A Grammy Award is ‘‘probably the most coveted award in the music industry,’’ Universal Music Group Nashville chairman Luke Lewis says. Even the nod leading up to the statuette can boost artist awareness and album sales, as some nominees this year have already observed.
Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Foo Fighters, Vince Gill and Herbie Hancock will vie for the album of the year honor at the 50th annual Grammy Awards, Feb. 10 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. And in the days following the Dec. 6 nominations announcement in Hollywood, the impact was felt at retail. ...
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Although the writers strike has created a swirl of uncertainty, Hollywood’s awards season was business as usual Wednesday, when the academy mailed Oscar nomination ballots to its 5,829 voting members. And strike or not, nobody was more excited about helping bestow one of the world’s most prestigious honors than Brett Morgen and the 114 other new academy members who are casting Oscar ballots for the very first time this year.
‘‘It’s great to be part of a democratic process where your vote actually matters,’’ said the documentarian, who was up for an Oscar in 1999 and was invited to join the academy this year. ‘‘In a way, this is more exciting than getting nominated.’’ ...
Actor Rainn Wilson, who plays tyrannical salesman Dwight Schrute in "The Office," will host the Spirit Awards, the art-house world's version of the Oscars, on Feb. 23. ...
The Carpetbagger, like the Gold Rush, is just sure the Oscars will prevail — strike or no strike. But just in case, he offers some other options on how to work around the strike and make things really interesting.
Milo Ventimiglia tells Entertainment Weekly he hopes the lack of Golden Globe nominations for his show, "Heroes," will inspire his fellow cast and crew to work even harder next season.
"Heroes" didn't get any nominations for next month's Golden Globes.
“I think it’s one of those things that’s going to make us work harder, make us be a little more focused," he says. ...
The Writers Guild of America says its members will be allowed to work for the Spirit Awards honoring independent film, despite uncertainties surrounding other awards shows because of the Hollywood writers strike. ...
Another victim of the writers strike: the 34th annual People's Choice Awards. The show hasn't been canceled, but the format of the fan-voted awards broadcast on CBS will change dramatically. ...
The Las Vegas Film Critics Society — what screens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas — has joined other critics groups in picking the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" as best picture. The society announced its annual Sierra Awards today.
The film is the one movie to emerge as a serious Oscar contender, having also won the top honors at the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle, Toronto Film Critics Association, Washington D.C. Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics and our own Chicago Film Critics Association. It's also up for several Golden Globe awards.
The Sierra Awards also gave best supporting actor to Javier Bardem from the film, as well as best director to Joel and Ethan Coen.
So with the writers striking and their union failing to grant waivers for the Golden Globes and the Oscars — meaning many celebs will stay away from those events in support of the strike — the SAG Awards, whose nominees were announced today, may be the show for this year's star spotting.
The writers guild, at this point, plans to picket both the Globes and the Academy Awards. When a similar strike lingered in 1980, many stars stayed at home rather than cross the picket lines to reach the red carpet for that year's Emmy Awards.
The SAG Awards, however, have been granted one writer to help pen jokes and speeches for that show. It's on TV, too, albeit cable, on Jan. 27. Still, at least the celebrities won't shy away from it. It may be the only red carpet worth watching all year.
"Atonement" lead the Golden Globes nominations last week, but the Screen Actors Guild utterly ignored the film in today's nominations for its own awards. Same thing for the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp film adaptation of the musical "Sweeney Todd" — four Globes nods, no SAGs.
This is further proof that this year's Oscar race is wide open and voters haven't reached any real concensus yet about what's best — except for Javier Bardem's performance in "No Country for Old Men."
That means this year's Oscar show could be an entertaining nail-biter — if the show goes on. C'mon, writers and studios, work it out!
LOS ANGELES — The road-trip drama ‘‘Into the Wild’’ received a leading four Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations today, including honors for lead actor Emile Hirsch and supporting players Hal Holbrook and Catherine Keener.
Directed by Sean Penn, ‘‘Into the Wild’’ also was nominated for performance by its overall cast, along with the Western ‘‘3:10 to Yuma,’’ the crime sagas ‘‘American Gangster’’ and ‘‘No Country for Old Men,’’ and the musical ‘‘Hairspray.’’
Conspicuously absent from the guild field was the British romantic melodrama ‘‘Atonement,’’ which was shut out after leading the Golden Globe nominations a week earlier with seven nominations. ...
LOS ANGELES — Could striking writers really shut down Hollywood’s biggest party?
The producer of the Academy Awards promised Tuesday that the show would go on, although some Oscar watchers said the result could be a disastrous telecast with celebrities forced to stumble through ad-libbed presentations of awards.
‘‘Awards shows are the best chance that writers have to prove how valuable they are. Without a script, we may finally find out how vapid and empty these stars really are,’’ said Tom O’Neil, columnist for the entertainment-awards Web site TheEnvelope.com. ‘‘The awards shows will have no choice but to go on with the show, but not the telecast.’’ ...
Songwriting legend Burt Bacharach, the Band and late jazz vocalist Cab Calloway are among the acts that will receive the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement award at the upcoming 50th annual Grammy Awards.
Swing vocalist Doris Day, Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman, jazz drummer Max Roach and bluegrass innovator Earl Scruggs will also receive Lifetime Grammys. ...
Oscar and the Golden Globes will have to go without WGA writers on their telecasts, barring any last-minute reprieves.
That’s the bottom line from a dramatic rebuff of both awards shows made public Monday night, though Oscar has gotten only a portion of the bad news so far.
The WGA said Monday night that it has nixed a writing-waiver request from producers of the Golden Globes telecast and also a request for some clips clearances for the Oscars. But a WGA insider said a decision also has been made — though not announced — to reject a request for a writing waiver for the Oscars as well. ...
If the jokes are lamer than usual at this year's Golden Globes and Oscars, blame the writers strike. Now that the WGA has barred its writers from assisting those shows — they've even prevented the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from being able to show clips of the nominated films during the ceremony — everyone at the podium (if anyone shows up) will have to wing it. And you know how well that goes over at the Oscars.
