Jay Rifkin

Composer Hans Zimmer filed a countersuit Monday against Jay Rifkin, accusing his longtime business partner of embezzlement and fraud. The suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court was in response to Rifkin's claim in December that the Oscar-winning composer was trying to squeeze him out of their company, Media Ventures Entertainment. Zimmer charged in his suit that Rifkin exemplified "the age-old and ...

Composer Hans Zimmer filed a countersuit Monday against Jay Rifkin, accusing his longtime business partner of embezzlement and fraud. The suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court was in response to Rifkin's claim in December that the Oscar-winning composer was trying to squeeze him out of their company, Media Ventures Entertainment. Zimmer charged in his suit that Rifkin exemplified "the age-old and ...

One of show business' longest-running partnerships, composer Hans Zimmer and producer and engineer Jay Rifkin, has called it quits. And it looks like a bitter divorce. Rifkin filed suit Thursday against Zimmer, alleging that the Oscar-winning composer has been trying to squeeze him out of their company, Media Ventures Entertainment.

One of show business' longest-running partnerships, composer Hans Zimmer and producer and engineer Jay Rifkin, has called it quits. And it looks like a bitter divorce. Rifkin filed suit Thursday against Zimmer, alleging that the Oscar-winning composer has been trying to squeeze him out of their company, Media Ventures Entertainment.

Working food service should be mandatory for all citizens, like jury duty or paying taxes. It teaches young people humility and demonstrates humanity at its worst, making most subsequent jobs seem easy by comparison. Staying at such jobs for too long, however, can lead to burnout, lack of self-worth and arrested adolescence.

Record of the Year: "My Heart Will Go On," Celine Dion (Walter Afanasieff and James Horner, producers; Humberto Gatica and David Gleeson, engineers/mixers). * Album of the Year: "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," Lauryn Hill (Hill, producer; Comissioner Gordon, Matt Howe, Storm Jefferson, Ken Johnston, Tony Prendatt, Warren Riker, Chris Theis and Johnny Wyndrx, engineers/mixers). * Song of the Year: "My Heart Will Go On," James Horner and Will Jennings. * Best New Artist: Lauryn Hill.

"Incident at Loch Ness" is an amusing mock documentary that spends considerable energy artfully trying to make you believe it's real as real can be. The movie is transparently a fake, but its counterfeit nature is the heart of its charm.

The merely depressing ultimately gives way to the contrived in Seth Zvi Rosenfeld's "King of the Jungle," which stars co-executive producer John Leguizamo in a showy role as a mentally challenged basketball whiz. Actors are understandably drawn to characters in some way disabled, with all their potential for pathos and heroism--and for winning Academy Awards.

"Ragtime," the musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel about American life in the early 20th century, garnered 13 of Broadway's Tony Award nominations on Monday, two more nods than Disney's stage adaptation of "The Lion King," which inspired new respect from the theatrical community for its producer. The nods intensify the competition between the two corporate giants--Livent, which produced "Ragtime," and Disney--who have recently become major fixtures on Broadway.

For a while, Hans Zimmer's circle of life didn't seemed destined to end up in Hollywood. In 1988, the German-born, British-educated film composer arrived in Los Angeles deep in debt to work on the musical score for what would become director Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning film "Rain Man." Zimmer hoped to wrap up the job in a couple of weeks, then return to his London home, far away from the town that intimidated him with its reputation for eating alive young talent.

In the city where looks count in the worst way, it is now official. We have established who's the fairest show-biz couple of them all: director Julie Taymor's staging of "The Lion King," and the newly fabulous Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, fresh off a $10-million make-over. Taymor's wondrously attractive production--not so much a response to the 1994 animated blockbuster as a clear improvement on it--will likely call the Pantages home well into either a Gore or Bush administration.

With the North American Free Trade Agreement now in place, more U.S. companies will be sending employees to do business in Mexico. Here are some general tips for getting around. For business trips, the most likely destinations are Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. However, NAFTA is expected to bring new business to some of the smaller cities as well, including Villahermosa and Merida in the southeastern section of the country.