LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rapper Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine have donated $70 million to establish an entrepreneurial undergraduate program at the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles school said on Wednesday. The gift will create a new degree pulling faculty members from the university's business, fine arts, music and engineering departments. The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation will begin in the fall of 2014 and enroll a first class of 25 students, USC said. Dr. …
Posts Tagged ‘ Reuters ’
Music’s Dr. Dre, Iovine give $70 million to USC academic program
Human Rights Watch advocate Cynthia Brown dead at 60
(Reuters) – Cynthia Brown, who played a key role for Human Rights Watch for almost two decades, has died after a battle with cancer, the global advocacy group said. She was 60 years old. Brown, who joined the organization in 1982 as a researcher and became program director in 1993, died Sunday in New York City, Human Rights Watch said on its website. “She was principled and uncompromising — and played a big part in making Human Rights Watch that way,” Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. …
A Minute With: Zachary Quinto on ‘Star Trek,’ Spock and coming out
By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Zachary Quinto has transitioned swiftly from a television villain into an unlikely action film star in J.J Abrams' rebooted "Star Trek" franchise, playing the series' most recognizable half-Vulcan, Spock. The 35-year-old actor, who gained fame as super-villain Sylar in sci-fi television series "Heroes," will reprise his role as the pointy-eared first officer of the starship Enterprise in "Star Trek Into Darkness," which will be released in theaters on Friday. …
Actress Gina Lollobrigida’s diamonds fetch $4.9 million at auction
(Reuters) – Diamond jewelry belonging to Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida sold for more than 4.74 million Swiss francs ($4.9 million) on Tuesday in Geneva and set a record for pearl earrings, auctioneer Sotheby's said. Lollobrigida, a leading sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s, said she was selling the jewelry to raise money for stem cell research. A pair of diamond and natural pearl earrings sold for 2.29 million francs ($2.37 million), an auction record. The earrings beat the $1. …
Steve Carell helps ‘The Office’ close its doors in moving finale
By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The doors of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch closed for the last time on Thursday as NBC's "The Office" wrapped up after a nine-season run with a nostalgic finale featuring a long-awaited wedding and the return of the show's biggest star, Steve Carell. Emmy-winning mockumentary "The Office," adapted from Ricky Gervais' British series of the same name, saw a documentary crew filming the daily lives of employees at the Dunder Mifflin paper company, led for several years by hapless boss Michael Scott, played by Carell. …
Angelina Jolie has double mastectomy to elude cancer
By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oscar-winning film star Angelina Jolie revealed on Tuesday that she underwent a double mastectomy after learning she had inherited a high risk of breast cancer and said she hoped her story would inspire other women fighting the life-threatening disease. Jolie, an actress who has long embodied Hollywood glamour and has in recent years drawn nearly as much attention for her globe-trotting work on behalf of refugees as for her role as a celebrity mom, disclosed her choice in an op-ed column in the New York Times. …
DiCaprio’s wildlife charity auction brings in $38.8 million
By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie's auction house raised $38.8 million through a charity art auction and donations, Christie's said on Tuesday, with proceeds to benefit environmental and conservation causes. The 33 works in The 11th Hour Auction organized by the star of the new film "The Great Gatsby" sold for $31.74 million on Monday evening and set 13 records for artists including Carol Bove, Joe Bradley, Mark Grotjahn, Raymond Pettibon and Mark Ryden among others. …
New York mayoral hopeful Quinn opens up about overcoming bulimia
By Edith Honan NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn spoke out on Tuesday about her decade-long struggle with bulimia and alcohol abuse after her mother's death from breast cancer. "It was such a challenging time, and it was a time where everything was just bad," Quinn, the speaker of the New York City Council, told an audience at Barnard College. "I thought I was the only 16-year-old girl in the world who had no ability to deal with her mother dying. …
U.S. TV journalist Barbara Walters announces retirement
(Reuters) – Trailblazing broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, known for her interviews with world leaders and celebrities and the first woman to co-anchor a U.S. evening news program, said on Monday she will retire in the summer of 2014. With tears in her eyes, Walters, 83, announced her upcoming resignation on "The View," the all-woman show she created in 1997. "I have been on television for over 50 years," she said as her co-hosts watched. "In the summer of 2014 I plan to retire from appearing on television." Walters described her career as amazing, fascinating, and sometimes bumpy. …
Jackie Robinson biopic made pitcher who faced him a villain: daughter
By Kevin Murphy KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – When a racist pitcher beans Jackie Robinson in the head in the new movie about the first black man to play major league baseball, Sherrill Duesterhaus wants everybody in the theater to know it's a lie. Duesterhaus' father, Fritz Ostermueller, threw the pitch, but it did not hit Robinson in the head and there is no evidence he uttered, "You don't belong here and you never will," as shown in "42," the Warner Bros. Pictures film that opened in April. …