SYDNEY – A New Zealand political party has been ordered to pay more than US$400,000 (S$545,000) to US rapper Eminem for using music similar to his 2002 hit “Lose Yourself” in a television commercial to help win a national election.

The track, played during the National Party’s successful 2014 election campaign and titled “Eminem Esque”, was found by a New Zealand court to have “substantially copied” Lose Yourself.

The National Party used the song 186 times during the campaign before taking the ad off the air, the court said.

“This decision is a warning to sound-alike music producers and their clients everywhere,” Adam Simpson, director of Simpsons Solicitors, who acted for Eminem’s music company, Eight Mile Style, said in a statement.

The National Party said the music was licensed with one of New Zealand’s main industry copyright bodies, the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS).

“Being licensed and available for purchase, and having taken advice from our suppliers, the party believed the purchase was legal,” National Party President Peter Goodfellow said in a statement.

“The party is now considering the implications of the judgment and the next steps. We already have a claim against the suppliers and licensors of the track.” The Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society was not immediately available for comment.

The court found Eight Mile Style was entitled to damages of NZ$600,000 (S$17,000) with interest from June 28, 2014.

The publisher had exclusive control over the song, and rarely gave permission for its use in advertising, the court said.

“It was no coincidence that the works sounded the same and the undeniable inference to be drawn from the evidence is that the composer of Eminem Esque had ‘Lose Yourself’ in front of him at the time of composition,” the court added.  

Willie Chan, the Malaysian-born film producer and talent manager who made Jackie Chan a star and gave Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh her first acting job, has died. He was 76.

Variety reported that Chan died in his sleep on Tuesday (Oct 24).

Born Chan Chi Keung in 1941, Willie moved to Hong Kong in 1970. There, he worked as a film producer, and met Jackie Chan who was still working as a stunt man at the time.

With the Hong Kong entertainment industry looking for a new martial arts star after Bruce Lee’s death in 1973, Willie earmarked Jackie as a future star, and got him his first leading role in 1976 film New Fist Of Fury.

Willie would go on to be the superstar’s manager for 38 years, until 2009, when Jackie’s fame grew to the point where Willie could not help him any longer.

“Gradually he became so popular that fame went to his head a little, he didn’t need my help anymore and I couldn’t help him with much,” he said in a 2014 interview with Hong Kong’s Commercial Radio. “There would be many high-ranking officials at the same table, or rich men and yes men. My words fell on deaf ears.”

Besides his work with Jackie, Willie was also instrumental in kickstarting Yeoh’s career in entertainment.

In an interview with The Star in 1998, Chan recalled how he met Yeoh for the very first time in 1983 at their hometown of Ipoh. It was just after the former Miss Malaysia had returned from the Miss World pageant in London.

“I first met Michelle at a friend’s party in Ipoh,” recalled Chan in the interview. “She looked very attractive then but I did not approach her as I thought she was someone’s girlfriend at the party, and it wouldn’t be nice of me to ask her if she wanted to become a star.”

However, Yeoh had made such an impression on Willie that when he was looking for a fresh face for a commercial, he decided to approach her for the role.

After the commercial stint, Yeoh decided join the entertainment industry full-time, and consulted Willie to see if she should sign up with Dickson Poon’s D&B Films, Golden Harvest or Jackie Chan’s company.

“I told her she should join D&B Films. We did not think a frail-looking girl like Michelle could fight the way she does now!” Willie recalled.

Yeoh would go on to achieve stardom with the Jackie Chan film Police Story 3: Super Cop, which was also co-produced by Willie.

Willie also produced Stanley Kwan’s acclaimed drama Centre Stage in 1991, and got his only Hong Kong Film Awards nomination as a producer in 2010 when Jackie’s Shinjuku Incident was nominated in the Best Film category.

Read more at http://www.star2.com/entertainment/2017/10/25/willie-chan-dies-jackie-chan-michelle-yeoh/#Puu1fDrjq3zSA9zp.99

As more women are coming forward with their personal accounts of how movie mogul Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually harrassed them, the waves of the #MeToo movement have reached Singapore’s shores.

Singaporean actress Caitanya Tan has come forward to share her own experience with Weinstein.

In an interview with Ivan Lim in The Pride, she recounts how she met the Hollywood producer on the red carpet at the 5th Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong in 2011.

Caitanya was 24 at the time and on a two-year stint as a host in the Golden Mickeys show in Disneyland.

When Weinstein pulled up in his limousine, Caitanya and her friends were excited to see him, knowing that if they made an impression on him, they could land a role in one of his movies.

She remembered how her heart sank when the producer just shook their hands and walked on.

However, he soon turned back.

According to Caitanya, he asked her if she was an actress.

She eagerly replied that she was, to which he replied, “I have a couple of scripts with me”.

This made Caitanya excited…until he told her that the scripts were in his room.

“Wait. What? Room? As in your office?” Caitanya asked.

“He said, ‘No, they’re in my hotel room. Would you like to come up to my room to have a read’?” said Caitanya. “I told him: I want to read your script, but not in your hotel room.”

He then began to walk away but turned back again to ask her if she was sure.

He added: “Do you know who I am? Do you know I can make you very famous?”

His final sentence shook Caitanya who suddenly realised that the stories of women being victims of the casting couch were real.

“I told him, maybe it’s my ego, but I don’t want to be famous like this.” she said.

This was before Weinstein’s astounding number of sexual harassment allegations came to light.

Caitanya, who is now 30, was lucky to escape unharmed from the encounter and said that she has not had any similar experiences with producers or directors in Singapore.

However, she believes that sexual harassment is very much alive here from stories she has heard from other local actresses.

Read the full story on The Pride.