Today's Buzz stories
From staff and wire reports |
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Will Smith nixes hotel idea
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The Fresh Prince has given up on plans to develop a hotel in his hometown.
Philadelphia-born actor and rapper Will Smith had won preliminary city approval several years ago to build a hotel and retail complex on a derelict property in the city's centuries-old Society Hill section.
The luxury hotel would have had views of the Delaware River and been within walking distance of tourist attractions like South Street and Independence Hall. The city had pledged $9 million in tax incentives to help the development take place.
But the project stalled in recent years as the hotel market softened, and Smith and his brother have now sold the vacant lot where the complex was to have been built. The sale price was $10.5 million, about three times what the family paid for the parcel five years ago.
The new owners, Sant Properties, have a plan to build condominiums.
Before its demolition in 2002, the site was formerly home to a complex of shops and restaurants known as the NewMarket. The site had fallen into disrepair before it was bought by the Smiths.
Smith's real-estate company, Treyball Development, has invested millions of dollars in buildings around the city. They have included a former furniture company, a small office building and a funeral home.
An official band
NEW YORK (AP) -- At a downtown club, Tommy Ramone listened carefully to a band unlike any other. On drums: The U.S. ambassador to Russia. On lead guitar: The Hungarian ambassador to the United States.
"They're great!" declared Ramone, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The C.J.T.F. Band -- an insiders' reference to NATO Combined Joint Task Force -- also includes Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield Jr. on bass guitar and guitarist Dan Poneman, an old Washington hand and an authority on North Korea. At stage center was a defense and intelligence technology consultant, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, for years the guitarist of the Doobie Brothers.
The proceeds of the show at the Knitting Factory on Saturday are going to the victims of Asia's tsunami.
The core band started about a dozen years ago in Brussels, when the 52-year-old American ambassador to Moscow, Alexander "Sandy" Vershbow, was the U.S. representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the ambassador to Washington, Andras Simonyi, was Hungary's emissary to NATO.
They now play at least one public concert a year. Last year's was in Washington, and they're planning to take the band on an East European gig soon.
Simonyi said he remembers listening to his favorite song, Steve Winwood's "Dear Mr. Fantasy," coming from the radio late at night when he was a young man. "Winwood fit my dream about living in a free world," said Simonyi, with sweat dripping from his brow as he launched into the song.
New Nine Inch Nails
NEW YORK (Billboard) -- The long-awaited new Nine Inch Nails album finally has a name, but still no firm release date.
Group mastermind Trent Reznor unveiled the title "With Teeth" on NIN's official Web site (http://www.nin.com), having scrapped the original name, "Bleedthrough," in November. Sources say the set will arrive in the spring via Interscope.
" 'With Teeth' is finished," Reznor said. "The band is rehearsing. I can't wait to present this music to you on your stereo and in your town." He added, "this is a more lyric-based record than (1999's) 'The Fragile' " and that "the tracks were very thought out and realized and didn't mutate that dramatically through the (mixing) process."
In a recent development, sources say longtime NIN collaborators Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser have parted ways with the group, and that Reznor has already hired replacements for the upcoming tour.
Reznor self-produced "With Teeth" with assistance from noted producer/engineer Alan Moulder. Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl plays drums on the album, which is being simultaneously mixed in stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.
In late November, Interscope released a deluxe edition of NIN's 1994 album "The Downward Spiral" as well as a dual-disc DVD-audio edition of the set. Reznor said he would also "like to eventually release a deluxe version" of his 1989 album "Pretty Hate Machine," but "there is the additional hassle of dealing with TVT Records, who I was signed to at the time. So, I don't know how possible that is."
Brooks gets award
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Producer-director James L. Brooks will add an Eddie to his shelf of Oscars and Emmys.
Brooks will receive the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year award on February 20 in Beverly Hills.
The award is one of several handed out by American Cinema Editors.
Brooks is being honored for "his consistent excellence and craftsmanship and his unique ability to capture the human spirit on screens big and small," the group's board of directors said in a statement Friday.
Brooks has produced such movies as "Terms of Endearment," "Jerry Maguire" and the current "Spanglish." He has been executive producer on such hit shows as "Taxi" and "The Simpsons."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
