Mad Men” last aired a new episode in October 2010. But relief is in sight, according to its star, Jon Hamm.
Hamm revealed on a podcast last week that the premiere of the fifth season of the AMC network drama is March 25.
Hamm also says he will direct that episode. He appeared on Friday’s edition of the podcast “Doug Loves Movies,” hosted by comedian Doug Benson.
AMC declined to confirm the date. The return of the show follows protracted negotiations after the fourth season between Lionsgate, the studio that produces it, and its creator-executive producer, Matthew Weiner.
The next season of "Mad Men" has been long delayed (Season 4 ended in the fall of 2010), at least in part by drawn-out contract negotiations among creator Matt Weiner, AMC and Lionsgate. Weiner previously expressed dismay about how that situation played out: "It was public, and there was no reason for that. But ... the most important things for me are that after it's over, I get to go back to work and that we get to do three more years of the show."
Now fans can mark their calendars and look forward to the season premiere, reported to be directed by Hamm himself.
Once again, Brad Pitt was turning heads on the red carpet Monday night. And it wasn't just because of a gorgeous Angelina Jolie on his arm, but because of his newest accessory: a black cane.
The actor, 48, who previously told reporters he had an injured ACL (a ligament in the knee that connects the femur with the tibia), tells PEOPLE he's doing just fine.
"It wasn't life or death," Pitt, who slipped down a hill while carrying 3-year-old daughter Vivienne, said at Monday's New York Film Critics Circle Awards. "It was just an old man tripping.
The audience roared; Mr. Pitt, who seemed to speak without notes, grinned. He thanked the critics for their work, deftly poking fun at the difference in star wattage. “This is a real pleasure for me to see some of the faces behind the formidable names that instill such fear and reverence in the film industry,” he said, “although I thought you’d be taller.”
Mr. Pitt also didn’t shy away from Denbygate, the flap over David Denby’s embargo-breaking review of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” in The New Yorker, which drew a withering response from the movie’s producer, Mr. Rudin, at the time. “We are complex, we are mysteries to ourselves, we are difficult to each other, we live in continual flux and instability and conflict,” Mr. Pitt said. “Christians and Muslims, Democrats and Republicans, Denby and Rudin.”
It turned into the evening’s reoccurring joke. “By the way, let’s admit the real reason David Denby couldn’t be here?” said Albert Brooks, the critics’ best supporting actor. “He was picking up Scott Rudin’s dry cleaning.”
Other highlights:
– “My acceptance will be 30 pages longer and include references to Gilbert and Sullivan” — Aaron Sorkin, following his co-writer and fellow winner of the screenplay award, Steven Zaillian.
– “’Moneyball,’ I think you all know by now, was not an easy movie to make. There are easy movies, there are hard movies, there’s 50 feet of crap, there’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’ and then there’s us” – Mr. Sorkin.
– “I never had a very good idea, actually, before this. I didn’t know that until now” – writer-director JC Chandor, accepting the best first film award for “Margin Call.”
– “I take courage from Margaret Thatcher. Because of the beautiful transparency of the Internet, you can find out exactly how many people in the New York Film Critics Circle voted for you and how many rounds of voting there were, and so I’m happy to report that Margaret Thatcher was the longest serving prime minister of the 20th century and she never got more than 30 percent of the votes, like me” – Meryl Streep, accepting her best actress award for playing Ms. Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt born December 18, 1963 is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one. He has been described as one of the world's most attractive men, a label for which he has received substantial media attention.
Pitt began his acting career with television guest appearances, including a role on the CBS prime-time soap opera Dallas in 1987. He later gained recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis's character in the 1991 road movie Thelma & Louise. Pitt's first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994). He was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 drama Legends of the Fall, which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. In 1995 he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys, the latter securing him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Four years later, in 1999, Pitt starred in the cult hit Fight Club. He then starred as Rusty Ryan in the major international hit Ocean's Eleven (2001) and its sequels, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). His greatest commercial successes have been Troy (2004) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Pitt received his second Academy Award nomination for his title role performance in the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston for five years. Pitt lives with actress Angelina Jolie in a relationship that has generated wide publicity. He and Jolie have six children—Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues both in the United States and internationally. Pitt owns a production company named Plan B Entertainment, whose productions include the 2007 Academy Award winning Best Picture, The Departed.
Along with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, Pitt founded the film production company Plan B Entertainment in 2002, although Aniston and Grey withdrew in 2005. The company has produced several films, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp in 2005, as well as 2007's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and A Mighty Heart, starring Angelina Jolie. Plan B was also involved in producing The Departed, the winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture. Pitt was credited onscreen as a producer; however, only Graham King was ruled eligible for the Oscar win. Pitt has been reluctant to discuss the production company in interviews.
Pitt has appeared in several television commercials: one for the U.S. market, a Heineken commercial aired during the 2005 Super Bowl; it was directed by David Fincher, who had directed Pitt in Seven, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Other commercial appearances came in television spots designed for Asian markets, advertising such products as the Acura Integra, in which he was featured opposite Russian model Tatiana Sorokko, as well as SoftBank and Edwin Jeans.
Pitt supports the ONE Campaign, an organization aimed at combating AIDS and poverty in the developing world. He narrated the 2005 PBS public television series Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge, which discusses current global health issues[131] and traveled to Pakistan in November 2005 with Angelina Jolie to see the impact of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. The following year Pitt and Jolie flew to Haiti, where they visited a school supported by Yéle Haïti, a charity founded by Haitian-born hip hop musician Wyclef Jean. In May 2007, Pitt and Jolie donated $1 million to three organizations in Chad and Sudan dedicated to those affected by the crisis in the Darfur region. Along with Clooney, Damon, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub, Pitt is one of the founders of "Not On Our Watch", an organization that tries to focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent genocides such as that in Darfur.
In July 2005, Pitt accompanied Jolie to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she adopted her second child, six-month-old Zahara Marley, a decision which Jolie later stated she and Pitt had made together. Pitt's publicist announced in December 2005 that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie's two children, Zahara and Cambodia-born Maddox Chivan. On January 19, 2006, a California judge granted Jolie's request to change the children's surnames from "Jolie" to "Jolie-Pitt". The adoptions were finalized soon after.
Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh Nouvel in Swakopmund, Namibia, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their newborn daughter would have a Namibian passport. The couple sold the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images; the North American rights were purchased by People for over $4.1 million, while Hello! obtained the British rights for approximately $3.5 million. The proceeds from the sale were donated to charities serving African children. Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it marked the first time an infant was recreated in wax by Madame Tussauds.
On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted three-year-old Pax Thien from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Since Vietnam does not allow unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent. In April 2007, Jolie filed a request to legally change her son's surname from "Jolie" to "Jolie-Pitt", which was approved on May 31, 2007. The rights for the first post-adoption images of Pax were sold to People for a reported $2 million, as well as to Hello! for an undisclosed amount. Pitt adopted Pax in the United States on February 21, 2008.
At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008, Jolie confirmed that she was expecting twins. She gave birth to son Knox Léon and daughter Vivienne Marcheline on July 12, 2008 in Nice, France. The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for $14 million—the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The couple donated the proceeds to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
In an October 2007 interview, Pitt revealed that he is no longer a Christian and does not believe in an afterlife. "There's peace in understanding that I have only one life, here and now, and I'm responsible. In a July 2009 interview he said that he did not believe in God, and that he was "probably 20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic.
Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away" -- which will feature performances from various Cirque du Soleil productions -- is written and directed by Andrew Adamson ("Shrek," "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe").
The film is executive produced by Cameron, and produced by Adamson and Aron Warner, along with Cirque’s Martin Bolduc and Ed Jones and Cary Granat.
Also read: James Cameron Producing 3D Film Featuring Cirque du Soleil
Warner and Adamson’s Strange Weather Productions, Reel FX and Cameron Pace Group all contributed to this groundbreaking production.
A release date has not been set.
"The coupling of filmmaker James Cameron’s groundbreaking 3D visual accomplishments and Andrew Adamson’s beautiful direction, combined with a timeless original story written especially for this movie, will make for a truly amazing moviegoeing experience for audiences of all ages," Paramount Pictures Vice Chairman Rob Moore said in a statement.
Also read: James Cameron on 3D and 'The Lion King': 'All It Takes Is Greed'
“This 3D event brings the spectator beyond what they could see at a show, it takes them on the stage," said Jacques Méthé, Executive Producer, General Manager, Images, Events, Lifestyle of Cirque du Soleil.
"This unique point of view allows the audience to discover the artistic details of our productions and reveal the human spirit that our artists bring to the audience in their performances. Jim and Andrew have masterfully captured what a Cirque du Soleil 3D experience could offer and Paramount will present it to the world.
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom VIAB +0.90% , a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.
From the 20 or so performers the company featured when it all began in 1984, Quebec-based Cirque du Soleil has become a leading provider of quality entertainment with 5,000 employees, including more than 1,300 artists who hail from some 50 different countries. Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to over 100 million spectators in nearly 300 cities on six continents.
Cirque du Soleil,Circus of the Sun"), is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier.
Initially named Les Échassiers, they toured Quebec in 1980 as a performing troupe and encountered financial hardship that was relieved by a government grant in 1983 as part of the 450th anniversary celebrations of Jacques Cartier's discovery of Canada. Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil was a success in 1984, and after securing a second year of funding, Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the National Circus School to re-create it as a "proper circus". Its theatrical, character-driven approach and the absence of performing animals helped define Cirque du Soleil as the contemporary circus ("nouveau cirque") that it remains today.
Each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world, with its own central theme and storyline. They draw the audience into the performance through continuous live music, with performers rather than stagehands changing the props. After financial successes and failures in the late 1980s, Nouvelle Expérience was created – with the direction of Franco Dragone – which not only made Cirque profitable by 1990, but allowed it to create new shows.
Cirque expanded rapidly through the 1990s and 2000s, going from one show to 19 shows in over 271 cities on every continent except Antarctica. The shows employ approximately 4,000 people from over 40 countries and generate an estimated annual revenue exceeding US$810 million. The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night, 5% of the city's visitors, adding to the 90 million people who have experienced Cirque worldwide. In 2000, Laliberté bought out Gauthier, and with 95% ownership, has continued to expand the brand. In 2008, Laliberté split 20% of his share equally between two investment groups Istithmar World and Nakheel of Dubai, in order to further finance the company's goals. In partnership with these two groups, Cirque plans to build a residency show in the United Arab Emirates by 2012. However, since Dubai's financial problems in 2010 caused by the 2008 global recession, it has been stated by Laliberté may be looking for another financial partner to bankroll the company's future plans, even willing to give up another 10% of his share. Several more shows are in development around the world, along with a television deal, women's clothing line and the possible venture into other mediums such as spas, restaurants and nightclubs.Cirque also produces a small number of private and corporate events each year (past clients have been the royal family of Dubai and the 2007 Super Bowl).
Cirque's creations have received numerous prizes and distinctions, including a Bambi Award in 1997, a Rose d'Or in 1989, Drama Desk Awards in 1991 and 1998, three Gemini Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
After Steve Wynn sold his Mirage Resorts to MGM in 2000, Laliberté received a call from Terry Lanni, CEO of the MGM Mirage. Lanni had been eager to capitalize on the previous successes of Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas and offered to fund the production of two more shows, Zumanity and Kà.
Directed by Canadian theater veteran Robert Lepage, Kà drew heavily on martial arts for its inspiration. The story centers around the adventures of a pair of imperial twins. Unlike most Cirque productions, the story of Kà was more concrete and linear, more narrative and less abstract. First premiering in November 2004 at the MGM Grand, KÀ became Cirque's fourth resident show in Las Vegas. It was also the largest and most expensive production the company had created to date. By the time it had been completed, KÀ had cost more than $220 million, of which more than $30 million was in costumes and $135 million was the theater itself, the bill for which was paid entirely by the MGM Grand.
Corteo is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in North America in 2005. Corteo—"cortage" in Italian—is a show about a clown who watches his own funeral taking place in a carnival-like atmosphere. Inspired by "The Grand Parade: Portrait of the Artist as Clown" on display at the National Gallery of Canada, in many ways Corteo is a throwback to the older and more lighthearted Cirque productions like Saltimbanco.
Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, the founder of the Swiss clown troupe Teatro Sunil, Corteo takes place on a large circular stage, consisting of separate rotating rings set inside each other. This allows for one area of the stage to move around the stationary action occurring inside the ring. Occasionally during the performance, the stage is divided by a large curtain with a painting on it called the "Corteo Procession". There are entrance/exits at either side of the circular stage.
Delirium was a Cirque du Soleil live music event created in conjunction with Live Nation. Instead of being a standard touring show, it was a multimedia/theatrical arena production that featured remixes of existing Cirque music and reinterpretations of performances. This show was choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance's Mia Michaels. After an extensive North American tour, and a short European tour, the show retired on the April 19, 2008, in the O2 Arena in London.
Love premiered in 2006 at The Mirage, Las Vegas and consists of panoramic sound and visuals along with a cast of 60 international artists. Born from a personal friendship and mutual admiration between George Harrison and Cirque founder Guy Laliberté, Love brings Cirque du Soleil together with the musical legacy of The Beatles through their original recordings. Using the master tapes at Abbey Road studios, Sir George Martin and his son, Giles Martin have created a soundscape of Beatles music for Love.
Koozå is a touring production that premiered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 19, 2007. The show's music is partly inspired by the music of India. Koozå makes use of a large traveling tower on the stage called a "bataclan". The bataclan moves over the course of the show and reconfigures the performing space.
This show was directed by David Shiner, who had previously worked as a clown in Cirque du Soleil's production of Nouvelle Expérience. His experience as a clown and past work with Switzerland's Circus Knie informed his work on Koozå. The show's title is derived from a Sanskrit word that means "magical container".
Wintuk was performed at the Theater at Madison Square Gardens in New York City and ran for 10 weeks each winter holiday season from 2007 to 2011. A family-based and specifically themed semi-permanent residency show, Wintuk was about a young boy living in a large, snowless city waiting for the first snowfall that never comes. With the help of four other companions in search of their place in the world, they journey to an imaginary Nordic country, where they experience the rich culture of the Northern peoples and bring back snow to the city in a snowstorm. The show was formally retired with its final performance on January 2, 2011.
Based at The Venetian Macao, Cotai Strip, the 90-minute production opened in August 2008 and brings together 75 high-calibre artists from all four corners of the globe. The show is directed by Neilson Vignola and Gilles Maheu.
Zaia presents a young girl's perception of the stars and planets, space and infinity, all populated by a panoply of fantastic, out-of-this-world creatures. The title, Zaia, comes from a Greek name meaning "life" and is also reminiscent of Gaia, the living, self-aware spirit of Earth.
Zed was a residency show at the Tokyo Disney Resort that opened on October 1, 2008. Film director François Girard created a show surrounded by the titular character, drawn on the Tarot and its arcana that holds up a mirror to ourselves and the human condition through a variety of other characters as he unites the divisions between the people of the sky and Earth. The show closed December 21, 2011, due to the economic impact caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
In late 2008 Cirque du Soleil collaborated with MGM to create a resident show at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas, featuring Criss Angel, fusing his signature illusions and artistry with acrobatics, dance, puppetry, music and poetry to attempt to tell a story of the exploration of his mind. Originally scheduled to open on September 26, 2008, preview performances were delayed due to "technical difficulties", and the show eventually hosted its gala opening on October 31, 2008.
Despite enthusiastic promotions from Cirque du Soleil and Criss Angel, including a guest performance on American reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance, which resulted in sales of more than $5 million in advance tickets, Believe received an uneasy reception from fans and critics alike. Audience members were quoted saying the production was a "waste of time" and "dead end", while the show received harsh reviews from critics for lack of magic and overall cohesion of the production. Producers responded to these complaints by adding numerous additional illusions to the performance and revamping the show in April 2010.
Ovo (Portuguese for "egg"), was created and directed by Brazilian dancer/choreographer Deborah Colker – the first woman to create a Cirque production—that heavily relies on Brazilian music and some dance performances mixed in with the traditional circus arts; premiered in Montreal in 2009 and is currently touring North America. The show looks at the world of insects and its biodiversity where they go about their daily lives until a mysterious egg appears in their midst, as the insects become awestruck about this iconic object that represents the enigma and cycles of their lives.
Banana Shpeel was a touring theatre show which premiered on November 19, 2009, at the Chicago Theater. The vaudeville-based production was directed by David Shiner, who also created Koozå. The show only lasted for a very short time, only playing in Chicago, New York City, and Toronto. The show was eventually cancelled in 2010, due to the many complications and poor reviews it was receiving.
Viva Elvis, developed in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises, began previews on December 18, 2009, in a specially designed, 2,000-seat theatre at the new Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter in Las Vegas.
CKX, Inc., the company that owns the rights to Elvis Presley's name, likeness, and music publishing, signed an agreement to have Cirque create the Elvis-themed residency show. The gala premiere was originally scheduled for January 2010 on what would have been Elvis' 75th birthday, but was postponed until February 19, 2010. The Elvis Presley Projects will include additional touring and its multimedia presentations, along with "Elvis Experiences" (interactive multimedia exhibits). One touring Elvis show is planned for Europe/Asia for 2010, with one "Elvis Experience" outside the United States. One new Elvis Presley Project is scheduled to open each year from 2009–2015.
Totem is a touring show which premiered in Montreal on April 22, 2010. It was created and directed by previous collaborator Robert Lepage (Kà). The show began its tour in Canada before heading to Europe. This was a change from the company's usual touring routes, the next stop usually being San Francisco, as Cirque already has three touring shows (Ovo, Koozå and Alegría) in the United States.
Cirque describes Totem's theme as the evolution of mankind from its primordial, amphibian state toward the aspiration of flight, taking inspiration from many of mankind's founding myths.
Zarkana is a touring arena show which will play in both Radio City Music Hall in New York City as well as the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow. Zarkana will also tour in other cities, although it will be seasonal in New York City and Moscow. The show began previews on June 9, 2011, at Radio City Music Hall and premiered on June 29, 2011. The show will be a reinvention of the variety show, with a story about a magician in an abandoned theatre who has lost his love and with her, his magic has disappeared. As he cries and begs the Gods for her return he is plunged into a world inhabited by surreal creatures.
Iris, a movie-themed permanent show directed by Philippe Decouflé, is the first show produced by Cirque du Soleil to be located in Los Angeles, California that premièred on September 25, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre. The show takes spectators on a fantastic voyage through the history of cinema and its genres, transporting them into the heart of the movie-making process and takes a unique look at the history of cinema and combining that with Cirque du Soleil's traditional artistic works of dance, acrobatics, and modern circus traditions. The name of the show, Iris, is taken directly from both camera diaphragms as well as the colored iris of the human eye.
BOSTON — Arline MacCormack first heard about DES from her mother when she was 17.
Three decades later, MacCormack believes that the drug her mother took to prevent miscarriages caused her to develop breast cancer at age 44.
MacCormack, of Newton, Mass., is one of 53 women from around the country who are suing drug companies who made and promoted DES for millions of pregnant women from about 1938 to the early 1970s. In 1971, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told doctors to stop prescribing DES for their pregnant patients after a study found that taking DES during pregnancy appeared to increase the risk of developing a rare vaginal cancer years later for DES daughters in their teens and 20s.
The drug is a synthetic estrogen that was prescribed to millions of women in the United States, Europe and other countries to prevent miscarriages, premature birth and other problems.
The case in Boston is being closely watched by DES daughters around the country. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed since the 1970s alleging links between DES and cervical and vaginal cancer, as well as infertility problems. Many of those cases were settled before trial. The Boston case is believed to be the first major litigation alleging a link between DES and breast cancer in DES daughters over the age of 40.
MacCormack, now 50, said she was stunned when she was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago after having mammograms every six months since she turned 40 because she had had several benign cysts removed over the years.
“The characteristics of my cancer were for women over 60 typically. It wasn’t the type of cancer a 40-year-old or a 44-year-old woman gets,” said MacCormack.
The women's lawyers say their case is supported by a recent study that suggests that breast cancer risk is nearly doubled in DES daughters over the age of 40. The average woman has about a 1 in 50 chance of developing breast cancer by 55. The study, led by Dr. Robert Hoover, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, found that the chance for DES daughters is 1 in 25.
The lawsuit alleges that 14 drug manufacturers — including Eli Lilly and Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.— withheld from doctors and the FDA reports that showed DES did not prevent miscarriages and raised serious questions about the safety of the drug.
"This drug, DES, was the biggest human experiment of quackery in the history of medicine," said Aaron Levine, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who filed the Boston lawsuit and represents another 18 DES daughters making similar claims.
Representatives and lawyers for Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb declined to comment on the lawsuit.
In court and in public documents, the companies argue that a firm link between DES and breast cancer has not been established and that the DES daughters who are suing them have not shown that DES caused their cancers.
"We believe these claims are without merit and are prepared to defend against them vigorously," Eli Lilly said in its most recent annual report.
The drug companies also argue that the medical community does not generally accept that fetal exposure to DES causes breast cancer.
"There is not a single published study, a respected medical treatise or textbook, nor a pronouncement by one of the prominent societies dedicated to the discovery of cancer causes which claims a causal link between prenatal DES exposure and breast cancer has been proven," Bristol-Myers Squibb argued in a motion to exclude the testimony of the plaintiffs' experts.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler has heard testimony from a dozen experts on both sides during a hearing on the drug companies' motions, which argue that the opinions of the women's experts are not based on reliable science.
If Bowler grants the drug companies' motion, the case will not go to trial, Levine said. But if she allows the plaintiffs' experts to testify, the case can proceed to trial.
Final arguments on the motion are scheduled for Jan. 19 in U.S. District Court.
DES was prescribed at a time when medical advice was rarely questioned and drugs were not subjected to the kinds of rigorous clinical trials they are today, said Dr. Michael Grodin, a professor of medical ethics at Boston University's School of Public Health. Grodin said proving a link between DES and the plaintiffs' breast cancer could be difficult.
"There's an issue of causation, but even if it did cause the cancer, that doesn't mean there was negligence," Grodin said.
"The question of negligence is what did they know, when did they know it and what did they do about it? Those are all in contention," he said.
Jackie White, 48, of Centerburg, Ohio, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 at age 47. Tests showed 20 tumors in one breast and two pre-cancerous lumps in the other. The cancer had also spread to her lymph nodes. She had a double mastectomy, and did six months of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation.
White said her mother, a nurse, told her at age 13 that she had taken DES while pregnant, prompting White to get regular gynecological exams and mammograms over the years. She said she has no family history of breast cancer.
White said it wasn't until she saw high estrogen levels in her pathology reports that she began to wonder whether DES could have caused her cancer.
Corning introduced the new material at CES yesterday, saying that newfound strength lets screens be made 20 percent thinner. That, in turn, can improve brightness, touch response, and of course device thickness.
I also hope the thinner glass will effectively bring text and graphics closer to the surface of smartphones, something I find makes them much easier to use since my eye isn't as distracted by multiple layers of visual information.
"Product qualification and design implementation for Corning Gorilla Glass 2 are under way with Corning's global customers, a number of whom are expected to unveil new devices using Corning Gorilla Glass 2 during the coming months," Corning said in a statement.
Gorilla Glass, though developed decades ago, only came into its own five years ago on devices such as the first-generation iPhone. Its strength and scratch resistance also have attracted customers building tablets, newer smartphones, TVs, and now even PCs such as the new HP Envy 14 Spectre.
Corning won an endorsement for the technology from Microsoft, which is making a major push into touch-screen PCs and tablets with Windows 8, set to debut later this year.
With glass that is 20 percent thinner, device manufacturers can develop sleeker touchscreen gadgets like smartphones, tablets, and laptops -- like the coming explosion of ultrabooks. Microsoft is excited about the prospects of Gorilla Glass 2.0 for use in the broad range of devices it has planned for Windows 8, and future iterations of Windows Phone.
Mobile devices that are designed to be used on the go need all the durability they can get. Once you leave the relative safety of your office or home, and venture out into the world, the odds that you will drop, bang, ding, or scratch your gadgets increases exponentially.
Five years ago, the Apple iPhone launched the Gorilla Glass renaissance. There is some debate as to whether or not current iPhone models still use it or not. The Corning site lists devices that use Gorilla Glass, but states up front that there are non-disclosure agreements in place with some vendors that prohibit it from naming them. That sounds like something Apple would do. All I know is I have dropped my iPhone 4S four times in the past week, and it doesn’t have a scratch.
Corning claims the super strong glass is used in nearly 600 different products, and it expects 2011 revenue from Gorilla Glass to top $700 million.
Gorilla Glass, manufactured by Corning, is an alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass engineered specifically to be thin, light and damage-resistant. Its primary application is portable electronic devices with screens, such as mobile phones, portable media players, and laptop displays. Corning experimented with chemically strengthened glass in 1960, as part of an initiative called "Project Muscle". In 2006, Gorilla Glass was revived as a new project to develop a tough cover glass for electronic devices and consumer electronics drawing on their previous strengthened glass research. The glass is also used on tablets, notebooks and TVs.
Its most useful qualities are its strength, scratch resistance and thinness. Gorilla Glass was used in about 20 percent of the world's approximately 200 million mobile handsets in 2010. Corning says that Gorilla Glass is RF compatible and has outstanding optical clarity, making it suitable for HD and 3-D television displays.
The glass is placed in a hot bath of molten potassium salt at a temperature of approximately 400 °C (~750 °F). Smaller sodium ions leave the glass, and larger potassium ions from the salt bath replace them. These larger ions take up more room and are pressed together when the glass cools, producing a layer of compressive stress on the surface of the glass. Gorilla Glass's special composition enables the potassium ions to diffuse far into the surface, creating high compressive stress deep into the glass. This layer of compression creates a surface that is more resistant to damage from everyday use. Like all glass, Gorilla glass can be recycled.
Corning manufactures Gorilla Glass in Harrodsburg, Kentucky (USA) and in Shizuoka (Japan).
An unscheduled meeting between Japan’s whalers and environmental activists on the high seas seems an unlikely backdrop to an outbreak of détente.
But Australia was quietly celebrating a minor victory for diplomacy on Tuesday after Japan agreed to release three anti-whaling activists who illegally boarded one of its whaling ships over the weekend.
The trio, all Australian citizens, have been detained on the Shonan Maru 2, which is providing security to the fleet, after clambering aboard early Sunday morning to protest Japan’s annual hunts in the Antarctic. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows Japan to hunt a limited number of whales for “scientific research.” The fleet left port last month with plans to kill some 900 whales this season.
Doug Tompkins, co-founder of the global clothing brands Esprit and North Face, paid a six-figure fuel bill.
Mr Watson rejected a request to name other major donors, but said key finances came from people who pledged monthly donations.
In Australia the family of Steve Irwin maintains strong ties with Mr Watson.
Hollywood actors including Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Penn and Martin Sheen are on an advisory board.
Some base funding comes from the Dutch national lottery, which allocates €500,000 ($A635,000) annually. And this year, Sea Shepherd is receiving a $750,000 ''access fee'' from reality TV show makers.
In Australia it held several fundraisers including a gathering of 700 in Geelong in November organised by Cameron Ling, the captain of the reigning AFL premiership team. World champion surfer Stephanie Gilmore was also there. Mr Watson predicted this event would put the national tour within reach of a $250,000 target.
But Sea Shepherd is frustrated it cannot get deductible charity status in Australia, and the organisation has just been lumbered with a big GST bill.
The Tax Office argues that Sea Shepherd does not fit the ''animal welfare'' category, which requires a charity to rescue and rehabilitate wildlife.
And an additional slug came when Customs decided in December that Sea Shepherd's ships should be charged stores duty and GST for voyages to the Antarctic that touched on no other country.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is a non-profit, marine conservation organization based in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington in the United States. The group uses direct action tactics to protect sealife. Sea Shepherd currently operates the vessels MY Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker, and the MV Brigitte Bardot, and most of the group's recent activities take place in international waters. The group has a strong focus on public relations to spread their message via the media.
The organization was founded in 1977 under the name Earth Force Society by Paul Watson, a co-founding member of Greenpeace, after a dispute with that organization over what Watson saw as its lack of more aggressive intervention. It has received support for its tactics against fishing, whaling, and seal hunting from quarters such as media personalities, while critics have called the direct action violent.
Operations have included scuttling and disabling whaling vessels at harbor, intervening in Canadian and Namibian seal hunts, shining laser light into the eyes of whalers, throwing bottles of foul-smelling butyric acid onto vessels at sea, boarding of whaling vessels while at sea, and seizure and destruction of drift nets at sea. Sea Shepherd claims that their aggressive actions are necessary as the international community has shown itself unwilling or unable to stop species-endangering whaling and fishing practices. The American, Canadian, and Japanese governments, as well as the Institute of Cetacean Research of Japan, have referred to them as terrorists.
In 2008, Animal Planet began filming the weekly series Whale Wars based on the group's encounters with the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, a development which brought the group much publicity.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has received attention from the press and been called "media savvy". The group has worked with journalists and has made statements through press releases to spread its message during various campaigns.
Watson's public relations savvy is shown in an episode of Whale Wars when he creates an international "media storm" after two crewmembers are detained on a Japanese whaling vessel. In his book, Earthforce!, Watson advises readers to make up facts and figures when they need to, and to deliver them to reporters confidently. He also states that the "truth is irrelevant" due to the nature of mass media. In response to criticism that he manipulates the media, Watson has stated: "What we do is provide the media with the kind of stories they can't resist... and this is how we bring attention to what's happening to the whales, the seals, the sharks and the other marine conservation campaigns we're involved in.
Sea Shepherd has also used satellite uplinks, webcams, and internet blogging during its operations in the Southern Ocean, and has invited the media to ride along. In 2006, representatives from Seven network and National Geographic magazine, along with documentary filmmakers, accompanied the group. In a television series entitled Whale Wars, Discovery Communications, Inc. documented Sea Shepherd's 2008-2009 Antarctic campaign against Japanese whalers, following events on the Steve Irwin. The program premiered on November 7, 2008, on Discovery's Animal Planet network..
Sea Shepherd has received financial contributions from celebrities and businessmen such as entrepreneur Steve Wynn, television personality Bob Barker, and John Paul DeJoria, as well as other celebrities. Martin Sheen, Darryl Hannah, and Richard Dean Anderson have joined the group during protests. Actors including Edward Norton, Pierce Brosnan, Christian Bale, and Emily Deschanel have supported the group through contributions, while William Shatner has also been mentioned as supporting the group In 2007, actor Heath Ledger conceived and directed a music video of the Modest Mouse song "King Rat", intended to raise awareness of the whale hunts taking place each year off the coast of his native Australia. Although Ledger died before the video could be completed, others finished it in his honor and debuted the video online in August 2009. Proceeds from iTunes sales of the video in its first month of release were donated to Sea Shepherd.
Sea Shepherd refer to the ships it has operated as Neptune's Navy . The society operates three ships, the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker, and the Brigitte Bardot, as well as smaller vessels such as RHIBs.
The Steve Irwin going up river under Tower Bridge in London Sept 2011
The Steve Irwin was obtained in 2007 and originally called the Robert Hunter. It was renamed in honor of The Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin. His widow, Terri, gave her support to Sea Shepherd, saying: "Whales have always been in Steve's heart and in 2006 he was investigating the possibility of joining the Sea Shepherd on part of its journey to defend these beautiful animals. The other ship, the 1200 ton Bob Barker, was named after famous television game-show host and animal activist Bob Barker, who made the purchase in Ghana of the retired Norwegian whaling vessel possible with a donation of US$5 million. In February 2010, the Bob Barker collided with the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No. 3, tearing a gash in the hull of the Bob Barker.
The group also formerly operated the Farley Mowat (impounded by the Canadian government, with Sea Shepherd having stated that they have no intention of paying the legal fines and berthage fees to recover their now obsolete vessel) and the Ady Gil, formerly known as the Earthrace (sunk after a collision with the Shōnan Maru 2 whaling vessel in early 2010) as well as a number of earlier vessels.
Sea Shepherd acquired the Ocean 7 Adventurer for its 2010-11 campaign against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic.[81] In November 2010, mayor Brad Pettitt of Fremantle, Western Australia, christened the vessel Gojira with Fremantle as its home town, making this the first Sea Shepherd ship registered in Australia, with an Australian crew. The Gojira was renamed MV Brigitte Bardot in May 2011 after complaints of copyright infringement by the owners of the "Gojira" copyright.
Recently, the organization acquired non-weaponized drone aircraft to assist in their surveillance of the whaling ships.
David B. Morris, Earth Warrior: Overboard with Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1995). ISBN 1-55591-203-6
Rik Scarce, Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement, second revised ed. (1990; Left Coast Press, 2005), Ch. 6. ISBN 978-1598740288
Paul Watson, Earthforce! An Earth Warrior's Guide to Strategy (Los Angeles: Chaco Press, 1993). ISBN 0-9616019-5-7
Paul Watson, Ocean Warrior: My Battle to End the Illegal Slaughter on the High Seas (1994; Key Porter Books, 1996). ISBN 978-1550135992
Paul Watson, Seal Wars: Twenty-five Years in the Front Lines with the Harp Seals (2002; Firefly Books, 2003). ISBN 978-1552977514
The son of Green Bay Packers coach Joe Philbin has been found dead in an icy Wisconsin river, according to sources.
Michael Philbin, the 21-year-old son of the Packers offensive coordinator, was reported missing Sunday by his family. League sources told ESPN that a body recovered from an Oshkosh, Wisc., river on Monday was identified as the missing son.
The police said they will publicly identify the body at a press conference today. They withheld the name of the individual Monday at the request of the family, but confirmed that the body was that of a man, aged 20 to 25 years old.
The body was discovered after an employee at a nearby business reported hearing cries for help from someone on the icy Fox River around 2:30 a.m Sunday. Police, fire and dive team patrols searched the area, but did not find anyone on Sunday.
A fresh search was conducted on Monday and the body was found around 3:15 p.m., according to Police Officer Joseph Nichols.
Philbins have lived in the Green Bay area since 2003, when Joe first joined the Packers as an assistant offensive line coach. He is one of the nicest and most gentle men you'll meet in football, and his career has ascended rapidly in recent days. The Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins both interviewed him for their head coaching jobs, and he is probably on the short list of candidates that Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie would pursue to replace incumbent Hue Jackson.
It would be crass to consider how this tragedy might affect Philbin's career, much less the Packers' preparations for Sunday's divisional playoff game against the New York Giants. Suffice it to say, the organization will move forward this week knowing that one of their longest-tenured and most loyal football employees is going through the cruelest of tragedies.
That of, course, is easier said than done. Go ahead and watch coach Mike McCarthy struggle to make it through his Monday news conference if you don't believe me. (Video via Packers.com.)
We've spent some time on this blog discussing the Packers' community ownership and sense of family. It's no joke. I suspect the Packers will be comforted knowing that the Philbins' private tragedy will be mourned by neighbors they don't know and friends worldwide they've never met. If strength can be found in numbers, the Philbins are in excellent hands.
Joseph Philbin,born July 2, 1961, in Springfield, Massachusetts is an American football coach. He is the current offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. Philbin went to Worcester Academy and Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA where he obtained a B.A. in sociology as a member of the Class of 1984 and was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He then pursued a master's of education in administration and supervision from Tulane in 1986.
Since becoming coordinator in 2007, the Green Bay Packers offense has ranked in the top 10 for points scored and total yards in every season.
His son, Michael, was reported missing on 8 January 2012; on Monday, 9 January 2012, a body was pulled from the Fox River in Oshkosh, and it was confirmed later that night to be 21 year old Michael Philbin.
Eastman Kodak Co., the unprofitable 131-year-old imaging company, adjusted its management structure and created a chief operating office to reduce costs as its sales decline and cash reserves dwindle.
The chief operating office will be led by Philip Faraci and Laura Quatela, both presidents at Rochester, New York-based Kodak. Faraci will focus on the commercial segment and sales and regional operations, and Quatela will focus on the consumer segment and certain corporate functions, Kodak said today.
Kodak has struggled since demand for photographic film began evaporating as the world embraced digital cameras. Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez, who took the helm in 2005, bet a turnaround on digital printers for publishers, packagers, advertisers and households. The company is weighing options including a bankruptcy filing, three people familiar with the matter said in September.
“This changes nothing,” said Amer Tiwana, an analyst at CRT Capital Group LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “They haven’t provided any specifics around what kind of financial benefit this will yield.”
Faraci, president and chief operating officer since 2007, and Quatela, the company’s former general counsel who was last month named as a second president, both report to Perez.
Shares of Kodak rose 31 percent to 52 cents at 11 a.m. New York time after gaining as much as 35 percent. The stock declined 88 percent last year.
Under the new structure, Kodak reduced its segments from three to two--commercial and consumer--which will both report to a new chief operating office led by Philip Faraci and Laura Quatela. Faraci will continue to serve as Kodak's president and chief operating officer and will focus on the commercial side. Quatela, who was recently named, alongside Faraci, to both positions, will focus on the consumer segment. The changes were effective Jan. 1.
Shares climbed 34% to 54 cents in recent premarket trading.
"This new structure simplifies the organization, focuses it more precisely on our consumer and commercial customers, and puts the right people in place to capitalize fully on the tremendous technological capabilities of Kodak," said Chief Executive Antonio M. Perez.
Casting about for alternatives to its lucrative but shrinking film business, Kodak toyed with chemicals, bathroom cleaners and medical-testing devices in the 1980s and 1990s, before deciding to focus on consumer and commercial printers in the past half-decade under Perez.
None of the new pursuits generated the cash needed to fund the change in course and cover the company's big obligations to its retirees. A Chapter 11 filing could help Kodak shed some of those obligations, but the viability of the company's printer strategy has yet to be demonstrated, raising questions about the fate of the company's 19,000 employees.
The three previous segments were the graphic communications group, which provided digital equipment and software to printing industries, the consumer digital imaging group, which focused on print images, and film, photofinishing and entertainment, the company's traditional film and photographic paper products.
The commercial segment will take up the graphic group and the consumer segment will take all of the consumer digital imaging group. The traditional film business will be broken up into the two new segments.
Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, reported its first quarterly loss in more than two years after prices for the lightweight metal tumbled.
The fourth-quarter net loss was $191 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with net income of $258 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said yesterday in a statement. The loss excluding restructuring costs was 3 cents a share, matching the average projection from 18 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 6 percent to $5.99 billion.
The loss is Alcoa's first on an adjusted basis since the second quarter of 2009, when the company was dealing with a slump in aluminum prices that followed the global financial crisis. Aluminum fell in 2011, with the benchmark three-month price in London averaging 11 percent lower in the fourth quarter than a year earlier, and Alcoa said last week it would close 12 percent of its smelting capacity.
Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld said yesterday that global aluminum demand will grow 7 percent this year, compared with 11 percent in 2011. That expansion, combined with production cuts, will lead to a market deficit of 600,000 tons in 2012, Alcoa said.
Aerospace sales growth will be 10 percent to 11 percent in 2012, the company said yesterday in an analyst presentation. European auto- and truck-manufacturing output and construction sales will decline. Beverage-can and packaging sales will grow by as much as 5 percent in Europe, and by as much as 20 percent in China, Alcoa said.
European aluminum demand won’t expand in 2012, compared with growth of 1 percent last year, it said. Chinese demand will increase 12 percent this year, down from 15 percent.
Alcoa is a fully integrated aluminum producer. It mines bauxite, an ore that contains aluminum, and refines it into alumina, the raw material used by smelters. As well as selling aluminum to industrial users, Alcoa makes products such as can sheet and components for cars and aircraft.
Alcoa’s aluminum output increased 5.4 percent to 962,000 tons in the quarter. Its alumina production rose 1.4 percent to 4.18 million tons.
The company’s previous quarterly loss on a GAAP basis was in the first quarter of 2010.
NEW DELHI: Government has ruled out barring Salman Rushdie from visiting India in the wake of a demand by a top Islamic seminary to cancel his visa even as the controversial author said he does not need a visa to come to this country.
Official sources said 65-year-old Rushdie holds a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card which entitles him to visit this country without a visa.
The sources said since PIO card guarantees any such person hassle-free travel without any document, Rushdie is not required to apply to any authority of the government of India seeking permission for his proposed visit to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival this month end.
"He had travelled to India in the past using PIO card. We have never stopped him. We have no intention to stop any PIO card holder to travel his or her home country in future either," a source said.
Rushdie remained unfazed over the demand by Darul Uloom Deoband to block his planned trip to India and suggested it was misplaced.
"Regarding my Indian visit, for the record, I don't need a visa," posted Rushdie on microblogging site Twitter after Deoband demanded that the Indian government cancel the author's visa as he had hurt religious sentiments of Muslims in the past.Indian-origin Rushdie also has a British passport.
His remarks were supported by party leaders in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state which is home to the seminary and is currently holding a state election campaign in which Muslim votes could decide the outcome. India's ruling Congress Party has targeted the state's Muslim voters with pledges of new quotas for government jobs and university places.
Rajesh Dixit, general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, the state's second largest party, said the author's visit must be prevented to avoid insult to India's Muslims.
"Those who cause tensions between communities should not be allowed to come," he said. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said Sir Salman's arrival was "not proper" during the Uttar Pradesh state election campaign.
Sir Salman, who was born in Mumbai and holds Indian travel documents, remains committed to appearing at the festival, he said.
The author posted a defiant response on Twitter. "Re: my Indian visit, for the record, I don't need a visa," he said.
William Dalrymple, the writer and Jaipur Literature Festival co-director, said the row was a "monumental tragedy" and the result of a "game of Chinese whispers gone horribly wrong."
Salman Rushdie's writing had made a major "contribution to multiculturalism, pluralism and co-existence" and had created "a bridge for Indian writers like Arundhatti Roy and Amithav Ghosh to conquer the world," he said. "He's one of the greatest artists India has created, one of the greatest figures to come out of the Indian Muslim community and people should be proud of what he's achieved.
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, अहमद सलमान रुशदी , احمد سلمان رشدی, born 19 June 1947 is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism mixed with historical fiction, and a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western worlds.
His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, drawing protests from Muslims in several countries. Some of the protests were violent, in which death threats were issued to Rushdie, including a fatwā against him by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on February 14, 1989.
He was appointed a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to literature" in June 2007. He holds the rank Commandeur in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. He began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University in 2007.[4] In May 2008 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2008, The Times ranked Rushdie thirteenth on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". His latest novel is Luka and the Fire of Life, published in November 2010. In 2010, he announced that he has begun writing his memoirs.
Rushdie's first career was as a copywriter, working for the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, where he came up with "irresistibubble" for Aero and "Naughty but Nice" for cream cakes, and for the agency Ayer Barker, for whom he wrote the memorable line "That'll do nicely" for American Express. It was while he was at Ogilvy that he wrote Midnight's Children, before becoming a full-time writer. John Hegarty of Bartle Bogle Hegarty has criticised Rushdie for not referring to his copywriting past frequently enough, although conceding: "He did write crap ads...admittedly.
His first novel, Grimus, a part-science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary critics. His next novel, Midnight's Children, catapulted him to literary notability. It significantly shaped the course that Indian writing in English followed over the next decade, and is regarded by many as one of the great books of the last 100 years. This work won the 1981 Booker Prize and, in 1993 and 2008, was awarded the Best of the Bookers as the best novel to have received the prize during its first 25 and 40 years. Midnight's Children follows the life of a child, born at the stroke of midnight as India gained its independence, who is endowed with special powers and a connection to other children born at the dawn of a new and tumultuous age in the history of the Indian sub-continent and the birth of the modern nation of India. The character of Saleem Sinai has been compared to Rushdie.
The publication of The Satanic Verses in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. The title refers to a disputed Muslim tradition that is related in the book. According to this tradition, Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (sura) to the Qur'an accepting three goddesses who used to be worshipped in Mecca as divine beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying the devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of the Archangel Gibreel. The book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities. (12 total: India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela and Pakistan)
On 14 February 1989, a fatwā requiring Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam" (chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety). A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for several years. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.
The publication of the book and the fatwā sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.[note 1] Many more people died in riots in Third World countries. Despite the danger posed by the fatwā, Rushdie made a public appearance at London's Wembley Stadium on 11 August 1993 during a concert by U2. In 2010, U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled that "lead vocalist Bono had been calling Salman Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour. When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted. You could tell from drummer Larry Mullen, Jr.'s face that we weren't expecting it. Salman was a regular visitor after that. He had a backstage pass and he used it as often as possible. For a man who was supposed to be in hiding, it was remarkably easy to see him around the place."
On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie.
Rushdie came from a Muslim family but says that he was never really religious. In 1990, in the "hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him," he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world. However, Rushdie later said that he was only "pretending".
His books often focus on the role of religion in society and conflicts between faiths and between the religious and those of no faith.
Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th century. Rushdie calls for a reform in Islam[52] in a guest opinion piece printed in The Washington Post and The Times in mid-August 2005. Excerpts from his speech:
What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air. (...) It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. (...) Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.
Rushdie supported the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading the leftist Tariq Ali to label Rushdie and other "warrior writers" as "the belligerati'". He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, but was a vocal critic of the 2003 war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.
In the wake of the 'Danish Cartoons Affair' in March 2006—which many considered an echo of the death threats and fatwā that followed publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989—Rushdie signed the manifesto 'Together Facing the New Totalitarianism', a statement warning of the dangers of religious extremism. The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning French weekly Charlie Hebdo in March 2006.
In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by the then-Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw, who criticised the wearing of the niqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said, "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on Straw's side.
The Marxist Catholic critic Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work, attacked him for his positions, saying he "cheered on the Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan". However, Eagleton subsequently apologized for having misrepresented Rushdie's views.
At an appearance at 92nd Street Y, Rushdie expressed his view on copyright when answering a question whether he had considered copyright law a barrier (or impediment) to free speech.
No. But that's because I write for a living, [laughs] and I have no other source of income, and I naïvely believe that stuff that I create belongs to me, and that if you want it you might have to give me some cash. [...] My view is I do this for a living. The thing wouldn't exist if I didn't make it and so it belongs to me and don't steal it. You know. It's my stuff.
When Amnesty International (AI) suspended human rights activist Gita Sahgal for saying to the press that she thought AI should distance itself from Moazzam Begg and his organization, Rushdie said:
Amnesty ... has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.
