Avril to rock MuchMusic event Music stars, young Hollywood celebrities and sports heroes will help MuchMusic crown the best music videos of the past year.
Avril Lavigne, Ashanti, Michelle Branch, Sam Roberts and Sean Paul are among those slated to perform at the station's 14th annual awards party June 22. Celebrities on hand to present awards, which will air live on MuchMusic, include teen heart-throbs Shane West of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and A Walk to Remember, Danny Masterson, who plays Hyde on That '70s Show, actor Rachael Leigh Cook of Fearless and She's All That, and Gregory Smith of TV's Everwood. Rockers Our Lady Peace lead the pack of nominees, followed by Treble Charger with five nods and Chantal Kreviazuk, Matthew Good, Shawn Desman and Swollen Members with four each.
Fishburne sounds off over beeper
Don't bring a beeper to a concert if Laurence Fishburne is around -- you will be admonished. Fishburne, who hosted Jazz at Lincoln Center's second annual spring gala benefit, was speaking eloquently about the influence of blues on jazz -- the theme of Monday night's concert at the Apollo Theater -- when someone's beeper went off. "Does someone have a beeper?" the Matrix Reloaded actor intoned, as the audience laughed. "Would you like to answer it? We'll wait for you." It was a rare glitch during the concert, in which Wynton Marsalis and his jazz septet backed up Carrie Smith, Lou Donaldson, Willie Nelson, Audra McDonald, Ray Charles, B. B. King and Eric Clapton playing blues classics.
Father of John, Joan Cusack dies
Richard Cusack, an advertising executive turned actor and screenwriter whose children included Hollywood stars John and Joan Cusack, has died at 77. Cusack, who died of pancreatic cancer Monday, abandoned a 17-year successful advertising career in 1970 to enter the film industry. He won awards for a 1971 abortion documentary, The Committee, and wrote plays. Cusack also acted on the stage and in such movies as My Bodyguard, The Fugitive and Return to Me. He wrote the 1999 HBO film The Jack Bull, in which his son John had a starring role. Daughter Joan got her start in My Bodyguard with her father.
Stratford's Lear to play New York
Stratford Festival's 2002 production of King Lear, starring Christopher Plummer, will move to Lincoln Centre next winter, the New York theatre announced yesterday, confirming a Free Press story from last fall. The Shakespeare tragedy will be produced by Lincoln Center Theater in association with the Stratford Festival and will be directed by Jonathan Miller, who also directed the much acclaimed Canadian production. Performances begin Feb. 11 with previews and the show opens March 4. Others in the cast include James Blendick, Domini Blythe, Benedict Campbell, Brent Carver, Ian Deakin, Claire Jullien, Barry MacGregor, Lucy Peacock, Stephen Russell and Brian Tree.
Martin wins Orange Prize
Property, by American writer Valerie Martin, was awarded the Orange Prize yesterday, topping a field that included Canadian author Carol Shields. The prize, open to women writers working in English, is worth about $67,000 Cdn. Martin's novel is set in the heat of the American South during a slave rebellion, and looks at topics of power and resistance, violence and sex. Shields had been on the short list for her recent novel Unless.
