Hollywood fetes Clooney

Los Angeles – Hollywood celebrated George Clooney with a career retrospective, shifting the spotlight from his swaggering superstar persona to his longtime support of emerging filmmakers and art-house cinema.

Among those cheering him at the Los Angeles Film Festival Saturday night were “Ocean’s Eleven” costar Don Cheadle, Oscar nominees Virginia Madsen and Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Emmy winner Allison Janney.

Clooney arrived at Saturday’s event to receive the festival’s first annual Spirit of Independence Award with actor Sam Rockwell.

While Clooney is best known for his work on TV’s “ER” and in such big-budget films as “The Perfect Storm,” Saturday’s event honored the 44-year-old actor’s role in the world of independent cinema.

Behind the scenes, Clooney served as a producer of the Oscar-nominated “Far From Heaven” and he directed “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” as well as the upcoming McCarthy-era drama, “Goodnight, and Good Luck.”

Prepping for Live 8

London – Bob Geldof seems to be gearing up for his Live 8 concerts next week: At another festival, he got a crowd of 100,000 to join hands and yell the slogan, “Make poverty history.”

Geldof, an organizer of Live 8 and its predecessor, the Live Aid concerts 20 years ago, appeared Saturday at the Glastonbury Festival.

Producers of the Live 8 concerts said Saturday the shows would be shown around the world in what they billed as the largest-ever broadcast of a live event.

Broadcasts on television, radio, the Internet and even mobile phones will be accessible to a potential audience of 5.5 billion people, or 85 percent of the world’s population, the producers said.

The eight July 2 concerts, in cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, Rome and Philadelphia, will be broadcast in more than 140 countries. Artists scheduled to perform include Madonna, U2, Paul McCartney and Coldplay.

The shows are meant to pressure leaders gathering for the Group of Eight summit of the G-8 group of wealthy nations to take action to reduce poverty in Africa.

Help for a dance legend

St. Louis – With a tribute on a Mississippi River bridge, legendary dancer-choreographer Katherine Dunham, 96, basked in an ovation Friday as she prepared to move from New York back to her longtime home in East St. Louis, Ill.

The city had been Dunham’s base for more than 30 years before the survivor of lifelong arthritis and more than a dozen knee operations moved to New York in 1999. Contributors are helping make the two-story brick building she has had since the mid-’60s able to accommodate her wheelchair, and she soon plans to return for good.

During the 20-minute ceremony on the Eads Bridge, traffic was halted, and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay read a proclamation dedicating the day to the woman behind the “Dunham technique” – a combination of movements from traditional dances in Africa and the Caribbean. “Thank you, because modern dance would not be what it is without your influences and your pioneering efforts,” Slay said. “You taught so many thousands around the world how to dance.”

Said a smiling Dunham, in a soft voice: “I feel very much at home.”

Stars to descend upon Lake Wobegon

St. Paul, Minn.- Lake Wobegon’s gotten a little more stressful these days.

Shooting begins Wednesday on a film version of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” bringing him together with director Robert Altman and a star-studded cast including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline and Lindsay Lohan.

Next weekend, Keillor launches a weekly newspaper column. About a dozen newspapers have signed up for the column, according to Tribune Media Services.

“Big mistake,” Keillor joked. “Why do I need another weekly deadline?”

Meanwhile, his public radio show and its nonbroadcast spinoff, “The Rhubarb Tour,” will visit a dozen more places by Labor Day.

He released a children’s book and CD this spring, and he’s compiled a poetry anthology due in stores this fall. He has two more books in the works.

Home for Yoda

San Francisco – “Star Wars” creator George Lucas opened the doors to his sprawling new Lucasfilm Ltd. complex in style, with 2,000 guests entertained by Chris Isaak, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs and the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart.

The bash celebrated the move of the company to the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, a former military base and national park in San Francisco. Guests Saturday included California’s two U.S. senators and four San Francisco mayors.

“I see it as an opportunity to save the park,” Lucas said. “I love the park. I did not want to see it turned into a shopping mall.”

The classically designed 23-acre complex contains a few reminders of the “Star Wars” franchise: A stone fountain of Jedi master Yoda sits at the front door, and there’s a Stormtrooper suit in a hallway.

Most of the buildings are filled with framed artwork from the serial adventure films and science fiction of Lucas’ youth, like the 1958 B classic “The Blob” with Steve McQueen.

Lucas says he’ll likely keep away from the center and instead focus on smaller film projects and developing a final “Indiana Jones” film.

“In terms of being a corporate executive, I’m pretty much tired,” he said.

Most Lucasfilm divisions will move to the complex from Marin County, starting in early July. Lucasfilm will continue to maintain Big Ranch, Skywalker Ranch and the other Marin properties, where any filming will likely take place.