Plant & Krauss nab 5 Grammys
LOS ANGELES -- Raising Sand raised a whole lotta Grammy gold at the Staples Center.
Sixty-year-old Led Zeppelin belter Robert Plant and 37-year-old bluegrass star Alison Krauss led the way with five Grammy Award wins, including album and record of the year, thanks to their collaborative CD.
Rapper Lil Wayne won four Grammys. Coldplay won three.
Plant and Krauss won two Grammys for Raising Sand -- album of the year and contemporary folk/Americana album -- and three more for songs from that album: Killing The Blues won for country collaboration with vocals, Rich Woman for pop collaboration with vocals, and Please Read The Letter for record of the year.
"When we started this project together the whole game was a mystery," said Plant in accepting the latter award.
"We gave ourselves three days. We said, 'If it doesn't work, we'll just take lunch and I'll go back to Wolverhampton.' But we brought this song out. It's an old song that Jimmy Page and I wrote together, post-Led Zeppelin, and it's been given that Nasvhille touch and it feels pretty good."
Earlier, Plant said, "Wow, 40 years after landing in this town, it's all different, it's fantastic."
Krauss has won more Grammys than any other female artist; she entered the night with 21. Plant had won only two previously -- and none with Led Zeppelin, which never won a Grammy.
Coldplay won song of the year (the songwriting award) for Viva La Vida, which also won as best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals. The band also won for best rock album for Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends.
"Thank you and sorry to Sir Paul McCartney for blatantly copying the Sgt. Pepper's outfits," said Coldplay drummer Will Champion of he and his bandmates being decked out in brightly coloured jackets.
Accepting the best rock album award, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said: "We're more limestone, a little softer but just as charming. We feel so grateful to be here. I'm going to tear up, it's going to be crazy."
One of the telecast's early emotional high points was Jennifer Hudson's Grammy win for best R&B album for her self-titled disc.
"I would like to thank my family in heaven and those that are here today," said Hudson, who was appearing in public for only the second time since an alleged domestic dispute led to the murder of her mother, brother and nephew.
There was also controversy at the outset, as scheduled performers and longtime couple Rihanna and Chris Brown were last-minute no-shows. Brown turned himself in to authorities investigating an alleged domestic battery felony that took place early yesterday. Jail records showed Chris Brown being held on $50,000 US bail.
The police department said in a release that Brown, the 19-year-old R&B singer, and a "woman" were in a vehicle in L.A.'s Hancock Park neighbourhood when they began arguing. Police say they got out of the car and the fight escalated, and the woman identified Brown as her attacker. The report did not say whether the "woman" was the 20-year-old Rihanna, a pop/R&B singer.
In Rihanna's place, Justin Timberlake and Al Green performed a duet of Green's classic Let's Stay Together.
The only other breath-holding moment was when nine-months-pregnant British rapper M.I.A. performed Swagga Like Us with T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West and didn't actually give birth on stage.
Raspy-voiced, tattooed and prolific southern rapper Lil Wayne had led all other artists with eight nominations, followed closely by Coldplay with seven and rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West and R&B artist Ne-Yo with six apiece.
Lil Wayne picked up his Grammys during the pre-telecast portion of the ceremony, during which 100 of the 110 trophies were handed out -- for best rap performance for A Milli, best rap song for Lollipop, and best rap performance for a duo or group for Swagga Like Us, which also featured Jay-Z, T.I. and Kanye West.
West got a second Grammy for American Boy with Estelle, which won best rap/sung collaboration.
British art-rockers Radiohead, nominated in five categories, won for best alternative music album for In Rainbows, another album-of-the-year nominee, while their art directors won for best boxed or special limited edition package.
Other early double winners were Ne-Yo, Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, French electronica duo Daft Punk and Al Green.
Carrie Underwood won best female country vocal performance for Last Name, while Brad Paisley won the male equivalent for Letter To Me.
With the exception of the Juno soundtrack, Canadian nominees were shut out this year.
Juno director Jason Reitman of Montreal was on hand to pick up the best compilation soundtrack album Grammy and said the win was an "enormous surprise" during the pre-telecast ceremony.
"I forgot to thank the people of Canada," Reitman, son of filmmaker Ivan, said backstage. "I say to you now, this award is dedicated to the people of Canada, the great people of British Columbia who provided my crew."
Reitman also praised his Canadian actors Ellen Page and Michael Cera, who sang the show-ending Moldy Peaches song, Anyone Else But You, at the end of the movie.
"It's a scary thing when you ask your actors to suddenly close a movie in song. Fortunately I had Ellen and Michael, who were terrific musicians and singers. They learned the song immediately," said Reitman backstage.
During the pre-telcast, the late George Carlin's daughter, Kelly Carlin, was on hand to pick up his Grammy for best comedy album, for It's Bad For Ya. She said her dad, who passed away last summer, had destroyed a previous Grammy he had won in 1972 for his album FM & AM.
"In a chemically-induced altered state, he took it apart, to the point that the academy had to send him a new one," Carlin-McCall said up on the stage at the Staples Centre to huge laughs.
Backstage, she explained further: "I guess it was a little bit of a project or something and it was in pieces, and then I think maybe the pieces got lost."
She said her father's fifth Grammy win was "bittersweet."
"It's been an incredible week, with the Mark Twain honours happening earlier this week, and I just told someone it's like the cherry on top of really big beautiful cake. So it's a lovely honour and I'm just so happy that people are honouring my dad. And yet, he's not here," she said. "You know, I'd rather have him."
Meet the New 'Dancing with the Stars' Cast
A married couple, an Olympic champ, yet another former NFL star and the man who serves up "Chocolate News" will be "Dancing with the Stars" in a month's time.
ABC announced the cast for the eighth cyle of its popular dance-off on Sunday night (Feb. 8), dropping names during its prime-time schedule. The 13 stars will begin competing on Monday, March 9.
Singer Jewel and rodeo champion Ty Murray are not the first husband and wife to have been part of "Dancing with the Stars" -- that honor falls to Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin. They are, however, the first married couple to compete against one another in the same season (Rinna danced in the show's second season, and Hamlin followed her in season three).
The cast also includes NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, who joins the likes of Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Jason Taylor and Warren Sapp in transitioning from the football field to the dance floor. Shawn Johnson, one of the stars of the U.S. gymnastics team at the 2008 Olympics, will also compete. So will comedian David Alan Grier, the host of Comedy Central's "Chocolate News."
Here's the full cast:
Name: Belinda Carlisle
Famous for: A music career with the Go-Go's and as a solo artist
Name: David Alan Grier
Famous for: " In Living Color," "Chocolate News"
Name: Jewel
Famous for: A Grammy-nominated music career, hosting "Nashville Star"; married to fellow competitor Ty Murray
Name: Shawn Johnson
Famous for: Her four-medal (one gold, three silver) performance in gymnastics at the 2008 Olympics
Name: Lil Kim
Famous for: A Grammy-winning hip-hop career, outrageous fashion choices
Name: Gilles Marini
Famous for: Making Samantha have impure thoughts in the "Sex and the City" movie
Name: Ty Murray
Famous for: Winning seven world all-around rodeo championships; married to fellow competitor Jewel
Name: Nancy O'Dell
Famous for: Hosting "Access Hollywood"
Name: Denise Richards
Famous for: "Wild Things," "The World Is Not Enough," a rocky marriage to Charlie Sheen and currently an E! reality show
Name: Steve-O
Famous for: Being a "Jackass"
Name: Lawrence Taylor
Famous for: Terrorizing quarterbacks in a Hall of Fame NFL career
Name: Chuck Wicks
Famous for: Country-music hit "Stealing Cinderella," dating "Dancing" pro Julianne Hough
Name: Steve Wozniak
Famous for: Co-founding Apple Computer
'Slumdog' wins seven BAFTAs
LONDON - Rags-to-riches story "Slumdog Millionaire" continued its fairy-tale journey Sunday, winning seven prizes including best picture at the British Academy Film Awards and sealing its place as favourite for the Oscars later this month.
Kate Winslet and Mickey Rourke also gained Oscar momentum with acting wins - Winslet for her role as a former Nazi concentration camp guard in "The Reader," Rourke for his career-reviving performance as a washed-up athlete in "The Wrestler." Heath Ledger won a posthumous supporting actor award for The Dark Knight."
"It's such a pleasure to be back here, out of the darkness," said Rourke.
After her onstage emotional meltdown at the Golden Globes last month, Winslet was a model of composure, thanking her parents in the audience "who I will not look at right now, otherwise I will burst into tears."
"Slumdog," Danny Boyle's film about a Mumbai street boy's rise from poverty to game-show triumph, went into the ceremony with 11 nominations and won prizes for best film, best director, adapted screenplay, music, cinematography, editing and sound.
The low-budget film, shot partly in Hindi, has gone from rank outsider to Academy Awards favourite since it won four trophies at the Golden Globe awards last month and became a box-office hit.
Its makers are still getting used to the change.
"I thought at one stage we were going straight to DVD," said screenwriter Simon Beaufoy.
The film has caused controversy in India, where some have complained it shows the country in an unflattering light, and others have said its title insults the poor.
Boyle dedicated his award partly to the people of Mumbai, where it was shot - and also to people closer to home.
"The wiring in my dad's house blew overnight, and it's just a a big shout-out to everyone who helped him get the extension cable in so he could watch this on television," Boyle said.
The London awards, popularly known as the BAFTAs, have a reputation for predicting who will win at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. All four of last year's acting prize winners went on to take home Oscars.
Winslet, Rourke, Meryl Streep, Daniel Craig and Penelope Cruz were among the celebrities who braved a wintry London drizzle - and hundreds of screaming fans - to walk the red carpet in front of the grand, neoclassical Royal Opera House.
The crowd's biggest cheers were for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - he wearing a moustache, she an elegant, old-Hollywood strapless black-and-yellow Armani dress.
Cruz was named best supporting actress for Woody Allen comedy "Vicky Christina Barcelona."
Ledger's widely anticipated victory was the only win for the "The Dark Knight" from nine nominations. Clint Eastwood's L.A. noir "Changeling" was nominated in eight categories but won none.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," also lost out, taking just three awards - production design, hair and makeup, and visual effects - from 11 nominations.
The 6,000 voting academy members rewarded the quirky and eclectic. Tightrope-walking documentary "Man on Wire" was named best British film, and the prize for best original screenplay went to Ireland's Martin McDonagh for hit man comedy "In Bruges."
Director and Monty Python member Terry Gilliam was given an Academy Fellowship, a lifetime achievement award.
Pinewood and Shepperton studios, mainstays of British filmmaking for decades, were awarded for outstanding British contribution to cinema.
"WALL-E" took the prize for animated feature, French drama "I've Loved You So Long" was named best film not in the English language, and Steve McQueen won the award for best first film for his directorial debut, "Hunger," about Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands.
In the acting categories, Winslet defeated Jolie for the missing-child drama "Changeling," Streep for the moral thriller "Doubt" and Scott Thomas for "I've Loved You So Long."
Rourke beat "Slumdog Millionaire's" Dev Patel, Sean Penn for "Milk," Frank Langella for "Frost/Nixon" and Pitt for "Benjamin Button.
Here are the winners of the 2009 Orange British Academy Film Awards, presented Sunday:
Film - "Slumdog Millionaire"
British Film - "Man on Wire"
Actor - Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Actress - Kate Winslet, "The Reader"
Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Supporting Actress - Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Christina Barcelona"
Director - Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
First-time Director - Steve McQueen, "Hunger"
Rising Star - Noel Clarke
Original Screenplay - Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"
Adapted Screenplay - Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Film Not in the English Language - "I've Loved You So Long"
Music - A.R. Rahman, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Cinematography - Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Editing - Chris Dickens, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Production Design - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Costume Design - "The Duchess"
Sound - "Slumdog Millionaire"
Visual Effects - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Makeup and Hair - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Animated Feature - "WALL-E"
Short Animation - "Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death"
Short Film - "September"
Academy Fellowship - Terry Gilliam
'Milk,' 'Slumdog Millionaire' win top WGA awards
LOS ANGELES – The Oscar contenders "Milk" and "Slumdog Millionaire" won top honors Saturday at the Writers Guild of America Awards.
Dustin Lance Black won the original screenplay prize for "Milk," a biography of murdered slain gay-rights leader Harvey Milk.
The adapted screenplay award for "Slumdog Millionaire" went to Simon Beaufoy, who based it on a novel by Vikas Swarup about an Indian street orphan's journey of survival and love.
"Slumdog Millionaire" has been an unlikely hit. The low-budget feature has 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture, and also has taken awards at the Golden Globes and from the Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild.
"Milk" has eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best actor for Sean Penn.
Ari Folman won the documentary screenplay award for "Waltz with Bashir." The film, which is nominated in the foreign-language category at the Academy Awards, is an animated study of an Israeli soldier struggling to recall suppressed memories of his involvement in the war with Lebanon.
In television categories, writers for NBC's "30 Rock" and AMC's "Mad Men" won in the comedy and drama categories, respectively. Both also won WGA awards last year: "30 Rock" for TV comedy and "Mad Men" for new series.
Some of the other awards were:
• New Series: "In Treatment."
• Episodic Drama: "Breaking Bad" (Pilot).
• Episodic Comedy: "30 Rock" (Succession).
• Animation: "The Simpsons" (Apocalypse Cow).
• Daytime Serials: "As the World Turns."
'He's Just Not That Into You' woos with $27M debut
LOS ANGELES – Movie fans were into "He's Just Not That Into You" as the ensemble romance got a jump on Valentine's Day to lead the weekend box office with a $27.5 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The movie whose cast includes Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Connelly knocked off the previous weekend's top flick, the abduction thriller "Taken," which dropped to second place with $20.3 million.
With Valentine's Day falling in the middle of next weekend, the movie released by the Warner Bros. banner New Line Cinema is positioned for another solid showing, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros.
"We're really walking into a terrific weekend. The biggest bump you can ever get for a romantic comedy is when Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday," Fellman said. "We'll see the girls, female power, drag the guys back in next Saturday."
"Taken," distributed by 20th Century Fox, raised its 10-day total to $53.4 million, its second-weekend gross dropping just 18 percent from its debut. Top films often can drop 50 percent or more in their second weekend.
Two movies featuring Dakota Fanning opened in the top 10 — Focus Features' animated adventure "Coraline" at No. 3 with $16.3 million and Summit Entertainment's sci-fi thriller "Push" at No. 6 with $10.2 million.
Steve Martin's Inspector Clouseau bumbled through the weekend as "The Pink Panther 2" turned in a so-so $12 million debut to finish at No. 4. The Sony-MGM sequel came in well behind 2006's "The Pink Panther," which premiered with $20.2 million.
Hollywood continued its hot streak as the top 12 movies hauled in $131.4 million, up 46 percent from the same weekend last year, when the romantic comedy "Fool's Gold" was No. 1 with $21.6 million.
Overall revenues are just above $1.2 billion for the year and are running 19.4 percent ahead of 2008's, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
"It seems like every film that's been opening has been doing better than expected, or many of them have," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "I've not seen the start of a year this strong in my entire career."
Academy Awards front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire" continued to make good on its Oscar buzz, pulling in $7.4 million and raising its total to $77.4 million. The movie passed "Sideways" to take second-place on Fox Searchlight's list of highest-grossing films, behind "Juno" at $143 million.
In narrow release, the Weinstein Co. comedy "Fanboys" opened modestly with $164,000 in 44 theaters, averaging $3,727 a cinema. That compared to an $8,650 average in 3,175 theaters for "He's Just Not That Into You."
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "He's Just Not That Into You," $27.5 million.
2. "Taken," $20.3 million.
3. "Coraline," $16.3 million.
4. "The Pink Panther 2," $12 million.
5. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $11 million.
6. "Push," $10.2 million.
7. "Slumdog Millionaire," $7.4 million.
8. "Gran Torino," $7.2 million.
9. "The Uninvited," $6.4 million.
10. "Hotel for Dogs," $5.8 million.