Gilmour: Pink Floyd over, for good
Pink Floyd fans can officially put the reunion rumours to bed.
Despite a successful one-off show at Live8 last summer and speculation of tour dates later this year, the band is "over," according to former singer-guitarist David Gilmour.
Speaking in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he stated that a reunion is definitely not in the cards.
"The band? It's over," announced Gilmour. "Reunited because of the good cause, to get over the bad relationship, and not to have regrets.
"I think I've had enough. I am 60. I don't want to work much anymore. It's an important part of my life, I have had enormous satisfactions, but now it's enough. It's much more comfortable to work on my own."
Gilmour also stated that his thoughts have nothing to do with the tension between he and co-founder Roger Waters, who left the band in 1983, and didn't play with them again until Live8.
"The issue about Roger is irrelevant, because even without him I don't want to go on as Pink Floyd... I am fine as I live now. It was fantastic but now I don't feel like (it) any more."
RICKY TEMPS AT 'OFFICE'
Ricky Gervais, the master mind behind the classic BBC series "The Office," will write an episode for its NBC counterpart, starring Steve Carell.
Gervais and "The Office" co-creator Stephen Merchant, who serve as executive producers of NBC's "The Office," will co-write the episode, scheduled to air next season.
"I had extended an open invitation for them to write or direct at any time," says "The Office" executive producer Greg Daniels.
"But I think they were smart to wait until we had developed our own following and our own style.
"I'm excited — that's one out of 22 I don't have to worry about for next year," Daniels says.
"But I don't want to see any 'lifts' or 'lorries' in the script — it's 'elevators' and 'trucks' in this version."
Gervais starred in the original BBC series as obnoxious boss-from-hell David Brent, a smarmy middle manager in the Wernham-Hogg paper company, located in the dreary industrial town of Slough.
In NBC's "The Office," set in a paper company in Scranton, Pa., Carell plays boss Michael Scott — a portrayal which earned him a Golden Globe last month in Hollywood.
Daytime Emmys in Rerun Mode
Tony Danza must be crushed. Ditto Tyra Banks.
Both talk-show hosts were dissed by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which rounded up the usual suspects Wednesday for nominations for the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmys.
CBS sudser The Young and the Restless fared the best, racking up a leading 18 nominations overall, including the big kahuna for Outstanding Drama Series. The show also dominated in the younger actor categories but was completely shut out among the leading ranks.
Perennial favorite Ellen DeGeneres managed to dance her way to the top of the heap yet again, nabbing 11 nominations--the same as last year and just one nod shy of two years prior--including Outstanding Talk Show, Talk Show Host, Writing, and scores of technical nods, ranging from main title design to multiple camera editing.
The nominees were announced live on ABC's The View and, naturally, Barbara Walters and her gaggle represented. The femme-fuelled chatfest garnered 10 nominations, going up against DeGeneres for most of them, including Outstanding Talk Show and Talk Show Host awards.
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, along with Soapnet's Ty Treadway and Lisa Rinna, are also up for host-with-most honors; Dr. Phil McGraw didn't make the cut in the hosting department but his eponymous program is up for Outstanding Talk Show.
There will be less competition in the game show ranks. Bob Barker and the Wheel of Fortune tandem of Pat Sajak and Vanna White were among those overlooked in the Outstanding Game Show and Game Show Host categories. There were only two nominees in each category this year: Meredith Vieira and her Who Wants to Be a Millionaire vs. Alex Trebek and Jeopardy!
Meanwhile, Martha Stewart's new post-prison daytime effort warranted six nominations, including Best Service Show and Service Show Host, pitting her against the likes of Emeril Lagasse, Rachel Ray and Suze Orman.
Finally, no Daytime Emmy story would be complete without noting reigning afternoon queen Oprah Winfrey. Although she long ago removed herself and her show from the major talk-show categories, it was still honored with eight technical nominations.
The Daytime Emmys will air Apr. 28 on ABC, and after 32 years in New York, the ceremony will be held for the first time in Los Angeles, at the Kodak Theater.
Here's a breakdown of the major categories:
Drama Series:
As the World Turns (CBS)
General Hospital (ABC)
Guiding Light (CBS)
The Young and the Restless (CBS)
Lead Actress, Drama Series:
Bobbie Eakes, All My Children
Susan Flannery, The Bold and the Beautiful
Kelly Monaco, General Hospital
Beth Ehlers, Guiding Light
Kim Zimmer, Guiding Light
Lead Actor, Drama Series:
Thorsten Kate, All My Children
Anthony Geary, General Hospital
Maurice Benard, General Hospital
Robert Newman, Guiding Light
Ron Raines, Guiding Light
Supporting Actress, Drama Series:
Jennifer Ferrin, As the World Turns
Crystal Chappelle, Guiding Light
Gina Tognoni, Guiding Light
Renee Goldsberry, One Life to Live
Tracey E. Bregman, The Young and the Restless
Supporting Actor, Drama Series:
Trent Dawson, As the World Turns
Grayson McCouch, As the World Turns
Tyler Christopher, General Hospital
Jordan Clarke, Guiding Light
Greg Rikaart, The Young and the Restless
Talk Show:
Dr. Phil
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Live with Regis & Kelly
The View
Talk Show Host:
Ellen DeGeneres, The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa, Live with Regis & Kelly
Ty Treadway, Lisa Rinna, Soapnet
Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones Reynolds, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, The View
Game Show:
Jeopardy!
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Game Show Host:
Alex Trebek, Jeopardy!
Meredith Vieira, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Service Show:
30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray (Food Network)
Essence of Emeril with Emeril Lagasse (Food Network)
Martha (syndicated)
Suze Orman: For the Young, Fabulous & Brroke (PBS)
This Old House (PBS)
Service Show Host:
Rachael Ray, 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray
Emeril Lagasse, Essence of Emeril with Emeril Lagasse
Martha Stewart, Martha
Suze Orman, Suze Orman: For the Young, Broke & Fabulous
Children's Series:
Between the Lions (PBS)
Endurance: Tehachapi (NBC)
Postcards from Buster (PBS)
Strange Days at Blake Holsey High (NBC)
Zoom (PBS)
Preschool Children's Series:
Blue's Room (Nickelodeon)
HI-5 (Discovery Kids)
Paz (Discovery Kids)
Sesame Street (PBS)
Affleck, Damon Together Again
After all these years together, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are finally making it legal.
The Oscar-winning Boston buddies will reunite onscreen in an untitled drama inspired by two real-life attorneys, who fight a 15-year battle to free an innocent man on death row, Daily Variety reports.
Save a couple of cameos in Kevin Smith's Dogma and Jersey Girls, the twosome hasn't headlined a movie together since 1997's Good Will Hunting, for which they shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Affleck will play Michael Banks and Damon, J. Gordon Cooney, two lawyers at a Philadelphia firm who work pro bono on the appeal of John Thompson, who claims he was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The attorneys manages to win nine stays of execution over the next decade and a half and eventually overturn the conviction and have Thompson cleared of all charges.
The film, which will be distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures division, is being produced by Affleck and Damon's Live Planet shingle. Chris Murphey has been tapped to write the script. As part of the movie deal, the companies acquired the life-story rights to the attorneys and Thompson for an unspecified sum.
Live Planet is the multimedia outfit that hatched Damon and Affleck's now-scotched reality series Project Greenlight. It's also developing for Miramax Gone Baby Gone, the story of two Beantown private detectives investigating a girl's kidnapping. The film is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane and is expected to mark Affleck's feature directing debut.
That project is scheduled to start shooting this summer in Boston. No word when Affleck and Damon will roll cameras on the death row story.
Besides Gone, Affleck has three more movies in the pipeline: playing an assassin in Joe Carnahan's Las Vegas crime comedy Smoking Aces, going up, up and away as original Superman actor George Reeves in the mystery Hollywoodland, and appearing in Smith's highly anticipated sequel Clerks II.
Damon, who's currently in theaters in Syrnana, has been in the Dominican Republic shooting Robert De Niro's CIA film The Good Shepherd, costarring De Niro and Angelina Jolie. This December he stars with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's crime drama The Departed. He's also signed on to reprise his role as Jason Bourne for The Bourne Ultimatum and is likely to be in the cast of Ocean's 13, if the sequel gets off the drawing board.
With news of their legal drama circulating, Damon and Affleck can finally put aside the rumors spread by OK! magazine that the actors were ready to take over the roles immortalized by Paul Newman and Robert Redford in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
"There's no truth, never was," Affleck's rep, Ken Sunshine, tells E! Online. "Never any thought about Butch Cassidy, never any meetings about it. It's just not true."
Carey, U2 and Kanye Win Grammy Awards
LOS ANGELES - Mariah Carey ended her 16-year Grammy drought by winning three trophies Wednesday, but her hopes of making Grammy history were smashed as rock gods U2 won four awards, including song of the year for "Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own."
Carey, one of the best-selling artists of all time, hadn't won a Grammy since her first two as a fresh-faced ingenue in 1990. On Wednesday, she was nominated for eight and won three in the pre-telecast ceremony. No woman had ever won more than five in one night.
But she was shut out through most of the televised portion, losing best female pop vocal performance to Kelly Clarkson's triumphant "Since U Been Gone," song of the year to U2 and record of the year to Green Day.
"If you think this is going to go to our head, its too late," Bono said after the group captured their 19th Grammy.
Kelly Clarkson, who also won best pop album, also helped steal some of Carey's spotlight.
"I'm sorry I'm crying again on national television," said Clarkson, the former "American Idol," tearful and shaking as she held her first Grammy. "Thank you so much, you have no idea what this means to me."
Carey was considered the year's comeback queen, having overcome personal difficulties and a career slump of a few years ago to emerge in 2005 with the most popular album of the year.
But Carey's comeback was upstaged — along with everything else — by the appearance of Sly Stone, the mercurial, psychedelic pioneer who disappeared from the music scene decades ago and hadn't performed in public since 1993.
Toward the end of a sizzling all-star tribute, Stone emerged onstage sporting a tall blond Mohawk and breathed new life into one of his biggest smashes, "I Want To Take You Higher." Though the tribute was planned, many didn't expect Stone — who hasn't performed in public in years — to show up.
Keith Urban was answering questions backstage when Stone's performance began playing on a nearby monitor, and he had to stop talking.
"I think we just got upstaged," Urban said in amazement. "Everything pales in comparison."
Stone's performance was one of the many that upstaged the actual awards, but there were some actually given out during the telecast.
U2 won for best rock album for "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." Guitarist The Edge said the award meant a lot to the group, "but even more precious than the awards is the gift you've all afforded us, you've allowed us to continue to make our music."
U2 provided one of the more rousing performances in the jam-packed show as they sung their hit Vertigo, then collaborated with R&B queen Mary J. Blige's gospel-inflected fervor for their classic "One."
West's three Grammys matched his total for last year. The brash rapper/producer played up (or lived up to) his egotistical reputation as he won best rap album for "Late Registration.
"I had no idea, I had no idea," West said in mock shock as he pulled a huge sheet of paper that read "Thank You List."
The show started off on a two-dimensional note as the cartoon-fronted rock group Gorillaz performed their record of the year contender, "Feel Good Inc." with the help of animation, a blue screen and guest rappers De La Soul. The performance then segued into a Madonna moment, as the pop queen — who was not nominated for any awards — sang her latest hit, "Hung Up," with a chorus of dancers behind her.
But it was a brief, impromptu performance of Keys and Stevie Wonder, who introduced the first award, that energized the crowd. Wonder pulled out his harmonica and the two soulfully sang his classic "Higher Ground" as a tribute to the late Coretta Scott King, who was buried Tuesday.
"Let's keep trying to reach that higher ground," Keys said. "I forever want to reach that higher ground."
John Legend was also an early winner, beating out Wonder, Keys, Fantasia and Earth, Wind & Fire to snag best R&B album for his platinum debut, "Get Lifted." He picked up his second trophy for best male R&B vocal for "Ordinary People."
Alison Krauss & Union Station also had three awards each, including for best country album, while Wonder, who released his first album in ten years last year, also had two.
Bryan Adams headed to Hall of Fame
TORONTO (CP) - Canuck recording superstar Bryan Adams is headed for the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
"Bryan is one of Canada's most admired artists and one of our leading ambassadors. We are proud to have him join the Canadian Music Hall of Fame," Melanie Berry, president of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said Tuesday in a statement. "His distinguished collection of influential recordings have entertained and inspired many generations of music-lovers and will continue to do so."
Adams will be honoured at the 2006 Juno Awards, to be held April 2 in Halifax.
Born in Kingston, Ont., Adams launched his career in 1980 with a self-titled album. A few years later he became a household name thanks to a string of hits such as Heaven, Straight for the Heart, Run to You and Summer of '69.
Last fall, he released Anthology, a two-disc retrospective that coincided with a Canadian tour.
For more than 25 years, CARAS has been inducting musicians and industry leaders into a hall of fame, but has not had a "bricks-mortar" base. Last spring, the academy announced plans to build a flashy music museum in Toronto, where the hall will be housed.
At the time, the academy said it would open in the summer of 2007.
Resurgent Mariah Has Momentum for Grammys
LOS ANGELES - In less than a year's time, Mariah Carey managed to escape pop's most dreaded fate — faded superstar — to become its reigning queen, ruling the record charts with the year's most popular single and its best-selling album.
Carey could also become queen of the Grammys if her momentum carries in to Wednesday night. The diva, who won her only two Grammys 16 years ago as a multiplatinum newcomer, has the opportunity to win a record-setting eight trophies, including in the coveted categories of record, song, and album of the year. No woman has won more than five Grammys in one evening.
A big win would be especially sweet for Carey, one of the best-selling artists of all time, who fell into a slump a few years ago after dealing with an emotional breakdown, a flop movie with "Glitter" and its poorly received soundtrack. In 2005, she was redeemed — "The Emancipation of Mimi" sold more than 5 million copies and her torch ballad "We Belong Together" was the year's most popular song.
"I think Mariah is going to have a great night," said Carey fan Alicia Keys, who shares the most-Grammys-in-one-haul record with Beyonce, Lauryn Hill and Norah Jones. "It's very nice to see people not give up."
"I'm just so happy for her," said Mary J. Blige. "I watched them count her out; I watched them not believe her; I watched them say she was done. And she's back! So I'm going there just to see that, clap for her, and just be happy for her, and yes — I want her to get all of them. I want her to clean up."
Ten years ago, Carey was also in a position to sweep the Grammy awards, up for six of them, including record of the year for the tear-jerker ballad "One Sweet Day" with Boyz II Men. But she went home empty-handed as edgy newcomer Alanis Morissette became the belle of the ball, winning four for "Jagged Little Pill."
This time, Carey again has tough competition in many of the categories in which she's nominated.
"The nominees are as strong as they've been in a long time," said Rick Krim, executive vice president of music and talent programming at VH1. With a diverse field of nominees that includes U2, Paul McCartney, Green Day and Gwen Stefani, he said, it's possible no artist — even Carey — will dominate the Grammys this year.
"I just think the nominees are so strong in the big categories and so deserving, it would somewhat be surprising," he said of a single-artist sweep.
Carey is not the only artists with eight nominations Wednesday night. Maverick rapper Kanye West and his R&B protege, newcomer John Legend, join her at the head of the pack. Carey and West are competing for record and album of the year — Carey for "We Belong Together and "The Emancipation of Mimi," and West for "Gold Digger" and "Late Registration."
This is the second year in a row that West finds himself nominated for a possible avalanche of Grammys — and it's only his second album. Last year, he was the leading nominee with 10 for his groundbreaking debut rap album, "The College Dropout" and his songwriting and production skills for other artists.
West is also considered a strong favorite Wednesday — "Gold Digger," featuring Jamie Foxx reprising his Ray Charles bit, was one of the most popular songs of the year, and "Late Registration" sold more than two million copies.
But Carey and West face tough competition in the record of the year and album of the year categories. Other nominees for record of the year include Green Day's poignant "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," Gwen Stefani's crowd-pleaser "Hollaback Girl," and "Feel Good Inc." from the cartoon-fronted band, The Gorillaz.
For album of the year, the field is just as fierce. U2, who seems to win a Grammy every time it puts out an album, is nominated for "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"; Stefani is up for her kitschy solo debut, "Love. Angel. Music. Baby."; and rock god Paul McCartney, who released his most acclaimed work in years with "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," is also nominated.
Though the former Beatle's album hardly had the commercial appeal of the rest of the nominees, the 63-year-old has never won a Grammy for best album — and he might be able to pull off an upset.
"People are always sentimental for a Beatle," Krim said, though he added that a McCartney win "would be the one that would be a bit of a shocker to people."
Compared to McCartney and many other nominees, Legend is a far less familiar name. The silky soulful balladeer made his debut in late 2004 with the album "Get Lifted," and was nominated for a stunning eight Grammys, including song of the year for his simple yet elegant ballad, "Ordinary People." He is a heavy favorite to win the best new artist category, in which he is competing with R&B dance queen Ciara, emo rockers Fall Out Boy, the rock group Keane and the country trio SugarLand.
"I think he's a classic Grammy type of artist, who's made a great record, critically acclaimed," says Krim. "Sort of like the Grammys adopted Alicia Keys, and she's sort of a Grammy mainstay, I think he'll be the same. There's no glitz or glamor around it, it's very true."
The Grammys will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m. EST.