Quebec comedy takes top-grossing Canadian film award
Les trois p'tit cochons, a Quebec comedy about three brothers who reunite during their mother's illness, has won the Golden Reel Award as the highest-grossing Canadian film of 2007.
The film earned more than $4.6 million in Canada from Jan. 1, 2007, to Dec. 31, more than any other qualifying film.
The Golden Reel Award is given at the Genie Awards, Canada's film awards, scheduled for March 3 in Toronto.
The film is the debut directorial effort of Patrick Huard, the veteran Quebec actor who starred in Les Boys and Bon Cop, Bad Cop.
It stars Paul Doucet, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge and Claude Legault as brothers who tell the stories of their lives and loves while their mother lies in a coma.
Legault has been nominated for a best actor Genie, Lemay-Thivierge for best supporting actor and the film is nominated for best original screenplay and best editor.
Producers Pierre Gendron and Christian Larouche have previously received Golden Reel awards — Gendron in 1990 for Jesus of Montreal and Larouche in 2002 for Les Boys III.
Rush goes live with 'Snakes & Arrows'
As promised, prog-rock heroes Rush will release a new live album just ahead of their extended Snakes & Arrows World Tour.
The double-CD, "Snakes & Arrows Live," is scheduled to arrive in stores April 8--three days before the band returns to the road. The set was recorded last October at the Netherlands' Ahoy Rotterdam arena during Rush's five-month world tour. The album's live rendition of "Workin' Them Angels" is expected to be delivered to rock radio outlets nationwide on March 10, according to a press release.
The original version of the single comes from the Canadian trio's latest studio release, "Snakes & Arrows," which debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 last May and became Rush's 11th Top 10 album in the US. The set marked the band's first collection of new material since 2002's "Vapor Trails."
Rush's 2007 tour behind "Snakes & Arrows" was its highest-grossing outing to date, and the members--Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart--are getting ready to hit the road hard again this spring.
The 2008 trek is scheduled to launch April 11 with the band's first-ever concert in San Juan, Puerto Rico. From there, Rush will jump over to North America, where it will conquer nearly 50 dates across the US and Canada through July. Since last check, a second night has been added in Los Angeles. Details are listed below.
The upcoming tour will bring the trio to a host of cities it hasn't played in more than a decade, including Winnipeg, MB; Regina, SK; New Orleans; Oklahoma City, OK; Reno, NV; Moline, IL; Boise, ID; Austin, TX; and Orlando and Jacksonville, FL.
Since releasing its self-titled debut in 1974, Rush has achieved worldwide sales topping 35 million units, according to a press release.
'Beat It' Cover Bolsters Fall Out Boy CD/DVD
A cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" is among the many treats to be found on "****," Fall Out Boy's first live release. Due April 8 via Island, the project will be available as a CD/DVD or DVD only; the Jackson cover is a studio version featuring a "special guest guitarist" yet to be named.
"****" was taped in June 22, 2007, at Phoenix's Cricket Pavilion. Beyond the band's own hits ("Sugar, We're Going Down," "Thanks Fr The Mmrs," "This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race"), a wide array of covers are included, such as Akon's "Don't Matter," Timbaland's "One and Only" and Panic At The Disco's "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies."
The DVD sports all eight Fall Out Boy music videos, a wealth of behind-the-scenes footage and a making-of segment for the "Me & You" video, which was filmed in Uganda.
"Before watching ourselves on film we never really realized how much we swear," bassist Pete Wentz wrote on the band's blog, by way of explaining the strange title for the upcoming release. "It's pretty gross ... though it's edited as to not hurt your little munchkin ears. And as for how to say the name, well any little four letter word will work."
Here is the DVD track list for "****":
"Thriller"
"Grand Theft Autumn/ Where Is Your Boy"
"Don't Matter"
"Sugar, We're Goin Down"
"Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued"
"Of All The Gin Joints In All The World"
"Hum Hallelujah"
"I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"
"Tell That Mick He Just Made My List Of Things To Do Today"
"I'm Like A Lawyer, The Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You)"
"Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me""
"Beat It"
"Carpal Tunnel Of Love"
"Golden"
"I Write Sins, Not Tragedies"
"This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race"
"Thnks Fr Th Mmrs"
"The Take Over, The Breaks Over"
"One and Only"
"Dance, Dance"
Drum Solo
"Saturday"
Maxim apologizes for Black Crowes review
NEW YORK - Maxim magazine has apologized for publishing a negative review of the Black Crowes' new album by a writer who hadn't listened to the whole CD.
The review in Maxim's March issue gives the Crowes' "Warpaint" a rating of two-and-a-half stars out of five. The band posted an exasperated statement on its Web site last week saying the Maxim writer hadn't heard the entire album because advance copies weren't available. The Crowes' manager, Pete Angelus, said the magazine explained that its review was an "educated guess."
Maxim editorial director James Kaminsky responded Tuesday with this statement: "It is Maxim's editorial policy to assign star ratings only to those albums that have been heard in their entirety. Unfortunately, that policy was not followed in the March 2008 issue of our magazine and we apologize to our readers."
A spokeswoman for the magazine contacted by The Associated Press declined to say whether the writer would face disciplinary action.
"Warpaint," the Black Crowes' first album in seven years, is set for release March 4. The blues-rock group, fronted by Chris Robinson, has released only one song from the disc, "Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution."
The band's hits include "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels."
Madonna to release new album "Hard Candy" in April
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Madonna has dubbed her final album of new material for her longtime Warner Bros. label "Hard Candy," and will release it on April 29, her publicist confirmed on Tuesday.
The album, which features such songs as "Candy Store" and the first single "Four Minutes," is the follow-up to "Confessions on a Dance Floor," which debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart in November 2005.
The title and release date were first reported by Entertainment Weekly's Web site, and the details were confirmed by Madonna's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg. Entertainment Weekly quoted Rosenberg as saying the 49-year-old singer "loves candy."
"Hard Candy" will be Madonna's last studio release for Warner Bros. before she begins a wide-ranging 10-year recording, touring and merchandising deal with Artist Nation, a new initiative launched by concert promoter Live Nation. Warner Bros., a unit of Warner Music Group Corp will also release a hits collection.
New "Terminator" film set for May 2009 release
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The fourth movie in the "Terminator" franchise will reach North American theaters on May 22, 2009, coinciding with the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend, distributor Warner Bros. said.
Christian Bale will star as rebel leader John Connor in "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins," which is scheduled to begin production in the spring in New Mexico.
"Charlie's Angels" filmmaker McG will direct the movie, which is expected to be the first in a new "Terminator" trilogy.
The series, which originated in 1984 and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star, centered on a robot from the future where machines wage war against humanity, whose goal was to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. As the movies progressed, the son, played by Edward Furlong in 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and Nick Stahl in 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," took a more prominent role.
Sony Pictures will handle international distribution. Warner Bros. and Sony had a similar arrangement for "Terminator 3," which grossed $433 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Diablo Cody pays the price of fame, too
NEW YORK — Being the most famous stripper-turned-screenwriter in the world isn't always as pleasant as it may sound.
Diablo Cody, whose blog-to-riches fairy tale culminated in an Academy Award win for "Juno," has spent the past few months dominating a tiny little niche of Hollywood stardom: the celebrity writer. Not even wordsmith heavies Paul Haggis, Wes Anderson or Charlie Kaufman have stood in a spotlight so bright — but then, none of them had the allure of a pole-dancing past, punkish attitude or surprising smash-hit, Oscar-worthy pregnancy comedy.
And in Cody's case, there's a downside: The very things that make her star unique are suddenly being panned and scrutinized. From tabloid newspapers to well-trafficked celeb- and media-sniping blogs, Cody's meteoric rise has made her something of a target.
The first-time scriptwriter from Lemont, Ill., demonstrated her no-nonsense, rebellious personality last week when she took to her MySpace blog to vent about the $1 million diamond-laced shoes designed for her by Stuart Weitzman to wear on Oscar's red carpet.
"They're using me to publicize their stupid shoes and NOBODY ASKED ME," wrote Cody, who ultimately wore gold flats. "I would never consent to a lame publicity stunt at a time when I already want to hide."
Cody, who has been unapologetic and candid about her colorful life, drew praise in the blogosphere for her remarks at the time. But in the days that followed, Weitzman told the celebrity Web site TMZ that Cody actually selected the shoes herself, and bloggers (and subsequent commenters) had their fun calling her out for what they saw as diva behavior.
The New York Post chose a picture of Cody for its after-Oscars cover that prominently featured her bikini-clad stripper tattoo. The headline: Who's Tat Girl! And on Tuesday, Photos of a scantily clad Cody surfaced on the Web site Egotastic — nothing new, considering she's posted scantily clad photos of herself before.
With her Oscar firmly in hand, Diablo is laying low for now. She is "out of town," spending her time writing — and won't be available for media interviews "for the foreseeable future," her representative, Craig Bankey, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, the Web site Something Awful posted three pages of a fake Cody screenplay called "Quotey" that mocked the hipster wordplay she showcased in "Juno," which had the oft-mocked line: "Honest to blog?"
And right before the Oscars, New York comedian Jackie Clarke released a video impersonation of Cody, complete with the writer's trademark black bob. In it, Clarke-as-Cody quipped: "Hey, did I ever tell you I used to be a stripper?"
"Everybody was ... rallying behind her before `Juno' hit $125 million at the box office, and now comes the inevitable backlash where they see her selling out to Hollywood," observed Tom O'Neil, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times' "The Envelope" Web site.
"She always seemed like a rebel, a social rebel who now seems to have cashed in and joined the club. And I think what we're witnessing is resentment to that," said O'Neil, who noted that Cody's raunchy backstory likely proved irresistible to Hollywood types who don't get a chance to show their bohemian, darker sides in public.
O'Neil called Cody's rise a "naughty Cinderella" story. Cody, whose real name is Brook Busey, caught the eye of manager Mason Novick after he found her sexy blog while surfing for porn online several years ago. She wrote a memoir about her year as a stripper in Minneapolis — and whipped up "Juno" on a laptop at a Starbucks in a Target store.
Cody's new projects include the Steven Spielberg-produced "The United States of Tara" for Showtime, featuring Toni Collette as a mom with split personalities, and the horror film "Jennifer's Body," which counts "Juno" director Jason Reitman among the producers. She's also taking a turn as a backpage pop-culture columnist for the magazine Entertainment Weekly.
"She was wooed by Hollywood from the start to join them," O'Neil said. "And once she did, then they exalted her. She became the ultimate epitome of Hollywood's free spirit."
Movie critic Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer thinks potshots against Cody are rooted in jealousy.
"She deserves what she has coming to her," Wilonsky said. "This is not accidental and it's not undeserved. Anyone who says otherwise is just a would-be screenwriter with a movie script sitting in their desk that nobody has any interest in."
New York magazine recently published a chart showing "Juno" as experiencing "backlash to the backlash": "Almost everyone we know hates it," the magazine said. "So much so that others are now hating on the haters."
One of those haters is the mag's film critic, David Edelstein, who has professed to be "almost alone" — among critics, anyway — "in disliking" the dramedy.
"A lot of people I know have problems with the film because they think it's not the way a 16-year-old girl talks," Wilonsky said. "That's probably right to some extent. It's not meant to be a documentary."
O'Neil said the trick for Cody now is to deal with the pressure to match the success of "Juno."
"She's got to deliver," he said. "She's got to prove that all of this adulation is not just about her, but was really about her work."
The self-deprecating, yet self-promoting It Screenwriter seems as awed by her good fortune as her fans and detractors.
"I've always been a writer, I've always been a storyteller, but I never thought about screenwriting," Cody said after her Oscar victory. "I grew up in the Midwest, you don't know any screenwriters. It didn't seem like a realistic career possibility."
And until now, neither did the fame — and all of its pitfalls — that came along with it.
Anderson seeks to annul 2-month marriage
LOS ANGELES - Court documents show that Pamela Anderson is seeking an annulment, rather than a divorce, from husband Rick Salomon. The actress is seeking to annul the two-month marriage based on fraud. No other details were available, and Anderson's publicist did not immediately return an e-mail request for comment Tuesday.
In court papers filed in Los Angeles on Friday, Anderson asked the court not to award spousal support and to keep her and Salomon's income and property separate. On Monday, Anderson filed a request to have a retired judge handle the annulment proceedings — a common practice in celebrity split-ups as it keeps matters private and out of the court.
Anderson and Salomon, both 40, were married Oct. 6 in Las Vegas and separated Dec. 13. He's best known for making a sex videotape with then-girlfriend Paris Hilton and was previously married to actress Shannen Doherty.
Anderson was previously married to singer Kid Rock and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.