Innholdsfortegnelse for #040 i eNews Magazine

For the eighth straight time, Fox’s music business soap “Empire” pulled in more viewers than it had the previous week, an unusual standard of success that appears to be unprecedented in the modern television era. The series’ ninth episode reached 14.3 million viewers, second only to AMC’s “The Walking Dead” as the most popular drama on television last week. Since the “Empire” premiere in January before 9.9 million people, the series has increased its audience every single week, the Nielsen company said. A typical new program sees a drop in viewers between its first and second weeks, since a premiere will draw in the curious. Increasing its audience for eight straight weeks is extraordinary, and Fox’s research could turn up no other series that has grown for that long since…

Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian were the queens of the night at Givenchy’s star-studded dusk show in Paris, rocking all-black Givenchy outfits side-by-side as Kanye West, also in black, lurked in the back. The remaining celebrity attendees, actresses Jessica Chastain, Amanda Seyfried and Noomi Rapace just didn’t stand a chance. Other shows were all about creature comforts, with Kenzo treating bleary-eyed guests to coffee and cookies and singer Lorde, who’s sold over 17 million records at the tender age of 18, took a moment to relax, shying away from interviews in the new spring sun inside the Grand Palais. Here are the highlights of fall-winter ready-to-wear 2015 shows: PERRY AND KARDASHIAN ARE GIVENCHY’S DARK QUEENS “Black is always elegant. It is the most complete color in the world,” said Givenchy’s…

SOFT BOX OFFICE DEBUT FOR BLOMKAMP'S LATEST Johannesburg-born Neill Blomkamp has already built quite the career in his 35 years on earth. Known for his documentary-style, handheld observational cinema technique, he has enjoyed decent big screen success with District 9 and Elysium, and now, he's back with another science fiction film: Chappie. Its box office return hasn't been amazing, and the critical reviews have been mixed, but it has certainly reopened the debate on where robots belong in our lives - and the role that they will play in generations to come. Chappie has a screenplay written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, with its origins in the director's 2004 short film Tetra Vaal. With a cast including such stars as Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver and…

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 The first of two films based on the Suzanne Collins novel Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy, this latest Francis Lawrence-directed epic picks up the story of two-time Hunger Games survivor Katniss Everdeen - portrayed by Lawrence - as she finds herself in District 13. She soon becomes The Mockingjay, the symbolic leader of the rebellion. FIVE FACTS: Foxcatcher This Bennett Miller-directed biographical true crime drama film has its loose basis in the events surrounding John E. du Pont’s 1986 recruitment of the sibling wrestlers who had claimed gold medals at the U.S. Olympics of two years earlier, Mark and Dave Schultz, to assist in the coaching of American wrestlers. It also covers Dave’s subsequent murder by du Pont in…

Nick Gordon was “volatile” and emotionally distraught over hospitalized girlfriend Bobbi Kristina Brown during the taping of a “Dr. Phil” episode, series host Phil McGraw said. “He said he had an enormous amount of guilt and pain” regarding Brown, McGraw recounted in an interview Monday. The 22-year old daughter of the late Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown is fighting for her life in an Atlanta hospital after being found unresponsive Jan. 31 in a bathtub in her Georgia home. McGraw said that Gordon entered a rehab facility immediately after the taping last week, which McGraw and the show described as an “intervention.” He said that Gordon was “clearly in an altered state of consciousness. I asked him if he was sober, and he said `No.’” Gordon felt “it was his…

The National Transportation Safety Board has released a summary of the plane crash that injured Harrison Ford last week in Southern California. The report posted Tuesday on the agency’s website does not, however, point to the cause of the engine failure that forced the World War II-era craft to crash-land on a golf course. The actor’s representatives said last week that his injuries weren’t life-threatening and haven’t released further information. Ford’s son Ben has tweeted that his father is “battered” but OK. The single-engine plane took off from Santa Monica Municipal Airport on Thursday afternoon. Soon after, Ford advised the control tower of the engine failure and requested an immediate return. The plane began a left turn toward the airport but descended toward the golf course, striking a tree before…

A jury’s verdict that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke copied Marvin Gaye’s music to create their hit song “Blurred Lines” won’t just be felt by the singer’s pocketbooks - it has the potential to change how musicians work and could open the door to new copyright claims. An eight-person jury determined Tuesday that Williams and Thicke copied elements of Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up” and ordered the pair to pay nearly $7.4 million to the late singer’s three children. Gaye’s daughter, Nona Gaye, wept as the verdict was read and later told reporters, “Right now, I feel free. Free from ... Pharrell Williams’ and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.” The music industry may feel new…

HBO NOW, MACBOOK AND EVEN THE APPLE WATCH... When word got round of another major Apple keynote set to take place on March 9, there was inevitably much of the excitement that always accompanies events like these, including plenty of guessing about what would be covered at the event. One subject - the Apple Watch - was predictable, but we ended up getting so much more than that, with new MacBook models and an over-the-top subscription video on demand service among the other unveilings. But first, let's consider the pre-event chatter. As the usual media corps received their invites to the event, which was to take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, thoughts immediately cast back to past Apple unveilings at this time…

Time will fly between the fourth and fifth season of the Showtime spy drama “Homeland,” the series’ executive producer Alex Gansa said. “We’re going to take about a two-year forward jump,” Gansa said Friday at the opening night of PaleyFest, the annual TV celebration at the Dolby Theatre. On the purple carpet, Gansa said the next “Homeland” season will be filmed in Europe, most likely in Berlin. He said the setting would be Germany. The fourth season of “Homeland” was shot in Cape Town, South Africa, which doubled for Islamabad and Kabul. Gansa later told the PaleyFest audience that CIA officer Carrie Mathison, played by series star Claire Danes, will no longer be an intelligence officer. Many of the “Homeland” crew members said the fourth season was critical to the…

Piece By Piece (Deluxe Version) Kelly Clarkson The inaugural American Idol has come a seriously long distance since that star-making triumph in 2002, and for evidence of that, one only needs to give this especially intimate seventh studio album a listen. It involves her joining forces once more with such past collaborators as Greg Kurstin, Jesse Shatkin and Chris DeStefano. FIVE FACTS: The Firewatcher’s Daughter Brandi Carlile Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile’s first studio album since 2012’s Bear Creek sees her resume her relationship with her producers, Tim and Phil Hanseroth, who she’s been working with for a decade now. The end result is her most immediate and energetic album, right down to it being recorded almost entirely in first takes. FIVE FACTS:…

A subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal criminal charge that it sold over-the-counter infant’s and children’s liquid medicine containing metal particles. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, acknowledged failing to take corrective action after discovering the adulterated bottles of Infants’ and Children’s Tylenol and Children’s Motrin. The company agreed to pay $25 million to resolve the case. Metal particles, including nickel, iron and chromium, were introduced during the manufacturing process at McNeil’s plant in Fort Washington. Prosecutors said McNeil knew about the problem for nearly a year but failed to take immediate steps to fix it. The company and prosecutors said in court Tuesday that no one was injured. “McNeil’s failure to comply with current good manufacturing practices is seriously troubling,” Acting Assistant Attorney…

As Lori Goldstein was beginning her career in the late 1970s, stylists weren’t a staple of the fashion industry, home shopping networks didn’t exist and a naked and pregnant Demi Moore had yet to bare her belly at checkout counters everywhere from the cover of Vanity Fair. But for Goldstein decades later: Check, check and check. She spent years as a stylist determining just the right look for subjects of award-winning ad campaigns, chart-topping music videos and iconic magazine covers including Moore’s. Then the Ohio native sought a change. Goldstein focused on offering style to the masses with an original line on home shopping network QVC and last week started a new one-hour weekly show. “There was a whole world out there that wasn’t privy to the world that I…

‘CHAPPIE’ TOPS SLOW WEEKEND, ‘UNFINISHED BUSINESS’ TANKS Neither a hyper-intelligent robot nor Vince Vaughn could save the box office this weekend, which is down 38.5 percent from the same weekend last year, according to Sunday estimates from box office firm Rentrak. While Neill Blomkamp’s R-rated “Chappie” might have taken the No. 1 spot in its 3,201 theater debut, its modest $13.3 million gross is hardly anything to celebrate. It’s a career low for Blomkamp, whose previous films “Elysium” and “District 9” debuted at $29.8 and $37.4 million, respectively. Distributor Sony remains optimistic about its $49 million film about a police robot (voiced by Sharlto Copley) that learns how to think and feel. “It certainly opened in our realm of expectations for it for the weekend,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s president…

Everyone knows the tale of Cinderella. The story of the beautiful girl who is forced into servitude by a wicked stepfamily, transformed for a night by magic, and saved by a nameless prince has been around for centuries. But while “Cinderella” is ingrained in the world’s consciousness, it’s also as outdated as a fairy tale can be. So why are audiences now getting an expensive retelling of the passé bedtime story, 65 years after Disney released its animated classic and just months after the screen version of “Into the Woods” poked fun at the idea of insincere princes and delusional princesses? For one, Disney’s live-action adaptations of its animated properties have become big business for the studio. Between “Alice in Wonderland” (2010) and “Maleficent” (2014), Disney has grossed nearly $2…

To deafening cheers and a stunned celebrity front row, Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller closed Valentino’s show during Paris Fashion Week Tuesday by storming the catwalk in a headline-grabbing stunt to announce the decision to make “Zoolander 2.” Meanwhile, Karl Lagerfeld spent the earth to recreate a giant fully-functioning French brasserie inside the Grand Palais - replete with silver platter waiter service - to showcase Chanel’s latest looks. Here are the highlights of the fall-winter 2015 ready to wear collections: ZOOLANDER 2 ANNOUNCED IN FITTING STYLE To great bravado, the two Hollywood stars reprised their roles as male models Derek Zoolander and Hansel, immortalized in the hugely popular 2001 movie, on the catwalk for Valentino’s show. It stunned celebrity guests that included Nicky Hilton and actress Kate Mara. The sequel…

An off-set altercation has imperiled car show “Top Gear” one of the BBC’s most lucrative productions. BBC News said Wednesday that the broadcaster has postponed the three remaining episodes after suspending host Jeremy Clarkson over a reported “fracas” with a producer. Co-host James May characterized the incident between Clarkson and the producer as “a bit of a dustup.” “But I don’t think it’s that serious,” he added. “Top Gear’”s blend of car humor and blokey banter has won it legions of fans. The current series was launched simultaneously in more than 50 countries and the BBC has sold the format for locally produced versions in the U.S., China, Russia, Australia and South Korea. It has also attracted controversy, much of it attached to Clarkson, the best-known of the three main…