CFL inks new deal with TSN
The Canadian Football League announced Wednesday it has signed a new television contract with TSN in a deal that leaves the CBC watching from the sidelines.
The new five-year contract, which includes an option year, begins in 2008 and will see TSN serve as the lone broadcaster of all regular-season and playoff games, including the Grey Cup.
Financial terms of the new contract were not released.
Under the terms of the deal, TSN has the broadcast rights to the CFL's annual 77-game package: 72 regular-season games, four playoff contests and the Grey Cup.
"This is a groundbreaking deal of enormous magnitude for TSN. The CFL has recognized TSN as a fitting home for all its games, and for the first time in history, the coveted Grey Cup will be produced and televised on TSN," said Phil King, president of TSN.
CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay expressed disappointment with the deal.
"Obviously we're very disappointed that after more than 50 seasons of football on CBC Television that the CFL has made this decision. The CBC has a long and proud tradition of making football available to Canadians across the country."
Keay said the CBC was not given an opportunity by the CFL to participate in the bidding process.
"We didn't get a chance to come to the table at all."
This new contract reflects a fundamental shift in the Canadian television industry. Under the past two TV deals, TSN sold rights to some regular-season games, all playoff contests and the Grey Cup to CBC for a fee.
However, TSN's sale to CTV in 1999 and their subsequent purchase by BCE, which rolled them into Bell Globemedia in 2000, allow TSN to hold onto the full rights package instead of selling off a portion of them.
NHL contract still on block
The new CFL deal is the latest setback for CBC Sports, which lost the rights to Canadian Curling Association properties, such as the Brier and Tournament of Hearts, to CTV-TSN earlier this year.
Last year, a Bell Globemedia-Rogers Communications consortium won the rights to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. CBC had held Olympic broadcast rights since 1996.
CBC Sports responded to those losses by signing an eight-year agreement with FIFA that includes the rights to the next two World Cups, a four-year deal for Alpine skiing and an eight-year contract for the World Curling Tour's Grand Slam events.
The big prize still up for grabs is the rights to NHL games. The CBC's deal with the league expires after the 2007-08 season, and CTV-TSN is believed to be readying to table a serious bid for the rights.
Toronto Critics Hail the 'Queen'
It was a royal flush for "The Queen," which won five top honors from the Tornoto Film Critics Association.
Stephen Frears' examination of Her Majesty's reaction after Princess Di's untimely death won for best picture, best actress Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, best supporting actor Michael Sheen as Prime Minister Tony Blair, best screenplay by Peter Morgan and best director Frears, who shares the honors with "L'Enfant" co-directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
Acting kudos went to Sacha Baron Cohen for his leading role in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" and Cate Blanchett for her supporting role in "Notes on a Scandal."
The penguins once again proved their supremacy as they tapped off with the best animated feature award, while Jason Reitman's "Thank You for Smoking" snagged the first feature award. "L'Enfant" also took home the best foreign-language film award, while Jennifer Baichawal's "Manufactured Landscapes" -- which follows photographer Edward Burtynsky as he takes pictures of how the land has changed due to industrial work and manufacturing -- nabbed two awards, for best documentary film and best Canadian film.
"The Queen" is also nominated for four Golden Globe awards in the best dramatic picture, directing, screenplay and actress categories
Cast of "Grey's Anatomy" tops entertainer list
LOS ANGELES, Dec 20 (Reuters Life!) - The cast of the television hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy" tops Entertainment Weekly's list of the year's top entertainers because of their cultural impact, the magazine said.
Entertainment Weekly's year-end issue hits U.S. newsstands starting Friday with its widely watched lists of the year's top picks in movies, music, television, books and many other categories.
A video Web site, two fake journalists and a veteran actress also rated highly on the magazine's lists.
Entertainment Weekly said the cast of "Grey's" -- McDreamy, McSteamy and all the others -- led the chart of top entertainers because they had a cultural impact beyond their show's roughly 20 million weekly viewers. In addition, the episodes -- filled with sexual affairs and career problems -- sparked chatter around offices, schools and homes across the United States.
"'Grey's' isn't just a show, it's a phenomenon," said Entertainment Weekly Executive Editor Lori Majewski.
"Back in May when last season's final show aired, every place in New York City was empty. You could get a table at the best restaurants," she said.
YouTube, the wildly popular Web site where people post videos of anything from themselves singing to comedian Michael Richards shouting racial epithets, made the list because it too had a cultural impact beyond its cyberspace borders.
The Richards incident sparked discussions of when comics should and should not use the "N-word" when commenting on black Americans.
Likewise, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's character Borat Sagdiyev, a politically incorrect TV reporter from Kazakhstan, forced Americans to take a hard look at themselves -- warts and all -- in his hit film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
"He held up a mirror to America," Majewski said.
But not all the year's top entertainers had such a serious edge. Streep turned in strong performances in two very different movies -- the musical drama "The Prairie Home Companion" and the comedy "The Devil Wears Prada."
Other top entertainers included the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, singers Justin Timberlake and Beyonce, British actress Helen Mirren and Stephen Colbert, host of the television news spoof "The Colbert Report."
Entertainment Weekly reaches about 11.4 million readers each week.
Procol Harum organist wins court case
LONDON - A judge awarded a 40 percent share in the copyright of "A Whiter Shade of Pale," one of the most famous pop songs of all time, to a former organist for Procol Harum.
Lead singer Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid always claimed credit for the hit, which became part of the soundtrack for the hippy "summer of love" of 1967.
But in his ruling, the judge decided that organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to both credit and royalties.
"I have come to the view that Mr. Fisher's interest in the work should be reflected by according him a 40 percent share of the musical copyright," the written judgment said. "His contribution to the overall work was on any view substantial but not, in my judgment, as substantial as that of Mr. Brooker."
The judge said the song's organ solo "is a distinctive and significant contribution to the overall composition and quite obviously the product of skill and labor on the part of the person who created it."
The judge said Fisher, 60, was entitled to royalties from May 2005, when he began court proceedings.
"A Whiter Shade of Pale," famous for its cryptic lyrics — "We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels 'cross the floor" — topped the British charts for five weeks in 1967 and was a Top 5 hit in the U.S.
Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it 57th in a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Brooker says he and Reid wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967. It was released in May.
Fisher, now a computer programmer living in south London, left the band in 1969. Brooker, 61, still tours with Procol Harum.
In a statement, Brooker and Reid said Fisher's court victory created a dangerous precedent because it meant any musician who had played on any recording in the past 40 years could claim joint authorship.
"It is effectively open season on the songwriter," they said. "It will mean that unless all musicians' parts are written for them, no publisher or songwriter will be able to risk making a recording for fear of a possible claim of songwriting credit."
They intend to file an appeal.
Grammys to honor Doors, Grateful Dead
NEW YORK - The Doors, the Grateful Dead and Joan Baez are among the recording artists who will receive lifetime achievement Grammy Awards next year.
Other honorees include Maria Callas, Ornette Coleman, Bob Wills and Booker T. & The MG's, The Recording Academy announced Tuesday. The awards are decided by a vote of the group's national board of trustees.
"This year's group of accomplished honorees are as diverse as they are influential as creators of the most renowned and prominent recordings in the world," Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said in a statement.
"Their contributions exemplify the highest artistic and technical standards that have positively affected the music industry and music fans."
The statuettes will be handed out during a ceremony before the main Grammys are handed out at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 11. The 49th annual awards will air live on CBS, a division of CBS Corp.
Stax Records co-founder Estelle Axton, Grammy-winning composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and recording engineer Cosimo Matassa will receive the Trustees Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing category.