Aretha Franklin teamed up with Condoleezza Rice for a benefit concert in Philadelphia this month. You read that right: Condi Rice, the former Secretary of State, is an accomplished pianist who accompanied the Queen of Soul as she sang "Handel, Mozart and the hits," at Philly's Mann Center for Performing Arts on July 27. Proceeds benefited programs supporting inner city children and the Mann Center's own education initiatives.
Rice accompanied Franklin on her hits "Say a Little Prayer" and "Natural Woman," in addition to performing a 20-minute set with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was the first of a series of concerts with Rice and Franklin, who calls Rice "a consummate classical pianist and since I sing the arias, I thought that we could do something, a bipartisan effort for our favorite charities."
Just a week ago, Beloved Pictures announced that it was partnering with Mpower Pictures for a cinematic adaptation of C. S. Lewis's The Great Divorce. Now Beloved has announced that it will make films out of N. D. Wilson's popular 100 Cupboards, a fantasy trilogy for young adults.
The books, published by Random House, focus on a 12-year-old who discovers that the old farmhouse he calls home harbors mysterious cupboards leading to worlds and dangers beyond his imagination.
“This is truly one of the most outstanding works of fiction our company has ever had the pleasure to read.” said Beloved CEO Michael Ludlum. “Wilson is an incredible writer with an imagination that knows no bounds. We are thrilled to help shepherd this instant classic to the screen, and believe it will garner the same type of fan loyalty and passion as other successful book-to-film brands.”
A compelling new documentary called HolyWars made its world premiere at the SilverDocs film festival last week, where it caught the eye of IndieWIRE magazine. IndieWIRE asked director Stephen Marshall about what they called his "unusual approach to the subject of religious extremism in a post-9/11 world after his film completed both of its Silverdocs screenings," adding that Marshall had set out to make a film about end-of-the-world rhetoric.
“The inception point was in 2006; Bush was still in power," Marshall said. "The zeitgeist was focused on apocalyptic thinking. This was the original idea that got me the money to make the film. The question was: Could they make it happen? Could they make a self-fulfilling prophecy?”
More info here.
Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, who made the news during the 2008 campaign as a teenage mom, makes her television acting debut on the July 5 episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She plays -- surprise! -- a teen mom. Check out a snippet here:
According to the UK's Telegraph, a new film based on the legend of Pope Joan – an Englishwoman who purportedly disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female pontiff in history – has sparked debate in the Roman Catholic Church.
Peter Stanford, a former editor of the Catholic Herald and the author of The She-Pope: a quest for the truth behind the mystery of Pope Joan, said, "It's perfectly feasible that Joan existed. A monk's cowl is baggy and well suited to covering up a woman's body. We know that some women bound their breasts and cut their hair to pass themselves off as men."
