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MOSCOW – VLADIMIR Komarov always cherished his signed photo of French actress Brigitte Bardot, but has cashed it in to pay for an operation, the popular Russian daily Tvoi Den reported on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old miner from the Ural region wrote a love letter to the blonde star of And God Created Woman when he was a boy, receiving an autographed picture from Bardot in return.

Suffering from a lung disease, Komarov put his prized possession up for sale to pay for the surgery, getting 61,000 rubles (around S$2,800) in return.

‘Without this operation I will die. I would never have wanted to sell this photograph, but I have no other option,’ explained the miner, who is pictured in the Russian newspaper holding the famous photo in his hand. — AFP

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LOS ANGELES – MTV, which made its name as the home of the music video three decades ago, will launch a drive into scripted original programs on Friday that executives hope will mark a new era for the youth-oriented cable channel.

At a time when many TV studios are reducing expensive scripted dramas and comedies, MTV is expanding its horizons beyond its current reality-heavy slate and making original movies and series on a tight budget.

‘A big part of our mission as we go forward is to add scripted programming, animation, comedy and long-form movies to the mix,’ said Tony DiSanto, president of programming at MTV, a unit of Viacom Inc .

Friday’s premiere of ‘My Super Psycho Sweet 16″, a horror movie inspired by the hit MTV reality series ‘My Super Sweet 16″, is the first of four original movies due to air over the next 12 months. Other programs in the works include a comedy series and a US remake of the British teen drama ‘Skins’.

Mr DiSanto said ‘My Super Psycho Sweet 16″, shot in Atlanta, Georgia to maximize tax credits, ‘cost us less than than two half-hour episodes of ‘The Hills”. It went from script to finished production in six months.

MTV declined to say how much it was investing in the productions. — REUTERS

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WASHINGTON – AN AVIATION museum in the US state of Ohio that believed it was displaying a hair sample from famed flyer Amelia Earhart made an unfortunate discovery, after DNA analysis revealed it to be a piece of thread.

‘In a disappointing turn of events,’ as Cleveland’s International Women’s Air and Space Museum described it in a statement, the lock of ‘hair’ in their possession since 1986 was revealed as thread only after they put it on display this year.

Museum officials said they had confidence in the artifact, having been recovered by a maid at the White House after Earhart – a friend of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt – stayed there shortly before her final flight.

‘It was always believed it was her hair,’ Heather Alexander, the museum’s office manager, told AFP.

The museum had lent a small sample of the ‘hair’ to a historian’s organisation hoping to uncover the truth of Earhart’s demise and seeking to match DNA to other artifacts found on the central Pacific island of Nikumororo.

The thread remains on display at the museum as part of an Earhart exhibition that is on show until Nov 15. ‘We’ve changed the sign and explained everything,’ assured Ms Alexander. — AFP

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JERUSALEM – THE founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia said on Wednesday he had entered into a partnership with computer company Hewlett Packard that will allow users to create and print magazines.

Jimmy Wales, founder of the user-edited Wikipedia, said users will be able to publish personal magazines using content from Wikia sites.

Traditional magazine readership is in decline, with some closing, and the new initiative is aimed at the wealth of information on the Internet that can be personalised.

Using HP’s MagCloud, users will be able to print on-demand magazines from Wikia’s more than 50,000 communities and 3 million pages of content.

To publish a glossy, full-colour magazine for friends, the coffee table or mass distribution, Wikia users select the content and cover page, and then order their request through MagCloud, HP said in a statement. — REUTERS

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NASSAU (Bahamas) – A JUDGE in the Bahamas has ordered a retrial in the John Travolta extortion case because of possible juror misconduct.

Judge Anita Allen issued the order on Wednesday after a local politician said in a speech on TV and radio that one of the defendants had been acquitted after the monthlong court case.

Ms Allen did not set a date for a new trial.

An ambulance driver and his lawyer were charged with trying to extort US$25 million (S$35 million) from John Travolta following the death of the actor’s son.

Travolta attorney Michael Ossi said he will cooperate in any way possible and testify again if necessary. — AP

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