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Director Sydney Pollack dies of cancer

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, who achieved commercial and critical success with the gender-bending comedy Tootsie and the period drama Out of Africa, has died. He was 73.

Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, surrounded by family, said agent Leslee Dart. He had been diagnosed with cancer about nine months ago, said Dart.

Pollack, who often appeared on the screen himself, worked with and gained the respect of Hollywood’s best actors in a long career that reached prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act, actor George Clooney said in a statement issued by his publicist. Watch how Pollack’s career spanned decades

He’ll be missed terribly, Clooney said.

Last fall, Pollack played Marty Bach opposite Clooney in Michael Clayton, a drama that examines the life of a fixer for lawyers. The film, which Pollack co-produced, received seven Oscar nominations, including best picture and a best actor nod for Clooney.

Pollack was no stranger to the Academy Awards. In 1986, Out of Africa a romantic epic of a woman’s passion set against the landscape of colonial Kenya, captured seven Oscars, including best director.

Over the years, several of his other films, including Tootsie and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? got several nominations, including best director nods.

Pollack’s last screen appearance was in Made of Honor, a romantic comedy currently in theaters, where he played the oft-married father of star Patrick Dempsey’s character.

In recent years, Pollack produced many independent films with filmmaker Anthony Minghella and the production company Mirage Enterprises.

The Lafayette, Indiana, native was born to first-generation Russian-Americans.

In high school, he fell in love with theater, a passion that prompted him to forgo college and move to New York and enroll in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.

We started together in New York and he always excelled at everything he set out to do, his friendships and his humanity as much as his talents, Martin Landau, a longtime close friend of Pollack’s and an associate from the Actor’s Studio, said through spokesman Dick Guttman.

Studying under Sanford Meisner, Pollack spent several years cutting his teeth in various areas of theater, eventually becoming Meisner’s assistant.

found here.

CNN Student News Transcript: May 27, 2008

(CNN Student News) — May 27, 2008

Quick Guide

The Phoenix Has Landed - Get a close-up of the photos being snapped by a robotic tourist on Mars. Honoring the Fallen - Observe some tributes paid to U.S. troops who sacrificed their lives.

Moments Frozen in Time - See how a Chinese wedding photographer captured earthquake history.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We’re back from the long weekend and ready to get going with a brand new edition of CNN Student News. Glad to have you with us. I’m Monica Lloyd.

First Up: The Phoenix Has Landed

LLOYD: First up, NASA’s Phoenix Lander lives up to its name and rises from the ashes to touch down on Mars. Any of you Harry Potter or X-Men fans out there probably know that a Phoenix is a bird that’s reborn. It’s also an appropriate name for NASA’s current mission to Mars. You see, a similar craft failed to reach the Red Planet nine years ago. But as Miles O’Brien explains, out of that setback came this weekend’s success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NASA INTERCOM: Phoenix has landed! Phoenix has landed!

MILES O’BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT: Talk about a happy landing. NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander arrived alive and well on the surface of the Red Planet, opened its solar arrays and started snapping pictures like an eager tourist. 170 million miles away, the intrepid robot’s human keepers rejoiced.

STEVE SQUYRES, MARS ROVERS SCIENTIST: This is hardware that these guys have held in their hands, that they nurtured, that they have sweated over for years. And to see that very same hardware on the surface of another world, it is an incredible feeling.

O’BRIEN: It was an incredible descent. The $420 million-lander breezed through a searing, perilous arrival at Mars. Pieces separated, the parachute unfurled, a radar started scanning the ground, and a dozen rockets fired, all as designed. And Phoenix slowed from 12,700 miles an hour to zero in all of seven minutes.

MIKE GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Today, you had a chance to watch a team in action, making something that is incredibly hard to do look easy.

ED WEILER, NASA ASSOC. ADMIN.: It’s like trying to hit a hole in one, but you tee off in Washington and you hit the ball 10,000 miles and score a hole in one in Sydney, Australia.

O’BRIEN: The last time NASA tried a soft landing on Mars like this, it was a disaster. The sister craft to Phoenix, the Mars Polar Lander, crashed in 1999, a casualty of a cost-cutting program that NASA admits went too far. This time, the space agency spent more money and is ready to focus on the mysteries of Mars.

PETER SMITH, LEAD SCIENTIST: This is a scientist’s dream right here on this landing site.

O’BRIEN: They believe the rocky tundra here is filled with ice crystals which could hold clues about life on the planet.

SQUYRES: For example, if there are organic molecules, which is one of the key ingredients of life, they may be trapped in that ice.

O’BRIEN: Miles O’Brien, CNN, Pasadena, California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Is this Legit?

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I’ve been a fixture in pop culture for decades, from books to radio to movies. I’ve hosted famous visitors from the U.S. and Russia. You can sometimes see me hanging around at night. I’m Mars, the planet we’ve been talking about for the last few minutes, and I’m named after the Roman god of war.

Honoring the Fallen

LLOYD: Back on Earth, Americans celebrated Memorial Day yesterday. The national holiday honors U.S. troops who have sacrificed their lives in service to their country. To mark the event, President Bush took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. He and the three leading White House hopefuls spoke about the dedication of Americans in uniform.

U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: On this Memorial Day, I stand before you as the commander in chief and try to tell you how proud I am of the sacrifice and service of the men and women who wear our uniform. They are an awesome bunch of people, and the United States is blessed to have such citizens.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You answered the call when it came, took up arms for your country’s sake, and fought to the limit of your ability because you believed America’s security was as much your responsibility as it was the professional soldier’s. And when you came home, you built a better country than the one you inherited. It’s a privilege and an honor to be in your company.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes, and I see many of them in the audience today, our sense of patriotism is particularly strong. Because while we gather here under open skies, we know that far beyond the Oregon Mountains, in the streets of Baghdad and the outskirts of Kabul, America’s sons and daughters are sacrificing on our behalf. And our thoughts and prayers are with them.

LLOYD: Senator Clinton didn’t speak publicly about Memorial Day, but issued a statement on her Web site saying:

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our moral obligation is significant for the simple reason that the sacrifice of those who serve and have served in our military demonstrates a profound example of commitment and love for our nation. We must return to them all they have given, and we must remember and honor those who gave their all, their lives, for our great nation.

Midwest Tornadoes

LLOYD: In the Midwestern U.S., several states are cleaning up after powerful storms spawned tornadoes over the weekend. The severe weather battered the region, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens of others. Authorities say nearly half of this Iowa town is in ruins. Hundreds of homes are damaged or destroyed. According to the mayor, if it wasn’t for the warning sirens, the amount of injuries and loss of life would have been tremendous.

Myanmar Aid

LLOYD: Heading overseas to Myanmar, the country is struggling to recover from a deadly cyclone that struck earlier this month, killing tens of thousands of people. Myanmar’s government had been reluctant to accept aid from other countries, and last week, they refused to allow U.S. warships to deliver relief supplies. But during a recent visit from the U.N. secretary general, the government agreed to let aid workers, regardless of nationality, into the areas affected by the cyclone.

Moments Frozen in Time

LLOYD: In neighboring China, the toll of a recent, deadly earthquake is climbing almost daily. Officials now say more than 65,000 people were killed by the quake. Strong aftershocks have damaged homes and cut off roads in several provinces. And officials are concerned about flooding in some areas, after the tremors caused landslides that dammed a nearby river. Many news stories focus on what’s happened after this massive quake. But Kyung Lah explains what one group of people was doing before it, and how their personal images of the disaster have been captured forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN REPORTER: Frozen in time, the moment the quake struck: A bride in her wedding dress; her church in ruins. Young couples who had all scheduled wedding photos taken months before their wedding day, as is Chinese custom. They hoped to capture their joy, and were now immortalized in horror. This is one of the young couples minutes after the quake.

LAH: I heard people shouting, ‘earthquake,’ she says. I couldn’t run anywhere. I fell forward, crawling on the ground until I found my fiance. He held my hands tightly as the ground was shaking and shaking. Photographer Wang Qiang never stopped taking pictures.

WANG QIANG, WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER: I could hear the walls crashing, but my mind was blank. I started taking pictures out of instinct.

LAH: Through the aftershocks, they managed to crawl out of the rubble; their shoes, wigs and wedding veils left behind. They made it to this village, or what was left of it. Jiang You Cong’s home was destroyed. But that night, he shared everything he could: clothes, food and a fire to stay warm.

LAH: They’re not locals, says Jiang, but we are all one nation. How can I not help them? A coal truck gave them a lift out of the village. Back home, their families were all safe, their homes still standing. There were six couples having their wedding picture taken that day. Some 33 people were inside this building. All of them somehow managed to make it out alive. There are very few signs that this was once a church, but a few remain. The story of this church and the images have made their way around the world on the Internet, embraced as a symbol of hope amid ruin.

LAH: They’re something we’ll keep for the rest of our lives, says the groom. They’re the most important wedding photos for us. It’s a moment that’s changed them as a couple forever. They do have a few photos before the quake hit. But it is the ones after, and their life together, that they will cherish. Kyung Lah, CNN, Bailu, China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Promo

LLOYD: In China, in Myanmar, in the U.S. Midwest, the victims of all of these natural disasters need help. If you want to take part in the relief efforts, go to CNN.com/impact. Join the growing number of people who are grabbing the opportunity to take action, and find out how you can impact your world.

Before We Go

LLOYD: Before we go, ladies and gentleman, start your engines! Or your feet! The Indy 500’s got nothing on these diminutive drivers. Except for speed, horsepower, torque… Ok, so it’s not as fast, but it still looks like fun. And there’s even the occasional wreck, just like the big boys. These tiny terrors are taking part in the Kindy 500. Four and five-year-olds compete in homemade box cars. Two and three-year-olds tear down the track on toys. There’s even a baby division, but they still need some work on their trash talking.

found here.

Disease fears loom over Myanmar

DEDAYE, Myanmar (AP) — Myint Hlaing’s family bathes and cooks with water from an irrigation ditch fouled by human waste and a rotting cow carcass.

His 10-year-old daughter drinks bottled water donated by aid groups, but she still suffers from diarrhea. Meanwhile, his family and other cyclone survivors endure daily rains in tattered thatch huts as the monsoon season nears.

Myanmar’s junta insists health conditions are normal in Myanmar’s devastated Irawaddy delta. But in many areas of the delta, they are a recipe for disease.

Shelter is the most important thing we need, Myint Hlaing said Monday. There are more and more mosquitoes here. We are afraid of getting dengue fever.

Relief group Church World Service has reported finding elderly and child survivors of the cyclone dying from dysentery in some areas because many have no choice but to drink dirty water. Other groups have detected a number of ailments including pneumonia, malaria, cholera and diarrhea.

Save the Children UK has warned that some 30,000 children in the delta were severely malnourished before Cyclone Nargis struck, with thousands facing starvation in the next two or three weeks. The monsoon season, which begins next month, adds yet another challenge.

The rain is a real problem, Eric Stover, lead author of a critical report published last year about Myanmar’s broken health system, told The Associated Press after visiting the delta. The water is rising up, and the latrines are just outside (flowing) into the water, and there’s livestock around. That’s the perfect breeding ground for diarrhea and cholera.

Stover, a professor of law and public health at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, managed to slip past military checkpoints twice to get a glimpse of the devastation. He was unable to assess the health situation in villages, but said conditions are ripe for outbreaks.

It’s as bad as we all think it is, there’s no question about that, he said. I think for public health people and for U.N. personnel the frustrating thing is that they can’t see it.

UNICEF has been canvassing the area and has reported a growing number of diarrhea cases — up to 30 percent of young children in one township. Myanmar’s Ministry of Health has started vaccinating some children in camps against measles, another big threat.

The World Health Organization says it still doesn’t have a clear medical picture because tight government restrictions have kept the delta off-limits to its foreign experts. Remote villages accessed only by boat remain the biggest question mark because many still have not been reached more than three weeks after the storm.

We have no hard numbers, said Maureen Birmingham, a WHO epidemiologist in Thailand. We continue to remain concerned because it’s a high-risk situation for diarrheal disease, malaria and dengue.

Myanmar’s government has worked hard to keep international aid agencies from visiting the delta since the May 2-3 storm belted the region, killing some 78,000 people and leaving 56,000 others missing. It has not reported any disease outbreaks.

The regime has said it is able to handle relief efforts on its own, but its ruling general assured visiting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week that all international aid agencies would be allowed in to help. It remained unclear Monday how many foreigners would be permitted to travel beyond Yangon, the country’s largest city.

Access to regular supplies of safe drinking water and proper sanitation is essential for preventing waterborne diseases like cholera, which spreads rapidly through water contaminated with feces. Malaria and dengue fever outbreaks also will be a major concern in the coming weeks after mosquitoes have time to breed in the stagnant water that flooded the delta.

found here.

CNN Student News Transcript: May 27, 2008

(CNN Student News) — May 27, 2008

Quick Guide

The Phoenix Has Landed - Get a close-up of the photos being snapped by a robotic tourist on Mars. Honoring the Fallen - Observe some tributes paid to U.S. troops who sacrificed their lives.

Moments Frozen in Time - See how a Chinese wedding photographer captured earthquake history.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We’re back from the long weekend and ready to get going with a brand new edition of CNN Student News. Glad to have you with us. I’m Monica Lloyd.

First Up: The Phoenix Has Landed

LLOYD: First up, NASA’s Phoenix Lander lives up to its name and rises from the ashes to touch down on Mars. Any of you Harry Potter or X-Men fans out there probably know that a Phoenix is a bird that’s reborn. It’s also an appropriate name for NASA’s current mission to Mars. You see, a similar craft failed to reach the Red Planet nine years ago. But as Miles O’Brien explains, out of that setback came this weekend’s success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NASA INTERCOM: Phoenix has landed! Phoenix has landed!

MILES O’BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT: Talk about a happy landing. NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander arrived alive and well on the surface of the Red Planet, opened its solar arrays and started snapping pictures like an eager tourist. 170 million miles away, the intrepid robot’s human keepers rejoiced.

STEVE SQUYRES, MARS ROVERS SCIENTIST: This is hardware that these guys have held in their hands, that they nurtured, that they have sweated over for years. And to see that very same hardware on the surface of another world, it is an incredible feeling.

O’BRIEN: It was an incredible descent. The $420 million-lander breezed through a searing, perilous arrival at Mars. Pieces separated, the parachute unfurled, a radar started scanning the ground, and a dozen rockets fired, all as designed. And Phoenix slowed from 12,700 miles an hour to zero in all of seven minutes.

MIKE GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Today, you had a chance to watch a team in action, making something that is incredibly hard to do look easy.

ED WEILER, NASA ASSOC. ADMIN.: It’s like trying to hit a hole in one, but you tee off in Washington and you hit the ball 10,000 miles and score a hole in one in Sydney, Australia.

O’BRIEN: The last time NASA tried a soft landing on Mars like this, it was a disaster. The sister craft to Phoenix, the Mars Polar Lander, crashed in 1999, a casualty of a cost-cutting program that NASA admits went too far. This time, the space agency spent more money and is ready to focus on the mysteries of Mars.

PETER SMITH, LEAD SCIENTIST: This is a scientist’s dream right here on this landing site.

O’BRIEN: They believe the rocky tundra here is filled with ice crystals which could hold clues about life on the planet.

SQUYRES: For example, if there are organic molecules, which is one of the key ingredients of life, they may be trapped in that ice.

O’BRIEN: Miles O’Brien, CNN, Pasadena, California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Is this Legit?

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I’ve been a fixture in pop culture for decades, from books to radio to movies. I’ve hosted famous visitors from the U.S. and Russia. You can sometimes see me hanging around at night. I’m Mars, the planet we’ve been talking about for the last few minutes, and I’m named after the Roman god of war.

Honoring the Fallen

LLOYD: Back on Earth, Americans celebrated Memorial Day yesterday. The national holiday honors U.S. troops who have sacrificed their lives in service to their country. To mark the event, President Bush took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. He and the three leading White House hopefuls spoke about the dedication of Americans in uniform.

U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: On this Memorial Day, I stand before you as the commander in chief and try to tell you how proud I am of the sacrifice and service of the men and women who wear our uniform. They are an awesome bunch of people, and the United States is blessed to have such citizens.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You answered the call when it came, took up arms for your country’s sake, and fought to the limit of your ability because you believed America’s security was as much your responsibility as it was the professional soldier’s. And when you came home, you built a better country than the one you inherited. It’s a privilege and an honor to be in your company.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes, and I see many of them in the audience today, our sense of patriotism is particularly strong. Because while we gather here under open skies, we know that far beyond the Oregon Mountains, in the streets of Baghdad and the outskirts of Kabul, America’s sons and daughters are sacrificing on our behalf. And our thoughts and prayers are with them.

LLOYD: Senator Clinton didn’t speak publicly about Memorial Day, but issued a statement on her Web site saying:

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our moral obligation is significant for the simple reason that the sacrifice of those who serve and have served in our military demonstrates a profound example of commitment and love for our nation. We must return to them all they have given, and we must remember and honor those who gave their all, their lives, for our great nation.

Midwest Tornadoes

LLOYD: In the Midwestern U.S., several states are cleaning up after powerful storms spawned tornadoes over the weekend. The severe weather battered the region, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens of others. Authorities say nearly half of this Iowa town is in ruins. Hundreds of homes are damaged or destroyed. According to the mayor, if it wasn’t for the warning sirens, the amount of injuries and loss of life would have been tremendous.

Myanmar Aid

LLOYD: Heading overseas to Myanmar, the country is struggling to recover from a deadly cyclone that struck earlier this month, killing tens of thousands of people. Myanmar’s government had been reluctant to accept aid from other countries, and last week, they refused to allow U.S. warships to deliver relief supplies. But during a recent visit from the U.N. secretary general, the government agreed to let aid workers, regardless of nationality, into the areas affected by the cyclone.

Moments Frozen in Time

LLOYD: In neighboring China, the toll of a recent, deadly earthquake is climbing almost daily. Officials now say more than 65,000 people were killed by the quake. Strong aftershocks have damaged homes and cut off roads in several provinces. And officials are concerned about flooding in some areas, after the tremors caused landslides that dammed a nearby river. Many news stories focus on what’s happened after this massive quake. But Kyung Lah explains what one group of people was doing before it, and how their personal images of the disaster have been captured forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN REPORTER: Frozen in time, the moment the quake struck: A bride in her wedding dress; her church in ruins. Young couples who had all scheduled wedding photos taken months before their wedding day, as is Chinese custom. They hoped to capture their joy, and were now immortalized in horror. This is one of the young couples minutes after the quake.

LAH: I heard people shouting, ‘earthquake,’ she says. I couldn’t run anywhere. I fell forward, crawling on the ground until I found my fiance. He held my hands tightly as the ground was shaking and shaking. Photographer Wang Qiang never stopped taking pictures.

WANG QIANG, WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER: I could hear the walls crashing, but my mind was blank. I started taking pictures out of instinct.

LAH: Through the aftershocks, they managed to crawl out of the rubble; their shoes, wigs and wedding veils left behind. They made it to this village, or what was left of it. Jiang You Cong’s home was destroyed. But that night, he shared everything he could: clothes, food and a fire to stay warm.

LAH: They’re not locals, says Jiang, but we are all one nation. How can I not help them? A coal truck gave them a lift out of the village. Back home, their families were all safe, their homes still standing. There were six couples having their wedding picture taken that day. Some 33 people were inside this building. All of them somehow managed to make it out alive. There are very few signs that this was once a church, but a few remain. The story of this church and the images have made their way around the world on the Internet, embraced as a symbol of hope amid ruin.

LAH: They’re something we’ll keep for the rest of our lives, says the groom. They’re the most important wedding photos for us. It’s a moment that’s changed them as a couple forever. They do have a few photos before the quake hit. But it is the ones after, and their life together, that they will cherish. Kyung Lah, CNN, Bailu, China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Promo

LLOYD: In China, in Myanmar, in the U.S. Midwest, the victims of all of these natural disasters need help. If you want to take part in the relief efforts, go to CNN.com/impact. Join the growing number of people who are grabbing the opportunity to take action, and find out how you can impact your world.

Before We Go

LLOYD: Before we go, ladies and gentleman, start your engines! Or your feet! The Indy 500’s got nothing on these diminutive drivers. Except for speed, horsepower, torque… Ok, so it’s not as fast, but it still looks like fun. And there’s even the occasional wreck, just like the big boys. These tiny terrors are taking part in the Kindy 500. Four and five-year-olds compete in homemade box cars. Two and three-year-olds tear down the track on toys. There’s even a baby division, but they still need some work on their trash talking.

found here.