Q&A: Debut CD from Wale taps into his emotions
Wale wanted to infuse his debut album with a woman's touch, so the rapper recruited singing divas like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Chrisette Michele and Jazmine Sullivan to get that feeling across.
"I need a woman to help me convey the message because they're more emotional and my album is 100 percent about emotion," the 25-year-old said of "Attention Deficit," released this month.
"(It's) about feeling imperfect, about feeling like the world is on your shoulders, about feeling good about yourself, feeling great, feeling like the underdog _ it's all about those emotions," he said.
The newcomer first garnered underground buzz with the release of his various mixtapes, but his mainstream success has not been as potent. The album's first single, the upbeat "Chillin," only peaked at No. 99 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart.
But the Nigerian-bred, Washington, D.C.-raised entertainer is pressing on. He recently opened up on Jay-Z's tour and says he lives by his personal motto, "Obsess Over Success."
"You have to be obsessed with being successful," he said.
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The Associated Press: You say your album is about emotions _ was it emotional to record?
Wale: Some, because it's about real life. The mixtapes are just songs for the sake of being songs, whereas my album is reality, about real situations in my life that tell a story. If I mentioned a girl named Dominique, if you know me, you know Dominique, whether it was high school or early childhood ... From top to bottom it's direct, honest details about my life.
AP: How was it different to record a studio album vs. a mixtape?
Wale: You learn a lot in the beginning. I've been so independent and hands on for the past four years, and now it's like, you got to do an album. You got people telling you what you can and can't do. ... I'm learning as I go. I learned a lot from album No. 1 that album No. 2's going to be a breeze.
AP: I know you recorded a lot of the songs in Miami. Why there?
Wale: I tend to record better when I am in Miami for some reason, I don't know, maybe because I'm outside and I see (producer) Scott Scorch's Phantom outside and that just makes me get hungry, or I see Rick Ross outside with all his jewelry and I'm like, "I got to go back in. I'm not at this level yet."
AP: Are things like cars and jewelry what motivate you?
Wale: What makes me happy is just being comfortable. Being able to go into my house and play video games all day and know that I'm taken care of and there's money in the bank. Or be able to provide for my family when I decide to have one and I just want to get to that level. Not necessarily the Phantom, it would be nice though.
AP: Your parents are from Nigeria _ how did their culture influence you growing up?
Wale: Everything is a lot stricter. I grew up in D.C. and so it was bad, real bad at that time. And a lot of African parents are easily influenced by the news or whatever they see or hear. Like if somebody gets shot in Southeast (area of D.C.), my mother's like, "Come inside right now because they're shooting right now." It was tough but it made me what I am today. My discipline is very intact as well as my work ethic.
AP: You growing up difficult?
Wale: I had a problem with authority. I never really liked people telling me what to do, and it's benefited me because I'm in this game right now with no major co-sign and I don't even have (people like Lil) Wayne, Kanye (West), or this or that person like a lot of my other peers, which is all good. But it's like I got to do it on my own, and I've learned to do a lot on my own.
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Miley Cyrus tour bus overturns in Va., killing 1
The driver of a Miley Cyrus tour bus was killed Friday when the bus overturned, but the 16-year-old "Hannah Montana" star wasn't on board, Virginia State Police said.
Sgt. Thomas Molnar said the bus ran off the left side of Interstate 85, struck an embankment and overturned. The accident occurred around 8:15 a.m. in Dinwiddie County, about 40 miles south of Richmond. Speed and weather weren't considered factors.
The driver, William G. Douglas, 53, of Austin, Texas, died at the scene, police said.
Marty Zilio, 48, of Canada, was injured in the crash and treated at a local hospital. He was one of nine members of Cyrus' production crew who were riding in the bus. They escaped the crashed bus through the front windshield.
A wrecker arrived late Friday morning to haul away the black and maroon luxury tour bus, which was on its side in a ditch off the highway where it had apparently skidded for several hundred feet.
The bus was hauled by the wrecker up to the next exit off I-85, where two other tour buses and members of the tour were waiting. About two dozen members of the tour, some still wearing pajama bottoms, began transferring backpacks and laptops from the wrecked bus into two other buses parked outside a restaurant. They declined to speak to reporters.
Molnar said the bus was one of four traveling together after the singer's two-show stint Wednesday and Thursday in Long Island, N.Y. The group was heading to Greensboro, N.C., where she is scheduled to perform Sunday. Cyrus was not traveling with the group at the time of the crash, authorities said.
Miley Cyrus is the daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, who also appears on the family friendly Disney sitcom "Hannah Montana."
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Chief: I didn't try to sell Parker-Broderick items
An eastern Ohio police chief accused of breaking into the home of the woman who carried twins for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick says he never discussed selling items from the home.
Suspended Martins Ferry Police Chief Barry Carpenter testified Friday at his trial on burglary and other charges. He says he went into the woman's home after he saw a basement door open while on routine patrol.
He says he took a photo of a surrogacy file that contained two ultrasound pictures and of a plaster cast of a pregnant stomach. He says he showed the photo of the cast to paparazzi and to several other people.
Carpenter says he met with the photographers after being called by the police chief of a neighboring town.
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Information from: WTOV-TV, http://www.wtov9.com
'New Moon' midnight showings earn record $26.3 mil
"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has set a box-office record for midnight screenings.
Summit Entertainment estimated Friday that it earned $26.3 million after opening early in the morning.
That would topple the previous midnight record, held by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." It earned $22.2 million this year. "The Dark Knight" from 2008 is third with $18.5 million.
"New Moon" is the second installment of the popular "Twilight" series. It opened at midnight in 3,514 theaters with a per-theater average of $7,476.
Paul Dergarabedian (der-gayr-uh-BEE'-dee-uhn) is a box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. He says the midnight start "portends an opening weekend that could be one of the biggest of the year."
Wesley Snipes appeals 3 tax convictions in Georgia
Wesley Snipes' attorneys asked a federal appeals court Friday to review an "unreasonable" three-year prison sentence for the film star, who was convicted a year ago on federal tax charges.
Attorneys for the star of the "Blade" trilogy and other films also argued the actor should have been granted a hearing to decide whether his trial should have been in New York instead of Florida.
Prosecutors countered that Snipes, 47, had plenty of time to appeal to move the case to New York in a timely manner before he was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his income tax returns. Besides, they contended, housing records showed he lived in Florida as well as New York.
The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta issued no immediate decision.
Snipes was sentenced in April 2008 in what was considered a key victory for prosecutors who aggressively pursued the maximum penalty to deter others from trying to obstruct the IRS. They say he made at least $13.8 million for the years in question and owed $2.7 million in back taxes that he refused to pay.
Snipes apologized at the time, calling himself an idealistic artist who was "unschooled in the science of law and finance."
The actor, who is free on bail while he appeals the convictions, was not at the downtown Atlanta courthouse. But his attorneys argued in court filings that the sentence was too harsh and "focused too heavily on deterrence." And in court Friday, they said the trial judge's decision not to move the trial jeopardized Snipes' constitutional rights.
"The right to a correct venue is part and parcel to the right to a jury trial," said his attorney, Peter Goldberger. He said Snipes should have been entitled to a pretrial hearing to show where he lived, "and the evidence would show he lives in New York."
Prosecutors, though, argued that the law is clear when it comes to where trials are to take place, and that Snipes' attorneys were too late in asking for a change.
"Wesley Snipes received a fair trial and a fair sentence," said Patricia Barksdale, an assistant U.S. attorney. "His numerous appeals do not make that sentence erroneous."
Banned director brings romance film to Hong Kong
A prominent mainland Chinese director banned by Beijing from making movies brought his new gay romance film to Hong Kong on Friday for what is likely the last of a handful of screenings on his home soil.
In 2006, China banned Lou Ye from shooting movies for five years after he screened "Summer Palace" at the Cannes Film Festival without government approval. In the film Lou tackled the Chinese military's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people are believed to have been killed.
But he defied the ban, secretly shooting the love story "Spring Fever" with small, digital cameras in the eastern city Nanjing last year. He also entered it at Cannes this year, where it won best screenplay in May.
In "Spring Fever," he takes on homosexuality _ another taboo in China _ with graphic gay sex scenes. The 115-minute movie is about a private investigator hired to spy on a married man having a gay affair. But the investigator falls into a love triangle with his own girlfriend and the boyfriend of the husband he is investigating.
Commercial distributors have bought "Spring Fever" for release in Russia, South Korea, France, and the U.S., but not so in China. It was only screened in four showings at an independent film festival in Nanjing last month.
On Friday it screened as one of the two opening movies at this year's Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. But a Chinese distribution deal is unlikely, given Lou's status.
Lou said, however, that Chinese film officials have turned a blind eye to his supposedly illegal activities, including for shooting "Spring Fever" and showing it at the independent film festival in Nanjing.
He has also been allowed to travel freely in and out of China, but he wants the ban lifted so his films can be screened more widely in China.
"It's regrettable that this film won't be released in the Chinese market," Lou told The Associated Press in an interview before the Hong Kong screening.
Lou, whose credits also include "Suzhou River" and "Purple Butterfly," urged the Chinese government to shorten his ban.
"Everyone should be able to make movies. I hope this ban will be canceled earlier and I hope the government won't impose any more bans on other directors," the 45-year-old director said.
Lou arrived in Hong Kong on Friday from Paris, where he was preparing for his next project, his foreign-language debut _ a French film about a Chinese student's romance in Paris.
'2012' a home run with patriotic fans in China
When the apocalypse comes, China will save the world.
Or at least that's how Chinese audiences are interpreting "2012," Hollywood's latest blockbuster disaster movie.
"It's about time the world sees us as a dominant ally," said Liu Xinliang, 27, a Beijing-based computer programmer who watched the movie twice.
The movie, currently No. 1 in the U.S., is also No. 1 in China, grossing $17.2 million here since it opened Nov. 13.
In the nearly 3-hour movie, the Earth's core overheats, threatening humanity. Leaders of the world embark on a mission to build an ark in the mountains of central China to house people and animals that can repopulate the planet _ a story line many Chinese have praised.
Like others in a Beijing theater this week, Liu grinned with pride as he watched Chinese troops escort wealthy and important citizens onto the ark.
Chinese netizens on popular blogs have also been quick to note other scenes perceived as having pro-China messages _ Chinese military officers saluting American refugees entering China, China being one of the first nations to agree to open the ark's gates to admit more refugees, and a U.S. military officer saying that only the Chinese could build an ark of such a scale so quickly.
"I felt really proud to be Chinese as I was watching our (military) officers rescue civilians in need," said Zhang Ying, 26, an advertising executive in Beijing. "The movie along with (President Barack) Obama's visit this week made me realize that China has become a respected country on the world stage."
At a theater in central Beijing, hoards of people lined up to buy tickets.
"It's been sold out every night. They all want to watch China save the world," a ticket attendant said with a laugh.
It has also pulled in the crowds in Indonesia but has garnered a less positive response in some quarters in what is the world's most populous Muslim nation _ because it predicts doomsday.
Conservative Muslim clerics on the islands of Java, Kalimantan and Sumatra have urged or banned their followers from watching the movie, saying it contradicts Islamic teachings. They say only God, not man, knows when the world will end.
"We are worried that the film will make Muslims believe that the end of the world will really happen by 2012. That is not true. The end will surely come but no one can tell when," said Mahmud Zubaida, an imam in the eastern Javanese city of Malang.
Still, Indonesia's most influential Muslim body, the Ulema Council, say there is no need for believers to worry as "2012" is only a work of fiction.
In China, the movie is seen as a refreshing change for audiences after decades of unflattering portrayals of the communist nation in Hollywood movies such as "Red Corner" starring Richard Gere, in which an innocent foreigner faces a corrupt Chinese legal system, and Martin Scorsese's "Kundun," which highlights China's rule of Tibet.
Scenes with Chinese bad guys were cut from "Mission Impossible III" and Warner Bros. decided not to release its hit blockbuster last year, "The Dark Knight," in China due to "cultural sensitivities." The latest Batman movie sees the masked hero nab a Chinese criminal in Hong Kong.
As China's economy continues to burgeon, Hollywood has set it sights on the nation of 1.3 billion where they can share profits on only up to 20 of their releases every year _ making it crucial for studios to reap as much as they can with each movie.
"China has a legitimate movie market that's growing, but Hollywood is learning that movies portraying us as poor or the enemy will not make money in China," said Shen Dingli, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
"Chinese love action and disaster movies with special effects, so "2012" would have been released regardless if China played a role in the story line," Li Chow, Sony Pictures Releasing International's general manager for China, said in a phone interview.
It is unclear whether director Roland Emmerich, who also directed "The Day After Tomorrow," "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," intentionally inserted the China element to gain wider viewership on the mainland.
Steve Elzer, a spokesman for Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, declined to comment on the China element or whether any scenes were cut from the movie.
China's box office is growing but is still small compared to the U.S. market. Government statistics show that revenues surged from 920 million yuan in 2003 to 4.3 billion yuan ($630 million) in 2008 _ compared to $9.8 billion in the U.S. last year.
The "Transformers" sequel earlier this year brought in $63 million in China, which broke the 11-year record of $53 million set by "Titanic" in 1998.
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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
Bullock in New Orleans for 'Blind Side' showing
Wearing a floor-length pastel striped evening gown, Sandra Bullock walked the red carpet in New Orleans Thursday for a special premiere of her latest film, "The Blind Side."
Besides promoting the sports drama, which opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, the event also served as a fundraiser for a New Orleans high school flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
Since the 2005 storm, Bullock has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Warren Easton High School, one of the city's oldest public schools, which took on 10 feet of water when the levee protection system broke during Katrina.
The donations have been used for renovations, scholarships, new band uniforms and a new health clinic.
"We're investing in a lot of things that we think need preserving," said Bullock, who recently bought a mansion in New Orleans' historic Garden District. "I'm a great supporter of New Orleans and its architecture."
Bullock signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans before taking her walk down the red carpet outside the Prytania Theater, one of Louisiana's only single-screen movie theaters and one of New Orleans' oldest. It opened in 1915.
Bullock hosted the invitation-only event with Warner Bros., the studio distributing the film. She said New Orleans was the perfect place to premiere "The Blind Side," which is based on a book written by city native Michael Lewis.
The book and film chronicle the real-life story of Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher, who, as a homeless and rudderless teen in Memphis, Tenn., was taken in by the wealthy Tuohy family and enrolled in private school. He went on to become an All-American at Ole Miss and a first-round selection of the Ravens in the 2009 draft.
"It's about people giving because they know it's the right thing to do," said Bullock, who plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a mother who "took in someone who was cold, a child who was cold ... gave him shelter and food and showed him love."
The real Leigh Anne Tuohy and other members of her family attended the premiere, along with Lewis, the film's writer-director John Lee Hancock, producer Gil Netter and actor Quinton Aaron, who debuts in the film as Oher.
Aaron said he felt a strong connection to the character.
"We were both the biggest kids in school but we were gentle souls. We just had big feet," said Aaron. "I wanted this project so bad. I still have butterflies."
Several members of the New Orleans Saints also showed up.
"It's a film about football and perseverance. I'm excited to be here," said quarterback Drew Brees, who was with his wife, Brittany.
Brees said he appreciates what Bullock has done to bring attention to the city and its ongoing recovery. "She has really adopted this town," he said.
"The Blind Side" also stars country star Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, Lily Collins and Jae Head.
James Caan files for divorce in LA
James Caan is seeking a divorce from his wife of 14 years.
Court records in Los Angeles show "The Godfather" actor filed for divorce Friday. It's the second time that Caan has sought to divorce his wife, Linda. The first case, filed in 2005, was not pursued.
The couple were married in October 1995 and have two sons, ages 14 and 11. Caan is seeking joint custody of the boys.
Caan, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role as Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather," has starred in numerous movies and television series.
He cited irreconcilable differences for the split.
Director Pedro Almodovar is haunted by one taboo
Sex. Drugs. Prostitution. Pedophilia. Rape. Pedro Almodovar has been able to translate some of the most delicate subjects to the big screen with grace and humor.
But the acclaimed master of Spanish cinema _ who claims he has gone so far as to demonstrate X-rated moves on an actress to show how he wanted it done on film _ still maintains some modesty.
The Spanish filmmaker says there's one subject that "still makes me shudder" _ sadomasochism. He explains that he once tried to incorporate that subject while writing a movie script and balked.
"As I was beginning my research I found it to be so horrifying that I erased the character from the movie, because I wasn't capable," he says. "It's like having a phobia!"
In a recent interview in Manhattan, where his latest film, "Broken Embraces," closed the New York Film Festival and where he conducted a seminar at Lincoln Center, Almodovar says he was very happy with his most recent work, again starring Penelope Cruz and which opens Friday in the U.S.
The movie, a combination of film noir, drama and slapstick comedy, follows Lena (Cruz), an actress who is loved by screenwriter Harry Caine (Lluis Homar) and obsessively desired by a powerful businessman, Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez). The story deals with death, jealousy, abuse of power, betrayal and guilt.
It's the 17th full-length feature by the successful filmmaker, who admits that not everything he has done has left him satisfied.
"There are some that I like, some that I don't like, some that I like more or less than others," he says in Spanish.
Almodovar says that after finishing a movie he doesn't watch it again, unless he catches it by chance while changing TV channels or because he needs to give a talk about it.
The Academy Award winner (best original screenplay for 2002's "Talk to Her"), whose films are watched across the world, attributes his success to the fact that his films "are very entertaining."
"It's important not to forget that films are made to entertain. That's the key," he says. "Also, well, I think there are a thousand things on which the viewer can project himself."
Born in the small town of Calzada de Calatrava, in the Manchegan region of Spain, Almodovar talks enthusiastically about the first movies that he saw as a child.
"Man! I think the first movie that I saw was a Spanish movie called something like 'Gloria Mairena.' It was very popular in Spain, and it belongs to what we call folk cinema. It was with Juanita Reina, a diva of popular folk songs," he says, smiling at the memory.
He also remembers being 10 and getting into a movie theater with his brother Augustin to see "The Virgin Spring" by Ingmar Bergman. "It was a powerful film about a rape, and we were terrified!" he says with a laugh. "But I think I had begun to like Bergman with that film."
Before Almodovar even began to imagine a career as a filmmaker _ "I was born in the least suitable place. It was like wanting to be a Martian!" _ he found that he had a passion for telling stories, which were mostly inspired by movies.
He remembers being 8 and transforming the plots of movies when retelling them to his sisters. "I would give life to parallel stories," he says. "And they can recall perfectly the stories that I told them."
Initially, he wanted to become a great novelist. Later he realized that his talent lay in inventing good stories for the big screen.
As a teenager, he began to watch American films from the 1950s _ such as "King Solomon's Mines," "Mogambo" and "Splendor in the Grass" _ and Almodovar says for some reason he could relate to them.
"I wanted to be part of that dream," he says.
He bought his first camera in Madrid, a Super 8, when he was 22, with his first paycheck from his administrative job at a telephone company. Without the least bit of experience, he began making hand-held short films that later were shown in the city's underground film scene.
Five years later, in 1979, he was filming "Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom," the first in a series of dramas, comedies or tragicomedies that mostly focus on women and show the influence of classic Hollywood melodramas.
"The great melodramas of the 40s and 50s, by Douglas Sirk for example, 'Imitation of Life,' the ones he made with Lana Turner, 'All That Heaven Allows,' with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, all of those movies by Douglas Sirk, I loved so much and, for example, were an influence for 'High Heels,'" the filmmaker says.
He says old Hollywood movies in which the main character is a woman and everything happens around her _ often starring Joan Crawford or Bette Davis _ "don't really exist" these days.
"To me, this continues to be very interesting... I like them and they have touched me, and I continue in this tradition," he says. He adds that old screwball comedies have influenced his work, especially his "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown."
If Almodovar could choose one movie to direct from 1949 _ the year he was born _ or before, what would he pick? The answer: "Gone with the Wind."
"I would have loved that! The problem is I don't think I would have made it as well as the many, many filmmakers who directed it, and there were a lot," he said with a big smile.
Almodovar hopes his next project will be "La piel que habito," an adaptation of the novel "Mygale" by the late French author Thierry Jonquet for which he wrote a script.
But this starmaker, who has made celebrities out of Cruz, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril and Cecilia Roth, has a dream that likely will please his most fervent fans.
"The truth is, I'd like to work with all of those people who I've done my best work with, those who have affected me the most," he says. "I would like to bring them all together in one movie."
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