George Clooney will host a telethon to raise funds for the Haiti earthquake relief effort as Hollywood ramped up efforts to assist the shattered Caribbean nation, reports said Thursday.
Clooney became the latest celebrity to lend his weight to the fundraising effort by agreeing to host an event on the MTV Network on Friday which will involve a bevy of stars, several reports said.
MTV was not immediately available to confirm the reports.
But a spokesperson told the Hollyscoop website: “I can confirm that George Clooney is working with MTV Networks to plan a Haiti relief telethon for next Friday, but those are the only details we can share at the moment.
“It’s all still coming together.”
News of Clooney’s fundraising efforts came as power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated one million dollars to Doctors Without Borders for the organisation’s operations in Haiti.
“It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades,” Jolie said in a statement released to People.com.
Three hospitals run by Doctors Without Borders were damaged in Tuesday’s devastating earthquake.
“We understand the first response is critical to serve the immediate needs of countless people who are now displaced from their homes, are suffering trauma, and most require urgent care,” Pitt said in the statement.
Pitt and Jolie are among the most generous philanthropists in Hollywood, and in 2008 donated two million dollars to help children affected by AIDS and tuberculosis in Ethiopia.
The couple also reportedly donated 11 million dollars received for exclusive photos of their twin children born in 2008 to a humanitarian cause.
Hollywood’s awards season cranks into overdrive on Sunday with science-fiction epic “Avatar” hoping to score vital pre-Oscars momentum with victory at the 67th Golden Globe Awards.
James Cameron’s 3D spectacular has electrified the movie world since its release in mid-December, becoming the second highest-grossing movie of all time and earning more than 1.3 billion dollars in a matter of weeks.
The film; about peace-loving blue aliens battling a greedy human corporation seeking to plunder their planet’s resources – is being talked about as a milestone in the history of cinema.
The 500 million dollar blockbuster is vying for four honours at this weekend’s awards, which begin in Beverly Hills at 5.30 pm (0130 GMT).
As well as best picture, “Avatar” has nods for best director (Cameron), best original score and best original song.
However the film faces stiff competition from recession-era drama-comedy “Up In the Air”, which has six nominations, as well as the gripping Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker”, which has three nominations.
Nods for “Up In the Air” include best actor (George Clooney), best director (Jason Reitman) as well as nominations for Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.
In a quirk of fate, “The Hurt Locker’s” director Kathryn Bigelow finds herself nominated for best director alongside ex-husband Cameron.
Quentin Tarantino (”Inglourious Basterds”) and Clint Eastwood (”Invictus”) complete the field.
But while “Up In the Air” and “The Hurt Locker” remain critical darlings, awards season pundits say the 85 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) who pick the Golden Globes may lean towards “Avatar.”
“Globes voters are foreign journalists who consider it their job to track the hot new thing,” said Tom O’Neil, of the Los Angeles Times’s theenvelope.com. “And there’s nothing hotter right now than ‘Avatar’.”
O’Neil noted that while the Golden Globes traditionally preferred to honour arthouse movies “they do occasionally go for the blockbusters.
“Remember they picked ‘Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King)’ for best picture,” he said.
However “Avatar” almost certainly needed to triumph this weekend if it was to emerge as an awards season favourite for the coveted best picture prize at the Oscars, which will be handed out in Hollywood this year on March 7.
“This is the award that ‘Avatar’ needs if it’s going to become the official front-runner for the Oscars,” O’Neil said. “If ‘Avatar’ gets crowned ahead of time then it could be Oscar-bound.”
Sasha Stone, who runs the Los Angeles-based awards blog Awards Daily (www.awardsdaily.com) described this year’s season as “one of the most open for years.”
“‘Avatar’ can win. But there’s a question mark right now as to which are the top three movies – it seems to be between ‘Avatar’, ‘Up In the Air’ and ‘The Hurt Locker’,” Stone told AFP.
“Traditionally the Hollywood Foreign Press prefer intimate dramas to epic sci-fi films. But ‘Avatar’ is so emotionally affecting that they might go for it. Even so I think it’s between ‘Up In the Air’ and ‘The Hurt Locker.’”
In the acting stakes, Clooney will be up against Jeff Bridges (”Crazy Heart”), Colin Firth (”A Single Man”), Morgan Freeman (”Invictus”), and Tobey Maguire (”Brothers”) for best drama actor.
The women’s acting awards could unfold as a duel between Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep, who both have two nominations each.
Bullock is nominated as best actress in both drama and comedy categories for her respective roles in “The Blind Side” and “The Proposal,” while Streep – hoping to win her seventh Globe – is a double nominee in the comedy category for her performances in “Julie & Julia” and “It’s Complicated.”
Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes splits its best picture prizes between genres, honouring best drama and best comedy/musical.
The Globes are often viewed as a key barometer of which films may go on to challenge for honours at the Oscars.
Although 67.4 per cent of films which won best picture at the Academy Awards also won a Golden Globe, in recent years the awards have proved an unreliable guide for likely Oscar winners.
Rags-to-riches drama “Slumdog Millionaire” is the only film in the past five years to have followed up a best picture statuette at the Golden Globes with victory at the Oscars.
Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi has openly denounced allegations that she had an affair with a married businessman.
Rumours are swirling that this was the reason a group of hooded men splashed black ink over a billboard with her image on December 23.
Her lawyer has called it a “vicious” rumour and vowed to take legal action against the media responsible unless they voluntarily retract the story.
On the night of the incident, Zhang was spotted at the lobby of the Park Hyatt Beijing where swarms of paparazzi had gathered to cover Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung and German architect boyfriend Ole Scheeren’s rumoured engagement party.
While Cheung and Scheeren were no-shows, the paparazzi saw a group of men barge into the lobby looking for Zhang, making a scene and claiming that she had cheated people of their money and stole somebody’s husband.
Later that night, a group of hooded men went to a store selling timepieces near the hotel and splashed ink on a giant window advertisement featuring Zhang.
On Wednesday, a prominent Beijing socialite named Zhao Xinyu sparked a new round of rumours about Zhang.
Zhao claimed she had known Zhang for about two years and told entertainment magazine Wan Quan Yu Le that the 30-year-old actress had a fling with a married businessman whom she had introduced to her, all while Zhang was still seeing engaged to multi-millionaire Vivi Nevo.
Zhao claimed that the businessman lavished Zhang with expensive gifts ranging from diamond earrings and necklaces to an Audi luxury car during their time together. She also said the businessman’s wife eventually found out about their relationship.
Zhang thought it was Zhao who told on her and ended their friendship.
Zhao said she was uncertain if the ink splashing incident was related to the fallout from Zhang’s affair.
Zhao also claims that Zhang and Nevo called it quits because they held very different views on marriage.
Zhang’s lawyer admitted that Zhang and Zhao were once friends but said Zhao’s statements were a “personal attack”.
According Zhang’s manager, the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” actress is now in Shenyang, China, shooting the Wong Kar Wai movie “The Great Master”. Zhang’s next film, “Snow flower and the Secret Fan”, will begin shooting at the end of this month.
US lawmakers on Thursday sought to prevent Internet companies from censoring information overseas, hailing Google’s threat to pull out of China as a turning point but saying it needed official support.
Members of Congress said they had new momentum to enact a bill that would prohibit US firms from storing users’ personal information in countries that restrict the peaceful expression of political and religious views online.
“Google sent a thrill of encouragement through the hearts of millions of Chinese,” Representative Chris Smith, the bill’s chief sponsor, told a news conference. “It is a game-changer.”
“But IT companies are not powerful enough to stand up to a repressive government like China. Without US government support, they are inevitably forced to be ever more complicit in the repressive governments’ censorship and surveillance,” said Smith, a Republican from New Jersey.
Under the bill, called the Global Online Freedom Act, the US government would list nations that restrict the Internet and prohibit US companies from storing personally identifiable information in those countries.
Companies would have to report to the State Department which terms countries are trying to filter out. China blocks citizens from accessing uncensored information on sensitive topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Dalai Lama and the banned Falungong spiritual movement.
The bill would also prohibit companies from cooperating in jamming US government websites such as US-funded broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.
Google said Tuesday said it would stop bowing to China’s censors and could pull out of the China’s lucrative online market of 360 million users after discovering Chinese attacks against dissidents’ email accounts.
Smith has tried for years to bring the Global Online Freedom Act to the floor of the House of Representatives but it had met a lukewarm response from Internet companies including Google.
Smith declined to say if he expected other companies to lobby against the bill but said his concerns have focused on actions by four US companies — Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Yahoo came under intense criticism in 2005 for allegedly providing China with details leading to the email account of journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Human rights campaigners say that Yahoo has improved its record since the experience but have been more critical of Cisco and Microsoft, which both have cooperated extensively with China.
Some Republican supporters of the bill complained of tepid support from President Barack Obama, who has tried to broaden relations with China.
“The Obama administration needs to be standing up and supporting Google. Instead, unfortunately, we have seen a muted response at best,” Representative Frank Wolf said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday the administration “strongly support(s)” Google in the row, a day after declining to give many details beyond saying it backed a “free Internet.”
Under the proposed law, employees of IT companies could face up to five years in a US prison if they knowingly give information to a foreign government that would cause a person to be detained or harmed for peacefully expressing political or religious beliefs.
The law aims to bring greater Internet freedom not only to China but to other nations such as Iran, where online activism has turned into a powerful tool for opponents of the clerical regime.
Some 70 cyber-activists are jailed around the world for what they posted online, according to Paris-based rights group Reporters Sans Frontieres, or Reporters Without Borders, which helped draft the proposed law.
China imprisons by far the most at 49, followed by Vietnam and Iran, it said.
“We don’t want other Shi Taos,” said Clothilde Le Coz, the group’s Washington director.
Invoking Google’s motto of “Do No Evil,” Le Coz said: “Don’t let US Internet firms become evil by not giving them the means to challenge the Chinese restrictions.”
Former Taiwanese singer Yuki Hsu has revealed in a press conference that she has been working as a legal assistant for over a month after a six month-long spell of unemployment.
She said that she was taking the opportunity to study legal principles in preparation for her eventual lawsuit against her former management company to resolve contract issues.
31-year-old Hsu tearfully said that she had no choice but to take the job as she is her family’s sole breadwinner and had not been given any opportunities after an ugly incident during an appearance in China in April last year.
She claimed that a local businessman had propositioned her after her performance in China and that she was so frightened that she switched hotels and escaped to Taiwan. She alleged that her management company had set her up with the businessman.
Hsu added that the company did not pay her the commission that she was due and did not give her any work for six months after the incident. This forced her to resort to borrowing more than a million yuan (S$200,000) just to get by.
Her agent Wang Yu Sheng denied all of Hsu’s allegations.
“How is it possible that we deliberately set her up to drink with the businessman at the hotel? He was just a local businessman who wanted to share a meal with her. We also invited Hsu to appear at other functions but she refused,” he said.
The company also expressed that it already told their clients it would no longer entertain requests to share meals with their artistes.
It went on to explain that it did not withhold Hsu’s commission and claimed that it was Hsu who had privately accepted engagements and caused confusion over her fees.
Both Hsu and her management firm are now preparing to go to court over the matter.
Hsu entered the entertainment industry in 1998 and was known for her upbeat dance tracks. Her debut album sold about a million copies and she was named “The Commoner Queen” at the height of her popularity.
Hsu had been plagued by negative media reports throughout the later part of her career, including some that claimed she behaved like a diva. There were also reports that she had refused to acknowledge her elderly grandfather.
Simon Fuller, creator of the Spice Girls pop group and US reality show “American Idol,” was robbed of more than 100,000 dollars in cash and jewellery while vacationing in Uruguay, El Pais said Tuesday.
The newspaper said Fuller and his wife, interior designer Natalie Swanston, discovered the theft on January 7 at the villa they were renting in the Punta del Este beach resort, 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Montevideo.
The items found missing, Fuller said, included a watch, a gold and diamond bracelet, a gold chain encrusted with diamonds and sapphires, a set of gold earrings and rings, as well as 9,000 dollars, 1,500 pounds and 500 euros in cash.
Also missing were the couple’s passports, the newspaper said.
In the police report on the robbery, Fuller specifically requested privacy.
“I don’t want it ending up in the newspapers. I don’t want exposure,” he was quoted as saying in the report that El Pais accessed.
The day after the robbery, Fuller and his wife left Uruguay on a private flight, the newspaper added.
Popular Taiwanese television host Patty Hou has revealed that she hopes to tie the knot with fiance Ken Huang some time this year.
Hou, who arrived at the Chinese city of Xiamen on Tuesday for a hosting gig, quickly removed what was believed to be her three-carat engagement ring when she spotted the media.
When asked about her upcoming nuptials, Hou told reporters that the couple hope to walk down the aisle this year but would have to discuss the wedding details with the elders first.
She added that both sides would like the wedding to be “simple, quiet”, and as low-key as possible, with not more than two tables of friends.
“We will not be distributing wedding invitations and there will be no need for wedding gifts,” she said.
News of Hou’s engagement made headlines after the couple were spotted celebrating Christmas with their families at an exclusive restaurant in Taiwan. There were even rumours that Hou, 32, is pregnant.
34-year-old Huang, and Hou, have been dating for just six months.
If other people have the proverbial seven-year-itch, Adrian Pang has an eight-year one.
For the past eight years, the actor and local television have been virtually inseparable – first with the now-defunct MediaWorks and later, with his current home since 2005, MediaCorp.
Next April, however, he’ll be going on a “trial separation” from his long-time employer.
The 43-year-old MediaCorp artiste told TODAY that he will not be renewing his current three-year contract, which ends on March 31.
But that doesn’t mean he’s hanging up his acting shoes. Instead, Adrian will be channelling all his energies towards theatre, courtesy of a new company he has recently set up with his wife, Tracie, called Pangdemonium!.
Their first production will be the Broadway musical version of the hit film “The Full Monty”, which opens on June 18 at the Drama Centre.
It will be an amicable parting of ways. Both Adrian and MediaCorp have stated they’re both open to working together in the future.
“MediaCorp Artiste Adrian Pang has been working on both Channel 5 and 8 productions in the past five years with us. We have always been supportive of his love for theatre and had encouraged him to explore his own creative space for the theatre.
“We wish him all the best in his new set up with wife Tracie Pang in Pangdemonium!, and welcome the opportunity to work with him again,” said Andrew Cheng, MediaCorp’s senior vice-president, production resource and artistes management, in a statement.
But couch potatoes don’t have to bid farewell to Adrian just yet. You can still catch him on the telly with “Polo Boys” (the last episode airs Thursday) and “The Pupil” on Channel 5 and “New City Beat” on Channel 8.
Plus, he’s in the midst of shooting a new 20-episode Chinese drama with Rui En called “I’m With You”.
“Like a James Blunt song,” he quipped.
But lest you think the theatre thesp is disdainful of his time spent on the small screen, allow Adrian to clear the air one final time.
“One analogy I came up with is that I work for a chocolate factory and we make chocolates. Who doesn’t like chocolates? There’s nothing wrong with being the purveyor of chocolate,” said Adrian.
“But I’ve come out to cook a meal in my little bistro or tze char restaurant.”
Will you be totally leaving TV behind?
The TV thing and me have been in an arranged marriage of convenience. Which I entered into with consent. We did sign a pre-nup that at such point, we could agree to have a trial separation – which is what it is now. I need to go out and sow my residual wild oats. We’ve parted on amicable terms for a trial separation but we shall remain f*** buddies. That’s a bad analogy.
Well, the metaphor is consistent.
The fact is, I’d be silly to decide not to do any more TV. I have enjoyed one or two things so why would I say goodbye to all that? Hopefully, there’ll be opportunities for me to work again and hopefully they will keep that door open. I don’t want to burn any bridges. Hopefully, the door will stay open for me. It’s probable that it’ll come to a point in the near future when I’ll be knocking on that door and saying: “Helloooo … ”
I guess in an ideal world, this new corner that I’m turning will mean that, because I’m focusing my energies on nurturing this new child that is Pangdemonium!, I’ll be able to do something that I want to do and choose to do. I just want to do work that I feel for, lah. Put a gun to my head now and I will have to say theatre is still the thing that makes me feel most (alive).
Don’t you think it’s such a risky thing to do – from your secure job to setting up a fledgling theatre company with Tracie?
Ever since I came back to Singapore to embrace this whole being an employee for a corporation thing, it’s easy to just get lulled into this comfort zone. It’s easy to get comfortable and used to and to an extent, to take it for granted as well. I’ve done it for eight years in Singapore.
Before that, I was working for eight years as a freelance actor in the United Kingdom. It’s an eight-year itch. It’s risky, it’s a gamble – but I’m always in a nervous and anxious disposition anyway, which is very bad for my blood pressure. But it’s incredibly liberating as well. Ever since we made the decision, I’ve really felt a whole new lease on life.
Whenever we’ve interviewed you, you’ve never failed to take funny potshots at acting on Chinese language TV. Where did this whole love-hate relationship come from?
It started in MediaWorks … Against the odds, we were living hand to mouth. And it came to a point where (it was) ‘Oh, what do we do with this guy?’ So just to make sure I was earning my keep, they tried me out on the Chinese channel (Channel U) on a food programme with Michelle Chia, thank goodness.
I was very lucky to be paired up with her. She kinda held my hand through the whole thing and by the grace of God and by the open-heartedness and generosity of the viewers, they accepted my shortcomings in the language.
I was The Chinese Experiment, lah. After that, I started doing Chinese dramas and I was like: ‘What’s going on? I’ve created a monster here!’ The ‘Pangdora’s Box’ of Chinese (TV) was opened! (Laughs)
Well, reluctant Chinese television actor or not, the viewers seem to like you right?
Objectively, I’m grateful that the experiment kinda worked – some mutation came out of it and it was accepted. It could have been a lot worse! They could have decided to reject me. I have to be honestly gracious about it.
After the merger, the first show MediaCorp put me in, ironically, was a Chinese 100-episode drama. Before Channel 5 could rope me in, Channel 8 (did). They got me for a whole year for a show called “Portrait Of Home”.
After that, I kinda ducked and dived for a few years – just doing English shows – before they nabbed me again. As Michael Corleone in “The Godfather III” said: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back again!”
And I would candidly confess the only reason I was in “Polo Boys” was because I heard that Channel 8 was gonna put me in a ping pong drama. I was like: ‘Chinese! … Ping pong! … Chinese ping pong drama!’ So I just had to knock on Channel 5’s doors and go “Help!” And they said: “Oh, we’ve got … water polo.”
Do you use your ‘I’m Adrian Pang’ card?
It’s work. It’s all good. I’ve been a freelance actor before and work is hard to come by, and the way I’ve looked at it actually is it’s no different from being a freelance actor. In as much as, when you’re freelance actor, you’re just auditioning furiously hoping for a job to come along. And a job comes along, you thankfully grab it. And how it turns out is completely out of your hands. You’re just an actor for hire.
Working as an employee on a payroll? No different! You pick the work that is thrown at you, gratefully and graciously accepting it, do the best that you can. The ultimate product is out of your control. You’re just a little cog in the whole machinery, lah.
Out with it, drama or comedy?
I prefer drama, lah. I mean, one of the first things I had told myself when I came back to Singapore was I didn’t wanna do any sitcoms. That worked out. I’ve always wanted to avoid it. But what to do? You just kind of go with it, really.
So what’s on your calendar after March 31?
We’re already planning stuff for Pangdemonium! and “The Full Monty” for the next couple of months leading up to that. I don’t want to anticipate some sense of: ‘Oh, he’s free’ … ‘Cos I’m not! I’m just under a new management! (Laughs) It’s not that I’m leaving TV to do something completely different, which a lot of people have done, and you know, respect to them. Live long and prosper.
Any regrets?
My mullet in 1987. We’re going too far back already. (Laughs) I kinda regret not putting in more effort in studying Chinese in school. I’d have more of a TV career now if I wasn’t so terrified of it.
Adrian’s top five
Mr Pang wracks his brains for his most memorable moments on the small screen (for now).
1. Michelle Chia
I’ve worked with her on several different things. We used to be paired up a lot to do external hosting gigs as well. And we have worked together this very easy, unspoken chemistry thing which you can’t manufacture. We’re just lucky to have that. She’s a lovely girl. And she puts up with my nonsense. And working with her once again on “Polo Boys”… I wish I could work with her more.
2. Parental Guidance
I really enjoyed working with Jessica Hsuan. Really nice girl and great fun to work with. I did really enjoy doing “Parental Guidance”. It was such a light comedy rather than a broad camp-type of thing. You had real characters and it was intelligently written and directed, and there was a lot of care and love put into creating this little world.
3. Kym Ng
I acted with her in “Durian King” and again now on “New City Beat”. She’s always a scream, and always a pro, and the one person who is genuinely warm and “up” all the bloody time.
4. Six Weeks
It was the last MediaWorks Channel i production that we did. It’s special to me because the idea for the six-episode mini-series was a story that I had brought to my boss. It was a real labour of love for me. And the most gratifying thing was that many, many people have told me how much that story spoke to them … It’s just gratifying that you do something and hope it lands somewhere good. Otherwise it’s just indulgence.
5. 2009
The whole of last year. I had great fun doing “Red Thread” – it was five months of pretty hard, intensive stuff. And “Polo Boys” was a scream. That was a riot to do.
Google has vowed to defy Chinese Internet censors and risk banishment from the lucrative market in outrage at “highly sophisticated” cyber attacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists.
China-based cyber spies struck the Internet giant and at least 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of activists around the world, Google said Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Beijing to explain the cyber attacks.
“We look to the Chinese government for an explanation,” the chief US diplomat said in a released statement.
“The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy.”
The online espionage has Google reconsidering its business operations in China and it said it will no longer filter Internet search engine results in that country.
“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered — combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the Web — have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China,” Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post.
“We are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all,” he said.
Drummond said Google realizes that defying Chinese government demands regarding filtering Internet search engine results may mean having to shut down its operations in China.
The iconic “Tank Man” photo taken during the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and banned in China was available on Google.cn Wednesday, hours after the online giant vowed to defy Chinese Internet censors.
The picture of a Chinese man who boldly stood in front of a line of tanks during the crackdown on pro-democracy protests made headlines around the world. It is banned in China where the event is still hugely sensitive.
Google said it detected in mid-December “a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google.”
The company said it was notifying at least 20 other large companies of similar attacks including finance, Internet, media, technology and chemical firms.
“We have no indication that any of our mail properties have been compromised,” Microsoft told AFP, declining to comment further.
Yahoo! backed Google’s decision.
“We stand aligned with Google that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as Internet pioneers must all oppose,” Yahoo! said in response to an AFP inquiry.
Google said its investigation revealed that accounts of China human rights activists who use Gmail in Europe, China or the United States have been “routinely accessed” using malware sneaked onto their computers.
Google believes the attack was mostly blocked and that only minor information was stolen from two accounts.
“The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences,” said Drummond, adding that the heart of the matter is freedom of speech on the global Internet.
Google stressed that the decision was made by the California company’s US-based executives and not by workers within easy reach of authorities in China.
“Google was in a no-win situation,” Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle told AFP. “The choices they’ve got are all bad, but this one allows them to claim the high ground at home by standing up to evil China.”
Internet firms interested in access to China’s booming market have been pressured to acquiesce to “onerous” government rules regarding online censorship, according to Enderle.
“China is a hard market to walk away from,” he said. “It took a lot of guts. Capitulating wasn’t working, so taking a harder stance might work better.”
Google’s unofficial motto “Don’t Be Evil” became a topic of derision after the company in 2006 began censoring search results in China.
“When Google first launched a filtered search engine in China, EFF was one of the first to criticize it,” Danny O’Brien of the Electronic Freedom Foundation said in a blog post.
“We’d now like to be one of the first to commend Google for its brave and forthright declaration to restore an uncensored Chinese language version of its search engine.”
Beneath his homemade jumpsuit and the glinting black of his polyester Elvis Presley wig, Gnarnayarrahe Inmurry Waitairie sweats in the unforgiving Australian heat.
Guitar over one shoulder and his official busking pass on one lapel, he adjusts his sunglasses and tunes his strings as he prepares to shake, rattle and roll like his American idol.
“Aboriginals don’t have an Elvis, so I thought I’d come and be him. I’m Black Elvis,” Waitairie told AFP.
“Elvis can be anyone and call to anyone, because Elvis takes your heart away.”
Waitairie, an indigenous dancer originally from Western Australia’s Yindjibarndi country, has traded his didgeridoo and clapping sticks for polyester and rhinestones to be part of Australia’s biggest Elvis celebration.
As fans in Memphis marked what would have been the 75th birthday of the man known as ‘The King’ of rock ‘n roll, thousands converged on the tiny, drought-parched town of Parkes 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of Sydney for the annual Elvis Festival.
It began almost two decades ago as the dream of Bob and Anne Steel, who ran a retro-themed reception centre called Gracelands and were desperate to liven up the relentless summer months in the farming and mining town.
“We had hoped that a January festival would bring some business to town, and I think everybody’s doing handstands now,” Anne Steel told AFP.
“Most people can see what it’s doing for the economy and, by God, we needed it.”
Home to straight-talking farmers and mining men, it seems an unlikely place for a tribute to the pioneering popstar. The town’s only previous claim to fame was “The Dish” — a radio telescope used by NASA to receive images of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
But the Parkes Elvis Festival has exploded from a humble town carnival with 200 visitors in 1993 to a national event which this year attracted more than 10,000 people and brought in excess of A$5 million (US$4.6 million) to the local economy.
Hundreds packed onto the “Elvis Express” train from Sydney on Friday, adorned in their retro best to kick off the festival weekend with serenades by a tribute artist and dancing in the aisles.
The trademark quiff and jumpsuit are a staple, and rarely is there a gent to be seen without sideburns and a swivel to his hips. Priscillas and Lisa-Maries are also out in full-skirted force, feather boas and wedding veils in tow.
The diehards stake out a street corner to busk, while others try their hardest to impress the lookalike contest judges. There’s an Elvis Idol contest, gospel services and “The King’s Castle”, which hosts the largest collection of Elvis memorabilia in the southern hemisphere.
Waitairie, who has travelled some 600 kilometres to take part, plans to win the street busking crown and renew his wedding vows at the mass “Back to the Altar with Elvis” ceremony in a park.
“Elvis was about love, about peace,” he said. “Since I was 14 I liked that about him.”
White-suited lookalike contestant Graeme Mackaway, who has made the journey to Parkes four times on the “Elvis Express”, said the Main Street parade is always his highlight.
“Every year we come and the crowd gets deeper and deeper and the route seems longer,” said the company director who swing dances and collects antique jukeboxes in his spare time.
In just five days the festival brings in more than one-tenth of the 11,000-person town’s annual tourism revenue, its third-largest earner after agriculture and mining.
Hotel rooms are booked more than a year in advance not just in Parkes, but surrounding towns, and the sportsground, converted into a tent city, is overflowing. Officials say the expanding crowd is getting younger every year.
It may have begun as the brainchild of “two silly people who were Elvis fans”, said Steel, but the festival has become a celebration of 60s rock culture and a coming together of city and country life.
“I have been a fan since I was 11 and I’m now 66, but now you don’t have to be an Elvis fan, there’s something for everyone,” she said.
“The fella who gets dragged here kicking and screaming by his wife is always the first to book for next year.”