The stars come down to earth

Cameron Diaz has a few phobias.

She is a germaphobe, who has been seen opening doors with her elbows, avoiding those nasty knobs at all cost. And she is acrophobic, which one might assume means sky-diving’s not high on her priority list.

But rather than let these so-called “phobes” as she calls them, rule her life. Diaz says she faces her fears – and then stares them down.

On the phone recently from her home in Los Angeles, the 35-year-old blonde giggles as she says she’s pretty much made peace with the germ thing. As for her fear of heights? She rock climbs and jumps out of planes.

Large corporations receive bulk of film tax credits

OTTAWA — Large corporations scooped up the lion’s share of almost $1-billion in federal tax credits designed to stimulate Canadian film and video productions, a federal government report says.

“The allocation of the tax credit was extremely concentrated,” according to the Finance Department report, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

“Corporate groups received a large share of the tax credit, with the top 10 receiving close to 30 per cent of the total.”

The study on which the report is based is among the first to calculate how the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit has benefited the industry, closely examining the flow of credits to independents and corporations.

The credit is available only to companies whose sole purpose is to create a particular film or video, so corporations create temporary subsidiaries to produce the work, then fold them back into the parent firm when filming is done. The arrangement, which provides steady work for lawyers and accountants, is accepted practice in Canada.

Filmgoers ignore the critics

LOS ANGELES — Audiences made a date with “Prom Night,” the remake of the 1980 slasher flick that took in $22.7-million (U.S.) to debut as the weekend’s No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The movie, released by Sony’s Screen Gems banner, stars Brittany Snow as a teen terrorized by a psycho killer on prom night. It overcame the critical drubbing handed to most fright films, which have a built-in audience that often turns out in big numbers on opening weekend regardless of reviews.

“Audiences today, they’re so savvy in regards to what they want to see or don’t want to see. Particularly a younger audience, they pretty much make up their own mind,” said Rory Bruer, Sony head of distribution.

With prom season also at hand, that “brings an element of fun,” Bruer said.

Jet Li wins acting prize at Hong Kong Film Awards

HONG KONG — Jet Li has won a rare acting prize.

Better known for his kung fu prowess, the 44-year-old Chinese action star was named best actor at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday for his performance in the Chinese epic “The Warlords.”

Li played a 19th century mercenary who’s emotionally torn about betraying one of his blood brothers and falling in love with his wife.

“The Warlords” was also a big winner, clinching eight out of 18 possible awards, including best film and best director for Hong Kong’s Peter Chan. It also won awards for best cinematography, best art direction and best costume and makeup design.

Chan said he set out to make a gritty Chinese epic that focused on the cruelty of war rather than focusing on the usual glittering gold costumes and gravity-defying kung fu fights.

IT managers pass on Vista, wait for Windows 7

14.04.2008 – When Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald asked IT managers in their audience at a Las Vegas talk last Thursday to raise their hands if they felt that Microsoft needed to make some big changes to its Windows operating system, roughly 50pc of the room did so.
This Gartner talk, according to Larry Dignan of ZDNet.co.uk (http://news.zdnet.co.uk), claimed that Vista was not meeting the needs of most PC hardware, leaving many customers to consider sticking with XP until Windows 7 comes on the scene.

Windows users may be waiting for longer than they anticipated because despite claims by former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates that the updated operating system would be hitting shelves by 2009 the official line from the company is that it is currently in planning stages.

Rutherford scores goal, two assists as Chiefs beat Giants 4-0

VANCOUVER — David Rutherford scored a goal and added two assists as the Spokane Chiefs blanked the Vancouver Giants 4-0 Saturday night, putting the defending Memorial Cup champions on the brink of elimination from the WHL playoffs.

Justin Falk, Drayson Bowman, and Tyler Johnson also scored for the Chiefs as Spokane took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semi-final series before a disappointed crowd of 8,049 at the Pacific Coliseum. Spokane goaltender Dustin Tokarski picked up his first shutout of the playoffs, but he was rarely tested as the Chiefs outshot the Giants 30-22.

The series now moves to Spokane for Monday’s sixth game and, if necessary, Tuesday’s seventh and deciding contest. If the Chiefs prevail in either game, this will mark the first time in three years that the Giants have not advanced to the WHL championship series.

Rutherford and Falk scored in the first period while Bowman and Johnson, with a shorthanded empty-netter in the game’s final minute, tallied in the third.

Beijing’s Olympic smoking ban stubbed out amid backlash

BEIJING (AFP) — Beijing has backed away from a blanket ban on smoking in public places ahead of the Olympics after bar and restaurant owners complained it would scare off customers, state press reported Monday.

The China Daily had reported two weeks ago that the Chinese capital on May 1 would ban smoking in all restaurants, offices and schools, and require bar owners to separate smoking and non-smoking areas.

It would have made Beijing the first Chinese city with such a comprehensive ban.

But the newspaper said Monday that Beijing authorities had since decided to exempt restaurants, bars and Internet cafes, amid fears China’s legions of persistent smokers would rebel.

“Owners of Chinese restaurants, both big and small, worried the plan would hurt their business,” the newspaper quoted Zhang Peili, a city legislative affairs official overseeing the rules, as saying.

History, games, tech and – oh, right – news

WASHINGTON — When Howard Stern’s foul mouth and Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction come up in conversation in the U.S. capital, it’s usually because someone is trying to ban them. But this week they, along with shock-rocker Alice Cooper, the violent video game Grand Theft Auto and Andres Serrano’s controversial 1987 photograph of a crucifix suspended in urine known as Piss Christ, became objects of celebration only a stone’s throw from Capitol Hill.

All are included in a rousing film tribute to the First Amendment unveiled here yesterday, as dignitaries and a handful of media moguls threw open the doors on the Newseum, a gleaming new $450-million (U.S.) shrine to journalism set down next to the Canadian embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Capitol Hill and the White House. Sprawling across seven storeys, the Newseum presents a high-tech history of the news media, from a 3,000-year-old Sumerian cuneiform tablet to short films on the Golden Age of U.S. television-network news, and on up to the cellphone used to capture video footage of last year’s Virginia Tech massacre.

The museum’s calling card is a 22.5-metre marble façade that bears the 45 words of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press and the right to petition the government.