Canada For Haiti telethon a star-studded fundraiser
Canadian band the Tragically Hip has signed on to headline Canada For Haiti, while a pantheon of stars from Wayne Gretzky to Nelly Furtado and James Cameron will also participate in Friday's telethon to raise funds to support earthquake relief for the stricken nation.
Organizers from broadcasters CBC, CTV and Global unveiled on Thursday a celebrity-studded list of participants for the one-hour, commercial-free, cross-network special event.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean are scheduled to deliver messages to Canadians, while the Tragically Hip and K'naan will perform live.
Prominent Canadians from music, film, television and sport to appear on the special include:
Musical acts Nelly Furtado, Measha Brueggergosman, Justin Bieber, Céline Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, David Foster, Chantal Kreviazuk, Raine Maida and Simple Plan.
Directors James Cameron, Jason Reitman and Norman Jewison.
Actors William Shatner, Joshua Jackson, Pamela Anderson, Eugene Levy, Sandra Oh, Tom Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Michael J. Fox, Rachelle Lefevre, Will Arnett, Hugh Dillon and Brent Butt.
TV personalities Mike Holmes, Rick Mercer and Alex Trebek.
Sports stars Gretzky and Steve Nash.
Humanitarian Craig Kielburger.
The money raised during the telethon will be distributed equally amongst a coalition of 10 large Canadian non-governmental organizations — including World Vision Canada, Canadian Red Cross Society, UNICEF Canada, Oxfam Canada and Save the Children Canada — with the funds exclusively earmarked for Haiti.
World Vision Canada president Dave Toycen, who just returned from a six-day visit to Haiti, described the situation as "one of the worst [he's] ever been involved in" after 30 years of working on disaster-response campaigns.
"Still people are hungry, still people are not getting water, and still people are not getting adequate medical care and all the other things that go along with that," he said.
"Every day it's getting better but it's still a race against time."
Acknowledging that it is unusual for the charitable organizations to team up in this way, "it says how critical the situation is," Toycen added.
"We've put down any sort of competition and said we're going to do this together ... We will collaborate, we will leverage any way we can to help."
The program, which will precede the U.S.-organized Hope For Haiti telethon, begins at 7 p.m. ET. It will be hosted by Cheryl Hickey, Ben Mulroney and George Stroumboulopoulos and air on CBC Television, CTV, Global Television, MTV, MuchMusic and National Geographic Channel.
CBC Radio 2 will carry the broadcast, hosted by Garvia Bailey, and it will also be streamed online on CBC.ca, CTV.ca, GlobalTV.com and MuchMusic.com.
The telethon will also be simulcast on Canadian Forces Radio and TV.
Peter Gabriel Says He Won’t Reunite With Genesis at Rock Hall Induction
In two months Genesis will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but fans hoping to see Peter Gabriel sing with his former band for the first time in nearly 30 years are probably in for a disappointment. “As far as I know, I’m definitely not going to sing,” Gabriel tells Rolling Stone. “I learned at our last reunion [in 1982] that you can’t just get up there. You have to rehearse.”
Gabriel is actually not even positive he’ll be able to attend the March 15th induction ceremony in New York, since he’ll be in the midst of rehearsing for a European solo tour. “I’m trying to find a way to do it,” he says. “It’s not easy. If I can work it out, I’ll go.”
Five years ago Gabriel held a meeting with the classic Genesis lineup of Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett to discuss a possible staging of their 1974 prog-rock epic The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. “Initially I was open to it,” Gabriel says. “But then it seemed to be growing. I know what it’s like once you’re in it — these things tend to expand. I always describe it as going back to school, since this was a school group for me. It’s a fun place to visit and see your old friends, but its not a place you want to live.” Might he be open to a reunion show at some point in the future? “Phil has had trouble with his wrists and his back, so it’s pretty unlikely,” he says.
The group is actually more likely to collaborate on a possible movie project, Gabriel says. “The only thing that might happen is that some people talk about a film of the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. If it is to happen, we might work together on that. We’ll see.”
For more from our interview with Peter Gabriel, including info about his upcoming solo tour and his new covers album Scratch My Back, check out the next issue of Rolling Stone, out February 3rd.
BAFTA Nominations, 8 For An Education
The Orange British Academy has announced it’s 2010 nominees. Known as the BAFTAs, they’re kind of like the British equivalent of the Oscars. Their nominations contain at leas ta few surprises. For instance while Up in the Air was nominated for Best Film, director Jason Reitman was shut out of their director category. Instead, unexpectedly, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp slips in. Up in the Air fared better elsewhere though, with nominations for all three primary cast members. The film scored 6 nominations in all. Avatar, The Hurt Locker, and An Education lead all nominees, with eight nominations each.
The Orange British Academy hands out its statues on February 21st. Here’s the full list of this year’s nominees.
Best Film
Avatar
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Precious
Up In The Air
Outstanding British Film
An Education
Fish Tank
In The Loop
Moon
Nowhere Boy
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock, David Pearson (Mugabe And The White African)
Eran Creevy (Shifty)
Stuart Hazeldine (Exam)
Duncan Jones (Moon)
Sam Taylor-Wood (Nowhere Boy)
Director
James Cameron (Avatar)
Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
Lone Scherfig (An Education)
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Original Screenplay
Jon Lucas, Scott Moore (The Hangover)
Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (A Serious Man)
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter (Up)
Adapted Screenplay
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (District 9)
Nick Hornby (An Education)
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (In The Loop)
Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious)
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner (Up In The Air)
Film Not In The English Language
Broken Embraces
Coco Before Chanel
Let The Right One In
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
Animated Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
Up
Leading Actor
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up In The Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
Andy Serkis (Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll)
Leading Actress
Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones)
Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
Audrey Tatou (Coco Before Chanel)
Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated)
Christian McKay (Me And Orson Welles)
Alfred Molina (An Education)
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Supporting Actress
Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy)
Vera Farmiga (Up In The Air)
Anna Kendrick (Up In The Air)
Mo'Nique (Precious)
Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy)
Music
Avatar
Crazy Heart
Fantastic Mr Fox
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Up
Cinematography
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Road
Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Up In The Air
Production Design
Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds
Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
An Education
A Single Man
The Young Victoria
Sound
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Up
Special Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Make Up & Hair
Coco Before Chanel
An Education
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria
Short Animation
The Gruffalo
The Happy Duckling
Mother Of Many
Short Film
14
I Do Air
Jade
Mixtape
Off Season
The Orange Rising Star Award (voted for by the public)
Jesse Eisenberg
Nicholas Hoult
Carey Mulligan
Tahar Rahim
Kristen Stewart
NBC: Conan O'Brien reaches $45M exit deal
NEW YORK – NBC said Thursday it has reached a $45 million deal with Conan O'Brien for his exit from the "Tonight" show, allowing Jay Leno to return to the late-night program he hosted for 17 years.
Under the deal, which came seven months after O'Brien took the reins from Leno, O'Brien will get more than $33 million, NBC said. The rest will go to his staff in severance, the network said in an announcement on the "Today" show.
His final show will be Friday, and Leno will return to "Tonight" on March 1.
"In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket," his manager, Gavin Polone, told The Wall Street Journal. "Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible."
O'Brien will be free to begin another TV job as soon as September, NBC said. There has been speculation on where he might go next. ABC (which airs "Nightline" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!") has said it wasn't interested, while Fox, which lacks a network late-night show, expressed appreciation for his show — but nothing more.
O'Brien landed the "Tonight" show after successfully hosting "Late Night," which airs an hour later, since 1993. But he quickly stumbled in the ratings race against his CBS rival, David Letterman.
Under Leno, the "Tonight" show was the ratings champ at 11:35 p.m. Eastern, but he proved an instant flop with his experiment in prime time.
Last week NBC announced that the five-hour vacancy in prime time left by Leno will be filled by scripted and reality fare calculated to bring NBC affiliates a more robust lead-in audience for their local news than Leno had been delivering. A provisional slate of shows will include new and veteran NBC dramas, a comedy panel series produced by Jerry Seinfeld and "Dateline NBC."
It had been no secret that the 46-year-old O'Brien was scoring puny ratings numbers on "Tonight," averaging 2.5 million nightly viewers, compared with 4.2 million for Letterman's "Late Show," according to Nielsen figures.
It was even more obvious that "The Jay Leno Show," airing weeknights at 10 p.m. Eastern, was a disaster. Mostly justified by the network for its bargain-basement production budget, it not only was critically slammed, but also found a disappointing popular reaction. It has averaged 5.3 million nightly viewers since its fall debut — about the same number that watched Leno's final "Tonight" season, in a time slot when far fewer viewers are available. By comparison, the season's top-rated 10 p.m. network drama, CBS' "The Mentalist," has an average audience of 17 million.
But few observers expected the abrupt upheaval that erupted publicly just two weeks ago, when two Web sites posted unsourced stories that the 59-year-old Leno's show would soon be canceled or moved into O'Brien's late-night domain.
Days later, NBC executives unveiled a plan to restore Leno to 11:35 p.m. with a half-hour program, then slide O'Brien's "Tonight Show" to 12:05 a.m., followed by "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," also pushed back a half-hour.
Disgruntled affiliate stations, which have lost viewers and advertising revenue for their late local newscasts since "The Jay Leno Show" premiered, appeared to spur NBC's sudden changes. The 210 local NBC stations saw their late news audience drop, on average, by 25 percent in November compared with the previous year among desirable 25- to 54-year-old viewers, with the Leno experiment costing the stations collectively $22 million over a three-month period, according to the research firm Harmelin Media.
In a clear vote of no confidence, some rebellious stations were threatening to drop "The Jay Leno Show" and air their own programming.
The network had been counting on O'Brien's cooperation, and wanted an answer quickly, so it could have the configured lineup ready to launch after the Winter Olympics, which will dominate NBC's schedule from Feb. 12-28. But O'Brien threw a wrench into NBC's plans, and triggered a public relations firestorm for the network, when he issued a statement rejecting the offer to delay his show to make room for Leno's return.
O'Brien said that shifting "Tonight" would "seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting," and he declared his disappointment that NBC had given him less than a year to establish himself as host at 11:35 p.m.
The escalating mess furnished plenty of material for jokes by competitors of Leno and O'Brien, as well as the two NBC hosts at its center, who bashed their network and each other.
In one monologue, Leno took note of O'Brien's complaint that NBC brass provided only seven months to establish himself at "The Tonight Show."
"Seven months!" Leno cackled. "How did he get THAT deal? We only got four!"
Returning volley in his own monologue, O'Brien said hosting "Tonight" has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and reminded all the kids in the audience, "You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too."
Online, many leaped to O'Brien's defense and applauded his stand against NBC. "Team Conan" became a popular Twitter topic for viewers who pledged their allegiance to O'Brien.
An O'Brien portrait also circulated as a badge of support. Referring to the "Tonight" show host's playful nickname, it read, "I'm With Coco," and featured a black-and-white picture of a regal-looking O'Brien standing in front of an American flag. The only color: his shock of orange hair.
For many observers, this clash of talk-show hosts recalled the late-night follies played out by NBC in the early 1990s as the network wavered confoundingly over who — Letterman or Leno — should inherit "The Tonight Show" from Johnny Carson.
The current revival of the late-night follies was set in motion nearly six years ago, in what was hatched by NBC executives as a farsighted strategy to ensure an orderly transition.
In the fall of 2004, the network announced that O'Brien would take over for Leno in 2009. That move by NBC — and endorsed by Leno, despite his clear aversion to leaving "Tonight" — was designed to keep O'Brien from jumping ship when his contract expired. "Tonight" was the prize O'Brien felt he had earned. He joked that he was looking forward to being on an hour earlier, "at a time when people can see me."
As years passed and Leno strengthened his grip as the late-night ratings champ, NBC anguished over how to keep him usefully occupied on the network somewhere other than "Tonight," and safely out of reach of rival networks who were courting him.
In late 2008, the network caught the public and the industry by surprise with its virtually unprecedented scheme: a new Leno hour "stripped" in prime time from Monday through Friday.
"A lot of people were shocked," Leno joked to reporters when the plan was announced. "They didn't know NBC still had a prime time."