PARK CITY, Utah (AP) – Celebrity photographer-filmmaker David LaChapelle was arrested during the opening weekend of the Sundance Film Festival after a run-in with police.

LaChapelle was arrested early Saturday after police were called to control a crowd that had gathered as security attempted to escort two actresses from the Marquee Club on Main Street.

Summit County sheriff’s deputies said they asked LaChapelle several times to back up but he failed to comply.

LaChapelle was booked into the Summit County jail and later was released. He was cited for disorderly conduct.

Sundance Institute spokesman Patrick Hubley said LaChapelle’s arrest wouldn’t mar the festival’s image because the Marquee isn’t an official venue. He added that although LaChapelle is a filmmaker associated with the festival, he is also a private citizen.

LaChapelle was in Park City to debut his first full-length feature, “Rize,” which chronicles a dance movement in South-Central Los Angeles known as “krumping,” a high-energy dance where the performers dress as clowns.

Dylan will not attend book awards

NEW YORK (AP) – Bob Dylan, whose memoir “Chronicles, Vol. I” is nominated for a National Book Critics Circle prize, will likely be too busy with his day job to attend the March 18 ceremony.

“Bob Dylan is honored by the NBCC nomination, however, he’ll be on a concert tour in March,” Simon & Schuster spokeswoman Victoria Meyer said Tuesday. Meyer added that the publisher would “work with his office to see if there’s any way he can come to the NBCC ceremony.”

“Chronicles” was nominated Saturday in the biography/autobiography category, with other finalists including Ron Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton” and a biography of Shakespeare, Stephen Greenblatt’s “Will in the World.”

Virtually all literary efforts by rock stars, from the Kinks’ Ray Davies to Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, are laughed off by critics, but Dylan has been praised for an unusually rich and engaging book, writing passionately about influences such as Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson and recalling his years as a young singer-songwriter in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Dylan’s book, published last fall, also has enjoyed commercial success. Two more volumes are planned.

The National Book Critics Circle is a not-for-profit organization of about 600 book editors and critics.

Douglas to return to ‘80s films

BOMBAY, India (AP) – Michael Douglas will co-produce and star in “Racing the Monsoon,” an action adventure on the lines of his ‘80s films, “Romancing the Stone” and “The Jewel of the Nile.”

“It will be a thriller about a diamond robbery,” Shailendra Singh, founder of the Percept Picture Company, said Tuesday.

“There will be a lot of India in the film – an Indian diamond mine, an Indian train,” Singh said. “The train will be a crucial part of the film. The chase and most of the stunts will be on the train.”

Percept Picture Company will co-produce the movie with Douglas’ production house, Further Films, and another Indian company, Sahara One Motion Pictures.

“Michael will be acting in the movie and there will be one more Hollywood star,” said Singh. “The rest of the cast and crew will be Indian … Aishwarya Rai (“Bride & Prejudice”) is our preferred choice.”

Douglas, who was in Bombay Monday, told the Press Trust of India news agency that he hoped to start shooting next year.

He said the movie was inspired by a story that appeared in The Wall Street Journal about traditional Indian couriers called Angadias, who transfer money and uncut and polished diamonds from one Indian city to another, the news agency said.

Douglas, 60, starred with Kathleen Turner in the 1984 action flick, “Romancing the Stone.” “The Jewel of the Nile” featured the same pair a year later.

He won a best-actor Oscar in 1988 for “Wall Street.”

Canadian troupe invading U.S.

NEW YORK (AP) – Cirque du Soleil, the ever-hip Canadian troupe that’s more than a circus, and Clear Channel Entertainment, a major tour producer and marketer, are joining forces for a series of music concert events to tour North America.

The music concert series will begin its travels in November with 100 dates already set, both companies announced Tuesday.

“The show’s content will primarily be focused on music and will be presented in an arena configuration that has never been imagined,” said Jonathan Hochwald, who will oversee the project for Clear Channel. He declined to be more specific.

The tour has been designed to play one-night stands, Hochwald said, but if demand warrants, engagements may be extended. “We plan on presenting this show in markets that have experienced Cirque “tent’ shows as well as those that have not,” he said.

“This new creative platform is the first step to a long-term relationship with Clear Channel Entertainment,” said Eric Fournier, a Cirque du Soleil vice president.

Cirque du Soleil, which is based in Montreal, has toured the world with various extravaganzas. Among its current shows are three lavish entertainments playing in Las Vegas, with a fourth, “KA,” directed by Robert Lepage, scheduled to open Feb. 3 at the MGM Grand.

Combs wants in with Webber

LONDON (AP) – Hip-hop mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs could be a surprise bidder for part of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theater group, British media reported.

Combs’ New York-based Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group wouldn’t comment on the reports. Lloyd Webber, creator of “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Evita,” was coy about whether there had been an approach from Combs.

Lloyd Webber is sole owner of the Really Useful Group (RUG), a London-based company that manages the rights for his shows and retains 50 percent of the Really Useful Theatres company, which owns 11 theaters throughout London’s famed West End entertainment district.

Following several media reports on a possible sale of assets, Lloyd Webber’s office confirmed last week that he had received an inquiry “in relation to the acquisition of some parts of his businesses.” The statement added that the process was “in its formative stages and no decisions have yet been made.”

British media had generally described the possible sale as concerning the whole group, and said the Clear Channel media corporation was the likely buyer.

But newspapers on Monday said that Combs’ Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group could make a separate bid, focusing on four of RUG’s century-old theaters in London.

Jelinek refuses stampage

VIENNA, Austria (AP) – Elfriede Jelinek, the reclusive winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in literature, has turned down an offer by Austria’s post office to feature her image on a stamp.

Jelinek told postal officials she sought “no personal honors” and was uncomfortable with the idea of her face on a stamp, the newspaper Die Presse said Sunday. The $1.30 stamp would have featured her likeness and a reference to the Nobel Prize.

She didn’t attend the Dec. 10 Nobel festivities in Stockholm, Sweden, because of what she describes as “a social phobia.” She received the award in a small ceremony at the residence of the Swedish ambassador in Vienna.

Jelinek, 57, was the first literature laureate not to attend the Stockholm prize ceremony and the banquet since British-born Australian Patrick White in 1973.

Her most famous novel, “The Piano Teacher,” was adapted into a 2001 film that starred Isabelle Huppert.

Concert to remember Selena

HOUSTON (AP) – A three-hour concert to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Tejano singing star Selena has been set for Houston’s Reliant Stadium this spring.

Several performers, including Gloria Estefan and Thalia, are to participate in the event, to be broadcast live April 7 by the Univision Network.

“We can hardly believe it has been so long since she left us, but we are excited to help celebrate her life and her spirit,” said Houston Mayor Bill White.

Other performers who have signed on include Pepe Aguilar, Carlos Vives, Banda El Recodo, Alicia Villarreal, Aleks Syntek, Lucero, Ana Gabriel, Intocable and the Kumbia Kings.

Houston was the site of Selena’s final concert. She played at the Astrodome in February 1995 to more than 60,000 fans as part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

The following month, the 23-year-old singer was fatally shot at a Corpus Christi motel. The former president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, was convicted of the slaying and is serving a life prison term.

“I promised to keep my daughter’s memory alive through her music,” Abraham Quintanilla, Selena’s father, said last week. “And now, 10 years later, this event is a fitting celebration of not only her music, but her life, as well.”


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