NEW YORK : Producers of Clint Eastwood’s new movie “The Human Factor” have hired a private doctor to look after the director and the film’s veteran star Morgan Freeman on the set of their latest movie.

A doctor has been flown out to the African set to monitor Freeman who plays Nelson Mandela alongside Matt Damon in the upcoming drama. Movie bosses also want to make sure 78-year-old Eastwood is looked after during filming.

Producers are especially concerned about the health of Freeman due to his serious car accident last August that left him with a broken arm and shoulder and a paralysed hand. The passenger travelling with Freeman when his car left the road in Mississippi last August recently revealed that she is suing the actor for negligence following the crash.

“There’s a huge budget for the film at stake,” a source told the New York Daily News newspaper. “These guys are getting up there in age. Sure, they had physicals before leaving; everyone has to. But the private doctor was just an agreed upon decision on all sides of the table.”

Eastwood recently acknowledged he is getting old, but said his passion for films keeps him young at heart.

“I like taking it easy, I like golf and I like Budweiser. All that stuff is fine, but the main thing is I still like working, I think working keeps you young, I think it keeps your mind active. It’s like exercising your body – exercising your brain. Both of them are synonymous.”

- CNA/ap

Channel News Asia

LOS ANGELES : A female passenger who was seated beside Morgan Freeman when his car crashed last August has sued the Oscar-winning actor for negligence and wants to clear her name from claims that she was his mistress.

Demaris Meyer stated that she was not in a romantic relationship with Freeman and had met the actor at a country club where they dined with mutual friends on the night of the accident.

Meyer explained that she was riding with Freeman because they were going to his ranch, since it was closer to her work than a friend’s home where she originally planned to stay. She added that the actor assured her she would not only have her own bedroom at the ranch, but “her own house”

“I have been labelled as the ‘other woman’ and have been accused of having caused the breakup of Mr Freeman’s marriage. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Meyer said at a news conference in Los Angeles.

The crash happened on the night of August 3 in Charleston Mississippi when the actor lost control of his Nissan Maxima and struck a ditch and rolled over.

The lawsuit which Meyer filed also accuses Freeman of driving under the influence but he has not been charged him by Mississippi authorities.

Freeman suffered from a broken arm and elbow from the crash while Meyer, who was airlifted to a hospital, suffered numerous injuries, including a blow to the head resulting in cognitive difficulties and short-term memory loss.

In the lawsuit, she is seeking compensation to cover medical expenses and her permanent disability.

“We are confident this will all be resolved. We have no further comment on the current litigation,” said Freeman’s spokesman Ken Sunshine.

The 71-year-old actor who won an Oscar in 2005 for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” was separated from his wife of 24 years and was in the midst of a divorce at the time of crash.

- CNA/km

Channel News Asia

‘Kesan menerima anugerah ini masih belum saya rasai keseluruhannya.Ia berasa seperti sesuatu detik yang ikonik.’

Siapa: Pete Townsend, pemain gitar band legenda 1960-an, The Who.

Mengapa: Minggu lalu, beliau menerima anugerah Kennedy Center Honors kerana sumbangannya kepada budaya Amerika Syarikat.

Turut menerima anugerah itu ialah vokalis The Who, Roger Daltrey; penyanyi, Barbara Streisand; dan George Jones, pelakon Morgan Freeman; serta pereka tari, Twyla Tharp.

Cyberita

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood icon Robert Redford and Oscar-winner Russell Crowe have joined the growing ranks of stars opposed to a possible strike by the top actors union, it was reported on Thursday.

Redford and Crowe and other stars including Julianne Moore and Hilary Duff have added their names to a petition urging the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) board not to hold a strike ballot, Daily Variety reported.

The petition calls for SAG leaders to quickly accept a deal tabled by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), suggesting the union regroup and hammer out a stronger contract in three years’ time.

“As hard as it may be to wait those three years under an imperfect agreement, we believe this is what we must do,” the letter from petition organisers to SAG chiefs said.

“We think that a public statement should be made by SAG recognising that although this is not a deal we want, it is simply not a time when our union wants to have any part in creating more economic hardship while so many people are already suffering.”

On Monday, more than 130 stars including George Clooney, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman and Tom Hanks called on SAG union not to authorise a walkout.

SAG leaders announced last week they would hold a ballot of the union’s 120,000 members on January 2 to obtain authorisation required to call a strike following failed negotiations with Hollywood studios.

Although union leaders have said they want to avoid a stoppage, they said a vote giving them authorisation to call a strike will give them greater leverage at the bargaining table.

The actors union has been in a stand-off with AMPTP since a previous contract expired in June. Fresh attempts to broker a deal foundered in November.

The actors’ union is holding out for a greater share of royalties from sales and showings of work screened on the Internet.

The AMPTP said the actors’ demands are unreasonable and have refused to improve a final offer made in June, similar to other agreements reached with writers, directors and a smaller actors union.

- AFP/so

Channel News Asia

LOS ANGELES: Dozens of film industry’s biggest stars including Oscar winners George Clooney, Charlize Theron, Morgan Freeman and Tom Hanks have joined a last-ditch attempt to prevent an actors’ strike from crippling the Hollywood awards season for the second consecutive year.

The A-list performers registered their opposition in a letter that circulated on the Internet as union leaders, including Screen Actors Guild (SAG) President Alan Rosenberg met in New York City to seek support for a strike authorization.

The letter, sent to guild board members and staff is the latest sign of unhappiness with the leadership of the 120,000-strong union.

“We support our union and we support the issues we’re fighting for, but we do not believe now is the time to be putting people out of work,” said the letter, adding that a strike would create “economic hardship” for workers at every level of the movie business.

“We don’t think that an authorization can be looked at as merely a bargaining tool,” said the letter, signed by “Desperate Housewives” actress Eva Longoria Parker, “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire, among others. “It must be looked at as what it is – an agreement to strike if negotiations fail.”

Negotiations between SAG and the studios stalled earlier this year, and the actors have been working without a contract since the previous one expired June 30.

A federal mediator intervened last month, but broke off talks after two days, triggering SAG’s recent move to call for a strike-authorization vote.

The guild wants terms that are better than the deals accepted by directors, writers, stagehands and another actors union earlier in the year.

It is seeking union coverage for all Internet-only productions regardless of budget, residual payments for Internet productions replayed in ad-supported platforms online, and continued actor benefits during work stoppages, including those caused by strikes by other unions.

Any strike would plunge the entertainment industry into chaos, and could threaten award shows such as the Oscars, which takes place on February 22.

Last year, a 100-day walkout by screenwriters created havoc and up to US$2 billion in losses, according to some estimates.

- CNA/jk

Channel News Asia