John Barry, the composer renowned for his film scores has died at the age of 77 from a heart attack in New York. Famous for his work on the James Bond films, Barry had a string of film scores to his name which saw him win five Oscars, a Bafta fellowship and a Grammy.

None of his awards came for his best known work, composing the scores for eleven James Bond films. Although not the composer of the James Bond theme, it was his arrangement of the tune by Monty Norman that led to the opportunity to work on the film scores.

Born in 1933 as John Barry Prendercast in York UK, the son of cinema owner he was originally trained as a classical pianist. Barry soon learned to play the trumpet and became interested in composing and arranging music. After a spell doing his National Service he worked as an arranger for major bands in the UK before forming his own band, the John Barry Seven.

His band had several hit records but Barry continued writing and arranging music for BBC programs and had an early success with the theme music for the film The Magnificent Seven. He continued working as a composer and arranger and was employed by EMI records for a while.

When the first James Bond film, Dr. No, was made the producers were unhappy with the original theme and it was given to Barry to arrange it. The result was one of cinema’s best known signature tunes.

Barry penned the music for eighty-six films including Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves for which he received Academy Awards. Other notable films were Midnight Cowboy, Mary Queen of Scots and Chaplin along with TV series like The Persuaders and musicals such as Billy.

Credit for the James Bond Theme was given to Monty Norman but years later the authorial matter finished up in court after the composer sued the Sunday Times for claiming Barry was the composer.  Barry, for the defence claimed that he was given a musical manuscript to re-arrange and that he composed additional music to produce the James Bond Theme. The court decided that Monty Norman composed part, if not all the theme.

Barry moved to California in 1970 to avoid paying UK taxes and didn’t return until the late 80s after the issue was resolved. He lived mostly on Long Island or in Oyster Bay, New York. He was married four times and divorced three times and had four children

The latest edition of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is causing quite a stir after the removal of the “n” word, which is considered racially offensive by the publishers, and its replacement by the “s” word.

Publishers, NewSouth Books have taken it upon themselves to replace the word “nigger”, which appears 219 times with the word ‘slave’ to account for modern political correctness and also the word “injun” has been replaced by “indian”.

Scholars, rights activists and Mark Twain fans alike are not happy and the publishers have received hundreds of calls and emails complaining about the editing. Many other scholars, writers and teachers have condemned the new edition. Randall Kennedy, a Harvard Law School professorsaid: “Trying to erase the word from our culture is profoundly, profoundly wrong”.

Twain scholar Professor Alan Gribben who is responsible for the edited said that the use of the word nigger had now caused many US schools to stop teaching the American classic. He has given many public readings of the book and noted that when he used the word slave audiences were more comfortable. He also said that it was such a shame that one word was a barrier between a marvellous book and a lot of readers.

The book not only tells the storey of a boy’s journey down the Mississippi River but reveals the Southern attitudes, at the time, on race and slavery. It is an anti-racist book that uses the word “nigger” to make the readers squirm to have the desired effect.

The New York Times has cricized the new version and said in an editorial: “What makes Huckleberry Finn so important in American literature isn’t just the story, it’s the richness, the detail, the unprecedented accuracy of its spoken language. “There is no way to ‘clean up’ Twain without doing irreparable harm to the truth of his work.”

Mark Twain himself was a critic of racism and is known to have donated to several civil rights organisations before his death in 1910. Ever since then, and even before his death, the language used in Huckleberry Finn has been debated long and hard. The York City Board of Education removed the novel from circulation in primary and intermediate schools in 1957. It is reported to be the fourth most banned book in US schools.

Chuck Berry, considered one of the pioneers of rock ’n roll, collapsed on stage during a concert at the Congress Theatre in Chicago prompting fears about his health. The 84-year-old rock ’n roll legend slumped over his keyboard following an erratic and out of tune performance, that saw him complete only one song, and was helped off the stage.

After 15 minutes he went back on the stage and tried to tune his guitar before being helped off again. He returned after another 10 minutes but told his fans that he had no strength to continue and the rest of the performance was canceled. He managed a few weak  steps of his signature “duck walk” as he left the stage.

The fans were quite respectful for the sole remaining father of rock ’n’ roll. The crowd hushed and no one booed when Berry slumped over his keyboard nor did they jeer when Berry minced his lyrics and failed to finish most songs.

An ambulance was called and paramedics advised the singer to the hospital but he signed a release that he did not require any treatment and then returned to his hotel.

On Sunday morning, Berry’s agent Dick Alen said that Chuck was suffering from exhaustion after performing two sets at B.B. Kings Club in New York on New Years Eve. He gave no indication if Berry will stop performing at 84 years old.

Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer Chuck Berry, born in 1926 refined and developed ‘rhythm and blues’  music as a big element of rock ’n’ roll with his lyrics, guitar solos and showmanship in the 1950s. He had his first hit in 1955 with ‘Maybellene” and hits followed for the next 25 years including /Toll Over Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode. His music was an inspiration for the new British groups of the early 60s, notably the Beatles and Rolling Stones who made cover versions of his songs. John Lennon once said that “if you tried to give rock ‘n’ roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.

The rock band Bon Jovi were the highest earning act on tour in 2010 according to music trade publication and website Pollstar. Their worldwide earnings for the Circle show came in at $201.1 million during which time they performed 80 concerts, 53 of which were in the US and the average ticket price was $105. In their career to date they have performed more than 2600 concerts in over 50 countries.

The Australian rock band AC/DC were the second highest earners with $177 million taken from half as many concerts as Bon Jovi with an average ticket price of $97. Just to show that older groups were more popular Irish band U2 had ticket sales of $160.9 from 32 concerts and are number three on the list. In 2009 they were the top earning act worldwide.

Poker face and flamboyant Lady Gaga followed in fourth place with takings of $133.6m, but she worked much harder for her money performing in 138 shows, 36 of them outside the US. Number five on the list was long-established rock band Metallica who earned $110m from performing in 60 shows worldwide.

Canadian singer Michael Buble performed in 111 shows worldwide and grossed $104.2m for his troubles and finishing at number six in the list. In at number seven with takings of $104 million was the educational family show Walking With Dinosaurs which was performed 485 times around the world.

Number eight on the list was a music dinosaur, none other than ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney who performed 31 shows for gross earnings of $93 million with the highest average ticket price of $138. Just a few dollars behind Sir Paul were another group of goldie oldies, the Eagles, who had to work a bit harder for their income performing in 54 shows.

Making up the top 10 worldwide concert tour earnings was ex-Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters earning $89.5m from 56 concerts around the world.

Looking through the list of the top fifty concert tour earners it is obvious that the baby boomers have money to spend on their favorite musicians with Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Aerosmith and Cher still pulling in the crowds.

Piers Morgan, a man being seen more and more on American television as a judge on ‘America’s Got Talent’ and soon to be host of ‘Piers Morgan Tonight’, has just bought himself an English pub, fulfilling a lifetime dream of becoming a landlord.

Mr. Morgan who starts his new show with CNN on January 17 has announced the that he has become the co-owner of the historic Handsom Cab pub on The Earls Court Road in West London. He has had a love affair with public houses from his childhood days when his parents ran a pub in the English countryside.

As a young lad he spent time each day before school filling up the shelves behind the bar with the bottles brought up from the underground cellar and had even gone to school smelling of alcohol much to the annoyance of the headmistress.

Mr. Morgan admits that he has always had an affinity for pubs and was a regular customer before he was legally old enough to drink alcohol. The local pub along with cricket became the focal point of his teenage years and a sanctuary as he reached his late teens as a place to escape the strains of college and work.

The Handsom Cab has seen many celebrities and friends of Morgan’s since his involvement in the pub. Het has even had three presidents of CNN, (Worldwide, international and America] drinking real ale and taking in the unique atmosphere of an old-fashioned British pub. Amongst other famous faces seen in the pub have been Naomi Campbell, international singer Katherine Jenkins and cricketer Freddie Flintoff.

Piers Morgan was a journalist and editor of two top selling British newspapers before branching into television as a presenter but is better known as a judge on Ammerica’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent. He was the winner of the 2008 edition of The Apprentice hosted by Donald Trump. In January 2011 he will be introducing his new show to fill the slot left by the retirement of Larry King. He is also a lifelong fan of cricket.

American film director, screenwriter and producer Blake Edwards has died at the age of 88 from complications of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California. Director of The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and 10 and many more films he never won an Academy Award for any of his films but received an honorary Oscar in 2004 in recognition of his “extraordinary body of work for the screen”.

Even up until the time of his death, although confined to a wheelchair, Edwards was working on two musicals for Broadway, one based on his successful Pink Panther movies, and the other a comedy set during the Prohibition era.

Born in Tulsa Oklahoma, the son of a stage director, Edwards began his career as an actor and scriptwriter for radio where he achieved early success in an Orson Welles production of The War of the Worlds in the late 1930s. As an actor he appeared in about 30 films of no great merit.

His most popular films as a director were comedies most notably the series of five Pink Panther films starring Peter Sellers as the bungling French police detective Jacques Clousea in which Mr. Edwards was the director and co-writer. The Pink Panther being a large diamond with a flaw that forms an image of a leaping panther when held up to the light. A sixth film in the series, spanning 19 years, was made after the death of Sellers from unused material from an earlier film.

Blake Edwards suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for many years and described his struggle in the documentary I Remember Me, filmed by Kim Snyder in which Edwards was interviewed.

Edwards married for a second time to Julie Andrews in 1969, who had stared in several of his films including 10 and Victor Victoria. They had no children between them but three children from previous marriages and two adopted Vietnamese children. All but one of the children have appeared in his films.

Police in Las Vegas are hunting for an armed man who robbed a casino and escaped with more than $1.5 million were worth of gaming chips. Police said the man parked this motorbike outside the entrance of the Bellagio casino at about 3:50am, walked to a craps table and pulled a gun on the croupier, demanded he handover the chips, then fled the casino.

The robber was wearing a black jumpsuit, a full face helmet and escaped on a black sports style motorbike at high speed. No shots were fired and no one was injured in the few minutes that it took to complete the robbery.

Lt. Clint Nichols of the Las Vegas police said at a news conference, “The suspect entered the casino and went directly to a craps table and confronted several patrons with a firearm, telling everyone not to move. The robber then ran back out of the casino following his original route”.

Investigators are now reviewing surveillance videos for a clue as to who carried out the robbery and believe that it is the same man who robbed the Suncoast casino on December 9 when an armed man stole from the cashier’s cage and reportedly escaped with less than $20,000.

Stealing the casino chips I’d actually the easy bit as at some point the robber will have to redeem them if he wants to benefit from actions. Casino chips are usually unique to each casino and can only be cashed in at that same casino.

It is not known if the casino chips are smart chips embedded with Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID) where each chip contains a microchip that allows sensors to validate its authenticity and value. Introduced primarily to deter counterfeiting of the chips, it also protects against stealing. The chips stolen from the Bellagio range in value from $100-$25,000 and the casino authorities will be very vigilant watching people trying to cash in high value chips.

The robber will be in possession of between 60 ($25000) and 15000 ($100) and will need several visits to the casino to attempt to redeem the proceeds of his robbery.

Casino robberies in Las Vegas are relatively rare but they do happen. There were nine robberies reported in 2009 and ten robberies have already been committed this year according to the police. Movies have been made about Las Vegas casino robberies the most famous being the 2001 film Oceans Eleven.

In 1992, Bill Brennan a cashier at the Stardust Casino left at the end of his shift with over $500, 000 dollars inside a bag slung over his shoulder and has never been seen since despite being featured on America’s Most Wanted. Heather Tallchief, a 21-year-old employee with an armored truck company drove off with a van full of cash while her colleague was in the casino delivering money to ATM machines. She fled the country and was on the run of 12 years before handing herself in to the authorities almost penniless and was sentenced to five years jail in 2006.

The Bellagio hotel which houses the casino is famous the world over for its large dancing water fountains synchronized to music in an eight acre lake between the hotel and the Las Vegas Strip. The displays take place every 30 minutes in the afternoons and early evenings and everu 15 minutes between 8pm and midnight.

Thousands of TV viewers in the UK have complained about lewd performances from two top divas performing during the final of the X Factor, the top talent competition on UK television. Critics are asking Ofcom, the UK’s Independent Telecoms Regulator, to launch an inquiry into “disgusting” routines performed by Rihanna and Christina Aguilera.

The performances by the top US divas were deemed to have broken Ofcom’s code which seeks to protect young children from sexual content before the 9 PM watershed. Ms. Aguilera’s routine and those of her dancers was said to be “explicit” and “soft porn”. About 2000 complaints are understood to have been received by ITV and Ofcom since the show on Saturday evening.

Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code states that “children must be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them”. It also says that “material that is unsuitable for children should not, in general, be shown before 9 PM. The top viewed final of X. Factor was transmitted between 7 PM and 9 PM.

Ms. Aguilera’s routine was also said to contain simulated sex, porn imagery and provocative costumes including dancers in suggestive poses in little more than knickers, bras and stockings, while the star herself was wearing an extremely low cut, thigh long black dress.

Rihanna was equally as controversial aftur she took off her gown and moved around the stage in underwear performing suggestive dance moves with her supporting dancers performing in a similar fashion.

Parents are dismayed and asking why the UK’s biggest family TV show should see the need to to include such routines when it was guaranteed to get massive ratings of over 19 million viewers,.

A spokesman for Ofcom said that they had received complaints about Saturday nights X. factor and will assess them against the broadcasting code and consider whether to investigate. A spokesman for the program maker, Talkback Thames, said that they are confident that the performances given by the guest artists were appropriate for the show.

The X Factor, to be introduced into the US in 2011, is similar in content and structure to American Idol. The program has been running for seven years and this years winner was Matt Cardle, a former house painter. Previous winners include Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke.