Categories
Magazines

Their decision should sell a lot of magazines.

‘Silence Breakers’ behind #MeToo movement named Time’s Person of the Year

The so-called Silence Breakers have been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

The magazine cover features some of the figures whose voices have inspired others to speak out since the #MeToo movement began in October — actor Ashley Judd, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, corporate lobbyist Adama Iwu, singer Taylor Swift, Isabel Pascual, a strawberry picker from Mexico who is using a pseudonym, and a sixth unidentified woman whose face is not shown.

Dozens of men and women have shared their stories in the past two months about sexual misconduct by numerous high-profile men in entertainment, media, business and sports. The revelations also helped prompt millions worldwide to tweet about their experiences with sexual harassment and assault, and cued influential players to examine how to impose change.

In Toronto, a group from across Canada gathered on Wednesday to scrutinize the laws and policies that have contributed to sexual assault claims in the entertainment industry. Called #AfterMeToo, the symposium brings together members of the Canadian film and TV community, trauma experts, lawyers, activists and politicians.

Canadian filmmaker Aisling Chin-Yee began by detailing recommendations that would be included in a report to be released in the winter of 2018, as decided upon by lawmakers, activists and industry players.

They include:

– An industry-wide response that may include labour law changes for better reporting of sexual harassment and assault and dealing with blacklisting.
– Expanding the definition of a “workplace.”
– Yearly education and training, and bystander intervention.
– Support for survivors from an industry-wide fund that members would pay into.
– Boosting government mental health support.
– Implementing an online reporting system for victims.
– The immediate establishment of a national independent body that would focus on dealing with sexual harassment and assault with the authority to award punitive damages.
– Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould took a moment to thank journalists for their work, and urged the audience to approach conversations with respect and without judgment.

One of the #MeToo crusade’s high profile voices has been actor Selma Blair, who gained the confidence to speak out after connecting on Twitter with fellow alleged victim, Canadian actor Chantal Cousineau.

Blair and Cousineau both accused director James Toback of sexual misconduct during separate encounters in hotel rooms.

“I was disgusted. I was really disgusted for so many years, disgusted with myself the way [Toback] made me feel,” Blair told CBC News.

“I didn’t want to be a part of this conversation. I didn’t even particularly relate to women’s stories about coming out about abuse, I didn’t want to relate, I just didn’t engage in this. But I see how important it is.”

The #MeToo movement began spontaneously after actress-activist Alyssa Milano followed on a suggestion from a friend of a friend on Facebook and tweeted: “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.”

The hashtag was tweeted nearly a million times in 48 hours. The movement was founded by activist Tarana Burke on Twitter a decade ago to raise awareness about sexual violence.

Time’s announcement was made Wednesday on NBC’s Today show, where longtime host Matt Lauer was fired last week amid harassment allegations. Today host Savannah Guthrie acknowledged Wednesday that this year’s winner hits “close to home” and mentioned Lauer by name.

The two runners-up were Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, himself accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Categories
Television

Love Scrubs. LOVE IT!!

Donald Faison reveals what it would take for a ‘Scrubs’ reboot

Donald Faison is back donning scrubs for his current partnership with Cigna, but it would take a lot more to get him back in them for good.

“It would have to take everybody to come back to do the [“Scrubs”] reboot,” the 43-year-old told Page Six in an interview Thursday. “Not just the cast, but also the producers and the writers to make it work, in my opinion. So I’m not saying it’s not going to happen, but I’m not saying it is either.”

Despite the hit medical comedy ending over seven years ago, Faison says teens still come up to him yelling, “Turk!,” his character’s name. One guy once even jumped on his back, hoping to recreate an ongoing joke on the show where Zach Braff‘s character gets on his back and yells, “Eagle!”

“I was in London and some dude jumped on my back and I flipped him off of me and ran because I thought I was being attacked, but he jumped on my back and yelled, ‘Eaaaaagggglleee’ and by the time he got to ‘G’ I had thrown him off my back and was running,” he said, adding, “Not everybody gets to eagle. It’s a special thing.”

In fact, Faison has only let three people jump on his back and do the iconic scene from the show, and that includes Braff. Faison once let Sara Gilbert do “Eagle” while he was appearing on “The Talk,” and another fan did it when he went on Wanda Sykes’ talk show.

These days, the “Clueless” actor is working with Cigna to help people realize the importance of preventive healthcare and annual checkups.

“When you get ahead of something or catch something early, you have a way better chance of defeating it,” he told us. “A lot of people are afraid to hear what their status is and only want to know how they’re doing when they’re really sick and that’s a dangerous game to play.”

He added, “People can go to Cigna.com and all the information they need about preventive care is there.”

Categories
Music

The website is amazing…and! It’s free for now!! ENJOY!!

Neil Young’s Huge Online Archival Project Is Now Open

Something truly wild and crazy has come to the Internet, at least if you’re a serious Neil Young fan. The legendary singer-songwriter has, after years of development, unleashed the Neil Young Archives, a sprawling website and streaming platform featuring everything Young has recorded as a soloist and bandleader, as well as with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and listings regarding Young-related films and books. Unreleased Young albums and recordings such as Chrome Dreams, Homegrown, and Freedom Live are listed but not yet available to stream, as Pitchfork notes.

The kitschy interface of the site is designed to look like a combination of an old stereo and a filing cabinet; the net result is reminiscent of a late-’90s Carmen Sandiego computer game. That being said, the site, under ideal conditions, will allow you to systematically work your way through Young’s entire recorded catalogue, in high quality audio provided by Young’s own Xstream streaming plugin. (Should the higher quality audio be too much to handle, there’s a toggle switch at the top of the page to get it down to 320kbs).

Parts of the site are very confusing (the practical use of the filing cabinet section, mostly), but that seems to be in the interest of promoting spontaneous discovery. If you’re confused, there’s a video tutorial by Young available on the home page, as well as a written explanation of the purpose and methodology of the Archives. A good way to start: go to the “Timeline” section and scroll through the 50-year-plus run of Young’s career, and click around the albums linked there. Fans can also look forward to updates from Young in the “NYA News” section of the site. Again, this is all free if you give an email address.

Categories
Movies

I was hoping to see THE DISASTER ARTIST this weekend but didn’t find the time. Soon!!

Coco delivers box office encore on quiet weekend

On a quiet weekend with no new wide releases from the major studios, Disney and Pixar’s Coco is still managing to make some noise. The Día de los Muertos-themed animated musical is on track to top the box office for the second week in a row, grossing about $26.1 million from 3,987 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, James Franco’s moviemaking comedy The Disaster Artist and Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi romance The Shape of Water are both off to strong starts in limited release.

Bolstered by glowing reviews from critics and an A-plus CinemaScore from moviegoers, Coco is poised to drop off 49 percent in its sophomore weekend, a solid figure that puts its estimated domestic total at $108.7 million after 12 days in theaters. The film is also set to take in about $69 million overseas, which would bring its international total to $171.3 million.

Directed by Lee Unkrich and co-directed by Adrian Molina, Coco centers on a 12-year-old Mexican boy (voiced by newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) who confronts his family’s ancestral ban on music. The cast includes Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, and Alanna Ubach.

The rest of the weekend top five are also repeats. Warner Bros’. superhero tentpole Justice League will take second place with about $16.6 million, bringing its 17-day domestic total to $197.3 million and its worldwide total to $567.4 million. The film, which is directed by Zack Snyder (with additional work by Joss Whedon) and stars Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, and Henry Cavill, received mixed reviews and a B-plus CinemaScore.

Lionsgate’s family film Wonder is No. 3, with about $12.5 million; Disney’s superhero sequel Thor: Ragnarok is No. 4, with about $9.7 million; and Paramount’s paternal comedy Daddy’s Home 2 is No. 5, with about $7.5 million.

On the specialty front, A24’s The Disaster Artist is poised to take in an estimated $1.2 million from 19 locations, for a robust per-theater average of $64,254.

Directed by and starring Franco, and based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell’s book of the same name, The Disaster Artist chronicles the making of Tommy Wiseau’s notorious 2003 independent film The Room, which has been called “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.” Critics have lauded Franco’s film, which also stars brother Dave Franco (as Sestero), Seth Rogen, Alison Brie, and Ari Graynor. It expands to 800 theaters next week.

Scoring the best per-theater average of the weekend, and one of the best of the year, is Fox Searchlight’s The Shape of Water. It’s on pace to earn about $167,000 from two locations, which works out to $83,400 per theater.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Del Toro’s film centers on a mute woman (played by Sally Hawkins) who works a janitor at a government research center and forms an unlikely bond with a captured amphibious humanoid known as the Asset (Doug Jones). The film has also received glowing reviews.

Also opening in limited release, though to less impressive numbers and reviews, is Woody Allen’s latest, Wonder Wheel. The Amazon release is set to take in about $140,555 from five locations, for a per-theater average of $28,111.

According to ComScore, overall box office is down 3.9 percent year-to-date. Check out the Dec. 1-3 figures below.

1. Coco — $26.1 million
2. Justice League — $16.6 million
3. Wonder — $12.5 million
4. Thor: Ragnarok — $9.7 million
5. Daddy’s Home 2 — $7.5 million
6. Murder on the Orient Express — $6.7 million
7. Lady Bird — $4.5 million
8. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri — $4.5 million
9. The Star — $4 million
10. A Bad Moms Christmas — $3.5 million

Categories
Awards

Wonder if THE POST will beat DUNKIRK for the Best Picture Oscar as well?

National Board of Review Names ‘The Post’ the Year’s Best Film

Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” has been named the best film of 2017 by the National Board of Review, the NBR announced on Tuesday.

Other films in the group’s Top 10 included “Lady Bird,” “Get Out,” “The Disaster Artist” and “The Florida Project.”

The NBR also saluted a few films that are less obvious awards contenders, including “Baby Driver,” “Downsizing” and “Logan,” while leaving out three films that are thought to be major contenders: Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” and Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour.”

Acting awards went to Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep for “The Post,” Willem Dafoe in “The Florida Project” and Laurie Metcalf in “Lady Bird.” The breakthrough acting winner was Timothee Chalamet for “Call Me by Your Name.”

“Coco” was named best animated film, “Jane” won for best documentary and “Foxtrot” took the award for best foreign-language film.

Last year, the NBR had seven of the nine Oscar Best Picture nominees on its Top 10 list; the year before, it had five of the eight. Over the last five years, about two-thirds of the Best Picture nominees — 28 out of 43 — were first included on the NBR list.

In the last decade, the NBR and the Academy have only agreed on the year’s best picture twice, with “No Country for Old Men” in 2007 and “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2008. But only one NBR winner in the last 17 years, 2014’s “A Most Violent Year,” failed to land an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and “The Post” seems unlikely to become the second.

The National Board of Review is often mistakenly considered a critics’ organization, but in its own words, the group is made up of “knowledgeable film enthusiasts and professionals, academics, young filmmakers and students” in the New York area. Much of its relatively high profile comes from the fact that it is one of the first groups to pick the year’s best films. (The more prestigious New York Film Critics Circle will make its own picks on Thursday.)

The group was established in 1909 by theater owners protesting the New York mayor’s attempt to block the exhibition of motion pictures in the city. It has been picking the best films since 1930.

The complete list of winners:

Best Film: “The Post”
Best Director: Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
Best Actor: Tom Hanks, “The Post”
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, “The Post”
Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Best Supporting Actress: Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Best Original Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber, “The Disaster Artist”
Best Animated Feature: “Coco”
Best Breakthrough Performance: Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Best Directorial Debut: Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Foxtrot”
Best Documentary: “Jane”
Best Ensemble: “Get Out”
Spotlight Award: Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot, “Wonder Woman”
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: “First They Killed My Father,” Angelina Jolie; and “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992,” John Ridley

Top 10 Films
“Baby Driver”
“Call Me by Your Name”
“The Disaster Artist”
“Downsizing”
“Dunkirk”
“The Florida Project”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“Logan”
“Phantom Thread”

Top 5 Foreign Language Films
“A Fantastic Woman”
“Frantz”
“Loveless”
“Summer 1993”
“The Square”

Top 5 Documentaries
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
“Brimstone and Glory”
“Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars”
“Faces Places”
“Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS”

Top 10 Independent Films
“Beatriz at Dinner”
“Brigsby Bear”
“A Ghost Story”
“Lady Macbeth”
“Logan Lucky”
“Loving Vincent”
“Menashe”
“Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer”
“Patti Cake$”
“Wind River”

Categories
Awards

Congratulations to all of this year’s Grammy nominees!!

Jay-Z leads Grammy noms with 8 as rap, R&B take centre stage

Jay-Z is the leader of the 2018 Grammy Award nominations in a year where the top four categories are heavily dominated by rap and R&B artists, giving the often overlooked genres a strong chance of winning big.

The U.S. Recording Academy announced Tuesday that Jay-Z is nominated for eight honours, including album, song and record of the year. Bruno Mars is also nominated for the big three, while Kendrick Lamar — who earned seven nominations — and Childish Gambino are also up for major awards.

Canadian singers Alessia Cara and Justin Bieber are also among nominees in the top four categories.

Jay-Z’s personal and revealing album, 4:44, is nominated for album of the year alongside:
– Mars’s ’90s-inspired R&B adventure 24K Magic.
– Lamar’s hard-hitting rap masterpiece DAMN.
– Gambino’s funk-soul project Awaken My Love!
– Lorde’s critically acclaimed pop album, Melodrama.

Record of the year nominees include:
– Jay-Z’s The Story of O.J., a song about blackness and managing money that also references O.J. Simpson.
– Mars’s Top 5 hit, 24K Magic.
– Lamar’s No. 1 smash, Humble.
– Gambino’s Redbone, which peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100.
– The year’s biggest hit, Despacito,by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Bieber.

Despacito is also nominated for song of the year — a songwriter’s award — along with:
– Mars’s No. 1 hit, That’s What I Like.
– The title track from Jay-Z’s 4:44.
– Rapper Logic’s suicide prevention anthem, 1-800-273-8255, featuring Cara.
– Issues by Julia Michaels, the singer who has written hits for Bieber, Selena Gomez and other pop stars.

Michaels is also nominated for best new artist, where R&B and rap rule again: Her competition includes singers SZA, Khalid and Cara, as well as rapper Lil Uzi Vert.

No rock or country acts were nominated in the top four categories. The rap- and R&B-heavy nominations, which include numerous black and Latino artists, come after the Grammys were criticized earlier this year when some felt Beyoncé’s multi-genre Lemonade album should have won album of the year over Adele’s 25.

In her acceptance speech as well as when speaking to reporters backstage, Adele also expressed that Beyoncé should have received the prize.

The win for Adele, though, marked another year when the Grammys awarded its biggest prizes to an artist outside of the rap or R&B genre.

Kanye West, Eminem, Mariah Carey and others have also lost in the top categories over the years to pop, rock and country acts despite owning the year in music, critically and commercially.

“We have a current membership that is savvy and certainly timely, is current, and reflective of what music is about today and in the future. And clearly the diversification work that we’ve done for our membership is evident in all of the nominations this year,” Neil Portnow, the academy’s president and CEO, said in an interview.

“I think it’s a testimony to our hard work and intention of having a very vibrant, current, relevant, diverse voting membership.”

The album 4:44, which includes songs about Jay-Z’s relationship with Beyoncé and family life, marks the rap icon’s first nomination for album of the year as a lead artist; it is Lamar’s third in the top category.

Lamar will compete with Jay-Z in all seven categories he is nominated in, including best rap album, best rap song, best rap performance, best rap sung performance and best music video.

Mars is behind Jay-Z and Lamar with six nominations, including best R&B album, best R&B song and best R&B performance. Gambino, better known as Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor Donald Glover, scored five nominations.

Others who earned five nominations include SZA, Khalid and No I.D., who produced Jay-Z’s album and is up for non-classical producer of the year.

Ed Sheeran, who has the second-best selling album of the year with Divide, was snubbed in the top categories. Divide earned a nomination for best pop vocal album, while his No. 1 hit, Shape of You, is up for best pop solo performance.

Nominees for best pop vocal album include Lady Gaga’s Joanne, Coldplay’s five-song EP Kaleidoscope, Evolve by Imagine Dragons, Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life and Kesha’s Rainbow, marking her first Grammy nomination. Kesha, who has been in a legal war with former mentor and producer Dr. Luke, is also nominated for best pop solo performance for Praying.

Leonard Cohen and Chris Cornell are both nominated for best rock performance; other deceased nominees include Glen Campbell, Gregg Allman and Carrie Fisher, who is nominated for best spoken word album, where Bernie Sanders, Mark Ruffalo and Bruce Springsteen are also nominated.

In the country categories, Chris Stapleton leads with three nominations. Miranda Lambert, who earned two nominations, was surprisingly shut out of best country album though her double album, The Weight of These Wings, was a critical favourite.

Others who earned multiple nominations include Pharrell, Ledisi, Nothing More, Alison Krauss, Daniel Caesar and Foo Fighters. Randy Newman’s song Putin, his sardonic ode to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is nominated for best arrangement, instruments and vocals.

Taylor Swift, who didn’t earn nominations for her single Look What You Made Me Do — released before the Grammy cutoff date — did earn a nod for best country song for writing Little Big Town’s No. 1 hit, Better Man. Swift is also nominated for best song written for visual media for I Don’t Wanna Live Forever, her collaboration with Zayn from the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. Her new album, reputation, will qualify for nominations at the 2019 Grammys.

Cardi B, who had one of the year’s biggest hits with Bodak Yellow (Money Moves), earned two nominations: best rap song and best rap performance. Another female rapper scored nominations, too: Rapsody is up for best rap song for Sassy and best rap album for Laila’s Wisdom. In the latter category, she will compete with Jay-Z, Lamar, Migos and Tyler, the Creator. Snubs include Future, J. Cole and DJ Khaled, who has two of the year’s biggest hits with Wild Thoughts and I’m the One.

Jay-Z or Lamar could make history next year when the Grammys take place in New York City on Jan. 28: Either album could become only the third rap-based album to win album of the year; and either song could become the first in the rap genre to win record or song of the year.

Albums and songs eligible in the 84 categories at the 60th annual Grammys had to be released between Oct. 1, 2016, and Sept. 30, 2017.

This year is the first year the Grammys used online voting for its main awards show; it started online voting for the Latin Grammys last year.

Categories
Bruuuuuuuuce!!

Here’s hoping I (finally!!) get to go!!

Bruce Springsteen Extends Broadway Production With New 2018 Dates

Bruce Springsteen extended his intimate, 16-week Broadway series into 2018. Springsteen on Broadway, staged at Jujamcyn’s Walter Kerr Theatre, will continue with a round of new shows set for February 28th through June 30th.

The rock legend’s acclaimed, sold-out run began previews on October 3rd, 2017 and officially launched October 12th. The singer-songwriter initially performed through November 26th before extending the production until February 3rd. At the conclusion of this added 10-week jaunt, Springsteen will have staged 80 total shows at the theater.

According to Springsteen’s website, fans who previously registered for tickets through Ticketmaster Verified Fan will not need to register again for the extension. Ticketmaster will contact and provide further details about the new shows to those who were placed on Standby,but didn’t receive a code, as well as those who received a code but were unable to purchase tickets.

Fans interested in purchasing tickets after the December 19th ticket on-sale can participate in a digital lottery via Lucky Seat.

Categories
Concerts

I’d love to go!!

Neil Young’s secret site for Dec. 1 concert is Omemee, Ont.: report

Will Neil Young’s mysterious Dec. 1 concert be held in his childhood home of Omemee, Ontario? A local website thinks it has the evidence.

Kawarthanow.com reported Monday that it had acquired an email to Bell Media, which will be stream Young’s show, from the City of Kawartha Lakes, which governs Omemee, a community of roughly 1,200 people 23 km west of Peterborough. In the email, the municipality approves “closing of a section of Sturgeon Road (from Church St E to King St W for southbound traffic only) in Omemee … for a Live Concert Special, organized by the Bell Media, from Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. to Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 3 a.m.”

At the corner of Sturgeon and King in Omemee is Coronation Hall, a venue whose capacity is normally 140 persons. Billboard Magazine has said the concert will take place at 200-person-capacity venue, so close enough.

The 72-year-old rock superstar’s acoustic 90-minute concert, timed to promote his new album The Visitor, is slated to be live-streamed on CTV.ca and the CTV GO app starting at 8 p.m. EST on Dec. 1; outside of Canada, it will stream on Facebook.

Young lived in Omemee from ages 4 to 11, and his life there has long been considered the inspiration for “a town in North Ontario” in his song “Helpless.” In Young’s memoir Shakey, he remembers it as “a nice little town. Sleepy little place. . . . Life was real basic and simple in that town. Walk to school, walk back. Everybody knew who you were. Everybody knew everybody.”

Categories
Awards

It always means more variety for movie fans when the two Awards hows don’t sync up.

Spirit Awards likely to sync up with the Oscars — again

he past four winners of the Independent Spirit Awards’ best feature — “12 Years a Slave,” “Birdman,” “Spotlight” and “Moonlight” — have gone on to take the Oscar for best picture.

Whether that streak extends to five will likely depend on how deeply motion picture academy voters embrace Steven Spielberg’s journalism drama, “The Post,” or Christopher Nolan’s war survival tale, “Dunkirk,” features ineligible for the Spirits because their budgets exceed the group’s $20-million threshold rule.

But with this year shaping up as one of the most indie-focused slates in awards season history, the slate that Spirit Awards voters put forth Tuesday will likely mirror the movies the academy salutes at its ceremony in March.

Spirit Awards nominees for best feature included “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Florida Project,” “Get Out,” “Lady Bird” and “The Rider.”

The luminous love story “Call Me by Your Name,” opening in limited release Friday, led the Spirits field with six nominations, including nods for director Luca Guadagnino and actors Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer.

Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” a horror movie boasting a scathing social satire, earned five nominations, with Peele picking up nods for writing and directing and Daniel Kaluuya finding recognition for his lead turn.

Peele’s movie, made for $4.5 million and released by Universal Pictures, is one of the biggest commercial hits to be feted by the Spirit Awards. Released in February, “Get Out” has grossed $253 million worldwide, becoming one of the more substantial indie film success stories in recent years. Recent awards season screenings for guild and academy members have been packed.

Josh and Benny Safdie’s “Good Time,” an immersive heist thriller that earned raves at Cannes, also netted five nominations, including nods for its sibling directors and cast members Robert Pattinson, Taliah Lennice Webster and Benny Safdie, who memorably portrayed a vulnerable character with an unspecified learning disability.

Dee Rees’ absorbing, ambitious drama “Mudbound” was given the Robert Altman Award, an honor presented to the film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.

The recognition for “Mudbound” was one of several nods for minority filmmakers, including the multiple nominations for Peele and recognition for “Columbus” director Kogonada and actresses Salma Hayek (“Beatriz at Dinner”), Shinobu Terajima (“Oh Lucy!”) and Regina Williams (“Life and Nothing More”).

Voters — composed of committees of industry professionals, critics and members of Film Independent’s board — completely ignored Guillermo del Toro’s lavish fantasy romance, “The Shape of Water,” set to open next month.

Shutting out Del Toro’s well-liked movie, which won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival, rated as the day’s biggest surprise. Lead actress Sally Hawkins’ beautiful turn as a mute cleaning woman finding love with a water creature won solid praise at Venice and Toronto and still figures to be a strong Oscar contender.

But Spirit voters went their own way, nominating Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Ladybird”), as well as Hayek, Terajima and Williams.

As for best feature nominee “The Rider,” a melancholy drama about a South Dakota cowboy directed by Chloé Zhao, it’s currently scheduled to open in April, according to a Sony Pictures Classics spokesperson. It earned strong reviews at its Cannes Film Festival premiere and also earned Spirit nominations for cinematography, editing and direction.

If nothing else, the Spirit Awards’ stamp of approval provides cues for which movies academy members should watch over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The nominated films can also trumpet the bevy of nominations as they look to expand — and survive — in a commercial marketplace crowded with awards-season contenders and big-budget studio movies.

Winners, selected by Film Independent Members, will be announced at the Spirit Awards on March 3 at a ceremony co-hosted by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney in Santa Monica. The show will broadcast live on IFC at 2 p.m. PT.

Categories
People

‘So much wasted time’

DAVID CASSIDY’S DAUGHTER SHARES HIS LAST WORDS

David Cassidy’s daughter Katie has revealed that the ‘70s star’s last words as he lay dying were, “So much wasted time.” He passed away last week, aged 67, after a battle with dementia and lifestyle-related health issues.

In a tweet, she wrote, “Words cant express the solace our family’s received from all the love & support during this trying time. My father’s last words were ‘So much wasted time’. This will be a daily reminded for me to share my gratitude with those I love as to never waste another minute… thank you.”

David Cassidy, star of The Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974, was hospitalized a little more than a week ago after suffering major organ failure. He’d been reported to have been placed in a medically-induced coma before later regaining consciousness, but was in need of an urgent liver transplant. His passing on Nov. 21 triggered a series of tributes from across the rock world.

In February he revealed his dementia to People magazine, saying that the illness appeared regularly in his family. Speaking of his mother’s struggle with it, he said, “In the end, the only way I knew she recognized me is with one single tear that would drop from her eye every time I walked in the room. I feared I would end up that way.”

He’d decided to end his touring career in order to focus on enjoying the time he had left. “I want to focus on what I am, who I am now and how I’ve been without any distractions,” he noted. “I want to love. I want to enjoy life.”