Innholdsfortegnelse for #027 i eNews Magazine

Chalk up another oddball appearance with David Letterman for actor Joaquin Phoenix, who announced his “engagement” on the CBS late-night host’s talk show only to say hours later on Tuesday that it was a joke. Before he came clean on “Good Morning America,” news of Phoenix’s supposed impending wedding to his yoga instructor spread widely on several legitimate news sources. “I can get engaged again if you like,” Phoenix told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos after telling him he wasn’t really ready to get hitched. Phoenix’s oddball appearance on Letterman’s “Late Show” in February 2009, punctuated by several moments of uncomfortable silence, became one of late-night TV’s first viral videos. Letterman memorably called that session to a close by saying, “I’m sorry you couldn’t be here tonight.” By using Letterman’s stage to…

The soundtrack for “Frozen” and Pharrell’s viral “Happy” are the year’s top-selling album and song on iTunes. Apple announced Monday that Taylor Swift’s “1989,” just released in October, is behind “Frozen.” Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories,” Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” soundtrack round out the Top 5 albums. John Legend’s “All of Me,” Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse,” “Talk Dirty” by Jason Derulo and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” follow “Happy” on the songs list. “Frozen” is the year’s best-selling movie and season three of “Game of Thrones” is the top TV show. The top paid and free apps for the iPhone are Heads Up! and Facebook Messenger. The top paid and free apps for the iPad are Minecraft - Pocket Edition and YouTube. John Green’s 2012 novel,…

Leave it to the Sexiest Man Alive of 2011 to give us a lesson about ugliness. Bradley Cooper quite literally transforms himself in the new Broadway revival of “The Elephant Man” from a Hollywood hunk into a man of “physical hideousness, incapacitating deformities and unremitting pain.” Cooper’s left hand curls uncomfortably, his left foot grows weak and gimpy, his torso drops awkwardly, his mouth twists as if paralyzed by a stroke and his voice turns into a heavy-breathing, wet lisp. It might not seem like it, but make no mistake: The production that opened Sunday at the Booth Theatre is a vanity project. Cooper, known for so long for his looks first and talent second, seems to want to focus on his skills by choosing Bernard Pomerance’s play about John…

NASA's newest space vehicle, Orion, accomplished its first test flight with precision and pizazz Friday, shooting more than 3,600 miles out from Earth for a hyperfast, hot return not seen since the Apollo moon shots. For a space agency still feeling the loss of its shuttles, the four-hour voyage opened a new era of human space exploration, with Mars as the plum. It even brought some rocket engineers to tears. "There's your new spacecraft, America," Mission Control's Rob Navias said as the unmanned Orion capsule came in for a Pacific splashdown after two orbits of Earth. NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts out into the solar system, to Mars and beyond. The next Orion flight, also unmanned, is four years off, and crewed flights at least seven…

2014 Forest Hills Drive J. Cole The hip hop star has adopted the address of his childhood home - which he only repurchased this year - for the title of his third studio album. The album itself was produced largely by J. Cole himself, alongside such guest talents as Mark Pitts, DJ Dahi, Organized Noise, Vinylz and Elite, the latter a contributor to many of the artist’s past projects. FIVE FACTS: Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart? K. Michelle The Memphis, Tennessee native follows up her involvement in the reality television show Love & Hip Hop - not to mention her debut album from last year, Rebellious Soul - with this already critically acclaimed second studio effort. Even while she continues to make waves with her own new show, K. Michelle:…

So their new photo book is the closest fans will ever get to seeing the band again. “ABBA: The Official Photo Book” (Weldon Owen Publishing) chronicles the foursome’s history through more than 600 photographs. “I’m not a nostalgic person, but looking at these pictures really took me back,” founding member Bjorn Ulvaeus said. The authorized photographic biography, which features numerous photos from the height of the band’s career in the 1970s, was released earlier this year in Europe, and just recently in the United States. In an interview, Ulvaeus said that although the band never officially broke up, they won’t tour again - a sentiment he’s echoed in the past. “We took a break in `82, and it was meant to be a break. It’s still a break and will…

Katy Perry and a dog dressed like a spider are among 2014’s top online video subjects. Perry’s “Dark Horse” reigned supreme on YouTube’s top 10 most popular music videos, while a prank featuring a dog done up as a spider chasing unsuspecting pedestrians led the site’s top 10 trending videos. YouTube said Tuesday the top trending videos for 2014 were based on views, shares, comments, likes and more. Perry’s “Dark Horse” has galloped away with over 715 million views, and Polish prankster Sylwester Wardega’s spider-dog video has caught more than 113 million views. Other top trending video subjects included soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar in a Nike commercial, a singing nun on the Italian edition of “The Voice,” a group of strangers kissing for the first time and the…

The biblical film “Exodus: Gods and Kings” has come under fire for white actors being cast in the main roles as Egyptians. But director Ridley Scott has a message for those trying to boycott the movie: “I say, `Get a life.’” Scott said he had to assemble the “best possible cast ... on a budget of this scale.” The film cost an estimated $140 million. Actor Christian Bale supported his director, saying working with him was “a true partnership.” Bale said he was surprised when Scott wanted to cast him as Moses. “Then I did some research and just found it to be too fascinating to pass it up,” he said.The Oscar-winning actor understands the controversy over the film’s casting choices, though he sees the business side of it. “No…

THANKSGIVING AND BLACK FRIDAY FIGURES ONLY CONFIRM STATUS QUO We all expected the Thanksgiving and Black Friday period to be overwhelming in many ways, as customers both online and offline scrambled for the best deals. Some of us may have decided to brave the worst of the crowds besieging the physical stores, but for those of us who stuck to shopping online, one thing certainly didn't change: the continued primacy of iOS, as mobile finally overtook desktops for Thanksgiving browsing. Yes, that's right: according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, mobile devices were the source of 52.1 per cent of traffic on Thanksgiving - a whopping 22 per cent higher than last year. When you consider that as recently as 2010, a mere 6.5 per cent of traffic was mobile traffic, it's been…

In-demand actor Benedict Cumberbatch has been honored for helping shine an international spotlight on Britain. Cumberbatch, who plays code-breaker Alan Turing in awards-season hopeful “The Imitation Game,” was awarded the Variety prize at the British Independent Film Awards. He said it was a huge honor - although “my engagement to the woman I love is obviously the most important thing of 2014 for me.” Cumberbatch is due to wed theater director Sophie Hunter. “Pride,” the story of gay activists who supported striking coal miners in the 1980s, was named best film at Sunday’s awards. Brendan Gleeson was named best actor for his performance as a Catholic priest in “Calvary.” The best-actress prize went to Gugu Mbatha-Raw for playing the mixed-race daughter of an aristocratic 18th-century English family in “Belle.”…

Godzilla is stomping back. And this time, it’s Made in Japan, like the original. The announcement this week from Japanese film studio Toho comes after the success earlier this year of the Hollywood Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards, which grossed more than $500 million worldwide. Toho said in 2004 it had made its last Godzilla film, the 28th in the series centered on the irradiated monster, which first stomped into the world in 1954. Over the years, Godzilla movies fell out of favor even among Japanese fans. But the latest Hollywood Godzilla, complete with spikes down its back and a terrifying roar, received relatively favorable reviews in Japan, unlike the 1998 Hollywood Godzilla, directed by Roland Emmerich, which purist fans hated. Toho said recent innovations in computer-graphics technology were behind…

The numbers are unavoidable. Paul Thomas Anderson has made seven feature films and he has made seven films set in California. “It’s just there, isn’t it?” sighs Anderson. “If there was ever any kind of intention to have a wide variety of work, all of it’s gone out the window.” Such a fate is ironic to the 44-year-old director, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley preferring Westerns that were shot in Arizona or Texas, as opposed to those (he could tell) in the soft rolling hills of California. “And there I am making `There Will Be Blood’ on these soft rolling hills in California,” he says. “In other words, there was zero master plan.” Having already chronicled the Valley’s colorful pornography industry in “Boogie Nights” and dramatized the…

The civil rights drama “Selma” led all films Tuesday when it collected eight nominations for NAACP Image Awards. The movie earned nods for outstanding motion picture; lead actor for David Oyelowo; supporting actor for Andre Holland, Common and Wendell Pierce; supporting actress for Carmen Ejogo and Oprah Winfrey; and director for Ava DuVernay. Other films nominated for outstanding motion picture were “Belle,” “Beyond the Lights,” “Dear White People” and “Get On Up.” The 46th annual NAACP Image Awards will be presented during a Feb. 6 ceremony airing live on the TV One channel. The awards honor diversity in the arts. Viola Davis was the most nominated performer with three nods for her work in the films “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” and “Get On Up,” and the TV series “How…

RECORD RATINGS EVEN HASTENED DAVID LETTERMAN'S RETIREMENT To say that Brooklyn native Jimmy Fallon has enjoyed a rather successful year would be something of an understatement. The 40-year old only took helm of the NBC's The Tonight Show after this year's Winter Olympics, replacing Jay Leno, but he has since enjoyed stellar ratings that have made his channel the go-to late-night destination once more, even potentially contributing to the retirement of a legend. There can be no doubt about David Letterman's justly celebrated status among talk show hosts. He's been a familiar sight to American households in late-night slots since Late Night with David Letterman debuted in 1982, and just last year, he surpassed his late friend and mentor, Johnny Carson, to become the longest-serving late-night talk show host in…

Tom Hanks and Sting joined Lily Tomlin, singer Al Green and ballerina Patricia McBride in being awarded this year’s Kennedy Center Honors for influencing American culture through the arts. Top performers and power players from Hollywood, Broadway and Washington gathered Sunday to salute them in a gala performance. The show hosted by Stephen Colbert will be broadcast Dec. 30 on CBS. David Letterman led a series of tributes for Hanks, reciting some of the actor’s unforgettable lines from his movies: “Momma always said life is like a box of chocolates.” “There’s no crying in baseball!” “Houston, we have a problem.” Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who collaborated with Hanks on many projects, said “America’s favorite son” has opened a window on the nation with movies that include “Philadelphia,” “A League of Their…

Dolphin Tale 2 If Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.) and teens Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff ) and Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) are to prevent tailless dolphin Winter being sent to another facility, they will need to find her a new companion, following the death of her aquarium mate. Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson and Morgan Freeman also star in this involving family drama. FIVE FACTS: U2: Films of Innocence 11 of the most acclaimed urban artists on the planet - including Oliver Jeffers, D*Face, Mode 2, Robin Rhode and Chloe Early, to name but a few - respond to the Irish rockers’ Songs of Innocence to create a series of films to accompany the album. Part-animated, part-live action, the end results reflect the complete creative freedom afforded to the participants. FIVE FACTS:…

Don’t get Gena Rowlands started on the bulk of film roles she gets offered these days: a lot of grumpy and ill-fated old women. “I can say, for sure, I die,” the actress noted, smiling. “But I have had some really great parts, too.” Indeed, the 84-year-old veteran’s resume includes two Oscar nominations earned while working with her late husband, actor-director John Cassavetes -- first for their 1974 indie classic “A Woman Under the Influence” and again for the 1980 crime drama “Gloria.” A new generation of filmgoers was introduced to Rowlands as the elderly version of the Rachel McAdams character in the 2004 romantic-drama blockbuster “The Notebook,” directed by Rowlands’ son, Nick Cassavetes. In “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” opening this weekend, Rowlands is Lily Harrison, a sharp-tongued…