“All bad things must come to an end.” That’s how Motley Crue broke the news it was calling it quits. The influential, and infamous, Los Angeles rock band turned Beacher’s Madhouse in Hollywood into a circus Tuesday morning as more than 100 media outlets packed the hot spot to hear the band’s announcement of a 72-date farewell tour. After more than three decades together, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars unveiled plans for a last hurrah. The Final Tour kicks off July 2 in Grand Rapids, Mich., and will head overseas next year. Alice Cooper will join the Live Nation-produced trek. Unlike countless other rock bands and pop stars who have announced farewell tours only to return to the road for one reason or another - or set up shop in Las Vegas - Motley Crue’s members insisted that when this run of shows ends, that’s it. The band even had its attorney on hand to present a formal agreement that, effective at the end of 2015, bars any of the band members from using the Motley Crue trademark - which they all signed. The final tour coincides with a number of Motley Crue-branded projects. A long-gestating film adaptation of the band’s best-selling memoir, The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, is in the works. The band has also teamed up with Big Machine to release a country-music tribute. Label founder and Chief Executive Scott Borchetta said he’d already locked in Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts, recent winner of The Voice Cassadee Pope and LeAnn Rhimes.
The Romanian cinema board has declared Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac II unfit for public viewing, a decision the distributor says is unique in Europe. The movie was to be released Feb. 7 but the National Center of Cinematography on Wednesday told the distributor that the film would be labeled IM 18 XXX - banned to minors and the general public. Distributor Independence Film called it “a case of censorship which is unique in Europe,” and said it would appeal. Chairman of the Senate’s Culture Committee Georgica Severin criticized the decision, saying Nymphomaniac I was already running in Romanian cinemas. The two-part film is a drama about a woman’s erotic journey from birth to the age of 50.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 01/30/2014