Monster’s Ball producer Lee Daniels follows up his 2005 directorial debut, Shadowboxer, with this adaptation of author Sapphire’s best-selling novel about an overweight, illiterate African-American teen from Harlem who discovers an alternate path in life after she begins attending a new school. Clareece “Precious” (Read more…)

Bryan Adams relishes the unconventional. Not because the veteran pop-rocker has all of a sudden taken up hardcore metal or hip-hop. In fact, his most recent CD, 11, is classic Bryan Adams. He had a hand in writing every song. But the Canadian musician best known for his string of ’80s and ’90s hits such as “Run to You,” “Heaven,” “Summer of ‘69,” “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” and “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” rolls with his own rhythm when it comes to recording, touring and even publicity photos. Take 11, for instance. The CD is quintessential Adams, full of crunchy rock tunes brimming with pop hooks. It was recorded on the road, as was 2004’s Room Service. “Sitting in hotel rooms all day long is a bit dull,” Adams says by phone from a tour stop in Kalamazoo, Mich. “I can’t stand it. I love making music. I love singing. I love being in front of an audience. But that’s two hours. Then there’s the other 22 hours. That’s why I started to record on tour.” Touring for Adams isn’t your usual months-long trek aimed at promoting a new release. Again the 49-year-old breaks from tradition. “I just go out for a week every month,” he says. “I’ve been doing that for 10 years. It works for me.” He’s currently performing solo acoustic shows in U.S. theaters. Adams will be at the Majestic Theatre on Wednesday night. When asked about his concert repertoire, since it’s just him unplugged, Adams is matter-of-fact. He’ll play “a few songs from the new album, more obscure songs from my past, and a mix of other things,” he says. “It’s still a rocking show. I’m doing all kinds of different songs. Some rock, some don’t.” Yet even more so than the material, Adams is excited about the venues. “I have enjoyed this tour so much. I’m getting to see America on a whole different level.” As if recording and touring isn’t enough, Adams is an accomplished photographer whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and Interview magazines, to name a few. He’s published three photo books, and has shot musical peers such as Mick Jagger, Céline Dion, Pink, Herb Alpert, Lenny Kravitz, Annie Lennox and Amy Winehouse. Oh, he has one other subject – himself. Adams takes his own publicity pictures. “I did Annie Lennox’s new album cover,” he says. “While I was setting up, I was shooting myself to see what the pictures looked like. And I use those photos as publicity shots. If I can make myself look good, I can make anybody look good.”

LENNY KRAVITZ is to team up with Carla Bruni on her next album. The rocker said he received a letter from her husband, French leader Nicolas Sarkozy, praising his work. And the note has reportedly paved the way for a collaboration between the star and the politician’s model-turned-singer partner Bruni, who Kravitz said he knew “back in the day.” Speaking to the Daily Star newspaper, a source said: “The president confessed he and his wife were massive fans - and they even named which of Lenny’s songs were their favourites. He jumped at the chance to help out.”

More about Lenny Kravitz
There may have been other “retro” rock acts before him, but Lenny Kravitz was one of the first to not be pigeonholed to a single style as he touched upon such genres as soul, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk, and ballads over the years. Born in New York on May 26, 2024 (his mother was actress Roxie Roker, best-known for her role as Helen Willis on the popular TV series The Jeffersons, and his father was a TV producer), Kravitz was raised in Los Angeles, where he found himself around countless musical giants as a youngster due to his parents friendships with the likes of Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, and Miles Davis. Kravitz was a member of the California Boys Choir until his teenage years, when he decided to pursue rock & roll while in high school and under the heavily influence of funk rocker Prince. Kravitz’s admiration of the Purple One was so great that he at first patterned his style and approach directly after Prince and became known as “Romeo Blue” (complete with blue contact lenses), but failed to land a recording contract.

In the late ’80s, Kravitz relocated back to New York City, where one of his roommates turned out to be actress Lisa Bonet (who played the part of Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show); they eventually got married. During this time, Kravitz wisely discarded his Prince-like approach and looked back to such ’60s/’70s classic rockers as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, and the Beatles for inspiration. Kravitz found a kindred spirit in engineer Henry Hirsch (who would stick by Kravitz throughout his career). With a back-to-basics approach, his style was quite refreshing in the humorously gaudy late ’80s. He inked a recording contract with Virgin Records and issued his debut release, Let Love Rule, in 1989. Kravitz’s debut proved to be a surprise hit due to the success of the title track, which became a hit single and oft-aired video. A few critics were quick to assume that Kravitz’s retro look and sound were simply a shtick to get the public’s attention, but come the ’90s, it had become integrated into the mainstream (both musically and fashion-wise), proving that Kravitz was a bit of a trendsetter. It was around this time that Kravitz penned a major hit single, not for himself but for Madonna, who went to number one with the sultry track “Justify My Love.”

What should have been a time of happiness for Kravitz quickly turned sour as he and Bonet divorced by the early ’90s. Kravitz’s heartbreak was very evident in his sophomore effort, Mama Said, which was even stronger than its predecessor, highlighted by the Led Zep-like funk rocker “Always on the Run” (a collaboration with Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash), as well as the mega hit with the Curtis Mayfield-esque soul ballad “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over,” which confirmed that Kravitz’s success was no fluke. But the best was yet to come for Kravitz. His third release overall, 1993’s Are You Gonna Go My Way, is often considered to be the finest album front to back of his entire career, and with good reason: Every single song was a winner, including the up-tempo anthemic title track, which turned out to be one of MTV’s most played videos for that year. The album was a massive hit and Kravitz became an arena headliner stateside, as well as being featured on countless magazine covers.

Despite an almost two-year gap between albums, Kravitz’s fourth release, Circus, came off sounding unfocused and was a major letdown compared to his stellar previous few releases. Perhaps sensing that he needed to stir things up musically, Kravitz dabbled with electronics and trip-hop loops for his next album, 1998’s 5. Although not a huge hit right off the bat, the album proved to have an incredibly long chart life, spawning the biggest hit of Kravitz’s career, “Fly Away,” almost a year after its original release. With the single’s success, Virgin decided to cash in on the album’s sudden rebirth by reissuing it around the same time with a pair of extra added bonus tracks, one of which became another sizeable hit single, a remake of the Guess Who’s “American Woman” (which was used in the hit 1999 comedy movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me). Kravitz’s first best-of set, the 15-track Greatest Hits, was issued as a stopgap release in 2000, while his sixh studio release overall, Lenny, was issued a year later. Baptism followed in 2004. After starting a residential, commercial, and product design company called Kravitz Design, he recorded a funky version of John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey” for Amnesty International’s 2007 benefit compilation Instant Karma. Before the end of the year it was announced that Kravitz would return in 2008 with a new album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution. The album arrived in February, accompanied by a brief tour.

In addition to his own albums, Kravitz continues to pen songs for other artists and his compositions have appeared on albums by such rock heavyweights as Aerosmith and Mick Jagger, while he produced and wrote the majority of Vanessa Paradis’ obscure self-titled 1992 release.