Jesse Jackson adds voice to Grammy protest

(Reuters) - Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse James on Friday urged Grammy organizers to reinstate 31 ethnic and minority musical categories that have been cut from the music industry's top awards.

In a letter to Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, sent three weeks before the February 12 Grammy Awards show, Jackson said the elimination of awards for Native American and Hawaiian musicians, and cuts in Latin Jazz, R&B and other categories were ill-considered and unfair.

Jackson said some of the categories dropped by the Recording Academy in a major overhaul last year "constitute the very heart of the music that nourishes and inspires minority communities."

Writing on behalf of the Rainbow Push Coalition of U.S. civil rights groups, Jackson called for an urgent meeting with Portnow to try and resolve the conflict that has spurred months of protests and a lawsuit by leading musicians.

Portnow said on Friday he was "receptive to meeting with the Rev. Jackson to explain how our nomination process works and to show the resulting diverse group of nominees it produced" for this year's Grammy Awards.

Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Bobby Sanabria are among dozens of musicians who have protested the decision, announced last April, to slash the number of Grammy categories to 78 from 109 for the 2012 Grammy Awards.

Some categories, such as Hawaiian and Native American albums were dropped completely, while others including Latin music and R&B saw the number of award categories halved.

Portnow said at the time the changes were necessary to maintain "the prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music."

Sanabria and three other Latin Jazz musicians filed a lawsuit in New York in August saying the cuts would harm their careers financially. They have also called for a boycott of the CBS network, which broadcasts the annual Grammy Awards show in Los Angeles.

The 2012 Grammy Awards take place on February12. Rapper Kanye West leads the field of contenders with seven nominations followed by British singer Adele, Bruno Mars and alternative rock band Foo Fighters.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Anti-Israel protest disrupts UK concert series (AP)

LONDON – Protesters disrupted a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in one of Britain's most venerable concert series and forced the BBC to pull the concert off the air, the broadcaster said Thursday.

Pro-Palestinian group The Palestine Solidarity Campaign had called for the BBC to cancel the concert and urged people to boycott the event in protest.

The orchestra was due to perform at London's Royal Albert Hall on Thursday as part of BBC Proms, an annual summer concert series dating back to 1941 broadcast live on the radio.

Shouting and booing erupted just as conductor Zubin Mehta was about to lead the orchestra in Bruch's violin concerto.

"We regret that as a result of sustained audience disruption within the concert hall which affected the ability to hear the music, tonight's Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Prom was taken off air," the BBC said in a statement.

It said protesters interrupted the concert four times and that 30 people were removed by secruity throughout the event.

The BBC said that extra security — including bag searches — had been put in place in anticipation of protests.

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Daryl Hannah arrested in White House protest (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Actress and environmental activist Daryl Hannah was briefly arrested outside the White House on Tuesday during a protest against a proposed $7 billion oil pipeline, police said.

Hannah was released after paying a $100 fine, following her arrest for failure to obey a lawful order, said U.S. Park Police spokesman Sergeant David Schlosser.

More than 70 people were arrested in the Tar Sands Action protest on Tuesday, which is named after efforts to block the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project to bring oil sands petroleum from Canada to Texas refineries.

The 50 year-old Hannah is best known for playing the mermaid Madison in 1984 film "Splash," and had roles in 2003 film "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" and its 2004 sequel.

Hannah was arrested in a sit-in outside a gate to the White House after she refused police orders to leave, said Daniel Kessler, spokesman for the Rainforest Action Network, which was part of the demonstration.

Canadian-born "Superman" actress Margot Kidder and hundreds of other protesters have been arrested since the action outside the White House began on August 20, Kessler said.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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New York City Opera musicians protest contract (AP)

NEW YORK – Musicians of the New York City Opera are staging a protest as the company announces its new season.

The union members say they're being offered a contract that would gut the chorus and orchestra and strip them of health and other benefits. And they say they're not even guaranteed a minimum number of work weeks.

City Opera spokeswoman Maggie McKeon says the company is simply executing a new strategy to reverse a decade of deficits. Opera officials were announcing the new program Monday — a season of only three or four operas.

The 68-year-old organization is revered as a pillar of American culture and has built the careers of such stars as Placido Domingo. But in recent years, it has struggled with a dwindling endowment and a multimillion-dollar deficit.

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