Memorial designer gets offer for river artworks

Memorial designer getsoffer for river artworks
VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Artist Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is expected to sign a contract to create artworks along the Columbia River to commemorate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
The contract should be signed in the next week, Confluence Project spokeswoman Kimberly Mejia said Thursday. She declined to say how much Lin would be paid for her work on the project, expected to cost $15 million overall.
The contract is for the creation of at least five and possibly seven pieces by early 2005, Jane Jacobsen, director of the Confluence Project, told the Vancouver City Council this week.
The project will include a bridge over Highway 14 that will link Fort Vancouver to the Columbia River.
"Maya's work is integrated into the landscape," Jacobsen said Tuesday. "It promises to be quite inspiring."
About $2 million of the $15 million will be used to maintain the artworks along the river, and an additional $2 million will be spent on signs, Jacobsen said.
Stewart embraces workon 'Star Trek,' 'X-Men'
LOS ANGELES -- Patrick Stewart is happy to be a franchise player -- twice over.
In "Star Trek: Nemesis," which opened Friday, Stewart makes his fourth big-screen journey as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, the role he played for seven seasons on TV's "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Next summer brings Stewart's second outing as boss of a gang of noble mutants who use their superhero powers to benefit humanity, in "X-Men 2."
Considering the typecasting that can result from "Star Trek" or other sci-fi and action franchises, Stewart initially wondered whether he "really wanted to have a second albatross" when offered the "X-Men" role.
Ultimately, as an actor who started out earning $10 a week and now heads up two profitable movie series, he figured the more franchises, the better.
"It was great to find myself the captain of the flagship of the Federation but also the guru of a school for mutants and leader of the mutant civilization, at least the benevolent side of the civilization," Stewart said this week in an interview with The Associated Press.
The 62-year-old actor and his "X-Men" castmates are under a gag order about the plot of next summer's sequel.
Reports allege Clarksonalready had a contract
She might be America's sweetheart, but some are saying Kelly Clarkson is not that innocent.
The "American Idol" winner, who took the country by storm last summer as the doe-eyed amateur singer she appeared to be, may have already had a recording contract -- and been in the middle of making a record for someone else -- when she showed up to audition for the show, The New York Post quotes Star magazine as reporting.
If true, it means Clarkson may have violated the show's rule about being an amateur with no prior professional singing experience. According to Star, Clarkson -- who got a $1 million recording contract that spawned her No. 1 song "A Moment Like This" when she won the talent show -- was already recording an album with three producers (including Carole King's ex-husband, Gerry Goffin) before appearing on the show. The show's rules state that contestants must be complete amateurs, and each of them signed releases stating they had never recorded anything.
Noted songwriters Michael Blum, Barry Goldberg and Goffin now contend they had Clarkson under contract a month before the "Idol" auditions began, the magazine says.
"She signed a production agreement with us in early March to record a full slate of 12 songs for an album, but after doing five wonderful songs, she walked out," Goldberg tells Star.
"The next time I saw her was on TV a couple of months later competing on 'American Idol.' It came as quite a shock."
No comment from the "American Idol" camp.
Today's birthdays
Country singer Ernest Ashworth is 74. Actor-comedian Tim Conway is 69. Singer Cindy Birdsong (The Supremes) is 63. Rock musician Dave Clark (The Dave Clark Five) is 60. Rock musician Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge) is 56. Actor Don Johnson is 53. Movie director Alex Cox is 48. Actor Justin Ross is 48. Rock musician Paul Simonon (The Clash) is 47. Country singer Doug Phelps (Brother Phelps; Kentucky Headhunters) is 42. Movie director Reginald Hudlin is 41. Actress Helen Slater is 39. "Crowd-hyper" Kito Trawick (Ghostown DJs) is 25. Actor George O. Gore II is 21.