• Wielding a silver shovel rather than a lightsaber, Star Wars creator George Lucas broke ground Wednesday on a $1.5 billion Los Angeles museum he says will be dedicated to the art of visual storytelling. The writer-director was joined by his wife, Mellody Hobson, as well as elected officials and more than 100 well-wishers for the official start of construction on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Construction is expected to be completed in 2021. With thousands of exhibits, ranging from paintings to comic strips to film props, costumes and storyboards, Lucas says exhibits will attempt to explain visual storytelling from the days of cave paintings to modern movies. The latter will run the gamut from 1927's futuristic masterpiece Metropolis to Orson Welles' groundbreaking 1941 film Citizen Kane to the Lucas-Steven Spielberg collaborations on the Indiana Jones movies. Of course, the museum will feature Star Wars items, including Luke Skywalker's first lightsaber and Darth Vader's helmet. The groundbreaking more closely resembled a movie premiere minus the red carpet with more than a dozen television cameras recording it. Lucas, his wife and their foundation are paying for the museum's construction and endowment.
• Two years ago, country singer Scotty McCreery found out he lost his record deal with Mercury/Interscope while shooting an episode for American Idol, the singing competition show he won in 2011. He had returned to mentor new contestants on the show, which was then on Fox, while his own career was at a precipice. "I was trying to put on a happy face while I was filming," the 24-year-old singer with the baritone voice said. "That was a rough week." McCreery, who is from North Carolina, had started his career on a high at 18 by becoming the youngest male artist and first country artist to debut his first album on the Billboard 200. Although his albums sold well, McCreery leaned toward the more traditional side of the genre, when bro-country and party songs ruled the airwaves. With his record deal dead, McCreery spent a year negotiating the purchase of songs he had recorded while still signed, touring as an independent artist and even releasing a memoir. Now, at 24, McCreery said he feels like he's staged a career comeback. While still unsigned, he released "Five More Minutes," which he wrote after losing his grandfather in 2015. He signed to independent Nashville label Thirty Tigers Records, which pushed it to the top of Billboard's country airplay chart this month, just in time for "Seasons Change," coming out on Friday. "Feels like I am starting fresh," he said. "I feel like at 24 I know who I am a lot better than back in the day and I know how to express that through my songs."
A Section on 03/15/2018