Gérard Depardieu has criticised American actor George Clooney for getting involved in politics.
Appearing at the Berlin film festival on Friday to promote his new film Saint Amour – in which he plays a bull farmer – the French actor noted that Clooney had met German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin last week to discuss the refugee crisis.
“I saw that Mr George Clooney wanted to see Mrs Merkel. I worry that it went badly,” he said. “It’s good that now you can be an actor and a ecologist and a politician – you can do everything.” – Reuters
Salman Khan hears from top Indian Court
The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Bollywood star Salman Khan about the Maharashtra government’s petition challenging the Bombay High Court verdict in December that acquitted him in a 2002 case, in which a pedestrian was killed by his car.
The bench – Justice Jagjit Singh Khehar and Justice C Nagappan – told Khan that “it would be much, much better if he gets acquittal from this court as it will save him from all the repercussions”.
The high court on December 10 acquitted the actor saying that “prosecution has failed to prove the charges against him on all counts”.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Khan, had contended that his conviction was based on the testimony of a police official that could not be relied upon. – IANS
Edward Snowden film release delayed
The release date of director Oliver Stone's biographical political thriller, Snowden, has been pushed back from May 13 to September 16 this year, according to variety.com.
The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as American whistleblower Edward Snowden. Shailene Woodley plays his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, while the cast also includes Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Olyphant.
The film was originally set to open in December last year, but the producers decided last October to move it back to May.
The movie is based on Luke Harding's book The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man, and Time of the Octopus, written by Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena.
Snowden was charged in 2013 by the US Department of Justice with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property, and his passport was revoked a week later. He was granted temporary asylum by Russia in 2014. – IANS
Shatrughan Sinha biography launched
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan helped launch the biography of Bollywood actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, which was written by columnist, critic and author Bharathi S Pradhan.
"With Anything But Khamosh, Om Books International, Shatrughan Sinha and I have truly raised the bar for a page-turning, honest read," said Pradham. "The book launch was befitting of the most honest biography of India."
One of the highlights of the event was the reading of an excerpt from Anything But Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography by Sinha's daughter Sonakshi.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha was also present, along with filmmaker Subhash Ghai.
The 338-page book traces the highs and lows of one of India’s most-popular figures and is based on seven years of research, 37 interviews and more than 200 hours of taped conversations, according the author. – IANS
