Another blow for multiculti
In the West, multiculturalism has long been viewed as a noble ideal. So why are European leaders suddenly trying to distance themselves from the concept? Echoing sentiments made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British PM David Cameron said last week Britain’s blind faith in multiculturalism had led to a “weakening of our collective identity,” and may have helped to fuel homegrown Islamic extremism. “We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values,” he said. Reaction was swift. Critics charged him with spreading far-right propaganda while others conceded multiculturalism has its flaws, and may not be an end in itself. Either way, it would appear the debate is only beginning.
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What a tangled Web she’ll weave
Arianna Huffington has been anointed the queen of online content after AOL paid US$315 million for the Huffington Post, one of the Web’s most prominent news sites. The deal will put her in charge of an expanding universe of AOL blogs and other sites including TechCrunch, Engadget, and MapQuest. It’s all part of a plan by chief executive Tim Armstrong to transform a company that was built on providing Americans with dial-up Internet connections and email accounts. Huffington has her work cut out for her. Few media companies have yet to figure out how to operate profitably on the Web. And it’s not the first time AOL has stepped into the content game. Its failed $US350-billion mega-merger with Time-Warner a decade ago is now considered one of the tech boom’s biggest missteps.
A monsters’ ball
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Actress Halle Berry’s breakup with Canadian model Gabriel Aubry didn’t start out as daily tabloid fodder. But, unfortunately for their 2½-year-old daughter Nahla, now at the centre of a bitter custody battle, that’s exactly where it’s ended up. The war of words heated up this week when People published a statement by a Berry representative that called Aubry an unfit father, and said Berry was pulling out of a movie to focus on the custody dispute. Aubry’s people fought back, telling Access Hollywood he was “disappointed in Halle’s decision to falsely malign him publicly and for her own purposes.” Add in allegations of racist rants and inappropriate videotapes and emails, and it all sounds like a familiar Hollywood script.
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Man with one less mystery?
A British judge has been given the unenviable task of sorting out the infamous life of Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder appeared before a court to challenge an extradition request to Sweden, where he faces rape charges. His lawyers argued extradition would end with him in the U.S., where he could be imprisoned or worse for his role in releasing thousands of classified government documents. Meanwhile, his supporters are questioning the motivations behind a recent New York Times Magazine article that described him as “alert but dishevelled, like a bag lady walking in off the street.”
Maxime speaks, Tories shiver
Maxime Bernier, the Conservative MP from Quebec and former cabinet minister, has firmly established himself as Canada’s maverick pol. Since resigning over former girlfriend Julie Couillard’s links to the Hells Angels, he has challenged the government’s policy on everything from a national securities regulator to funding for sports arenas. This week, he dragged the touchy issue of Quebec’s language laws into the mix, telling a radio interviewer he didn’t think the government should be in the culture business, and sparking a furor. It was a bold statement for a Quebec politician, particularly one whose party has just 11 seats in the province.
Riches to rags, and back to riches
Prince Albert of Saxony lives in a rental, and his two sisters are housed in “depressing circumstances” in Munich—hardly a lifestyle befitting the descendants of Augustus the Strong, the 17th-century Saxon king. But their luck is about to turn. Faced with the prospect of stripping its museums of priceless porcelain treasures, the German state of Saxony agreed last week to pay more than $6.7 million to the family, in compensation for more than 300 figurines and other ceramics seized by the Communists after 1945. Before fleeing the Soviets, the Wettin family had hidden many objets d’art behind a secret wall in a cellar of Moritzburg castle, but the valuables were soon discovered and confiscated. Still to be decided: the value of books, paintings and other items seized.
Haggis 2, Scientology uh-oh
London, Ont.-born screenwriter and director Paul Haggis, who won Oscars for his work on Million Dollar Baby and Crash, this week ramped up his war against the Church of Scientology, which he walked away from in 2009 over its “hidden anti-gay sentiment.” Haggis is the subject of an expansive New Yorker profile that delivers all kinds of Scientology-related dish—including a story about well-known Scientologist John Travolta using his church’s teachings to heal an injured Marlon Brando at a dinner party. But beyond the oddball gossip, the article suggests the church is controlling and relentlessly hunts down apostates, allegations it says have prompted an ongoing FBI human trafficking investigation.
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