News Article 32

Oscars 2016: Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar

Leonardo DiCaprio has finally won his first Oscar for survival epic The Revenant, after six nominations.

He was named best actor at the 88th Academy Awards, with Brie Larson named best actress for Room.

Spotlight took home the best picture Oscar with Mad Max: Fury Road picking up the most awards of the night, with six accolades.

Mark Rylance won the best supporting actor Oscar, with fellow Briton Sam Smith winning best original song.

Image copyright

'Is Hollywood racist?'

The ceremony had been boycotted by some Hollywood figures protesting about the lack of ethnic diversity among this year's nominees, as all 20 nominees in the best acting or supporting acting categories are white.

Host Chris Rock addressed the controversy head on as he launched the ceremony, and it was a theme that was returned to several times during the night.

Rock commented he had "counted at least 15 black people" in the montage that opened the ceremony, before welcoming people to the "white People's Choice awards".

"You realise if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job," he quipped. "Y'all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now."

Rock added: "Everyone wants to know is Hollywood racist? You have to go at it the right way. Is it burning-cross racist? Fetch-me-some-lemonade racist? No.

"It's a different kind of racist. Is Hollywood racist? You're damn right it's racist but it's sorority racist. It's like: We like you Rhonda, but you're not a Kappa.''

Among the winners for Mad Max: Fury Road - nominated for 10 Oscars including best director for George Miller - was British designer Jenny Beavan, for best costume design.

The Revenant won three of the 12 awards for which it was nominated. Alejandro Inarritu also won best director and Emmanuel Lubezki won his third Oscar for cinematography in a row, having won in 2015 for Birdman and 2014 for Gravity.

News Article 31

Kesha denied legal request to escape contract with man she alleges raped her

Singer cried as judge ruled contract with Dr Luke’s record label will remain intact despite Kesha’s allegations that he physically and sexually assaulted her.

Kesha filed a lawsuit against Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald, in 2014, claiming that the physical and sexual abuse began soon after she signed with him in 2005, when she was 18.

In the lawsuit, Kesha alleged that Luke plied the singer with drugs and alcohol before making sexual advances toward her. Kesha claimed that on one occasion, Gottwald gave her “sober pills” during a drinking session, and that she later woke up naked in his bed, unable to recall how she got there.

Gottwald quickly countersued, claiming Kesha’s allegations were part of a “campaign of publishing outrageous and untrue statements”. Judge Shirley Kornreich denied Kesha’s motion for preliminary injunction, claiming that “there has been no showing of irreparable harm”, BuzzFeed reported.

Kesha reportedly sobbed as the verdict was announced, and was comforted by her mother who accompanied her to the trial. Dozens of Kesha fans gathered outside the New York City courthouse in support of the #FreeKesha movement and outrage spread over social media.

Attorneys for Gottwald argued that the producer had invested $60m in Kesha’s career and had agreed to allow her to record without his involvement. Kornreich said her instinct was the “do the commercially reasonable thing” and noted that Sony had agreed to let Kesha record without Gottwald’s participation – an agreement Kesha’s lawyers said would set up the singer for failure since Sony’s interests lie in promoting Gottwald.

I think it's terrible Kesha is trapped in a record deal with a man who abused her. I believe he did as kesha does not achieve anything from lying. She should be released from the contract as she has not even released any more music as she can't bear to make money for this man any more. #FreeKesha

The Music Industry - Adele and Jessie J

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. She graduated from the BRIT School for performing arts and technology in 2006. Adele received a recording contract from XL recordings in the same year. She received commercial and critical success for her debut album 19 (2008), 21 (2011) and 25 (2015). Her net worth is said to currently be about £53 million.

Adele has won over 90 awards from a range of different music awards. Adele’s 25 album sold 3.38 million copies in its first week in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. That’s the largest single sales week for an album since Nielsen began tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991. 25 is the first album to sell more than 3 million copies in a week in Nielsen history, and only the second to surpass 2 million sold in a single frame. 

Adele also made a huge impact in both the music and film industry with her song Skyfall which featured in the 23rd instalment of James Bond.

Adele was accused of plagiarism in 2015 over her song one million years ago after it was pointed out that it sounds very similar to Ahmet Kaya’s song Acilara Tutunmak which was released 30 year ago. Fans of the Kurdish artist were quick to point out similarities between the album track and Kaya's song, which was released in 1985.

Taking to social media one questioned: "Million Years Ago has too much similarity with Ahmet Kaya's Acilara Tutunmak to be just a coincidence @Adele"

Adele was also accused of stealing lyrics from Lionel Richie’s song Hello with her own song Hello. "I was so amazed. However, Lionel Ritchie said Everyone said, 'Lionel, Adele is doing your song Hello,' and I said, 'No she's not,' and all of a sudden I heard Hello. But it's Adele. Even though she didn't cover the song, [just] the word Hello, automatically everyone called me on the phone and said 'she used Hello,' and I said, 'Well, I kind of own Hello.'2 But not to the point where it's any kind of problem. I'll loan Hello to Adele."

Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), better known by her stage name Jessie J, is an English singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End Musical Whistle Down the Wind. She studied at the BRIT School where she graduated in the class of 2006 along with singers Adele and Leona Lewis before signing with Gut Records and striking a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing where she wrote for artists including Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus.

Jessie J was signed to Gut Records, recording an album for the label, but the company went bankrupt before any material was released. Since then Jessie j has won over 40 music awards. As of January 2015, Jessie J had sold over 20 million singles and 3 million albums worldwide with her net worth being around £5.6 million. Alike to Adele Jessie J featured her song Flashlight in the film industry in the film Pitch Perfect 2.

Jessie J has also been called out over plagiarism back in 2012 with her song Domino by TMZ Will Loomis from the band The Loomis & Lust over his song Bright Red Chords. She was also accused of fixing the votes on the singing show The Voice which she featured as a judge.

News Article 30

Black Workers earning less than White colleagues 

Black workers earn much less than similarly qualified white workers, at all levels of education, research suggests.

Analysis of pay data by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) suggests that the difference in average pay rates amounts to a gap of 23%.

Black graduates earn on average £14.33 an hour, compared with £18.63 earned by white graduates, the TUC says.

The average pay gap between black and white workers with A-levels is 14%.

And at GCSE level the gap is 11%, the TUC says.

The TUC's general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Race still plays a huge role in determining pay.

"The harsh reality is that at any level of education, black and Asian workers are getting paid less than their white counterparts.

"The government cannot afford to ignore these figures and must now take genuine action to tackle pay discrimination."

The Runnymede Trust, a leading race equality think tank, has previously found that pay gaps are not due to the type of university attended, as they even extend to black workers with degrees from the most selective Russell Group of universities.

In fact the TUC's analysis, based on the Labour Force Survey figures from 2014 and 2015, shows the pay gaps are widest for those with higher qualifications.

"This suggests that education alone will do little to address racial inequalities, and the need for interventions that directly challenge racial inequalities in the workplace," the TUC said.

The trade union umbrella body is calling on the government to recognise the scale of the problem and to urgently develop a race equality strategy.

As part of an anti-discrimination drive announced on Sunday, David Cameron said universities in England would be forced to disclose the proportion of ethnic minority applicants who get places.

The prime minister said transparency would force top universities like Oxford to work harder to broaden their intake.

I think the fact racial discrimination is taking part in the amount of pay someone receives is terrible. Just because someone is white doesn't mean they'll work harder than any one else. But this is obviously down to the dominant ideology and who they think will do the best job. This topic this article surrounds is useful when talking about the representation of race.