Connery won’t be back for next ‘Indiana Jones’ film
The next “Indiana Jones” flick will not be another father-son affair. Sean Connery says he will not return to play dad to Harrison Ford’s globe-trotting adventurer Indy.
Connery played Indy’s father in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the third installment of the franchise directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas.
“I get asked the question so often, I thought it best to make an announcement,” Connery, 76, said in a statement posted Thursday on Lucasfilm’s “Indiana Jones” Web site. “I thought long and hard about it, and if anything could have pulled me out of retirement it would have been an ‘Indiana Jones’ film.
“I love working with Steven and George, and it goes without saying that it is an honor to have Harrison as my son,” he said. “But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun.”
The fourth “Indiana Jones” film, not yet titled, is again directed by Spielberg and produced by Lucas. Shooting begins the week of Monday, June 18, at an undisclosed U.S. location, and the movie is due out May 22, 2008.
Lucasfilm also announced Thursday that Cate Blanchett, John Hurt and Ray Winstone will be joining the cast, which along with Ford, includes Shia LaBeouf.
***
Police are looking into a clash between Akon and a concertgoer that ended with the R%26amp;B star tossing the teen off the stage and onto another spectator who said she suffered a concussion.
Audience members said the trouble started when a spectator lobbed something at Akon during a concert Sunday at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, N.Y., and the 34-year-old singer asked the crowd to point out the culprit. A security guard picked out a 15-year-old and sent him up to the stage, where Akon hoisted him onto his shoulders and flung him back into the audience, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported Thursday.
The boy landed on Abby Rosa, who told the newspaper she quickly felt a headache and blurry vision and was later diagnosed with a concussion. She said she has hired a lawyer and spoke to Fishkill police about the incident, and that she wants an apology from Akon.
Fishkill Police Detective Lt. John Berlingieri said no criminal charges had been filed against Akon. And the singer’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, released a statement saying there was no basis for criminal charges.
***
Paul McCartney says he’s “surprisingly OK” despite his difficult divorce from his second wife, Heather Mills.
“It’s very tough, you know, going through a separation,” McCartney said in an interview that aired Thursday on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in New York. “But I’m just trying to keep my dignity, trying to just move forward and not talk about it in interviews, really.”
McCartney and Mills, a 39-year-old former model and activist who recently appeared as a contestant on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” are in divorce proceedings. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.
McCartney and Mills married in June 2002, four years after his first wife, Linda McCartney, died of breast cancer. They separated last year.
Tags: activist, audience members, cate, cate blanchett, ford, franchise, george lucas, harrison ford, indiana jones, indiana jones and the last crusade, indy, last crusade, ray winstone, sean connery, shia labeouf, spielberg, steven spielberg