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Long-running shows move in Radio 2 reshuffle

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:32:43 +0000

BBC Radio 2 is to move two of its longest-running shows, Big Band Special and The Organist Entertains, and switch its hour-long comedy slot for the second time in 12 months.

Lynn Parsons’ Sunday morning show, which currently runs from 5am to 7am, is being axed in the reshuffle, to make way for an extra hour of Good Morning Sunday, which will air from 6am to 9am. Parsons will remain with the station, deputising on shows elsewhere on the schedule, a Radio 2 spokeswoman said.

Big Band Special will be extended from 30 minutes to one hour but will be moved an hour later to 11pm. Nigel Ogden’s The Organist Entertains will move from Tuesdays to Thursdays in a new 10pm slot.

The shows make way for a new regular documentary slot airing on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10pm. The new documentary strand also means Trevor Nelson’s soul, hip-hop and R&B show moves an hour later to 11pm on Wednesday.

Radio 2’s comedy hour, which was only shifted out of its Saturday lunchtime home last year, moves again from Thursday to Saturday night.

In other changes, Aled Jones’s Good Morning Sunday programme will begin an hour earlier, at 6am. As confirmed yesterday, the Thursday night edition of Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie’s show will be axed to make way for a new live music strand, Radio 2 In Concert.

The new schedule comes a week after BBC director general Mark Thompson’s strategy review called for “higher profile slots” for the speech content on the station.

Bob Shennan, the Radio 2 controller, said: “These changes demonstrate our continuing efforts to evolve the schedule and ensure that Radio 2 remains distinctive, focusing on our commitment to documentary, comedy and live music programming.

“They follow recent announcements on a new jazz show presented by Jamie Cullum, a revision of our arts programming, and a refreshed and extended Friday Night Is Music Night. We hope that listeners will enjoy this new schedule and find it easy to navigate the wide variety of programming that the network has to offer.”

Tim Rice is to present a new Thursday night documentary series, Tim Rice’s American Pie, taking the station’s factual output to four hours a week, up from its current three and a half. Documentaries are being dropped from the current Saturday night slot, which is taken by the comedy hour.

New documentaries in the Monday to Wednesday slot will include a four-part interview series featuring Tony Bennett in conversation with Michael Parkinson, a 1960s season and profiles of comedians Bob Monkhouse, Tommy Cooper and Dave Allen.

Richard Wilson, Ricky Tomlinson and Jason Byrne will star in new Radio 2 comedy shows. The station will also launch a nationwide hunt in the autumn to find its new standup of the year.

¢ To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

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New York agrees 9/11 dust payout

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:32:43 +0000

New York City has agreed to pay up to $657m (£437m) to thousands of rescue and clean-up workers at the 9/11 attacks Ground Zero site.

The settlement would compensate more than 10,000 plaintiffs who say they were made sick by dust from the collapsed World Trade Center towers.

At least 95% of the plaintiffs must approve the deal for it to take effect.

The money would come from a federally-financed insurance fund of $1.1bn that the city controls.

A claims adjudicator, chosen by the lawyers involved in the case, would decide on the validity of each plaintiff’s claim and how much compensation they are entitled to.

In a statement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the settlement “a fair and reasonable resolution to a complex set of circumstances”.

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Haim’s Reported Cause of Death: Pulmonary Congestion – ABC News

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:35:45 +0000

According to early autopsy results, actor Corey Haim died of pulmonary congestion.

Haim’s mother Judy Haim told “Access Hollywood” that the Los Angeles County coroner’s office revealed her son’s cause of death to her today, and also said he had an enlarged heart and his lungs were filled with water.

The coroner’s office also said that prescription bottles containing four different medications were taken from Haim’s room, according to “Access Hollywood.” The coroner did not confirm whether the medications were found in his body.

The coroner’s office did not immediately return ABCNews.com’s calls and e-mail requests for comment.

Haim died Wednesday after being rushed to a Los Angeles hospital. The actor, 38, was taken from his mother’s North Hollywood home by ambulance to Burbank’s Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, according to police Sgt. Frank Albarran.

“He got out of bed about 1:30 this morning, was a little unsteady on his feet,” Winter said on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. Haim’s mother then called the paramedics.

Haim’s mother said her son had been suffering from “flu-like symptoms,” Winter said, adding that four prescription pill bottles were found in the apartment but no illicit drugs.

“He could have succumbed to whatever [illness] he had or it could have been drugs,” police Sgt. William Mann told The Associated Press. “He has had a drug problem in the past.”

Haim struggled with cocaine and Valium addiction and was reportedly admitted to rehab more than 15 times. The Canadian-born heartthrob burst onto the scene in the 1980s and starred in movies such as “License to Drive” and “The Lost Boys.”

Haim was often paired with actor Corey Feldman, even as recently as three years ago when the two starred in a reality-TV show.

The two were known as “the two Coreys” before seeing it all evaporate after public battles with drugs, alcohol and the law.

Corey Haim, for example, went from the lovable little brother in “Lost Boys” to a crack and Valium addict who made reported trips to rehab and then bloated up to more than 300 pounds.

In a 2007 interview with “Nightline,” Haim spoke about fighting his drug addiction.

“I feel like … I ruined myself to the point where I wasn’t functional enough to work for anybody, even myself. I wasn’t working,” Haim said.”You know, if I’m not working, how anybody else can expect me to work for them if I’m not working. I mean physically working. My brain wasn’t working.”

More ‘predator priest’ cases emerging

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:10:30 +0000

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Penang local elections – about time, too – Malaysia Kini

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:35:45 +0000

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Local elections: S’gor to follow Penang.

A few questions come to my mind. First, why is Pakatan Rakyat only start to talk about these local council elections only now? It is already more than two years since we voted them in.

And from my reading of Khalid Ibrahim’s view on Selangor, it looks like he is still ‘thinking’ about it and is not sure about the law. But in the last two years, why have they never done a study on the law and come out with proposals for Parliament?

Second, where about the rest of the Pakatan states? Where are the Kelantan Kedah’s menteri besar stands on the matter of local council elections for theis states? Why have they not commented? I think the people would want to know what their stand is?

Third, I may agree with Kedah Youth chief Tan Keng Liang comment that he wants all the Pakatan states to hold local council elections and fulfill their pledge made in the last general election.

But I think he should have also made a call to the BN federal government to help change the laws so as to allow the Pakatan states hold the local council elections. The way the Election Commission has commented is so disappointing as it sounds like they are not so agreeable to the idea of local council election.

It would also be good if Tan can push for ALL states to have local council elections (not just in the Pakatan states) even if this was not promised by BN in last general election.

As for Lim Guan Eng, the recent move is good for Penang. But he needs to show the people that he is not just passing the buck to the Election Commission. The two years wasted has already disappointed a lot of people who hoped for the local council elections to be implemented much sooner.

Sir Michael Lyons: BBC Trust is a ’strength not a weakness’

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:35:43 +0000

Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, hits back at critics. Photograph: David Levene

Sir Michael Lyons has hit back against calls for the BBC Trust to be scrapped, a pledge the Conservative Party has made if it comes to power, arguing that the result could be the creation of a “glorified complaints office”.

Lyons, the BBC Trust chairman, speaking to the Manchester Statistical Society today, also said he saw it as the trust’s mission to stamp out an “imperial compulsion” that has resided in the corporation since it enjoyed monopoly UK broadcasting status in the days of the first director general, John Reith, in the 1920s.

He added that the aim of the strategic review unveiled last week, which proposes shutting digital radio stations 6 Music and the Asian Network and reducing the BBC’s web output by half, was to create a “more compact” corporation. But this did not mean the BBC would be “put in a straitjacket and never again allowed to do anything new”.

“But, that said, a more compact BBC will undoubtedly mean making some tough choices,” he said. “The BBC needs to concentrate on its important and widely valued public role rather than seeking to become an international communications company.”

Lyons added that many of the achievements of the often-criticised BBC Trust, the corporation’s regulatory and governance body, have been overlooked and that working closely with the director general, Mark Thompson, and the executive board has proved to be beneficial, not detrimental, as some have argued.

“Being part of the BBC keeps us close to the coalface [and] I believe strongly that having the trust as part of the BBC is a strength not a weakness,” he said. “When we see things going wrong we can act quickly and decisively to put this right. The public would be short changed if the trust were replaced by a glorified complaints office.”

Lyons added that the BBC Trust is not conflicted in a role that critics characterise as being both cheerleader and regulator for the corporation. “What the trust is not is the BBC’s regulator. That’s the job of Ofcom,” he said.

“Our job is to steer that tricky course between independence and accountability,” Lyons added, referring to the BBC Trust as akin to a supervisory board.

Last month Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, reiterated that a Conservative government would look to scrap the BBC Trust in favour of a new “licence fee payers’ trust”. He has also argued that director general Mark Thompson might be better served by a non-executive chairman.

However, Lyons today defended the trust, insisting it was capable of reining in the BBC’s expansionist tendencies.

“There is a view of the BBC that there is within its DNA a kind of imperial compulsion,” he said, explaining why the BBC needs “clear boundaries” to emerge from the current strategic review.

“According to this view, the BBC is driven by an insatiable desire to expand, to colonise, to establish its forces in every far-flung corner of broadcasting and publishing. That is not something the trust, as the representative of the public, will allow to happen.”

Lyons added that the public impact of an expansionist BBC was a reduction of choice in the market that ultimately was detrimental for consumers. “You, the public, would be the losers,” he said. “The trust is clear that the BBC must be a good corporate neighbour to others in the media marketplace.”

He admitted that the BBC can seem to be a “pretty big and insensitive presence in the marketplace”. But he warned that when some rivals claim to be threatened, such as BSkyB, with its “colossal scale, ambition and financial muscle”, “it can be hard to take such charges entirely seriously”.

“We have no issue at all with the BBC competing ferociously where it matters, on quality, but the trust has no wish to see the BBC reassume its monopoly position,” he said.

¢ To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

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Indian MPs approve women’s bill

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:35:47 +0000

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Opponents tore up copies of the bill on Monday

The upper house of India’s parliament has approved a bill to reserve a third of all seats in the national parliament and state legislatures for women.

The bill was passed with 186 members of the 245-seat house voting in favour. Only one member voted against. Several smaller parties boycotted the vote.

The bill was introduced on Monday amid uproar from opponents, resulting in the suspension of seven MPs on Tuesday.

First proposed in 1996, the bill now has support from India’s main parties.

This is one affirmative action which large parts of India does support.

India does have some measures to support its women, but in a largely patriarchal society they have borne the brunt of neglect and discrimination.

Acts such as female foeticide leading to skewed sex ratios in some of the most prosperous states are abominable. Things are changing, but the way India sometimes treats its women is a national shame.

Also, with just 10% of its parliamentary seats held by women, India needs to play catch-up. Its neighbours fare much better – Bangladesh reserves 15% of its parliamentary seats for women, Pakistan 30% and Afghanistan, after its new constitution, more than 27%.

At present women make up just 10% of the lower house (Lok Sabha) of parliament, and significantly fewer in state assemblies.

Sonia Gandhi, Congress party president, has said she attaches the “highest importance” to the proposals and passing them would be a “gift to the women of India”.

This bill needed the support of two-thirds of voters present in the upper house (Rajya Sabha) for it to be passed.

The proposals will be tabled in the lower house at a later date. An overwhelming majority there support the move, correspondents say.

The bill has the support of the governing Congress-led UPA alliance, the BJP-led NDA alliance and left-wing parties.

‘Historic’

Party leaders hailed the passing of the bill.

“The bill is a historic and giant step towards empowering women and a celebration of their rights,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in the Rajya Sabha.

“Women are facing discrimination at home, there is domestic violence, unequal access to health and education. This has to end,” he said.

Communist leader Brinda Karat said it would change the “culture of the country because women today are still caught in a culture prison”.

“In the name of tradition, stereotypes are imposed and we have to fight these every day,” she said.

The Congress party’s Jayanthi Natarajan said “women have been waiting for 62 years for this moment”.

The bill’s passage through the upper house has been marked by scenes of chaos since it was tabled on Monday.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley, speaking in parliament on Tuesday, said the uproar was “one of the most shameful moments in India’s parliamentary democracy”.

Earlier, seven MPs had been forcibly removed from the upper house by security guards, after they refused to leave having been suspended for disorderly behaviour.

The MPs had shouted slogans, snatched papers from Vice President Hamid Ansari’s table, torn them and thrown them at him.

The MPs are all members of three parties opposing the women’s bill: the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Loktantric Janata Party (LJP).

While India’s main parties back the legislation, smaller socialist parties argue it will reduce representation of minorities and socially disadvantaged groups.

They want set quotas for women from Muslim and low-caste communities.

There are currently 59 women in the 545-member Lok Sabha. Under the proposals their numbers would rise to 181.

The composition of the 245-seat upper house, which at present has 21 women, will not be affected as its members are indirectly elected by state assemblies.

India already reserves a third of local governing council seats in towns and villages for women, a move that has significantly increased their role in decision-making.

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Bullock has plans for Oscar, Razzie – Toronto Sun

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:04:49 +0000

LOS ANGELES Hollywood darling Sandra Bullock plans to show off her Oscar and her Razzie together in the same display at home.

The best-actress Oscar she won Sunday for The Blind Side will just get a more prominent position than the Razzie she won Saturday for the awful All About Steve.

You take the good with the not so good, Bullock said with a chuckle late Sunday, still giddy after her Academy Awards triumph. But I had the best time at the Razzies (Saturday) night. It is what it is and, you know, it probably means more that both of them happened at the same time, because its the great equalizer. Nothing ever lets me get too full of myself. It quickly chops me off at the knees, and I like it that way because it just keeps things stable. And theyll sit side-by-side in a nice little shelf somewhere, the Razzie maybe on a different shelf, lower.

MAKE EM LAUGH: Even with an Oscar, Sandra Bullock wants to keep making comedies like her popular Miss Congeniality movies.

I want to do everything, she announced after her Oscar win for The Blind Side. Just because I won an Oscar, I dont want to ever stop doing something that makes people laugh. I love making people laugh. I dont know what Im going to do next. I sort of wanted this to sort of all die down, but Im going make mistakes, and Im going to make everyone roll their eyes, and Im going to maybe do something that works. But I just want to keep working in every genre that Im allowed to, until Im asked to not do it anymore.

MAKE EM CRY: Sandra Bullocks beau, tattooed tough guy Jesse James, did not cry when she won the Oscar. At least, thats what Bullock is saying now.

Did he cry? Bullock asked rhetorically late Sunday, teasing backstage media after the Oscar ceremony ended. He doesnt cry! He doesnt cry! No!

Laughing, she pointed out her husband of five years, sitting among the reporters. Hes right there. Dont piss him off. He had something in his eye. Its very dusty from the dance music.

Bullock also would not reveal what James whispered in her ear when her name was called for the Oscar. You expect me to tell you that? I know, bless your heart for trying. I mean you got to ask. Id never divulge what Jesse says unless he divulges it first. Its between me and The Man!

TENDER ON GENDER: Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win as best director in the 82 years of the Academy Awards, is still trying to downplay her historic win. Just as she had downplayed the gender issue during the Oscar campaign for The Hurt Locker, despite being only the fourth woman ever to be nominated in that male-dominated category.

Well, first of all, I hope Im the first of many, Bigelow said late Sunday. Of course, Id love to just think of myself as a filmmaker and I long for the day when a modifier can be a moot point. But Im ever grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female filmmaker and have them feel that the impossible is possible, and never give up on your dream.

TAKING THE HIGH ROAD: Ex-spouses Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron have taken the high road showing dignity and restraint throughout the Oscar campaign. Now that it is over, now that The Hurt Locker has toppled the mighty box-office champ Avatar, Bigelow is still maintaining her reserve.

First of all, I think hes an extraordinary filmmaker, Bigelow said about Cameron after the Oscar ceremony Sunday, in which she beat Cameron personally for the best-director prize. I have to say, all the nominees are phenomenal, powerful, talented filmmakers. How humbling it was for me to be in that company, in that conversation.

But Bigelow stopped short of saying anything else to Cameron, at least in public. They were married from 1989-91. Pressed on the issue by one reporter backstage, Bigelow shrugged and said: Well, you left me speechless.

Pressed even further, she gamely offered the big compliment: I think Jim is very inspiring, and I think he inspires filmmakers around the world. And for that I think I can speak for all of them. Were quite grateful.

Cameron left Bigelow to marry Linda Hamilton, whom he left for Suzy Amis, his current (and fifth) wife. Hamilton, showing no restraint, recently called Cameron a talented control freak and a jerk as a husband.

SHOW ME THE MONEY: Armed with its six Oscars, including best picture, The Hurt Locker now needs to find its audience. But the filmmakers are not unhappy about the fate of the film so far.

Its an incredible honour, producer and screenwriter Mark Boal said late Sunday. The Academy Awards are the pinnacle of the filmmaking community and, obviously, they bring more attention to the film. And thats all for the best, and we feel grateful for the journey that weve had, and just to be up here.

And we all are reminded every day of how many filmmakers there are out there that dont get their movies made at all, and dont get them distributed after they are made and go straight to DVD. So its an incredible blessing and honour to be here and, of course, we look forward to more people seeing the film. But its been a fabulous ride already.

With only $19.3 million in worldwide box office to date, The Hurt Locker has the worst theatrical revenues of any best-picture winner of the past four decades. The film is now on DVD and Blu-ray in North America and still looking for the audience it deserves.

HEY, SUGAR!: Even with an Oscar as supporting actress, MoNique will not call herself a bona fide actress.

I am stand-up comedienne who won an Oscar! she said late Sunday, after winning for a sterling acting performance in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. Oh baby, I did. Me!

The ebullient MoNique, who calls happily calls people sugar and baby, said Precious has had little to do with her acting career. Instead, it has been a life-affirming process.

This role has shaped my life to allow me not to judge and to love unconditionally, she said, in a reference to abuse she suffered in her childhood. Now, if that goes into my career, great. But, if it doesnt and I am just a dynamic person as I strive to be every day Ive won, baby!

During the Oscar campaign, MoNique revealed for the first time publicly that she had been sexually molested as a seven-year-old, allegedly by her own brother when he used candy to lure her into the bathroom in their house.

CRAZY AND HEART-FELT: Jeff Bridges has a habit of excelling in small movies that take time to find their cult following. Crazy Heart, which just earned him his first best-actor Oscar, may be one of them.

Thats the exciting thing to me, because this award brings some attention to that great movie, Bridges said late Sunday about how Oscar might shine the light on Crazy Heart, which failed to make it as a best-picture contender.

The Big Lebowski, his collaboration with the Coen Brothers, is another favourite that took time to be appreciated. While Bridges was not nominated for an Oscar for that film, he is widely acclaimed for his role as The Dude.

Im digging The Dude, Bridges said, joking. You know, I love him. Thats wonderful, you know, the success that hes had. I was a little disappointed when it first came out, it didnt do much (at the box office). But now we have Lebowski fests, and all kinds of things.

Cant wait for the Crazy Heart fests to spring up.

Court erred in dismissing Anwar’s bid for review – Malaysia Kini

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:36:07 +0000

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Spare 6 Music for us indie dads

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:35:42 +0000

If 6 Music played classical music, the BBC wouldn’t touch it. But pop music can be distinctive too and Phill Jupitus was right to call the proposal to axe it “cultural vandalism”. The BBC’s management should change their minds, and if they don’t the BBC Trust should turn this down.

I admit I’ve got a vested interest. I love 6 Music from Guy Garvey to Adam and Joe (come back soon ). I love its playlist. I’m a BBC fan, both as a consumer and a policymaker. But the arguments for this decision just don’t stack up. Let’s take them in turn.

Whenever anyone proposes privatising Radio 1, the BBC rushes to say that popular music radio stations can be distinctive. That argument just about works for Radio 1 but it’s true in spades for 6 Music. If 6 Music goes, then how can they justify the much more popular Radios 1 and 2?

The BBC also argues that it needs to help commercial radio by closing the station (but Absolute radio and XFM play a completely different playlist there really isn’t a market in this niche); that if 6 Music keeps growing it will become too successful and the BBC can’t have three big national radio networks (so just keep it niche and distinctive, then); and that it’s got a high cost per listener (but that’s just what happens when the BBC does what it should do adistinctive, high-quality service).

Finally, the BBC says it has to show that the era of expansion is over. But closing 6 Music is hardly going to stop Sky and ITV from complaining.

I’m sceptical of the BBC’s anti-expansion argument anyway. The BBC’s policy shouldn’t be dictated by the space it needs to leave its rivals, but by what licence fee payers want.

I’ve had conversations with BBC executives over the last few days. Once you’ve gone through all these arguments, they finally lament: “Well, what should we cut then?” There have been lots of proposals, from corporate salaries to BBC3. But the answer is staring at us in the schedule.

The BBC wants to cut something that isn’t distinctive, that the market would provide anyway and that costs more than 6 Music. It has said the aim is to make fewer reality and property shows and quizzes. Let me gently point you to today’s BBC2 afternoon schedule:

¢ Diagnosis Murder: competition between rival caterers vying for a big contract turns nasty.

¢ Flog It! Paul Martin and experts Anita Manning and Michael Baggott head to Weston-super-Mare.

¢ Pointless. Quiz in which contestants try to score as few points as possible.

Pointless really is the name of the programme but it’s also an apt description of this schedule. There is no point in the BBC having two afternoon schedules in daytime. I’m sure there are good people making these programmes, but they could easily be on other commercial channels or on BBC1. Rather than axing a brilliant, distinctive service, the BBC should close down BBC2 daytime. BBC2 costs more than £500m a year, 6 Music £9m so there should be some extra money to fund the Asian Network too. That way it can much better achieve the goal of the strategy review and avoid offending all the indie dads like me who prefer waking up to Shaun Keaveny to the Today programme.

James Purnell MP is a former culture secretary and currently the MP forStalybridge and Hyde
Please sign the petitions at http://love6music.co.uk/