WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 lifestyle M U S I C & M O V I E S Ronson to mentor emerging acts through Grammy program Mark Ronson poses for a photo at Jeff Bhasker Studio, in Venice, Calif. —AP M ark Ronson is lending his “Uptown Funk” to budding musicians. The Recording Academy and Hyundai announced yesterday that Ronson will serve as ambassador for the 2015 Grammy Amplifier, the organization’s program for mentoring artists. This year’s curators include Ziggy Marley, the Band Perry and singer-songwriter Allen Stone. Artists can enter submissions starting Tuesday; the program will mentor 25 finalists. The top three will each win a recording session with a Grammy-winning producer, film a music video and earn a performance spot at a music festival or as an opening act for a top artist. The program is in its third year. Past celebrity participants include David Guetta, Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, Hunter Hayes and Robert Glasper.—AP In this April 26, 2003 file photo, the US band Dropkick Murphys pose in Bourges as part of the 27th edition of the Printemps de Bourges music festival. — AFP Dropkick Murphys angry as Republican governor uses song T he Dropkick Murphys, the Boston rockers known for their left-wing politics, have voiced outrage after union-busting Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin played their music at a conservative forum. “Please stop using our music in any way. We literally hate you!!! Love, Dropkick Murphys,” the band tweeted over the weekend. Walker, who became a national name for stripping most public-union workers of their collective bargaining power, took the stage to the Dropkick Murphys’ music Saturday at the Iowa Freedom Summit, a conservative gathering seen as a venue for White House aspirants to test the waters. While it is not new for US musicians to oppose politicians’ use of their songs, the Republican governor could scarcely have found a less sympathetic band. The Dropkick Murphys, who mix punk elements with Irish-inspired melodies, in 2011 released the song “Take ‘Em Down” in support of Wisconsin workers fighting against Walker’s antiunion agenda. The track played in Iowa for Walker, “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” was the Dropkick Murphys’ cover of a song by Woody Guthrie, the folk singer famous for his left-wing protest music. With musicians often leaning left, Republican candidates have faced particular difficulty finding suitable music on the campaign trail. In the last presidential race, the Somali-born rapper K’naan protested when his music was used by Republican candidate Mitt Romney, whose playlist later featured musicians with conservative views such as Meat Loaf. — AFP Dieter Kosslick director of the International Film Festival Berlin, the Berlinale, holds a copy of a 65 years old Golden Bear award certificate as he poses for the media prior to the annual program press conference yesterday. — AP Audrey Tautou, Matthew Weiner among Berlin film fest jury “A melie” actress Audrey Tautou and “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner will be among the seven jury members for this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Festival boss Dieter Kosslick said yesterday that “Rush” actor Daniel Bruhl, “The Host” director Bong Joon-ho, “Hannibal” producer Martha De Laurentiis and Claudia Llosa, the director of “The Milk of Sorrow,” will also be among those deciding who gets the Berlinale’s Golden Bear and Silver Bears awards. The jury will be led by director Darren Aronofsky, who was previously announced. The Berlin event, which runs Feb 5-15, is the first of the year’s major European film festivals. Terrence Malick’s new film “Knight of Cups,” starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman, will have its world premiere in the event’s competition. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the total number of jury members was eight. — AP Actor and producer Adrian Grenier snowboards in Neffland terrain park at Park City Mountain Resort during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on Monday. — AP Adrian Grenier enjoys anonymity on empty slopes at Sundance S Actors Ryan Reynolds, left, and Ben Mendelsohn pose at the premiere of “Mississippi Grind” during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday in Park City, Utah. — AP Why Reynolds says he’s a dangerous poker player R yan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn ventured deep into the heart of America to film the gambling drama “Mississippi Grind,” a gritty, 70s-style road trip movie about two near-strangers travelling from Dubuque, Iowa to New Orleans. The production spanned the heartland as they drove all over Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana and Alabama, going to little towns and little casinos and off the beaten path racing tracks, often filming the “road trip” scenes while they were also actually travelling elsewhere. “I got to go to place that I’d never see otherwise,” said Reynolds on Sunday. “I love the South. I go all over the South all the time. My wife (Blake Lively) and I are addicted to New Orleans. But we’ve never been to those steamboat casinos or anything like that.” To prepare for their roles as expert gamblers, the two went out on the town with a “poker czar” a few times before they were “thrown to the wolves with genuine, 14-hour a day sitting at a table grinding killers,” said Mendelsohn. “They see us coming and they slide over to that table,” added Reynolds. It was Reynolds, though, that had the advantage at the tables, mostly because he just isn’t that good at poker. “I would say that I am mediocre at best. I noticed that they were more afraid of me. The idiot who shows up at the table and doesn’t know what he’s doing is the most dangerous,” he said. Reynolds admits that he did have to get past some initial assumptions about the real life players he was interacting with. “You get there and you cast all these aspersions, like ‘Oh man, these guys are the dregs. What is this going to be like?’ And then you fall in love with each and every one of them. You really do. They have stories to tell and they have lives that they’ve led. They may sit at poker tables for 14 hours a day...,” he said. Many of the casinos, however, would only allow the production to shoot during off hours. “They like having all the guys that lose the money come in there at the prime hours. So we would shoot from about 2 am to 1 pm which is a terrible time to be awake,” said Reynolds. The production was so small that most of the time people didn’t notice that Reynolds and Mendelsohn were sitting two tables down from them - except when the actors were in the way of a machine a particular customer wanted to play on. For Mendelsohn, an Australian actor, the film, which premiered at Sundance, was once in a lifetime experience. —AP tars are consistently swarmed by fans at the Sundance Film Festival, but there’s one place they can find anonymity: On the slopes. Wearing a helmet and goggles, “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier was just another snowboarder out having fun. “I learned to board when I first came here for the festival,” he said, strapping his boots into the bindings. “And I’ve been back every year for the past 10 years.” The actor-producer came to the festival to support his latest non-”Entourage” project, a documentary called “The Lonely Whale.” He’s meeting with potential investors and announced plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign next month to finance the film, which follows a solitary whale off the coast of California who has been singing for years without a response. “We’re looking to get as many friends around ‘Lonely Whale’ so we can try to understand the spirit of what he’s trying to communicate,” Grenier said, “about the plight of whales, about our own relationship to the ocean and ocean health in general.” But the 38-year-old made sure to set aside a day for snowboarding - a perfect, sunny Monday with no crowds or lift lines at Park City Mountain Resort. His first stop was the Neffland terrain park, where he attempted various jumps and tricks. “I have no business doing this,” he said before catching air. Three ski resorts loom over Park City, and while most out-of-towners are holed up in movie theaters catching the Sundance offerings, local residents and the savviest visitors -including “Grenier - are out in the snow, catching some wideopen runs. “Everyone’s so caught up in the movies and the dinners and the parties and the gifting suites that I think the nature that surrounds the event - the snowboarding, the skiing - is kind of an afterthought,” said Shaun Neff, founder of Neff active wear. Neff sponsored his namesake terrain park as a tribute to the mountain where he built his brand, Aguilera to perform ahead of NBA All-Star Game A riana Grande isn’t the only big-voiced singer performing at the NBA All-Star Game: Christina Aguilera has been added to the lineup. NBA announced yesterday that Aguilera will per form ahead of the 64th annual game on Feb 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. She will sing a “New York-themed medley” during player introductions and be joined by dance troupe The Rockettes. Grammy-winning Aguilera’s hits include “Genie in a Bottle,” “Beautiful,” “Ain’t No Other Man” and “Say Something” with A Great Big World. Next month she will return as a mentor on NBC’s “The Voice” after a two-season break. The All-Star game will air live on TNT. Grande will perform during the halftime show. — AP and continues to support aspiring snowboarders during the Sundance festival. Besides outfitting performers with snow-ready clothes and hats, he also invites celebrities to learn to ride with his team of professional boarders. With all the crowds and business deals happening on Main Street, the slopes are a perfect escape. “It’s very peaceful - to be one with nature, to get up on the mountain and clear your head,” Neff said, “and it’s a fairly easy sport to pick up.”The anonymity for celebrities is an added bonus. Grenier said Park City is the only place he snowboards, and it’s always during Sundance. “It’s great riding with people from around the world all gathering for the festival,” he said. “And it’s the only time I get to see certain friends.” After shredding the hill, Grenier swooped into the Stella Artois Cafe on Main Street for a quick lunch, then, minus the helmet and goggles, tried unsuccessfully to blend into the festival crowd, camera-wielding fans trailing behind.— AP Sean Penn to get French cinema honor S ean Penn is to get an honorary French film award in a Paris ceremony next month in recognition of him being a cinema “living legend”, the organizers said in a statement. The 54-year-old is a “mythical actor, a politically active personality and an exceptional director,” said the French Academy of Cinema. As “a standalone icon in American cinema,” he will receive an honorary Cesar award during the academy’s annual prize ceremony in the French capital on February 20 — two days before the Oscars in the US. Penn, who won Oscars for his performances in “Milk” and “Mystic River”, has earned a strong leftwing reputation for his public potshots at then-president George W. Bush, support of gay marriage, and for starting a foundation to help Haiti after its 2010 earthquake. He was married to Sean Penn Madonna in the 1980s, then to “House of Cards” star Robin Wright from 1996 to 2010. Since last year he has been seeing actress Charlize Theron, and is taking steps to adopt her three-year-old son. — AFP