Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

ESPN's terrific "Ali Rap" may overplay the champ's influence on hip-hop

Muhammad Ali is a paper saint now. Behind the mask of his Parkinson's syndrome the 64-year-old former heavyweight champion is a safe, nearly silent figure to be revered and admired, one of those icons on whom you can project whatever you want him to be, make him yours, the way you can with Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr. Fierce and rebellious, brave and stoic, profane, devout, traitorous, patriotic, old skool or new, athlete or activist, African-American icon or citizen of

Reclusive Pynchon defends McEwan's novelistic use of historical detail

Thomas Pynchon, who vies with J D Salinger for the title of the world's most secretive author, has broken his strict rules on privacy to join a campaign to clear the British Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan of charges of plagiarism. In a move described by his British publisher as "unknown", Pynchon, an American who is never seen in public, does not give interviews and whose whereabouts are a closely guarded secret, sent a typed letter to his British agent yesterday

Rare Greek antiquities go on display

NY: Warned that the barrage of Persian arrows would hide the sun at Thermopylae, the Spartan hero Dienekes replied with cool bravado, It will be pleasant to fight in the shade. Known for their terse, unflinching way of speaking, these consummate warriors from the Lakonia region of Greece were known as laconic, or sparing of words. The term also applies to their art. "Athens-Sparta," opening Wednesday at the Onassis Cultural Center, presents 289 archaeological

'Rocky' effects head to the Smithsonian

Rocky Balboa's boxing robe and gloves will share the same home as Dorothy's ruby red slippers, Abraham Lincoln's top hat and Thomas Edison's light bulb. Actor and director Sylvester Stallone Tuesday donated memorabilia from his "Rocky" movies to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. "I knew I was getting old, but I didn't think I would be with the dinosaurs so soon," Stallone said, laughing. "No, actually, I'm really unbelievabl

Clint Eastwood film wins first award in Oscar season

The Clint Eastwood film"Letters from Iwo Jima" was named best film of 2006 by the National Board of Review on Wednesday in the first major award of the Oscar season. Helen Mirren was named best actress for her portrayal of Britain's ruling Queen Elizabeth in"Queen Elizabeth," while Forest Whitaker won the best actor award for his role in"The Last King Of Scotland." The awards were voted on by 120 film professionals who viewed more than 250 movies and can be an indicator of what

New Norman Mailer novel about Hitler's youth comes complete with bibliography

At the end of Norman Mailer’s new 467-page novel, “The Castle in the Forest,” after the acknowledgments page on which he thanks his assistants, archivist, editor, publisher, wife, agents and German teacher, Mr. Mailer tacks on another flourish: an alphabetical list of 126 authors and titles that enriched the book. Never mind asking how “Anna Karenina” and “Paradise Lost” could have influenced “The Castle in the Forest,” a fictionalized account of Hitler’s boyhood to be released next

Praise for Gibson Film, Quandary for Oscar Voters

With some early reviews lauding the audacity and innovation of Mel Gibson’s bloody Mayan epic, “Apocalypto,” Hollywood’s tight-knit community of Oscar voters may find itself facing a difficult dilemma in the coming weeks: Will they consider the film for an Academy Award? Since Mr. Gibson’s drunken tirade against Jews last summer, many people in Hollywood swore — both publicly and privately — that they would not work with him again or see his movies. But that was before

Mayans Excited, Unsure on 'Apocalypto'

Scenes of enslaved Maya Indians building temples for a violent, decadent culture in Mel Gibson's new film ''Apocalypto'' may ring true for many of today's Mayas, who earn meager wages in construction camps, building huge tourist resorts on land they once owned. Some Mayas are excited at the prospect of the first feature film made in their native tongue, Yucatec Maya. But others among the 800,000 surviving Mayans are worried that Gibson's hyper-violent, apocalyptic film could be just

Pacific Aviation Museum in Hangar 37 at Ford Island opening Dec. 7

FORD ISLAND — The prop-driven aircraft at the Pacific Aviation Museum-Pearl Harbor are among the most recognizable warbirds of World War II. But it's their stories from Pacific air wars, and setting on this 433-acre historic island, that are the most impressive at the new nonprofit museum, which opens Thursday, the 65th anniversary of the surprise attack. "The Pacific Aviation Museum is a significant addition to the Pearl Harbor sites — USS Arizona Memorial, USS Bo

At auction Jimi Hendrix guitar goes for $168K,

Paul McCartney's lyrics. Jimi Hendrix's guitar. A John Lennon interview. Memorabilia from some of the most influential musicians of the 20th century hit the auction block Monday. McCartney's original handwritten working lyrics for the 1968 Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" went for $192,000 at Christie's sale of rock and pop memorabilia. The pre-sale estimate had been $200,000 to $300,000. Hendrix's guitar, a 1968 Fender Stratocaster with a sunburst finis

Disney biography a literary triumph

Art imitates life, and life imitates art, and sometimes it's hard to tell which is which. Take the little town of Marceline, Mo., a place so idyllic, so orderly, so utterly all-American that it seemed impossible to improve on. Marceline declined once the automobile came and the crowds started to roll in, but it is forever enshrined in the memories of several generations of Americans. The person who put it there, who remembered it as the best of all possible places, was Walte

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" dress fetches $920,000

The iconic black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film"Breakfast at Tiffany's" sold for 410,000 pounds ($800,000) on Tuesday, around seven times its pre-sale estimate. Including the premium paid to auctioneers Christie's, the total cost for the sleeveless, floor-length Givenchy cocktail gown rose to 467,200 pounds ($920,000). The sale room at Christie's broke into applause at the end of a long and tense session when it was finally bought by an anonymous telephone bidder.

A new documentary tells the story of North Korea's Japanese abductees

Scene: A lonely residential street in the city of Niigata, along the western coast of Japan. Time: Late afternoon in the autumn of 1977. Action: A 13-year-old girl is walking home from school, having stayed late for badminton practice. She waves good-bye to friends, turns the corner, and is never seen again. This is the true story of "Abduction," a documentary that opened in Japan last weekend after winning accolades at several international film

History, Schmistory! Just Sing! (History Musical)

Dear Bud and Doug: The backer’s audition of your new project “Gutenberg! The Musical!,” which you are presenting to a room full of Broadway producers most nights through Dec. 31, was a smashing success. Who knew that a musical about the life of the inventor of the printing press could have so many laughs? And while adding the theme of the Holocaust might not be historically accurate, I agree with Doug that it gave the show real gravitas. Before I invest, let me give a few notes. You

For sale: song that hurt the Beatles

Original Beatles lyrics handwritten by Paul McCartney and a Fender guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix are among the lots to be sold today in a big auction of rock and pop memorabilia. The auction at Christie’s in New York will cover more than five decades of music history, with lots ranging from Miles Davis’s trumpet to a handwritten page from Britney Spears’s schoolbook, featuring her teenage analysis of the play Antigone, up for grabs. Love letters by Bob Dylan and a prev

Woodstock artifacts sought for '60s museum

Wanted: tie-dyed shirts, signs, guitars, snapshots, bits of trampled fence and other groovy artifacts from the 1969 Woodstock concert. The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts wants the artifacts for a museum honoring Woodstock and the '60s, which could open next year. A 4,800-seat concert pavilion at the former farm 80 miles northwest of New York City opened this summer. The planned museum already has film, tickets, posters, security jackets and other items from the concer

Blood, gore and a Mayan treasure from Mel Gibson

The tempestuous life and times of Mel Gibson look unlikely to change with the US release next week of his new film Apocalypto.   Mel Gibson leads the way for a difficult location shot in Apocalypto He has delivered an epic, distributed by Disney, with dialogue in the Mayan dialect of Yucatec and which takes screen violence to a new level. Watching Apocalypto, one has to wonder what dark torments drive Gibson to depict such horrifically graphic s

Best-selling Christian writers go back in time

From the end of the world to New Testament beginnings. The authors of the controversial but best-selling apocalyptic"Left Behind" series have gone back in time. In a new series, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins take on the four evangelists, starting with the John, the youngest and the one who lived the longest. "We really went to the other end of the Biblical calendar," Jenkins said from his office in Colorado."Really, everything we've written, especially together, is based on Christ

"Casanova's Women" shows that the world-famous rake spread joy and VD

What, then, was his secret? Was it a silver tongue that no woman could resist? Was it his outlaw reputation and his celebrated good looks? His ability to let frustrated women express their sexuality in an oppressive society? Or was he just really well hung? Actually, Casanova's profligacy seemed to have a lot to do with furniture, or rather a lack thereof in 18th century Europe. Time and again, the great seducer's campaign to lift every skirt between Barcelona and Bucharest was facil

In the Midwest, Remembering Europe’s Fields of Red (Exhibit/WW I)

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 30 — There was never a network of trenches running through the vast fields here in Missouri, as there was in Flanders or along the 466 miles of the Western Front. Nothing in America’s heartland ever resembled the “morass full of shrieking and dying” that a German soldier witnessed after the battle of Verdun. And these plains have surely never been as saturated with blood as the muddy earth that provided a ready grave for Europe’s lost generation during World War I.