Former child actor Jake Lloyd, who played the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace has been arrested after leading police in South Carolina on a high-speed chase. Sgt Kyle Strickland of Colleton County sheriff's department said on Sunday that the 26-year-old man had given his name as Jake Broadbent but it had confirmed through a former talent agent that he was Lloyd. He was charged with failing to stop for officers and reckless driving after hitting speeds of more than 160 kilometres an hour during the incident on Wednesday. The chase lasted for more than 40 kms before the vehicle crossed into neighbouring Colleton County. When it reached a dead end, the driver kept going into a wooded area before the car hit some small trees and stopped. The man had not posted bail and was still in jail on Sunday, Strickland said. Lloyd was 10 years old when The Phantom Menace was made in 1999. – AP
Singam 3 ‘has a connection to first two films’
Director Hari Gopalakrishnan says Singam 3, the third instalment of the highly successful Tamil action franchise, won't be a stand-alone film and will be linked to the first two movies. "Technically, a sequel should have a connection with the prequel," said Gopalakrishnan. "Some of the recent sequels in Tamil cinema failed to make audiences connect with the prequels because they were stand-alone films. Singam 3 won't fall in that category." Suriya returns as police officer Duraisingam in the film, which will also feature Anushka Shetty and Shruti Haasan. Filming begins in August and the producers plan to shoot the film in Telugu simultaneously. – IANS
Complaint made to police over Mohalla Assi
A complaint has been filed with the Varanasi police against film star Sunny Deol and director Chandra Prakash Dwivedi over their forthcoming film Mohalla Assi. Sarvajan Jagruti Sanstha has alleged that it breaches moral ethics and shows Varanasi in poor light. The social organisation lodged the complaint at Bhelupur police station on Sunday. "The film hurts religious sentiments and we cannot allow such a film to be released," a spokesman said. The film, based on the novel Kashi Ka Assi by acclaimed Hindi writer Kashinath Singh, also stars Ravi Kishen and Sakshi Tanwar. Sunny Deol plays the lead role of a Sanskrit teacher and orthodox religious priest. – IANS
Third Stream jazz pioneer Schuller dies
Gunther Schuller, a horn player, educator and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who was the leading proponent of the Third Stream movement fusing jazz and classical music, died on Sunday in a hospital in Boston at the age of 89. "He was a great musician. I loved him and we will miss him," said his son, Ed Schuller, who is a bassist. "He had a great life, he lived his dream." Born in New York on November 22, 1925, Schuller began his career in the 1940s as a horn player with the Cincinnati Symphony and Metropolitan Opera, but his love of jazz led him to New York's bebop scene. He played on trumpeter Miles Davis' seminal "Birth of the Cool" 1949-50 recording session. In the 1950s, Schuller worked with pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet to combine jazz and classical music in what he called the Third Stream. Schuller composed more than 200 jazz and classical pieces, including Of Reminiscences and Reflections, which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for music. – AP