Pre-Valentine's Double-Dose for '24'
LOS ANGELES -- What's the perfect Valentine's Day gift for viewers who hate romance, but love watching ultra-intense men battle terrorists?
For FOX, the answer is a special double-dose of "24." The network has scheduled a two-hour "24" event for Monday, Feb. 12, two days before the most lovey-dovey day of the year (but conveniently in the midst of the February sweeps period).
The event will cover the hours between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and will feature guest stars Chad Lowe and Powers Boothe as a "savvy politico" and the vice president, respectively. FOX's description of the episode's plot -- "The nation continues to reel from the terrorist attacks and Agent Bauer battles unthinkable circumstances" -- is somewhat less than helpful.
The defending Emmy winner for outstanding drama series, "24" premiered last week with a two-day, four-hour launch that exceeded the show's fifth season premiere by five percent among adults 18-49 and 14 percent in total viewers.
Miranda Lambert Not Withholding On Second CD
Breakthrough country artist Miranda Lambert will return May 1 with her sophomore album, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Lambert had a hand in writing eight of the 11 songs; other artists contributing to the writing include Gillian Welch and Patty Griffin.
The album closes with "Easy From Now On," penned by Carlene Carter and Susanna Clark, and previously recorded by Emmylou Harris on her 1978 album "Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town." The title cut can be sampled from Lambert's Web site.
"I let people in a lot more than I did on the last record -- so I'm a little scared, but I'm proud," says Lambert of the follow-up to 2005's "Kerosene," which became the sixth debut country album to open at No. 1 on The Billboard 200. The title track was nominated for a best female country vocal performance Grammy.
Lambert begins a run of dates supporting Toby Keith on Jan. 25 in Albany, N.Y.
'Barney Miller' officer Ron Carey dies
LOS ANGELES - Ron Carey, an actor best known for his work as a cocky, height-challenged policeman on the 1970s TV comedy "Barney Miller," has died. He was 71.
Carey died of a stroke Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Michael Ciccolini, an extended relative and family spokesman.
Carey had a recurring role on "Barney Miller" from 1976 to 1982 as Officer Carl Levitt, who yearned for a promotion to detective in the New York squad room run by Capt. Barney Miller ( Hal Linden).
Carey also appeared in several Mel Brooks movies, including "High Anxiety" and "History of the World Part I."
"Ron Carey was truly talented, very funny and one of the dearest men I've ever worked with," Brooks said in a statement.
Carey played a Boston cab driver in the 1970 Jack Lemmon comedy "The Out of Towners." He also appeared in scores of commercials, and took pride in being a supporting player and a character actor.
"Stars are stars," he told Newsday in 1989. "But without us, the show wouldn't go on."
Carey was born Ronald Joseph Cicenia on Dec. 11, 1935, in Newark, N.J.
He launched his stand-up comedy career in New York after earning a bachelor's degree in communications from Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., in 1956. He made his first national television appearance a decade later on "The Merv Griffin Show." Appearances on "The Tonight Show" and the "Ed Sullivan Show" followed.
Carey is survived by his wife, Sharon, and his brother, Jimmy Cicenia.
Likely best film Oscar nominees seem easy to pick
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Martin Scorsese's crime thriller "The Departed" is almost certain to grab a slot in the Oscar race for best film, along with the musical "Dreamgirls" and the comedy "Little Miss Sunshine," when Academy Award nominations are announced on Tuesday.
Oscar pundits say those three films are likely to square off against "Babel," a saga of clashing cultures, and "The Queen," a portrait of the British royal family, in the competition for Hollywood's highest honors.
All five already have been nominated for best picture by two of Hollywood's most influential trade groups -- the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America -- whose picks usually predict Oscar sentiment.
"This year we've seen unprecedented agreement among the guild awards for five front-runners for best picture," said Tom O'Neil, awards columnist for the Web site TheEnvelope.com. "It's a fairly easy year to predict the nominations."
"Babel" and "Dreamgirls," the film adaptation of a Broadway hit loosely based on the Motown music group Diana Ross & the Supremes, gained momentum last week by winning Golden Globe awards for best film drama and best comedy or musical.
And "Little Miss Sunshine," a low-budget road comedy about an unlikely young beauty queen and her quirky family, got a boost as the surprise choice for best picture at the Producers Guild awards on Saturday night.
DARK HORSE CANDIDATES
But O'Neil said that any of the five presumed Oscar favorites could find themselves bumped off the list for best film by one of several dark horse candidates, including the comic sensation "Borat" and Clint Eastwood's Japanese-language war film "Letters from Iwo Jima."
That is because the Oscar ballot system makes it possible for a film to land one of the five best-picture nominations by garnering support from one-sixth plus one of the votes cast by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
"The point is, all you need is a small, passionate core of support to get a nomination. You don't need the bulk of the academy," O'Neil told Reuters.
The mock documentary "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" also is a wild card in the race for best actor. It remains to be seen whether its star, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, can gain Oscar recognition for his slapstick, often bawdy performance as a cluelessly offensive journalist from Central Asia.
Other big questions are whether Leonardo DiCaprio will land a best-actor bid for either "The Departed" or "Blood Diamond" -- Oscar rules bar him from competing for both -- and whether Brad Pitt will be nominated as best actor or best supporting actor in "Babel."
WILD CARDS
Other critically acclaimed wild cards that stand a chance of clinching a nod for best picture are "United 93," a drama set aboard one of the airliners seized by suicide hijackers on September 11, and the Spanish-language film "Pan's Labyrinth," which mixes a dark fantasy with the horrors of war.
"Labyrinth" is a favorite for nomination as best foreign-language film, along with Pedro Almodovar's "Volver," starring Penelope Cruz.
The biggest commercial success in terms of the five most likely Oscar contenders for best film is "The Departed," which has grossed more than $121 million domestically and is still playing in theaters. Notwithstanding longshot "Borat," which has grossed $127 million, the others rank relatively low on the box-office scale.
In the contest for best director, Scorsese, 64, is a shoo-in to be nominated for "The Departed," a tale of double-dealing cops and gangsters. And he is favored to win, by virtue of an Oscar dynamic that O'Neil calls "the overdue director's syndrome."
The filmmaker behind such classics as "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas," Scorsese has never won an Academy Award despite five nominations as best director.
His most likely rivals include Bill Condon for "Dreamgirls," British filmmaker Stephen Frears for "The Queen," Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for "Babel" and Eastwood for "Letters from Iwo Jima."
Two performers are seen as sure bets to vie for best actor -- Forest Whitaker for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland," and veteran Peter O'Toole for playing an aging actor who falls for a young woman in "Venus."
An Oscar triumph would be especially gratifying for O'Toole, who has been nominated as best actor seven times without winning.
The front-runners for an Oscar bid as best actress this year are Penelope Cruz for "Volver," Judi Dench for "Notes on a Scandal," Helen Mirren for "The Queen," Meryl Streep for "The Devil Wears Prada" and Kate Winslet for "Little Children."
Golden Globes wins help smaller films
LOS ANGELES - The dance flick "Stomp the Yard" retained its top spot at the box office for a second week, but a handful of small films were boosted by their success at the Golden Globes.
The Fox Searchlight film "The Last King of Scotland" was the biggest beneficiary as the studio shrewdly expanded the art house film from four theaters to 495, anticipating a good performance at the Globes. The movie took in an estimated $1.8 million from Friday to Sunday.
Forest Whitaker was named best actor in a drama for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. He also is considered a favorite for an acting Oscar.
"The marketplace accepted the movie," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "Having Forest Whitaker win for that key role really boosted the film."
"Babel," from Paramount Vantage, increased its ticket sales 500 percent from last weekend after the film, an ensemble piece featuring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, won best drama honors at the Globes.
The film, which initially didn't make the list of top 20 box office earners, jumped to 12th place this weekend with $2.3 million, according to studio estimates, bringing its 13-week take to $24 million.
The Miramax drama "The Queen" also got a huge lift, jumping 233 percent from last week to the ninth spot after its star, Helen Mirren, won two Golden Globes — one for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen," and as Queen Elizabeth I in a TV miniseries.
Another smaller film, the wartime fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth," from Picturehouse, a division of Time Warner Inc., saw its weekend gross jump 118 percent, moving it from 18th place last week to seventh place this weekend with $4.7 million.
The film, from Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, has won numerous awards, although it lost last week in the best foreign-language film category at the Globes to the Clint Eastwood Japanese-language war film "Letters From Iwo Jima."
"Anyone who is skeptical about the positive effect a Globe win can have on a film's box office need only look at this weekend's numbers," Dergarabedian said.
Many of the films are expected to be nominated Tuesday for the Academy Awards.
"Stomp the Yard," which focuses on a step competition between rival college fraternities, earned $13.3 million, narrowly beating "Night at the Museum" with $13 million. The comedy starring Ben Stiller has made about $206 million.
The only film to open wide this weekend, the horror movie "The Hitcher," came in fourth at the box office.
"The film is a little disappointing for us," said Jack Foley, president of distribution for Rogue Pictures. "It opened competitively in a sluggish marketplace and I think it will stick around for a few weeks anyway."
Overall, box office receipts for the top 12 films were down 20 percent from the same weekend last year.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Stomp the Yard," $13.3 million.
2. "Night at the Museum," $13 million.
3. "Dreamgirls," $8.7 million.
4. "The Hitcher," $8.2 million.
5. "The Pursuit of Happyness," $6.7 million.
6. "Freedom Writers," $5.6 million.
7. "Pan's Labyrinth," $4.7 million.
8. "Children of Men," $3.7 million.
9. "The Queen," $3.7 million.
10. "Arthur and The Invisibles," $3.1 million.