CBC big winner of Geminis for news, sports and documentaries
CBC Television's The National was named best newscast and also took home a trophy for best reportage at the Gemini News, Sports and Documentary Gala on Monday evening.
Two other CBC TV shows earned three awards each at the ceremony — current affairs show The Fifth Estate and Hockey Night in Canada.
The National's Adrienne Arsenault, Erin Boudreau and Richard Devey won the Gemini for best news magazine segment for "Moshe and Munir," about the friendship between a Palestinian and an Israeli.
The Fifth Estate was named best information series, and host Hana Gartner won the Gemini for best host or interviewer in a current affairs series.
Avi Lev won the award for best picture editing for his work on The Fifth Estate episode "Brian Mulroney: The Unauthorized Chapter."
Hockey Night in Canada's coverage of its annual outdoor game was named best live sporting event, with Geminis going to Sherali Najak, Brian Spear and Doug Walton. Inside Hockey: The Aud won the award for best sports feature segment.
Don Wittman, the veteran CBC sportscaster who died in January in Winnipeg, won the Gemini for best play-by-play announcing for his work on Hockey Night in Canada.
Wittman joined CBC Sports in 1961 and went on to call some of the most vicious, arresting and triumphant moments in Canadian sports history. He worked with Hockey Night in Canada from 1979 until the 2007-08 season.
Another veteran CBC News reporter, Don Newman, senior parliamentary editor and host of CBC Newsworld's Politics, was honoured with the Gordon Sinclair Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
Newman, who joined CBC in 1976 as its Washington correspondent, began reporting on Ottawa in 1981.
The award is given annually for outstanding contribution to Canadian television journalism.
Other winners included:
- Pierre McGuire, best game analyst, IIHF World Junior Hockey Gold Final: Canada vs. Sweden, TSN
- Bob McKenzie best studio analyst, IIHF World Junior Hockey Gold Final: Canada vs. Sweden, TSN.
- Diamond Road, best documentary series, TVO.
- Confessions of an Innocent Man, best biography documentary program, CTV.
Confessions of an Innocent Man was a documentary about William Sampson, a dual Canadian-British citizen who was imprisoned and tortured in Saudi Arabia after being accused of orchestrating a car bombing.
In June 2006, CTV News announced it would no longer nominate its news programs for the Gemini Awards, saying too much work was involved in the nomination process.
CBC's The National had nine nominations and The Fifth Estate had 11 heading into the Geminis. Winners in some categories will be declared later in the week.
The Gemini gala for lifestyle, children's and youth winners will be held Tuesday and the gala for drama, variety and comedy will follow on Wednesday.
The main Gemini show is to be held in Toronto on Nov. 28.
Eminem Reveals All In New Memoir
Eminem has returned in a major way. The 36-year-old rap superstar's re-emergence comes four years after his last studio album, three years after he was treated for a sleep medication dependency and two years since the violent death of his best friend and the collapse of a second marriage to his childhood sweetheart.
His new track, "I'm Having a Relapse," has caused a stir on the Web and is fueling talk of a new record and tour. But before Eminem moves forward musically, he first is taking a step back with a memoir out tomorrow (Oct. 21) that shares quite a few revelations about a man whose autobiographical lyrics have tantalized fans for years.
In "The Way I Am," the man born Marshall Bruce Mathers III takes readers into his painful childhood and adolescence and inside the studio and beyond as the former Detroit factory floor sweeper and short-order cook enters the rap game and becomes a worldwide hip-hop sensation.
The book is 200-plus pages worth of text, behind-the-scenes photographs and reproductions of Eminem's original lyric sheets -- hotel stationery and other scraps of paper he used to scratch out partial verses of the songs that would make him famous.
Eminem may not love being in the public eye, but he loves music, and that's drawn him out, said publisher Brian Tart, president of Dutton Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
"I think he doesn't like being famous, but he sure likes being an artist," Tart said. "Getting away from the trappings of fame was something he needed to do. But in his bones and his blood, he's an artist."
The book kicks off with a prologue that provides one of the reasons Eminem has shunned the spotlight for the past few years. He describes in-depth just how difficult it has been for him to come to grips with the loss of his longtime best friend and fellow rapper Proof (Deshaun Holton), who was gunned down at a Detroit after-hours club in April 2006.
"After he passed, it was a year before I could really do anything normally again," Eminem writes. "It was tough for me to even get out of bed, and I had days when I couldn't walk, let alone write a rhyme. I have never felt so much pain in my life. It's a pain that is with me to this day. A pain that has become a part of who I am."
It was Proof, he says, who not only urged him to become an emcee, but also served as a "ghetto pass" -- allowing the white Eminem the street cred he needed to enter Detroit's black-dominated hip-hop scene.
"If Proof hadn't gotten me ... into the rap game, I don't know where I'd be," he writes. "I certainly wouldn't be someone you've heard of."
But millions of people have heard of him, and what they know of Eminem largely is based on his lyrics, his outsized public persona and the 2002 semi-autobiographical film, "8 Mile."
"The Way I Am" answers a few lingering controversies and questions, including his 2000 arrest for pistol-whipping a man who kissed his wife ("Guns are bad, I tell you"); his substance-abuse problem ("I'm glad that I realized it and set myself in the right direction"); the flap over his perceived homophobia ("Ultimately, who you choose to be in a relationship with and what you do in your bedroom is your business"); and ethnicity ("Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mike, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing.")
Eminem also recounts his early years, living in public housing in Savannah, Mo., before moving to Detroit. He discusses the hurt he felt at never having known his father, the complicated relationship with his litigious mother and the suicides that ended the lives of his two uncles.
After he made the move to the Motor City, Eminem describes being a quiet outsider at school, having his home repeatedly robbed, getting pummelled by the police and later bouncing between dead-end jobs trying to make ends meet to provide for his then-wife, Kim, and daughter, Hailie.
But things turned in his favor when Proof urged him to start rap-battling at Detroit's Hip Hop Shop. He made a name for himself in his home city by trading insult rhymes with fellow battlers and eventually branched out, competing in rap battles in Ohio and California. It was in Los Angeles that Eminem was spotted by an assistant in the office of Interscope Records executive Jimmy Iovine.
Before long, rap icon Dr. Dre came in to help produce what would become Eminem's ticket to stardom, 1999's "The Slim Shady LP." While the pair had worked out the songs, Dre said the album lacked the image of what the Slim Shady character should look like.
A drug-fueled impulse buy took care of that problem. After two hits of Ecstasy, Eminem popped into a drugstore and on a whim purchased a bottle of peroxide. He threw some on his head and the platinum blonde hair and white T-shirt Slim Shady look was born. "I wasn't thinking that the peroxide thing was going to be my look," he writes. "I was just being stupid on drugs."
Along the way, he's had more than a few quirky high-profile run-ins, many of which he touches upon in the book: a fling with Mariah Carey, a performance with Elton John at the Grammys and the televised tiff with hand-puppet Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
Still, as he prepares to again enter the public eye, a more grounded, mature Eminem says he's trying to keep everything in perspective. Music is important, but being a father to three girls -- Hailie, niece Alaina and another girl, Whitney, who isn't biologically his -- is where it's at.
"All three of my girls call me Daddy," he writes. "They're all loved the same and they all get the same treatment. Because of my success, I've been able to provide for them in ways my family never could for me. That's what it's all about."
Comedian Rudy Ray Moore dies
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Rudy Ray Moore, a raunchy 1970s comedian who played the title role of a flashy pimp in the movie Dolemite and influenced a generation of rappers, has died. He was 81.
Moore died Sunday evening at an Akron nursing home from complications of diabetes, said his brother, Gerald Moore.
Services will be held in Akron and Spokane, Wash., where his mother and other family members live, he said.
Rudy Ray Moore was part of the heyday of black "party records." His stage personality featured blunt sex routines but, unlike contemporaries Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor, he never crossed over to mainstream white audiences.
The Washington Post said in a 1992 profile that Moore was "an astounding renderer of 'toasts,' — elaborately boastful, profane and scatological tales of life in the old-style urban subculture of pimps, prostitutes, gamblers and badmen. His husky, down-home voice is ideal for it."
Moore said he developed the style, later a feature of rap music, by listening to men sitting outside joints "drinking beer and lying and talking (expletive)."
Moore played the fast-talking pimp and title character in the 1975 film Dolemite. In later years Moore collaborated with 2 Live Crew, Big Daddy Kane and Snoop Dogg.
Moore's other acting credits during the Blaxploitation era of black action films included The Human Tornado in 1976 and Disco Godfather in 1979.
"Saw" horror franchise faces test with 5th movie
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Everybody loves a spooky mystery. Here's a good one: How the hell has "Saw," a horror flick made for $1.2 million and nearly dumped straight to video, spawned a franchise that has scared up more than $1 billion?
Given the films' enduring appeal amid a flood of horror product, it's a question whose answer provides insight into how to manage a low-budget franchise. And with "Saw V" opening on Friday, Lionsgate's strategy of releasing a new film each Halloween faces a crucial test. Last October's installment dipped from "Saw III's" $163 million in worldwide box office to $137 million, raising the question of how long the property can keep up its hugely profitable pace.
The "Saw" story is as simple as its premise. Australian duo James Wan and Leigh Whannell wrote a script about a pair of confined strangers manipulated by Jigsaw, a diabolical mastermind who forces them to make ghastly choices. They filmed a seven-minute short featuring Whannell with his head in a macabre bear trap, which the late producer Gregg Hoffman found and brought to partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules of Twisted Pictures in early 2003. They decided to turn it into a feature on the cheap.
The producers showed the short to Lionsgate, which picked up the rights and planned to release it direct to video. Burg and Koules retained ownership of the property, and co-writer/director Wan wisely sacrificed his upfront fee for a cut of the gross.
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
"It was perfect timing because Lionsgate as a company was just starting to grow," Koules says. "And it was a perfect film that the marketing department could get behind."
The film packed three midnight screenings at Sundance in 2004, and tests in suburban Los Angeles and Las Vegas scored so highly that Lionsgate decided to release the film in theaters, on October 29 as a Halloween treat. It opened at a startling $18.3 million and grossed more than $100 million worldwide.
"Saw II," helmed by music video and commercials director Darren Lynn Bousman, was greenlighted the weekend the first film opened. Then came the kicker: Fans bought more than $70 million worth of videos and DVDs of the first installment.
The "Saw" team shrewdly stood its blood-soaked ground on the weekend before Halloween for three consecutive years. While Lionsgate is far from the first studio to target that holiday with a horror release, its marketing team made this explicit by utilizing the tagline: "If it's Halloween, it must be 'Saw.'"
And it slaughtered the marketplace, tallying $153 million, $162 million and $137 million worldwide for the second, third and fourth installments.
"What they have done with 'Saw' is a very unusual approach," says Roy Lee, producer of recent horror films "The Strangers" and "Quarantine." "Making the release of a new installment of 'Saw' an annual event is something no other studio has been able to accomplish. It seems similar to the model of a television series. Look at '24.' Does anyone argue that they are beating the concept to death?"
FRANCHISES FRIED
Such old-school slasher properties as "Friday the 13th," "Halloween," and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" generated enduring horror villains Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger. "Nightmare" even put New Line on the map in 1984 much the way "Saw" has boosted Lionsgate.
But the stewards of those popular franchises essentially took the money and ran, milking six, seven or 10 sequels without developing the story line or the main characters. As a result, the properties quickly thinned their returns and devolved into camp, with Freddy becoming a Borscht Belt one-liner machine.
Such second-tier brands as "Child's Play," which was campy from the get-go, and "The Stepfather," which was airing on TV by its third installment, were never really that popular. Such recent successes as "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" were self-referential, ironic and relatively expensive to make.
"The Ring" and "The Grudge," both derived from Asian horror source material, have stalled after two films, as has the torture-porn movement typified by "Hostel."
"Saw," in contrast, is deadly serious. Its moralistic ethos of righteous living, designed and perpetrated by a methodical, intellectual madman, evolves while remaining consistent in the ways that count. The intricacy of Jigsaw's vision -- executed even beyond his death -- lends itself to repeat viewings.
"Any one of these movies could have been completely phoned in," says Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, co-founder and editor in chief of horror fan site DreadCentral.com. "But the people who make them are basically the same core group who have been working on every one of them. They keep twisting it. They keep giving you reasons to wonder, What is going to happen next?"
MONEY MACHINE
Using unknown talent and rewarding them with a continued role in the franchise also has paid off. "Saw's" cinematographer and editor have built their careers on the series, and David Hackl, the director of "Saw V," was a production and trap designer for the previous three films. Wan and Whannell have stayed involved throughout.
"Quite frankly, the reason we all bust our ass is it's really, really profitable to everybody involved," producer Burg says.
No kidding. In terms of return on investment, it might be one of the most profitable franchises ever. No single film's budget has exceeded $10.8 million (the first four together cost $26 million total), which also includes DVD-only cuts. Even with $20 million of prints and marketing outlays, episodes two, three and four were all profitable by the end of their opening weekends. The quartet has grossed $553 million in theaters and sold more than 24 million DVDs.
Merchandising is getting big, though it took Lionsgate five years to convince retailers like Target that "Saw" merchandise was mainstream enough to populate their shelves. "Saw"-themed haunted houses are multiplying, and the U.K.'s Thorpe Park will launch its "Saw -- The Ride" roller coaster in the spring.
But what happens if "Saw V" tanks? The worldwide gross of "Saw IV" was 84% that of "Saw III," and the law of diminishing returns makes each new sequel a riskier gambit.
And like zombies rising from the dead, other genre distributors are reanimating old classics to compete with the brand awareness of movies like "Saw." "The Birds," "The Last House on the Left," "Friday the 13th," "Nightmare" and "The Crazies" are just a few of those headed back to life in theaters. Rogue is working on a sequel to Lee's $59 million-grossing "The Strangers."
"Saw" producers, citing recent tracking and European sales, are undeterred. "If this movie doesn't open giant, I think we'll all be disappointed," Burg says. "When that happens, we'll stop."
"There will be that day," says Koules, who denies that a straight-to-DVD release would ever be a likely option. "I'm not being cocky, but I don't think we're there yet."
Unsurprisingly, Koules and Burg have spent the past month with writers working on a sixth installment that will be greenlit if the script passes muster and the fifth performs as expected.
New CD Releases, October 21st: 'High School Musical,' KISS, Hank Williams III
Various Artists "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" (Disney)
The Disney Channel's Emmy-winning, mega-popular franchise--which already has produced two hit TV films: 2006's "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2: Sing It All or Nothing!"--is now set to make its big-screen debut.
Directed and choreographed by Kenny Ortega, the "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" film is scheduled to open in US theaters on Oct. 24. The film's cast includes young stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale.
Seemingly everything with the "High School Musical" name on it--from concert and ice-skating tours to video games--has been incredibly successful. It will be a shocker if this "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" soundtrack makes its chart debut anywhere other than the top spot.
* * *
KISS "Ikons" (Mercury)
The multimillionaires in make-up release yet another collectible: a four-disc greatest-hits package. What's intriguing about "Ikons," however, is how it is organized: Each disc spotlights the career highlights of a different member from the signature KISS lineup.
Gene Simmons, of course, goes first, and disc one features such Simmons signatures as "God of Thunder" and "Calling Dr. Love." Paul Stanley's showcase comes on disc two, with such tunes as "Detroit Rock City" and "Strutter."
Disc three is dedicated to Ace Frehley's major accomplishments, which include "New York Groove" and "Shock Me." The set concludes with disc four, featuring such Peter Criss cuts as "Hard Luck Woman" and "Beth."
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Hank Williams III "Damn Right, Rebel Proud" (Curb)
The rowdy, alt-country performer--grandson of Hank Williams, Sr. and the son of Hank Williams Jr.--will continue to carry on the family tradition with the release of his fourth studio album.
"Damn Right, Rebel Proud" follows 2006's "Straight to Hell," an ambitious, two-disc affair that (we kid you not) included a "Hidden Track" that clocked in at 42 minutes. Williams is expected to tour in support of "Damn Right, Rebel Proud," though no dates have yet been announced.
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Lee Ann Womack "Call Me Crazy" (MCA)
The two-time Grammy-winning country star returns with her seventh studio album, a follow-up to the 2007 offering "Finding My Way Back Home."
The first single from the Tony Brown-produced album is the track "Last Call." "Call Me Crazy" also features duets with George Strait ("Everything But Quits") and Keith Urban ("The Bees"), as well as a re-make of the Strait classic "The King of Broken Hearts."
* * *
Of Montreal "Skeletal Lamping" (Polyvinyl)
The indie-rock troupe--which actually hails from Georgia, not Montreal--returns with its ninth studio album. The set, which follows 2007's "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?," was produced by Of Montreal singer/songwriter Kevin Barnes.
* * *
More new releases:
Brett Dennen, "Hope for the Hopeless" (Dualtone)
The Doors, "Perception" (Rhino)
Electric Six, "Flashy" (Epitaph)
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, "Evening Star" (DGM)
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, "No Pussyfooting" (DGM)
Escape the Fate, "This War is Ours" (Epitaph)
Sara Groves, "O Holy Night" (Dedicated)
Jimmy Herring, "Lifeboat" (Abstract Logix)
Jazzanova, "Of All the Things" (Verve)
Waylon Jennings, "Waylon Forever" (Vagrant)
Labelle, "Back to Now" (Verve)
Craig Morgan, "That's Why" (UBEU)
The Nields, "Rock All Day Rock All Night" (Nields)
OhGr, "Devils in My Details" (SPV)
New Musical Based on Oscar-Winning Film "Once" Aiming for Broadway Bow in 2010-2011
"Once," the intimate Academy Award-winning film about a struggling Irish street musician, will be adapted into a Broadway musical. Producers are aiming for a bow during the 2010-2011 season.
Tony-winning producers John N. Hart, Jr., Jeff Sine and Fred Zollo, who have collectively presented Spring Awakening; Caroline, Or Change; and The Who's Tommy to Broadway audiences, have acquired live theatrical rights to the film that was penned and directed by John Carney.
"In a landscape where the American musical must evolve, Once provides a wonderful, unique opportunity," said producer John Hart in a statement. "Those of us who fell in love with it and its score at the movie theater came out singing, and will do so again when it finds its way to the stage."
"The film was shot modestly, on a shoe-string budget and managed to capture the hearts of fans around the world, wildly exceeding all critical and box office expectations. It did so, because it invited its audience into the process of artists making music and did not stoop to melodrama," added producer Fred Zollo.
The stage production will incorporate songs from the film, which were penned and performed by The Frames band member Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The duo won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original song for "Falling Slowly."
The film follows a down-and-out Dublin street performer who encounters a young Czech immigrant flower seller, who is taken with his music. Named only "Guy" and "Girl," the duo begin a music-fueled relationship where they spend a week writing and performing music together. The tale culminates in a nightlong recording session for a demo which they hope will land them a music contract in London. While only one of them ever makes it to London, the impact of their relationship leaves them both changed.
Representative for the production state that a creative team for Once will be announced shortly.
The independent Irish film was made for under $150,000, was shot in 17 days, and went on to gross over $10,000,000, becoming a critically acclaimed international smash. Songwriters Hansard and Irglová continue a worldwide tour performing songs from the Grammy-nominated soundtrack.
MURMUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION OUT IN NOVEMBER
On November 25, 2008, the two-CD 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Murmur will be released on Universal. The two-CD set features R.E.M.'s debut album, remastered, plus an additional disc with a previously unreleased concert recorded at Larry’s Hideaway in Toronto, three months after Murmur’s April 1983 release.
The 16-song live performance boasts nine of Murmur’s 12 songs, including “Radio Free Europe," three songs from the Chronic Town EP, early renditions of "7 Chinese Bros." and "Harborcoat," as well as “Just A Touch,” eventually a track included on R.E.M.’s fourth album, 1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant. The live set also features a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “There She Goes Again,” which R.E.M. recorded in the studio for the b-side of “Radio Free Europe.”
Exclusive essays by producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, as well as former I.R.S. executives Jay Boberg, Sig Sigworth, Carlos Grasso round out the deluxe edition.
Stay tuned for more details and information on how you can pre-order Murmur--The Deluxe Edition. In the meantime, go to Pitchfork for their coverage, and have a look at the tracklisting below:
Murmur (Deluxe Edition):
Disc 1:
01 Radio Free Europe
02 Pilgrimage
03 Laughing
04 Talk About the Passion
05 Moral Kiosk
06 Perfect Circle
07 Catapult
08 Sitting Still
09 9-9
10 Shaking Through
11 We Walk
12 West of the Fields
Disc 2 (Live at Larry's Hideaway):
01 Laughing
02 Pilgrimage
03 There She Goes Again
04 7 Chinese Bros.
05 Talk About the Passion
06 Sitting Still
07 Harborcoat
08 Catapult
09 Gardening at Night
10 9-9
11 Just a Touch
12 West of the Fields
13 Radio Free Europe
14 We Walk
15 1,000,000
16 Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
In 'Quantum,' it's Bond, James Bond, without the catchphrases
Daniel Craig is betting that absence will make the 007 fan's heart grow fonder.
The new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, which opens Nov. 14 and screened for the press for the first time Saturday evening, leaves out some of the trademark phrases and habits of the iconic superspy.
No "Bond, James Bond" introduction, no "shaken, not stirred" martini order, still no gadget-master Q, and vengeance rather than seduction is the common interest with one of the Bond girls.
After Craig's first outing as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale, which rebooted the now 22-film franchise with 007's origin story, Quantum picks up right where that film ended: with the hero trying to unravel the network of villains that led the woman he loved to betray him.
"Everybody says to me, 'Is Bond going to be Bond now?' And I've been like, 'Yeah, well, kind of,' " Craig says. "But he's got a way to go yet."
His story arc takes 007 from soldier to the ultra-smooth operator immortalized in the previous films.
Saturday's screening received applause during one foot-chase sequence, and again as the credits rolled.
"He's supposed to be this superspy, suave and sophisticated," Craig says. "But I didn't want to start by copying what came before, but to get to that point by making it a real journey."
Producer Michael G. Wilson, whose family originated the films and has personally worked on every Bond since 1979's Moonraker, says that though some Bond fans will consider it heresy, he was glad to break tradition.
"I feel free," he said during a location shoot in Chile last spring. "We always had to have those scenes in the movie. Now we have scenes only if they're necessary."
Craig is signed to at least two more Bond films, and he says eventually all the familiar characteristics will reveal themselves. And he hopes they will be more satisfying now that they aren't delivered by rote.
"I'm as big a fan as anybody of all his catchphrases and the martini," he says. "But I want to find a new way of doing them."
Chase Not Tickled By Palin's SNL Appearance
Comedian Chevy Chase wasn't laughing at U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's guest appearance on sketch show Saturday Night Live this weekend (18/19Oct08), insisting TV bosses made a "big mistake" inviting her on.
The National Lampoon's Vacation star, a former SNL alum, was not impressed by Palin's lack of improvisation skills on Saturday's programme, which was hosted by W star Josh Brolin and featured Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin.
Palin appeared in an opening skit with staunch Democrat Baldwin, and again in the Weekend Update segment, when she nodded along to a rap song by SNL's Amy Poehler.
But the Alaska Governor's performance failed to crack a smile from Chase.
He tells Access Hollywood, "Quite frankly, it's a big mistake to let her go on. What was brilliant about (SNL producer) Lorne (Michaels) was that he had nothing written for Sarah and that apparently she cannot improvise herself out of a paper bag!
"On Weekend Update, that was her big chance. Nothing."
And Chase has no doubt that Palin's performance has had a negative effect on the campaign of her running mate, White House hopeful John McCain.
He adds, "The management behind McCain's campaign has been dumb. This has only helped accentuate the problem of his judgement in choosing, in such a cynical way, a candidate like Sarah Palin for vice president. I think the last thing that they would want right about now is to have the rest of America knowing all that... to have her be seen on SNL, certainly never there... If anything, you just want her to be seen just from a distance."
Weakerthans win three WCMAs
EDMONTON - Maybe they should be called the Strongerthans.
Songs about curling, a Winnipeg bus driver and Big Foot helped The Weakerthans dominate the Western Canadian Music Awards Sunday. The indy pop recording darlings, who have been winning rave reviews as they play around the world in support of their latest album Reunion Tour, were honoured for outstanding independent album and songwriters of the year at the awards show in Edmonton.
The band, which crafted Reunion Tour in a factory on the outskirts of Winnipeg during a few frigid weeks in March 2007, also won video of the year for Civil Twilight, a song about a city bus driver whose route takes him past a house that is haunted only for him.
The Weakerthans appear to have a love-hate relationship with buses. This summer the band missed playing the Lalapalooza festival in Chicago when their tour bus broke down after a show, stranding them in Ohio.
The Western Canadian Music Awards recognizes the best recording artists from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon in 19 categories.
"It was definitely a great weekend," said Kennedy Jensen, executive director of the Western Canadian Music Alliance.
"We were thrilled to be hosting the event in Edmonton this year - to share our hospitality and amazing spirit."
Alberta native son Corb Lund won the outstanding roots recording - solo - award for the title song of his Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier! album, a ballad that chronicles the changing fortunes of cavalrymen throughout history.
The show opened with a tribute to the life and career of jazz icon Tommy Banks, who was inducted into the Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame, as were Spirit of the West. The Vancouver-based artists performed rousing renditions of their hit singles during the program.
Feist, k.d. lang and Nickelback were all honoured with awards for international achievement.
Country crooner Paul Brandt, who has sold more than one-million albums during his career, won the top country recording award for his album Risk.
Winnipeg rockers The Liptonians were honoured for outstanding pop recording for their self-titled debut album.
Altered Laws' Metaphora, an album that explores Latin, pop, Brazilian, mainstream and avant-garde jazz, won top jazz recording.
Other award winners included; Little Miss Higgins for outstanding blues recording for the album Junction City, State of Shock's Life, Love and Lies was top rock record, Twilight Hotel' Highway Prayer was honoured for outstanding roots recording.
List of winners from the 2008 Western Canadian Music Awards
EDMONTON - Here's the list of winners from the Western Canadian Music Awards presented Sunday night in Edmonton:
The 2008 Western Canadian Music Award winners are:
Outstanding Aboriginal Recording: Tracy Bone, No Lies.
Outstanding Blues Recording: Little Miss Higgins, Junction City.
Outstanding Children's Recording (Tie): Googol Power, Crazy 4 Math. The Kerplunks, The Kerplunks.
Outstanding Contemporary Christian/Gospel Recording: Steve Bell, The Symphony Sessions.
Outstanding Classical Composition: Elizabeth Raum, Dark Thoughts (How Bodies Make Ecstatic Marks).
Outstanding Classical Recording: Jasper Wood, A Child's Cry from Izieu.
Outstanding Country Recording: Paul Brandt, Risk.
Outstanding Francophone Recording: Ariane Mahryke Lemire, Double Entendre.
Outstanding Instrumental Recording: Bob Evans, 4 on 6.
Outstanding Jazz Recording: Altered Laws, Metaphora.
Outstanding Pop Recording: The Liptonians, Self-Titled.
Outstanding Rock Recording: State of Shock, Life, Love & Lies.
Outstanding Roots Recording - Duo/Group: Twilight Hotel, Highway Prayer.
Outstanding Roots Recording - Solo: Corb Lund, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!.
Outstanding Urban Recording: Souljah Fyah, Truth Will Reveal.
Outstanding World Recording: Alex Cuba, Agua Del Pozo.
Outstanding Independent Album: The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour.
Songwriter(s) of the Year: The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour.
Video of the Year: The Weakerthans, Civil Twilight.
Hall of Fame: Senator Tommy Banks, Spirit of the West.
International Achievement Award: Feist, k.d. lang, Nickelback
Fashion critic Mr. Blackwell dies in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES – Mr. Blackwell, the acerbic designer whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86.
Blackwell died Sunday of complications from an intestinal infection, publicist Harlan Boll said.
Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 — long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair.
Year after year, he would take Hollywood's reigning stars and other celebrities to task for failing to dress in what he thought was the way they should.
Being dowdy was bad enough, but the more outrageous clothing a woman wore, the more biting his criticism. He once said a reigning Miss America looked "like an armadillo with cornpads."
A few other examples:
Madonna: "The Bare-Bottomed Bore of Babylon."
Barbra Streisand: "She looks like a masculine Bride of Frankenstein."
Christina Aguilera: "A dazzling singer who puts good taste through the wardrobe wringer."
Meryl Streep: "She looks like a gypsy abandoned by a caravan."
Sharon Stone: "An over-the-hill Cruella DeVille."
Lindsay Lohan: "From adorable to deplorable."
Patti Davis: "Packs all the glamour of an old, worn-out sneaker."
Ann Margret: "A Hells Angel escapee who invaded the Ziegfeld Follies on a rainy night."
Camilla Parker-Bowles: "The Duchess of Dowdy."
Bjork: "She dances in the dark — and dresses there, too."
Spears: "Her bra-topped collection of Madonna rejects are pure fashion overkill."
The critic acknowledged he had mixed feelings about appearing so publicly mean. Most of the women he put through the wringer, he said, were people he genuinely admired for their talent if not their fashion sense.
"The list is and was a satirical look at the fashion flops of the year," he said in 1998. "I merely said out loud what others were whispering. ... It's not my intention to hurt the feelings of these people. It's to put down the clothing they're wearing."
He told the Los Angeles Times in 1968 that designers were forgetting that their job "is to dress and enhance women. ... Maybe I should have named the 10 worst designers instead of blaming the women who wear their clothes."
Surprisingly, the woman who topped his worst dressed list for 1982 (announced in early 1983) was the newly married Diana, Princess of Wales. He said she had gone from "a very young, independent, fresh look" to a "tacky, dowdy" style. She quickly regained her footing and wound up as a regular on Blackwell's favorites list, the "fabulous fashion independents."
Blackwell had started out as an actor himself, having been spotted by a talent agent while still in his teens. He landed a job as an understudy in the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's heralded drama "Dead End."
Although he got to the play the role of the Dead End Kids' leader on stage only one time, it led him to Hollywood where he landed bit parts in such films as "Little Tough Guy" (uncredited) and "Juvenile Hall" (as Dick Selzer).
He abandoned his acting career in 1958 after failing to make it in movies and switched to fashion design. He claimed to be the first to make designer jeans for women, and his salon had begun to attract a few Hollywood names when he issued his first list covering the fashion faux pas of 1960. (Italian star Anna Magnani and Gabor were among his early victims.)
It quickly brought him the celebrity he had long coveted, and he quickly became a favorite on the TV talk show circuit. He also became for a time, in his words, "The worst bitch in the world."
He hosted his own show, "Mr. Blackwell Presents," in 1968 and appeared as himself in such TV shows as "Matlock" and "Matt Houston."
In 1992, he sued Johnny Carson for claiming that he had added Mother Teresa to his list, saying the comment exposed him to hatred and ridicule. NBC's response was that the "Tonight Show" host was obviously joking.
"Did you see what he said about Mother Teresa? 'Miss Nerdy Nun is a fashion no-no,'" Carson had said. "Come on now, that's just too much."
During his heyday the issuing of Blackwell's annual list was an eagerly anticipated media event.
On the second Tuesday in January he would assemble reporters at his mansion for a lavish breakfast before making a dramatic entrance for the television cameras.
By the turning of the millennium, however, the list had lost its juice and Blackwell took to issuing it by e-mail.
Born Richard Sylvan Selzer in 1922, Blackwell recounted in his autobiography, "From Rags to Bitches," a troubled, poverty-ridden childhood in which he was variously a truant, thief and prostitute.