Kardashian defends curves
Reality TV pin-up Kim Kardashian has defended her curvy figure once again, after a website accidentally posted a picture of her sporting cellulite.
A snap of the star was uploaded onto Complex magazine's website on Thursday before it had been airbrushed and retouched.
It was quickly removed and replaced with a shot of Kardashian looking slimmer and with smoother skin, but not before eagle-eyed bloggers had grabbed the unauthorized photo and posted it elsewhere on the internet.
But the 28-year-old insists she isn't embarrassed about the mishap.
Kardashian writes on her own blog, "So what: I have a little cellulite. What curvy girl doesn't!?
"How many people do you think are photoshopped? It happens all the time. I'm proud of my body and my curves and this picture coming out is probably helpful for everyone to see that just because I am on the cover of a magazine doesn't mean I'm perfect."
But Kardashian admits she will be spending more time working out to avoid any more awkward exposés: "This all motivates me to stay in the gym because my goal this year has been to get in better shape and tone up! Hard work pays off!"
CBC cuts hit news, drama, sports, radio
CBC English Services plans to cut up to 80 positions from its news division and a further 313 from sports, entertainment, current affairs, sales and support across the country as part of its efforts to make up a $171-million shortfall in 2009-10.
Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC's English Services, announced details of the cutbacks to radio and TV in a speech to employees on Thursday. The details came a day after CBC president and chief executive Hubert Lacroix announced the public broadcaster would have to cut about 800 full-time positions in total at the CBC/Radio-Canada, as well as selling about $125 million in assets.
The cuts to programming at CBC English Services will mean fewer episodes of many prime-time television shows and cuts to entire programs on both Radio One and Radio 2, Stursberg said.
Changes coming to Radio One and 2
Changes on Radio One include:
Cancellations of The Inside Track, Outfront and The Point.
Reduction of regional noon-hour programs to one hour.
Reductions in drama.
Changes on Radio 2 include:
Cancellations of In the Key of Charles and the weekend edition of The Signal.
Reductions in live music production and recordings.
More consolidations with Radio 3.
On CBC-TV, investigative programs such as The Fifth Estate and Marketplace will have reduced budgets, though it's not yet known whether that will mean fewer episodes.
Canadians can also expect to see more repeats of many prime-time programs, with shorter seasons ordered for ones including:
The Border.
This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Being Erica.
Little Mosque on the Prairie.
The CBC will also reduce spending on new children's programming and cancel the Living programs produced in each region.
In CBC Sports, there will be reductions or cutbacks in coverage of:
International figure skating.
CONCACAF Champions League soccer.
World aquatics.
World athletics.
Skiing.
The CBC will also drop its Blue Jays baseball telecasts.
CBC Radio loses 121 jobs
About $14.4 million must come out of radio, leading to a reduction of 121 jobs, including 20 in Toronto.
There will also be job losses in the Ontario cities of Windsor, Thunder Bay and Sudbury, in Quebec City, in the New Brunswick cities of Moncton and Saint John, in Sydney, N.S., and in Corner Brook, Gander and Grand Falls in Newfoundland and Labrador. There will be budget reductions at CBC North.
One-person bureaus in La Ronge, Sask., and Thompson, Man., will be closed.
About 109 positions will come out of television entertainment, including the previously announced cancellations of Fashion File and the placing of Steven & Chris on hiatus. A further three jobs will be cut from CBC-TV Sports.
A total of $7 million must be cut from the news division, including 80 jobs in radio news, current affairs and TV current affairs.
The number of people who lose their jobs could be reduced if a number of employees opt for a retirement package to be announced in April.
Stursberg also said there would be further details released about cuts in news on April 16.
He called the cuts "painful" and said he was worried about the future of news, TV drama and children's programming. He noted that the cuts in drama would also have an impact on dozens of independent producers and their employees.
"We want to maintain as much as we can and stay on strategy as much as possible as we make these cuts," Stursberg said.
He emphasized that radio morning and afternoon drive shows have been spared and radio remains ad-free. On television, the CBC will keep 80 per cent Canadian content in prime time and increase it during the day, with shows such as Martha Stewart and The Simpsons expected to be cancelled.
Cuts needed despite high ratings
He said the CBC tried to make cuts that would maintain the strong position it has now with high ratings in radio and television.
"The irony is, we are in financial difficulty when we're doing better than we've ever done before," he said. More than 20 million Canadians tune in to CBC Radio, CBC-TV and CBC.ca every week, he said.
Stursberg said he didn't know whether further cuts would be necessary, perhaps a year from now.
Ad revenue by all conventional broadcasters has been falling and private broadcasters, like the CBC, have experienced a steep decline in revenue.
"It depends in very large measure on what happens to earnings. If ad markets recover, we will be in much better shape," Stursberg said.
"We can't really see where the bottom is. No one has any sense of when the economy is going to come back."
At a speech in Montreal on Thursday, Lacroix warned there would be deeper cuts if the CBC is unable to sell assets.
He announced on Wednesday that the CBC was hoping to sell $125 million in assets — but those sales must be approved by the federal government.
Lacroix criticized the Conservatives for leaving the CBC in limbo over its budgetary allocation for 2009-10, saying the government has not yet let the CBC know whether it approved the special $60 million for programming it has received since 2001. The CBC's new fiscal year begins in five days.
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday, Heritage Minister James Moore said the CBC will be receiving its full allocation, including the $60 million for programming.
But he said the bridge loans for which Lacroix had asked as a way of carrying CBC over the recession would not "be in the interest of the CBC."
"If the CBC is in a position where there's not a return of ad revenue and then there are increasing demands on the CBC in order to fulfill its mandate and on top of that they're in a position where they have to now repay a loan, you'll see a real cannibalization of the CBC services across the country and that's not in the best interest of the broadcaster or taxpayers," Moore said.
Supper hour newscasts cut in Quebec
Lacroix said no part of Radio-Canada will be untouched by the cuts.
Among the large cuts on the French side are the elimination of noon hour news shows in Quebec City, Ottawa, Moncton and Sherbrooke and reduction of the supper hour newscasts in those markets to half an hour from an hour.
The programs Vous êtes Ici and Macadam tribus have also been cancelled.
Lacroix also announced Radio Canada International will eliminate its Ukrainian and Cantonese services.
Marc-Philippe Laurin, president of the Canadian Media Guild's CBC branch, said employees face a hard six months.
"It's sad that we've come to expect layoffs as a way of life at CBC," he said in memo to CMG members, saying these decisions "cut to the very heart of what we do and who we are."
"It is also very disappointing that the Conservative government has let this happen at a time when our members and the public broadcaster are doing better than ever in every market across the country in providing valuable and informative programming to Canadians," he added.
Pop, country singer Dan Seals dies of cancer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Dan Seals, who was England Dan in the pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley and later had a successful country career, has died of complications from cancer. He was 61.
Longtime manager Tony Gottlieb said Seals, diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago, died Wednesday night at his daughter's home in Nashville.
With England Dan and John Ford Coley, Seals had hits including "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" and "Nights Are Forever," both in 1976. His country hits in the '80s and '90s included "Bop," "You Still Move Me," "Love on Arrival," and a duet with Marie Osmond, "Meet Me in Montana."
"I've loved to play and sing from the moment I knew what it was," he told The Associated Press in 1992.
Seals, who is survived by his wife, four children and seven grandchildren, was in hospice care when he died.
"He was very positive," said Gottlieb, Seals' manager for about 30 years. "He participated in several clinical trials to assist with research on this type of lymphoma."
Gottlieb said a major misconception about Seals is that he was a pop singer who came to country music. In reality, he said, Seals grew up singing country music and crossed into pop.
"He was raised in a very rural part of West Texas. His father was an amateur country singer, and he used to play with his dad. They were Hank Williams, Grand Ole Opry people. He was much more of a country singer than a pop singer."
Seals' older brother, Jimmy, was the Seals in Seals & Crofts, who recorded the hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl" in the 1970s.
Until Dan Seals got sick, the brothers were working as a duo, Seals & Seals. They performed some shows and were recording an album but never finished it. The songs they did complete, about eight in all, will be released.
"In the last two years he only did like three shows," Gottlieb said. "He just didn't have the energy."
Seals, whose father was a pipefitter, was born in McCamey, Texas, and grew up in Iraan, Texas, and Dallas.
His well-crafted songs tended to be insightful and graphic with lofty themes. In 1989, his music video for the song "Rage On" addressed a topic rare in country music: an interracial relationship. It showed angry youths smashing the windows of the car of a young man dating a girl of a different race. One boy hurled a beer bottle at the girl's father. The song itself was about small town values.
"When we record songs, we take chances," Seals said at the time. "We feel we are on the cutting edge of what we can do."
Studio: Sean Penn to play Larry in `Stooges' movie
NEW YORK – Sean Penn is going slapstick.
The studio MGM says the double Oscar winner has signed on to play Larry in the Farrelly brothers' big-screen update of "The Three Stooges."
Jim Carrey was "in negotiations" for the role of Curly, said MGM spokesman Grey Munford. The studio first featured the stooges in a series of shorts and features beginning in 1933.
Munford would not confirm reports that Benicio Del Toro will play Moe.
He said said filming begins this fall on the comedy, which is expected to be released in 2010.
The casting of a serious actor like Penn in the assuredly goofy comedy isn't such a stretch: The actor launched his storied career as goofball Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
Aniston named 'Sexiest Woman'
Jennifer Aniston has topped a new list of Hollywood's Sexiest Women in men's magazine Details.
The newly-single former Friends star, 40, beat Transformers actress Megan Fox and newlywed Gisele Bundchen to land the top spot in the new poll.
The top five is:
5. Kim Kardashian
4. Frieda Pinto
3. Gisele Bundchen
2. Megan Fox
1. Jennifer Aniston
What the deuce? Stewie Griffin on 'Bones'?
You read that headline correctly -- FOX will do a rather unusual crossover in May when Stewie, the hell-raising, hyper-intelligent infant from "Family Guy," makes an appearance on "Bones."
Stewie completed his shooting recently and had this to say: "Oh, have you seen it? Was I good? Because I heard they said I was amazing and they want me to replace Emily [Deschanel], but that's just a rumor."
His scene partner, David Boreanaz, adds: "The guy was good during the actual scenes, which is the important thing. But between takes he literally vanished -- nowhere to be seen. I guess it's true that Brits and cartoons tend to be standoffish. Or maybe it was a method thing. I don't know."
In the episode, scheduled for May 7, Booth (Boreanaz) will have babies on the brain after Brennan (Deschanel) decides she wants to have a child -- and asks Booth to be the father. The idea consumes Booth -- as does an unrelated (and undiagnosed) health problem that lays him out and causes him to hallucinate. Stewie will "assess the situation" and offer his advice. (But will there be dancing?)
I'm thinking Stewie might tell Booth to take Brennan up on her offer, since my intrepid colleague Korbi has written at length about a Bones-Booth coupling (finally) in the season finale, which airs the following week.
The May 7 episode, by the way, is called "The Critic in the Cabernet." Body in a wine barrel, maybe? Jokes about the wine having a good nose?
More Artists Added To Bonnaroo
Public Enemy, Ani Di Franco, Amadou and Mariam, White Rabbits and Janelle Monae are among the artists who have been added to the lineup of this year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
They join previously announced 2009 headliners Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Phish, MGMT and Wilco at the annual festival, set to take place June 11-14 in Manchester, TN.
For further information, visit Bonnaroo.com.
Bob Barker returns to 'The Price is Right'
LOS ANGELES – Bob Barker returned to "The Price Is Right" — and this time he was the showcase.
After nearly two years in retirement, the 85-year-old former game show host was invited to come on down to "The Price Is Right" to promote his upcoming memoir, "Priceless Memories," due out April 6.
Barker on Wednesday once again stood on the set where he had worked for 35 years. As he walked the halls of the studio, old co-workers greeted Barker with broad smiles, seemingly as happy to have him back as he was to be there.
Dressed in a black suit with a hot pink shirt and matching tie, the silver-haired host appeared alongside successor Drew Carey near the finale of the show, which airs April 16, to present two prize showcases that were somewhat stretched to promote Barker's memoir.
One showcase, for example, featured a computer to order the book, a trip to New York City to buy a bundle of the books from the publisher, and a truck to haul them all back in.
"That general idea was in their script, but I shamelessly overacted on a lot of it," Barker said, laughing mischievously in his dressing room after the show.
All 300 members of the show's live studio audience also received a copy of the tome.
Most days, Barker said his retirement has been filled with various projects helping animals. He also keeps in shape by exercising with light weights and an elliptical machine.
"I have remarked that I better go back and start doing the show again to get a little rest," Barker said.
But despite his busy lifestyle, the veteran performer said he misses the excitement of "The Price is Right."
"I could never have done this show if I hadn't enjoyed it, and one of the things I enjoyed was the excitement with the audience, the fun with the audience, the responses of the audience," Barker said. "I'd done audience participation my entire adult life."
Barker taped his last regular episode — his 6,586th — of the popular CBS game show in June 2007, retiring after five decades on national television.
Always the animal lover, Barker spends his free time with his dog, Jesse, and two rabbits, Mr. Rabbit and Honey Bunny. Proceeds from Barker's book will go to the DJ&T Foundation, which he founded in 1994 to subsidize the cost of spaying and neutering animals.
Asked at the end of the interview if there was anything else he'd like to add, Barker chuckled and said, just as he had for 35 years on network television: "Help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered."