Elvis Aron Presley

Evangelist Oral Roberts dies in Calif. at age 91

2009-12-16T01:04:00.002-05:00

TULSA, Okla. – Oral Roberts, who helped pioneer TV evangelism in the 1950s and used the power of the new medium — and his message of God's healing power — to build a multimillion-dollar ministry and a university that bears his name, died Tuesday. He was 91.

Roberts died of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross. The evangelist was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday.

Roberts rose from humble tent revivals to become one of the nation's most famous and influential preachers. Along with Billy Graham, he pioneered religious TV, and he played a major role in bringing American Pentecostalism into the mainstream.

He also laid the foundation for the "prosperity gospel," the doctrine that has come to dominate televangelism. It holds that God rewards the faithful with material success. Its critics say it is used by preachers to enrich themselves at the expense of their followers.

"In conservative Protestant culture, he's second only to Billy Graham," said Grant Wacker, a professor at Duke University's divinity school. "Jerry Falwell is important, too, but I think in the long run we'll see that Oral Roberts had more impact."

Roberts overcame tuberculosis at age 17, when his brother carried him to a revival meeting where a evangelist was praying for the sick. Roberts said he was healed of the illness and his stuttering.

He said that it was then that he heard God tell him he should build a university based on the Lord's authority — a promise fulfilled in 1963, with the founding of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.

He gave up a pastorate in Enid in 1947 to pursue a strain of evangelism in which he called for prayer to heal the whole person — body, mind and spirit. The philosophy led many to call him a "faith healer," a label he rejected with the comment: "God heals — I don't."

By the 1960s and '70s, he was reaching millions around the world through radio, television, publications and personal appearances. He remained on TV into the new century, co-hosting the program "Miracles Now" with his son, Richard. He published dozens of books and conducted hundreds of crusades.

He credited his oratorical skills to his faith, saying: "I become anointed with God's word, and the spirit of the Lord builds up in me like a coiled spring. By the time I'm ready to go on, my mind is razor-sharp. I know exactly what I'm going to say and I'm feeling like a lion."

While many of colleagues in healing evangelism were flamboyant in their preaching, Roberts was subdued in his delivery. His long sermons were filled with stories and anecdotes, and at the end of a service, the faithful would form a long healing line. Roberts would clasp his hands on each person's head, shutting his eyes while he prayed.

David Edwin Harrell, a Roberts biographer and retired Auburn University history professor, said Roberts played a significant role in the rapid growth of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity — an exuberant faith that exploded globally during the 20th century.

"Oral was a pioneer in opening this whole message up to the mainstream churches and leading a generation of Pentecostals into easier connection with the evangelical world," Harrell said. "They had been completely estranged prior to that."

Roberts also espoused his "Seed-Faith" theology, which held that those who give to God will get things in return.

The generation of "prosperity preachers" who followed Roberts point to their own luxury homes and private jets as evidence of God's favor. In 2007, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa launched an investigation of six prosperity preachers, including three who sat on the Oral Roberts University board of regents at the time. The inquiry is still under way.

The campus of Oral Roberts University is a Tulsa landmark, with its 200-foot prayer tower and a 60-foot bronze sculpture of praying hands, modeled on Roberts' hands.

Roberts' ministry hit rocky times in the 1980s. There was controversy over his City of Faith medical center, a $250 million investment that eventually folded. And Roberts was widely ridiculed when he retreated to his prayer tower and proclaimed that God would "call me home" if he failed to meet a fundraising goal of $8 million.

"This conviction that God speaks to me, and that I have no choice but to obey when He does, has led me into a life of controversy," Roberts wrote in his 1995 autobiography. "But had I not had this conviction, I don't believe I could have ever scaled the mountain of my calling."

His organization also suffered from the effects of sex-and-money scandals involving other televangelists including Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980s.

Roberts was semiretired in recent years and living in California when scandal roiled Oral Roberts University.

His son, who succeeded him as president, resigned in 2007 after being accused of spending university money on shopping sprees and other luxuries at a time the institution was more than $50 million in debt. It was the first time in the university's history that a member of the family was not in charge.

The rocky period was eased when billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green donated $70 million and helped run the school. Earlier this fall, things were looking up, with officials saying tens of millions in debt had been paid off and enrollment was up slightly.

"He was not only my earthly father; he was my spiritual father and mentor," Richard Roberts said in a statement.

Graham said: "Oral Roberts was a man of God and a great friend in ministry. I loved him as a brother."

Filipino abductors free 10 more hostages, hold 47

2009-12-12T03:42:00.002-05:00

MANILA, Philippines — Government-armed former militiamen freed 10 more hostages seized in the remote southern Philippines, and their leader demanded Friday that murder charges against them be dropped before they release 47 others.

The abductions Thursday by 15 gunmen raised new questions over the Philippines' long-standing policy of arming civilian volunteers to protect against insurgencies. Just a day earlier, 100 other militiamen in the south were named suspects in the killing of 57 people in the country's worst political massacre, prompting the government to order a review of its security policy.

Hours after the kidnappings, a government negotiator persuaded the gunmen to free 17 schoolchildren and an elderly woman among more than 70 people they initially seized. As negotiations resumed Friday, the gunmen released 10 more — eight women and two men — negotiator Josefina Bajade said.

"There will be another round of negotiations for the remaining hostages," she told The Associated Press. "We cannot get them all in one go."

Police said they were trying to arrest two brothers among the gunmen on murder charges. One of the brothers, Joebert Perez, the gang leader who was negotiating with Bajade, met with reporters outside three huts where the hostages were being held.

Perez said the charges against him were fabricated and blamed a rival clan, the Tubays, for the killing of six of his siblings since last year. He demanded that police disarm the enemy clan before the remaining hostages are released.

The abductors refused to free the others despite promises that they will be allowed to keep their weapons and be protected at the local Roman Catholic bishop's residence, Vice Gov. Santiago Cane said.

The gunmen insisted the arrest warrants against them quashed, Cane said.

Nestor Fajura, provincial police operations officer, said the negotiations with the gunmen included the disarming of both clans. "The Perezes will not disarm if the Tubays have the firearms. So both will be disarmed," he said.

Some of the hostages sat on the grass watching as Perez, a man in his 30s sporting a shaved head, was interviewed. He was armed with an M-16 rifle and holding a grenade in his hand.

The hostage-takers in San Martin hamlet are former militiamen who had been dismissed and turned to banditry and extortion, targeting mining and logging companies in the area, said police Chief Superintendent Jaime Milla.

For decades, the Philippines government has armed civilian volunteers — often poorly trained and ill-disciplined — as a backup security force in areas with communist or Muslim insurgencies.

Human rights groups have called on the Philippines to stop arming civilians, saying the region is already awash with weapons from the continuing conflicts.

At least 100 government militiamen are among 161 suspects in last month's massacre of 57 people in an election convoy in Maguindanao province, on the opposite western side of volatile Mindanao Island.

The country's worst political killings prompted the government to send troops to disarm all paramilitary groups and declare martial law in the province. After the Nov. 23 killings, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo created an independent commission to oversee the dismantling of clan-dominated private armies.

The murder charges against the Perez brothers reportedly stem from the clan feud, which Bajade said started when Tubay clansmen allegedly killed some members of the Perez family last year. The Perez brothers allegedly retaliated by killing six members of the Tubay clan, she said.

Associated Press writers Teresa Cerojano and Hrvoje Hranjski contributed to this report.

Songwriter for Elvis' 'It's Now or Never' dies

2009-12-04T01:12:00.001-05:00

ENGLEWOOD, N.J. – The songwriter behind the Elvis Presley hit "It's Now or Never" has died.

A publicist for Aaron Schroeder says the 84-year-old died Tuesday. Dale Olson said Schroeder had been suffering from a form of Alzheimer's disease.

Olson says Schroeder was credited with writing 2,000 songs and wrote several hits for Presley, including "Stuck on You" and "A Big Hunk O' Love." But the biggest song was "It's Now or Never."

Schroeder was more than just Presley's songwriter. He was also a producer, he was credited with helping the young careers of acts like Jimi Hendrix and Barry White, and he wrote the theme song for "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!"

Survivors include his wife, Abby, and daughter Rachel.

Police, protesters clash ahead of WTO conference

2009-11-28T23:46:00.001-05:00

GENEVA — Swiss police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Saturday at hooded protesters who broke windows and set cars alight during a demonstration ahead of a major WTO conference in Geneva.

Thousands marched in the protest ahead of the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting beginning on Monday, with the vast majority of demonstrators not participating in the violence.

Organisers later decided to end the demonstration due to the violence and because police prevented the march from continuing to WTO headquarters, the Swiss ATS news agency reported.

Some 200 violent protesters infiltrated the march and "began to inflict damage right from the start of the demonstration," police spokesman Patrick Puhl said. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop them.

Officers had moved in after protesters broke windows at a jewellers, banks and a hotel. Vehicles parked along the march route, particularly luxury cars, were damaged, with at least four set alight, Puhl said.

One young protester dressed as a vampire told AFP he "understood people's anger as the crisis had hit them very hard" while an elderly woman said that the recent economic turmoil gave people "plenty to be angry about."

Organisers put the total number of protesters at 5,000, while police said it was 3,000.

Police spokesman Eric Grandjean told AFP that 33 demonstrators had been arrested, including 14 Black Block members for their involvement in the riots and four others for looting items from local stores.

Three South Koreans had been barred from entering Switzerland for the protest after being accused of violent behaviour at past demonstrations, a police spokesman said.

Dosuk Han, head of the Korean League of Small Farmers, as well as Kangsil Lee and Jejoon Ju from a campaign group for farmers, were being held at the Geneva airport on Saturday, protest organisers said in a statement.

The organisers demanded their immediate release.

Next week's gathering falls on the 10th anniversary of the ministerial meeting in Seattle, which was marked by violent street protests.

More than a hundred ministers will gather for the WTO conference, though there have been concerns linked to the United States and European Union.

Diplomats in Geneva note that the fact that the United States still has no ambassador to the WTO is a sign President Barack Obama's administration has put little emphasis on trade talks at the moment.

Meanwhile, the European Union will lose its Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton on the second day of the WTO ministerial, as she is due to step into her new post as foreign policy chief.

"It is true that the American administration's political calendar is currently more focused on the reform of the health system, the environment and financial regulation than on trade," WTO head Pascal Lamy told AFP.

"But nevertheless, the United States is committed to the negotiations."

As for the European Union, he noted that Development Commissioner Karel de Gucht has been proposed to replace Ashton, calling him a "solid and skillful negotiator."

Billy Bragg gives free picket-line concert

2009-11-21T23:37:00.001-05:00

British musician Billy Bragg belted out labour songs on a cold, rainy picket line outside the Canadian Museum of Civilization Friday, bringing some cheer to workers who have been on strike for nearly two months.

"I'm very, very proud to have the public service workers union here," Bragg said during the acoustic concert on the sidewalk in Gatineau, Que. "Public service workers all over the world are the first to get put under the thumb when times get difficult and this is shameful, I think. Public service workers represent us. They're people who go out there, and in your case, tell our story."

More than 420 guides, interpreters and archivists at the Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa have been on strike since Sept. 21. They are represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

On Friday, those on the picket line clapped, sang along, and held their umbrellas over Bragg and his guitar as he performed There is Power in a Union and an a capella version of The Internationale. He didn't know the words to Solidarity Forever — a picket line staple in Canada, but not in the U.K. Nevertheless, he was game to learn the song from the striking workers.

Museum employee Melissa Ferland was delighted.

"It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful for someone who is a friend of the workers and someone who is famous all over the world to come and support us. It was really a great boost in morale for everybody."

Jennifer Boyes-Manseau said Bragg also gave a nod to the workers during his concert at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa on Thursday night — a very different performance on a stage, with a sound and light system.

"It really felt like he was singing to every single one of us," she said. "He's a very inspiring individual. He's a political activist and an incredible songwriter."

As Bragg sang outside, the union that represents the workers was in mediated talks with the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corp., the Crown corporation that runs the two museums, for the first time since early October.

Boyes-Manseau said she didn't know how the negotiations were going.

"We're just hoping it'll go well," she said. "We're as determined as ever."

According to the union, the main issues in the dispute are job contracting, job security and wages.

The museums have been open during the strike, but have reported a drop in the number of visitors as some, including school groups, don't want to cross the picket lines.

As part of Bragg's visit to the National Capital Region, he also took part in a news conference on Friday morning with NDP MP Charlie Angus on artist-based copyright reform. Bragg has been an outspoken advocate for longer copyright terms.

The illustrated man By Ray Bradbury

2009-11-17T23:50:00.001-05:00

Taylor Swift's Success: Too Much, Too Soon?

2009-11-13T23:40:00.001-05:00

Taylor Swift became the youngest winner of country music's top award Wednesday night – but is the 19-year-old getting too many accolades too soon?

Not according to Faith Hill, who Swift has often cited as one of her longtime idols. "I think she worked her tail off the last couple [of years] and she deserves to win," Hill told PEOPLE Thursday of Swift's entertainer of the year award.

Added husband Tim McGraw, "I've been doing this a long time and she's got a better head on her shoulders than I do, so I don't know how anybody could complain about that."

PHOTOS: Taylor's Big, Amazing Year

But some have questioned Swift's rapid rise. Before Wednesday's CMAs, Wynonna Judd told USA Today that the teen's nomination for the prestigious award could be "too much of a good thing too soon." (Swift beat out country heavyweights Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney and George Strait.)

Judd later apologized to Swift in a note on her Web site, calling her "a beautiful, hard working young woman that deserves the success she has had."

But fellow country veteran Randy Travis also wondered if the award wasn't premature. "As a writer, she is a phenomenal talent," Travis told PEOPLE. "When you look at the body of work that she has written at the age when she came into this business, it's remarkable. It really is. But do I think that entertainer of the year might have been a little early? In my opinion, yes, for whatever that's worth."

Swift, who was 14 when she signed her first publishing deal, addressed the question after her historic win, telling reporters, "I feel like it's been fast but it's also been a growth curve. I've watched the CMA Awards for as long as I can remember, and I got to come to my first one when I was 15. I know what it means to win a CMA Award. So I look at it from both ways."

For more on Taylor Swift and all your favorite country stars, check out the new issue of PEOPLE Country on stands now. And for free downloads from Sugarland, Jack Ingram and others, go to people.com/free

Blame game erupts over probe of Fort Hood suspect

2009-11-11T00:23:00.001-05:00

WASHINGTON — Finger-pointing erupted between federal agencies Tuesday over Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Hasan. Government officials said a Defense Department terrorism investigator looked into Hasan's contacts with a radical imam months ago, but a military official denied prior knowledge of the Army psychiatrist's contacts with any Muslim extremists.

The two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record, said the Washington-based joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI was notified of communications between Hasan and a radical imam overseas, and the information was turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the task force. The communications were gathered by investigators beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year.

That defense investigator wrote up an assessment of Hasan after reviewing the communications and the Army major's personnel file, according to these officials. The assessment concluded Hasan did not merit further investigation — in large part because his communications with the imam were centered on a research paper about the effects of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and the investigator determined that Hasan was in fact working on such a paper, the officials said.

The disclosure came as questions swirled about whether opportunities were missed to head off the massacre in which 13 died and 29 were wounded last Thursday — a familiar, early stage in the investigation of headline-grabbing crimes when public officials involved in a case often speak anonymously as they try to shift any blame to rivals in other agencies.

The disclosure Tuesday of the defense investigator's role suggested that the U.S. military was aware of worrisome behavior by the massacre suspect long before the attack. Just hours later, a senior defense official, also demanding anonymity, directly contradicted that notion.

The senior defense official said neither the Army nor any other part of the Defense Department knew of Hasan's contacts with any Muslim extremists. But the defense official carefully conceded this view was based upon what the Pentagon knows now.

Hours later, the same senior defense official reiterated flatly that the Defense Department was not notified before the Fort Hood massacre of investigations into Hasan, despite the participation of two Defense Department investigators on two joint task forces run by the FBI that looked at Hasan. This defense official asserted that the task force ground rules barred any members from telling their home agency about task force findings without approval of the other investigators and wasn't aware of whether there was ever any discussion of doing that.

FBI officials were not immediately available to comment on what ground rules prevailed in the joint task forces or whether they were applied in this situation or not. One government official, however, pointed out that to complete the assessment the Defense Criminal Investigative Service representative had to access Hasan's Defense Department personnel file and determine what research he was conducting at the time.

The FBI has launched its own internal review of how it handled the early information about Hasan. Military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies also are defending themselves against tough questions about what each of them knew about Hasan before he allegedly opened fire in a crowded room at the huge military base in Texas.

Hasan has not been formally charged but officials plan to charge him in military court, not a civilian one, a choice that suggests his alleged actions are not thought to have emanated from a terrorist organization. He could face the death penalty.

Investigators believe Hasan acted alone, despite his communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Because the communications between Hasan and al-Awlaki did not contain threats or advocacy of violence, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.

Officials said the content of those messages was "consistent with the subject matter of his research," part of which involved post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A law enforcement official said the communications consisted primarily of Hasan posing questions to the imam as a spiritual leader or adviser, and the imam did respond to at least some of those messages.

Investigative officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record. Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said it was his understanding Hasan and the imam exchanged e-mails that counterterrorism officials picked up.

Born in New Mexico, al-Awlaki is a former imam at a Falls Church, Va., mosque where Hasan and his family occasionally worshipped. In 2001, al-Awlaki had contact with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. That contact was investigated by the FBI, but no charges were brought against al-Awlaki.

On Monday, al-Awlaki's Web site praised Hasan as a hero. A Brea, Calif.,-based company, New Dream Network LLC, which had been hosting the site, declined to answer questions about al-Awlaki, citing customer privacy Tuesday.

"We do work routinely with law enforcement on the local, national and international level in an expedient manner," New Dream Network said in a statement.

By Tuesday, that Web site was offline and it appeared the site may have been hijacked, possibly by Internet pranksters.

Al-Awlaki's Web address was being directed to a new hosting account at Media Temple Inc., a Culver City, Calif.-based company. The account had been created earlier in the day but no content had yet been posted online, company vice president Alex Capehart said late Tuesday.

Hasan's electronic interactions with al-Awlaki have drawn new attention to the imam, who is well known among intelligence circles, a former senior U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press. Al-Awlaki is considered to have deep and close links with al-Qaida but is not understood to be an al-Qaida operative, the official said.

The Senate has already launched its own inquiry into the Hasan case. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, plan to hold a hearing on the shootings next week.

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Eileen Sullivan and Pamela Hess in Washington and Angela K. Brown at Fort Hood contributed to this story.

Grant MacEwan theatre arts founder dies

2009-11-07T23:48:00.002-05:00

Tim Ryan, the founder and program director of the theatre arts program at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, died Thursday night from complications of the H1N1 virus after entering hospital last week with a heart condition. He was 62.

"It's a very sad day here at MacEwan," said university spokesman David Beharry. "We talked to the students this morning and told them Tim had passed away, and there were a lot of tears and a lot of sadness."

Ryan founded the program in 1979 and faculty and students are now coming to terms with the loss of a man who colleagues say had a huge impact on the Edmonton and Canadian theatre community.

"It's impossible to talk about Grant MacEwan theatre without thinking of Tim Ryan in the same breath," said Edmonton playwright and director Ken Brown, who has been on the faculty since he joined Grant MacEwan as an acting instructor in 1983.

"I think Edmonton is left much the richer from Tim's legacy. He really brought to us a kind of theatre Edmonton was really kind of unaware of."

The program was also responsible for training students who have had an impact in theatres in New York and all across Canada, said Colin McLean, who covered theatre and the arts community in Edmonton for CBC for years.

"There are graduates from Grant MacEwan now who are singing in the West End [of London] and on Broadway, on the tour boats," McLean said. "They're singing in Las Vegas, in road shows, and they all can look back and say, 'It was because of Tim Ryan and Grant MacEwan that I am here.' And there are hundreds of them."

Expert in American musical theatre

Ryan held a B.A. in Theatre and Music from the University of Dayton, and an M.A. in Drama and Theatre from the University of London.

He had been directing and performing in Ohio when he moved to Edmonton to found the theatre arts program at what was then called Grant MacEwan College.

Ryan was an expert in American musical theatre, and he changed the way people in Edmonton viewed that tradition, Brown said.

"There was a time when the musical equated to a kind of … low-brow, cheerful entertainment," he said. "If there's one person who single-handedly made Edmonton aware of the great writers of the modern American music theatre — people like Sondheim, for example — it's Tim Ryan."

Ryan leaves behind his wife, Laurie Fumagalli, a former musical director, and two daughters who are both local actors.

Afghan future depends on Karzai anti-graft fight

2009-11-05T00:07:00.001-05:00

KABUL — In a country where corruption affects almost every aspect of daily life, a pledge by Afghanistan's reinstated President Hamid Karzai to clean up graft is being met with widespread scepticism.

Since being named president on Monday by an election commission staffed by his appointees, Karzai has come under pressure from Western allies to eradicate what he called the "stain of corruption" from his government.

As US President Barack Obama considers requests from military commanders to deploy tens of thousands more troops to fight the Taliban insurgency, he urged Karzai to back his words with deeds.

Congratulations have poured in from world leaders, though many have attached warnings that Karzai must make substantial, rapid progress on eradicating corruption.

The top US military officer Wednesday demanded decisive action from Karzai against what he called "endemic" corruption, saying tainted officials had to be prosecuted.

Closer to home, Afghan analysts and activists warn a lack of action could further undermine what is widely perceived as an illegitimate government.

"The government will have a very short life if they don't take very serious action on corruption," said independent activist Orzala Ashraf.

"He (Karzai) has no choice but to show improvement in the very short term, he has to do something about it because if there is a non-functioning government, what will happen on the humanitarian side? If there is no transparency, what will happen to security?"

At his first public appearance since being confirmed, Karzai was flanked by Vice-President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, widely accused of rights abuses, as he said: "Afghanistan's image has been tainted by corruption. We will strive, by any means possible, to eradicate this stain."

Karzai was declared president for another five years after the Independent Election Commission cancelled a November 7 run-off following the withdrawal of the only challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.

Turnout for the August 20 poll was as low as five percent in some areas due to Taliban threats of violence and a UN-backed electoral watchdog found more than one million fake votes -- most cast for Karzai.

Abdullah says Karzai's presidency is illegal and as such his government cannot deliver on anti-corruption pledges.

Corruption is endemic at every level of Afghan society, from traffic policemen who demand cash at ubiquitous road blocks, to officials and their relatives implicated in large-scale drug trafficking.

Kabul is experiencing a building boom founded on the proceeds of opium production -- the world's highest -- with massive houses dubbed "poppy palaces" springing up across the capital.

There is little to show for the billions of aid dollars that has poured in since the repressive Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001.

The deputy head of the government's anti-corruption office, Ershad Ahmadi, blames a culture in which Afghans are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions.

"The blame game of 'You are corrupt,' 'Yes, but you are corrupt too,' has to end. Both the Afghan government and the international community must build their moral authority," Ahmadi wrote in British newspaper The Times.

Their expanding influence has been aided, diplomats say, by inept, corrupt and, in some places, non-existent police and judiciary.

"Who would you rather go to if your house is broken into or your sheep is stolen? The local cop who demands money and does nothing, or the Taliban who gets your sheep back and punishes the thief?" said a Western diplomat.

Political analyst Waheed Mujda said Karzai must prove his commitment to fighting corruption by creating a "strong, honest and clean (cabinet) team."

"In the past Karzai was afraid of working with strong persons who could help end corruption but if he wants to fight and eliminate corruption he needs those type of people," he said.

Michael Jackson movie tops the box office with $21.3 million

2009-11-02T01:32:00.001-05:00

LOS ANGELES - "Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run.

The film was the No. 1 Halloween thriller domestically with a $21.3 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's low-budget horror sensation "Paranormal Activity," slipped to No. 2 with $16.5 million, lifting its total to $84.8 million.

"This Is It" raised its domestic total to $32.5 million. The movie pulled in $68.5 million overseas, including $10.4 million in Japan, $6.3 million in Germany, $5.8 million in France and $3.2 million in China.

"He's just loved everywhere on the planet," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It doesn't matter if it's Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America. Every continent in the world loved him and his music."

In Britain, where Jackson had planned a marathon series of 50 London concerts starting last July, the movie earned $7.6 million.

"This Is It" captures Jackson in behind-the-scenes performances in the weeks before his death last June, as he rehearsed his biggest hits for the London shows.

"This Is It" originally was scheduled for a theatrical run of only two weeks. The studio has extended it a few more weeks domestically, leaving it in theatres through Thanksgiving weekend, one of the year's busiest moviegoing times.

Sony plans to extend the run of "This Is It" overseas on a country-by-country basis, with most territories probably getting one to three weeks of extra playing time, Bruer said.

The studio paid $60 million for film rights to Jackson's rehearsal footage, an investment the movie recouped in days.

"They bet $60 million on this and got $101 million in just five days," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It was a gamble and a bet that paid off."

The movie fell far short of last year's $31.1 million opening weekend domestically for "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert." But Bruer said "This Is It" has a shot at surpassing the $65.3 million domestic total during the entire run of Cyrus' movie, which tops the all-time charts for music documentaries.

Worldwide, "This Is It" already has shot past Cyrus' concert film. Cyrus mainly appeals to American teens, and her movie got only a limited release overseas, where it took in about $5 million to give the film a global total of just over $70 million.

"This Is It" played in 3,481 theatres domestically, about five times the number for Cyrus' movie. But "Best of Both Worlds" ran in 3-D, for which theatres typically charge a few dollars more.

And Cyrus' young fans are an audience segment that tends to rush out to see movies over opening weekend, the movie doing nearly half its business in the first few days.

Sony hopes for a longer shelf life for "This Is It," which drew older crowds that catch movies on their own schedule, with less regard for the opening-weekend frenzy. Fans older than 25 accounted for 62 per cent of the audience, according to Sony.

While "Paranormal Activity" led Halloween's scary movies, an established horror franchise lost its fear factor as Lionsgate's "Saw VI" fell sharply in its second weekend after an anemic debut.

"Saw VI" came in at No. 5 this weekend with $5.6 million, raising its total to just $22.8 million after 10 days. Previous sequels in the serial-killer series all had topped $30 million during opening weekend alone.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com; final figures will be released Monday:

1. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," $21.3 million.

2. "Paranormal Activity," $16.5 million.

3. "Law Abiding Citizen," $7.3 million.

4. "Couples Retreat," $6.1 million.

5. "Saw VI," $5.6 million.

6. "Where the Wild Things Are," $5.1 million.

7. "The Stepfather," $3.4 million.

8. "Astro Boy," $3.04 million.

9. "Amelia," $3 million.

10. "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," $2.8 million.

Mother of folksinger killed by coyotes thanks fans for condolences

2009-10-29T23:52:00.002-04:00

HALIFAX, N.S. — The mother of Taylor Mitchell, a young folksinger who was killed by coyotes in Nova Scotia, says her daughter was a passionate environmentalist who would have opposed the killing of the two animals responsible for the attack.

Emily Mitchell of Toronto issued a statement Thursday on the shocking death of her 19-year-old daughter in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

"When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor's voice say, 'Please don't, this is their space,"' Mitchell said.

"She wouldn't have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own."

Mitchell said media accounts of her daughter's death noted that the young woman was hiking alone in the remote park Tuesday afternoon when she was mauled.

She described her daughter as "a seasoned naturalist" who was experienced at wilderness camping.

"She loved the woods and had a deep affinity for their beauty and serenity," Mitchell said. "Tragically, it was her time to be taken from us so soon."

Taylor Mitchell was on a tour of Atlantic Canada when she went for a hike on the park's popular Skyline Trail.

Two nearby hikers and a Parks Canada worker called 911 as Mitchell was being mauled and an RCMP officer arrived to shoot one of the animals, apparently wounding it. Both managed to flee.

Mitchell was bleeding heavily from multiple bite wounds when paramedics arrived. She died early the next day after being airlifted to hospital in Halifax.

Her mother expressed thanks for the outpouring of condolences from her daughter's friends and fans, and also thanked the hikers, police and doctors and nurses who tried to save her life.

She said details will be finalized in the coming days about a funeral service and concert in her daughter's memory.

"There are no words to describe my grief," Mitchell said in her release. "Taylor was my shining light, my baby, my confidante and best friend.

"My world is turned upside down and forever transformed without her. I don't know how to move forward from here but I know that she would want that for me and I will try to do that in her memory and celebrate her life in the way she lived it - with passion, commitment and an unbridled loving heart."

Armed Parks Canada officers continued to search Thursday for the coyotes responsible for the attack but an official said a widespread kill of animals wouldn't occur.

U2 returning to North America in 2010 with shows in Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal

2009-10-27T00:50:00.001-04:00

TORONTO — More U2 shows are on the horizon for North American fans.

With their current tour set to wrap up on Wednesday in Vancouver, the Irish rockers have announced another stadium trek in 2010. The band will hit Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium on June 23 and Toronto's Rogers Centre on July 3.

U2 will also perform in Montreal on July 16, with the venue still to be determined.

The band is touring in support of "No Line on the Horizon," which has been certified double platinum in Canada since its February release.

Tickets go on sale for the shows in Toronto and Edmonton on Nov. 2.

Taylor Swift first U.S. tour dates sell in minutes

2009-10-24T01:42:00.002-04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Tickets to four of country singer Taylor Swift's 2010 tour dates sold out in two minutes after going on sale on Friday, her publicists said.

All tickets released on Friday for 15 U.S. shows in the 19 year-old singer's 2010 Fearless tour sold "within minutes". The four shows in the New York area were the fastest to go, her representatives said.

Swift, the biggest selling U.S. artist of 2008, will play 37 shows in the United States and Canada in 2010 and seven in Australia starting in February.

The teen star, whose hits include "You Belong with Me" and "Love Story", has seen her popularity soar since September, when rapper Kanye West hijacked her acceptance speech for a best music video trophy at the MTV Video Music Awards show and said it should have gone to R&B singer Beyonce instead.

Swift was nominated for a leading six American Music Awards earlier this month and will perform on and host the popular U.S. late night TV sketch show "Saturday Night Live" on November 7.

West, on the other hand, canceled a planned concert tour of the United States and Canada earlier this month and was the subject of an Internet death hoax earlier this week which falsely claimed he had died in a Los Angeles car crash.

Former KISS drummer: men get breast cancer too

2009-10-22T01:42:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Peter Criss, founding member of rock band KISS, knows that many of his male fans are macho, so he is making the rounds to tell them even tough rocker guys like him can suffer from a disease usually associated with women -- breast cancer.

Criss, who was the New York rock band's drummer on and off from its founding in 1972 until 2004 and the voice on some of their most beloved classics, including the 1976 Top Ten hit "Beth" and "Hard Luck Woman", said too many men don't seek treatment and think breast discomfort will go away on its own.

But Criss, who discovered a lump in his left nipple in December 2007, said men need to get over their perception that breast cancer is a woman's disease.

"It can happen to you, and when it does, if you don't deal with it right away, with your 'dude' and your metal and your tattoos, you'll go in the box and we'll see you," Criss told Reuters during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Criss, 63, underwent a lumpectomy in February 2008 and a mastectomy the following month under the care of Dr. Alex Swistel, director of the Weill Cornell Breast Center in New York, and he often felt odd as the only man in the waiting room.

While breast cancer among men is one hundred times less common than among women, it can be deadly. The American Cancer Society estimated there will be 1,910 new cases of male breast cancer in 2009, and about 440 U.S. men will die this year from the disease.

Criss, who is now cancer free, acknowledged that the treatment was unpleasant.

"Whoever invented (mammogram machines) had to do it in the medieval days," he said, adding that it was nearly impossible to fit a small male breast into the machine. He called the pain "excruciating" but a worthwhile price to pay to be healthy.

Criss, who is currently working on an autobiography as well as a new rock album, said his bout with cancer had affected his songwriting.

"My lyrics are not so deep and dismal," he said. One of the tracks on the album, expected next spring, is called "Hard Rock Knockers."

Criss said he is sanguine about the fact that his old KISS bandmates, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, are currently on a North American tour of arenas with two new band members, one in the make-up of Criss' "Catman" character and the other as ex-guitarist Ace Frehley's "Spaceman."

In its 1970s heyday with Criss and Frehley, KISS cranked out hit albums such as "Alive!," and its live performances that were filled with pyrotechnics rocked audiences.

"You want to put two clones up there in our makeup, that's great," he said. "Must I keep putting spandex and makeup on at 70 -- I don't think I really want to do that."

Still, Criss said he hopes his heavy metal credentials will help mitigate the stigma around breast cancer for men.

"You are no more manly a guy than me -- I grew up in Brooklyn," Criss said.

Canadian gigs for Guns N' Roses

2009-10-20T08:11:00.001-04:00

Guns N' Roses will play a series of concerts in Canada next year as part of their first tour since 2008 album Chinese Democracy.

The Canadian shows will begin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 13 January, before moving on to cities including Toronto and Ottawa.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the Canadian dates will be preceded by gigs in south-east Asia in December.

Chinese Democracy was the band's first album for 15 years.

It went to number three in the US and number two in the UK, despite mixed reviews.

Earlier this month, it emerged that the band were being sued by German musician Ulrich Schnauss over claims they sampled two of his tracks on Chinese Democracy's Riad N' The Bedouins.

In a statement, they said they "vigorously" contested the claims.

The band, whose only original member is singer Axl Rose, last toured in 2007.

'Ghostbuster' Dan Aykroyd says supernatural interest drawn from family seances

2009-10-17T00:29:00.001-04:00

TORONTO — "Ghostbusters" star Dan Aykroyd says he is often asked where he got the inspiration for his blockbuster '80s comedy. He says it's simple - his own family.

Aykroyd's father, Peter, and great-grandfather, Samuel, regularly held seances in the parlour of their eastern Ontario home in a bid to contact the dead.

Samuel recorded their experiences in pencil-scrawled notes that were found in a locked trunk after his death.

Peter reworked the material in his new book, "A History of Ghosts" (Rodale).

"If you ever wanted to know anything about seances, mediums, everybody from (spiritual investigators) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Oliver Lodge to (Sir William) Crookes, (Emmanuel) Swedenborg, this is the encyclopedia," Dan Aykroyd said Thursday as he accompanied his 87-year-old father to Toronto for a media blitz.

"This is the absolute definitive book for anybody who is interested in mediumship today or in the past."

Having inherited an intense curiosity about the paranormal from his grandfather, Peter says he sought out to craft something that was part memoir and part primer on the supernatural.

The book features a foreword by Dan and mixes family tales with an introduction to ghostly terms like "glossolalia" (speaking in a language unknown to the speaker or listener) and "clairhambiance" (the ability of a medium to experience a taste associated with a spirit).

It also introduces the term "ectoplasm," which entered the mainstream lingo after being featured prominently in "Ghostbusters."

The comedian says he definitely believes that mediums exist and can communicate with the dead.

"What I do believe after reading this book is that there are people and have been people on this planet who can and are willingly able to submit to a control entity beyond this reality that we live in, a control entity being another spirit, a spirit from the other side," Aykroyd said in a booming voice reminiscent of his alter ego as the Super Bass-O-Matic pitchman on "Saturday Night Live."

"There are some people who can go into a trance and give themselves up and be controlled and speak as this being, as this spirit entity."

Dan, who lives in the renovated Kingston homestead where the family seances took place, said he's never experienced a supernatural event himself but freely discussed his spiritual leanings with his "Ghostbusters" collaborators.

"Harold Ramis was a complete non-believer, skeptic and agnostic full-on. Billy (Murray) of course is Irish and he knows ghosts exist and sometimes the dead do linger in the land of the living. Ivan Reitman, he's Jewish so he knows ... there's a lot of paranormal in the Kabbalah," he said.

"Sony Pictures - our other partner - they just saw a good movie and then they made it."

Dan says he's hoping the team can reunite to put together another sequel to the box office hit, noting there's plenty of audience appetite for ghostly fare.

"Look at 'Ghost Whisperer,' look at our culture," he says.

"You have TV shows, syndicated shows, we had one that lasted for four years called 'PSI Factor' based upon events of an engineering group that was studying this stuff out west. It's just in our culture and I look at it all through the filter of an entertainer."

Peter Aykroyd says his own research notes, and the journals of his grandfather, will be donated to the University of Manitoba for anyone to peruse.

"The University of Manitoba is becoming the locus for material on the paranormal of Canadian origin," says the white-haired author, who arrived at the interview with the aid of a cane.

"It's a very very rich archive," he says, noting it also contains the papers of Winnipeg psychic researcher Glen Hamilton.

"A History of Ghosts" is in bookstores now.

Elvis Presley box set due December 8

2009-10-14T00:24:00.001-04:00

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A few months after the Beatles box sets made retailers scramble to fill orders, the King of Rock 'n' Roll is getting the royal treatment.

Legacy Recordings is marking Elvis Presley's 75th birthday in January with a 100-song box set called "Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight." The four-disc set arrives December 8.

The package defines "career spanning." Disc 1 opens with "My Happiness," the acetate recording Presley paid nearly four dollars to make at the Memphis Recording Service in July 1953, a year before signing with Sun Records. Disc 4 ends with "A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Remix Edit)," the electronica-fueled 2002 track that hit No. 1 in more than 20 countries and was included in that year's "Elvis: 30 #1 Hits," which has sold more than 5 million copies in the U.S.

"Elvis 75" ranges from the seminal rock 'n' roll of Presley's early years to his intimate ballads and includes movie songs, gospel performances and "Blue Christmas." The set's 80-page booklet features rare photos and a new essay by journalist Billy Altman.

A single-disc edition of "Elvis 75" will be released January 5, three days before what would have been Presley's 75th birthday.

A big hunk o' hair -- Elvis locks go under the hammer

2009-10-13T02:22:00.001-04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Elvis Presley fans keen to own a chunk of their idol now can: locks of what is claimed to be The King's hair are up for auction next week.

The large quantity of hair is one of about 200 items of Elvis memorabilia collected by the late Gary Pepper, who was the president of the Tankers Fan Club set up for Elvis fans.

Chicago-based Leslie Hindman Auctioneers said the hair, which is expected to sell for between $8,000 and $12,000 at the October 18 auction, was given to Pepper to mail to Presley fans and was believed to be from when the singer had his hair cut to join the U.S. Army.

"In 1958, the nation's newspapers announced that Elvis Presley, having been newly recruited into the U.S. Army, had received two haircuts trimming his famous locks and sideburns down to a greatly modified crew cut," said a statement by the auction house.

"Individual strands of Elvis Presley's shaved locks have since been treasured by his fans who wish to own a piece of The King himself."

The auction house has not had a DNA test carried out on the hair but quoted "an expert in celebrity hair authentication," John Reznikoff, saying it matched the Elvis hair he has in his collection.

Presley died in 1977 at the age of 42.

Other items up for sale include signed photos, albums, publicity shots, souvenirs, and clothing.

Chicago auction house all shook up over Elvis hair

2009-10-13T02:09:00.001-04:00

CHICAGO – The King may be dead, but that doesn't mean it's too late to run your fingers through his hair.

Elvis Presley's hair, at least a clump of hair that Presley may have lost to an Army barber when he went into the service back in 1958, is going on the auction block this Sunday at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago.

The hair is part of a collection of more than 200 items that belonged to or are associated with Presley. There are clothes he wore, scarves he threw to screaming fans — who judging by the yellow sweat stains, never washed them — and Christmas cards he sent. And there are lots of records, some he kept in his own juke box, and other sorts of memorabilia ranging from Elvis dolls to Elvis wrist watches to Elvis Pez dispensers.

All the items belonged to Gary Pepper. No Hound Dog, Pepper was not only a huge Presley fan and president of a Presley fan club, but a close friend, as many of the photographs of the two together suggest.

Pepper, who had cerebral palsy, died in 1980, three years after Presley, and left his collection to his nurse, and that is who is putting the items up for auction, said Mary Williams, of the auction house.

But it is clearly the hair that has generated the most buzz.

Like a lot of the items in Pepper's collection, the hair was a gift from Presley to Pepper, who in turn sent a strand or two to appreciative Presley fans from time to time but didn't come close to exhausting his supply.

She said Pepper died without telling anyone exactly where the hair came from or when it was cut, but she said it appears that it was clipped during Presley's stint in the Army or around that time.

Williams did acknowledge that there has never been a DNA test done on the hair. But, she said, the auction house did take it to "somewhat of a hair authenticator" who compared it to his own sample of Presley's hair and concluded it was the real deal.

"I'm very careful with the hair I authenticate," said John Reznikoff. A Connecticut collector of such mundane items as stamps and documents, Reznikoff also has samples of hair that once sat atop some of the most famous heads in history, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe. He even says he has some of Michael Jackson's hair that was famously singed during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

"I have a high resolution scan and I took mine (Presley hair sample) out and the coarseness and color of it, they all match," he said.

"I did say short of a DNA test proving otherwise," he explained.

What that kind of testing means to collectors remains to be seen. But while the hair as it's displayed on white tissue paper may just look somewhat like the aerial view of Moe Howard, it could be worth a lot of money.

Williams said she doesn't know what to expect, saying that the best estimate is that the hair is worth $8,000-$12,000. But, she quickly added, a few years back some of Presley's hair that had been collected by his barber was put up for bid and sold for $115,000.

"The industry of hair collecting has blown up," she said.

So, who would want it?

"There's an interest in owning a piece of a celebrity," she said.

Or perhaps make one of your own.

"There's a possibility that people think you could clone people from hair," she said.

____

On the Net:

http://www.lesliehindman.com/

S. Korean film captures $10,000 Vancouver fest prize

2009-10-12T01:20:00.002-04:00

The South Korean film Eighteen has captured the coveted Dragons & Tigers Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

The $10,000 prize is given to an emerging filmmaker from the Asia-Pacific region who hasn't yet gained international recognition.

Directed by 31-year-old Jang Kun-jae, Eighteen chronicles a seaside vacation taken by a high-school couple who take off without their parents' permission.

Jury members — San Francisco Bay Guardian arts editor Johnny Ray Huston, Japanese artist Ikeda Hiroyuki and Filipino film writer Noel Vera — praised the movie for its structure: "[The] beginning is also its ending."

The film's "direction and camerawork leave the viewer with a fresh, clean feeling. All of the characters are very alive and real," the jury said.

"This is what you call your classic boy-meets-girl, boy-breaks-up-with-girl story," Vera told the Georgia Straight newspaper.

"It could be called clichéd, it could be called usual, but that was an even bigger challenge for the director, and he puts an old, old storyline and made something fresh out of it by the strength of his direction alone."

A special mention went to Ralston Jover's Bakal Boys, which concerns young scrap-metal collectors in Manila, Philippines.

The 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, with a lineup of 377 movies, wraps up Friday.

Elizabeth Taylor says heart surgery was successful

2009-10-09T01:23:00.002-04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Elizabeth Taylor said on Thursday that her heart surgery went off "perfectly," saying that "it's like having a brand new ticker."

Taylor, 77, made the announcement on her Twitter page, which has replaced her publicist as her primary form of communication. She revealed on Tuesday that she would be entering an undisclosed hospital for the procedure.

The surgery involved implanting a clip to prevent blood leaking back into her heart through the mitral valve.

"Dear Friends, My heart procedure went off perfectly," she wrote. "It's like having a brand new ticker. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I know they all helped. Love you, Elizabeth."

Taylor was diagnosed with congestive heart failure five years ago and also has endured severe back problems and a benign brain tumor operation. She often uses a wheelchair in her rare public appearances.

Barbra Streisand tops U.S. pop chart for ninth time

2009-10-07T23:46:00.002-04:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Barbra Streisand scored her ninth No. 1 album on the U.S. pop chart on Wednesday with a jazz release that overshadowed high-profile releases by some much-younger artists.

Streisand's "Love Is the Answer," her first studio recording in four years, sold 180,000 copies during the week ending October 4, according to her Columbia Records label, a unit of Sony Corp.

Industry observers said the surprisingly strong figure was bolstered by sales in non-traditional outlets like coffee retailer Starbucks Corp, Liberty Media Corp's QVC home-shopping network and Streisand's own website.

The crown had been expected to go to pop-rock band Paramore, which settled for a close No. 2 with sales of 175,000 for "Brand New Eyes."

Pop singer's Mariah Carey's new album "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" was considered a disappointment, starting at No. 3 with 168,000 copies.

Streisand extended her lead as the female act with the most No. 1 releases on the Billboard 200. She also became the first artist to top the chart in five consecutive decades.

"You'd think that getting the news that you've been Number One in five consecutive decades would make you feel old, but this makes me feel young," Streisand said in a statement.

At 67, she also is the second-oldest living artist to top the U.S. chart. The record was set earlier this year by her labelmate Bob Dylan, who is 11 months her senior.

Streisand last topped the chart in 1997, when "Higher Ground" started off with 207,000 copies. The music industry has plummeted in the ensuing decade, making Streisand's latest sales tally all the more noteworthy.

Streisand promoted the album last month by playing a free concert at the Village Vanguard, the tiny New York jazz club she last played in 1962. The audience included former U.S. President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, the 168,000-unit tally for Carey's "Memoirs" ended the chart-topping streak of her previous two albums, both of which started off with more than 400,000 copies. It marked her worst debut since the 2001 flop "Glitter" opened at No. 7 with 116,000 units. Carey records for Island Def Jam, a unit of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group.

Yet another pop diva also underperformed. Madonna's hits collection "Celebration," which fulfills her contact with Warner Music Group Corp, opened at No. 7. Her previous hits package, 2001's "GHV2," also opened at No. 7. But while that set sold 150,000 copies, "Celebration" managed only 72,000.

Kristen Stewart: An American Girl

2009-10-06T00:37:00.001-04:00

James Woods believes Kristen Stewart is guaranteed an Oscar for her role in his upcoming movie An American Girl.

The Once Upon A Time In America star is to direct the Twilight actress in the movie, about an off-the-rails small-town girl who runs away to join the marines after a drunken sex video incident ruins her reputation, and makes a new life for herself working as a negotiator with Muslim women.

James told Coming Soon.net: "It's a phenomenal story, and a slam-dunk Oscar for Kristen."

The actor personally bought the script from writers Tim Metcalfe and Sean McCarthy, and told Kristen he wouldn't make it with anyone but her, and since reading it, she is just as keen to start filming.

James said he has been working out deals with Kristen and the writers.

The actress apparently wants him to play her father in the movie but he has said he would prefer to direct and produce the project, which he must now get optioned by a studio.

Selena Gomez: Trip to Africa was 'life-changing'

2009-10-03T00:29:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK — She's a Disney teen queen, a TV wizard, and a fledgling rock singer. But 17-year-old Selena Gomez says what really blew her mind recently was a trip to the African nation of Ghana.

"I got to meet teens, I got to meet children, I got to meet families," Gomez said in an interview Friday about the trip, which she took last month with her mother and stepfather in her role as UNICEF's youngest-ever ambassador.

"It was completely life-changing and eye-opening, and when we came back we definitely had nothing to complain about."

This is Gomez's second year as spokesperson for the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program, which the organization says is one of the longest-running youth volunteer movements in America. Last year, Gomez raised some $700,000 for the campaign; this year she hopes to bring in $1 million.

Many kids who watch Gomez play Alex Russo on the Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place" know little about Africa or the issues facing it, Gomez noted. "That's why I feel very honored to have a voice that kids listen to and take into consideration," she said. "I had people on my tour asking me where IS Ghana, and they Googled it ... and because I went there, they now know where Ghana is. So it's pretty incredible."

It's a busy time for Gomez, whose series returns for a third season on Oct. 9, and who just this week released her debut album, "Kiss & Tell," with her band, The Scene.

"I can't believe I have a CD!" she said. But she added: "Acting will always be my number one. I just love acting so much. Music is more of a personal thing I like to do."

Gomez's success at Disney has led to inevitable comparisons with another teen sensation, Miley Cyrus. But Gomez says emphatically she's "not here to be the next anyone."

"I'm not here to replace anyone," she says. "I'm here doing my own thing. I'm proud to be a part of the Disney Channel family and I'm taking it day by day."