NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jason Priestley says he got a crash course on the Nashville music industry while directing a reality series about the Canadian band the Road Hammers. Priestley, 38, followed the group to Nashville as they sought a record deal.
"I got there as an outsider following this band who had a lot of autonomy in Canada and were basically left alone by their record label and did things how they wanted to do them and were successful," the former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star told The Associated Press recently. "And here I am following them around in Nashville and they get greeted a lot with 'That's not the way we do it here' or 'Let me tell you how we do it in Nashville.' It was very interesting."
The series, "The Road Hammers," premiered last month on the Great American Country channel, where it's airing in eight half-hour weekly episodes (Thursday nights at 8:30 Eastern).
Priestley, who's Canadian, filmed the series last summer. He did a similar project a decade ago with the Canadian rock group Barenaked Ladies, following them on their U.S. tour.
"I have a lot friends who are musicians. I think I'm just fascinated by that industry," Priestley said. "It's just amazing that it works at all. It's a mess, but it works."
2008年7月4日星期五
Rachael Ray employee claims anorexia bias
NEW YORK - A former accountant for Rachael Ray's TV cooking show has filed a $1 million lawsuit saying he was forced out of his job because he has an eating disorder. Aaron Ferguson says in papers filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court that he has suffered from anorexia for about six years. He says his supervisor repeatedly exhibited "hostile behavior" and made "vile," discriminatory and hurtful comments.
The comments included, "Anorexics are sick in the head," and, "Anorexics should not be able to work," his court papers say.
Ferguson's lawyer, William H. Kaiser, said Thursday, "The things that were said in front of my client were hurtful, and once they knew he had a problem with it they should have stopped."
Ferguson says he repeatedly complained about his supervisor's use, in his presence, of discriminatory language regarding anorexics but their superiors did nothing that improved his situation.
Ferguson said he began working in July 2007 for CBS Television Distributions Inc., a CBS Corp. unit and the producer and owner of the "Rachael Ray" show. After he complained about his treatment, he says, he was forced out in October 2007.
Kaiser said the firing was retaliation: "He was punished for complaining."
The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday, names CBS Corp., CBSTD Inc. and three employees of the show as defendants. Ray is not named as a defendant.
A CBS spokesman referred calls to show spokeswoman Lauren Nowell, who said she could not comment on pending litigation.
The comments included, "Anorexics are sick in the head," and, "Anorexics should not be able to work," his court papers say.
Ferguson's lawyer, William H. Kaiser, said Thursday, "The things that were said in front of my client were hurtful, and once they knew he had a problem with it they should have stopped."
Ferguson says he repeatedly complained about his supervisor's use, in his presence, of discriminatory language regarding anorexics but their superiors did nothing that improved his situation.
Ferguson said he began working in July 2007 for CBS Television Distributions Inc., a CBS Corp. unit and the producer and owner of the "Rachael Ray" show. After he complained about his treatment, he says, he was forced out in October 2007.
Kaiser said the firing was retaliation: "He was punished for complaining."
The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday, names CBS Corp., CBSTD Inc. and three employees of the show as defendants. Ray is not named as a defendant.
A CBS spokesman referred calls to show spokeswoman Lauren Nowell, who said she could not comment on pending litigation.
Call girl in Spitzer case drops "Gone Wild" suit
MIAMI (Reuters) - The call girl linked to the sex scandal that prompted the resignation of then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in March has dropped a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis. A statement from an attorney for Ashley Alexandra Dupre said the complaint, filed in April in federal court in Miami and alleging illegal use of Dupre's name and image, was withdrawn on Thursday.
"Ms. Dupre wants to eliminate all negativity from her life and focus on the positive. She has prospects for many exciting new projects and is looking forward to starting a new chapter," the statement said.
In the lawsuit, Dupre contended she was 17 and not old enough to sign a legally binding contract when she appeared partially nude in video footage filmed in 2003 by members of Francis' Mantra Films production company in Miami Beach.
On spring break vacation at the time, she was drunk when told to sign a video release form, according to the complaint, which sought damages in excess of $10 million.
Francis had denied the allegations.
Dupre was identified in media reports in March as the woman named "Kristen" linked to "Client 9," the frequent client of an upscale prostitution ring.
U.S. media, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, have said Spitzer was the anonymous "Client 9."
"Ms. Dupre wants to eliminate all negativity from her life and focus on the positive. She has prospects for many exciting new projects and is looking forward to starting a new chapter," the statement said.
In the lawsuit, Dupre contended she was 17 and not old enough to sign a legally binding contract when she appeared partially nude in video footage filmed in 2003 by members of Francis' Mantra Films production company in Miami Beach.
On spring break vacation at the time, she was drunk when told to sign a video release form, according to the complaint, which sought damages in excess of $10 million.
Francis had denied the allegations.
Dupre was identified in media reports in March as the woman named "Kristen" linked to "Client 9," the frequent client of an upscale prostitution ring.
U.S. media, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, have said Spitzer was the anonymous "Client 9."
Just a Minute With: Josh Peck for "The Wackness"
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Josh Peck has spent much of his teenage and young adult life in front of television cameras portraying the chubby, goofy character Josh in the Nickelodeon cable TV series "Drake & Josh."
But a slimmed-down Peck, 21, is now starring in art house drama "The Wackness" as a New York City high school dope dealer, Luke Shapiro, who trades marijuana for counseling with his psychologist, portrayed by Sir Ben Kingsley.
The role in the adult-oriented film, in which Luke falls in love for the first time, is a major departure from Peck's TV show aimed at young teenagers. Peck, who grew up in Manhattan, talked to Reuters about the movie and his career.
Q: You started at age 9 doing stand-up comedy and then went on to acting, what interested you from the start?
A: "It gave me a lot of confidence, and I felt accepted in this arena, and I would see a lot of kids' performances and think I could really do that. I didn't see why I couldn't."
Q: With "Wackness," did you think you needed to take a role that was opposite of straight-arrow Josh in "Drake & Josh" in order to change your image as an actor.
A: "The ("Drake & Josh") audience has supported me over the past several years -- have made me who I am -- and for that I'm forever in their debt. But this is its own genre. Doing "The Wackness" was an oddly selfish endeavor because I was only thinking of myself. I read the material and felt like I could portray this character in an honest way. I identified with some of his attributes and a lot of his weaknesses."
Q: Like what?
A: "The universal themes of his vulnerability and his sort of disillusionment and cynicism at that time in his life. I felt like I definitely went through a stage where I thought: 'If this was adulthood, I don't want any part of it."'
Q: Do you think some of your "Drake & Josh" fans will be surprised that Josh has become the dope-dealing Luke.
A: "I guess I'm hoping they can take a leap of faith with me, that although they haven't seen me in this type of forum before, they can accept me in the direction and chances I want to take. Also, for me, I was 15 when I started doing the show, and a lot of the audience was 12, and now I'm 21 and they're 18, which I think might be a perfect age to see the movie."
Q: How have you changed in those years, as an actor?
A: "Every role, I think, can be extremely therapeutic. It's not therapy exactly. For that I pay a professional. (laughs)"
Q: But do you sell dope to that professional?
A: "I'd never tell. (laughs again) But there's something very cathartic about being able to take past experiences and infuse them into this kind of character. It's nice to bring some legitimacy to heartbreak that I've experienced in my real life and thought I'd never recover from."
Q: That begs the question, has your heart been broken?
A: "Shattered, my friend. Shattered! But that makes life -- if you're able to persevere through the difficulty -- that much sweeter. It's necessary, but when you're in the middle of it, you don't know if you're going to live or die and you're plastered to your mom's couch eating Rice Krispie treats."
Q: In "Wackness," you worked with an Oscar winner and master actor in Sir Ben Kingsley, what did you learn?
A: "How to conduct myself as a professional on set. When I did ask for advice, he was less interested in me as a actor and more interested in me as a person. ... You're only an actor a part of time, but you're a human being all of the time."
Q: You were a chubby kid, but you took it on yourself to lose a lot of weight. Why was that important?
A: "For me, getting healthy was about myself. A lot of guys can be bigger and are comfortable with it. For me, I wasn't really comfortable. From a health perspective, I just knew that if there were ever a time to get healthy it was this age. If I can also inspire kids to get healthy -- I know how tough it was growing up as a chubby kid. For them to know there was someone out there who got healthy, that's pretty cool."
But a slimmed-down Peck, 21, is now starring in art house drama "The Wackness" as a New York City high school dope dealer, Luke Shapiro, who trades marijuana for counseling with his psychologist, portrayed by Sir Ben Kingsley.
The role in the adult-oriented film, in which Luke falls in love for the first time, is a major departure from Peck's TV show aimed at young teenagers. Peck, who grew up in Manhattan, talked to Reuters about the movie and his career.
Q: You started at age 9 doing stand-up comedy and then went on to acting, what interested you from the start?
A: "It gave me a lot of confidence, and I felt accepted in this arena, and I would see a lot of kids' performances and think I could really do that. I didn't see why I couldn't."
Q: With "Wackness," did you think you needed to take a role that was opposite of straight-arrow Josh in "Drake & Josh" in order to change your image as an actor.
A: "The ("Drake & Josh") audience has supported me over the past several years -- have made me who I am -- and for that I'm forever in their debt. But this is its own genre. Doing "The Wackness" was an oddly selfish endeavor because I was only thinking of myself. I read the material and felt like I could portray this character in an honest way. I identified with some of his attributes and a lot of his weaknesses."
Q: Like what?
A: "The universal themes of his vulnerability and his sort of disillusionment and cynicism at that time in his life. I felt like I definitely went through a stage where I thought: 'If this was adulthood, I don't want any part of it."'
Q: Do you think some of your "Drake & Josh" fans will be surprised that Josh has become the dope-dealing Luke.
A: "I guess I'm hoping they can take a leap of faith with me, that although they haven't seen me in this type of forum before, they can accept me in the direction and chances I want to take. Also, for me, I was 15 when I started doing the show, and a lot of the audience was 12, and now I'm 21 and they're 18, which I think might be a perfect age to see the movie."
Q: How have you changed in those years, as an actor?
A: "Every role, I think, can be extremely therapeutic. It's not therapy exactly. For that I pay a professional. (laughs)"
Q: But do you sell dope to that professional?
A: "I'd never tell. (laughs again) But there's something very cathartic about being able to take past experiences and infuse them into this kind of character. It's nice to bring some legitimacy to heartbreak that I've experienced in my real life and thought I'd never recover from."
Q: That begs the question, has your heart been broken?
A: "Shattered, my friend. Shattered! But that makes life -- if you're able to persevere through the difficulty -- that much sweeter. It's necessary, but when you're in the middle of it, you don't know if you're going to live or die and you're plastered to your mom's couch eating Rice Krispie treats."
Q: In "Wackness," you worked with an Oscar winner and master actor in Sir Ben Kingsley, what did you learn?
A: "How to conduct myself as a professional on set. When I did ask for advice, he was less interested in me as a actor and more interested in me as a person. ... You're only an actor a part of time, but you're a human being all of the time."
Q: You were a chubby kid, but you took it on yourself to lose a lot of weight. Why was that important?
A: "For me, getting healthy was about myself. A lot of guys can be bigger and are comfortable with it. For me, I wasn't really comfortable. From a health perspective, I just knew that if there were ever a time to get healthy it was this age. If I can also inspire kids to get healthy -- I know how tough it was growing up as a chubby kid. For them to know there was someone out there who got healthy, that's pretty cool."
Former Whitesnake guitarist dies
LONDON (Reuters) - Fellow musicians have paid tribute to Mel Galley, former guitarist in British hard rock band Whitesnake who died of cancer this week aged 60.
Galley also played in Trapeze.
"He took my hand as a boy and walked me through my earliest chapters as a young musician," Glenn Hughes, a singer and bass guitarist with Trapeze, said on his website.
"He alone is responsible for my career as a working musician/singer-songwriter," added Hughes, who went on to play with Deep Purple.
Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale also said he "treasures the memory of knowing him and working together with him," according to the BBC.
Galley played with Whitesnake between 1982 and 1984, when he had to leave the band after hurting his arm in an accident.
On a posting on his MySpace page shortly after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Galley paid tribute to his wife and two sons and added:
"I have enjoyed a great life, traveled the world having some amazing experiences, met all sorts of people and played with some of the best musicians there are."
Galley also played in Trapeze.
"He took my hand as a boy and walked me through my earliest chapters as a young musician," Glenn Hughes, a singer and bass guitarist with Trapeze, said on his website.
"He alone is responsible for my career as a working musician/singer-songwriter," added Hughes, who went on to play with Deep Purple.
Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale also said he "treasures the memory of knowing him and working together with him," according to the BBC.
Galley played with Whitesnake between 1982 and 1984, when he had to leave the band after hurting his arm in an accident.
On a posting on his MySpace page shortly after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Galley paid tribute to his wife and two sons and added:
"I have enjoyed a great life, traveled the world having some amazing experiences, met all sorts of people and played with some of the best musicians there are."
French and tourists seem indifferent to Brangelina
NICE, France - Partially eclipsed by the glitterati of Cannes and the royal glare of Monaco, Nice is a place where even the brightest stars — like Brangelina — are greeted by little more than indifference. Only the presence of paparazzi outside the seaside hospital where Angelina Jolie is waiting to give birth to twins gives any indication that the star is in the seaside resort in Southern France.
The Cote d'Azur has long been the playground of the rich and famous. Elton John, Bono and Brigitte Bardot are among the stars with houses in the region. But Nice likes to think of itself as more down-to-earth than its celebrity-crazed neighbors.
"Of course it is less glamorous. It's more for active people, people who love art, sport and gastronomy," said tourism bureau spokeswoman Isabelle Billey Quere. "It's a real town," she said, with a university, France's largest airport and largest art collection outside of Paris, 7.5 miles of shoreline — and a population that has grown accustomed to the arrival of foreigners and celebrities from at least the mid-19th century.
There are no gaggles of autograph-seekers waiting to catch a glimpse of Brad Pitt as he comes and goes, and just a handful of English-speaking tourists held their cell phones aloft in an attempt to snap photos of two of the couple's children leaving the hospital on Thursday. Jolie herself is on the fifth-floor with tinted windows — affording her privacy along with a fabulous view of the Mediterranean.
The constant flow of celebrities through the Riviera also contributes to the blase reception, said Nancy Wilson, assistant editor of the English-language Riviera Reporter and correspondent for People magazine.
"But I think all the French have this attitude, that celebrities' private lives are their own concern, and that celebrities are no better than them," Wilson said. "French people are very proud, especially the women, who are very sexy and confident; they see Angelina Jolie and don't aspire to be her."
No one is more surprised than the Nicois that Jolie and Pitt chose their city — and a regular maternity ward where normal citizens go to have their babies.
When their daughter Shiloh was born in 2006, the couple went all the way to the African nation Namibia, where the government shielded their privacy by requiring journalists seeking to cover the birth to have written permission from the couple to obtain a visa and ringing the couple's luxury hotel with heavy security.
In Southern France, a strong culture of respect for privacy seems to have had nearly the same effect.
"(Celebrities) love Nice because they can be anonymous here, not like Monaco or Cannes. They can go around town and no one tries to approach them. It is very easy for them," said Myriam Chokairy, the international press spokeswoman for the tourism office.
Just last week, Chokairy said her brother ran into Tony Parker and Eva Longoria at their neighborhood pharmacy.
"They were regular customers. No one bothered them," she said.
Jolie and Pitt and their four children — including their adopted children Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3 — have been settling into a new home in Correns, in the Provence region, about 60 miles from the Lenval clinic where Jolie arrived Sunday. Her doctor said she will remain in the hospital until she gives birth "in the coming weeks."
The Cote d'Azur has long been the playground of the rich and famous. Elton John, Bono and Brigitte Bardot are among the stars with houses in the region. But Nice likes to think of itself as more down-to-earth than its celebrity-crazed neighbors.
"Of course it is less glamorous. It's more for active people, people who love art, sport and gastronomy," said tourism bureau spokeswoman Isabelle Billey Quere. "It's a real town," she said, with a university, France's largest airport and largest art collection outside of Paris, 7.5 miles of shoreline — and a population that has grown accustomed to the arrival of foreigners and celebrities from at least the mid-19th century.
There are no gaggles of autograph-seekers waiting to catch a glimpse of Brad Pitt as he comes and goes, and just a handful of English-speaking tourists held their cell phones aloft in an attempt to snap photos of two of the couple's children leaving the hospital on Thursday. Jolie herself is on the fifth-floor with tinted windows — affording her privacy along with a fabulous view of the Mediterranean.
The constant flow of celebrities through the Riviera also contributes to the blase reception, said Nancy Wilson, assistant editor of the English-language Riviera Reporter and correspondent for People magazine.
"But I think all the French have this attitude, that celebrities' private lives are their own concern, and that celebrities are no better than them," Wilson said. "French people are very proud, especially the women, who are very sexy and confident; they see Angelina Jolie and don't aspire to be her."
No one is more surprised than the Nicois that Jolie and Pitt chose their city — and a regular maternity ward where normal citizens go to have their babies.
When their daughter Shiloh was born in 2006, the couple went all the way to the African nation Namibia, where the government shielded their privacy by requiring journalists seeking to cover the birth to have written permission from the couple to obtain a visa and ringing the couple's luxury hotel with heavy security.
In Southern France, a strong culture of respect for privacy seems to have had nearly the same effect.
"(Celebrities) love Nice because they can be anonymous here, not like Monaco or Cannes. They can go around town and no one tries to approach them. It is very easy for them," said Myriam Chokairy, the international press spokeswoman for the tourism office.
Just last week, Chokairy said her brother ran into Tony Parker and Eva Longoria at their neighborhood pharmacy.
"They were regular customers. No one bothered them," she said.
Jolie and Pitt and their four children — including their adopted children Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3 — have been settling into a new home in Correns, in the Provence region, about 60 miles from the Lenval clinic where Jolie arrived Sunday. Her doctor said she will remain in the hospital until she gives birth "in the coming weeks."
Brinkley: Husband's affair 'shattered' my life
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. - A tearful Christie Brinkley testified at her divorce trial Thursday that she was devastated by her husband's affair with a teenager and his attempts to find other paramours through pornographic Web sites.
"My world was completely shattered," the former Sports Illustrated model said. "My life as I knew it had vanished."
Brinkley took the stand in state Supreme Court a day after the trial opened with testimony from her architect-husband, Peter Cook, and his former mistress, Diana Bianchi, who was 18 when she began seeing him. Brinkley and Cook are mainly arguing over custody of their children, ages 10 and 13.
Brinkley said she learned about the betrayal when Bianchi's stepfather tapped her on the shoulder after she spoke at a Southampton High School graduation in June 2006.
"That husband of yours won't knock it off. He's having an affair with my teenage daughter," said the stepfather, Brian Platt, a Southampton Village police officer who testified to the same thing Wednesday.
Brinkley said she looked at Cook, sitting in the front row at the graduation. When he shook his head in denial before she even confronted him with the allegation, she thought: "My God, it's true. He did do that."
Cook initially denied the liaison, but he has since apologized and argues it should not disqualify him from getting custody of his children. He testified Wednesday that he gave Bianchi a $300,000 payoff, had trysts with her in his office and Brinkley's Hamptons homes and spent thousands of dollars on online porn.
Brinkley said after learning of his cheating she told him to give his computer passwords to her "if you've got nothing to hide" and found e-mails from Bianchi and porn sites he had visited. He was trying "to connect with people" in their neighborhood, she said.
"It was not a voyeur site. It was a meeting site," she said. "It was more than I could bear."
Cook, who testified that Bianchi was his only extramarital lover, said he and Brinkley used pornography "to get the mood going" during the last half of their 10-year marriage.
Brinkley said that before she learned of the affair, the marriage's biggest problem was Cook's relationship with Alexa Ray Joel, her daughter with "Piano Man" singer Billy Joel.
Cook constantly picked on her daughter for the slightest things, she said, echoing Alexa Joel's testimony Wednesday.
"You married me and my children," Brinkley said she would tell Cook. "You've got to find a way to love Alexa."
Alexa Joel, 22, testified that Cook treated her well before he married her mother but criticized her constantly afterward. She said he called her out for chewing loudly, complained about her piano playing and once shoved her head into a bucket of water while demanding she clean up a plumbing leak caused by her lengthy shower.
Cook denied Joel's account when he returned to the stand Thursday, saying he had "absolutely not" pushed her into the bucket. He said he tried to stop her "loud, aggressive" piano playing only when his and Brinkley's younger children were going to bed and was only backing up Brinkley's own admonishments about her daughter's chewing and protracted showers.
Cook's lawyer tried to portray Brinkley's testimony as courtroom theater.
"If you want to call me an actress, that's fine," Brinkley replied.
"I'm no Meryl Streep, but I have been in a very successful movie," she said with a sheepish smile while referring to 1983's "National Lampoon's Vacation."
"Thirty years later, it's still got legs," she said.
Brinkley, 54, and Cook, 49, wed in 1996. She filed for divorce a decade later after his affair with Bianchi became a tabloid scandal.
"My world was completely shattered," the former Sports Illustrated model said. "My life as I knew it had vanished."
Brinkley took the stand in state Supreme Court a day after the trial opened with testimony from her architect-husband, Peter Cook, and his former mistress, Diana Bianchi, who was 18 when she began seeing him. Brinkley and Cook are mainly arguing over custody of their children, ages 10 and 13.
Brinkley said she learned about the betrayal when Bianchi's stepfather tapped her on the shoulder after she spoke at a Southampton High School graduation in June 2006.
"That husband of yours won't knock it off. He's having an affair with my teenage daughter," said the stepfather, Brian Platt, a Southampton Village police officer who testified to the same thing Wednesday.
Brinkley said she looked at Cook, sitting in the front row at the graduation. When he shook his head in denial before she even confronted him with the allegation, she thought: "My God, it's true. He did do that."
Cook initially denied the liaison, but he has since apologized and argues it should not disqualify him from getting custody of his children. He testified Wednesday that he gave Bianchi a $300,000 payoff, had trysts with her in his office and Brinkley's Hamptons homes and spent thousands of dollars on online porn.
Brinkley said after learning of his cheating she told him to give his computer passwords to her "if you've got nothing to hide" and found e-mails from Bianchi and porn sites he had visited. He was trying "to connect with people" in their neighborhood, she said.
"It was not a voyeur site. It was a meeting site," she said. "It was more than I could bear."
Cook, who testified that Bianchi was his only extramarital lover, said he and Brinkley used pornography "to get the mood going" during the last half of their 10-year marriage.
Brinkley said that before she learned of the affair, the marriage's biggest problem was Cook's relationship with Alexa Ray Joel, her daughter with "Piano Man" singer Billy Joel.
Cook constantly picked on her daughter for the slightest things, she said, echoing Alexa Joel's testimony Wednesday.
"You married me and my children," Brinkley said she would tell Cook. "You've got to find a way to love Alexa."
Alexa Joel, 22, testified that Cook treated her well before he married her mother but criticized her constantly afterward. She said he called her out for chewing loudly, complained about her piano playing and once shoved her head into a bucket of water while demanding she clean up a plumbing leak caused by her lengthy shower.
Cook denied Joel's account when he returned to the stand Thursday, saying he had "absolutely not" pushed her into the bucket. He said he tried to stop her "loud, aggressive" piano playing only when his and Brinkley's younger children were going to bed and was only backing up Brinkley's own admonishments about her daughter's chewing and protracted showers.
Cook's lawyer tried to portray Brinkley's testimony as courtroom theater.
"If you want to call me an actress, that's fine," Brinkley replied.
"I'm no Meryl Streep, but I have been in a very successful movie," she said with a sheepish smile while referring to 1983's "National Lampoon's Vacation."
"Thirty years later, it's still got legs," she said.
Brinkley, 54, and Cook, 49, wed in 1996. She filed for divorce a decade later after his affair with Bianchi became a tabloid scandal.
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