Good news for opera geeks

Very interesting news for opera fans: Hollywood heavyweights Woody Allen, David Cronenberg and William Friedkin will all be directing productions for the Los Angeles Opera during the 2008/2009 season. Allen and Friedkin (known foremost for the cult horror flick The Exorcist) will both be tackling Puccini’s Il Trittico (which is comprised of three, one-act operas). Woody will direct Gianno Schicchi while Will will take on Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. The Canuck, Cronenberg, has the very interesting task of directing the American première of the operatic version of his 1986 flick The Fly. The LAO’s general director, world renown tenor Placido Domingo, expressed his enthusiasm: "I'm tremendously excited about our 2008/09 season because it is full of adventure,” he was quoted by the World Entertainment News Network as saying. “[It’s] the kind of musical and theatrical exploration, which appeals not only to established opera lovers but might be the right kind of lure for potentially new audiences."

Rupert rips into celebs

Rupert Everett want on a rant slamming celebs left right and centre. In the path of his tidal wave tongue-lashing were Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, Woody Allen and Al Pacino, who he said were "all just tragic parodies of themselves." Meow. He then went on to attack Pacino who he seems to think is now a forgazy (forget about it). "Al Pacino looks like a mad old freak now. I say give it a rest, or go and do some serious stuff," Everett was quoted by BreakingNews.ie as saying. George Clooney was the next victim: "Clooney thinks that, provided he does films, which are politically committed, he's allowed to do Ocean's 11, 12 and 13," he said. "But the Ocean's movies are a cancer to world culture. They're destroying us. He's not the brightest spark on the boulevard. He'll be President one day. Mark my words, if he's straight, he'll be President." What spurred this attack? Could it be jealousy? According to the movie info goldmine imdb (NB: if you ever have a movie related argument, it can prob be settled by looking it up on imdb.com) Everett hasn’t a single film in development, while Pacino has four coming up and Clooney has 14.