Johansson promotes meditation

Published Saturday December 13th, 2008
E1

American actress Scarlett Johansson, British actor Michael Caine and other entertainers said they hope their performances Thursday at the Nobel Peace Concert draw attention to laureate Martti Ahtisaari's style of mediating as a solution to conflicts.

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scarlett Johansson

"It is important to remind young people that peace is the only real victory," Johansson, 24, said at a news conference before the concert.

Johansson, who co-hosted the concert along with Caine, said mediation should be the alternative to wars such as those being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

She said mediation was the way to resolve conflicts, "not the way that U.S. has handled it the past two terms which is: 'don't discuss.'"

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Canadian singer Michael Buble has been named a minority owner in the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Giants.

Buble will get a minority stake in the junior club from Giants majority owner Ron Toigo, joining fellow co-owners Sultan Thiara, former Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks coach Pat Quinn, and NHL legend Gordie Howe.

"I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful team, management and ownership -- a group of winners," Buble said in a release this week.

Buble and Toigo are old friends who are also part of an investment group that's redeveloping a Vancouver-area golf course.

Buble, a 33-year-old Burnaby, B.C., native, is a Juno and Grammy award-winning singer who has sold more than 20 million records worldwide.

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An Iraq war veteran who waved a gun and an American flag on a Highway 101 overpass and stopped traffic for hours in Santa Barbara last month has been ordered by a judge to stay away from Tom Cruise.

Edward Van Tassel, 28, with help from his sister, has appeared at Cruise's Beverly Hills home three times with hopes of delivering a letter, authorities said.

The order came at a Wednesday hearing where prosecutors were trying to have Van Tassel's bail revoked for leaving a veterans facility where Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge George Eskin believed he would be locked in.

 

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