Tim Burton: The Man who will President

Tim Burton is to be the next president of the Cannes Film Festival, the AFP (Agence France-Presse) revealed on January 26.

According to the French press agency, the US director of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Batman will be presiding over the prestigious film festival from May 12 to May 23. The director described his nomination as "a dream come true".

Festival president Gilles Jacob described Burton as a "magician", praising Burton for his cinematography.

"We hope his sweet madness and gothic humour will pervade the Croisette," he added, referring to the boulevard of Cannes by the sea.

Burton is famous for his Gothic and surreal films and animations, such as Sleepy Hollow and The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, Burton has also produced a children's film (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), a fantasy film (Big Fish), a biography (Ed Wood), two science fiction films (Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks), and a musical (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street). His next project, an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll will hit the silver screen in March and will star Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.


External Links:

http://www.france24.com/en/20100126-tim-burton-head-2010-cannes-film-festival-jury

http://www.france24.com/fr/20100126-tim-burton-president-prochain-festival-cannes-cinema
(Original page in French)

http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/about.html

Farewell, Oprah

Ladies and gentlemen and general Oprah fans, if you have any tissues or handkerchiefs, whip them out. After September 2011, The Oprah Winfrey Show will be no more.

Chat show presenter Oprah Winfrey has announced on the 20th that she would be taking her show off the air in September 2011. This event will mark the 25 years she has been a talk show presenter:

"Twenty-five years feels right in my bones, and it feels right in my spirit - it's the perfect number, the exact right time,

We are going to knock your socks off. And until that day in 2011 when it ends, I intend to soak up every meaningful, joyful moment with you," the 55-year-old host said to her live audience.

Oprah Winfrey began her TV show in 1986 and has since been broadcast in 145 countries. The talk show was founded to allow frank and open conversation between Oprah and however decided to come to the show, attracting guests such as President Barack Obama, Michael Jackson, Bob Hope, Tom Cruise, and many more.

Oprah is also famous for her Book Club, which has caused books by authors such as Janet Finch to become overnight best-sellers. She also has a radio station presented by author Dr. Maya Angelou. In addition, Oprah's support proved to be invaluable to President Obama during his election campaign.

So for anyone who felt inspired by Oprah, watched her show, or are simply sad to see her go off TV, cheer up. We've still got a ways to go.


Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8369689.stm

http://www.oprah.com/index

From the Hand of Donatello to a Physician

The V&A launches its Medieval & Renaissance galleries with some spectacular art works by the likes of Donatello. The most fantastic piece to make it into the gallery includes a "tondo the size of a plate" that was a gift for the doctor Giovanni Chellini da San Miniato who writes about it in the Ricordanze, his economic diary. Back in the Renaissance, well-to-do men would keep small journals about their finances (e.g. debits and credits, dowries, etc). Occasionally, the author would add a small commentary or two.

Chellini did the same on the 27th of August 1456, when to his surprise, the physician treated a celebrity. The celebrity in question was none other than Donatello, one of the most iconic visual artists of the Quattrocento (what the Italians called the 1400's or the Renaissance). As payment for the doctor's treatment of an unspecified illness, Donatello gave a tondo of the Virgin Mary, who is forced to bend her neck to avoid being out of the boundary of the sculpture. On either side, two angels stop her from going to the left or right.

The fact that the good doctor accepted a work of art as a form of payment comes to show that visual artists were held in greater esteem than in our modern times. In addition, Donatello created art that replaced beauty with emotional honesty, making him the first expressionist visual artist before even Van Gogh equated emotion with art.


Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/nov/21/donatello-vanda-medieval-renaissance-galleries

http://www.answers.com/topic/tondo-art-1

http://www.lib-art.com/imgpaintingthumb/3/3/t9233-chellini-madonna-verso-donatello.jpg

RIP Stephen Gately-Part 2

"The world has lost one of it's brightest stars, we have lost our brother,"

Those heart-felt words were spoken by Ronan Keating at the funeral of fellow bandmate Stephen Gately at the St Laurence O'Toole Church in Ireland today.

His funeral is one of the biggest events in the music world, with messages of condolences coming from various performing artists as George Michael, David and Victoria Beckham, Simon Cowell, Take That, Westlife, U2, Robbie Williams, Cheryl Cole, Colin Farrell, Sharon Osborne, Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem.

Gately's parents Margaret and Martin and his siblings Mark, Alan, Tony, and Michelle all attended the funeral along with his partner, Andrew Cowles.

Post-mortem tests have revealed that Mr. Gately died from natural causes, specifically from a condition known as pulmonary oedema.

In the meantime, a column by Jan Moir of the Daily Mail has sparked much criticism from Gately's fanbase. The reporter is accused of homophobia particularly by her claim that Gately's death is not natural.

"Her evidence for that claim is non-existent. Instead, she resorts to innuendo and goes on to make a leap of stunning illogicality by suggesting that the death "strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships."" Roy Greenslade writes in his blog for the Guardian Unlimited.

Another statment in Moir's article that has garnered controversy is shown below:

"Once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see."

Greenslade refers to this statement as "a final, breathtaking statement of unalloyed homophobia"

In the meantime, Jan Moir has written in her defense that "...it seems unlikely to me that what took place in the hours immediately preceding Gately's death - out all evening at a nightclub, taking illegal substances, bringing a stranger back to the flat, getting intimate with that stranger - did not have a bearing on his death."

Furthermore, Ms. Moir insisted that when she wrote "...that 'it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships'" she meant "that civil partnerships - the introduction of which I am on the record in supporting - have proved just to be as problematic as marriages."

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8311894.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/oct/16/dailymail-stephen-gately
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death--.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/16/jan-moir-stephen-gately-response