LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed today to enter into formal contract negotiations. Negotiations are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Saturday, January 12, 2008, and will be held at AMPTP headquarters in Encino, CA.

BOSTON, Jan. 11, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- metrostyle(r), a leading women's clothing catalog and web site and a distinguished brand in the Redcats USA portfolio, has long since been known for its bold, unique fashion targeted to sexy, confident women. And now, those same women will find their apparel modeled by winners from the popular CW reality show, "America's Next Top Model."

Your to-do list:

1. Help the Harvard Film Archive kick off their re-opening by attending the four-day Ingmar Bergman retrospective starting tonight. (That's "Summer Interlude" above.) It's winter, it's grey, you're depressed -- what better time to bow at the altar of the late, great Swedish director.

2. "Zodiac" plays for one night only at the Brattle tonight. You missed it the first time around and now it's popping up in the year-end awards. There's a reason for that but you have to see the movie to understand why.

3. "Persepolis" at Kendall Square and the West Newton.

4. "The Orphanage" at the Common and suburban theaters. How about that? Great Spanish horror hits the multiplexes!

5. "Kings" at the MFA. I'm not terribly wild about this Irish movie, but some people are, and the grumpy e-mail I just got from the director is making me feel a little guilty.

6. Buy Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack for "There Will Be Blood".

The Writers Guild may be on strike but that doesn't mean they can't tell us which movies they like. The WGA announced their nominations for best screenplays of 2007. The list follows, and as Tom O'Neil notes in the L.A. Times' Gold Derby blog, the order in which the film are listed may unintentionally be a tip-off as to which film is favored most. Uh-oh. And here I thought professional writers knew how to alphabetize. (Tip o' the hat to Scott Feinberg's "And the Winner Is..." blog for alerting me to this.)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
JUNO, Diablo Cody
MICHAEL CLAYTON, Tony Gilroy,
THE SAVAGES, Tamara Jenkins
KNOCKED UP, Judd Apatow
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, Nancy Oliver

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy
THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Paul Thomas Anderson, based on the novel Oil by Upton Sinclair
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, Ronald Harwood, based on the book by Jean-Dominique Bauby
INTO THE WILD, Sean Penn, based on the book by Jon Krakauer
ZODIAC, James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Graysmith

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY:
THE CAMDEN 28, Anthony Giacchino
NANKING, Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman & Elisabeth Bentley, Story by Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman
NO END IN SIGHT, Charles Ferguson
THE RAPE OF EUROPA, Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen
SICKO, Michael Moore
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, Alex Gibney

CLEVELAND, Jan. 10, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Verb Ballets, Cleveland's National Repertory Dance Company, returns to Playhouse Square's Ohio Theatre for one night only with their popular New Classics Collection on Saturday, January 26, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. The Board of Trustees, Artistic Director Hernando Cortez and Executive Director Dr. Margaret Carlson are pleased to announce one world premiere, one reconceived revival and the return of two audience favorites. "Not since the early days of the former Cleveland Ballet has a local dance troupe generated as much excitement as Verb Ballets," states The Plain Dealer. Reserved seats are $18 - $25 and are available by calling 216.241.6000 or through www.playhousesquare.org. Verb's Playhouse Square performance is underwritten by the John P. Murphy Foundation. The patron sponsor is Millie L. Carlson.

ATLANTA, Jan. 10, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- She may not wear that famous designer red dress worn by Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) flight attendants, but master sommelier, TV host and author Andrea Robinson is adding her own stylish touch to travel with a sophisticated wine program boarding in February and a new in-flight program revealing little-known travel tips from regarded foodies, called "Local Flavor."

Filed under: Awards, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Politics

In what has got to be the best quote of the WGA strike so far, NBC Entertainment Co-Chief (and former prom king, perhaps?) Ben Silverman, bitching about the Golden Globes being canceled, reportedly said about the writer's strike to Ryan Seacrest, "Sadly, it feels like the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom. But NBC wants to try to keep that prom alive."

Awww, isn't that sweet of NBC? They wanted to keep the prom going for all the cheerleaders and jocks but those dorky-ass kids at the writers' table had the audacity to band together and spoil all the fun. And here he already swiped a bottle of Everclear from the folks' liquor cabinet to spike the punch, too.

Seriously though, if we're going to compare Hollywood to high school (and I'm not saying I disagree with that) and the Globes to the prom, let's be realistic here. Since when are the kids relegated to the nerdy lunch table the "meanest" kids in school? At my high school, they were the ones getting the sh*t kicked out of them by the rich jocks, who only wanted anything to do with them if they were stealing their lunch money or getting the brainy kids to write papers for them so they wouldn't get kicked off varsity. Oh, wait ... that DOES sound a bit like Hollywood.

Having to cancel the Globes -- the highest rated awards show after the Oscars -- cost NBC a pretty penny. E! News reports that NBC paid between five and six million for rights to the show, off which the network makes back $10-15 million in ad revenue. Ouch. That's a lot of lunch money. Go nerds!

View Poll

Permalink | Email this | Comments

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 10, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Bell Microproducts Inc. (Nasdaq:BELM), one of the world's largest value-added distributors of storage and computing technology, along with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), State of Alabama, County of Mobile, City of Mobile and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, today announced the creation of the Bell Micro LPGA Classic. The LPGA event will be played September 8 - 14, 2008 and feature a full field of players. The inaugural Bell Micro LPGA Classic will be played on the Crossings Course at the Magnolia Grove location on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Mobile, Alabama. The tournament, which will also be played in 2009 and 2010, is scheduled to be televised nationally and internationally.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Directors Guild of America President Michael Apted today announced the DGA's nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Documentaries and Commercials for the year 2007.