Latest news with #$AP
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Breaking Baz @Cannes: Spike Lee Croons Rodgers & Hammerstein On The Beach But Tunes Out As Talk Turns To Him Making A Movie Musical His Next Project
The sound system at the Carlton Beach was blasting out James Brown's 'The Boss' while, incongruously, Spike Lee was engaged in a Rodgers and Hammerstein sing-along. 'There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow,' Lee crooned. 'The corn is as high as a elephant's eye,an' it looks like it's climbin' clear up to the sky.' More from Deadline Cannes Film Festival Photos Day 7: Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Dakota Johnson 'Highest 2 Lowest,' 'Splitsville' & Alpha Premieres Denzel Washington Gets Surprise Honorary Palme d'Or At Cannes Ahead Of 'Highest 2 Lowest' Premiere Mediawan's Moment: How A French Producer Became A Magnet For The Storytellers Behind 'Adolescence' & 'Slow Horses' Lee cleared his throat and cried, 'That's juxtaposition, right there. That's juxtaposition.' I joined him on the 'Oh, what a beautiful mornin'! Oh, what a beautiful day!' chorus. I jokingly suggested that we do 'The Surrey with the Fringe on Top' next, but Lee shrugged that off. There was a point to the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein tribute. Lee's great movie Highest 2 Lowest opens with Matthew Libatique's cameras taking in the Manhattan skyline as the city awakes. 'The skyscrapers are the corn as high as an elephant's eye,' says Lee, smiling as his longtime editor Barry Alexander Brown joins us on a couch. RELATED: They came up with the 'Oh, what a beautiful mornin'' idea early on in the shoot. Funny how a song that landed on Broadway 82 years ago feels as if it could've been written yesterday. Great classic show tunes can be molded like Shakespeare to fit any moment, and boy-oh-boy, Oklahoma's opening number fits Highest 2 Lowest like a glove. Musicals are on Lee's mind. His next film will be a musical. I asked whether it's going to be Boner, a song and dance about the creation of Viagra. I get straight to the point, and as I'm about to hum James Brown's 'Get Up (I Feel Like being a) Sex Machine,' Lee's having none of it. 'I don't know nothing about a musical,' he says with a glint in his eye as he looks around at revelers enjoying the soiree hosted by A24. I push some more, and he merrily repeats his mantra: 'I don't know nothing. I don't know nothing about a musical. I don't know, I don't know.' RELATED: He starts talking about working with his old friend Denzel Washington, who he cast as a record executive in Highest 2 Lowest, and how the electrifying scenes between Washington and A$AP Rocky came about. 'It's generational,' says Spike. 'Put Denzel and Rocky in a room with a camera trained on them, and you just capture what happens,' he says. RELATED: A$AP tells me later that he 'loved' acting opposite Washington and 'learned so much' and is eager to find 'the right role' for another film. I go back to Mr. Spike Lee about the movie musical, but he's giving nothing away. 'How long we known each other?' he laughs. 'I enjoy not telling you.' When we were younger, we used to get mad at each other. We had a huge fight 30 years ago, but now we just laugh. RELATED: In any case, we're interrupted by Cuba Gooding Jr, and we chat about other stuff. Element Pictures' Ed Guiney get into a conversation about Akinola Davies Jr.'s sublime My Father's Shadow and how they're already discussing a second film. It's a thriller about oil, politics and corruption that also will be set in Nigeria. 'It's at an early stage,' Guiney cautions. 'The script's still being developed.' Taraji P. Henson flew in late and missed seeing Highest 2 Lowest. 'It's on my list to see,' she says, going on to tell me that she's in town to host the annual amfAR Cannes gala on Thursday over at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden Roc. I talk some more with A$AP Rocky, and I can't deny that I'm beguiled by his gold gnashers, which is so rude of me, but I can't help it. We're joined by music producer Gatsby Randolph (Who Is Gatsby Randolph), who kindly invites me to have lunch on his yacht. I cannot fathom whether what Randolph is telling me is bullsh*t or not. He claims he's legit. In any case, I shall not be taking him up on his kind invitation. I prefer dry land. RELATED: Full List Of Cannes Palme d'Or Winners Through The Years: Photo Gallery Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies In Order - See Tom Cruise's 30-Year Journey As Ethan Hunt Denzel Washington's Career In Pictures: From 'Carbon Copy' To 'The Equalizer 3'
Associated Press
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
A$AP Rocky's friend-turned-accuser to testify at LA shooting trial
A$AP Rocky's accuser, former friend and the key witness at his trial is set to take the stand Tuesday afternoon. Rocky, the rapper and partner of Rihanna, has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for allegedly firing at the friend who goes by A$AP Relli. Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, met Relli, born Terell Ephron, in high school in New York when both were part of a crew of creators who called themselves A$AP — which stands for Always Strive and Prosper. They remained close for years, as Rocky's star rose. But their relationship soured, coming to a head on Nov. 6, 2021, when the two aired their grievances in a confrontation on the streets of Hollywood. Prosecutors say Rocky pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at Relli, who says the bullet grazed his knuckles. The defense argues Relli was the aggressor, and Rocky fired a starter pistol to break up a fight between him and another member of their crew. They said Rocky carried the pistol, which only shoots blanks, for security. Before the jury was brought in, the defense revealed that they do not have the pistol. 'Does the prop gun exist?' Judge Matthew Arnold asked. 'The prop gun did exist,' Rocky's lawyer Joe Tacopina said. 'It does not now. We don't have it.' Rocky's lawyers said Relli, who has also filed a civil lawsuit, is driven by 'jealousy, lies and greed' and fabricated large parts of the story to get money. Earlier Tuesday, the defense cross-examined a police officer who responded to reports of a shooting about the absence of evidence at the scene. 'There was no sign of a shooting?' Tacopina asked. 'No,' said Sgt. Thomas Zizzo. 'No blood?' 'No.' 'No bullet holes?' 'No.' No shell casings? 'No.' 'No physical evidence that a shooting happened at all?' 'No.' Days after the shooting, Relli himself brought two shell casings to police that he said he had found at the scene after the police had searched. Video from Zizzo's body camera played in court, showing seven officers who searched the scene and found nothing. In earlier testimony Friday, Zizzo said that while police searched thoroughly, 'we may have missed something.' The officer, who served in the Hollywood area, is the son of Erika Jayne, former star of 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' and ex-wife of Tom Girardi, a disgraced and disbarred star lawyer who is awaiting sentencing at his own downtown LA trial. Rocky sat in the courtroom next to his lawyers and watched stoically, wearing a tan sport coat with black slacks. His mother and sister sat in his section, as they have throughout the trial.
