John Waters to retire?
According to Advocate. com, John Waters says the end of his filmmaking career is quickly approaching.
“I want to do two more movies — that’s enough,” the gay writer/director/actor/artist said to Modern Painters magazine. “I hope I can make two more.”
Waters said he will continue to focus on writing, art and his one-man show.
Waters is currently working on the sequel to “Hairspray,” following the 2007 musical version of his original 1988 film. He is also developing “Fruitcake,” a film about a group of runaway children.
Lesbian couple clears benefit hurdle
Portland’s KGW.com reports a lesbian couple has won a round in their legal battle over who gets their state retirement benefits.
Katharine English and Barbara Pinkerton had asked the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Board to change their retirement allowances and remove their former partners as designated beneficiaries.
But the board denied their request, saying state law did not allow same-sex marriage so the women were unable to divorce their partners when their relationships ended.
Without a divorce, the women could not change their designated beneficiaries.
The Oregon Court of Appeals on Aug. 26 ordered a lower court to reconsider the case.
Annie Leibovitz may lose photos
MSN.com reports out celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz risks losing the copyright to her images and life’s work if she doesn’t pay back a $24-million loan.
The lender, Art Capital Group, sued Leibovitz in July, claiming she breached an agreement that authorized it to act as the agent in the sale of her photography and real estate.
Leibovitz spokesperson Matthew Hiltzik recently said the photographer was working to resolve the situation.
Last year, the 59-year-old photographer put up as collateral her three historic Greenwich Village townhouses, a sprawling upstate New York property and the copyright to every picture she has ever taken — or will take — to secure the loan.
Leibovitz’s portraits of celebrities and notables, including President Obama and Queen Elizabeth II, regularly grace the covers of Vanity Fair and Vogue.
— Larry Nichols