Canne's prizes revive HK films
HONG KONG - By lifting the Golden Palm for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival this year, Tony Leung gave Hong Kong's drooping film industry a much needed boost.
Chinese erhu meets Western jazz
IT was a slightly unusual marriage - the Chinese erhu, an ancient Chinese stringed instrument, and a six-piece Japanese jazz band - so it was difficult to know what to expect as we arrived at the crowded Shanghai Centre Theatre for a recital titled "Shanghai Dream."
'Some Like It Hot' - century's best comedy
LOS ANGELES - "Some Like It Hot" and "Tootsie" - films in which some of Hollywood's great male stars dress up as women, were named on Tuesday as the two funniest American films of all time.
The aroma of Spanish wine
MIGUEL Torres, chief executive officer of the leading Spanish Torres Winery, was very enthusiastic introducing his wines in Shanghai two days ago despite the fact that his joint venture in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, is running in the red.
Lucky meeting brings singwes together
THE soft 1970s songs of Filipino band "Infinite" sounded enchanting in the Lobby Bar of the Huating Hotel as drizzle fell on the streets outside.
Striking the right note for kids' future
CHILDREN play pianos while their parents wait outside. A common scene in local piano schools.
Film-selling website to shut down
WASHINGTON - Reel.com, a website aimed at selling to film-goers, will shut down, the owners said on Monday, citing a cash crunch. The site owned by Hollywood Entertainment Corporation, which owns a large chain of video, became the latest victim of the Internet shakeout that has made it more difficult for upstarts to raise cash. "Closing Reel.com's e-commerce business was a difficult decision," said Hollywood Entertainment chairman Mark Wattles. "However, with Hollywood's stock dropping 75 per cent during the same period that the operating profits of Hollywood Video stores were up over 40 per cent, we could no longer justify funding the e-commerce business." He said the failure was the result of "the major declines in the value of publicly traded e-commerce companies" that made it impossible to raise cash to continue operations. A statement said the website will continue to operate to provide entertainment information, but that sales of videos, DVDs and other merchandise would be directed to buy.com. Hollywood Entertainment said it would incur an after-tax loss of approximately $25 million related to the shutdown. (Agencies via Xinhua)
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