Afternoon Briefing:
Jude the gracious: In a rare display of generosity for Hollywood, Jude Law, who is nominated for the Academy Award for best actor for his work in "Cold Mountain," says he thinks Sean Penn should win for "Mystic River" instead, adding, "I think it should be his year." (Ananova)
Fightin' words: As the centenary of Bloomsday approaches (June 1904), Roddy Doyle, author of "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" and screenwriter of "The Commitments," told a literary gathering in New York, "'Ulysses' could have done with a good editor." (Reuters)
Nannies told no go: The New York publishing world is all atwitter over the cancellation of a reported $3 million contract with authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus of "The Nanny Diaries" for a sequel or sequels. The New York Observer reports that the authors are so roundly disliked among the literary set that, according to one publishing exec, when word got out that Random House had asked for its money back, "People were practically dancing on the tables ..." (N.Y. Observer)
In other publishing news: Adam Moss, formerly of Esquire, 7 Days and the New York Times Magazine is leaving his current job as assistant managing editor for features at the New York Times to be editor in chief of New York magazine. (Ad Age)
Casting news: Catherine Zeta-Jones is going to join the cast of the "Ocean's 11" sequel, "Ocean's 12." (E! Online)
Money Quote:
Television producer Diane Sokolow on why she thinks it was a good idea to make a movie about accused wife-killer Scott Peterson even while the story is evolving: "I think true crime is a wildly interesting topic. Check Willy Shakespeare, the original ripped-from-the headlines man." (CNN)
--Karen Croft
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Morning Briefing:
Raise your hands if you saw this one coming: Native American groups, offended by Andre 3000's buckskin, feathers and tepee dance at the Grammys, are threatening a boycott of CBS. One group has called the number the "most disgusting set of racial stereotypes aimed at American Indians ... ever seen." CBS says it is "very sorry if anyone was offended by the performance," in which, incidentally, both of the OutKast singers' nipples were on display. (AllHipHop.com)
Alert Michael Moore: Oscar telecast producer Joe Roth says that the 5-second delay in the transmission of this year's show will not be used to delete political statements. "It applies to the use of profanity," he told reporters, adding that a "person with a button" would be watching from either New York or L.A. (NBC4 TV)
Delete this: Janet Jackson's breasts are not going into total hiding in response to the great Super Bowl boob-ha-ha of 2004. The cover of Jackson's new album shows her topless, looking over her shoulder, arms just covering her shadow-cloaked breasts. "It's beautiful, soft. So far, fans love it," said a spokesman for Jackson's label, Virgin. (OK, but what about her first single off the album?) (Rush and Molloy)
Not dead yet: MSNBC.com accidentally published a placeholder obit for Dick Cheney on its Web site a few weeks ago. According to a spokeswoman for the site, the mistake was "caught within an hour and taken down. Obviously, we're not happy." Cheney declined to comment on the premature report of his demise, saying it "wouldn't be prudent." (Lloyd Grove)
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Bill Clinton didn't make it to pick up his award along with Justin and Beyoncé, but that didn't prevent him -- and Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren -- from winning a Grammy. The multinational trio shared the Grammy for best spoken-word album for children for their retelling of Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf."
In this new animal-friendly version of the classic tale "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks," released by PentaTone Classics in September and featuring the Russian National Orchestra, the wolf is paraded to the zoo after his capture but is instead released back into the wild. (The New York-based Wolf Conservation Center, which helps reintroduce captive wolves into the wild, is one of several charities chosen to share in the album's proceeds.)
"Forgetting his triumph, Peter thought instead of fallen trees, parched meadows, choked streams, and of each and every wolf struggling for survival," Clinton narrates, clearly feeling the wolf's pain. "The time has come to leave wolves in peace."
To listen to a clip from the album, click here.
-- Amy Reiter, with additional reporting by Christopher Farah
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