News around the World

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PEOPLE with www.BingoFest.com

Christian Bale, Amy Winehouse, Mark Whitaker

July 29, 2008

 

NBC has named Mark Whitaker as its next

Washington

bureau chief, succeeding the late Tim Russert . Whitaker, the former editor of Newsweek, has been a senior vice president of NBC News since 2007. The appointment has been widely expected because of Whitaker's extensive journalism credentials. He will fulfill the off-camera duties that had been handled by Russert, including overall management of the bureau and oversight of political coverage as well as the "Meet the Press" Sunday discussion program. He said he recognized that he had "big shoes to fill." In a telephone interview Whitaker said: "I'm honored to get the chance. We're in the middle of a historic election, the economy is going through its worst time in a generation and there are big changes on the world scene."

Amy Winehouse was released Tuesday from a

London

hospital after she suffered a reaction to medication the day before, a hospital spokesman said. An ambulance had taken Winehouse from her north

London

home to

University

College

Hospital

, a spokesman said. It was the second time in as many months that Winehouse had been in the hospital. She was admitted to a

London

clinic in June after collapsing, and her father, Mitch Winehouse , said at the time that she had developed early stage emphysema from smoking cigarettes and crack cocaine. Winehouse got out in time to perform at the 90th birthday of the former president of

South Africa

, Nelson Mandela .

(AP)

Christian Bale skirted questions about the assault allegations against him at the

Tokyo

premiere of "The Dark Night." British media have reported that Bale's mother and sister told the police that he had assaulted them at the hotel a day before the film's European premiere. But the Batman star managed to make it through the hugely successful movie's premiere in

Japan

with virtually no comment on his personal problems. "It's a private matter," he told a crowded news conference. Bale, 34, has said through his lawyers that the assault allegations are false. The Welsh actor's personal drama hasn't hurt the movie. It crossed the $300 million mark in just 10 days in the

United States

and is expected to do well in Europe and

Asia

.

(AP)

Just months before he died, George Carlin was looking into the face of death - and making it the butt of his jokes. "You know what I've been doing? Going through my address book and crossing out the dead people. It gives you a feeling of power, of superiority, to have outlasted another old friend," Carlin says on what turned out to be his final comedy album. The recording, "It's Bad For Ya," was to be released Tuesday on Eardrum Records. Carlin died June 22 of a heart attack at 71. In an interview four months before his death, he said he was particularly pleased with the material he was working up for the album and an HBO show that aired last March. "Definitely some people who are close to me who have seen this show, and have seen a lot of the others, feel this is my best stuff yet," he said.

(AP)

"Glory Days" are here again for Bruce Springsteen , whose upcoming tour could make him the biggest touring artist of the year in

North America

. Springsteen and his E Street Band , who kick off the second leg of their North American tour in

New Jersey

on Sunday, will vie for the crown with the group Bon Jovi and the country singer Kenny Chesney , according to Pollstar magazine.

(Reuters)

The British singer Chris de Burgh will stage a concert in

Tehran

with an Iranian band in late November, the first such concert in the country in nearly 30 years, an Iranian satellite news channel reported on its Web site. De Burgh, who has a loyal following in

Iran

, visited for the first time in May, and said he hoped that the authorities would give him permission to perform.

(Reuters)

Mario Lopez has been chosen as the new solo host of "Extra." Lopez, 34, who's served as a correspondent for the syndicated entertainment newsmagazine and co-hosted its weekend edition since January 2007, will take over from the co-hosts Mark McGrath and Dayna Devon , the producers of "Extra" said.

(AP)

 

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PORSCHE SEES THE GREEN LIGHT

 

Motoring with www.bingofest.com

 

Sunday July 13,2008

 

 

If you were making a list of what not to do in the middle of a fuel crisis, launching a sports car would surely be somewhere near the top.

If you were being uncharitable, you might even compare it to Gerald Ratner’s classic joke about his lacklustre products.

Don’t be too hasty – the new 911 might look like its predecessor but this is the first Porsche to emphasise its green credentials.

Hiding beneath the retractable rear wing is a choice of two new engines.

A technical tour de force, it promises lower fuel consumption and emissions and a few more horsepower, too.

Available as a 3.6-litre in the standard Carrera and a 3.8 in the Carrera S, it’s joined by a new double-clutch, semi-automatic gearbox that aims to inject fresh life into Porsche’s image leader.

Some manufacturers might have been tempted to announce these techno delights with a bold new look, but you’d have to be a serious Porsche anorak to notice the new LED rear lights, wing mirrors and front air intakes.

Don’t expect a new look inside either.

There’s a revised and marginally less confusing entertainment system and that’s about it.

You still sit upright in an intimate cabin and view the world through a steeply raked windscreen.

Compared with such rivals as Audi’s R8 it feels rather old school but this has always been part of the 911’s charm.

The cockpit of the world’s most iconic sports car is still an emotive place to be.

 

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News with www.bingofest.com in the United Kingdom

 

 

NOW BURGLARS WILL NOT BE JAILED

 

 

BRITAIN

’S soft justice system hit a new low yesterday with plans to scrap prison sentences for burglars.

Hundreds of thousands of crooks could escape jail every year under the proposals by advisers to the Lord Chief Justice.

Those sentenced to short, sharp shock jail terms of less than 12 months for “less serious offences” – including burglary – should be handed community penalties instead, they said.

Even those who are likely to reoffend could walk free from court if it is believed they will go on to commit “non-serious offences”.

And in a further blow, while courts must not be swayed by victims demanding harsher punishments for offenders, the advisers said that judges should listen if they call for leniency.

Critics said the proposals would do nothing to calm the fears of law-abiding members of the public who have lost their faith in the criminal justice system, and would not deter those intent on crime.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said burglary is “deeply upsetting for its victims and should not be dealt with lightly”. He added: “People rightly expect that offenders who invade their home will be dealt with severely, and they have little confidence in weak community sentences which too often aren’t even properly enforced.”

 

 

Retired judge Keith Matthewman QC called the proposals “an absolute disgrace”. He said: “Criminals laugh at community sentences. The only thing they are frightened of is prison. Many years ago when I was defending people they would say, ‘Can you get me off with a community sentence?’.

“It is entirely the wrong way to go and I hope judges take no notice of it. The law-abiding public has lost all faith in the criminal justice system and so have I.”

More than 292,000 burglaries were reported to police last year. Burglars are locked up for an average of six months – but the Sentencing Advisory Panel said unpaid work or a curfew could be a better way of punishing them.

The panel – which advises the Sentencing Guidelines Council, chaired by the Lord Chief Justice – said short custodial sentences are not as effective at rehabilitating offenders.

But it stressed that, rather than suggesting longer jail terms, it was saying that “there may be better alternatives to short custodial sentences”.

The panel’s review said: “A presumption in favour of a community order is most likely to be appropriate in relation to the less serious offences of theft and dishonesty, burglary and motoring offences, where there may be clear advantages in a sentence in the community.”

It added: “The risk that an offender may commit further offences of a non-serious nature should not automatically indicate that custody is necessary.”

And after saying victims’ views should only affect a judge if they are calling for leniency rather than harsher sentencing, it admitted the move would “create a certain level of inconsistency”.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the advice looked like a way of avoiding further prison overcrowding. “Punishments should fit the crime and not the availability of prison places,” he said.

Mr Matthewman added: “Panels like this think more about the criminals than the victims – and yet it is the victims who spend the rest of their lives suffering.”

The panel also suggested  cases where criminals could get lesser sentences. They include pregnant women and carers.

It also said those in gainful employment should get community orders so they can keep their jobs – but then said this would “work against those disadvantaged by being unemployed”.

SAP chairman Andrew Ashworth said: “In what circumstances should an offender be given a custodial sentence? We need to make sure we have an up-to-date understanding of public opinion.”

 

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Fashion king Yves Saint Laurent dies

By Crispian Balmer, PARIS (Reuters)  2/06/2008  04:06

French fashion king Yves Saint Laurent has died at the age of 71, hailed as a 20th century cultural icon who revolutionised the way women dressed.

The reclusive

Saint Laurent

's couture creations won global fine art status and he was widely considered to be one of an elite club of designers including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel who made

Paris

the fashion capital of the world.

From Princess Grace of

Monaco

to the actress Catherine Deneuve,

Saint Laurent

's creations adorned many famous women but he was also the first designer to make luxury labels accessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wear collections.

He exploded on to the world stage at just 21 and built up a clothes, perfumes and accessories empire that resulted in a 1989 stock market flotation -- the first by a fashion house.

Advertisement

But

Saint Laurent

, whose death on Sunday was announced without any details of the cause, was plagued by health problems -- he suffered from severe depression and underwent treatment for alcohol abuse.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised

Saint Laurent

as a creative genius. "He was convinced that beauty was a luxury that every man and woman needed," Sarkozy said in a statement.

"(

Coco

) Chanel gave women freedom. Yves Saint Laurent gave them power,"

Saint Laurent

's long-time friend and business partner Pierre Berge told France Info radio.

"(But) he was someone who was very shy and introverted, who had only very few friends and hid himself from the world."

Saint Laurent

, who retired in 2002, was widely credited with changing forever what women wore, making the trouser suit a daytime staple and the tuxedo an elegant option.

He also popularised safari jackets and thigh-high boots, and his transparent blouses made near-nudity acceptable in high society. His square-shouldered suits became classics and he simplified evening-wear, moving from shocking satins to flowing white crepe of Hellenic purity.

"He completely revamped a woman's wardrobe," luxury underwear designer Chantal Thomass told French radio. "His fashion was full of colour and inspired by art."

EARLY TALENT

The eldest child of a wealthy French industrialist,

Saint Laurent

was born and grew up in the then French colony of

Algeria

and showed a talent for design, making clothes for his younger sisters' dolls.

At 17 he entered a

Paris

fashion school, and his sketch for a cocktail dress won first prize in an annual contest.

Introduced to Christian Dior, the gangly

Saint Laurent

was hired on the spot by the creator of the "New Look" and became his chief assistant. On Dior's death in 1957,

Saint Laurent

became chief designer and swiftly outshone his mentor.

After his first collection introduced the widely copied "trapeze" silhouette with narrow shoulders and flared skirt, the shy 21-year-old was pushed out on to the Dior building balcony and crowds in the avenue below hailed him like royalty.

Saint Laurent

directed Dior for three years, until drafted for military service during the Algerian war.

For a sensitive person whose homosexuality had made his school years a torture, army life was an ordeal. He had a nervous breakdown and spent nearly three months in hospital.

Berge got a businessman to provide backing for the young designer to establish his own fashion house, and

Saint Laurent

presented his first collection under his own name in 1962.

The "YSL" empire grew steadily and

Saint Laurent

showed an instinctive ability to sense what the mood on the streets was and turn it into high fashion.

But by the late 1980s his health problems were an issue.

Insiders said

Saint Laurent

, who never read newspapers or listened to the radio, became increasingly cut off from reality and lost touch with all but a tiny group of friends.

"Fame has destroyed him," Berge once said.

"All designers have a bit of the megalomaniac in them -- the only difference is that the fake designers, the bad ones, are happy megalomaniacs while the real ones are unhappy megalomaniacs.

Saint Laurent

is an unhappy megalomaniac."

Despite the personal demons, his business empire thrived. The 1989 flotation was a runaway success.

But when the Gulf War erupted and the world economy slumped in the early 1990s, Berge and

Saint Laurent

sank into debt.

In 1992, YSL was absorbed by cosmetics and drugs company Sanofi, with

Saint Laurent

retaining creative control. Then in 1999 it was bought by the Gucci group, itself controlled by French luxury giant PPR.

Saint Laurent

, rarely seen in public after his retirement, was awarded one of

France

's top honours in 2007.

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Remembering Charlton Heston, the nicest man 'that ever lived in movies'

 

Published: April 11, 2008

 

'What does it matter what you say about people?" Marlene Dietrich asks at the end of that 1958 American masterpiece "Touch of Evil." She's talking about the dead cop Hank Quinlan, a mound of stilled flesh and lasting corruption given frightening life by the film's director, Orson Welles. The man who brings him down is Vargas, the upright Dudley Do-Right Mexican detective with a paint-on tan. Lantern jaw set like a vise, this is of course Charlton Heston.

Dietrich's character probably had it right that it doesn't really matter what we say about people, but in the wake of Heston's death on Saturday, I would like to offer a few words about one of the last American movie stars. This seems particularly worthwhile because in the final decades of his life he had all but disappeared from the screen, making one of his only on-camera appearances in "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore's 2002 anti-gun feature.

Moore

shows up at Heston's home and tries to shame this stooped and visibly frail old man for his stance on guns. The old man doesn't engage

Moore

, just walks away, unfailingly polite to the end.

Welles called Heston "the nicest man to work with that ever lived in movies." These two seemingly unlikely collaborators were brought together to star in a pulpy Universal Pictures project originally titled "Badge of Evil." Heston thought that his co-star had been hired as the director ("any picture that Welles directs, I'll make"), which prompted the studio quickly to sign Welles up for what would be his last

Hollywood

studio gig. Welles rewrote the screenplay and shot much of the film in the

Venice

Beach

area of

Los   Angeles

. History, alas, repeated itself, and he lost control of the film as he had on "The Magnificent Ambersons," which is a different story from the one I want to tell. (A beautifully re-edited version was released in 1998 and is available on DVD.)

It was Welles who decided that Heston should play the role as a Mexican, partly as a way of building up what he considered to be an uninteresting character. (At first glance it may seem as if Welles failed.) Shortly after the film opens, Vargas and his delectable new American bride, Susan (Janet Leigh), kiss at the Mexican-American border, a passionate embrace that leads to a cataclysmic explosion and soon plunges the newlyweds into a phantasmagoria of sleaze, violence and very low camera angles. Vargas, a celebrity cop who has brought a case against a drug ring that's about to go to trial in

Mexico City

, spends much of the story separated from Susan and circling Quinlan, a dirty American lawman.

In long shot and choking close-up, Welles directs Heston brilliantly, making particularly memorable use of the actor's physicality, his big, rangy body and the hard, clean right angles of his face.

The ramrod straight, straight as an arrow Vargas, with his impossibly long and loping stride, could not look or register more different from Quinlan, an amorphous blob who all but rolls across the screen. Welles exploits Heston's rigidity as a performer (and his American movie-star presence) for the character, using what in other films sometimes seemed like a limitation of craft and technique to the great advantage of the story's texture and meaning. He turns Heston's jutting jaw into the wagging finger of righteousness, deepening the film's complex morality.

Heston starred in other notable films, of course, including Sam Peckinpah's vicious 1965 western, "Major Dundee," another story about border crossing and yet another ill-fated production taken away from its director. Heston plays the title character, a fanatical cavalry officer who, along with a motley posse, chases marauding Apaches into

Mexico

.

Heston has his moments as

Dundee

- there's something about his intensity that lends itself to obsessive characterizations - but he remains elusive, never becoming the Ahab that Peckinpah was after. As he had with Welles, Heston showed great loyalty to his troubled director and threatened to walk if the studio fired Peckinpah, who was drinking heavily throughout the production. Heston forfeited his salary in the bargain.

As much as I admire "Major Dundee," my fondness for Heston can be traced back to the films I saw growing up, most important his great dystopian trilogy: "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "The Omega Man" (1971) and "Soylent Green" (1973).

This was the Charlton Heston I first met and loved and the one I still love, the last man on Earth, the raging consciousness, the horrified hero. Few films thrilled me - or scared me - as much as "Soylent Green," in which his character realizes that the stuff keeping the human race alive is made from other human beings: "Soylent Green is people!" By then, he had played Moses and saved an entire people from destruction.

Things didn't look good in "Soylent Green," but somehow, I thought, surely Charlton Heston could save us.

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People: Mathieu Amalric, Beyoncé, Snoop Dogg

 

The Associated Press, The New York Times

Published: April 7, 2008

 

It appears that Jay-Z, 38, and Beyoncé, 26, have finally wed. There was a swirl of activity at the rap star's

Manhattan

apartment over the weekend. A white tent was set up on the roof, and stars including Beyoncé's former Destiny's Child bandmates, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, along with Gwyneth Paltrow, were spotted arriving. The Web sites of People magazine and Us Weekly reported that the couple married and threw a lavish but small party at the apartment. The two have collaborated on the songs "03 Bonnie and

Clyde

" and "Crazy In Love." It's been a big season for Jay-Z. The concert promoter Live Nation said it was in talks with the singer over a business deal that would land him a potential windfall of more than $100 million.

Nicolas Cage has accepted a public apology from Kathleen Turner over claims made in her autobiography that he was arrested twice for drunken driving while they were making the 1986 film "Peggy Sue Got Married." In the book, "Send Yourself Roses: My Life, Love and Leading Roles," Turner also wrote that Cage was arrested for stealing a

Chihuahua

. The actress and the British publisher Headline and Associated Newspapers, which provided extracts of the book to The Daily Mail, have also made a substantial donation to charity. Cage's attorney in

Britain

said that the Oscar-winning actor was "extremely pleased" with the outcome of the case "since he has never been arrested for drink driving, dog theft or anything else."

A woman who claims that Michael Jordan fathered her child wants the former NBA star to submit to a third paternity test. Lisa Miceli also is asking a judge to lift a temporary restraining order imposed after

Jordan

filed a harassment suit against her. Miceli, 35, of

Meadville

,

Pennsylvania

, claims

Jordan

fathered her 4-year-old son, but

Jordan

's lawsuit says a pair of paternity tests in 2005 rule him out as the boy's father.

A company in a court fight with the Beatles has agreed not to release recordings supposedly made during an early Ringo Starr performance with the group until the case is resolved. A federal judge has approved the agreement between Apple Corps, the group formed by the Beatles that helps guard their legacy, and Fuego Entertainment, based in

Florida

. The dispute stems from recordings the four apparently made in 1962 during a performance in

Hamburg

. Eight unreleased tracks are said to be among the recordings, including Paul McCartney singing Hank Williams's "Lovesick Blues" and McCartney and John Lennon singing "Ask Me Why." Apple Corps claims that the songs were taped without the band's consent and that Fuego and its sister companies have no right to distribute them.

The British Border Agency plans to challenge a court ruling that would admit the hip-hop star Snoop Dogg into the country, The Associated Press reported. He was barred from

Britain

after his arrest with five others in 2006 at

Heathrow

Airport

near

London

on charges of violent disorder in an incident that injured seven officers. But Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, appealed, and in January an asylum and immigration tribunal granted him clearance to enter.

After getting the bad end of his own ax in a fight, a bloodied villain limps alone in a stark desert. Mathieu Amalric stumbles to the red, rocky ground. "Cut!" rings loudly from the set of the 22nd James Bond film. Picking up an hour after "Casino Royale" left off, "Quantum of Solace" is the spy franchise's first direct sequel. Filming began in January and has taken the crew from

Britain

to northern

Chile

. It's a place that the director, Marc Forster, said evokes Bond's "isolation and loneliness." Indeed, the big news on the set is that one of the two Bond girls, Olga Kurylenko, doesn't get in even a single kiss with the star Daniel Craig. The question is: Do audiences want an emotional Bond? Craig says not to worry too much. "What Marc wanted and the producers and what I wanted is to bring back a visual flair to the movie." Still, Forster, 39, was hired on by the producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, because of his emotionally intense films like "Monster's Ball" and "The Kite Runner."

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'Run, Fat Boy, Run': A goofy, but inspirational fantasy

 

The beleaguered man-boy Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) is always running, running, running, an activity befitting the hero of the British comedy titled "Run, Fat Boy, Run." In the film's prologue he runs away from his pregnant fiancée, Libby (Thandie Newton, charming in a largely reactive role), minutes before their scheduled wedding.

When we catch up with him years later, he's a chubby security guard sprinting after a shoplifter. Soon after, Dennis decides to enter the same marathon as Libby's rich American boyfriend, Whit, to show Libby and his now elementary school-age son, Jake, that he can make plans and see them through. "You can't even finish a sentence," Libby says.

"Fat Boy" will never be mistaken for art. It's "Rocky" by way of "There's Something About Mary," an inspirational fantasy with guy's-guy banter and gross-out humor (including a blister-popping scene that seems to be this film's answer to the hair gel bit in "Mary"). Yet it's effective and affecting; much of its impact comes from its images of Dennis running and its conviction that there's a difference between running toward something and running away. (The film, which had a limited release last year, is being released worldwide this spring.)

Pegg - the star and co-writer of "Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz" and "Fat Boy," which is derived from a script by Michael Ian Black that was originally set in America - never shies away from Dennis's pathetic essence. Even when training for a marathon he can't seem to stop smoking and eating junk food. But Pegg also gives us enough of a sense of Dennis's capacity for self-transformation that his mission seems both plausible and inspiring.

Pegg is abetted by a strong supporting cast that includes Hank Azaria as the laid-back yet ferociously competitive Whit; Matthew Fenton as the sweet but never-cloying Jake; and Dylan Moran as Dennis's best friend, Gordon, a degenerate gambler.

The film's mix of droll banter, lowbrow slapstick and melancholy song montages suggests that its director, the former "Friends" star David Schwimmer, has seen "The Graduate" more than once. The movie is formulaic, and there are times when Schwimmer and his writers overdo things, particularly in the finale, which finds Whit, previously a human-scaled jerk, indulging in cartoon villainy.

But its assembly line aspects are countered by touches that translate drama into metaphor, like the scene in which Dennis and Whit walk with Jake, each would-be daddy tugging at one of the boy's hands, wishbone style, and an earlier scene in which Whit warns Dennis that every marathoner hits a wall - an admonition that pays off in the marathon sequence when Dennis encounters a chillingly effective visualization of that wall.

"Run, Fat Boy, Run" is the kind of movie that's apt to be dismissed a goofy lark. It is that. But it's also a rare comedy that believes in its own message, and that could inspire the depressed and the demoralized to grit their teeth and keep running.

21 Directed by Robert Luketic (

U.S.

)

Greed is good and comes without a hint of conscience in "21," a feature-length bore about some smarty-pants who take Vegas for a ride.

Loosely based on the nonfiction book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich, and adapted for the screen by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb, this bankrupt enterprise asks you to care about a whiny MIT moppet, Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess, serviceable), who because he can't afford Harvard Medical School (boo hoo), starts counting cards to rake in some serious cash.

The conduit to Ben's journey of counterfeit self-discovery is a racially, ethnically, sexually balanced gang of other greedy bright things (the most appealing being Aaron Yoo, wasted as the kooky, sexless Asian guy), run by an equally avaricious math professor, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey on autopilot). Using a system of mnemonic devices, goofy hand signals and a talent for numbers, the team has devised a way to beat the bank. Because Ben doesn't want to use his poor widowed mother's savings to go to Harvard, he decides to ditch his qualms if not his sense (because he really has none) and signs on.

And so it's off to Vegas they go, where they count the cards, take the money and run. Amid the din and glare of various casinos, the director Robert Luketic, whose credits include "Legally Blonde," engages in other dodgy business: He cribs from Wong Kar Wai's "Chungking Express" period (Ben sits motionless as the world races by); borrows from the David Fincher of "Fight Club" (camera tricks for kicks); lifts from Martin Scorsese's "Casino" (throw the money in the air like you just don't care); and pays homage to universal whoredom by restaging the "Pretty Woman" shopping montage. He also tosses in some gleaming rides, a couple of PG-13 pole dancers and a Rolling Stones remix that both Dad and the kids can enjoy. (The film is being released worldwide this spring.)

 

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Speak out on Tibet

 

China

has cracked down on

Tibet

and neighboring provinces. It sent more troops into restive regions and made scores of arrests in

Lhasa

. It acknowledged firing on demonstrators in

Sichuan

. Yet, the response of the international community - and of the International Olympic Committee - has been tepid.

Beijing

must be called to account, especially since it will be the host to the 2008 Games.

China

has blocked most news coverage despite a pledge to give freer access to journalists in the run-up to the Olympics. Tibetan exile groups say as many as 100 people died in violence that followed a week of peaceful protests.

Beijing

puts the toll at about 20.

The U.S. State Department says

Tibet

- taken by force by

China

in 1951 - is "one of

China

's poorest regions." Authorities have increased controls over the practice of Buddhism and committed serious human rights abuses.

The Dalai Lama,

Tibet

's exiled spiritual leader, has shown remarkable restraint against what he calls "cultural genocide." Despite the bloodshed, he reaffirmed a commitment to nonviolence and greater autonomy - rather than independence - for

Tibet

. In return,

Beijing

called him a "devil."

But

China

's authoritarianism is backfiring, fueling resentment that exploded in

Lhasa

and radicalizing Tibetans, who increasingly demand independence.

The

United   States

and other major countries must go beyond anemic statements urging Chinese restraint. They must make it clear that such repression violates the promise

Beijing

made to improve its human rights record when it won the Olympics bid. It mocks the Olympic Charter, which extols "human dignity." It mocks the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes "equal and inalienable rights of all."

The West should keep pressing

Beijing

to begin serious talks with the Dalai Lama and instruct the UN Human Rights Council to begin a probe in

Tibet

. The White House says President George W. Bush is trying to influence

Beijing

. So far, we see no positive results.

Inexcusably, the International Olympic Committee has done little to defend its values and has stuck with plans to have the Olympic torch pass through

Lhasa

.

Boycotting the Games doesn't work; we know that from experience. But the idea of Bernard Kouchner,

France

's foreign minister, about not attending the opening ceremony is worth considering. What message does it send if dignitaries lend their prestige to

China

's coming out party as if nothing happened in

Tibet

?

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Rice apologizes to Obama for passport breach

 

The Associated Press, The New York Times

Published: March 21, 2008

 

 

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologized Friday to Senator Barack Obama for an incident in which three State Department contract workers unnecessarily reviewed the Democratic presidential candidate's passport file.

"I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed," Rice said. "None of us wants to have a circumstance where any American's passport files are looked at in an unauthorized way," she added.

The episode raised questions as to whether the scrutiny was politically motivated. Two of the workers were fired and a third was reprimanded for improperly opening electronic information from the passport file of Obama, State Department officials said.

Rice, who spoke with Obama by telephone, said she was particularly disappointed that senior officials at the State Department had not been immediately notified.

The State Department's inspector general is investigating the breach. On Friday, the State Department announced that the Justice Department would be monitoring the inquiry.

A spokesman for the Obama campaign, Bill Burton, said, "This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years."

A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said Friday that all of the results of the investigation would be made available to congressional oversight committees and to Obama's office. The department said it would not release the names of those who had been fired and disciplined or the names of the two companies for which they worked.

McCormack said the breaches occurred on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14 and had been detected by internal computer checks.

 

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Whitney museum to receive $131 million gift

 

Leonard Lauder, the cosmetics executive and chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art, said on Tuesday that his art foundation would give the museum $131 million, the biggest donation in the Whitney's 77-year history.

The bulk of the money — $125 million — will go toward the Whitney's endowment, boosting it to $195 million from $70 million, Lauder said in a telephone interview.

The Whitney called the gift one of the largest donations ever to a

New York

museum's endowment. Lauder said that the money required the museum not to sell its Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue at

75th Street

for an extended period, although he declined to specify how long.

The Whitney announced last year that it planned to open a satellite museum downtown in the meatpacking district of Manhattan, which stirred speculation that it might sell its Breuer building.

But Lauder said he was determined that the Whitney keep its hulking 1966 building. "Like so many architecture lovers, I believe the Whitney and the Breuer building are one," he said.

Given the precarious state of the economy, Lauder, who turns 75 on Wednesday, emphasized that he could be depended on for the donation, which he said he had long planned.

"Being old enough to have lived through several recessions, when I made the decision years ago, I asked my financial advisers to move the money into T-bills," he said. "So it is sitting there and is very secure."

Lauder is chairman of the Estée Lauder Companies and, according to Forbes magazine, had a net worth of $3.2 billion in 2007.

The gift includes $6 million to cover expenses until the donation is complete, which is expected to be by June 30, 2009. The money is a major infusion for the Whitney, which has been historically under-endowed. Its new endowment total of $195 million will still pale in comparison with those of institutions like the

Museum

of

Modern Art

, with an $850 million endowment. (Ronald Lauder, Leonard Lauder's brother, is a trustee and former board chairman at MoMA.)

Adam Weinberg, the Whitney's director, said the gift would help the Whitney sustain its "risk-taking" tradition. "It will now be the first time our endowment will be large enough so that the Whitney can maintain its commitment to living artists and to adventurous programming," he said.

Although Lauder's donation is likely to quiet rumors that the Whitney might decamp from the Breuer building, the museum's plans remain an open question. Since the Whitney set its sights on the meatpacking district, the city's arts world has fretted that the institution might not be able to afford two locations.

The gift was timed to encourage other Whitney trustees to donate generously to the downtown project. "It has already generated tremendous support on the part of the trustees," Weinberg said.

Although he declined to say how much money had been raised for the new building or how much the Whitney still needed, he said that the initial, or so-called silent, phase of the capital campaign was "going forward."

In November the Whitney announced that it had reached a conditional agreement with the city's Economic Development Corporation to buy a city-owned site at

Washington

and West Streets, the same place where the Dia Art Foundation had planned to build a museum. (In October 2006 Dia said it had scrapped that idea and would seek a different site in the city.) The Whitney satellite is to be designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano.

Piano was also the architect for a proposed nine-story addition to the Breuer building that was abandoned in 2006.

The Piano scheme was the third time in more than a decade that the museum had commissioned a celebrity architect to design a major expansion, only to pull out.

To realize its new project in the meatpacking district, the museum needs to go through the zoning process, conclude the land purchase and determine the cost of designing and building the satellite and operating museums both uptown and downtown, Weinberg said.

"We are studying the idea of a comprehensive Whitney, trying to see how the two programs would work," he said.

In the world of museum fund-raising, endowment money is always the most difficult to solicit. Unlike donations for building projects, an endowment gift does not give a donor the opportunity to finance a namesake building, a promise extended to the Wall Street financier Stephen Schwarzman last week when he gave the

New York

Public Library $100 million to jump-start its $1 billion expansion. In return, the library's main branch on

Fifth Avenue

at

42nd Street

is being renamed the

Stephen

Schwarzman

Building

.

 

Lauder's gift surpasses that of Schwarzman as well as a $100 million endowment gift pledged to MoMA by David Rockefeller, a chairman emeritus of the Modern, in 2005. But unlike Lauder's gift, Rockefeller's donation will not be completed until after his death. In the meantime Rockefeller is giving $5 million a year, as if the money were already invested in the endowment.

Lauder's gift is not the first major donation he has made to the Whitney. Since becoming its chairman in 1994, he has led the campaign for the new fifth-floor galleries in the Breuer building, which are devoted entirely to the permanent collection.

Six years ago he led a three-year initiative to acquire about $200 million worth of art by masters like Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock.

Lauder's American Contemporary Art Foundation was responsible for the largest single group of art in that gift, including major works by Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Warhol and Pollock.

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