'Brokeback Mountain' wins four Brit awards
LONDON (AP) - Gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain took four awards including best picture Sunday at the British Academy Film Awards, a result that boosts its hopes for the Oscars in two weeks' time.
The film beat a strong best-picture shortlist that included literary biopic Capote, L.A. story Crash, 1950s drama Good Night, and Good Luck and British favourite The Constant Gardener.
The Constant Gardener, a spy thriller and love story that went into the ceremony with 10 nominations, took only one award, for editing. Memoirs of a Geisha won three awards, for cinematography, music and costume design.
Ang Lee was named best director for Brokeback, which is up for eight Academy Awards on March 5. Jake Gyllenhaal won the best supporting actor prize for playing Jack Twist, one of two cowpokes who fall in love over the course of a Wyoming summer.
Gyllenhaal said onstage that the movie, whose commercial success is unprecedented for a gay-themed film, "means even more to me socially than it does artistically."
"I've had a lot of people say to me after the film, to my surprise, 'Thank you for making it,"' Gyllenhaal told reporters backstage. "It's made a social impression, and that social impression to me is the aftermath of an artistic impression, and so much more important."
Lee thanked the British people for their support.
"I don't know what makes me so connect to you," he said. "I'm pretty sure it's not the food."
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, who adapted Annie Proulx's short story, won the adapted screenplay prize.
Gyllenhaal's co-star Heath Ledger was beaten to the best-actor prize by Philip Seymour Hoffman for his depiction of troubled writer Truman Capote in Capote.
Reese Witherspoon was named best actress for playing June Carter Cash, wife and muse of country great Johnny Cash, in Walk the Line.
Thandie Newton took the best supporting actress award for Crash, an edgy depiction of racial divisions in modern-day Los Angeles. The film, which had nine nominations, also won the prize for best original screenplay.
A host of stars brought Hollywood glitz to rainy London as they walked a sodden red carpet in Leicester Square before the ceremony.
George Clooney, Charlize Theron, Renee Zellweger - in a black Caroline Herrera gown - Desperate Housewives Felicity Huffman, The O.C.'s Mischa Barton and Crash star Matt Dillon were among the performers cheered by hundreds of fans huddled under ponchos and umbrellas against the downpour.
Clay-animation romp Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was named best British film, beating nominees including The Constant Gardener and Pride and Prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright won the award for best first-time writer, producer or director.
De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrete (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) - an acclaimed French film about a man torn between a love of music and a life of crime - was named best film not in the English language.
Producer David Puttnam received the Academy Fellowship for outstanding contribution to the film industry.
In a nod to the often-unsung professionals who make movie magic, the award for outstanding British contribution to cinema went to veteran gaffer - head electrician - Robert (Chuck) Finch and his assistant, or best boy, Bill Merrell.
Clooney went home empty-handed despite three nominations, as director for his study of repressive 1950s anti-Communism, Good Night, and Good Luck, and as supporting actor for that film and for political thriller Syriana.
But he said he was pleased that political cinema was undergoing a renaissance.
"In our country we hadn't talked about politics or anything interesting since Watergate," Clooney said on the red carpet. "Now you go to a coffee shop and people are talking about politics. It's good."
Legacy Plans Ambitious Orbison Reissue Series
Sony BMG's Legacy Recordings label is embarking on a two-year campaign that will see virtually everything Roy Orbison ever recorded released. At the same time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will curate a special exhibit with the help of the late rock'n'roll icon's family.
Legacy's campaign got underway with the Feb. 7 reissue of "Black & White Night," a 1987 star-studded concert that originally aired as an HBO/Cinemax special. The concert famously saw Orbison backed by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and k.d. lang, among others.
Quick on its heels will be the March 28 release of the career-spanning, two-disc compilation, "The Essential Roy Orbison." The collection will pull together a total of 40 tracks that originally appeared on Sun, Monument, Virgin, MGM, Warner Bros., Mercury and Def Jam labels, reaching back as far as 1956.
Among the highlights are the early rockabilly cuts "Ooby Dooby" and "Rock House" and such classics as "Blue Bayou," "Only the Lonely," "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "Crying."
This year alone, Legacy will reissue Orbison's entire Sun and Monument catalogs. Titles from the Jewel, MGM and Virgin catalogs will follow. Plans include a remastered version of Orbison's final studio album, 1989's "Mystery Girl" and a DualDisc edition the 1992 Virgin set "King Of Hearts," both originally released by Virgin. The latter posthumous album utilized Orbison's final vocal recordings and was highlighted by a duet with lang on "Crying" that won a Grammy for best country vocal collaboration.
On April 18, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will open its Orbison exhibit, which will focus on the artist's career and his contribution to the American songbook. Orbison's family has loaned such artifacts as handwritten lyrics, rare records, stage clothing, business documents and photographs to the gallery display. Orbison was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1987.
Supported by his widow, Barbara Orbison, a movement to commemorate the artist with an official U.S. postage stamp has taken off in recent weeks thanks to a bevy of media reports. An online petition had, at deadline, logged nearly 12,000 signatures.
Here is "The Essential Roy Orbison" track list:
Disc one:
"Ooby Dooby" (Sun, 1956)
"Go! Go! Go!" (B-Side to "Ooby Dooby")
"Rock House" (Sun, 1956)
"Uptown" (Monument, 1959)
"Only the Lonely" (Monument, 1960)
"Blue Angel" (Monument, 1960)
"I'm Hurtin'" (Monument, 1960)
"Lana" (Monument, 1966)
"Love Hurts" (Monument B-side, 1961)
"Crying" (Monument, 1960)
"Candy Man" (B-side of "Crying")
"Dream Baby" (Monument, 1962)
"The Crowd" (Monument, 1962)
"Leah" (Monument, 1962)
"Falling" (Monument, 1963)
"Working for the Man" (Monument, 1962)
"Mean Woman Blues" (Monument, 1963)
"Blue Bayou" (B-side of "Mean Woman Blues")
"Pretty Paper" (Monument, 1963)
"It's Over" (Monument, 1964)
"Oh, Pretty Woman" (Monument, 1964)
Disc two:
"You Got It" (Virgin, 1989)
"She's a Mystery To Me" (Virgin, 1989)
"California Blue" (Virgin, 1989)
"The Only One" (Virgin B-side, 1989)
"Ride Away" (MGM, 1965)
"Crawling Back (MGM, 1966)
"Best Friend" (MGM, 1967)
"Communication Breakdown" (MGM, 1966)
"Walk On" (MGM, 1968)
"That Lovin' You Feelin' Again" with Emmylou Harris (Warner Bros., 1980)
"Running Scared" (1985 version, Virgin, 1987)
"In Dreams" (1987 version, Virgin, 1987)
"A Love So Beautiful" (Virgin, 1989)
"The Comedians" with Elvis Costello (live, Virgin, 1989)
"Claudette" (live, Orbison, 1998)
"I Drove All Night" (Virgin, 1992)
"Wild Hearts Run Out of Time" (Virgin, 1992)
"Coming Home" (Mercury, 1986)
"Life Fades Away ("Less Than Zero" soundtrack, Def Jam, 1987)
Stewart Joining Elite Group As Oscars Host
NEW YORK - Jon Stewart just won the Heisman — the comedians' version. As host of the Academy Awards, Stewart joins an elite group that includes Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, Bob Hope and Johnny Carson.
"It doesn't mean you're going to have a good pro career, or even do well in the bowl game," Stewart says, sitting in his Manhattan office behind a desk cluttered with papers. "But to get to that point means something. Now you're in the club."
Membership requires entertaining a television audience of more than 40 million, plus getting laughs from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
Stewart's up for the challenge. It's why he took the gig. The huge audience. The intense glare.
"For a comedian," he says, "it feels like the ultimate stage."
But between preparing for the Oscars, hosting Comedy Central's award-winning fake news program "The Daily Show" and caring for his newborn daughter and 19-month-old son with wife Tracey, Stewart is going for a record-breaking season.
Punctuated with a smirk.
"Some people will burn themselves to the nub," says the 43-year-old. "I've decided to exist in a sea of mediocrity. That's allowed me to do all my tasks, but to in fact do them poorly."
He's even allowed his familial obligations "to suffer and absolutely corrode."
"What we're hoping is, in my daughter's first two weeks, she's not going to remember a whole lot of this," he says. "So instead of me being there, I just take my deodorant and jam it in her crib. She'll have the faint smell of me but won't really know I haven't been an influence."
In reality, Stewart and his "Daily Show" writing team are putting on the nightly program while preparing material for the big night on March 5. They'll do that until the week before the Oscars, when Stewart will land in Los Angeles with just a handful of writers in tow. He hasn't even had time to see all the nominated films yet.
But if he's nervous, he's not showing it.
"If I had to go out there and surf, that would be a problem," Stewart says. "But you know, it's just comedy."
The New Jersey native started doing stand-up in New York in 1986. He moved to television in 1990 as host of Comedy Central's "Short Attention Span Theater." Stewart also hosted his own show on MTV and appeared in such films such as "Half Baked" and "Big Daddy" before taking on hosting duties at "The Daily Show" in 1999. Since then, the program has become a cultural touchstone, even the main source of news for many young people.
"Hopefully I've done enough things that prepare (me) to walk out in front of an (Oscar) audience and do the jokes," he says.
Besides, what he's really excited about is "getting to use the same bathroom Steve Martin did" and enjoying "refreshments" in the green room.
"My sincere hope is that there are some fun-size chocolate bars backstage, in say, a wicker basket," Stewart says. "Whether they be Musketeers or Milky Way, not really the issue."
Though he's known for his irreverent approach to comedy and current events — Dick Cheney's recent shooting incident was like "a gift" — Stewart says he won't get too topical, even in this year of highly political Oscar contenders.
It's not "The Daily Show," he says. Accepting the gig means abiding by Oscar convention.
"He's 78, I'm 43, I will defer," he says. "I'm not an anarchist. I'm a comedian."
Stewart and his staff have free comedic rein and plan to focus their jokes on the Oscar pomp, he says. But the serious subject matter of the year's best picture candidates — revenge, racism, injustice, murder and doomed romance — could present some challenges.
"You're gonna see a ton of 'Munich' stuff. Lots of hilarity to be mined there," Stewart deadpans. "This would not be the easiest song parody in the world to pull off. Not a whole lot rhymes with 'Syriana' or 'Capote.'"
The comedian's reputation for cracking wise on political affairs adds interest to the Oscars, says Robert Thompson, professor of television and pop culture at Syracuse University, who called Stewart a "public intellectual."
Time magazine named Stewart one of its most influential people of 2005. Outside the United States, "The Daily Show" is broadcast on the news channel CNN International.
"To have a public intellectual host the Oscars, that doesn't happen too much," Thompson says. "My biggest worry would be that he'd upstage the entire night."
Stewart says he's just hoping to deliver a competent performance. He hopes to avoid "doing something so screwy," a la David Letterman's infamous Oprah/Uma, that it's repeated every year as Oscar lore.
Besides that, even bombing would be OK, he says.
"I've bombed in front of many fine audiences filled with many talented people," he says. "And if this is that night, well, that's the way it goes."