Clint Eastwood enjoys benefits as aging actor

WAILEA, Hawaii -- Clint Eastwood says there's an upside to being a veteran in the movie business.

"One advantage of getting older is you can philosophize and try new things," the 72-year-old actor-director said Friday night at the Maui Film Festival. "What are they going to do to you?"

Eastwood, a part-time Maui resident, was honored with the festival's Silversword Award for his 48 years of making movies.

While the festival is identified with "life-affirming films," Eastwood joked that some of his movies have been accused of being "life extinguishing."

The award presentation included a showing of clips from Eastwood's films.

Britney concert loses power after two songs

LUBBOCK, Texas -- A power failure ended a Britney Spears concert after two songs Friday night.

Spears used pyrotechnic effects and explosions while performing "Oops...I Did It Again" and " Crazy." Arena power and lighting worked after the failure, but Spears' stage shows require additional power.

A member of Spears' management appeared on stage with the entertainer and told the crowd the concert was canceled because of safety concerns.

"I'm just so sorry," Spears told the crowd at a Texas Tech arena, before being met with boos. "Please don't boo," she said, then walked off the stage.

Carl Lewis doesn't miss track and field

ATHENS, Greece -- He won nine Olympic gold medals and 10 world titles, but one of track and field's greatest athletes doesn't miss any of it.

American sprinter and long jumper Carl Lewis said Saturday he did everything he wanted and was happy being out of sports.

"It's like high school. Everybody remembers it, everybody had a great time, but nobody wants to go back," said Lewis, who retired in 1997 after an 18-year career.

Lewis, a former world record holder in the 100 meters, did not comment on the world's current fastest man, Maurice Greene, who clocked 9.79 seconds and is a contender for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

"Every time I say something about anybody, it just puts a lot of pressure all over the place," he said.

Lewis was in Athens to promote an art exhibit sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Swatch, which will provide timing and results services for four Olympic Games through 2010, including the Athens Games.

$6 million violin makes music at symphony

SAN FRANCISCO -- Jascha Heifetz's $6 million violin, which has been played publicly only once or twice a year in the past decade, will be played regularly for the next three years by San Francisco Symphony concertmaster Alexander Barantschik.

The 260-year-old violin now will be featured in every symphony concert that Barantschik plays and in a new chamber music series, as a result of an agreement between the symphony and the Fine Arts Museum, where the instrument has been on display for the last 15 years.

The violin was built in 1742 by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu of Cremona, Italy, and there are only about 130 such violins in existence.

It is known as the "David" after 19th-century violinist Ferdinand David, the longtime concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Heifetz bequeathed the violin to San Francisco when he died in 1987.

Heifetz stipulated that the instrument be played by "worthy performers," resulting in regulations governing who could play it. In recent years, Isaac Stern, Gil Shaham and Stuart Canin, as well as some San Francisco Conservatory of Music students, have played it.

Elvis gets special treat with Dutch remix of hit

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Elvis Presley is expected to score a posthumous hit with a Dutch remix of 1968's "A Little Less Conversation."

Dutch musician Tom Holkenburg, known in Europe as the disc jockey of the techno-group Junkie XL, remixed the song for a Nike television commercial. Although a contemporary remix, "Elvis vs. JXL -- a Little Less Conversation" leaves Presley's vocals intact.

The single, which was released throughout Europe on Monday, sold more than 67,000 copies in Britain the first day, more than the total sales of last week's No. 1 on the British charts, "Light My Fire" by Will Young.

Figures for sales in the Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe were unavailable.

A top-selling hit would return Presley to the "Guinness Book of Records" as the artist with the most No. 1 recordings in England, breaking the long-running tie with the Beatles with 17 apiece.

"We can be making history here," said Adam Bradley, marketing manager for record company BMG.

--From wire reports