Hollywood actor joins Jamaica Tallawahs

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Hollywood actor Gerard Butler has said his involvement with the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is for the long-term after he arrived in Trinidad to watch the climax of the inaugural event.

Scottish-born Butler, whose list of movie credits includes 300, Reign of Fire and Olympus Has Fallen, has secured an equity stake in the Jamaica Tallawahs, confirmed his desire to remain involved as the tournament goes from strength to strength.“Absolutely (it is a long-term commitment),” he said. “I did not do this just to be in it for a couple of weeks. I did it because I hope this new league is a long-term league and that it keeps going and keeps building, so it is an investment you hope will build, but also (because) it is an excuse to come out here (to the Caribbean) to a place I love.”Butler is one of several high-profile names to become involved in the Limacol CPL with fellow actor Mark Wahlberg taking an equity stake in the Barbados Tridents, while Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is involved with the Antigua Hawksbills, and is also a tournament sponsor.“A bit of rivalry (with Mark Wahlberg)?” said Butler. “Absolutely. At one point we were going to invest in the same team and then we thought it would be better to keep it separate – ‘You take Barbados and I will go with Jamaica.’“We have had a laugh about it and I am so glad he got involved in this as well and I think more will follow without it becoming ridiculous. I think Hollywood will take more of an interest in this and hopefully around the world.”The 43-year-old actor explained his involvement with the tournament began with a conversation with his friend Ajmal Khan, the Founder and Chairman of the Limacol CPL.“He (Ajmal) said there is a chance to create this whole new league, make it really exciting, bring in outside players and it will be the biggest party in sport because it is going to be in the Caribbean, (so he told me) ‘Think about it and you could get involved in that.’“I thought ‘You know what, for me it is all about things that enrich your life experience.’ I want to get involved in different things, so I thought how cool it would be.“And Jamaica, for me, I have visited there a lot, I have a special affection for that place and they have Chris Gayle, so I thought that would be the one to get involved with.”Butler attended Thursday night’s first semi-final between the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel and the Guyana Amazon Warriors, a match won by the Warriors by seven wickets, and he said he could see immediately why the tournament has taken off to such a great extent.“I see the excitement,” he said. “I ask people ‘What was it like before?’ and they say ‘It was always fun, but now it is a really fun.’ It is much bigger, it is more exciting, it is just more. It feels like it is becoming the European Champions League of the Caribbean.“I went to the (Red Steel – Amazon Warriors) game and it was a carnival atmosphere… among the people there was a lot of competition, but it was a lot of fun and everyone was having a good time.”During his stay in Trinidad Butler has taken the opportunity to meet the Jamaica Tallawahs players and staff and was impressed with what he found.“There are a lot of personalities in there, but they are very warm and humble and a lot of strong and good players. I am excited and I really feel like I got behind the right team.”Having made a movie about football, based on the true story of the United States of America team that beat England in 1950, is there scope for a movie about cricket and would he like to be involved?“Absolutely, I think it would be great to make a cricket movie as you could come at it from many angles, whether it be the sport angle, the dramatic part of that, or somebody from another place that should not be where he is.”“There are a lot of ideas you could put into a great cricket movie. I know Brian Lara wants me to play him, so I think there is a possibility there,” he joked.The inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League was slated to conclude yesterday with the final match between Jamaica Tallawahs and Guyana Amazon Warriors at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.Jamaica Tallawahs coach Paul Nixon (left), and captain Chris Gayle (right) present new owner Gerard Butler with his team shirt recently.

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Hollywood actor joins Jamaica Tallawahs

Hollywood actress Karen Black dies

9 August 2013 Last updated at 10:46 Karen Black earned an Oscar nomination for her role opposite Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces Hollywood star Karen Black, who featured in cult films such as Five Easy Pieces and Nashville, has died aged 74.

Hugely prolific, the Illinois-born actress appeared in more than 100 movies over a career spanning 40 years.

She shot to fame in 1969, starring as a prostitute in Easy Rider opposite Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.

She died at a clinic in Los Angeles, three years after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Her fourth husband, Stephen Eckelberry, posted the news on his Facebook page.

“It is with great sadness that I have to report that my wife and best friend, Karen Black has just passed away, only a few minutes ago,” he wrote.

“Thank you all for all your prayers and love, they meant so much to her as they did to me.”

Black landed her breakout role in 1969′s Easy Rider

Stars paid tribute to Black on Twitter, including Mia Farrow who tweeted: “Wonderful Karen Black rest in peace.”

Actress Juliette Lewis said: “Karen Black was my mentor and a 2nd mother to me. She inspired everyone she came in contact with. Her spirit/strength My luv [sic] is beyond words.”

Black, who was raised in a Chicago suburb, almost always played troubled, neurotic characters.

She earned an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe award for her role as Rayette Dipesto in 1970 film Five Easy Pieces, opposite Jack Nicholson, as a waitress who dates an upper-class dropout.

She again starred with Nicholson a year later in Drive, He Said, which Nicholson also directed.

Final roles

Black went on to star with Robert Redford and Farrow in 1974′s The Great Gatsby, for which she won a best supporting actress Golden Globe for her role as Tom Buchanan’s mistress Myrtle Wilson.

She later scored a Grammy nomination in 1975 after writing and performing songs for Robert Altman’s musical drama Nashville, in which she played a country singer.

Black played Connie Black, a glamorous but mediocre country singer, in Nashville

The actress also starred as a jewel thief in what turned out to be Alfred Hitchcock’s last movie, Family Plot, released in 1976.

“We used to read each other poems and limericks and he tried to catch me on my vocabulary,” she later said of Hitchcock.

“He once said, ‘You seem very perspicacious today, Miss Black.’ I said, ‘Oh, you mean keenly perceptive?’

“So I got him this huge, gold-embossed dictionary that said Diction-Harry, at the end of the shoot.”

By the end of the 1970s, Black struggled to find quality roles and appeared mainly low-budget horror movies. In the 80s she moved into television, filming roles in series such as Miami Vice, Party of Five and Law and Order.

In 1993, she acted in a film which would turn out to actor River Phoenix’s last, following his death from a drug overdose. Dark Blood was finally completed last year and was shown at a number of international film festivals.

According to film site IMDB, the actress had completed two recent projects – the drama She Loves Me Not, starring Cary Elwes and the forthcoming film The Being Experience – opposite Alan Cumming and Terrence Howard.

Despite Black’s extensive filmography, she had to turn to the public to help pay her healthcare costs after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Her online funding appeal raised more than $60,000 (£38,500).

She is survived by Eckelberry and two children.

Black starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film, Family Portrait

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Hollywood actress Karen Black dies