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MTV VMAs ready to host, honor some of music's biggest acts
The MTV Video Music Awards are back Sunday with some of the biggest names in music vying for the network's fabled Moon Person statue.
Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow and Kendrick Lamar are tied for leading nominees with seven apiece. Harlow and Lil Nas X's collaboration “Industry Baby” propelled their nominations, landing them in competition for artist of the year along with Drake, Bad Bunny, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles and Lizzo.
Closely behind are Harry Styles and Doja Cat, who received six nominations apiece, while Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Drake, Dua Lipa, Tayler Swift and The Weeknd each have five.
Harlow is pulling double duty, joining LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj as the show's emcees. The VMAs are being being held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and will air beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Also read: Elton John and Britney Spears unite on a new dance single
Minaj will perform hits from throughout her career and accept the show’s video vanguard award, which MTV has said she’s receiving for her artistry, barrier-breaking hip-hop and status as a global superstar. The honor is named after Michael Jackson.
Eminem, Snoop Dogg, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bad Bunny are also set to perform
Madonna, who is the most awarded artist in MTV history with 20 wins, becomes the only artist to receive a nomination in each of the VMAs five decades. She earned her 69th nomination for her 14th studio album “Madame X.”
Also read: Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick's right-hand man, dies at 74
Lamar returns to the VMAs as a nominee for the first time since 2018, with nods for best hip-hop, direction, visual effects, editing, and a category known as video for good, while his songs “family ties” and “N95” are competing for best cinematography.
Elton John and Britney Spears unite on a new dance single
Elton John and Britney Spears have collaborated for the first time, creating the slinky, club-ready single “Hold Me Closer” that sees the pop icons take old sounds and fashion something new.
The funky, piano-driven single uses John’s 1971 hit “Tiny Dancer” as the skeleton and adds elements from his songs “The One” and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” all with Spears voice soaring and fluttering.
While John has been releasing new music in the past few years — including the 16-track 2021 album “The Lockdown Sessions” — the song represents Spear’s first new music since her 2016 album “Glory” and her first offering since the ending of her contentious conservatorship.
“She truly is an icon, one of the all-time great pop stars and she sounds amazing on this record. I love her dearly and am delighted with what we’ve created together,” John said in a statement. Spears, in her statement, told John it was an honor to be asked: ”I am so grateful that I got the opportunity to work with you and your legendary mind.”
Read: Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick's right-hand man, dies at 74
The track is produced by Andrew Watt, who has worked with such acts as Ed Sheeran, Eddie Vedder, Ozzy Osbourne, Justin Bieber, Post Malone and Miley Cyrus.
The song begins with both stars singing the opening lyrics of “The One” — “I saw you dancing out the ocean/Running fast along the sand/A spirit born of earth and water/Fire flying from your hands.” It then seamlessly moves to ”Tiny Dancer”: “Hold me closer, tiny dancer/Count the headlights on the highway/Lay me down in sheets of linen/You had a busy day today.”
The track calls to mind last year’s hit “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix),” which melded John’s songs “Kiss the Bride,” “Rocket Man,” “Where’s the Shoorah?” and “Sacrifice” into a dance bop featuring vocals by Dua Lipa.
John and Spears first met in 2014 at an Oscar viewing party and she later tweeted her love of “Tiny Dancer,” sowing the seeds for the latest collaboration. John is in the midst of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.
Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick's right-hand man, dies at 74
Leon Vitali, the “Barry Lyndon” actor who became one of Stanley Kubrick’s closest associates, has died. He was 74.
Vitali died Friday in Los Angeles, his family told The Associated Press Sunday. He passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones including his three children, Masha, Max and Vera.
“Leon was a special and lovely man driven by his curiosity, who spread love and warmth wherever he went,” his children said in a statement provided by Masha Vitali. “He will be remembered with love and be hugely missed by the many people he touched.”
Though Vitali was often described as Kubrick’s assistant, Tony Zierra’s 2017 documentary “ Filmworker ” shed light on Vitali’s enormous and largely unsung contributions to the work of one of cinema’s greatest figures from “The Shining” through “Eyes Wide Shut.” He did everything from casting and coaching actors to overseeing restorations. Vitali even once set up a video monitor so that Kubrick could keep an eye on his dying cat.
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Matthew Modine, who starred in Kubrick's “Full Metal Jacket,” tweeted his condolences Sunday.
“There are people we meet who have a profound impact upon our lives. Leon Vitali was one such person in mine,” Modine wrote. “An artist in every aspect of his life. A loving father & friend to so many. A kind, generous & forgiving nature. He exemplified & personified grace.”
Filmmaker Lee Unkrich also tweeted that he was, "Completely heartbroken to hear about the passing of Leon Vitali. He helped me (asterisk)enormously(asterisk) with my Shining book and I’m gutted that he won’t see it. He was a sweet, kind, humble, generous man and a vital part of Stanley Kubrick’s team.”
Before meeting Kubrick, Vitali was a rising actor in England, appearing in several British television shows including “Softly, Softly,” “Follyfoot,” “Z Cars” and “Notorious Woman.” Then in 1974 he got his biggest break yet, when he was cast in “Barry Lyndon” as Lord Bullingdon, the son-in-law of Ryan O’Neal’s title character.
Vitali was so fascinated by Kubrick and his processes that he made an unusual decision: He gave up on acting and devoted himself entirely to the famously demanding director for over two decades. His next Kubrick credit was as “personal assistant to the director” on “The Shining,” though that’s only part of the story — Vitali famously helped cast 4-year-old Danny Lloyd to play Danny Torrance and Louise and Lisa Burns as the creepy Grady twins (citing Diane Arbus as inspiration).
Also read: Bob Rafelson, New Hollywood era director, dies at 89
“I made one truly, truly radical change in my life and that was when I said, ‘I’m more interested in that’ than I was in the acting,” Vitali told the Associated Press in 2017. “That’s the biggest conscious decision I’ve ever made. There were some sacrifices, but there were gains too.”
After Kubrick’s death in 1999, Vitali oversaw restorations for many of Kubrick’s films. He received a Cinema Audio Society award for his work. Vitali later worked with director Todd Field on his films “Little Children” and “In the Bedroom.”
Before making the documentary, Zierra said that he and many Kubrick-obsessed fans knew Vitali for his performances in “Barry Lyndon” and “Eyes Wide Shut,” in which he played Red Cloak, and as a key member of Kubrick’s inner circle. But when they finally met Vitali to make the film, they were struck by “his kindness, humility and the fascinating scope of his story.”
Zierra is working on a director’s cut of “Filmworker” that will include new footage that he and Vitali wanted in the film, but couldn’t get done in time for its Cannes debut in 2017.
'Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence' begins at Drik Gallery
The Goethe-Institut Bangladesh and Drik Picture Library inaugurated an international travelling exhibition at the Drik Gallery in Dhaka's Panthapath Friday to showcase the violence of gender constructions, and patriarchal forms of aggression on more vulnerable bodies.
Curated by Vidisha Fadescha, "Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence" is part of the Goethe-Institut's ongoing M3: Man, Male and Masculinity regional Project which includes Bangladesh and five other institutes in India.
Read BSA commemorates August 21 massacre with visual art show
Ananta Jalil brushes off 'Din: The Day' director's allegations
Actor-producer-businessman Ananta Jalil Thursday shrugged off the complaints of Iranian filmmaker Morteza Atashzamzam about the film "Din: The Day" in an Instagram post as " completely baseless."
"I don't know if the Instagram post is real. But what it says are totally baseless. I have all the legal documents, which clearly state that the Iranian production cost was paid by the Iranian producers and I paid for the shooting in Bangladesh," Ananta said.
He added: "A group of people representing their production team came to Bangladesh whom we treated with great respect and made sure that everything was done following our contract."
Read: Epic fail: Ananta Jalil's 'lesson' for rapists descends into victim-blaming
"The director himself met me a few days ago. He never mentioned these issues back then. So, I don't understand why he made those baseless claims on Instagram."
Earlier in the day, Morteza wrote in an Instagram post: "Ananta Jalil broke our agreement and contract, he did not fulfil his responsibilities and promises as we agreed."
He claimed Ananta breached the contract by distorting his creation and also shared an animation of the film's poster on an Instagram reel with the word "fake."
Read Ananta Jalil broke our contract: 'Din: The Day' director
"The name of the movie was supposed to be "Day" (rooz) but nothing happened as we planned. I was the main and major producer but he continued the production in his way, with his content and form and shapes," he wrote.
The Iranian filmmaker said he would sue Ananta and register a complaint against him at the court in Tehran, Iran, and have it followed up by an international lawyer at the court in Bangladesh.
Morteza added that he would also reveal the original contract in public and the main budget of the film.
Read Ananta Jalil vows to stand beside Sylhet with everything
Released during this year's Eid ul Azha, Din: The Day also stars Ananta's wife and actress Afiea Nusrat Barsha as the female lead. There has been a recurring debate about the film's actual budget which Ananta claimed was Tk100 crore.
Ayub Bachchu’s 60th birth anniversary today
Tuesday marks the 60th birth anniversary of late rock superstar, guitarist, composer, and founding front man of popular band LRB Ayub Bachchu.
The music fraternity and fans across the world are commemorating the legend with great respect for his enormous contribution to the music of Bangladesh, especially in the band music genre.
Band legends including Maqsoodul Haque, Hamin Ahmed, Labu Rahman, his former bandmates Saidul Hasan Swapan, SI Tutul, Riyadh Sarwar, lyricists Shahid Mahmud Jangi and Latiful Islam Shibli and many other music stars have shared their fond memories and heartfelt wishes on social media, commemorating the rock icon's birth anniversary.
Born on August 16, 1962, in Patiya, Chittagong, Ayub Bachchu started his music career with the band ‘Feelings’ in 1977 after graduating from Government Muslim High School in 1975.
At Feelings, he performed as the lead guitarist alongside his most popular contemporary rock star and another rock legend of the country, James, for the next two years before joining the melodious band ‘Souls’ in 1980.
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Alongside the iconic Bangladeshi singers and musicians such as Tapan Chowdhury, Naquib Khan, Kumar Bishwajit and more, Bachchu continued as the band’s lead guitarist till 1990, before eventually launching ‘LRB’ (Love Runs Blind), a full-fledged rock band in 1991.
With the bold attempt to release their first venture as a double album, the band brought out ‘LRB-I’ and ‘LRB-II’, featuring many of its popular songs like “Ghum Vanga Shohore”, “Shesh Chithi”, ‘Madhobi” and more. Soon, LRB started to become popular for their tunes and presentations with balanced and guitar-based lyrics.
Although started as a hard rock band, LRB soon became known for their experiment with genres such as blues rock, soft rock, and psychedelic rock; and continued cementing its legacy as one of the pioneering rock bands in Bangladesh. With Bachchu, LRB released 14 critically acclaimed albums and "Ferari Mon: Unplugged Live", which was the first live album in Bangladesh.
The band went on to perform over 1,000 concerts that have included extensive performances in Bangladesh as well as tours in Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States and became the first Bangladeshi band to perform at the prestigious Madison Square Garden in New York City. Altogether, LRB changed the landscape in Bangladeshi band culture under the leadership of Ayub Bachchu.
Aside from being the successful front man of LRB, Bachchu was also extremely successful in his solo ventures including ‘Rokto Golap’ (1986), ‘Moyna’ (1988) and with his extremely popular album ‘Koshto’ (1995), often considered by many as a king’s comeback after seven years while Bachchu was busy with LRB.
Read: Legal notice served to singer Noble for derogatory remarks against Tagore
With a total of 16 solo albums, a full-fledged studio-turned production house named ‘AB Kitchen’, numerous super hit playbacks such as ‘‘Ammajaan’’, ‘’Sagorika”, “Ononto Prem”, “Ami to Preme Porini” and many other scores in Bangladeshi commercial movies, Blockbuster hit singles and band scores such as “Koshto Pete Valobashi”, ‘‘Shei Tumi Keno Eto Ochena Hole’’, ‘’Ferari Ei Monta Amar’’, ‘‘Cholo Bodle Jai’’, ‘’Ekhon Onek Raat’’, ‘‘Hashte Dekho Gaite Dekho’’ and more, and inspiring musicians from guitar enthusiasts to popular and established artists in both Bangladesh and West Bengal - Ayub Bachchu created his legacy during his short-lived glorious life.
On October 18, 2018, the rock legend startled the world by passing suddenly from a terrible heart attack.
He is survived by his wife Ferdous Ayub Chandana, daughter Fairuz Saffra Ayub, son Ahnaf Tazwar Ayub, and billions of followers worldwide.
Anne Heche dies of crash injuries after life support removed
Anne Heche, the Emmy-winning film and television actor whose dramatic Hollywood rise in the 1990s and accomplished career contrasted with personal chapters of turmoil, died of injuries from a fiery car crash. She was 53.
Heche was “peacefully taken off life support,” spokeswoman Holly Baird said in a statement Sunday night.
Heche had been on life support at a Los Angeles burn center after suffering a “severe anoxic brain injury,” caused by a lack of oxygen, when her car crashed into a home Aug. 5, according to a statement released Thursday by a representative on behalf of her family and friends.
She was declared brain-dead Friday, but was kept on life support in case her organs could be donated, an assessment that took nine days. In the U.S., most organ transplants are done after such a determination.
A native of Ohio whose family moved around the country, Heche endured an abusive and tragic childhood, one that helped push her into acting as a way of escaping her own life. She showed enough early promise to be offered professional work in high school and first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” from 1987 to 1991, winning a Daytime Emmy Award for the role of twins Marley and Vicky Hudson, who on the show sustained injuries that anticipated Heche’s: Vicky falls into a coma for months after a car crash.
By the late 1990s Heche was one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films. In 1997 alone, she played opposite Johnny Depp as his wife in “Donnie Brasco” and Tommy Lee Jones in “Volcano” and was part of the ensemble cast in the original “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
The following year, she starred with Ford in “Six Days, Seven Nights” and appeared with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in “Return to Paradise.” She also played one of cinema’s most famous murder victims, Marion Crane of “Psycho,” in Gus Van Sant’s remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, and co-starred in the indie favorite “Walking and Talking.”
Around the same time, her personal life led to even greater fame, and both personal and professional upheaval. She met Ellen DeGeneres at a the 1997 Vanity Fair Oscar party, fell in love and began a 3-year relationship that made one of Hollywood’s first openly gay couples. But Heche later said her career was damaged by an industry wary of casting her in leading roles. She would remember advisers opposing her decision to have DeGeneres accompany her to the premiere of “Volcano.”
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“We were tapped on the shoulder, put into her limo in the third act and told that we couldn’t have pictures of us taken at the press junket,” Heche said in 2018 on the podcast Irish Goodbye.
After she and DeGeneres parted, Heche had a public breakdown and would speak candidly of her mental health struggles.
Heche’s delicately elfin look belied her strength on screen. When she won the National Board of Review’s 1997 best supporting actress award, the board cited the one-two punch of “Donnie Brasco” and the political satire “Wag the Dog,” in which Heche portrayed a cynical White House aide and held her own against film great Robert De Niro.
Heche also called effectively on her apparent fragility. In 2002 she starred on Broadway in the play “Proof” as a woman fearful of losing her sanity just like her father, a brilliant mathematics professor. An Associated Press review praised her “touching performance, vulnerable yet funny, particularly when Catherine mocks the suspicions about her mental stability.”
In the fall of 2000, soon after her break-up with DeGeneres, Heche was hospitalized after knocking on the door of a stranger in a rural area near Fresno, California. Authorities said she had appeared shaken and disoriented and spoke incoherently to the residents.
In a memoir released the following year, “Call Me Crazy,” Heche talked about her lifelong battles. During a 2001 interview with TV journalist Barbara Walters, Heche recounted in painful detail alleged sexual abuse by her father, Donald Heche, who professed to be devoutly religious and died in 1983 from complications of AIDS. Heche described her suffering as so extreme she developed a separate personality and imagined herself descended from another planet.
In the final days of his life, Heche said, she learned he was secretly gay and that she believed his inability to live honestly fueled his anger and hurtful behavior. Not long after her father died, her brother Nathan — one of her four siblings — was killed in a car crash.
“I’m not crazy. But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me,” Heche told Walters. In an effort to escape the past, “I drank. I smoked. I did drugs. I had sex with people. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life.”
Heche dated Steve Martin in the 1990s, and is widely believed to have inspired the childlike, but ambitious aspiring actor played by Heather Graham in his Hollywood spoof “Bowfinger.” She later had a son with camera operator Coleman Laffoon, to whom she was married from 2001 to 2009. She had another son during a relationship with actor James Tupper, her co-star on the TV series “Men In Trees.”
Heche worked consistently in smaller films, on Broadway and on TV shows in the past two decades. She recently had recurring roles on the network series “Chicago P.D.” and “All Rise,” and in 2020 was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Cultural bodies observing National Mourning Day
Marking the National Mourning Day 2022, the 47th death anniversary of the country's founding president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members, cultural bodies in Bangladesh have organized a variety of events on Monday.
Organizations including Bangla Academy, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka University and others are organising multiple events, paying rich tributes while observing the occasion.
As part of its events, BSA hosted a special art camp for children in five different areas in the city from 9 am to 12 pm.
This special art camp took place at BSA’s National Art Gallery plaza, the VIP lounge of Kamalapur Railway Station, Zahir Raihan Cultural Centre in Gendaria, Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed park in Gulshan 2 and BSA venue in Uttara sector number 7, roads number 1 and 27.
BSA will also arrange a special discussion and cultural event at the National Theatre Hall in the evening.
Bangla Academy will inaugurate a 10-day discussion on the significance of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s autobiography ‘The Unfinished Memoirs’ at its AKSB auditorium on Monday at 3 pm.
Read: Nation set to observe National Mourning Day Monday
Poet Nurul Huda, Director General of Bangla Academy will deliver his welcome speech at the event, which will be joined by the keynote speaker Jeremie Cordon, Professor of History at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris, France.
Dhaka University Film Society (DUFS) will arrange a special film screening session at the TSC premise under their yearly event ‘Bangabandhu in Celluloid’ at 7 pm.
A joint collaboration with Bangladesh Film Archive (BFA), the event will screen two exclusive documentaries on Bangabandhu consisting of his interviews, and Sohel Mohammad Rana-directed animation film ‘Mujib Amar Pita.’
Besides, several other organisations are observing the day with various seminars, cultural events and other arrangements. Television channels and radio stations will broadcast special programmes on the life and works of Bangabandhu and his family.
Gallery Cosmos is also currently hosting a special exhibition on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman titled ‘BRAVEHEART’ at the Cosmos Centre in the capital, showcasing paintings, sculpture installations and exclusive photographs of the Father of the Nation.
Inaugurated last Friday, the exhibition will continue till August 31.
Legal notice served to singer Noble for derogatory remarks against Tagore
A legal notice has been served to singer Mainul Ahsan Noble for making offensive remarks against the writer of the Bangladeshi national anthem Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
The notice, filed by Advocate Mithun Biswas of Chattogram court, says a case will be filed against him under the Digital Security Act if he fails to make his unconditional apology before the nation over making the derogatory remarks on his Facebook posts within seven days.
Read: Tiktoker held under DSA for making ‘derogatory remarks’ on PM, police
"Noble from his verified Facebook page 'Noble Man' made two Facebook posts on August 10 and 11 defaming Tagore using hateful and baseless comments which hurt the sentiments of common people", the notice added. "Noble has been asked to remove the Facebook posts and issue an apology to the public within seven days owing to his disrespectful act against Rabindranath, '' said the notice.
Read Legal notice served on Dhaka University for barring married students from halls
'BRAVEHEART’: Gallery Cosmos to host exhibition on Bangabandhu
Marking the National Mourning Day 2022, Gallery Cosmos is going to organize an exclusive group art, photography and sculpture exhibition on Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman titled 'BRAVEHEART' at Cosmos Centre in the capital on Friday.
Mofidul Hoque, founding trustee of the Liberation War Museum, will virtually inaugurate the exhibition as the chief guest, while eminent artists and freedom fighters Rafiqun Nabi, Biren Shome and internationally renowned artist Shahabuddin Ahmed will join the inauguration ceremony as the special guests.
Supported by the Cosmos Foundation, the exhibition's inauguration ceremony will also be joined by Tehmina Enayet, Director of Gallery Cosmos and Masud Jamil Khan, Deputy Managing Director of Cosmos Group.
Read: Curtain rises on Shilpo Bangla Art Exhibition
UNB and Dhaka Courier will be its media and knowledge partners respectively.
Prior to the inauguration of the exhibition, a vibrant team of 12 child artists and future master painters will participate in an exclusive group art camp at the exhibition venue and showcase their heartfelt tribute to the Father of the Nation.
The exhibition will be showcasing artworks of several prominent artists including Shahabuddin Ahmed, Biren Shome, Alakesh Ghosh, Nasir Ali Mamun, Afrozaa Jamil Konka, Bashkor Rasha, Shahajahan Ahmed Bikash, Azmeer Hossain, Bishwajit Goswami, Abu Kalam Shamsuddin, Devdas Malakar, Dilip Karmakar, Sourav Chowdhury, Abdullah Al Bashir, Iqbal Bahar Chy, Maneek Bonik, Kamruzzoha, Azmol Hossain, Mohammed Fakhrul Islam Mazumder Shakil and Md Rafiqul Islam.
Read “The Passion of Drawing-2” by Gallery Cosmos: A daylong tribute to drawing
Visitors can explore the exhibition 'BRAVEHEART' at Gallery Cosmos in the Cosmos Centre, Malibagh in the capital till August 31.