Global Showbiz Briefs: A+E Names Intl. VP, Singapore Bans Film

A+E Names Sally Habbershaw International VP
Sally Habbershaw has joined A+E Networks as VP international programming, production and operations. Based in New York, Habbershaw will manage teams responsible for those areas and oversee the A+E Networks program catalog. She will also be expected to help boost ratings and launch new channel brands. Habbershaw reports to Christian Murphy, SVP international programming and marketing. Habbershaw joins A+E Networks from AMC Networks where she was VP of acquisitions, scheduling and promotions at Sundance and WE Global. Prior to that she worked for Viacom as director of development for VH1 in the U.S. and as VP general manager for VH1 UK in London.

Singapore Bans ‘Sex.Violence.FamilyValues’
Segments of Sex.Violence.FamilyValues, writer-director Ken Kwek’s compendium of three short films, played at festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh and in London, Korea, Australia and India. But the English-language comedy won’t screen theatrically in Kwek’s native Singapore unless producers succeed in appealing a rare ban by the Media Development Authority. The MDA deemed the segment Porn Masala, in which a Chinese porn director played by Adrian Pang rants against an Indian actor, contains “overt racial references which are demeaning and offensive to Indians.” Kwek tells Deadline it’s the first time the MDA has banned a Singaporean film, and the last film rejected was Zoolander in 2001, in which Ben Stiller’s fashion model is brainwashed to kill Malaysia’s prime minister. Kwek and the producers are appearing before the Films Appeal Committee on December 6. Kwek says producers are negotiating a deal to release the film online in the U.S, Europe and Australia.

China Lion Brings ‘Back To 1942′ To U.S.
China Lion Film plans to release director Feng Xiaogang’s Back To 1942 the US and Canada on November 30 day-and-date with the pic’s bow in mainland China. Adrien Brody and Tim Robbins appear in Back To 1942 along with Chinese stars Xu Fan, Zhang Guoli, Chen Daoming, Zhang Mo and Zhang Hanyu. Based on Liu Zhengyun’s best-selling novel Remembering 1942, the film chronicles the devastating famine that ravaged Henan province during World War II. The picture will receive a limited release in North American cities including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington DC and Vancouver. It will open will open December 7 in Chicago and Seattle. China Lion investors the Huayi Brothers, Bona Film Group and other partners wil handle the release in China.

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