SARAJEVO- Hollywood star Angelina Jolie said Saturday the world should intervene to stop the violent crackdown in Syria and condemned powers that have vetoed a UN resolution against the regime.

"I think Syria has got to a point, sadly, where certainly some form of intervention is absolutely necessary," Jolie told Al Jazeera Balkans in an interview shown on the channel's Internet site.

"It's so sad, it's so upsetting, it's so horrible what's happening," Jolie said. "At this time we just must stop the civilians being slaughtered.

"When you see that kind of mass violence and murder on the street, you must do something," added Jolie, who has served for years as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Jolie recently made her directorial debut with "In the Land of Blood and Honey," a wartime love story in Bosnia, a film she has called a "wake-up call" to prevent atrocities like those now happening in Syria.

Without naming China and Russia, she condemned "these countries that are choosing not to intervene" in Syria despite "global efforts".

"I feel very strongly that the use of a veto when you have financial interest in the country should be questioned, and the use of a veto against humanitarian intervention should be questioned," Jolie said.

Moscow and Beijing have twice blocked UN resolutions condemning the ongoing repression in Syria that has left thousands of people dead since March 2011, according to human rights activists. AFP

Actress Rachael Weisz left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 onboard Cathay Pacific flight CX902 for London at 7:55 pm Saturday. 

After wrapping up 40 days of filming in Manila and Palawan for the latest installment of the Bourne movie franchise, the Academy Award-winning actress left for the United Kingdom that will have a stopover in Hong Kong.

"I love Palawan, it's a paradise," some film crew quoted Weisz earlier this week. A very reliable source said that the actress, unbeknownst to media, actually had some time to share in Palawan with her 5-year-old son, Henry Chance, her child from her previous marriage with film producer and director Darren Aronofsky.  

The Bourne Legacy is a spy fiction thriller that stars Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton. It was written and directed by Tony Gilroy.

From the Philippines, Weisz and otherBourne cast members are also expected to shoot some scenes in Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, South Korea; and in New York City. interaksyon.com

LOS ANGELES - Spectacular Canadian-based Cirque du Soleil will perform as part of this year's Oscars show, organizers said Friday.

The one-off performance, part of the February 26 Academy Awards show, will feature the largest Cirque cast ever assembled for a single act, with over 50 artists involved.

They will perform to music by Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman, who scored the Cirque du Soleil's show cinema-themed show "IRIS," currently being performed at the Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars are put on.

The 84th Academy Awards will take place next Sunday at the theater on Hollywood Boulevard, with a string of A-list celebrities among those on stage, as well as in the audience.

Veteran Oscars host Billy Crystal will steer the evening's entertainment, after stepping in when actor Eddie Murphy quit in November due to a row over anti-gay remarks by a producer, who also left.

The Kodak Theatre, which has hosted the Academy Awards for the last decade, will no longer bear the Kodak name as a result of the iconic photographic company's bankruptcy, a court ruled this week.

The Academy -- which is still referring to the Kodak Theatre in its press releases -- also announced Friday that Muppet A-listers Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy will present at this year's show.

Others already lined up to present include Ben Stiller, Bradley Cooper, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Halle Berry, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez and Melissa McCarthy.

Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" is nominated in the most categories, with 11 nods, followed by 10 for silent film hit "The Artist."

Other films up for Best Picture include "The Descendants," "The Help," "Moneyball," "Extremely Loud and Incr

By: Marinel R. Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Singer Karylle says she has deliberately kept mum about her romance with Sponge Cola front man Yael Yuzon.

“I enjoy reading gossip columns and, based on my research, a relationship doesn’t end well if you talk about it. I used to be open about everything,” said Karylle, who broke up with actor Dingdong Dantes in 2008.

“Everything people need to know about me and Yael is in my album, ‘Roadtrip.’ In fact, we collaborated on one tune, ‘Basically.’ We express ourselves through songs,” she told a group of writers at her launch as endorser of Jeunesse Anion feminine napkin.

But “The Kitchen Musical” star and “Showtime” co-host revealed that Yael recently gave her an herb garden. “Basil, rosemary … these herbs are so expensive, I decided to have them grown at home.” She said she bought Yael a book on travel in return, “although giving gifts is not the center of our relationship.”

Karylle gamely answered questions on her half-sister Zia, best friend Iza Calzado, now a Kapamilya contract artist, and stepfather Dolphy, her mom Zsazsa Padilla’s long-time partner.

How close are you to Zia?

We like traveling together. We’ve been to Cebu, Bohol and Amanpulo (Palawan). Our next destinations are Bataan and Batanes. Zia is an old soul. When we went to Australia to visit our sister Nicole, an airport security official saw through the X-ray machine that Zia had in her bag an old-fashioned typewriter instead of a laptop.

Do you feel pressured that “Showtime” has been pitted against “Eat Bulaga?”

We can’t go wrong if the “Showtime” cast members are in this together. We’re super-close and people see that.

What’s the latest on Dolphy’s health?

I last saw him on Chinese New Year; he was in high spirits. His outlook is always positive. I’d really like to leave it to the family to comment on how he’s doing. The last time I did, I gave the wrong info.

What’s next for you after the release of “The Kitchen Musical” in Asia?

I may go back to Singapore for the second season. We received a lot of encouraging tweets from viewers in Malaysia and Singapore, and it was aired in Korea three weeks ago. The Maddie doll, based on my character, is now sold in SM Department Stores.

Right now I’m promoting my album, since I couldn’t do it earlier. I’d like to do a mall tour with my band. Also, Christian (Bautista) and I will have a show (“Love and Laughter”) at Resorts World Manila on February 29.

How do you feel about Iza’s decision to sign up with ABS-CBN?

I’m happy for her. Iza really wanted to do more acting projects – that’s what ABS-CBN promised her. The parting with her former bosses in GMA 7 was amicable.

by Cecil Morella

POZORRUBIO- Filomeno de Guzman does not know Sparta from medieval Scotland, but the Philippine swordsmith is an expert at replicating ancient warriors' tools for killing each other.

A stubby ex-military sergeant who has never set foot abroad, de Guzman and 15 rice farmer-neighbors who moonlight as blacksmiths craft old truck leaf springs into things of terrible beauty.

The business feeds an overseas market for replica swords of Roman gladiators, Greek infantry and Japanese samurais, as well as movie-inspired weapons from "Braveheart", "Conan the Barbarian", and "Rambo".

"Swords are enjoying a renaissance in Hollywood. That means the storied weapon remains popular, and that works in our favour," de Guzman, 63, told AFP during a visit to his workshop in a farming area of the northern Philippines.

De Guzman never went to university and confesses he does not know much about ancient history, although he does enjoy learning from movies.

"Hollywood, yes, I love Hollywood movies. I watched 'Braveheart', 'Gladiator', 'Lord of the Rings', 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Rambo', and 'Samurai', all on DVD," he said.

De Guzman's unlikely export business had its origins in him deciding to quit the Philippine security forces in 1980 and taking free government lessons in metalworks.

He began producing kitchen knives using a wood-fired forge in his backyard, set amid vast rice fields in the farming town of Pozorrubio, 180 kilometERs (110 miles) north of Manila.

"It's a good, non-perishable product. All households need blacksmiths and their knives," de Guzman explained of his career choice.

However US soldiers deployed at two nearby US military bases soon noticed his craftsmanship and they also began commissioning him to make knives.

Later on the soldiers started ordering swords and, as the demand for more elaborate designs grew, he started delving into books on ancient weaponry.

When a friend took some of his swords to an exhibition in the United States in the 1990s, de Guzman was connected with an American distributor and his international business was cemented.

A few other Philippine smithies also craft swords for export, though de Guzman believes he is the biggest exporter.

The majority of his work now caters for the overseas market, although he still makes some knives and machetes for local housewives and farmers.

De Guzman describes his overseas clientele as medieval warfare and history buffs with a lot of disposable income.

"I was told these are people who dress up with Renaissance costumes and bring swords to annual festivals," he said.

More than 100 models hang on pegs on his office wall, including copies of short Roman empire infantry swords and a massive broadsword like those used by Spartans against Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

De Guzman said he had sold more than 1,000 Excalibur swords from the Arthurian legend.

He has also exported a similar number of the Sir William Wallace sword, popularised by the 1995 Mel Gibson "Braveheart" film of the 13th-century Scot who fought English rule.

The two-handed sword, with a 73-centimetre (28-inch) long blade, weighs five kilogrammes (11 pounds) and sells for $600 abroad, according to de Guzman.

While declining to talk in detail about how much money he had made exporting the weapons, de Guzman said his profession had allowed him to send his four children to university.

His home is also clearly middle class, no small achievement in the Philippines where roughly one quarter of the country's 100 million people live on a dollar a day or less.

De Guzman has also provided extra employment for his rice farming neighbours, who gather in his backyard in their basketball shorts and sandals to work the forge and mould metal when orders come in.

"Like me, they are also unschooled. If there are orders we all work together, but since they are farmers, the crops get first priority and the shop orders just have to wait. My distributor understands," he said.

However lawyers in Hollywood have occasionally been less understanding of his profession.

"I named one of my knives 'Rambo III'," de Guzman said of a 46-centimetre Bowie blade. "I got a letter from the Rambo producers, telling me, 'Don't use our name Rambo or we will sue you.'"

Nevertheless, after renaming it 'The Stallone', after the movie's star, there had been no more threatening letters.

De Guzman also insists his popular "Braveheart" Wallace sword was not a movie rip-off, but made from specifications his distributor gave him of the original, which is stored at a museum in Scotland.

After his distributor recently broke into Germany's sword market, de Guzman is looking to explore more deeply the blood-soaked history of medieval Europe.

"I am already developing a prototype Teutonic great sword," he said, referring to two-handed blades used by Germanic knights in the 11th-13th Century Crusades in Muslim lands. AFP

by Rusmir Smajilhodzic

SARAJEVO - Hollywood star Angelina Jolie said Tuesday that her film about the Bosnian war should be a "wake-up call" for the world to act in time to prevent atrocities like those now happening in Syria.

Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt arrived to Sarajevo to attend the premiere of her film "In the Land of Blood and Honey" -- her directorial debut -- to be screened in a sports hall before an expected audience of 5,000 people.

"I am satisfied with what we made, I feel very strongly about it and I believe that its core issue -- which is the need for intervention and need for the world to pay attention to atrocities when they are happening -- is very, very timely and especially with things that are happening in Syria today," Jolie said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned earlier that "the nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011."

Speaking at the press conference before the screening of her film, Jolie said that it "is very important that this film is out at this time."

"If this film points the finger at anybody it is the international community, so I hope it remains a wake-up call for them," she said.

Dressed in a simple short-sleeved black dress, Jolie said she and her team had done their "best" to find a balance in "addressing the horrors of something that we felt we must show in a horrific way."

"We were trying to find humanity on all sides and yet we were addressing the horrors," Jolie said.

The film tells the story of a Muslim woman and a Serb man who have a fling before Bosnia's 1992-1995 war only to meet again when the woman is a prisoner in a unit of the Bosnian Serb army commanded by her former lover.

While he is initially able to protect her, once he is transferred away she suffers abuse and rape at the hands of the soldiers.

The film has already had a special preview screening in Bosnia in late December for war victims' organisations as a number of them had expressed concern that it would not correctly present their plight.

Most eventually hailed the movie as objective and sincere.

But in a Serb part of Bosnia, Republika Srpska, many reacted angrily to the film, accusing Jolie of being biased against their ethnic community which they say she has portrayed as villains.

In a protest against a distributor's refusal to show the film in cinemas, a woman from the western town Prijedor organised a private screening last weekend with Jolie's approval.

"We will do that for anyone who wants to have a private screening. And we hope that we encourage the people to see it somehow," Jolie said.

Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs, claimed some 100,000 lives.

Tens of thousands of people were held in prison camps, where torture and abuse were commonplace. Some 20,000 women were raped during the conflict, according to the government's estimates.

Jolie's directorial debut, filmed in 2010 with a number of actors from the former Yugoslavia, had its international premiere on December 5 in New York.

It goes on general release in Europe this month and will also be screened at the 62nd Berlin film festival. AFP

MANILA - The number of films produced in the Philippine movie industry has halved over the past decade in the face of piracy and Hollywood competition, a government study released Wednesday showed.

Only the rise of independent film-makers has saved the industry from declining further, with "indie" movies now accounting for more than half the total made in the Philippines, the study said.

"There are many factors causing the fall. There is piracy and competition from foreign movies. Local movies are also not given as much support from the public," said government statistical coordination officer Gerald Clarino.

The report by Clarino and other officers of the National Statistical Coordination Board found that from 1960 to 1999, the Philippines produced an average of about 140 movies each year.

This gave local films at least 20 percent of the domestic market, the report said. At the time, the industry boasted of being one of the most prolific movie producers in the world after Hollywood and India's "Bollywood".

But from 2000 to 2009, local film output fell to an average of 73 annually with only 11 percent of the market, the report said. Last year 78 local films were made.

Clarino said the the top-grossing movies in the Philippines were typically US-made films with multi-million-dollar budgets that the local movie industry could not afford.

He said the most popular local movies were usually light, romantic comedies that did not require big budgets.

Clarino also cited copyright piracy as a problem, with bootleg DVD copies of Philippine movies sold in Manila's streets sometimes on the same day the films opened in cinemas.

Highlighting the extent of the problem, a top aide of President Benigno Aquino was last month caught buying bootleg DVDs in Manila, but escaped any major punishment.

Movie industry leaders have also previously blamed high taxes on tickets and a general lack of government support for their sector's plight.

Amid the overall decline, "indie" film-makers have emerged from virtually nowhere a decade ago to produce 45 films in 2010 and 44 in 2011, the report said.

Filipino "indie" directors, such as Brillante Mendoza, Pepe Diokno and Jim Libiran, have won awards at prestigious foreign film festivals.

But their films, which often tackle serious social problems in the corruption-plagued and impoverished Philippines, have rarely achieved box office success at home. AFP

NEW YORK - The funeral on Saturday for pop superstar Whitney Houston will be broadcast live from the New Jersey Baptist church where she grew up singing in a gospel choir, the funeral home owner said Wednesday.

"Her publicist has chosen one person who will be allowed into the sanctuary and who will be streaming (video) to you all," Carolyn Whigham, whose Newark funeral home is handling preparations for Houston's service, told AFP.

Whigham said that jumbo screens would be set up outside the New Hope Baptist Church, allowing fans of the singer, who died Saturday at the age of 48, to watch the ceremony.

Houston was found unconscious in her bathtub on Saturday afternoon at the Beverly Hilton hotel as preparations were under way for the Grammy Awards, the highlight of the music industry calendar. Medics were unable to revive her.

Houston, who possessed one of the greatest-ever singing voices and sold more than 170 million records, fought a long and public battle with substance abuse after her career and personal life went off the rails.

Earlier in the day, Newark police chief Samuel DeMaio had told the Star-Ledger newspaper that there would be no funeral procession and no public screens set up, at the request of Houston's family.

The ceremony, due to begin at noon Saturday (1700 GMT) is by invitation only. Houston honed her singing craft at New Hope Baptist Church, and her mother Cissy served as music director there for decades.

Fans were awaiting autopsy results that may not be made public for up to eight weeks, as speculation rages that the singing legend may have died from a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol. AFP

NEW YORK - Madonna's big year got even bigger Tuesday with the announcement of her most ambitious world tour ever, hot on the heels of her record-setting Super Bowl halftime show.

The Material Girl will hopscotch around the globe in support of her 12th studio album "MDNA" which comes out March 26, even as her second feature film, the romantic drama "W.E.", struggles to impress critics and draw audiences.

In a statement, concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment said the as-yet unnamed tour -- Madonna's first since her wildly successful "Sticky and Sweet" outing in 2008 and 2009 -- would kick off March 29 in Tel Aviv.

She will go on to perform in Abu Dhabi and Istanbul, before starting a 22-city swing through Europe in Zagreb on June 11 that will include Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Moscow and Milan.

Madonna will be in Oslo on August 15, the day before her 54th birthday.

The 26-city North American leg begins August 28 in Philadelphia, and includes open-air gigs in Quebec City's Plains of Abraham park on September 1 and New York's Yankee Stadium on September 6.

"The tour will also visit South America and Australia," Live Nation said, with dates to be announced. There was no mention of any gigs in Asia.

"It will be big and can get bigger," Live Nation's chief executive Arthur Fogel told music news website Billboard.com, adding that production for the tour was in the conceptual stages.

Curiously, Madonna's hometown Detroit was missing from Tuesday's list, although Live Nation teased that "additional cities and venues" are in the pipeline.

Fogel told Billboard.com that the tour -- to wrap up in Australia early next year -- would be Madonna's biggest yet with close to 90 concerts, compared with 85 for "Sticky and Sweet."

With her 2008 divorce from British film-maker Guy Ritchie a distant memory, Madonna marked a return to top form Sunday in a 12-minute, four-song performance midway through the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, Indiana.

It was the most-watched halftime show in Super Bowl history, watched by 114 million viewers in the United States alone -- more than the record 111.3 million who tuned in for the National Football League championship itself.

Joining Madonna in an athletic performance of her just-released single "Give Me All Your Luvin" was British rapper M.I.A., whose split-second flip of the middle finger to the cameras set tongues wagging.

Some wondered if the superstar resented being upstaged by a relative upstart. Others thought M.I.A. was only keeping true to Madonna's own career-defining talent for stirring controversy and breaking with convention.

Washington Post television critic Hank Steuver marveled how Madonna had "outdone herself, executing a flashy halftime tribute to her own image ... but also honoring the concept of longevity and old-fashioned pop stardom."

Critics have been less impressed by "W.E.", a romantic tale that builds on the love affair between Britain's king Edward VIII and US divorcee Wallace Simpson, which Madonna wrote, directed and co-produced.

It premiered at the Venice film festival in December, then went on to earn Madonna a surprise best-song Golden Globe for "Masterpiece."

The Hollywood Reporter said the film, starring Abbie Cornish and James Fox, felt "artificial, programmed (and) rote." The New York Times said it "has its pull, but it never coheres, shredded by its editing and its pretensions."

Madonna's directorial debut was "Filth and Wisdom," a 2008 comedy about three London roommates.AFP

LONDON - Beatles legend Paul McCartney will headline a large concert in front of Buckingham Palace to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee, organiser Gary Barlow said Tuesday.

Barlow, the frontman of pop band Take That who has been tasked with putting together the June 4 tribute to mark the monarch's 60 years on the throne, said the London gig would "transcend multiple decades of music".

Elton John, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Chinese virtuoso pianist Lang Lang will join McCartney on the bill for the show, which hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend.

The concert is part of four days of celebrations, the climax of five months of jubilee events which began on Monday, the queen's accession day. The 85-year-old spent it making two small-scale visits in Norfolk, eastern England.

"The diamond jubilee concert will celebrate the 60 years of the queen's reign with an amazing line-up of world class artists coming together to play at one of the biggest and most exciting live music shows in recent years," Barlow said.

"With Buckingham Palace as a backdrop, it's going to be a fantastic event which transcends multiple decades of music.

"It'll be a great, unique experience for the thousands attending, watching on TV and listening on radio. I can't wait."

Around two-thirds of the bill is complete. Other performers include Cliff Richard, Annie Lennox, ska band Madness, Jessie J, boy band JLS and tenor Alfie Boe.

British residents can apply for 10,000 free tickets for a spot at the front in a random, online ballot, open between Tuesday and March 2.

But those who miss out are expected to join huge crowds watching from The Mall, the processional route to Buckingham Palace, and the adjacent St James's and Green Parks.

Barlow said Prince William, second in line to the throne, and his brother Prince Harry had both put in requests for artists.

The singer-songwriter could not confirm whether he or his group Take That would perform but added that he wanted the worlds of ballet and stage musicals to be represented on stage too.

He also said he hoped to go beyond artists from Britain and the wider Commonwealth and have US stars performing.