CANNES FILM FEST HIGHLIGHTS

May 29, 2007 American diva Jane Fonda handed over the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or, to a little-known Romanian director Cristian Mungiu as the organizers of the 60th Cannes Film Festival rolled the end credits of the diamond anniversary edition Sunday night with a phalanx of star power, a welter of self congratulation and an idiosyncratic selection of prizes.

The hard-hitting winner is set toward the end of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu''s rule, and it had made the early running at Cannes Film Festival, with critics calling it a favorite only three days into the competition.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days takes place over a single day and tells the story of Gabita illegally aborting an unwanted baby and the trials of her friend and accomplice Otilia. It portrays not only characters'' personal misery but also the drab grimness of life in the former Communist country.

Munguiu said he hoped that the award would give encouragement to modest filmmakers from small countries. “It seems that you do not need big budgets and stars to make a story that can grab the attention of the whole world,” he said.

On Monday the Riviera town seemed as if the cavalry had pulled out as the 30,000 movie professionals and 4,000 media representatives plus the stars and the bodyguards wended their way home. For the last 12 days the town has upheld its reputation as the undisputed mecca of film, despite pretensions for its crown from such similarly veteran events as Venice.

The jury overseeing the official competition under British director Stephen Frears faced tantalizing choices, among the them Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which contains a formidable performance by Matthieu Almaric, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men, a brutal and meticulous adaptation of Cormac McCarthy''s novel. These two went unrewarded.

Other winners included Japanese director Naomi Kawase''s The Mourning Forest, which took the Grand Prix and Gus Van Sant''s Paranoid Park, which picked up the special Cannes 60th Anniversary Prize. Julian Schnabel took the best director prize for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, about French Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a massive stroke while driving his young son down a country road in France. A few weeks later he woke up in a hospital, unable to move anything but his left eye. His condition was called locked-in syndrome. French actor Mathieu Amalric portrays the editor as a complex and unsentimental figure.

Russian actor Konstantin Lavronenko won Best Actor for his role in The Banishment, while South Korea''s Jeon Do-yeon won Best Actress for Secret Sunshine.

The Jury Prize was shared by Iranian animation Persepolis and Mexican director Carlos Reygadas''s Stellet Licht.

Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin''s The Edge of Heaven was awarded the prize for best screenplay for his film, which deals with men and women of Turkish extraction, who are as uneasy living in their adopted countries as their own skins. Akin elicits sympathetic, lived-in performances from his actors and extracts a moving performance by Hanna Schygulla.

Meanwhile, Anton Corbjin’s Control won all the top prizes at the Directors’ Fortnight. In black and white, it focused on the late British rock singer Ian Curtis who committed suicide at 23, and his group Joy Division. Actor Sam Reilly was the talk of the town as Curtis. It marked the movie-directing debut of rock photographer Corbijn.

Earlier the President of the Cannes Festival, Gilles Jacob, bestowed a special Golden Palm on American actress Jane Fonda, paying tribute to her career and her commitment. This makes the fourth career achievement Palme d’Or bestowed to an actor or filmmaker during the history of the Festival. The three others went to French directors Alain Resnais and Gerard Oury as well as French actress Jeanne Moreau.

Jacob ironically remarked, “I would never have imagined that the Cannes Festival would honor an FBI suspect, one who has at least 20,000 pages in her file,” in allusion to all her active participation against the war in Vietnam and more recently against the war in Iraq. He continued, “You are a fighter and a winner.” —Richard Mowe

Streisand cancels concert in Rome because of ticket prices

Streisand's best-loved hits include People and The Way We Were Barbra Streisand has cancelled a concert in Rome next month. The cancellation follows protests from Italian consumer groups over high ticket prices but organisers insist the decision was not linked to the outcry. A spokeswoman for concert promoter CPI said the 15 June concert was scrapped because of production problems. The event was intended to launch the US star's European tour. Organisers say a revised itinerary will be available in the next few days with new dates added. Asked whether the protest over tickets was a factor in the decision by tour promoters to drop Rome from Streisand's itinerary, the spokeswoman said: "Absolutely not". The 65-year-old singer and actress is still expected to perform the second concert date on her European tour, in Vienna, on 21 June. 'Shameful' ticket prices Earlier this week, two Italian consumer groups called for the concert at Rome's Stadio Flaminio to be cancelled labelling ticket prices, ranging from 150 euros (£100) to more than 900 euros (£600), "absurd and shameful". The Adusbef and Codacons groups urged the city and the Italian Olympic Committee to deny Streisand use of the Stadio Flaminio. The 24,000-seat stadium "is public property and cannot be used for immoral deals that are shameful to a civilized country", Adusbef and Codacons said. Streisand will be accompanied by a 58-piece orchestra on her month-long European tour, which includes concerts in Austria, France, Ireland and the UK. Streisand's 2006 US tour was ranked the second-highest grossing tour in the US last year, generating $92.5m (£46.8m), with the average ticket costing $298 (£151). Tickets for her first date at London's O2 arena - formerly the Millennium Dome - sold out in just 20 minutes, despite tickets costing between £100 and £600.

Google’s goal to organise your daily life

By Caroline Daniel and Maija Palmer

Published: May 22 2007 21:08 | Last updated: May 22 2007 21:08

Google’s ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.

Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.

“The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”

The race to accumulate the most comprehensive database of individual information has become the new battleground for search engines as it will allow the industry to offer far more personalised advertisements. These are the holy grail for the search industry, as such advertising would command higher rates.

Mr Schmidt told journalists in London: “We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion.”

He said Google’s newly relaunched iGoogle service, which allows users to personalise their own Google search page and publish their own content, would be a key feature.

Another service, Google personalised search, launched two years ago, allows users to give Google permission to store their web-surfing history, what they have searched and clicked on, and use this to create more personalised search results for them. Another service under development is Google Recommendations – where the search suggests products and services the user might like, based on their already established preferences. Google does not sell advertising against these services yet, but could in time use them to display more targeted ads to people.

Yahoo unveiled a new search technology this year dubbed Project Panama – which monitors what internet users do on its portal, and use that information to build a profile of their interests. The profiles are then used to display ads to the people most likely to be interested in them.

Autonomy, the UK-based search company is also developing technology for “transaction hijacking”, which monitors when internet surfers are about to make a purchase online, and can suggest cheaper alternatives. Although such monitoring could raise privacy issues, Google stresses that the iGoogle and personalisation services are optional.

The Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK said it was not concerned about the personalisation developments.

Earlier this year, however, Google bowed to concerns from privacy activists in the US and Europe, by agreeing to limit the amount of time it keeps information about the internet searches made by its users to two years.

Google has also faced concerns that its proposed $3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick will lead to an erosion of online privacy.

Fears have been stoked by the potential for Google to build up a detailed picture of someone’s behaviour by combining its records of web searches with the information from DoubleClick’s “cookies”, the software it places on users’ machines to track which sites they visit.

Mr Schmidt said this year that the company was working on technology to reduce concerns.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Janet Jackson Decision Won't Come Before Late 2007

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/21/2007 11:13:00 AM

A decision on Janet Jackson's Super Bowl half-time reveal won't come until close to the end of the year, at the earliest.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has set Sept. 11, 2007, as the date for oral argument in the case, CBS confirms. In another key case for the FCC, the same court has scheduled May 23 for argument in a challenge to FCC auction rules.

The FCC had pushed for expedited hearing of the Super Bowl halftime reveal last August, but did not even get to file its briefs until December 2006. The FCC has essentially been awaiting the court's decision to move on any other profanity decisions. "Who knows how many complaints they have yet to act on," said one attorney who has represented broadcasters in indecency cases..

CBS paid the $550,000 fine--a prerequisite to its appeal--apologized, and instituted safeguards to prevent a repeat of the reveal, but says the incident was not indecent. Oral arguments have been scheduled very slowly in the third circuit recently, said one veteran communications attorney, citing a crowded docket.

Federal court's differ, but oral argument in the Second Circuit challenge to the FCC's profanity decisions was in December 2006 and there is still no decision some five months later.

The Third Circuit has scheduled a May 23 hearing for another case that the FCC is watching closely. That's the Council Tree Communications challenge to the FCC's rules for its August 2006 wireless spectrum auction. That decision, if it goes against the FCC, could potentially unwind that multi billion dollar auction. It could also have implications for the upcoming auction of analog TV spectrum for wireless uses, which is operating under similar rules and which the commission is required to complete before the end of the year as part of the ongoing transition to digital TV.

Actor, Leo DiCaprio wants to warn us about global warming - yawn!

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio sent out a message about global warming at the Cannes Film Festival.

The heartthrob has made a film, the 11th Hour, warning that human beings face extinction as a result of the environmental crisis.

At a press conference in the South of France following the screening, The Blood Diamond actor, 32, attacked US President George Bush, saying: "It's very simple. He's done very little for the environmental movement."

The Titanic star's latest film, which he narrates, follows another environmental warming documentary by former US Presidential candidate Al Gore, shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

DiCaprio defended Gore from criticism over the amount of energy he has been reportedly using to jet around the world and to run his home.

Don't shoot the messenger", he said. "This person is trying to relay a message to the public and
the way that he travels should not be splayed out like that."

DiCaprio said it should be oil companies that came under scrutiny and that the Government should make systematic change.

The US star said he took steps in his own life to reduce global warming, telling the famous film festival: "I do try to live my life in a green manner. I have installed solar panels in my house and the car that I drive is a hybrid one.

"But it's more about the day-to-day things, being conscious about being a consumer, about looking to endorse green technology. People ask, 'what can a hybrid car do?' It's not about that. It's about being a consumer, the choices you make everyday."

:: U2 star Bono missed a press conference in Cannes set up to promote his new 3D film of the band's concert footage. The singer was still expected to perform later even though he was too late for the planned press conference.

Former President Carter Calls Bush Administration Worst In History And He Should Know Because His Stunk

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the 39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions. "The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me."

Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed his comments to The Associated Press on Saturday and declined to elaborate. He spoke while promoting his new audiobook series, "Sunday Mornings in Plains," a collection of weekly Bible lessons from his hometown of Plains, Ga.

"Apparently, Sunday mornings in Plains for former President Carter includes hurling reckless accusations at your fellow man," said Amber Wilkerson, Republican National Committee spokeswoman. She said it was hard to take Carter seriously because he also "challenged Ronald Reagan's strategy for the Cold War."

Carter came down hard on the Iraq war.

"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered," he said. "But that's been a radical departure from all previous administration policies."

Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or directly refuted" every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as environmental efforts by other presidents.

Carter also offered a harsh assessment for the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helped religious charities receive $2.15 billion in federal grants in fiscal year 2005 alone.

"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."

Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer, described Carter's comments as unprecedented.

"This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an American president," Brinkley said. "When you call somebody the worst president, that's volatile. Those are fighting words."

Carter also lashed out Saturday at British prime minister Tony Blair. Asked how he would judge Blair's support of Bush, the former president said: "Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient."

"And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world," Carter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Editor's Note: Carter is like the bitter hag who won't go away or shut up. What was so great about his lackluster administration? The peanut jokes? I know most of you hate, Bush, but you better wait until the smoke clears before you pass your final judgment on his administration. Anything can happen this year and probably will. So I wouldn't be so swift to write this administration off.

MONSTER! 'Shrek 3' Fairy Tale $39M Fri; On Track For Biggest 'Toon Opening Ever; May Boast 3rd Biggest Opening Wkd Ever

SATURDAY AM: I'm told Shrek The Third is heading to a whopping $125 million-$130 million opening weekend. The Dreamworks Animation 'toon starring Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz earned $39.1 million Friday from 4,122 theaters. Either way, the threequel is way bigger than Shrek 2 and on its way to becoming the biggest 'toon opening ever. Yet the movie received awful "Shrek The Drek" reviews: out of 115 reviews on RottenTomatoes.com, 65 were spoiled. But there was pent-up demand for a fresh kiddie pic, and at only 93 minutes running time not only could theaters get in a lot of screenings but both parents and offspring could sit through the film without too much squirming. Weather will be a factor this weekend with rain expected on the East Coast. But the summer movie season is shaping up as a sizzler: if Shrek The Third's numbers hold, it could boast the 3rd biggest opening weekend of all time behind Spidey 3 and Pirates 2. DreamWorks Animation and Paramount continued lowering expectations: after saying all week they expected only a $90 mil Friday-to-Saturday opening, today the two studios were projecting only a $122.9 million weekend. It announced its take as $907K for Thursday and $38.1M for Friday. But rival studios were projecting the much higher closing weekend total. "The whole weekend equation comes down to today," an exec said, citing the all-important Saturday matinee factor for kiddie fare. Given the phenomenal box office performances of Spidey and Shrek, it's little wonder why studios keep churning out sequels. (Refresh for latest.)

Still hot in second place, Sony's Spider-Man 3 started its third week out doing $8M Friday for what should be a $26.5M weekend after expanding slightly into 4,324 venues. After that, the Top 10 movie numbers look anemic. Fox Atomic's 28 Weeks Later placed third, making $1.6 mil from 2,305 playdates for what should be a $5 mil weekend. DreamWorks / Paramount's Disturbia, even at the start of its sixth week playing, took in another $1.2 mil from 2,547 theaters for 4th place. It has a new cume of $68.8 mil and an expected $3.6 mil weekend. Universal's Georgia Rule scored #5 with $1.1 mil from 2,531 venues; projected is a $3.5 mil weekend. New Line's Fracture hangs in starting five weeks out for 6th place with $650K from 1,607 playdates and what should be a $2.4 mil weekend. Lionsgate's Delta Farce limped into 7th place, making $575K from 1,931 theaters for what could be just a $1.8 mil weekend. Disney's The Invisible starting its 4th week playing barely registering with $415K from 1,378 playdates for the 8th spot; expect a $1.5 mil weekend. Focus Feature's Hot Fuzz takes 9th making $365K from 973 theaters; a $1.3 mil weekend is projected. And, rounding out the Top 10, Paramount's Next eked out $300K from 1,008 venues and should take in $900K this weekend.

FRIDAY PM: I'm told that tomorrow's Shrek The Third matinees "are looking as big as Shrek 2's" which bodes well for the critically panned but reviewer proof 'toon. (Remember, the marketing campaign should have been, "Parents, it's only 93 minutes long!") DreamWorks Animation / Paramount say they're "on track for" a $90M weekend, though box office gurus tell me it'll be higher at $100M to $110M. Shrek 2 opened to $108M in 2004 in 4,223 theaters. But Dreamworks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg is busy at the Cannes Film Festival downplaying talk of record ticket sales for his 'toon. The studio told me today it made $900,000 from Thursday night in supposedly "limited" release which it didn't report. But rival studios put the number at $1M to $1.2M.

Paris Hilton -- The Incarceration Will Not Be Televised

Contributed by Anthony Gilpin - Posted: May 5, 2007 3:09:42 PM

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In the young life of this blog, this is my first comment on the subject of Paris Hilton, and doing so now may be seen as participating in a media pile-on. But Hilton is a public figure who has chosen to make a sitcom out of her life. The following comment constitutes a review of a recent performance:

Paris Hilton pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving. She then violated her probation by driving with a suspended license. For most of us, such behavior would draw a punishment prescribed by law, and even our friends would be hard-pressed to feel sorry for us.

On Friday, a California judge told Hilton that she would serve 45 days in jail in Lynwood, Calif. The judge further stipulated that Hilton would not be allowed to pay to serve her sentence in nicer, private jail. There would be no electronic monitoring, no work release, no furloughs. For 45 days, she will star in "The Simple Life - live and unscripted."

And untelevised.

Announcing his intention to appeal, Hilton's lawyer Howard Weitzman said he thought the judge had singled Hilton out for harsh punishment because of who she is.

If that's true, it's sauce for the goose because Hilton singles herself out from society. Her reality TV show - everything about her public life, really - sends the not-very subtle message: I'm rich and I'm cute, and if I am a public nuisance, you are required to find it amusing.

I'm more inclined to think the judge acted in the hope that 45 days of sitting in an isolation cell*, eating prison food, wearing a canvas jumpsuit and having others decide when she can bathe will make clear to Paris Hilton that what she did is wrong.. Paying a fine she can well afford, or turning this incident into another 30 minutes of quality television won't do the trick.

I wish Paris well, I really do. For her sake, I hope she learns from this experience.

*in Los Angeles County, celebrity inmates are segregated from the general jail population for their own safety.

WHAT A WIDE, WIDE, WIDE, WIDE WEB! 'SPIDEY 3' SPINNING BIGGEST U.S. AND WORLDWIDE WEEKEND OPENING EVER!

From Deadline Hollywood:

SUNDAY AM: I can report that Spider-Man 3 will likely shatter box office records today. With Friday's $59+ million and Saturday's estimated $48+ million in U.S. box office, and its Asia and Europe blowout performance, the Sony mega-blockbuster looks to be spinning the biggest U.S. and worldwide weekend movie opening of all time. This would be a historic Hollywood moment and sensational start to the summer movie season. Expect a figure for U.S. gross around $140 million for Friday through Sunday, and for a global gross better than $255 million by today. This comes after Spidey 3 on Friday already set the biggest U.S. opening day record and scored the highest single day global gross.

SATURDAY AM: Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) bested Jack Sparrow (aka Johnny Depp) at the box office Friday. I'm told Spider-Man 3 beat Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 for the biggest U.S. opening day ever in film history. The threequel shattered the $55.8 million mark set by P2 last year and took in $59 million. Based on the first day's performance, the studio believes the film will delivers in the +/- range of $135 mil to $145 mil for its first three days of release. A better estimate will emerge Sunday morning when the studio will release its full report with exit surveys and international figures to date. In addition, Sony estimated that SM3 grossed approximately $104 million worldwide yesterday, the highest single day gross in global box office history. The film delivered $45 million Friday in overseas ticket sales. This opening weekend, SM3 will definitely make more than SM1 ($114.8 mil) or SM2 ($88.1 mil) at U.S. theaters. "Today's early returns have been staggering," an insider explained to me Friday night. (FYI: Pirates 2 did $55.8 mil on its Friday bow, then did $44 mil on Saturday.) Domestic box office looks to be up over 60% from the same weekend last year when Mission Impossible 3 kicked off the summer movie season with a $47.7 mil gross for the first weekend in May. "So far, Hollywood's high stakes gamble is paying off," one studio exec told me today: this will be the highest grossing summer in Hollywood history, with predictions of $4.5 billion box office. Peter Parker set house records at several theaters across the country where sell-outs were common throughout the day Friday. The two highest grossing theaters in North America were the Lincoln Square (which includes an IMAX theater) in New York, which took in $158,158, and the Arclight in Los Angeles, which reported $144,926 worth of ticket sales. This is the first word of how the webbed wonder would fare in domestic box office as opposed to foreign where Spidey 3 set new records in Asia and Europe. Sony execs were unnerved by the only so-so reviews of the pic in this country -- that is, until more than 300 of the approximate 1,000 midnight showings Sony arranged with U.S. theaters Friday AM sold out online at Fandango, which sells movie tickets to more than 15,000 U.S. screens. And let's not forget that SM3 will be shown in 4,252 theaters, the widest release ever.

Now, back to those reviews: according to RottenTomatoes.com, of the 143 reviews counter, "Fresh" were 89, "Rotten" were 54, making the average rating: 6.2/10. Among that site's "Cream of the Crop" most influential reviewers, only 45% gave the pic a good review for an average rating of 5.6/10. So I went back and looked at Rotten Tomatoes' final tally for Pirates 2, last summer's highly anticipated blockbuster that also received only so-so feedback: of the 204 reviews counter, "Fresh" were 110, "Rotten" were 94, making the average rating 6/10. Among Cream of the Crop, only 42% gave the pic a good review for an average ratings of 5.3/10. But P2 went on to make $423.3 mil domestically in 4,133 theaters so the reviews didn't matter. As for Spider-Man 1, its final domestic tally was $403.7 mil, and SM2 $373.5 mil.

As if anyone cares, the only other major movie opening Friday was Warner Bros' Lucky You, a 2-year-old pic directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana and dumped opposite SM3. The poker pic only managed 6th place with $925K Friday from 2,525 theaters. The per screen average was an empty $366. Given that I'm told the film cost $58 million, plus another $34 million in promotion and advertising, this is a major wipeout for Warner Bros since the pic will probably make less than $3 mil its opening weekend. (Only comforted by the fact that it was co-financed with Village Roadshow). Money guys tell me the writedown should be around $40 million.

Editor's Note: Thanks to Nikki Finke for this report. I saw a 9:20 am showing of "Spiderman 3" and had a great time. I had a $6 ticket which wasn't bad but the $3.75 bottle of water made me regret not bringing more of my own bottled water. The candy at $3.75 is just highway robbery. My point, the rip-off price of concession food makes going to the movie prohibitive and the experience unnecessary. Home theater has to be the future because the movie theater experience is not satisfying for some of us. I even tried to fill my empty bottle with water from the fountain and when I held the bottle up to the light (because I suspected that the fountain water was tainted) only to see my bottle filled with a yellow cloudy substance. What a rip-off. And that's the essence of the movie going experience.