Krall, Bublé win National Jazz Awards
Diana Krall and Michael Bublé were named best vocalists at the National Jazz Awards, Canada's sixth annual gathering to honour jazz musicians.
Krall, whose From This Moment On was released in 2006, won female vocalist of the year and international musician of the year.
Bublé took home the male vocalist award at the ceremony at Toronto's Palais Royale on Tuesday.
Dionne Taylor and David Clayton Thomas were the designated co-hosts of the jazz awards ceremony, with performances scheduled by Oliver Jones, John Nugent, Jim Galloway, Hugh Fraser, Peter Appleyard and young singer Sophie Berkel.
Hilario Duran, a Cuban-born jazz musician who teaches at Toronto's acclaimed jazz faculty at Humber College in Toronto, won best Latin jazz artist, and his Hilario Duran Latin Jazz Band, formed in 2005, was named best big band.
Phil Nimmons won two awards, as best clarinetist and best arranger.
Montreal pianist Jones's One More Time was named jazz album of the year. One More Time was made last year after he came out of a much-publicized retirement.
The Murley/Braid Quartet, featuring Mike Murley on tenor saxophone and David Braid on piano, won the honours for best acoustic band after a tour that took them across Canada in 2006. Braid also earned the award for best composer and Murley was named best saxophonist.
National Jazz Awards 2007
Electric band Nick Ali's Electryc Trio
Musician Don Thompson
Drummer Terry Clark
Bassist George Koller
Guitarist Reg Schwager
Keyboardist Robi Botos
Violinist Anne Lindsay
Instrumentalist Don Thompson
Trumpeter Guido Basso
Cherry to make U.S. debut on NBC
NEW YORK - Don Cherry is bringing his loud mouth and louder outfits south of the border.
The outspoken former coach of the Boston Bruins, who has been a fixture on CBC's "Hockey Night In Canada' telecasts for more than 25 years, will make his U.S. broadcasting debut as part of NBC's Stanley Cup playoff telecasts, the network announced Tuesday.
"A lot of people have written that what I say up here I would never get away with it down in the States," said Cherry, the Bruins' coach from the 1974-75 season until the 1978-79 campaign. "I'll just go on and do what I have to do.
"In the States, they wanted me to go on one time in Pittsburgh. Jaromir Jagr, it was when he had long hair and he was with Mario Lemieux and I said, 'There's Mario and his daughter.' It didn't go over too good. That was my last time in the States."
Cherry will be teamed with Brett Hull, the never-shy former player who is in his first season with NBC.
"Better get some plaids," Cherry said.
Hull will also to contribute to CBC's coverage in Canada.
"He tells it like it is," Hull said of Cherry. "If they did it on a regular basis, he would be just as popular down here as he is up there. Part of the thing that's missing, not with just hockey, but in all coverage in the American sports world, is some personality. I think that's why you see a guy like Terry Bradshaw, as popular as he is.
"He's not just Mr. P.C., going, 'That was a nice catch and throw.'"
Lifetime to grant 'Wish' for Sackhoff
"Battlestar Galactica" star Katee Sackhoff is starring in the tentatively titled telefilm "Be Careful What You Wish For," which is set to air on Lifetime in the U.S. and on CH Television in Canada.
The two-hour movie, from Blueprint Entertainment, is set in a small town in the 1990s. Sackhoff will star as Sara Jacob, a teenager who has had a crush on one of her classmates since preschool. But when an eclipse lands the unsuspecting teens at their wedding almost 20 years in the future, neither of them is prepared for what adulthood has in store.
Also starring in the movie, which just wrapped production, are Sage Brocklebank ("Psych"), Kim Poirier ("Dawn of the Dead") and Tommy Lioutas ("Whistler"). "Careful" is set to air July 16 on Lifetime.
"Careful," filmed on location in Regina and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was produced by Blueprint with local producer Stephen Onda Prods. The companies produced the TV movie "Intimate Stranger."
Executive producers for Blueprint are John Morayniss, Noreen Halpern and Ira Pincus. Onda and Blueprint vp production and development Bernard Bourret are producing. The director is David Winkler, and the writers are Nancey Silvers and Ron Fassler.
Sackhoff also is guest-starring on the pilot for NBC's "The Bionic Woman" -- a reimagining of the 1970s series that centers on Jamie Sommers (Michelle Ryan), a woman who is turned into a walking technological miracle after a car crash -- as Sarah, an evil bionic woman and nemesis to Sommers. The news follows the recent apparent demise of Sackhoff's "Battlestar" character, Starbuck.
Sackhoff is repped by Diverse Talent Group and manager Jamie Freed at the Collective.
Harvey Is Mad!!
Harvey Weinstein is so disappointed in the $11.6 million opening weekend gross for "Grindhouse" - the three-hour-plus double-feature directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez - he's considering re-releasing each film, "Death Proof" and "Planet Terror," separately in longer versions, the way they'll play in foreign markets and on DVD.
"I don't think people understood what we were doing," Weinstein told The New York Post's Page Six.
"The audience didn't get the idea that it is two movies for the price of one. I don't understand the math, but I want to accommodate the audience." He said the main deterrent to ticket buyers is the length, which "becomes a time commitment."
Sneak peek: King Shrek returns in May
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Time to catch up with your ogre friend Shrek, his greenish bride, Fiona, and their two men Friday, the yammering Donkey and the overreaching Puss in Boots.
The filmmakers behind "Shrek the Third" offered a sneak peek at their PDI-DreamWorks animation complex near San Francisco. From the 20 minutes of footage they showed, the film looks likely to meet expectations as one of summer's hottest tickets.
Key voice stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas return, with Justin Timberlake headlining the newcomers as geeky teenager Artie.
"You feel you've got a lot to live up to, man," Timberlake said about being the new kid on the block in the Shrek world. "Every character is so good. When you come into `Shrek,' you definitely feel you have a lot to prove."
The gang is joined by a gargantuan cast as the filmmakers take advantage of advances in computer animation to load up on supporting players, among them magician Merlin, Captain Hook, wicked witches, ugly stepsisters and four of the fairy-tale world's fairest princesses.
Here's a rundown of the players and their exploits for the film that hits theaters May 18:
WHAT'S HAPPENING: Just when newlyweds Shrek and Fiona thought they could head home to peace and quiet in the swamp, Fiona's dad, the frog King Harold, croaks.
On his deathbed, he asks son-in-law Shrek to take over the throne of Far Far Away, a job the ogre dreads. Shrek's only option: track down Fiona's distant cousin Artie and groom him to become king.
So Shrek and sidekicks Donkey and Puss sail away to find Artie, the future King Arthur. Just as they leave, Fiona drops another bomb on her anti-social, kid-hating husband: There's a little ogre on the way.
Fiona stays behind at the palace, where Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Rapunzel throw her a baby shower. The gifts include one of the seven dwarfs as a live-in baby sitter ("Don't worry," Snow White tells Fiona. "I have six more at home.").
Palace life is interrupted by an invasion of fairy-tale villains, led by Prince Charming, whose happy-ever-after was dashed by Shrek in the first two films. The prince takes over the realm, forcing Fiona to teach her posse of pampered princesses to stand up for themselves rather than wait for a man to rescue them.
"A big part of this film is just the theme of taking responsibility, be it fatherhood or kingship or whatever," said Nick Walker, head of layout on the animation team for "Shrek the Third."
WHO'S BACK: The whole gang returns, led by the key foursome of Shrek (Myers), Donkey (Murphy), Fiona (Diaz) and Puss in Boots (Banderas).
Shrek's still barking at everyone in his Scottish brogue, though married life brings out his softer side more and more.
"What I love about the Scottish people, which is part of my heritage, is they go from, `I love you, come here,' to `You get out of my house!'" Myers said. "Scottish people are hilarious when they're angry. They shift gears so fast."
Also back: Fiona's mom, Queen Lillian ( Julie Andrews, who in a dizzy moment hums "My Favorite Things," a tune she sang in "The Sound of Music"); King Harold ( John Cleese); villainous Prince Charming ( Rupert Everett); and ugly stepsister Doris (Larry King).
It wouldn't be a "Shrek" movie without all those goofy bit players, including the three little pigs, Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man. The minor characters were so much fun, the filmmakers said they had to reign them in or they might have taken over.
"Gingey tries to steal the show," said "Shrek the Third" co-director Raman Hui.
WHO'S NEW: The main new face is Arthur Pendragon, or Artie (Timberlake), a bumbling teen who's first seen getting his butt kicked by jock Lancelot in a jousting match at his high school.
When Shrek, Donkey and Puss arrive with the news that Artie's in line to become a king, it swells his head after a lifetime spent a rung lower on the social scale than the school dorks who play a medieval variation of Dungeons and Dragons.
"He doesn't know anything but kind of being a loser," Timberlake said. "When he finds out through his blood line that he's heir to the throne, he thinks, I can do this. But when he realizes what type of responsibility it is, his natural instinct is to run away."
Timberlake, whose poster appears as a gag on Fiona's bedroom wall in "Shrek 2," recently split in real life from Diaz, but it was not their personal relationship that led to the "Shrek the Third" gig. The filmmakers rang him up after catching Timberlake on "Saturday Night Live."
"We had seen him on `SNL' and were blown away by how funny he was," said "Shrek the Third" producer Aron Warner. "He's got a great presence and a great voice and is clearly funny, so he's going to help us make this character what he needed to be."
Shrek, Donkey and Puss also run across magician Merlin ( Eric Idle), who used to be a teacher at Artie's school until he had a nervous breakdown.
Other newcomers include the quartet of princesses, haughty Snow White ( Amy Poehler); long-haired Rapunzel ( Maya Rudolph); obsessive clean freak Cinderella ( Amy Sedaris); and narcoleptic Sleeping Beauty ( Cheri Oteri).
Regis Philbin joins the voice cast as Mabel, another ugly stepsister, while Captain Hook, seen briefly singing a Tom Waits song in "Shrek 2," advances to a speaking role, with vocals by Ian McShane.
There are hordes of others, from palace flunkies to medieval Valley Girls to a Wicked Witch singing Charlene's sappy 1980s hit "I've Never Been to Me" as a torch song.
It was a juggling act for the filmmakers, with so many new and returning characters competing for screen time. They stuck to one principle to balance it all.
"Shrek is going to drive the story. That is our goal from day one," said Chris Miller, who moves up from head of story on the last movie to make his directing debut on "Shrek the Third."
"When you have all these characters, a lot of them you want to spend a lot of time with. They're interesting. They all have a place in this film. But at the end of the day, it's supporting Shrek's story."
WHAT'S BETTER:
With three more years of refinements to computer animation, what isn't better about "Shrek the Third"?
The 350 people who worked on the film created more realistic fire and water images, developed ways to mimic how light behaves in the real world and even simulated the slightly seasick oscillations of live-action shipboard scenes, where the camera lags just a tick behind the rocking of the waves.
They scrapped the basic computer models of Shrek and other lead characters they had worked with since the first movie and rebuilt them from inside out to take advantage of the subtler anatomy now possible. The filmmakers had to resist the urge to make external improvements so they could remain true to the look of the original film.
"We had a lot of work to try to make the characters look the same. Be better, but look the same," said Lucia Modesto, one of the film's character technical-direction supervisors. "The motor inside Shrek is all brand-new. The outside is almost the same."
Greater variation in hair styles, body types, facial features and clothing allowed the team to bring in far more characters and present huge crowd scenes.
"In the past, we had issues where our hero characters looked great because we spent so much time on them, but the generic characters, the secondaries, didn't look quite so good, to the point where on `Shrek 1' we tried to stay away from them," said visual-effects supervisor Philippe Gluckman. "Now they all look great."
The advances are a bit daunting to the actors, who jokingly wonder if they could be replaced in live-action films by computer simulations.
"It makes me shake in my pants," Banderas said. "Someday, they may not need actors anymore. That's why I'm going to Broadway, man."
Former Smith boyfriend father of infant
NASSAU, Bahamas - Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead said Tuesday that DNA tests have proven he is the father of her infant daughter.
Birkhead emerged from a closed court hearing to announce the results. Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, has been caring for the girl, Dannielynn, who could inherit a fortune in the wake of her mother's February death.
After the hearing, Stern said he would not fight for custody.
An expert in genetic evidence said the DNA analysis has proven Birkhead is Dannielynn's father. Dr. Michael Baird, who analyzed the results of a March 21 DNA test, announced the results outside the court. "Essentially, he's the biological father," Baird said.
A jubilant Birkhead said "My baby's going to be coming home pretty soon."
Coming soon: Mr. Bean the game
That bumbling, loveable Mr. Bean is getting his own video game. Blast! Entertainment has confirmed that Tiger Aspect Productions will be developing the game for them.
The PlayStation 2 title will be a 3D adventure with Mr. Bean on the hunt for his missing Teddy. The title will focus on problem solving tasks.
Played by legendary comedian Rowan Atkinson, the child-like character has had a live action and television series as well as a feature movie entitled ‘Bean’ in North America. A new Mr. Bean movie, ‘Mr. Bean's Holiday’, will be released in North America this August.
Phil Spector readies defence
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The defence in Phil Spector's murder trial will portray gunshot victim Lana Clarkson as despondent about her finances and acting career and possibly contemplating suicide just before she met the record producer, documents filed Monday showed.
Defence lawyers submitted motions arguing Clarkson's mental state and use of drugs before her death at Spector's mansion are central to the trial and should not be excluded as evidence.
The motions were submitted in advance of a hearing set for Tuesday. Jury selection resumes April 16.
Clarkson was shot Feb. 3, 2003, in the foyer of Spector's suburban Alhambra, Calif., home. Best known for her role in the 1980s cult film "Barbarian Queen," she was a nightclub hostess at the time of her death.
Prosecutors allege Spector - creator of the "Wall of Sound" that revolutionized the recording of rock music - shot Clarkson dead. The coroner's office called it a homicide but also noted Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands and may have pulled the trigger.
Spector has pleaded not guilty and has suggested the shooting was an accident.
Defence lawyers quoted from e-mails written by the actress in the months before her death.
"I am truly at the end of this whole deal. I am going to tidy my affairs and chuck it...," she wrote in an e-mail to an unidentified friend, accepting an offer to borrow US$200 on Dec. 8, 2002, the motion said.
The message said she would probably lose the cottage she had been renting in Los Angeles's Venice area and explained she was e-mailing rather than using the telephone because "this way you cannot hear my tears."
Shortly after that, Clarkson's mood brightened when she won a role in a play to portray Marilyn Monroe.
She called it "one of the best parts I've ever been offered," the documents show.
The motion says that between Jan. 10, 2003 and the date of her death she was fired from the play.
Lawyer Robert Blasier, who authored the 18-page motion, said the prosecution wants to "eliminate the core issue" of the defence by asking to exclude evidence regarding Clarkson's character and state of mind.
Deputy district attorney Alan Jackson filed a motion last week to stop the defence from launching character attacks on Clarkson. He also sought to exclude an unfinished memoir found in Clarkson's computer, as well as film clips that show her handling guns.
"We can certainly understand why the prosecution would want to litigate away one of the central issues in this case under the guise that the people just want to protect the memory of Lana Clarkson," Blasier said.
He said there should have been a "psychological autopsy" of Clarkson by the coroner's office.