Tony Scott: Top Gun director dies after Los Angeles bridge jump

Tony Scott, the British-born Hollywood director behind hits including Top Gun and Crimson Tide, has died after jumping off a Los Angeles bridge, authorities said today.

Film director Tony Scott died after jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles Photo: AFP/Getty Images/AP

The 68 year-old, originally from North Shields, died from horrific injuriesafter he plunged 185 feet from the Vincent Thomas Bridge, at lunchtime on Sunday.

Witnesses reported seeing the father-of-two calmly parking his black Toyota Prius near the bridge, climb a fence on the south side of the bridge's apex and leap off "without hesitation" just after 12:30p.m local time.

Within hours of his death becoming public, Hollywood paid tribute to the younger brother of film-maker Ridley Scott, who was frequently seen behind the camera in his signature faded red baseball cap.

The US Coast Guard said officials found a note listing contact information inside his car, which was parked on an eastbound lane of the cable-suspension bridge.

A suicide note was later found at the downtown Los Angeles office of the Hollywood legend, who also directed Days Of Thunder and Beverly Hills Cop II.

Today, it was believed that his actress wife, Donna Scott, who appeared in several of her husband's films, was being comforted by friends and family at their Beverly Hills home.

“I can confirm that Tony Scott has indeed passed away,” said his publicist, Simon Halls.

“The family asks that their privacy be respected at this time.”

Today colleagues and fans struggled to explain why the successful director would commit suicide as many took to Twitter to post their tributes.

Director Ron Howard, led tributes, saying: "No more Tony Scott movies. Tragic day."

Stephen Fry, the British actor, said: "Deeply saddened to hear the news about Tony Scott. A fine film-maker and the most charming, modest man."

Rob Schneider, the actor, said: "So sorry to hear Tony Scott is dead. A great director."

James Gunn, a film-maker, added: "RIP Tony Scott. Damn. He was a huge inspiration. Very sad."

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said a dive team using sonar equipment pulled the body from the murky waters in Los Angeles harbour several hours later after a massive search.

Lieutenant Joe Bale, a watch commander for the coroner's office, said there was no evidence to suggest foul play.

“At this point we are investigating this as a suicide,” he said. “There is nothing to lead us to believe otherwise. A note was left in the car.”

The two brothers ran Scott Free Productions and were working jointly on a film called "Killing Lincoln," based on the best seller by Bill O'Reilly. Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" was a summer blockbuster, which has grossed $327 million (£208 million) worldwide.

Their company produced the CBS dramas "NUMB3RS" and "The Good Wife" as well as a 2011 documentary about the Battle of Gettysburg for the History Channel.

Tony Scott was known for hyper-kinetic action and editing, although he never won an Oscar and critics often dismissed his movies for emphasising style over substance.

Top Gun, a film about the US fighter jets starring Tom Cruise, was one of the highest-grossing films of the 1980s which quickly became a cult classic. Since its release in 1986 it has grossed almost $354 million (£225 million).

Top Gun's producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, signed Scott to direct the movie after being impressed by a commercial he had done for Swedish automaker Saab in the early 1980s in which a car races a fighter jet.

The trio worked together again four years later on the NASCAR-set Days of Thunder, which also starred Cruise's soon to become wife Nicole Kidman.

Crimson Tide, the 1995 submarine thriller, was another blockbuster whose cast included Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman. He later directed Hackman in Enemy of the State, with Will Smith.

Scott frequently worked with Denzel Washington, most recently on the runaway train drama "Unstoppable." Scott and Washington collaborated on four other films: Man on Fire, Deja Vu and The Taking of Pelham 123.

Other films produced by Scott included True Romance and Man On Fire.

He said during an interview before the release of Taking of Pelham 123: "My whole career I’ve always tried to avoid CGI, whether it’s planes, cars or trains.

"It’s something in terms of the drama and the performances that gives me a reality and more of an edge."

Last year Cruise confirmed talks were underway about a sequel to the 1986 hit Top Gun that would see him reprise the role of fighter pilot Lt Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

On the red carpet in Munich, Cruise confirmed he has been developing a script with Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

A port mortem examination will be performed later today. One lane of the eastbound side of the bridge was closed as investigations continued.

Completed in 1963, the 6,060-foot bridge, which spans San Pedro and Terminal Island in Los Angeles, is a known suicide spot.

Sourced: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9486673/Tony-Scott-Top-Gun-director-dies-after-Los-Angeles-bridge-jump.html

We'll be deadliest in Europe with Van Persie, says Fergie ahead of £24m deal

Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed Manchester United will possess arguably Europe's most fearsome strikeforce when Robin van Persie arrives.

Van Persie arrived at London St Pancras train station on Thursday morning before setting off to Manchester to complete his medical. 

He should be ready to make his Manchester United debut at Everton on Monday.

Ferguson has spoken about the new-look attacking options of Van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez, and the comparisons with the 1999 set of Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Speaking at a press conference, Ferguson said: 'They (Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie) are two fantastic players and it will be great to have both of them. It gives us more strength and more combinations up front.

'In 1999 I had Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the four best strikers in Europe.

'We are going towards that now with Javier Hernandez, Wayne Rooney, Robin, Danny Welbeck and Shinji Kagawa.

It is a fantastic collection of players and hopefully I pick the right combinations It is great to have a player of Robin van Persie's qualities to come into the squad. I am very pleased.'

United sealed the signing of the summer when Arsenal agreed to sell Van Persie to their Barclays Premier League rivals for £24million.

Even one of the players whose place is threatened expressed his delight, with Welbeck keen to welcome Van Persie into the United fold.

'It is a massive boost to the club if Robin van Persie joins us,' he said. 'I am really looking forward to playing with him.'

After weeks of negotiating with Arsenal and the Holland striker, United have beaten Manchester City and Juventus to Van Persie’s signature and the 29-year-old will have a medical at Old Trafford on Thursday. 

Launch: Sir Alex Ferguson was speaking at the club's link-up with sponsor bwin

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Ferguson said: 'He is on his way up from London for a medical. We hope that goes according to plan. 

'His agent is in discussions with (United chief executive) David Gill right about now. We hope all the things will be tied up, although sometimes medicals do take a bit longer. I am sure he will be available for Monday's game.'

Arsene Wenger has admitted that Arsenal were powerless to stop Robin van Persie signing for Manchester United.

Wenger has the best part of two weeks to spend some of the money before the transfer window is closed. He said on French TV on Wednesday night: ‘It’s sad to lose a player of his quality. He had only one year left on his contract so we didn’t have the choice.’

On the move: Bookmakers Coral were quick to set up this stunt outside the Emirates

United front: Sir Alex Ferguson has finally got his man by agreeing a deal for Robin van Persie

Asked who he would recruit, Wenger said: 'We already signed Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud.' 

Van Persie is the first Arsenal player to join United since Viv Anderson in 1987 and the move has riled Gunners fans, who took to Twitter to abuse him.

United are understood to have agreed a £15m downpayment for last season’s Footballer of the Year and Players’ Player — who scored 30 Premier League goals for last season. That will rise to £24m depending on appearances. Van Persie is expected to sign a four-year contract worth over £200,000 a week.

A statement on United’s website said: ‘Manchester United is pleased to announce it has reached agreement with Arsenal for the transfer of Robin van Persie. The deal is subject to a medical and the agreement of personal terms.’

In signing Van Persie, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has laid down a clear marker ahead of the new season. It is the first time the club have paid  for a big name since Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham for £30.75m in 2008.

Having decided two or three years ago they would not sign players over the age of 27, United have signified just how far they are prepared to go to wrest the title back from City.

Final hurdle: The protracted deal will be concluded when Van Persie has a medical on Thursday

City manager Roberto Mancini will be particularly irritated that United have been allowed to steal his top target from under his nose, and this will test his strained relationship with the club’s football administrator Brian Marwood still further.

'Last season was disappointing for us because we didn't win the league,' said veteran defender Rio Ferdinand.

'Now it is about how we come back. We have shown in the past the mentality of the club and its history is that we always come back stronger.

'We want to give the fans what they expect and be battling at the top of the league. The gauntlet has been thrown down time and time again. It is up to us to pull in the right direction.

'We have to step up to the plate and produce. I am sure we will.'

Van Persie was on Wednesday night with Holland, who lost a friendly 4-2 to Belgium. He is expected to fly to Manchester early on Thursday morning.

His departure will leave Arsenal fans angry that yet another of their star players has decided to depart in search of an improved salary and better prospects for  winning major honours.

Van Persie follows Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, who left a year ago, although the club recovered from a poor start — including an 8-2 demolition by United at Old Trafford — to finish third.

Talisman: Van Persie bagged the vast majority of Arsenal's goals last season

Michael Carrick, who was on duty with England on Wednesday, was first to comment on the deal. 

He said: 'Someone mentioned in the dressing room about Van Persie and if it goes through, it will be brilliant. He had a terrific season and he will further strengthen our squad. It is a great boost going into the new season.

'He is a world class player and we have always been about bringing in players of that ability.

'Can it make the difference between second and first? There wasn't much difference so hopefully we can go that step further! But the club has always had strength in depth and it is about the squad and not the 11 on the pitch.'

Sourced: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2189241/Robin-van-Persie-make-Manchester-United-best-Europe-says-Alex-Ferguson.html#ixzz23jsmZva5

Wolves eyeing Geromel signing

Wolves boss Stale Solbakken has confirmed he intends to raid former club Cologne again for £3million-rated defender Pedro Geromel.

Solbakken has already brought winger Slawomir Peszko to Molineux on loan from the German outfit but is now eyeing an ambitious attempt to convince Geromel to join him.

The 26-year-old Brazilian centre-back was made captain at Cologne by the Norwegian but has since found himself surplus to requirements as the club seek to cut costs following relegation.

A fee of £3million has been mentioned for the former Vitoria Guimaraes man with Spanish sides Sevilla and Celta Vigo among the favourites to secure his signature.

But with both Primera Liga teams struggling to find the funds for the deal, the Wolves boss believes a move could be possible.

"We are also to talk to Cologne about Pedro, of course," Solbakken told Cologne-based tabloid Express.

"Those clubs from Spain are having financial troubles. Maybe it's a chance for us to step up and do it."

Wolves are keen to add a defender with Christophe Berra having asked for a transfer away from the Championship club.

That resulted in the Scot being booed by Wolves fans during his warm-up against Aldershot on Saturday and again when he came on as a substitute in extra-time.

But Solbakken is relaxed about that situation and feels it would not be a problem if Berra stays.

"That's what happens in football," he said.

"If Christophe stays here after the transfer deadline and fights for the cause of the club I am sure that will be okay."

Sourced: http://www.teamtalk.com/wolverhampton-wanderers/7987087/Wolves-eyeing-Geromel-signing

BOA promises even more medals in Rio

The British Olympic Association is adamant Team GB can claim even more medals at the next Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, following a remarkable performance on home turf.

London 2012 saw the best British medal haul since 1920, the result of extensive investment in a variety of sports for over a decade as athletes from disciplines as diverse as rowing, track cycling, equestrian and judo all delivered medals.

Some have feared that matching the final total of 65 medals (29 golds) will prove impossible in Brazil in four years' time, but BOA chief Lord Moynihan has pledged to do everything in his power to ensure this is not the high watermark for British Olympic achievement, but rather the latest step on a path of continued progress.

"The aspiration is always to push on and do better - absolutely," Lord Moynihan said. "If you're an athlete, if you're a team, your aspiration is always to do better. No question at all in my mind.

"You never say, 'Okay, we did very well. Now let's fall back'.

"We have phenomenal athletes in this country, unbelievable athletes, and we're building great support structures.

"And we must always push on and always raise the bar and always seek to do better."

On Sunday, the government announced that elite-level funding would be guaranteed for a further two years, taking it up to Rio and giving the relevant bodies scope to plan well into the future.

While a new medal target will not be set imminently, Moynihan stressed that all those sporting bodies will have their results assessed to work out areas for improvement in the next few months.

"Every sport should have a comprehensive review of their performance," he added. "Those who have done really well will need to review why they did really well.

"Those who haven't lived up to the expectations will need to review that.

"It won't be until we're very close to Rio that we have an assessment of who we're competing against, let alone how good our own team is."

Chef du mission Andy Hunt agreed that there is no reason why Team GB cannot score even more medals at the next Games.

"I believe it could be more than that," he said. "And that's such an important legacy from these Games.

"Our insight and engagement with sports is like never before and we're not going to stop that."

Some sports will have to adjust to a new reality, however. Swimming, for example, failed to deliver on its pre-Games predictions (winning just three medals, none of which were gold) - a performance that will likely result in a slash in funding levels.

Michael Scott, performance director of British Swimming, is aware a complete overhaul of how their system works will likely be demanded, with input taken from more successful sports like cycling.

"When we know the reality of the funding situation, my job is to determine those new priorities and deliver them," Scott said. "Most likely we will have to be leaner and meaner. That means things will change."

He added: "We are looking at people who can come in and openly and honestly challenge us.

"We have made approaches and not necessarily to people within the sport of swimming. You have to look at Team GB as a whole and say there is expertise in this country that could be used to sharpen our focus."

Sourced: http://www.espn.co.uk/london-olympics-2012/sport/story/164978.html#rBqMgxrLjK37X0Zj.99

Jennifer Aniston engaged to Justin Theroux

"Justin Theroux had an amazing birthday on Friday, receiving an extraordinary gift when his girlfriend Jennifer Aniston accepted his proposal of marriage," Theroux's representative told the celebrity magazine.

Aniston's publicist Steven Huvane confirmed the engagement.

Aniston, 43, and Theroux, 41, have been dating for more than a year and appeared in the comedy "Wanderlust" in February.

No wedding date was announced.

The marriage will be the second for Aniston, one of Hollywood's favourite actresses and a frequent face in romantic comedies.

Her first union with Brad Pitt ended in divorce after five in 2005, when Pitt fell in love with actress Angelina Jolie, and Aniston's love life has been followed closely ever since by the world's celebrity media.

Aniston's previous boyfriends include singer John Mayer and actor Vince Vaughn.

Pitt and Jolie announced their engagement in April but have not publicly set a wedding date.

Sourced: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/9471687/Jennifer-Aniston-engaged-to-Justin-Theroux.html

London Olympics 2012: A musical farewell to the world

After 16 days of sporting heroism which made London the centre of the world, the curtain fell on the Olympics last night with a display of exuberant – at times anarchic – revelry that had but one message: "Goodbye world, we hope you had as good a time as we did. Now let's dance."

With 29 gold medals – the last arriving just hours before the grand finale in the Olympic Stadium – reflecting the glory of the best performance by a British team in 104 years, the Closing Ceremony delivered the grandest of grand hurrahs for London 2012.

From a rendition of "God Save the Queen" introduced by Timothy Spall playing Winston Churchill emerging from a miniaturised Big Ben, to Russell Brand on top of a trippy bus and Freddie Mercury's voice delivering "Bohemian Rhapsody" from beyond the grave, this was Britain showing that as well as putting on the greatest show on earth, it can party too.

Just as Danny Boyle's opening jamboree had enthralled the nation with his heady cocktail of the sublime, a skydiving monarch and Mr Bean, so artistic director Kim Gavin, a ballet dancer turned stadium tour impresario, provided a sumptuous feast of British creativity and eccentricity.

Gone was the didactic splendour of the Opening Ceremony with its giant NHS beds and Satanic Mills, Jarrow marchers and Sir Tim Berners Lee. This was all about having fun and, after putting on an unquestionably fine Games, London had reason to celebrate.

The Who, those titans of universally recognised but uniquely British pop, were due to bring the three-hour performance to a climax with a thundering rendition of "My Generation".

A week after his wife lost their daughter, Poppy, in a still birth, Take That's Gary Barlow was due to perform "Rule the World" with the band in a dramatic sequence leading to the extinguishing of the Olympic Flame.

But, reserving the right of this host nation to bamboozle the rest of the planet, there was also the downright wacky. The Reliant Robin immortalised in the classic comedy Only Fools and Horses made an explosive appearance followed by the sight of 160 Household Guards marching behind Madness while playing an instrumental version of Blur's "Parklife".

And do not even mention the multi-coloured octopus and the taxi ballet.

Gavin, speaking before the ceremony, said: "We wanted to host a celebration of all that's good about London, British people, our music and our culture. And capture the spirit that's inspired so much global creativity over the past 50 years."

Watched by dignitaries including Prince Harry, representing his grandmother, and Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee, the extravaganza began with a shout of "It's nine o'clock" from the capacity 80,000 crowd and Scottish R'*'B singer Emeli Sande on a purposely monochrome stage belting out her anthem to success "Read All About It" from the back of a rubbish truck.

And then it ended. Speeches from London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and Jacques Rogge heralded the official close of the Games as Thomas Heatherwick's copper petal cauldron was finally extinguished after 16 days of constant burning. The only thing left to do was sing away the end of the night and that honour was given to The Who accompanied by the ballerina Darcey Bussell. Goodbye world. Thanks for coming.

Sourced: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/london-olympics-2012-a-musical-farewell-to-the-world-8037279.html

Ted – Film Review

Stolid, easygoing Mark Wahlberg stars as John Bennett, who as a lonely and unhappy child growing up in 1980s Massachusetts made a poignant Christmas wish on a falling star. He yearned for his teddy bear, named Teddy, to come to life … and so it did. We see the process of Teddy becoming a national sensation with TV appearances on Johnny Carson, but before you know it, they are both grown up, and Teddy has become curtly abbreviated to Ted (voiced by MacFarlane). He's a has-been, an ex-celebrity, depressed and foul-mouthed, addicted to casual and demeaning sex, smoking weed with his feckless buddy John on the couch at nine in the morning, or in the park, and complaining that he feels like one of the cast members of Diff'rent Strokes – "You know, the live ones." As for John, his adulthood has been catastrophically impaired by loyalty to his friend, the way the mental age of famous people is frozen at the age at which they became famous. He is working for a boring car-hire company, but is living with a beautiful, ambitious and very tolerant career woman, Lori (Mila Kunis), who is sick of sharing her man with a talking toy bear. Soon it will be time for John to make a big life choice. Either Ted goes – or she does.

Peter Bradshaw, Xan Brooks and Catherine Shoard review Ted on the Guardian Film Show Link to this video

It might be a stretch to claim that Ted is a satirical commentary on the infantilised state of western male culture, because it is not so much a satire as a cheerfully and unironically supportive celebration. Ted could, with some script tweaks, be read as some sort of M Night Shyamalan-type mystery, or a wish-fulfilment tale of males somehow finding a way to let their id cathartically speak out, loud and proud – though here again we are straying into Gibson/Beaver territory.

Shamelessly incorrect ... Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlance in Ted. Photograph: Universal Pictures/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Britain's current Olympic mood – generous, wholesome and healthily upbeat – is very wrong for this film. Seth MacFarlane, the creator of TV's Family Guy, has co-written and directed a stoner fantasy comedy which is cynical and lethargic, sour and dour; it is misanthropic, crass, facetious, offensive, immature and very funny. Ted is about a grown man's relationship with a non-imaginary imaginary animal; it is quite without the sympathetic, redemptive notes of films such as Harvey or ET or the Toy Stories, movies to which it would not dare or bother to compare itself. However, compared to The Beaver starring Mel Gibson, the tale of a menopausal executive who speaks to a hand puppet, Ted is a watercolour exercise in whimsical charm

Actually, it is probably simply another example of the nostalgia to which screen comics are prone: the nostalgia for the student or ex-student days of messing around, talking about stupid TV shows and pop culture and having fun – the playful atmosphere from which their deadly serious vocation of comedy originally sprang. It is the same mood as that in Old School, or Knocked Up, or The 40-Year-Old Virgin: a man-boy world of guys who accept the future necessity of working for a living and want to escape it. A toy bear toils not, neither does it spin, and so exercises an awful fascination.

In Ted, MacFarlane includes a derogatory reference to Adam Sandler's appalling comedy Jack and Jill: and of course how could any reference to that film be anything other than derogatory? Yet there are Sandlerisms here. The poster showing John and Ted at the urinals is very like that for Sandler's foster-father comedy Big Daddy (1999), and in fact the knowing, goof-off mood is reminiscent of Judd Apatow's interesting filmFunny People, about the emotionally paralysed life of a madly successful Hollywood comedian.

This unfolds in a series of vignettes without all that much in the way of an important narrative arc, and I admit Mila Kunis's role is a pretty thankless one. But in its shamelessly incorrect way, it is very funny. I enjoyed Ted and John's bizarre exchange on the subject of white-trash names, their final falling out, and the subsequent brutal and extended fight in a hotel room. This film may well be dismissed by some with the phrase "comedy is very subjective", a phrase traditionally used by pundits to mean: "This is absolutely and objectively unfunny but I am far too wearily mature to argue about it." In my experience, comedy is subjective, but no more so than anything else. Ted has nothing much to offer in terms of subtlety and sensitivity, but there are plenty of laughs.

Sourced: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/02/ted-review