Entertainment world

Blink 182’s Travis Barker is expected to fully recover after being involved in a fatal plane crash.

The star suffered burns on Saturday (September 20) after a Learjet crashed in South Carolina.

Four people died in the accident, with Barker and DJ Adam Goldstein the only survivors.

According to BBC News, Barker and Goldstein are expected to fully recover from the injuries they suffered in the accident.

They are described as being in a “critical but stable” position in hospital in Augusta, Georgia.

Dr Fred Mullins said that the pair had suffered both second and third degree burns. Barker was burned on his torso and lower body. Goldstein was burned on his hands and head.

When a red curtain opens and an orchestra conductor emerges to “direct” the unmistakable 20th Century Fox theme music, we know we’re in for something different. Really different. Good different.

Filled with virtuoso special effects and spectacular song-and-dance sequences, Baz Luhrmann’s long-awaited Moulin Rouge makes every minute of our collectively held breath worthwhile. In fact, during its opening hour, this critic found it hard to look away even for a second to jot down a note, for fear of missing even a nuanced sparkle in the eye of some French whore.

But enough about me.

Somewhere between a fairy tale and an episode of Sesame Street, sitting on a strange line between history and fantasy, lies Moulin Rouge, a vaguely familiar story about a love affair between a penniless writer and a dying courtesan. Set in Paris in the year 1900, in and around the infamous Moulin Rouge — a brothel/dancehall in the seediest part of town — the film quickly tosses us into a whirlwind of a story, windmill included.

Christian (Ewan McGregor) arrives in Paris, eager to make his mark as a writer. No sooner does he begin to type than a band of bohemian poets and actors literally fall in on him, including the crazed and diminutive Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo, acting on his knees). Together they hatch a plot to take a new musical across the street to the Moulin Rouge in search of a backer for their thrilling new show.

Naturally, before midnight strikes, Christian has fallen in love with the star of the Rouge, the “Sparkling Diamond” Satine (Nicole Kidman), while her boss, the maniacal Zidler (Jim Broadbent) looks on disapprovingly. The man with the money is the Duke of Worcester (Richard Roxburgh), to whom everyone must suck up. But it wouldn’t be a movie unless the Duke was also in love with Satine — and boy does he have a mean streak….

Its plot is as old and trite as the most overdone of Greek tragedies, but the fun of Moulin Rouge is all in its telling. Far and away the best part of the movie are the spectacular musical numbers performed by some very good (not great) singers. (All the actors did their own voice work.) When they simply talk, you’ll find yourself drumming your fingers, hoping the next number will come along soon. And they always do — like a machine gun, some 19 performances appear in rapid succession.

The songs are all contemporary numbers unknown to 1900s Paris. While the use of pop songs in period pieces has actually been a mainstay of the musical since the 1940s, it’s never been taken to the extremes of Rouge. A Knight’s Tale tried this stunt only a few weeks ago, with mixed results. In Moulin Rouge, McGregor belts out “The Sound of Music” in one scene, Broadbent vamps through “Like a Virgin” (yes, Jim Broadbent), McGregor and Kidman duet memorably through a host of love-themed songs while standing atop the elephant in which she lives (yes, elephant), and the entire cast tangos to a Latin-infused version of “Roxanne,” with Jose Feliciano backing the group. You won’t even realize Marilyn Manson is covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” A Knight’s Tale’s “We Will Rock You” comes off as lame in comparison. Put simply, Moulin Rouge rocks.

The cast is uniformly superb. Jim Broadbent appears larger than life (and he is larger than life to begin with), while John Leguizamo is astonishingly smaller than life… with a French lisp to boot (”the Thpawk-leeeng Die-aaay-mon!” — try it out loud). Of course, this is Kidman’s and McGregor’s movie, and when they’re together on screen the picture shines brighter than ever. In fact, for their duets, Luhrmann (William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet) really cranks things up, laying on the dazzle and pouring his heart into the movie. The three of them form a remarkably apt trio.

Still, there’s only so much of this anyone can take. Moulin Rouge is a movie that wears down the audience and its cast. While it starts off as an unmitigated five-star extravaganza, it eventually flags into mere four-star territory as the film becomes repetitious and a bit slow (heresy!). Still, it’s one of the best films of the year to date, following Memento as the only award-caliber film released so far in 2001.

But forget all of that. What you will have witnessed after seeing Moulin Rouge is nothing short of the rebirth of the movie musical. It will certainly be a love-it-or-hate-it experience for moviegoers — but like they say, if you don’t get it, you’re just too old. Way too old.

Dead, probably.

As good as the film is, the Moulin Rouge DVD is better, a lavish, two-disc affair replete with extras. Luhrmann appears on two commentary tracks, and (much like The Matrix) a “follow the green fairy” feature takes you to mini-making-of bits in context with the movie. And if all that’s not enough, just pop in the second disc, for inside looks at early script drafts (amazing!), deleted scenes (inspiring!), and just about anything else you could want to see — including the performance of “Lady Marmalade” at the MTV Movie Awards. Outstanding disc.

The rogues of Rouge

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox Searchlight has picked up “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” a project based on the 1968 Tom Wolfe book. Gus Van Sant is directing.

“Kool-Aid” is Wolfe’s account of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” author Ken Kesey and a group dubbed the Merry Pranksters as they drive across the country in a DayGlo-painted school bus dubbed Furthur, reaching personal and collective revelations through the use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs.

The film adaptation was first packaged last year after producer Richard Gladstein, who had the rights, enlisted Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black.

Van Sant returns to theaters on November 26 with “Milk,” which stars Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch. The Focus Features release is generating advance awards buzz for its depiction of California’s first openly gay elected official, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.

/Hollywood Reporter

Piven Blasts Emmy Award’s Reality Hosts

Actor Jeremy Piven has blamed his ill-received acceptance speech at last month’s 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on the event’s reality TV star hosts.

Piven picked up a third successive gong for his role in U.S. TV hit Entourage at the ceremony, where he took the stage to thank his co-stars.

The star took aim at the hosts, including American Idol’s Ryan Seacrest, Project Runway’s Heidi Klum, slamming their lacklustre opening sequence after his own speech dried up.

And the actor cites the hosts’ poor opener as the reason the audience were difficult to entertain.

He says, “I thought we were being Punked, but indeed that was the act - that they didn’t have anything… I was confused. I bombed. It felt and looked like the life had been taken out of the audience… there was not a courtesy giggle to be found.”

New Jersey natives Chris Batten and the Woods, are set to perform at Club NME New York City with Fred Perry Subculture this Thursday (September 25).

Also performing at Annex this week are New Yorkers Go Station and Tulsa, OK rockers The Effect.

Cover for the bands is $10 - free after the bands, with happy hour from midnight to 1am. Student cover is $5.

After the bands is late night club Tricky Thursdays featuring Michael T. , Linda Simpson, DJ Corey Tut, Ernie and Violet Temper.

All Club NME presale tickets are available at www.ticketweb.com.

Club NME New York City with Fred Perry Subculture takes place every Thursday at The Annex, 152 Orchard St.

–By our New York staff.
Find out more about NME.

When you’re the chosen one, like the boy wizard Harry Potter, expectations surrounding your arrival can be quite high. The same can be said for the film adaptation about said boy wizard, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. And while the young wonder might not let his magic school chums down, the movie chronicling his early wizard years could use a little lift.

Which isn’t to say that Sorcerer’s Stone, the first Harry Potter movie based on J.K. Rowling’s inexplicably successful book series, is a boring movie. In fact, Rowling’s exceptional world, involving young magic makers at a British wizardry prep school, transfers to the screen with a general creativity and charm in the hands of director Chris Columbus. The author’s Cinderella-esque tale of a boy who gets invited to the most magical ball of them all, kicks off with a classic sensibility, almost like a modern Dickens.

From there, getting to the celebrated Hogwarts School is a treat, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and the rest of the incoming first-years (including Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger) buy the proper wizard tools, find the elusive Track 9 3/4 at the train station, and travel in boats by moonlight to the gothic center of higher learning. Columbus weaves the special effects so smoothly into the narrative as to make the magic nearly matter-of-fact.

But after we get the general gist of life at Hogwarts, Sorcerer’s Stone loses some of its sheen. The collection of characters to which we’re introduced early — Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall; Alan Rickman as the eerie Professor Snape; the delightful Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid — aren’t utilized well enough to provide the necessary oomph. They’re stuck within Steve Kloves’ (Wonder Boys) light, thin plot, with their roles eventually reduced to side characters, comic relief, or vague red herrings.

And the flatness of the narrative goes hand-in-hand with some of Sorcerer’s Stone look as well. Save for a couple of sequences, Columbus just doesn’t provide enough visual wow for such magical subject matter. I know that some of the action is meant to be dark, but the overall look of the movie doesn’t have the punch that the on-screen activity demands. In the end, there are too many missed opportunities for maximum thrills.

A prime exception is the truly wonderful centerpiece of the film, a prep school Quidditch match. For the uninitiated, Quidditch is a soccer style game played completely in mid-air, with players on broomsticks. Picture a combination of The Wizard of Oz and Rollerball.

Columbus’ take on this game is superb. There’s speedy action, seamless effects, and some thrilling excitement. The design of the match provides a wonderful combination of visual styles, with mid-20th century prep school clothes amidst medieval set design. The scene is, by far, the highlight of the film, much as the pod race was in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (oddly enough, another somewhat disappointing movie about a chosen boy).

But once we get back to the tale of our trio of little wizards, the plodding plot returns. And unfortunately, Radcliffe, as our hero, doesn’t seem too enthused by much of the wild goings-on. His school cronies, on the other hand, are just great — Grint, as Ronald, is wide-eyed and sympathetic, and Watson, as the precocious Hermione, is smart and energetic, taking a bigger bite out of this movie than any other actor.

While Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone does score points by giving visuals to some wildly fantastic stuff, the total picture lacks polish, and feels like a mild setup to future movies. Similar to X-Men, we get an environment being introduced just for the sake of future movies. That creates anticipation among fans, but shortchanges those watching this one.

The release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone coincides with another Harry Potter milestone — the beginning of production on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, scheduled to hit theaters in mid-November, 2002. Stone is already expected to break box office records, including a possible run at Titanic (highly unlikely, if you ask me). That means there’s one thing Warner Brothers will be saying about young Harry for the foreseeable future… long live The Boy Who Lived.

Harry Potter’s DVD is as inexplicable as it is ambitious. An enormous two-disc set, the DVD promises tantalizing “never before seen footage,” but good luck trying to find it. Disc one is the standard movie, and disc two amounts to what is best described as an intricate game for kids. It’s all designed as a puzzle — to do anything you have to twist the right bricks to gain access, just like Harry and Hagrid did in London. If you didn’t memorize the pattern, you’ll have to go back to the movie (swapping discs in the process — though if you screw up enough times, the game will eventually show you the answer). To open more and more of the disc you have to complete more and more idiotic tasks — picking a wand, mixing potions, and the like. I gave up after half an hour of this nonsense, having exposed little more than a collection of interview clips. Warner Brothers: I appreciate that you’ve tried to do something beyond the usual with this highly anticipated release, but for us adults, give us a back door to the special features. We just don’t have time for this Hogwarts — I mean, hogwash.

School’s in session.

Boyzone singer Ronan Keating has slammed Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke as an “idiot” and “rude”, despite being a fan of his music.

The Irish pop star tells the Metro: “Thom Yorke from Radiohead was pretty rude.”

“We were at the same hotel in Dublin and I went over to say hello as I’m a big Radiohead fan and he just blanked me. I still love the music - he’s just an idiot.”

Boyzone recently reformed and will be touring in 2009. They also have a compilation album named ‘Back Again… No Matter What’ due on October 13th, as well as new single Love You Anyway on Monday (September 29th).

Amid rumors of a recent tiff, lovebirds Lindsay Lohan, 22, and Samantha Ronson, 31, were all smiles for the camera during a recent trip to Tokyo where Lindsay is collaborating with Sam’s twin sister and fashion designer, Charlotte Ronson, on Charlotte Hearts Lindsay Lohan, a limited edition handbag and charm line.

CLICK HERE for OK!’s Ultimate Lindsay Gallery!

But there’s one person who’s concerned that the media attention may be too much for the young couple. Samantha’s mom, Ann Dexter-Jones, says dealing with the gossip is harder for Lindz and Sam than people think. “It makes it very hard for them. You can’t have a good ol’ argument and nobody cares,” Ann told OK! at the Oct. 21 Chanel Mobile art exhibit opening in NYC.

Ann says it’s not easy watching her daughter be in one of the most talked-about romances in Hollywood. “I’m naturally concerned,” she told OK!, but adds, “Samantha can handle it.”

Meanwhile, Lindsay’s mom, Dina Lohan, recently blasted rumors claiming her daughter’s six-episode guest spot on Ugly Betty was cut short due to tension between Lindz and Betty star America Ferrera.

“It was just silly. America’s a doll,” Dina said. And as for rumors of Lindsay’s diva-like behavior on set, Dina explains, “They said Lindsay brought a posse. It was my mother and myself and Ali [Lohan]. It was not a posse.”

CLICK HERE for OK!’s Ultimate Lindsay Gallery!

DETROIT (Billboard) - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich promises that fans will hear “a lot of new songs” on the group’s upcoming tour, which kicks off October 21 near Phoenix.

The heavy metal titans recently spent three weeks atop the U.S. pop album chart with “Death Magnetic,” the band’s first set of new material in five years.

“These new songs are a lot of fun to play,” Ulrich told Billboard.com. “Traditionally I think we’ve been a little conservative when we’ve started off with two songs, three songs (from the new album). We’re going to hit the ground running here. We’re probably gonna learn all of them and play, I hope, at least five a night and probably rotate ‘em so we get a lot of new songs in. That’s one thing I’m definite about.”

Metallica, which has dates booked into August of 2009, will again be playing in the round, though Ulrich said the production will be “a completely different thing than what we’ve done before.”

He said there would be “a big-ass f–kin’ lighting rig above us, and there’s some pretty cool stuff up there. There’ll be some s–t that turns on and off and some s–t that blows up … the usual stuff.

Ulrich said he was “a little overwhelmed (and) humbled” by the reception to “Death Magnetic,” which has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide already. The band’s previous release, “St. Anger,” was a commercial and critical disappointment.

“You couldn’t have told me a month ago or six months ago that we would have a record that would be this well-received,” Ulrich said. “It seems like it’s so universal this time and it’s all over the world and everybody’s so into it on so many different levels — the fans, press, the peers … everybody.”

/Billboard

Eva Mendes is quite literally stopping traffic with a new giant billboard advertisement.

The actress poses completely starkers for Calvin Klein’s Secret Obsession fragrance on the famous Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

The eye-popping ad - which was deemed too sexy for US television - features a nude Eva with only a hand and a strategically-placed sheet to protect her magnified modesty.

We hope she is ready for her close-up.