Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ George Michae l died of natural causes as the result of heart disease and a fatty liver, a British coroner said Tuesday.
Darren Salter, senior coroner for the county of Oxfordshire in southern England, said a post-mortem has found that the singer died of “dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver.” Dilated cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the left ventricle of the heart becomes stretched and weakened, limiting the heart’s ability to pump blood. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle. The former Wham! singer-songwriter was found dead at his country home in Oxfordshire on Dec. 25. He was
53. An initial autopsy failed to determine the cause of death for the star, who had battled health problems and drug addiction. Salter said that because Michael died of natural causes, there will be no coroner’s inquest or further inquiries. In the United Kingdom, inquests are held to determine the facts of unexplained deaths.
■ Jackie Chan says letting more Hollywood movies into the Chinese market would pre ss u re Chinese filmmakers to make better films. China sets a quota on the number of foreign movies allowed to be shown in the country, trying to fend off a cinematic wave that could swamp local filmmakers and loosen the ruling Communist Party’s grip on culture. However, competition can be good, Chan said. “It is this pressure that makes our filmmakers work harder and shoot better films,” Chan told reporters at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday. “If we had shot our own films behind closed doors without any competition, we wouldn’t have had the growth in box office we have today.” The Hong Kong action star is a member of the official advisory body to the national legislature, which is meeting this week in the Chinese capital. Negotiators from China and the U.S. are expected to reach a new agreement this year on how many foreign films to allow into China, now the world’s the second-biggest movie market after North America.