NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Trade instrument for tickets to hear Manilow

NEW ORLEANS

Singer-songwriter Barry Manilow is trying to help spur donations of musical instruments to the International School of Louisiana in New Orleans.

Manilow plans to donate a Yamaha piano to launch the instrument drive, and anyone who donates a new or gently used instrument between now and Friday will receive two free tickets to his 7:30 p.m. Friday show at the Smoothie King Center.

The Manilow Music Project has conducted similar instrument drives all over the country to help “bring the gift of music” to kids.

Joseph Fiennes to play Michael Jackson

LONDON

Joseph Fiennes will star as Michael Jackson in a one-off TV comedy set to broadcast later this year – a casting decision that has added fuel to a raging debate about opportunities for nonwhite actors in movies and TV.

The white British star of “Shakespeare in Love” plays the black King of Pop in “Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon,” alongside Stockard Channing as Elizabeth Taylor and Brian Cox as Marlon Brando.

The script is based on a – possibly fictitious – road trip the three stars are rumored to have made in an attempt to leave New York after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Sky Arts, which commissioned the drama, confirmed the casting and said Wednesday that the show is in post-production and is due to air in 2016.

Jackson had vitiligo, a condition that causes patchy loss of skin pigmentation, and his complexion lightened dramatically as he grew older. He died in 2009 at age 50.

Associated Press