Reuters, LOS ANGELES: Punk pioneers the Ramones, British actress and singer Julie Andrews and jazz drummer Roy Haynes were among the diverse musical stars who received Grammy Awards for lifetime achievement on Saturday.
They were honored at a ceremony alongside country music's Dolly Parton, the Juilliard String Quartet, folk revivalists the Kingston Trio, and gospel legend George Beverly Shea, whose rich baritone is still intact at age 102.
The event took place a day before the 53rd annual Grammy Awards are handed out, and the honorees will be acknowledged during the telecast. But that was not enough for the brother of late Ramones singer Joey Ramone.
"This should be televised tomorrow night, and you should bump Justin Bieber," joked Mickey Leigh.
It was a bittersweet moment for the Ramones, a group whose stripped-down, fast-paced songs such as "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" paved the way for bands like the Sex Pistol and Green Day.
But they never achieved commercial success, and three of the founding members died in the past decade: bassist Dee Dee Ramone and guitarist Johnny Ramone, as well as Joey Ramone. The members were not related, and took fraternal stage names.
Still recording and touring is Haynes, a seminal figure in the postwar jazz scene who played with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane.
"Now that the days are short, we're in the winter of the year, and I think of my life as vintage wine in fine old kegs," he said, waxing poetic. "I ride in limousines, the chauffeurs they drive, now that I'm 85."
He was a rookie compared with Shea, who is confined to a wheelchair but full of one-liners. The Canadian native, who composed the popular hymn "The Wonder Of It All" and joined the Billy Graham Crusade in 1940, surveyed his fellow honorees and said he was reminded of the farmer who wanted to race a mule in the Kentucky Derby.
When asked why, the farmer replied, "Look at the company he's keeping."
Andrews, 75, used the occasion to draw attention to budget cuts affecting school music programs. She became one of Hollywood's biggest stars by playing prim and cheery nannies in the 1960s hit movie musicals "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music."
Parton, 65, was unable to attend because of a family commitment, she said in a recorded video message. Noting she had already won seven Grammys, she said she was working on new music and expected to double her collection.
The Kingston Trio, best known for "Tom Dooley," helped lay the groundwork for the folk revival of the 1960s. Sole surviving founding member Bob Shane said an authorized group was carrying on the legacy and that would-be folkies could even attend a Kingston Trio fantasy camp.
"I'm not sure what the fantasy is," he added.
The Juilliard String Quartet has also gone through many lineup changes since it was founded in 1946. Among the recipients was Robert Mann, who was first violinist for its first 51 years.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Neil Young wins first Grammy for music
Reuters, LOS ANGELES: A year after he won the first Grammy of his career, eclectic rocker Neil Young doubled his tally on Sunday.
The win marked the first recognition for his musical abilities, since last year's honor was for his work as an art director on the packaging of a boxed set.
This time he won a statuette in the best rock song category for "Angry World," a tune from his album "Le Noise."
"This is my first Grammy for music, and it's appreciated greatly," Young said.
He lost another race to Paul McCartney, and remains in contention for best rock album.
Young, now 65, is frequently nominated -- 11 times since 2006 alone -- but his musicianship evidently was not compelling enough for Grammy voters, who now number about 12,000 music industry professionals.
Young, in turn, has made no secret of his disdain for the Grammys, declaring that he was "not Grammy material" in a 1987 interview recounted in the authorized biography "Shakey." But his appearance at both this year's and last year's events appears to indicate a softening of his attitude.
The Canadian singer-songwriter has confounded fans over the past 40 years with an idiosyncratic output spanning folk, rock, grunge, soul and country. "Le Noise," his 31st studio release since 1969, debuted at No. 2 on the Canadian albums chart and at No. 14 in the United States.
(Editing by Jill Serjeant)
The win marked the first recognition for his musical abilities, since last year's honor was for his work as an art director on the packaging of a boxed set.
This time he won a statuette in the best rock song category for "Angry World," a tune from his album "Le Noise."
"This is my first Grammy for music, and it's appreciated greatly," Young said.
He lost another race to Paul McCartney, and remains in contention for best rock album.
Young, now 65, is frequently nominated -- 11 times since 2006 alone -- but his musicianship evidently was not compelling enough for Grammy voters, who now number about 12,000 music industry professionals.
Young, in turn, has made no secret of his disdain for the Grammys, declaring that he was "not Grammy material" in a 1987 interview recounted in the authorized biography "Shakey." But his appearance at both this year's and last year's events appears to indicate a softening of his attitude.
The Canadian singer-songwriter has confounded fans over the past 40 years with an idiosyncratic output spanning folk, rock, grunge, soul and country. "Le Noise," his 31st studio release since 1969, debuted at No. 2 on the Canadian albums chart and at No. 14 in the United States.
(Editing by Jill Serjeant)
Paul McCartney wins Grammy for "Helter Skelter"
Reuters, LOS ANGELES: Former Beatle Paul McCartney won his first solo Grammy in 39 years on Sunday for a live recording of "Helter Skelter."
McCartney took home the solo rock vocal performance statuette for the 42-year-old Beatles tune, which he dusted off for his 2009 live album "Good Evening New York City."
It marked his 14th Grammy, of which 10 were Beatle-related, spanning 1965 to a reissue project in 1997.
As a solo artist, he last won a Grammy in 1972 for his arrangement of "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." He followed that with a pair for Wings, his post-Beatles vehicle, in 1975 and 1980.
McCartney, 68, frequently lands Grammy nominations -- 11 since 2005 alone -- but has been bested by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Amy Winehouse and Justin Timberlake.
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were handed out at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Jill Serjeant)
McCartney took home the solo rock vocal performance statuette for the 42-year-old Beatles tune, which he dusted off for his 2009 live album "Good Evening New York City."
It marked his 14th Grammy, of which 10 were Beatle-related, spanning 1965 to a reissue project in 1997.
As a solo artist, he last won a Grammy in 1972 for his arrangement of "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." He followed that with a pair for Wings, his post-Beatles vehicle, in 1975 and 1980.
McCartney, 68, frequently lands Grammy nominations -- 11 since 2005 alone -- but has been bested by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Amy Winehouse and Justin Timberlake.
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were handed out at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Jill Serjeant)
Sandler edges Bieber at box office
AFP, LOS ANGELES: Adam Sandler's "Just Go With It" cured Bieber fever as the funnyman's latest farce edged the teen heartthrob's concert documentary to top the North American box office, industry data showed Sunday.
Sandler's romantic comedy co-starring Jennifer Aniston opened with $31 million, barely holding off Bieber's "Never Say Never," which debuted at $30.3 million, although it played in 443 fewer theaters, according to industry tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Sandler, the frat-house humor specialist, plays a plastic surgeon who pretends to be divorcing Aniston's character in order to bed a young teacher played by swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker. Critics said it was too predictable.
Meanwhile, Bieber's film was praised by critics, and naturally by his legions of young fans, mostly female. It tells the story of the boy's rise from a small town in Canada to superstardom -- and he doesn't turn 17 until next month.
The animated "Gnomeo and Juliet" debuted strongly in third place, with $25.5 million. The family-friendly Shakespeare retelling features the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt, as well as the music of Elton John.
Gladiator pic "The Eagle," starring Channing Tatum, debuted fourth with $8.6 million, which was enough to push "The Roommate" to the fifth spot, down from number one last week. The widely panned horror flick earned $8.4 million in its second week in theaters.
Critically acclaimed "The King's Speech" took $7.4 million in the sixth spot, bringing its 12-week total to $94 million. The British historical drama has been nominated for 12 Oscars.
Dropping into seventh was "No Strings Attached," a romantic romp starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. The Ivan Reitman film about casual sex between friends took in $5.6 million.
"Sanctum" fell to eighth. The 3-D underwater cave adventure produced by James Cameron of "Avatar" fame secured $5.1 million in ticket receipts.
Just under the $4 million mark were "True Grit" in the ninth spot, followed by action flick "The Green Hornet."
Sandler's romantic comedy co-starring Jennifer Aniston opened with $31 million, barely holding off Bieber's "Never Say Never," which debuted at $30.3 million, although it played in 443 fewer theaters, according to industry tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Sandler, the frat-house humor specialist, plays a plastic surgeon who pretends to be divorcing Aniston's character in order to bed a young teacher played by swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker. Critics said it was too predictable.
Meanwhile, Bieber's film was praised by critics, and naturally by his legions of young fans, mostly female. It tells the story of the boy's rise from a small town in Canada to superstardom -- and he doesn't turn 17 until next month.
The animated "Gnomeo and Juliet" debuted strongly in third place, with $25.5 million. The family-friendly Shakespeare retelling features the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt, as well as the music of Elton John.
Gladiator pic "The Eagle," starring Channing Tatum, debuted fourth with $8.6 million, which was enough to push "The Roommate" to the fifth spot, down from number one last week. The widely panned horror flick earned $8.4 million in its second week in theaters.
Critically acclaimed "The King's Speech" took $7.4 million in the sixth spot, bringing its 12-week total to $94 million. The British historical drama has been nominated for 12 Oscars.
Dropping into seventh was "No Strings Attached," a romantic romp starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. The Ivan Reitman film about casual sex between friends took in $5.6 million.
"Sanctum" fell to eighth. The 3-D underwater cave adventure produced by James Cameron of "Avatar" fame secured $5.1 million in ticket receipts.
Just under the $4 million mark were "True Grit" in the ninth spot, followed by action flick "The Green Hornet."
Former NCAA player's suit threatens Hollywood
AP, SAN FRANCISCO: There was a time when Sam Keller and his teammates couldn't wait to get their hands on Electronic Arts Inc.'s latest edition of NCAA Football, which included their team and images down to Keller's distinctive visor he wore while playing quarterback for the University of Nebraska in 2007.
EA shares undisclosed royalties with the NCAA for use of college stadiums, team names and uniforms and the players' images in a game that racks up hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. Because they are amateur athletes, the players don't receive any direct benefit from the appearances of their nameless images in the game.
But Keller and an increasing number of players, such as former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon, think they should and have filed at least nine federal lawsuits against the NCAA and EA over the last two years.
On Tuesday, Keller will be in Pasadena to watch his team of lawyers urge the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a trial judge's decision that EA and the NCAA appear to owe the former Cornhusker and — by the extension — thousands of other former players millions of dollars for using their images in the video game.
"When you are playing, you are kind of naïve to the idea that you are being taken advantage of because you are so caught up in playing college football," said Keller of his decision to sue long after his college career ended and he failed to make the Oakland Raiders 2008 regular season roster. "They are making billions off of our images."
A Keller victory could dramatically reshape the commercial relationship between the NCAA and its athletes, which are prohibited from receiving compensation tied to their performances. Keller's attorney and his supporters are floating the idea of setting up a trust fund of sorts with any proceeds from the lawsuits to benefit the athletes. They envision the NCAA continuing to fund the trust fund with the billions in dollars it receives from television networks, apparel sales and other sources.
Keller was a highly sought recruit when he graduated from the Bay Area's San Ramon Valley High School in 2003. He played for three years at Arizona St., garnering MVP honors for his performance as a sophomore in the Sun Bowl. After losing the starting job, he transferred to Nebraska in 2006 and sat out that season because of NCAA transfer rules. Keller started for the Cornhuskers in 2007 as a red-shirt senior before breaking his collar bone against Texas in the ninth game of the season.
Keller's lawsuit has also unexpectedly ballooned into a major First Amendment challenge, prompting Hollywood's largest movie studios and dozens of other interests — from the estates of reggae legend Bob Marley and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck to ESPN and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund — to weigh in on the case.
The hearing Tuesday in the historic Spanish Colonial Revival courthouse in Pasadena will focus on a February 2010 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken refusing to grant EA free speech protection and dismiss the lawsuit. EA argues that it uses the players' images to create works of art much in the same way authors, filmmakers and songwriters insert real people in novels, movies and songs.
Wilken ruled against EA, saying the company didn't sufficiently "transform" the players' images to qualify for First Amendment protection. She said EA's argument that it removed the names of the players from the game wasn't enough because it was obvious who the nameless images represented real people.
For example, the virtual player wears the same jersey number, is the same height and weight and hails from the same state, Wilken said.
EA and the NCAA appealed and are joined by the Hollywood studios, media companies and other organizations such as the Comic Book Defense Fund who fear that Wilken's ruling, if allowed to stand, will severely stifle artistic expression.
EA's lawyers, for instance, predict the demise of movies such as "Forest Gump" that rely heavily on the free use of celebrity images to further a narrative.
"Documentarians, biographers, filmmakers, novelists, photographers, songwriters, and many others do exactly what the district court said is not protected: they create expressive works that realistically depict individuals and/or refer to them by their actual names," EA's lawyers wrote in their appeal.
Allowing the players' lawsuit to go forward will threaten future movie productions, Motion Picture Association of America wrote in support of EA.
"For example, an unauthorized biography of Keller, which included photographs of him wearing his college football uniform or playing college football, would be strictly prohibited," the MPAA's attorneys wrote the appeals court. "So too would a motion picture about a fictional college football player that incorporated historical footage of actual college football games and named actual college football players."
Keller's attorney dismisses the threats of an artistic Armegeddon if EA ends up owing the players for using their images.
"There is a big difference between those examples and a video game based in realism," said Steve Berman, one of Keller's attorneys. "They're whole game is realism. Realism is the opposite of creative expression."
Keller has his share of supporters, too. Players unions of all major professional sports leagues in the United States back Keller as do the estates of Marley and Steinbeck
"EA's infringing use of the athletes' personas is tantamount to stealing, and opens the door for others to freely circumvent the statutory and common law right of publicity of any individual in the future," wrote lawyers for the Steinbeck estate, the Screen Actors Guild and several other organizations representing authors and actors. "The result can be ruinous to a performers' career and financial interests, as well as to their families'."
If Keller prevails, many of the myriad lawyers involved in the case and legal scholars following it closely say the case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Keller said in an interview Thursday from Scottsdale, Ariz. where he lives and manages a hotel bar that he never envisioned his complaint becoming so far reaching.
"The goal wasn't for it to get so big," Keller said. "The goal was to change what's going on in college sports, to change the behavior of the NCAA."
EA shares undisclosed royalties with the NCAA for use of college stadiums, team names and uniforms and the players' images in a game that racks up hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. Because they are amateur athletes, the players don't receive any direct benefit from the appearances of their nameless images in the game.
But Keller and an increasing number of players, such as former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon, think they should and have filed at least nine federal lawsuits against the NCAA and EA over the last two years.
On Tuesday, Keller will be in Pasadena to watch his team of lawyers urge the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a trial judge's decision that EA and the NCAA appear to owe the former Cornhusker and — by the extension — thousands of other former players millions of dollars for using their images in the video game.
"When you are playing, you are kind of naïve to the idea that you are being taken advantage of because you are so caught up in playing college football," said Keller of his decision to sue long after his college career ended and he failed to make the Oakland Raiders 2008 regular season roster. "They are making billions off of our images."
A Keller victory could dramatically reshape the commercial relationship between the NCAA and its athletes, which are prohibited from receiving compensation tied to their performances. Keller's attorney and his supporters are floating the idea of setting up a trust fund of sorts with any proceeds from the lawsuits to benefit the athletes. They envision the NCAA continuing to fund the trust fund with the billions in dollars it receives from television networks, apparel sales and other sources.
Keller was a highly sought recruit when he graduated from the Bay Area's San Ramon Valley High School in 2003. He played for three years at Arizona St., garnering MVP honors for his performance as a sophomore in the Sun Bowl. After losing the starting job, he transferred to Nebraska in 2006 and sat out that season because of NCAA transfer rules. Keller started for the Cornhuskers in 2007 as a red-shirt senior before breaking his collar bone against Texas in the ninth game of the season.
Keller's lawsuit has also unexpectedly ballooned into a major First Amendment challenge, prompting Hollywood's largest movie studios and dozens of other interests — from the estates of reggae legend Bob Marley and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck to ESPN and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund — to weigh in on the case.
The hearing Tuesday in the historic Spanish Colonial Revival courthouse in Pasadena will focus on a February 2010 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken refusing to grant EA free speech protection and dismiss the lawsuit. EA argues that it uses the players' images to create works of art much in the same way authors, filmmakers and songwriters insert real people in novels, movies and songs.
Wilken ruled against EA, saying the company didn't sufficiently "transform" the players' images to qualify for First Amendment protection. She said EA's argument that it removed the names of the players from the game wasn't enough because it was obvious who the nameless images represented real people.
For example, the virtual player wears the same jersey number, is the same height and weight and hails from the same state, Wilken said.
EA and the NCAA appealed and are joined by the Hollywood studios, media companies and other organizations such as the Comic Book Defense Fund who fear that Wilken's ruling, if allowed to stand, will severely stifle artistic expression.
EA's lawyers, for instance, predict the demise of movies such as "Forest Gump" that rely heavily on the free use of celebrity images to further a narrative.
"Documentarians, biographers, filmmakers, novelists, photographers, songwriters, and many others do exactly what the district court said is not protected: they create expressive works that realistically depict individuals and/or refer to them by their actual names," EA's lawyers wrote in their appeal.
Allowing the players' lawsuit to go forward will threaten future movie productions, Motion Picture Association of America wrote in support of EA.
"For example, an unauthorized biography of Keller, which included photographs of him wearing his college football uniform or playing college football, would be strictly prohibited," the MPAA's attorneys wrote the appeals court. "So too would a motion picture about a fictional college football player that incorporated historical footage of actual college football games and named actual college football players."
Keller's attorney dismisses the threats of an artistic Armegeddon if EA ends up owing the players for using their images.
"There is a big difference between those examples and a video game based in realism," said Steve Berman, one of Keller's attorneys. "They're whole game is realism. Realism is the opposite of creative expression."
Keller has his share of supporters, too. Players unions of all major professional sports leagues in the United States back Keller as do the estates of Marley and Steinbeck
"EA's infringing use of the athletes' personas is tantamount to stealing, and opens the door for others to freely circumvent the statutory and common law right of publicity of any individual in the future," wrote lawyers for the Steinbeck estate, the Screen Actors Guild and several other organizations representing authors and actors. "The result can be ruinous to a performers' career and financial interests, as well as to their families'."
If Keller prevails, many of the myriad lawyers involved in the case and legal scholars following it closely say the case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Keller said in an interview Thursday from Scottsdale, Ariz. where he lives and manages a hotel bar that he never envisioned his complaint becoming so far reaching.
"The goal wasn't for it to get so big," Keller said. "The goal was to change what's going on in college sports, to change the behavior of the NCAA."
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