Movies Guide

Rapper BLEU DAVINCI will spend the next five years and four months behind bars at a federal prison after he was convicted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

The rising star, who is signed to BMF Entertainment, was found guilty of selling thousands of dollars’ worth of the drug across the U.S. since 2003, as part of a drug network controlled by Black Mafia Family’s (BMF) founders Demetrius ‘Big Meech’ Flenory and his brother, Terry ‘Southwest T’ Flenory.DaVinci was convicted along with nine other defendants in the case on Wednesday (29Oct08). The sentences ranged from five to 16 years, and are all related to a federal investigation into the BMF organisation and its drug dealings, dating back to the early 1990s, reports Allhiphop.com.Bling merchant to the stars, Jacob ‘The Jeweler’ Arabov, was jailed for 30 months earlier this year (08), after pleading guilty to falsifying records and giving false statements during the BMF drug money laundering investigation.

Katy Perry’s boyfriend, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, has revealed the one girl that he would like his girlfriend to kiss.

Speaking to Us Weekly, when asked if he’d like Perry to kiss another female he quickly responded, “No one!” Shortly after he then revealed actress Elizabeth Shue, stating, “She was my first crush from ‘Adventures In Babysitting’.”

Katy Perry recently played her debut show in the UK, calling for fans to make out with each other following the lyrics of her smash hit ‘I Kissed A Girl’.

Other news:

• Wino Misses Own Birthday Party
• Amy Winehouse Filmed ‘Snorting Cocaine’ In London Pub
• Documentary shows tough reality of doctors in war
• Dolby drops price of 3-D glasses
• Kiwi pop star’s sister announces engagement

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In what is believed to be an industry first, Paramount Pictures is bundling its upcoming home video release of “Kung Fu Panda” with a direct-to-video companion film and will release the package on a Sunday — November 9 — instead of the traditional Tuesday.

Most of the major studios are actively producing direct-to-video sequels to major theatrical hits, but never before has one come out on home video the same day as the original. While studios occasionally have released titles on a Friday or Monday, this is the first time a new release will arrive in stores on a Sunday.

“Kung Fu Panda,” a DreamWorks Animation hit that grossed $213.8 million North America this summer, is the big kid-vid release of the holiday season. It will be available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

The companion film, “Secrets of the Furious Five,” is slugged, “The ‘Kung Fu Panda’ story continues.” The film delves into the backstories of the “Kung Fu Panda” characters, with all-new animation and Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman reprising their respective voice roles as Po and Master Shifu.

What Paramount is calling the “Pandamonium Double Pack” will retail for less than $25. A single disc of “Kung Fu Panda” only also will be made available, priced below $20.

/Hollywood Reporter

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• The Faint Map North America Fall Tour Dates
• Jessica Simpson’s Singing Nightmare On Live TV
• Dude, Where’s My Car?
• VMAs offer glimpse of music and mayhem
• Rap Chart Movement: Lil Wayne Is Still Running Things, The Clipse Make Their Debut

Charismatic and enigmatic, Michael Hutchence was the personification of the classic rock’n'roll star. His untimely death surrounded by unanswered circumstances left friends, family, and fans to speculate and mourn the loss of this warm and down-to-earth artist and his unique musical talent.

‘The Loved One’ traces Hutchence and INXS’ rise from Sydney bar rooms and clubs to stadiums all over the world. The tribute features interviews with many of Hutchence’s close friends, family, and contemporaries, who share their personal memories and moments with Michael and INXS, including private and exclusive photographs and intimate home-movie footage.

This documentary includes stunning scenes of Michael and INXS performing on the stages of the world from key points in the bands career and the tracks that span INXS’ meteoric career, plus poignant interviews with Michael and INXS at various stages in their rise to fame. This tribute shows the performances that saw Michael Hutchence hailed as one of the great contemporary rock’n'roll front-men - up there with Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, and Iggy Pop.

The DVD includes over 30 minutes of DVD extras including - exclusive interview with Michael’s father Kell Hutchence, personal home movie footage, a mini documentary on Michael Hutchence solo career, the music video for ‘The Straight Line’ and a bonus CD featuring two previously unreleased original tracks.

Release date 15th of November

Fucked Up
The Chemistry Of Modern Life (Matador) £11.99

There’s nothing more irritating than progressive hardcore. Hardcore is a sublime, short sharp shock. Prog is self-indulgent and interminable. And yet long-winded Toronto punks Fucked Up successfully fuse the focused aggression of hardcore with more expansive musical ambitions, radical politics and esoteric mysticism. Their second album quickly bares its fangs. Singer Pink Eyes’s raw holler and lyrical scorn are the chief links to hardcore, but its the way that Fucked Up’s elegiac anger is played out without concern for musical straitjackets that make this band so exciting.
Kitty Empire

Lucinda Williams
Little Honey (Lost Highway) 12.99

In the 30 years since her first album, Lucinda Williams has become known as one of the most expressive, emotive singers around, her country-blues voice cracked through with heartbreak. She’s still crying, but this time it’s tears of joy over her marriage to manager Tom Overby. Yet this is no saccharine outpouring: ‘Honey Bee’ is a stomping, fearsome ode to her lover, while gorgeous lament ‘If Wishes Were Horses’ recalls earlier pains. Elsewhere, there’s a warning for todays death-wish rock stars and a jailhouse duet with Elvis Costello - two quirky voices in perfect symmetry.
Katie Toms

Ray LaMontagne
Gossip In The Grain (14th Floor) 12.99

LaMontagne’s third album boasts a fuller sound than its predecessors but the key formula - two parts hoary-voiced grit to one part moist-eyed mush is unaltered. ‘Falling Through’ is the kind of gruff weepie American Idol contestants will delight in covering - LaMontagne has suffered that indignity/profile boost before - and ‘Meg White’, a wistful love letter to the White Stripes’ drummer, would be rejected by teenage diarists as too gauche. The title track and album-closer is lovely: spectral folk decorated with flute and cello. But its too little too late to atone for LaMontagne’s MORish leanings.
Ally Carnwath

Various Artists
Late Night Tales: Compiled By Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys (Azuli) 12.99

The youngest member of Arctic Monkeys was a hip hop fan before he joined Sheffield’s biggest indie export, a fact evident in the solid selection he’s put together for the mix series Late Night Tales. The presence of MF Doom alter ego Viktor Vaughn, alongside Mos Def’s 1999 classic ‘Ms Fat Booty’ and six other hip hop numbers, suggests Helders, a drummer, knows his beats from his rhymes. The remainder of the album takes in bluesy rock (the Black Keys), soul (Minnie Riperton) and electro (Simian Mobile Disco); the only time it goes anywhere near British lad-rock is on the Coral’s dreamy ‘Grey Harpoon’.
Killian Fox

Moussu T e lei Jovents
Home Sweet Home (Le Chant Du Monde) 13.99

This Marseille trio see themselves as bards of the city’s cosmopolitan life and history. Drawing inspiration from the port’s musical heyday in the Thirties, when a blend of jazz, popular chanson and Provenal folk made it a rival to effete Paris, this third album offers a mix of tender love calls and tough celebrations of maritime life, sung mostly in Occitan. Warm vocals and a light, melodic touch dispel any suggestion of earnestness, even on WW2 lament ‘Camarada’, while accents of reggae, blues and flamenco enliven their breezy brand of folk. Easy-going and atmospheric, it makes a charming autumn companion.
Neil Spencer

Humphrey Lyttelton
Humph Experiments (Lake) 12.99

When he died seven months ago, Humph had been leading his band for an amazing 60 years, and during all that time he was almost permanently out of step with musical fashion. He kept having original ideas and, being Humph, pursued them full-tilt. This compilation from the early 1950s contains the results of two ideas that seemed outlandish at the time but sound perfectly charming today: to play original compositions in the style of the late 1920s, and to create a fusion of jazz and Caribbean music. His partners in these enterprises include Australias Graeme Bell band and such fine West Indian players as Freddie Grant and Fitzroy Coleman.
Dave Gelly

Biffy Clyro are the latest band to be added to the bill of the Iceland Airwaves festival.

Vampire Weekend, Crystal Castles, Final Fantasy, White Lies and Simian Mobile Disco are all set to play the festival, which takes place at various venues in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik on October 15-19.

Go to Icelandairwaves.com for more information.

A London spin-off of the festival is taking place this weekend (September 19) to celebrate the event’s tenth anniversary.

To check the availability of Iceland Airwaves tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/GIGS now, or call 0871 230 1094.

Other news:

• Richard Wright of Pink Floyd dies of cancer aged 65
• Jordan joining Oscar race
• Midnight Eagle
• Spears to Set Off ‘Circus’ in December
• Stevie Wonder announces extra concerts

Angelina Jolie never wanted to conceive naturally until she met partner Brad Pitt.

The 33-year-old actress – who has three adopted children Maddox, Pax and Zahara, two-year-old daughter Shiloh and two-month-old twins Vivienne and Knox with Brad – had not considered getting pregnant until she fell in love with 44-year-old Brad.

She said: “I think one of the life changing things that Brad did for me, one of many, is that I was absolutely never going to get pregnant. I never felt that it was the right thing to do.

“I suppose I just looked at him and loved him and just felt open to getting pregnant. I suddenly wanted to. It’s one of those things you can’t explain.

“I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. It taught me a lot about life, just the process of it, and now we have three other beautiful children that wouldn’t otherwise be here.” Angelina’s interview accompanies a series of intimate shots of the actress taken by Brad.

In one of the black and white pictures, which features on the front of W magazine, Angelina is seen breastfeeding one of the twins. Angelina revealed she was comfortable showing off her post-pregnancy body in the shots, because Brad made her feel “sexy”.

She added: “I’m with a man who’s evolved enough to look at my body and see it as more beautiful, because of the journey it has taken and what it has created. He genuinely sees it that way. So I genuinely feel even sexier.”

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The pleasant but far-from-pioneering crew of DreamWorks Animation’s cheerful 2005 hit “Madagascar” reunite for “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” to similar results.

Essentially this sequel has settled down into a sitcom: Each of its major zoo-raised animals has a comical issue that must get resolved before the credits roll in 89 minutes. The film, like its predecessor, is aimed mostly at children and should score a direct hit. It opens, via Paramount, on Friday.

The situation at the end of the first film was this: Alex the performing lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the wisecracking zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the sensitive giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the ghetto-fabulous hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), all refugees from the Central Park Zoo, are stranded on the shores of Madagascar. The tough-guy penguins, who came along uninvited, have now rehabbed an old crashed airplane to fly back home. The plane gets as far as the central plains of Africa, where it again crashes.

The wreck fortuitously reunites Alex with his dad Zuba (the late Bernie Mac) and mom (Sherri Shepherd). This reunion sparks Alex’s issue: His dad’s rival, Makunga (Alec Baldwin), demands that the son perform the rites of passage to be allowed to stay in the pride. Misunderstanding the nature of this trial by fire, Alex performs the crowd-pleasing dance number from his zoo days, which results in his rival knocking the stuffing out of him. He therefore is banished from the pride because “real lions” don’t dance.

Meanwhile, Marty discovers that all the zebras look, sound and act exactly like him — or to be specific, like Chris Rock. How can his best pal Alex tell him apart from the herd? Well, Alex can’t, as a matter of fact. Which leaves Marty very angry.

Gloria’s hot-and-very-heavy flirtation with the watering hole’s extra-large Romeo, Moto Moto (will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas), sends Melman into a tailspin of jealousy. For in an implausible case of inter-species attraction, the giraffe turns out to be madly in love with the hippo.

Other characters return from the original film including the party-hearty lemurs (Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer and Andy Richter) and the vicious old lady (Elisa Gabrielli) with martial arts moves, as do the pop songs, ranging from Barry Manilow to Ennio Morricone, that put a goofy spin on all the action.

Cartoons can get away with being serviceable and skillful without much creativity since they have an endlessly renewing audience. “Mad 2″ surfs along on such waves, entertaining youngsters while mildly amusing adults. And being somewhat forgettable has an upside: When “Mad 2″ comes to DVD, it will seem new again.

/Hollywood Reporter

Washington, (ANI): Rapper Eminem says he regrets his former image as an angry young man. The star feels that the image must have made his fans believe that he”s on drugs. Now 35, the ‘Stan’ hitmaker has taken a look back at his career for a new autobiography, The Way I Am, and he can’t believe how mad he was, reports Contactmusic.

In an extract from the new memoir, printed in America’s Entertainment Weekly magazine, Eminem writes, “When I look back at myself during those years when everything was blowing up, I think maybe at first I was a little… too aggressive and loud. It was like I had this voice and I had to be heard.”

“People must have been wondering, “Why is this dude so angry? Is he on crack? Is he on crystal meth?”

Multi-platform campaign begins Oct. 4

Radio Disney will debut “Next Big Thing,” a multi-platform campaign around unsigned artists, Oct. 4. Beginning with Long Island quartet Push Play, the “N.B.T.” program will feature a new act every two weeks for 22 weeks.

Radio Disney will air one-minute segments with artist interviews and song excerpts four times a day. Listeners can vote for their favorites at radiodisney.com and by texting NBT to DISNEY (347639).

The act with the most votes will perform at a Radio Disney concert. The winner will be announced Mar. 30, 2009.

Photos, two full songs and interviews with the bands will live both on the Web and the campaign’s mobile site.

Radio Disney has been instrumental in building the careers of Walt Disney Music Group acts, which have come to dominate the network’s playlist since the label group began developing its own roster a few years ago. The Jonas Brothers were featured on Radio Disney’s new artist “Incubator” series while still on their debut Sony album.