Kermit, Muppets stamp set unveiled
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Most frogs settle for lily pads. Kermit the Frog has hopped onto a U.S. postage stamp.
The green leader of the beloved Muppets troupe was on hand Wednesday for a first-day issue ceremony featuring 11 postage stamps honouring the Muppets and their late creator, Jim Henson, at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in suburban North Hollywood.
"On behalf of the Muppets, it is a great honour to be featured on our own set of stamps," Kermit said through a human intermediary.
Henson, Kermit, Miss Piggy, the Swedish Chef and Dr. Bunson Honeydew and his assistant Beaker are among the puppets honoured in the Postal Service set. The 37-cent stamps will be released Thursday.
Kermit and his friends aren't the first puppets to make it onto postage stamps. Charlie McCarthy managed the feat in 1991, along with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.
It's been 50 years since Kermit the Frog's television debut on Henson's 1955 show Sam and Friends. Birthday events include a 15-month, 50-stop world tour that begins next month and includes a run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
CBC TABLED A SETTLEMENT OFFER WITH SIGNIFICANT COMPROMISES IN EFFORT TO END LABOUR DISRUPTION
On Wednesday, CBC tabled a settlement offer on the outstanding issues to the CMG. It contains significant compromise on the key issues in an effort to end the current labour disruption and conclude a collective agreement.
We understand the impact that the current labour dispute has had on our audiences, our staff, our managers and our partners across the country. We want to get our services back on-air and online immediately.
To that end, we believe our offer is a significant compromise and addresses the concerns voiced by the CMG and our employees over the course of these negotiations. Our offer includes considerable movement on the key issues Contract Employees and Workforce Adjustment. It also includes further standardization of hours of work and improved overtime provisions for some employees, continuation of the long service gratuity for current permanent employees, implementation of Job Evaluation and a generous monetary package for employees in addition to numerous positive developments that have been negotiated.
We have been bargaining now for 16 months. Its time to resolve our differences at the bargaining table so we can get back to doing the work we do best - creating outstanding public broadcasting for Canadians.
Here are the highlights of the CBC's proposal:
SEPTEMBER 28 SETTLEMENT OFFER HIGHLIGHTS
Wages - Increases for employees will include:
Upon Ratification - 3.0% increase
Upon Ratification - A pensionable lump-sum payment equivalent to 3.5 percent of base earnings for all time worked between April 1, 2004 and date of ratification
January 9, 2006 - Implementation of new job evaluation pay scales and job evaluation retroactivity
April 1, 2006 - 2.0 percent general wage increase
April 1, 2007 - 2.5 percent general wage increase
April 1, 2008 - 2.5 percent general wage increase
Restriction of Total Number of Contract Employees
CBC has offered to restrict the total number of contract positions to a maximum of 90 additional contract positions per year. Our commitment that no current permanent employee will be required to revert to or accept contract status as a result of this proposal continues.
Full Pension Eligibility for Contract Employees
Full pension (after two years of service) for contract employees on par with permanent full time employees and the ability for existing contract employees to retroactively buy back eligible service if they opt to join the pension plan. For contract employees who choose not to join the pension plan, they will continue to receive payment in lieu so they can plan for their own retirement.
Full Severance Benefits and Greater Notice Period for Contract Employees
Employees on contract for a year or greater will receive severance benefits equal to current permanent employees and improved notification of renewal/non-renewal of their contract.
Same Benefits as Permanent Staff for Contract Employees and Temporary Employees
Contract and temporary employees will receive the same benefits as permanent full time employees.
Cross-Component Bumping in Some Situations
As in our previous offers, we reiterated that employees must possess the demonstrated occupational qualifications to do a job before they re-deploy into that position. However, the Corporation has agreed to allow cross component bumping (i.e between radio and television) when an employee has worked at least 6 of the last 12 months in an equivalent position in the other component. This is a significant improvement for employees in the current Unit 1 bargaining unit who cannot move between components today.
Other improvements for employees in the Corporations offers
More Standardized Hours of Work and Improved Overtime Provisions
The Corporation has proposed that the regular work week for all employees currently in the Unit 1 and Unit 2 bargaining units will be 38 Ύ hours per week (exluding self-assigned employees). In addition, overtime will now be paid after 7.75 hours for daily assigned employees and 38.75 hours for weekly assigned employees, which represents an improvement for many employees. Employees in the current Unit 3 bargaining unit will continue to work their 36.25 hour workweek.
Long-Service Gratuity
The Corporation has proposed that all current permanent employees who enjoy the benefit of the long-service gratuity will continue to do so under the same terms and conditions as they do today.
Over Seventeen Million Dollars In Job Evaluation Payments
After a considerable amount of time spent working in collaboration with the union formulating a job evaluation plan, defining and rating jobs to ensure "equal pay for work of equal value", CBC has committed to increase its CMG payroll by $2.4 million and to provide a total of $15 million in retroactive payments to employees in the bargaining unit upon implementation of Job Evaluation on January 9, 2006. Additionally, employees red-circled as a result of Job Evaluation will have their salary protected and will be entitled to a lump sum payment equal to the full amount of a general wage increase.
The payments for job evaluation retroactivity will be paid as follows:
All current employees in the bargaining unit will receive a lump sum payment in recognition of the rationalization of pay scales. A total of $4.5 million will be paid to these employees.
In addition, employees in the bargaining unit whose jobs have increased in value as a result of Job Evaluation will receive an additional lump sum payment.
A total of $10 million will be paid to these employees.
A total of $500,000 will be paid to bargaining unit employees who have retired since the commencement of Job Evaluation.
A commitment that CBCs current permanent employees will continue to be permanent and will continue to have a wide range of career opportunities.
Rather than just communicate this to you, we will also include this as our commitment in collective agreement language.
Numerous work-life balance initiatives such as leaves of absence and alternative work arrangements, and deferred salary leave.
Other positive developments for CBC employees:
- including deferred salary leave,
- alternate work arrangements,
- a simplified dispute resolution and grievance process,
- a process to ensure Respect in the Workplace, streamlined probation arrangements and job evaluation implementation.
Fiona Apple's 'Machine' needed a push to get going
NEW YORK Fiona Apple is curled up on a couch, fighting back tears. But it's not what you think.
When the diminutive, doe-eyed singer/songwriter rose to fame as a teenager in the late '90s, many perceived her as angry, troubled or at least colorfully neurotic. Her precocious lyrics reveled in baiting and scorning lovers, while in interviews, she regaled reporters with accounts of having been raped as a girl.
Apple, now 28, clearly hasn't lost her flair for drama. But these days, she is more likely to attract it than be consumed by it.
Consider the story behind Extraordinary Machine, Apple's first new CD in six years. Recording sessions began in 2002, with Apple and longtime producer Jon Brion working on and off. Apple says both she and her label were less than thrilled with the results.
"Sony didn't think there was a hit," says the singer, who is signed to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music. "And I wanted to redo some songs."
Producer Mike Elizondo (Eminem, 50 Cent) came on board, and Apple says the label suggested "that I could maybe hand in one song at a time. But I thought that was an incredibly bad idea, because it implied that if they didn't like what I handed in, they could try to change it. Or they could say, 'You can't have any more money, and we're shelving it.' "
(Epic spokeswoman Lois Najarian says: "Things were definitely miscommunicated during the time when Fiona was switching producers, and unfortunately she was led to believe that the label was only allowing her to record one new version at a time. That was surely not the case.")
Recalls Apple: "At that point I said, 'I quit.' " But an anonymous admirer had other ideas. While on her new computer one day, Apple discovered that some of her early, Brion-produced tracks had been leaked online. "It was the weirdest feeling, like somebody had taken my diary and printed it."
The singer soon learned that fans had started a "Free Fiona" movement and sent letters, apples and drawings of apples to Sony's offices. "I remember thinking it was ridiculous and funny. Here I was, jobless, sitting around in my bathrobe watching TV. But then I started crying, because I thought, 'Oh, my God, these people care so much.' I feel so moved by that."
Apple's gift to the faithful, the finished version of Machine, arrives Tuesday, and the album including the biting single Parting Gift
confirms that she hasn't lost her flair for confessional candor. "I started writing songs and continue to write because it's how I deal with my life. I don't make up stories."
She prefers not to discuss in specific terms how ex-boyfriends such as filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson influenced her lyrics. "I've been in other relationships since Paul. He's been a big part of my life, and he's a very good friend now. But the songs are informed by all my relationships. There are certain lines that are directly about one person or situation, so directly that I'm sure those people recognize it. And that may be why I do this, to get my point across though not in a mean way."
The singer won't say whether anyone special is keeping her company these days, other than her dog, Janet, a pit bull mix she took in "because no one claimed her or wanted her." She has resolved to forge ahead with her career for the time being.
"For a while I was looking forward to having to get another job," Apple says. "I had this fantasy about applying to this place in upstate New York, Green Chimneys. They do occupational therapy with kids, using farm animals. I thought that was something I could be passionate about. But music just kept on coming back."
BOND? JAMES BOND?
Per Daily Variety, final screen tests for the new James Bond taking place this week. Some of the names rumored to be in the running include Goran Visnjic and Daniel Craig.
Beastie Boys turn 24 with 'Solid Gold Hits' set
NEW YORK (Billboard) - On the occasion of the Beastie Boys' 24th birthday, Capitol will on November 8 release "Solid Gold Hits," a 15-track compilation that will also be available as a limited-edition CD/DVD featuring as-yet-unspecified music videos.
The Beasties were previously anthologized on the 1999 double-disc set "The Sounds of Science," which included all but five tracks here. "Triple Trouble," "Ch-Check It Out" and "An Open Letter to NYC" are drawn from last year's album "To the 5 Boroughs," while Fatboy Slim has remixed "Body Movin."'
The lone oldie left off "Science" that has been revived for "Solid Gold Hits" is "No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn" from 1986's breakthrough album "License To Ill."
Due to the fact that the Beasties have been off the radar since completing the tour in support of "To the 5 Boroughs" and that no new or rare material is featured on "Solid Gold Hits," there is renewed fan debate over the trio's future.
Here is the track list for "Solid Gold Hits":
"So What'cha Want"
"Brass Monkey"
"Ch-Check It Out"
"No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn"
"Hey Ladies"
"Pass the Mic"
"An Open Letter to NYC"
"Root Down"
"Shake Your Rump"
"Intergalactic"
"Sure Shot"
"Body Movin"' (Fatboy Slim remix)
"Triple Trouble"
"Sabotage"
"Fight for Your Right"
Flight attendants outraged over Jodie Foster film
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Labor unions representing most of the nation's 90,000 flight attendants have urged their members to boycott a new Jodie Foster film that portrays a flight attendant and a U.S. air marshal as terrorists.
They said that casting cabin crew members as villains in the movie "Flightplan" was irresponsible in light of heightened security concerns since the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which suicide hijackers used airliners as guided missiles.
The Walt Disney Co. film, which was the No. 1 release at the North American box office last weekend, stars Foster as an airline passenger who awakens from an in-flight nap to find her young daughter missing. It turns out that one of the flight attendants aboard is involved in a terrorist plot hatched by the plane's air marshal.
A union statement issued on Tuesday also complained that other flight attendants in the film are shown as being "rude, unhelpful and uncaring."
"This depiction of flight attendants is an outrage," said Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) International President Patricia Friend. "Flight attendants continue to be the first line of defense on an aircraft and put their lives on the line day after day for the safety of passengers."
An AFA spokeswoman in Washington said the unions worry that moviegoers will take away impressions that will make it more difficult for flight attendants to "earn the trust and respect of passengers."
"It's just so irresponsible," the spokeswoman, Corey Caldwell, told Reuters on Wednesday.
She said the portrayal of airline cabin crew members as evil-doers adds further insult to long-standing Hollywood stereotypes that have depicted flight attendants as sexualized bubble heads or as harsh, humorless disciplinarians.
A Disney spokesman said that in making "Flightplan," which grossed nearly $25 million last weekend, "there was absolutely no intention on the part of the studio or filmmakers to create anything but a great action thriller."
"We are confident the public will be able to discern the difference between fiction and the incredible job real-life flight attendants do on a daily basis," the spokesman said.
The AFA called for the boycott along with two sister unions -- the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and the Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represent cabin crew members from American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, respectively. The three unions together represent 80,000 of the 90,000 flight attendants who work for U.S. carriers.
Film with word "Muslim" in title stirs controversy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian Albert Brooks says a very unfunny thing happened on his way to making a new film called "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" -- the studio panicked over the title.
Brooks says the studio -- Sony -- got so worried the comedy's title, with its use of the word Muslim, might bring reprisals that it decided not to release the picture. That forced the comedian to find a new distributor for a movie that pokes fun at American ignorance of the Muslim world.
"Fear is playing a major part in Hollywood production," Brooks said in an interview, adding he started getting bad vibes when the studio "jokingly" asked him if the movie could be called "Looking for Comedy."
He said the suggestion came after Newsweek triggered a storm in May by publishing a short item that a Koran was flushed down a toilet by guards at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The magazine later retracted the article, saying it could not substantiate the report.
Sony said doubts about the title were only part of much larger problems. Sources close to the company said executives did not find the movie funny and passed on it.
Sony, which is owned by Sony Corp., said in a statement, "To those looking for truth in this manufactured controversy, here it is: We made our decision to pass on Brooks' movie the same way we did to accept 'Fahrenheit 9/ll' -- on the merits, with neither fear nor favor."
Brooks is an old hand at making sweetly satiric comedies like "The Muse," "Modern Romance" and "Lost in America" that poke fun at himself, his anxieties and the narcissistic show-business world he inhabits.
In "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World," he plays a comedian sent by the State Department to India and Pakistan with a couple of minders to find out what makes Muslims laugh, so everyone can get along better in the post-9/11 world.
He says he got the idea before U.S. President George W. Bush appointed close adviser Karen Hughes to be undersecretary of state for public diplomacy charged with countering the negative U.S. image among Muslims.
Brooks says most of the jokes in the movie are aimed at Americans and there are no religious references at all, even though he was allowed to film in a mosque in India.
"I steered clear of religion in this movie. There's no mention of the Koran -- the whole point of the movie is looking for comedy, not looking for God. I was allowed to film in the biggest mosque in India and when I told the imam the plot of the movie he started to laugh."
Brooks added studio executives at Sony were not as supportive as the imam. "One told me that if a mullah in Iran saw a poster for the movie and took it the wrong way, I could be in deep trouble. I told him that I have trouble getting posters put up for my movies in Sherman Oaks," a Los Angeles suburb.
The film will now be distributed by Warner Independent, the art-house unit of Warner Brothers, with a January release date. It says it likes the title because it tells the story of the film and is funny.
Kevin Smith re-edits 'Mallrats' for DVD
For better or worse, Kevin Smith lets it all hang out. That's why he just restored the worst version of his biggest failure for the 10th Anniversary Extended Edition of Mallrats.
"It's not very good," the 35-year-old New Jersey filmmaker told The Toronto Sun with a mischievous chuckle in a telephone interview from his home in Red Bank.
The newly re-edited version of Mallrats restores the long, rambling prologue to the movie that was in his shooting script, Smith says. It also extends the overall running time by 37 minutes and turns the comedy into a shambling (if occasionally brilliant and funny) mess. For example, it now takes about half an hour for Jason Lee, as the lovable slacker, to drag his butt to the mall.
"If people didn't like this movie, this DVD is not going to make them like it any more," Smith says. "It'll make them go: 'See, we were right!'"
So why the paradoxical delight in presenting this version of his second movie, the controversial link between the hits Clerks and Chasing Amy?
First of all, Smith says, fans can, on the same DVD, opt for the original, 95-minute theatrical release, the one that became a cult favourite. Every possible extra has now been jammed in. This is it for Mallrats.
"What I've always liked about the collection format," Smith says of the appeal of video, laserdisc and now DVD, "is the idea that you can present all this stuff and nothing is wasted. Because, not for nothing did we spend two or three days shooting all that opening footage. And, even though it doesn't work, I would hate to see it sit on a shelf somewhere in a corner when you could put it out.
"There are movies like the first Spider-man that had a bunch of cut footage that they didn't wind up putting out on the DVD. I found that disappointing because I would like to see what they felt didn't work about that movie.
"I'm just not one of those people who say: 'Let's bury the mistake!' I think I'm more like, 'Let's show everybody how stupid we were!' "
Re-editing Mallrats also turned out to be an invaluable learning tool, as was making the movie in the first place.
"The thing I walked away with on this 10th anniversary DVD was how rankly amateurish we were going into Mallrats. It was weird being in the middle of that footage. Both Mosier (producer Scott Mosier) and I were just like: 'My God, we were terrible!'
"And it was especially nice to do it in advance of shooting the next movie. We're doing Clerks 2 next."
Smith & company matured as a filmmaking team, Smith says. "Clerks is a first movie. The movie is what it is because of its budget and us being nascent filmakers. Mallrats really was a film school to a large degree, the film school I dropped out of (in Vancouver). It was where I learned, oh, we need coverage (alternate angles and closeups in scenes); and we need to be a lot more visually interesting; and it's not about turning on a camera and letting things happen in front of it.
"Unfortunately, it cost them $6 million to teach me all that, which I could have done a lot cheaper by going to NYU (New York University) film school. But it would have taken me far more time. So, yeah, it was kind of invaluable. I used to pick on Mallrats as the $6-million casting call for Chasing Amy. But it was much, much more. It was us kind of learning what never to do again."
Too many movie stars made him do Clerks 2
Kevin Smith is doing Clerks 2 to get away from famous movie stars, including his pal Ben Affleck, who co-starred in his last movie Jersey Girl. It is also one of the reasons he walked away from a planned big-screen version of The Green Hornet, Smith tells the Sun.
Says Smith: "The cynical take on it is: 'Well, Jersey Girl didn't work so he's going back to the well.' And those people are not exactly wrong. It's just that they're missing the target but hitting the tree.
"Jersey Girl didn't work (it bombed at the box office after the latest twist in the Bennifer fuss hit the headlines) but it's not why I'm going back to Clerks. Coming off Jersey Girl, it's just that I don't want to work with famous people for a while. I don't like having a movie that is kind of at the mercy of the people that you've cast.
"Jersey Girl, I don't think it's the rule but it's not quite the exception. It was tough to watch that movie getting brought down by somebody's relationship, something that I have no (control) over. So Jersey Girl did have an influence on me doing Clerks 2 but it wasn't the obvious."
As for The Green Hormet, it was the famous people problem plus a lack of confidence that he could handle a $70-million production. "Green Hornet was a bit of that, but it was more than this movie is way too big for someone like me. I don't have enough talent to pull that off."
Garner Inadvertently Reveals Baby's Sex
BURBANK, Calif. - Jennifer Garner may have let the cat out of the bag.
The "Alias" star appeared on the "Tonight Show" Tuesday night and refused to answer Jay Leno when he asked if she was having a boy or a girl. But, later in the show, Garner talked about her expanding belly.
"You can just start to feel really pregnant, like you are the hugest person on the face of the planet," she said. "I felt bigger and bigger, like she _".
The audience cheered and Garner laughed as she stopped in mid-sentence.
A sense of humor has served the actress well, especially since her pregnancy has been written into the show. Her character, Sydney Bristow, discovers that she's pregnant with fellow agent Michael Vaughn's baby.
"My stand-in has a bump, and my stunt double has a bump," she revealed. "The other day, I walked in, and my stunt double looked a little different to me." It turned out they increased the size of her bump.
Garner married actor Ben Affleck in June. The baby is the first child for both.
Today in Entertainment History
On Sept. 28, 1958, Dore Records released "To Know Him Is To Love Him" by the Teddy Bears.
In 1968, Janis Joplin's manager announced Joplin would leave Big Brother and the Holding Company in November after fulfilling current obligations. Joplin said she and the band "weren't growing together anymore."
In 1975, 40,000 people got to see Jefferson Starship and Jerry Garcia and Friends perform for free in San Francisco. "Jerry Garcia and Friends" ended up being the Grateful Dead, who had not performed together in more than a year.
In 1988, singer John Denver offered the Soviet Union $10 million dollars to put him on the Soyuz space shuttle.
In 1991, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis died of pneumonia, respiratory failure and a stroke. He was 65.
Also in 1991, Garth Brooks became the first country artist to have an album debut at number one on the album charts, with "Ropin' The Wind."
In 1995, Bobby Brown was caught in gunfire outside a Boston bar. Brown was unhurt, but his brother-in-law-to-be was killed.
Today's birthdays:
Actor William Windom ("Murder, She Wrote") is 82.
Actor Arnold Stang is 81.
Blues singer Koko Taylor is 77.
Actress Brigitte Bardot is 71.
Singer Ben E. King is 67.
Actor Joel Higgins ("Silver Spoons") is 62.
Actor Jeffrey Jones is 59.
Writer-director-actor John Sayles is 55.
Actress Sylvia Kristel ("Emmanuelle," "Private Lessons") is 53.
Actress-comedian Janeane Garofalo is 41.
Country singer Matt King is 39.
Actress Mira Sorvino is 38.
TV personality Moon Zappa is 38.
Singer Sean Levert of Levert is 37.
Actress Naomi Watts is 37.
Country singer Mandy Barnett is 30.
Actress Hilary Duff is 18.
Actress Skye McCole Bartusiak is 13.