MOVIES - Dec. 1, 2001

Eminem Movie Inflames Citizenry

A movie starring rapper Eminem has been targeted by residents and officials of Highland Park, Mich., who are upset at plans to torch three vacant homes in the neighborhood during production.

According to E! Online, a protest march was organized after an emergency city council session in which citizens raised concerns about the project and filmmakers defended their actions. Some said that they heard that the homes to be burned were going to portrayed as “crack houses,� which would damage the town’s reputation. Others noted that Eminem is a role model and that children might emulate his actions. One official from the local NAACP said that intentionally setting fire to buildings was tacky in light of recent arsons in the area.

Producers of the movie, to be distributed by Universal Pictures next summer, said the scenes were integral to the movie--part of an epiphany experienced by the character played by Marshall Mathers (Eminem’s real name). The studio has agreed to donate $2,000 to a local charity and have the rapper address high school students about the movie business.

Though the city council members voted 4-0 to oppose the filming, the final decision rests with Highland Park’s emergency financial manager, Ramona Henderson Pearson, who said she’s in favor of it.

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MUSIC

Call Them Musicians Without Borders

Governors of the three Californias--California USA, Baja California Sur and Baja California--have formed an Orchestra of the Californias under the baton of David Atherton.

Gov. Gray Davis called the move “a major milestone in the flourishing relationship between the United States and Mexico.� Funding will be provided by the California Arts Council, the two Baja states and private and corporate contributions.

The orchestra will perform in February in cities ranging from La Paz to Loreto, Tijuana, Mexicali, San Diego, San Gabriel and San Luis Obispo as part of festivities that include music, educational programs and activities related to historic missions in California and Mexico. Proceeds will be donated to local charities and youth education programs.

Mainly Mozart, a San Diego-based bi-national group that has conducted cross-border concerts for the past 11 years, has been asked to produce the concerts. Nancy Laturno, the group’s executive director, calls the project “logistically complicated.�

“We’ll be working with three governments, marketing in a variety of locations and dealing with transportation and housing issues. Musicians must be moved all over,� she said.

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PEOPLE

Neeme Jarvi Returns

to the Podium

Less than five months after he was rushed to a hospital with an aneurysm, Neeme Jarvi led the New York Philharmonic on Thursday night in a program of Weber, Brahms and Sergei Taneyev. “I feel very well,� Jarvi said before the performance at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. “My surgery went very well and my recovery went very well. Thank God and thanks to the doctors.�

Jarvi, 64, is in his 12th season as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and 20th season as principal conductor of the National Orchestra of Sweden. He was hospitalized July 9 after taking ill at a music festival at Parnu in his native Estonia, then had surgery to repair an aneurysm of the vertebral artery and recuperated at his home in Florida.

Jarvi, who became an American citizen in 1987, returned to work on Nov. 7, conducting Sibelius’ second symphony in Goteborg in a performance recorded for commercial release. After four concerts in Sweden and three in Detroit last weekend, he resumed his guest conducting.

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Actress Gets Probation for Drug Possession

Former “Baywatch� star Yasmine Bleeth pleaded guilty in Detroit Friday to possessing less than 25 grams of cocaine and to driving while impaired.

As part of a plea agreement, the actress will serve two years of probation, which includes a drug screening evaluation and regular drug tests.

The 33-year-old actress spent the night in jail in Romulus, near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, after patrol officers found what they suspected was cocaine in her purse during their investigation of a car accident on Sept. 12. Charges also came from a search of her hotel room.

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QUICK TAKES

The annual European Film Awards will be broadcast from Berlin on the Sundance Channel at 9 tonight.... Antonio Banderas has been selected as the first recipient of the Anthony Quinn Achievement Award, to be presented at the 10th annual Latin American Film Festival slated for late April in Providence, R.I.... Showtime is collaborating with New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to sponsor “Visions From Ground Zero,� in which the school’s film students produce short films about post-Sept. 11 life. As many as 10 projects will be given production and cash assistance--and an airing on Showtime as early as the first anniversary of the attack.... The Joint Committee on the Arts is holding a public hearing on Monday to address the economic impact of the Sept. 11 tragedy on arts funding. The meeting will take place at Burbank City Hall, 275 East Olive Ave., 1-4 p.m.... The Johnny Carson Foundation has donated $20,000 to Zoo Nebraska in Royal to renovate the primate building, which will be converted into the new Carson Center for Chimps.... Nashville surgeons removed the prostate gland of country singer Charlie Daniels on Nov. 20 after he was diagnosed with cancer. The 65-year-old country singer is expected to make a complete recovery.

Elaine Dutka