Ralph Fiennes set to film Shakespeare’s ‘Coriolanus’

Fiennes to direct film

After two years of struggling to win funding amid the global financial crisis, actor Ralph Fiennes said Wednesday that he would start filming his directorial debut of a Shakespeare tragedy next week in Serbia.

Filming of “Coriolanus” will start in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 17 in the country’s highest-profile movie project in decades, and is expected to last two months, the British actor said in an interview.

In addition to directing, Fiennes will play the leading role of Coriolanus, a Roman general who betrays his native city Rome and allies with his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius for revenge.

-- reuters Sheen to return to work on ‘Men’

A spokesman for Charlie Sheen says the actor will return to work on “Two and a Half Men” on Tuesday after undergoing rehab that temporarily halted production of CBS’ top-rated sitcom.

Last month, publicist Stan Rosenfield announced that Sheen had voluntarily entered a rehab facility “as a preventative measure.” He didn’t specify why Sheen was seeking treatment.

The 44-year-old actor still faces legal problems arising from a fight with his wife in Aspen, Colo., in December. The most serious charge carries a maximum three-year prison term.

Sheen is due back in court Monday.

-- associated press Faith sustains Marie Osmond

Marie Osmond told a Las Vegas Strip audience as she returned to the stage less than two weeks after her son’s apparent suicide that she has relied on her spirituality to cope with his death.

“Little did I know I would be relying on my faith, especially as much as I did this past week,” Osmond said before dedicating a song to her 18-year-old son, Michael Bryan, whom she called “my angel.”

Wrapped in a robe with white feathers that resembled an angel’s wings, Osmond genuflected and reached out her right hand as she sang the song amid a starry backdrop.

“How she got through that I will never know,” her brother Donny Osmond said after his sister’s solo performance.

The Osmonds’ teary return to the Flamingo Las Vegas on Tuesday night came one day after funeral services for Bryan in Provo, Utah.

-- associated press Smith opera planned for ’11

The skintight cocktail dress, the double-D push-up bra and loads of luscious rouge lipstick are not the usual accouterments of the female opera star.

But Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek is apparently ready for a total makeover for her latest plum role: the late model and Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith.

Westbroek has signed on to play the voluptuous blond celebrity in “Anna Nicole,” a new opera by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage that will have its premiere at London’s Royal Opera House next season. The company said the opera would premiere Feb. 17 in a production conducted by Antonio Pappano and directed by Richard Jones.

Turnage and Thomas have a track record for turning tabloid trash into operatic gold. They previously collaborated on “Jerry Springer: The Opera,” which has been produced on London’s West End and at New York’s Carnegie Hall, starring Harvey Keitel in the lead role.

-- David Ng Lloyd Webber musical opens

It got an opening-night standing ovation, but Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical extravaganza has received a mixed reception from London critics.

Some said Wednesday that “Love Never Dies” -- a sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera” set in a Coney Island fun fair -- was a thrilling ride, but others felt it lacked “Phantom’s” menace -- and its magic.

The Guardian newspaper’s Michael Billington said the show has a seductive score but an underwhelming story line. “What the show lacks, in a nutshell, is narrative tension,” he wrote.

The Times agreed the plot was “dismally implausible,” and Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail bemoaned its slow pace and “a death scene so long that it may only re-ignite the euthanasia debate.”

But the Independent gave “Love Never Dies” a five-star review, and the Daily Telegraph’s Charles Spencer called it Lloyd Webber’s finest show since the original “Phantom,” with “a score blessed with superbly haunting melodies.”

-- associated press Brand to host KPCC show

Madeleine Brand, former co-host of the National Public Radio newsmagazine “Day to Day,” has been hired at KPCC-FM (89.3) in Pasadena to host a morning show there.

The program, as yet untitled, will air weekdays from 9 to 10 a.m. and will “cover a wide range of topics . . . all with a distinctive Southern California perspective,” the public-radio station said.

A premiere date has not been set but is targeted for late spring, KPCC said.

-- from a times staff writer