People talk 01/21/03

Giuliani doesn't feel animosity for Hamburg

HAMBURG, Germany -- Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said Monday he has no hard feelings toward Hamburg, the city in Germany where several of the Sept. 11 suicide pilots lived and studied.

"Any city, including New York, can unfortunately serve as a background in which people can do evil and horrible things," Giuliani told reporters.

Giuliani, 58, is in Germany to promote the German edition of his book, "Leadership," and raise money for a Jewish charity, the Keren Hayessod.

The visit comes at a time of tension between Berlin and Washington over German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's opposition to a war against Iraq.

Giuliani said that should not cloud the common cause of fighting terrorism.

"There are occasional disagreements between friends," he said. "That's the spirit in which we have to work together."

Three of the Sept. 11 suicide pilots, including lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, lived in Hamburg before the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Forest named after deceased Clash singer

LONDON -- Late punk icon Joe Strummer's efforts to counter global warming will live on as a forest in his honor.

Future Forests, a group the Clash singer-songwriter helped found in the 1990s, asked fans for donations to help create the living memorial on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

"Joe said 'Bands must be contributing to global warming by their buses, equipment trucks and the diesel used to power the stages,'" the group's spokesman said. "'Can you imagine how much carbon dioxide the pressing and the distribution of a CD creates? What shall we do about it?'"

Strummer decided to plant trees to offset the carbon dioxide created by his work.

The spokesman said the forest would eventually be a home to hundreds of wildlife species, including otters, red deer and foxes.

Strummer died Dec. 22 at age 50.

The Clash will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March.

The band emerged from the 1970s London punk explosion, and was commercially successful by punk standards.

Scorsese to be honored with lifetime award

LOS ANGELES -- The Directors Guild of America will honor director Martin Scorsese with a lifetime achievement award, its highest tribute, during its 55th annual awards ceremony March 1.

Scorsese, 60, has a directing career spanning more than four decades and his work includes: "Taxi Driver," "The Age of Innocence," "Raging Bull," "Casino" and "GoodFellas."

On Sunday, he won a best director Golden Globe for "Gangs of New York."

Scorsese is being honored for nurturing young filmmakers and his fight to preserve the legacy of motion picture art for future generations, guild president Martha Coolidge said.

"There are few who have impacted our industry in the numerous ways that Marty has," Coolidge said.

He will be the 30th director to receive the award.

Other winners include Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra and John Ford.

Honorees are selected by present and past guild presidents.

Lee concerned about portrayal of Parks, King

LAUDERHILL, Fla. -- Filmmaker Spike Lee says he is concerned young people will first learn about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. from a bitter character in last year's comedy film "Barbershop."

At events Saturday honoring King's birthday, Lee told hundreds of teenagers at the Lauderhill Boys & Girls Club in Florida that he didn't laugh when he heard a character played by Cedric the Entertainer belittle Parks' refusal to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955.

Lee, the maker of films such as "Malcolm X," "Do the Right Thing" and the recently released "25th Hour," also didn't find it funny when the character accused King of being sexually promiscuous.

He said too many adults laugh at those scenes.

Instead, he said they should be teaching children about the accomplishments, challenges and sacrifices of the leaders of the civil rights movement.

"To me, some things aren't funny," said Lee, 46, a native of Atlanta who grew up in New York. "If our young children grow up thinking this, and that's all they know about (Parks and King), then we're in trouble."

Architect enthused about renovating Lisbon district

LISBON, Portugal -- American architect Frank Gehry is enthusiastic about possibilities for the dilapidated Lisbon theater district he has agreed to renovate.

"It's something magic," the 73-year-old architect told reporters Monday.

Gehry, who won acclaim for his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain -- along with buildings in the United States, Japan, Germany and France -- visited the Parque Mayer theater area Sunday after having dinner with Lisbon Mayor Pedro Santana Lopes.

Gehry said he has to get a feel for the Portuguese capital before starting on a design.

"I have to spend time here. I have to meet with the people," he said.

The Parque Mayer district, inaugurated in 1922, fell into decline in the 1980s.

The city wants to build two modern theaters, a cinema complex, a museum, stores and offices on the site off one of the city's main avenues.

-- From wire reports