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African movie pirates have managed to leak the Hollywood standard West African-set Zombie feature film, ‘The Dead’, written and directed by Howard J. Ford and Jon Ford, which featured Ghanaian actor Prince David Osei, before it entered Ghana. The film was on Friday screened for the first time in Africa at the Silverbird Cinema in Accra. But before the première, the film had reportedly found its way onto the laptops of some movie fans and had as such collapsed the enthusiasm with which people wanted to see the movie. NEWS-ONE is still investigating how the film was leaked as it was readily not clear if the leakage was from Ghana or not. However, it is gradually becoming a norm in Ghana’s movie industry for unreleased movies to be leaked before they hit the cinemas. Director Leila Djansi once complained bitterly about how ‘Sinking Sands’ was leaked. Shirley Frimpong Manso also complained that ‘Adams Apples’ was leaked and she pointed fingers at the Censorship Board but it denied bei...

The Montreal Community Contact monthly newspaper, the most authoritative news provider for the Black and Caribbean community in Canada, has described Akumaa Mama Zimbi in its September 29 publication as “Oprah Winfrey of Ghana”. This international endorsement did not come as a surprise as the most romantic voice on radio, Mama Zimbi, is steadily becoming a cultural icon in Africa. Known in private life as Mrs. Joyce Akumaa Dongotey-Padi, Mama has been awarded two coveted international awards in a day. The first prestigious award she received was ‘The Defender of the Vulnerable Award 2011’ from the Centre for Economic and Leadership Development (CELD), a non-governmental organization with an overriding vision to empower the vulnerable in achieving full potential. The organisiation has its headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria. The award was given to her during a dinner organised by CELD, in collaboration with ECOWAS Female Parliamentarian Association (ECOFEPA), at the La Palm Royal Beach ...

News filtering in says Ghanaian actresses Roselyn Ngissah and Helen Asante have finally entered Nollywood. Helen is currently playing a lead role in Shirley Frimpong Manso’s ‘Adams Apples’. She entered Ghana’s movie industry in 2004 after Senior High School. Her first role was a palace maiden in Venus Film’s ‘Wedlock Of The Gods’.   The same year she played the role of a prostitute in ‘Crime To Christ’. Roselyn co-won 2010 Ghana Movies Awards Best Actress and things have since been good for her. A graduate of University Ghana’s School of performing Arts, she is known for her roles   in ‘Reckless’, ‘Broadway’ and ‘I Stand Accused’, ‘Princess Tyra’, ‘Power of the gods’, ‘Last Victory’, ‘My Sister’s Honour’, and ‘Sin Of The Soul’. She also starred in Sparrow production’s ‘A Sting In A Tale’ ‘Adams Apples’. A source told NEWS-ONE that the actresses, who are best friends, sneaked out of the country recently for a production in Nigeria. The source said they were keeping the de...

Latest information about actress Luckie Lawson indicates that the top actress has been robbed. It is not clear when it happened but source said some robbers broke into her Spintex home and made away with belongings worth huge sums of dollars. The actress cum movie producer hurriedly flew down to Ghana a week ago to officially file for divorce in court. NEWS-ONE broke the story last week that the actress was on the verge of splitting with her husband, Michael Gyan, after they tied the nuptial knot two years ago. The paper can confirm that she quietly sneaked into town from her USA base last Saturday purposely for the divorce. But Luckie’s yet-to-be-divorced husband left Ghana for France just when the actress arrived. Our sources said Luckie had complained that if Michael was not ready for the divorce as they planned, he should have informed her rather then get her to travel from America to Ghana. Though not proven beyond doubt, sources said the move by the husband was to delay the imp...

Some Ghanaian musicians have pledged their support for Tic Tac’s upcoming ‘Club-2-Club’ tour of some parts of the country.   The ‘Kangaroo’ crooner announced last week that he was touring parts of Ghana including Kumasi, Takoradi, Accra and Tema as part of his Club-2-Club train this November. The tour will feature a pre-album party and video premiere of his two new hits single, ‘ In the Gallo’ and ‘ Feel The Heat’ . A release from the rap artiste’s TN record yesterday unveiled a tall list of top Ghanaian artistes who will be make appearances during Tic Tac’s tour.    Among them were VIP, Obrafour, Tinny, Asem, Trigmatic and Sarkodie. The rest included Guru, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Jon Germain, Wuta Cobby, Chemphe, Scientific and Rachel. DJs on rotation will be Ghana’s finest DJ Black and DJ Champagne, with Nigeria’s DJ Humility making a special appearance.  The event, which will be held at all Vienna City night clubs, will start in Takoradi on November 5. ...

Actors and all male nominees for the 2011 Ghana Movie Awards (GMAs), as well as male journalists who would be covering the event, will be turned away at the entrance unless they are dressed in black suits and bow ties, or better still tuxedos and white shirts, NEWS-ONE has gathered. “If we want to raise the bar, then it must cut across everything including what we wear to such award ceremonies and the standard is that gents must be in tuxedos with white shirts and bow ties to match but a good black suit would be accepted. And mind you, journalists are not exempted,” a source from the GMAs planning committee told NEWS-ONE. The source added that there was strong lobbying from a section of the planning committee that traditional Kente cloths should also be accepted. He said that decision was turned down because it would allow for other traditional attires to be accepted as well. Actresses and female nominees and guests would also have to dress in formal evening wears as mini-skirts and ...

Nikki Actress Nikki Samonas is often described as a jack of all trades. She tried modeling and did a couple of TV commercials before finally getting into Ghana’s movie industry. Currently, she is trying her hands at TV presentation. At exactly 5pm every Sunday, fans of the actress can catch a glimpse of her on TV3 while she takes viewers through happenings in Ghana’s movie industry and beyond. Dubbed ‘African Movie Review’, the show is about everything that involves movies including behind the scenes, movie premieres, red carpet events, celebrity news, latest movies on the market, and movie countdown.   There are also segment for box office news, viewers’ best movies, and a lot more. There are 16 segments in all. ‘Things We Do For Love’ director, Ivan Quashigah’s Farm House Productions in Osu is behind the show.   The beautiful actress is the host who brings a fresh outlook to TV presentation. Currently, she is one of Ghana’s fastest rising actresses. NEWS-ONE is wor...

Local Twi actors are leaving no stone unturned to win awards at this year’s Zulu African Film Academy Awards (ZAFAA) which is scheduled to take place on October, 21 in London. The award ceremony, which is aimed at honouring talents in the African movie industry and also create a platform for African movies on international stage, will come off at the Troxy Hall 490 Commercial Road, London. There are high hopes that Ghana will cause a stir at the ceremony as a number of the country’s filmmakers have been nominated. They included popular actor Agya Koo, who was nominated for Best Actor Indigenous Language category for his role in ‘Ama Ghana’. While top actress Vivian Jill Lawrence was also nominated for Best Actress Indigenous for her role in ‘Ama Ghana’, director of the same movie, Frank Gharben, also picked nominations for Best Director Indigenous language movies. The movie, ‘Ama Ghana’ itself has been nominated for Best Cultural Movie and Best Cinematography categories while prod...

Jimmy Jean Louis Though some Ghanaian movie producers grumble that their movies are unable to enter Nigeria due to unfavorable conditions or barriers, other Ghanaian movie makers seem to have found a solution to this challenge.  Director Shirley Frimpong Manso recently premiered her ‘ Adams Apples’ in Nigeria and BAFTA/LA recognition recipient Leila Djansi’s ‘Sinking Sands’ is now showing in Nigerian theaters from Friday October 14 and would run for weeks. The film, which has been endorsed by the UNIFEM for its theme of violence against women, stars Jimmy Jean-Louis (‘Heroes’, ‘Phat Girls’), Nollywood’s Yemi Blaq, and Ama K Abebrese, with cameo appearances by Chris Attoh. ‘Sinking Sands’ won Ama K Abebrese the 2011 Best Actress award at the African Movie Academy Awards. The film was nominated in 10 categories, with successful screenings held at the Pan African Film Festival, Film Independent, Festival du Cannes among other prestigious festivals and international screens...

Ace radio sex educationist and presenter, Akumaa Mama Zimbi, born Joyce Dongotey-Padi, has started what can be described as a campaign against those who find delight and believe in the idea of having sex before marriage. For several years, the veteran actress has been noted for promoting a good sex lifestyle. But this time, she seems to have shifted her attention to the appropriate time to have good sex; and according to her, that is after marriage.   Mama Zimbi has hence been begging young girls and unmarried individuals to stay away from sex prior to marriage. She implored ladies to close their thighs and be watchful of men who were always   s ready to have sex, pleading with men to flee the temptation of women until marriage.   Mama Zimbi, who has been hosting ‘Odo Ahumasuo’, an adult education sex programme on Adom FM, has taken her cause to social network, Facebook.             She recently posted, “How many guys have toas...

Ghanaian singer Kesse Frimpong was one of the artistes who brought life to the opening night of MTN Project Fame West Africa Season 4 in neighbouring Nigeria.   Kesse performed alongside Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter and actress, Brandy Norwood, popular American R&B singer Joe, and Nigerian multi-talented pop-star D’banj who were the centre of attraction at the opening gala, which took place on Sunday, October 2 at the Eko Hotel, Lagos. Kesse was the 1st runner-up of Project Fame West Africa 2010, winning N1.5m and a Toyota Corolla. He thrilled Project Fame fans with two of his two popular hit songs including ‘Falling For You’. “It was a nice experience being on Project Fame stage again and I was happy to have shared the stage with top artistes as Brandy, Joe and D’banj,” he told NEWS-ONE upon his return last week. A release from organizers of the event said the presence of the trio of Brandy, Joe and D’banj lightened up the atmosphere at the event which marke...

G.P Limited, organizers of Ghana Movie Awards (GMAs), last Wednesday collected the GMAs prize car from actress Roselyn Ngissah and gave it to actress Juliet Ibrahim. The move was in line with the organizers’ commitment to make sure that all four actresses who won the Ghana Movie Award prize car in December made equal use of it without any difficulty. The presentation ceremony was held at TV3 on Wednesday where Roselyn, assisted by Ghana Movie Awards general manager Prince Tsega, presented the car to Juliet Ibrahim. The car was jointly won by Jackie Appiah, Juliet Ibrahim, Yvonne Okoro and Roselyn Ngissah. Roselyn was first to be given the car in August and she used it for over a month-and-half.    After the car was released to her, executive producer of the awards Fred Nuamah, came out to publicly render an unqualified apology to actress Juliet Ibrahim. His reason was that Juliet was the first to request for the car but he refused to present it to her, thinking that ...

Latest information reaching     NEWS-ONE indicates that movie producers from Kumasi who are registered members of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) will soon stage a massive demonstration against the association’s president, Idikoko, and his executive. Our sources said the producers were aggrieved over what they described as an unfair distribution of some GH¢200,000 given to FIPAG from COSGA as monies accrued from copyright levies. Sources told NEWS-ONE that usually, the money was distributed among producers who were registered with FIPAG and that the quantum depended on which producers had released more movies during the year for which the levies were collected. They however complained that the association’s president, Idikoko, who released very few movies for last year, was taking a greater chunk of the money than several producers who had released countless movies for the year under review. They accused Idikoko and the FIPAG leadership of conniving to sit ...

Ghana’s latest export to Nollywood, Eddie Watson, seems to be enjoying filming in Nigeria. Just last week, he told NEWS-ONE that he felt great filming in Nollywood for the first time.   “I can say that my experience in Nollywood has been great so far. It’s been great. The crew and artistes have been very respectful and friendly. They treat you with lots of respect and you forget your were in a working environment with people you don’t know or have never worked with.” This week, Eddie was caught in a compromising pose with one of Nollywood’s finest actresses, Queen Nwokoye, in some photos making the rounds. The snapshots of the two actors are raising eyebrows as they come in different styles. Obviously they were enjoying some kind of good chemistry on set.   Eddie had said earlier that he was on set with not just Queen but others including top actress Ngozi Ezeonu. He is yet to speak about the photos. Eddie is not married and little is known about his love life. He recently...

The much-awaited Hollywood standard West African-set Zombie feature film, ‘The Dead’, written and directed by Ford Brother’s Howard J. Ford and Jon Ford, which featured Ghanaian actor Prince David Osei, is scheduled to hit Africa cinemas soon. Last night, Prince David graced the red carpet in Los Angeles where the movie premiered ahead of a scheduled theatrical rollout in over 20 cities across US, starting from October 7. The New York screening is also planned for October 14 and is expected to be big. Last night’s premiere took place at the AMC City Walk Stadium 19 in Los Angeles. Already, the film has graced UK big screens and will make its way to Africa very soon.   ‘The Dead’, shot in life-threatening regions of Burkina Faso and Ghana, takes audiences on a horrifying road-trip through a zombie-dominated terrain. An American mercenary, the sole survivor of a violent plane crash, maneuvers through the hostile, arid landscape while battling against the newly-risen living dead....

Ghanaian actress Juliet Ibrahim is making plans to launch her Juliet Ibrahim Foundation (JIF) in December to start an awareness campaign about cancer of the kidney. Kidney cancer is a cancer that originates in the kidney and is a very serious illness that is increasing by the day worldwide. Not many Africans are aware of the disease, hence Juliet’s decision to create awareness about it. She told NEWS-ONE on Monday that one of her major reasons for the campaign was that the ailment was caused by simple day-to-day activities that people could avoid. Juliet said her two aunties were living with the disease but because they got to know of it early, they were able to get the necessary treatment.       “The rate at which Ghanaians and West Africans are dying from this incurable disease is increasing by a huge percentage over the months. I have 2 aunties that are now victims of kidney cancer but because theirs were detected early, they are now going through dial...