Quick Takes - March 18, 2010

Beckham in a poem

O Beckham, where art thou?

David Beckham has become an unlikely muse to Britain’s poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, who has written a verse about the soccer star’s career-threatening injury.

The former England captain tore his Achilles’ tendon in a game on Sunday and will miss the World Cup in June as he recovers from surgery. The poem weaves the mythical story of the ancient Greek hero Achilles with references to Beckham’s life, including his marriage to a former Spice Girl and his experimental fashion sense.

Duffy, a soccer fan, said she had been moved by the image of Beckham in tears at the side of the field after his injury. “You just thought how all the money in the world and private planes can’t sort this,” she said. “It was a very moving moment.”

-- associated press SXSW names film winners

Director Lena Dunham was one of the top winners at this year’s South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival, taking home the Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award as well as the best narrative feature film jury award for her movie “Tiny Furniture.”

Dunham, a graduate of Oberlin College, starred alongside her family in her movie, which is about a 22-year-old who moves home after college and is trying to figure out her life post-graduation.

Other festival winners honored Tuesday night included Jeff Malmberg’s “Marwencol” for the jury’s best documentary feature and Jim Bigham and Mark Moormann’s “For Once in My Life” for the audience’s top documentary pick. Will Canon’s “Brotherhood” was named best narrative feature by the audience.

-- Amy Kaufman

Musical acts to open World Cup

Alicia Keys, Shakira, Black Eyed Peas and John Legend will perform at the World Cup kickoff concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, on June 10, the day before the opening match.

The concert also will feature a strong African presence with South African folk singer Vusi Mahlasela and Malian artists Amadou and Mariam. South African rock bands BLK JKS and the Parlotones also will perform as the country prepares to be the first African host in the 80-year history of the soccer tournament.

-- associated press Picasso painting on auction block

Christie’s auction house said Wednesday that it would sell a celebrated Pablo Picasso portrait that was the subject of a dispute about its Nazi-era ownership.

“Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto (The Absinthe Drinker)” is expected to fetch between $45 million and $60 million at an auction in London on June 23.

The 1903 portrait, from Picasso’s Blue Period, is being sold by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s charitable foundation. Proceeds will go to its work promoting the arts.

The painting -- of an artist with whom the young Picasso shared a studio -- was withdrawn from sale in New York in 2006 after the heir of a Berlin banker who owned it in the 1930s claimed his ancestor was forced to sell it under Nazi intimidation.

U.S. courts threw out the lawsuit, and Christie’s said the issue had now been resolved “by agreement. . . . The claimants have withdrawn all claims to the painting, leaving the foundation free to sell the work.”

-- associated press Author blames flawed research

An author and journalist who resigned last month from the Internet news site the Daily Beast over allegations of lifting material acknowledged that passages in his latest book are similar to those of another writer.

Gerald Posner, whose books include “Case Closed” and “Secrets of the Kingdom,” said in an interview Wednesday that a flawed research methodology for “Miami Babylon,” a nonfiction work released last fall by Simon & Schuster, led him to use text from Frank Owen’s “Clubland” without giving proper credit.

David Rosenthal, executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, said in a statement Wednesday: “We are reviewing the situation and discussing the issues with the author.”

In February, Posner stepped down as chief investigative reporter of the Daily Beast after a writer for Slate.com noted several instances in which Posner took material from Miami Herald articles without attribution. Posner wrote on his website at the time that he “inadvertently” copied the passages into master files and that he “lost sight” that the material belonged to a published source.

-- associated press Mel Brooks starts on musical

After turning his movies “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein” into hit Broadway musicals, Mel Brooks tells the Canadian Press he’s now working on a third such adaptation -- this time for the 1974 film “Blazing Saddles.”

He said he’s written two songs so far but doesn’t know yet whether the project will come to fruition.

-- From a Times staff writer