Autopsy scheduled for director Tony Scott
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- An autopsy was to be performed in Los Angeles on "Top Gun" director Tony Scott Monday amid a report by ABC News he had inoperable brain cancer.
Scott, 68, who jumped 185 feet to his death in Los Angeles Harbor from a suspension bridge around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, left a note with his wife's and other loved ones' contact information in his Toyota Prius, parked on the bridge, the Los Angeles Times and celebrity news Web site TMZ reported.
That information led authorities to a suicide note in his office, the Times said. The note's contents were not revealed.
A source close to Scott told ABC News the respected director had inoperable brain cancer.
Authorities had to use sonar equipment to find Scott because San Pedro Bay was so murky around the Port of Los Angeles. His body was found by a dive team around 4:30 p.m.
Scott, 68, was perhaps best known for directing "Top Gun," starring Tom Cruise as a Navy aviator, in 1986. The film grossed $21.6 million in its first 11 days and went on to gross more than $300 million worldwide.
Scott and Cruise worked together again in the 1990 film "Days of Thunder."
Scott, born in England June 21, 1944, directed five films starring Denzel Washington -- "Crimson Tide" (1995), "Man on Fire" (2004),"Deja Vu" (2006), "The Taking of Pelham 123" (2009) and "Unstoppable" (2010).
His other films include "The Hunger" (1982), "Revenge" (1990), "The Last Boy Scout" (1991), "True Romance" (1993), "The Fan" (1996), "Enemy of the State" (1998) and "Spy Game" (2001).
The last film he directed was "Unstoppable," a 2010 thriller about a runaway freight train.
His TV career included executive producing the series "The Good Wife" and "Numb3rs," both on CBS.
Scott, the younger brother of director Ridley Scott, was married three times and had twin sons, Frank and Max, born in 2000, with his third wife, former Miss North Carolina model and actress Donna Wilson Scott, who appeared in Scott's "Days of Thunder," "The Last Boy Scout" and "The Good Wife."
'San Francisco' singer McKenzie dies at 73
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Scott McKenzie, whose 1967 hit single "San Francisco [Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair]" became a hippie generational anthem, died at 73, his Web site said.
"It is with much sadness that we report the passing of Scott McKenzie," Gary and Raylene Hartman wrote on the site.
McKenzie died in Los Angeles Saturday.
"Scott had been very ill recently and passed away in his home after two weeks in hospital," they said.
McKenzie had suffered since 2010 from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease that affects the nervous system.
"It has been our pleasure to maintain this Web site over the past 15 years and this is the hardest update of them all," the Hartmans said. "Farewell our much loved and wonderful friend."
They said McKenzie may have suffered a heart attack early this month. "Staff did not want him to leave the hospital, but he wanted to be at home," the Web site said.
McKenzie was born Philip Wallach Blondheim Jan. 10, 1939, in Jacksonville, Fla., and grew up in Montreat, N.C.
After his father died, his mother moved to Alexandria, Va., where he started singing in local clubs. He also became friends with John Phillips, and they performed as The Journeymen.
Phillips later became "Papa John" with the 1960s vocal group the Mamas & the Papas.
McKenzie told The Washington Post in a 1977 interview he didn't want to join the Mamas & the Papas because "I was trying to see if I could do something by myself. And I didn't think I could take that much pressure."
Phillips wrote and co-produced "San Francisco" for McKenzie and played guitar on the recording, released May 13, 1967.
The song became an instant hit, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and drawing as many as 100,000 young people to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that summer.
McKenzie's song was also a top hit in Britain and other countries, selling more than 7 million copies globally, "The Book of Golden Discs" said.
McKenzie followed "San Francisco" with "Like an Old Time Movie," also written and produced by Phillips.
His debut album, "The Voice of Scott McKenzie," in 1967 was followed by "Stained Glass Morning" in 1970, his final album.
In 1986, McKenzie started singing with a new version of the Mamas & the Papas. He co-wrote the 1988 Beach Boys No. 1 single "Kokomo" with Terry Melcher, Mike Love and John Phillips.
PTC: Prime time TV nudity rises 407%
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Nudity on prime time U.S. broadcast TV jumped fourfold in a year, a conservative advocacy group said, calling on Congress to insist regulators do their job.
Blurred nudity on TV was 407 percent greater in the 2011-2012 season than in the season before, with 76 incidents of full nudity on 37 shows, compared with 15 incidents on 14 shows the year before, the Parents Television Council said in a statement Monday.
This represents a 407 percent increase, the group said.
Nearly 70 percent of the pixilated scenes cited as including nudity aired before 9 p.m. "and as early as 7 p.m.," the group said. By contrast, half the full nudity scenes monitored by the group the year before aired after 9 p.m., the group said.
Of the 76 cited incidents, five were on shows containing an "S" TV content sub-rating used with TV Parental Guidelines' TV-PG, TV-14 and TV-MA ratings to indicate instances of sexual content, the group said.
"PTC research has found a staggering increase in the frequency and explicitness of pixilated nudity on the broadcast networks during prime time hours," group President Timothy F. Winter said in a letter to members of House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, both of which oversee communications regulation.
"In 2006, Congress passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act in response to growing outrage from the American people over the broadcast networks' abuse of the publicly owned broadcast airwaves," the letter said of the act that increases fines and penalties for violating prohibitions against broadcasting obscene, indecent or profane language.
"Yet since that time, we have seen a concerted effort on the part of the networks to constantly push the outer limit of what may be considered appropriate for the broadcast medium," it said.
The letter called on lawmakers to urge the regulatory Federal Communications Commission to clear a "backlog of 1.6 million unadjudicated indecency complaints" and to empower the FCC "to ensure enforcement actions are meaningful and appropriate."
The FCC did not immediately respond to a phone inquiry asking about the alleged backlog of indecency complaints.
The PTC said it reach its conclusions after studying TV programs from Sept. 1, 2011, to May 31. Its analysis excludes "animated nudity or suggested full nudity and only includes scenes in which individuals are completely unclothed and only the sexual organs are blurred from the viewer," it said.
The analysis includes TV specials but excludes regular news and sports.
New movie 'Old Goats' targets sweet spot
SEATTLE, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- "Old Goats," an inventive comedy about three retirees who refuse to withdraw from life, targets older viewers often snubbed by Hollywood, a top executive said.
"There's a real hunger on the part of older Americans for movies that don't ignore them, treat them with condescension, or make them objects of comic relief and/or pity," Executive Producer David Skinner told United Press International in an e-mail.
The heartfelt, intelligent film, which had its theatrical premiere in Seattle Friday, is next to be screened in Palm Springs, Calif., Sept. 28. That is to be followed by a planned initial run at independent theaters and chains in parts of California, Arizona and Florida with substantial retiree populations, as well as in major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, Skinner told UPI.
The marketing also includes "consciousness-raising" screenings at senior centers and retirement communities "to generate word of mouth," along with red-carpet gala screenings at historic movie palaces and multiplex theaters in conjunction with retirement communities.
Advertising focuses on older-demographic radio stations, neighborhood newspapers and political-style lawn signs that say "Vote Old Goats" with stylized images of the three lead characters.
The signs "play off the zeitgeist of the campaign season," said Skinner, who is also founder and managing director of ShadowCatcher Entertainment LLC, which is handling the "Old Goats" marketing.
The film, which suggests personal growth can happen at any age, also appeals to younger audiences, Skinner said, so it is also marketed to younger filmgoers "the way you market indie rock concerts."
This includes teaser posters on lampposts, postcards left in coffee shops and bars, and other cryptic, challenging messages.
The front of one Seattle postcard said, "Experience the Power of Experience" above the characters' stylized images. The back said, "Old Goats are coming," with the premiere date and location, and Facebook and Web site links.
"We see our primary window for theatrical play dates as late September through early November," Skinner told UPI. "It's a nice window of opportunity for a film of this size: The summer blockbusters have wound down and the Christmas blockbusters have yet to hit."
The film, which first-time writer-director Taylor Guterson, 31, completed for less than $5,000, won nine awards and citations, including "best of the fest" selections at the Seattle International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and Sun Valley (Idaho) Film Festival.
The character-driven film features Bob Burkholder, who turns 90 Sunday; Britton Crosley, 74, and David VanderWal, 63, who are friends living in a small town near Seattle.
"These are first-time actors who were the center of attention at our premiere," Skinner told UPI in a phone interview. "A year ago, they never acted -- which suggests you never know what's going to happen in life."
"I devised a story to fit the personalities of Bob, Britt and Dave," Guterson said in written director's comments. "It's basically these three men behaving as themselves in imaginary circumstances."
