newsmakers

newsmakers

British director Charles Jarrott dies

LOS ANGELES

British director Charles Jarrott, who worked in film and television for nearly 50 years and won a Golden Globe for directing Richard Burton in 1969’s “Anne of the Thousand Days,” has died.

Motion Picture & Television Fund spokeswoman Jaime Larkin says Jarrott died in Los Angeles on Friday. He was 83.

The London-born Jarrott began his career in 1954 working mostly in TV but directed a prominent string of feature films in the 1960s and 1970s.

The movies included “Anne of the Thousand Days” and another British royalty drama, “Mary Queen of Scots,” in 1971. Together the two films were nominated for 15 Academy Awards.

Jarrott won an Emmy for 1995’s “A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story.”

British TV chef in food fight with LA schools

LOS ANGELES

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has perfected his anti-obesity recipe over the years: blend a passion for nutrition with reality TV, garnish with a catchy moniker, et voil ! — “Food Revolution.”

But Oliver’s recipe has uncharacteristically curdled since he arrived in Los Angeles last fall to shoot his second U.S. TV series. “I’ve had a tough time here,” he conceded wearily in an interview. “Nothing that was planned has come off.”

The six-episode show was to revolve around one of Oliver’s favorite causes — making school lunches more healthful — but ran under a rolling pin when the Los Angeles Unified School District objected to the chef’s key ingredient — TV cameras.

“We’re interested in Jamie Oliver the food activist, not Jamie the reality-TV star,” said Robert Alaniz, district spokesman. “We’ve invited him to work with our menu committee, but there’s too much drama, too much conflict with a reality show.”

The 35-year-old is a household name back home, where he’s been decorated by the Queen and cooked at No. 10 Downing Street. He heads a multimillion-dollar eponymously branded empire that has produced 20 TV series and specials, 14 best-selling cookbooks, 20 restaurants, cooking schools, a catering company, an array of cooking and dining products, supermarket endorsements, as well as a charity for disadvantaged youth.

Penn: I’d welcome Sheen’s help in Haiti

LOS ANGELES

Sean Penn says he thinks Charlie Sheen could do a lot of good in Haiti, both for himself and the nation struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake.

“I think his energies, intelligence and passion could be both of service and servicing to him, as it is to all who are touched by the struggle of the Haitian people,“ Penn said in a statement Friday.

“Charlie is one of the very few public people who cannot be accused of using the media to his own benefit. I would very much like to show my old friend the world of needs on the ground in Haiti and introduce him and his tremendous wit to our hard- working Haitian staff.”

Penn’s message of support came hours after Sheen told “Access Hollywood” that he and Penn were planning a trip to the Caribbean nation, although no date for their travel has been announced.

Associated Press