Another Legal Twist In Ansel Adams Case

December 17, 2010, 7:35 pm

By REYHAN HARMANCI

The legal dispute between a California man who says a box of glass-plate negatives he bought at a garage sale are the work of Ansel Adams and the famed photographer’s trust has entered a new phase.

On Thursday, the man, Rick Norsigian, and PRS Media Partners filed a counterclaim against the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust in federal court in San Francisco. The trust, which disputes that the images are Adams’s work, filed suit against Mr. Norsigian and others in August, asserting that their sale of prints made from the negatives was a trademark violation.

Now Mr. Norsigian argues in his countersuit that the trust slandered him and engaged in a civil conspiracy. The slander case arises from comments made by William Turnage, the managing trustee, who told CNN that the authentication effort was the work of “a bunch of crooks” and likened it to the “big lie” technique of the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. The suit also contends that e-mails between Mr. Turnage and the Center for Creative Photography, the Adams photo archive at the University of Arizona, depict him as objecting to the center’s neutral stance in the dispute, which it eventually reversed with a statement.

Mr. Norsigian’s lawyer contends the statement by the center, which is not a defendant, “diminished the value” of the find. Bob Steinberg, a lawyer for the trust, told The Bay Citizen that he viewed the counterclaim as a sideshow. “We will show these statements by Bill Turnage did not influence the C.C.P.,” he said.

The Norsigian prints, priced at $1,500 and $7,500, were still being sold on Friday.

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Another Collapse at Pompeii Renews Calls for Better Care

November 30, 2010, 1:41 pm

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

ROME — Less than a month after Pompeii’s so-called House of Gladiators collapsed into rubble, portions of a garden wall at the nearby House of the Moralist fell down on Tuesday, prompting new calls to better safeguard the city buried by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Antonio Varone, Pompeii’s director of excavations, said the house – which actually consists of two adjacent abodes that belonged to two families – was in no danger.

The wall, which bordered an unexcavated area and was shored up earlier this year, had been completely rebuilt after the United States bombing of the Naples area in World War II, according to the culture ministry. Mr. Varone told the news agency ANSA that the wall had most likely succumbed to the “incredible, incessant torrential rains” that have washed over central Italy in recent days.

“These atmospheric phenomena are so unusual that they’ve even surpassed the protection that we have set into place,” he said. Pompeii officials were monitoring the areas most at risk, he said.

Demands that the Italian government take better care of its fragile archaeological sites grew after the collapse in early November of the Schola Armaturarum, whose walls were decorated with frescoes of military themes. Political opponents of the government have called for the resignation of the culture minister, Sandro Bondi, and a confidence vote is expected in December.

On Tuesday, Tsao Cevoli, president of Italy’s National Association of Archaeologists, said that the collapse of the wall was further “proof of the incompetence with which Minister Bondi and this government has handled the situation at Pompeii,” ANSA reported.

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Studio Will Take Another Stab at 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

November 22, 2010, 4:50 pm

By DAVE ITZKOFF

9:52 p.m. | Updated

If immortal bloodsuckers can come back from their apparent demises time and time again, why not the humans who are sworn to eradicate them from the planet? On Monday, Warner Brothers Pictures said it was proceeding with plans to produce a new movie based on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” with a creative team that does not include the franchise’s creator, Joss Whedon.

Mr. Whedon wrote the original screenplay for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” a 1992 comedy that starred Kristy Swanson as a California cheerleader who learns it is her destiny to combat the undead; he also was the creator and show runner of the “Buffy” television series, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as the title character.

But his name was nowhere to be found on a news release circulated Monday, in which Warner Brothers said it had optioned the “Buffy” rights from Fran and Kaz Kuzui (who produced the original feature, which Ms. Kuzui also directed) and from Sandollar Productions (the production company of Dolly Parton). The new film, the studio said, will be produced by Atlas Entertainment and Vertigo Entertainment, and will be written by Whit Anderson.

The blogosphere did not exactly greet these plans – whose possibility was previously explored in the Hollywood trade publications last year – rapturously. But for anyone who says it’s impossible to reboot a popular character just a few years after its last incarnation, we say, look at Batman, James Bond, Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek. (Don’t look at the Punisher or the Hulk.)

Update: Then again, Mr. Whedon didn’t sound too thrilled by the news, either. In an email posted at eonline.com, he wrote: “I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don’t love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I’m also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can’t wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I’m making a Batman movie. Because there’s a franchise that truly needs updating.”

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Another Actor Speaks of 'Spider-Man' Injuries

October 29, 2010, 4:10 pm

By PATRICK HEALY

6:12 p.m. | Updated

A second actor in the coming musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” was recently injured in rehearsal performing the same sling-shot technique that caused castmate Kevin Aubin to break both of his wrists during a flying demonstration last week. The other actor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of career considerations, said that the problem for both him and Mr. Aubin involved a “flying glitch.”

“I had broken my feet on the same move a month earlier,” the performer wrote. “Kevin is doing fine though and took it like a champ.”

A spokesman for the “Spider-Man” musical said the actor in question had broken a toe.

The injured actor added, “I can’t believe this is such big news lol” — a sentiment that was echoed in several e-mails, solicited and otherwise, from Broadway dancers and performers on Friday as media reports spread about Mr. Aubin’s injuries. The e-mails described an array of broken ankles, legs, fingers, and arms in musicals like “Mary Poppins,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked” that involve extensive dance and movement and, in some cases, special effects.

One actor, Adrian Bailey, filed a lawsuit against Disney and others in 2008 after falling through a trap door before a performance of “The Little Mermaid” and suffering fractured wrists, a broken back, a shattered pelvis and several injuries. Mr. Bailey alleged that there were inadequate warnings and safety devices to protect performers. The litigation remains ongoing.

Michael Cohl, the lead producer of “Spider-Man,” said in an e-mail on Friday that a “multitude of factors, technical and human,” contributed to last week’s accident. “Our priority from ‘Day 1’ has always been to put safety first,” he said. “We continue every day to make the running of the show a safer experience.”

“Spider-Man” is scheduled to begin performances at the Foxwoods Theater on Nov. 14.

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