Nigerian Times

Betty White to Boomers: Consider Life Insurance Policies to Fund Retirement The Lifeline Program spokesperson Betty White comments, “It’s the hottest program for spicing your golden years.” Hollywood’s favorite “golden girl” recently celebrated her 90th birthday, with company President/CEO Wm. Scott Page. Photo credit: Mike Ruiz. Survey Says: 79 percent Want Info on LIFE SETTLEMENTS ATLANTA, Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Baby boomers appear to be taking a second look at their life insurance policies as an alternative financial solution to paying for retirement. Retirees can sell an unneeded life insurance policy for a portion of the face amount. These transactions, known as life settlements, have become mainstream in the past several years, particularly as baby boomers begin exploring all financial options to paying for retirement, including previously unconventional alternatives. Company spokesperson Betty White, appearing in a YouTube music video with over one million hits comments, “I...

The following are the top ten movies showing now at Genesis Deluxe Cinemas at The Palms on Victoria Island, Lagos. FRI 16 DEC - THURS 22 DEC 2011 1. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Genre: Action | Adventure | Crime Starring:Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Jared Harris Running Time: 2hr 10mins Fri & Sat: 10.10am, 12.45pm, 3.20pm, 5.55pm, 8.30pm, 11.05pm Sun - Thur: 10.10am, 12.45pm, 3.20pm, 5.55p, 8.30pm Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty . 2. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked Genre: Animation | Comedy | Family Starring:Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney Running Time: 1hr 40mins Fri- Thur: 10.00am, 11.50am, 1.40pm, 3.30pm, 5.20pm Playing around while aboard a cruise ship, the Chipmunks and Chipettes accidentally go overboard and end up marooned in a tropical paradise. They discover their new turf is not as deserted as it seems . 3. Puss in Boots Genre: Adventure...

Tichina and upcoming Nigerian actor Alloysius, aka 2MS at the closing gala night of the second AFRIFF International Film festival in the Lagos Oriental Hotel on Victoria Island, Lagos, Saturday night, December 3, 2011. . Beautiful American actress and singer Tichina Rolanda Arnold who is popular for her roles of "Pamela James" on the FOX sitcom Martin and the family matriarch "Rochelle" on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris , was one of the special guests from Hollywood at the closing gala and awards night of the 2011 AFRIFF International Film Festival last Saturday December 3, at the Lagos Oriental Hotel on Victoria Island. Nigerians Report saw her posing for photographers and by her side was the young and handsome Alloysius, aka 2MS, an upcoming Nigerian actor and hip hop rapper who is popular for the lead role of "Dede" in the Off Campus series on M-Net’s DSTV and also featured in several Nollywood movies, including Andy Amenechi’s Honey and I...

"Most of the world is without a cinema hall. That will all change! One village, one cinema. Why not?" ~Anthony Tate, Virgina, U.S.A. As much as we appreciate the revival of the movie theatre culture in Nigeria with thanks to the Silverbird Cinemas and Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, we would be happier to use cinemas to break social class barriers and build bridges of unity among communities for the common benefit of the society and not to pander to the aristocratic tastes of the rich minority in Nigeria to the detriment of the poor majority. Cinema has never been an elitist medium of communication. Cinema is a tool for public entertainment and enlightenment and has been very effective and imperative in mass literacy campaigns in developed and developing countries for decades. Cinemas made Hollywood the film capital of the world buoyed by over 38,605 indoor screens in 5,561 sites and 628 Drive-In screens in 381 sites in the US, the largest in the world. Presently in Nigeria movie the...

Michael Gozzard lecturing the participants during a session of the workshop. One of the most recent stakeholders initiatives to improve the quality of film production in Nigeria was the 2011 iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Forum (iREP) collaborative workshop with the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the United Consulate in Lagos, on Story Telling, Scripting and Content Management, an industry clinic targeted at professionals within the various disciplines of film making. Michael Gozzard, a multiple-award winning script writer and content manager from Hollywood was the instructor at the one week workshop held at the Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street on Victoria Island in Lagos. The interactive workshop ended on Friday September 2, 2011. Gozzard, who wrote and produced the famous Hollywood film, Pride took the 32 participants through intensive sessions on general introduction of the dynamics of Scriptwriting and Storytelling. The Participants were nominated by their various G...

Nicole Crowther 19 Aug 2011 18:25 Africa/Lagos Actress Finally Speaks Out About Bullying in Hollywood PR Newswire HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Aug. 19, 2011 HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Aug. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- After wrapping her new film "Spin", actress Nicole Crowther finally feels comfortable enough to respond to the firestorm that erupted from an innocent tweet that revealed the ending of the popular Prom episode of Fox's hit show 'Glee'. 'Glee' writer, producer and creator Brad Falchuk took to the offensive by Tweeting "@nicolecrowther Hope you're qualified to do something besides work in entertainment". [EDITOR'S NOTE: photo of tweet is available upon request] Crowther says she never understood why this situation demanded this amount of attention. “I wasn’t even working on the show at the time. The tweet was simply a rumor.” Now she’s had time to reflect upon the consequences of her tweet on ‘Glee’ but believes it was use...

Are Del-York International and the New York Film Academy not ripping off Ignorant Nigerians? It’s prohibitively expensive, even though we do need the training. Give us half that price and we’ll get the same kind of specialized resource persons from Asia to provide the same training. ~ Prof. Femi Shaka of the Department of Creative Arts, University of Port-Harcourt in Nigeria. The nascent popularity of Nollywood, the Nigerian digital film industry has attracted global attention since a UNESCO Report rated it the second largest movie industry in the world after the United States of America and ahead of India’s Bollywood. The largely homegrown industry has generated millions of naira and created thousands of jobs from Idumota in Lagos to Iweka in Onitsha and the environs in Eastern Nigeria where most of the producers and marketers hail from. Over 80 percent of the movies are home videos of what would be rated as B-movies and slapstick comedies of typical Nigerian st...

Patti Stanger Happy Independence Day before you say Sensa to join the pretty and sexy ‘Millionaire Matchmaker’ star Patti Stanger to jump on the SENSA® Weight-Loss System bandwagon, please read Beth Sanders Sensa Reviewed: Get the Facts about Sensa . And find out why Hollywood is going gaga over it. Using SENSA® can make you look 10 years younger like Patti who is 50, but looks 35! SENSA® was designed to work with your sense of smell to help trigger Sensory Specific Satiety. The scientific principle behind SENSA® is remarkably simple. As you eat smell and taste receptors send messages to your brain which release hormones that tell your body it's time to stop eating. This is a phenomenon we call Sensory Specific Satiety. By enhancing smell, SENSA® Tastants were designed to help speed up the process and trigger your "I feel full" signal, so you eat less and feel more satisfied. Because SENSA® works with your body's natural impulses, rather than against them, there a...

1 Jul 2011 13:30 Africa/Lagos From Universal Studios Home Entertainment: "The Office" Season Seven JOIN INCREDIBLE GUEST STARS INCLUDING JIM CARREY, WILL ARNETT, AMY RYAN AND RAY ROMANO IN STEVE CARELL'S FAREWELL SEASON AS THE ICONIC MICHAEL SCOTT WHEN THE LATEST SEASON OF TV'S FAVORITE WORKPLACE COMEDY ARRIVES ON BLU-RAY™ AND DVD ON SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 Stream Each All-New Episode of the Highly Anticipated Eighth Season Straight to Your TV the Day After it Airs on NBC, Available Exclusively on Blu-ray™ PR Newswire UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., July 1, 2011 UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., July 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Hailed as "TV's Funniest half-hour," by Variety Magazine, The Office, Season Seven marks the momentous departure of Steve Carell as Michael Scott - the slightly clueless, often politically-incorrect, but always loveable office manager – an iconic role that earned him a Golden Globe® and five Emmy® nominations. With Michael on his way out, the coveted pos...

In loving memory of Tayo Aderinokun.the MD/CE of the Guaranty Trust Bank Plc who passed on to eternal glory on Tuesday June 14, 2011, in a Hospital in London, U.K. The Economics of Nigerian Film, Art and Business ~ by Tayo Aderinokun The world has continued to marvel at how Nigerians "manufacture" and "fabricate" scores of movies in a week. It is reported that but for India, Nigeria produces more movies in quantitative terms than any other country in the world. As joint stakeholders in the development of our motherland, I hope that my presentation today on the "social economics" of the movie industry will provoke processes that could move the industry forward. In the course of this presentation, I will be inviting you to join me as we journey through the past, the present and the future of the Nigerian film industry. There is a saying that today is tomorrow’s yesterday, in other words, where we are today is a reflection of our past and a foreshadow of our...

British Nigerian filmmaker Richard Ayoade 's “Submarine” tops the list of Leonard Maltin’s five must see indie movies and you can see why and how he rated them on the Huffington Post . 1. Submarine 2. Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3. Midnight in Paris 4. Another Year 5. The Clowns Ayoade is an only child of a Norwegian mother, Dagny (née Baassuik), and a Nigerian father, Layide Ade Laditi Ayoade. The film is based on a prize-winning novel by Joe Dunthorne. It is a dark indie comedy about a 15-year-old Oliver Tate who has two objectives: To lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life. Peter Bradshaw reviewing Submarine in the Guardian of Thursday 17 March 2011 15.00 GMT, said Ayoade clearly has “a big future payday for him in Hollywood, if he wants it, but I can't help hoping he develops in depth and scope here, as a tremendous new voice in British film.” ~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

Jeta Amata Nick Vivarelli of the Variety reported that the ambitious Nigerian filmmaker Jeta Amata is already working on a new international film after making “Black Gold”. The director who is also well known for his daring film “The Amazing Grace” is going to focus on the corrupt practices of pharmaceutical multinationals in Africa in his new film "Journeys of One," with Donald Ranvaud of "The Constant Gardner" fame as an executive producer. Amata’s “Black Gold” had a market premiere at the 64th Cannes Film Festival . The film on the Niger Delta crisis featured top Hollywood actors like Tom Sizemore, William George "Billy" Zane, and Hakeem Kae-Kazim. "Journeys of One" will be a way to provide a more genuine take on the Big Pharma in Africa theme tackled by Hollywood in Fernando Meirelles' "The Constant Gardner". We like Hollywood coming to tell our story; but they miss some of the essence of the African point of view," Amata...

May 19, 2011 11:42 ET "Mr. Pink" A Hot Film For Global Universal LOS ANGELES, May 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB/BB: GBHL) announced today that its US Production subsidiary, Global Universal Entertainment, Inc. has optioned the motion picture and television rights to the recently published book, "Mr. Pink". "Mr. Pink is one hot property,"stated Daniel Sherkow, COO of Global Universal Entertainment. "Mr. Pink" is the true story of four well off college students who pulled off one of the largest heists in the art world. The valuable art books are worth over twelve million dollars!" Former Paramount Executive Sherkow continued, "The 'Mr. Pink' project is an exciting and compelling true story, which is featured on Google under The Transy Book Heist , and more info is at: http://www.whoismrpink.com/. It is timely, teen driven, yet bears a strong moral lesson." Veteran writer and film prod...

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan arrives on the red carpet for the screening of the film "Sleeping Beauty", in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, May 12, 2011. Twenty films are competing in the May 11 to 22 cinema showcase, with a roll call including major screen stars, revered "auteur" directors and relative newcomers. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler (FRANCE - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT) As Hollywood and Bollywood stars shine at the premiere of the sexual drama "Sleeping Beauty" the toast of the Cannes Film Festival , nothing to show from Nollywood the so called second largest movie industry in the world. The celebrated movie stars from Hollywood, Bollywood and other notable film industries from other countries are participating and competing for the coveted prizes and other attractions of the film festival. Nigeria has a pavilion at the festival, but no Nollywood movie is in competition or even out of competition. Nollywood stars are simply unknown h...