Kristin Chenoweth comes home for country album (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – She has played a witch in "Wicked," a lush on "Glee" and a deputy press secretary on "The West Wing," but actress Kristin Chenoweth's latest project is nowhere near a Broadway stage or TV screen. She is returning to her Oklahoma roots, singing country songs.

Due September 13, "Some Lessons Learned," is comprised of 13 songs that cast the pint-sized blonde into a musical genre that makes perfect sense for her signature high pitch voice. Country music, she told Reuters, fits her "naturally."

"It's the closest to home that I could get," she said. "Someone asked me 'why a country record, why now? ' Well, it's because it's been going on since I was about five."

Born in and raised in the Tulsa, Okla. suburb of Broken Arrow, Chenoweth's earliest experiences with country music came from watching her great uncle play bluegrass. From there, she sang country songs in church and at rodeos. She idolized Dolly Parton and even spent a summer when she was 19 years-old at Opryland in Nashville.

Prior to "Some Lessons Learned," Chenoweth dabbled in other genres, including a Christmas album, a Christian album and logically for the Broadway star, a collection of show tunes. But here, she shows more of a variety and flare for the country music's long history.

In doing so, she teamed with veteran songwriter Diane Warren for a handful of songs that show off a pop-country approach. She tackles a Dolly Parton song, "Change," as well pays homage to her idol in the tongue-and-cheek "What Would Dolly Do" -- one of two songs she co-wrote.

DOLLY, MADONNA, JULIE ANDREWS

Anchoring the set is Chenoweth's high-pitched voice, which flows through different country factions effortlessly. Her stage training lends itself to the ballads "Fathers and Daughters" and the folk-leaning "God and Me."

Her quirky side comes through on "I Didn't," about a break-up stemming from a guy's God complex, as well as the album's first single, "I Want Somebody (Bitch About)" -- a song recalling the country pop of Shania Twain or Trisha Yearwood.

"Growing up in the '80s, I loved Dolly, Madonna, Julie Andrews," she said. "If we had iPods, that would've been on mine. In picking the material, you show who you are. I hope that's what I've done."

Country musicians whose careers start in Nashville and its environs have it easy compared to Chenoweth, who is trying to break into a genre without alienating her fan base.

That is something she experienced firsthand last year, when she took a dramatic role on Broadway in "Promises, Promises," versus the numerous lighthearted and comedic musicals such as "Wicked" that had come before.

"A lot of people didn't want to see me in that role, because it wouldn't make them laugh," she said. "But there's no growth" as an artist.

While TV shows like NBC's "The Voice" have recently shown the crossover potential of country music with other genres like R&B and pop, Chenoweth's ties to acting might have lumped her into a category of actors who just want to make record.

But the Broadway star's long-established voice gives her the bona fides to deflect any criticism and "Some Lessons Learned" holds its own against other country albums.

Chenoweth is cautiously optimistic about her future in the genre, She hopes her fans connect with the music and that she also collects a few new followers along the way.

"I just want more than anything for people to listen to the record and be moved by it or surprised by it in some way," she said. "I think challenging yourself and changing up is what's fun about this business."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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When it comes to stages, there are no universal standards (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Thursday's deadly collapse of another outdoor concert stage in stormy weather conditions could lead to tougher construction standards - but any such standards will surely be difficult to enforce.

Each summer, thousands of temporary stages are erected around the globe for outdoor concert series. Each stop on the tour, bands and their crews have to contend with local laws.

Consider the latest tragedies: Outdoor concert stages in Ottawa, Indianapolis and Belgium have collapsed in the past month, causing the death of more than a half dozen; scores more have been injured.

That's three different storms, three different cities - and, crucially, three different stages, built by different companies using different specs and different safety standards.

"These collapses highlight the fact that there are no enforced guidelines for temporary structures in the concert business," said Gary Bongiovanni, the publisher of the concert-industry trade journal Pollstar.

There are some guidelines," he told TheWrap on Thursday, "but they're voluntary. And it'll be hard to put enforced rules in place, because on a concert tour you're dealing with the local laws in every city."

International standards would be even harder to implement.

Bongiovanni blamed the collapses to fierce weather rather than faulty construction: "No temporary structure is going to be able to withstand the kind of winds that can come up in storms like these."

But based on the videos of the incidents, he does think that some of the stages were safer than others. In Ottawa, for instance, he said the drapes on the side of the stage were tied closed, when reasonable safety standards should have allowed them to open in high winds.

"If you look at the video from Indianapolis, the side drapes there are working the way they're supposed to work," he said. "In Canada, they clearly weren't."

Onstage equipment was also destroyed in Tulsa, although no one was injured in that incident.

Plasa, an international organization providing technical resources for the entertainment industry, publishes voluntary guidelines for the construction of temporary stages for outdoor events. Its latest update of the standards is due to be released in October, and is currently available for public review at the company's website.

Bongiovanni thinks that the rash of collapses may increase the call for uniform standards - but in a business in which most touring acts are forced to rely on a new array of local engineers, designers, construction crews and promoters in each city, he said uniformity will be hard if not impossible to enforce.

"You have very well-established companies doing work in this field, and you have other companies putting up temporary structures with nowhere near the same level of engineering," he said.

"Sometimes you go with the lowest bidder, and that can mean there are compromises made."

"I doubt we'll ever really have national rules," he added. "But if more people started adopting the Plasa guidelines, at least we'd have something to gauge it against."

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Nelson Mandela opera comes to Johannesburg (AP)

JOHANNESBURG – The refined strains of Western opera and traditional Xhosa song and a sexy dose of jazz drive a new opera that opens Saturday in Johannesburg about South Africa's former president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

Writer and director Michael Williams said in an interview before a dress rehearsal on Friday that the range of musical styles reflects South Africa's mix of cultures.

The sweeping production shows Mandela cheating on his wife, making political missteps and struggling with the burden of holding others' lives in his hands.

Aubrey Lodewyk, who plays an aging Mandela in the opera, says ordinary people can draw an important lesson from Mandela's life.

Lodewyk says: Mandela "was a human being, he had his faults. But yet he came out as great a man as he is."

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Rapper Tech N9ne's success comes into fruition (AP)

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr., Associated Press Jonathan Landrum Jr., Associated Press – Tue Jul 12, 8:45 am ET

ATLANTA – On a phone call from jail last year, Lil Wayne told a radio show about one of the first rappers he wanted to collaborate with once he got free.

It wasn't a reigning chart-topper like Jay-Z or Kanye West. Instead, Lil Wayne blurted out the name Tech N9ne.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based rapper had steadily built a strong grass-roots fan base since releasing his first album in 1999. But Lil Wayne's name drop breathed new life into his career.

"I had no idea that he knew of me," recalled Tech N9ne, who eventually met Lil Wayne while the best-selling rapper was serving his eight-month sentence in New York. He said the pair held a conversation for almost three hours before the warden stopped them.

After Lil Wayne's radio shout-out, Tech N9ne said he had an influx of artists and producers who reached out to work with him.

"It made everybody start to pay attention to me," he said. "It made people see what I was doing. Wayne is one of the greatest rappers of our time, so he gave one hell of a boost."

It showed in Tech N9ne's numbers. His 12th album, "All 6's And 7's," which was released in June, debuted at No. 4 on Billboard's Top 200 and topped the rap charts — a major achievement for an independent artist. It features that collaboration with Lil Wayne, and he may appear on Wayne's much anticipated "Tha Carter IV."

For Tech N9ne, it's been a long journey. His popularity grew in the underground music scene due to his rapid-fire style and lyrical rhyme patterns. He became known for his theatrical and extremely high-energy performances. In concerts, he normally sports his signature red spiked hair and white face paint.

The 39-year-old Tech N9ne, who is also co-founder of his label Strange Music, carved a niche in the independent market with his heavy touring schedule, performing almost 200 times per year.

But for much of his career, Tech N9ne has struggled to crossover into mainstream because of his morbid lyrics and gothic-sounding beats. His music was dark enough that there were rumors about him being a devil worshipper — an accusation he denies (he says he's been a believer of Christianity all his life).

People who have gotten to know Tech N9ne call him a "normal guy" with an abundance of musical creativity.

"There's a large amount of respect for Tech," says Kenny "Barto" Bartolomei of the production trio group J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, which produced two songs on Tech N9ne's recent album. "It's hard to do for so many years without the help of a major label, but he's stayed creative. That speaks volumes. Now, people are seeing the true talent that he is."

While Tech N9ne is currently experiencing the most success of his career, some of his faithful followers on blogs questioned whether he should have worked with Lil Wayne. Critics were also skeptical about recent collaborations with other artists like B.o.B., T-Pain and Snoop Dogg, worried he might alter his approach to cater to the mainstream audience.

But Tech N9ne says he'll never change to please others.

"I'm an innovator, not a follower," he said. "I was never in this to do what everybody else does to get money. It's a better feeling to do what you feel to make money. I will never conform to the way of anybody else. It's the reason I haven't broken through. ... But I wouldn't change this journey for nothing."

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On the Net:

http://www.therealtechn9ne.com

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Follow Jonathan Landrum Jr. on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MrLandrum31

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Tough choice for jury as Cannes curtain comes down (Reuters)

CANNES, France (Reuters) – The Cannes film festival jury led by Robert De Niro faces a tough choice on Sunday as it picks the winner of the Palme d'Or top prize, with movies from Finland, Spain, the United States and France all in the frame.

Guessing the winner of the world's biggest cinema showcase, overshadowed this year by the shock exit of Danish director Lars Von Trier for joking that he was a Nazi, is notoriously tricky.

The race in 2011 is seen as unusually open-ended, however, with U.S. maverick Terrence Malick a slight favorite for his metaphysical epic "The Tree of Life" starring Brad Pitt.

Also heavily favored by Cannes' notoriously picky critics are Finnish film maker Aki Kaurismaki's comedy "Le Havre," silent, black-and-white romance "The Artist" from France and Spaniard Pedro Almodovar's thriller "The Skin I Live In."

A further five movies won passionate, though not unanimous support, underlining how this year's selection has upped the ante after some disappointing competitions in recent years.

"My choice for Palme d'Or would be Aki Kaurismaki's 'Le Havre', with Pedro Almodovar's 'The Skin I Live In' and the Dardenne brothers' 'Kid With A Bike' runners-up," said Mike Goodridge, editor of movie publication Screen.

"My betting is that a Robert De Niro-led jury will go for 'The Tree Of Life'," he added.

In addition to the films, the A-listers came out in force, the parties were loud and lavish and the giant market saw bustling trade in signs that the financial crisis that dampened recent festivals was finally fading from view.

SHOCK EXIT FOR HITLER REMARKS

The movies were reduced to a sideshow on Wednesday, when Von Trier joked at a news conference about being a Nazi and Hitler sympathizer in an outburst which prompted the festival to take the unprecedented step of throwing him out the following day.

Von Trier told Reuters the decision came as a shock and reiterated that he was sorry if he had caused offence. He added, however, that his ignominious exit from a festival where he won the Palme d'Or in 2000 could enhance his credentials as a rebel.

His competition movie "Melancholia," starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters facing annihilation in a cosmic collision, remained in competition, meaning that, in theory at least, it could win prizes including the Golden Palm.

A more likely winner was semi-recluse Malick, who presented his long-awaited take on life and death in a sweeping tale featuring footage of space, dinosaurs and volcanoes.

The movie divided critics, as did Von Trier's film that tackled equally big themes in a more pessimistic way.

Two light-hearted stories were among the favorites, unusual for Cannes where somber, downbeat films tend to dominate.

"The Artist" is a bold romance that transports viewers back to the 1920s pre-"talkie" era in Hollywood, while Kaurismaki brought "Le Havre," a touching, stylized comedy about an old shoe shiner who rescues an African immigrant from capture.

Belgium's Dardenne brothers have a chance of a record third Golden Palm with their popular "The Kid With A Bike," while another movie about troubled childhood, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lynne Ramsay, led the field among female directors.

Almodovar took a walk on the dark side with a twisted thriller about a surgeon, played by Antonio Banderas, out for revenge and Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan impressed viewers with his slow, beautifully crafted "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia."

Dane Nicolas Winding Refn was in the race with violent chase movie "Drive," starring Ryan Gosling, while Paolo Sorrentino turned Sean Penn into a washed up, depressed Goth rocker in "This Must Be the Place."

Last to be screened was "The Source," Radu Mihaileanu's film of an Arab woman taking on the men in her village in a story reflecting the spirit of "Arab Spring" uprisings.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White and Nick Vinocur; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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CNN anchorman Don Lemon comes out as a gay man (AP)

NEW YORK – CNN anchor Don Lemon has come out as a gay man in his new book, a disclosure he knows comes at a risk.

While Lemon's memoir, titled "Transparent," also covers his journalism career, he's prepared for much of the reaction to focus on more personal matters, which include growing up without a father and his revelation that he was sexually abused as a child.

In his book, the 45-year-old Lemon writes of having lived with "dark, ugly secrets" that took him years to bring into the light.

Being black made being gay feel even worse, he said in an interview Monday, "because of how the black community perceives a gay person. An African-American male is taught that he has to be masculine.

"And our community is steeped in religion, with the church preaching against homosexuality. I prayed a lot growing up that I would change, that I would be straight," he said. "But no matter how good I was, how much I prayed and denied what I was, it was always there."

Lemon says it would be naive to assume that the public won't have strong opinions about what he has written, and he's braced for some people to react negatively.

"But it's important for everyone to be truthful about who they are," he said, adding that CNN has been "very supportive" of his decision to go public.

Few national television news anchors have publicly acknowledged being gay, with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow perhaps the best known.

Lemon, who serves as a correspondent and anchors "CNN Newsroom" during weekend prime time, joined the network in 2003. "Transparent" will be released next month.

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http://www.cnn.com

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Film party: Everybody comes to Cannes, or wants to (AP)

CANNES, France – The Cannes Film Festival is like Rick's Cafe Americain, Humphrey Bogart's nightclub in "Casablanca" about which one character proclaims, "Everybody comes to Rick's."

For film professionals, entertainment journalists and even fans worldwide, Cannes is the place where everybody comes — or wishes they could — for 12 days each May.

The 64th edition of Cannes, which starts Wednesday, is one of the world's prime celebrity-watching zones and a launching place for big and small films, among them Woody Allen's opening-night premiere "Midnight in Paris," featuring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Brody, Marion Cotillard and France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Other highlights include a Saturday night special as Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz turn out for a Cannes screening of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" over the festival's first weekend, followed by Monday's premiere of Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life," starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

Cannes gives all three films a last-second publicity blast as they head into commercial theaters during the festival or immediately after.

"With the star power of Johnny and Penelope, it's just great to have them walk down that red carpet there," said "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer. "You have the world media there. That's the biggest boost for us, because if you open a picture in May and you want to go to London and all these other places to promote it, there's nobody there. They're all in Cannes. So that's where you have to be."

The notoriously press-shy Malick — who has made only a handful of films in a nearly 40-year career, among them "Days of Heaven," which earned him the Cannes directing prize in 1979 — is expected to skip most or all of the public appearances filmmakers usually make at the festival.

"He chooses to live his life in a private way and just focus on the art," said "Tree of Life" producer Dede Gardner. "One of the very great differences working with him above all else is his honesty. He endeavors to achieve that in everything he does. Every moment he creates between the actors, there's a spontaneity that he insists upon, which is mesmerizing to watch."

Cannes organizers caught criticism last year for a lackluster lineup, but they have made up for it this time with a promising schedule of 20 films competing for the top prize, the Palme d'Or. Past winners include Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita," Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

"Pirates" and "Midnight in Paris" screen out of competition, while "Tree of Life" is up for prizes against a field that features films from three past Palme d'Or winners.

Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, two-time winners for 1999's "Rosetta" and 2005's "The Child," return with their drama "The Kid with a Bike," starring Cecile de France. Danish director Lars von Trier, the festival's 2000 winner for "Dancer in the Dark," is back with "Melancholia," a drama with end-of-the-world overtones starring Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who won the best-actress award at Cannes two years ago for von Trier's "Antichrist." Italian actor-director Nanni Moretti, the 2001 winner for "The Son's Room," comes to Cannes again with the papal saga "We Have a Pope," in which he co-stars with Michel Piccoli.

Spain's Pedro Almodovar, an Academy Award winner and frequent Cannes entrant who has won the festival's directing and screenplay prizes but never the Palme d'Or, is in the running again for the genre-bending tale "The Skin I Live In," starring Antonio Banderas, who rose to stardom in Almodovar films in the 1980s.

"It's a movie that's very difficult to describe in words," said Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, the U.S. distributor of Almodovar's films. "It's got a little horror in it, a little science fiction in it. There's drama in it. It has some comic elements, but I wouldn't call it a comedy. It's a very rich film."

A key Cannes player both in premiering films and snapping up titles for sale in the festival and the huge Cannes market that runs alongside, Sony Pictures Classics also is releasing "Midnight in Paris" and past Palme d'Or winner Gus Van Sant's drama "Restless" with Mia Wasikowska, Thursday's opening film for a secondary competition called Un Certain Regard.

Penn has a second film in the main competition, Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's "This Must Be the Place."

The main competition also features Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly in Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay's "We Need to Talk About Kevin"; Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan in Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's "Drive"; John Goodman in Frenchmen Michel Hazanavicius' "The Artist"; and Emily Browning in Australian director Julia Leigh's "Sleeping Beauty."

Cruz — a frequent festival-goer in Almodovar films, Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and other Cannes entries — is jetting in with the "Pirates" cast for a quick stopover before continuing on a global tour to promote the movie. She's sorry she'll miss Allen and Almodovar's current Cannes films and will be there just long enough for a taste the festival's carnival atmosphere.

"I love the festival," Cruz said. "To go around the streets there, it feels a little bit like being inside a Fellini movie. I always say that, but it really feels like that. But it's a beautiful celebration of cinema and embracing of film."

Online:

http://www.festival-cannes.fr

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Darren Aronofsky Comes to Natalie Portman's Defense in Dancing Debate

In a case of he said, she said, 'Black Swan' director Darren Aronofsky is setting the record straight when it comes to Natalie Portman's Oscar-winning performance.

After allegations from Portman's body-double that Portman was responsible for only 5 percent of the dancing in the film, Portman's fiance and the film's choreographer, Benjamin Millepied, was the first to say that the majority of the dance sequences were, in fact, Portman.

Now the film's director, Aronofsky, is rushing to his leading lady's defense in a statement he released to Fox Searchlight, according to Entertainment Weekly.

"Here is the reality," he said. "I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math that's 80% Natalie Portman ... Even so, if we were judging by time over 90% would be Natalie Portman."

There you have it. But forget her Oscar in question, the mother-to-be needs to rest easy in anticipation of her real golden trophy.

We had no doubt that Portman, who seems to be the ultimate go-getter perfectionist, put in the time to showcase her own dancing skills. Portman's future son sure has a mama to be proud of.

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Darren Aronofsky Comes to Natalie Portman's Defense in Dancing Debate

In a case of he said, she said, 'Black Swan' director Darren Aronofsky is setting the record straight when it comes to Natalie Portman's Oscar-winning performance.

After allegations from Portman's body-double that Portman was responsible for only 5 percent of the dancing in the film, Portman's fiance and the film's choreographer, Benjamin Millepied, was the first to say that the majority of the dance sequences were, in fact, Portman.

Now the film's director, Aronofsky, is rushing to his leading lady's defense in a statement he released to Fox Searchlight, according to Entertainment Weekly.

"Here is the reality," he said. "I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math that's 80% Natalie Portman ... Even so, if we were judging by time over 90% would be Natalie Portman."

There you have it. But forget her Oscar in question, the mother-to-be needs to rest easy in anticipation of her real golden trophy.
But Aronofsky didn't stop there. He went on to say, "And to be clear Natalie did dance on pointe in pointe shoes ... That is completely her without any digital magic. I am responding to this to put this to rest and to defend my actor. Natalie sweated long and hard to deliver a great physical and emotional performance."

We had no doubt that Portman, who seems to be the ultimate go-getter perfectionist, put in the time to showcase her own dancing skills. Portman's future son sure has a mama to be proud of.Filed under: Awards - Movie News - Celebrity Scandal - Natalie Portman Tags: natalie portman
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