Acting in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy put Dominic Monaghan at the center of large scale battle sequences and in scenes acting opposite a CGI tree, but these moments didn’t hold a candle to the challenge of saying goodbye to Frodo. Monaghan revealed on his “Friendship Onion” podcast (via IGN) that the Gray Havens scene in “The Return of the King” was the hardest scene to shoot in the trilogy. The scene takes place at the end of the final “Rings” film and finds Frodo bidding farewell to longtime hobbit friends Samwise, Merry, and Pippin. Monaghan starred as Merry in the trilogy.
“Well, we had to do it three times! If you were to ask all four of us, ‘Pick a scene you can guarantee you only have to do once and not go back to,’ we probably would have said Grey Havens, just cause we were all there weeping like children,” Monaghan said. “So, doing it three times, I definitely think that the third version that I did, the one that’s in the film, is probably not quite as hysterical in terms of the state that I’m in as the first one, or possibly even the second one. So, that was tough.”
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Because “hobbits are so in touch with the vulnerability of their emotions,” Peter Jackson requested the four actors be emotional messes during the filming of the scene. Monaghan said that was a challenging ask because “you don’t often get asked to do that as actors and all four of you are standing there very vulnerable doing it three times. It’s pretty costing.”
Making the scene even tougher was that it had to be re-filmed several times. “For those of you who don’t know why we did it three times…Sean Astin was wearing the wrong costume,” said co-star Billy Boyd, who hosts “The Friendship Onion” podcast with Monaghan. “After lunch, he took off his vest to eat lunch. When he came back he forgot to put the vest on, so for continuity, it was ruined.”
Boyd continued, “We came back another day and filmed it again, and the film got destroyed in the factory where it gets processed. So we had to then do it again another day! That’s why we had to do it three times.”
SYDNEY, July 30 (Reuters) - The new prime minister of Samoa has confirmed she will cancel a China-backed port project, but hasn't closed the door to China as she navigates a path for the Pacific nation against a backdrop of intensifying regional competition between Beijing and Washington.
Fiame Naomi Mataafa indicated she would only approve investments that had clear benefits for her country as she expressed doubts about the upside for the Pacific in being a pawn in a geopolitical tussle between the two superpowers.
Mataafa said China's interest in the Pacific had grown as the United States effectively "moved out" of the region.
"There seems to be a renewed interest in the Pacific, which may be a good thing, but not necessarily," Mataafa said in an interview over Zoom on Wednesday, days after her election was confirmed, ending a months-long political crisis.
Samoa, an island nation of around 200,000 reliant on subsistence farming, along with tourism, fish, coconut product exports and foreign remittance, has found itself exposed to external geopolitical jostling, as Washington and its allies respond to a more assertive Beijing in Pacific waters that have been largely uncontested since World War Two.
Any foreign involvement in critical infrastructure such as ports and airstrips are particularly sensitive, and China's proposed construction of a wharf in Vaiusu Bay had played a part in April elections.
Samoa's former leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, promised to build the port with Chinese help for $100 million, after a similar project was deemed economically unviable by the Asian Development Bank. read more
Mataafa told Reuters in May, after her election but before taking office as Malielegaoi disputed the poll result, that she would scrap the project, calling it excessive for a small nation already heavily indebted to China.
China is the single largest creditor in Samoa, accounting for about 40%, or some $160 million, of its external debt.
"We've indicated that would not be a priority for us at this time and that there would be other areas that we would be more interested in," Mataafa told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"I'm pleased the outgoing government had not reached a level of agreement with China where that is set in place."
A container ship unloads at the Matautu port, which has been expanded through support from Japan, in the Samoan capital of Apia, July 12, 2019. Picture taken July 12, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Barrett
China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that China held preliminary discussions with Samoa on the feasibility of building the port at the request of the former government.
"China always adheres to the principle of mutual respect and consultation on an equal footing in conducting foreign cooperation," the statement said.
"We will continue to strengthen friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields with the new Samoan government in accordance with the above principles to benefit the two countries and peoples."
Mataafa said China had been a long-term partner and her government would assess the relationship in the same way it evaluates all of its bilateral relations.
"I think as a new administration coming in we will do that for China and any other partner that we have," she said.
"China just takes the forefront because of the nature of the work that's being funded. There's a lot of infrastructure, mostly building infrastructure which other donors don't do."
FIRST FEMALE LEADER
Mataafa was confirmed on July 23 as Samoa's first female prime minister, ending a political impasse in place since the April 9 disputed election. Malielegaoi had governed the Pacific island nation for 22 years, making him one of the world's longest serving leaders.
Mataafa said her government would focus on the national budget after the months-long deadlock as the coronavirus pandemic had devastated important industries.
Her elevation to the country's leadership was briefly frustrated by a law, ironically, designed to ensure greater female representation in parliament that led to attempts to add an additional member allied to her rival.
Mataafa said there were ongoing impediments to female participation in politics such as the practice by some villages to deny women chiefly titles, called matai, which is a prerequisite for entering parliament.
"Fundamentally our electoral system was premised on our traditional matai system," she said. "A move away from that would be to seemingly say we want to discard the traditional. What might be better to do is ... change peoples' perceptions of tradition."
Reporting by Jonathan Barrett; Additional reporting by Cade Cadell; Editing by Jane Wardell
blogjewishscene.blogspot.com (Port of Seattle Photo / Don Wilson)
Accusing the Port of Seattle of making promises it can’t keep, the American Civil Liberties Union called on the port to improve both its honesty and policies regarding the use of facial recognition technology.
Specifically, the ACLU described the Port Commission’s recent declaration that it effectively banned biometric surveillance including facial recognition technology as disingenuous. The commission controls and sets policy for the Port of Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“The port works in collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection which uses the technology for entry and departure,” said Jennifer Lee, the technology and liberty project manager at the Washington chapter of the ACLU, in an interview with GeekWire. “It has zero influence over CPB.”
In other words, she said, it can’t really ban what it doesn’t really control. And this means the ban, announced July 13, did more for port public relations than it did for privacy, she said. “The port should not be providing cover for CPB actions,” she added. “It is trying to put a friendly face on it.”
At a recent hearing just prior to the ban, Port of Seattle Executive Director Steve Metruck acknowledged that some critics feel the port biometric surveillance plan stopped well short of where it should, but he countered that the public’s privacy concerns have been greatly advanced by the port’s actions.
“We had two overarching goals for these policies,” he said. “First, we wanted to be true to our values and to the biometric principles the commission passed in December of 2019. We must always be focused first and foremost on the rights and experiences of travelers, workers and visitors to our facilities.
“We believe some uses of biometric technology would violate those values,” he said. “Second, where we believe some uses are appropriate, we want to ensure that the technology is operated with strong safeguards.”
And that, Metruck and port commissioners said, is the essence of the new port policy: Ban what it can and place guardrails where allowed. The July 13 vote banned the use of biometric technology for surveillance and security purposes by government and law enforcement on all port properties, which include the downtown port and Sea-Tac International Airport.
The ban, which keeps the port aligned with federal mandates, does not include voluntary facial recognition systems such as CLEAR which allows Sea-Tac passengers expedited transit through airport security by the use of biometric scans. CLEAR is a private, paid service primarily used in airports and stadiums.
The Port of Seattle is the first port authority nationally to restrict the use of biometric technology for surveillance.
But, counted Lee, while the port cannot stop federal immigration authorities on its property from using the technology, it doesn’t have to work in collaboration with them. The port has spent millions of its own dollars to help advance federal biometric surveillance, she said.
“We have been urging the port to decline (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) collaboration,” she noted.
The port followed a national trend that finds both private and public sectors pushing back on the rapid spread of facial recognition technology. Amazon and Microsoft recently renewed their bans on sales of such technology to domestic law enforcement. Oakland and San Francisco have banned its use by government and law enforcement. New York is considering it.
Portland also has banned government-funded facial recognition. The City of Seattle has considered such a ban.
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Sawpit Senior Apartments, an affordable housing development in Port Chester targeted for senior citizens, had its formal dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 27, with some seniors already having moved in.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer along with other county, municipal and state officials were on hand to officially open the apartments at 37 S. Regent St.
The name Sawpit Senior Apartments pays tribute to both the village of Port Chester, which before being known as Port Chester was known as the Sawpit, and the classic Italian restaurant Sawpit that had been next door to the site of the new apartments. A new iteration, the restaurant Sergio’s Saw Pit, now operates at 25 S. Regent St.
The developer of the affordable housing project is Lou Larizza, whose company is Lazz Development, based in Port Chester. Larizza has created affordable housing projects in many Westchester communities. Lazz repurposed a parking lot that had been used by the adjacent strip mall to become the site of the Sawpit Senior Apartments.
Last year, the Housing Action Council in Tarrytown promoted a lottery for the 34 rental apartments in the four-story building. There are 31 one-bedroom units and three two-bedroom units. Six of the apartments are designed specifically for people with mobility impairments while two are designed for people with sensory or hearing impairments.
From left: Mike Martino; Nancy Barr; George Latimer; Lou Larizza; Ayanna Wayner, New York State Housing and Community Renewal; Norma Drummond; Port Chester Trustee Joan Grangenois-Thomas; and Port Chester Mayor Luiz Marino. Photo by Peter Katz.
Literature showed that rents began at $619 a month for a one-bedroom unit and $739 for a two-bedroom apartment. Rents topped out at $1,241 for one-bedroom units and $1,484 for a two-bedroom. Income eligibility was limited to $52,860 for a one-person household, $60,420 for two people, $67,970 for three people and $75,480 for four people.
Residents must be at least age 62. Amenities that the building offers include a community room, fitness center, balconies and fully equipped kitchens.
New York state’s Commissioner of Housing and Community Renewal (HCR), RuthAnne Visnauskas, placed the cost of the development at $17 million. In May 2019, Latimer announced that $5 million had been awarded to the project in a grant from HCR. The county had already committed $4.3 million in funding for land acquisition and infrastructure.
“A developer who has experience in developing affordable housing is not easy to find,” Latimer said. “There are many people out there who do very good development work; they can build buildings 30, 40, 50 stories high in a market that has a sure guarantee of return on investment. You’re seeing a lot of that kind of development going up around train stations across Westchester County with proximity to New York City being the important situation.”
Latimer praised Larizza for having the vision and persistence to create the Sawpit project as well as other affordable housing complexes he’s built in Westchester communities such as North Castle and Rye.
Latimer said that the problems associated with getting an affordable housing project off the drawing board and keeping it financially viable are enough to make the average person say, ‘I’m not going to do this. It’s not worth my time and energy and effort.’”
Larizza said he has dedicated his entire construction career of 38 years to affordable housing.
“Everything in my life is dedicated on the ‘Ds’ — dedication, determination and discipline,” Larizza said, adding that there’s a fourth D, especially in football: defense.
Noting that he has worked on projects in 18 different municipalities in Westchester, Larizza said, “Some take longer than others but we continue to push forward to create affordable housing. And, it couldn’t happen without my partner, Mike Martino.” He also praised his wife and other Larizza family members for their efforts.
Norma Drummond, the county’s planning commissioner, said, “It’s always great to work with developers who understand not just the financing of affordable housing and the land use approvals, but understand how important it is to each and every person that’s going to move in the door and call these units home.”
County Legislator Nancy Barr emphasized that Westchester County is far short of the number of affordable housing units it needs.
“Affordable is usually considered a good word and yet somehow when we talk about in the context of housing it has a different meaning,” Barr said. “Some people think it’s not as good because it has the word affordable in front of it. But, as you can see from the outside and if you get a chance to look inside, in no way is this a place that is any less than any other place you might look at.”
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- South Bend Fire Department was called just before 5 am on Friday morning for a residential fire structure at Brighton Place and Patterson Drive.
15 units first arrived on scene, and officials say the fire came under control in five minutes. Two adults, one man and one woman, were taken to the hospital for burns and smoke inhalation. The extent of those injuries are unknown at this time.
Currently, the cause is unknown. This is an ongoing investigation.
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are the stars of Jungle Cruise, which comes out in cinemas on July 30. The story is inspired by the Disneyland ride of the same name, though a wholly new narrative has been written for the film.
The movie has some unexpected twists about the characters and their origins. The world that has been created may make some fans keen for a second instalment, or even set up a brand new franchise.
Here's what you need to know about Jungle Cruise, butbe warned there are some spoilers included.
Is There a Post-Credits Scene?
There is no final scene after the credits of Jungle Cruise.
There is, however, a graphic section of the credits, as many films have, before the main credits arrive.
Even in the graphic section, there is no extra scene or blooper reel to accompany it.
This may suggest there won't be a franchise, or perhaps that, if there is another movie, it won't link up with the first one.
The final scene brings the film to a very satisfactory close anyway.
Disney's Jungle Cruise Ending Explained
The ending comes after a huge revelation from Frank (played by Dwayne Johnson).
After seeming to betray Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) once more, he tells her the truth, which is that he is one of the immortal soldiers forced to remain on the island.
He was part of a group who went to the Amazon to find the Tree of Life to heal Aguirre's (Edgar Ramirez) daughter, who was extremely ill.
Frank was raised with Aguirre as a brother, but when Aguirre tried to take the plant from the indigenous people, slaughtering them all, Frank chose to turn away from his brother and protect the group.
Aguirre stabbed Frank, and as a result, he is stabbed in the heart by his former brother every time they meet in an injury that hurts even more than a regular battle wound.
He trapped Aguirre and the other mercenaries in a cave to stop them from continually meeting, which meant they became so much part of the land that snakes, wasps and other creatures grew from their bodies, making them monsters.
After they track down the tree, Lily and Frank find themselves up against this group, once again, as well as Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) who orders them to make the tree blossom or he will kill Lily's brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall.)
They are able to do this, but only for a few minutes, and Lily manages to save the final petal, which would allow them to free Frank from his curse, or bring healing to people all over the world.
After various fighting and wrangling, Frank sacrifices himself to allow MacGregor and Lily to escape with the petal, but they instead choose to bring him back to life and free him from the curse, so he can go back to London and begin a relationship with her.
The pair kiss and the final scene shows MacGregor telling the scientific community, on Lily's behalf, that she refuses their invitation to join them after they repeatedly turned her away.
Now a professor at Cambridge, Lily and Frank live happily ever after, and he has his wish of driving a motorcar while wearing a top hat through London.
Will There Be a Sequel to Jungle Cruise?
At the moment, there is no confirmation of a sequel.
However, in their interview in The Hollywood Reporter, a sequel to the film was mentioned, as well as Johnson bringing Blunt on board for an upcoming movie he is producing.
He said of Blunt: "Not only is she a huge movie star but, more importantly, really the most empathetic human being I've ever met."
Few details of either of these projects have been revealed, but this may mean Blunt has become a collaborator with Johnson along with other big names like actor Kevin Hart and screenwriter Chris Morgan.
In June, the Port of Los Angeles set a new record for any Western Hemisphere port. | Photo courtesy of Port of Los Angeles
The Port of Los Angeles saw another new record in the month of June with more than 875,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) processed. The TEUs represented the port’s busiest June ever and closed the fiscal year at 10,879,383 TEUs—a new record for any Western Hemisphere port. The June numbers were also a 27 percent increase over last year’s 8,560,882 TEUs.
“Together we’ve kept the port operational during the pandemic, dock work shifts have increased, and berth ship productivity has jumped 50 percent since pre-pandemic numbers,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “I’m so proud of the extraordinary work accomplished under these challenging circumstances.”
The port also surpassed 10 million TEUs in 12 months and broke the 1 million TEU barrier in May. The increasing numbers and records have been a common theme over the past 12 months in which the port eclipsed eight monthly records, had its two highest-performing quarters and top four individual months in its 114-year history.
“Key economic indicators all suggest that U.S. consumer spending will remain strong through the remainder of 2021,” Seroka said. “Even as Americans return to airline travel, vacations and in-person events, retail sales and e-commerce remain robust.
“Fall fashion, back-to-school items and Halloween goods are arriving at our docks, and some retailers are shipping year-end holiday products early,” Seroka said. “All signs point to a robust second half of the year, which is good news for the nearly 1 million residents in the region who have jobs tied to the San Pedro Bay port complex.”
Loaded imports for June 2021 were more than 467,000 TEUs compared to just over 369,000 in June 2020, an increase of 27 percent. Conversely, exports were under 100,000, at 96,067 TEUs, for June 2021—the lowest export number the port has seen since 2005. It was a 12 percent decrease from 110,000 TEUs last June.
The past 12 months were described as a “peak season on auto repeat” by Seroka. The total June 2021 volume of 876,430 TEUs surpassed the previous June 2019 record of 764,777 TEUs by 15 percent. The 2021 fiscal year also broke the top fiscal year on record, set in 2018–19, by 12 percent.
“While all these milestones are inspiring, the cargo continues to move at a record pace and there’s no lull in the action,” Seroka said. “We have to continue to squeeze every ounce of efficiency that we can out of this port complex.”
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