The silent French film, “The Artist,” begins the week with some extra Oscar heat. Last Saturday the feature, about an aging silent male film star and and a rising young actress, picked up the top trophy at the 23rd Producers Guild Awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. In the past two years, the winner of the PGA honor for the best produced motion picture has gone on to win the Best Picture Academy Award. Last year, “The King’s Speech” — in 2010 “The Hurt Locker.”

Here are some of the big winners:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

 ”THE ARTIST”
Producer: Thomas Langmann

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:

“THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN”
Producers: Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television:

“Downton Abbey” (Masterpiece) (PBS)

The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy:

“Modern Family” (ABC)
Producers: Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Morton, Jeffrey Richman, Dan O’Shannon, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker

The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama:

“Boardwalk Empire” (HBO)
Producers: Eugene Kelly, Howard Korder, Stephen Levinson, Martin Scorsese, Rudd Simmons, Tim Van Patten, Terence Winter

A complete list of the winners on the Producers Guild of America website.

The Producers Guild of America’s list of best motion picture producer nominees of 2011 include some of the year’s most talked about films. Yesterday, the PGA released the names of the nominees for the Producer of the Year Award in theatrical motion pictures, animated theatrical motion pictures, and in long-form television. The documentary film category and other television category nominations were releaved by the Guild last month.

Here are the nominees for The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures:

THE ARTIST
Producer: Thomas Langmann

BRIDESMAIDS
Producers: Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel, Clayton Townsend

THE DESCENDANTS
Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Producers: Ceán Chaffin, Scott Rudin

THE HELP
Producers: Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Brunson Green

HUGO
Producers: Graham King, Martin Scorsese

THE IDES OF MARCH
Producers: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brian Oliver

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Producers: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum

MONEYBALL
Producers: Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt

WAR HORSE
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

Also, Steven Spielberg will received a special honor — the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures. All 2012 Producers Guild Award winners will be announced later this month, on January 21, during a gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

More of the nominees and selected award winners  here on the PGA website.

Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- Promotional poster for the book "Chuck Fries Godfather of the Television Movie A History of Television."

Prolific television producer, Chuck Fries, was in the spotlight recently at the Burbank public library sponsored “An Evening with Hollywood Movers & Shaker.” The event on March 22, drew a crowd to the Buena Vista Library.

Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- The spotlight on television producer Chuck Fries drew a crowd to the Buena Vista Library in Burbank March 22, 2011

Fries was introduced by popular radio personality and disc jockey, Rick Dees, who has the #1 rated internationally syndicated radio show, “Rick Dees Weekly Top 40.”

Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- Radio personality Rick Dees gives the thumbs-up after introducing TV producer Chuck Fries at the Buena Vista Library in Burbank March 22, 2011

Chuck Fries has produced over 100 movies for television. His credits include a wide variety of films like, “She Waits” (1972), “The Secret Night Caller” (1975),”Cat People” (1982), ”Sins of the Father” (1985), ”Flowers in the Attic” (1987),”The Case of the Hillside Stranglers” (1989), “Troop Beverly Hills”  (1989),  “Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean” (1990), and “The Initiation of Sarah” (2006).

Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- (l-r) Producer Chuck Fries, moderator/senior editor The Hollywood Reporter Alex Ben Block, actor Dorian Harewood at the Buena Vista Library Burbank March 22, 2011

Actor Dorian Harewood talked about working in the Fries fact-based TV film, “The Ambush Murders”(1982).

Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- Producer Chuck Fries, moderator/senior editor The Hollywood Reporter Alex Ben Block, Ava Fries at the Buena Vista Library in Burbank March 22, 2011

Chuck’s wife, Ava, joined him on the platform to discuss her experience as a producer of the film, “Troop Beverly Hills” (1989).

Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- Spider-Man made a brief appearance at the Buena Vista Library in Burbank March 22, 2011

The web slinger, Spider-Man, dropped in to remind folks that Fries produced the TV series “The Amazing Spider-Man” (1977-1979) and the TV movie ”Spider-Man Strikes Back” (1979).

Photo: FLLewis/Media City G -- Producer Chuck Fries signed copies of his book at the Buena Vista Library in Burbank March 22, 2011

The book, “Chuck Fries Godfather of the Television Movie  A History of Television,” was released last fall.

The Writers Guild of America today announced its nominees for outstanding achievement in writing for the screen in 2010. Here are some of the big screen nominees:

Original Screenplay

• Black Swan, Screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin; Story by Andres Heinz; Fox Searchlight
• The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Paramount Pictures
• Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan; Warner Bros.
• The Kids Are All Right, Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg; Focus Features
• Please Give, Written by Nicole Holofcener; Sony Pictures Classics

Adapted Screenplay

• 127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy; Based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston; Fox Searchlight
• I Love You Phillip Morris, Written by John Requa & Glenn Ficarra; Based on the book by Steven McVicker; Roadside Attractions
• The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich; Sony Pictures
• The Town, Screenplay by Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard; Based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan; Warner Bros.
• True Grit, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Based on the novel by Charles Portis; Paramount Pictures

The full list is here. The WGA screen awards will be handed out on Saturday, February 5, 2011, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.

Producers Guild of America 2011 award nominations

The Producers Guild of America announced the nominations for its 2011 PGA awards in television and motion pictures today. The film list includes some familiar award nominees: “Inception,” “Black Swan,” “The Social Network,” “The Town,” and  “True Grit.” Go here for the complete list.  The 22nd Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony is set for Saturday, January 22, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.  

Oprah Winfrey’s new TV network goes live

That talk- show- diva- now- network-mogul, Oprah Winfrey, launched her own cable television network on New Year’s Day. One million viewers turned in, according to deadline.com

You can get an idea of the kind of programming Oprah is offering by visiting her OWN website. This is a terrific looking site, packed with all sorts of stuff — including hundreds of comments from viewers and Oprah fans about the new network. Check it out here.

New Year’s weekend Box Office

New Year’s weekend Box Office turned out to be very much like Christmas weekend –  slow and very unexciting. Attendance was done at movie theaters during those two weekends not because of the bad weather, but most liekly due to the weak slate of films — not one in the top five is a real “gotta see” type film or blockbuster.

The comedy sequel, “Little Fockers,” held onto the number spot with a weekend tally of $25.7 million. The western-remake with awards buzz, “True Grit,” held remained in second place with $24.4 million.

The fantasy,”Tron:Legacy,” landed in third again with $18.7 million, followed by the animation, “Yogi Bear,” in fourth with $12.3 million, and fifth earning $10.2 million, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

TV producer/Actor/Writer Paul Reiser is going after his third bestseller. Reiser just inked a deal with Hyperion Books for “Parenthood.”  According to the publishing website, Galleycat, “Parenthood” is a follow-up to his  other successful books about family.

Reiser’s two previous bestsellers from the 1990s are : ”Couplehood,” a funny look at romance and marriage, and “Babyhood,” a hilarious take on  becoming a father for the first time.

The stand-up comic has two sons, ages 10 and 15. In the new book, “Parenthood,” Reiser will reportedly meditate on “parenting, marriage, and midlife.” Reiser says the third book came naturally: “After many years of trying to master the art of being a great husband and father, I’ve decided to write this book so my children will finally have all the proof they need that I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Reiser has appeared in a number of films, but probably is best known for the popular 1990s TV sitcom that he starred in and co-created, “Mad About You.” Reiser’s new book is set to publish next May, at the same time as his new TV series, “The Paul Reiser Show,” is due to launch on NBC.

The Internet and Hollywood are buzzing about Actor/Director/Producer Mel Gibson’s latest foot-in-mouth performance.  An audio recording of Gibson using the “N-word” in a tirade against his ex-girlfriend, Russian singer, Oksana Grigorieva, was followed by reports that the entertainer is being investigated for domestic violence. And there’s more. WME agency has confirmed it recently fired Gibson as a client.

Remember, Gibson was hit by an onslaught of bad publicity after a tape revealed the drunken actor making anti-Semitic remarks during a DUI stop in Malibu, back in 2006.

Gibson is working on a number of projects right now. It will be interesting to see if Hollywood will again be forgiving of Gibson in order to keep the money and projects flowing.  Nikki Finke over at Deadline.com/Hollywood has a post about Gibson’s latest troubles, with over 200 comments, check it out  here.  The Wrap covered the story as well.

Summer reading:  Bestsellers at Barnes & Noble and Amazon

At the top of the Barnes & Noble bestselling paperback list, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Millennium Trilogy Series #1). The thriller/murder mystery is about the disappearance of a Swedish heiress and it’s by Journalist, Stieg Larsson. The novel was a big smash in Europe. Now it’s a hot seller here.

Number two on the list, Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played with Fire”  (Millennium Triligy #2), and in third, the romance  ”One Day,” by Screenwriter/Novelist,  David Nicholls.

Over on Amazon, Larsson’s hardcover thriller,”The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” is number one, followed by the paperback version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” in second place.

Man plays same lottery numbers for two years and wins $10 million

It took two years, but a Southern California player finally hit the jackpot in the SuperLotto Plus game on June 20, 2010.  Last Wednesday, July 7, the man, who wants to remain anonymous, cashed in the winning ticket worth $10 million.

Lottery officials say he told them the numbers came to him in a dream two years ago. He played them religiously and it paid off.  The ticket was bought at Jack’s Liquor, 3720 West Olympic Boulevard in L.A. The store gets $50,000 for selling that winning ticket.

Meanwhile, a winning lottery ticket bought more than two months ago at the El  Mexicano Market, 6625 South Avalon Boulevard in L.A., has not been cashed in yet. That ticket is worth $179,428.

It had five of the winning numbers, but not the Mega Ball, from that historic May 4, 2010 Mega Millions draw. Those numbers are: 21, 9, 36, 43, 31, and the Mega Ball 8.  You might remember, the jackpot of $266 million was won by a producer at NBC-4 here in Burbank and her husband.

Speaking of Mega Millions, the jackpot today stands at $52 million. No one had all of last night’s winning numbers: 1, 31, 33, 34, 50, and the Mega Ball 41. However, three lucky tickets sold in the Golden State are each worth $178, 516.

 A Southland lottery winner cashed in that missing $7 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot winning ticket last Monday, June 14. This is the unclaimed jackpot I posted about a few days ago. The ticket was bought in the 7-Eleven store at 3450 Overland Avenue in Los Angeles for the June 5 draw. Oh, the 7-Eleven gets a $35,000 bonus for selling that winning ticket.

 The owner of the lucky ticket wants to remain anonymous. According to lottery officials, the winner chose the annuity option and will receive increasing payments over 26 years, beginning with the first for $175,000. What are his plans?  The winner disclosed he intends to pay off some credit cards, some other bills, and take a long-awaited trip to Disney World!

Actress Demi Moore nails a $2 million book deal

Movie roles have been pretty slim for Actress, Demi Moore, lately, but she just scored a huge deal in the publishing biz. Over on Deadline.com, Mike Fleming reports Moore’s reps are working on the fine points of a book contract with HarperCollins. The word is this will not be a trip down memory lane. More here.

Screenwriting duo hook a deal to write “Monster High” musical

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are very busy screenwriters/producers these days. And they are making a lot of dough at it. Gough and Millar are the showrunners for the TV hit, “Smallville.” Also, they wrote such male-focused films as ”Lethal Weapon 4,” “Shanghai Noon,” and “Spider-Man 2.”  For a some variety, they produced last year’s “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” which rang up $80 million at the domestic Box Office.

Now Gough and Millar are working on a monster musical about the trials and tribulations of high school — as experienced by the off-spring of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman. “Monster High” is based on a new entertainment/toy line from Mattel. The Hollywood Reporter has a nice write up on the project. 

The domestic Box Office is on fire again, thanks to the remake of “The Karate Kid.” Over the weekend the re-do of the 1984 hit, starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, demolished the competition with a debut of $55.7 million – to become the number one movie in the country.

The updated “Karate Kid” probably should have been called, “The Kung Fu Kid.” In the plot, a 12-year-old kid from Detroit and his single working mother move to China, where he’s bullied and eventually hooks up with a Kung Fu master who teaches him the art of self-defense. Oh, the producers of this new Box Office smash include the celebrity parents of Jaden Smith, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The other big movie of the weekend, “The A-Team” got slammed by a kid not yet old enough to drive.  The film version of the old TV series of the same title, managed to ring-up only $25.7 million. The budget, according to Box Office Mojo, was somewhere around $110 million. This expensive action flick is about four US-Special-Forces-type soldiers who complete a mission in Iraq only to ended up framed for a crime and must then fight to clear their names. It was in development for more than 10 years. The cast includes Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Jessica Biel.

After three weeks at number one, the animated 3D movie, ”Shrek Forever After,” dropped to third place with $15.8 million. The comedy “Get Him to the Greek” earned $9.9 million, good enough for fourth. Rounding out the top five, the action/comedy/romance “Killers” with $8 million.

Photo: Lisa Burks/Freelance photographer — A generous flower merchant donates hundreds of sunflowers to brighten the Glendale crypt of Michael Jackson

The late King of Pop’s tomb is now filled with a huge collection of sunflowers — thanks to Jason Levin who runs a San Diego company called Sunflowerguy.com. On Friday, May 14, Levin loaded up a truck with 15-hundred happy face sunflowers and drove to Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale to deliver the special gift. 

Levin’s company is known for donating bunches of what the website calls “the happiest flower on Earth” to good causes. So it’s no surprise, that Levin took action after hearing a report that Jackson’s ex-wife, Lisa Marie Presley, was asking fans to send sunflowers to brighten the resting place of the legendary entertainer.  Apparently, the sunflower was Jackson’s favorite flower.

Local writer/photog Lisa Burk was there when Levin unloaded 30 large containers of gorgeous flowers at the Great Mausoleum Holly Terrace. Later, Forest Lawn personnel carried the flowers inside to Jackson’s crypt.

Photos: Lisa Burks/Freelance Photographer — Dozens of containers filled with hundreds sunflowers  are shown outside the tomb of the late Superstar Michael Jackson 

Burks has more great flower photos here.  Also, you can check out Burks’ posts on Michael Jackson and his fans on her website.

A great line from Director/Actor/Producer Woody Allen

At 74, filmmaker Woody Allen has slowed a bit, but he’s still in the entertainment business. Allen and some of his cast from his latest movie, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” are at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera, this weekend.  

Sharon Waxman of The Wrap is in Cannes and was there yesterday when Allen made this comment about the final curtain call: “My relationship with death is the same, “ he quipped at the news conference after the film’s first screening. “I’m strongly against it.”  

Waxman has more on Allen, his film, and the festival here.

The final launch of Atlantis

Photo courtesy NASA TV: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on its final mission from Kennedy Space Center on Florida last Friday, May 14

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is on its farewell mission. Atlantis blasted off from Kennedy Space Center on Friday, May 14, with a six member crew and supplies for the International Space Station. Atlantis is scheduled to come home on Wednesday, May 26.  

It will be end of the line for Atlantis, after 25 years and more than 115 million miles. Details and updates on the last space journey of Atlantis on the NASA website. 

Adventures in gardening and yard care

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Master Gardener Jessica Craven gives instructions on composting to a workshop at the Burbank Recycle Center on May 1, 2010

I’m in a compost groove: recycling garbage into a rich organic soil amendment in a compost bin. Actually, I’m just getting started with this whole composting thing. The Burbank Recycle Center dropped off my compost bin last Thursday. On May first, I attended a free one-hour composting workshop at the Burbank Recycle Center on South Flower Street with around 50 adults and 10-12 youngsters.

Compost Expert & Master Gardener, Jessica Craven, taught the fundamentalists. The basic elements for producing compost are nitrogen, air, and moisture. Also, you need brown stuff (such as dried leaves, twigs), green stuff (like grass clippings, green leaves), kitchen scraps (all sorts of fruits, veggies, breads, paper towels, paper napkins, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags … etc).  

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Two compost workshop participants check out a sample of the finished product

Burbank residents in the class received free compost bins to store their brown and green stuff where it can “cook,” and microorganisms can turn the garbage into a dark, nutritious matter –  an excellent food for your yard, garden, and plants.

There are a lot of websites with information on different methods of composting and the assorted goodies that can be dumped into your mixture. By the way, more composting workshops will be held at the Sheridan Gardens Nursery on North Hollywood Way in Burbank next month. Call the Burbank Recycle Center for details and to RSVP (818) 238-3900.

Photo: Pete Souza/White House — President Barack Obama speaks to an audience in the Family Theater of the White House just before the screening of the first hour of a new HBO World War II mini-series,”The Pacific,” last Thursday, March 11, 2010. In the front row, the two executive producers of the mini-series, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

The 10-part mini-series, “The Pacific,” began airing on HBO last night. The cable TV mini-series focuses on the stories of three U.S. Marines during America’s World War II battle with Japan. It’s from the same folks who created the highly acclaimed World War II mini-series, “Band of Brothers,” which aired on HBO back in 2001.  “The Pacific” reportedly cost somewhere around $195 million.