newsmakers

newsmakers

Opera stars bow out of Japan concerts

TOKYO

Two of the biggest stars of New York’s Metropolitan Opera have bowed out of a Japan tour, citing fears of radioactive contamination and sending the company scrambling to find last-minute stand-ins.

Soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja announced just days before the opening show that they would not join the tour of Nagoya and Tokyo despite experts’ assurances they would be safe, forcing the Met to “scour the world” for replacements, general manager Peter Gelb said Tuesday.

Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left about 25,000 people dead or missing.

Kingston still critical after weekend crash

MIAMI

A publicist for Sean Kingston is offering the latest on the hip-hop singer who’s been hospitalized since crashing his watercraft into a Miami Beach bridge over the weekend.

Joseph Carozza said Tuesday that Kingston remains in critical but stable condition.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino says the 21-year-old singer and a female passenger were injured Sunday afternoon when their watercraft hit the Palm Island Bridge.

Nightclub patron sues Andy Dick

DALLAS

A Texas man is suing comedian Andy Dick over his December performance at a Dallas nightclub. Robert Tucker claims he suffered emotional distress and defamation as a result of an alleged incident in which Dick exposed his genitals while walking through the audience.

The suit filed May 10 also names a talent agency that represents the comedian and the club where he performed. The lawsuit cites Dick’s January 2010 arrest on felony sexual abuse charges, after allegations he groped a bouncer and patron at a Huntington, W.Va., bar, and other incidents.

‘Hobbit’ films get release dates, titles

NEW YORK

Peter Jackson’s two-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” has release dates.

New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. and MGM announced Monday that “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” will be released Dec. 14, 2012. The sequel, “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,” is to be released Dec. 13, 2013.

The films have suffered repeated delays over studio funding problems, a threatened actors’ boycott and ulcer surgery for Jackson. Shot consecutively, they began filming in March in New Zealand.

The 3-D “Hobbit” films are prequels to Jackson’s Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The movies star Martin Freeman, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom.

Streisand is OK with sale of estate

MALIBU, Calif.

Barbra Streisand says she understands that California has to sell her donated 22.5-acre Malibu ranch to help balance the budget, but she hopes the buyer will preserve its “special habitat.”

Ramirez Canyon Park, which the singer donated in 1993, is on the list of state-owned properties that Gov. Jerry Brown wants to put up for sale despite fierce opposition.

The property contains meadows, gardens, a creek and three homes that Streisand customized with a wealth of architectural detail ranging from Art Deco metal panels to Douglas fir framing on a Craftsman-style house. It was valued at $15 million when Streisand gave it to the state and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that Brown established in 1980 during his first stint as governor.

But the property “does not serve any essential state function,” Brown’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Ashford, told the Los Angeles Times.

Wire reports