Jacques Villeneuve releases CD
MONTREAL (CP) - Racing driver Jacques Villeneuve was focused on tunes instead of tune-ups Monday as he launched his first music CD, which includes a melodic tribute to his Formula One champion father.
Gilles Villeneuve, who died in a racing accident in 1982, was an inspiration to Jacques Villeneuve and the son said it was important for him to honour his father. "It felt great," Jacques Villeneuve said in an interview after doing a selection from his album "Private Paradise," which included "Father," a song he performed in a duet Monday with his sister Melanie.
"It's a very important song. It's the only personal song on the album. I don't write personal stuff and I don't want to sing personal stuff either, but this one, because it's with my sister, I'm quite happy doing it."
Villeneuve, who no longer drives on the Formula One circuit, said the song was a more emotional experience for his sister, who started writing it in the mid-1980s, a few years after Gilles Villeneuve died when he crashed his car into a fence during a practice run in Belgium.
"I wrote the end of it a few years ago so by the time I wrote it we had grown and we had been used to living without our dad."
"Private Paradise" goes into wide release next week after two concerts in Montreal, one at Villeneuve's downtown restaurant, and the other at the Cabaret du Capitole du Quebec.
There are no immediate plans to tour with the album, most of whose songs are in English.
Villeneuve is not going to give up his day job for music and is still in talks to participate on the NASCAR circuit. But the sounds of guitar chords stir him just as much as the squeal of tires on a track.
"I've always loved music," he said. "Everyone has music inside them anyway. Everyone enjoys going to a karaoke and singing."
He decided to go one step further and write and record his songs - six of which are on his album.
"I said OK, I'll rent a studio. I want to know how the songs properly sound once recorded fully and you just have to get going, you have to take the risks."
Villeneuve couldn't pin down a specific inspiration for his style - "I've been buying so many CDs over the years."
"It's always something I've listened to, a mood. Inspiration can sometimes be being stuck in a snowstorm for a week. That will give you some inspiration, having nothing else to do."
Villeneuve was a little shaky in his performance before the media, suggesting he still has some work to do before he's as at ease recording tracks as he is driving on them.
But Garou, a musical mega-star in Quebec, says he thinks his friend did pretty well.
"He doesn't need any advice because he doesn't want to be perfect," Garou said after the performance for the media. "He just wants to have fun and he wants to share what he loves - music and songs. And he does it perfectly. It has to stay natural.
"It's a passion he's been sharing for years and years and years with his friends and now he's doing it with the entire world."
Villeneuve is among several Canadian athletes who've tried their hand at music, including:
-Olympic figure skater Elvis Stojko recorded a duet with Canadian Idol finalist Ashley Leitao last year and will soon release an album of his own. He has also dabbled as an actor, appearing in the stage production of "Grease" in 2004.
-Calgary Flames forward Darren McCarty has his own band Grinder, whose motto is "the Toughest Band in Rock-n-Roll."
-Toronto Argo wide receiver Robert Baker quit pro football in 2006 to pursue a career in rap music under the name Shake Severs.
-Former Montreal Alouettes coach Don Matthews released a novelty song in 2005 called "What Time Is It?" The single was based on a speech he gave at the Alouettes' 2002 Grey Cup parade, when he asked his players: "What time is it?" and they responded with things like: "Time to get busy!"
-Football brothers Doug and Darren Flutie play in the Flutie Brothers Band, opening for acts such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bo Diddley and Meredith Brooks. They also wrote and recorded the Saturday Night Football theme song for the Canadian Football League that is featured weekly on CBC.
-Hockey star Guy Lafleur released a disco album in 1979.
-Legendary goaltender Johnny Bower had a hit single in 1965 with "Honky the Christmas Goose," selling more than 40,000 copies of the novelty tune.
The New Trailer Has Arrived
The new SIMPSONS MOVIE trailer!!
Trump's hair on the line at Wrestlemania
DETROIT - Will Donald Trump put his hair where his mouth is?
Trump and World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon will pick a wrestler to represent them in the ring April 1 at Wrestlemania 23 at Detroit's Ford Field, The Detroit News reported last week.
If their pick is beaten in the "Battle of the Billionaires," the loser will get his head shaved after the match, the Detroit Free Press reported Monday.
WWE spokesman Gary Davis said the date of the event had prompted speculation that it was a hoax. But it's not an April Fool's Day joke, he said.
"If Trump loses, he shaves his head," he said.
The announcement of the match was made on a WWE television program that aired over the weekend.
XM and Sirius to combine; hurdles loom
NEW YORK - XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., rivals in the fledgling satellite radio industry, have agreed to combine in a deal that investors hope will result in lower costs, assuming it overcomes significant regulatory hurdles.
The companies billed the deal announced Monday as a merger of equals, with shareholders of both companies owning approximately 50 percent of the combined entity. However, Sirius will be giving $4.57 billion of its stock to XM shareholders, a substantial premium to the value of their shares.
Sirius' Chief Executive Mel Karmazin will lead the combined company, and XM's CEO Hugh Panero will stay on only until the deal is closed. XM Chairman Gary Parsons will remain in that role.
The deal faces substantial obstacles in Washington, including a Federal Communications Commission provision that specifically forbids the two companies to combine.
Analysts have noted that the FCC could change the rule, but in a statement late Monday FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that the "hurdle" would be "high" to prove that the deal would be in the public interest.
"The companies would need to demonstrate that consumers would clearly be better off with both more choice and affordable prices," Martin said.
A combination would also have to meet antitrust approval from the Department of Justice. The companies are expected to argue that they compete not only with each other but also with traditional radio and a growing base of digital audio sources such as iPods, mobile phones and non-satellite digital radio.
The XM shareholders will receive 4.6 shares of Sirius stock for every share they own, valuing them at $17.02 each based on Friday's closing price for Sirius shares. That gives XM shareholders a premium of 22 percent to the $13.98 closing value of their stock on Friday. Markets were closed Monday for the Presidents' Day holiday.
Investors and analysts have been speculating about a deal for months, and are hoping that the cost savings that would result would make up for softening retail demand for satellite radio units. Both services offer dozens of channels of talk and commercial-free music for monthly fees of about $13.
XM radio receivers can't receive signals from Sirius, and vice versa. But Karmazin and Parsons said in an interview that the companies are working on developing a receiver that could receive both signals.
In the meantime, they said, assuming the deal goes through, the companies would make other arrangements to bring programming that's currently exclusive to one provider to listeners of the other, such as getting Major League Baseball games — currently only available on XM — to Sirius listeners.
"We will be taking every effort to find the best possible programming combination," Parsons said.
It's too early to say what the deal will mean for subscription prices. The merger could bring down the cost of providing service, but at the same time give the company more pricing power as the only U.S. satellite radio provider.
Karmazin declined to comment specifically about how much the companies hoped to save by the merger, but he said he expected the deal to clear regulatory approval and close within six to nine months. "We understand that there's a lot of work to be done," Karmazin said.
Neither XM nor Sirius have turned a profit yet as they spent heavily to build up their programming lineups and subscriber bases, including a five-year, $500 million contract that Sirius made with the shock jock Howard Stern. Both stocks declined more than 40 percent last year on concerns about their continued growth in subscribers, but investors have held out hope of a merger.
The combined company would have had about $1.5 billion in revenues in 2006 and about 14 million subscribers, they said. The companies said they would work together to decide on a new name and also to determine where it would be based. XM is based in Washington, while Sirius is based in New York.
The new company's board will have 12 members, including Parsons, Karmazin, four independent directors named by each company, and one representative each from General Motors Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
News of a possible merger was reported earlier Monday by the New York Post.
On Friday, a Bear Stearns analyst said in a research note that a merger would have a good chance of overcoming regulatory obstacles.
Other analysts remain less sure. Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said he gives the deal a "50-50" chance of passing regulatory muster.
Moffett said the deal could have a particularly tough time getting through the FCC, and said it was "anyone's guess" as to whether the FCC would change its rule barring a consolidation of the two satellite radio companies.
A group representing radio companies, the National Association of Broadcasters, put out a statement Monday urging federal regulators to block the satellite radio deal.
CBC News at Six renews local focus
Canadians will see a change in their CBC Television supper-hour newscasts beginning today.
In every region across the country, CBC's News at Six will become one-hour newscast with a mix of local, national and international news.
The half-hour Canada Now national news show produced out of Vancouver was aired for the last time on Friday.
Instead of a half-hour of national and international news and a separate half-hour of local news, Canadians will see a supper program that is a single, locally produced show, said Diana Swain, host of the Toronto version of News at Six.
"Basically what they've seen was two half hours that filled up the time from six to seven — one exclusively local and the other national," she said in an interview on CBC Radio.
"We've taken away that line … so you'll see a full seamless hour from six to seven."
The intention is to renew CBC's focus on local news, already a strength of radio and CBC.ca coverage, said Swain.
"The focus of the program will be local and we can put as much of that [local news] in as we want," she said.
She admitted this new format is similar to the supper-hour newscasts that CBC had before the creation of Canada Now in 2000.
"For some people it must look as if we're coming full circle and on some level we are. There's a recognition now that local news really is important to people," she said.
But she said CBC wants to "grow this show into something new," and hopes to build local coverage on television that mirrors what is heard on radio.
Canada Now host Ian Hanomansing will be hosting the local newscast in Vancouver.
In an information session for employees when the changes were announced last year, CBC said no new resources will be devoted to the locally focused newscasts.
George Canyon tops ECMAs
HALIFAX (CP) - Tears mixed with laughs when the best musicians in Atlantic Canada gathered Sunday night to pat backs, play a few tunes and bid farewell to a trio of trailblazers.
George Canyon, In-Flight Safety, Joel Plaskett Emergency and J. P. Cormier each walked away with three awards following the East Coast Music Awards gala at the Halifax Metro Centre. During a two-hour awards show broadcast nationally by the CBC and hosted by the Trailer Park Boys, Canyon added the new pieces of silverware to an already bulging trophy case.
The Nova Scotia country singer was named entertainer of the year for the third consecutive year. It was the only award voted on by fans.
"God is so good," said Canyon, resplendent in a glittery western suit and black Stetson.
Canyon, who came out of obscurity in 2004 by finishing second on the "Nashville Star" talent search, has won more than a dozen awards since, including a Juno in 2005 and the Canadian Country Music Awards fan choice honour.
Besides the nod from the fans, the granite-chinned singer from Pictou County also won for video of the year and country recording of the year for "Somebody Wrote Love."
"I'm scared to death to let a lot of this success in the last three years sink in," Canyon said later. "That's the God's honest truth."
In the night's emotional centrepiece, three Maritime legends who died in the past year - Denny Doherty of the Mamas and the Papas, Celtic pioneer John Allan Cameron and bluesman Dutch Mason - were remembered in a moving tribute that included performances by recent Grammy winner Gordie Sampson, Shaye, Canyon and Ashley MacIsaac.
"I've got a wound on my lip from biting it so hard. I was getting choked up," said Canyon, who sang "California Dreamin' " during the tribute.
"Being a part of that was one of the highlights for me."
Cormier, who performed many times with Cameron, became emotional when he told reporters about a late-night conversation he had with the Celtic troubadour in a hotel room several years ago.
"He really thought he was going to be forgotten," Cormier said. "He wasn't bitter about it. It was poignant.
"But it was apparent to me - and apparent to me tonight - that he's never going to be forgotten."
Jill Barber, an Ontario-raised singer-songwriter who moved to Halifax almost five years ago, won two awards on the strength of her first full-length release, "For All Time."
The album was named FACTOR recording of the year. She also won for solo female recording of the year.
Barber, who grew up in Toronto before moving to the Maritimes, said she came to the city on a whim.
"I knew Halifax was great for music and I felt the calling," she explained to reporters later. "But I never would have expected to find myself, as far as music."
Cormier, a Cape Bretoner whose musical chops span folk, country, bluegrass, rock and Celtic, won for bluegrass recording of the year, folk recording and instrumental recording.
Cormier figured he's won "eight or nine" ECMAs since attending the inaugural awards show 19 years ago in a smoky Halifax pub.
"The award was a pin at the end of a Q-Tip, or something," the burly musician quipped. "Everybody stood around saying, 'You rock!' 'No, you rock!' " It's come a long way since."
Newfoundland's Ron Hynes took the award for male solo recording of the year for his self-titled album.
In-Flight Safety, a Halifax-based band that met as students at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., went into the night with four nominations.
Their first full-length release, "The Coast is Clear," was named alternative recording of the year, CBC Galaxie rising star recording of the year and XM Satellite Group recording of the year.
The rising star award came with a cheque for $5,000.
"We've gone from making records in a basement in Sackville to this awards show," said a clearly thrilled John Mullane, the band's singer.
"It's a hell of a difference."
Halifax's Joel Plaskett Emergency won for single of the year for "Nowhere With You," and DVD of the year.
Plaskett was also named SOCAN songwriter of the year, also for "Nowhere With You," a song that was used in a Zellers commercial.
The lanky performer said he fretted "for about five minutes" about being labelled a sellout for allowing the department store giant to use the song.
"Their prices are great," he joked to reporters later.
"That commercial brought a lot of kids out to the shows over the summer and made radio take notice, which has been hard to crack. It's tough getting on radio. It's a weird business."
Sloan won for rock recording of the year for the band's mammoth 30-song CD "Never Hear the End of It."
Chris Murphy, the lone member of the former Halifax independent faves to travel from Toronto for the show, said the new album has garnered more positive press than any of the band's recent releases, particularly in the U.S., where Sloan has a new record deal.
Wearing a Halifax T-shirt under a battered leather jacket, Murphy joked about being finally able to afford a house in Toronto.
"But I have a tenant, and we have mice, so we're not getting rich," he said.
The awards show was hosted for the second year in a row by Bubbles, Ricky and Julian of the popular cult TV hit "The Trailer Park Boys."
The showed opened with the three arriving late and ramming their old beater through a steel door and onto the floor of the packed hockey arena.
The foul-mouthed trio dropped several F-bombs during the broadcast, but all were bleeped out.
Comedian Mary Walsh wasn't bleeped, however, when she called the federal Conservatives "the arse-lickers of Satan," as an uncomfortable-looking Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay smiled in the front row.
Earlier in the evening while making a presentation on stage, MacKay was booed when he mistakenly referred to Halifax as Toronto.
ECMA winner's lst
HALIFAX (CP) - Winners at Sunday night's East Coast Music Awards:
Sirius Satellite Radio Entertainer of the Year: George Canyon.
FACTOR Recording of the Year: "For All Time" (Jill Barber).
Female Solo Recording of the Year: "For All Time" (Jill Barber).
XM Satellite Radio Group Recording of the Year: "The Coast is Clear" (In-Flight Safety).
Male Solo Recording of the Year: "Ron Hynes" (Ron Hynes).
CBC Galaxie Rising Star Recording of the Year: "The Coast is Clear" (In-Flight Safety).
Single of the Year: "Nowhere With You" (Joel Plaskett Emergency).
SOCAN Songwriter of the Year: Joel Plaskett for "Nowhere With You."
Video of the Year: "Drinkin' Thinkin' " (George Canyon).
DVD of the Year: "Make A Little Noise" (Joel Plaskett Emergency).
African-Canadian Recording of the Year: "Scotia Mix Vol. 1" (Jamie Sparks).
Tour Tech East Alternative Recording of the Year: "The Coast Is Clear" (In-Flight Safety).
Bluegrass Recording of the Year: "Take Five . . . a Banjo Collection" (J.P. Cormier).
Blues Recording of the Year: "Weight of the World" (John Campbelljohn).
Children's Recording of the Year: "Anne and Gilbert" (The Cast of Anne and Gilbert).
Classical Recording of the Year: "Extase" (Measha Bruggergosman).
Vibe Creative Group Country Recording of the Year: "Somebody Wrote Love" (George Canyon).
CBC Galaxie Francophone Recording of the Year: "Pied-a-terre" (Blou).
Folk Recording of the Year: "Looking Back - Volume 2: The Songs" (JP Cormier).
Gospel Recording of the Year: "I Love You So" (The LaPointes).
Instrumental Recording of the Year: "Looking Back - Volume 1: The Instrumentals" (JP Cormier).
Jazz Recording of the Year: "Crocus" (Duane Andrews).
Pop Recording of the Year: "Bring on the Storm" (Charlie A'Court).
Rap/Hip-Hop Single Track Recording of the Year: "Find Out" (Classified).
Newcap Radio Rock Recording of the Year: "Never Hear the End of It" (Sloan).
Roots/Traditional Group Recording of the Year: "El Viento Flamenco in Concert" (El Viento Flamenco).
Roots/Traditional Solo Recording of the Year: "Yours Truly" (Natalie MacMaster).
Urban Single Track Recording of the Year: "All I Need" (Jamie Sparks).
Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award: Presented posthumously to contralto Portia White.
Rep: Moynahan Pregnant With Tom Brady's Baby
LOS ANGELES (February 18, 2007) -- Actress Bridget Moynahan is pregnant with ex-boyfriend Tom Brady's baby, Access Hollywood has learned.
A rep for Moynahan told Access the actress is at least three months pregnant and claims the dad is NFL star Brady, who split from Moynahan in December.
The couple dated for three years.
Since their split, Brady has been linked to Giselle Bundchen.
The 29-year-old Brady, a two-time Super Bowl MVP who has led the New England Patriots to three NFL titles, was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2002.
Moynahan, 36, has appeared in films such as "The Recruit," "Coyote Ugly" and "I, Robot." She also starred on the ABC television series "Six Degrees."
Access has reached out to Brady for comment and is awaiting a response.
Love — and rejection — is in the air at 'Studio 60'
With Studio 60, maybe two strikes are enough.
This much-heralded NBC hour from Aaron Sorkin has been rejected twice by viewers, who were even less enthralled with its winter reincarnation as a romantic comedy than they were with its fall stint as a backstage drama. And now it's being rejected by its network, which is pulling the show after tonight's episode to make way for The Black Donnellys.
Yes, NBC says Studio will return this spring (though the network also said the show would run through February, and that's not happening), but the odds of it returning for a second season are long at best. And if these latest episodes are any indication of what the future holds, perhaps it's best if the future ends now.
Death would not come without mourning, but the grief would be more for the promise represented by Sorkin and a stellar cast led by Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford than for anything they produced. The hope was that the show would expand beyond its good but too inside-the-business start to encompass TV's effect on all of us, both those who make it and those who watch it. Instead, it collapsed upon itself, devoting hour after hour to its head writer's struggles — interrupted only by an FCC-inspired crisis far too patently absurd to support a continuing story.
As you should expect from the stellar talents involved, Studio has given us flashes of brilliance, but ultimately, it never gave us enough reason to care. The people working on the show-within-a-show had nothing at risk because the fictional Studio was a smash from the very start. And we as viewers had nothing at stake in that show's survival, because most of what we saw of it was terrible. You get the feeling this is what The Dick Van Dyke Show would have looked like had it been made with too much self-aggrandizing angst and by too few funny people.
Yet for all their problems, those early episodes did at least seem to have a point, as opposed to the weightless, painfully silly romantic comedy the show has become. The only rooting interest we can possibly have in these two misaligned couples, Matt and Harriet (Perry and Sarah Paulson) and Danny and Jordan (Whitford and Amanda Peet), is to root against them.
Indeed, it's hard to say which woman you cringe for more: Jordan, who is being chased by a man who shares her own near-psychotic attachment to being overly cute; or Harriet, who is being chased by a self-absorbed, egotistic addict who routinely mocks her most closely held beliefs.
The change in tone came about, of course, because viewers weren't interested enough in the story Sorkin originally wanted to tell, but can he really be interested in telling this one? If so, it's hard to fathom. It's coming across as little more than a desperate, flailing attempt to find something, anything, to keep the lights on.
And if that's the case, well, maybe it's better to just turn them off now.
Source: Jays give Gibbons extension
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The Blue Jays have reached a preliminary agreement on a one-year contract extension with manager John Gibbons, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations. An official announcement could come as early as Monday.
"We've talked, but nothing's done," Gibbons said early Monday morning.
Gibbons' new deal would pay him $650,000 in 2008 -- a $150,000 raise over his salary for the upcoming '07 season. Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi was not immediately available for comment.
Last week, Gibbons said that he wasn't too concerned about his contract situation, describing the issue as a "low priority."
"To be honest with you, I haven't given it a whole lot of thought," Gibbons said on Thursday about being in the last year of his current deal. "I'm not paralyzed by that. It's a game of results. If we play good, good things happen. If we don't? Bad things happen."
Gibbons was named Toronto's interim manager on Aug. 8, 2004, after the Blue Jays let manager Carlos Tosca go. Since then, Gibbons has led the Jays to a 187-187 record -- highlighted by an 87-75 mark last season. In 2006, Toronto finished second in the American League East for the first time since winning the World Series in 1993.
Gibbons might have received an extension at the end of last season had it not been for well-publicized confrontations with former Toronto designated hitter Shea Hillenbrand and former Jays pitcher Ted Lilly. Ricciardi has insisted, though, that those unrelated -- and overblown -- incidents had no bearing on Gibbons' contract status.
Upcoming Film Releases: Weeks of February 19 & February 26
HOLLYWOOD (Reuters) - An update of the U.S. film calendar for this week and next. Dates are subject to change, and films initially may open only in select cities, mentioned wherever possible.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23
* Amazing Grace (Dir: Michael Apted. Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney)
* The Astronaut Farmer (Dir: Michael Polish. Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen)
* The Number 23 (Dir: David Fincher. Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen)
* Reno 911!: Miami (Dir/star: Robert Ben Garant. Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney-Silver)
* Gray Matters (Dir: Sue Kramer. Heather Graham, Tom Cavanaugh)
* Starter for Ten (Dir: Tom Vaughan. James McAvoy)
FRIDAY, MARCH 2
* Black Snake Moan (Dir: Craig Brewer. Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci)
* Wild Hogs (Dir: Walter Becker. Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H. Macy, Martin Lawrence)
* Zodiac (Dir: David Fincher. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr.)
* Full Of It (Dir: Christian Charles. Ryan Pinkston, Teri Polo)