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Many Americans are recalling an icon in the entertainment industry following the death of longtime African American TV producer and music show host Don Cornelius. The 75-year-old Cornelius, who had been in declining heath for years, died Wednesday, February 1 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The television pioneer had an amazing career and incredible impact on the music world.

"I had a burning desire to see black people presented on television in a positive light," said Cornelius.

Cornelius created Soul Train in 1970, with just $400. He hosted the hugely popular music and dance show for more than two decades. It was must-see TV for the latest fashion trends, innovative dance moves and black music hits.

Ralph Herndon is a pianist with the Choral Arts Society of Washington. He has fond memories of the show.

"Soul Train was like having a party at your house every Saturday. Something that our black youth had to look forward to, something they could identify with," said Herndon.

Soul Train helped to propel the musical careers of giants such as Michael Jackson, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye. The weekly show was the first TV program specifically geared towards African Americans.

By the time it went off the air in 2003 Soul Train had become one of the longest-running syndicated shows in U.S. television history. Cornelius hosted the show until 1993. Herndon said the TV icon helped so many recording artists.

"We probably would not have come this far had it not been for Don Cornelius and Soul Train being a catapult for a lot of black artists," said Herndon.

Other Soul Train fans agree and say Cornelius introduced the music of black Americans to the world, and to their fellow Americans.

"I'm Don Cornelius and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul."

The professional American football championship game, also known as the Super Bowl, will be played Sunday in the Midwestern city of Indianapolis, Indiana. The kickoff is scheduled for about 6:30pm EST, 2330 UTC.  The nation’s biggest annual sporting event attracts die-hard fans as well as casual observers. Sunday's NFL title game features a rematch of four years ago with the New York Giants taking on the New England Patriots. 

When the Patriots took the field for the Super Bowl in 2008 in suburban Phoenix, Arizona, they were unbeaten at 18-0, aiming to complete a perfect season.  And they were heavy favorites.

But New York quarterback Eli Manning led the Giants to two 4th quarter touchdowns as they rallied to score an upset victory, 17-14.

Now four years later, the Giants are again the underdogs, after finishing the regular season with a 9-7 record and barely qualifying for the playoffs, compared with the Patriots' 13-3 record.  The Patriots are favored, although their star quarterback Tom Brady - who has won three previous Super Bowls - is one of only seven players remaining from that 2008 team.

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Manning is still New York’s quarterback and is among 16 Giants players from their championship team.

“A lot of guys who will be key factors in this game did not play in that last Super Bowl, so I think we have to have the mindset that this is a new game;" Manning said "same teams but a lot of different make-up, and that what happened in that last Super Bowl doesn’t matter.  What happened in the last game of the season doesn’t matter.  It’s about what we do on Sunday, what we do in this game.”

He added that both teams in this Super Bowl have many fine players.

“Tom Brady is a great quarterback.  He’s got talented receivers, a good offensive line, good running back, and I think we are very similar.  We have a good offensive line, talented receivers, good running backs, so it should be a great game,” Manning said.

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Brady regularly gets asked about that missed opportunity four years ago for a historic undefeated season, and he’s determined to play better in this Super Bowl.

“I think all those games you lose there are plays you want back," Brady said. "You know, certainly, every time you lose a game you could have done more to help the team win. But when you win you don’t think about any of those things, you think about all the things you did well.  Hopefully that’s what I’m thinking about Sunday night.”

The Super Bowl is America's biggest sporting event, and fans all over the country have been planning parties and other celebrations for Sunday night. Thousands have converged for the game here in Indianapolis, which is hosting the Super Bowl for the first time.

The game will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium, which was opened in late 2008, and has artificial turf and a retractable roof.  It holds about 70,000 fans and is home to the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, who won the Super Bowl in 2007 with Eli Manning’s older brother Peyton at quarterback.

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The halftime musical performer is veteran pop star Madonna.  When she spoke to reporters at a packed new conference Thursday, she said she would sing three of her older classics and one new song. Madonna hinted it would be “Give Me All Your Luvin’" but she offered no other details.

All commercials for the broadcast of the game sold out by the end of November.  The price for a Super Bowl ad rises every year and has now reached an average price of $3.5 million for 30 seconds.

This year’s game will be seen in nearly 200 countries and will be broadcast in about 25 languages. It will also be streamed live on the NFL.com web site.

American football’s championship -- the Super Bowl -- continues to grow in popularity, not only in the United States but also around the world.  

This year’s Super Bowl will be broadcast to nearly 200 countries.  More than 500 international journalists are in Indianapolis this week to cover the National Football League’s title game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

David Tossell of NFL International says the game will be carried in about 25 languages and that 15 foreign crews are on site to broadcast the game.

“That’s a big increase over the last few years.  We’re seeing some new territories, for example, taking the game.  Three or four years ago, we never had Chinese TV here, for example; now they’re here as well.  The game continues to reach out to all corners of the world,” Tossell said.

Tossell says American football is a great advertisement for itself, that anyone who attends or watches this year's game can appreciate it -- from the strength involved to the graceful beauty of the wide receivers [i.e., pass catching specialists] to the story lines and personalities.

“If people give it a chance and if you have the opportunity to kind of break down that initial barrier of the difficulty of understanding the rules, then I think people discover there's a fantastic tapestry below that to enjoy,” Tossell said.

Each year, the Super Bowl kick offs at about 6:30 local time Sunday evening, so it will be seen at various hours around the world.

“We get good viewing figures from around the world, even though it’s all kinds of different time zones.  That is one of the biggest problems that we face, that a lot of the world is watching the game in the middle of the night or over breakfast,” Tossell said.

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In Japan, Nippon Television will show a tape delay of the game shortly after midnight on Monday.  Ikuma Isaac is a reporter for NTV, which is a licensed partner of the NFL and has a crew of 26 here in Indianapolis.  He covers the National Football League throughout the season for a popular weekly one-hour show called "NFL Club" that is watched by 30 million people.

Isaac says his station uses the Katakana language for foreign names and football terms, like this:

“Let’s say it’s ((Japanese)), first and 10, ((Japanese)), [New York Giants Quarterback] Peyton Manning, he’s dropping back, ((Japanese)), he got the pass through, ((Japanese)), or end zone is, you know, 'endozone,' touchdown is 'touchadown.'  So I don’t know if you’d be learning any Japanese.  But if a Westerner or if an English speaker actually listened to a Japanese broadcast of football, they would probably get what is going on,” Isaac said.

Isaac says that because many viewers are learning the game of American football, the play-by-play announcers on NTV’s main network make sure they explain the rules.

Florian Bauer of Germany’s SAT.1 television says soccer, of course, is the popular sport in his country.  But he says he loves American football and that in his broadcasts he tries to educate others about his passion.

“I think the Super Bowl is prestige, and it’s one of the greatest events -- even if it’s not the greatest event -- in the whole world.  And I think we have to be very proud to broadcast it,” Bauer said.

The NFL’s David Tossell says that virtually no matter where you are in the world, you should be able to find Sunday's Super Bowl telecast.

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Immigrants are often caught between the cultures of their homeland and their adopted country. Mexican American playwright Josefina Lopez is showcasing the struggles of Latino immigrants through film, and through a community theater in Los Angeles. Our correspondent spoke with her about bringing those immigrant stories to the public.

Josefina Lopez speaks with actor Rene Rivera about his one-man play. Called The King of the Desert, it deals with his struggles growing up in a barrio, or ghetto, in Texas near the U.S. border with Mexico.

“My neighborhood is buzzing with conjunto music, a distinctly Tex-Mex sound," said Rivera.

This is the kind of story Lopez wants to put on stage at her community theater, called Casa 0101. Casa is Spanish for “home.” Zero-one-Zero-One refers to the digital bits and bytes of the information age.

She told an earlier immigrant story in Real Women Have Curves, an acclaimed play that became a successful film 10 years ago. Lopez coauthored the screenplay and America Ferrera starred in the film.

Woman in garment factory: “Are you going to be working here full-time?”
Ferrera: “No. I'm just helping out my sister until I find a better job.”
Woman: “Oh, me too. I'm just working here until I win the lottery.”

Lopez says that story needed to be told.

“I wrote it because I had never seen anything about people like me, women my size," she said. "So to have so many people embrace Real Women Have Curves and to have a buzz and people waiting and the excitement, I was like, wow, it's speaking a truth that goes beyond being Latino or being a woman. It's about people always underestimating you.”

In his play being performed now at the theater, Rene Rivera looks at the difficulty navigating life between two cultures.

“It is the life of a Hispanic family living in the United States and yet not being part of the United States," said Rivera. "And so being sort of locked and stuck in between the two cultures, and trying to be reverent to both of them.”

It's opening night for the new production, and this play has a personal message for one Mexican-born immigrant, medical researcher Alonso Arellano.

“This is wonderful," said Arellano. "I want this to stay and to grow. We should have more theaters like this.”

Josefina Lopez says there are thousands of stories like this from the Latino community and other immigrant groups just waiting to be told.

Football fans across the United States are anxiously awaiting this Sunday’s Super Bowl championship game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. For those attending the game in Indianapolis, Indiana, and participating in events in conjunction with the Super Bowl, major security efforts are being undertaken. It is important enough that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was in Indianapolis Wednesday to discuss the operations.

Certainly the good news is that Janet Napolitano said no specific or credible threats have been made against this year’s Super Bowl, to be played at Lucas Oil Stadium.

While the primary law enforcement responsibilities rest with the Indiana public safety authorities, Napolitano said the federal government provides a great deal of support and assistance for the biggest sporting event in the U.S.

“We’ve provided first observer and anti-terrorism and security awareness training to more than 8,000 stadium staff and volunteers,” she said.

Thirty-five federal or component agencies are involved in security for the Super Bowl and related events this week in and around Indianapolis.

But Napolitano said the public is a partner as well.

“We are continuing a partnership with the National Football League through the “If you see something, say something” public awareness campaign," she said. "The idea is very straight forward.  We simply ask the American people to be vigilant, to report suspicious activity.”

Napolitano added that the public offers some of the best prevention of terrorism.  The NFL also contributes to the security plan on the civilian side, hiring more than 3,000 private security and crowd management personnel.

Fans will be subjected to metal detector searches and pat downs, and will be limited to what they can bring in to the stadium.  There is even a limit to the length of spectators’ camera lenses - 15 centimeters.

Only those with tickets will be allowed into a designated security perimeter around the stadium.  On Super Bowl Sunday, temporary flight restrictions will be in place prohibiting private aircraft from operating in a large radius around the sports complex.
It is a comprehensive operation to provide a safe and secure environment for all.

Tributes are pouring in to the late U.S. television host and music promoter Don Cornelius, who was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in his Los Angeles home Wednesday.



Cornelius was the founder of the iconic Soul Train television show that helped introduce African-American music and culture to mainstream America from 1971 to 1993.

Police say the gunshot apparently was self-inflicted. It is not clear why Cornelius would have ended his life, although there have been reports in recent years that his health was failing.

The chairman of Black Entertainment Television, Robert Johnson, called Cornelius an "iconic figure" whose achievement was "nothing short of phenomenal."

"For him to bring Soul Train to television at the time he did and keep it running for so many years as one of the longest-running syndicated television shows in the history of this country is nothing short of phenomenal," noted Johnson. "Everybody I know grew up with Don Cornelius and his unique speaking style as host. We grew up with him and his dress style, the fashions that he brought to television from the Soul Train dancers and the number of talent who got exposed on Soul Train. It was literally must-see TV for everybody who was growing up in the Don Cornelius Soul Train era. He will be sorely missed, but as an iconic television producer, he will always be remembered."

Singing legend Aretha Franklin, who appeared on Soul Train, called Cornelius' death "sad, stunning and downright shocking." She called it a "huge and momentous loss."

Composer-producer Quincy Jones said he was "deeply saddened" by the loss of his friend and former business partner.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

Polish Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska has died at the age of 88.

Authorities say the reclusive poet passed away Wednesday evening of lung cancer at her home in Krakow.

Syzmborska's style has been described as reflective and playful because of her approach to serious subjects such as war in Poland, death and torture.

She had published dozens of poems prior to winning the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Associated Press says she had been working on several poems that an associate of Syzmborska says will be published in a book this year.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

It is not easy finding a difficult way to perform a simple task. But New Yorker Joseph Herscher takes the trouble to do so, for the sake of making people laugh. A video of his latest outrageously complicated contraption is a big hit on YouTube.

It took a complicated series of preposterous and unexpected actions to set up this smashing punch line in a video called The Creamed Egg. Nearly two and a half minutes of mechanical zaniness included balls rolling down troughs, bouncing off the floor, tripping switches, engaging pulleys, lifting cups of water and other surprises along the way.

The Creamed Egg needed six months of trial and error to prepare. It took three days and 200 attempts to film a successful sequence. Above all it took patience, something artist Joseph Herscher describes as a belief in an end goal, in his case - making people laugh.

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“And as long as I never let go of it, that vision, and I never stop believing that it’s going to pay off, then I can just keep on working forever," he said. "It’s the trial and error that’s time-consuming. So you know what trial and error means: trial means hope and error means reality.”

Herscher says he has gotten ideas from the drawings of farfetched machines by the late American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, whose name is associated in the United States with preposterous complexity. Herscher turns the implausible into reality, using familiar objects in unfamiliar ways. That, he says, makes people think about them not as a means to an end, but rather as potential forms of amusement.

“Parts of our lives are so mechanical that it’s sort of nice to stop and think about these parts and have a bit of fun with them," said Herscher. "I guess because I’ve been making these sorts of things my whole life, I’ve built up a library in my head of everyday objects and what you can do with them.”

And he continues to expand that library, for example, spending time in hardware stores to tinker with objects to learn how they roll, fall or collide.  

Herscher earns a living in New York creating cell phone apps.  He was born in the city, but raised in New Zealand. He began playing with contraptions at the age of five and says he got his sense of humor from his father. Both parents were performers.

“We’re human beings, we like to play, and I’m trying to inject playfulness into machines again," he said. "And not necessarily just trying to do the job as efficiently as possible, but actually playing around along the way and doing the job as inefficiently as possible.”

Joseph Herscher’s latest work, The Page Turner, has gotten more than four and a half million hits on YouTube. And probably even more laughs.

Obese people, homosexuals, people with disabilities, people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds - why do we set them apart? The Quai Branly museum in Paris addresses this question by revisiting one of the darkest aspects of Western colonialism - events in the not-so-distant past when humans were put on exhibit, often in cages like animals, in Europe and the United States.

"Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage" sheds light on the origins of racism and prejudice in today's world, a narrative that, according to exhibit curator Nanette Snoep, isn't new.

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"Even in ancient Egypt, the Egyptians exhibited dwarfs from the Sudan," she said. "So this is a very, very old story."

And yet it recurs throughout history, as the exhibit reveals, with disturbing frequency.

The Colonial Era
Europeans began exhibiting humans after explorer Christopher Columbus travelled to the Americas in the 15th century. But as recently as the 1950s, people from Africa, Asia and the Americas were displayed in circuses, fairs, parks and freak shows.

"During the 19th century, it became a real entertainment, a real business, to exhibit exotic people and mostly colonial people," said Snoep. "To exhibit someone in a zoo or in international and colonial fairs [was] also a way to justify the colonial project."

And then there were the so-called "freaks and savages" - people with deformities who were put on exhibit.

While many of those caged for touring exhibits - for example, "Hottentot Venus" from South Africa, who was first paraded around Europe in the early 1800s - died, others, like a Togolese man called Nayo Bruce, profited from the phenomenon.

"He went to Berlin in the early 1890s and then very soon, he said 'I will be the businessman, I will be the director of my own village,'" said Snoep. "He organized a sort of Togolese village with his Togolese friends and family and made a tour through Europe for 20 years."

Human exhibits began dying out in the 1930s, as public interest shifted to movies and other forms of entertainment.

A Contemporary Connection
The Quai Branly exhibit, the idea of former French football star Lilian Thuram, takes us to the present day with a video of people who are "different" because of how they look, feel and think.

Thuram, a native of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe who heads a foundation that educates about racism, says the human zoos helped promote racial hierarchy theories developed by 19th century anthropologists.

"According to these 'scientific theories,' the white race was considered superior," he said. "The scale went down to the so-called 'black race,' which was considered the missing link between monkeys and man."

Thurman says these misguided theories persist today, when, for example, he hears football fans make monkey sounds as black players are on the field. He hopes the show, which draws these parallels between past and present, can make people understand racism as an intellectual fabrication that developed historically, and, as such, can be dismantled.

Although prejudice remains, "Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage," which runs through June, will make us think hard about our own origins and, perhaps, consider the kind of world we'd like to one day inhabit.

Katherine Heigl plays Stephanie Plum in the first film based on the popular mystery novels by author Janet Evanovich. Here's a look at One For The Money.



Plum is out of work, laid off from her department store job and back in the Trenton, New Jersey working class neighborhood where she grew up. It does give her a chance to visit with the family.

She's hired by her cousin Vinnie to be a "recovery agent."  That's the formal title for a "bounty hunter," who tracks down and apprehends suspects who've been released on bail, but have failed to show up for a court appearance or "jumped bail."

Stephanie sets out to bring in her man, actually the guy she dated for a while in high school who is now a fugitive.

MORELLI: "Stephanie Plum? Vinnie sent you to bring me in?"
STEPHANIE: "You're going down, Morelli."
MORELLI: "You know what? You're sexy as hell."

Katherine Heigl, known for her role on the TV medical drama Grey's Anatomy and for numerous romantic comedies, dyed her blonde hair brunette and adopted an edgy "Jersey girl" attitude to play Stephanie.

"I think there's something about her that's really endearing," Heigl says. "She's a decent person with a big heart, and she is sort of fearless and courageous and perpetually puts herself in situations where she is just in over her head, but doesn't take herself or other people very seriously. She has this great perspective on life that happens to really funny and witty and charming as well.

"She's sort of that hapless heroine that you don't get a lot of," the actress adds. "You get the overly-perfect heroines that you can never aspire to be like, but Stephanie is sort of an everyday girl."

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"It was so important to me to keep the film really close to the book because that's what I fell in love with and that's what millions of people have fallen in love with in the One For The Money Stephanie Plum series," explains Heigl.

One For The Money could be expected to appeal mainly to female audiences, but Heigl thinks it reaches across gender lines.

"The murder-mystery storyline is kind of dark and little edgy and gives it a 'vibe' that is not purely 'chick-flick-ish.' I think it isn't just a girl's movie," she insists. " I think it's a good time for everyone, men included."

There are 18 novels in the Stephanie Plum seriesm, and if One For The Money is successful, Katherine Heigl hopes to put more of the books on film.

The Help, a movie about African American maids in the 1960s in (the U.S. state of) Mississippi was the big winner at Sunday's 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The film won best ensemble, best actress for Viola Davis and best supporting actress for Octavia Spencer.  In accepting her award Davis said the "stain of racism and sexism" is not just for people of color or women, but is "all of our burden."

French actor Jean Dujardin was named best actor for the silent film The Artist, while 82-year-old Christopher Plummer took the supporting actor award for his role in Beginners, where he plays a man who comes to terms with his homosexuality late in life.

The TV drama show winners were Jessica Lange as best actress for American Horror Story on FX and Steve Buscemi as best actor for HBO's Boardwalk Empire which also won the ensemble prize.

For TV movie or miniseries, Kate Winslet won as best actress for HBO's Mildred Pierce, while Paul Giamatti was named best actor for HBO's Too Big to Fail.

Mary Tyler Moore received SAG's lifetime achievement award.  Dick Van Dyke, her co-star in the 1960s television comedy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, presented her the award.

SAG's movie awards are generally seen as a prelude to the culmination of the Hollywood awards season, the Oscars, to be held next month.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

The Academy Award nominations have confirmed the buzz about sure bets, but also added some surprises. In the category Best Actor in a Leading Role, some of the five nominees were expected to be in the mix.  Others were upsets.

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In The Descendants, a bittersweet family drama directed by Alexander Payne, George Clooney plays Matt Smith, a successful lawyer who finds himself at life's crossroads.

After a boating accident, his wife is in a coma and is to be taken off life support. Overnight, Matt becomes a single parent to his two daughters. As if that is not enough, he finds out that before the accident his wife was cheating on him.

In portraying Matt, Clooney loses his Hollywood persona. Matt is frumpy, and he's awkward with his kids and everyone else around him. He appears lost as he tries to make sense of what is happening to him.  

With six Oscar nominations and one Oscar award under his belt, Clooney represents the status quo in Hollywood, but in a good way. He's as attractive as he is talented.

However, his performance as Matt King is reminiscent of Ryan Bingham, the driven businessman dealing with loneliness and middle age that Clooney played in Jason Reitman’s 2009 drama Up in The Air.

Clooney received a nomination for that role but did not win the Oscar. So, the question is will he get an Oscar this time around for a similar performance.

Oscar nominee Jean Dujardin does something quite different.  He offers a tour de force performance as George Valentin, a 1920s silent movie star who loses fame and fortune with the advent of the "talkies."

In The Artist, by Michel Hazanavicius, Dujardin exudes star power. His elegance, expressiveness and infectious smile represent what was alluring in silent films. Dujardin could reap the Oscar unless voters opt for the more wholesome and down to earth character of Los Angeles gardener Carlos Calindo, played by Mexican actor Demian Bichir in the drama A Better Life.

Carlos Calindo is an illegal alien and a devoted father. He wants a better life for his son.

Bichir offers a multilayered performance tackling a subject that speaks to many.

But, as the underdog among the contenders, an award for Bichir would be a surprise.

The Academy's voters could instead be swayed by the all-American character of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland As baseball team, played by Brad Pitt in Moneyball.

Pitt gives a solid performance as the man who employs unorthodox methods to build a baseball team headed for the play-offs.

But the deck could be stacked against him. There's also Gary Oldman, who towers over Pitt in a fine-tuned performance as super spy "Smiley" in the thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

But Gary Oldman's British reserve could alienate voters in the Academy, who might feel that his character is too arcane for the American palate.

All bets are on George Clooney's name in that famous envelope or maybe Monsieur Dujardin.  For sure, Oscar night will be interesting this time around.

A new exhibit of photos by the well-known portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz shows a different side of her. Leibovitz, known for her photos of celebrities, spent two years taking pictures without any people in them.  Many are of places in the United States where famous people lived in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Pilgrimage is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

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There are homes and personal items that belonged to people who are no longer with us, including artists, scientists, photographers, and a U.S. president.

Leibovitz says she went on a journey from 2009 to 2011, taking photos of places that moved her, including landscapes.   She says the collection represents a renewal of her spirit. Earlier, her lover, Susan Sontag, a famous author, died of cancer. And Leibovitz had financial troubles and almost lost control of her photo archives.  

"There's some searching going on," said Leibovitz.  "I discovered some things about myself which were really comforting."

Leibovitz was inspired by the 20th century American artist Georgia O'Keefe and traveled to New Mexico to photograph her homes and a box of handmade pastels.

She also captured images of items that belonged to President Abraham Lincoln, including the hat and gloves he was carrying in 1865 when he was assassinated.  

"What she's really trying to do is evoke the presence of people, in a way, despite their absence," said Andy Grundberg who curated the exhibit.

Leibovitz has been a photographer for 40 years and is known for her shots of celebrities.

She told reporters she hadn't planned to focus on people from the past, but felt drawn to them.

"What really drew me to them, I think that they stand out.   I thrive on history.  I love it," added Leibovitz.

Leibovitz was fascinated by sharpshooter Annie Oakley, a star in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the late 1800s.  She photographed Oakley's boots and one of her shooting targets.

Leibovitz also found inspiration at Graceland, the mansion of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley, where she took a picture of his motorcycle.

Grundberg says the exhibit is "a portrait of Leibovitz."

"This is a way of understanding how Annie Leibovitz thinks about the world through the pictures that she's taken of people and places that are important to her," noted Grundberg.

To honor landscape photographer Ansel Adams, Leibovitz took a picture of his darkroom.  Adams, who died in 1984, was devoted to photographing the wilderness in the American west. He was also a leader of the conservation movement.

Leibovitz did photos similar to Adams' famous pictures of Yosemite Valley in California.  

"The best homage you can make was photographing that valley that he saved," Leibovitz said.

The photos in the exhibit are also included in a book that Leibovitz hopes will inspire people.  She says she'll continue doing portraits, but also wants to take other kinds of photos.

MUSIC NEWS:

British pop singer Adele continues to set records this week as her album “21” spends a 17th week atop the Billboard 200 chart.  Billboard reports that she now has the longest run at Number One since the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard,” which ended its 20-week reign in May 1993.

Adele also reaches the top spot on this week’s Hot 100 chart.  Her latest single, “Set Fire to the Rain,” is the third consecutive Number One hit from “21.”  According to Nielsen SoundScan tracking, the song sold 185,000 copies during the past week, which pushes its total downloads past the two-million mark.

An Oklahoma hospital will have to give back a $500,000 donation to Country singer Garth Brooks.  During a week-long jury trial, Garth testified that he made the donation in 2005 with the understanding that Integris Canadian Valley Regional Hospital in Yukon, Oklahoma would build a women’s center and name it after his late mother, Colleen Brooks.  The jury ruled that the hospital must return the donation and also pay Brooks an additional $500,000 in punitive damages.

Singer Jason Derulo is recovering from a serious injury that happened a few weeks ago during his tour rehearsals.  According to reports, Derulo was performing a dance move and landed on his head, which fractured a vertebrae.  He told People magazine that his girlfriend, singer Jordin Sparks, is helping him mend.  He said, “We’ve gotten closer because of my accident.  It’s awesome to have someone you can talk to and she’s a wonderful person.”  Derulo added that he’s using his recovery time to work on a new album.

The New York Times reports that Lady Gaga’s parents, Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta, have opened an Italian restaurant in New York City.  Cynthia told the newspaper that Joanne Trattoria will not pander to fans of the singer.  “If they’re expecting to come in here and see Grammys and pictures and stuff like that, it’s not going to happen," she said.

On January 31, Hip-O/Universal Music Enterprises will release former Beatle Ringo Starr’s new album, “Ringo 2012.”  The collection features collaborations with Charlie Haden, Kenny Wayne Shepard, the Eagles’ Joe Walsh, the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, Don Was and Edgar Winter, among others.  Ringo is giving his fans the opportunity to make the video for the album’s first single, “Wings.”  Ringo will personally pick the winner, who receives a $3,000 prize.

On February 3, Country star Keith Urban will make his first concert appearance since having vocal cord surgery in November 2011.  He’ll perform on the Grand Ole Opry show at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium.  Also on the bill are Vince Gill, Craig Morgan, Emmylou Harris, Del McCoury, the Oak Ridge Boys, Josh Turner and Ricky Skaggs.  Special guests include Shawn Colvin and Rodney Crowell.  Keith has also rescheduled his “All for the Hall” concert for April 10.  The show, which benefits Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, was among the events that were postponed due to Keith’s surgery.

NEW ALBUM RELEASES:

New albums scheduled for release on January 31 include: “Born To Die” by Lana Del Rey, “Old Ideas” by Leonard Cohen, “Beyond Magnetic” by Metallica, “God, Love & Romance” by Fred Hammond, “Galaxy” by Jeff Lorber, “Hello Cruel World” by Gretchen Peters and “Crazy” by Candy Dulfer.

AWARDS PRESENTATIONS/WINNERS:

Nominations for the 84th annual Academy Awards have been announced.  Best Picture nominees include “The Artist,” “The Descendants,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” “The Help,” “Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Moneyball,” “The Tree of Life” and “War Horse.”   Turning to the music categories, the Best Original Score nominees are John Williams for “The Adventures of Tintin,” Ludovic Bource for “The Artist,” Howard Shore for “Hugo,” Alberto Iglesias for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and John Williams for “War Horse.”  Up for Best Original Song are “Man or Muppet” by Bret McKenzie from “The Muppets” and “Real in Rio” by Sergio Mendes from “Rio.”  The Oscars will be handed out on February 26 in Los Angeles. 

Kenny Chesney leads the nominees for the 47th annual Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards.  His nine nominations include Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year for “Hemingway’s Whiskey” and Entertainer of the Year.  He shares the Entertainer category with Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift.  Jason Aldean collected six nods, followed by Lady Antebellum with five and Brad Paisley with four.  The 2012 ACM Awards will be handed out on April 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

TOUR DATES AND INFORMATION:

On February 3, Irish female vocal quartet Celtic Woman will kick off a 60-city North American tour in Nashville, Tennessee.  The group features new addition Susan McFadden, who was born in Dublin and is best known as a London West End musical stage star.  Celtic Woman will be supporting its new album, “Believe.”

A documentary film about Burma’s political prisoners and the underground movement to help them premiered this week in Asia, drawing attention to the plight of the country’s activists as the government releases hundreds of prisoners in an amnesty program.

Director Jeanne Hallacy said former political prisoner and activist Ko Bo Kyi inspired her to make “Into the Current,” which made its regional debut in Bangkok Thursday to a sold-out audience at the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

“His mandate was, as a former political prisoner, he was going to work every which way he could on the global stage, to ensure that all these prisoners could be released,” she said.

Ko Bo Kyi spent seven years in prison in Burma before escaping to Thailand, where he co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in 1999.

Burmese authorities announced this month that they would be releasing 651 of the estimated 2,000 political activists behind bars in an effort to promote national reconciliation.

Ko Bo Kyi said those who remain in prison should not be forgotten.

“Political prisoners do not receive timely medical treatment, so there is not enough medication, and there are not enough doctors for the prisoners, therefore the prisoners suffer a lot,” he said, adding that even after their release, life is not easy.

He pointed to the case of Thet New, who died shortly after being freed under the government amnesty this month. The activist is believed to have died from the effects of torture suffered in prison.

Free, but not

Ko Bo Kyi said those who survive are still punished professionally and personally.

“The Burmese government doesn’t recognize the existence of political prisoners. Therefore, even after they were released, they are blacklisted. They do not receive passports. They do not get back their license,” he said.

Another focus of the film, co-produced by the Democratic Voice of Burma, is Ko Bo Kyi’s lifelong friend, the writer and poet Min Ko Naing.  He is considered Burma’s most prominent opposition leader after Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and was released earlier this month.

Associated Press Min Ko Naing forms a human chain with the '88 Generation Student Group. Rangoon, May 27, 2007.

“It was because of his unyielding stance, and the enormous risks that he took, over and over again, that put him in that position of being a leader of what was called the ‘88 Generation Group,” said Hallacy.

Min Ko Naing spent 16 years in solitary confinement, and emerged from prison in 2007, only to lead another protest that returned him to jail later that year.

The human toll

The human toll exerted on the government’s opponents is explored in “Into the Current.” Min Ko Naing speaks ruefully of his former girlfriend, who he says, “now belongs to someone else,” following his many years in prison. Ko Bo Kyi bid farewell to his parents when he fled Burma more than a decade ago. And Aung San Suu Kyi had to give up her family life with her late husband Michael Aris and her sons.

“Despite all of that, what is their response? It’s informed by their Buddhist belief, Metta, loving kindness,” said Hallacy.

In the film, Aung San Suu Kyi is asked if the National League for Democracy will show mercy to members of the former military government. “We all need mercy,” she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest over the past two decades. She was released in 2010, just days after controversial elections that gave Burma its first nominally civilian government since 1962.

She will be among the candidates vying for a seat in parliamentary by-elections in April. It will be the first time that she has been allowed to seek political office.

At least two American Muslim organizations are calling for the resignation of New York City's police commissioner and his spokesman for their involvement with a film criticized as anti-Muslim propaganda.  

The film, The Third Jihad, made by a private group, purports to show that violence and radicalism are the “true agenda” of many Muslims in the United States.

The movie contains an interview with New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly that police department spokesman Paul Browne first said was taken from another source. But after the film’s producers said that was untrue, Browne admitted arranging the interview.  He said that Kelly on Wednesday called the film “objectionable” and regretted participating in it.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is calling for Kelly and Browne to resign, saying that they covered up their roles in the film.

Zead Ramadan, the organization's New York head, said Kelly made a terrible mistake.

"He, unfortunately, has agreed to knowingly working on a film that’s turned out to be Nazi-esque in its propaganda against Muslim people," said Ramadan.

News reports on Tuesday said the film was shown to almost 1,500 New York police officers during counter-terrorism training in 2010.  Police spokesman Paul Browne said that a police sergeant acted on her own when she screened it during shifts in a room where officers filled out paperwork.

“There was no discussion; there was no training about it," said Browne. "And it was unauthorized.”

In a rare criticism of his police department, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “someone” in the police department used “terrible judgment” in showing the film.

The Islamic Circle of North America also denounced the police commissioner's participation in the film, and plans to join CAIR and other Muslim and human rights groups on Thursday to demand Kelly's resignation.   

Forty years ago, a new women’s magazine appeared on American newsstands alongside the periodicals exclusively devoted to housework, motherhood, and catching a man. Ms.Magazine, founded by veteran journalist and feminist Gloria Steinem and backed by glossy New York Magazine, promised to be something more: a place where women could read about real women like themselves, and connect to the nascent women’s movement - devoted to equality in the workplace and in all aspects of their lives.

The right to legalized abortion and birth control was just one of many powerful issues embraced by the women’s liberation movement of the early 1970s.  Like the civil rights movement,  equality, justice and community were key ideals for the feminists of that era.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor, says Ms. was a product of that moment and also helped it to coalesce.    

"I think it had a double purpose: to say ‘this is what’s happening’ and also ‘you’re not alone,’ and also ‘here is what to do if you are already annoyed, angry, upset, or oppressed.’ You organize," explained Pogrebin. "You start by having consciousness raising groups, that is, little groups of women who met once a week or a couple times a month to share their commonality, to say ‘When were you ever denied your rights?’ ‘Have you ever done anything about it?’"     

Pogrebin says that in the offices of Ms. and on its pages, the conversation about feminism was often lively and probing.    

“You say ‘why was it foreordained that women will not be able to handle tools? Why was it foreordained that there’s something sissy about being able to take care of a baby?" Pogrebin explained.    

Suzanne Braun Levine edited the magazine from 1972 to 1988. She says members of Ms.’s staff were discovering for themselves where they stood on various issues - from prostitution to the changing role of men and the meaning of equality itself.   

“Although nobody really believes it, we really didn’t have an agenda as such," noted Levine. "The agenda was to illuminate women’s experience, and to thereby reassure women that they weren’t alone and they weren’t crazy. Still, that was the political message. But the other aspect of the magazine was to tell the storiesof creative and adventuresome and interesting and funny women and what they were really doing."  

Some radical feminists felt Ms. was “watering down” their ideas for mainstream readers. But the magazine did break new ground, says Pogrebin. One issue dealt with domestic violence. It had a woman with a black eye on its cover.   

“The idea of putting that on a cover was just beyond imagining for that era," Pogrebin noted. "You couldn’t find acknowledgment that the greatest amount of violence that was committed against women was from people they knew and supposedly loved or who supposedly loved them.”  

Ms. is credited with being among the first to bring the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace to widespread attention. Ms. pointed out what women already knew: that such behavior was more than a personal violation. It forced many women to choose between their dignity and their jobs.  

“A secretary would say what her male boss did and a woman executive would say what her male boss did. So it crossed class because masculine power kind of trumped every other kind of class distinction,” Pogrebin said.

Ms. was also critical in changing views on abortion, which was illegal in most U.S. states except to save a mother's life. The magazine published a statement signed by thousands of women, admitting they had had abortions.    

“It was an exposure, It was dangerous and I thought therefore it was one of the most meaningful things we did,"  Pogrebin said.

In 2012, American women live in a vastly different world than the one that Gloria Steinem and her staff navigated in 1972.

Suzanne Braun Levine says the fact that her 25-year-old daughter takes the possibilities and accomplishments of women for granted is bittersweet.  

“I am so glad she doesn’t know how it was," Levine said. "She can’t imagine getting anyone’s permission to get a credit card. She can’t imagine needing a companion to go to a restaurant she likes. The downside is that as, for example, we lose the right to abortion, I am not sure she understands how important it is to fight to hold on to it."   

Ms. Magazine is only quarterly now.  Other causes and media are filling the niche it once monopolized.  

The magazine turns 40 this month.

The Academy Award nominations were announced this morning in Hollywood.

Martin Scorsese's 3D adventure movie "Hugo," a fantasy tribute to French film pioneer George Melies, leads the list with 11 nominations, including one for Best Director, numerous technical categories and the most coveted of all, Best Picture of the Year.

Actress and previous Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence announced the top category.

"The films selected as best picture nominees for 2011 are  "War Horse," "The Artist," "Moneyball," "The Descendants," "The Tree of Life," "Midnight in Paris," "The Help," "Hugo" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."<!--IMAGE-LEFT-->

"The Artist," a French-made black-and-white silent film about old-time Hollywood, has 10 nominations, including writing and directing for Michel Hazanavicius, Best Actor for its star Jean DuJardin and Best Supporting Actress for co-star Berenice Bejo, who expresses the sentiment heard most often.

"Just being nominated is already an honor and already unbelievable," she said.

The nominees are chosen by peer groups within the 6,000-member Academy, comprised of men and women who work as actors, writers, directors, composers and various other filmmaking crafts.

While it's politically correct to protest the competitive aspect of the awards, Best Actress nominee Viola Davis says it's nice to be recognized.

Related slide show

"You always want your work to be acknowledged," she said. "I can't do it in the room or in front of the mirror in my bathroom. I do it for the appreciation and enjoyment of an audience, so it means a lot."

Davis' performance in "The Help," about black maids working for white families in the south in the 1960s, puts her in the running for Best Actress alongside Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady;" Michelle Williams in "My Week With Marilyn;" Glenn Close for "Albert Nobbs" and Rooney Mara as "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."

Best Actor nominees are DuJardin in "The Artist;" George Clooney for "The Descendants;" Brad Pitt for "Moneyball;" Gary Oldman for "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and Mexican actor Demian Bichir for "A Better Life."

Films from Belgium, Canada, Poland, Israel and Iran are competing for Best Foreign Language Film.

Veteran Hollywood executive Brian Grazer, who will produce this year's Oscar telecast, sees no clear front-runner.

"I'm a little bit surprised and excited that a big Hollywood movie, 'Hugo,' got 11 nominations; and I think that it's a very unpredictable race that's going to happen right now," he said.

Winners of the 84th annual Academy Awards will be revealed in the global telecast from Hollywood on Feb. 26.

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"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," the Academy-award nominated drama by filmmaker Stephen Daldry, is based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. The story, though rooted in the September 11 tragedy, does not focus on the event. It follows an 11-year-old boy who suffers from the loss of his father at the World Trade Center.

Oskar Schell cannot comprehend why the person he loved most died on the morning of September 11.  

An intellectually-gifted child, Oskar also has symptoms of Asperger's syndrome and is fearful of the world. But he finds shelter in his father's presence. Together they solve historical puzzles or go on imaginary expeditions.

Thomas Schell, portrayed by Tom Hanks, spent endless hours helping Oskar ease into the outside world. When he dies, Oskar cannot let

"To prolong the contact that he had with his father, who is now no longer living, he goes to his closet that hasn't been touched in a year and finds, oddly enough, a key inside a vase that is sitting up on the top shelf," says Hanks. "And that key has the name Black attached to it. And he is convinced that Black is the name of somebody who had some connection with his father."

Oskar, played by newcomer Thomas Horn, visits hundreds of New Yorkers.

"He goes to all the people named Black in New York City," Horn says, "all the five boroughs, and tries to find out what the key means."

Oskar is accompanied by an old man who rents a room in his grandmother's apartment. The role is played by Max von Sydow, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

"It is a story about 9/11 and it's an important story about someone who chooses a therapy to come over all the shock without knowing that it is a therapy," he says.  

Director Stephen Daldry makes 9/11 personal through the pain of Oskar and the Schell family. Actress Sandra Bullock, who portrays Oskar's mother, says the story is based on accounts of real people who lost loved ones in the attacks.

"We were able to have access to phone messages that those people that were left behind received from the people who were in the tower," Bullocks says. "The thing I was most amazed by was that, at that moment when I think the person realized they were not going to make it, they left messages of hope and love and affection."

Though an American story, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is a New York tale, about a community forever bound by a shared experience of historic proportions.

And it's about accepting that people are not always in control, that events don’t always make sense.  

Stephen Daldry's film meanders, but the stellar cast, starting with young Thomas Horn, as well as the weighty nuances, make this a must-see film.

Hollywood seems to agree. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is contending for an Oscar, the entertainment industry's highest honor. It's nominated for Best Picture.

Remnants of war, including unexploded ordnance and landmines, are still found in many countries around the world - even decades after conflicts have ended. Those dangers often devastate the lives of local inhabitants, who might not be aware they live in the middle of a minefield.

An international organization that helps clear and destroy weapons left behind in war zones recently screened a documentary called Surviving the Peace, which shows how remnants of a conflict affect people’s lives, even after their country has emerged from war.

In many regions of the globe, surviving a war is followed by surviving the peace. From Laos, where this new documentary was filmed, to Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Cambodia, and many other countries, local inhabitants live in daily fear of stepping on a landmine or unexploded ordnance left after a recent conflict.
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Surviving the Peace, filmed in Laos in May 2011, reflects a situation found in many countries. It features a young father who is blinded when a bomb left over from the Vietnam War explodes in the fire he is making at his home.

“The guy had most of his face deformed and we were this close [to him]. They allowed us in and we were complete strangers. It felt like we were given a gift from these people to be allowed into their lives,” said filmmaker and cinematographer Rick Gershon.

He said that he and his partner Nathan Golon received a warm welcome in Laos. Even though, as Golon pointed out, the subject they were covering was a sensitive issue.

“We had sensitivities to the fact that here we are in these people’s homes as Americans and these were American bombs that injured people. We never felt the slightest bit of reproach from these people,” Golon.

The documentary was the idea of Patricia Loria, marketing manager for an organization called "Mines Advisory Group," or "MAG."

“The story is powerful not only for Laos, but hopefully it is powerful enough for everyone who really cares about justice, their children, or just helping others,” said Loria.

The United Nations estimates more than 110 million active mines are still scattered in 70 countries around the world. This means one landmine for every 52 people. MAG currently has about 3,500 people working around the world to clear and destroy leftover weapons - most of them local residents. Jennifer Lachman, the executive director of MAG America, said the organization has one main goal.

“…  helping people recover and get back on their feet safely and prosperously after conflicts," said Lachman.

MAG has worked in more than 35 countries since it began in 1987... Its work earned it the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. It has most recently worked in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan - and in Libya.

“Libya is an example where we launched an emergency operation as soon as areas were safe enough for us to work there. We trained members of the National Transitional Council to work with us to destroy ammunitions and secure them,” said Lachman.

This is not the first time MAG has taken the cinematic route to raise awareness about its cause. The group also has produced films about Bosnia and the Democratic Republic of Congo - and is working on two others - about Angola and Sudan.