Fort McMurray Today from Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada • 18

BIO Fort McMurray Today Wednesday December 15 2004 Church hosts a Dickens of an evening Clooney humbled in guessing game By PAULA OGONOSKI Today staff All Saints' Anglican Church is bringing to life four ghosts on Thursday during the reading of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Actors politicians and members of the clergy will read one of the most beloved Yuletide stories for all who will listen Rev Terry Leer said listening to professional-calibre readers bringing a classic to life while raising money for the Boys' and Girls' Club is an excellent way to bring In the holiday season "Expect high-class value entertainment with readers who are well schooled in public reading with a good choir from Westwood high school and accompanist Michael Eddy" he said Leer said this is a tradition that goes as far back to when Charles Dickens himself was alive "He would read and raise thousands of pounds for charities and we hope to help out the Boys' andGirls' Club" he said The event which is co-sponsored by the CBC has the performers reading a revised version of the classic Leer said that A Christmas Carol helped shape Christmas as it is today and this is a great opportunity to honour that "I happen to really like the story The story in part is the reason tor the English Christmas It (Christmas) used to be about fasting and penitence Dickens' story helped transform it from a penitential to a more joyous and expecting time of year" he said adding that the art of public reading has been lost and he hopes events like this will help alleviate that "Adults don't get (read to) now and kids are getting it even less and less All you have to do is listen to kids read and you know they are not being read to Reading to kids is such a special thing" Leer said The tradition of reading the story on CBC began with one of the public broadcasters' reporters more than a decade ago In 1989 Judy Madden was reading A Christmas Carol to keep her kids busy and noticed that her husband was listening in on the story She realized that adults don't get read to often and with the help of her colleagues she was able to broadcast fire story every Christmas since complete with music That traditions continues and this year and Fort McMurray will be joining the read with Doug Abel Gail Boutilier Julie Brown Tom Griffin and Susan Horton Tickets for file event are $8 each and available by contacting Rev Terry Leer at 743-3171 The reading starts at 7 pm at All Saints' Anglican Church downtown pogonoskiOfortmcmurraytodaycom NEW YORK (AP) Geo: Clooney sure looks suave ani mature maybe too mature A scene in Ocean's Twelve where Clooney's buddies wonder about his age has an element of truth to it Clooney said he told director Steven Soderbergh about a young Italian CLOONEY 0 woman who asked how old he was "I am stupid enough to ask the question 'How old do you think I Clooney told reporters "She says 'SOY' Clooney asked the woman to guess again Her reply: "51?" Clooney is 43 When Soderbergh heard the story Clooney said he decided to include it in the film a sequel to 2001's Ocean's Eleven that also stars Brad Pitt Matt Damon and Catherine Zeta-Jones Studio set for Eminem e-auction FERNDALE Mich (AP) The studio where Eminem recorded his hit My Name Is for The Slim Shady LP album was set to go on sale Wednesday on the Internet auction site EBay Studio 8 in the Detroit suburb of Femdale was used by Eminem in 1997 to record the 1999 CD that has sold about five million copies "The recording studio is still intact but the equipment is not part of the sale" not really played on the radio that much "She's not really played on video To me I see (TV shows) as the new radio putting her out there before four or five million people" said Cutler But Feist is hardly a newcomer She's been dabbling in music for more than a decade Her high school punk band Placebo won a battle of the bands contest and earned an opening slot at a Ramones concert in Calgary From there Feist played guitar and sang for several acts including By Divine Right and more recently with indie darlings Broken Social Scene Feist spent her high school years in Calgary and later moved to Toronto but now calls Paris home It's in that romantic city where the 28-year-old brunette wrote her second solo record Let It Die released in Canada in May The album is filled with tormented love songs comprised of equal parts haunting lyrics delicate vocals and catchy melodies Aside from original material she covers Ron Sexsmith's ballady Secret Heart and the Bee Gees' disco-inspired Inside Out The CD's influences range from traditional folk and rock to jangly pop hooks and smooth hip hop grooves But instead of mashing all those elements together she's stripped them down to their core so the music showcases her vocals above all else giving the music an organic natural feel That makes her edgy enough to warrant the attention of picky teenagers and hipsters all the while appealing to the mainstream Year ends well thanks to TV show TORONTO (CP) After years of struggling to earn a decent living at singing and songwriting Leslie Feist may have landed the biggest coup of her career thanks to a trendy TV show watched weekly by millions On a recent holiday episode of Fox's The OC which has a mammoth following among scenesters young and old two of the main characters slow-danced at a high school winter ball to Let It Die the title track of her CD "It's a pretty big deal for an artist like Feist You watch The OC and think it's the coolest show ever Then you hear the song and therefore think Feist must be a cool hip artist because they play her" said Daniel Cutler cofounder of Arts and Crafts the singer's small Toronto-based record label Feist originally from Sackville NB will get another boost in January when the edgy TV drama The Word features another of her songs Lonely Lonely They are two high-profile endorsements that give the eclectic Canadian singer a solid launching Ead for her US release next larch "You hit a huge audience She's Singereongwrtter Leslie Feist may have landed the biggest coup of her career tham to the use of one of her songs on the show The OlC Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Mary Poppins gets super makeover in new DVD LOS ANGELES (AP) Movie animation has come a long way since Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke frolicked with cartoon penguins sheep and carousel ponies in Mary Poppins Yet fresh off her voice work fire cutting-edge cartoon sequel Shrek 2 Andrews thinks the blend of live-action and animation holds up splendidly in the 1964 musical fantasy which gets elaborate new DVD treatment in a 40th anniversary two-disc set out Tuesday "I looked at it agaip and I'd just come off Shrek and I know these days how animation has changed and how different it is the tools they have today" Andrews said in an interview "But you don't see a single crack in fire work of Poppins and they didn't have that technology in those days It's brilliantly done" For the new DVD edition Andrews and Van Dyke teamed up with co-composer Richard Sherman for a reunion segment to reminisce ear Hepburn was not even nominated though er co-star Rex Harrison won best-actor prize and supporting players Stanley Holloway and Gladys Cooper earned nominations while My Fair Lady won best picture Andrews said she never took her Oscar win as a vindication after losing out on the lead in My Fair Lady "In my acceptance speech I remember saying how I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality but this is ridiculous What I really meant was that I think they were saying 'Welcome' Andrews said "People were saying welcome to die industry in some way That may be because there was some sense that they felt unhappy I didn't do Fair Lady but it wasn't my feeling at all I wasn't anybody in those days "I didn't expect to get it I'd hoped but I didn't really expert it" about the film The set also has an extensive making-of documentary and a new cartoon short featuring Andrews in an adaptation of one of PL Travers's Mary Poppins stories The Disney classic marked Andrews's film debut after a stage career that included originating the role of Eliza Doolittle in the London and Broadway productions of My Fair Lady Mary Poppins stars Andrews as a practically perfect nanny who floats out of the London sky on her umbrella to become mother hen for the mischievous children of an aloof banker The movie's memorable songs include Chim-Chim-Cheree A Spoonful of Sugar and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious The role earned Andrews a best-actress Academy Award ironic given she was passed over in favour of Audrey Hepburn for the lead in the movie version of My Fair Lady that same said David Giltnei senior vice president of the real estate company Grubb and Ellis which is listing the property "It's in great shape and was recently renovated" Hie entire building owned by producer AJ Abdullah will be auctioned in EBay's commercial real estate section for 30 days The minimum bid is $215000 US Abdullah is spending more time in New York and decided to sell the studio Giltner said Wolfe gets prize for bad sex writing LONDON (AP) It's the literary award no author wants to wm and this year it's gone to Tom Wolfe The Literary Review gave Wolfe its annual Bad Sex award Monday for his best-selling novel I Am Charlotte Simmons Judges said file book's sex scenes were "ghastly inept (and) unrealistic" The nearly 700-page novel is set at fictional Dupont University in Pennsylvania chronicling the bright naive Charlotte Simmons' entry into a hedonistic world filled with heavy drinking and casual sex Reviews of the book have been harsh but like most of Wolfe's work it's selling well Arnold headed back to cinemas LOS ANGELES (AP) Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger will return to the big screen next year to make a cameo in a comedy written and produced by friend Tom Arnold Duringan appearance Monday on Fox's The Best Damn Sports Show Period which is co-hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger said he's in the upcoming movie The Kid and Schwarzenegger didn't reveal what role he would play in file movie slated to be released sometime next year The film directed by Penelope Spheeris centres on an actor played by Arnold and a teen stricken with cerebral palsy who dreams of starring in an action film The movie also stars Joe Mantegna and Shannon Elizabeth Arnold said Jamie Lee Curtis who starred alongside Schwarzenegger and Arnold in 1994's True Lies will also make a cameo in the film Polar Express becoming a box office runaway The movie was created through "performance-capture" technology with Hanks and other actors going through the motions on a bare sounds tage Their movements were recorded by infrared sensors then recreated digital imagery that resembles file computer animation of Shrek 2 or The Incredibles The technology allowed for semi-realistic renderings of its human characters which include Hanks in multiple roles among them the boy the train conductor and Santa Claus LOS ANGELES (AP) After a slow start out of the station The Polar Express just keeps chugging along Taking in nearly $10 million US over die weekend the holiday tale lifted its domestic total to $110 million with plenty of steam left for Christmas and New Year's A month ago The Polar Express looked as if it could be a train wreck debuting with $306 million in its first five days an unremarkable start Siven the movie's $170-million pro-uction cost and die lustre of star Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis Yet the movie's Christmas theme has given it great staying power with its tnree-day gross down just nine per cent this past weekend Revenues fell far more sharply for other holdovers in the top 10 ranging from a 32 per cent decline for Christmas With the Kranks to 70 per cent for Alexander: The Polar Express opened amid a rush of family films hitting theatre just five days after die blockbuster The Incredibles and a week before the action hit National Treasure Distributor Warner Bros sought to Reviews were wildly mixed on The Polar Express with some critics calling it an instant Christmas rlaarir and others saying the human figures resembled lifeless zombies Polar Express starring Tom Hanks Santa Claus a chHd and the tndn conductor thanks to the magic of performance capture animation passed the $100 million mark at the box office recently Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS With overseas box-office potential and TV and home-video revenue plus its prospects as a holiday perennial on television and video The Polar Express now has a solid shot to earn bade its enormous production and marketing costs "That film's been completely vindicated by its long-term box-office performance" said Paul Dergarabedian president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations our movie which had fabulous word of mouth would grow as we got closer to Christmas" Adapted from Chris Van Allsbuig's picture book The Polar Express follows a doubting boy as he regains his faith in the spirit of Christmas during a magical train trip to the North Pole build as big an audience as possible for The Polar Express early on to position it for a final Christmas rush "Our best play time is in front of us" said Dan Fellman Warner Bros head of distribution "We realized die advantage for us was to get as much play time as we could prior to Christmas because we always felt.