CBC to restore one-hour local news shows, cancel Canada Now
CBC Television will cancel the Canada Now early evening national newscast next February and move to one-hour regional newscasts at 6 p.m. across the country.
The changes were announced to CBC staff on Thursday as part of a restructuring of the news operation at CBC that will include the introduction of "civic journalism."
The Vancouver bureau of the public broadcaster will lead an experiment in strengthening local newscasts on both radio and TV and introducing new technologies to deliver the news.
"CBC will redefine its relationship with its audience," said Tony Burman, editor-in-chief of CBC News.
"We want to further the local voice that we already hear on our local programs."
CBC reduced one-hour regional supper hour programs to half an hour in 2000 to create Canada Now.
But a seven-month study of CBC's news service across the country shows Canadians want more local content, Burman said.
Regional TV newsrooms are not being offered new resources, but will be putting together a one-hour newscast using staff they already have for their half-hour supper show and nationally produced items that cover national and international news.
Resources from the nationally televised Canada Now program, produced in Vancouver, will go toward a new pilot in "news integration," which will combine resources to cover stories on TV, radio, the internet, wireless and other technologies.
Canada Now host Ian Hanomansing will co-anchor the hour-long show in Vancouver.
CBC bureaus across the country will be revamped following Vancouver.
"What we want to build here is the local news service of the 21st century — a news service designed from the beginning to run on all platforms simultaneously," CBC Vice President of English Television Richard Stursberg said from Vancouver during the presentation.
The new integrated service is being called myCBC and will include more opportunities for viewer, reader and listener comments and for users to select the news they want.
'Civic journalism' to solicit public input
Vancouver will also be the first CBC news bureau to pioneer "civic journalism," in which citizens can upload video or images of news events to the CBC.
The CBC has yet to determine how it will vet and use images and information from its viewers and listeners.
However, the BBC and CNN have already begun to experiment with this form of citizen journalism. The BBC, for example, used images forwarded by cellphone users to broadcast up-to-the-minute information of what was happening in parts of London during last year's bombings.
Vancouver could launch new technologies in civic journalism as early as April 2007, with a formal launch planned for September. They will be introduced across the country after being tested on the West Coast.
CBC will spend another $1.5 million on new training and $3-4 million on developing new platforms, Stursberg said, but no other resources have yet been allocated for the restructuring.
CBC eventually plans to have a single news operation in each region for radio, TV and online.
This should help create distinct voices for each region, similar to the distinct formats used on local radio programs, said Jane Chalmers, vice-president of English radio.
"Communities across Canada are all distinct. We want a broader range of perspective between newscasts in different regions," she said.
'Beverly Hills Cop IV' announced
Eddie Murphy is set to his role as Axel Foley in a fourth installment of "Beverly Hills Cop," Variety reports.
"Beverly Hills Cop IV" will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, whose credits include "Constantine," "Four Brothers" and "Derailed."
"Axel Foley is one of the great action-comedy characters, a character that Eddie loves. I'm lucky enough to help bring it back," di Bonaventura told Variety. "This genre is missing from the landscape."
The 1984 original earned $234 million in the U.S. alone, and instantly made Murphy a superstar. Three years later, a sequel garnered $153 million.
The third "Beverly Hills Cop" film, however, racked in a relatively meagre $44 million at the box office -- well short of its $50 million budget.
So far, there's no word on a full cast or when the new "Cop" film would go into production.
Murphy will be seen next in "Dreamgirls" with Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles. The film hits Canadian theatres on Christmas Day.
Lindsay Lohan As Stevie Nicks?
Lindsay Lohan could soon be joining the ranks of Hollywood actresses playing famous singers on-screen.
Life & Style magazine says the Mean Girls star is said to be the front-runner to play Stevie Nicks in an upcoming biography about the mystical songbird.
After Reese Witherspoon's Oscar-win playing June Carter Cash in last year's Walk the Line and an upcoming film about Janice Joplin to be played by Zooey Deschanel, it's no wonder the former teen-actress wants to put her money where her mouth is.
With a proven set of vocal chords as heard on her 2004 debut album (she co-wrote the single "Rumors" - the same name as Nick's former band Fleetwood Mac's 1977 hit album), Lohan might just sing her way right into the starring role.
"She feels like she's found a dream role in a story about Stevie Nicks at the height of Fleetwood Mac's fame." says one insider.
"Lindsay loves the music of that era, and people have told her she has the same distinctive gravelly voice as Nicks."
BitTorrent Goes Legit
Paramount, Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox are expected to join Warner Bros. in providing movies over the Internet via BitTorrent, the video web service that they once universally scorned, the Los Angeles Times Times reported on Wednesday.
As part of the deal, BitTorrent has agreed to use filtering software to prevent pirated content from going out over its service.
However, the newspaper indicated, analysts generally believe that the switch-over from an outlet for pirated versions of movies to one where users must pay a fee to receive them is likely to fail; it noted that similar Internet-based movie-download services are struggling.
Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research, told the Times: "The problem is consumers are not convinced that paying for and downloading video is worth it. ... The other problem is it doesn't end up on the TV set. The mechanisms that do get it to the TV, like DVD burning, are not quite what they need to be."
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart on Tuesday launched a new service that allows anyone who buys a DVD copy of certain features to download a copy of it onto their computer or portable digital device. The additional charge will be $2-4 dollars.
Wiggles' lead singer to stop performing
SYDNEY, Australia - The lead singer of the hugely popular children's group The Wiggles announced Thursday he will stop performing because of illness.
In a video-recorded statement, Greg Page said he had been diagnosed with a chronic condition called orthostatic intolerance.
"It's not a life-threatening condition by any means, but it is one that's going to be with me for the rest of my life," said Page, 34, who is known for bright yellow T-shirt. "It means that I'll no longer be able to sing and dance as I want to, and as a result I've decided to stop performing with The Wiggles."
Orthostatic intolerance is a little-understood disorder that causes dizziness, fatigue and nausea.
Page, who helped found The Wiggles in 1991, handed his yellow T-shirt over to his understudy, Sam Moran, who has been performing with the group for more than a decade as a backup singer and dancer.
"I'll miss being a part of The Wiggles very much, but this is the right decision because it will allow me to focus on managing my health," Page said.
Page has been battled health troubles since undergoing a double hernia operation last December. He withdrew from the group's U.S. tour in June after suffering repeated fainting spells and bouts of lethargy.
His fellow band members said they were sad and disappointed by the news at a media conference in the western city of Perth, where they were set to launch an Australian tour.
"It's very surreal that Greg's not going to be with us, very sad," said Blue Wiggle Anthony Field. "I know Greg loved doing the shows, it's just that he can't physically do it anymore."
Field, Page and the group's Red Wiggle, Murray Cook, met while studying early childhood education at Sydney's Macquarie University. They enlisted their fourth member, Purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt, and The Wiggles were born.
The group was rated by Business Review Magazine as Australia's top-earning entertainer last year, ahead of actors Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. The four men in brightly colored T-shirts, accompanied by a cast of characters including Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog, grossed $39 million last year.
The group has franchised its enormously popular recipe to several non-English speaking countries, including Taiwan.
Nickelback, Blige lead Billboard award finalists
NEW YORK (Billboard) - The past 12 months have been particularly good for one Canadian rock band, three Nashville upstarts, a once-imprisoned southern rapper and an R&B diva in the throes of a major comeback.
Now, Nickelback, Rascal Flatts, T.I. and Mary J. Blige are being recognized for their achievements as finalists in a leading five categories each for the 2006 Billboard Music Awards.
The 17th annual honors will be handed out December 4 live on Fox (for East Coast viewers) from Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena. The show will boast performances by Janet Jackson, the Killers, Gwen Stefani, Fergie, the Fray, Mary J. Blige and Ludacris featuring Pharrell and Young Jeezy.
The hard-touring Nickelback is up for artist of the year and rock artist of the year, as well as duo/group of the year. Its 2005 release "All the Right Reasons" will vie for album of the year and rock album of the year. The set has sold 4 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Rascal Flatts, which owns the second-highest selling album of 2006 with "Me and My Gang," is a finalist for artist of the year, duo/group of the year and country artist of the year. "Gang" is also up for country album of the year.
Rapper T.I. is up for R&B/hip-hop artist of the year, male R&B/hip-hop artist of the year, rap artist of the year, R&B/hip-hop album of the year and rap album of the year ("King").
Blige, meanwhile, earned finalist nods in the female artist, R&B/hip-hop artist, female R&B/hip-hop artist, R&B/hip-hop album and R&B/hip-hop single categories. Her 2005 album "The Breakthrough" has been one of this year's most consistent sellers, having shifted 2.6 million copies to date.
Among the other multiple award finalists are Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Jamie Foxx, Kenny Chesney and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sean Paul. In addition, Tony Bennett with receive Century Award, Billboard's highest honor for creative achievement.
Billboard Music Award winners are determined by performance on Billboard's weekly charts.
`Departed' stays put, `Flags' flagging
LOS ANGELES - Timing isn't everything when it comes to the Academy Awards — but it helps.
Two big fall films — Martin Scorsese's box-office success "The Departed" and Clint Eastwood's faltering "Flags of Our Fathers" — are bookends for the benefits and hazards of releasing acclaimed films early in awards season, when they could either get a jump on front-runner status or be forgotten come Oscar time.
Driven by glowing reviews and word-of-mouth that it's a return to Scorsese's old mobster form, the cops-and-gangsters epic "The Departed" opened the first week in October and has shot past $100 million at the box office, becoming the director's biggest hit ever.
The World War II Iwo Jima saga "Flags of Our Fathers" followed two weeks later with similarly positive reviews. But it opened with modest audiences and has limped to a $33 million return, about a third of the eventual haul of Eastwood's last two movies, best-picture nominee "Mystic River" and best-picture winner "Million Dollar Baby."
Two months into its run, "The Departed" still is drawing fair-sized crowds, coming in at No. 15 on last weekend's box-office chart. Meantime, "Flags of Our Fathers" already has dropped out of the top 20.
Not that box-office receipts are or should be a gauge for a film's Oscar merits. But everybody likes to back a winner, Oscar voters included, and commercial underachievers often end up fallen soldiers come nominations morning.
As good and ambitious a film as it is, "Flags of Our Fathers" now has the stench of a noble failure. Why audiences largely have passed on the film is a puzzle, though perhaps its grim, realistic combat footage is too painful a reminder of the military quagmire in Iraq.
"Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" debuted in limited release in December and rode a wave of accolades into wider release as Oscar season heated up, the awards attention feeding their box-office performance, their commercial success in turn polishing their Oscar glow.
Would "Flags of Our Fathers" have fared better following the same release pattern? We'll never know.
On the other hand, "The Departed" cruises toward the Oscar nominations Jan. 23 looking like a movie that's in for the long haul, like such best-picture winners as "American Beauty" or Eastwood's "Unforgiven," which both came out in late summer or early fall.
Throughout the year, Hollywood executives brood over the best time to release their films to maximize their commercial prospects. Decisions over timing are especially tough late in the year, when studios release the bulk of their prestige films, adult-oriented dramas whose financial fortunes may climb or crash depending on how the movies fare in the Oscar derby.
Best-picture nominations and wins can extend the shelf life of a movie in theaters for weeks or even months, adding tens of millions of dollars to its final take. The trouble is: Everyone's chasing the same dollars and the same awards, leaving theaters overloaded with films that people do not have the time or energy to see.
The deluge is at its worst in December, the month that conventional wisdom dictates is prime time to release awards contenders.
It's the last-shall-be-first philosophy, the notion that the 5,800 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have short attention spans and will not recollect anything they saw way back in September, October or November when it comes time to cast Oscar ballots.
"Shakespeare in Love" swooped in back in December 1998 to bump off early front-runner "Saving Private Ryan" for best picture. Other December arrivals that took the top Oscar include "A Beautiful Mind," "Chicago" and, of course, "Million Dollar Baby."
But exceptions abound. "Gladiator" was released in the spring, 10 months before the Oscars, and "The Silence of the Lambs" came out a year before the ceremony, yet both took the best-picture prize.
At the Oscars last March, virtually everyone expected December release "Brokeback Mountain" to win. In one of the biggest Oscar upsets ever, "Crash" — released the previous May — came away with best picture.
In the awards autopsy that followed, analysts talked about "Brokeback Mountain" "peaking" too soon, performing well commercially and dominating earlier awards but waning at the finish, when people were tired of hearing about the gay-cowboy romance and were looking for a best-picture alternative.
A few years ago, the Oscar ceremony was moved up to late February, about a month earlier than before, shortening the awards season and making the year-end dash even more of a scramble as studios jockeyed their films to find the right slot to catch the most critical attention.
Like "The Departed" and "Flags of Our Fathers," more films have come sooner in the fall to avoid the Christmas rush and try to get a leg up on the competition. "Brokeback Mountain" aside, it's tough to cut into the momentum of a film that gets in early and hangs tough.
That's not to say "The Departed" is a favorite at this point. After a brilliant first two acts, the film meanders through its closing chapter, concluding with abrupt and even repetitive violence.
It's a viable best-picture contender, and "Flags of Our Fathers" could suddenly re-ignite if it catches a wave during the crush of honors from critics groups and other Hollywood prizes announced in December.
As a nice reminder of "Flags of Our Fathers," Eastwood's companion film — "Letters From Iwo Jima," telling the story of the Pacific battle from the perspective of Japanese troops defending the island — has been bumped up to Dec. 20 release, making it eligible for the Oscars.
"Letters From Iwo Jima" had been scheduled for February, but arriving a month before Oscar nominations come out, it could call renewed attention to "Flags of Our Fathers," underscoring Eastwood's remarkable achievement of delivering two epic war films just two months apart.
Then, of course, the spirited "Dreamgirls" — starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy and "American Idol" finalist Jennifer Hudson in a scene-stealing role — could pull a "Chicago" as another musical arriving in December and knocking off all the earlier contenders.
In the end, it would be nice to think that the best film will win, and all the machinations over when to put the movies out are just empty gestures by the Hollywood suits.
Reports: The Wiggles' lead singer may quit
SYDNEY, Australia - The hugely popular children's group The Wiggles is expected this week to announce the departure of its lead singer because of a serious illness, media reports said Wednesday.
The Australian supergroup has reportedly scheduled a press conference for Thursday in the western city of Perth to make a "major announcement relating to members of the group," according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Associated Press and the online edition of Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The reports said the group was likely to announce the departure of the "Yellow Wiggle," Greg Page, who has been frequently absent from touring since undergoing a double hernia operation in December.
The 34-year-old known for his bright yellow T-shirt has been undergoing medical treatment since June after experiencing fainting spells and lethargy, the reports said.
Calls to the group's publicist were not immediately returned Wednesday.
The Wiggles were Australia's top-earning entertainers last year, ahead of No. 2 AC/DC and No. 3 Nicole Kidman. The four men in brightly colored T-shirts, accompanied by a cast of characters including Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog, grossed $39 million last year.
Page, who was replaced by an understudy when he pulled out of The Wiggles' U.S. tour in July, reportedly said he needed to rest and seek medical advice for the fainting spells.
"I have had numerous bouts of this over the past eight months but they are getting more frequent, and more concerning," he was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph. "So I have decided that I must go home, rest and seek further medical advice to assure myself that I will be OK for future tours."
Publicist Dianna O'Neill told The Sydney Morning Herald that doctors had not been able to identify Page's illness.
Page helped found The Wiggles in 1991 after he and two other members met while studying early childhood education at Sydney's Macquarie University.
The group has franchised its enormously popular recipe to several non-English speaking countries, including Taiwan.
Kid Rock angry over Borat gag
PAMELA Anderson's estranged husband Kid Rock was reportedly furious with the star over her appearance in the Borat movie.
Anderson, who has filed for divorce from the musician after just four months of marriage, had a cameo role in the hit film as the fictional Kazakh journalist's dream woman.
Borat, played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, falls in love with the actress after seeing an old episode of Baywatch and drives across America to propose to her.
Unlike most of Cohen's other targets, Anderson was in on the joke.
But Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, did not find it funny, according to the New York Post.
Universal Studio chief Ron Meyer's held a screening of Borat at his house for a group which included the couple two weeks ago, the newspaper reported.
"It was the first time Bob had seen the movie, and, well, he didn't like it," a friend of Anderson told the Post.
"Bob started screaming at Pam, saying she had humiliated herself."
The friend added: "It was very embarrassing. Pam thought he could have a sense of humour about the movie.
"She was in on the gag from the very beginning and loved doing the movie.
"And on the eve of what was supposed to be a very positive thing, he made it an awful night."
Rock's spokesman did not return the Post's calls, while Anderson's manager declined to comment.
Yesterday it emerged that both stars had filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
Anderson, 39, wrote on her website: "Divorce. Yes, it's true. Unfortunately impossible."
Earlier this year she suffered a miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy.
Friends of the couple expressed support – and in some cases surprise – after the news.
Denise Richards, who has just finished filming Blonde and Blonder with Anderson in Vancouver, told People: "My thoughts are with her and her boys.
"Pam is a very strong woman and will get through this difficult time."
Traver Rains and Richie Rich, designers who made Anderson's wedding dress, said they were caught off guard by news of the divorce.
"Maybe it's a spat," Rich told the magazine.
"They're so in love, and I'd be surprised if it was over forever. I don't think she'd let her prince go."
He added that he spoke to the actress recently and she showed no signs that anything was wrong in the marriage.
Plans for ABBA Museum Unveiled in Sweden
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- An ABBA museum dedicated to the music, clothing and history of the legendary Swedish pop group and its four members will open in Stockholm in 2008, organizers said Tuesday.
The interactive museum will feature original outfits and instruments used by the group, handwritten song lyrics, a display of different awards, and "all other things we can think of and find," said Ulf Westman, an event consultant who is spearheading the project with his wife Ewa Wigenheim-Westman.
The museum will also feature a studio where visitors can record their own ABBA songs, and an interactive experience that "will recreate the feeling of being at Wembley stadium and seeing ABBA live with 50,000 others," Westman said.
Organizers are still searching for a suitable location for the museum, but said it will open somewhere in central Stockholm during 2008.
Wigenheim-Westman said the idea was inspired by the Beatles museum in London, but that it took nearly two years to convince the former ABBA members -- Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad -- that it was a good idea.
"It is nice that someone feels compelled to take on our musical history," the four members said in a joint statement. "We think this will be a fun and swinging museum to visit."
The band members will donate the material for the exhibits, but will otherwise not be involved in the project, which will be funded by company sponsors, Westman said.
Stockholm's mayor Kristina Axen Olin said the museum -- which is expected to draw 500,000 visitors a year -- will make the Swedish capital a more popular tourist attraction for the millions of ABBA fans around the world.
"As a Stockholmer, this is what you have been missing," Axen Ohlin said at a news conference to unveil the plan. "We are convinced that this is important both for Stockholm citizens and for marketing the city."
ABBA is one of the most successful bands in history, having sold more than 370 million albums. While the group has not performed together since 1982, it continues to sell nearly 3 million records a year and the musical "Mamma Mia!" -- written by Andersson and Ulvaeus and based on the group's hits -- has been seen by more than 27 million people around the world.
'Sunshine,' 'Nelson' lead indie field
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The road-trip romp Little Miss Sunshine and the gritty classroom drama Half Nelson led contenders Tuesday for the Spirit Awards honoring independent films, each earning five nominations, including best picture.
Other best-picture nominees were American Gun, a drama about the proliferation of firearms in America; The Dead Girl, a thriller centered on a serial killer's female victims; and Pan's Labyrinth, a Spanish-language tale about a girl's dark fantasy life in Fascist Spain.
Maverick filmmaker Robert Altman, who died last week, earned a best-director nomination for his final film, A Prairie Home Companion. The new James Bond, Daniel Craig, received a supporting-male actor nomination for the Truman Capote drama Infamous, in which he plays a death-row inmate.
The Spirit Awards, formerly known as the Independent Spirit Awards, honor films produced on comparatively small budgets of less than $20 million. The awards will be presented Feb. 24, the day before the Academy Awards.
Little Miss Sunshine, the summer mini-hit about a dysfunctional family's comic trek to a child's beauty pageant, also earned two supporting-actor nominations, for Alan Arkin and Paul Dano. Stars Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell were shut out in the lead-acting categories.
The film also was nominated for best director (husband and wife Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) and best first screenplay (Michael Arndt).
Half Nelson earned lead-acting nominations for Ryan Gosling, who plays an inspiring inner-city teacher with a drug problem, and Shareeka Epps, who plays a promising student who becomes both his pupil and counselor.
Ryan Fleck earned two nominations for Half Nelson, for best director and first screenplay, co-written with Anna Boden.
Other nominees for best female lead were Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration ; Elizabeth Reaser, Sweet Land ; Michelle Williams, Land of Plenty ; and Robin Wright Penn, Sorry, Haters.
Joining Gosling in the best male lead category were Aaron Eckhart, Thank You for Smoking ; Edward Norton, The Painted Veil ; Ahmad Razvi, Man Push Cart ; and Forest Whitaker, American Gun.
Supporting-actress nominees: Melonie Diaz, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints ; Marcia Gay Harden, American Gun ; Mary Beth Hurt, The Dead Girl ; Frances McDormand, Friends with Money ; and Amber Tamblyn, Stephanie Daley.
Along with Arkin, Craig and Dano, supporting-actor nominees were Raymond J. Barry, Steel City, and Channing Tatum, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.
The Spirit Award nominations mark the beginning of a flurry of key awards announcements leading up to Jan. 23's Oscar nominations. December brings Golden Globe nominations, best-of-the-year picks from major critics groups and other film honors.
Since they honor independent and sometimes obscure films, the Spirit Awards often do not reflect the overall field that will compete for the Oscars and other high-profile Hollywood awards. Last year, though, many key Spirit and Oscar nominees overlapped, including Capote,Brokeback Mountain and Good Night, and Good Luck.
Nominees were chosen by members of the non-profit cinema groups Film Independent and the Independent Film Project.
New Releases, Nov. 28: Incubus, Clipse, Mark Kozelek
Incubus "Light Grenades"
The alt-metal act returns with its follow-up to 2004's "A Crow Left of the Murder."
"Light Grenades," the band's sixth studio effort, was produced by Brendan O'Brien, the studio wiz known for his work with the likes of Pearl Jam and Korn. The first single from the album is "Anna Molly."
Incubus will support "Light Grenades" with a 25-city tour that is set to kick off Jan. 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The trek currently stretches through a Feb. 11 date at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.
* * *
Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury"
After numerous delays, the Virginia-based hip-hop duo known as the Clipse is finally set to drop "Hell Hath No Fury."
The record--which follows 2002's "Lord Willin'"--features a number of guest stars. Notably, Pharrell Williams shows up on "Mr. Me Too" and Slim Thug makes an appearance on "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)."
* * *
Mark Kozelek "Little Drummer Boy Live"
Mark Kozelek, a singer/songwriter best known for his work with the Red House Painters, furthers his solo career with the release of this two-disc, in-concert set.
"Little Drummer Boy Live" features 20 tunes taken from recent shows in both North America and Europe. The set includes covers of songs originally performed by the likes of The Cars, AC/DC and Modest Mouse.
* * *
Jamiroquai "High Times: Singles 1992-2006"
This 19-track collection features all of the best-known songs from funky dance act Jamiroquai. The set includes such fan favorites as "When You Gonna Learn," "Canned Heat," "Too Young to Die," "Cosmic Girl" and "Blow Your Mind." The album also offers two new tracks: "Runaway" and "Radio."
* * *
Ying Yang Twins "Chemically Imbalanced"
The duo that brought us "Wait (The Whisper Song)" and "Bedroom Boom" is back with "Chemically Imbalanced." The record includes the single "Dangerous," which features Wyclef Jean.
* * *
Other new releases:
April Wine, "Roughly Speaking" (April Wine)
Crime in Choir, "Trumpery Metier" (Gold Standard Labora)
Faithless, "To All New Arrivals" (Sony)
Figgs, "Follow Jean Through the Sea" (Gern Blandsten)
Aled Jones, "You Raise Me Up: The Best of Aled Jones" (Universal)
The King's Singers, "Landscape & Time" (Signum)
Little Diesel, "No Lie" (Telstar)
Pilot Speed, "Into the West" (Wind-Up)
Reset, "No Limits No Worries" (Union Local 2112)
Max Richter, "Songs From Before" (Fat Cat)
Rick Springfield, "Catch Me If You Can" (Renaissance)
Kate Taylor, "It's in There" (Sony)
Too $hort, "Mack of the Century: Too $horts Greatest Hits" (Jive)
Various Artists, "Cream Anthems 2007" (Cream)
Young Buck, "Buck Tha World" (Interscope)
No Seinfeld for You?
Jerry, Elaine and George could end up paying for Michael Richards' rant.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson called for a boycott Monday of the latest Seinfeld DVD, a way of exacting economic punishment for Richards' racist meltdown.
In a bit of bad timing for Jerry Seinfeld, et al., the seventh season of Seinfeld was released as a four-disc set last week, just as Richards' caught-on-video, Nov. 17 Los Angeles comedy club raving was made public.
The new Seinfeld package, featuring much quoted episodes such as "The Soup Nazi" ("No soup for you!"), was Amazon.com's 11th-biggest-selling DVD on Monday and was expected to be a big stocking-stuffer for Christmas.
Richards, 57, won three Emmys for playing the wired Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, which ran from 1990-98 on NBC.
In the last week, Richards has become better known for hurling the N-word at black hecklers after attempting a lynching joke during the same riff and, later, for apologizing—or trying to, anyway.
"My best friends were African-Americans," Richards said Sunday on Jackson's Premiere Radio Network show.
The Jackson gig was the latest in Richards' reaching-out effort to African-American men who have run for president. Before the radio appearance, the actor was said to have placed contrite phone calls to Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton. There was no word if Alan Keyes, a 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential candidate, was sought out.
On his show, Jackson said he hoped the Richards "crisis" would create an opportunity.
On Monday, the civil-rights leader joined others in calling on everyone—blacks, whites, Seinfeld players, presumably included—to refrain from using the N-word, on stage and off.
"Its roots are rooted in hatred and pain and degradation," Jackson told a Los Angeles press conference. "And whether it's hatred toward African-Americans or whether it's self-hatred, a concession toward it is still wrong."
At the Laugh Factory, the Sunset Boulevard scene of Richards' off-the-rails routine, owner Jamie Masada announced Monday that the N-word would be banned at the club.
Masada called on Richards to donate millions to charities serving black neighborhoods and reiterated that the actor would remain barred from the Laugh Factory until he personally apologized to the patrons who bore the brunt of his racial epithets.
Last week, Frank McBride and Kyle Doss, the two men whose observations of Richards' act sent the performer into a racist rage, teamed up with camera-ready attorney Gloria Allred to seek out their own formal apology—and perhaps some judge-ordered financial compensation.
"It's not enough to say 'I'm sorry' on Letterman," Allred said.
Richards appeared on Letterman's Late Show on Nov. 20 to offer his first public apology. The mea culpa, which drew laughs from a confused studio audience, was criticized as not being enough.
In the Los Angeles Daily News, Najee Ali of Los Angeles' Project Islamic H.O.P.E. slammed the Letterman apology, which came on the same night as an appearance by scheduled guest Jerry Seinfeld, as "damage control in light of the DVD of the seventh season of Seinfeld."
Even Kenny Kramer, Seinfeld cocreator Larry David's former neighbor and inspiration for Cosmo Kramer, moved to distance himself from the actor who made his surname famous.
"In no way do I condone or endorse what Michael Richards said or did," Kramer said on his official Website. "It is really annoying, and sad, that people are saying that Kramer is a racist."
"Michael Richards ceased being Kramer eight years ago."
Richards has appeared infrequently on camera since Seinfeld ended. Per his new PR guru, the actor is now appearing regularly in a psychiatrist's office for counseling.
"I have been trying to get to the source of where that anger comes from," Richards said on Jackson's radio show.
According to Richards, he grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood and never attempted to find the fun in lynching until the infamous Laugh Factory routine.
"That's not an image I carry around every day, [that] every time I look at an African-American I think he should be upside down and hung from a tree," Richards told Jackson. "I have too much love for the African-American."
Richards also denied previously dropping the N-bomb.
"I haven't spoken like this to an African-American before," Richards said. "It's a first time for me to talk to an African-American like this."
In an entry on the Huffington Post, blogger Trey Ellis, who is black, advised Richards to stop apologizing, especially to the likes of Jackson and Sharpton.
"Calling up Jesse and Al as if they were the co-Popes of black folks is almost as dumb as your lame, racist onstage repartee," wrote Ellis.
According to Ellis, Richards should just wait for another celebrity to star in an embarrassing videotape.
"There is nothing you can do to win back black fans," Ellis wrote. "That ship has sailed."
Dyn-O-Mite! TV Land lists catchphrases
NEW YORK - Sometimes it takes only a word, or just a few, to become immortalized in television history. The TV Land cable network has compiled a list of the 100 greatest catchphrases in TV, from the serious — Walter Cronkite's nightly signoff "And that's the way it is" — to the silly: "We are two wild and crazy guys!"
The network will air a countdown special, "The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catch Phrases," over five days starting Dec. 11.
"We have found that television is such a huge part of baby boomers' DNA that it makes sense that so much of America's pop culture jargon has come from TV," said Larry Jones, TV Land president.
The greatest number of moments, 26, come from the 1970s. TV Land identified nine moments from this decade. Ten are from commercials, and 28 from comedies, including six from "Saturday Night Live."
In alphabetical order, TV Land's list:
_"Aaay" (Fonzie, "Happy Days")
_"And that's the way it is" (Walter Cronkite, "CBS Evening News")
_"Ask not what your country can do for you ..." (John F. Kennedy)
_"Baby, you're the greatest" (Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, "The Honeymooners")
_"Bam!" (Emeril Lagasse, "Emeril Live")
_"Book 'em, Danno" (Steve McGarrett, "Hawaii Five-O")
_"Come on down!" (Johnny Olson, "The Price is Right")
_"Danger, Will Robinson" (Robot, "Lost in Space")
_"De plane! De plane!" (Tattoo, "Fantasy Island")
_"Denny Crane" (Denny Crane, "Boston Legal")
_"Do you believe in miracles?" (Al Michaels, 1980 Winter Olympics)
_"D'oh!" (Homer Simpson, "The Simpsons")
_"Don't make me angry ..." (David Banner, "The Incredible Hulk")
_"Dyn-o-mite" (J.J., "Good Times")
_"Elizabeth, I'm coming!" (Fred Sanford, "Sanford and Son")
_"Gee, Mrs. Cleaver ..." (Eddie Haskell, "Leave it to Beaver")
_"God'll get you for that" (Maude, "Maude")
_"Good grief" (Charlie Brown, "Peanuts" specials)
_"Good night, and good luck" (Edward R. Murrow, "See It Now")
_"Good night, John Boy" ("The Waltons")
_"Have you no sense of decency?" (Joseph Welch to Sen. McCarthy)
_"Heh heh" (Beavis and Butt-head, "Beavis and Butthead")
_"Here it is, your moment of Zen" ( Jon Stewart, "The Daily Show")
_"Here's Johnny!" ( Ed McMahon, "The Tonight Show")
_"Hey now!" (Hank Kingsley, "The Larry Sanders Show")
_"Hey hey hey!" (Dwayne Nelson, "What's Happening!!")
_"Hey hey hey!" (Fat Albert, "Fat Albert")
_"Holy (whatever), Batman!" (Robin, "Batman")
_"Holy crap!" (Frank Barone, "Everybody Loves Raymond")
_"Homey don't play that!" (Homey the Clown, "In Living Color")
_"How sweet it is!" (Jackie Gleason, "The Jackie Gleason Show")
_"How you doin'?" (Joey Tribbiani, "Friends")
_"I can't believe I ate the whole thing" (Alka Seltzer ad)
_"I know nothing!" (Sgt. Schultz, "Hogan's Heroes")
_"I love it when a plan comes together" (Hannibal, "The A-Team")
_"I want my MTV!" (MTV ad)
_"I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl ..." (Larry, "Newhart")
_"I'm not a crook ..." ( Richard Nixon)
_"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" (Vicks Formula 44 ad)
_"I'm Rick James, bitch!" (Dave Chappelle as Rick James, "Chappelle's Show")
_"Is that your final answer?" ( Regis Philbin, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire")
_"It keeps going and going and going ..." (Energizer Batteries ad)
_"It takes a licking ..." (Timex ad)
_"Jane, you ignorant slut" ( Dan Aykroyd to Jane Curtin, "Saturday Night Live")
_"Just one more thing ..." (Columbo, "Columbo")
_"Let's be careful out there" (Sgt. Esterhaus, "Hill Street Blues")
_"Let's get ready to rumble!" (Michael Buffer, various sports events)
_"Live long and prosper" (Spock, "Star Trek")
_"Makin' whoopie" (Bob Eubanks, "The Newlywed Game")
_"Mom always liked you best" (Tommy Smothers, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour")
_"Never assume ..." (Felix Unger, "The Odd Couple")
_"Nip it!" (Barney Fife, "The Andy Griffith Show")
_"No soup for you!" (The Soup Nazi, "Seinfeld")
_"Norm!" ("Cheers")
_"Now cut that out!" (Jack Benny, "The Jack Benny Program")
_"Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" (Stan and Kyle, "South Park")
_"Oh, my nose!" (Marcia Brady, "The Brady Bunch")
_"One small step for man ..." (Neil Armstrong)
_"Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" (Grey Poupon ad)
_"Read my lips: No new taxes!" (George H.W. Bush)
_"Resistance is futile" (Picard as Borg, "Star Trek: The Next Generation")
_"Say good night, Gracie" (George Burns, "The Burns & Allen Show")
_"Schwing!" ( Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth, "Saturday Night Live")
_"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" (Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle)
_"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids" (Trix cereal ad)
_"Smile, you're on `Candid Camera'" ("Candid Camera")
_"Sock it to me" ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In")
_"Space, the final frontier ..." (Capt. Kirk, "Star Trek")
_"Stifle!" (Archie Bunker, "All in the Family")
_"Suit up!" (Barney Stinson, "How I Met Your Mother")
_"Tastes great! Less filling!" (Miller Lite beer ad)
_"Tell me what you don't like about yourself" (Dr. McNamara and Dr. Troy, "Nip/Tuck")
_"That's hot" ( Paris Hilton, "The Simple Life")
_"The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" (Jim McKay, "ABC's Wide World of Sports")
_"The tribe has spoken" (Jeff Probst, "Survivor")
_"The truth is out there" (Fox Mulder, "The X-Files")
_"This is the city ..." (Sgt. Joe Friday, "Dragnet")
_"Time to make the donuts" ("Dunkin' Donuts" ad)
_"Two thumbs up" (Siskel & Ebert, "Siskel & Ebert")
_"Up your nose with a rubber hose" (Vinnie Barbarino, "Welcome Back, Kotter")
_"We are two wild and crazy guys!" ( Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd as Czech playboys, "Saturday Night Live")
_"Welcome to the O.C., bitch" (Luke, "The O.C.")
_"Well, isn't that special?" (Dana Carvey as the Church Lady, "Saturday Night Live")
_"We've got a really big show!" (Ed Sullivan, "The Ed Sullivan Show")
_"Whassup?" (Budweiser ad)
_"What you see is what you get!" (Geraldine, "The Flip Wilson Show")
_"Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" (Arnold Drummond, "Diff'rent Strokes")
_"Where's the beef?" (Wendy's ad)
_"Who loves you, baby?" (Kojak, "Kojak")
_"Would you believe?" (Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart")
_"Yabba dabba do!" (Fred Flintstone, "The Flintstones")
_"Yada, yada, yada" ("Seinfeld")
_"Yeah, that's the ticket" ( Jon Lovitz as the pathological liar, "Saturday Night Live")
_"You eeeediot!" (Ren, "Ren & Stimpy")
_"You look mahvelous!" ( Billy Crystal as Fernando, "Saturday Night Live")
_"You rang?" (Lurch, "The Addams Family")
_"You're fired!" (Donald Trump, "The Apprentice")
_"You've got spunk ..." (Lou Grant, "The Mary Taylor Moore Show")
...Riders part ways with Barrett
Danny Barrett will not return as head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders next season, the CFL club announced on Monday.
At a news conference at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, General Manager Eric Tillman said the team would not be renewing Barrett's expiring contract, ending Barrett's seven-year tenure with Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Danny Barrett will not be back behind the bench next season.
"The decision that was made … it's one I've come to accept," said Barrett, who owns a career coaching record of 57-68-1. "You don't always have to agree with things but you have to accept things in life."
Led by Barrett, the Roughriders endured a difficult season in 2006, culminating in a 45-18 loss to the B.C. Lions in the Western Division final.
It marked the third time in four years the Roughriders reached the Western Division championship. However, the team has posted only one winning season and has not held a home playoff game during Barrett's time behind the bench.
After the Western final loss on Nov. 12, Barrett, whose contract expires at the end of December, pegged his chances of returning in 2007 at "50-50."
Tillman wanted to move in new direction
Tillman said he did consider bringing back Barrett for one more season, but in the end felt that it was time to go in another direction.
"In the final analysis I had to take emotion out of the equation and look at the internal turmoil that this organization has faced the last couple of years … I realized as much as I have affection and respect for Danny, that we had to either make a multi-year commitment or stabilize the ship."
It had been speculated that Tillman, who took over from the fired Roy Shivers in late August, had planned to make changes to the Roughriders coaching staff in the off-season.
At least publicly, Barrett had the support of his players, but many in the media had speculated that Tillman wanted to put a new stamp on the franchise.
Though Tillman did not name a replacement for Barrett at Monday's news conference, it's believed he's interested in hiring Kent Austin. The former Saskatchewan quarterback spent three seasons as the offensive co-ordinator for the Toronto Argonauts before being fired last August.
Kevin Smith: 'Degrassi' inspired 'Clerks' sequel
TORONTO (CP) - Filmmaker Kevin Smith's ardour for Canada's "Degrassi: The Next Generation" is well-documented - he's written and appeared in five episodes - but he has a new revelation: the CTV series prompted him to make a sequel to his beloved "Clerks."
"I was a huge fan of 'Degrassi High' and 'Degrassi Junior High' but when they kick-started 'Degrassi: The Next Generation,' I was like: 'Oh man, I don't know,"' Smith said in a recent interview to launch Tuesday's DVD release of "Clerks II."
"I wondered if they should leave well enough alone. Where's the wisdom in revisiting characters that people used to love? But then I finally saw 'Next Generation' and not only were they able to go back to the well with it, but they drew fresh water."
In fact, Smith says, Linda Schuyler and the creative team behind "Degrassi" were so triumphant in melding old characters with fresh blood and "Degrassi's" trademark cutting-edge storylines, it convinced him he could successfully revisit Dante, Randal and the rest of the "Clerks" gang.
"It was so inspiring that it really was largely responsible for me winding up doing 'Clerks II.' I thought if they can go back to those characters and find something new in them, I can do the same thing with mine."
"Clerks II" is indeed an affectionate and funny return to the convenience store slackers of the 1994 original - but this time they're in their 30s and grappling with typical thirtysomething angst over what to do with the rest of their lives, both personally and professionally.
"If 'Clerks' was a flick about what I felt it was like to be in my 20s, 'Clerks II' was a flick about what I felt it was like to be in my 30s and settling down," says Smith, the happily married father of a seven-year-old girl.
Fatherhood, he says, hasn't otherwise seriously affected his filmmaking - with the exception of "Jersey Girl," Smith's romantic comedy that featured Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in the frenzied midst of their ultimately doomed romance.
"If I didn't have a kid I probably wouldn't have written 'Jersey Girl' - I like to blame the kid, by the way, for anyone who didn't like the movie," he says with a laugh before adding ruefully: "I took a world of crap for that movie. If you read the reviews, a lot of people just faulted me for making the movie in the first place, and said it was the kind of movie that Dante and Randal would have made fun of in 'Clerks."'
The 2004 film was released at a time when the public's fascination with all things celebrity-related was moving into serious overdrive as "Bennifer" was routinely making headlines.
That continuing obsession with celebrity culture continues to puzzle Smith, but he thinks there might be an unexpected fringe benefit to the world's fixation on the private lives of stars.
"It's been formed by Sept. 11, I think, in terms of wouldn't you rather think about who Paris Hilton's screwing rather than when the first suitcase bomb is going to go off?" he says. "It's just a diversion - 'let's forget about the real problems and concentrate on stuff that means nothing."'
"Maybe the terrorists are watching the news as well, and they're all so fascinated by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes that they're not thinking about where to strike next. The celebrities that we mock so much - maybe they're the people who are saving our asses. Now that would be a great cosmic joke."
It would be an irony, in fact, that Dante and Randal would take great pleasure in discussing if they ever return to the big screen - something Smith is not ruling out.
"I could conceive of going back to Dante and Randal sometime in my mid-40s. If I had something to say about being in my 40s, I would totally think about it and I'd immediately think of Dante and Randal."
A return to "Degrassi," too, is something Smith dreams about. He played himself in a three-episode arc from Season 4 and then appeared in two more episodes last season. The sixth season of the show premieres Tuesday night on CTV.
"I don't know how they would fit me in logically again, but if they figure out a way I'd do it again in a heartbeat," he says. "I did say at one point let's skew the reality even further and say that I've given up filmmaking and I've decided to teach at Degrassi, so I could be on every episode - but they didn't go for that."
Christmas DVD gift guide
Boffo Box Sets
- Superman: Ultimate Collector's Edition
For the 'I-want-it-all!' fan. Housed in a burnished silver metal box, this super-sensational set has 14 discs, a vintage comic repro and a coupon for five posters. On disc are seven editions of the five movies: Superman The Movie, the 1978 original and its 2000 extended version; Superman II, the original and Richard Donner's new revised cut (the movie he would have made if he hadn't been dumped for Richard Lester); Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (the series was dying and Christopher Reeve was looking ridiculous); plus Bryan Singer's franchise revival, Superman Returns. Among extras is doomed George Reeves in Superman And the Mole-Men (1951) plus all of Fleischer's gaudy 1940s cartoons. Release date is Nov. 28.
- King Kong: Deluxe Extended Edition Gift Set:
Peter Jackson loves serving his fans, and cashing in. So he repeats his Lord Of The Rings pattern with a Deluxe Extended Edition, although only 13 new minutes have been edited in. Another 38 minutes is in the deleted scenes section, along with a truly exhaustive set of extras. Like the Ring cycle, the three-disc Kong set is available in a boxed Gift Set, which offers the three-disc DVD set plus a WETA statuette of Kong climbing the Empire State building with Ann Darrow clutched tenderly in his hand. Available now.
- M*A*S*H: The Martinis & Medicine Collection
The entire M*A*S*H season-by-season series was completed this month. So it was inevitable that one of the classic American TV shows would then repackage itself into another of those total immersion sets for people who did not buy the individual seasons. This spectacular box, in a pseudo military design, contains 36 discs with everything anyone could want, including all 11 seasons on 33 discs, two discs of extra extras, plus Robert Altman's terrific Sutherland-Gould movie that started it all in 1970. War is hell. But M*A*S*H is heaven-sent, especially in one kit bag. Available now.
- Six Feet Under: The Complete Series 2001-2005
Like Larry Gelbart's pioneering M*A*S*H, Alan Ball's droll series made an impact beyond the sitcom zeitgeist.
"Why do people have to die?" a mourner asks.
"To make life important!"
So it is that this dirt-brown box set, topped with fuzzy fake grass and a tombstone plaque, contains everything related to the series' five seasons.
It is presented in memoriam and cherished by hardcore fans. Available now.
FOR OLDTIMERS (AND YOUTH SMART ENOUGH TO LOOK TO THE PAST)
- The Rogers & Hammerstein Collection
Their musicals harkened to a bygone era, and now the musicals themselves are quaintly old-fashioned. So what? That is their charm. "Somebody has to keep saying that there are beautiful meadows bathed in sunlight," Oscar Hammerstein II says in a vintage interview. This box set contains six R&H classic titles, each in a two-disc version containing strong extras: State Fair (both the 1945 and 1962 versions), Oklahoma!, Carousel (both the 1956 version and Fritz Lang's dark French original, a surreal 1934 drama based on the Hungarian play), plus South Pacific, The King And I and, of course, The Sound Of Music. Available now.
- Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection
Unlike Frank Capra, Sturges has been (unfairly) moved to the fringes. But he was a sometimes savage, always incisive satirist who rattled the cage of Americana with screwball comedies and political dramas. This primo seven-disc set offers seven titles from 1940-44, four of which make their DVD debut. Included are classics, such as Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story and The Lady Eve. Just as worthy is the lesser known gem, The Great McGinty, about a Depression hobo who ascends to the state governor's office by collaborating with crooks.
The other titles: Christmas In July, The Great Moment and the brilliant, frenetic, war-aftermath film, Hail The Conquering Hero. Available now.
- The Premiere Frank Capra Collection
The stylish Capra raised populism to a fine art in American cinema. This absolutely essential, six-disc collection has a major doc on his career and five of his all-star classics of the '30s: American Madness (underrated and similar in theme to It's A Wonderful Life), It Happened One Night (spectacularly won Oscars for picture, actor, actress and director), Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
Capra is a genre as well as a legend and his son, Frank Jr., helps to explain the legacy. Release date is Dec. 5.
- Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition
On seven discs in a sublime box set, we get everything this Scottish-born Canadian genius ever did at the National Film Board Of Canada. Even experiments. No fan of classic animation, nor of Canadian cinema and heritage, nor of surrealistic film art, should leave this unwatched. If any proof is needed, first watch his loopy Blinkity Blank, then the live-action, Oscar-winning classic, Neighbours (as a caustic comment on aggression and war, it is as relevant now as it was in 1952). You'll quickly catch McLaren fever and have to see more. Available now.
ALSO AVAILABLE:
The Screen Legend Collection
Rock Hudson
Bing Crosby
Cary Grant
FOR PUCKHEADS (AND DISCERNING JOCKS)
- The Rocket: Maurice Richard
Even for Leafs fans, Charles Biname's drama about the hard life and triumphant times of the fiercely driven NHL star is fascinating. As the heart & soul of Montreal Canadiens hockey history, Richard also represented the rise of working class Francophones in an era of English paternalism or racism -- and that's all here. With subtle craft, actor Roy Dupuis captures The Rocket's essence and the DVD extends the mythology with a tribute doc. Available now.
- Canada Russia '72
Still the greatest spectacle in Canadian sports history, and essential to how Canada defined itself for a generation, the 1972 Summit Series led to this surprisingly good, epic-length drama. The three-disc DVD set, housed in a cool red-metal case, offers two versions. One is the broadcast cut at 184 minutes; the second is T.W. Peacocke's slightly extended version at 193 minutes. The third disc has limited extras (missing and missed is a stats packs and actor-player bios). Available now.
- Torino 2006: Canada's Quest For Success
It is big on sappy sentiment and official gear ads, but it is still packed with info and terrific highlights. This six-disc set covers Canada's participation at the Winter Olympics, where Canadians earned a record 24 medals, including seven gold. The DVDs focus on each day's events, celebrating winners and listing losers, with special intense coverage of hockey and curling. Offbeat, humanizing insights include backstage moments with Jennifer Heil -- and her giggles after getting the call from the PM for winning her gold. Available now.
ANIMATION MADNESS
- South Park: The Hits: Volume 1
Included are 10 of Stone & Parker's faves, plus four bonus episodes and the infamous damned-for-all-eternity short, The Spirit Of Christmas. Heck, I'd buy this for film buff just to share the charming (if twisted) riffs in The Return Of the Fellowship Of The Ring To The Two Towers, not to mention Trapped In The Closet and the sicko Scott Tenorman Must Die.
- Beavis And Butt-Head: The Mike Judge Collection
Speaking of sicko, Judge gives us three volumes (nine discs) of his favourite juvenile nonsense and offers his movie, Beavis And Butt-Head Do America, as a Special Collector's Edition bonus. Available now.
- Nick Picks: Volumes 1-3
Nickelodeon packages three DVDs into a box set full of excerpts from various cartoon shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants and his prehistoric, cave-sponge episode, SpongeBob B.C. Other shows sampled range from All Grown Up to Rugrats. Available now.
JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
A selection of major titles set for release leading up to the holidays:
NOVEMBER 28
Superman Returns
Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition
Clerks II
A Star Is Born (1976)
The Ant Bully
DECEMBER 5
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season
Miami Vice: Unrated Director's Cut
1900: Special Collector's Edition
Charlie Chan Collection: Volume 2
DECEMBER 12
James Bond: Ultimate Edition: Volumes 3 & 4
The Devil Wears Prada
Talladega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe: Four-Disc Extended Edition
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals
DECEMBER 19
Little Miss Sunshine
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Invincible
Lady In The Water
Step Up
DECEMBER 26
The Black Dahlia
The Last Kiss
The Descent
Jackass: Number Two: Unrated Edition
Dane Cook's Tougasm
Princes to organize Wembley concert to honour Diana
Princes William and Harry plan to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of their mother, Diana, with a massive concert featuring pop superstars, according to several British newspapers.
Both the Sunday Mirror and the Mail say the brothers are arranging the event themselves. They said it is to take place in London's Wembley Stadium on July 1, 2007 — on what would have been the 46th birthday of the late Princess of Wales.
"We're considering a number of options on how best to commemorate next year," said Paddy Harverson, a spokesperson for Prince Charles.
"William and Harry will make a decision in due course."
The stadium can hold 90,000 people. Proceeds from the concert, expected to be shown live on television, are said to be going to several charities supported by Diana.
Elton John, a friend of Diana who performed Candle In The Wind at her funeral, is expected to be invited. Other artists who are likely to take part include Beyonce, George Michael and Kylie Minogue, according to the Sunday Times.
Diana, boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, died when their car smashed into a concrete wall in a tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. At the time, Diana had already been divorced from Charles for a year.
A French judge ruled in 1999 the crash was an accident and concluded Paul had been drinking and taking prescription drugs as well as driving too fast.
However, conspiracy theories kept cropping up and a British inquest into their deaths is expected to begin in the new year.
Lord John Stevens, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police, has been investigating the crash for two years and will table his report at the inquest.
Fan restores 'Christmas Story' house
CLEVELAND (AP) — Ralphie Parker and Brian Jones know what it's like to want something.
For Ralphie, the object of desire was an official Red Ryder, carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. (Go ahead, say it, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid.") For Jones, the gotta-have-it item was Ralphie's house — the one in A Christmas Story, the quirky film that's found a niche alongside holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.
Jones has restored the three-story, wood-frame house to its appearance in the movie and will open it for tours beginning Saturday. His hope is that it will become a tourist stop alongside the city's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other destinations.
He's unsure whether he'll make enough money to cover his $500,000 investment, but as sure as a kid's tongue will stick to a frozen flag pole, he's committed to the project.
"I just want people to come and enjoy it as I have," said Jones, a 30-year-old former Navy lieutenant.
A Christmas Story wasn't a big hit when released in 1983 but repeat TV airings and, in recent years, a 24-hour run on TBS starting Christmas Eve have made its story of boy's quest to get a BB gun for Christmas as infectious as the bespectacled Ralphie's eager grin.
"It just kind of sets the mood. In the Jones household, it's on all day once the marathon comes on," said Jones, who's married with an 8-month-old daughter.
Jones first saw the movie in the late 1980s and he and his parents became fans.
When the San Diego resident's dream of a becoming a Navy pilot like his father was denied because of his eyesight, his parents sent him a package to lift his spirits. Marked "FRAGILE" on the outside, it contained a leg lamp his parents built to look just like the one received by Ralphie's father, who proudly displayed it in the living room window, boasting, "It's a major award!"
Jones' mom noted that he could probably make a business out of selling them. In 2003, he started doing just that.
"I tooled together 500 lamps in my 1,000-square-foot condo in San Diego and sold them all in the first year," Jones said.
And he's still making and selling them — $129.99 for the 45-inch model, $159.99 for the 53-inch "deluxe full size" leg lamp.
When the house from the film was put up for sale on eBay in December 2004, it seemed like destiny to Jones.
"I said, 'Ooh, I gotta have that.'"
The auction price got up to $115,000. Jones, who shares Ralphie's unflinching enthusiasm, less than 20/20 eyesight and ability to speak at a breakneck pace, said he'd pay $150,000 if the owner stopped the bidding.
"It was mine. I sent him a deposit and flew out two days after Christmas just to make sure it wasn't a falling-down shack," Jones said.
He put in new windows and replaced the 111-year-old house's gray aluminum siding with mustard yellow painted wood and green trim that perfectly matches Ralphie's house.
Although only a couple interior shots were filmed there, Jones has recreated the '40s feel of Ralphie's home with a brown-and-white tile kitchen floor, a wide cast-iron sink in the kitchen, a claw-foot bathtub and, of course, a leg lamp in the window.
He also bought the house across the street — Ralphie runs past it in the film's opening scene — to serve as a museum and gift shop. Several original items from the film are on display, including the infamous snowsuit ("I can't put my arms down!") worn by Ralphie's brother, Randy.
The house is located in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, just a few minutes from downtown where the exterior department store shots were filmed at the former Higbee's.
The cooperation of the department store is what brought the filmmakers to Cleveland for the film based on author Jean Shepherd's stories of his upbringing in Hammond, Ind.
The house is well known in the neighborhood and neighbors like Marlene Childers have watched the house change owners and go through ups and downs over the years. She's excited about Jones' tribute — even if it means more cars and traffic.
"I love that story," she said.
Jones knows the feeling. And he says stepping onto Ralphie's old street makes him feel like he's in the movie.
Standing in front of the house holding a replica Red Ryder rifle, he discusses his future plans — which could include a nearby bed and breakfast — when, seemingly on a director's cue, a motorist passes, stops his car, rolls down the window and shouts, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"
WGN fills up on Canadian "Corner Gas"
TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Canadian broadcaster CTV Inc. on Friday cracked the U.S. market by selling "Corner Gas," Canada's top homegrown sitcom, to Superstation WGN.
Under the two-year deal Tribune Broadcasting's Superstation WGN will air four seasons of "Corner Gas," an ensemble comedy set in the fictional prairie town of Dog River, Saskatchewan. The 88 episodes will be available in around 70 million homes via cable or satellite beginning in 2007.
The deal marks a coup for CTV, which fully financed the first two seasons of the series with no government subsidies. CTV then bankrolled the third and fourth seasons of "Corner Gas" with the Comedy Network.
Terms of the deal with Superstation WGN were not disclosed, but CTV will split the proceeds of the U.S. distribution deal with the series' producers, Prairie Pants Productions.
"Corner Gas" has consistently been the top-rated comedy on Canadian TV, beating out American competition and pulling in an average of around 1.5 million viewers weekly.
The series was created by Canadian comic Brent Butt, David Storey and Virginia Thompson. The ensemble cast includes Butt, veteran Canadian actors Eric Peterson Janet Wright, Cavan Cunningham, Gabrielle Miller and Fred Ewanuick.
Canadian-originated dramas have long aired in the U.S. market on cable channels. But homegrown sitcoms breaking through south of the border have been rarities, despite the prominence of Canadian standup and sketch comedy talent working in New York City and Los Angeles.
"Trailer Park Boys," a comedy about low life in a Halifax trailer park, earlier became a cult classic on BBC America after bowing on Showcase in Canada.
On radio, comic apologizes for tirade
NEW YORK - Comedian Michael Richards said Sunday he did not consider himself a racist, and that he was "shattered" by the comments he made to two young black men during a tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club.
Richards appeared on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's nationally syndicated radio program, "Keep Hope Alive," as a part of a series of apologies for the incident. He said he knew his comments hurt the black community, and hoped to meet with the two men.
He told Jackson that he had not used the language before.
"That's why I'm shattered by it. The way this came through me was like a freight train. After it was over, when I went to look for them, they had gone. And I've tried to meet them, to talk to them, to get some healing," he said.
Richards, who played Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbor Kramer on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld," was performing at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory last week when he lashed out at hecklers with a string of racial obscenities and profane language. A cell phone video camera captured the outburst, and the incident later appeared on TMZ.com.
Richards told Jackson the tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry. He said he wanted to hurt those who had hurt him.
"I was in a place of humiliation," he said.
Richards' publicist, Howard Rubenstein, said Saturday that Richards has begun psychiatric counseling in Los Angeles to learn how to manage his anger.
"He acknowledged that his statements were harmful and opened a terrible racial wound in our nation," Rubenstein said. "He pledges never ever to say anything like that again. He's quite remorseful."
Jackson, who has called Richards' words "hateful," "sick," and "deep-seated," said the comedian's inclusion on the show was a chance for a broader discussion about "cultural isolation" in the entertainment industry.
Richards noted that the racial epithet he used is frequent in the entertainment industry, and acknowledged that it could have consequences.
"I fear that young whites will think it's cool to go around and use that word because they see very cool people in the show business using that word so freely," he said. "Perhaps that's what came through in that ... the vernacular is so accessible."
'Happy Feet' dances atop box office
LOS ANGELES - A dancing penguin was king of the Thanksgiving birds among movie-goers. The animated penguin romp "Happy Feet" remained the No. 1 movie with $37.9 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, while the James Bond adventure "Casino Royale" stayed in second place with $31 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Over the Wednesday-to-Sunday holiday period, "Happy Feet," from Warner Bros., took in $51.5 million while Sony's "Casino Royale" did $45.1 million.
Disney's thriller "Deja Vu," starring Denzel Washington as a police officer bouncing back in time to try to prevent a deadly ferry explosion, led new movies with $20.8 million for the weekend and $29 million since opening Wednesday.
The 20th Century Fox comedy "Deck the Halls," with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito as neighbors feuding over excessive Christmas lights, debuted at No. 4 with a $12 million weekend and $16.9 million since it premiered Wednesday.
It was a sturdy but unremarkable holiday weekend overall, with the top 12 movies taking in $208.1 million from Wednesday to Sunday, down 3.4 percent from last year, when " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" took in $81 million to lead Hollywood to its second-best Thanksgiving ever. The best Thanksgiving period was in 2000, when the top 12 films grossed $232.1 million.
A flurry of movies debuted or expanded from limited release, led by writer-director Emilio Estevez's "Bobby," weaving together the stories of 22 characters gathered at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel the night Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.
"Bobby," from MGM and the Weinstein Co., came in at No. 9 over the weekend with $4.9 million.
Warner Bros. debuted director Darren Aronofsky's fantasy "The Fountain," starring "Happy Feet" co-star Hugh Jackman as a man who lives a 1,000-year adventure. "The Fountain" had a $3.7 million weekend to finish at No. 10.
New Line's "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny," with Jack Black and musical partner Kyle Gass in a spoof of how their folk-rock duo came to be, opened at No. 11 with $3.3 million over the weekend.
Christopher Guest's Hollywood satire "For Your Consideration" pulled in $2 million in its first weekend of wide release.
Debuting in limited release, Fox Searchlight's "The History Boys" took in a solid $100,721 in just seven theaters. Adapted from the Tony-winning stage play about British teens angling for acceptance to Oxford and Cambridge, the film gradually expands to nationwide release through Dec. 22.
While "Happy Feet" started out mainly a family film, good reviews and word-of-mouth pulled in more adults without children, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros.
Along with ravishing computer-animated visuals, the adult appeal of "Happy Feet" includes a positive environmental statement and wall-to-wall pop tunes reinterpreted by its vocal cast, led by Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Jackman and Robin Williams.
"I think it's just a good message, and it's just well made. And we all like the music," Fellman said. "Happy Feet" raised its 10-day total to $100.1 million.
With a 10-day domestic total of $94.2 million and a worldwide haul of $224 million, "Casino Royale" is on course to pass 2002's "Die Another Day ($161 million domestically and $432 million worldwide) to become the top-grossing Bond flick, said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Happy Feet," $37.9 million.
2. "Casino Royale," $31 million.
3. "Deja Vu," $20.8 million.
4. "Deck the Halls," $12 million.
5. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," $10.4 million.
6. "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," $10 million.
7. "Stranger Than Fiction," $6 million.
8. "Flushed Away," $5.8 million.
9. "Bobby," $4.9 million.
10. "The Fountain," $3.7 million.
Lawyer wants Simpson book off eBay
LOS ANGELES - An attorney representing the family of Nicole Brown Simpson accused eBay on Thursday of not moving quickly enough to yank auctions of "If I Did It," O.J. Simpson's hypothetical story of how he would have killed his ex-wife.
The book had been scheduled for release Nov. 30 following a two-part Simpson interview on Fox, but News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, canceled the project after an outcry condemning it as revolting and exploitive.
Responding to concerns from HarperCollins, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said Thursday that the online auction house has been removing offers to sell purported copies of the book from the site. In one case, bids had topped $1 million.
"Once HarperCollins reports to us, we take the auctions down," Durzy said. "We appreciate the concern of the Brown family, but this is a procedure that has to be followed."
Brown family attorney Natasha Roit said the site's deadline-style auctions means some transactions could finish before eBay acts. HarperCollins has said all copies of the book would be destroyed, but there is always a chance some could get out.
"The voice of the American public was heard loud and clear by News Corp. and HarperCollins in recalling the books," Roit said. "We really need to stem the tide and get these books out of circulation because anything that's out there now is really hurtful to the family."
Simpson, 59, was acquitted of the double murder of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman in 1995 but was later found liable in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Goldman's family. The former football star has not paid the $33.5 million civil judgment, and his NFL pension and Florida home cannot be seized.
In interviews with The Associated Press, Simpson denied committing the murders. He also disputed his publisher's contention that the book amounts to a confession, insisted the title was not his idea, and said the hypothetical sections were written by a ghostwriter.
News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher said the company paid $880,000 to a third party in connection with the project. Of that amount, $100,000 was to go to the ghostwriter and the rest to Simpson's children.
"Absolutely no money was ever given to O.J. Simpson by us," Butcher said Wednesday.
Simpson said any profit from the book would be "blood money," but he said he needed to pay his bills.
"It's all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals," Simpson said, referring to authors of books about him. "It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead."
Simpson would not say how much he was paid in advance, but he said it was less than the $3.5 million that has been reported. He said the money already has been spent, some of it on tax obligations.
Butcher said News Corp. cannot recoup any of the money because Simpson honored his end of the contract by producing the book.
Simpson said he was convinced the book would have been a best-seller.
"If I Did It" cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend in prepublication sales, but by Monday, when it was canceled, the book had fallen to No. 51.
Heritage committee launches review of CBC
After waiting months for the Conservative government to launch a review of the CBC, the House of Commons heritage committee has decided to start without it, passing a motion on Monday to look closely at the public broadcaster.
The motion to initiate the review was put forward by NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus, who first called for a review of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the spring.
He has also demanded that Ottawa commit to "stable and improved funding" and a "clear mandate" for the public broadcaster.
The standing committee on Canadian heritage had been expecting Heritage Minister Bev Oda to launch a review of the CBC and its role as a public broadcaster all year.
Instead, Oda asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in June to look at new broadcasting technologies and how they'll affect all broadcasting policies.
Speaking to the House of Commons, Oda committed to looking at the CBC but said an overall look all broadcast platforms was a priority.
Angus told the Globe and Mail the heritage committee is tired of waiting for the government to act.
"There's been rising frustration at the committee. Basically, nothing's been done at this committee throughout this session," he said.
The committee met in September with CBC executives, who have also been calling for a review of their mandate.
Among the issues expected to be dealt with are questions of the overall mandate of the broadcaster and the amount and kind of Canadian content it should produce.
Richard Stursberg, CBC executive vice-president of English television, said in an October speech that government support on a per-capita basis for the CBC is one-third of what the BBC gets from the British government. He said taxpayer dollars account for just 45 per cent of English-language television's total revenue.
The review is scheduled to begin in February, committee spokesman Jacques Lahaie told CBC Arts Online. After hearings with witnesses, the committee will prepare a report to be tabled in the House. Oda will then have 125 days to respond to any recommendations made in the report, says Lahaie.
The advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting welcomed the announcement of the review and called for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to participate and explain his stance on the public broadcaster.
"Stephen Harper's agenda for CBC remains hidden. We hope the heritage committee calls the prime minister as its first witness to explain his position on the future of CBC," spokesman Ian Morrison said in a statement.
Romber's Amazing Return
It definitely worked for Survivor. It sort of worked for Big Brother. Now, The Amazing Race is getting in on the all-star act.
CBS has confirmed that the 11th edition of the round the world reality show will bring back some—though not all—of the series' biggest names, for The Amazing Race: All-Stars. And the excluded teams have had no qualms in expressing their outrage.
Perennial reality show also-ran Rob Mariano and former Survivor champ Amber Brkich have been tapped to return for yet another shot at unscripted glory, as has Amazing duo David and Mary Conley, aka Team Kentucky from the most recent edition of the Emmy-winning series.
Strongly rumored to be joining the foursome are season five faves, couple Colin Guinn and Christie Woods (that season's runners-up) and cousins Mirna Hindoyan and Charla Faddoul.
Generating far more reaction, however, is who has not been chosen to compete.
The perpetually bickering season six couple Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller, who landed their own Dr. Phil prime-time special such was the interest in their relationship, will not return, nor will season nine winners BJ Averell and Tyler MacNiven, or season five winners, married couple Chip and Kim McAllister, arguably one of the most popular teams from the series' 10 seasons.
At least to hear them tell it.
A video post to their joint MySpace blog last month, which was removed after less than a day, lashed out at Amazing Race producers for excluding them from the all-star installment.
"I don't want to sugarcoat this or anything, there is definitely going to be an Amazing Race: All-Stars, they will be starting within the next few days and Kim and I never got a phone call from anyone, not from [the executive producers], not from CBS, not from anyone," Chip said.
"We have run the gamut of emotions. I hate to be one of these kind of people that thinks he's entitled to be an All-Star—I may not actually, Kim and I may not be All-Stars material—but to be completely forgotten by CBS and the CBS decision makers...it really doesn't feel good. We could have been contacted."
While he may have got the sentiment right, his timeline was slightly off.
According to Variety, Amazing Race: All-Stars began filming just last week in Miami. But Chip and Kim weren't the only non-invitees to express their disappointment.
Season nine winners BJ and Tyler, who incidentally sent fan forums into a frenzy this spring when homoerotic photos of them with fellow Racers Jeremy Ryan and Eric Sanchez were leaked online, sounded off on their exclusion via CBS.com's Former Racers Blog, where the duo were meant to be offering commentary on the show's 10th season.
"What would be ironic is if someone were putting together an all-star version of the race and contacted teams like [season seven teams] Lynn & Alex and Brian & Greg, but did not contact us, the most popular and amazing team of all time, about it," Tyler wrote in a post last month.
"Trust me, if they were doing that, they would contact us," BJ added. "We were the most well-liked team ever to compete on the Race...I'm sure they wouldn't just pick a gimmicky team like Rob & Amber, or a 'competitive' team like Colin & Christie, and turn their backs on friendly winning teams like us and Chip & Kim, leaving us to find out about it from some gossip site."
Richards apologizes, hires crisis expert
LOS ANGELES - Michael Richards is doing damage control. In the aftermath of his racist tirade against two black hecklers during a standup comedy routine, Richards on Wednesday hired a publicist with strong ties to the black community who set up calls to the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
New York publicist Howard Rubenstein took on Richards as a client, then arranged for the actor to call the black leaders.
"Michael apologized profusely," Rubenstein said. "He wants to heal the tremendous wound that he's inflicted on the American public, and on the African-American community. ... I think it was a positive discussion."
Jackson said Richards called "expressing his remorse and his confusion."
"He's embarrassed. He got caught on tape. That's a big part of his anxiety now," said Jackson.
"Clearly he needs some race sensibility training, and some psychiatric help. His anger is volatile and dangerous to himself and others," Jackson said. "I hope he gets the help he needs. But the culture that's producing this kind of animosity toward blacks must be addressed. ... We're increasingly facing cultural isolation in Hollywood, in the movies and in TV."
Calls to Sharpton's home and to his National Action Network on Wednesday were not immediately returned.
Richards, who played kooky neighbor Kramer on "Seinfeld," lashed out at the hecklers last week during a performance at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory. A video of his rant then appeared on TMZ.com.
The video shows him calling one of the hecklers a racial epithet, and repeating it over and over again.
In a subsequent satellite appearance on the "Late Show with David Letterman," Richards said his tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a statement Wednesday that Richards' comments and anti-Semitic ones by Mel Gibson this year point to a trend in American culture, and that Richards' declaration "is indicative of the type of denial that too often accompanies racist rhetoric."
Rubenstein, whose media relations firm specializes in "crisis management," according to its Web site, said he had never met or spoken to Richards before the actor called him.
"He convinced me that he was sincere in his repentance and would do what's right," Rubenstein said.
"I've been very involved in the African-American community for 25 to 30 years," Rubenstein continued. "It would be a tragedy if this exacerbated our race relations. I hope I can help. ... It's always been an effort on my part to improve African-American and Jewish ethnic relations."
As for reports that Richards shouted out anti-Semitic remarks during another standup comedy routine in April, Rubenstein confirmed that Richards did, but that he was only role-playing.
"He's Jewish. He's not anti-Semitic at all. He was role-playing, he was playing a part. He did use inappropriate language, but he doesn't have any anti-Semitic feelings whatsoever," Rubenstein said.
"Michael says that he has a very hot temper, and that he says inappropriate things from time to time. Yes, there's no excuse for that."
Canadian Performer John Allan Cameron Has Died
John Allan Cameron, who helped spread the gospel of Celtic music across Canada and beyond, has died after a lengthy struggle with cancer.
He was 67.
His brother, John Donald Cameron, says the legendary Cape Breton entertainer died on Wednesday morning in a Toronto hospital.
A native of Mabou, Nova Scotia, John Allan Cameron was diagnosed five years ago with bone marrow cancer and leukemia.
Known as "Mabou's ministering minstrel," Cameron tirelessly promoted Celtic music long before the Rankin Family, the Barra MacNeils and Natalie MacMaster became known to Canadian listeners.
Cameron began his career with the Don Messer Show and Singalong Jubilee, then as the opening act for Anne Murray, and again with his own half-hour show.
In 1970, Cameron got a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry.
He was a resident of Pickering, Ontario when he died.
Justin edges Jeter
Prior to his big-league debut on June 10, 2003, Justin Morneau gathered with Minnesota Twins teammate Corey Koskie and Colorado Rockies star Larry Walker for an all-Canadian photo behind home plate at the Metrodome.
Afterwards Walker sent an autographed bat over to the Twins clubhouse with a message for the young phenom: "To Justin, Make Canada Proud."
The hulking 25-year-old first baseman from New Westminster, B.C., did just that Tuesday when he won the American League Most Valuable Player award in a tight vote over New York Yankees superstar Derek Jeter.
"I never asked for that, he did that on his own," Morneau said of Walker's gesture that day. "I thought that was pretty cool for a guy that's been around that long to do that for me. It's something I'll never forget."
The feat links Morneau, raised among the generation of B.C. baseball players inspired by Walker, with the star he grew up idolizing as the only Canadians to win the award in the majors. Walker was the National League MVP in 1997.
"Justin's breakthrough, his ability to get the big-leagues fast and do as well as he did, will really open up the doors for a lot of other kids to emulate him," said Ari Mellios, Morneau's coach with the North Delta Blue Jays in the B.C. Premier League in 1998 and '99. "It changes a lot of people's perceptions and attitudes toward Canadian kids."
Walker, of course, was the first player to accomplish that with his emergence as a Montreal Expos star in the early 1990s. Ryan Dempster, Jason Bay, Jeff Francis and Adam Loewen, to name a few, credit Walker for making them believe they could make a career in baseball and Morneau's award should inspire a new group of kids.
But Walker's help for Morneau went well beyond serving as a hero. At the World Baseball Classic this past spring, the Maple Ridge, B.C., native mentored Morneau as a coach. And when Morneau struggled out of the gate in April, text messages to Walker helped keep him straight.
"I'd say I don't feel that good and he'd give me something simple to try and not make me think. That was the biggest thing for him, just go up there and just hit," said Morneau. "For him to even care about what I'm doing makes you feel pretty good."
Advice came from other places, too.
Teammate Torii Hunter pressed on him to not get so down on himself when he struggled. Manager Ron Gardenhire did the same, giving him a stern talking to in an early May meeting that helped pull him from and capitalize on his vast talents.
The message eventually got through, as after a slow start in April (.208, five homers, 15 RBIs) on the heels of a disappointing 2005 that left some questioning his future, he tore up the league.
Morneau finished batting .321 with 40 homers and 130 RBIs. He became the first Twins player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season since 1987 and his 130 RBIs are the second-best in team history to Harmon Killebrew's 140 in 1969, when he won the MVP award.
"You can say he lit a fire under me maybe," Morneau of the meeting with Gardenhire. "I just felt better in my swing and all of a sudden something just clicked, I got a little confidence going and after that just kind of took off. I don't know if it was from that meeting getting me more focused and tuned in on what I needed to do on the field or not, it definitely woke me up."
The reigning MVPs in the AL, NBA (Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash of Victoria) and NHL (San Jose Sharks centre Joe Thornton of London, Ont.) are now all Canadian.
Morneau picked up 15 of the 28 first-place votes and 320 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, to finish 14 points ahead of Jeter, who had 12 first-place votes.
Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz finished third with 193 points, followed by Frank Thomas, who recently left the Oakland Athletics for the Toronto Blue Jays, and Chicago White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye.
Morneau slept little Monday night while awaiting word on the vote and spent a tense morning at his girlfriend's Minneapolis apartment when the phone call came.
"Last night even I was saying I don't expect to get it. I might have given myself maybe a 50-50 chance," Morneau said. "I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment if I didn't get it."
Morneau is the second member of his team to win a major award this season, joining AL Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana.
"I'm putting my money on Justin Morneau," Santana said after his win last week. "Hopefully, he'll have a chance for everything he did for our team."
Morneau is returning home this weekend and will serve as Marshall for the Santa Claus Parade in New Westminster. He's also changing his off-season routine and will spend the winter in Vancouver working out with Loewen, Aaron Guiel and Adam Stern.
"I have to go out and prove myself again," said Morneau. "There's going to be a lot more eyes on me now, teams are going to be paying a little more attention and I just have to build on this year and get better."
Morneau can also now look his boyhood hero in the eye from more level footing with the MVP award on his resume. Walker was among the first to call him and congratulate him.
"He said he thought he was more excited than I was. He said, 'Just wait, it's going to be crazy, just have fun with it,"' said Morneau. "To be put next to a guy, who in my opinion should be in the Hall of Fame, the greatest Canadian position player that's ever played, to be alongside him is a real honour."
Toronto's Triumph heading for Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame
Triumph, a Toronto-based hard-rock trio formed in 1975, will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in March 2007.
Producer David Foster will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during the same ceremony, scheduled for Canadian Music Week.
Triumph, whose hits included Never Surrender and Just One Night, was known for its hard-rock power chords and intricate light shows.
The members are guitarist/singer Rik Emmett, drummer/singer Gil Moore and bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine.
They first recorded with the independent Attic label and then caught the eye of RCA, which re-released their second album, Rock & Roll Machine.
They continued to record throughout the 1980s with Progressions of Power (1980), Allied Forces (1981), Thunder Seven (1984), Stages (1985), The Sport of Kings (1986) and Surveillance (1987).
Emmett left for a solo career in 1988 and the group continued with a new guitarist, finally splitting up in 1993. Another album, Classics, was issued in 1989 after Emmett left.
Moore is the owner of Metalworks Studios, based in Mississauga, Ont., and continues in the production end of the music business.
Levine is pursuing internet-based business interests related to the entertainment field.
Triumph will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame on March 10 in Toronto during the Canadian Radio Music Awards.
200,000 'Casino Royale' Bootlegs Downloaded, Says Report
From Russia with love -- and perhaps a degree of malice as well -- came the first bootleg copies of Casino Royale, the latest James Bond flick.
According to Envisional, an online company that monitors Internet piracy, a poor-quality copy of the film, apparently captured with a camcorder in a Russian theater, first popped up on Internet file-sharing sites on Friday, the day the movie opened.
But sound and picture quality were said to be poor.
However, on Saturday a higher-quality copy, uploaded in Italy, also became available. By the end of the weekend, the two copies were being spread around, and by Sunday they had been downloaded some 200,000 times, Envisional claimed.
Meanwhile the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America announced Monday that they are launching a joint campaign called Holiday Blitz aimed at fighting movie and music piracy.
The campaign will include heightened security at movie theaters to prevent camcording and a crackdown on bootleg production. The trade organizations said Monday that during last year's Holiday Blitz some 1.3 million illegal CDs and DVDs were confiscated.
O.J. Simpson project may turn up on Web
NEW YORK - The O.J. Simpson project is dead, but the book and the TV interview could turn up in bootleg form in this age of YouTube and eBay, when scandalous information seldom stays secret for long.
News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, called off Simpson's "confession" Monday after advertisers, booksellers and even Fox personality Bill O'Reilly branded the project sick and exploitive.
A two-part interview had been scheduled to air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox, with the book, "If I Did It," to follow on Nov. 30.
HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum said some copies had already been shipped to stores but would be recalled, and all copies would be destroyed. She would not say how long that would take, although industry insiders believe several days would be needed to destroy a print run that was likely in the hundreds of thousands.
But with the interview already taped, and truckloads of books either sitting in warehouses or headed back to the publisher, Simpson's supposedly hypothetical account of how he would have committed the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman appears all but certain to surface.
"A book becomes collectible when it's hard to find, and this will become very, very collectible, surely worth four figures," said Richard Davies, a spokesman for AbeBooks.com, an online seller that specializes in used and collectible books.
Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of the Crown Publishing Group, said tens of thousands of returned books are destroyed every day.
But it's entirely possible that the Simpson TV interview will get out in some form, said Jeff Jarvis, operator of the BuzzMachine Web log and a journalism professor at City University of New York.
"All life is on the record now," he said. "Anything you can do can get out there and get out there quickly."
The Simpson book will also almost certainly remain underground, with another publisher unlikely to take on "If I Did It."
Even Michael Viner, whose previous releases include a memoir by disgraced New York Times reporter Jayson Blair and a tell-all by four Hollywood call girls, said his Beverly Hills-based Phoenix Books was not interested.
"It's the public equivalent of doing a snuff film," said Viner, referring to films that claim to show a person being killed. "People can make money by doing snuff films, but no one wants to be associated with it."
The Simpson saga took another twist Tuesday when his former sister-in-law, Denise Brown, accused News Corp. of trying to buy her family's silence for millions of dollars.
A News Corp. spokesman confirmed that the company had conversations with representatives of the Brown and Goldman families over the past week and said that they were offered all profits from the book and TV show, but he denied it was hush money.
"There were no strings attached," News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher said.
Denise Brown told NBC's "Today" show that her family's response was: "Absolutely not."
"They wanted to offer us millions of dollars. Millions of dollars for, like, 'Oh, I'm sorry' money. But they were still going to air the show," Brown said. "We just thought, `Oh my god.' What they're trying to do is trying to keep us quiet, trying to make this like hush money, trying to go around the civil verdict, giving us this money to keep our mouths shut."
Pre-publication sales for "If I Did It," had been strong but not exceptional. It cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend, but by Monday afternoon, at the time its elimination was announced, the book had fallen to No. 51.
Clarkson, Rascal Flatts win big at AMAs
LOS ANGELES - The Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rascal Flatts were double-winners Tuesday at the 2006 American Music Awards.
The Black Eyed Peas were named favorite group in the rap/hip hop and soul/rhythm & blues categories. Clarkson captured trophies for pop/rock female and adult contemporary artist, categories presented before the televised presentations began in the performance-filled show.
Red Hot Chili Peppers were named favorite alternative artist and favorite pop/rock group. Rascal Flatts won favorite country group and the T-Mobile Text-In award, which is chosen by fans.
Blige accepted the female soul/rhythm & blues artist award from surprise presenter Britney Spears.
The newly single Spears looked sleek in a knee-length cream-colored frock and long blond hair.
Oscar winner Jamie Foxx was named favorite male soul/rhythm & blues artist.
"I'm like a rookie in this music thing," he said. "This means a lot more than you think, man."
Foxx wore a white tuxedo and sat behind a grand piano to perform "Wish U Were Here" from his 2005 album, "Unpredictable."
Nickelback took home the trophy for pop/rock album. Dancehall singer Sean Paul was named favorite male artist in the category.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers accepted their awards via satellite from London, with bass player Flea beat-boxing as lead singer Anthony Kiedis thanked "the American people." The Black Eyed Peas also accepted their awards from abroad, thanking fans via satellite from Costa Rica.
Among country honors, favorite female artist went to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's "Greatest Hits Volume 2" was favorite album. Country singer and American Idol Carrie Underwood was named favorite new breakthrough artist.
Eminem was favorite male rap/hip-hop artist. Shakira won favorite Latin artist and Kirk Franklin captured the award for contemporary inspirational music.
"I know that a lot of people that say that they're Christians — you know, we don't always represent, and we don't always live it and we do sometimes some very stupid things, and you know we're not doing a good job," said Franklin, wearing blue jeans with a black velvet tuxedo jacket. "I want to make sure that when you see my life that it's a life that I'm gonna be proud of."
Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the three-hour ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium, televised live on ABC, with a skit that placed Spears' ex, Kevin Federline, into a wooden crate dumped into the ocean. Kimmel cracked that Federline was the world's first "no-hit wonder."
Beyonce began the show, belting out her single "Irreplaceable" while vamping around the stage in a sparkly sequined minidress. The Pussycat Dolls also chose sequins for their performance, while Nelly Furtado opted for a skin-tight white dress and stick-straight hair.
Gwen Stefani made a stylish return to the music scene, performing the single "Wind It Up" from her forthcoming album, "The Sweet Escape." The new mom, wearing a skimpy sequined shift and a shoulder-length platinum bob, yodeled and rapped convincingly throughout the tune.
Not to be outdone, rapper Jay-Z stepped out of retirement and back into the spotlight, accompanied by scantily clad dancers as he performed the single "Show Me What You Got" from his new record, "Kingdom Come."
Lionel Richie made a festive return to the American Music Awards. Introduced by his diminutive daughter, Nicole Richie, the former Commodore performed a medley that included his '80s party anthem, "All Night Long."
Barry Manilow performed a medley of favorites from his latest collection, "The Greatest Songs of the Sixties."
Some awards were announced off camera before the broadcast presentations.
The American Music Awards honor the best in pop/rock, country, soul/rhythm & blues, rap/hip hop, Latin, alternative, adult contemporary and contemporary inspirational music. Nominees were chosen based on record sales and winners were selected by a survey of about 20,000 listeners.
Hathaway eyes 'Get Smart' role
Anne Hathaway is in negotiations to take the female lead in the big screen version of "Get Smart."
Star Steve Carell has been attached to the Peter Segal-directed project for a long time and production is finally expected to begin in March.
According to Variety, Hathaway ("The Princess Diaries") is close to signing on to play Agent 99 opposite Carell's Maxwell Smart. The parts were played by Barbara Feldon and Don Adams in the original television series, which was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.
The latest incarnation of the "Get Smart" script was written by "Failure to Launch" scribes Tom Astle and Matt Ember.
After appearing last winter in the Oscar-winning drama "Brokeback Mountain," Hathaway had a surprise smash this summer with "The Devil Wears Prada."
Film director Robert Altman dies
LOS ANGELES - Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind "M-A-S-H," "Nashville" and "The Player" who made a career out of bucking Hollywood management and story conventions, died at a Los Angeles Hospital, his Sandcastle 5 Productions Company said Tuesday. He was 81.
The director died Monday night, Joshua Astrachan, a producer at Altman's Sandcastle 5 Productions in New York City, told The Associated Press.
The cause of death wasn't disclosed. A news release was expected later in the day, Astrachan said.
A five-time Academy Award nominee for best director, most recently for 2001's "Gosford Park," he finally won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2006.
"No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said while accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition."
Altman had one of the most distinctive styles among modern filmmakers. He often employed huge ensemble casts, encouraged improvisation and overlapping dialogue and filmed scenes in long tracking shots that would flit from character to character.
Perpetually in and out of favor with audiences and critics, Altman worked ceaselessly since his anti-war black comedy "M-A-S-H" established his reputation in 1970, but he would go for years at a time directing obscure movies before roaring back with a hit.
After a string of commercial duds including "The Gingerbread Man" in 1998, "Cookie's Fortune" in 1999 and "Dr. T & the Women" in 2000, Altman took his all-American cynicism to Britain for 2001's "Gosford Park."
A combination murder-mystery and class-war satire set among snobbish socialites and their servants on an English estate in the 1930s, "Gosford Park" was Altman's biggest box-office success since "M-A-S-H."
Besides best-director, "Gosford Park" earned six other Oscar nominations, including best picture and best supporting actress for both Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith. It won the original-screenplay Oscar, and Altman took the best-director prize at the Golden Globes for "Gosford Park."
Altman's other best-director Oscar nominations came for "M-A-S-H," the country-music saga "Nashville" from 1975, the movie-business satire "The Player" from 1992 and the ensemble character study "Short Cuts" from 1993. He also earned a best-picture nomination as producer of "Nashville."
No director ever got more best-director nominations without winning a regular Oscar, though four other men — Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Clarence Brown and King Vidor — tied with Altman at five.
In May, Altman brought out "A Prairie Home Companion," with Garrison Keillor starring as the announcer of a folksy musical show — with the same name as Keillor's own long-running show — about to be shut down by new owners. Among those in the cast were Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones.
"This film is about death," Altman said at a May 3 news conference in St. Paul, Minn., also attended by Keillor and many of the movie's stars.
He often took on Hollywood genres with a revisionist's eye, de-romanticizing the Western hero in 1971's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and 1976's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson," the film-noir gumshoe in 1973's "The Long Goodbye" and outlaw gangsters in "Thieves Like Us."
"M-A-S-H" was Altman's first big success after years of directing television, commercials, industrial films and generally unremarkable feature films. The film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould was set during the Korean War but was Altman's thinly veiled attack on U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
"That was my intention entirely. If you look at that film, there's no mention of what war it is," Altman said in an Associated Press interview in 2001, adding that the studio made him put a disclaimer at the beginning to identify the setting as Korea.
"Our mandate was bad taste. If anybody had a joke in the worst taste, it had a better chance of getting into the film, because nothing was in worse taste than that war itself," Altman said.
The film spawned the long-running TV sitcom starring Alan Alda, a show Altman would refer to with distaste as "that series." Unlike the social message of the film, the series was prompted by greed, Altman said.
"They made millions and millions of dollars by bringing an Asian war into Americans' homes every Sunday night," Altman said in 2001. "I thought that was the worst taste."
Altman never minced words about reproaching Hollywood. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he said Hollywood served as a source of inspiration for the terrorists by making violent action movies that amounted to training films for such attacks.
"Nobody would have thought to commit an atrocity like that unless they'd seen it in a movie," Altman said.
Altman was written off repeatedly by the Hollywood establishment, and his reputation for arrogance and hard drinking — a habit he eventually gave up — hindered his efforts to raise money for his idiosyncratic films.
While critical of studio executives, Altman held actors in the highest esteem. He joked that on "Gosford Park," he was there mainly to turn the lights on and off for the performers.
The respect was mutual. Top-name actors would clamor for even bit parts in his films. Altman generally worked on shoestring budgets, yet he continually landed marquee performers who signed on for a fraction of their normal salaries.
After the mid-1970s, the quality of Altman's films became increasingly erratic. His 1980 musical "Popeye," with Robin Williams, was trashed by critics, and Altman took some time off from film.
He directed the Broadway production of "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," following it with a movie adaptation in 1982. Altman went back and forth from TV to theatrical films over the next decade, but even when his films earned critical praise, such as 1990's "Vincent & Theo," they remained largely unseen.
"The Player" and "Short Cuts" re-established Altman's reputation and commercial viability. But other 1990s films — including his fashion-industry farce "Ready to Wear" and "Kansas City," his reverie on the 1930s jazz and gangster scene of his hometown — fell flat.
Born Feb. 20, 1925, Altman hung out in his teen years at the jazz clubs of Kansas City, Mo., where his father was an insurance salesman.
Altman was a bomber pilot in World War II and studied engineering at the University of Missouri in Columbia before taking a job making industrial films in Kansas City. He moved into feature films with "The Delinquents" in 1957, then worked largely in television through the mid 1960s, directing episodes of such series as "Bonanza" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
Altman and his wife, Kathryn, had two sons, Robert and Matthew, and he had a daughter, Christine, and two other sons, Michael and Stephen, from two previous marriages.
When he received his honorary Oscar in 2006, Altman revealed he had a heart transplant a decade earlier.
"I didn't make a big secret out of it, but I thought nobody would hire me again," he said after the ceremony. "You know, there's such a stigma about heart transplants, and there's a lot of us out there."
Beatles project a labour of Love
Famed Beatle producer's son had no idea where remixing Fab Four songs would take him, or whether anyone would approve of the result
You might expect the son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin to treat the Fab Four's master recordings with kid gloves.
But not Giles Martin, who worked with his 80-year-old father on experimental remixes of existing recordings made by the Liverpool foursome at Abbey Road for the 'new' Beatles record, LOVE, which hits stores today.
"It's funny. The Beatles didn't really mean much to me as a kid -- at all -- because I was born in the wrong era," said Martin, 37, while in Toronto recently for an invitation-only playback of the 26-track LOVE.
"I didn't really hear the White Album until I was 22. When you're a teenager you kind of rebel against your parents anyway. And my dad, at the time, wasn't against the Beatles, but wanted to move on from that. It's only now, it's only recently, for him -- and I think for the Beatles as well -- that they can look back on this era and say, 'That's when they were at their peak.' It's a remarkable seven years of imagination and collaboration and inspiration. It really was."
The genesis of LOVE was to provide the soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas show of the same name at The Mirage, which opened earlier this year.
Although some Beatles fans might consider it sacriligious to fiddle with Fab Four songs, Martin said his job was to "change things."
"They wanted to do something that was different, which is very Beatles in a way, so that's what I was employed to do," said Martin, whose early production credits include albums for Kulashaker, Monorail and Hayley Westenra. "I just thought I was going to get fired while I was doing it. I'm surprised it got as far as it did."
Martin said it was quite nerve-wracking when he first played a 25-minute demo of Beatles remixes for Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono.
"I probably knew Paul best, but I was most wary of Paul just playing things to him, 'cause he's a great musician -- and not that Ringo isn't, or Yoko or Olivia don't care.
"They heard the first demo we did, and they really liked it. And I don't think they really believed that it was ever going to fully reach its full course. But they loved the idea of it. And my risk involved was upsetting them. And upsetting my dad. So the nervous thing wasn't actually doing it. The nervous thing was letting it go. I thought I was going to be absolutely (criticized) for it. And I probably still will be."
Strangely enough, Martin was born in 1969, the same year The Beatles were breaking up, and he shares Lennon's birthday -- Oct. 9.
"(Lennon) turned around to my dad and said, 'Now you know what kind of a--hole he's going to turn out to be!'" Martin said with a smile. "I found it really interesting to talk to Yoko, actually. I didn't know Yoko very well before this project. I now know her quite well. And she's a fascinating woman, she really is. But you know she's very, very, very intelligent and she knows her stuff. And the same with Paul. You can't get anything by them."
In the end, Martin is most proud of the musicianship that LOVE evokes. Some songs are drastically remixed, with snippets of other Beatles tunes inserted in a collage effect, while others sound largely unchanged.
"You hear the complexity of what they're doing, linked at the same time, with the fact that they were the world's greatest pop band," Martin said. "And I don't like all the history side of it because, I suppose, of my dad being who he is. I find it a bit boring, I suppose, in a way. And what really interests me was the fact that they were a good band."
'Casino Royale' tops Canadian box office
While the animated penguins of Happy Feet beat out Bond in the US, it was a different story in Canada. Casino Royale more than doubled the take of Feet, earning $5.2 million over the weekend.
Royale, the 21st James Bond film and the first featuring new lead Daniel Craig, grossed a total of $46.8 million in North America and $96.5 worldwide.
Back in Canada, the aforementioned Happy Feet earned $2.4 million, to place at a distant second.
In third place, the reality-comedy Borat took in $1.9 million, and has earned $11.3 million in three weeks of theatrical release.
On November 22, wide-release openings include Denzel Washington in Deja Vu, Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick in Deck the Halls, Hugh Jackman in The Fountain and Jack Black in Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny.
On November 23, Emilio Estevez's Bobby opens in over 1,600 screens.
All box office figures provided are estimates provided by film studios for the weekend of November 17-19, 2006. All grosses in Canadian dollars unless noted. Generally speaking, studios earn about 55 percent of a film's gross.
1 - Casino Royale - 5,236,603 (Total gross - 5,236,603)
2 - Happy Feet - 2,457,969 (Total gross - 2,457,969)
3 - Borat - 1,961,498 (Total gross - 11,386,270)
4 - The Santa Clause 3 - 857,552 (Total gross - 4,185,454)
5 - Stranger than Fiction - 688,631 (Total gross - 2,480,561)
6 - Flushed Away - 599,580 (Total gross - 3,608,264)
7 - Babel - 415,766 (Total gross - 1,710,232)
8 - The Queen - 307,380 (Total gross - 3,239,243)
9 - The Prestige - 261,972 (Total gross - 5,763,562)
10 - The Departed - 223,374 (Total gross - 11,389,090)
Slight Delay for Get Smart
We've already received a few emails from customers that preordered Get Smart from Time-Life asking why the set has been delayed until next week. We called our contact over there to find out, and he gave us the low-down on what caused the delay.
The set