Story By: Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

On Monday, Jack Gantos won the Newbery Medal, the highest award in children’s literature, for his novel Dead End in Norvelt. He’s also written the Rotten Ralph series for kids, several novels … oh, and a memoir about the 18 months he spent in a federal penitentiary on drug-smuggling charges. (We don’t know if that one had pictures.)

We’ve invited Gantos to play a game called “Oh, darling! Take me in your arms!” Three questions about Harlequin romance novels.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – A number of the world’s most accomplished dogs went head-to-head on Monday, competing in the most prestigious and acclaimed competition that the canine world has to offer.

That was the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City.

Across the country, meanwhile, another group of dogs competed in the first Golden Collar Awards, a newer and sillier event with, shall we say, a less illustrious pedigree. The showbiz version of a dog show may have lacked the prestige and history, but it had a lot more real housewives, of both Beverly Hills and New York.

And while we won’t know Westminster’s Best in Show until Tuesday night, the Golden Collar Awards announced its top dogs on Monday – and the big prize, the one for which the event seems to have been created, went to Uggie from “The Artist,” to the surprise of nobody who’d been paying any kind of attention.

The Golden Collar Awards were launched, after all, by the Dog News Daily digital media and marketing company only a couple of months ago, after the canine star of “The Artist” started getting lots of attention on the awards circuit.

When the nominations were announced on January 18, Uggie himself was present, along with his human costar Penelope Ann Miller.

And in those noms, the 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier nabbed two of the five nominations for Best Dog in a Theatrical Film, both for his performance as the Dog in “The Artist” and for his less-heralded role as Queenie in “Water for Elephants.”

Take that, Glenn Close and Janet McTeer: Uggie can do the cross-gender thing, too!

(Full disclosure: I was one of the 14 voters for the awards, along with editors, producers and journalists from “Entertainment Tonight,” Variety, USA Today and a number of other outlets.)

At any rate, Uggie was named Best Dog in a Theatrical Film, and it should go without saying that he didn’t win for “Water for Elephants.”

Best Dog in a Foreign Film went to Koko from the Australian film “Red Dog,” which may have added injury to insult for fellow nominee Laika from “Le Havre,” which many Golden Collar materials insisted on calling “Le Harve.”

The Best Dog in a Television Series category was won by Brigitte from the television series that always wins awards, “Modern Family.”

Best Dog in a Reality Television Series was a tie, with Hercules from “Pit Boss” and Giggy from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” sharing the award.

(Given that the other nominees included two other “Real Housewives” dogs, one from Beverly Hills and one from New York, there may be another kind of dogfight going on in those environs before long.)

In the Best Dog in a Direct-to-DVD Film category, the two nominees from “Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2″ must have split their vote, allowing Rody from “Marley & Me: The Puppy Years” to walk away with the prize.

One imagines that Blackie, Cosmo, Denver, Hummer, Ichico, Chunk, Lambchop, Millou, Jackpot, Gaston, Jason Gann and all the other losers will find a way to drown their sorrows.

The Golden Collar Awards took place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, which used to host a lot of awards shows before its union troubles sent a few Hollywood guilds fleeing elsewhere.

Participants in the ramshackle show included Pauley Perrette from “NCIS,” James Cromwell from “The Artist” and Wendy Malick from “Hot in Cleveland,” who insisted upon mispronouncing Uggie’s name “You-gie.”

And although it raised money for rescue shelters and gave out serious awards to the absent Charlize Theron (the Golden Collar Humanitarian Award) and producer/director Michael Vance (the Golden Collar Legends Award), it mostly gave rise to a lot of tongue-in-cheek coverage that demonstrated just how silly awards season can be.

For instance, this Hollywood Reporter description of the Golden Collar trophy – “a spectacular gold and Swarovski crystal collar on a stunning paw-shaped Plexiglass holder” – is certainly the only time stunning and Plexiglas have been used in this kind of adjacency.

And the fact that protests were lodged by both Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a hand puppet, and Antonio Banderas on behalf Puss in Boots, an animated cat, means that everybody is treating the show as somewhere between a joke and a publicity stunt.

The most amusing part of the whole Golden Collar experience was when Martin Scorsese waded into the fray with a thoroughly facetious Los Angeles Times op-ed piece lobbying for a nomination for Blackie, the dog from “Hugo.”

“I have been cautioned against speaking out on this issue lest I create the appearance of churlishness,” wrote Scorsese, who also sent a video that was played at the Golden Collar ceremony. “Well, I’m going to have to risk it . Uggie plays a nice little mascot who does tricks and saves his master’s life in one of the films, while Blackie gives an uncompromising performance as a ferocious guard dog who terrorizes children .

“We have learned to accept the human antihero, but when it comes to dogs, I guess we still have a long way to go.”

The appeal worked – at least according to the Times, who reported (exclusively!) that after Scorsese’s appeal and a Facebook-based petition, the Golden Collar Awards granted Blackie “a late-breaking nomination.”

Well, maybe. But as a judge, I can report (exclusively!) that I never got a new ballot with Blackie’s name on it, or indeed any communication from the Golden Collar people telling me that I could vote for Scorsese’s Doberman antihero.

But for the record, and because I figure my vow of secrecy has lifted now that the awards have been announced: I voted for Cosmo from “Beginners,” and would have done the same if Blackie had been on my ballot. And because I follow all vital awards-season news, I was aware that Blackie was eligible.

The Golden Collar folks, by the way, made kind of a big deal out of the tie between Hercules and Giggy, with a banner headline on the Dog News Daily website and an all-caps elaboration: “FIRST TIME IN GOLDEN COLLAR HISTORY THAT THERE HAS BEEN A TIE.”

The fact that this is also the first time in Golden Collar history that there has been a Golden Collar might diminish the historic nature of that tie somewhat.

But who cares about history, or churlish hair-splitting, or even that other dog show on the other side of the country?

The Westminster Kennel Club might have Martha Stewart’s chow chow Ghenghis Khan, but the Golden Collar Awards had Uggie.

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

New York: Fans are showing their grief over Whitney Houston’s death by buying her music.

Since her death, her album sales have been boosted by almost 6,000 per cent.

Data released late Tuesday by Nielsen SoundScan showed that Houston’s album sales for the week ending Sunday – the day after her death – were at 101,000.

The week earlier, she had sold just 1,700 copies of her albums.

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World Series: Barceona, Hed Kandi

First off, let us just say we love that this double CD comes with a cute city guide to Barcelona’s hotspots – nice touch. The compilation is mixed by Hed Kandi’s headline DJs – Greg Myers and Sam Cannon – and is a collection of music that epitomises the hedonistic, fun-loving Mediterranean city that is Barcelona. On the double CD set you’ll find pure party tunes from the likes of David Penn, Jamie Jones and Waifs And Strays. We rate disc one over disc two, simply because it includes the ultimate fiesta track, Patrick Hagenaar’s L.O.V.E.
Rating 3 out of 5
Dh110, Virgin Megastores

Velociraptor!, Kasabian

Leicester’s first boys of indie-rock have hit the charts again, and fans worried that the fourth release was going to disappoint needn’t worry. Songs like title track Velociraptor! and Days Are Forgotten are a nod to the glory days of their first two offerings, but the highlight of the album for us is recent single, Goodbye Kiss, the wistful track borders on a ballad, but don’t worry, drums still drive the song. While lead singer Tom’s claim that the album would "change people’s lives" might not quite be true, it’s an album we recommend wholeheartedly.
Rating 5 out of 5
Dh60, Virgin Megastores

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Shah Rukh Khan shocked party-goers at Sanjay Dutt’s party for Agneepath at Aurus nightclub in Mumbai, last week, when eyewitnesses claim he walked up to director, Shirish Kunder, and started punching him until Dutt dragged his pal away.

And sources claim the Ra.One star was "inebriated" when he rocked up at the club at 4.30am, following the Filmfare awards, and made a beeline for Kunder along with three bodyguards.

"We didn’t know what was going on," spilled a party-goer. "We saw SRK enter. Then we saw him head towards Shirish from behind and pull him down to the ground by his hair." Adding, "We were all shocked." Whilst another confided, "We have never seen SRK behave this way before."

And after the star told club owner, Baba Dewan, to back off, after he attempted to pull the star away, it was left up to Sanjay Dutt to step in and split the pair, leaving the actor accused of having hit Shirish too – something he denies, insisting, "I didn’t join in the fight. I sorted out the fight." 

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New York: A chance to kiss the buff, shirtless Richard Gere of the early ’80s? Sold, for $20,000!

It wasn’t exactly a time machine that was auctioned off at the annual amfAR AIDS charity gala kicking off New York Fashion Week on Wednesday evening.

Rather, it was a black-and-white portrait of Gere by famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who himself died of AIDS in 1989.

Displaying the photo from the stage, cookbook author and TV personality Padma Lakshmi kissed it a few times to demonstrate its appeal.

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Gary Oldman has won his first acting award in more than two decades for his role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Oldman was voted best British film star in a public vote at the annual Richard Attenborough Regional Film Awards.

"This is the first prize for acting in a specific performance that I've received in over 20 years and that makes it all the more special," the actor said in a statement.

Tinker Tailor was also named British film of the year.

Oldman, who plays spymaster George Smiley, received his first ever Oscar nomination last week and is up for best actor at the Baftas.

His critics' award was accepted by Tinker Tailor screenwriter Peter Straughan, who won the best screenplay prize with his late wife and writing partner Bridget O'Connor.

Ms O'Connor died before filming began and the finished film is dedicated to her.

Straughan said: "I'm thrilled that Bridget and I have won this award – especially as it is associated with such a great filmmaker and voted for by so many critics and writers from all around the country. It means a great deal to me and is a wonderful tribute to my late wife's work."

Established in 2006, the Regional Film Awards (Rafas) have 13 categories – six voted for by regionally-based film critics throughout the UK, and seven decided by public votes. The awards are dedicated to actor and filmmaker Lord Attenborough.

In the critics' categories, the winners were:

Film of the year: The Artist (previously announced)

Filmmaker: Michel Hazanavicius – director, The Artist

Screenwriter: Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Actor: Michael Fassbender – Shame

Actress: Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady

Rising star: Tom Hiddleston – War Horse, Thor, The Deep Blue Sea, Midnight in Paris

UK public votes

British film of the year: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Animated film: Arthur Christmas

Family film: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

British film star: Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Film star: Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Film Blog: CineVue

Most anticipated film of 2012: The Dark Knight Rises

Story By: Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

We’ve invited Paul Feig, creator of Freaks and Geeks and director of Bridesmaids, to play a game called: “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” It’s 2012 — the year the Maya predicted that the calendar and the whole world would end, with John Cusack and his estranged wife being the only survivors. Now, if the past is any guide, that probably won’t happen, because people have long made predictions about the end of the world, and we’re still here. We’ll ask Feig three questions about end-of-the-world projections.

Story By: by Anastasia Tsioulcas

Kayhan Kalhor’s new album, I Will Not Stand Alone, comes out Feb. 14.

Looking back, looking ahead: In many ways, that’s long been Kayhan Kalhor’s natural starting point as an artist. One of the great masters of the ancient music of his native Iran, he is a virtuoso player of the kamancheh, a small, bowed, spike-ended fiddle. But he’s also led the way as one of Persian music’s supreme innovators. A frequent collaborator of Yo-Yo Ma in the Silk Road Ensemble and a three-time Grammy nominee, he has also partnered with the New York Philharmonic, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Osvaldo Golijov and the string quartet Brooklyn Rider. Kalhor has led the way in creating soulful music that both reaches inward and looks out.

Just as in every realm of traditional Iranian art, from minutely scaled miniatures to intricate poetry to endlessly ornamented carpet weaving, the goal in Persian classical music is for both artist and listener to become ecstatically enraptured — to become lost in the moment. That goal, though, is wrapped within the hugely demanding framework of Persian classical tradition. In this style, a musician is valued not just for knowing by heart an enormous body of composed music and being able to play that music brilliantly, but also for how he or she takes that tradition to a new place via improvisation. (Imagine a framework that combines the technical demands and intellectual structures of both Western classical music and jazz, and you’ll start to get some sense of Persian music.)

At the beginning of the Iranian Revolution, Kalhor went abroad to pursue music, moving to Italy, then Canada and then New York, where he was a longtime resident before returning several years ago to live in Iran. Since the revolution, however, musicians and fans have long endured cycles of official condemnation, encouragement and grudging tolerance of Iran’s classical and traditional music, and Kalhor is not one for making overt political pronouncements. But he calls I Will Not Stand Alone, recorded in Tehran in February 2011 — after the bloody repression of his country’s extraordinary Green Movement — a reflection on “one of the most difficult stages in my life, where darkness and violence seemed to be taking over.” But out of that existential sense of isolation came a realization and a decision: As an artist, Kalhor chose to “be with people and play music for them,” to connect culture to community and person to person.

Ever an experimenter, Kalhor recently worked with an Australian instrument maker named Peter Biffin to create a brand-new instrument called the shah kaman. It’s an even deeper-voiced instrument than the kamancheh, the bowed, spike-ended fiddle Kalhor usually plays. With its five main playing strings and a series of sympathetic strings, the shah kaman’s mahogany-esque, viola-like richness creates even more penetrating depth.

On I Will Not Stand Alone, out Feb. 14, Kalhor and colleague Ali Bahrami Fard — who plays a bass santour, a hammered dulcimer whose dark tonal range complements the shah kaman — create magic. Often, their musical conversation is so intimately scaled and deeply personal that to listen seems just short of intruding. But when they let loose in passionately felt, expertly realized and dazzlingly fast passages, they soar, and so do we.

Paula Deen’s diabetes revelation pretty much sums it up: Kitchen pros at all levels struggle with obesity and its dangerous aftertaste in the high-pressure, high-calorie world of food. Choosing to digest her ill health privately all those years, Deen’s story is familiar to those in chef’s jackets who already had gone public with the question few in their world love to talk about: How do you stay healthy while trying to earn a living making food?

On Thursday, Food Network premiered Fat Chef in the US, which follows participants for 16 weeks as they struggle to lose weight and learn a healthier way of life with the help of trainers, nutritionists and therapists.

“You have this abundance of food all around you,” said pastry chef Michael Mignano, who is one of the dozen obese chefs, restaurant owners, caterers and others who are searching for the answer on the show. “You’re doing parties, you have weddings. There’s always a lot of food left over. You’re constantly tasting, working late hours, eating late.”

Mignano, 36, owns a bakery in Port Washington, New York. At 6 feet 2 inches, he weighed about 226.8kg soon after he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2010, before Fat Chef went into production last October. His resolve to do something about his weight grew stronger as the result of a different Food Network show on which he appeared in September, Sweet Genius. “I wasn’t nervous about that show, but I was nervous about whether the jacket would fit me,” said Mignano, who now weighs 181.44kg and has a long road ahead to reach his goal weight of 113.4kg. “Watching myself on that show, I was the fat guy. That’s all I saw.”

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