marooned passengers, telling true stories of generosity, compassion and acceptance, while fear and suspicion reigned in America. The show arrives just as a debate over immigration and open borders reignited following the Trump administration’s push for a ban on travelers from six predominantly Muslim nations.

Canadian husband-and-wife writing team Irene Sankoff and David Hein wrote the book, music and lyrics, and it was directed by Christopher Ashley, the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse. The musical veers its focus from weighty matters, a mother anxious about her missing firefighter son in New York, to more silly events, like a rowdy evening at a local bar where visitors are urged to kiss a cod.

Trudeau’s warm reception was in contrast to the ones that greeted two other world leaders who recently attended the Broadway smash “Hamilton,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Both received more than a smattering of boos.

 
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McDonald’s has started testing mobile order-and-pay after acknowledging the ordering process in its restaurants can be “stressful.”

The company says it will gather feedback from the test before launching the option nationally toward the end of the year. It says mobile order-and-pay is now available at 29 stores in Monterey and Salinas, California, and will expand to 51 more locations in Spokane, Washington, next week.

The rollout comes as customers increasingly seek out convenience through options like online ordering or delivery. McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook has noted the initial stages of visiting can be “stressful,” and the chain is making changes to improve the overall customer experience. That includes introducing ordering kiosks, which McDonald’s says can help ease lines at the counter and improve the accuracy of orders – another frustration for customers. Easterbrook has also talked about the potential of delivery.

With its mobile order-and-pay option, McDonald’s says customers place an order on its app then go to a restaurant and “check in” to select how they want to get their food. That could be at the counter, in the drive-thru, or with curbside delivery, where an employee brings out orders to a designated space. Orders are prepared once customers check in at the restaurant.

Starbucks has already found success using its mobile app and loyalty program to encourage people to visit more often and spend more when they do. The chain has also said its mobile order-and-pay option was so popular that it caused congestion at pick-up counters last year, leading some customers who walked into stores to leave without buying anything. Starbucks said it is working on fixing those issues.

It’s not clear whether McDonald’s will be able to get the same level of usage for its mobile app and order-and-pay option. Since coffee tends to be more of a daily habit, for instance, people may be more willing to download an app for it on their phones.

 
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Angelina Jolie is set to teach a master’s course at the prestigious London School of Economics this fall as a visiting professor.

The London Evening Standard reports the 41-year-old actress and filmmaker gave a preview of her class Tuesday with a lecture at the school’s Centre for Women, Peace and Security. She told the newspaper before the lecture that she was “a little nervous,” but she hoped to do well because the talk was “very important” to her.

 

The Standard reports that Jolie will be lecturing in an unpaid post in September as part of a master’s program on women, peace and security.

 

Jolie’s humanitarian work is well-known. She serves as a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

 
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Actor Ben Affleck says he recently checked out of a rehabilitation program for alcohol addiction.

The actor most recently known for portraying Batman revealed the news in a Facebook post Tuesday. The actor has a history of alcoholism, having been in rehab in 2001.

“I have completed treatment for alcohol addiction; something I’ve dealt with in the past and will continue to confront,” he wrote on Facebook.

In his post, he said the action was largely motivated by his desire to be a good parent.

“I want to live life to the fullest and be the best father I can be. I want my kids to know there is no shame in getting help when you need it, and to be a source of strength for anyone out there who needs help but is afraid to take the first step,” he wrote. “I’m lucky to have the love of my family and friends, including my co-parent, Jen, who has supported me and cared for our kids as I’ve done the work I set out to do. This was the first of many steps being taken towards a positive recovery.”

Affleck separated from wife, actress Jennifer Garner, in 2015, but there has not been a formal divorce. The couple has three children.

Later this year, Affleck will appear as Batman in the movie “Justice League,” which opens November 17.
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Mitch Seavey won his third Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Tuesday, becoming the fastest and oldest champion at age 57 and helping cement his family’s position as mushing royalty.

The Seward, Alaska, musher brought his dogs off the frozen Bering Sea and onto Front Street in the Gold Rush town of Nome after crossing nearly 1,000 miles of Alaska wilderness.

He outran his son, defending champion Dallas Seavey, and lapped the oldest musher record that he set at age 53 in 2013. He previously won the race in 2013 and 2004.

Seavey also set a time record of 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds, the Iditarod said. That shaved several hours off the record his son set last year: 8 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes and 16 seconds.

“Sweet” was the first thing Mitch Seavey said after getting off the sled at the finish line under the famed burled arch. It was broadcast live statewide.

His wife, Janine, greeted him with a hug. “Oh, my gosh, look at what you’ve just done,” she told him. “You’ve changed the sport.”

After talking to his wife, Seavey greeted each of his dogs and thanked them with a frozen snack. He later posed with his two lead dogs, Pilot and Crisp.

“They get frustrated when they go too slow, so I just let them roll, which was scary because I’ve never gone that fast, that far ever, but that’s what they wanted to do,” he said.

Seavey said the dogs know only one thing — 9 to 10 mph.

“They hit their peak, they hit their speed, and that’s what they do,” Seavey said at the finish line. “They trusted me to stop them when they needed to stop and feed them, and I did that, and they gave me all they could.”

Seavey picked up $75,000 and the keys to a new pickup truck for winning the world’s most famous sled dog race.

The Seaveys have now won the last six races. Dallas Seavey won four, and his father finished second the last two years. The two are close but competitive.

“He and I have such a great relationship,” Mitch Seavey said. “There’s no malice, we just love running sled dogs. No question.”

Dallas Seavey finished in second place, five minutes ahead of France native Nicolas Petit.

The family’s ties to the race go back to the first Iditarod, held in 1973, when Mitch Seavey’s dad, Dan, mushed in the event. The younger Seavey, who is 30, had wins in 2012 and from 2014 to 2016.

The race started March 6 in Fairbanks, with 71 teams. Five mushers scratched.

Fans lined the finish, clapping and cheering on Seavey. As his team finished the last few blocks of the race, Seavey yelled, “Good boys! Hep!”

Just before reaching the chute, he got off his sled and ran with the dogs a bit.

Four dogs associated with the race have died this year, including a 4-year-old male named Flash who collapsed on the trail early Tuesday when his musher, Katherine Keith, was about 10 miles outside the checkpoint in Koyuk.
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Niagara Falls, whose most famous thrill-seekers have gone over the brink in barrels, wants to be the place the rest of us go for outdoor adventure, too.

 

A new marketing effort launched Tuesday rebrands the American shore of the falls as a natural playground to be explored on foot, bike, boat or helicopter.

 

U.S. tourism officials, ever in competition with their counterparts on the heavily developed Canadian side of the binational attraction, say their new focus embraces the American side’s less commercial feel in a way they hope will attract more visitors for longer stays.

 

“What people are wanting to have on a getaway or a vacation is a time of experience and not just to come and witness or see and hear, but actually experience and touch and feel and do,” said John Percy, president and chief executive of Niagara Tourism & Convention Corp., which has been renamed Destination Niagara USA.

 

“Niagara Falls is the embodiment of America’s adventurous spirit,” he said.

 

The refocusing, coming just in time for the busy season, followed interviews, focus groups and visitor surveys that found that those who visit and live in the region most value its scenic, historical and natural attributes and are drawn to outdoor adventure, officials said.

 

The findings align with support in recent years for the ongoing removal of a highway that was built along the Niagara River, which will increase access to the water’s edge, as well as strong opposition to a proposal to build a lodge on rustic Goat Island inside Niagara Falls State Park. Opponents of the lodge cite renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s declaration more than 100 years ago that the area should be off-limits to developers.

 

It’s a marked contrast to Niagara Falls, Ontario, where neon-lit museums, rides and restaurants offer a carnival-like atmosphere at the water’s edge.

 

Niagara Falls State Park sees about 8 million visitors every year from all over the world, a number that has been steadily rising, Percy said, along with hotel visits and dollars spent.
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Orson Welles’ last film finally has a home.

 

Netflix has acquired the global rights to Welles’ “The Other Side of the Wind” and will finance its completion and restoration.

 

Netflix’s announcement Tuesday brings to a close the decades-long mystery surrounding one of cinema’s greatest filmmakers. Welles began shooting the film in 1970 but never completed it.

The “Citizen Kane” director died in 1985.

 

“The Other Side of the Wind” is a Hollywood satire about a filmmaker attempting a comeback. Its stars include John Huston, Dennis Hopper and Peter Bogdanovich, who has helped in its editing.

 

Producer Frank Marshall will oversee the film’s completion.

 

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos says he grew up worshipping Welles so releasing Welles’ last film “is a point of pride” for him and for Netflix.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to be in New York on Wednesday for a Broadway play about Newfoundlanders who opened their doors to thousands of passengers who descended on the town of Gander the day U.S. airspace was shut on 9/11.

More than 200 flights were diverted to Canada. Little-used Gander became the second busiest airport, taking in 38 flights. The 6,600 passengers arrived without warning on the town of 10,000.

Canadians took care of the stranded passengers for days. Americans say they experienced overwhelming kindness.

It’s now a musical called “Come From Away” that has won critical raves. It opened Sunday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.

Trudeau spokeswoman Andree-Lyne Halle said Tuesday the prime minister and his wife look forward to showing New Yorkers “Canada at its best.”

“We embrace the opportunity to highlight how we are there for each other in times of need,” she said.

Flight crews quickly filled Gander’s hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations and church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Unable to retrieve their luggage, passengers became dependent on the kindness of strangers, and it came in the shape of clothes, showers, toys, banks of phones to call home free of charge, an arena that became a giant walk-in fridge full of donated food.

Once all the planes had landed or turned back to Europe, Gander’s air traffic controllers switched to cooking meals in the building nonstop for three days.

Years later, that huge, comforting hug of Gander still warms the memories of the passengers.

 
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As France wrestles with questions of security and immigration during its presidential election campaign, a Belgian playwright is using his art as a weapon in the fight against radicalization.

Ismael Saidi, 40, has an unexpected hit with his dark comedy “Jihad”, which follows three men on their hapless journey from Brussels’ Schaerbeek district to Homs in Syria.

“I’ve written this play to say ‘That’s enough, it has to stop’,” says Saidi, a Muslim. “It’s now become more than a play, it’s become a real social issue.”

France was traumatized by violence including a truck attack that killed 86 people in Nice last July and coordinated attacks in Paris in November 2015 when 130 people died.

Saidi says writing was a way to “free himself” of the guilt he felt, having dodged the trap some of his acquaintances fell into.

He says militants recruited boys like him to fight in Afghanistan when he was a teenager living in Schaerbeek and years later, in 2014, a former classmate posted a photo on Facebook holding a rifle in Syria.

The departure of about 700 French citizens to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has also made terrorism and immigration important issues in France’s presidential race.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron, the front-runner, has proposed setting up detention centers to “re-socialize” jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq.

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen would expel all foreigners linked to Islamist fundamentalism, while conservative Francois Fillon has repeatedly warned of the risk of French Muslims being radicalized.

The government, which estimates 11,500 people are radicalized in France, plans to spend 15 million euros ($19 million) this year on preventing radicalization, up from around one million euros in 2014. It’s unclear if those funds will remain in place after the presidential election.

The current campaign includes websites to raise awareness of recruitment techniques.

Critics say the government has not delivered a coherent strategy to counter radicalization among France’s five-million Muslims.

But government officials say state-sponsored programs must be supplemented by private projects, such as Saidi’s play, which has drawn large crowds in its two-year tour of France and Belgium.

More than 700 secondary-school students saw it recently in the northern French city of Valenciennes.

“With plays like that, we can really make change happen,” said 16-year-old Sarah Moussaddak.

Muriel Domenach, who leads government efforts to prevent radicalization, supports the initiative.

“Making Daesh [Islamic State] uncool is very important,” she said.

Some experts argue former jihadists are the only ones who can reach people at risk.

“They have lived it from the inside, they know the invisible threads of jihadi utopia,” says French anthropologist Dounia Bouzar, who until last year helped the government train local authorities to fight radicalization.

David Vallat, who appears in one government online counter-radicalization campaign, was jailed for five years in the 1990s for joining networks linked to Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group.

He had previously traveled to Bosnia and Afghanistan. Now, the 45-year-old project manager from Lyon wants to spend all his time telling his story. But Vallat says that without public funding, he cannot make his voice heard.

French authorities are reluctant to work closely with former jihadists, wary about whether their reform is sincere.

Last year, Bouzar tried to persuade the government to work with Farid Benyettou, the infamous ex-mentor of the Kouachi brothers, who attacked satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, killing 12 people. Her proposal was rejected.

“The government is too timid,” says Bouzar. “Even the best imam, the best psychologist or the best teacher cannot instill doubts about something he hasn’t lived.”
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 Dave Franco and former “Mad Men” star Alison Brie have gotten married.

Franco’s publicist has confirmed a People magazine report that the pair wed. No details were released on where or when the ceremony took place.

 

Franco and Brie announced their engagement in August 2015, after three years of dating.

 

The 31-year-old Franco is best known for his roles in the “Neighbors” and “21 Jump Street” films.

 

Brie is 34 and starred as Trudy Campbell on “Mad Men.” She also played Annie Edison on “Community.”

 

Franco and Brie appear together in “The Disaster Artist,” which stars and is directed by Franco’s older brother, James. It premiered over the weekend at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in Texas.
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Walt Disney has shelved the release of its new movie “Beauty and the Beast” in mainly Muslim Malaysia, even though film censors said Tuesday it had been approved with a minor cut involving a “gay moment.”

The country’s two main cinema chains said the movie, due for to begin screening Thursday, has been postponed indefinitely. No reason was given.  

Film Censorship Board chairman Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid said he did not know why the film was postponed as was been approved by the board after a minor gay scene was axed. He said scenes promoting homosexuality were forbidden and that the film was given a P13 rating, which requires parental guidance for children under 13 years of age.

“We have approved it but there is a minor cut involving a gay moment. It is only one short scene but it is inappropriate because many children will be watching this movie,” Abdul Halim told The Associated Press.   

He said there was no appeal from Disney about the decision to cut the gay scene.

Disney officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Star English-language newspaper cited the Disney company as saying the movie was postponed for an “internal review.”

The film’s characters include manservant LeFou, who plays the sidekick to the story’s villain Gaston, and, according to director Bill Condon, “is confused about his sexuality.” Condon has described a brief scene as a “gay moment.”

Russia last week approved the movie but banned children under 16 from watching it.

Malaysia’s censors in 2010 loosened decades of restrictions on sexual and religious content in movies, but still kept a tight leash on tiny bikinis, kisses and passionate hugs. The new rules allowed depiction of gay characters, but only if they show repentance or are portrayed in a negative light. Sodomy, even if consensual, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and whipping in Malaysia.
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Ed Sheeran will guest star in the upcoming season of “Game of Thrones.”

The show’s producers made the announcement Sunday night during a panel discussion at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Texas.

 

Producer David Benioff told the audience that they’ve been trying to get the 26-year-old British singer a spot on the show for years to surprise Sheeran fan Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark on the HBO fantasy drama.

 

The seventh season of “Game of Thrones” premieres on HBO July 16.
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Kim Kardashian West is opening up about being held at gunpoint during a jewelry heist in Paris last year.

 

In a preview of next week’s “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” Kardashian West recalls seeing the gun “as clear as day.” Kardashian West emotionally describes the episode to her sisters in the clip. She says she thought there was “no way out” of the situation.

Kardashian West wasn’t physically harmed during the October incident. Ten suspects have been charged in connection with the case.

 

The 13th season of the Kardashians’ E! reality show premiered Sunday night.

 
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The trendsetting South by Southwest music festival is all about the next big thing, but the heated politics of the moment is stealing the show.

Tensions over immigration have put a heavy air over the typically breezy weeklong music bash that begins Monday and includes headliners The Avett Brothers, Weezer and the Wu-Tang Clang dropping into Austin, along with roughly 2,000 other acts from around the world.

It’s more than just promises of bands using SXSW as a stage for politically-charged performances in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration: The festival has come under fire itself for warning international artists that bad behavior could result in it making a call to U.S. immigration agents.

Unrelated, but still stoking concerns, was the Italian band Soviet Soviet posting on Facebook on Friday that it was denied entry into the U.S. Soviet Soviet claimed U.S. customs officials in Seattle said the band members needed work visas, but the band says it didn’t believe work visas were required for a promotional and unpaid tour.

Trump’s revised travel ban blocks new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries including Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. It also temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee program. Unlike the original order, the new one says current visa holders won’t be affected, and it removes language that would give priority to religious minorities.

Matthew Covey, a New York-based immigration attorney who helps international performers obtain visas to enter the U.S., said the travel ban has unsettled artists who are not even from the impacted countries.

“Everybody is worried now,” Covey said “We’re getting calls from Danish jazz musicians saying, `Am I going to be OK?’ Yeah, probably. You’re a Danish jazz musician. But everybody is on edge.”

Covey is helping put on a SXSW showcase of artists exclusively from the list of banned countries in response to Trump’s order, although none of the performers currently live in those nations.

SXSW organizers had quickly come out against Trump’s travel ban, but later found themselves on the defensive over a contract provision warning that “SXSW will notify the appropriate U.S. immigration authorities” if a performer acts in ways that “adversely affect the viability of their official SXSW showcase.”

The language set off a storm of criticism and at least one performer announced plans to cancel. Organizers said the clause was a safeguard in the event of an artist doing something egregious — such as flouting rules about pyrotechnics or starting a brawl — but pledged to remove it from future contracts.

Zane Lowe, who runs Apple’s Beats 1 Radio and will be a keynote speaker at the festival, said he has taken more notice lately of music reflecting the times. 

“I don’t believe that we’re in an era of a movement,” Lowe said. “But I believe that we’re in an era where, more than it has been in recent times, what’s going on in and around the music is going to have a very direct impact on what’s made.”
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Joni Sledge, who with her sisters recorded the enduring dance anthem We Are Family, has died, the band’s representative said Saturday.

She was 60.

 

Sledge was found dead in her home by a friend in Phoenix, Arizona, Friday, the band’s publicist, Biff Warren, said. A cause of death has not been determined. He said she had not been ill.

 

“On yesterday, numbness fell upon our family. We welcome your prayers as we weep the loss of our sister, mother, aunt, niece and cousin,” read a family statement.

Sister Sledge

 

Sledge and her sisters Debbie, Kim and Kathy formed the Sister Sledge in 1971 in Philadelphia, their hometown, but struggled for years before success came.

 

“The four of us had been in the music business for eight years and we were frustrated. We were saying: ‘Well, maybe we should go to college and just become lawyers or something other than music, because it really is tough,”’ Joni told The Guardian in an interview last year.

 

But then they met Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers of the hit group Chic, and their breakout soon came.The pair wrote and produced their album We Are Family, and soon the women had their first major hit with disco jam The Greatest Dancer, which became a top 10 hit in May 1979. It would sampled years later for Will Smith’s hit Getting Jiggy Wit It.

Biggest hit

 

But their biggest hit would come a month later with the title track, an infectious dance anthem that celebrated their familial connection with the refrain, “We are family, I got all my sisters with me.” While it celebrated their sisterhood, the 1979 hit so also became an anthem for female empowerment and unity. It would become their signature hit, and was nominated for a Grammy. Both the song and album sold more than 1 million copies.

 

The women also had a hit with a cover of the Mary Wells song My Guy in 1982, but would never duplicate the success they had in the 1970s. Still, Sister Sledge continued; while sister Kathy left the group for a solo career, the trio of sisters continued to perform and record, including a performance for Pope Francis in 2015.

 

Warren said they last performed together in concert in October.

 

Joni Sledge is survived by an adult son, her sisters and other relatives.
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