Johnny Reid leads field with 6 country award nods
Scottish-born, Toronto-bred singer Johnny Reid leads the field going into this year's Canadian Country Music Association awards with six nominations.
Reid received nods for top single, album, songwriter, video, male artist and for the fans' choice prize.
This year's show, to be held Sept. 13 at GM Place in Vancouver, will be hosted by actor Jason Priestley.
Reid's latest album "Dance With Me" was released in March and was certified gold in less than 48 hours.
The singer moved to Canada when he was 16, and went on to attend Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Que., where he met his wife. He now lives in Nashville with his wife and three sons.
Following close behind Reid are George Canyon and Victoria Banks, with five nominations apiece. Last year's winner of the top new male talent award, Gord Bamford, nabbed four nominations this year.
Newcomer Dean Brody is also up for four awards including the Rising Star award and top single, video and songwriter.
Along with Reid and Canyon, Doc Walker, Jessie Farrell and Aaron Pritchett are up for the fans' choice award.
Voting can be done online at www.cmt.ca until the end of the day on Sept. 6.
Country superstar Reba McEntire is scheduled to perform at this year's show, along with Reid, Doc Walker, American chart topper Martina McBride and Montreal's Terri Clark.
Priestley shot to fame playing Brandon Walsh in the 1990s teen soap "Beverly Hills, 90210," but later turned to directing.
Recently, he directed CMT Canada's "The Road Hammers," which followed the country band of the same name.
The 2009 CCMA awards will be broadcast on CBC-TV with encore broadcasts on CMT in Canada.
Tickets for the event, which is part of Country Music Week, are available through Ticketmaster.
CBC plans 90-minute TV newscasts for 5 p.m.
CBC News will begin running 90-minute, early-evening TV newscasts in every region of Canada, beginning at the end of August.
The public broadcaster plans the change, taking effect Monday, Aug. 31, as part of its news renewal — which includes refocusing on local news.
"It's really quite thrilling to be able to expand our local news coverage to better serve Canadians in an economic environment where the inclination could be to retreat," Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, said Wednesday in a release.
The supper-hour broadcasts will vary by region, but include the top national and international stories, followed by local and regional coverage.
They will start at 5 p.m. local time and news, especially local news, will be updated each half hour throughout the broadcast.
Sources said CBC is juggling resources internally to create the extended newscasts at a time when the English-language service must make up an $85-million budget shortfall.
CBC Television has rejigged its schedule around the supper hour newscasts.
The popular British soap opera Coronation Street will begin airing at 6:30 p.m. in each market, a half hour earlier than now.
CBC spokesman Chris Ball said the change of time means the show will suffer fewer pre-emptions for other events.
Wheel of Fortune has been scheduled for 7 p.m. and Jeopardy for 7:30 p.m. Ghost Whisperer will be broadcast at 4 p.m., replacing The Simpsons and Wheel of Fortune.
Joan Rivers bashes Jay Leno at critics confab
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Don't look for Joan Rivers to be a guest on Jay Leno's new talk show anytime soon.
The ribald comedienne ripped Leno when asked about the prospects of his upcoming 10 p.m. weekday outing on NBC.
"I think it's brilliant that Leno is at 10 p.m., because America can get bored more easily and go to sleep earlier," Rivers told reporters at the Television Critics Assn confab Wednesday. "When was the last time you heard, 'Did you hear what Leno said last night?'"
Rivers, of course, frequently subbed as guest host for Leno's "Tonight Show" predecessor, Johnny Carson. She also is a Leno competitor since her new TV Land cable TV show "How'd You You Get So Rich?" will debut in the 10 p.m. slot on August 5.
'The Hobbit' films still in limbo
Director Peter Jackson has warned Lord Of The Rings fans not to get too excited about The Hobbit prequels - because they have yet to receive the go-ahead from movie studio executives.
Jackson has signed on to co-write and co-produce two Hobbit movies, based on the fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, which will be directed by Guillermo del Toro.
Reports suggest the first film is slated for release in 2011, while the second part will follow in 2012.
But Jackson insists the projects are still in their very early stages - and they've yet to come up with a script, let alone secure funding for the movies, reports Starpulse.
Speaking at Comic-Con in San Diego, California at the weekend, Jackson said, "I mean, people assume that we have a green light and we're making the movie which we don't. I mean, we have to deliver the script. The studio obviously has to approve the script and then we have to budget that script because we have no budget yet. They're not going to make the film with an open cheque book so we have to figure out how much it's going to cost and if that's going to be okay."
And Jackson is refusing to begin speculating about casting until the script is finished - despite Lord of the Rings actors Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis already expressing their desire to reprise their roles in the franchise.
He adds, "We have a process to go through that really, once we get the script delivered, we can break it down, we can do the budgeting, we can figure out schedules and we can move onto the second script that we have to obviously start writing immediately (after) the first one's done. Then we can start casting the movie once we have a budget and once the studio greenlight the movie."