Deck the Halls with 'Die Hard'!
TORONTO (CP) - How do you like your holiday film fare?
Does your family look forward to hearing Tiny Tim call out his ever-optimistic toast "God bless us everyone" in "A Christmas Carol?"
Or do you prefer edgier yuletide offerings? Perhaps Bruce Willis uttering the infamous: "Now I have a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho." in "Die Hard"?
Whatever your preference, there's a pervading sense that they aren't making them like they used to.
This month, many households will sit down for an annual ritual - the umpteenth viewing of that well-aged classic, often one that takes them back to simpler, innocent times.
Arguably, the big five repeaters are: "A Christmas Carol" (the Alastair Sim 1951 version), "Miracle on 34th Street (the 1947 original), Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), the colourful 1954 Bing Crosby musical "White Christmas" and - the most recent entry into the seasonal club - 1983's nostalgia-laden comedy "A Christmas Story."
The International Movie Database lists some 300 films with Christmas themes. Some three dozen of them are variations on Charles Dickens' immortal "A Christmas Carol." Yet only one, with Sims' indelible portrayal of the redeemed curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge, stands the test of time.
Of course some latter-day movie fans would nominate a holiday fave far removed from the old school, like the made-in-Canada slasher flick "Black Christmas" or "Die Hard," which finds Willis's steadfast cop John McClane trapped in an L.A. office tower seized by a gang of terrorist-thugs on Christmas Eve.
When he takes out one of the bad guys and arms himself for battle, McClane sends his "ho, ho, ho" message down an elevator shaft along with the bloody body.
Just oozes holiday sentiment, no?
Yet even "Die Hard" was made back in 1988, leaving many to suspect there are few, if any, films in the current pipeline destined for classic status. Perhaps Tim Allen's "Santa Clause" trilogy, or the digitally animated "Polar Express" or "The Chronicles of Narnia."
Charles Keil, a professor of cinema studies at the University of Toronto, believes Hollywood will have to step things up for another classic to emerge.
For one thing, says Keil, today's filmmakers tend to avoid purely spiritual themes (this year's "The Nativity Story" is an exception), opting instead for slapstick and special effects to appeal to a kids' market.
"The major distributors like to shy away from anything that is overtly religious - you could say Christian or sect-based - because it would alienate a good part of their audience," he explains.
"Films like 'Elf' or 'Christmas with the Kranks' are aiming for that. I mean in a way they're still about the message that supposedly Christmas brings, which is this notion of good will to all men and finding your inner good person (but) they leaven it with humour."
Today's holiday films then, adds Keil, represent our idea of spirituality in an ironic age.
Prior to "A Christmas Story" in which Depression-era kid Ralphie pines for a Red Ryder BB gun despite elders' warnings that he could shoot his eye out, Christmas favourites were oh so serious. "A Christmas Carol" - actually a bona fide ghost story - and "It's a Wonderful Life" bear extremely dark themes of despair and death before their redemptive finales.
Keil sees two reasons why some became perennial hits. They languished in the public domain for years, which means TV stations could broadcast any old print every holiday without paying royalties, giving such titles indelible public exposure.
Also, back in the days before TV and video became primary re-run outlets, Hollywood didn't make films for repeat viewings (the odd blockbuster being the exception). They would play in theatres once and then disappear into the vault.
Since then, the truly time-tested classics have emerged, not because of any marketing ploy, but because the audience genuinely loved them.
"These are films for the ages precisely because they don't seem to be calculated attempts to make the season profitable," Keil says.
Here are five favourite moments from popular holiday movies:
-Staples? In "Scrooged" (1988) Bill Murray is Frank Cross, a Scrooge-like TV executive planning a live holiday special. He shocks a stage hand who's having trouble keeping tiny antlers glued to a mouse for a miniature scene. "Have you tried staples?" Cross asks callously.
-In the finale of 1951's "A Christmas Carol" Alastair Sim's Scrooge is deliriously happy to awaken Christmas morning and find he still has time to redeem himself. He performs an impromptu headstand still wearing his nightgown, which sends his screaming housekeeper fleeing in terror.
-In "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), little Natalie Wood, still skeptical about the existence of Santa, watches wide-eyed from the sidelines as the department store Santa her mother hired comforts a homesick orphan girl from Holland by talking and singing to her in Dutch.
-In one of the rare comic scenes from "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), Jimmy Stewart is walking comely Donna Reed home after their accidental dunking in a swimming pool. He ponders the right thing to do when Reed finds herself trapped inside a bush, apparently naked, while he holds her coat.
-In "A Christmas Story" (1988), little Ralphie's quest for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas takes him to a grumpy department store Santa who promptly boots him down the exit slide, but not before repeating the discouraging warning already offered him by parents and teachers: "You'll shoot yer eye out, kid."
New Releases, Dec. 12: Taylor Hicks, Fantasia Barrino, Young Jeezy
Taylor Hicks "Taylor Hicks"
The most recent winner of Fox-TV's "American Idol" is finally set to drop his eponymous debut.
The Alabama native released his first single, "Do I Make You Proud," shortly after beating out runner-up Katharine McPhee to become the 2006 "American Idol" winner back in May. That single debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100.
The 13-track album features two songs penned by Hicks, "Soul Thing" and "The Deal," both of which previously appeared on Hicks' independent release, "Under the Radar." The CD also includes a cover of "Wherever I Lay My Hat," a Marvin Gaye composition that was a minor hit for singer Paul Young in the '80s.
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Fantasia Barrino "Fantasia"
Another "American Idol" winner, 2004 champ Fantasia Barrino, will also deliver a new record on Tuesday (12/12).
"Fantasia" is the follow-up to 2004's "Free Yourself," a record that marked the first time in Billboard chart history that a solo artist debuted with a No. 1 record. That record spent 10 weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard's R&B albums chart, and produced two No. 1 singles: "I Believe" and "Truth Is."
The first single from the new album is "Hood Boy," which features Outkast's Big Boi on guest vocals. Other contributors include Missy Elliot, who co-wrote and produced three tracks on the album. Elliot also worked on "Free Yourself."
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Young Jeezy "The Inspiration"
The "Hotlanta"-based rapper returns with his fourth studio album, "The Inspiration." The record follows 2005's popular "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101." The new, 16-track set features collaborations with Kanye West and R. Kelly.
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Mary J. Blige "Reflections: A Retrospective"
Mary J. Blige has been riding high since the release of 2005's "The Breakthrough," a CD that sold more than 720,000 copies during its first week in stores and debuted at the top of the album charts. The disc--which earned a slew of Grammy nominations last week--has continued to be a strong seller in 2006, nicely setting the stage for the release of this greatest hits package.
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Sonic Youth "Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities"
This CD collects hard-to-find Sonic Youth cuts from throughout the band's storied career. Many of the tracks were previously only available on vinyl, limited-release collections or European singles. All tracks have been remastered.
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Other new releases:
Ornette Coleman, "To Whom Who Keeps a Record" (Water)
Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters, "One More Time" (Jasmine)
Ghostface Killah, "More Fish" (Def Jam)
Monte Procopio, "A Swingin' Time" (MP)
David Sylvian and Nine Horses, "Money for All" (Samadhi Sound)
Tyrese, "Alter Ego" (J-Records)
Various Artists, "Complete Motown Singles V.1: 1959-1961" (Universal)
Various Artists, "Rock the Bones, Vol. 4" (Frontiers)
Soundtracks and scores:
"Children of Men" (Varese)
"Eragon" (RCA)
"Fur" (Lakeshore)
"Project Runway" (Superb)
"Spring Awakening (2006 Original Broadway Cast)" (Decca)
Lost in the DVD desert
El Cid is a 1961 epic classic about the legendary Spanish hero starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren that was nominated for three Oscars.
Ishtar is a 1987 box-office flop starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty as lounge singers caught up in a Middle East espionage tangle.
Orson Welles' Falstaff is considered the best of the legendary director's three Shakespearean adaptations, a 1965 comedy.
What do all three of these films have in common? None has yet been released on DVD in North America, even though the format turns 10 next year, next-generation, high-definition discs are on the market, and conventional wisdom holds that practically everything in Hollywood's vaults is on DVD.
Nothing could be further from the truth. For example, of Warner Bros.' 6,650-film vault, only about 1,300 movies are on DVD.
"Some are tied up with legal issues, some are a result of an inability to find good-enough elements to work from, and others are being held back for commemorative opportunities," says Warner's George Feltenstein.
Falstaff, for example, was partly financed by a Spanish company that holds the rights. The film is available on DVD in Spain, but the disc won't work on U.S. players because of regional coding, launched in 1997 to combat DVD piracy.
In many cases, Feltenstein says, a film remains in the vault simply because the studio doesn't think it will sell. "The fact that a film is old doesn't necessarily make it a classic."
What's a fan to do? Bob Graham, 54, a Missouri market research manager, bought a region-free player to watch foreign DVDs of Falstaff.
John Scheinman, 46, a reporter in Washington, D.C., is desperate to see Ishtar. "The film was pummeled in the media before it came out because of big-time cost overruns," he says. "But Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman and Charles Grodin are pretty hilarious — and I, for one, would buy it on DVD."
Greg Pasqua, 40, an entertainment consultant in Burbank, Calif., would like to see Lost Horizon, the 1973 musical with Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann and George Kennedy.
"The film was coined 'Lost Investment' in Hollywood when it did poor box office and the reviews weren't very good," Pasqua says. "But it has a pretty good cult following and was once released for a limited time on laser disc."
Sometimes, fans can make it happen. A barrage of petitions led Sony to issue the cult classic Heavy Metal on DVD a few years back.
"The best current case in point is the (Richard) Donner cut of Superman II," Feltenstein says.
NOTABLES NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD IN NORTH AMERICA
-African Queen, 1951 adventure classic with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. Requires extensive restoration.
-The Jazz Singer, the landmark 1927 talkie with Al Jolson. Also needs cleaning up.
-Porgy and Bess, Otto Preminger's 1959 film version, which upset the estate of composer George Gershwin.
-Ace in the Hole, Billy Wilder's 1951 noir with Kirk Douglas.
-Adventures of Don Juan, from 1948, Errol Flynn's last great swashbuckler.
-Brewster McCloud, from 1970, from the late Robert Altman.
-Song of the South, the 1946 Disney retelling of the Uncle Remus stories and one of the few Disney classics not on DVD.
'Museum' exhibits funny pals
Despite the catastrophic experiences suffered by his luckless characters, Ben Stiller has become the central figure in Hollywood's current comedy universe in part by amassing good career karma.
Everything he touches in such movies as There's Something About Mary and Meet the Fockers tends to fall apart — or get stuck in a zipper.
But even though he rarely triumphs on-screen, the intense Stiller, 41, has carved out his own cinematic empire with an all-for-one, one-for-all approach, forging screen partnerships with some of today's top scene-stealers: Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn among them.
Stiller's Night at the Museum, opening Dec. 22, is the latest result of his team-rallying. It's a cameo-filled, special-effects family comedy starring Stiller as a beleaguered security guard who discovers a curse that brings everything in the Natural History Museum to life, wreaking havoc after closing time.
For Museum, Stiller invited funny men of a different era, Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, into his circle of film friends.
Stiller doesn't just get his pals to work for him; he also does bit parts and behind-the-scenes duty on their projects. He had a cameo role in this year's School for Scoundrels and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.
It's a habit that evolved decades ago when Stiller was a struggling newcomer.
"Every actor is out there trying to get parts, auditioning, going to acting class and creating a network of people who are in the same position you are," he says. "I couldn't sit around and wait to get work, because it wasn't happening. I would just try to create my own projects with friends who were filmmakers."
He has had career ups and downs since those early days.
Duplex was one that flopped in 2003 despite his best efforts, and his agent advised temporarily putting his directing career on the back burner after the mixed response to 1996's The Cable Guy.
He has become one of the most influential comic stars in the business with a total career gross of $1.38 billion, thanks to mega-blockbusters such as There's Something About Mary, Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, the popular Dodgeball and Along Came Polly, and cult movies Reality Bites and Flirting With Disaster.
Even when he is only signed on to act, Stiller has a reputation for getting hands-on behind the scenes. That doesn't always make him friends.
"You're automatically responsible for the movie, because there's no disclaimer that you can put in front and say, 'Hey, I'm just in the movie. Don't worry about the script, production design or direction because I'm just acting in this one,' " he says.
Making funny friends
In Night at the Museum, one of Stiller's non-acting contributions was helping round up the cast.
Look for Wilson, one of Stiller's best friends and a frequent co-star, as a tiny cowboy who feels fenced in by the museum's Old West diorama.
Robin Williams, who is new to the Stiller universe, is the animated wax figure of President Teddy Roosevelt, and British comic Ricky Gervais, the co-creator and star of the BBC's original The Office, plays a bitter museum curator.
Stiller befriended Gervais when Stiller did a guest shot as himself on Gervais' HBO series Extras, about a desperate background actor with a talent for alienating major stars.
Gervais is notoriously picky about the supporting roles he takes. But Stiller makes the persuasion sound easy: "I e-mailed him and said, 'I'm doing this movie. There's a funny part, and would you maybe think about it?' "
Gervais signed on.
In Wilson's case, he and Stiller have appeared alongside each other in Meet the Parents, Starsky & Hutch, Zoolander and The Royal Tenenbaums, among others. And Wilson got one of his first roles in Stiller's Cable Guy.
Getting him into Night at the Museum was practically telepathic: "Owen? I personally didn't even call Owen. We know each other so well, I think the thought came up, and he sensed I was doing a movie and just woke up in the middle of the night," Stiller jokes.
The film also brought together legends Van Dyke and Rooney as two old-timer guards who are handing the key rings and museum secrets to their new replacement.
"He's a very good actor, which a lot of comedians are not," says Van Dyke. "And he's a good director and a good writer. So he doesn't have to steal the show. That's why his movies are so good. He uses good people and gives them a chance to work."
The Mary Poppins star, who says he is semi-retired, is ready to be part of Stiller's Rolodex: "I was disappointed I didn't get a scene with Robin, or Owen Wilson, who I would love to work with. So … maybe later."
Stiller says his work with friends is like musicians playing on each others' records.
"We never had a troupe or anything like that. This is more informal," he says.
While he guest-stars in others' films, as in Ferrell's Anchorman and Black's Orange County, he also gets involved in the business side.
For Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, Stiller helped produce and appeared on-screen as a burned-out music clerk.
Black says getting studios interested in the movie, which has caustic sex, drugs and occult jokes, required a heavy hitter such as Stiller.
"He'd come to the crucial meetings at different studios, and whenever we were in a pinch or needed some muscle, he would make the power call," says Black, who was an unknown when Stiller cast him in a supporting role in Cable Guy. "He would cut through the crap, and we'd have been lost without him doing it."
Tenacious D flopped, taking in only $8 million since Nov. 22.
Stiller got involved because he was a fan. "I just wanted to be a part of it, selfishly," he says.
More 'Glory' to come
Lots of actors want to produce and direct, but Stiller is busier than most. While promoting Night at the Museum, he is shooting a raunchy romantic comedy for Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who last worked with him on his career-making There's Something About Mary
Simultaneously, he's working with editors on Ferrell's upcoming figure-skating comedy Blades of Glory, for which he is a producer but doesn't act.
"I don't know how he does it," says Bobby during a break in shooting on a Malibu beach. "He's got 20 things going on, but somehow or other, he pulls it all off. He must work in his sleep."
Surrounded by crew and cameras, Stiller is improvising jokes for the closing dialogue. Peter Farrelly says, "I'm always trying to keep him calm, because he's got so much going on. I worry about him. I've had this conversation with him where I say, 'Just stop for a moment and enjoy this.' "
Stiller also is developing a TV pilot for his wife, actress Christine Taylor (The Brady Bunch movie, The Wedding Singer). At home, the couple have a son, 1, and a daughter, 4.
He says budgeting personal time has become more important since having kids, but his home life already is enmeshed with his career.
Taylor co-starred with him in 2001's Zoolander, which he directed, and 2004's Dodgeball, which he produced and co-starred in as the villain. Her yet-untitled TV show is a joke-altered version of their real life, and Stiller plans to direct, produce and make guest appearances — as her husband.
Mom and dad on-screen
"I think it's great to work with your family," Stiller says.
His parents are Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller, who had a husband-and-wife comedy routine in the 1950s and '60s but are now better known as character actors.
They also are peppered through their son's filmography. Mom turns up in Night at the Museum as a cranky civil servant, and Dad plays his father in the Farrelly movie.
"I just knew I was going to get upstaged in every scene with him," says Ben, who guest-starred in a 2002 flashback episode of his dad's CBS sitcom The King of Queens as the father of his father's character.
How did he get Mom to do Night?
"Mom drives a really hard bargain," he jokes. "We only talk through our agents."
Though his parents were stand-up comics, Ben says he had no talent for that. Even a brief stint on Saturday Night Live wasn't for him. "I hated the pressure of it," he says. "What I like about making movies is you can do it over and over again."
After the Farrelly brothers' film, he's exploring a sequel to Zoolander, his takeoff on the modeling industry, and is producing a thriller based on the Scott Smith best seller The Ruins, which will be the first non-comedy he has overseen.
He plans to keep working with his ever-widening circle, but holding the center isn't easy.
"It's almost more difficult to work together as everybody has gotten successful. Everybody is doing their own thing, and it's sometimes hard to get together."
'Grinch' poised to ring in the big 5-0
He may have been about as "cuddly as a cactus and as charming as an eel," but the Grinch definitely has enduring appeal.
The book that introduced the grumpy, green Dr. Seuss creation who tried to thwart Christmas turns 50 next year.
To get a jump on the event, Warner Home Video last month released a 50th Birthday Deluxe Edition DVD of the animated special Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the first time it has been remastered.
"If yuletide comes, so comes the Grinch," says Audrey Geisel, 85, widow of Ted Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, who died in 1991 at age 87. "Year after year after year The Grinch came out, and that rather surprised me as the years went by, but then I finally said it's going to be there every single season."
The book, which Seuss biographer Kathleen Krull says in a DVD interview took him "a week" to write (although the ending took "months"), is a perennial favorite. The animated special over the past five years has averaged 6.4 million viewers each airing. And the DVD, says Dorinda Marticorena of Warner Home Video, "every holiday season sells so well."
The appeal, Geisel says, is the Grinch's message, of course:
Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more.
"Ted liked the Grinch particularly because it went against the normal way of looking at Christmas," says Geisel in a phone interview from her home on a hilltop in La Jolla, Calif. (Parked outside is her beloved gray 1984 Cadillac with the GRINCH plates.)
The holiday had become too materialistic, she says, and "Ted wanted to bring back the ho, ho without all the dough, dough. Making a heart grow three times is a nice thought."
The craziness of Christmas was something Dr. Seuss felt even before he wrote about the Grinch, says Bill Dreyer, curator of the Seuss art collection.
"I just reviewed an artwork that Ted created in 1938 called Xmas Chaos," Dreyer says. "This has never been seen. It's been in a private collection for 70 years. It talks about in this artwork 20 years before Grinch, the treadmill or whirlpool of the holiday. You jump on and get thrown off. It's interesting that the Grinch is the medium through which Ted delivers his philosophical idea about the holiday (being) hijacked by commercialization."
Judge rejects injunction against 'Borat'
LOS ANGELES - A judge rejected a request by two fraternity brothers to halt the DVD release of the hit spoof movie "Borat." West Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Biderman also refused to order the removal of a scene that includes the two men, who claim they had been duped into misbehaving on camera.
Biderman issued his two-page decision on Friday after hearing arguments the previous day.
The South Carolina fraternity brothers filed a lawsuit Nov. 9 claiming they were tricked into making racist and sexist remarks to British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
In one scene of the mockumentary, Cohen as rowdy Kazakh journalist Borat hangs out with the men in a motor home and watches the Pamela Anderson- Tommy Lee sex tape.
The fraternity brothers claim the filmmakers got them drunk before getting them to sign release forms agreeing to appear in the film. Their names do not appear in the lawsuit.
The film "made plaintiffs the objects of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress," the lawsuit claims.
A trial date for the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, has not been set.
Louis Petrich, an attorney for 20th Century Fox and One America Productions, said he was pleased about the judge's decision.
Calls to the plaintiffs' attorney, Olivier Taillieu, were not immediately returned.
WKRP in Cincinnati - WKRP - it's really coming out
News that Fox is releasing WKRP in Cincinnati is making the rounds thanks to a flyer that can be found inside the upcoming release of Stacked.
The studio has been working on the set for quite awhile, spending most of their time looking at the songs used in the series. As you've probably guessed, there will be music substitutions when the set comes out, but the studio has been spending a lot of time with a music supervisor to ensure that the replaced songs fit the show.
Hugh Wilson, creator of the series, has heard some of the replaced music and thought Fox did a good job.
This series was one that Fox reps said would "never" be released on DVD because of the music, but Fox is currently looking at April, 2007 for the first season set. Hopefully fans will keep an open mind and consider purchasing this set even with some of the music being replaced. We'll have more info when the set is officially announced.
NY critics pick 'United 93' as best film
NEW YORK - "United 93," which unflinchingly depicts the hijacked 9/11 flight that crashed into a Pennsylvania field, was chosen Monday as best picture of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle.
Written and directed by Paul Greengrass and featuring a cast of unknowns to give it an authentic, documentary-style feel, the film painstakingly recreates the events of that morning. It culminates with passengers bursting into the cockpit and wrestling their attackers for control of the jet, which ultimately plummets nose-first into the ground.
Marshall Fine, the group's chairman, said it was a tough vote for best picture, with critics slugging it out over "United 93," "The Queen" and "The Departed."
In choosing the winner, "I think everybody agrees it was an amazing film in terms of telling the story without pushing a political point of view," said Fine, film and TV critic for Star magazine. "It puts you right in the middle of the scene without telling you what to think or what to feel. It was really one of the most harrowing films of the year."
Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren continue to solidify their positions as Oscar front-runners: Each won the top acting prize from the New York critics, Whitaker for his thunderous portrayal of Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland" and Mirren for her withering take on Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen." Both have received the same awards in recent days from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Online.
Supporting-actor awards went to Jackie Earle Haley for his haunting turn as a sex offender in "Little Children" and Jennifer Hudson, who is emerging as an awards favorite for her showstopping performance in "Dreamgirls." She received the same honor Sunday from the New York Film Critics Online and won a breakthrough-performance award last week from the National Board of Review.
Martin Scorsese was the group's choice for best director for his Boston mob epic "The Departed."
Peter Morgan earned yet another award for his screenplay for "The Queen" after winning the same honor from Los Angeles critics and the National Board.
The penguin musical "Happy Feet" was the New York critics' choice for best animated film, while "Deliver Us From Evil," about a sexually abusive Roman Catholic priest, was their pick for best documentary. And French director Jean-Pierre Melville's "Army of Shadows," a World War II thriller that originally was made in 1969 but just released this year in the United States, was named best foreign film.
Meanwhile, the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association on Monday also announced that they've chosen "United 93" as best picture and honored Whitaker, Mirren and Scorsese.
The New York Film Critics Circle consists of 27 writers for New York-based newspapers and magazines. Last year they made "Brokeback Mountain" their top pick; in 2004, they chose "Sideways."
Classy Klassen
TORONTO (CP) — Speedskater Cindy Klassen is the winner of the 2006 Lou Marsh Award.
The award, decided by a panel of sports editors and broadcasters, is given annually to Canada’s outstanding athlete by the Toronto Star.
Klassen won a gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the Turin Winter Olympics to become Canada’s most-decorated athlete in any one Games.
The Winnipeg native’s career total of six medals also makes her Canada’s most decorated Olympian.
She also captured the overall World Cup title in 2006.
Klassen edged basketball star Steve Nash, who won his second straight NBA MVP award, in a close vote.
Other finalists were American League MVP Justin Morneau, speedskater Clara Hughes, NHL MVP Joe Thornton, freestyle skier Jennifer Heil and Maurice Richard Trophy winner Jonathan Cheechoo.
The Lou Marsh Award is named after a former Toronto Star sports editor.
The panel of voters comprised representatives from the Toronto Star, The Canadian Press, the FAN590/Primetime Sports, The Globe and Mail, Sportsnet, CTV/TSN, Montreal La Presse and the National Post.
The Canadian Press announces its athlete of the year award winners later this month. The CP awards are decided by sports editors and broadcasters across the country.
Oscar favorites and long shots emerge
LOS ANGELES - If the victory of best-picture champ "Crash" over front-runner "Brokeback Mountain" last winter proved one thing, it's that nothing is ever certain at the Academy Awards.
Yet with two and a half months to go before the Oscars on Feb. 25, three seemingly sure picks and a wildly eclectic lineup of potential and long-shot contenders have emerged for Hollywood's top prize.
The consensus among Hollywood awards watchers is that the peppy musical "Dreamgirls," the bloody mob saga "The Departed" and the royalty-in-crisis drama "The Queen" are virtual locks for best-picture nominations.
Beyond that, speculation runs wild as to what two films will grab the remaining slots. Could the beloved road-trip tale "Little Miss Sunshine" overcome the academy's bias against comic stories? Might either of the year's two Sept. 11 films, "United 93" and "World Trade Center," break into the best-picture field? Will two-time best-picture winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood get back in the race with one of his World War II companion films, "Flags of Our Fathers" or "Letters From Iwo Jima"?
Here's a rundown of the three favorites and some of the most likely other possibilities:
SAFE BETS:
"Dreamgirls" — It certainly won't go down as one of Hollywood's all-time musical classics, but this adaptation of the stage hit about a Supremes-like pop trio that emerges from Detroit's Motown scene in the 1960s has everything going for it. A sharp cast led by Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy and the scene-stealing Jennifer Hudson bring great vitality to the well-crafted film from director Bill Condon. And the music is irresistible, the ingredients adding up to a crowd-pleaser for academy voters and general audiences alike.
"The Departed" — Martin Scorsese is of the Oscars' most notorious bridesmaids, arguably the greatest living American filmmaker to be shut out on best-picture and director wins. The first two-thirds of his cops-and-mobsters epic is as grand as anything he's done in the genre, and despite a shaky third act, the film has the critical acclaim and box-office clout that spell best picture. It doesn't hurt to have terrific performances all-around from Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg.
"The Queen" — More likely than a best-picture nomination is the chance that Helen Mirren will walk away with the best-actress prize as Queen Elizabeth II. The universally acclaimed film from director Stephen Frears is anchored by a performance from Mirren that's equal parts withering imperiousness and deep introspection as the secluded queen copes with the crisis of Princess Diana's death in 1997. Mirren's backed by great supporting players, notably Michael Sheen as Prime Minister Tony Blair and James Cromwell as Prince Philip.
OTHER CONTENDERS:
"Little Miss Sunshine" — It's one of the year's funniest movies, a handicap at the Oscars, which rarely give comedy its due. Beneath the laughs, this tale of a seriously messed-up family headed to their little girl's beauty pageant has an undercurrent of pathos bordering on tragedy. Husband-and-wife directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have crafted a heavy-duty film disguised as a road romp, and the ensemble of Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin are so authentic, you'd think they'd been bickering around the dinner table for years.
"Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters From Iwo Jima" — As film twofers go, Eastwood's achievement is unprecedented. In the span of two months, he's presented bookend World War II films, "Flags" focusing on the American experience at Iwo Jima, "Letters" told from the Japanese perspective. "Flags" earned solid reviews but faltered at the box office. Could the decision to bump "Letters" to late 2006 instead of its 2007 release revive "Flags" sinking Oscar prospects? Or could "Letters," which some early critics think is the better of the two films, emerge as Eastwood's big Oscar offering, despite being told in Japanese with subtitles?
"United 93," "World Trade Center" — Hollywood's first big-screen treatments of the Sept. 11 attacks were well-received by audiences and critics. Paul Greengrass' agonizingly realistic "United 93," a chronicle of passengers killed when their plane crashed after they fought back against terrorist hijackers, is the better of the two. But Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena as policeman trapped in the rubble of the twin towers, is the bigger, more Oscar-like production, with a director who's triumphed there before.
"Volver" — Penelope Cruz gives a career performance and is surrounded by a tremendous supporting ensemble in Pedro Almodovar's rich, vibrant portrait of strong women making do without fickle men. Cruz is radiant in this comic drama about a single mother dealing with strange crises, including a mother ( Carmen Maura) who seemingly has returned from the dead. Like "Letters From Iwo Jima," the Spanish-language "Volver" could become a rare foreign-language film that breaks into the best-picture pack.
"The Good Shepherd" — In his second directing effort, Robert De Niro delivers a film with all the raw materials for an Oscar champion. He just needed to whittle a good half-hour off the excessive 2-hour, 40-minute running time. There's a lot of fat De Niro could have cut off his epic saga of the CIA's founding, which stars Matt Damon as a young poetry student recruited into the intelligence game, who becomes a lifer at the Company, a true believer that the dark espionage methods he pioneers will make the world a better place.
"Babel" — "Sprawling" is an adjective that could have been invented for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's far-flung drama that unfolds on three continents as it follows American, African, Mexican and Japanese families whose lives are intertwined by tragic events. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are the marquee names, but Inarritu has assembled a group of actors mostly new to U.S. audiences whose tremendous performances cement a diffuse story into a cohesive, compelling whole.
"Children of Men" — If academy voters tend to shun comedy, they practically run from futuristic stories. Yet Alfonso Cuaron's stark, humanity-on-the-ropes thriller starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine is recognizably of our times and about our burning issues despite its setting 21 years from now. A provocative, frightening tale about a plague of infertility, the film is a bleakly beautiful study of how our prejudices, injustices and fear of outsiders might be magnified by a planet-wide crisis, and how something as simple as a baby can restore hope.