newsmakers

newsmakers

Al Pacino looks to diversify, not retire

NEW YORK

Al Pacino says he can relate to Simon Axler, the lead character in his film “The Humbling” — about an aging actor who worries he’s lost his craft and his appetite for acting.

That’s partly why he made the film. “I thought I had a better chance of making a movie that was effective because it was about a world I understood,” the Oscar-winning actor said in a recent interview to promote the film.

Adapted from Philip Roth’s 2009 novel, “The Humbling” was directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Levinson and co-stars Golden Globe nominee Greta Gerwig.

At 74, Pacino says that at times he feels his age. “I do feel differently. I don’t quite get up from this table the same way. I may want to, but I don’t.”

Yet the actor says the similarities end there. Simon may be ready to give up acting, but Pacino is not.

“Acting, especially if you’ve done it as long as I have,” he said, “it becomes such a part of your nature you rarely ever think about quitting or anything like that.”

Spain hunts for Cervantes’ remains

MADRID

Forensic experts began excavating graves and examining bones Saturday in a tiny chapel in Madrid, hoping to solve the centuries-old mystery of exactly where the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes was laid to rest.

The author of “Don Quixote” was buried in 1616 at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in Madrid’s historic Barrio de las Letras, or Literary Quarter, but the exact whereabouts of his grave within the convent chapel are unknown.

A team of archaeologists and anthropologists decided to start excavations at the site after identifying what it believes are three unrecorded and unidentified graves in the chapel’s crypt.

Cervantes is a towering figure in Spanish culture. His novel — “The Adventures of the Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha” — changed Spanish literature.

“Were we to find remains that fulfill the characteristics we are looking for, we could possibly pass to a next stage. That would be to compare DNA similarities with his sister, but that is a very complex step,” said Francisco Etxeberria, a forensic medicine specialist from the University of the Basque Country.

The author’s sister, Luisa de Cervantes, was buried in a convent 19 miles east of Madrid, where she was interred in 1623.

‘Deadheads’ ask to camp out during Chicago concerts

CHICAGO

Fans of the Grateful Dead want a camp-out style atmosphere during three 50th anniversary concerts in July at Chicago’s Soldier Field, but whether the venue will allow it is another question.

Jeremy Davis, of Florida, started an online petition — which had about 8,000 signatures by Saturday —asking that overnight parking be allowed in lots surrounding the stadium along Lake Michigan.

Officials in Chicago said many factors have to be considered, among them safety.

They said an evaluation would take place over the coming weeks.

Associated Press