T Rex singer Marc Bolan's son sues over 'Baby Driver' soundtrack

The only child of T Rex frontman Marc Bolan filed a lawsuit Thursday against Sony for using the song "Debora" in its summer action hit "Baby Driver," allegedly without permission.

"Inexplicably, defendants failed to obtain -- or even seek -- the permission of the composition's US copyright holder Rolan Feld," said the complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.

"In the six weeks since Feld brought this infringement to defendant Sony's attention, defendants have done little more than point fingers at one another -- and they have neither apologized nor offered to pay Feld a reasonable license fee."

Feld, Bolan's son with Los Angeles singer-songwriter Gloria Jones, was a few days short of his second birthday when the charismatic glam rocker was killed in a car crash at the age of 29.

The 41-year-old won the rights to the works of T Rex three years ago and is seeking punitive damages, alleging that Sony Pictures Entertainment's use of "Debora" has damaged future licensing opportunities.

The soundtrack to Edgar Wright's "Baby Driver" -- which has scored a 95 percent approval rating from more than 250 reviews collated by the Rotten Tomatoes movies website -- is an integral part of the plot.

It stars Ansel Elgort ("The Fault in our Stars") as a gifted getaway driver who suffers from tinnitus -- ringing in his ears -- and has to play music on an iPod to concentrate when he is behind the wheel.

It has taken $140 million worldwide against an estimated budget of less than a quarter that amount.

Debora, released in 1968, was Bolan's first hit after forming the psychedelic folk rock band initially known as Tyrannosaurus Rex, reaching number 34 in the British singles chart.

A request for comment from Sony's media office was not immediately answered.

HBO conducts forensic review to understand scope of hack

Richard Plepler chairman and CEO of Home Box Office Inc. speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna

HBO's chief said on Wednesday that the company is conducting a forensic review of its computer systems to better understand the scope of a cyber attack that surfaced over the weekend.

Entertainment Weekly reported on Monday that hackers stole 1.5 terabytes of data and leaked online a script or treatment for an upcoming episode of the network's popular series "Game of Thrones," along with yet-to-be-broadcast episodes of the series "Ballers" and "Room 104."

The hack comes at a sensitive time for HBO, as its parent Time Warner Inc is waiting for regulatory approval to sell itself to AT&T Inc in an $85.4 billion deal announced in October.

An HBO spokesman declined to discuss details of the hack.

Chairman Richard Plepler told employees in a Monday email seen by Reuters that the hackers had stolen "proprietary information," including some programming.

In his note on Wednesday, he said that some employees had expressed concern about the email system.

"At this time, we do not believe that our email system as a whole has been compromised, but the forensic review is ongoing," he said.

Plepler's note said that HBO would hire an outside firm to provide credit monitoring for employees, but did not explain why.

Amazon’s Hollywood spending soars, returns unclear

Amazon.com Inc is quickly ramping up the billions of dollars a year it spends on creating and licensing TV shows and films, signaling the retailer plans to be in show business for the long haul.

The issue came to the forefront of investors' attention last week, when Amazon said a step up in its spending on video projects could be one of several reasons it might report a loss this quarter, even as it expects more than $39 billion in overall sales.

The company's shares, though up 33 percent this year, have dipped 5 percent since that warning.

Wall Street analysts estimate Amazon's spending on content will have tripled to more than $4.5 billion by the end of this year from 2014.

Catching customers' attention with video now represents one of the company's biggest investments, people familiar with the matter said. Amazon does not break out spending figures, and it declined comment on the subject.

The company has visibly increased its footprint in Hollywood since opening a nearby studio in 2010, and picked up its first Academy Awards earlier this year.

"We expect Amazon to quickly exceed Netflix's annual spending on video," said Needham & Co analyst Laura Martin, who estimates that Netflix Inc, the top online television service, will spend $6 billion on content this year.

Means to an End?

The fast-growing investment in original video is just one of many simultaneous moves by Amazon into new areas, including brick-and-mortar retailing with its planned acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc.

Amazon has offered little detail for investors on where it is spending extra on content, or why, making it hard to evaluate if the investment is working. Broadly, it has said video is a key benefit of its money-spinning Prime shopping club, whose members tend to buy more goods from Amazon on top of paying a yearly fee.

"When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes," Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said at a Recode tech conference last year. "People who use Prime Video ... renew at higher rates, and they convert from free trials at higher rates."

One of the people familiar with the company's operations said Amazon has data scientists and economists running computer models to determine how video influences whether shoppers sign up for Prime after a free trial period.

In turn, deciding the budget for video spending involves a complicated set of factors, including subscription fees and the value of extra spending by Prime members, the person said.

Success Not Assured

Despite its award wins for distributing "Manchester by the Sea" and producing TV shows such as "Transparent," Amazon's Hollywood push has not been entirely successful.

An early plan to let anyone submit scripts online and crowd-source opinions on what shows to produce - an effort to disrupt Hollywood's lengthy and expensive greenlight system - has effectively been abandoned.

Some have expressed concern that Amazon is focusing on niche audiences that likely are already Prime Video users, such as recent projects with director Woody Allen.

Meanwhile, costs mount. Amazon paid $10 million to score distribution rights to "Manchester by the Sea" - one of the largest deals ever at the Sundance Film Festival. And it is paying about $50 million to stream 10 Thursday-night games for the U.S. National Football League this year, five times what Twitter Inc had paid for the same rights.

The famously frugal company threw lavish awards show parties, too, a sign it has not been able to shave off as much of Hollywood's notoriously high costs as it may have hoped.

"The bets they have to make on content are subject to the vagaries of the movie business," said Paul Verna, an analyst at research firm eMarketer. Being in Hollywood is "entirely different from being a data company or a tech company or a devices company."

Justin Bieber tells fans of "insecurities" after cancelling world tour

Justin Bieber, the Canadian pop star who abruptly canceled a world tour last month, told fans Thursday he had sometimes let his "insecurities get the best of me."

The 23-year-old singer posted a confessional message on social media saying he had made "mistakes" but that he intended to learn from then in future.

"Learning and growing hasn't always been easy but knowing I'm not alone has kept me going," Bieber told his huge fan base.

The note came weeks after he scrapped his world tour due to "unforeseen circumstances." He was later involved in a traffic accident in which his vehicle hit and slightly injured a photographer.

"I have let my insecurities get the best of me at times," Bieber acknowledged. "I'm VERY aware I'm never gonna be perfect, and I'm gonna keep making mistakes.

"What I'm not gonna do is be ashamed of my mistakes. I wanna be a man that learns from them and grows from them," he said.

The message gave no details as to why he canceled his world tour on July 24, despite the massive success of his 2015 album "Purpose."

The hit was a return to form after a series of tabloid incidents in which Bieber illegally raced a car through Miami and threw eggs at a neighbor's house.

"Me this taking time right now is me saying I want to be SUSTAINABLE," he said. "I want my career to be sustainable, but I also want my heart and soul to be sustainable."

"This message is just an opportunity for you to know my heart, I'm not expecting anyone to understand," he said, finishing the message with a line in capital letters in which he declared that "I think there's something special about imperfections."

British actor Robert Hardy dies aged 91

Actor Robert Hardy, a familiar face on British television who also played the minister of magic in the Harry Potter franchise, has died aged 91, his family announced on Thursday.

"It is with great sadness that the family of Robert Hardy CBE today announced his death, following a tremendous life: a giant career in theatre, television and film spanning more than 70 years," a statement from his children Emma, Justine and Paul said.

They added: "Gruff, elegant, twinkly, and always dignified, he is celebrated by all who knew him and loved him, and everyone who enjoyed his work."

Born in 1925, Hardy started his career at 24 in a stage adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Coriolanus", the first of many theatre roles.

He was also part of several long-standing television shows, including the BBC's famed "All Creatures Great and Small", which ran for 12 years.

The Bafta-nominated actor later appeared in the Harry Potter films as Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, a role he reprised four times.

He was awarded a CBE - one of Britain's highest honours - in 1981 for his services to acting.

Mahira slams ‘mentality’ of Ayesha Gulalai’s critics

Pakistani actress Mahira Khan has lashed out at critics of former PTI member Ayesha Gulalai, slamming their reactions to Gulalai's allegations against the party chief Imran Khan.

Replying to a tweet, Mahira said, "Reaction is the problem! In times like this we see the mentality of people. Why should anyone to stoop to a level like that?"

The glamorous star expressed her worry at how some people are stooping so low in criticising Gulalai. Replying to another tweet, she said, "Ofcourse not!! Her truth or her lie willbe apparent to the world. But in the process how we react to this is what is worrisome."

Ayesha Gulalai alleged earlier this week that Imran Khan had sent her inappropriate text messages, but did not reveal any other details to support her allegations. She also alleged that the "honour of women is not safe" in the party.

Her allegations drew strong reactions from the party and the opponents, along with polarising social media as some defended her while others accused her of being an opportunist.

PTI on Wednesday served a legal notice to Gulalai demanding that she reply to the letter within 10 days or pay compensation to the tune of Rs 30 million.

Michelangelo's unrealized marble dream comes true in Italian quarry

The Cervaiole marble quarry is seen on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy, July 15, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

 

QUERCETA DI SERAVEZZA: In 1517, Michelangelo climbed Mount Altissimo in Tuscany and found the marble of his dreams.

It was, the Renaissance master wrote, "of compact grain, homogeneous, crystalline, reminiscent of sugar". He deemed it perhaps even more precious than that from nearby Carrara, where he had obtained marble for some of his most famous statues.

With the blessing of Pope Leo X, Michelangelo designed a path that could get blocks of the white marble down from the mountain to be transported to Florence to be used to decorate the facade of the church of San Lorenzo.

In exchange for getting a quarry operation going, Florentine authorities granted Michelangelo the right to take as much marble as he wanted from Altissimo – which, in Italian, means both "most high" and "God" – for his use for the rest of his life.

"There is enough here to extract until Judgment Day," he wrote to a contemporary. But it was never to be.

After several years of work to carve out a road, Pope Leo, who was of Florence's Medici family, relieved Michelangelo of his commission and the project was abandoned. The church of San Lorenzo still has no facade.

Today, the quarries of 1,589-metre-high Altissimo, in Italy's Apuan Alps, abuzz with the kind of activity that even a genius like Michelangelo probably could not have foreseen.

Modern cutting and extraction techniques have produced a surreal landscape similar to some Cubism paintings, a dizzying array of upside down staircases, and sugar-cube structures looking heavenward.

"The primitive technology consisted of human labour and beasts of burden," said Franco Pierotti, director of extractions.

"The primordial instruments such as levers, chisels, and hammers later evolved with the introduction of helical wires in the 19th century and now we have diamond-tipped wires and saws and heavy earth-moving equipment," he said.

Before the extracting begins, experts known as "tecchiaroli" hang on ropes from the sides of the mountain and pick at its sides with pointy iron bars to remove the loose rock that could fall and hurt workers in subsequent phases of the extraction.

In the three centuries following Michelangelo's time, the Altissimo quarries went through cycles of abandonment and re-discovery.

In 1821, Marco Borrini, a local landowner, teamed up with Frenchman Jean Baptiste Alexandre Henraux to start a new company and it has been active in the area ever since.

The venture brought new life to the economically depressed area, employing hundreds of quarrymen, squarers, sled men, stone cutters, and cart drivers, who guided oxen trains.

In the 19th century, the tsars of Russia chose Altissimo marble for the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg and more recently, it was used in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2007.

Today, the Henraux company owns the entire mountain, employs about 140 people, and extracts marble from five active quarries.

Over the years artists such as Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Joan Miro, and Isamu Noguchi have used Altissimo marble for their sculptures.

Michelangelo would be proud.