Entertainment

Murakami delights fan with radio show debut TOKYO, Aug 5, (Agencies): Best-selling Japanese author Haruki Murakami, hosting a special radio show featuring some of his favorite songs he jogs to, says writing novels is about rhythm, as in music and running. “Murakami Radio,” a pre-recorded show broadcast Sunday night, featured …

‘Death of Truth’ FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Aug 5, (AFP): Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan, living in exile in Germany as she risks a life sentence on terror charges at home, thinks the writing is on the wall: her country is sliding into fascism. The award-winning author, still traumatised by the four …

Turkey to steer clear of ‘Eurovision’ BEIRUT, Aug 5, (Agencies): Shakira and Elton John played one-off concerts in Lebanon in recent months but the summer music festivals that helped make the country a cultural lodestar for the Arab world are struggling. In the 1960s and 1970s, jazz legends such as …

‘Facts of Life’ reboot in early development There’s a scene in “Shadowlands,” the 1993 portrait of novelist C.S. Lewis, in which a young boy is excited to discover the giant wooden wardrobe that inspired “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” He throws open the door and reaches through the …

Career celebrated LOS ANGELES, Aug 4, (RTRS): Focusing very much on her new career as a director and producer, Meg Ryan is preparing “The Obsolescents,” a half-hour comedy. Developed from an original idea by Ryan, and turning on middle-age, the series is being written by Andrew Gottlieb (“Z Rock”). Ryan, …

A dramatic portrait of institutionalized injustice The Reagan administration’s War on Drugs had many effects, almost none of them including an actual reduction of illegal drug use or trade. One of the most destructive was the impact of mandatory minimum sentences designed to discourage drug dealing, but which instead mostly …

LA Film Festival unveils diverse competition slate LOS ANGELES, Aug 1, (RTRS): Oscar-winning Danish director Bille August will preside over the jury of the Cairo Film Festival, which is being revamped by Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy. August, who has accomplished the rare feat of winning two Cannes Palme d’Or awards, …

Cruise’s stunt fever has become measure of his stardom Tom Hardy unleashes his inner beast in Sony’s new trailer for “Venom.” The new violence-laden footage, which debuted on Tuesday, shows Hardy’s journalist Eddie Brock transforming into a black alien symbiote with sharp teeth and a desire to stop evildoers. The …

‘Fallout’ signals return to form for actor LOS ANGELES, July 31, (RTRS): Tom Cruise is officially back in action. After underwhelming receipts from “American Made,” “The Mummy” reboot, and “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” Cruise’s latest blockbuster, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” signals a return to form for a movie star …

D’Souza preaches to the mentally unsound In “Death of a Nation,” the latest smirky documentary screed from the fake-historical-news factory of Dinesh D’Souza, there’s an astonishing section in which the filmmaker displays the legal statutes of Nazi Germany, all to demonstrate his thesis: that American liberalism was, and is, the …