The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

Elton John, Mary J. Blige challenge the Muppets in Oscar song race

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 02:37 AM PST

Elton John, Mary J. Blige challenge the Muppets in Oscar song race

LOS ANGELES, Dec 20 — The competition in the Oscars Best Original Song category could come down to Elton John vs Mary J. Blige, or Jonsi vs Chris Cornell, or Zooey Deschanel vs Glenn Close, or Elvis Costello vs will.i.am.

Or it could just be Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy flattening everybody in their way.

Elton John in the running with two songs, including a Lady Gaga duet. — Reuters pic

The Academy yesterday announced the 39 qualifying songs in this year's race, with a handful of big names in the running — but one Golden Globes nominee, Madonna, conspicuously missing.

"Masterpiece", a Madonna song from "W.E." that received a Globe nomination last week, did not qualify for Oscar contention because of its placement a minute-and-a-half deep in the final credits. AMPAS rules require an end-credits song to be "the first music cue" in those credits to qualify.

And while it's extremely unlikely that Oscar voters will go the path of the Golden Globes to recruit an almost-exclusively star-heavy slate, the opportunities exist to do just that, even without Madonna.

The animated films in contention, for example, contain songs by "Hello Hello" from "Gnomeo & Juliet"), Zooey Deschanel ("So Long" from "Winnie the Pooh"), Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am ("Hot Wings" from "Rio") and Brazilian legend Sergio Mendes ("Real in Rio" from the same film).

Other contenders include eight-time Oscar winner (and 19-times nominee) Alan Menken, who wrote the mock USO-style song "Star Spangled Man" from "Captain America".

A couple of alternative-rock icons, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell and Sigur Ros' Jonsi, are represented with songs from "Machine Gun Preacher" and "We Bought a Zoo", respectively. And Elvis Costello, who won an Oscar nomination for "Cold Mountain", is back in contention with "Sparkling Day" from "One Day."

Three films tied for the most submissions, with three songs each: "The Muppets", "Rio" and the little-known Indian film "DAM999".

Given the voting system in place in the category, in which members of the Music Branch must score the songs after watching clips of the scenes in which they appear, the three submitted songs from "The Muppets" must be considered formidable competitors.

Two — "Life's a Happy Song" and "Man or Muppet" — are by Bret McKenzie, one half of the comedy-music duo Flight of the Conchords. Those songs and Kermit's plaintive lament "Pictures in my Head" are all used in sequences that ought to play well to voters.

Members of the branch can view and score the three-minute clips on DVDs that will be sent to voters, or at special Academy screenings. To be eligible for nomination, songs must receive an average score of at least 8.25 on a scale of six to 10. — Reuters

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Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga among top US young achievers

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 01:27 AM PST

NEW YORK, Dec 20 — Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, human rights activist Ronan Farrow and pop stars Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are people to watch, according to Forbes magazine's list of top-achieving people under age 30.

Jaden Smith — seen here with sister Willow Smith, star children of actor Will Smith — on Forbes' top 30 list. — Reuters pic

Artist JR, 28, who creates large-scale guerrilla photo installations, film producer David Ellison, the son of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison who has funded films such as "True Grit" and the upcoming Brad Pitt movie "World War Z", also made the "30 Under 30" list of people in 12 categories that the magazine predicts will be tomorrow's brightest stars.

"While many on this list are well known, others like Danielle Fong, a Canadian-born science prodigy who entered a Princeton PhD programme at age 17 before founding alternative energy company Lightsail at 20, are just getting their first taste of the limelight," Forbes executive editor Michael Noer said in a statement.

"But it is nearly certain that we will all be hearing much more from them in the decades to come," he added.

Farrow, a US State Department policy expert who was recently named a Rhodes Scholar, is the only biological child of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen. He made the law & policy list.

Donald Glover, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence and 13-year-old Jaden Smith, the son of actor Will Smith, were on the entertainment list, while the music category features British singer Adele and US pop stars Katy Perry and Rihanna and American rapper Lil Wayne.

Other categories included art & design, energy, food & wine, media, social/mobile and technology, which included Peter Cashmore, the founder and CEO of the tech news site Mashable.

In the property realm, Alex Hodara, 24, got a nod for starting the first student-run brokerage in the US, and Goldman Sachs' Kunal Shah, 29, was named for becoming the company's youngest managing director at age 27.

Winemaker Gavin Chanin, 25, who has been making wines since he was 21, has earned high ratings with his Chanin Wines.

Forbes asked its readers, as well as 12 panels of industry experts in areas ranging from law/policy and real estate to entertainment, science/innovation and finance to weigh in on those likely to influence the world of the immediate future.

Thirty people were chosen from each category. The full list is available at www.forbes.com/under30 and will be published in the January edition of the magazine.

Industry experts who helped winnow the lists of 30 young people in each of 12 categories included artist Chuck Close, billionaire financier Thomas Lee, producer Stephanie Savage, award-winning chefs Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, owner of Gawker Media Nick Denton, and Daniel Tishman of Tishman Construction. — Reuters

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Selasa, 20 Disember 2011