Lavigne to rock Olympics
MILAN, Italy (CP) - Avril Lavigne is ready to rock the Turin Olympics.
The Canadian rock star will be the featured performer during an eight-minute Vancouver 2010 segment of the closing ceremonies in the Italian city on Feb. 26. A worldwide television audience of 500 million will be watching along with the live audience of 32,000.
The Canadian segment will include the traditional flag turnover 1,447 days prior to the Vancouver Olympics opening ceremony at B.C. Place Stadium.
Lavigne, a 21-year-old from Napanee, Ont., is a multiple Grammy nominee and Juno Award winner and has sold millions of albums.
Adding another Canadian touch to the closing ceremonies are Julie Hamelin and Jeannot Painchaud, the co-directors of Montreal's Cirque Eloize. They were hired to assist Italian director Daniele Finzi Pasca - Hamelin as first assistant stage director and Painchaud to take charge of the acrobatic elements of the extravaganza.
Acrobats, clowns and high-wire acts will be part of the two-hour closing ceremonies in Turin. A preview was attended by about 200 people in a Milan theatre on Monday.
The circus theme also will include aspects from Italy's winter carnival, a masked celebration based in Venice each February. Actual costumes featured in director Federico Fellini's 1971 film The Clowns will be used. They were made by Academy Award-winning designer Danilo Donati.
Tenor Andrea Bocelli will be among the performers.
The Sparks of Passion bladers, futuristic performers zipping around on roller blades with flames shooting from the back of their helmets, also will appear. The group is to be introduced at the Feb. 10 opening ceremony.
The Vancouver organizing committee is trying to keep details of its eight-minute entertainment segment secret but Burke Taylor, vice-president of culture and ceremonies, says "the show will use the opportunity to begin telling the story of Canada's Games in 2010 by featuring a combination of uniquely Canadian talent and themes that reflect the country from coast to coast."
Thousands of tickets remain available for the evening ceremony.
The Vancouver committee will have 80 observers at the Turin Games, 25 at the subsequent Paralympic Winter Games, and 16 working directly for the Turin organizing committee.
"Our entire team will draw from the Torino experience to refine and enhance our hosting plans, while developing a comprehensive new budget for the next four years," said John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver organizing group.
Vancouver 2010's budget for the transfer of knowledge at the 2006 Games is $1.7 million.
Wal-Mart readies Garth Brooks' 'Lost Sessions'
The second Garth Brooks (music) album to be issued under his exclusive arrangement with Wal-Mart stores is due to hit the mega-retailer's shelves on Feb. 7.
"The Lost Sessions" features 17 songs, 11 of which were unavailable prior to the November release of the box set "Garth Brooks: The Limited Series," Brooks' first Wal-Mart-only album. Also appearing on the new album are five previously unreleased tracks that were recorded earlier in Brooks' career, as well as "Love Will Always Win," a new duet from Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood.
"The Lost Sessions" will retail for $11.88 at all Wal-Mart stores, Sam's Club locations and at Walmart.com.
Meanwhile, MCA Records has announced plans to re-release Yearwood's latest album, last year's "Jasper County," adding "Love Will Always Win" to its previously released dozen tracks. The duet is expected to begin turning up on radio a week earlier, according to MCA.
In August of last year, Brooks entered into a multi-year agreement with Wal-Mart, giving the retailer the exclusive right to market his albums.
Brooks announced in 2000 that he was retiring from touring, and that his 2001 album, "Scarecrow," would be his last. The singer left the door open for a return to the music business after his daughter turns 18, which won't happen until 2015.
Gillian Anderson Wants X-Files Sequel
Gillian Anderson is interested in reprising her role as FBI agent Dana Scully from the long running TV show The X-Files.
According to JSOnline.com the 37-year-old actress is keen on picking up her FBI badge again, now that she's had enough time away from the character she played for nine seasons.
While plans are still simmering for a sequel to 1998's big-screen X-Files movie, it apparently won't be green-lit until ownership rights are cleared up.
"It's become a bit messy," says Anderson. "I think the intention is that we will and we hope to - and that, hopefully, by the time we actually do, whenever that is, people will still give a damn."
NEW CD RELEASES FOR JANUARY 17, 2006
Aqualung Strange and Beautiful (DualDisc same day) (Columbia)
Meredith Bragg and the Terminals The Departures EP (The Kora)
Breaking Laces Lemonade (Meeka Salise)
Bob Brozman Blues Reflex (Ruf)
Sabrina Bryan Byou (DVD same day) (BMG Heritage)
Canvas Solaris Penumbra Diffuse (Sensory)
Crowell, Doles and Quinn Don't Look Down (Suilven)
Toulouse Engelhardt Martian Lust (Lost Grove)
Bθla Fleck and the Flecktones The Hidden Land (DualDisc same day) (Columbia)
Hiromi Spiral (Telarc)
Hooverville Follow That Trail of Dust Back Home (co-produced by Squirrel Nut Zippers' James Mathus; mixed by Chris Stamey) (Back Up and Push)
Candye Kane Diva la Grande (Ruf)
Amy Lavere This World Is Not My Home (New Archer)
Bradley Leighton Back to the Funk (Pacific Coast Jazz)
Listing Ship Time to Dream (True Classical)
Joey Martin Strong Enough to Cry (Giantslayer)
Luis Mario Ochoa and Friends (Cuban Music Productions)
VA Da-Nang (two CDs; w/Thievery Corporation, Bebel Gilberto, Wax Poetic and more) (Quango)
VA The Now Sound of Brazil 2 (w/Bebel Gilberto, Bossacucanova and more) (Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees)
FOX DELIVERS THE COUP DE GRACE TO THE BLUTHS
"Arrested Development" will wrap its third -- and likely last -- season on Fox next month with a two-hour swan song slated to air opposite the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Fox has decided to package four episodes of "Arrested" and air them as a two-hour season finale from 8-10 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, replacing the net's usual lineup of "Malcolm in the Middle," "Bernie Mac" and "Trading Spouses."
Justine Bateman and Judge Reinhold have filmed guest shots for the finale, with the former playing Nellie Bluth, the long-lost sister of Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman).
While Fox's "Idol"-packed winter and spring schedule makes the Friday airdate something less than shocking, scheduling the broadcast opposite the first night of the Olympics sends another strong signal that the net has given up any hope of reviving the show. Late last year, Fox decided to reduce the "Arrested" third-season episode order to 13.
Both ABC and Showtime have offered to pick up "Arrested" from producers 20th Century Fox TV and Imagine Television.
After an initial flurry of talks, conversations have apparently cooled as "Arrested" creator Mitch Hurwitz wraps post-production on the final four episodes of the season.
Byrne To Be Bond Girl?
Australian actress Rose Byrne is poised to become Daniel Craig's first ever James Bond girl.
There has been much speculation about the identity of Vespa Lynd, 007's love interest in Casino Royale, Craig's first movie as the world's most famous secret agent. A number of famous females including Sienna Miller, Rachael Stirling and Natasha Henstridge have been linked with the movie, most recently Mission: Impossible III star Thandie Newton.
But a spokesperson for 26-year-old Byrne insists "it's fairly certain" the brunette will be cast, according to Moviehole.net. Byrne has previously appeared in Troy as Brad Pitt's love interest and Wicker Park.
'Hoodwinked,' 'Glory Road' Top Box Office
LOS ANGELES - The animated fairy tale "Hoodwinked" and the inspirational sports flick "Glory Road" topped a family oriented box office for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, according to estimates released Monday.
"Hoodwinked," an animated update of the Little Red Riding Hood story, debuted with $16.6 million in ticket sales over the four-day weekend while "Glory Road" was a breath behind with $16.5 million.
A new Queen Latifah movie, "Last Holiday," opened in third place with $15.7 million.
The only other new movie to make the top 10 list was the romance "Tristan & Isolde," which opened in eighth place with a gross of $7.9 million.
The Golden Globe-winning "Brokeback Mountain," director Ang Lee's story of two rugged Western family men concealing their homosexual affair, had the highest per-location average of any movie in the top 10, at $10,330 per location. It was ranked No. 9 in ticket sales over the long weekend.
In spite of or perhaps because of the controversy over its gay theme, "Brokeback Mountain" has done well in every market where it has played.
It was nominated for seven Golden Globes and won a leading four at Monday night's ceremony in Beverly Hills. It captured the best motion picture drama award and the Golden Globe for best original song for "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" and Lee was honored as best director. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association also honored Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana with the Golden Globe for best original screenplay.
"This film has everything going for it: the critical acclaim, the word of mouth and, of course, the seven Golden Globe nominations never hurt," Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, said before Monday's awards.
"Hoodwinked" received mixed critical reviews but its opening day was a financial triumph for a movie that was made for a relatively paltry $15 to $20 million. Weinstein Co. hoped to expand its showings this week to as many as 3,000 screens.
The movie was held back to January so it would not have to face the big Christmas-season releases such as "King Kong" or "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," which was fourth for the weekend and has now grossed more than $260 million.
"We're getting mainly families with young children," said Weinstein's Mike Rudnitsky, senior executive vice president for domestic distribution. "We know our target audience. We picked a holiday weekend because people are always looking to take their family out and looking for a family film."
It was the second independently produced movie to make No. 1 in two weeks, after the horror film "Hostel," from Lions Gate.
Another PG-rated film, "Glory Road," was in second place and made some $3 million dollars more in its opening than expected. The movie tells the story of how underdog Texas Western, fronted by an all-black starting lineup, beat the all-white powerhouse University of Kentucky to win the NCAA title in 1966.
Critics praised its inspirational qualities but panned its cliches.
Overall, the top 12 films grossed an estimated $125.4 million, down about 12 percent from last year's $142.7 million.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Monday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Final figures will be released Tuesday.
1. "Hoodwinked," Weinstein Co., $16.6 million.
2. "Glory Road," Disney, $16.5 million.
3. "Last Holiday," Paramount, $15.7 million.
4. "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," Disney, $12.2 million.
5. "Hostel," Lions Gate, $11.7 million.
6. "Fun With Dick and Jane," Sony, $10.3 million.
7. "King Kong," Universal, $9.2 million.
8. "Tristan & Isolde," 20th Century Fox, $7.9 million.
9. "Brokeback Mountain," Focus, $7.1 million.
10. "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," 20th Century Fox, $6.8 million.
'Brokeback Mountain' Gets 4 Golden Globes
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain" led the Golden Globes on Monday with four prizes, including best dramatic film and the directing honor for Ang Lee.
It was a triumphant night for films dealing with homosexuality and transsexuality. Along with the victories for "Brokeback Mountain," acting honors went to Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery in "Transamerica" and Philip Seymour Hoffman as gay author Truman Capote in "Capote."
"I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are and so I would like to salute the men and women who brave ostracism, alienation and a life lived on the margins to become who they really are," Huffman said.
The Johnny Cash biography "Walk the Line" won the Globe for best musical or comedy film and earned acting honors for stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.
Director Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," the story of two rugged Western family men (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) concealing their affair, has emerged as a front-runner for the Oscars which occasionally have handed out top acting prizes for performers in homosexual or gender-bending roles but have never given the best-picture Oscar to a gay-themed film.
Oscar nominations come out Jan. 31, with the awards presented March 5.
"Brokeback Mountain" also won for best screenplay and song, "A Love That Will Never Grow Old."
Phoenix and Witherspoon won for best actor and actress in a movie musical or comedy for the biopic that follows country legend Cash's career and his long courtship with the love of his life, June Carter.
The Globe audience clapped along to Cash's song "I Walk the Line" as Phoenix took the stage.
"Who would ever have thought that I would win in the comedy or musical category?" said Phoenix, poking fun at his image for dark, brooding roles. "Not expected."
Phoenix, who did his own singing in the film, thanked "John and June for sharing their life with all of us."
"This film is really important to me," said Witherspoon, who offers a spirited performance and fine singing as Carter. "It's about where I grew up, it's about the music I grew up listening to, so it's very meaningful."
George Clooney, who was among the directing nominees for "Good Night, and Good Luck," won the supporting-actor Globe for the oil-industry thriller "Syriana" and Rachel Weisz earned the supporting-actress prize for the murder thriller "The Constant Gardener."
"Syriana" spins a convoluted story of multiple characters caught up in a web of deceit, greed, corruption and power-brokering over Middle Eastern oil supplies. Clooney plays a fiercely devoted CIA undercover agent who comes to question his country's actions in the region.
Clooney thanked writer-director Stephen Gaghan for a movie "that asks a lot of difficult questions."
There are similar corporate undertones to "The Constant Gardener," in which Weisz plays a humanitarian-aid worker whose husband (Ralph Fiennes) is drawn into a dogged investigation of business interests connected to her murder.
"I share this with Ralph Fiennes," said Weisz. "One couldn't ask for a more magical, a more magical, committed actor."
"Brokeback Mountain" won the screenplay award for Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. McMurtry thanked his constant companion during the lonely process of writing.
"Most heartfelt, I thank my typewriter. My typewriter is a Hermes 3000, surely one of the noblest instruments of European genius," McMurtry said.
The Palestinian film "Paradise Now," a dark tale of two Arab friends tapped to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, won the prize for foreign-language film.
Television winners included Geena Davis for best drama series actress as the U.S. president in "Commander in Chief," Hugh Laurie for drama series actor as a cranky, pill-popping doctor in "House," Steve Carell for best comedy series actor as an incompetent boss in "The Office," Jonathan Rhys Meyers for miniseries or movie actor as Elvis Presley in "Elvis," and S. Epatha Merkerson for miniseries or movie actress as a boarding house proprietor who takes in an outcast teen in "Lackawanna Blues."
"This is really wonderful for a fledgling little show like ours," said Davis, who added that a little girl coming into the Globes stopped her to say, "Because of you I want to be president some day.
"Well, that didn't actually happen," Davis joked. "But it could have."
Mary-Louise Parker of "Weeds" beat out the four lead actresses of "Desperate Housewives" for best actress in a comedy series. But "Desperate Housewives" did win for best musical or comedy series.
The Globes are awarded by the relatively small Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which has about 80 members, compared with the 5,800 film professionals eligible to vote for the Oscars.
Still, the Globes have an excellent track record at predicting the Oscars. Globe winners catch momentum that can boost their chances come Oscar night.
Ladies Wear Red, White and Black at Globes
The goddesses ruled the Golden Globes red carpet, with stars like Felicity Huffman, Maria Bello, Hilary Swank and Marcia Cross wearing plunging V-neck halter gowns with draping, fitted waists and billowing skirts.
Huffman and Bello wore ethereal white, which will be a top spring fashion trend. Bello complemented her white beaded Elie Saab gown with white gardenias in her upswept hair.
Keira Knightley also wore a stunning strapless white dress by Valentino with a rope-style belt, and Sandra Oh wore a white gown with a sophisticated scarf-style back.
"White was the big winner," Suze Yalof-Schwartz of Glamour magazine said from the red carpet.
Kate Beckinsale's white dress from the Christian Dior archives was dainty and elegant. She showed a bit of a funky streak with her oversized green earrings.
Reese Witherspoon's short vintage Chanel haute couture was a champagne color with metallic trim on the bust.
Cross' dress, meanwhile, was coral, providing a sharp and stunning contrast to her red hair.
"Marcia looked very goddesslike," said Collier Strong, consulting makeup artist for L'Oreal, who helped Cross get ready. "I knew her makeup had to be lighter and more feminine because the fabric was so billowy. ... It's easy to work with her because she has the most perfect skin you've ever seen."
Red also had a strong presence on the carpet: Scarlett Johansson wore a red scoop neck Valentino dress with soft ruffles on the straps and down the back; Geena Davis wore a strapless Escada with a jeweled bustier top; and Laura Linney had an asymmetrical version.
"Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria complemented her red Grecian wrap gown by Bob Mackie with gold platform shoes to boost her 5-foot-2-inch frame. Longoria told E!'s Isaac Mizrahi that she was sewn into the dress because it wasn't finished until she was walking out the door.
Equally bright was Ziyi Zhang's Giorgio Armani lime green silk tulle gown with a sweetheart neckline and floor-sweeping train.
But some of fashion's favorite faces stuck with classic black and proved that it is eternally chic.
Sarah Jessica Parker was in a strapless dress with tiny rows of tulle by Rochas, and Christian Dior's John Galliano designed a custom cocktail dress for Charlize Theron that featured black lace over nude tulle. Swank's black dress by Jean Yu had a sexy back with several straps, and Mary-Louise Parker had a plunging V-front.
Natalie Portman looked Audrey Hepburnesque in a vintage Chanel black lace bustier dress with a ribbon belt and a black-and-white diamond camellia jewel around her waist. Renee Zellweger remained loyal to designer Carolina Herrera, wearing an asymmetrical black silk chiffon dress with rouched detail and a leg-length slit up the left thigh. Zellweger wore a vintage Van Cleef & Arpels brooch pinned to the back of her waist.
Candice Bergen's Michael Kors black turtleneck and ballskirt was a picture of casual elegance.
Nicolette Sheridan and Queen Latifah both choose blue dresses. Sheridan's was an Armani sapphire-blue silk chiffon gown with a deep V-neck and pleated bodice, Latifah's a periwinkle goddess number that she accessorized with 23-carat, round-shaped drop diamond earrings with a fancy yellow pear-shaped diamond drop pendant on a diamond chain by Chopard.
Teri Hatcher wore a body-hugging V-neck bronze halter gown with art deco-style beading, loose hair and a small bronze clutch that held her California driver's license. Hatcher told Mizrahi she was told to bring identification to get in at the door. (She also told him that it was her 8-year-old daughter that warned her about her panty lines, so Hatcher showed up to the Globes without underwear.)
"The Globes set the fashion tone for the rest of the season," designer Randolph Duke told the Associated Press. "It's a very chic show. Some (actresses) wear more cocktail dresses. The Globes are an opportunity to do something other than that classic, glamorous Oscar gown."
Gwyneth Paltrow's overall look was very soft. Her white Balenciaga tiered gown embraced her pregnant belly instead of hiding it and her hair was up with soft waves.
The messy bun worn by so many stars was "crucial," according to Glamour's Yalof-Schwartz, and so was heavy eye makeup, pale lips and big, teardrop earrings.
"I had to find a dress that would glow with me that was the main challenge," said Rachel Weisz, who is five months pregnant and looked quite voluptuous in her strapless gold gown by Donna Karan.
"You still see a lot of strapless," observed designer Duke. "There's something very easy about the strapless neckline. It solves a lot of problems. The garment has a foundation usually a bustier or corset that makes a girl feel more confident."
George Clooney embodied the classic male movie star in his Armani two-button tuxedo with satin lapels and a classic white spread-collar evening shirt and black necktie.
Ludacris, of course, had his own twist on the penguin suit: He wore a black velvet Ralph Lauren jacket with tweed pants. And Johnny Depp always a fashion rebel had a red shirt under his baggy suit.
...'American Idol' returns for 5th season
It's that time of year.
Everyone is on a diet, the nicotine patch is flying off the shelves and American Idol, the show millions of people watch, but no one admits to, is back.
Tomorrow night, the fifth season of Fox's hit singing competition returns with outrageous new auditions featuring the good, the bad and the truly horrendous.
While there will likely be no big surprises this time around, judge Randy Jackson does promise more fights between the normally way-too-nice singers.
"I think the kids this time probably want this worse than ever -- there's quite a bit of interesting fighting and dialogue going on amongst the contestants.
"I think they're finally getting to the fact early that, 'Yes, we're friends. We're all in this together, but, hey, I want to win.' It's actually pretty funny how early it comes this time."
The other difference this year is there is no clear winner, says Jackson. Last season, judge Simon Cowell correctly predicted, before the Top 10 was even announced, that Carrie Underwood would win.
"We say it every single season, but this year it's really 100,000 percent true -- the talent is far better than any other season.
"I think this time it's going to come down to who grows the most during the competition in front of the American public because everybody is that good. I think it's going to come down to the wire at the end."
Jackson believes the success of last season's two finalists, country singer Underwood and rocker Bo Bice, broadened the pool of auditioners from its normal pop contestants.
He also feels CBS' series Rock Star: INXS helped make televised singing competitions somewhat cool, resulting in more rockers trying out this year.
"I think Rock Star was good ... just to show that there's everything in America. And the kid who won (Canada's J.D. Fortune) actually can really sing."
Being able to pick out talent is something Jackson knows a thing or two about. Outside his gig on American Idol, the music producer is constantly approached by young singers who think they have what it takes.
"It's so funny, no matter where I go, what I do, people are just singing to me. It's crazy. I think they think I want to just hear singing all the time.
"Even if I say, 'No, no, no. You don't have to sing,' they start singing anyway. I think in their minds it's, 'At least he heard me.' It's so weird."