Variety
LOS ANGELES:
Dylan O’Brien says that sticking with his lead role in the action movie “American Assassin” helped him recover from a traumatic accident during filming of a “Maze Runner” sequel in March 2016.
O’Brien told The Associated Press on Monday that being back on a set was a necessary step in his recovery. He said at times after the accident he felt like he wasn’t going to be able to return to filming, but he didn’t want to let acting go.
“It really helped a lot, actually. It sort of became in a way that step that I needed in recovery to know I could do it again, I could still be on a set and things could be done in the right way, too, and things could be done safely in the way that they’re supposed to be done,” O’Brien said. (AP)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark:
“Young” Anna Lee Amsden, immortalized in The Band’s song “The Weight,” is kicking off an effort to restore Levon Helm’s childhood home and extend a musical heritage the drummer from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, developed over 60 years.
The Levon Helm Legacy Project says it needs about $150,000 to preserve the green-sided sharecropper’s house, erect a bust of the performer nearby and introduce young people to the blues, folk and rock ‘n’ roll traditions.
“One of the last things he said before he died was ‘Just keep it going,’” Amsden said in an interview Wednesday.
Helm died from throat cancer in 2012 at age 71 after spending his final years at Woodstock, New York — far from the cotton fields that surrounded his old home a few miles from the Mississippi River. Characters from his youth populated his songs. (AP)
LOS ANGELES:
A jury on Wednesday found that Michael Jackson’s estate owes Quincy Jones $9.4 million in royalties and production fees from “Billie Jean,” “Thriller” and more of the superstar’s biggest hits.
The award from a Los Angeles Superior Court jury fell short of the $30 million the legendary producer sought in the lawsuit filed nearly four years ago, but well above the approximately $392,000 the Jackson estate contended Jones was owed.
The jury of 10 women and two men had been deliberating since Monday.
“This lawsuit was never about Michael, it was about protecting the integrity of the work we all did in the recording studio and the legacy of what we created,” Jones wrote in a statement. “Although this (judgment) is not the full amount that I was seeking, I am very grateful that the jury decided in our favor in this matter. I view it not only as a victory for myself personally, but for artists’ rights overall.” (AP)
LONDON:
A lawyer for Madonna says the star and her twin daughters Stella and Estere have accepted damages from the publisher of the Mail Online website over an article that was a “serious invasion of privacy.”
Madonna sued Associated Newspapers over a January story giving details of her adoption of the 4-year-old twins from
Malawi.
Her lawyer, Jenny Afia, told a judge in London that the story, published while the adoption was underway, could have “threatened the integrity and/or outcome of the adoption process which would have had potentially life-changing implications for the girls.” (AP)