Miranda Lambert, Ronnie Dunn announcing ACM Awards nominees Tuesday morning
Country music stars Miranda Lambert and Ronnie Dunn, who both have Oklahoma ties, will announce next 
week the nominees for the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.
The nominees will be announced Tuesday from the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville, Tenn., during a live press conference beginning at 7:30 a.m.
Lambert, who won her second ACM album of the year last year, lives in Tishomingo. Dunn, who won many ACMs as half of now-defunct duo Brooks & Dunn, is a former Tulsa resident.
The ACM Awards will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 3 on the CBS Television Network.
Reba McEntire, who hails from Chockie, and Blake Shelton, Lambert’s fiance and fellow Tishomingo resident, will co-host the show.
For more information, go to www.acmcountry.com, and check back with BAM’s Blog for my continuing coverage of the nominations and the show.
-BAM
Box office report for Jan. 31, 2011: “The Rite” scares its way to No. 1
“The Rite,” the exorcism horror thriller starring Anthony Hopkins, topped the box office over the weekend as it opened with $15 million, according the the Associated Press.
The PG-13, “Exorcist”-influenced movie drew most of its audience from the older-than-25 demographic.
The other debut this weekend, CBS Films’ action film “The Mechanic,” which stars Jason Statham and Ben Foster, took in $11.5 million, tied for third with Sony’s updated superhero film “The Green Hornet.”
Last week’s top film, the romantic comedy “No Strings Attached,” starring “Black Swan” Oscar nominee Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, slipped to second with $13.7 million.
Several Oscar contenders, including “Black Swan,” “The Fighter” and “True Grit,” got a box-office boost from their accolades. In its 10th week of release, the Weinstein Company’s “The King’s Speech” earned $11.1 million to reach No. 5, while adding nearly 900 screens.
“The King’s Speech,” about King George VI’s (Colin Firth) effort to overcome his stutter, has usurped “The Social Network” as the frontrunner for the Feb. 27 Oscars. When the Academy Award nominations were announced last week, the British monarchy saga led with 12 Oscar nominations. Its director, Tom Hooper, won best director from the Directors Guild on Saturday, while the cast won best ensemble and Firth best actor at Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards.
“The King’s Speech” saw the biggest box-office increase after Oscar nominations were announced last Tuesday, jumping 41 percent from its performance the previous weekend.
According to the AP, the Coen brothers’ Western “True Grit” was up four percent in its sixth week, bringing its total to $138 million. “The Fighter,” in its eighth week, and Portman’s “Black Swan,” in its ninth week, had only slight drop-offs from the prior weekend.
But the box-office opportunity for Academy Awards favorites is available partially because of the lack of blockbuster dominance in the marketplace, the AP reports. The last weekend was Hollywood’s 12th down-weekend in a row, meaning total box office was below that of the corresponding weekend a year earlier.
Last year’s high January totals were largely due to the enormous success of James Cameron’s 3-D epic “Avatar,” which went on to become the highest grossing film ever.
Here are the top 10 movies over the weekend, from the AP:
1. “The Rite,” $15 million.
2. “No Strings Attached,” $13.7 million.
3. “The Green Hornet,” $11.5 million.
(tie) “The Mechanic, $11.5 million.
5. “The King’s Speech,” $11.1 million.
6. “True Grit,” $7.6 million.
7. “The Dilemma,” $5.5 million.
8. “Black Swan,” $5.1 million.
9. “The Fighter,” $4.1 million.
10. “Yogi Bear,” $3.2 million.
-BAM
Miranda Lambert continues “Revolution” tour, plans April tour stop at OU
Miranda Lambert (Associated Press file photo)
Following a whirlwind year full of impressive accolades and her first-ever headlining tour, country music star Miranda Lambert, who lives in Tishomingo, is revving up to hit the road again. “The Revolution Continues” nationwide tour kicks off Feb. 24 in St. Louis, Mo., with special guests Justin Moore and Josh Kelley.
The 2011 extension of her “Revolution” tour includes an April 7 show at Lloyd Noble Center on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.
In addition to her own tour, Lambert will join country legend Alan Jackson for his first Australian tour, which sold out in minutes.
Last year, the Texas native’s first headlining tour met with sold out shows and rave reviews. “The Revolution Continues” tour should prove to deliver more of the same.
“Miranda and I met and became buddies on Brad Paisley’s ‘American Saturday Night’ tour, although, I’ve been a fan of her music for a while,” Moore says in the tour announcement. “I am very excited to get to tour together again and I couldn’t be happier for her and her success over the past year. It’s gonna be a blast.”
“I can’t wait to tour again with Miranda this spring to continue the ‘Revolution,’ we had so much fun together in fall,” says Kelley. “Getting to introduce my new songs to her audience was exhilarating, and now that my album ‘Georgia Clay’ is being released on March 22nd, fans will be able to take the music home with them.”
The singer-songwriter continues to tour in support of her acclaimed fall 2009 album “Revolution.”
The platinum-selling star recently added three Grammy nominations to her list of ever-growing accolades, for a total of six career Grammy nods. She will perform on the Feb. 13 awards show, along with such superstars as Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber and Usher.
In 2010, she was nominated for a record-setting nine Country Music Association awards and took home the trophies for three of those, including Album of the Year (“Revolution”), Female Vocalist of the Year and Video of the Year for “The House That Built Me.” She received her first American Music Awards nomination for Favorite Female Country Artist and won her first ever fan-voted CMT Award, for Female Video of the Year.
Earlier in the year, she scored Academy of Country Music Award wins for Album of the Year (“Revolution”), Female Vocalist of the Year and Video of the Year (“White Liar”). On Tuesday, Lambert and former Tulsan Ronnie Dunn will announce the nominees for the 2011 ACM Awards, which are set to be handed out April 3 in Las Vegas.
Her second single from Revolution, “The House That Built Me,” held the No. 1 position on the country charts for four straight weeks. It followed “White Liar,” which was the Tishomingo resident’s first career No.1 single. Her newest single is “Heart Like Mine.”
Born and raised in Poyen, Ark., (population 272), Southern country stylist Justin Moore embodies the soul and character of a kid from a small town in both life and in music with his tough-talking, straight-shooting brand of country music. Lauded as Billboard’s “New Country Artist of 2009,” Moore was the only new country artist that year to earn No. 1 single status (for his hometown anthem “Small Town USA”). The success of “Small Town USA” made the Arkansas native the first solo artist to have a song from his/her debut album go to No. 1 since Taylor Swift’s “Our Song” (from her Big Machine Records self-titled release) in December 2007. The hit has sold more than half a million downloads to-date. Moore’s follow-up single, “Backwoods,” was a Top 5 hit and his single “How I Got To Be This Way” was a top 20 hit. Moore’s self-titled album, which debuted on the Billboar d Top 200’s Top 10, was recognized as one of the best albums of 2009 in The New York Times’ “The Year in the Arts” list by music critic Jon Caramanica. Justin’s sophomore album will be out later this year, with a new single set to impact country radio in the first quarter.
A 2010 CMT Music Award Nominee, Moore is also a Top 15 MySpace Country Artist and performed alongside Brad Paisley on the H20 World Tour through the end of 2010. Moore’s music has also been featured on FOX’s Hannity & Colmes, NFL Rewind and the 2010 Academy of Country Music Awards. For more information on Justin Moore, go to www.moorejustinmusic.com.
Singer-songwriter Josh Kelley joined the Universal Music Group Nashville family, signing with MCA in 2009. His debut country album “Georgia Clay” is slated for release on March 22, with the first single “Georgia Clay” currently Top 30 at country radio. Kelley has experienced plenty of musical success in the past with the release of six previous studio albums; including the critically-acclaimed “For The Ride Home,” which featured his top-5 hit “Amazing.”
Growing up in Georgia, country music was always a part of his upbringing. With this new project he has returned to his roots and feels like he is finally back home. Several of his songs have been featured on episodes of “Smallville,” “Scrubs,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “The Hills” and “What About Brian.” Kelley also penned the theme song for CBS’ hit series “Mike & Molly,” titled “I See Love” and performed by Keb Mo.
For more information on the tour, go to www.MirandaLambert.com. See a full list of “The Revolution Continues” tour dates after the break.
British actor Henry Cavill cast as Superman in Zack Snyder’s upcoming film
Henry Cavill
Zack Snyder leaped the Atlantic Ocean in a single casting move to find his Man of Steel.
The “300″ and “Watchmen” director has cast British thesp Henry Cavill to play Superman and his mild-mannered alter ego Clark Kent in the filmmaker’s upcoming Superman movie, according to the Associated Press.
Snyder’s Superman reboot is due in theaters in December 2012. The AP says that it has no title, while IMDB lists it as “Superman: Man of Steel.”
Cavill is a relative unknown best known for playing Charles Brandon on Showtime’s British monarchy series “The Tudors.”
In a statement released Sunday from Warner Bros. Pictures, Snyder said Cavill is “the perfect choice to don the cape and ‘S’ shield.”
Interestingly, Snyder picked a Brit to play the American cultural icon and most famous superhero in the comic-book universe. (At least we’ll have an American – Chris Evans – playing “Captain America: The First Avenger,” so that’s something.)
On Friday, read more about Snyder’s next movie project, “Sucker Punch,” due in theaters March 25, in the winter-spring movie roundup here at BAM’s Blog, on NewsOK and in The Oklahoman’s Weekend Look section.
-BAM
“King’s Speech,” “The Fighter” win big at Screen Actors Guild Awards
Melissa Leo hoists her Actor trophy for best supporting actress in "The Fighter" at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. (Associated Press photo)
The British monarchy drama “The King’s Speech” continued to gain momentum leading up to the Feb. 27 Academy Awards and former Tulsan Melissa Leo earned another honor for her turn as a domineering matriarch in the boxing biopic “The Fighter” Sunday night during the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.
“The King’s Speech” received the SAG’s equivalent of best picture, outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, along with another best actor win for Colin Firth, who plays King George VI in the inspirational tale of his efforts to overcome his stutter.
While she was born in and studied acting in New York, Leo actually took the first steps toward her acting career in Tulsa. She kicked around there for about a year before starting college, drawn to the town by a whim and a family friend who lived there.
“I’ve always wanted to be an actor and eventually I just couldn’t bear it any more. I worked at a Skelly gas station, I worked at a bakery. I picked up the yellow pages and I looked theater, theater, theater, and there were a bunch of movie theaters and the Gaslight Dinner Theatre. And I drove out there and I used to do their stage management for them,” Leo told me in a 2008 interview with The Oklahoman.
Leo, 50, went on to study drama at the Mount View Theatre School in London and State University of New York at Purchase. She got her start on the TV soap “All My Children,” beating out Julia Roberts for the part.
Also honored with Actor statuettes were Leo’s “The Fighter” co-star Christian Bale for best supporting actor and Natalie Portman for best actress for her leading turn in the ballet drama “Black Swan.”
In the television categories, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Claire Danes, Julianna Margulies, Al Pacino, and Betty White earned honors for their performances. The Actor for television drama and comedy ensemble performances went to “Boardwalk Empire” and “Modern Family.”
SAG’s honors for outstanding performances by a stunt ensemble in film and television were awarded to “Inception” and “True Blood.”
Morgan Freeman presented Ernest Borgnine with Screen Actors Guild’s highest honor, the 47th Annual Life Achievement Award, following a filmed tribute introduced by Tim Conway.
Dennis Haysbert introduced a lively film montage that saluted actors who perform in commercials. Hillary Swank introduced a filmed “In Memoriam” tribute to the actors who have passed away in the past year.
Voting procedures to choose the recipients were sent to the nearly 100,000 active members of Screen Actors Guild nationwide.
See the complete list of recipients of the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards after the break.
Ben Folds’ Tuesday Tulsa show postponed due to weather
Ben Folds (Associated Press file photo)
TULSA – Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ben Folds’ concert originally set for 8 p.m. Tuesday at Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N Main, has been postponed due to tonight’s wintry weather.
Patrons are instructed to hold onto their tickets, according to the venue’s website, because a new date for the concert will be announced soon and already purchased tickets will be honored.
For more information, go to www.cainsballroom.com.
-BAM
Monday Catchy Quote No. 152
A catchy quote from a movie, TV show or other source to brighten the beginning of your week:
Scott: You’re pretentious, this club sucks, I have beef. Let’s do it.
- Click here to learn the source.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Jan. 31, 2011: Hear Flatfoot 56 at The Conservatory
Flatfoot 56
Today’s featured event:
Hear Chicago-based Celtic/punk band Flatfoot 56 with Violent Affair, Self Minority and Sunny Side Up at 7 tonight at The Conservatory, 8911 N Western. Information: www.conservatoryokc.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Jan. 30, 2011: Cheer on the OKC Thunder
OKC Thunder star Kevin Durant (Associated Press photo)
Today’s featured event:
Cheer the Oklahoma City Thunder to victory over the Miami Heat at noon today at the Oklahoma City Arena, 100 W Reno. The game will be televised on ABC.
For more information, go to www.nba.com/thunder.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Jan. 29, 2011: Listen to Cherryholmes and the OKC Philharmonic
Cherryholmes
Today’s featured event:
Listen to bluegrass band Cherryholmes jam with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic at 8 tonight at the Civic Center, 201 N Walker. Information: 842-5387 or www.okcphilharmonic.org.
To read Rick Rogers’ recent interview with Sandy Cherryholmes, click here.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
