Entertainment
Anne Heche dies of crash injuries after life support removed
Anne Heche, the Emmy-winning film and television actor whose dramatic Hollywood rise in the 1990s and accomplished career contrasted with personal chapters of turmoil, died of injuries from a fiery car crash. She was 53.
Heche was “peacefully taken off life support,” spokeswoman Holly Baird said in a statement Sunday night.
Heche had been on life support at a Los Angeles burn center after suffering a “severe anoxic brain injury,” caused by a lack of oxygen, when her car crashed into a home Aug. 5, according to a statement released Thursday by a representative on behalf of her family and friends.
She was declared brain-dead Friday, but was kept on life support in case her organs could be donated, an assessment that took nine days. In the U.S., most organ transplants are done after such a determination.
A native of Ohio whose family moved around the country, Heche endured an abusive and tragic childhood, one that helped push her into acting as a way of escaping her own life. She showed enough early promise to be offered professional work in high school and first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” from 1987 to 1991, winning a Daytime Emmy Award for the role of twins Marley and Vicky Hudson, who on the show sustained injuries that anticipated Heche’s: Vicky falls into a coma for months after a car crash.
By the late 1990s Heche was one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films. In 1997 alone, she played opposite Johnny Depp as his wife in “Donnie Brasco” and Tommy Lee Jones in “Volcano” and was part of the ensemble cast in the original “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
The following year, she starred with Ford in “Six Days, Seven Nights” and appeared with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in “Return to Paradise.” She also played one of cinema’s most famous murder victims, Marion Crane of “Psycho,” in Gus Van Sant’s remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, and co-starred in the indie favorite “Walking and Talking.”
Around the same time, her personal life led to even greater fame, and both personal and professional upheaval. She met Ellen DeGeneres at a the 1997 Vanity Fair Oscar party, fell in love and began a 3-year relationship that made one of Hollywood’s first openly gay couples. But Heche later said her career was damaged by an industry wary of casting her in leading roles. She would remember advisers opposing her decision to have DeGeneres accompany her to the premiere of “Volcano.”
Read:Beyoncé to remove offensive word from new song
“We were tapped on the shoulder, put into her limo in the third act and told that we couldn’t have pictures of us taken at the press junket,” Heche said in 2018 on the podcast Irish Goodbye.
After she and DeGeneres parted, Heche had a public breakdown and would speak candidly of her mental health struggles.
Heche’s delicately elfin look belied her strength on screen. When she won the National Board of Review’s 1997 best supporting actress award, the board cited the one-two punch of “Donnie Brasco” and the political satire “Wag the Dog,” in which Heche portrayed a cynical White House aide and held her own against film great Robert De Niro.
Heche also called effectively on her apparent fragility. In 2002 she starred on Broadway in the play “Proof” as a woman fearful of losing her sanity just like her father, a brilliant mathematics professor. An Associated Press review praised her “touching performance, vulnerable yet funny, particularly when Catherine mocks the suspicions about her mental stability.”
In the fall of 2000, soon after her break-up with DeGeneres, Heche was hospitalized after knocking on the door of a stranger in a rural area near Fresno, California. Authorities said she had appeared shaken and disoriented and spoke incoherently to the residents.
In a memoir released the following year, “Call Me Crazy,” Heche talked about her lifelong battles. During a 2001 interview with TV journalist Barbara Walters, Heche recounted in painful detail alleged sexual abuse by her father, Donald Heche, who professed to be devoutly religious and died in 1983 from complications of AIDS. Heche described her suffering as so extreme she developed a separate personality and imagined herself descended from another planet.
In the final days of his life, Heche said, she learned he was secretly gay and that she believed his inability to live honestly fueled his anger and hurtful behavior. Not long after her father died, her brother Nathan — one of her four siblings — was killed in a car crash.
“I’m not crazy. But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me,” Heche told Walters. In an effort to escape the past, “I drank. I smoked. I did drugs. I had sex with people. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life.”
Heche dated Steve Martin in the 1990s, and is widely believed to have inspired the childlike, but ambitious aspiring actor played by Heather Graham in his Hollywood spoof “Bowfinger.” She later had a son with camera operator Coleman Laffoon, to whom she was married from 2001 to 2009. She had another son during a relationship with actor James Tupper, her co-star on the TV series “Men In Trees.”
Heche worked consistently in smaller films, on Broadway and on TV shows in the past two decades. She recently had recurring roles on the network series “Chicago P.D.” and “All Rise,” and in 2020 was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Music Alliance Bangladesh cancels 'National Music Festival and Conference' in Sylhet
Music Alliance Bangladesh (Sangeet Oikya Bangladesh) has cancelled its upcoming "National Music Festival and Conference" in Sylhet due to the catastrophic flood in the division.
The month-long festival and conference were scheduled to be held on June 24 at Sylhet Shilpakala Academy.
Shahid Mahmud Jangi, one of the general secretaries of the organisation and president of Geetikabi Sangha Bangladesh, said due to the worst floods in two decades in northeastern Bangladesh, Music Alliance Bangladesh feels the urge to stand by the people by not holding any festival or conference.
Music Alliance Bangladesh lifted the curtain on a nationwide month-long music festival and conference at Zilla Shilpakala Academy, Chattogram Friday.
Read: Alliance Française de Dhaka pays tribute to Tagore-Nazrul
Bongo brings Girls Squad Season 2 on June 15
Streaming platform Bongo will release Girls Squad Season 2 on the OTT platform on June 15 after its successful journey of season 1.
Girls Squad is a story centering the life of six girls. In Season 2, Samira Khan Mahi, Rukaiya Jahan Chamak, Sharna Lata, and Samonty Shoumi will continue their struggle for friendship, and love, and chase their dreams, Bongo said in a statement.
Also read: Bongo brings Turkish series 'Hercai' as 'Rehana'
The statement reads Girls Squad Season 2 is coming again under the composition and direction of Maidul Rakib.
Tania Brishti and Anindita Mimi will make their appearance in season 2. Popular actor cum anchor Shahriar Nazim Joy and actor Zaher Alvi will also play alongside the rest of the cast.
Bongo is releasing 20 new episodes of the new season.
Last year during Eid-ul-Azha, Bongo released the drama series 'Girls Squad Season 1' and broke the convention of hero content.
Also read:Bongo to bring another 7 original telefictions this Eid
Mushfiqur Rahman, Bongo's chief content officer said, "To give 100 percent entertainment to our viewers, we always thrive to select the best-suited actors and actresses for the project That is why, for Season 2, Joy, Alvi, and some other stars have been added to the series. Following the success of Season 1, we hope Season 2 reaches, resonates with, and delights our audience just as much."
Depp and Heard face uncertain career prospects after trial
A jury's finding that both Johnny Depp and his ex-wife, Amber Heard, were defamed in a long-running public dispute capped a lurid six-week trial that also raised questions about whether the two actors can overcome tarnished reputations.
The verdict handed down Wednesday in Virginia found that Depp had been defamed by three statements in an op-ed written by Heard in which she said she was an abuse victim. The jury awarded him more than $10 million. But jurors also concluded that Heard was defamed by a lawyer for Depp who accused her of creating a detailed hoax surrounding the abuse allegations. She was awarded $2 million.
Depp had hoped the libel lawsuit would help restore his reputation. However, legal and entertainment experts said that both actors' reputations have been damaged by ugly details about their brief marriage that came out during the televised trial watched by millions.
Also read: Jury sides with Johnny Depp in libel case, awards him $10M
“Both of them will work again, but I think it will be a while before a major studio will consider them ‘safe’ enough to bet on,” said former entertainment lawyer Matthew Belloni, who writes about the business of Hollywood for the newsletter Puck. “The personal baggage that was revealed in this trial was just too icky for a studio to want to deal with.”
The case captivated viewers who watched gavel-to-gavel television coverage, including impassioned followers on social media who dissected the actors’ mannerisms, their wardrobe choices and their use of alcohol and drugs.
Both performers emerge with unclear prospects for their careers. Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, was a bankable star until recent years, with credits including playing Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films. However, he lost that role and was replaced in a “Fantastic Beasts” spinoff.
Heard’s acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due out next year.
Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a “classic murder-suicide,” in terms of damage to both careers.
“From a reputation-management perspective, there can be no winners,” he said. “They’ve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”
Heard, who attended court Wednesday and was stoic while the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken by what she described as a setback for women in general.
"I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,’’ she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.
Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said “the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”
“I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up,” he said in a statement posted to Instagram.
Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The essay never mentioned his name.
The jury found in Depp's favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the piece.
In evaluating Heard's counterclaims, jurors considered three statements by a lawyer for Depp who called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends “spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight,” and called police.
Also read: Jury's duty in Depp-Heard trial doesn't track public debate
While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.
Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body.
Brett Ward, a family law attorney in New York, said Depp made himself a more believable witness by admitting to drug and alcohol use and that he could be a difficult person. But he said Depp also ran the risk of making those moments more memorable to the public than his film work.
“He says he did this for his children. Having watched the whole trial, I don’t think that he did any service to his children by airing all of this dirty laundry,” Ward said in an interview.
"But whether this was worthwhile for Johnny Depp, we will know in five years if he reestablishes himself as an A-list Hollywood actor. And if he doesn’t? I think he’s made a terrible mistake because most people aren’t going to remember his rather distinguished Hollywood career. They’re going to remember this trial.”
Rodrigo, Drake, Ye early winners at Billboard Music Awards
Olivia Rodrigo, Kanye West and Drake are already big winners before the Billboard Music Awards officially kicks off.
Rodrigo and West, known as Ye, both have taken home the most awards with six during a non-televised ceremony on Sunday. Rodrigo, who won best new artist, is a finalist in the top female artist category, which will be announced later in the show's live broadcast.
Sean “Diddy” Combs will emcee the show, which is being broadcast live from the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas and will air live beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on NBC and its Peacock streaming service.
Also read: Best Rainy Day Movies to Excite Homebound Ecstasy
Drake was named top artist, male artist, rap artist, rap male artist and rap album for “Certified Lover Boy.” The rapper extended his record as the most decorated winner in the history of the awards show with 34 wins.
Ye made his mark in the faith-based categories - again: The rapper won top Christian artist for the first time, but he claimed top gospel artist and gospel song for a third year in a row. He also received top gospel album for the second time.
The Kid LAROI became a first-time winner, taking home five wins for his song “Stay” with Justin Bieber - whose Billboard Music Awards win count rose to 26.
Doja Cat won top R&B artist and R&B female artist for the second consecutive year. She'll compete for top R&B album and female artist.
Taylor Swift - who has the second most-ever award show wins with 29 - won four awards. Bad Bunny received two wins while R&B duo Silk Sonic, comprised of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, won their first-ever award for top R&B song through “Leave the Door Open.”
The show will include performances by Travis Scott, Ed Sheeran, Becky G and other artists who have enjoyed chart-topping success.
Also read:Warhol's 'Marilyn' auction nabs $195M; most for US artist
Becky G, who released the album “Esquemas” on Friday, will perform her hit song “MAMIII,” which topped the Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. Sheeran will deliver a remote performance from Northern Ireland, where he is on tour.
Other acts taking the stage include Scott, who’s nominated in the dance/electronic music category, as well as Miranda Lambert, Meghan Thee Stallion, Morgan Wallen, and Grammy Awards darlings Silk Sonic.
Nominees are determined by Billboard chart rankings and winners are selected based on several criteria, including their album and digital song sales, airplay and streaming success and touring.
Warhol's 'Marilyn' auction nabs $195M; most for US artist
Andy Warhol's “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” sold for a cool $195 million on Monday, making the iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe the most expensive work by a U.S. artist ever sold at auction.
The 1964 silkscreen image shows Monroe in vibrant close-up — hair yellow, eyeshadow blue and lips red — on a rich blue background. It's also the most expensive piece from the 20th century ever auctioned, according to Christie’s auction house in New York, where the sale took place.
Also read:New ‘Doctor Who’ star is ‘Sex Education’ actor Ncuti Gatwa
The Warhol sale unseated the previous record holder and another modern master, Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose 1982 painting “Untitled” of a skull-like face sold for a record $110.5 million at Sotheby’s in 2017.
Christie's said an unnamed buyer made the purchase Monday night. When the auction was announced earlier this year, they estimated it could go for as much as $200 million.
“It’s an amazing price,” said Alex Rotter, chairman of Christie’s 20th and 21st century art department. “Let it sink in, it’s quite something.”
“This is where we wanted to be, clearly,” said Guillaume Cerutti, CEO of Christie’s. “It proves we are in a very resilient art market.”
Also read: He said, she said: Accounts from Depp and Heard rarely match
The proceeds of the sale will go to the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation Zurich, which put the painting up for auction. The foundation aims to help children with health care and educational programs.
Warhol created more than one image of Monroe; this particular painting has been exhibited in museums around the world.
New ‘Doctor Who’ star is ‘Sex Education’ actor Ncuti Gatwa
Ncuti Gatwa will take the mantle from Jodie Whittaker on “Doctor Who,” the BBC announced Sunday, ending speculation over the iconic Time Lord’s next regeneration.
“Sometimes talent walks through the door and it’s so bright and bold and brilliant, I just stand back in awe and thank my lucky stars,” returning showrunner Russell T Davies said in the broadcaster’s release. “Ncuti dazzled us, seized hold of the Doctor and owned those TARDIS keys in seconds.”
Also read:He said, she said: Accounts from Depp and Heard rarely match
Gatwa, whose first name is pronounced ’SHOO-tee, currently stars in Netflix’s high school comedy-drama “Sex Education” as the effervescent Eric Effiong, who is openly gay but from a highly religious family.
The Rwanda-born, Scotland-raised Gatwa, 29, will be the first Black actor to helm the quintessential British sci-fi show, but he won’t be the first Black Doctor — Jo Martin has played “Fugitive Doctor” in several episodes.
Whittaker became the 13th Doctor — and the first woman to play the central galaxy-hopping, extraterrestrial Time Lord who regenerates into new bodies — in 2017, when she took over from Peter Capaldi. Her last episode of “Doctor Who” is expected to air later this year.
The original run of “Doctor Who” spanned 1963 to 1989. Since the show was revived in 2005, the Doctor has been played by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith, in addition to Capaldi and Whittaker. Other stars, like Karen Gillan and Billie Piper, have made their names on the show as the Doctor’s “companion.”
“This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care. I will endeavor my utmost to do the same,” the release quoted Gatwa — who described his emotions as “a mix of deeply honored, beyond excited and of course a little bit scared” — as saying.
Also read:Kylie Jenner testifies she warned brother about Blac Chyna
In addition to seeing the start of Gatwa’s tenure, next year also marks Davies’ return to “Doctor Who” after more than a decade’s absence.
“Russell T Davies is almost as iconic as the Doctor himself and being able to work with him is a dream come true,” Gatwa said.
The writer and producer ran the reboot until 2009, and has worked on shows like “A Very English Scandal” and “It’s A Sin” in the interim. He promises a “spectacular” 2023.
“Unlike the Doctor, I may only have one heart but I am giving it all to this show,” Gatwa added.
Fahmida Nabi, Samina Salam bring new song on Mother’s Day 2022
Pouring heartfelt tribute to all the mothers, a special song titled ‘Ma’ by eminent singer Fahmida Nabi has been released on Sunday.
The song is written by Samina Salam, and composed by popular music director Foad Nasser Babu.
Also read: Mother’s Day returns with happiness, celebrations after two deadly pandemic years
A music video of this song has also been released, featuring veteran actress Dilara Zaman, actress Sallha Khanam Nadia and child artiste Affa Anjum.
Fahmida Nabi has sung about her mother before and specifying this song she said, “The word “Ma” is a short word, but the impact of mothers in our lives is uncountable and unimaginable. I feel honoured and lucky to voice this beautiful track and hopefully, this song will mesmerize the audiences.”
Samina Salam said, “I wrote the song after the passing of my mother, who was my universe. I had a lot to say which I could not express to anyone, thus I wrote this song to express those unspoken verses.”
Eminent actress Dilara Zaman also shared her emotional experience regarding the track, saying: “This song is pretty special for me, both as an artist and a mother. As sweet as the word “Ma” is, its meaning is incredibly deep and impactful. A girl has written and composed a song about her mother, and this is the first time in my life I got the opportunity to play the role of mother in the music video of that song, which is very special to me.”
Also read: 2022 Happy Mother’s Day: Five Athletes Who Make a Big Comeback After Becoming Mothers
Created by Alamgir Hossain, the music video of the song has been released and is now available on Samina's Creative World YouTube channel.
Lutfor resumes playback career after a decade
Lutfor Hasan, a singer, lyricist and popular author, resumed his playback career after a long gap of a decade.
The singer has announced the development on his social media profile.
Also read:‘Payer Tolay Mati Nai’ bags top award at Nepal Intl Film Fest
Lutfor’s last playback was for the movie Television directed by celebrated Bangladeshi director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. The title of that song was Bhabnar Rail Gari which was composed by the late musician Ayub Bachchu.
“No one called me in the last 10 years,” Lutfor told the media. “But now I’ve got a great lyric to sing. Hope the music lovers will love this song.”
Lutfor came to the fore with his debut album Ghuri Tumi Kar Akashe Uro.
The movie which Lutfor sang for is Nakful— which is Nosepin in English.
Also read:Palak set for acting debut in 'Freelancer Nadia'
The song is written by Ferari Farhad, and Jabed Ahmed Kislu composed the song.
Farhad also wrote the story of the movie which is being directed by Alok Hasan. It’s not clear when the movie will be released.
Coming-of-age film ‘CODA’ wins best picture
“CODA” has won best picture at the Oscars.
The small, coming-of-age film about the only hearing member in a family of deaf adults written and directed by Siân Heder took the top prize over bigger-budget contenders at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.
Read: Jessica Chastain wins best actress Oscar for 'Tammy Faye'
The win might have been considered a major upset when the nominations were announced on Feb. 22, but “CODA” gained momentum and buzz throughout awards season, and took top awards at the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild awards.
The Oscar is also a big victory for Apple, which becomes the first streaming service to win the best picture crown after several years of vying for the prize alongside Netflix and Amazon.
“CODA” beat out bigger nominees that included “Belfast,” “Dune,” “The Power of the Dog” and “West Side Story.”