(Los Angeles Times) American history triumphed at the British film awards Sunday, with the Iran-hostage thriller “Argo” winning best picture and directing laurels for Ben Affleck, and the actor Daniel Day-Lewis nabbing a trophy for his star turn in the acclaimed biopic “Lincoln.”

The musical-turned-movie “Les Misérables” reaped the most BAFTAs with four, including one for Anne Hathaway, who added to her Oscar momentum by being named supporting actress for her portrayal of the ravaged Fantine.

Eighty-five-year-old Emmanuelle Riva of France earned the lead actress award for her role as an aging wife in “Amour,” and Austrian-born Christoph Waltz won his second supporting actor BAFTA for his scene-stealing performance as a bounty hunter in “Django Unchained.”

Overall, “Argo” won three awards, and “Lincoln” took home just one prize out of the pack-leading 10 nominations it had received. The two films headed into Sunday evening’s glittering ceremony in London as the ones to beat in the big categories.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts followed other industry organizations in recognizing Affleck’s directing in spite — or because — of his snub for an Oscar nomination. The auditorium erupted in a loud cheer when his name was called.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Rolling Stone) Sunday night’s Grammy Awards drew 28.12 million viewers, a 29.5 percent drop from the record-breaking CBS telecast in 2012. (Viewers between 18 and 49 also dropped 27 percent.) The decline was no surprise – last year, the extraordinary circumstances of Whitney Houston’s unexpected death a day before the show led to a hastily arranged tribute starring Jennifer Hudson. Still, the numbers for this year’s 55th annual ceremony were strong, as the live broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles landed its second-best TV ratings since 1993.

Albums may not sell the way they did 20 years ago, but the record industry’s star power remains surprisingly resilient, and the broadcast nicely mixed established names with rising talent and drama both manufactured and poignant. The world’s two best-selling pop stars, Taylor Swift (in a circus-like opening performance of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”) and Adele (whose acceptance speech for Best Pop Vocal Performance for a live version of “Set Fire to the Rain” was far briefer and less all-encompassing than last year), were present, of course. So were veterans such as Mumford & Sons, Justin Timberlake and Kelly Clarkson.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Politico) Rocker Ted Nugent, a vocal critic of President Barack Obama, will attend the State of the Union on Tuesday night.

Nugent will be a guest of Texas GOP Rep. Steve Stockman, who suggested impeaching the president over gun control last month.

“I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama,” Stockman said in a press release.  “After the Address I’m sure Ted will have plenty to say.”

Stockman’s office encouraged reporters to schedule interviews with Nugent.

Last year, Nugent drew the attention of the Secret Service when he said, “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(MTV) The “Star Wars” community mourned the loss of one of their own this week. Creature effects artist Stuart Freeborn, who was instrumental in the process of designing iconic characters including Yoda and Jabba the Hutt, has died. He was 98.

The effects artist was already a hot commodity when George Lucas launched his science fiction saga, having made a name for himself with “Doctor Strangelove” and the ape-filled “Dawn of Man” sequence in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” But Freeborn will be best remembered for his work on the “Star Wars” films, particularly the creation of Yoda, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Freeborn himself.

“Stuart was already a makeup legend when he started on Star Wars,” Lucas said of Freeborn’s passing in a statement posted at StarWars.com. “He brought with him not only decades of experience, but boundless creative energy.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Los Angeles Times) Melissa McCarthy stole the show at the box office this weekend, proving she has the star power to attract moviegoers to theaters even during a blizzard.

“Identity Thief,” her comedy co-starring Jason Bateman, easily ran away with the weekend’s No. 1 spot as it debuted with a robust $36.6 million, according to an estimate from distributor Universal Pictures. That was far more than the weekend’s only other nationwide opener, “Side Effects,” started off with. The Steven Soderbergh-directed thriller — which the filmmaker has said is his last movie to hit the big screen — took in an underwhelming $10 million on its first weekend in theaters.

Despite industry concerns that a huge winter storm would keep East Coasters away from the box office, “Identity Thief” took in about $10 million more on its opening weekend than pre-release audience polling had suggested. That’s the biggest opening of the year thus far, beating Universal’s “Mama,” the horror film that debuted with $28.4 million in January. Overall, however, ticket sales declined a major 45% compared with the same three-day period last year, when Valentine’s Day-related movies opened over the weekend.

In “Identity Thief,” Melissa McCarthy stars as a gregarious criminal who steals the credit card information of a man played by Bateman. Though critics loathed the picture — the New York Observer’s Rex Reed even snarking about McCarthy’s weight in his review — those who saw the movie this weekend didn’t hate it. The opening weekend crowd — 57% of whom were over the age of 30 — assigned the film an average grade of B, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Rolling Stone) Rock & roll had a big night at the 55th Grammy Awards, where Fun., Gotye and Mumford & Sons took home major awards, and an all-star tribute to Levon Helm of the Band was a centerpiece of the show.

Mumford & Sons won Album of the Year for Babel, which the band said came as a surprise. “We figured we weren’t going to win anything, because the Black Keys have been sweeping up all day, and deservedly so,” said Marcus Mumford, who also led his band through “I Will Wait” and helped anchor the Levon Helm tribute.

He wasn’t kidding about the Black Keys: the rockers won Best Rock Album for El Camino and Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance for “Lonely Boy.” They also performed the song, adding a New Orleans twist with piano from Dr. John in a full feathered headdress and a punchy burst of brass from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach also won Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) for his work on Dr. John’s Locked Down and other albums.

Fun. won Best New Artist and Song of the Year for “We Are Young.” Singer Nate Ruess was self-deprecating about the tune in his acceptance speech. “I don’t know what I was thinking writing the chorus for this song,” he said. “This is in HD and everyone can see our faces, and we are not very young. We’ve been doing this for 12 years.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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HOUSE OF CARDS (2012/NETFLIX STREAMING)  In the mood for some political intrigue? Have a current NetFlix streaming membership? Then you’re in luck, because last Friday, NetFlix released all 13 episodes of Season One of the U.S. version of a crackerjack BBC miniseries entitled “House of Cards.” NetFlix members are free to watch all 13 episodes in a sitting (so called “binge watching”), or to watch any number of episodes, in any order, as much as desired. Developed by Beau Willimon, the screenwriter for “Ides of March” and also for the first two episodes of this series, and with David Fincher as Executive Producer (and Director for Episodes 1 and 2 also), this series is top notch. Start with the casting: Kevin Spacey is spot-on as Francis (Frank) Underwood, long-serving member of the House of Representatives from the state of South Carolina and the House Majority Whip. Frank has labored long and hard in the house (for 22 years he tells us) and has been promised the position of Secretary of State as a reward for helping the current Democratic President regain election (does any of this sound familiar?), when suddenly Linda Vasquez (Sakina Jaffrey), the President’s Chief of Staff tells him he’s being passed over for the position. What?? Why? Well…the line is, “we need you more in the House to help us pass our important Education Bill.” Needless to say, Frank is mad—mad as hell, actually—and he starts the ball rolling on an elaborate plot to undermine his own Executive Branch. Joining Frank in his Machiavellian quest is his wife Claire (Robin Wright) who is every bit as scheming as Frank himself. Claire runs an NGO in D.C. dedicated to clean water, and together these two play the game beautifully. Add to the duo Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Frank’s super effective and completely amoral Assistant; Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara), a young reporter for the Washington Herald who is eager to rise the ranks and willing to leak anything to the reading public; and Rep. Peter Russo (Corey Stoll), a Philly boy with a bad past who’s easy for Frank to manipulate, and you’ve got a really great core to the story. There are loads of extra characters and plenty of plot, but the series moves right along and the production values are top notch. While some of the episodes do drag, let me say this….I had intentions of watching only one or two episodes when I turned the series on this past Saturday and the next thing I knew, I was at Episode 6 and moving forward. Of course, NetFlix makes this easy to do since they automatically boot the next episode as the credits are rolling on the last one. Clever and great viewing for any cold winter’s day, night or weekend. Enjoy and just remember, Season Two starts filming this Spring.

Grade: A

(Los Angeles Times) Celebrities walking the carpet in flashy, wild and revealing outfits has come to be an expected part of the award show experience, and the Grammys are no different.

But on the heels of a Super Bowl broadcast that included the game MVP dropping an f-bomb on national television, CBS executives have reached out to those attending music’s biggest night with a simple directive: cover up.

According to an emailed “Wardrobe Advisory” sent by the network’s Standards and Practices committee — first obtained and reported by Deadline –  the network wants all breasts and buttocks to be covered.

“Thong type costumes are problematic,” reads the email. “Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack. Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic.”

CBS executives, seemingly concerned with the potential of wardrobe malfunctions, also caution against sheer see-through clothing, which could “possibly expose female breast nipples.”

In addition to the warnings against cleavage and “puffy bare skin exposure” near the genitals, the email also spells out — in capital letters — that obscenity on clothing is unacceptable. Clothing that contains writing in foreign languages will be required to be cleared, the email says.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(The Hollywood Reporter) The one-hour send-off, which will also include the 200th episode, will air Thursday, May 16 at 9 p.m.

The Office boss Greg Daniels told reporters that the series’ endgame began playing out in the Jan. 24 episode. ”[It's] the beginning of the end when we start to see what’s going on with this documentary — you’ll see behind the scenes and who’s involved,” he said at the time.

Familiar faces will be back in the ninth and final season, though it is unlikely Steve Carell will return.

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(Amoeba Records) Since Monday rumors had been circulating via Twitter and Facebook that legendary trumpeter Donald Byrd  had passed away but for the past few days none of these reports of the jazz musician and educator extraordinaire’s passing were confirmed and even considered some kind of cruel hoax. However today all those rumors were put to rest when confirmation of Byrd’s passing was announced by the artist’s nephew Alex Bugnon who said via Facebook and emails that his 80 year uncle had indeed died on Monday, February 4th, adding that for some reason other family members were trying to shroud his passing in secrecy. “I have no more patience for this unnecessary shroud of secrecy placed over his death by certain members of his immediate family,” wrote his nephew. So far the exact cause of death has not been made public and, note, there has been no other confirmation beyond Bugnon’s of Byrd’s passing.

Born Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II in Detroit, Michigan in December 1932 Donald Bryd was a one of a kind trumpeter whose work spanned several decades and genres. Byrd was known for not only for his indelible work in jazz (in a career in which he played alongside the likes of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, and Herbie Hancock), but also in RnB, soul, and funk. And of course hip-hop fans know his work from the countless times it has been sampled. Large Professor, Organized Konfusion, Black Moon, The Pharcyde, Nas, Public Enemy, Madlib, and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien are among the many that sampled him along with fellow late great Detroit artist  J Dilla was who clearly influenced by Byrd: Byrd’s song “Think Twice” (below) was reworked/sampled by Dilla (whose 39th birthday would have been today) on the Welcome 2 Detroit track “Think Twice feat Dwele.” Furthermore the once popular acid jazz movement heavily built upon its sound via Byrd’s work. In recent decades Byrd was known as an educator lecturing at numerous institutions on music.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Pitchfork) In May of last year, Built to Spill confirmed that the then in-process followup to 2009′s There Is No Enemy would be released in 2013 via Warner Bros. Now, the band has announced North American tour dates extending from February to May, including an appearance at the Sasquatch festival. No word about the new album yet, though.

The tour will feature a new lineup for Built to Spill. Drummer Steve Gere will replace Scott Plouf, while bassist Jason Albertini will replace Brett Nelson. A press release notes that “the shift in line up is completely amicable.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(The Hollywood Reporter) ABC has unloaded all of its advertising inventory for the 85th Annual Academy Awards, which will be broadcast live on Feb. 24. The network has been booking up to $1.8 million for a 30-second spot, up slightly compared to last year’s $1.7 million.

Jay Rasulo, senior executive vp and CFO of The Walt Disney Company, told reporters and analysts on the company’s earnings call Tuesday that this year’s Oscar-cast achieved its best selling pace in more than a decade, with most spots sold out by Christmas. ABC has yet to reveal which advertisers have booked spots in this year’s show, but traditional sponsors JC Penney and Hyundai are expected to be back again this year, while AdAge reports that tech rivals Samsung and Apple also have purchased spots.

The Academy raised eyebrows when it selected Seth MacFarlane, known for risque animated comedies on Fox, to host this year’s telecast. And that unorthodox choice may have generated more interest in the show this year.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(MTV) It stands to reason that performing the halftime show
 at the highest rated Super Bowl ever might lead to a sales bump. And for Beyoncé that meant a download explosion for 16 of her songs, as well as the charting of no less than 12 solo and DC albums on iTunes.

The biggest bounce was for Bey’s most recent album, 4, which jumped up to #12 on the iTunes album chart, followed by the DC hits collection #1s at #42, her solo debut, Dangerously In Love (#45), 2008′s I Am … Sasha Fierce deluxe edition (#60), the deluxe version of 4 (#64), another DC hits comp, Playlist: The Very Best of Destiny’s Child (#68) and the original version of I Am … Sasha Fierce (#79).

Other charting albums include: the trio’s The Writing’s On The Wall (#97) and Love Songs (#99), Bey’s 2006 solo effort B’Day (#100), DC’s 2004 swan song, Destiny Fulfilled (#166) and their 2001 album Survivor (#195).

At press time, 16 singles were also on the iTunes singles charts, led by “Halo” (#17), then “Crazy In Love,” (#37), “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It),” (#39), “Love On Top,” (#55), “Say My Name” (#96), “Baby Boy” (#101), “End of Time” (#104), “Independent Women, Pt. 1,” (#109), “Bootylicious,” (#112), “Run The World (Girls),” (#129), “If I Were A Boy,” (#141), “Countdown,” (#147), “Irreplaceable,” (#148), “Survivor” (#157), “Dance For You” (#187) and “Jumpin’ Jumpin’” (#192).

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Deadline) After a long search, Marvel Studios has found its lead for its next big superhero franchise, the James Gunn-directed Guardians Of The Galaxy. I hear the role will go to Chris Pratt, the Moneyball star who bulked up and played one of the hero Navy SEALs in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. The role is Star-Lord, the Guardians leader who is the offspring of a human mother and an alien father. A puffier Pratt plays Andy Dwyer on the NBC series Parks And Recreation. He certainly has the charisma to hold the screen.

Marvel had made test deals with Zero Dark Thirty‘s Joel Edgerton, Boardwalk Empire‘s Jack Huston, Cloud Atlas‘ Jim Sturgess, Lee Pace (who has roles in both Lincoln and The Hobbit), and Eddie Redmayne from Les Miserables.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(The New York Times) A Los Angeles prosecutor told a judge on Tuesday there is no credible evidence that the singer Chris Brown completed the community service he was ordered to do as part of his sentence for assaulting Rihanna four years ago, The Associated Press reported.

In court papers, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office requested that Mr. Brown’s probation be revoked and that he be ordered to repeat six months of manual labor in Los Angeles to comply with his sentence.

The motion also cited several violent outbursts by Mr. Brown that have not led to arrests or charges to support the motion to revoke his probation. Among those incidents was a fight last month between Mr. Brown and Frank Ocean over a parking space. An investigator’s report included in the motion said Mr. Ocean had told the police that Mr. Brown had threatened to shoot him during the fistfight.

The court motion said records submitted by the police in Richmond, Va., where Mr. Brown claimed to have completed his sentence, were full of discrepancies and showed the singer had been unsupervised for most of the time.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Rolling Stone) It’s official: Kristen Wiig will be part of the much-anticipated sequel Anchorman: The Legend Continues, director Adam McKay let slip on Facebook with the note, “Couldn’t be more excited.”

The Bridesmaids and former Saturday Night Live star will join Will Ferrell and the rest of the cast from the original Anchorman, including Christina Appelgate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and Dave Koechner.

While there’s no official word on what role Wiig will play, earlier reports of her  possible involvement in the movie cast her as a love interest for Carell’s beloved doofus of a weatherman, Brick Tamland.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

AMOUR (2012)  “Bittersweet”—that’s the best word to describe this loving and realistic portrait of a Parisian married couple in their 80s, whose cultured life is coming to an end. Anne and Georges (Emmanuelle Riva and Jean Louis Trintignant, both in their 80s in real life) live in their well worn but elegant apartment–a home filled with books and paintings, lovely carpets and simple furniture. They ride the subway home from a concert where Anne’s former student, now a famous classical pianist, has mesmerized an audience. Life appears to be a comfortable duet. Yet the next morning, everything changes. Anne freezes at the table, after presenting Georges with his traditional soft-boiled egg.  She is gone for several minutes but returns, though unable to pour her tea. When we see Anne again, she is home from the hospital but is paralyzed on her right side, “bad luck” after a fairly routine medical procedure. Responding to her urgent and stern request, Georges promises she will never visit a hospital again. And so it begins. For anyone who has cared for an elderly parent, friend or relative, this movie will look so familiar. It doesn’t matter that this is France—it could be anywhere. The rest of the film is a day-to-day look at the continuing slide in physical capacity for one person plus the devotion and challenges of the caretaker. Georges and Anne are clearly devoted to one another. Though they have a daughter, Eva (Isabelle Huppert), she lives overseas and has her own challenges. Her father tells her she is no help and this is true. She is outside the routine and habit that these two have built over many years. It is difficult to explain just how powerful this film is—it moves slowly, befitting the subject. And while my friend and I came ready with tons of Kleenex, we didn’t need them. The end is inevitable and both face it as they must, still with love for one another. Up for five Oscars–  Best Picture, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay—this film is already the winner of the 2012 Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It was written and directed by Michael Haneke who also gave us The White Ribbon, Cache, The Piano Teacher and many more. French audiences are thrilled to see two of their favorite actors back on screen and so magnificent. Maybe you remember Jean Louis Trintignant in “A Man and A Woman”—so handsome. I remember Emmanuelle Riva well from “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” Beautiful and sad, even then. Amour is just what it’s title says–a portrait of love. Be sure to see it.

Grade: A

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(The New York Times) Frank Ocean has published an online message suggesting that he will not press charges against Chris Brown in connection with a brawl the two singers had in a parking lot last week. In a paragraph on his Web sitethat did not mention Mr. Brown or the fight, Mr. Ocean wrote: “I’ll choose sanity. No criminal charges. No civil lawsuit. Forgiveness, albeit difficult, is wisdom.”

On Jan. 27, Mr. Brown and Mr. Ocean, who are both nominated for the best urban contemporary album Grammy, were involved in a fight over a parking space outside a West Hollywood studio. The police say there are witnesses who saw Mr. Brown punch Mr. Ocean during a melee involving other men from their entourages.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Digital Music News) This is what the war between the music industry and Google now looks like.  Because by law, Google doesn’t have to remove anything from Search without a proper takedown notice.  But they do have to act when the notice arrives, even if there are millions of them.

See the new strategy, here?  As of this morning, the RIAA has now sent a collective 10,000,000 takedown demands, for member labels Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment.

This is the latest official DMCA takedown report from Google (updated January 31st).

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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(Rolling Stone) Now that Vampire Weekend has decided on a name and a release date for their next album (Modern Vampires of the City, due May 7th), the New York indie-rockers have plotted a spring tour to go with it. After performing at SXSW in March, Vampire Weekend hit the road April 12th in Las Vegas and wrap up May 23rd in Portland, Oregon.

The musicians took their time recording the follow-up to their 2010 LP Contra. ”There was a certain point where we kind of knew deep down that it didn’t quite feel right,” frontman Ezra Koenig told Rolling Stone last month about the long awaited follow up to Contra. “We tried all different ways of working . . . little by little, until we reached a point where we could feel awesome about every song.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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