Perry helps build home for kids
Filmmaker Tyler Perry has donated $200,000 to help build a home for a group of Tanzanian children with albinism who were mutilated for their body parts.
Perry representative Keleigh Thomas Morgan said Monday the filmmaker helped build a four-bedroom house in New Jersey. The children will stay there while they receive medical treatment in the United States. Perry donated after watching a special featuring Elissa Montanti, a Staten Island woman who runs the nonprofit Global Medical Relief Fund for children affected by war and natural disasters.
Montanti recently brought a group of children with albinism to the U.S. from Tanzania. The children were dismembered in attacks. Their body parts were sold in the belief that children with the disease have special powers to bring wealth and good luck.
True-crime film is a sensation
The notion of blood ties takes on new meaning in Argentine true-crime horror story “El Clan” (“The Clan”), which is competing at the Venice Film Festival after causing a sensation in its homeland.
Pablo Trapero’s film tells the story of the outwardly respectable Puccio family, who in the 1980s kidnapped rich acquaintances for ransom, keeping them bloodied, bound and gagged in the basement of their house while everyday family life went on above.
Around 2 million people have seen “El Clan” since its Aug. 13 release, the most successful opening ever for an Argentine movie. The film has helped revive interest in a sensational story that unfolded as Argentina was moving from dictatorship to democracy.
“There’s Puccio-mania,” said Guillermo Francella, the veteran Argentine actor who plays the father of the family, Arquimedes Puccio. “There are even guided tours to see the house where they lived.”
Anything but secretive, the family was popular and well-connected in Argentine society. Arquimedes was a former military man with government ties, his wife a teacher, and eldest son Alejandro a rugby star with one of the country’s top teams.
Prince speaks up for wildlife
Prince William will make a rare speech on Chinese television to discuss the need to curb illegal wildlife trade.
Palace officials said Monday that William will record the speech in October for use on CCTV1, described as the station with the largest audience in China.
William has been an advocate of protecting endangered species and has made the issues one of his priorities.