Moving out of slums?

May 28, 2009

The makers of "Slumdog Millionaire" met the film's two impoverished child stars yesterday and reassured them they will soon have new homes. Rubina Ali, 9, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, lost their homes this month after Mumbai authorities demolished parts of their slum. Rubina has been staying with relatives, and Azhar has been living in a makeshift shanty of tarps and blankets with his parents. "We've been trying for a long time to move them into legal accommodation," director Danny Boyle told reporters at India's Tata Institute of Social Sciences, where he and producer Christian Colson met the families. Relations between the filmmakers and the children's families have soured since the success of the film, which grossed more than $326 million. The filmmakers set up a trust aimed at ensuring that the children get proper homes, a decent education, a monthly stipend, and a nest egg when they finish high school. They have pledged to spend up to $100,000 to buy the two families new apartments and have donated $747,500 to a charity to help slum children across Mumbai. But Rafiq Qureshi, Rubina's father, stormed out of yesterday's meeting, saying the filmmakers have not done enough to help. "It's no big deal for them, this kind of money," he said. "It's been five or six months we've been living in such difficulty." (AP)

"American Idol" sponsor AT&T says a few overeager company employees helped Arkansas fans vote by text at viewing parties - but didn't influence the final results. Kris Allen of Conway, Ark., ended up winning the "Idol" title last week over Adam Lambert, who'd been cast as the front-runner by the show's judges. AT&T said that in the future the company will ensure employees understand that its sponsorship "celebrates the competition, not individual contestants." (AP)

Days before Phish is set to embark on its 2009 summer reunion tour, the jam-band has released a 13-minute single called "Time Turns Elastic." The track, taken from a forthcoming, untitled album due July 28, was released on iTunes. The song was co-written by Phish's Trey Anastasio with composer Don Hart. (Billboard)

Al Pacino is in negotiations to play Dr. Jack Kevorkian in "You Don't Know Jack," a movie about the so-called Dr. Death, who allegedly assisted in more than 150 suicides before being convicted of murder in 1999. Barry Levinson will direct the HBO Films movie, which is loosely based on Neal Nicol's book "Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Assisted Suicide Machine and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia." (The Hollywood Reporter)

'I'm bawling whenever I hear her sing.' Kelly Clarkson winner of the debut season of "American Idol," saying she's a fan of Susan Boyle, the surprise star of "Britain's Got Talent"