'Necessities of Life' tops Genie noms
OTTAWA - There's a common theme in this week's roster of Genie Award nominees for best motion picture: average people struggling to cope after their worlds are turned upside-down.
An Inuit hunter is stranded in the alien confines of a Quebec hospital in "The Necessities of Life" ("Ce qu'il faut pour vivre.") A teenager's life is thrown into chaos when four of his friends commit suicide in "Everything is Fine" ("Tout est parfait.")
A battered First World War soldier returns home to Alberta in "Passchendaele."
Families pick up the pieces after a car accident in "Normal."
And a young rickshaw driver inherits a fortune - and a heap of trouble - in "Amal."
Canadian film gets its share of ribbing for being intense with sometimes difficult subjects, and this year's group is no exception.
The nominees for Canada's top film awards were announced Tuesday by veteran actor Gordon Pinsent and Quebec entertainer Caroline Neron.
"The Necessities of Life" grabbed the most nominations with eight, including best picture, best director and best screenplay.
It was a semi-finalist for a nomination in the run-up to the Oscar nominations, and has been a favourite on the film festival circuit. The movie follows the story of Tivii, pulled out of despondency by a young orphan who helps him bridge two cultures.
"Everything is Fine," another Quebec film, received seven nominations. In the film, Josh is left behind when his circle of friends carries out a suicide pact.
The other top Canadian films up for multiple awards include the war epic "Passchendaele," "Fugitive Pieces," "Amal," and Quebec filmmaker Lea Pool's "Mommy is at the Hairdresser's" ("Maman est chez le coiffeur"), each film with six nominations.
Sara Morton, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, said there's something quintessentially Canadian about the collection of films this year.
"I think the thing I would comment on is the sheer diversity of the films.
"'Ce qu'il faut pour vivre' is about somebody who comes down from the North into Quebec, and that's partly in Inukitut. You've got strong films in French and in English, we've got films from across the country, so really it's a very diverse crowd this year and I'm very pleased with that.
"I think that represents Canadian cinema very well at the Genies."
Some international names got nods, including Max Von Sydow and Susan Sarandon for the movie "Emotional Arithmetic," and Ellen Burstyn in "Stone Angel."
The nominations were announced against the backdrop of antique planes at the Canada Aviation Museum, also the location of the 29th Genie Awards ceremony on April 4. It will be the first time the ceremony is being held outside of Toronto or Montreal.
Organizers plan to promote a "Genies Week" around the awards to engage locals - and perhaps a politician or two.
Last year, the Conservative government axed two programs that directly helped up-and-coming filmmakers. Budgets at Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board have been tight.
"Obviously we view being in the nation's capital as a very positive step we can take to make sure Canadian decision-makers and all Canadians become aware of the great talent we have and that it is necessary to nurture it," said Morton.
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Some top Genie Awards nominees:
Best motion picture: "Amal," "The Necessities of Life" ("Ce qu'il faut pour vivre"), "Norma," "Passchendaele," "Everything Is Fine" ("Tout est parfait").
Original screenplay: Bernard Emond, "The Necessities of Life" ("Ce qu'il faut pour vivre"); Deepa Mehta, "Heaven on Earth"; Travis McDonald, "Normal"; Randall Cole, "Real Time"; Guillaume Vigneault, "Everything Is Fine" ("Tout est parfait").
Achievement in direction: Richie Mehta, "Amal"; Lyne Charlebois, "Borderline"; Benoit Pilon, "The Necessities of Life" ("Ce qu'il faut pour vivre"); Carl Bessai, "Normal"; Yves-Christian Fournier, "Everything Is Fine" ("Tout est parfait").
Performance by an actor in a leading role: Paul Gross, "Passchendaele"; Rupinder Nagra, "Amal"; Christopher Plummer, "Emotional Arithmetic"; Aaron Poole, "This Beautiful City"; Natar Ungalaaq, "The Necessities of Life" ("Ce qu'il faut pour vivre").
Performance by an actor in a supporting role: Normand D'Amour, "Everything Is Fine" ("Tout est parfait"); Benoit McGinnis, "Le Banquet"; Callum Keith Rennie, "Normal"; Rade Sherbedgia, "Fugitive Pieces"; Max Von Sydow, "Emotional Arithmetic."
Performance by an actress in a leading role: Isabelle Blais, "Borderline"; Ellen Burstyn, "Stone Angel"; Marianne Fortier, "Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's" ("Maman est chez le coiffeur"); Susan Sarandon, "Emotional Arithmetic"; Preity Zinta, "Heaven on Earth."
Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Celine Bonnier, "Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's" ("Maman est chez le coiffeur"); Kristin Booth, "Young People F**king"; Eveline Gelinas, "The Necessities of Life" ("Ce qu'il faut pour vivre"); Anie Pascale, "Everything Is fine" ("Tout est parfait"); Rosamund Pike, "Fugitive Pieces."
Minister suggests Ottawa open to CBC radio ads
Alarms went off this week for Canadian culture watchdogs when Heritage Minister James Moore opened the door to the possibility of ads on CBC Radio as a solution to the national broadcaster's deepening financial crisis.
In response to questions by NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus during Monday's Commons heritage committee session, Moore said, "Commercial advertising is an option that has been talked about for some time. I would frankly consider anything so long as the end result is to have a strong national public broadcaster."
Moore added that the while the Harper government has not discussed commercializing the national radio service with CBC/Radio Canada management, "we are very conscious of the needs of the CBC and the pressures that they're facing. I would certainly work with them on any option that they think would work to best serve their mandate.
"CBC has (been under) a lot of pressure (to take on) commercial advertising. We're working with (CBC president and CEO) Hubert Lacroix and people at CBC in order to really get a full sense of the scale of the problems that they have."
Airing commercials on CBC Radio One and Radio Two is not being considered "at present," Marco Dubé, CBC's corporate director of media relations and issues management, told the Star.
"But we see the minister's openness with respect to addressing our financial situation and his concern with keeping a strong national broadcaster in place," Dubé said.
Supporters of the federally supported, commercial-free radio network see Moore's remarks as an open invitation to CBC management to consider bolstering revenue with advertising.
"It's well known the Prime Minister has always been hostile to the concept of public broadcasting," said Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, a broadcast watchdog group.
"Decision-making in the Harper government is centralized. A cone of silence has surrounded this issue since May 19, 2004, when Harper raised the possibility of commercializing Radio Two.
"Ministers don't wing it on policy issues. That Mr. Moore would consider approving commercials on CBC Radio came powerfully to our attention. He may have blurted out more than he intended.
"If the government and the CBC are considering this, they can expect a firestorm of protest," Morrison warned.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting recently published news of a secret plan by the Harper Conservatives to cut $200 million from CBC's parliamentary allocation.
Recent big-budget, long-term U.S. programming acquisitions by CBC Television, and the recession-driven decline in advertising, have pushed the corporation into a $100-million hole, Morrison said.
"Fully commercializing Radio One and Radio Two would generate $95 million in revenue. That's a very convenient figure and the minister seems to be suggesting a convenient solution.
"There's no doubt senior CBC management is under severe pressure. But why should CBC's radio audience pay for the sins of CBC-TV management?"
'Grey's Anatomy' co-star: Heigl, Knight leaving
LOS ANGELES – "Grey's Anatomy" cast member James Pickens Jr. says the medical drama will be saying goodbye to Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight. Pickens, who plays Dr. Richard Webber on the ABC series, told Us Weekly magazine that Heigl and Knight are leaving.
Pickens says he wishes Heigl "nothing but the best," the magazine reported online Tuesday. He says his other co-star, Knight, wants to pursue other "career paths."
Publicists for Knight and for series creator Shonda Rhimes declined comment. Requests for comment from Heigl's publicist and ABC were not immediately returned.
Heigl, who plays Dr. Izzie Stevens, starred in the films "Knocked Up" and "27 Dresses," and has another movie, "The Ugly Truth," coming out.
Leo's gal pal on SI swimsuit cover
NEW YORK (AP) -- The world knows a lot more about Bar Refaeli today than it did yesterday, including where her tiny tan line falls.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit unveiled on Tuesday 23-year-old Refaeli as a first-time cover girl, wearing a string bikini by Missoni -- and the strings on the bikini bottom are being tugged south.
This gig, more than top fashion or entertainment magazines, can be career-altering as it puts a model's face (not to mention, her likely fantastically toned and taut body) in front of millions of eyeballs, appealing to both men and women, sports fans and fashionistas.
It's the cover that matters most, says SI group editor Terry McDonell, but each model -- 19 for this issue -- gets an equal shot at the cover.
"The cover has to reflect the athleticism and sexiness of the culture. This photo is modern, her hair and swimsuit look natural. You see her freckles. Her body is amazing and she looks intelligent," McDonell said.
It's also purposeful, he noted, that the models have healthy, sometimes curvy, figures. "A skinny waif won't work here."
McDonell, along with Swimsuit editor Diane Smith and SI creative director Steve Hoffman, sifted through 90,000 photos this year. In consumer testing, it's inevitable that the raciest one is the favorite, but that's not the one that lands on the front. "There are marketplace considerations," McDonell explained. "I want to be at the front of the store, not the back."
Israeli-born Refaeli, long linked romantically with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, told The Associated Press that she had the feeling that this particular shot of her in the water on Canouan Island in the Grenadines was her shot to be on the front.
"This is the one I felt the most comfortable with," said Refaeli, who twice before was featured on the inside pages of the magazine. "You have the beach, blue water and a body. That's it. I liked that the top of the suit was on."
You can be sexy without revealing too much skin, said veteran supermodel Cheryl Tiegs, who first appeared on the Swimsuit issue cover in 1970 -- and then again in 1975 and 1983.
That shot happened at the end of a full day shooting in Hawaii, and she was cold. Someone gave her long-sleeve top to warm her up and when the photographer asked her to take it off, Tiegs refused -- and she wouldn't take off her sunglasses either, she recalled. That photo, she said, really captured a moment, though.
"I remember walking by the newsstand and seeing I was on the cover and picking up a copy or two. That was the celebration then. ... But I'm still signing covers for fans," Tiegs said.
SI's swimsuit issue began in 1964, when February marked the low point of the sports seasons. The NFL ended in December, there were no national televised hockey games and the NBA had only a half-dozen teams. After putting safe-driving tips and dog shows on the cover, SI decided to put an attractive female on the cover and call it a "skin-diving story," recalls Smith.
It was popular from the start, but Smith thinks it was Tiegs' cover that made it a phenomenon. However, it was Kathy Ireland in a white strapless bikini in 1989 that remains the best-selling cover.
"I've done many, many, many different covers in the fashion world ... but never had as big a splash as Sports Illustrated," said Heidi Klum, the cover model in 1998. "I went to '(The Tonight Show with Jay) Leno,' the morning shows in New York and LA -- it was a huge thing -- suddenly I became a household name," she said.
But more than the fame, Klum said she appreciates from SI the professionalism shown to a relatively untested model wearing next to nothing. "I had wanted it to be so good. I'd arch so hard ... but they'd say, 'Look sexy with your eyes. Don't overpose. Be yourself and have fun."'
There's a balance between wholesome and sexy the editors are always straddling, without ever being sleazy, Hoffman said.
The magazine spends an average of three days shooting each model, each with an average wake-up call of 4:30 a.m. because the light is best at dawn, and have about 10,000 bathing suits to choose from.
And even with the outfits so small, SI spends an average of $2,000 in overweight baggage fees per location.
"The logistics are horrifying ... but the Swimsuit issue is probably the healthiest of all the Sports Illustrated franchises, and it's good to be with things that work, especially these days," said McDonell.
Heaven & Hell Feeling Devilish On New Album
Heaven And Hell, the band featuring the post-Ozzy Osbourne members of Black Sabbath, will release its first album under that name, "The Devil You Know," April 28 on Rhino.
The set is Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice's first studio release since the 1992 Sabbath album "Dehumanizer," and was preceded by three new songs on the recent compilation "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years."
Song titles include "Bible Black," "Rock & Roll Angel," "Breaking Into Heaven," "Atom & Evil" and "Eating the Cannibals."
Iommi told Billboard last summer that "it really is Black Sabbath, whatever we do," but said the artists had chosen to tour as Heaven And Hell "so everyone knows what they're getting [and] so people won't expect to hear 'Iron Man' and all those songs. We've done them for so many years, it's nice to do just all the stuff with did with Ronnie again."
As for Osbourne, he is gearing up for the debut later this year of a new Fox variety show with his family, "Osbournes: Reloaded."
Colonel's secret recipe in new, safer vault at KFC
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Col. Sanders' handwritten recipe for fried chicken was back in its Kentucky home Tuesday after five months in hiding while KFC upgraded security around its top corporate secret.
Nothing went afoul when the recipe was returned from an undisclosed location to KFC's headquarters late Monday in a lockbox handcuffed to the wrist of a security consultant.
KFC President Roger Eaton was visibly relieved when the door to a new electronic safe was shut with the single sheet of yellowing paper stashed inside. "Mission accomplished," he said.
"It was very nerve wracking," Eaton said later of the recipe's hiatus from a vault where it had been kept for decades. "I don't want to be the only president who's lost the recipe."
KFC is a subsidiary of Louisville-based Yum Brands Inc., which also owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food.
The recipe lays out a mix of 11 herbs and spices that coat the chain's Original Recipe chicken, including exact amounts for each ingredient. It is written in pencil and signed by Harland Sanders.
The iconic recipe is now protected by an array of high-tech security gadgets, including motion detectors and cameras allowing guards to monitor the vault around the clock.
"It's like an onion of security — many layers," said security expert Bo Dietl, who brought the recipe back to the building.
Thick concrete blocks encapsulate a vault, situated near office cubicles, that is connected to a backup generator to keep the security system operating in times of power outages.
"I can guarantee you, once it's in there, it will be safe," Dietl assured Eaton.
Just how valuable is the recipe?
Thomas P. Hustad, professor of marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, said the recipe "goes to the core of the identity of the brand." The recipe, along with the man who created it, conjure images for the chain that help set it apart in the minds of customers, he said.
"I would say that the heritage value is just as high for this secret recipe as the stories around the Coke formula," Hustad said by phone Tuesday. "I guess I'd put the two of those at the top of the pyramid."
Dietl said the security measures he installed replaced an "antiquated" system. For years, the recipe was kept in a filing cabinet equipped with two combination locks in the vault.
"The colonel could have used a pry bar to open that thing up," Dietl said.
New Miranda Lambert Album Due In September
Even as her sophomore album "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" continues its gold-certified run with its third top 20 country single, "More Like Her," Miranda Lambert is busy finishing her next release, which is due out in September.
"Winning the (Academy of Country Music) album of the year is the best thing and the worst thing," Lambert tells Billboard.com. "It's awesome, but now it's kind of, 'Where are we gonna go from here? We just won album of the year.' So there's definitely a lot of pressure, but in a good way."
Lambert says she's worked on about four songs so far for the new set and is back in the studio now hoping to finish before her next spate of touring -- including a run on Kenny Chesney's Sun City Carnival Tour -- begins. She's recording in Nashville with the "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" team of Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke, mixing her own songs with submissions by other writers.
"What's fun is the more success you have, the better the songs are that you're pitched," she notes. "The first record people pitch you songs, and sometimes they're like the ones that Tim (McGraw) threw away and that kind of thing. But this time around it seems like I'm getting a lot of great songs up front."
Lambert says her success has also given her some license to "go out and experiment a little bit more now, because people accepted my left-of-centeredness. I keep evolving as a person and just get more gutsy with what I want to do in music and things I want to say."
Boyfriend Blake Shelton, who co-wrote "Bare Skin Rug" with Lambert for his latest album, "Startin' Fires," is a possible guest "if we find something that feels right," she says.
Meanwhile, Lambert is excited by the prospect of touring with Chesney after opening a handful of dates for him in 2008. "I think Kenny and I are a very good match," she says, "because he has a wide audience. He has nine-year-old girls and then there are 90-year old grandmothers that love him. I really think I can deliver as far as pumping up his crowds.
"I've been so fortunate when it comes to tours," Lambert adds. "My first tour was (with) Keith Urban, and from him to George Strait and then to Dierks Bentley and Toby Keith and now Kenny Chesney. I've been spoiled, in a way, because I've gotten to learn from the greats of the business. Kenny's kind of like icing on the cake."
Live Nation and Ticketmaster in merger deal
LOS ANGELES – Two of the biggest forces in the entertainment business are joining up.
Concert promoter Live Nation Inc. and ticketing giant Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday morning that they plan an all-stock merger of equals. The combined company will be called Live Nation Entertainment.
Under the deal, approved by both companies' boards, Ticketmaster shareholders will receive 1.384 shares of Live Nation stock for each share of Ticketmaster they hold. The companies estimated the value of the combined business at about $2.5 billion and said the deal will help them save about $40 million annually.
"Being able to put Live Nation and Ticketmaster into an equal partnership will allow the companies to get through this difficult period and be able to expand live entertainment options to audiences throughout the world," Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller said in a statement.
But regulatory experts have said the deal could be delayed by an antitrust review because of the companies' dominant role in the entertainment business.
Ticketmaster sells tickets for more than 80 percent of the major arenas and stadiums in the U.S., according to concert tracking firm Pollstar. Live Nation is the world's No. 1 concert promoter and owns more than 140 venues. It has comprehensive deals to the tours of such artists as Madonna, Jay-Z, U2, Nickelback and Shakira — and recently developed its own ticketing service.
The ticketing-service move brought the companies closer to an all-out scramble for ticketing deals. A merger heads that off, but experts say snuffing out that competition could draw close scrutiny from regulators wary of the company building a concert industry monopoly.
On the other hand, the deal could end up benefiting concertgoers by giving the combined company more bargaining clout with artists, potentially reducing performers' stakes in ticket sales and thus lowering ticket prices.
The deal already has at least one prominent detractor, however.
Bruce Springsteen, already furious with Ticketmaster for directing fans to a subsidiary selling tickets for above-face value, recently posted a statement on his Web site saying a deal with Live Nation could end up "returning us to a near-monopoly situation in music ticketing."