Today's News: Our Take - Kris Kross Rapper Chris Kelly Dead at 34

Chris Kelly, one-half of the 1990s rap duo Kris Kross, has died, the Fulton County, Ga. medical examiner's office confirms. He was 34. His cause of death is not yet known. An autopsy is set to be performed early Thursday and further information is expected to be released later that afternoon. According to CBS' Atlanta affiliate, Kelly was found unresponsive in his Atlanta home on Wednesday. Kelly and his longtime rap partner Chris "Daddy Mac" Smith were discovered in 1990 by a young Jermaine Dupri at an Atlanta mall. Their debut album, Totally Krossed Out, was released in March 1992 and sold four million copies. The CD included the hit single "Jump," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts for eight weeks. The music video also sold more than 100,000 copies as a VHS video single. Remember other celebrities we've lost The duo went on to open for Michael Jackson during his Dangerous World Tour in 1992 and also appeared in his music video for "Jam." Kris Kross also appeared in music videos for Run DMC and TLC, on episodes of A Different World and In Living Color as well as the 1993 film Who's the Man? starring Ed Lover and Doctor Dre. The group's second album, 1993's Da Bomb, went platinum but couldn't match the success of their debut. 1996's Young, Rich & Dangerous, their third effort, went gold.
 News source:www.wayneindependent.com

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Media Advertising

AS online video becomes increasingly appealing to Madison Avenue as an advertising medium, a lively debate is under way that has all the intensity of those “Tastes great!” “Less filling!” arguments over Miller Lite beer in commercials made for a more traditional video medium, television. Multimedia Online Video Woos Madison Avenue Enlarge This Image Disney Interactive Jimmy Pitaro, co-president of Disney Interactive, said the need for high-quality content was greater than ever. On one side are companies like Google, whose YouTube Web site now reports more than a billion unique visitors each month. At an elaborate Brandcast presentation on Wednesday evening, during the annual Digital Content NewFronts in New York, executives of Google and YouTube asserted that their approach of encouraging the creation by consumers of “authentic” video clips — known as user-generated content — is the best way to reach the audiences sought by advertisers. “Video,” Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, said at the beginning of the event, which was attended by about 1,500 people, “is becoming a global, shared experience.” That was underscored by the theme of the evening, “Generation C,” referring to the multitudes of members of the millennial generation who consume, create and curate copious amounts of digital content on a regular basis. Rather than bringing movie and television stars on stage, as was done at the Brandcast during the Digital Content NewFronts last year, the focus was instead on YouTube’s homegrown stars. One, Lindsey Stirling, is a dubstep violinist with a channel on youtube.com featuring a video that has been played 57.9 million times. Another, Felicia Day, is an actress whose YouTube channel focuses on gaming and culture. Many of those YouTube celebrities — including the rapper Ben Haggerty, known as Macklemore from the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis — told stories of how unpopular or different they were when they were younger and how YouTube allowed them a creative outlet they may not have found elsewhere. “I don’t have to wait for somebody to tell me I’m not good enough,” said Ms. Stirling, who was eliminated from the quarterfinal round of the NBC competition reality series “America’s Got Talent” in 2010. Ms. Day declared, “Technology can help you find people who are like you.” Robert Kyncl, global head of content at YouTube, invited advertisers to create content on YouTube, saying that big media companies “are pouring dollars into YouTube, as well as countless venture-capital firms.” He offered examples of brands already using YouTube successfully, among them McDonald’s Canada, with a video explaining how its food is prepared for ads, and Fox Broadcasting, which created a video inspired by the Harlem Shake craze using characters from “The Simpsons.” “Brands must create engaged fan communities,” Mr. Kyncl said. On the other side of the debate are professional producers of content, many of which also create television series, movies and other intellectual property for mainstream media. During those presentations, senior managers of companies like Walt Disney and Sony played up the, well, professional nature of their content, calling it a superior environment for marketers’ messages. “Quality content has never been more important,” Jimmy Pitaro, co-president of the Disney Interactive division of the Walt Disney Company, said at a Digital Content NewFronts event on Thursday morning, because “consumers are inundated with low-quality experiences, unfulfilling for them and for brands trying to reach them.” That need for high-quality content extends beyond online video, Mr. Pitaro asserted, into realms like apps, blogs, video blogs and games played on video consoles or online. He described new offerings from Disney Interactive in that vein like Story, which is to be introduced next week in the Apple App Store. Story is meant to help iPhone owners edit photographs and video clips into narratives that can be shared. A commercial will promote Story — which brands will be able to sponsor, Mr. Pitaro said — with this theme: “There’s a story on your phone waiting to be told.” Also planned, with an introduction date of Aug. 18, is Infinity, which Mr. Pitaro described as “the biggest, most ambitious gaming initiative ever undertaken by Disney Interactive.” Plans call for Infinity to begin as a console game and then be offered online, where sponsorships will be available; Infinity will invite players to create original stories using familiar characters from both the Disney and Pixar archives. At a time when “anybody with a camera can make a show,” there is “a flight to high-quality content,” said Eric Berger, executive vice president for digital networks at the Sony Pictures Television unit of the Sony Corporation of America and general manager of Crackle, its online entertainment network. “There’s no silver bullet, but a lot of big, blue-chip brands are going to be more comfortable associating with quality brands they can trust” like Sony, Mr. Berger said in an interview before a Digital Content NewFronts presentation that he is to make on Friday morning. Another problem advertisers may encounter with user-generated content, Mr. Berger said, is that a commercial may appear during “a decent piece of content, but what auto-plays or comes after is a not-so-decent piece of content.” “Just like we make ‘The Shield,’ ‘Justified’ and ‘Rescue Me,’ ” he added, citing drama series produced by Sony Pictures Television, “we’re creating shows like that” for Crackle. Crackle will announce second-season renewals for three original online video series, Mr. Berger said, including “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” hosted by Jerry Seinfeld. Among the new Web series is “Cleaners,” an action-crime show with stars including David Arquette, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Gina Gershon, and a music documentary with a working title of “Playing It Forward,” whose producers include Robert Downey Jr. Crackle is also to announce what is being billed as its first major feature, “Extraction,” a 90-minute show in the action-thriller genre with a cast that includes Sean Astin and Danny Glover.

News source: www.nytimes.com

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PASSINGS: Chris Kelly, Leopold Engleitner

Chris Kelly, 34, half of the 1990s kid rap duo Kris Kross that had a chart-topping hit with "Jump," was pronounced dead Wednesday at an Atlanta hospital of an apparent drug overdose, authorities said. Police were called to Kelly's home in south Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon and he was transported to Atlanta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. No official cause of death has been determined, pending an autopsy. Kris Kross was introduced to the music world in 1992 by music producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri after he discovered the youths at an Atlanta mall. Kelly, called "Mac Daddy," was born Aug. 11, 1978, in Atlanta. He and his partner Chris Smith, dubbed "Daddy Mac," were known for wearing their clothes backward as they rhymed. The duo's first, and by far most successful, song was "Jump." The hit, off their multiplatinum 1992 debut album "Totally Krossed Out," featured the two trading verses and rapping the refrain, the song's title. The duo had surprising maturity in their rap delivery, though the song was written by Dupri. It would become a No. 1 smash in the United States and globally, and one of the most popular of that year. Their success led to instant fame: They toured with Michael Jackson, appeared on TV shows, and even had their own video game. The group was never able to match the tremendous success of their first song, though they had other hits, such as "Warm It Up," and "Tonite's tha Night." In 2009, after photos surfaced that showed Kelly with bald spots on his head, there were rumors that he had cancer. But in an interview posted on YouTube by Straight from the A TV, he said he suffered from alopecia, a condition in which people lose their hair. Leopold Engleitner One of the oldest known Nazi concentration camp survivors Leopold Engleitner, 107, one of the oldest known survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, died April 21 in his native Austria, according to an announcement Thursday by the Mauthausen Committee, an organization that tracks the fate of former inmates. Engleitner was born in the province of Salzburg in 1905 and worked as a farmhand before the Nazis came to power. A Jehovah's Witness and conscientious objector, Engleitner spent four years in the German concentration camps of Buchenwald, Niederhagen and Ravensbruck after refusing to renounce his beliefs. He was released from Ravensbruck in 1943 after agreeing to work as a farm slave laborer, despite weighing only about 60 pounds. Later ordered to report to Hitler's army, Engleitner hid in the Tyrolean countryside until after the war ended. His life was documented in the 1999 book and film "Unbroken Will," by Austrian filmmaker and author Bernhard Rammerstorfer, and he toured Europe and America to share his experiences. He visited Los Angeles last fall for the release of a new Rammerstorfer documentary, "Ladder in the Lions' Den." The oldest known survivor of the camps is Alice Herz-Sommer, 109, who lives in London. She was confined in the camp in Terezin, or Theresienstadt in German.

 News source: www.latimes.com

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Sofía Vergara admits she's greedy

In the new June issue of Cosmopolitan the Colombian actress confesses she knew she had made it into the entertainment world way before Modern Family. "In my 20s, I was already known in the Latina market," Vshe recalls. "When I moved to LA, I used to go to this club. At the end of the night, everybody would come outside to get their cars. "I would be next to Leonardo Dicaprio and Justin Timberlake and my car was always right out in front! Nobody knew who I was, but the valets knew because they were Latin." Vergara is currently the highest-paid television actress thanks to her role as the mouthy Gloria Delgado-Pritchett. The 40-year-old also runs a multimillion brand business that includes a line of clothes, jewelry, handbags, shoes and home items. "I haven't been at this level [of fame] until now. I'm greedy," she admits. "I want to take advantage of my 15 minutes."

 News source:www.rte.ie

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Downton’s Lily James Cast as Cinderella

She might be part of the upstairs on Downton Abbey, but British actress Lily James is about to get a lesson in being part of the servant class. James has been cast as Cinderella in Disney’s new live-action version of the classic movie, the studio announced on Tuesday. Shakespeare (and Harry Potter) vet Kenneth Branagh will direct, and Cate Blanchett has been signed on to play the evil stepmother. Is Maggie Smith just too busy, or can we cross our fingers that she will join as Prince Charming’s grandmother?

 News source:www.thedailybeast.com

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Tony Awards nominations find some class amid the crass

The Tony nominations were announced Tuesday, but before we plunge into the big race between "Kinky Boots" and "Matilda the Musical," one obvious question should be addressed before any other: Given the crassly commercial direction of Broadway, why do we continue to make such a fuss about these awards? Because, like it or not, Broadway is still the highest aspiration for many of the theater's most talented artists and because it continues to have such an influence on the American repertory, as Center Theatre Group and its fellow nonprofit giants keep reminding us. This season, off-Broadway supplied a better musical ("Here Lies Love," the David Byrne-Fatboy Slim show about Imelda Marcos at the Public Theater) and play (Annie Baker's "The Flick" at Playwrights Horizons) than any of the contenders for the top Tony prizes. But virtuosity is still part of the Broadway mix, and the nominations this year include some outstanding work that deserves a national salute. PHOTOS: 2013 Tonys top nominees The race for best musical is largely between the British juggernaut "Matilda," based on the Roald Dahl children's classic, and "Kinky Boots," the Harvey Fierstein-Cyndi Lauper basset hound of a show, adapted from the film about a drag queen who rescues a sputtering English shoe factory. To them will go the spoils, with "Matilda" still the favorite to win the evening's biggest Tony and Lauper most likely picking up the trophy for score. ("Bring It On: The Musical," which had a pre-Broadway run at the Ahmanson Theatre, and "A Christmas Story, the Musical" are the also-rans.) This contest is as economically consequential as it is artistically trivial. The glory days of the Broadway musical have long been in stark decline. Marketing extravaganzas are what turn a profit today. There are exceptions (the whispy, lyrical "Once," the farcically fearless "The Book of Mormon"), but bloated and blaring have become de rigueur. "Hands on a Hardbody," the show that drove itself from La Jolla Playhouse to Broadway, didn't stand a chance this spring, though it picked up a nomination for score along with a couple of acting nods. With the production already closed, it's clear that it was a mistake to have programmed the Brooks Atkinson Theatre into the vehicle's GPS. Musicals can be many things, but meditative and offbeat are financial hazards. Off-Broadway and the more adventurous regional theaters are where we should seek out signs of the art form's originality and vigor. Both "Matilda" and "Kinky Boots" have their virtues, but both are overstuffed and oversold, satisfying the demands of producers who seem to have stopped trusting their audiences. But with ticket prices this astronomical, perhaps theatergoers have come to depend on the all-out assault to stave off buyer's remorse. FULL COVERAGE: Tonys 2013 Playwriting isn't faring much better on Broadway. If "The Assembled Parties" strikes me as a fairly strong Richard Greenberg play while "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is a somewhat lesser Christopher Durang comedy, the idea of Durang (the favorite) walking away with the award seems like fair remuneration for all the belly laughs he has brought to the American theater. A reliable cause of celebration is the banquet of acting nominees, with so many possibilities for lead actress in a play that Fiona Shaw in Colm Tóibín's nominated "The Testament of Mary," Jessica Hecht in "The Assembled Parties" and Bette Midler in John Logan's "I'll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers" were all left out. Midler's performance may have been no great feat of acting but it provided plenty of vamping fun. Stars, however, were given no special consideration (to the chagrin, no doubt, of top executives at CBS, the network that will air the Tony Awards ceremony on June 9). In fact, they seemed to be held to higher scrutiny than usual. Alec Baldwin was passed over for Tom Sturridge in "Orphans." Jessica Chastain was ignored while Judith Ivey, her fellow cast member in "The Heiress," received a featured role nomination. Sigourney Weaver was conspicuously left out of the raft of acting nominations that Durang's play received. And Al Pacino, Scarlett Johansson and Paul Rudd all vanished without a congratulatory trace from the season. One notable exception is Tom Hanks' deserved nomination for his performance in the late Nora Ephron's nominated "Lucky Guy." The secret to Hanks' success, beyond his solid characterization of tabloid columnist Mike McAlary? He became one with a top-notch ensemble that included Courtney B. Vance's Tony-nominated featured role performance. COMPLETE LIST; Tony Nominations 2013 Solo work, excepting "Ann," Holland Taylor's performance as former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, wasn't enthusiastically feted, though Broadway's bottom line will almost certainly guarantee a steady string of these relatively inexpensive star-driven offerings. Peruse the directing categories for both play and musical and you'll come away reassured of the deep bench of talent that's available. The same goes for the design contests. Broadway has an economic problem that has become an artistic problem, but this has nothing to do with the quality of the creative personnel. If producers have devoted themselves to the conspicuous consumption of affluent audiences, theater artists will simply have to play ball wherever they can, enjoying the spotlight of Broadway when possible but saving their most daring efforts for more hospitable climes. In any case, a season that can find room for Pam MacKinnon's astonishing revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" can't be that bad. Of all this year's nominations, none seems more just than the one for Tracy Letts' clarifying portrayal of George, a performance so luminous it doesn't need a statuette to live on in memory.

 News source: www.latimes.com

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Musical 'Kinky Boots' leads Tony nominations with 13

Reuters) - The musical "Kinky Boots," with the score by pop star Cyndi Lauper, on Tuesday earned 13 nominations for the Tony Awards, leading the field for Broadway's highest honor and closely followed by British import "Matilda," which received 12. Both shows were nominated for best musical, along with "Bring It On: The Musical" and "A Christmas Story: The Musical." Lauper was nominated for best score along with book writer Harvey Fierstein and three members of the show's cast. Hollywood star Tom Hanks was nominated for best actor in his Broadway debut in the Nora Ephron play "Lucky Guy," which received six nominations, including a best play nomination for Ephron, the writer and film director who died in June. Also nominated for best play were "The Assembled Parties," "The Testament of Mary" and "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike." A revival of Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy" led play nominations with eight, including director Bartlett Sher. Several Hollywood stars, including Cicely Tyson, Laurie Metcalf, Holland Taylor and David Hyde Pierce also won nominations for acting in plays. Taylor earned a nomination for her portrayal of former Texas governor Ann Richards in "Ann" but Bette Midler was left out for her star turn as agent Sue Mengers in "I'll Eat You Last." Another glaring omission was one of the season's biggest box office hits, "Motown the Musical," about the record label founded by Berry Gordy, in the best musical category. The show received only four nominations, including one for actress Valisia LeKae who plays Diana Ross. Other top-nominated shows included the first Broadway revival of the 1970s hit "Pippin," which took 10 nominations, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella," which received nine nods. Both were cited for best revival of a musical, along with "Annie" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." The other best revival of a play nominees included "Orphans," "The Trip to Bountiful" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" which won nominations for lead actors Tracy Letts and Amy Morton. The strong showing by "Kinky Boots," an adaptation of a little-seen British movie about a struggling shoe factory that reinvents itself by making boots for drag queens, was a surprise to many who expected the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Roald Dahl's "Matilda," an Olivier-Award winner in London, to dominate. "Boots" received nominations for Fierstein, director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell and both male leads, Stark Sands and Billy Porter, in addition to several technical awards. "Matilda" earned nominations for best book, score and for Matthew Warchus' directing. Three cast members were also nominated, notably actor Bertie Carvel, who plays the fearsome school headmistress in the ecstatically reviewed show. The nominations were announced by Sutton Foster and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. The awards will be presented on June 9 at Radio City Music Hall.

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