The major film studios and TV networks are planning to make the Screen Actors Guild
"a last, best and final offer" as early as next week, Daily Variety reported
today (Friday), citing no sources. If the guild refuses to accept it or does not
back off from demands for higher DVD and Internet residuals than those agreed to by
the DGA, WGA and AFTRA, production will halt at the end of June, the expiration of
the current agreement, the trade publication said. Such a situation would inevitably
result in delaying the start of the fall TV season, industry observers noted, a situation
that has not occurred since the writers' strike of 1988.
20/06/2008
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The auction house thought the portrait was a 17th century Rembrandt knockoff, and valued it at just $3,100. But the British buyer who paid about 1,500 times more than that apparently knew what he was doing.
Experts have confirmed "Rembrandt Laughing" - bought for a bargain price of $4.5 million at an English auction house in October - is a self-portrait by the Dutch master himself, depicted with his head tilted back in easygoing laughter.
William Noortman from Noortman Master Paintings, specializing in Dutch and Flemish masters, said it's worth $30 million to $40 million, adding: "I'm very surprised it didn't make more at auction."
The 24-centimetre-by-16.5-centimetre painting will hang in the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam through June 29, on loan from the anonymous Briton who bought it at the auction by Moore, Allen and Innocent in Gloucestershire and had it cleaned and examined by British experts.
Art expert Jan Six from another auction house, Sotheby's, declined to put a new value on the painting. But he said the sale itself was a rare opportunity, as Rembrandt's works come on the market only once every few years.
"A self-portrait by Rembrandt, that's absolutely unique - not in my lifetime," Six said.
Rembrandt made the self-portrait about 1628, when he was in his early 20s and still in his hometown, Leiden. Already he was earning his reputation as an artist, and experimenting with a mirror and his own face to capture expressions.
"It has an incredible presence," said Ernst van de Wetering, head of the Rembrandt Research Project and an authority on the Dutch master. "The light has the most natural quality of light you can think of. ... and I love the naturalness of the laughing."
The painting previously had been in the hands of an English family for more than 100 years, according to Moore, Allen and Innocent. Some had assumed it to be by one of Rembrandt's students or a Rembrandt imitator.
Van de Wetering said he thought the auction house's low evaluation had been based on poor photographs that showed little of the painting's luminosity or depth.
But in a 23-page analysis published Friday, Van de Wetering described why Rembrandt was almost certainly the creator of the little work: Brush stroke, contour, materials and the monogram all point to the master's hand.
The auction's winner may have suspected the painting was a genuine Rembrandt from the monogram RHL, painted in a rare style that the artist only used for about a year. It stands for Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden. The auction house wrote the signature as "HL" in its assessment.
The initials become more compelling proof when considering that they were painted onto the wet paint of the background, and that the direction of the brush strokes match another monogram known to be Rembrandt's.
Experts also were confused by the shape of the laughing Rembrandt's body. The clothing - a woolly blanket, metal armour and glossy shirt - appear amorphous, lying in lumpy folds with little description of the anatomy below. Yet the contour has a character of its own, one that is repeated in some of his later works.
"If you look at this contour, it has a certain autonomy," Van de Wetering said, adding that it may have been one of the first times Rembrandt tested out this way of painting the body.
The thin copper plate on which the piece is painted matches in size and type with others used in other Rembrandt paintings.
X-rays reveal a second painting underneath - its content and composition also consistent with other Rembrandt works.
It is unclear where the painting had been before 1800, when a Flemish engraver made a reproductive print and attributed the original to the Dutch painter Frans Hals without realizing the face in the picture was that of Rembrandt.
"After that there is silence about the painting; we don't know where it stayed," Van de Wetering said.
After a seven-month investigation into the discovery of a dozen malnourished pit bulls and a large weapons cache at DMX's Cave Creek, Arizona, home back in late August, the rapper has been formally indicted on seven misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and four felony drug possession charges, according to the Maricopa County sheriff's office.
A search warrant for his home was executed just before 3 a.m. on Friday morning (May 9), during which detectives seized even more weapons and drugs, which ultimately led to the filing of an additional drug possession charge. Police removed five pit bull puppies from the rapper's home and took them to a nearby prison, where they will be cared for by female inmates.
According to police, DMX (born Earl Simmons) attempted to barricade himself in his bedroom when police arrived to detain him, but he was eventually talked into coming out and offered no further resistance. He was brought to a nearby jail, where he was booked and processed.
The charges stem from an August 24 raid, during which police removed 12 pit bulls from DMX's home and unearthed a collection of weapons. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told MTV News that the dogs "weren't getting proper food, they weren't getting proper water, and they were tied outside in 115-degree heat." Until now, DMX had not been charged with a single crime related to that incident.
In August, police also discovered the charred remains of at least one dog, after digging up portions of DMX's backyard. Detectives at the time said they'd be investigating the rapper's possible involvement in illegal dogfighting.
"A guy like this DMX character, with all his money and fame, has no excuse for not providing proper care for his animals," Arpaio said in a press release about Friday's arrest. "He has a long criminal history and obviously has little or no respect for the law."
District Attorney Andrew Thomas will be leading the prosecution of DMX, and said his office did not deliberately go after the rapper to send a message to others.
"A person's celebrity status does not preclude this office from bringing charges," he said. "We are handling this case as we would any other indictment of alleged animal cruelty."
Police are also searching the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, exploring a potential fraud scheme involving Simmons. The sheriff's office declined to discuss that matter further.
This is the second time this week DMX has been arrested by authorities in Arizona. On Tuesday, the rapper was arrested by officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety on charges of racing on a highway, driving on a suspended license, reckless driving, two counts of endangerment and three counts of criminal speed, all stemming from an incident that took place January 21. Stationary traffic cameras positioned along the Loop 101 freeway in Scottsdale, Arizona, captured DMX driving a bright yellow 1966 Chevy Nova II (with a large "DMX" decal emblazoned across the windshield) well over the posted 65 mph speed limit, not once but three times.
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