Mary Hart Bradley Cooper Zoe Saldana Palm Springs International Film Festival

Former ET host Mary Hart hosted the Palm Springs International Film Festival for the tenth time over the weekend, serenading birthday boy Bradley Cooper during his first event appearance since his rumored split from Zoe Saldana and getting him to dish on his potential Golden Globes date.

VIDEO: The Star-Studded PSIFF Red Carpet

According to The New York Post, Cooper (who turned 38 on Saturday) split with Saldana before the holidays, leaving the spot for his Golden Globes date open for a special lady.

"I heard you were bringing your mother [to the Golden Globes]," said Hart, who led the audience in singing Happy Birthday to Cooper just moments before their interview.

Playing the protective son, Cooper explained that he's still undecided due to the atmosphere.

"She's a young woman, but it hard to navigate," said the Silver Linings Playbook star, who was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. "It's like a zoo, so I think it's not the best place."

VIDEO: Cooper & Saldana's Love-Filled 'Words'

Presented by Cartier, the 24th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival honored Naomi Watts, Robert Zemeckis, the cast of Argo, Helen Hunt, Sally Field, Richard Gere, Bradley Cooper, Life of Pi composer Mychael Danna, Les Miserables director Tom Hooper and Helen Mirren.

In her tenth time hosting the PSIFF, Mary Hart once again pulled double duty as emcee and ET correspondent. This gave the stars a chance to interview each other backstage when Mary was called back to the podium!

Watch the video to see director David O. Russell, Sally Field and Martin Sheen try their hand at entertainment reporting for our ET cameras!

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Sony and BMG have number for Parlophone

Sony Music is joining KKR-backed BMG Rights in a bid for Universal Music Group’s Parlophone record label assets. The bid is said to be around $500 million, sources said.

The teaming up of the two companies — just for the bid — has been under discussion for months, sources said, but just entered an offer in the past few days.

BMG is itself a partnership between private equity powerhouse KKR and German media conglomerate Bertelsmann.

Parlophone was founded in Germany while its UK offshoot made the company famous as a jazz label. Today, Parlophone houses artists such as Kylie Minogue and The Pet Shop Boys.

KYLIE MINOGUE


Parlophone asset.

If the joint bid is successful, partnership discussions have focused on splitting Parlophone assets with Sony taking front-line music — that is, current artists — while BMG takes the catalogue.

The news of Sony’s last-minute partnership with BMG was first reported by the Financial Times.

Vivendi’s Universal Music Group is selling EMI’s Parlophone, except its valuable Beatles assets, to satisfy European antitrust regulators after it bought EMI for $1.9 billion.

Len Blavatnik’s Warner Music Group, which passed on an earlier bid for EMI when bidding got too frothy, will compete with Sony-BMG, and with bids from a consortium fronted by “American Idol” creator Simon Fuller and Chris Blackwell, a music entrepreneur who founded Island Records, and Ron Perelman’s investment group, MacAndrews & Forbes.

A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment. Sources say that a winner should be confirmed by as early as next month. Universal has been working with Goldman Sachs to sell Parlophone and smaller related assets.

Sony was previously a partner with Bertelsmann in a venture named Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Sony bought out Bertelsmann’s 50 percent stake five years ago.

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Billionaire Phillip Frost an ‘entrepreneur’s entrepreneur’

For that blind first date, a half-century ago, the young doctor, Phillip Frost, showed up at Patricia Orr’s family house in suburban New York, with an unusual gift: a miniature mushroom garden.

In the 50 years since, Frost, the son of a shoe store owner, has gone on to amass a fortune of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine, becoming the 188th wealthiest man in the United States by developing and selling pharmaceutical companies. Along the way, he and Patricia have become major philanthropists in Miami-Dade County and they’ve signed a pledge to give away at least $1 billion more.

“He’s a relentless guy,” says Miami banker Bill Allen, who’s know him for more than 40 years. “He’s not afraid to take risks. ... He knows the intimate details of the chemistry of products, and he’s the kind of guy who can examine 50 deals while eating a sandwich.”

CNBC’s Jim Cramer recently praised Frost’s “incredible track record” for developing companies, calling Frost’s latest endeavor, OPKO Health, a “very risky” investment while noting it could offer huge gains under Obamacare.

But back in 1962, Patricia’s first impression was that Phil Frost was a bit of a nerd, finishing his medical internship with a strong interest in research — including mushrooms. She figured an academic career loomed.

“My mother was very impressed,” recalls Patricia, not so much by the M.D. behind Frost’s name but by the gift, something more serious than the usual flowers or candy. Serious was fine with Patricia, who was living at home while working toward a master’s degree in education at Columbia University. For their first date, they listened to a classical music concert.

Frost’s rise to riches may seem highly distinctive, but in an odd coincidence he has much in common with another prominent Miamian. Frost, 76, and car dealer Norman Braman, 80, both frequently appear on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. Both grew up in Philadelphia — Frost the son of a man who sold shoes, Braman son of a barber. Both are Jewish, well-known art collectors and philanthropists.

“He’s an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur,” says Braman. “We have a lot in common, coming from very poor families. But he went to Central High (a public school for exceptional students) and I was not qualified to go there.”

There are other differences. While Braman is voluble and highly visible in the causes he supports, Frost tends to be a reticent, almost shy speaker, given to careful pauses.

‘Lucky chances’

Told that a former colleague had called Frost “lucky,” Frost thought for a long moment. He could have cited many national business stories about his business acumen. Instead, he responded crisply: “I’ll be satisfied with lucky. I benefited from chance meetings.”

Frost spent his first years living above the shoe shop within an Italian market in South Philly. His two brothers were 15 and 16 years older. “I was an afterthought.”

The family was religiously observant, and Frost recalls his father singing him songs in Yiddish when he was small. He lived at home while attending the University of Pennsylvania, except for a year abroad in France. He took many science courses, but his major was French literature.

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CrimeWatch: Two email scams you shouldn’t fall for

This week I am going to share with you some scam emails that are going around. People are falling for them, but many could have been avoided with some common sense. If you get an email like the one below, please call the person before sending cash, which many have done and have lost their money.

Caught out of the country

Omg!! I’m writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came down here to Perth, Scotland, in United Kingdom for a short vacation unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed, all cash, credit card and cell were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us. We’ve been to the embassy and the police here but they’re not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in less than 19 hours from now, but we’re having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won’t let us leave until we settle the bills, I’m freaked out at the moment.

Sandy scams

Dear Friend, in light of what happened in the Northeast, here is a great opportunity for you to help and make some money. FEMA needs clean-up crews for South Jersey. It’s $1,000 for seven days, hotel and food included. Call this number... [The fraudster’s number would be here.] We will contact you as soon as possible. Thank you for applying.

The latter is a scam that is truly deplorable, but due to the kind hearts of many, they have fallen for it and have given their social security number, date of birth and other information that probably will be used in identity theft. Here the first thing one should have done is gone to the FEMA sight to see if it’s true.

The above scams were emailed to me from several readers, so please be careful, and as I always say, learn to use the “delete” key because if it involves money you have to dish out, it’s a scam.

Assault weapons

Now on to a subject that we should all be adamant about, and that is the murders that have been caused by assault weapons this past year.

On Sept. 13, 2004, the federal assault weapons ban expired. This ban was put in place in 1994, and outlawed 19 types of military-style assault weapons. A clause directed that the ban expire unless Congress specifically reauthorized it, and our congressional leaders did not. Shame on them! These are the consequences we are now seeing across the country. As stated by many in the law-enforcement community, these weapons are nothing more than “cop-killer guns”.

I always tell you that we need to get involved, we need to be part of our community, and we must demand that our community be a safe place to live. Therefore I ask you to please contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to support this ban. I truly believe that the killing of 20 little children should be sufficient for our congressional leaders to take the appropriate action. If you don’t know who your House member is, go to www.house.gov/representatives/find and you can find your representative.

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We Salute the First Baby Senator

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

RELATED: Claire McCaskill and How to Attack the Opponent You’re Rooting For

Here’s our suggestion to improve the (already pretty hilarious) swearing-in process for U.S. Senators: Each new member of Congress must bring a cute baby.

RELATED: Rand Paul Doesn’t Want You to Go to Jail for Smoking Pot

RELATED: Larry David’s Two-Minute Guide to Etiquette

Apparently the BBC has decided to market a line of lunch boxes specifically made for hungry polar bears. They are still working out the kinks: 

RELATED: Homer Simpson, Fox News Pundit; Books After Dark

RELATED: Bo Obama Stays On Message; Sarah Palin Can See HBO in Her House

The Golden Globes will be bittersweet this year. Don’t get us wrong — we’re really excited to watch Amy Poehler and Tina Fey entertain us. But we’ll also be also really sad when this thing is over because it means the end of these promos:

And finally, it’s Friday. And it’s time to dance. Enjoy your weekend. 

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Cher Signs Development Deal with Logo

Logo just announced at The Television Critics Association in Pasadena, CA that the network has signed a development deal with the ultimate gay icon, Cher.

AUDIO - Listen to Cher's New Song

The show, which is in its earliest stages of development, would mark Cher's first regular TV gig since The Sonny and Cher Show ended in 1977.

While this could change before the show hits the air (if it actually does), Cher's Logo show is set to revolve around Hollywood in the 1960s. It's unknown what Cher's on-screen participation will be like at this time. 

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Grads’ high score

“Grad tidings are sad tidings” (Dec. 26) takes note of the highly promising CUNY ASAP program at six community colleges, which has successfully boosted three-year graduation rates to substantially more than double the average at urban institutions.

This program has attracted national attention for its innovative curriculum, student advisement and support system and focus on earning degrees.

Efforts are already under way to expand ASAP, offering even greater numbers of associate-degree students the pathway to a successful collegiate experience.

Jay Hershenson, senior vice chancellor for university relations, CUNY

Pensions & power

While I firmly believe that our first responders deserve increased benefits for their heroic service at the World Trade Center on 9/11, The Post’s observation about the connection between lawmakers and the courts is extremely important (“Pension Pay Day,” Editorial, Dec. 30).

Our federal and state constitutions mandate a separation of powers to prevent abuse and to preserve liberty. That was severely compromised in 2009 when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver engineered the appointment of his childhood crony, Jonathan Lippman, as the state’s chief judge.

With his compliant stooge at the helm of the courts, Silver controls two-thirds of state government, which solidifies his power and makes him more valuable to affluent supporters.

The issue of public-employee pensions is dwarfed by the fact that political opportunists like Silver and Lippman have brazenly corrupted state government for their own benefit at public expense, without repercussion or consequence.

Charles T. Compton, The Bronx

Papa’s pet problem

Why the surprise? We have a president who wants to control everything from medical care to gun ownership (“Washington vs. Hemingway Cats,” Jonah Goldberg, PostOpinion, Dec. 31).

Has President Obama ever been to Key West? Being dressed up is considered sneakers and no socks with formal wear.

Except for a random complainer, does he think those beautiful cats with extra toes — might we say “extraconstitutional” — must be caged for the safety of all?

John Brindisi, Manhattan

Bloomberg 2.0

With the mayor’s considerable influence behind her, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is already putting together her administration and making deals with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly (“Christine’s Ray of Hope,” Jan. 2).

Her close friends are probably already calling her Mayor Quinn.

The last thing we need is for the mayor’s handpicked successor to continue his pattern of flouting our constitutional freedoms when they conflict with his personal opinions.

Quinn has already shown a penchant for this behavior by trying to shut down a Chick-fil-A restaurant because she disagreed with the views of the franchise’s president.

Mayor Bloomberg bought two terms, then stole another one. Now he wants to continue his reign by proxy.

Gary Taustine, Manhattan

Praise for a pundit

John Podhoretz outlines this conservative issue perfectly (“Conservatives Gone Wild,” PostOpinion, Jan. 4).

One could only wish for more sensible commentary of this sort, rather than the mindless bashing that is characteristic of most op-eds on the left and right.

Chris Armstrong, Tiburon, Calif.

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Needle reaches the inner groove for Spec’s

In the end, even the almighty Adele and Taylor Swift could not hold back the inevitable.

Spec’s, one of the last great record stores, will close its flagship location in Coral Gables on U.S.1, thus joining once-favored chains like Virgin, Tower and Peaches, locally and abroad, that have withered from Internet shopping.

With the closing, sometime in January after the merchandise is liquidated, 64 years of history becomes memory for countless people who discovered a love of music in the home Martin “Mike” Spector built in 1948 when U.S.1 was but a two-lane road.

The original store, which sold cameras alongside 78-rpm records, was a few blocks south on the highway in South Miami and is now an Einstein’s bagel spot. The present location, opened in 1953 in Coral Gables, lived through the bobby sox era, Beatlemania, disco, punk, hip hop/rap, grunge, electronic dance music and all the format changes including 12-inch vinyl, 45-rpm, reel to reel, 8-track, cassette, compact disc and mp3.

After the first music industry recession in the late 1970s, Spec’s still managed to double in size by breaking through the walls of two restaurants in 1980 on its north side. The original room on the south side of the building would house, first, Spec’s’ VHS movie rentals and sales — Saturday Night at Spec’s! — and, later, one of the most expansive collections of classical music in town.

“It’s the soundtrack of our lives,” said store manager Lennie Rohrbacher, who spent 23 years of his life working at Spec’s, from Clearwater to Coral Gables

Music sales

At its peak, the Spec’s chain grew to some 80 stores in Florida and Puerto Rico. In 1993, annual sales exceeded $70 million. Spec’s went public in 1985 and, in 1998, the Spectors sold to Camelot Music Group, which was acquired by Trans World Entertainment Corp.

Trans World, which did not return several telephone messages, shrewdly kept the Spec’s name attached to the flagship store as goodwill even though, technically, it operated under the company’s retail subsidiary, F.Y.E. (For Your Entertainment).

But those are the cold, hard business facts.

Spec’s was “not like another Eckerd’s,” a drug store chain that also slipped into oblivion amid changing times, said Rohrbacher. “This was part of the community, part of my life. It’s not another store going under.”

Indeed, Spec’s was, first and foremost, a community gathering spot to share a love of music. In the ‘70s and ‘80s Spec’s resembled a makeshift camp site where people would sleep overnight in the parking lot to get the best shot at concert tickets in a pre-Internet world. Spec’s, a hop-skip from the University of Miami’s music school, served as its own music education outlet thanks to a knowledgeable sales staff.

Music education

“The proximity to the UM is prime real estate. Not to have it there will really be different. Even if they didn’t have what I was looking for, the staff was knowledgeable and you were sort of tapping into this knowledge base of people who could turn you on to new music. That’s what I’ll miss about it and the community around the store,” said Margot Winick, an employee at the Coral Gables Spec’s in the mid-1980s when she was a freshman at the UM.

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Lamberti praises agency’s work to reduce hate crimes in last news conference as Broward sheriff

In his last news conference as Broward’s top cop, Sheriff Al Lamberti praised his agency’s efforts to reduce hate crimes in the county — a finding reflected in the 2011 Hate Crimes in Florida report issued by the state attorney general’s office this week.

But Lamberti, one of the most visible Republican elected officials in Broward, declined to say if he would ever run for office again, or to divulge many details about his plans once he steps down next week.

“Effective Tuesday, I’m going to be back where I was when I started: a citizen of Broward County,’’ said Lamberti, who was first elected sheriff in 2008 but lost to Democratic challenger Scott Israel by about 45,000 votes in November’s general election.

“I sacrificed ... a lot of time with my wife and my son,’’ he said. “So, I’m looking forward to catching up on lost time.’’

A 35-year veteran of the Broward Sheriff’s Office who began his law enforcement career working in the county jail, Lamberti rose through the ranks to be appointed sheriff by then-Gov. Charlie Crist in September 2007.

Broward voters elected Lamberti for an additional four years in 2008, choosing him over Israel, who is a former Fort Lauderdale police officer and North Bay Village police chief.

Lamberti took office at a time when the agency was in desperate need of stability after former Sheriff Ken Jenne went to prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

“I think we steadied the ship and got it going in the right direction,’’ Lamberti said, “and we accomplished a lot.’’

During Lamberti’s tenure, the sheriff took on Broward’s rampant pill mills and pushed to have lawmakers make attacking the homeless a hate crime — an accomplishment for which Lamberti expressed particular pride.

Flanked by local representatives of organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Pride Center and the Broward Coalition for the Homeless, Lamberti spoke Friday of the potent partnerships his agency forged with these groups and elected officials such as former Florida Rep. Ari Porth — who also was in attendance — to enact legislation in 2010 that made attacking the homeless a hate crime.

Lamberti said one of the first things he did as sheriff was to create a Hate Crimes Task Force, in response to annual state reports that found Broward led all Florida counties in hate crimes for several years.

“It has worked wonders,’’ Lamberti said of the task force, which is led by Capt. Richard Wierzbicki, who will be leaving the agency as well.

Ron Gunzburger, who has been named general counsel and senior advisor to the sheriff-elect, said BSO will continue to make it a priority to fight hate crimes.

“Sheriff Israel intends to keep the task force,’’ Gunzburger wrote in an email. “The sheriff sees hate crimes as serious incidents requiring prompt arrests and appropriate prosecutions.’’

Holding copies of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s latest hate crimes report, and another issued by the National Coalition for the Homeless citing Broward as a national leader in preventing hate crimes against the homeless, Lamberti presented them as evidence of the task force’s effectiveness.

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The Death of E-Readers Is All Your Fault

So there’s a reading gadget and a reading gadget with Angry Birds Star Wars. Which do you pick? Well, you, cultured person that you are, would select the dedicated e-reader, of course, just like you would rather watch Frontline instead of Honey Boo Boo, or pick up Vanity Fair instead of Us Weekly on the checkout line. Or at least that’s what the ideal version of yourself would do. But as Amazon and Barnes & Noble are quickly discovering this year, the highbrow ideal all too often gives way to the mass-market realities. Sales of the Kindle and especially the Nook fell this holiday season, despite lower prices than more fully functioning tablets, which are distinctly on the rise. And market researchers estimate that these divergent paths will continue — The Wall Street Journal reports that e-readers sales will be cut in half, from 14.9 million per year to just 7.8 million, by 2015. But the death of the e-reader has less to do with the iPad than what’s inside of it: from tablets to TV shows and everything in between, the most high-minded of ideas for cultural consumption always seem to devolve toward mindless entertainment.

RELATED: Gordon Brown Predicts the Future; Cormac McCarthy Doesn’t Tweet

Take Bravo, the once completely enlightened — and completely failing — network that, like Arts & Entertainment and The Learning Channel before they became A&E and TLC, once devoted itself to being a slightly less boring knockoff of PBS. In 1985, five years after its founding, The New York Times‘s Steve Schneider described Bravo’s success, measured then by its 350,000 subscribers, as follows: 

What has kept things afloat for the past five years has been an evolving mix of cultural programming. Nowadays, a spokesman said, approximately 70 percent of the premium service’s schedule is devoted to films, nearly all of which are either from abroad, from the fringes of American production or from times past. The remainder of the schedule is given over to the performing arts -jazz concerts, ballet, opera, modern dance and the like. From Woody Allen films to documentaries about Latin America to performances by the Pina Bausch dance troupe, the offerings range from the challenging to the downright esoteric.

All that changed when NBC bought Bravo in 2002 and gave it a makeover almost completely motivated by ratings. It started with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which in its first year delivered 3.3 million viewers per episode. Then came the much acclaimed era of Top Chef and Project Runway, which are still considered highbrow in their own way, but only in the context of their fellow reality shows like The Real Housewives. And let’s face it: Bravo is pretty much all Housewives all the time. Well, that and a show about Silicon Valley that features no computer programming at all.

RELATED: Barnes & Noble CEO Is Done with Books; 43 Famous Writers Walk into a Cafe

And remember The Learning Channel? It was founded by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, along with NASA. Really! Then in came Discovery as the new boss, and with it American Chopper and, eventually, TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras, which birthed Honey Boo Boo — not to mention major ratings. Arts & Entertainment has long been a corporate entity, but it gave way from highbrow post-Nickelodeon fare and devolved into, you know, Dog the Bounty Hunter and whatever Gene Simmons is up to these days.

RELATED: The New Kindles We’ll Probably See at Today’s Amazon Event

It’s all a little reminiscent of the days when Us magazine was actually a glossy movie magazine that Hollywood stars loved to pose for. The New York Times started it! Then came a partnership with Disney, and J.Lo, and on and on to the supermarket tabloid you now know as Us Weekly, one of the most successful print publications on Earth.

RELATED: Ebook Juggernaut John Locke Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You

So, in the slowly dwindling technological world of the e-reader and its advanced brethren, Amazon‘s Kindle is like old-school TLC and the B&N Nook is maybe a little younger and cooler, like Bravo, but still failing; the iPad, however, has Here Comes Honey Boo Boo written all over it. Not that there’s anything wrong with what Amazon and Barnes & Noble were trying to do — a small audience might enjoy a device that has novels and long biographies and maybe some newspapers and little more. But the majority of people these days want to spend their downtime with HBO Go and Netflix apps, with games and email and other ways to relax their entire brains… not just the fancy parts of it. With tablet prices falling to more affordable levels — Amazon sells a Kindle Fire for $ 159 and a Kindle Paperwhite for $ 119 — of course today’s readers are going to choose the thing that helps them go beyond boring old reading. It might not have that easy-on-the eyes screen, but the majority of time spent on tablets isn’t spent reading books but answering emails, reading the news (a shorter reading experience than an entire book), and playing games, according to Pew. Plus, the iPad has its own Kindle app, for those times when you do, after all, feel like indulging in something a bit more highbrow. Because people do, still read a lot of books. They just like doing everything else a lot more. If the death of the e-reader is nigh, maybe the age of the straight-and-narrow, undistracted smartypants isn’t far from ending, either.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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