POPGAZETA

Millions celebrate by dancing, exchanging food and drink, and smearing each other with colorful powder …

new york — Ghostbusting is still a good business.  “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” collected $45.2 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, handing Sony Pictures the studio’s first No. 1 film since last summer.  The opening weekend for “Frozen Empire,” in 4,345 theaters, was nearly exactly the same as the $44 million launch for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” in 2021. “Afterlife” rebooted the franchise with a sequel built around the descendants (Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace) of Harold Ramis’ Egon Spengler, along with Paul Rudd’s seismologist Gary Grooberson.  Neither film has been a hit with critics, but audiences have been more receptive. “Frozen Empire” garnered a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers, a tick down from the A- score for “Afterlife.” “Frozen Empire” isn’t assured of profitability, but it will hope for sustained business over spring break.  “Ghostbusters” films tend to make a low impact internationally. In 25 overseas markets, “Frozen Empire” added $16.4 million.  The latest “Ghostbusters” cost about $100 million to make. After Jason Reitman took over directing duties from his father, Ivan Reitman, to helm “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” “Frozen Empire” is directed by Gil Kenan, co-writer of “Afterlife.”  Those two sequels took “Ghostbusters” in a more family-oriented, albeit …

MONTREAL — American figure skating star Ilia Malinin is a world champion — and a world-record holder. Malinin put on a dominant display that included a jaw-dropping six quad jumps — including his patented quad axel — to snag the men’s singles crown Saturday night at the world championships. After placing third in Thursday’s short program, the 19-year-old scored a world record 227.79 in the free program while skating to the Succession soundtrack to bring his total to 333.76 — more than 20 points than the rest of the field. Malinin dropped to the ice in disbelief after presenting his routine to a rowdy Bell Centre crowd that cheered and clapped the whole way. He dethroned two-time defending world champion Shoma Uno of Japan, who fell to fourth (280.85) after missing two quad jumps to start his program. Yuma Kagiyama of Japan won silver (309.65) and Adam Siao Him Fa of France claimed bronze (284.39). Siao Him Fa climbed from 19th to third with an awe-inspiring display of his own, which included a backflip. Earlier Saturday, 2022 Olympic champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States defended their ice dance world title with a season-best total score of 222.20. Canada’s …

NEW YORK — Babar author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father’s popular picture book series about an elephant-king and presided over its rise to a global, multimedia franchise, has died. He was 98. De Brunhoff, a Paris native who moved to the U.S. in the 1980s, died Friday at his home in Key West, Florida, after being in hospice care for two weeks, according to his widow, Phyllis Rose. Just 12 years old when his father, Jean de Brunhoff, died of tuberculosis, Laurent was an adult when he drew upon his own gifts as a painter and storyteller and released dozens of books about the elephant who reigns over Celesteville, among them Babar at the Circus and Babar’s Yoga for Elephants. He preferred using fewer words than his father did, but his illustrations faithfully mimicked Jean’s gentle, understated style. “Together, father and son have woven a fictive world so seamless that it is nearly impossible to detect where one stopped and the other started,” author Ann S. Haskell wrote in The New York Times in 1981. The series has sold millions of copies worldwide and was adapted for a television program and such animated features as Babar: The Movie and …

ROME — Maurizio Pollini, a Grammy-winning Italian pianist who performed frequently at La Scala opera house in Milan, has died. He was 82. Pollini died Saturday, La Scala said in a statement. The announcement didn’t specify a cause of death, but Pollini had been forced to cancel a concert at the Salzburg Festival in 2022 because of heart problems. During a six decades-long international career, Pollini’s repertoire expanded beyond the standard classics. He embraced early 20th-century masterpieces by Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern and postwar modernists such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Luigi Nono. La Scala defined the pianist as “one of the great musicians of our time and a fundamental reference in the artistic life of the theater for over 50 years.” Pollini was considered a pianist with unique intellectual power, whose unrivalled technique and interpretive drive compelled listeners to think deeply. He was born in Milan on January 5, 1942, into a family of artists. His father, Gino Pollini, was a violinist and a leading rationalist architect. His mother, Renata Melotti, sang and played the piano, as did her brother, Fausto Melotti, who was also a pioneer of abstract sculpture. “I grew up in a house …

LONDON — England’s new men’s soccer team shirt is causing a bit of a stir. It’s not just the price that’s vexing some. The decision by Nike to change the color of the St. George’s Cross on the shirt from the traditional red and white has even prompted the prime minister and the man who is favored to succeed him to make their displeasure known. A petition on Change.org calling for a design change attracted more than 22,000 signatures by early afternoon Friday. The new Nike-designed shirt, which has been modeled by England captain Harry Kane, is being rolled out in the run-up to the European Championship in Germany. The altered cross on the back of the shirt collar has purple and blue horizontal stripes. Nike says it’s a “playful update” to the shirt and harks to the training kit England wore at the 1966 World Cup, the only major tournament won by the men’s team. England will be starting Euro 2024 this summer as one of the favorites. Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party and a fan of English Premier League leader Arsenal, said he believed the flag, which is marked by an image of the St. …

…

Seoul — As a South Korean baseball fan, Shin Jae-woong had many reasons to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres open the Major League Baseball season this week in Seoul. These are the first ever regular season MLB games in baseball-loving South Korea. And the games feature multiple Korean stars, including Padres infielder Kim Ha-seong. But the main draw is obvious for Shin and his two young sons, who traveled from the southeastern city of Gwangju. They came to see Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani. “I think Ohtani is out of this world. He’s like another level of player,” said Shin as he watched the Dodgers practice ahead of the series opener on Wednesday. Ohtani, the do-it-all Japanese megastar – who in December signed a record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers – draws massive crowds wherever he goes these days. Perhaps surprisingly, Ohtani also has throngs of fans in South Korea, which shares a fierce sports rivalry and complicated history with Japan. “He has a good personality. He’s tall. He’s good-looking,” said Eo Soo-young, a 38-year-old Seoul resident. “And that other stuff, that’s an old story.” This week, it’s all about positive vibes, as South Korea and …

…

…

Seoul — South Korea’s “Squid Game” actor O Yeong-su has been found guilty of sexual misconduct, a local court said Friday, after he was charged with assaulting a woman in 2017. The 79-year-old in 2022 became the first South Korean to win a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor in a series for his performance as a seemingly vulnerable old man in the mega-hit Netflix dystopian thriller. The actor was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Court told AFP. He has been also ordered to complete 40 hours of classes on sexual violence, the court added. The victim’s own records of the assault and her claims are “consistent … and appear to be statements that cannot be made without actually experiencing them,” judge Jeong Yeon-ju said, according to the court. O was indicted in 2022 without detention on charges of sexually assaulting a woman, who has not been identified, on two occasions. The incidents took place when O was staying in a rural area for a theatre performance in 2017, on a walking path and in front of the victim’s residence, respectively, according to the Suwon District Court. “Squid Game,” a series that depicts …

SANTA FE, N.M. — Defense attorneys for Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Thursday to dismiss a grand jury indictment against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western movie “Rust.” The indictment in January charged Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021, at a movie ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to the charge. His attorneys in a new court filing accused prosecutors of “unfairly stacking the deck” against Baldwin in grand jury proceedings that diverted attention away from exculpatory evidence and witnesses. They say that prevented the jury from asserting their obligation to hear testimony from director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting while standing near Hutchins, as well as assistant director and safety coordinator Dave Halls and props master Sarah Zachry. “The grand jury did not receive the favorable or exculpatory testimony and documents that the state had an obligation to present,” said the court motion signed by defense attorney Luke Nikas. “Nor was the grand jury told it had a right to review and the obligation to request this information.” Prosecutor Kari …

This month’s Academy Awards ceremony saw a big first for Ukraine as Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol” won the best documentary Oscar. The film is a first-person account of being in the eastern Ukrainian city during the first weeks of Russia’s invasion. Khrystyna Shevchenko talked with Chernov. Anna Rice has that story. …

The Nigerian film industry, often referred to as Nollywood, is the second largest moviemaker in the world in terms of volume, and is making strides both in terms of art and in popularity at the box office. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja. …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve legislation Wednesday that would force the popular TikTok video app to either separate from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance or sell the U.S. version of the software. The bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act “gives TikTok six months to eliminate foreign adversary control — which would include ByteDance divesting its current ownership — to remain available in the United States,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the committee. “All TikTok would have to do is separate from CCP-controlled ByteDance. However, if TikTok chose not to rid itself of this CCP control, the application would no longer be offered in U.S. app stores. But TikTok would have no one but itself to blame,” the lawmakers said in a prepared statement. Here’s what we know about the legislation and what happens next in the U.S. Senate. Why is TikTok under scrutiny? “The concern is that TikTok could transfer personal information to its parent company ByteDance, who in turn could transfer it to the Chinese government,” …

…

…

…

…

Los Angeles — Christopher Nolan has won best director at the Academy Awards for his blockbuster biopic “Oppenheimer,” a long-awaited coronation for arguably Hollywood’s preeminent big-screen auteur. Nolan has had many movies in the Oscar mix before, including “Inception,” “Dunkirk” and “The Dark Knight.” But his win Sunday for direction is the first Academy Award for the 53-year-old filmmaker. In his acceptance speech, Nolan noted cinema is just over a hundred years old. “We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here,” said Nolan. “But to think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.” Cillian Murphy, the veteran Irish actor whose titanic performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer centered one of the year’s most acclaimed films, also won best actor. It’s the first Oscar for Murphy, a longtime Christopher Nolan regular handed a rare leading role in “Oppenheimer.” “I’m a very proud Irish man standing here tonight,” said Murphy. “For better or worse, we’re all living in Robert Oppenheimer’s world. I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers.” Protest and politics intruded on an election-year Academy Awards on Sunday, where demonstrations for Gaza raged outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and awards went to …

Dohuk, Iraq — Huddled in the back of a van, Rebin Pishtiwan carefully scans one yellowed page after another, as part of his mission to digitize historic Kurdish books at risk of disappearing. Seen as the world’s largest stateless people, the Kurds are an ethnic group of between 25 million and 35 million mostly spread across modern-day Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. In Iraq, the Kurds are a sizeable minority who have been persecuted, with thousands killed under the rule of late dictator Saddam Hussein and many of their historic documents lost or destroyed. “Preserving the culture and history of Kurdistan is a sacred job,” said Pishtiwan, perusing volumes and manuscripts from Dohuk city’s public library in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region. “We aim to digitize old books that are rare and vulnerable, so they don’t vanish,” the 23-year-old added, a torn memoir of a Kurdish teacher published in 1960 in hand. In Iraq, the Kurdish language was mostly marginalized until the Kurds’ autonomous region in the north won greater freedom after Saddam Hussein’s defeat in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. After the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 toppled the dictator, remaining documents were scattered among libraries and universities or held in private …

Los Angeles — As Universal Pictures prepared for a big night at the Academy Awards with “Oppenheimer,” the studio also celebrated the No. 1 debut of “Kung Fu Panda 4,” which collected $58.3 million in domestic theaters over the weekend, according to estimates Sunday. “Kung Fu Panda 4,” the first film in the DreamWorks Animation franchise since the third installment in 2016, got off to a better start than all but the 2008 original. That “Kung Fu Panda,” which began the mystical adventures of Jack Black’s panda warrior Po, launched with $60.2 million. Working in favor of “Kung Fu Panda 4”: It’s the first big family movie since “Migration” and “Wonka” hit theaters in December. “Kung Fu Panda 4” added $22 million internationally. The news was just as good for last week’s top film, “Dune: Part Two.” Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic sequel held strongly in its second week, dropping a modest 44%. It grossed $46 million in its second week, bringing its domestic cumulative total to $157 million for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Riding strong reviews, great word-of-mouth and plenty of sandworms, “Dune: Part Two” appears well set up for a long theatrical run. Most of Sunday’s Oscar nominees have …

Los Angeles — Hollywood’s glitterati gather on Sunday to celebrate the best performances in film at the annual Academy Awards, a ceremony expected to turn into a toast to blockbuster atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer.” Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel returns for the fourth time to emcee the film industry’s highest honors from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. “Oppenheimer,” the three-hour drama directed by Christopher Nolan, leads the field with 13 nominations. The movie is the frontrunner to win the prestigious best picture prize, capping its sweep of other major awards this year. “If the best picture isn’t ‘Oppenheimer,’ it will be one of the biggest upsets, if not the biggest upset, in the history of the Oscars,” said Scott Feinberg, executive editor for awards at The Hollywood Reporter. After 2023 was marred by actors and writers strikes, the Oscars give Hollywood a chance to celebrate two global hits. “Oppenheimer” and feminist doll adventure “Barbie,” another best picture nominee, brought in a combined $2.4 billion in a summer box office battle dubbed “Barbenheimer.” Oscar producers said they have planned unannounced cameos and other surprises to entertain audiences at home. “My biggest hope is that they go through a range of emotions …

New York — Six years ago, Nachiket Chanchani visited Angkor Wat for the first time. Inspired, the architectural historian began thinking about the relationship between the complexities of modern post-genocide Cambodia and the ancient temple complex. Chanchani, an associate art history professor at the University of Michigan, kept reflecting on Angkor Wat, juxtaposing the temple complex against art created since the Khmer Rouge killed nearly 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. During the pandemic, his thoughts crystallized amid worldwide suffering, anxiety and fear. “I thought that this art, both from the deep past and from more recent times in Cambodia, can teach us lessons of how to kind of stay stable, find some way forward,” he told VOA Khmer Service via Zoom. The University of Michigan Museum of Art, or UMMA, one of the largest university museums in the United States, is now exhibiting 80 pieces of Cambodian art in a show guest curated by Chanchani in Ann Arbor. Titled “Angkor Complex: Cultural Heritage and Post-Genocide Memory in Cambodia,” it opened February 3 and runs through July 28. Featured artists Vann Nath, Sopheap Pich, Svay Sareth, Amy Lee Sanford and Leang Seckon, who live in Cambodia and the U.S., have …