Bruce Lee museum proposal shelved in Hong Kong (AP)

HONG KONG – Efforts to build a Bruce Lee museum in the late kung fu movie star's hometown of Hong Kong have been stalled again.

Fans have been calling for an official tribute to the screen icon for years. Their hopes appeared to be answered two years ago when the Hong Kong government and the owner of Lee's former home reached an agreement to convert the property — a two-story house currently used as an hourly love motel — into a museum.

But the Hong Kong government said Sunday that negotiations with the owner, businessman Yu Pang-lin, have broken down.

"Despite our efforts, we are unable to reach a consensus with the property owner over the scope of the restoration," the government said in a statement.

The statement did not elaborate.

An operator who answered the phone at Yu's offices in the southern Chinese city Shenzhen on Sunday said that his staff wasn't in.

Wong Yiu-keung, president of the Hong Kong Bruce Lee Club, said Yu made unreasonable demands, such as wanting to set up his own offices in the museum.

"Mr. Yu made such a high-profile gesture by donating the property, and yet we now realize those are not his intentions. We are very disappointed. I don't understand why he backtracked," Wong told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, who was also involved in the project, didn't immediately respond to an email sent to a publicist for the Bruce Lee Foundation seeking comment. Shannon Lee had also been raising funds for a museum in Seattle, where her father studied and taught martial arts.

The Hong Kong government said the Lee artifacts it had collected for the planned museum will be used for an exhibit at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum that is expected to launch in late 2012.

Lee became a source of Chinese pride by portraying characters who defended the Chinese and the working class from oppressors in films like "Return of the Dragon." He died in Hong Kong in 1973 at age 32 from swelling of the brain.

The late actor has been honored with a statue on Hong Kong's Avenue of Stars, a waterfront promenade featuring the hand prints of the southern Chinese territory's noted actors.

News of the shelved museum plans was first reported by the South China Morning Post on Sunday.

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Staff says to reject U2 guitarist's proposal (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Officials for the state agency that oversees coastal development has for a second time recommended denying a controversial development proposal led by U2 guitarist The Edge for a cluster of mansions overlooking Malibu.

California Coastal Commission staff on Friday recommended that the board reject the project's application at its June meeting. In February, officials made the same recommendation before the item was pulled from the agenda at the request of the musician and his partners. At the time, project manager Jim Vanden Berg expressed surprise but said he believed they could work with staff to "clarify misunderstandings."

The proposal involving the musician, whose real name is David Evans, includes five multilevel homes ranging from 7,220 to 12,785 square feet to be built 156 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains. Project designers have said the homes will be Gold LEED Certified and the guitarist has said the mansions will be some of the most environmentally sensitive in the world.

Opponents of the project, including the National Park Service, however, have argued that the project will have considerable biological and visual impacts in such sensitive habitat. The musician and his partners recently appeased the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which had opposed the project on these grounds, after giving the agency more than $1 million toward funding and other services.

A major sticking point for Coastal Commission staff, which suggested building fewer homes on the site, is the belief that the entire development proposal is being coordinated by The Edge. Instead of individual property owners proposing to build a single home on each of their lots, they believe the musician wants to build five mansions on a single piece of property.

In their report, staff argued that the current owners are all working together, coordinating the development which has a single project manager, single architect, single website and, until recently, a single agent that came before the commission. The report also pointed to the deal the owners collectively struck with the mountains conservancy.

Staff claims the original principals in the project, who were all connected to the musician, changed in 2010 after staff said they planned to show related ownership. The report said the applicants have declined to provide them with the various partnership agreements. The names of the property owners, which were submitted to the commission late last year, include the guitarist, as well as family, friends and business partners.

Commission staff and representatives for the property owners could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

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Carrie Ann Inaba Gets Surprise On-Air Proposal

Carrie Ann Inaba got more than she bargained for when she agreed to sub for Kelly Ripa on today's episode of 'Live With Regis and Kelly' -- 2.5 carats more, to be exact.

The 'Dancing With the Stars' judge was surprised on-air by her boyfriend of two years, Jesse Sloan, when he asked for her hand in marriage.

Earlier in the show, Inaba, 43, denied reports that she was engaged, showing off her bare ring finger to the audience.

In the show's final minutes, all of that changed. The lighting crew set the mood as violinists ushered in the would-be groom, who told told Inaba how beautiful and inspiring she was to him, finally working up the nerve to ask, "Will you marry me?"
Inaba joyfully responded, "Yes! I will marry you!" and showed off her new 2.5-carat Rafinity princess-cut ring to the audience.

If things hadn't gone as planned, Inaba always had a second choice: newly single Jake Gyllenhaal, who toasted the happy couple with fellow guest Howie Mandel following the proposal, had offered himself -- and a fake ring -- to Inaba before Sloan arrived with the real thing.

Filed under: Famous Couples - Good News - TV News - Videos Tags: Carrie Ann Inaba, dancing with the stars
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