Bill Clinton watched Strictly Ballroom six times in White House Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/bill-clinton-watched-strictly-ballroom-six-times-in-white-house/story-fnilxh2o-1226691568613#ixzz2b5A3F4L4

Bill Clinton watched Strictly Ballroom six times in White House 

BAZ Luhrmann says you never know who is going to be a Strictly Ballroom fan. "Forget that the Pope put it on his list of top five films,'' The Great Gatsby director said. "I remember the first time I met Bill Clinton ..." The former US President was in the middle of an argument when he turned to Baz Luhrmann to say Moulin Rouge! was great, but when it came to Strictly Ballroom, he must have played it at least six times in The White House. "And he leaned right over, he said, `how about that mother? What a piece of work, huh?' and then goes back to arguing with Richard Gere,'' Luhrmann told media in Sydney today. 1dc16c20-fda3-11e2-9e84-e97fbc5b6f85 director Director Baz Luhrmann receives a kiss from his wife and costume designer Catherine Martin, after he outlined his vision for "Strictly Ballroom the Musical". AFP PHOTO / Greg WOOD Source: AFP Strictly Ballroom began life as a play Luhrmann created while studying at NIDA, inspired by the ballroom dancing he did during his childhood. After being made for the screen, he was told it was the worst movie one film distributor had ever seen. 24a668d8-fda3-11e2-9e84-e97fbc5b6f85 director Director Baz Luhrmann is joined onstage by dancers after he outlined his vision for "Strictly Ballroom the Musical". AFP PHOTO / Greg WOOD Source: AFP The teacher behind Baz Luhrmann Autoplay ON OFF Watch On The Great Gatsby red carpet News Limited catches all the stars at the Australian launch of Baz Luhrmann's movie spectacular, The Great Gatsby. Play 0:00 / 2:33Scrubber mute Share Fullscreen Baz Luhrmann hits Paris Fashion Week with daughter Baz Luhrmann gets last laugh at the box office with Gatsby Feeling "hurt, burnt and sad'' Luhrmann went up the NSW coast to a caravan park. He was standing in the rain, mid haircut, with a bucket on his head to protect him from lethal falling coconuts, when he got a phone call inviting him to the Cannes Film Festival. From there, the little Aussie film went on to achieve global success and introduced Australia and the world to Luhrmann. He would go on to make Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, Australia and most recently, The Great Gatsby, before making the decision to return to his theatrical roots to stage a musical version of his beloved film. "Somehow the planets have aligned,'' he said of the timing. 0dd30eb6-fd9b-11e2-9e84-e97fbc5b6f85 Global Creatures Baz Lurhmann at Sydney's Town Hall for the launch of Strictly Ballroom, The Musical; With performances at the Sydney Lyric from March 2014. Picture: Creatures James Morgan/global Source: Supplied Luhrmann said a lot of going ahead with the production came down to teaming up with Global Creatures, the brains behind the creatures of King Kong and Walking With Dinosaurs productions, in order to bring it to life. "None of the dancers will be real. The entire cast are puppets,'' Luhrmann joked. But with new productions like King Kong raising the innovative bar, Luhrmann is promising something extraordinary. "If we are not actually breaking new theatrical ground with it, than at my age, why would you bother?'' he said. Luhrmann remained tight-lipped about casting, except that he had seen "the right kind of glimmer'' recently. However he did reveal that Strictly Ballroom will be a show where the audience can get involved. "That the audience are actually at times, they are at the (dance) festivals,'' he said. "So exploding out into the space, dancing in the space, dancing being all around you. "One thing I can guarantee you, everything dances in this show.'' Strictly Ballroom The Musical will play at Sydney Lyric from March 25 with tickets on sale from August 12 34be14dc-fda3-11e2-9e84-e97fbc5b6f85 Global Creatures Baz Lurhmann at Sydney's Town Hall today for the launch of Strictly Ballroom, The Musical with performances at the Sydney Lyric from March 2014. Picture: Creatures James Morgan/global



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Pink Sydney concert proves to be a balancing act

Pink Sydney concert proves to be a balancing act

Pink needs a parachute. Surely that's the only way she could top her energetic opening sequence to her song Raise Your Glass which included a trapdoor, bungy cords and the singer hanging off an apparatus with some half-naked men. (For her next concert she's going to have to parachute in, I thought, a little too smugly). But by the time Pink's show was finishing with a thrilling high wire act, which appeared to involve her flying across much of the breadth and width of the Sydney Entertainment Centre while singing So What (one of the most extraordinary closing sequences you're ever likely to see at a pop show) to be honest, even a parachute seemed a little lame by comparison. Alecia Moore, aka Pink, is no longer just a singer or a brattish pop punk but also an all-spinning, all-flying, all-dancing entertainment machine. She has clearly come to believe the fans expect nothing less, but she might be surprised. Because despite the genuine thrills, it's starting to feel a little like her choreography - and the use of stage characters, such as an odd, sleazy clown named Rubix von Fukenhurtz to anchor her show - is over-compensating. Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house. Click for more photos Pink in concert Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house. Photo: Lisa McMahon Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house.Pink's show was a hit with the Sydney crowd.The stage set-up boasted nine video screen, including a large loveheart screen.Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house.Pink's Sydney show on Tuesday night was one of 45 on here Australian tour.Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house.Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house.Pink performs at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.The opening sequence for Pink's song Raise Your Glass.Pink, aka Alecia Moore, is known for her energetic show.Pink performing in Sydney on Tuesday night.Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house.Pink performs at Sydney Entertainment Centre to a full house.View all 14 photos Despite her incredible popularity (this show was one of 45 on the tour) is Pink trying too hard? For when she is singing with just her backing band, without her bag of tricks constantly on show, in anthems such as Trouble, she is truly at her best. Advertisement Just when she seems to connect, there's another whiz bang, whirly, twirly, up-in-the-air, upside down sequence. Her stage set-up alone boasted nine video screens (including a large loveheart screen) plus two giant ones belonging to the venue, so at times it was a dizzying visual overload. And yes, Pink can spin and sing - well, it's hard to tell just how well, because her back-up singers were sometimes clearly holding the floor (with their mics up louder than hers) in songs such as Try and Sober. But none of Pink's fans seemed to mind too much. And isn't that indeed the the truth about love, well the ardent love of pop fans anyway? They didn't balk when Pink occasionally had a hoarse edge to her voice (very unusual for such a highly polished singer) and when she charmingly joked about forgetting some lyrics - she restarted her piano song The Great Escape. Because it's easy to love Pink when she's real, when she laughs off her occasional faults. But in a large-scale concert such as this, the balancing act between art and artifice is a fine line to tread. Especially when people go home talking about high wires, not high notes.




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Cannes film festival draws to a close with cliffhanger ending

Cannes film festival draws to a close with cliffhanger ending

Twenty films packed with sex, violence and emotional anguish are vying at the world's biggest cinema showcase for the Palme d'Or, one of the most coveted film awards after the Oscars. Frontrunners include French director Abdellatif Kechiche's love story "La Vie d'Adele" (Blue is the Warmest Color) with its graphic lesbian sex scenes, and "Inside Llewyn Davis" about a struggling New York folk singer by the American Coen brothers. Also on the short list are "La Grande Bellezza" (The Great Beauty) from Italy's Paolo Sorrentino, a magical ode to the decadence of Rome, and "Le Passe" (The Past), a tension-filled domestic drama by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi. Choosing the winner of the top prize and other awards is a jury led by U.S. filmmaker Steven Spielberg with Australian actress Nicole Kidman and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee. "It's been a good year at Cannes despite the terrible weather but it is harder than usual to predict the winner as there is no one stand-out film," critic Jay Weissberg from trade publication Variety told Reuters. "La Vie d'Adele had everyone buzzing but its sex scenes could be too intimate for this jury. You are never quite sure what the jury will decide." The jury members have mixed and mingled on the red carpet on Cannes' palm-lined waterfront with A-list stars from around the globe since the festival opened with Australian director Baz Luhrmann's lavish "The Great Gatsby" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 66th Cannes festival got off to a violent start with a brutal torture scene in Mexican drama "Heli" and with China's "Tian Zhu Ding" (A Touch of Sin) by Jia Zhangke, but the blood-letting in "Only God Forgives" by Denmark's Nicolas Winding Refn sharply divided critics. STARS OUT IN FORCE As usual at Cannes, sex was a key theme in many films, with French director Francois Ozon's "Jeune & Jolie" (Young & Beautiful) focused on a 17-year-old prostitute and celebrated director Roman Polanski's "La Venus a la Fourrure" (Venus in Fur) exploring a sexual power play between a writer and actress. U.S. filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra" about the flamboyant pianist Liberace and his gay lover, played by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, struggled to find funding in Hollywood but made it to the screen financed by Time Warner's HBO cable network. Family anguish filled Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda's "Soshite Chichi Ni Naru" (Like Father, Like Son) about two boys swapped at birth while his contemporary, Takashi Miike, took on violence in police thriller "Wara No Tate" (Shield of Straw). The Netherlands had its first film in the main competition with the menacing and surreal "Borgman" by Alex Van Warmerdam while one African film, "Grigris" by Chadian Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, was selected to join the field. While cinephiles soaked up the varied selection on offer, celebrities galore descended on Cannes, the film industry's top marketplace where up to 40,000 film professionals buy, sell and fund films. They posed before the flash bulbs to promote their latest movies and build support for new projects. "Hunger Games" actors Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth, David Hasselhoff, Jackie Chan and Keanu Reeves were among the actors in town to promote upcoming films. Stars including Sharon Stone, Janet Jackson, and Shirley Bassey jetted in for the festival's most glitzy party, the amfAR AIDS charity gala, where three guests paid 3 million euros ($4 million) to go on a trip into space with DiCaprio. With stars out in force so was security, but they still failed to stop two jewelry thefts worthy of a Hollywood movie. A diamond necklace worth $2.6 million disappeared during a star-studded party held by Swiss jeweler De Grisogono while gems worth $1.4 million were stolen from Chopard jewelers when a safe was hacked out of the wall of a hotel room. (Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Pravin Char)


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