newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Breaking Bad’ free rehab offered by clinic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

An Albuquerque mental-health clinic is using the hit show “Breaking Bad” and its methamphetamine- trafficking theme to help fight addiction.

KRQE-TV reports that Sage Neuroscience Center has partnered with HealthShire.com to give away two addiction- treatment scholarships at the end of the AMC television series.

The “Breaking Addiction” awards are open to residents in the Albuquerque area over 18 who cannot afford treatment for their additions.

Applicants have to submit their story of addiction, which will be compiled into a collection for addiction awareness and posted online.

“Breaking Bad,” which was filmed largely in Albuquerque, follows former high-school teacher Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, who produces and sells methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul.

The show is airing its final season.

Royal ride: Queen’s Daimler sells for $63K

LONDON

A green Daimler owned and driven by Queen Elizabeth II has been sold at auction for $62,755.

Auction house Historics said the queen used the vehicle from 2001 to 2004 to travel around Windsor Castle and to go to and from Buckingham Palace. It says the monarch at times drove the car herself, and sometimes was driven in it.

The auction house says the car comes with several modifications, including an adapted arm rest with a sliding space designed to hold the queen’s handbag. It added that the interior features lambs’ wool rugs and other extra fittings.

The car was sold to an unidentified buyer in Surrey, near London, on Saturday.

Frears eager for pope to see his latest film

VENICE, Italy

Director Stephen Frears really wants Pope Francis to see his latest film, “Philomena,” the true story of a shamed Irish woman forced by nuns to give her son up for adoption in the 1950s. He wants it so much, he said so three times during a news conference Saturday.

“I am very, very keen that the pope should see it, if you have any influence in those quarters,” Frears told reporters ahead of the film’s world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Asked to explain, he said: ‘’He seems like a rather good bloke, the pope.”

“Philomena” stars Judi Dench in the title role as a woman who sought to locate her son, and Steve Coogan, as Martin Sixsmith, the journalist who accompanied her on her journey and wrote a 2009 book, which itself has been a catalyst for thousands of “shamed” Irish mothers who similarly lost their children to come forward.

In the story, Philomena Lee has kept the out-of-wedlock birth of her son secret for 50 years, while trying to locate him through the convent where she delivered him and was forced to work for four years to repay the nuns for taking her in. She and the other young mothers there were allowed to see their children for an hour a day.

Philomena’s child, Anthony, was adopted when he was 3. On his 50th birthday she grows a new determination to find out how his life turned out and if he ever thought of her — finally revealing her secret.

Associated Press