Swayze not letting cancer interfere with TV role

By Kimberly Nordyke


LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Pancreatic cancer is not
slowing Patrick Swayze.


The "Dirty Dancing" veteran stars in the cop drama "The
Beast," which has just been picked up by cable's A&E Network.


Swayze plays an unorthodox but effective FBI veteran who
trains a new partner (Travis Fimmel) in his hard-edged and
psychologically clever style of agenting while being pursued by
a secret Internal Affairs team.


"I have searched for quite a long time to find a character
that is this multilayered, unpredictable and downright
entertaining as well as a project this current and
cutting-edged," Swayze said in a statement.


The statement did not address his health, but network
executives confirmed that his doctors have cleared him to
resume work. They have ordered 13 hour-long episodes to go into
production this summer in Chicago, with a premiere set for
early 2009.


Swayze, 55, was diagnosed with cancer in March, and has
been receiving treatment at Stanford University Medical Center,
near San Francisco.


Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

B.G. The Prince Of Rap

   
Artist: B.G. The Prince Of Rap

   Genre(s): 
Rap: Hip-Hop
   

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Discography:


   
 The Power of Rhythm

   Year: 1991   
Tracks: 13


   
 The Time Is Now

   Year:    
Tracks: 12

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Rihanna plays down Chris Brown rumours

Singer Rihanna has dismissed reports which suggest that she is dating R&B star Chris Brown, claiming that they are "like brother and sister".
Speaking to MTV News, Rihanna said: "We are best friends, honestly, like brother and sister."
"I won't say that we're just friends - me and Chris are really best, best friends. If he was a boyfriend, I would say that," she said.
Brown said: "They keep asking me, 'What's the deal?' I'm like, 'There's no deal. No deal.' We're just friends."

Amy Winehouse's Jail Break

Just hours after being released on police bail, Amy Winehouse was roaming the streets of London as though no arrest had been made.



Police investigating footage of Amy allegedly smoking crack cocaine that was made public earlier this year arrested the beehived singer for drug possession yesterday after she voluntarily attended a police station.



However, she didn’t let her date with the cops put a downer on her spirits. A few hours after being released on bail, the 24-year old made an emergency dash to a petrol station in Camden where she collected supplies including magazine and drinks.



Amy also chatted happily to photographers, asking them what tattoo they think she should get next. Perhaps she should be more concerned about going to jail instead of worrying about getting inked?



Do you think Amy should go to jail? Be sure to leave your comments below.


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JESSE McCARTNEY

Departure (Hollywood): B

Our kids grow up so fast. One day they’re singing about daddy’s little girl and unrequited love; next thing you know they’re whispering in their bedmate’s ear, “I wanna see you when I wake up, ’cuz you look good without makeup.” The birds and the bees are buzzing all over this grown-up “Departure” by one-time tween heartthrob McCartney. A Maroon 5-like vibe carries through these 12 tunes, including the killer first single “Leavin’ ” and the hook-laden song to download: “How Do You Sleep”

Featured Photos: R.E.M. at the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA - May 2008

R.E.M. [ tickets ] is touring behind their critically-acclaimed 2008 album "Accelerate," and drawing the sort of raves for the live show that they collected on the album release.LiveDaily's Tim Mosenfelder shot a recent show in Berkeley, CA.The tour continues through June at this point, though at least one festival date, the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, has been plotted for later in the year.

Kanye West - Rappers Sued By Late Jazz Legends Estate

Rap superstars KANYE WEST, METHOD MAN, REDMAN and COMMON have been accused of using late jazz legend JOE FARRELL's music without permission.

Farrell's daughter, Kathleen Firrantello, filed a lawsuit against the hip hop stars and their representing record labels - all owned by Universal Music Group - in New York's U.S. District Court on Thursday (22May08).

The lawsuit accuses the rappers, and their labels, of using segments of Farrell's 1974 composition Upon This Rock in three different songs without seeking approval from the late singer's estate.

The songs at the centre of the lawsuit are West's 2005 track Gone from his Late Registration album, Common's Chi-City from 2005's Be LP, which was co-written and produced by West, and Run 4 Cover, a 1999 collaboration between rappers Method Man and Redman for their Blackout LP.

A spokesman for the stars was unavailable.

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Has Justin Ever Heard Jessica Sing?

Does Justin Timberlake know that his girlfriend, Jessica Biel, once tried to make it as a singer?

Sadly, however, Biel didn't get far�at least not in college.

The...

"Panic in Level 4": even stranger than science fiction

A bizarre disease called Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome causes its victims to bite off their own fingers and lips, puncture their eyes and disfigure their faces. Most of the victims are intelligent and sociable young males (it's transmitted only in male chromosomes) who die at an early age. It's one of many genetic disorders doctors call "orphan diseases," in that hardly anyone is studying them, and it's one of the topics in Richard Preston's new book, "Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science" (Random House, 240 pp., $26). Preston's readers get to know some of the likable victims of Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome and some of the doctors specializing in it.

This is a collection of six stories originally published in The New Yorker, updated and expanded for the book. It includes an article on the killer virus called Ebola, the subject of Preston's 1994 best-seller, "The Hot Zone," which reports on the continuing efforts to track down the horrific virus in Central Africa, and the self-sacrificing bravery of Ebola caregivers.

Each topic is interwoven with a common theme, that of scientific research. In "The Human Kabbalah," Preston relates the dogfight nature of competition between government and corporate researchers to reveal the structure of human DNA and to publish the first reliable map of the human genome.

In a good-humored and emotional story he calls "The Mountains of Pi," Preston profiles two wonderfully eccentric brothers, David and Gregory Chudnovsky, "a single mathematician who happened to inhabit two bodies." They built the world's most powerful computer in a New York apartment, from mail-order catalogs. They used it to set a world's record for computing pi, the transcendentally mysterious equation defining the circumference of a circle. They surveyed pi to 2,260,321,336 digits, hoping to find a numerical pattern. There was none.

A Seattle angle to the story: The Ukrainian-born Chudnovskys, acknowledged as two of the world's best mathematicians, were persecuted by the Soviet KGB in the 1970s. They were allowed to leave the Soviet Union only through intervention by the late Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson and University of Washington mathematician Ed Hewitt.

In "A Death in the Forest," Preston reports on the losing struggle to save the tallest trees of America's Eastern forests from a voracious insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid, an Asian import for which there are no known predators in this country, nor — so far — any practical chemical controls.

Exhibiting the range of his reporting interests, Preston also tells the story of seven ancient tapestries known as the "Hunt of the Unicorn" that hang in the Cloisters museum in New York City. He recounts the scientific challenge of producing a precisely accurate photograph of the tapestries, for which the museum hired the amazing Chudnovsky brothers and their world-renowned homegrown computer.

The book's title is drawn from the author's experience at Level Four of the U.S. Ebola research headquarters in Atlanta. Preston relates his own barely controlled panic in discovering an open zipper on the super-protective suit he was wearing in a laboratory where live Ebola viruses are kept.

The "panic" event is part of a 30-page introduction based on the journalist's personal experiences. It includes a short primer on literary journalism, in which Preston explains his reporting techniques, down to the type of pencil and notebook he uses. Little of this material appears to be especially unusual or important. His first-person writing seems awkwardly self-conscious, in contrast to the bright, compelling voice in which Preston tells other-person stories of high scientific adventure.

See Also

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• Lauren Hutton - Hutton Helps Elderly Woman After Airport Collapse
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Woody Allen fears for Scarlett Johansson

Veteran film director Woody Allen is fearful that Scarlett Johansson will ruin her promising acting career by indulging in the party lifestyle.
The director, who has worked with Johansson on a number of movies, has said she is one of the most talented stars of her generation and has advised her to follow Meryl Streep's example.
He told the New York Post's gossip column Page Six: "(Johansson) is so beautiful and so sexy and so gifted... she can do anything, but she has to make the right choices of films and she's got to not go the Page Six party route.
"I don't want to read about her in the paper with this boyfriend or that boyfriend, or in rehab or taking pills. I don't think she's always made great choices. She has to take her acting seriously... the way someone like Meryl Streep did it."