Quick Takes: Susan Boyle, the musical - Los Angeles Times
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Quick Takes: Susan Boyle, the musical

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The spectacular rise to fame of singer Susan Boyle is being turned into a stage musical that will tour Britain, the United States and Australia.

Scottish actress Elaine C. Smith has been cast as Boyle, a shy, fortysomething church volunteer from a Scottish town who became an Internet sensation through her performance on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent†in 2009.

She went on to top the British and U.S. album charts and has sold more than 14 million records.

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Producer Michael Harrison said Friday that Boyle’s story has “all the qualities of a fairy tale, but with the added bonus of being absolutely true.â€

The show, “I Dreamed a Dream,†is due to open in March in Newcastle, northeast England, before a six-month tour.

—Associated Press

‘Friday’ video pulled in dispute

Rebecca Black’s official “Friday†music video has been taken off YouTube.

The page where the video starring the 13-year-old singer once played now says it “is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Rebecca Black.â€

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A spokesman for Black said that her representatives sent a takedown notice to YouTube because of a dispute over the video with Ark Music Factory, the company Black’s parents paid $4,000 to produce the song and video.

Earlier this week, the firm began charging viewers $2.99 to watch the clip.

Lawyers for Black and Ark Music have been haggling over who owns the rights to everything associated with “Friday†since it became a sensation earlier this year.

—Associated Press

Wayne Brady to host TV awards

Wayne Brady is right at home amid the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas, so he jumped at the chance to put on the old razzle-dazzle as host of the Daytime Emmys.

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Brady first hosted the awards honoring everything from soap operas to game shows to talk shows in 2003. Now, he’s back for the 38th annual shindig airing from the Las Vegas Hilton on Sunday night on CBS.

Brady, whose old talk show won four Daytime Emmys, will sing and dance during the two-hour show, which opens with him performing alongside Jabbawockeez, an all-male hip-hop crew that has its own show on the Strip.

“We’re featuring tons of people that perform in Vegas,†he said. Among them are Marie Osmond, Gladys Knight, Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group.

The Daytime Emmys will pay tribute to Oprah Winfrey, who recently ended her lauded talk show after 25 years. She’ll receive the Crystal Pillar award for changing the face of daytime television.

—Associated Press

Movie academy picks 178 invitees

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Friday that it was extending membership invitations to 178 actors, directors, executives and others, including Ellen Page, Anthony Mackie, Russell Brand, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lawrence.

The group said that its membership policies would have allowed up to 211 new members in 2011 but that several branch committees endorsed fewer candidates than were proposed to them. Voting membership has held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003.

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In an unprecedented gesture, documentary filmmaker Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya in April, was listed among the invitees. Hetherington was an Oscar nominee this year for his film “Restrepo.†The Documentary Branch proposed that his name be included among the 2011 invitees, and the governors agreed.

The complete list of invitees can be viewed on the Awards Tracker blog at latimes.com/awards.

—Julie Makinen

Aronofsky will helm HBO pilot

Darren Aronofsky, the Oscar-nominated director of “Black Swan,†will direct the pilot for an HBO series created by novelists Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman.

Chabon and Waldman, who are married, have been working together on “Hobgoblin.†Little is known about the project other than that it involves magicians and con men using their unique skills to combat Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Waldman, the author of 10 novels and 2009’s controversial nonfiction book “Bad Mother,†shared the Aronofsky news on her Facebook page Thursday night.

—Carolyn Kellogg

Sen. Brown gets book advance

Financial disclosure reports show Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) received a $700,000 book advance from publishers HarperCollins following his surprise election win.

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Though it was his stunning victory in a state better known for electing liberal Democrats that made Brown a hero in GOP circles, it was his revelations about his sexual abuse as a child that helped spike interest in his memoir “Against All Odds.â€

The Republican won the January 2010 special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.

—Associated Press

Douglas case hits a N.Y. roadblock

Michael Douglas’ ex-wife has lost a bid to revive her quest for half his “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps†earnings in a New York court.

Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Matthew F. Cooper reiterated in a ruling dated Thursday that the dispute belongs in California, where the couple divorced in 2000 after 23 years together. Cooper threw out Diandra Douglas’ suit in November, but she asked him to reconsider.

Michael Douglas’ lawyer said she hopes this will be the last of the case. Diandra Douglas’ lawyer couldn’t be reached but had said previously she would appeal.

Diandra Douglas maintains that a provision in the couple’s divorce deal entitles her to half his proceeds from last year’s follow-up to 1987’s “Wall Street.â€

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—Associated Press

Alabama raises relief money

Tuesday’s Bama Rising tornado relief benefit concert headlined by the country music group Alabama raised more than $2 million, organizers said.

More than 13,000 people attended the concert in Birmingham, Ala., to help raise money for recovery efforts throughout the state.

—Associated Press

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