The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Colin Firth adds honour from Queen Elizabeth to Oscar Posted: 11 Jun 2011 01:33 AM PDT  File photo of Firth in New York on May 2, 2011. — Reuters pic Firth, who won a best actor Academy Award for his portrayal of the stammering King George VI, the queen's father, in the Oscar-winning movie "The King's Speech" was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The 50-year-old actor has become an international favourite since playing the aloof but alluring Mr Darcy in a 1995 television adaptation of the Jane Austen novel "Pride and Prejudice." There were also awards for South African-born actress Janet Suzman, who becomes a "Dame," and for Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, who received a CBE. Long-serving British light entertainment star Bruce Forsyth, 83, picked up a knighthood, while comic actors Bernard Cribbins, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden were all made Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). There was also a CBE for lawyer Mark Stephens, currently defending WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange over a Swedish extradition request for alleged sexual misconduct. In the world of sport, England cricket captain Andrew Strauss was awarded an OBE after leading the national side to two Ashes series victories over Australia, home and away. Fellow England cricketer Alastair Cook, a prolific scorer during the recent series against Australia and in the current series against Sri Lanka, won a lesser award, an MBE, while there was a knighthood for horse trainer Henry Cecil. Golfer Lee Westwood, until last month ranked the world number one, was awarded an OBE. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| ‘The Book of Mormon’ favoured to sweep Tony Awards Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:30 PM PDT  Cast members of the play ''Memphis'' perform after they won Best Musical at the American Theatre Wing's 64th annual Tony Awards ceremony in New York, June 13, 2010. — Reuters pic The Tony Awards, which honors Broadway's best musicals and plays and can help propel winning shows to commercial success, will be handed out at New York's Beacon Theatre in a live televised event hosted again by actor Neil Patrick Harris, the Emmy-winning star of TV comedy "How I Met Your Mother". This year is expected to feature less Hollywood winners than last year, although nominees include Frances McDormand who adopted a thick Boston accent for the best play nominee, "Good People" and Al Pacino for his turn as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice", nominated for best play revival along with favourite "The Normal Heart". "The Book of Mormon", go into tomorrow's awards with the highest number of nominations, followed by "The Scottsboro Boys" with 12. The short-lived musical is on a 1930s case in which nine black men were unjustly accused of attacking two white women on a train in Alabama. Two musical revivals follow. "Anything Goes" has nine nominations, led by best actress nominee Sutton Foster, and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" had eight, though its star Daniel Radcliffe, of "Harry Potter" fame, missed out on an acting nomination. "The Merchant of Venice" is up for seven awards, while the play "War Horse," by Nick Stafford is tipped to win best play. But it is "The Book of Mormon," by "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, which is expected to win in several categories and aims to beat the record of the Mel Brooks musical comedy, "The Producers," which won 12 Tony Awards after it opened in 2001. The show has been a smash hit, winning critical acclaim and sold-out houses with the story of Mormon missionaries in Africa, successfully skirting initial worries about racial and religious insensitivity. Stone told Reuters in an interview when the show opened in March that he didn't want to be "presumptuous" in even thinking about any Tony awards and was more relieved that audiences understood the humour. "People do seem to be getting the show," Stone said. "For us it's a deeper satisfaction that we have been working on this for seven years. To sit in the theatre and put this kind of material in front of people and for them to essentially get it, is a really satisfying feeling." Josh Gad, who is one of two favourites to win best actor in a musical along with Norbert Leo Burtz in "Catch Me If You Can", told Reuters he thought the show was successful because it straddles the line between poking fun at Mormons and entertaining audiences with catchy numbers and heart-warming undertones. "You can get away with the vulgarity and some of the eyebrow raising numbers only if you have a large amount of heart, and they came with plenty to spare," Gad said of Stone and Parker. "At its core there is something very sweet and very genuine about this tale." The show has also done well at the box office, pulling in more than US$1.1 million (RM3.32 million) for the week ending June 5, making it the third highest grossing Broadway show after long-running favourites "Wicked" and "The Lion King". "I don't think anyone, especially myself, was prepared for just how much of an incredible response the show was going to receive," Gad said this week. "It's blown all of us away." On his own nomination, he called it "the coolest experience of my life...Just because it's something I dreamed of as a kid." Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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