Bosnian officials have reversed course after reviewing a current screenplay for Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut and will now permit the actress to film within their borders, according to the USA Today. “It’s very simple,” Jolie said, while filming in Budapest. “There was a nasty rumor that [the film] was about a relationship that started with a rape and torture — and it’s not.”
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Angelina Jolie responds to Bosnian snub
Jolie’s film booted from Bosnia
First-time director Angelina Jolie responded to reports that Bosnian officials would not allow her to film within their borders, due to their dissatisfaction with the movie’s content. According to People, Jolie contacted the Women Victims of War — one of the groups protesting the film — through her involvement with the United Nations and said, “Don’t judge me before you see the film.” The untitled film, a love story set in the war-torn country during the 1990s, is already shooting in Hungary. “Obviously any dramatic interpretation will always fail those who have had a real experience,” Jolie is quoted as saying. “This is not a documentary.” GK Films, which is producing the project, released a statement reading: “We are obliged to reapply for the permit to shoot … with the appropriate government offices in Sarajevo now that the final script is available.”
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Jolie production booted from Bosnia
The Tourist trailer
Angelina Jolie to make romantic film set during Bosnian War
The new trailer for Universal’s The Dilemma will begin showing in theaters this Friday, Oct. 15. Currently viewable online, the new trailer does not include a clip of Vince Vaughn’s character using the term “gay” as a put-down. The original trailer, which caused a stir after CNN’s Anderson Cooper and others criticized the pejorative use of the word, will continue to be shown in movie theaters until Friday, according to a Universal spokesperson.
Musician and activist Wyclef Jean has entered a New Jersey hospital to treat what is being described as stress and fatigue. “Wyclef Jean has had an extremely grueling three months — truly an exhausting eight months, since the earthquake when he recommitted himself to our homeland and his passion for our people,” his family said in a statement. “He is currently suffering the effects of lack of sleep and stress, global travel, even the endless public eye, and has asked that his fans and supporters bear with him for the next several days as he regains his physical health and stamina. Then he will be back out in front of the crusade to rebuild Haiti and his pledge to make it even better for business.” Jean, 40, had planned to mount a campaign for president of Haiti until election officials rejected his bid last month. Last week he officially withdrew from the race.
Wyclef Jean announced in a statement today that he plans to contest the Haiti board of elections’ decision to exclude him from the country’s upcoming presidential election. (The board ruled that Jean — who was born in Haiti but spent most of his life in the U.S. — was not eligible to run for the presidency because he did not meet the country’s residency requirements.) While the singer said yesterday that he “respectfully accept[ed]“ that ruling as final, his latest statement tells a different story.
“After careful consideration and much soul-searching, I have made the decision to contest Haiti’s board of election’s pronouncement stating that I am ineligible to run for the presidency of the country,” Jean’s statement said. “I will be seeking a solution through legal channels, and I urge my countrymen to be patient through this process…. I cannot surrender now, simply because an obstacle has been set before me; now is the time I must stand up and show Haiti — and the world — that my vision of a nation renewed and redeveloped is a vision for which I am willing to fight.”
Stephen Colbert is hosting two Comedy Central specials to commemorate the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq and honor the troops returning home. “Been There, Won That: The Returnification of the American-Do Troopscape” will be taped and aired on Sept. 8 and 9, featuring an audience composed entirely of Iraq war veterans, both in the studio and via satellite from Walter Reed Army Hospital and Afghanistan. Special guests will include Vice President Joe Biden and Commanding General Ray Odierno (the soldier who shaved Colbert’s head at last June).
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty on a single count of lying to federal agents on Tuesday while a jury said it was hung on the other 23 counts against him. The one count carries a maximum sentence of five years. Prosecutors may attempt to re-try the governor-turned-Celebrity Apprentice participant on the other 23 counts.
The trial stemmed from a 2008 indictment that accused Blagojevich of trying to sell the appointment to the U.S. Senate seat that opened up when Barack Obama was elected president. Blagojevich has since been impeached and removed from the governor’s office. His appearance on Celebrity Apprentice earlier this year was part of an unorthodox public relations tour of sorts, which also included appearances on The View and The Late Show With David Letterman.
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Days before the Aug. 7 deadline, Haitian-American superstar Wyclef Jean has confirmed to Time.com that he will run for President of Haiti in this year’s Nov. 28 election. “If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another 10 years before doing this,” Jean said. “If I can’t take five years out to serve my country as President…then everything I’ve been singing about, like equal rights, doesn’t mean anything.” Jean may announce his candidacy on Thursday’s Larry King Live once he has arrived in Port-au-Prince from New York.
After announcing her engagement to Levi Johnston less than three weeks ago, much to the surprise of the American public and the imagined chagrin of her mother, Bristol Palin confirmed to People that two of them are no longer together. The couple has a 19-month-old son and decided last month to give their relationship a second chance, but Palin, daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, says that on the very same day they announced their engagement, Johnston admitted that he might be the father of yet another teenage girl’s child. “He’s just obsessed with the limelight and I got played,” says Palin.
Oregon police have reopened their investigation into a sexual assault claim against former Vice President Al Gore made by a Portland massage therapist, the Associated Press reports. The woman has claimed that Gore groped her in a downtown hotel in October 2006. Police had earlier closed the case, reportedly for insufficient evidence, and did not say why they had decided to reopen it now. A spokesperson for Gore denied the woman’s claim “unequivocally and emphatically.”
“Further investigation into this matter will only benefit Mr. Gore,” the spokesperson told the AP. “The Gores cannot comment on every defamatory, misleading and inaccurate story generated by tabloids. Mr. Gore unequivocally and emphatically denied this accusation when he first learned of its existence three years ago. He stands by that denial.”
