Month: March 2018

Hollywood crowns its best and its worst this weekend. On Saturday, the Golden Raspberry Awards (or Razzies) were “awarded” to the worst movies while another, more serious fete recognized achievement in independent film. On Sunday the 90th Annual Academy Awards – better known as the Oscars – will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

“The Emoji Movie” took top honors with the Worst Picture prize at the Razzie awards on Saturday, a gag award given by a group of Hollywood industry insiders known as the Golden Raspberry Foundation. The first full-length animation film to win the Worst Picture award, “The Emoji Movie” also scored wins for worst screenplay, worst director, and worst screen combo. 

Watch the Golden Raspberry Awards:

Tom Cruise was selected as Worst Actor for his work in “The Mummy,” while Tyler Perry – a male actor whose most famous character is a woman named Madea – got Best Actress for “Boo 2! A Madea Halloween.” Hollywood long-timers Mel Gibson and Kim Basinger took the Razzies for supporting roles in “Daddy’s Home 2” and “Fifty Shades Darker.”

A new Razzie category debuted this year: The Razzie Nominee So Rotten You Loved It. The winner was “Baywatch,” a movie about Los Angeles County lifeguards. The winner is selected by the general public through an online poll.

The Golden Raspberry Foundation also posted a tongue-in-cheek “In Memoriam” video – a parody of the Academy Awards’ annual remembrance of those who died in the past year – that highlighted men in the entertainment industry accused of sexual harassment. While suggesting their careers have died because of the allegations, the video ends by saying “We Won’t Be Missing You.” 

Also Saturday, the independent film industry took its awards ceremony to the beach, in a free-wheeling afternoon party meant to contrast sharply with the pomp of the Oscars ceremony the following night. 

The Film Independent Spirit Awards gave top directing honors to comedian Jordan Peele for “Get Out,” a horror comedy exploring relations between blacks and whites in modern-day America.

Best International Film went to director Sebastian Lelio of Chile, for “A Fantastic Woman,” a murder mystery centered on a transgender woman. 

Greta Gerwig won Best Screenplay for the coming-of-age story “Lady Bird,” which features a mother and daughter at odds with each other. Gerwig also directed the film.

And the award for Best First Screenplay, a separate category, went to Pakistani-American comic Kumail Nanjiani for “The Big Sick,” a semi-autobiographical romance.

On Sunday, the red carpets will be out for Hollywood’s biggest night, the Academy Awards. Among the frontrunners for Best Picture are Spanish director Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy “The Shape of Water,” Christopher Nolan’s historical picture “Dunkirk,” and Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” Peele’s “Get Out” and Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” are also among the contenders.
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Maybe it was destiny for a movie with a pile of poop as a central character.

 

“The Emoji Movie” has received Hollywood’s most famous frown, the Razzie Award , for worst picture of 2017, making it the first animated feature in 38 years to earn the top dishonor.   

 

“Leading this year’s list of movie-misfires is the emoticon-based, talking poop opus,” the Razzies said in a statement announcing the recipients, saying the film came in a year when “Hollywood’s recycled trash heap attained an all-time high” and saw a “toxic-level lack of originality.”  

 

The annual awards bestowed on the worst the movie business has to offer were announced Saturday in their traditional spot, the day before the Academy Awards.  

 

“The Emoji Movie” landed four of the 10 Razzies given out this year, also taking worst screenplay, worst director, and worst screen combo, which was given to “any two obnoxious emojis” from the movie.

 

Tom Cruise’s attempted reboot of the “Mummy” franchise landed him worst actor. He now has no Oscars after three nominations, but two Razzies. Cruise and Brad Pitt won for worst screen couple for 1994’s “Interview with the Vampire.”   

 

Tyler Perry took worst actress for “Boo 2! A Madea Halloween,” the director’s 10th time donning a dress and playing his signature white-wigged matriarch.

 

Kim Basinger took worst supporting actress for “Fifty Shades Darker,” putting her in the special company of Faye Dunaway, Liza Minelli and Halle Berry as actresses who have won both a Razzie and an Oscar.  

 

Mel Gibson, who last year won the “Redeemer” award for getting an Oscar nomination just a few years after getting a Razzie nomination, is back at the bottom again as far as the Razzies are concerned, taking worst supporting actor for “Daddy’s Home 2.”

 

“Baywatch,” won the inaugural “Special Rotten Tomatoes Award: The Razzie Nominee So Bad You Loved It!” The award is the result of an online poll held in conjunction with the review site Rotten Tomatoes.

 

The rest of the Razzie Awards are determined by what the organization says are over 1,000 voting Razzie members in 27 countries and from every U.S. state except Montana.

 
 
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About half a million people are expected to line Sydney’s streets Saturday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the first time the annual parade has taken place since Australia legalized same-sex marriage.

The event started in 1978 as a protest march for gay rights and the decriminalization of homosexuality but has since grown into a major tourist spectacle featuring leather, sequins, glitter, lasers and dance music. It is now Sydney’s biggest street party and a major focal point for Australia’s gay and lesbian community.

This year’s procession includes 200 floats and groups of street dancers and will be headed by Dykes on Bikes, a motorcycle club.

Pop superstar Cher will headline the parade’s official party.

Same-sex marriage legalized

Australians overwhelmingly endorsed legalizing same-sex marriage in a postal survey in a country where sodomy laws were still in place in some states until as recently as the 1990s.

This year’s Mardi Gras will honor the 78ers, a group of people involved in the original protest, which took place June 24, 1978, as a peaceful march for gay rights that sparked the annual parade.

That protest was marred by police brutality with 53 people arrested in subsequent scuffles. Police have since apologized for the events of 1978 and now march each year in the parade alongside other emergency services.

Changing attitudes

Bruce Pollack, a Mardi Gras volunteer since 1984, said the parade has played a major role in changing attitudes toward the LGBT community over the decades.

“I was involved in the gay and lesbian counseling service … you would always hear young gays, and older gays, and much older gays say ‘it’s OK to come out because I saw people like me in the parade enjoying themselves — and there were spectators,’” Pollack told Reuters. “It was Mardi Gras that made it OK to be gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender.”
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Washington’s cherished cherry tree blossoms signal the unofficial start of spring in the nation’s capital, and it looks like it’s coming a bit early this year. 

The National Park Service announced Thursday that the projected peak date for the blossoms along the Tidal Basin would be March 17 to March 20.

Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst said April 4 is the historical average date for peak bloom, which is the day when 70 percent of the blossoms are open in trees around the Tidal Basin. 

This year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival will run from March 20 to April 15.

Considered the world’s largest U.S.-Japanese celebration, the festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki to the District of Columbia.
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We’re igniting the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending March 3, 2018.

This week’s Hot Shot Debut hit lands at No. 6 … so near, yet so far. Meanwhile, the Top Five songs hold in place for yet another week.

Number 5: Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage “Rockstar”

Post Malone and 21 Savage hold in fifth place with former title-holder “Rockstar.”

Post’s latest single “Psycho” features Ty Dolla $ign, and last weekend, Post dropped some accompanying merchandise. Three graphic long-sleeve tees can be had in gray, black or white, with each tee sporting a different graphic design … including gorillas and construction trucks. You can get them for $50 apiece at postmaloneshop.com.

Number 4: Camila Cabello Featuring Young Thug “Havana”

Camila Cabello and Young Thug stay put in fourth place with their former champ “Havana.”

Although Camila was born in Cuba, her family relocated to Miami when she was five. Camila just released a 17-minute mini-documentary titled “Made In Miami,” and you can see it right now on my Twitter page, Ray On The Hits.

Number 3: Bruno Mars & Cardi B “Finesse”

Bruno Mars and Cardi B spend another week in third place with “Finesse.” Bruno’s 24 K Magic World Tour is a roaring success. Last year, it finished fourth on Pollstar’s list of the Top 100 Worldwide Tours, behind Coldplay, Guns ‘N Roses, and U2. This year, Bruno continues to pack arenas. He’s currently in New Zealand and Australia, with Asia following in April.

Number 2: Ed Sheeran “Perfect”

Ed Sheeran’s still your man in second place with “Perfect.” The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry — IFPI for short — has named Ed the world’s best-selling recording artist of 2017.

“Divide” was the global No. 1 album, going multi-platinum in 36 markets, while “Shape Of You” took top singles honors. It went multi-platinum in 32 markets.

Number 1: Drake “God’s Plan”

The IFPI winner of 2016 — Drake — tops the Hot 100 for a fourth week with “God’s Plan.”

One of Drake’s old notebooks is up for sale … for a cool $54,000. Recovered from Drake’s grandfather’s furniture factory in Toronto, it features Drake’s signature in his real name — Aubrey Graham — along with handwritten rap lyrics. It’s available on the website MomentsInTime.com.

That’s it for now, but join us next week for another great lineup.

 
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The 46th running of Alaska’s famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicks off Saturday amid the most turbulent year ever for the annual long-distance contest that spans mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and dangerous sea ice along the Bering Sea coast.

Among the multiple problems: a champion’s dog doping scandal, the loss of major sponsor Wells Fargo, discontent among mushers and escalating pressure from animal rights activists, who say the dogs are run to death or left with serious injuries. The Iditarod has had its ups and downs over the decades, but the current storm of troubles is raising questions about the future of the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) race that for many symbolizes the contest between mortals and Alaska’s unforgiving nature.

Leo Rasmussen, one of the race’s founders, predicted the Iditarod is heading for extinction within the next few years, given an “extreme lack of organization” from its leadership.

“You can only burn so many stumps, you know, and you’re done,” he says.

Iditarod CEO Stan Hooley acknowledged organizers have weathered a dark time but disagreed the race faces an uncertain future.

“There’s always going to be an Iditarod,” he said. “I consider this more of a growing process than anything else.”

The Iditarod’s governing board disclosed in October that four dogs belonging to four-time winner Dallas Seavey tested positive for a banned substance, the opioid painkiller tramadol, after his second-place finish last March behind his father, Mitch Seavey. It faced criticism for not releasing the information sooner.

The Iditarod said it couldn’t prove Dallas Seavey administered the drugs to his dogs, and didn’t punish him. Since then, the rules have been changed to hold mushers liable for any positive drug test unless they can show something beyond their control happened.

The younger Seavey, who denied administering tramadol to his dogs, also came under scrutiny when the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a longtime race critic, complained about a kennel operated by the musher based on allegations of sick, injured or dead dogs. Local investigators said they found no evidence of animal cruelty in the matter.

Dallas Seavey is sitting out this year’s race in protest over the handling of the doping investigation. Instead, he is in Norway to participate in another sled dog race, the Finnmarkslopet, which begins March 9.

PETA protest

The deaths of five dogs connected to last year’s race also played a role in increasing pressure from animal rights activists. Three of the deaths occurred during the race, and two dogs died after being dropped from the competition. One got loose from a handler and was hit by a car, and another died as it was flown to Anchorage, likely from hyperthermia. The race went without dog deaths in several recent years. 

PETA says that for the first time, about a dozen of its members will protest the race in person at the ceremonial and competitive starts and at the finish line, in the remote coastal town of Nome. They plan to bring five headstones with the names of the dogs that died in 2017.

By PETA’s count, the dog deaths bring the total to more than 150 over the Iditarod’s history. Race officials dispute those numbers but have not provided their own despite numerous requests from The Associated Press.

“If the human participants want to race to Nome, have at it,” PETA spokeswoman Colleen O’Brien said. “But don’t force these dogs to run until their paws are bloody and they die on the trail.”

Race officials blame activists for using manipulative information to pressure corporate sponsors like Wells Fargo, a longtime backer that severed ties to the Iditarod last spring.

Mitch Seavey, who is seeking a fourth Iditarod championship, said his son is the happiest he’s seen him in months, and is reveling in heavy snow in Norway. The elder Seavey said he himself is not going to be distracted by “all the noise,” but is focusing on his dogs and the race ahead.

“There’s been a lot of craziness, but it’s the people who are insane,” he said. “The dogs aren’t crazy.”

Climate change

There’s one bright spot for organizers: Optimal trail conditions. A warming climate in recent years has caused significant disruptions, including the rerouting of the 2017 and 2015 races hundreds of miles to the north because of dangerous conditions. As always, the race will begin with the customary ceremonial start in Anchorage, but the competitive portion beginning Sunday north of Anchorage will follow a southern route for the first time since 2013. Traditionally, southern and northern routes are alternated every year.

The late timing of the Iditarod Trail Committee’s disclosure of the doping matter prompted the race’s major sponsors to commission an independent consultant late last year. The consultant’s report said the committee took months to release the information, causing concerns among many about a lack of transparency.

The consultant called on organizers to develop a plan to rebuild trust with mushers and sponsors.

“Both of these partner groups are on the verge of withdrawing their support for this race as a result of their distrust in this board,” the report states.

More recently, a group of mushers named the Iditarod Official Finishers Club has called for the resignation of the Iditarod board president and other board leaders it says have conflicts. It also has criticized the board in its handling of the doping scandal. Hooley, the race CEO, said conversations are under way to replace some members. 

Four-time winner Jeff King said he sees room for improvements after the doping controversy caught organizers “flat-footed,” and he is ready for a significant change in the board leadership. But he doesn’t believe the Iditarod is nearing the end of its lifespan, and laughs when asked about it.

“You can count on from me, and many mushers that I would bet my life on, that we will continue to do the best we can for our dogs and the event,” he said.
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President Donald Trump isn’t pleased with Alec Baldwin’s latest comment that impersonating the president is “agony,” and is suggesting Saturday Night Live replace the comedian.
 
“Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony. Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch. Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!” Trump tweeted.

Baldwin responded in a series of tweets.

“Agony though it may be, I’d like to hang in there for the impeachment hearings, the resignation speech, the farewell helicopter ride to Mara-A-Lago [sic]. You know. The Good Stuff. That we’ve all been waiting for.”
 
Baldwin also tweeted that he was “Looking forward to the Trump Presidential Library” and suggested that it would contain a live Twitter feed and “a little black book w the phone numbers of porn stars.” In a third tweet, he asked that first lady Melania Trump stop calling him to ask for tickets to “Saturday Night Live.”
 
Baldwin, a Democratic activist, received an Emmy award for his running parody last year on Saturday Night Live, or SNL. But he tells The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn’t enjoy it: “Every time I do it now, it’s like agony. Agony. I can’t.”

The comedian joked that if Trump wins in 2020 he might “host a game show in Spain.”

 
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There’s a new library in Kabul, Afghanistan, but this one has wheels, part of a wider plan to promote reading and literacy for the children and teenagers of Kabul. As VOA’s Sayed Hasib Maududi reports, those who want to read a good book just need to look for the blue bus. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Andre Soukhamthath, the Lao-American MMA fighter with a big match in Las Vegas this weekend, stumbled into fighting. He’d dreamed of playing soccer and even had college scholarships based on his potential as a goalkeeper.

But his then girlfriend, now his wife Jamie, got pregnant and Soukhamthath decided he needed to work rather than study. A gym down the street from his job beckoned, and a friend suggested he might enjoy boxing.

From the first session, “I was addicted to it,” Soukhamthath said. “I didn’t miss a day.”

Boxing led to Mixed Martial Arts, and when Jamie gave birth to the couple’s first son, LeAndre, in 2007, training helped Soukhamthath process his son’s diagnosis of epidermolysis bullosa, a rare skin disease that causes extremely fragile skin and blistering.

​When the child died after nine months, Soukhamthath got serious about MMA, which incorporates techniques from boxing, wrestling, judo, jujitsu, karate, Muay Thai, and other disciplines.

“(LeAndre’s) the reason I started (MMA),” said Soukhamthath, who wants to go to Laos to teach MMA techniques to kids.

“If it wasn’t him being born I would never even known about Mixed Martial Arts. I would never even tried it, I was so into soccer,” Soukhamthath said.

“When I decided not to go to school, and decided just to work, then I found MMA, that’s because of him,” he said.

​Las Vegas bout

On March 3, Soukhamthath is scheduled to go into the octagon cage at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to fight Sean O’Malley, who has won all of his last nine contests.

A fight in Vegas “is a big deal,” said Adam Hill, a sportswriter with the Las Vegas Review who covers MMA.

Soukhamthath “is coming onto the scene right now,” Hill said. “He’s not a guy who people have their eye on as a potential star, but he was a champion on the regional scene and has made a pretty quick impact on the UFC.”

After losing two fights in split decisions, Soukhamthath volunteered to fight Luke Sanders in Fresno, California, after his scheduled opponent was injured. At the time, Soukhamthath faced the loss of his UFC contract, his first, signed in early 2017, but he defeated Sanders “a guy who was supposed to beat him … in a very impressive manner,” Hill said.

That win earned Soukhamthath a new UFC contract and the March 3 match is the first of five under the new agreement. But O’Malley is “a guy the UFC would like to see do well. They discovered him on one of their side project TV shows, and they’re putting a lot of money behind him. So if you beat him, you get that shine for yourself,” Hill said.

Immigrants in the ring

It’s that shine, or something like it, that attracts immigrants to the ring. 

“You really can trace social mobility among ethnic and racial groups in the United States through boxing. It starts in the 19th century with the Irish. They pretty much monopolized boxing,” Gerald Gems, professor of kinesiology emeritus at North Central Illinois College, told VOA.

Then came Jewish boxers, Italian boxers, African-American boxers, Hispanic and Latino boxers. Now there are Asians “who have controlled the lower weight classes and have for some time,” said Gems, the author of Boxing: A Concise History of Sweet Science.

Immigrants and people in the working class often have “less money and less education, so they tend to see things in a physical way,” Gems said. Status comes “through physical ability.”

Gems, who grew up working class, said “the first sport my father taught us was boxing. He knew we were going to have to fight. … Middle-class kids hire a lawyer, working-class kids fight it out.”

Any time a fighter steps into the ring, death is a possible outcome “and any fan understands that,” Gems said. “So whether they win or lose, they gain status among those who appreciate their psychological and physical courage.”

Today, “boxing seems to be a dying sport, except in Mexico and Asia,” Gems said. “MMA is much more popular.”

With fights that last three quick rounds, he said, “there’s a lot of action, and it permits different types of attacks that were involved in early boxing before more restricted rules … you can kick somebody, you can throw someone down. MMA is kind of like a rock concert … there’s a wildness aspect.”

There’s also money. MMA, according to Gems, draws a global audience with “ethnic and racial heroes. It all leads into selling more products.”

​Laos, American roots

Soukhamthath, 29, who was born in Providence, Rhode Island, is the son of two Lao immigrants, William and Chanthalangsy Soukhamthath. During the Vietnam War, his father escaped to Thailand where he took up muay Lao (Lao boxing) in a refugee camp. Soukhamthath’s mother moved to the United States with her foster family when she was a girl, leaving her parents behind and never meeting them again.

Soukhamthath is married to Jamie Soukhamthath, a Lao-American and former Miss Teen Rhode Island. They have been together for 11 years and are the parents of two children.

His MMA career is something of a family business that “started as a hobby,” said Jamie Soukhamthath, who pitches in with managerial and logistical chores. 

“I know that when Andre is determined, it becomes something bigger,” she said. “But at the time I didn’t really realize that it was going to turn into his career.”

The couple is intent on raising $50,000 to build a school in Laos, “and to give back to Laos, especially the children and Lao-American children in the United States,” Andre Soukhamthath said.

It hasn’t been easy, she said, balancing the roles of wife, mother and financial manager for her MMA fighter. 

“I definitely wear multiple hats,” said Jamie Soukhamthath, adding “I have always worked in a professional settings, so it’s easy for me to negotiate on his behalf. I don’t want him to get taken advantage of.”

Is she scared to see him in the ring? 

“No” she said. “I am very proud of him.”
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In making a documentary about disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, PBS’ Frontline wanted to focus less on what he did than on how the alleged sexual misconduct went on for so long.

“Weinstein” airs Friday on most PBS stations, two nights before the Academy Awards. Its richness comes in detailing the combination of fear, intimidation and self-interested passivity that papered over allegations of harassment and assault dating back nearly 40 years, involving the famous and obscure alike.

More than 100 women have come forward since stories about the influential film producer’s behavior were first published in The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine last fall. Weinstein has denied some of the allegations. Several women speak to Frontline, their stories unfolding with numbing similarity, usually starting with an unwanted request for a massage.

To illustrate how long this has been going on, PBS interviews two women who worked on Weinstein’s first film in the early 1980s, back when he ran a concert promotion business in Buffalo, New York. Suza Maher-Wilson and Paula Wachowiak kept their stories to themselves because they figured no one else would care, or that it typified how young women were treated in the entertainment industry.

Career suffered

Actress Sean Young said she rebuffed Weinstein when he exposed himself. “I upset a few important men and the trajectory of my career … ,” she said, her hand motioning downward.

Frontline also speaks with two former Weinstein employees, Paul Webster and Tom Prince, who illustrated with their own inaction how things continued. Webster said he knew Weinstein was a dangerous character when he took a job there in 1995. “But I knew he was in the epicenter of where I wanted to be,” he said.

Webster seems to wrestle on camera with his conscience. He said he knew of character traits of Weinstein’s that perhaps could lead to predatory behavior. Looking back, he said, “I did know and I chose to suppress it. I chose to hide from that fact.”

Prince said he heard innuendoes, and he became suspicious of why the company was spending a lot of money to fly young women around the world. But he didn’t give it much thought, primarily because he was focused on his day-to-day job.

For people not motivated to keep quiet, Weinstein had many tools at his disposal. Alleged victims signed nondisclosure agreements. Investigative companies were used; one lawyer who told Weinstein he’d heard that the mogul assaulted women was told that his own behavior had been investigated. New York authorities, despite convincing an Italian model who alleged she was groped by Weinstein to wear a wire when she met with him again, dropped their case after a sophisticated tabloid campaign to disparage her.

“I felt if you could understand that more deeply, it could have consequences beyond the Harvey Weinstein story — that it’s important and appropriate to speak out when you’re observing something that isn’t quite right,” said Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer of Frontline.

Silence remains

Several people are still reluctant to talk. Filmmakers interviewed Zelda Perkins, a former Weinstein assistant who broke a nondisclosure agreement after advocating for a friend who alleged that Weinstein assaulted her. Her friend still hasn’t spoken publicly.

In an illustration of how difficult the story was to crack, PBS talks to two well-regarded journalists — Ken Auletta of The New Yorker and Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter — who tried and failed. Auletta even confronted Weinstein about accusations made by Perkins.

“I wish I could have nailed the guy in 2002,” Auletta says in the film. “The problem was that I couldn’t prove it.”

With the self-imposed Oscars deadline, “Weinstein” came together quickly for a documentary. Some important interviews, including Webster and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, were conducted within the past two weeks, Aronson-Rath said.

PBS did not get an interview with Weinstein, but his camp specifically discusses some of the accusations discussed in the film. The documentary’s final scene was of reporters recently cornering Weinstein. “We all make mistakes. Second chance, I hope,” Weinstein said, before getting into an SUV.

It was also the first Frontline collaboration with the BBC, which was airing “Weinstein” Thursday. The organizations merged investigative teams to work faster, and the combination of the PBS and BBC names helped persuade some interview subjects to talk, she said.

“We felt that the stakes were so high in this investigation that we wanted to make sure that we were working together on all levels,” she said.
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Movements such as #OscarsSoWhite, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo have helped bring changes in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, allowing more voting members from minorities and women. As a result, audiences and critics may see the Oscars cover a wider racial and gender breadth this year. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with Giovanna Chesler, director of the Film and Video Studies Program at George Mason University, about the Oscar nominees making a difference.
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Chris Stapleton, who released two top-selling albums last year, leads the Academy of Country Music Awards with eight nominations, including his first entertainer of the year nomination.

Reba McEntire announced the nominations Thursday on “CBS This Morning” as well as her return as host for a record 15th year. The show will air April 15 from Las Vegas on CBS.

Thomas Rhett earned six nominations, Keith Urban had five nominations, and songwriter and producer Shane McAnally had five nods. Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris had four nominations each. The top category of entertainer of the year was an all-male line-up including Stapleton, Urban, Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks and Luke Bryan.

McEntire, who recently took on the role as the first female Colonel Sanders for KFC advertisements, has hosted the awards show more than anyone, dating back to 1986. She has co-hosted the show with Hank Williams Jr., Alan Jackson and Blake Shelton, and hosted solo for several years. McEntire is also nominated for female vocalist of the year.

Stapleton is nominated twice as an artist and producer for album of the year for his “From A Room: Volume 1” and single record of the year for “Broken Halos.” He is also nominated as artist and songwriter in the song of the year category for “Whiskey and You.” He is also nominated for male vocalist of the year.

Rhett’s nominations include album of the year for “Life Changes” and male vocalist of the year, which he won last year. He is also nominated for vocal event of the year with Morris for their duet “Craving You” and music video of the year.

Urban earned nominations in the categories of male vocalist, song of the year for his song “Female” and vocal event of the year.

Lambert, a perennial favorite at the ACMs, is the current record holder for most consecutive wins in the female vocalist of the year category and is currently tied with Brooks and Dunn as artists with the most awards in ACM history with 29 wins each. Lambert is nominated in female vocalist, song of the year and video of the year categories.

Morris is nominated for female vocalist and is nominated twice in the vocal event of the year category, once with Rhett and another for a duet with Vince Gill called “Dear Hate,” which was released after the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival last year.

Sam Hunt, Little Big Town and Midland all have three nominations each.
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It’s not often that a composer is asked to provide musical accompaniment to a woman having sex with a fish monster. 

It’s almost as rare that a composer is asked to conduct a big-city symphony in a performance of his movie score the same week he’s expected to win an Oscar for it.

Alexandre Desplat, whose music gave voice to the emotions of the mute couple at the center of “The Shape of Water,” embraced both tasks. 

He was one of five Academy Award nominees whose scores the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed Wednesday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall in a show designed to give usually secluded composers a rare moment in the spotlight. It was just the second such concert in the history of the academy, which celebrates its 90th anniversary with Sunday’s Oscar ceremony.

“It’s a fantastic moment for a composer to be able to come out of your studio and share the emotion,” Desplat, 56, told The Associated Press shortly before taking the stage. “It’s a great reward, especially here, with this orchestra.”

Guillermo Del Toro, who directed the film, was in attendance Wednesday night and spoke briefly to introduce Desplat to the crowd.

When Del Toro presented him with the amphibious and very adult love story, Desplat said his thought was: “Give me more sex scenes.”

And he knew what approach he wanted to take: as pure, sweeping and romantic as he would give to any passionate relationship. 

“I haven’t scored that many love stories,” Desplat said. “It’s one of my rare opportunities. There are not so many movies that are love stories anymore.”

He set aside the conductor’s baton and used only his hands to lead the orchestra in a transfixing performance of his score, a classic movie-romance with an occasional accordion that evoked his native Paris, and just the slightest nod to the movie’s supernatural themes.

While he has spent his entire career in movies, and won an Oscar for 2014’s “Grand Budapest Hotel,” he has also occasionally led an orchestra in concert.

Carter Burwell hasn’t.

The composer for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” has had a storied three-decade career in movie music, but had never before taken the concert stage to conduct.

“Oh it’s completely new,” said Burwell, showing no sign of nerves before the show.

He was resplendent in a tux and slightly oversized white tie when he led the orchestra in his spaghetti-western-style soundtrack to “Three Billboards,” giving no indication that he was a rookie. 

Jonny Greenwood, the Radiohead guitarist and keyboardist who scored “Phantom Thread,” was the lone no-show nominee, though his work was played in his absence.

The night had a rock star anyway in 86-year-old John Williams, who was welcomed with whoops and cheers more common in arenas than concert halls.

Williams’ Oscar nomination for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is his 51st.

Williams was introduced by Rian Johnson, the “Last Jedi” director who said it’s impossible to present Williams to an audience without sounding “too grandiose, like I’m dedicating a national park.”

On this night, however, Williams focused only on material that was new and unique to “Last Jedi,” and stayed away from the soul-stirring “Star Wars” melodies.

The last of the composers, Hans Zimmer, wasn’t happy Wednesday night. The 11-time nominee was certainly glad the Academy was giving added attention to composers. But he really wished they hadn’t done it in a year when his entry, the score for “Dunkirk,” was designed to make an audience feel edgy and claustrophobic, instead of, say, 1995, when he won an Oscar for his crowd-pleasing work on “The Lion King.”

“Why couldn’t it have been any other year?” he moaned, with a bit of a laugh behind his agony.

And when he heard the order of performers, it got even worse.

“They made us go alphabetically,” Zimmer said. “I think there’s something completely and utterly wrong about me following John Williams.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron’s groundbreaking vow to return colonial-era artifacts Africa may face its first test next week, when he holds talks in Paris (March 6) with his Beninese counterpart Patrice Talon. At issue are treasures from the former kingdom of Dahomey, which ended up in French museums and private collections. As Lisa Bryant reports from Paris, the practicalities of repatriation are both complicated and controversial.
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