Sandra Oh to host Genie Awards gala
Actress Sandra Oh is coming back to Canada next weekend to host the Genie Awards, the annual celebration of the year's top Canadian films, organizers announced Monday evening.
Though perhaps most well-known for her Golden Globe-winning turn as an ambitious young surgeon on hit TV medical drama Grey's Anatomy, Oh has also maintained strong links to the independent and Canadian film communities.
Earlier this year, the Nepean, Ont.-born, Ottawa-raised Oh served as a juror for the dramatic competition grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Oh is also a former best actress Genie-winner for her roles in Don McKellar's Last Night and Mina Shum's Double Happiness. Her credits range from the Oscar contender Sideways to the HBO comedy Arliss to early work in Canadian productions like CBC's The Diary of Evelyn Lau.
In December, the Toronto branch of the group Women in Film and Television presented Oh with the international achivement honour at its 2007 Crystal Awards. She recently returned to filming Grey's Anatomy after the end of the recent U.S. screenwriters strike — during which she was a prominent face on the picket lines supporting her writer colleagues.
With 12 nominations each, David Cronenberg's Russian mafia thriller Eastern Promises and the Rwandan genocide drama Shake Hands with the Devil are the lead nominees going into the 28th annual Genie Awards.
The ceremony will be held in Toronto on March 3.
New CD Releases, February 26: Dolly Parton, Janet Jackson, Tift Merritt
Dolly Parton "Backwoods Barbie"
The country music legend releases her first new studio set since 2005's "Those Were the Days." According to a press release, "Backwoods Barbie" is Parton's "first album of mainstream country music in 17 years."
The 12-track "Backwoods Barbie" features nine originals, including the Parton-penned title track, which will be used in the score for a Broadway-musical adaptation of "9 to 5" (based on the 1980 movie of the same name that co-starred the singer with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin) currently planned for 2009. The first single from the album is "Better Get to Livin'."
Parton will support "Backwoods Barbie" on the road. The singer postponed the tour's initial start date after she was instructed by doctors to rest her back for six to eight weeks in order to recover properly, but the trek is now scheduled to kick off April 22 in Pittsburgh, PA.
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Janet Jackson "Discipline"
Janet--still "Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty"--is dropping her 10th studio album, her first under a new recording contract with Island Records. The first single from "Discipline" is "Feedback," a track that was leaked to radio stations back in December.
"Discipline" follows 2006's "20 Y.O.," which sold more than 296,000 copies in its first week on shelves and debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 album chart. Besides recording, Jackson has remained busy with film work. She appeared in the 2007 Tyler Perry film "Why Did I Get Married?," which opened at No. 1 at the box office back in October.
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Tift Merritt "Another Country"
The Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter is ready to release her first studio album in four years. Merritt's previous studio set was 2004's Grammy-nominated "Tambourine," although she did release a live album and a concert DVD more recently.
The alt-country songstress will support "Another Country" on tour. The trek launches March 1 in Albany, NY, and is currently set to wrap at the April 26 Merlefest gathering in Wilkesboro, NC.
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Erykah Badu "New AmErykah, Pt. One: 4th World War"
Having taken a lengthy hiatus from the studio, the neo-soul singer finally returns with her fourth album. Badu's last studio effort was 2003's gold-certified "Worldwide Underground."
The lead single from "New AmErykah, Pt. One: 4th World War" is "Honey." The new album comes out on the same day that Badu will celebrate her 37th birthday.
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Goldfrapp "Seventh Tree"
The British electronic music group, fronted by vocalist/synthesizer queen Alison Goldfrapp, hits with its fourth studio album. "Seventh Tree" follows 2005's "Supernature," a work that was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album at the 49th Grammy Awards.
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More new releases:
The Afters, "Never Going Back to OK" (Sony)
Beach House, "Devotion" (Carpark)
Death Angel, "Killing Season" (Nuclear Blast)
Michael English, "The Prodigal Comes Home" (Curb)
China Forbes, "'78" (Heinz)
Ghostland Observatory, "Robotique Majestique" (Trashy Moped)
Hapa, "Hapa Live" (Finn)
Missy Higgins, "On a Clear Night" (Reprise)
The High Kings, "The High Kings" (Manhattan)
Leeland, "Opposite Way" (Provident)
Pillar, "For the Love of the Game" (Flicker)
Punch Brothers, "Punch" (Nonesuch)
Lizz Wright, "The Orchard" (Verve)
Soundtracks and scores:
"Disney's The Little Mermaid (2008 Original Broadway Cast)" (Disney)
"Ring of Fire: The Musical" (Time Life)
Oscars are a TV ratings dud
NEW YORK - The Oscars are a ratings dud. Nielsen Media Research says preliminary ratings for the 80th annual Academy Awards telecast are 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever.
Nielsen said Monday that overnight ratings are also 21 percent lower than last year, when "The Departed" was named best picture.
The least-watched Oscars ceremony ever was in 2003, when there were 33 million viewers.
Nielsen has no estimate yet on how many people watched Sunday night, but based on ratings from the nation's biggest markets, the Oscars will be hard-pressed to avoid an ignominious record.
The show had a 21.9 rating and 33 share.