Clooney's latest opens Venice film festival (AP)

VENICE, Italy – George Clooney's "The Ides of March" opens a star-studded Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, and fans will also see two other Hollywood actor/directors, Madonna and Al Pacino, premiering their latest directorial efforts.

Clooney's political drama is among 23 films — five from Hollywood — vying for the coveted Golden Lion, which will be awarded Sept. 10.

The jury will be headed by American director Darren Aronofsky, a two-time Golden Lion winner whose "Black Swan" was launched to huge Oscar success after opening in Venice last year.

"The Ides of March" tells the story of an ambitious campaign press secretary, played by Ryan Gosling, who gets swept up in a political scandal in the last frantic days of a heavily contested primary race. The film, which also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as rival campaign managers, is adapted from the play "Farragut North" by Beau Willimon.

Clooney said the movie was ready to begin filming when Barack Obama was elected U.S. president in 2008.

"Suddenly, a cynical film about politics seemed badly timed. Everyone was too optimistic," Clooney wrote in film notes. "It only took about a year before all the optimism evaporated and the timing seemed perfect."

In all, 66 films will make their world premiere at the 68th edition of the world's oldest festival. It is the first time since World War II that all feature films in the festival's three official events — in competition, out of competition and the "Horizons" avant-garde section — are world premieres.

Nearly half of the festival's lineup is high-powered English-language films, a sign of its growing prestige in the eight years that it has been directed by Marco Mueller.

The strong selection also includes Roman Polanski's "Carnage," an adaptation of the Broadway show "God of Carnage," featuring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz; David Cronenberg's take on psychoanalysis, "A Dangerous Method," featuring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender; and "Shame," a drama by British director Steve McQueen featuring Fassbender and Carey Mulligan.

Other American movies in competition include end-of-the-world film "4:44 Last Day on Earth" by Abel Ferrara; "Dark Horse" starring Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken and directed by Todd Solondz; "Killer Joe," a black comedy by William Friedkin starring Matthew McConaughey in the title role; and the second feature film by Ami Canaan Mann, "Texas Killing Fields," a murder drama featuring Sam Worthington and Jessica Chastain.

One of the most highly-anticipated events at Venice this year is Madonna's second feature film, the U.K. production "W.E." The movie, which premieres out of competition Thursday, intercuts between the romance of a modern woman (Abbie Cornish) and the relationship of American socialite Wallis Simpson and Britain's King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne for love in the 1930s.

"It is very important because she is a very interesting filmmaker and very personal filmmaker," Mueller said. "She already proved that with her first feature. Even more so in her sophomore film, `W.E,' you would feel like it is such a celebrated love story, the love story of the century."

Pacino has an out-of-competition biopic, "Wilde Salome," one of seven American movies being show at side events. Featuring Jessica Chastain, "Wilde Salome" is an exploration of Oscar Wilde's work that combines documentary and film, much like Pacino did in his previous "Looking for Richard."

Mueller maintains his strong commitment to Asian film in this year's festival, with one Japanese, one Taiwanese and two Hong Kong films in competition.

Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng's "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seedig Bale" is stirring hopes that the island's film industry is ready for a comeback after two decades in the doldrums. The four-hour epic about a 1930 aboriginal uprising against Taiwan's Japanese rulers was 10 years in the making and had a $24 million budget, which is huge for a Taiwanese film.

Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To's "Life Without Principle" was announced as a surprise movie earlier — and the festival hinted another surprise movie is yet to come.

Mueller has made surprise films a feature of the Venice festival since he took over in 2004. Often their announcement is delayed until after the festival opens, due to political sensitivity or production schedules.

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Top Europe reggae festival opens, Marley family stars (Reuters)

MADRID (Reuters) – Europe's largest reggae festival Rototom Sunsplash opens its gates on Thursday in the Spanish resort of Benicassim, where over 200,000 fans are expected over 10 days of Jamaican-inspired music headlined by leading members of the Bob Marley dynasty.

This year's 18th Sunsplash pays homage to the legendary reggae musician on the 30th anniversary of his death with concerts by his wife Rita, backing singer in Bob Marley & The Wailers, and the most famous of his children including Ziggy and Stephen.

Stephen Marley will open the festival on the main stage, where Ska pioneers Toots and the Maytals and Jamaican dancehall star Mr. Vegas are also expected to play on the first night.

Over 300 bands and DJs playing reggae genres from roots to rocksteady and ragga to dub will be performing on six stages during a festival which mixes reggae music with social forums as well as African and Caribbean arts and culture.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Iran's Shirin Ebadi will attend Rototom's social forum, which also hosts Tobin Tax campaigner Bernard Cassen and environmental activist Vandana Shiva.

"We've got people participating from over 100 different countries, this makes us a truly global festival with a global philosopy of tolerance behind it," festival director Filippo Giunta told Reuters.

"This year we can do it knowing that the local community approves and knowing that the public are going to come. We had 160,000 last year, we are expecting over 200,000 this year," Giunta said.

Rototom Sunplash decided to move to Spain from northern Italy in 2010, after what Giunta said was a clash between the festival's ideals and the ideas of some politicians in the country.

"They accused us of promoting the use of marijuana just because of the relationship of reggae and the Rastafarian religion, which considers it to be a holy plant," Giunta said.

Rototom is a non-profit collective which donates the income from Sunsplash to charities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, attracting speakers and activists from non-government organisations as well as reggae acts from the famous to the obscure.

"We've been to great reggae festivals in France but this has the biggest line-up," said 28-year-old Mariajo, from Madrid.

"I'm going for classics like Toots and the Maytals and (reggae poet) Linton Kwesi Johnson, but I don't think we'll stay for the full 10 days. That's a lot of reggae!"

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Paris Hilton opens new handbag store in Manila (AP)

MANILA, Philippines – Paris Hilton has opened a new handbag store in a Manila mall.

Hundreds of star-struck fans, local celebrities and journalists jostled to see her Thursday, cameras ready. Wild cheers erupted when Hilton told the crowd "I love you" in the local Tagalog language. She said she'll miss Manila and plans to be back soon to open a resort-inspired residential project.

"I will be back very soon `coz I love it here," she said. "I've had the best time."

She signed bags bought from the Paris Hilton Handbags and Accessories store at the SM Megamall, her fourth shop in the country. She also posed for pictures with fans before rushing to catch a flight to Los Angeles.

A male fan who brought a portrait he made of Hilton got a kiss, much to his thrill.

The heiress-turned-TV star reportedly lost two mobile devices on her flight to the Philippines. She told The Associated Press the phones have not been found.

In 2005, hackers gained access to Hilton's Sidekick cellphone and famously splashed the private mobile numbers of her celebrity friends online.

The latest loss apparently didn't leave Hilton cut off — she has been constantly tweeting since she arrived Sunday.

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Schwarzenegger museum opens in Arnie's birthplace (AFP)

VIENNA (AFP) – The world's first museum dedicated to former "Governator" and Mister Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger opened its doors Saturday in his birthplace of Thal in southern Austria.

The "Styrian Oak" himself was absent for the event, timed to coincide with Arnie's 64th birthday, but will attend a grander opening at a later date, according to organisers.

Visitors, mostly locals, gathered for a first look at the two-storey light yellow house in Thal in southern Styria, restored to look as it did when Schwarzenegger first came into the world on July 30, 1947.

Among the 1,000 objects and photos on display are his very first weights, with which the future champion bodybuilder started training, as well as the desk behind which he sat as California governor.

Monitors also recall Schwarzenegger's Hollywood career, with trailers from his various films, while a life-size model of his "Terminator" stands in a corner.

When the man himself will visit his first home for the grand opening was still unclear but he was expected to bring with him a three-metre (10-foot) high bronze statue he commissioned from a US artist to adorn the outside of the museum.

The former bodybuilder, actor and politician has sought to revive his film career since leaving the California governor's office earlier this year, but has mostly made headlines lately over his divorce from Maria Shriver after admitting in May that he had fathered a child with the couple's former housekeeper.

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Colin Farrell opens up during `Fright Night' panel (AP)

By SANDY COHEN, AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen, Ap Entertainment Writer – Fri Jul 22, 11:26 pm ET

SAN DIEGO – Colin Farrell plays a vampire in his latest film, but he says almost any role will do: He just loves being an actor.

The 35-year-old opened up during a panel featuring the update of "Fright Night" Friday at the Comic-Con fan convention.

When a fan asked whether he preferred his earlier starring roles or his more recent character parts, Farrell said that in the last six years, he "reconnected with the mystery of the whole thing and the imagination of the whole thing and how much fun it is to be an actor."

"I came to success really quickly in relation to most other actors," he said. "The idea of how fast the chaos around me took grip, it's insane. And I, myself personally, I lost sight of why I went to my first acting class when I was 17 in Dublin ... I lost sight of that through this good fortune I was experiencing in Hollywood. So in the last six years I reconnected with the Colin who was 17.

"It's a lot of fun to do what we do. It's such a fortunate place to find yourself," he said.

He plays the vampire-next-door Jerry Dandrige in "Fright Night," a reimagining of the 1985 horror classic that's set for release Aug. 19.

Farrell took the stage again later in the day for a panel about the reboot of "Total Recall." He plays Doug Quaid, the same role originated by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1990 original.

Farrell's description of his character's arc echoes what the actor has experienced in his own life: "I loved the idea of a man journeying from being a man in a deep, deep slumber to consciousness," he said.

He described his character's battle in the film as one between the intellectual and the emotional.

"Total Recall" director Len Wiseman said that while his version is totally different from the first film, it also draws from the original source material: Philip K. Dick's story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale."

Besides Farrell, the film stars Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, Bill Nighy, John Cho and Kate Beckinsale. It is set for release next summer.

Comic-Con continues through Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center.

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen can be reached a www.twitter.com/APSandy.

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Online:

http://www.comic-con.org

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Film Society of Lincoln Center opens new home (AP)

NEW YORK – As a trendsetting designer and architect, David Rockwell has done it all — from Broadway shows and a restaurant partly owned by Robert De Niro to children's hospitals and a hip hotel near Times Square.

On Friday, his latest creation will open: the permanent home of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, a $41 million world-class movie complex that is both a community center for its Manhattan neighborhood and a staging ground for some of the finest new films and greatest old ones.

It was literally carved out of an old underground parking garage.

The Film Society is best known for hosting the New York Film Festival, starting Sept. 30 this year.

On its new facade on Manhattan's West Side are the titles of 1,000 films screened since the society was founded in 1969 to spotlight American independent and world cinema.

"Our primary goal here was to create an accessible place that could celebrate community filmmakers in a kind of informal way," says Rockwell. "We were looking to create the best possible environment for filmmakers to show their films."

Rockwell, 53, strolls around the 17,000-square-foot venue, pointing out what he says is different from commercial movie complexes.

For starters, the Film Society is one of a dozen resident organizations of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest such complex in the nation.

Until now, films were shown at the Walter Reade Theater, all but hidden at the back of the Juilliard School building on West 65th Street. The year-round program keeps changing, with film series built around a main theme — whether a particular director, or movies from a single country or culture.

The Film Society's successful basic approach will continue across the street at the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, with one big difference: The space is hardly hidden. A 90-foot glass front and 160 orange LED lights in the sidewalk "grab your attention and lead you in like a welcome mat," says Rockwell.

He had to make this facade fit into a much bigger context: the transformation of Lincoln Center. Over the past decade, it has morphed from a 16-acre "fortress" — built in the 1960s with windowless stone walls protecting it from a high-crime neighborhood — to today's gleaming, translucent arts community inviting in one and all. There's a modernistic central fountain, with dancing around it on summer nights. Just above the Film Society sits a see-through restaurant with a grass roof that serves as a public lawn, complete with the free Wi-Fi that covers all of Lincoln Center.

As the economy slumped in recent years, and arts funding with it, it became critical to throw open the center's walls and doors, performing what architect Liz Diller called "an architectural striptease."

Her firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, oversaw the renewal plan. That included redesigning Alice Tully Hall, across West 65th Street from the Film Society, by wrapping it in mammoth glass walls facing Broadway.

Rockwell worked with Diller's firm to coordinate his facade with the master plan, he said in an interview that started on a sunny spring morning on the sidewalk.

The complex features two main screening rooms. Instead of the traditional padded walls, these are made of perforated metal — acoustically absorptive and designed to look like the flowing curtains found in historic Italian opera houses that were converted to cinemas in the 1920s.

"We took something that has always been done a certain way and reinvented it," he says. The exit hallways are lined with another surprise — stitched paper.

Rockwell's favorite space is in-between the two screening rooms — an 87-seat amphitheater facing the entrance, with leather stadium seating and a 152-inch plasma screen capable of 3-D projection and any other film format. Maple strip flooring cascades down the risers, up the end walls and onto the ceiling panels. Glass sidewalls change in hue from frosted to translucent.

"It feels like you're in a glowing capsule," he says.

This public gathering place is a setting for what does not usually happen in commercial theaters: screenings accompanied by discussions between directors and audiences, to eventually be live-streamed on the Internet.

In the entrance area in front of the amphitheater, visitors will be able to drop by a bookstore and a cafe to chat — without ever going to the movies.

"At so many film centers, you get your popcorn and you go into the screening room — after already spending so much time during the day looking at small screens one-on-one," he says. "One of the things the Film Society wanted to be about is conversation about film, a community of people with lots going on."

The project started in 2002, with Rockwell walking into a challenge, since the original space was part of Lincoln Center's underground garage, plus underutilized office space belonging to the nearby Metropolitan Opera. The trickiest part was excavating around a giant mechanical plant for the entire arts center.

"It was like a Rubik's Cube — a series of things that had to fit together," says the designer, whose Rockwell Group has offices in New York and Madrid. Over the years, the Chicago-born creator has built a global reputation not only for technically superb, glamorous spaces like Manhattan's Nobu restaurant — co-owned by De Niro — but also the personal philosophy behind each project.

Whether space is used for film, food, music or children's games, "it's all about human relationships," he says, "about bringing people together."

The Film Society's new venue celebrates "the part of going to see a film that involves conversation, meeting other people, socializing, curiosity, deciding what to see," he says.

The child of a vaudeville dancer and choreographer, Rockwell participated in a community theater that his mother ran when the family lived in Deal, N.J.

He loves drama.

His spectacular interiors include sets for Broadway hits like "Hairspray" and "The Normal Heart," as well as designs for the W hotel chain and the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, which hosts the Academy Awards. He's also created sets for the Oscars.

In California, he built a portable cooking school for English chef Jamie Oliver — trucks that open into kitchens for tours of the state.

The new complex will open with a documentary film about The New York Times.

An urban media center commenting on urban media "is the perfect postmodern moment," says Rockwell.

He's left his own bit of postmodern urban grit peeking out from the ceiling of the Film Society's entrance — a few slabs of concrete from the old garage, plus some raw concrete columns and exposed ductwork.

"Not having all highly finished materials was a nod to the Lincoln Center garage the film center displaced, and to the roots of this place — slightly less buttoned up, slightly younger," says Rockwell.

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Online:

http://www.filmlinc.com

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Bono, Taymor all smiles as 'Spider-Man' opens (AP)

NEW YORK – Julie Taymor was welcomed back with open arms Tuesday to the musical from which she was fired just three months ago, receiving a standing ovation and kisses from cast members, collaborators Bono and The Edge and the creative team after the curtain fell on opening night.

"I just want to thank everybody, especially the cast and crew, the musicians and this creative team that I got to work with for a long time," the Tony Award-winning director said from the stage.

Taymor got the biggest cheers of anyone on stage and chants of "Julie! Julie!" anticipated her emergence on the Foxwoods Theatre stage.

The Tony Award-winning co-writer and director was fired from the $70 million "Spider-Man" in March after delays, accidents, poor audience reaction and money woes turned the musical into a punch line.

Earlier in the night, Taymor, Bono and The Edge were all smiles as they posed for photos on the red carpet, a very public reconciliation from the original creators who had separated as the show's problems mounted.

"We absolutely love Julie and always have. As artists, we've been very, very close. She poured her whole life into this project," Bono said outside the Foxwoods Theatre. "Tonight she's here to host it."

The show, with music by the two members of U2, was reworked from top to bottom and officially opened after a record-setting preview period.

"We were trying to do something that's never been done. And that's very hard to do. And we were right in front of everybody," Taymor said on the red carpet. "That's difficult."

Among the celebrities on hand for opening night were President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea, Matt Damon, Barbara Walters, Cindy Crawford, Jay-Z, Steve Martin, Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, Spike Lee, Andrew Lloyd Webber and John McEnroe.

"These guys have persevered," McEnroe said, before using a tennis analogy. "It's like a long five-setter but they're still in it."

The principal cast — Reeve Carney as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Jennifer Damiano as Mary Jane Watson, T.V. Carpio as a spider-woman named Arachne, and Patrick Page as the Green Goblin — have been with the production since the tortured beginning.

Asked what he had learned about putting on a Broadway show, lead producer Michael Cohl smiled. "It's much more difficult than I ever expected," he said. "God shows you: When you get cheeky, calm down. You ain't seen nothing yet."

Bono, too, said he felt humbled following in the footsteps of such iconic songwriters as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Rodgers and Hart and Irving Berlin. "We found out it's harder than you think," he said about writing a musical.

The show's planned opening was initially set for Feb. 18, 2010, but financial issues forced producers to suspend work. A new opening was set for Dec. 21, but that was pushed back to Jan. 11, then again to Feb. 7 and then to March 15. "Spider-Man" has broken the record for the longest preview period in Broadway history.

Injuries to several cast members — including a 35-foot fall by a stunt actor playing the web-slinger that left him with a skull fracture and cracked vertebrae — marred the production, as well as the defection of a lead actress after she suffered a concussion.

Many theater critics grew impatient and their reviews that appeared in early February — a violation of the established agreement by critics to wait for opening night to weigh in — were mostly savage pans.

Producers finally intervened in March, firing Taymor and shutting down the show for four weeks to retool. Taymor was replaced by Philip William McKinley, who directed the Hugh Jackman musical "The Boy From Oz," in 2003.

McKinley, former director for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey, said the red carpet reminded him of the Big Top. Asked how he felt, McKinley said, "Relief as well as excitement." He later posed with Taymor, Bono and The Edge.

Co-book writer Glenn Berger and newly hired playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who has written comic books and for the HBO series "Big Love," toned down the story's darker themes, and expanded the romantic angle between Peter Parker and Mary Jane.

Bono was determined to move forward. "Things got chaotic. It's all in the past now," he said. "It's just one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen. Now you just forget about the past. I think it's going to have a very, very bright future."

Consistently strong weekly revenues are critical for the show to break even and to begin repaying investors. Last week the show earned $1.2 million — a little more than 60 percent of its $1.9 million potential.

"We've heard all the news about it," said author Janet Langhart, married to former Defense Secretary of Defense William Cohen, as they waited to enter the theater. "Finally we're turning on the light."

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National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com

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Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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Redesigned Rock Hall opens exhibit on The Beatles (AP)

CLEVELAND – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland has opened the world's most comprehensive collection of items from The Beatles as part of the first redesign in the facility's 15-year history.

The exhibit announced Wednesday features nearly 70 items, including several that are being displayed for the first time, such as Paul McCartney's handwritten arrangement for the song "Birthday." Visitors also can see guitars played by John Lennon and George Harrison, the logo drum head from the kit that Ringo Starr used on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in February 1964, and notable clothing worn by each group member on tour or on film.

"For many years now, we have been fortunate to have a great relationship with Yoko Ono, which enabled us to have many John Lennon artifacts," said Jim Henke, vice president of exhibitions. "This time around, we were able to work with Ringo Starr and with George Harrison's estate, so they are well-represented in the exhibit. We also worked with some collectors who had other key Beatles pieces, and before we knew it, we had an absolutely incredible collection."

The items have gone on display as part of a museum redesign that is funded by part of the Rock Hall's $35 million capital campaign and is expected to be complete by next year. It includes technology upgrades and changes aimed at presenting the history of rock and roll more chronologically. Visitors can learn more through interactive kiosks and listening stations, new exhibits and oversize images of inductees like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. The Hall of Fame also got a bit of the Hollywood treatment with a 50-foot red carpet welcoming visitors.

The facility expects to have the final upgrades, including a new video wall, in place before the Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies in 2012.

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19th anti-AIDS Life Ball opens in Vienna (AFP)

VIENNA (AFP) – The 19th edition of Life Ball, Vienna's colourful, annual AIDS charity event, opens Saturday with a fancy dinner to be followed by a glitzy show hosted at the city hall.

American singer Janet Jackson, representing American anti-AIDS charity amfAR, US ex-president Bill Clinton who has his own foundation, and actress Brooke Shields are among the celebrities due to attend the dinner.

Tickets for the event 2,500 euros (3,500 dollars).

An auction will be held to raise money for the fight against the disease first diagnosed 30 years ago. Sale items including a diamond and ruby necklace shaped like the red AIDS ribbon and an invitation to Clinton's 65th birthday party.

Thereafter, celebrities will attend a ball to be opened in Viennese tradition by 100 male and female social debutantes.

After the formal events, the party will continue at the city hall, where a disco has been created for the occasion -- for those who can afford the 150-euro entry fee.

The Life Ball -- one of the biggest AIDS charity events in the world, attracting some 40,000 revellers every year -- raised over 1.65 million euros for international and national HIV and AIDS projects last year.

Past guests of the Life Ball, who often attend in extravagant costumes, have included singer Katy Perry and actresses Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg.

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Jolie's directing debut on Bosnia opens Dec. 23 (AP)

CANNES, France – Angelina Jolie's directorial debut has picked up a U.S. distributor.

Her Bosnian War film "In the Land of Blood and Honey" will be released Dec. 23 by FilmDistrict, a subsidiary of GK Films. Announcing the acquisition Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, GK Films founder Graham King said Jolie's debut "signals the arrival of a visceral and compelling storyteller."

The film features a completely local Bosnian cast, most of whom were children during the 1990s war.

Jolie came to the Cannes festival this year to promote "Kung Fu Panda 2" and for romantic partner Brad Pitt's drama "The Tree of Life," which premieres Monday.

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Marvin Gaye exhibit opens at Detroit Motown museum (AP)

DETROIT – The Motown Historical Museum is celebrating the life and times, as well as the moves and grooves, of Marvin Gaye.

The Detroit museum, located in the original home of Motown Records Corp., has unveiled an exhibit chronicling the legendary artist's two decades at Motown, from 1960 to 1982. The exhibit in the second-floor gallery opened Friday and runs through at least September.

It's the first time the museum has produced a major exhibit on Gaye, and follows a successful installation on the Jackson 5 last year that marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson.

The largely chronological exhibit features Gaye's album covers, sheet music, costumes from concerts and even a Marvin Gaye Way street sign from Washington, D.C., the hometown of the man born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. in 1939 and fatally shot by his father in 1984 after a violent argument.

Chief curator Lina Stephens said the museum had been planning a Gaye exhibit for a while but Jackson's death "shifted a lot of things" around. One thing is clear: Gaye's exhibit has many more items and artifacts because of his lengthy tenure with the label.

"He was a good artist to focus on because he was here since just about the beginning," Stephens said. "It's easy to incorporate his story line."

The display spans the career of a man who helped create, refine and redefine the sound of the label and popular music itself, including playing piano and drums on "Please Mister Postman," singing the chart-topping smash "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," and tackling political and environmental concerns with "What's Going On" and "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)."

"He started out singing songs he thought he wanted to sing," Janis Gaye, Gaye's ex-wife, told The Associated Press by phone from her home in Providence, R.I. "When he hit 'What's Going On' and started having his own voice in every way — arrangements, lyrically and spiritually — that opened a whole new door for him."

Janis Gaye, who was with Marvin Gaye for 11 years and married to him from 1977 to 1981, said she has been talking to museum officials about the exhibit and hopes to loan a few signature items, such as his Grammy awards and silver platform boots she designed for him.

She said she took his "everyday boots" and had rhinestones and platforms put on them. They later became synonymous with Gaye, appearing on album covers and a magazine spread.

The boots were "one staple he really did love," Janis Gaye said, and they will be difficult to part with — even temporarily.

"I told (museum officials) I may have to sleep there for the next nine months," she said.

The exhibit includes an early single by Gaye on Motown's subsidiary label, Anna, named for Motown founder Berry Gordy's sister — the woman who became Gaye's first wife. He was still married to Anna Gordy Gaye in 1973 when he met Janis Gaye, who was 17 at the time and is now 55.

Janis Gaye said she is writing a book about her life with the man she describes as her "dear, sweet ex-husband" that's expected to be released later this year.

"We must have broken up and gotten back together at least 20 or 30 times," she said. "It was a magical time, at times. ... There are many, many memories to look back on — some fond, some not so fond."

She said she hopes museum visitors see the depth of his creativity and recognize his enduring legacy, which includes a performance next May of the "What's Going On" album by John Legend and The Roots with the National Symphony Orchestra. It marks the 40th anniversary of Gaye performing the album at the same venue.

"I would just like for people to see his whole body of work," Janis Gaye said. "Socially conscious, sexually conscious, whatever it happens to be. It's all Marvin. It all came from that one mind."

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Lily Allen Opens Up about Her Miscarriage and Eating Disorder

Lily Allen is finally opening up for the first time about the tragic loss of her unborn baby last year.

The Daily Mail is reporting that Allen has stayed out of the spotlight since her miscarriage in October, but she finally spoke about the heartbreak in the U.K.'s Channel 4 documentary 'Lily Allen: From Riches to Rags.'

Allen and boyfriend Sam Cooper were left devastated when she suffered a miscarriage six months into her pregnancy, and her pain was evident during the TV show.

Allen said, "It was a really long battle, and I think that kind of thing changes a person."
Approximately one week after her miscarriage, Allen was rushed to a hospital requiring emergency treatment for septicaemia (blood poisoning).

The 'Smile' singer also revealed she suffered from an eating disorder. "I used to vomit after meals. It's not something I'm proud of. But, I tell you what, a lot of people came up to me telling me how great I looked and I'd be on the cover of every magazine."

She continues, "I thought I looked good and it was great to be able to try on clothes and feel a million dollars. But I wasn't happy, I really wasn't. I would love to be the skinniest minniest person in the world but I can't do that without being unhappy -- I like food."

Allen's final words on the subject were, "I'm a pop star, not a model. Don't make me feel s

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