Uri Geller

[Graylien]

Interesting that the article describes Geller as a "former friend" of Jackson. Has there been a tiff in La-La Land?

 

[Anonymous]

Wasn't it Geller who recommended to Jacko to do the Simon Basheer interview...?

 

[GNC]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5043572.stm

Geller loses out on Elvis house

Celebrity spoon-bender Uri Geller has discovered a house he bought on eBay, formerly owned by Elvis Presley, has been sold to someone else.
The vendors have now sold the property, which Presley lived in before he moved to Graceland, to a foundation set up by music producer Mike Curb.

Geller made a winning bid for the Tennessee house of $905,100 (£481,000) on eBay in May.

"We are absolutely, mind-blown angry. Of course we're going to sue," he said.

It is not known how much Curb paid to the sellers, a married couple, for the four-bedroom home which Presley bought in 1956 with royalties from Heartbreak Hotel.

The rules of auction website eBay may make it difficult for Geller and his two business partners, lawyer Pete Gleason and jewellery-maker Lisbeth Silvandersson, to pursue a breach of contract claim.

"The platform we provide in real estate really serves to generate interest," said eBay spokeswoman Catherine England.

"It isn't a legally binding contract," she added.

Geller had been planning to turn the house into a museum for the public.

After the eBay auction last month, Geller said he was delighted.

"We are unbelievably pleased. This is a piece of history," he said at the time.

Geller met Presley in Las Vegas in the 1970s when the rock 'n' roll star asked him to perform his spoon-bending trick.

Presley lived in the home with his parents and grandmother but only stayed for a year because his career began to take off and police were frequently called to handle the crowds of fans outside.

In the short time that Presley lived there, he had a granite swimming pool installed in the garden, which at 15 metres (50 feet) in length was the largest residential pool in the city at the time.

He also added a den and housed his motorcycles in a separate building. The hall contains original wallpaper adorned with musical notes, which was uncovered during renovations.

A Life magazine article published five months after Presley bought the house contained pictures of teenage girls sitting with their ears pressed to his bedroom wall.

They were also picking through the grass in his garden for souvenirs.

In March 1957, Presley moved to Graceland, the home with which he would become synonymous.

So much for psychic powers. Didn't he see this coming? Or did someone see Uri coming?

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

Didn't see this from earlier

Geller 'ends Jackson friendship'
Celebrity spoon bender Uri Geller has ended his friendship with Michael Jackson over anti-Semitic comments he allegedly made in 2003.
Geller told BBC Radio London's breakfast show that, if the story was true: "I don't want to hear from Michael Jackson ever again."

"I'm Jewish, I was born in Israel, and I will never forgive him," he said.

Jackson has made no comment about the remarks, aired for the first time last year, during a legal case against him.

The comments, in which Jackson reportedly referred to Jews as "leeches", were aired by US TV Good Morning America in November, which said they were on an answerphone message.

'A good friend'

They were denounced by Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, which called for an apology.

Geller had Jackson as his best man when he renewed his wedding vows in 2001 saying: "I chose Michael because he is a good friend and I wanted him to experience a Jewish wedding".

He often spoke up for Jackson in public and invited him to Exeter City Football Club, where Geller was co-chairman.

The mystic also helped set up the Martin Bashir documentary Living with Children - in which he admitted to sharing a bed with a child. Jackson later said he had been "utterly betrayed" by Mr Bashir.

Geller told BBC London he also felt betrayed by the journalist, and believed Jackson, who was last year cleared of molesting a young boy, to be entirely innocent.

But asked what their relationship was like with singer now, Geller said he would not forgive him, if he had made anti-Semitic comments.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 627502.stm

Published: 2006/01/19 12:17:27 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4627502.stm

-

 

[Anonymous]

pahhh

i'm the minority

 

[Graylien]

I think Uri may just have created the ultimate piece of contemporary art:

Psychic Uri Geller has created a new work of art using the remains of a controversial modern art collection destroyed by fire.

Mr Geller commissioned the piece, called Burn Baby Burn, after hearing about the fire at the Momart storage warehouse in Leyton, East London.

More than 100 artworks from Charles Saatchi’s famous collection were destroyed, including pieces by Brit-artists Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst.

Mr Geller commissioned 23-year-old artist Stuart Semple to create the work, which is being stored at his Sonning home.

It is made up of Perspex boxes containing the charred remains from the blaze – including a scrap of material from Tracey Emin’s famous tent in which she stitched the names of all the people she had ever slept with.

Mr Geller hopes to eventually donate the work to London’s Tate gallery.

...“The idea came out of a throwaway joke. Someone said we should take the ashes from the place and I thought it was interesting.”

Mr Geller said he drove to the warehouse with a shovel and a bag and asked the security guard if he could take some of the remains.

He then telephoned Mr Semple and asked him to come to his house to create something from the pieces he had salvaged.

...Speaking about the reaction of some critics, who have described the new artwork as a miserable attempt to cash in on a disaster, Mr Geller said: “How can a critic criticise if they haven’t seen the work?"

“We haven’t heard from the Tate yet. We hope it will go into a museum not a private collection because it is important that the public can view it."

source

 

[tastyintestines]

pahhh

i'm the minority

Spam

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

pahhh

i'm the minority

Spam

Eh? kyrus seems to be just making the point about his opinion in relation to the Poll results - how does that constitute spam?

-

-

 

[tastyintestines]

pahhh

i'm the minority

Spam

Eh? kyrus seems to be just making the point about his opinion in relation to the Poll results - how does that constitute spam?

-

-

I thought he was responding to your post about one member of a minority bashing a minority. Therefore his genetalia made him "the minority."

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Or they might have voted that they thought Geller was genuine and found they were in the minority?

If you think someone is spamming the forum then drop one of us a line rather than posting on thread and we'll investigate.

Or just ask them to clarify their point.

 

[Graylien]

I don't know what the provenance for this footage is, but it's unmistakeably Uri. Watch - don't listen.

Uri Vs Spoon

 

[GNC]

I think even I could manage to bend a spoon with both hands.

 

[GNC]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5272448.stm

Uri Geller sues over Elvis house

TV celebrity Uri Geller is suing the former owners of Elvis Presley's first home, claiming breach of contract.

Geller thought he had won the Tennessee house after he bid $905,100 (£477,670) for the house on auction website eBay.

But US vendors Cindy Hazen and Mike Freeman sold the property to Nashville record producer Mike Curb.

"We had the highest bid, but the seller has turned round and given the house to someone who offered them more money," Geller told the BBC News website.

"There was a strongly-worded statement on the [eBay] website that said the highest bid would win the house," said Geller.

Museum plans

The legal action, filed at the Federal Court in Memphis, seeks a jury trial to annul the sale to Mr Curb, reported to be worth $1m (£540,000).

But Ms Hazen told Memphis newspaper The Commercial Appeal that the contract with Geller was never finalised.

"At the end of two weeks, we still did not have an agreement on possession or a closing date," she said.

"If we had signed the contract, they could have taken possession immediately," said Mr Freeman. "We couldn't do that."

However, Geller maintains their argument will not stand up in court.

"This will all unfold in court," said Geller.

"What the sellers are saying now is words. What counts is what they will say in court under oath."

Geller and his business partners had been planning to turn the house into a museum for the public.

Rock legend Presley bought the house with royalties from early hit Heartbreak Hotel, and lived in the house for 13 months - mostly in 1956 - with his parents and grandmother.

As his career took off, Elvis moved to Graceland, the residence with which he remains most closely associated.

It might have been better to turn it into a restaurant considering the umpteen calories thread.

 

[MrRING]

I was just looking over the Uri files over on Wikipedia when I discovered this bit that I hadn't heard of:

He was paid to investigate the kidnapping of Hungarian model Helga Farkas, and although he predicted she would be found alive and in good health, she was murdered by her kidnappers.[4].

The only two places I can find this listed is on the Wikipedia article and the Randi org article it heavily "borrows" from. I'm assuming it's not made up, so does anybody have further information about this case & Uri's involvement?

 

[GNC]

Talking of Geller obscurities, I noticed Uri on The Story of Light Entertainment on BBC2 last Saturday and someone had obviously asked about his supposed alien contact in the 70s, because he said people bring up the subject to embarrass him. In response, supposed he might have been right and dared his critics to prove we were not all star children. This on a documentary about magic and ventriloquist acts.

 

[Graylien]

He does tend to go off at a tangent. I once saw him appear as a special guest on some dreadful reality TV programme set in a beauty parlor, or hairdressers, or something like that, and he started ranting about how he hangs upside-down in a hammock for 15 minutes every day because a Tibetian monk once told him that doing so would increase his brain power.

 

[James_H]

URI GELLER SINGLEHANDEDLY SOLVES PALESTINE/ISRAEL CONFLICT.
Well, not quite, but he's getting as much credit as he can out of it.

 

[gallicrow]

I was just looking over the Uri files over on Wikipedia when I discovered this bit that I hadn't heard of:

He was paid to investigate the kidnapping of Hungarian model Helga Farkas, and although he predicted she would be found alive and in good health, she was murdered by her kidnappers.[4].

The only two places I can find this listed is on the Wikipedia article and the Randi org article it heavily "borrows" from. I'm assuming it's not made up, so does anybody have further information about this case & Uri's involvement?

The only other reference to this I could find after half an hour's search was this posting on a newsgroup, which seems to be from a Hungarian:

From: Daneel - view profile
Date: Sun, Apr 14 2002 10:16 am
Email: "Daneel" <[email protected]>
Groups: alt.atheism

Lord Calvert wrote:
> J Peasemold-Gruntfuttock wrote:
> >To my American friends - we'll have Ozzy Osbourne and Rod Stewart
> >back if you'll take back Uri Geller.

> Why should we take him back? Uri Geller was born in Tel Aviv and is an Israeli
> national. Israel can have him.

I don't know on what level, but he is also a descendant of
Hungarian Jews and speaks Hungarian, so maybe he can
come here...

(Years ago, he made a spectacular appearance: there was
a mysterious kidnapping of a rich fathers' daughter 13 years
ago, famous here like the Kennedy murder over there;
about six years ago, Uri Geller came and announced on TV
he is going to find her with his psychic powers... [Since
then, a man was sentenced for murdering her with a since
also murdered companion, but the corpse was never
found.])

 

[theredmeanie]

My friend told me about a run in she had with Geller, about a year ago.
She was working for a bespoke stationery designer, and G. came in wanting some business cards and letterheads or something and he managed to talk the job price down by 75%.
My friend said she was completely mystified while she was agreeing to the price and she's not sure how it happened. The company was pretty well-used by low-grade celebs, so it's not as if she was star struck or anything.

To me it sounds like he was using a ragbag of suggestive and disorienting techniques and other cognitive witchery and being a pennypinching git rather than helping humanity. Fucker. Psychic?


NO.

 

[GNC]

Did anyone hear Uri on Radio 2 this afternoon? Apart from recommending James Herbert's latest tome, it seems his newest obsession is dowsing and you can buy his dowsing kit just in time for Christmas. Or Hanukkah, I suppose.

 

[Anonymous]

Uri Geller accused of TV trickery

A hit Israeli TV show starring celebrity spoon-bender Uri Geller has come under fire from magicians for being full of "tricks and stunts".
The self-proclaimed paranormalist is looking for others with his "powers" on Uri Geller Looks for a Successor.

But Israeli magician Eliron Toby said the show "damaged" those who wanted to believe in Geller and Dandi Asraf said there were "no supernatural powers".

Israeli-born Geller said the programme did not involve sleight of hand.

The participants did have supernatural powers capable of performing marvels, he told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

'Mysterious' powers

"I am not a magician and have never been one," Geller said. "I keep my powers mysterious."

Asraf said the prime-time show was "entertaining".

"But obviously everything is tricks and stunts. There are no supernatural powers. There is no magic - it does not exist in this world."

Toby said he was sad "that such a man has for so many years been able to fool so many people.

"He contradicts the saying that you can't fool all of the people all the time.

"The Successor has damaged those people who want to believe that Geller can heal or help them."

'Just entertainment'

The Israeli Society for Magicians is expected to meet to discuss the show.

The society's president Dalia Peled said: "The society hopes and believes the public understands that this is an entertainment programme and that the acts performed in the show are not done so with the help of supernatural powers."

Geller said the controversy had only served to boost his show.

"The cynics and magicians who have come out against me have done a great job worth millions," he said.

"It has made Uri Geller more mysterious and has created a mystical aura around me."

Source

 

[GNC]

Isn't this stating the bleedin' obvious?

 

[escargot]

Uri Geller bend spoons over his knee?


Never.

 

[Anonymous]

Isn't this stating the bleedin' obvious?

He's very litigious.

 

[GNC]

Isn't this stating the bleedin' obvious?

He's very litigious.

That's what I said, of course he has superpowers!

 

[Anonymous]

Lol!

 

[dr_wu]

Please.....it's obvious that the Israeli Society For Magicians are jealous of Uri. Get a life magicians.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Thought it worth merging this here.

And a longer report with a rather misleading healine:

Uri Geller TV show spooks Israeli magicians


Ron Bousso
AFP
January 22, 2007

TEL AVIV -- A war between magicians is raging in Israel, pitting Uri Geller and his aura of supernatural powers against those who see in him nothing but an unending lust for fame.

Geller, the world-famous Israeli spoon-bender, decided last year to do a television program in Israel in order to name an heir.

"Uri Geller Looks for a Successor" was an instant hit - with viewer ratings of nearly 40 percent. More than 1 million people tune in to see conjurers compete by performing stunts ranging from stopping watches to reading minds.

In an interview, Geller insisted that the prime-time show does not involve sleight of hand - and that the participants do actually have supernatural powers capable of performing marvels.

"I am not a magician and have never been one," Geller said in his Tel Aviv hotel suite. He once claimed that he could see in his mind a drawing scribbled by a passenger aboard an airborne jet. "I keep my powers mysterious. When I was young I used to say I had supernatural powers. Today I tell people 'you make up your mind. I won't deny or confirm anything.'"

The thin, 60-year-old millionaire, who lives in a mansion outside London, said that his TV show is a source of both enjoyment and distraction from hard reality for Israelis.

"The success of the show is due to the tense atmosphere in the country and the war in Lebanon," he said. "People want entertainment but also hope."

When a successor is selected at the end of January, Geller says that he wants to turn him "into a new ambassador of goodwill on Israel's behalf, just like what I have been doing for years."

But not long after the show first aired, dozens of magicians in Israel and abroad cried foul.

Dandi Asraf, a veteran Israeli magician, said that he sees through the "Successor" TV show.

"It's entertaining. But obviously everything is tricks and stunts. There are no supernatural powers. There is no magic - it does not exist in this world."

Another magician, Eliron Toby, said that he was sad "that such a man has for so many years been able to fool so many people. He contradicts the saying that you can't fool all of the people all the time."

"The Successor has damaged those people who want to believe that Geller can heal or help them," Toby added.

Now the Israeli Society for Magicians will assemble next week to decide what to do.

Born to a poor family in Tel Aviv, Geller says that he realized while very young that he had special powers.

But his global fame came not just because he bent thousands of spoons or stopped London's Big Ben clock by the power of thought. Geller has also made millions through paranormal performances of telekinesis and dowsing - the ability to locate gold and oil using special powers.

He says that he has helped the CIA and Israel's Mossad spy agencies with secret missions and also aided police in the United States to track down serial killers.

James Randi, an American and an international authority on debunking alleged paranormal powers, has blasted the Israeli magicians' society for not yet coming out against Geller.

"Uri Geller insists on saying that he has supernatural powers, and now he is manipulating the Israeli public," he wrote last week in a letter to Dalia Peled, president of the society. "It is difficult for me to believe that the president of the society of magicians believes in all of Geller's spoon-bending and compass-moving. If she believes that, she should be referred to children's magic books.

"But if she understands that at issue is sleight of hand, I find her behavior to be unethical and damaging to the magic profession."

Peled responded that "the society hopes and believes the public understands that this is an entertainment program and that the acts performed in the show are not done so with the help of supernatural powers."

Controversy has often surrounded Geller. In 1973 he failed to bend spoons on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show" in the United States, claiming that his powers had been weakened.

Scientists are split over whether Geller does possess special powers. He underwent two major tests at Stanford University in 1973 and later at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science. The results were inconclusive, and skeptics claimed that the methodology was flawed.

Geller coolly insists that the controversy surrounding both himself and his TV show is a blessing.

"There is no such thing as bad PR in the world. Anyone who can create controversy around him is great. The cynics and magicians who have come out against me have done a great job worth millions," he said.

"It has made Uri Geller more mysterious and has created a mystical aura around me."

His successor is expected to be revealed in a couple of weeks.

http://metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryI ... 2546-2298r

I'm glad to see Randi got involved - Uri would feel eft out if he hadn't

 

[Cyclops]

I used to believe he was genuine, long ago when I was young and impressionable. Now I think he's an llusionist - and a fairly average one, at that.

I also think he's a dirty old man - watching him pawing his younger female companions at every opportunity that arose (and some he created) on "I'm A Celebrity" a few years ago successfully erased any lingering admiration I may have had for him.

*shudder*

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

He is being very naughty:

The latest person to discover how easy it is to abuse U.S. copyright law appears to be Uri Geller, the self-proclaimed "psychic" who has been fooling people about his supernatural powers for decades now. Geller has been exposed as a ridiculous fake time and time again, but he is trying hard to scrub the internet of all that embarrassing evidence so that his current business venture can trick more new suckers.

And United States copyright law is practically eager to aid this huckster in his quest to suppress criticism and victimize the ignorant. Using the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, Geller has managed to get YouTube to delete several videos that show Geller's deceptions being exposed.

www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/ ... 02574.html

I wonder if this might backfire as he is playing fast and loose with the law.