PEOPLE
LOS ANGELES — Sean Penn says much of the spirit of the #MeToo movement is to “divide men and women.”
Penn appeared Monday in an interview with the co-star of the new Hulu show “The First” on NBC's “Today” show. Natascha McElhone said her character is informed by the movement.
Penn disagreed. The two-time Oscar winner says he's “very suspicious of a movement that gets glommed onto in great stridency and rage and without nuance.”
Penn says he thinks “it's too black and white.” He says it's “really good to just slow down.”
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NEW YORK — At age 90, Burt Bacharach hasn't lost faith in the power of music.“Music softens the heart, makes you feel something if it's good, brings in emotion that you might not have felt before,” he told The Associated Press during a recent telephone interview. “It's a very powerful thing if you're able to do to it, if you have it in your heart to do something like that.”The celebrated songwriter has collaborated with fellow Grammy winner Rudy Perez on “Live to See Another Day,” a somber ballad inspired by the Parkland massacre and other school shootings.Released Monday, the song was recorded with the Miami Symphony Orchestra and features the vocals of two Florida teens, Haven Star and Angie Green. Proceeds will be donated to the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, an anti-gun violence organization based in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 schoolchildren in 2012.Bacharach is among the most successful composers of his time, with hits including “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Alfie” and “I'll Never Fall in Love Again.”He's not thought of as a “protest” writer, but current events have moved him before.In the mid-1960s, he and lyricist Hal David were concerned about the country's growing presence in Vietnam and wrote “What the World Needs Now,” a standard that Bacharach still features in live performance.———
LOS ANGELES — A scuffle between Tom Arnold and a producer of “The Apprentice” has led to an exchange on social media.Arnold tweeted that producer Mark Burnett choked him at a pre-Emmys party Sunday in Los Angeles. Burnett's wife, actress Roma Downey, tweeted that Arnold “tried to ambush” the couple, and she posted a photo of what she says is her bruised hand.Arnold's lawyer, Marty Singer, told The Hollywood Reporter that Burnett “attacked” Arnold.Actress Alyson Hannigan tweeted that she witnessed the confrontation and thought it was a joke until security jumped in.Police say no report was taken. Emails to the celebrities' representatives were not immediately returned.Arnold's new show, “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,” is set to debut Tuesday. The show follows Arnold's attempts to find tapes that show Donald Trump expressing bigoted views on the set of “The Apprentice,” which Burnett produces.
