UPI NewsTrack Entertainment News

Thursday 30 June 2011


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LONDON, June 30 (UPI) -- Irish-born actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers was hospitalized this week after a suspected suicide attempt, Britain's The Sun newspaper reported Thursday.
Meyers has appeared in the films "Forget Paris," "August Rush," "Alexander," "Bend it Like Beckham" and "Velvet Goldmine." He is also the star of the TV series "The Tudors."
Despite his bright career, the 33-year-old Golden Globe winner has long battled an addiction to alcohol and has spent several stints in rehab.
Sources told the newspaper someone at his house called paramedics after he allegedly ingested pills.
Police also were summoned and he was taken to a hospital near his home in London Tuesday night after he refused treatment at the scene for more than 30 minutes, the report said.
"This is very sad. It was the opinion of those present that he tried to take his life," an insider told The Sun.
He was released from the hospital Wednesday, the report said, and declined to comment when asked by the newspaper.



Javier Colon wins 'The Voice'
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., June 30 (UPI) -- Javier Colon has been declared the first winner of the U.S. vocal competition series "The Voice."
Colon beat out three fellow finalists -- Dia Frampton, Beverly McClellan and Vicci Martinez -- on Wednesday night's live results show and season finale.
He earned the grand prize of a recording contract and $100,000.
Each contestant was part of a team headed by musician coaches Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton.
Colon was part of Levine's team.
"The soulful pop singer's father worked at a radio station and immersed his son in music from an early age; by 13, Colon was writing his own songs," NBC said in a release. "His young talent led to touring gigs and even a contract with Capitol Records, but his career never really took off. Now the devoted husband and father of two has realized his dream of pursing his musical aspirations and does not have to leave music behind to support his family. Colon is from Stratford, Conn."
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Stephen Colbert's PAC parody turns serious
WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- Satirist Stephen Colbert's plan to parody the impact of a U.S. Supreme Court decision opening up avenues of campaign finance could be backfiring, observers say.
Colbert, a fixture on the Comedy Central cable channel, plans to testify Thursday before the Federal Election Commission about his request that would allow his planned Colbert Super PAC (political action committee) that would test the limits on corporate political spending, Politico reported.
However, his plan may have gone awry because the PAC joke has caused problems for those it's meant to help providing grist for opponents, observers said. It also is opening up Colbert to stern questioning from FEC lawyers and raising ethics questions for his lawyer.
"I think Colbert is trying to dramatize problems in the campaign finance world in the way that he dramatizes other things," campaign finance reform advocate Fred Wertheimer told Politico. "But nevertheless, the proposals here would potentially open gaping disclosure loopholes in the campaign finance laws."
Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, is so concerned about what Colbert is doing that his organization joined the Campaign Legal Center, another advocacy group, to petition the FEC to reject the comedian's request, saying it could lead to the "radical evisceration" of campaign finance rules.
If Colbert gets his way before the FEC, it could blur the lines between political money and media to an unprecedented extent, the petition said.
The request Trevor Potter, a former FEC chairman who founded the Campaign Legal Center, filed with the elections watchdog asks whether Colbert would qualify for a media exemption to campaign finance rules if he were to use his show, its staff and its production equipment -- considered corporate resources of Viacom, Comedy Central's parent company -- to produce and air Colbert Super PAC ads backing or opposing federal candidates.
Potter hasn't stepped aside as president of the Campaign Legal Center, which is opposing the request he filed for Colbert, but said, "I have recused myself from all CLC consideration of Mr. Colbert's activities since I became his lawyer."



News Corp. dumps MySpace
NEW YORK, June 30 (UPI) -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has sold MySpace to a California advertising network for a small fraction of what it paid in 2005, media sources said.
Specific Media, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., places advertising online, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The newspaper quoted a source as saying the company offered $35 million for MySpace, and News Corp., which had hoped for $100 million, accepted.
MySpace was the first social networking site and was once dominant. But Facebook now has many times more users.
News Corp. paid $580 million for MySpace, a move the company hoped would help it expand into digital media. At one point MySpace was valued at about a billion dollars, but the number of users, 76.3 million in 2008, has dropped steadily since then to 35 million in May, ComScore Digital Analytix reports.
The Times said Justin Timberlake, who appeared in the movie about Facebook "The Social Network," has agreed to participate in an effort to change MySpace's image.
Michael Birch, who founded the Bebo social network, told the Times News Corp. was too focused on the bottom line.
"The problem with MySpace was that it was never as strong a product as it needed to be," Birch said. "It left itself vulnerable to competition. It was only a matter of time before someone created something bigger."

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