Terry Gilliam to receive BAFTA honor
LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) – Former "Monty Python" star Terry Gilliam will receive a BAFTA Fellowship in recognition of his contribution to film during Sunday's British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards show.
Orange British Academy Film Awards organizers said the fellowship is the "highest accolade" bestowed upon someone in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film.
Previous honorees include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins.
Writer-director Gilliam's latest movie, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," was Heath Ledger's final film. After Ledger's death in January 2008, Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law stepped in to help complete the film.
The BAFTA ceremony takes place at London's Royal Opera House on Sunday.
Nickelback leads Juno noms
They’re not dark horses this year, not when it comes to the Junos anyway.
Alberta hard rock band Nickelback lead the pack with five nominations heading into the 2009 Juno Awards, slated for March 27-29 at Vancouver’s General Motors Place.
Sam Roberts, Celine Dion and Hedley are the other leading nominees.
Nickelback are confirmed as performers for the televised ceremony on CTV on March 29, to be hosted by Russell Peters. They’re up for album of the year (for Dark Horse), single of the year (Gotta Be Somebody), group of the year and the Jack Richardson producer of the year award with Joey Moi (Gotta Be Somebody and Something In Your Mouth).
Roberts, a Montreal rocker, has four nominations: artist of the year, rock album of the year (Love at the End of the World) and two nominations for video of the year (Detroit ’67 and Them Kids).
Dion and Hedley, along with The Lost Fingers and Feist, are up for the JUNO Fan Choice award — the lone prize voted on by the public.
Dion, who spent most of last year on a world tour after her lengthy Las Vegas stint, is also up for top single (Taking Chances) and DVD (Live In Las Vegas — A New Day).
Hedley, led by energetic front man Jacob Hoggard, is nominated for top album (Famous Last Words) and songwriter of the year.
Other nominees for top single include Divine Brown (Lay It On The Line), Kardinal Offishall (Dangerous) and crooner Michael Buble (Lost). The Lost Fingers (Lost In The 80’s), Simple Plan (Simple Plan) and French singer Sylvain Cossette (70’s Volume 2) are the other top-album nominees.
The artist of the year features some veterans in Bryan Adams and k.d. lang alongside Roberts, singer-songwriter Serena Ryder and City and Colour. the side project of Alexisonfire’s Dallas Green, who are confirmed to perform during the televised ceremony.
Great Big Sea, Simple Plan, The Trews and Tokyo Police Club are the other contenders for group of the year. The top rock album field has a distinct Maritime component, with Nova Scotia acts Matt Mays & El Torpedo (Terminal Romance), Sloan (Parallel Play) and The Trews (No Time For Later) up against Protest The Hero (Fortress) and Roberts.
Young jazz sensation Nikki Yanofsky, Crystal Shawanda, Kreesha Turner, Jessie Farrell and Toronto-based Lights are competing for new artist of the year. Top new group nominees include Montreal “trip rock” band Beast, Cancer Bats, Crystal Castles, Plants And Animals and The Stills.
As for huge, non-homegrown acts, Coldplay (Viva La Vida), AC/DC (Black Ice), Guns N’ Roses (Chinese Democracy), Jack Johnson (Sleep Through The Static) and Metallica (Death Magnetic) are up for international album of the year.
Sarah McLachlan, who is also slated to perform, will receive the 2009 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award, while longtime rock band Loverboy will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
More performers will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
Here are some selected 2009 Juno Award nominees:
JUNO FAN CHOICE AWARD: Celine Dion, Feist, Hedley, Nickelback, the Lost Fingers.
SINGLE OF THE YEAR: “Taking Chances,” Celine Dion; “Lay It on the Line,” Divine Brown; “Dangerous,” Kardinal Offishall; “Lost,” Michael Buble; “Gotta Be Somebody,” Nickelback.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: “Famous Last Words,” Hedley; “Dark Horse,” Nickelback; “Simple Plan,” Simple Plan; “70’s Volume 2,” Sylvain Cossette; “Lost in the 80’s,” The Lost Fingers.
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Bryan Adams, City and Colour, k.d. lang, Sam Roberts, Serena Ryder.
GROUP OF THE YEAR: Great Big Sea, Nickelback, Simple Plan, the Trews, Tokyo Police Club.
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Crystal Shawanda, Jessie Farrell, Kreesha Turner, Lights, Nikki Yanofsky.
NEW GROUP OF THE YEAR: Beast, Cancer Bats, Crystal Castles, Plants and Animals, the Stills.
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR: Alanis Morissette, Dallas Green, Gordie Sampson, Hedley, Nathan Ferraro.
COUNTRY RECORDING OF THE YEAR: “Thankful,” Aaron Pritchett; “Dawn of a New Day,” Crystal Shawanda; “Beautiful Life,” Doc Walker; “What I Do,” George Canyon; “Chasing the Sun,” Tara Oram.
POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR: “Flavors of Entanglement,” Alanis Morissette; “No Sleep at All,” Creature; “Wake Up and Say Goodbye,” David Usher; “Passion,” Kreesha Turner; “Holes,” the Midway State.
ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR: “Terminal Romance,” Matt Mays & El Torpedo; “Fortress,” Protest the Hero; “Love at the End of the World,” Sam Roberts; “Parallel Play,” Sloan; “No Time for Later,” the Trews.
RAP RECORDING OF THE YEAR: “A Captured Moment in Time,” DL Incognito; “The Book,” D-Sisive; “I Rap Now,” Famous; “Not 4 Sale,” Kardinal Offishall; “Point Blank,” Point Blank.
WORLD MUSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR: “Shivaboom,” Eccodek; “The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanun,” George Dimitri Sawa; “Africa to Appalachia,” Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko; “Contrabanda,” Lubo & Kaba Horo; “Cairo to Toronto,” Maryem & Ernie Tollar.
Former CBC radio host Russ Germain dies at 62
Veteran CBC broadcaster Russ Germain has died.
CBC reports on its website that the radio newsman, who used to anchor The World at Six, succumbed to a battle with cancer in Toronto.
He was 62.
Germain spent 29 years at the public broadcaster, joining The World at Six in 1983 after hosting CBC Radio's Ideas through the late '70s and early '80s.
Germain, who retired in 2002, also hosted the morning radio show World Report and served as CBC Radio's broadcast language adviser.
Before joining the CBC in 1973, he was a TV announcer in Saskatoon and worked at various private stations.
Slow Ticket Sales Sink Langerado Festival
The Langerado Music Festival in Miami is the first large-scale U.S. festival to fall victim to a poor economy in 2009. The seventh annual event, which was set for March 6-8 at Bicentennial Park, has been cancelled "due to sluggish ticket sales," organizers announced.
Artists that were confirmed to perform at Langerado included Death Cab For Cutie, Snoop Dogg, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Dashboard Confessional, Broken Social Scene, Girl Talk, Thievery Corporation, Slightly Stoopid, Flogging Molly, Chromeo, Mute Math, Black Kids, Gym Class Heroes, the Faint, the Pogues, Zac Brown Band, Matisyahu, Disco Biscuits, Umphrey's McGee, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Michael Franti and Spearhead and the Virgins.
"Unfortunately, during these difficult economic times, and facing a first year in a new venue, it's become apparent that we cannot execute a production that lives up to the high standards of our past events," Langerado co-promoter Ethan Schwartz said in a statement. "Putting Langerado on hold was the toughest decision we have ever had to make. We are very grateful for the support of the greater-Miami community and the music community during this difficult time."
Ticket purchases for the festival will be refunded within the next seven business days, organizers say. Further information about refunds can be found at musictoday.com.
Last year's Langerado Festival, held at Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in the Florida Everglades, featured R.E.M., Built To Spill, Of Montreal, the Beastie Boys, the Roots, Gov't Mule, 311, the National, Phil Lesh and Matisyahu, among others. The four-day festival drew about 25,000 people per day and grossed $4.3 million, according to festival co-producer Evan Schwartz.
Bob Costas to MLB Network, leaving HBO
Bob Costas is going to work for Major League Baseball — by joining the MLB Network — and is leaving HBO.
Costas, will debut on the MLB-owned cable channel on Thursday with an interview with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, and then go on to host specials as well as call an unspecified number of the channel's 26 regular-season TV games.
Costas had appeared since 2001 on HBO, where he hosted specials as well as his Costas Now talk show.
He also hosted HBO's Inside the NFL show until that show moved to the Showtime channel last season.
Says HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg: "Television is about change and we respect Bob's decision to move."
24 Liked the World Better Without Heroes
Los Angeles (E! Online) – Monday TV's Winners: Just about everything not named 24, including the 100th-episode-celebrating House (14.7 million, per Nielsen estimates), the rocking-the-women's-vote The Bachelor (11 million) and the coming-at-you-in-3D Chuck (8.3 million).
Heroes Watch: The show was retooled, rested and, well, on par with its season average in total viewers (8.5 million) and the 18-49 demo.
24 Watch: With Heroes back, the Fox series (11.3 million) fell to fourth in the 18-49 demo at 9 p.m.
Etc.: Two and a Half Men (night-best 16.5 million), The Big Bang Theory (10.9 million) and How I Met Your Mother (10.2 million) stayed strong. One Tree Hill (2.6 million) outdrew Gossip Girl (2.3 million). CSI: Miami (16 million) spoiled the premiere party for Medium (8.5 million).
The Arizona Cardinals, However, Still Lost: Absolute final numbers show Sunday's Super Bowl was record big.
Springsteen, Phish head lineup for Bonnaroo
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Call him Bonnaroo Bruce.
Bruce Springsteen, fresh off his Super Bowl halftime performance, has been announced as a headliner at this year's Bonnaroo Arts & Music Festival, along with the recently reunited Phish.
It is scheduled to be the only performance by Springsteen and his E Street Band at a festival in North America this year.
Other performers scheduled to perform from June 11-14 include Snoop Dogg, the Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, Elvis Costello, TV on the Radio, Al Green, Merle Haggard, David Byrne, Erykah Badu, Animal Collective, the Decemberists and Lucinda Williams.
The annual event, which is held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn., 60 miles south of Nashville, draws about 80,000 fans each year.
Springsteen, who released the CD "Working on a Dream" last week, is making the Bonnaroo pit stop during a nationwide tour; Phish is also launching a tour later this year, and Bonnaroo is also slated to be its only festival performance in North America.
More acts will be announced later. More than 120 bands and 20 comedians are expected to perform on 13 stages.