LONDON, Feb 9 — The BBC revealed today that it paid its top presenters £229 million (RM1.26 billion) last year, in a move widely seen as an attempt to quell growing disquiet over the pay packets of its biggest stars.
The figures showed it paid those artists, musicians and presenters earning over £100,000 a year £70 million — a quarter of the total cost — which represents 6.5 per cent of the licence fee.
LONDON, Feb 9 — “Everybody Hurts”, organised by pop supremo Simon Cowell in aid of victims of the Haitian earthquake, has become the fastest-selling British charity single of the century with over 200,000 sales in just two days, the Official Charts Company said today.
It is also set to have one of the biggest first week sales of any single since 2000.
Martin Talbot, the company’s managing director, said: “This is a phenomenal achievement. The public are certainly not showing any signs of charity fatigue.”
BERLIN, Feb 9 — Roman Polanski may be under house arrest in a Swiss chalet, but the Polish-French director is set to dominate this year’s Berlin film festival where his latest movie “The Ghost Writer” will be unveiled.
Interest in the 76-year-old’s film, one of 20 competition entries vying for awards at the Feb 11-21 event, has inevitably soared since his sensational arrest in Switzerland in September.
LONDON, Feb 9 — Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are suing News of the World over allegations it published about their relationship, their London lawyers said yesterday.
In a story published on Jan 24, the weekly newspaper reported that the couple planned imminently to separate and had agreed on how they would divide their assets and custody of their children.
Pitt, 46, and Jolie, 34, have six children and joint assets estimated by the News of the World at £205 million (RM1,127 million).
NEW YORK, Feb 9 – Are you tired of “Avatar” yet? Not necessarily the movie itself, which shows no sign of fatigue in its march to global box-office and Oscar-broadcast domination, but the urgent questions that keep popping up in its wake. How much money will this blockbuster make? How many Academy Awards will it win? Will it change the way movies are made, ushering in a new era of 3-D, motion-capture, hybrid spectacle?
