Category: Awards

EMINEM FRIGHTENS OSCAR
EMINEM has been invited to perform his Oscar-nominated song next month on the Academy Awards show – but the producers sound as if they hope he doesn’t show up.
The obscenity-prone rapper was nominated for “Lose Yourself” from his movie “8 Mile.”
“Eminem has an airplay version of that song,” says Oscar show producer Gil Cates. And that is the version he will be expected to perform, he said.
“Listen, the Academy Awards show is a show for the family. I mean, everyone watches the show and we’re very much aware of that,” he told reporters.
“Obviously we would not knowingly have anything on the show which would be offensive.”
No matter, Eminen has not said yet whether he will perform.
“Eminem we’re not sure about in terms of the schedule,” Cates said. “We haven’t heard.”
Another question mark is “I Move On” from from the movie musical “Chicago.”
In the movie, stars Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones sing the song. But Zeta-Jones will be eight-and-a-half months pregnant in March and may not be able – or even want to – perform the song at the Oscars.

Genie Awards Given Out
The Genie Awards, recognizing the best Canadian films of the year, were given out Thursday night.
Now I love movies, LOVE MOVIES, but even I don’t care as most of us, myself included, will ever get to actually see many of the films that win. So what interest can I be expected to have if I have no idea if the movies that win deserve it?
That’s right, none!
But maybe you do have an interest. So for you, here’s a story about the 23rd annual Genies Awards.
Oh, and congratulations to all of the winners. If you send me a copy of your film I guarantee you that I will watch it!

GRACIOUS GUEST
Contradictory to his earlier waffling, Peter O’Toole has agreed collect his Honorary Oscar at next month’s Academy Awards. The feisty septuagenarian reportedly worried the honor was a retirement send-off.

RARE APPEARANCE
The reclusive Eminem confirmed to perform at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards along with ‘NSync, Sheryl Crow and Lenny Kravitz, while Elvis Costello, Tony Kanal of No Doubt, Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt perform a tribute to Joe Strummer and the Clash and the Bee Gees receive a Legend Award. The ceremony takes place February 23 in New York.

Avril, Shania get top Juno nods
Canada’s latest music phenom will face off against a veteran marvel who has been conquering the charts for years at this year’s Juno Awards.
Avril Lavigne and Shania Twain will compete for album of the year and songwriter of the year at the April 6 awards ceremony in Ottawa.
Lavigne, whose debut album Let Go has been on the charts since its release last June, leads the pack of nominees with six nods, including best new artist and best pop album. The nominations are the latest accolades for the 18-year-old from Napanee, Ont., who is competing for five Grammy Awards.
Twain, who is hosting the awards show, received five nominations including artist of the year. Her album Up was the highest selling album of 2002.
With Twain and the capital city hosting and a slate of hot musical acts performing, there seems to be a real drive to raise the bar set last year in St. John’s, Nfld.
That show was largely considered the most successful Junos ever by industry and fans alike. The show will once again be telecast by CTV.
“I remember back in the old days struggling to get people to participate. The exact opposite is the truth now. Everybody wants to be part of the show,” said executive producer John Brunton. “It’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year.”
The slate of performers includes Lavigne, Shand, rock band Our Lady Peace, singer Sam Roberts, hip-hop crew Swollen Members and Twain herself.
Brunton said he chatted with Twain on Tuesday and she had lots of plans for the show.
“She’s bringing so many ideas to the table,” he said.
The singer has been on a hot streak lately having wowed crowds at the Grey Cup, the Super Bowl and the American Music Awards where, clad in leather, she drove into the stadium on a motorcycle.
In addition to hosting duties, the country superstar will be up against songstress Celine Dion, francophone singer-songwriter Daniel Belanger, singer Alanis Morissette and Motown’s Remy Shand in the artist of the year category.
Up for four Grammy awards on Feb. 23, Shand was also recognized for producer of the year, best R&B recording and songwriter.
“All the hard work that went into it, it’s finally paid off,” said an elated Shand following a nomination news conference in Toronto on Wednesday. “All these years of working on music, my family, they’re very proud. It’s a love fest.”
Dion and Our Lady Peace also snagged four nominations each.
Dion’s nods include single of the year for A New Day Has Come, album of the year and fans choice award. The multi-Juno winner was shut out of this year’s Grammy Award nominations.
Toronto-based rockers Our Lady Peace, who are currently on tour, were nominated for best rock album, group of the year, single of the year for Somewhere Out There and album of the year.
Joining the Canadian Music Hall of Fame this year will be singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane, who said he was touched to be included with previous inductees Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot.
“A lot of these people showed me the possibilities. These people are my heroes,” said Cochrane, whose hits include Big League and Life Is A Highway.
“It’s a thrill being included with some of these people and being considered in the same company.
Cochrane, born in Lynn Lake, Man., said the Junos are an integral part of the country’s music scene. He said the involvement of Twain and Lavigne proves its notoriety.
“I think it speaks volumes for the event. It speaks volumes for the integrity of a lot of Canadians and the fact that we do have a very independent awareness of our collective and pride in our culture in Canada.”
The 30-year music veteran started out as the lead singer of rock group Red Rider. He’s won seven Juno Awards.
On the industry side, Nettwerk Music Group head Terry McBride will join the Music Hall of Fame.
Three-time nominees include Belanger, Morissette and rap artist K-OS.
Double nominees include last year’s big winners jazz singer Diana Krall and rock band Nickelback, as well as Blue Rodeo, Jane Bunnett, Shawn Desman, James Ehnes, Danko Jones, Sam Roberts and Swollen Members.
For best rock album, heavy hitters Our Lady Peace will be up against fellow Canadian stalwarts The Tea Party, Treble Charger, Wide Mouth Mason and Danko Jones.
“It’s great to be acknowledged,” Jones said. “We really worked hard to make this album.”
In all there are 37 Juno Award categories. Winners are selected by members of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Top nominees in the 2003 Juno Awards:
Best single: Bulletproof, Blue Rodeo; A New Day Has Come, Celine Dion; Complicated, Avril Lavigne; Somewhere Out There, Our Lady Peace; Brother Down, Sam Roberts.
Best international album: Weathered, Creed; The Eminem Show, Eminem; Escape, Enrique Iglesias; Nellyville, Nelly; Laundry Service, Shakira.
Best francophone album: Rever Mieux, Daniel Belanger; Rendez-vous, Sylvain Cossette; Break Syndical, Les Cowboys Fringants; Les Lettres Rouges, Lynda Lemay; De L’amour le mieux, Natasha St-Pier.
Best album: Rever Mieux, Daniel Belanger; A New Day Has Come, Celine Dion; Let Go, Avril Lavigne; Gravity, Our Lady Peace; Up Shania Twain.
Artist of the Year: Daniel Belanger, Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, Remy Shand, Shania Twain.
Group of the Year: Blue Rodeo, Our Lady Peace, Sum 41, Swollen Members, The Tragically Hip.
Best country recording: I Just Want To Be Mad, Terri Clark; Curve, Doc Walker; Emerson Drive, Emerson Drive; I’m Gonna Getcha Good, Shania Twain; Shut Up and Kiss Me, Michelle Wright.
Best rap recording: El Dorado, BrassMunk; R.A.W., Checkmate; exit, K-OS; Reloaded, Rascalz; Monsters In The Closet, Swollen Members.
Best pop album: Shake It Off, Jarvis Church; Asianblue, Emm Gryner; Let Go, Avril Lavigne; Everybody’s Got A Story, Amanda Marshall; Under Rug Swept, Alanis Morissette.
Best rock album: Born A Lion, Danko Jones; Gravity, Our Lady Peace; The Interzone Mantras, The Tea Party; Detox, Treble Charger; Rained Out Parade, Wide Mouth Mason.
Best video: Black Black Heart, Craig Bernard (David Usher); Lovercall, Craig Bernard (Danko Jones); Weapon, Ante Kovac and Matthew Good (Matthew Good); Superstarr Pt. 0, Micah Meisner (K-OS); PDA, Christopher Mills (Interpol).
Good luck to everyone!

Oscar Nod Caps ‘Greek’ Cinderella Story
LOS ANGELES – A year ago, Academy Awards nominations were the last thing on Nia Vardalos’ mind. She was just hoping a few people would go see the low-budget film she wrote and starred in, an old-fashioned little romance called “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”
A word-of-mouth blockbuster unlike anything the movie industry has ever seen, the film opened in a few theaters last April and grew into a $240 million sensation as enchanted moviegoers talked it up.
The icing on the wedding cake came Tuesday, when Vardalos earned an Oscar nomination for original screenplay. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” also hit video Tuesday, while still lingering in the top-20 box-office chart at theaters.
“All I’d hoped for is that really we would be released in one theater,” Vardalos said Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “I thought I could bus my relatives in. You know, where is that theater?
“Now I feel awed √≥ that’s A-W-E-D, and odd, O-D-D √≥ stunned and thrilled and really, really grateful. I feel like I’m in the middle of a miracle.”
Shot on a tiny budget of $5 million, the film is the comical story of a Chicago family that revels in its boisterous Greek heritage and the preparations for the nuptials of an ugly-duckling daughter (Vardalos) to a non-Greek man.
Vardalos based the movie on her upbringing and marriage to a non-Greek.

Bono Says U2 Oscar Win Would Be ‘Dream’
LOS ANGELES (AP) ó U2 has won virtually every music award a band can win, but front man Bono said an Oscar win would be the fulfillment of a dream for the Irish rock band.
“The Hands That Built America” is nominated for best original song. It was written for “Gangs of New York,” a mid-19th century epic depicting the struggle between Americans who called themselves “natives” and the Irish immigrants who were pouring into New York City.
“Our dream is that the Academy will recognize the fact that this song grew out of the story and the characters. It wasn’t just put in the film,” Bono told AP radio. “That’s what we’re most proud of.”
Bono said Oscars organizers have not contacted U2 about performing at the March 23 awards ceremony.
“It’s a nerve-racking thought. The only thing equivalent to it would be like playing the super bowl,” he said. “It’d be a hell of an honor if we’re asked to perform. I hope we will be.”

Simon Relishes Nod 35 Years After Mistake
LOS ANGELES – Paul Simon said he’s celebrating his new chance at an Oscar after a paperwork mistake likely kept his song “Mrs. Robinson” out of the competition 35 years ago.
The singer-songwriter received his first Academy Award nomination Tuesday for “Father and Daughter,” from the animated “The Wild Thornberrys Movie.”
He said many people erroneously believe he was nominated for “Mrs. Robinson,” which he and former collaborator Art Garfunkel sang in 1967’s “The Graduate.”
“We forgot to fill in the forms,” Simon acknowledged with a laugh. “You know, it was the ’60s. We just weren’t paying attention. We went along our way and never filled it in. That’s what happened.”
“Talk to the Animals” from “Doctor Dolittle” claimed the movie song honor at that year’s Oscars.
Simon, 61, said his three young children inspired him to write a song for “The Wild Thornberrys Movie,” a feature film version of a popular Nickelodeon cartoon.
“It was something that the kids watched,” he said. “I thought of it as an opportunity to write a song for a movie that the kids could see.”
Simon is competing against U2 for “The Hands That Built America” from “Gangs of New York;” “Burn It Blue” from “Frida,” by Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor; “I Move On” from “Chicago,” by John Kander and Fred Ebb; and “Lose Yourself” from “8 Mile,” by Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto.

Oscar Officials See Show Going on Despite War Talk
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) – Despite talk of a looming U.S. war with Iraq, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has adopted an old showbiz tradition and plans for the Oscar show to go on, the Academy’s president said on Tuesday.
The Oscars, or Academy Awards, are the U.S. film industry’s top honors handed out each year by the Academy, and the awards ceremony will take place this year on Sunday, March 23, around the time many analysts believe the United States could strike Iraq.
The event is scheduled to be telecast by the ABC network, a unit of Walt Disney Co.
Annually, the movie industry’s biggest stars turn out for the gala ceremony in downtown Hollywood, and security will be tighter than ever, said Academy President Frank Pierson.
At today’s nominations announcement, Pierson told reporters that the budget for securing the Kodak Theater where the event will be held would be double that of more normal years.
But when asked whether a breakout of war would cause the Academy to cancel the show, Pierson replied: “I don’t anticipate that.”
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials last year closed off air space over downtown Hollywood. Concrete barricades blocked the entrance to the Kodak Theater, and part of Hollywood Boulevard was shut down.
Pierson said the Academy plans to focus the Oscar show on a celebration of its own 75-year history and how the movie industry has changed over that period. Nothing is planned to acknowledge how the world outside Hollywood has changed since Sept. 11, he said.
“I don’t think there will be any special mark of that …. I don’t see any need to,” he said.
But there may be acceptance speeches in which celebrities or other winners take advantage of a live television broadcast to talk about political issues and, possibly, make anti-war statements, he said.
Often winners will address political issues at the Oscars because the telecast reaches an estimated audience of 1 billion viewers, making it a huge platform from which to speak out.
“That’s always something that can happen. One of the most interesting things about the Oscars are the unexpected things that happen …. I welcome that kind of excitement,” Pierson said.
“Mostly what we ask them to do is to keep their speeches under 45 seconds,” he added.

Some Oscar Faves Are No-Shows
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) – In a wacky year, the list of Tuesday’s Oscar also-rans is as interesting as the nominees.
“Antwone Fisher,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Rabbit-Proof Fence” went home empty-handed. “About a Boy,” “About Schmidt,” “Minority Report,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” were recognized, but didn’t nab as much Academy Awards attention as some had predicted.
Other no-shows in Tuesday’s nominations include directors Peter Jackson and Phillip Noyce, along with such thesps as Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere, Dennis Quaid and “The Hours”‘ Meryl Streep; and scripters Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor (“About Schmidt”).
Future generations inevitably will express surprise at some possibilities that were shut out or under-represented in Tuesday’s lineup. But it may be the flood of good pictures or the fact that some really terrific work wasn’t seen by enough voters. As one Academy voter said, “This is the first year I can remember in ages when there were more than enough contenders for every category.”
Among the other films without any nominations Tuesday were Disney’s “Signs” and “25th Hour”; Miramax’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”; MGM/UA’s “Nicholas Nickleby”; Paramount’s “Changing Lanes” and “Narc”; Sony/Revolution’s “Punch-Drunk Love”; USA Films’ swan song, “Monsoon Wedding”; and Warner Bros.’ “Insomnia,” “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” and “White Oleander.”
Many indie pics had hoped to emulate the success last year of “Monster’s Ball,” but they didn’t make the cut. Among them: “Max,” “Roger Dodger,” “Secretary” and “Sonny.”
The foreign-language race was crowded with worthy contenders that didn’t make the grade. A record-breaking 54 countries made official submissions. Among high-profile pics that failed to make the final five were Brazil’s “City of God,” France’s “8 Women,” India’s “Devdas,” Italy’s “Pinocchio,” Russia’s “House of Fools,” Spain’s “Los lunes al sol” and a trio of countries with first-time entries: Afghanistan (news – web sites) (“FireDancer”), Bangladesh (“The Clay Bird”) and Chad (“Abouna”).
Missing documentaries included two well-reviewed looks at showbiz, “The Kid Stays in the Picture” and “Lost in La Mancha.”
The following received guild nominations but were left off Oscar’s list:
SAG: In addition to Golden Globe winner Gere (“Chicago”), SAG-nominated Alfred Molina (“Frida”), Quaid (“Far From Heaven”) and Michelle Pfeiffer (“White Oleander”) were overlooked.
DGA: Jackson (“Rings”) received a DGA nomination, but was replaced by Pedro Almodovar in the Oscar race.
WGA: Scripts for Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine,” Antwone Fisher’s “Antwone Fisher” and Payne & Taylor’s “About Schmidt.”
Producers Guild: Sony’s “Adaptation,” IFC’s “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and DreamWorks’ “Road to Perdition” are contenders for the PGA’s best pic trophy.
Ah, well. Somebody’s got to come in sixth.