U.S. Senate probes Zero Dark Thirty filmmakers' CIA ties

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee has begun an examination of contacts between the CIA and the filmmakers behind Zero Dark Thirty, a movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

The film has come under intense criticism in Washington for its depiction of torture as a tool used to extract intelligence about the al-Qaeda leader.

A committee headed by Senator Dianne Feinstein is to examine whether the CIA granted "inappropriate access" to director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal.

Zero Dark Thirty charts the nine-year hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and climaxes in the successful raid on bin Laden's compound in May 2011, when he was killed by U.S. forces.

The Senate committee is especially interested in scenes in the movie depicting torture as an effective tool and wants to know if those details came from CIA sources.

Senators Feinstein, John McCain and Carl Levin have criticized those scenes as inaccurate, saying torture was not effective in gaining information about bin Laden's whereabouts. The senators oppose any use of torture.

They have sent a letter to Sony Pictures, the film's distributor, asking that a disclaimer be added to the movie.

Several meetings with CIA

Reuters is reporting the investigation will examine records charting contacts between intelligence officials and Boal and Bigelow.

The conservative group Judicial Watch has released government e-mails and memoranda that show several meetings between the filmmakers and CIA officials, including Michael Morell, the CIA's deputy director at the time and now the agency's acting chief.

Morell made public a message to CIA employees last month saying that Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization and should not be interpreted as realistic.

"CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs, but as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product," he said.

Zero Dark Thirty, he wrote, "takes significant artistic licence, while portraying itself as being historically accurate."

Peter Bergen, a journalist and author of the book Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad, says he saw nothing in his own research to prove that torture was an effective tool in the hunt.

The real danger is that people seeing Zero Dark Thirty may take a film that is partly fiction as the whole truth, he told CBC News.

"Some of the reporting is accurate, but some of it is not accurate," Bergen said. "And I think tens of millions of people around the world, including in Canada, are going to come this film, and it's going to colour the way they view what happened and the hunt for bin Laden.

"And we now have the intelligence committee in the United States saying that their portrayal of what happened is grossly misleading and inaccurate, which I think sort of speaks for itself."

'No single method'

Boal and Bigelow, an Oscar winner for The Hurt Locker, released a statement last month defending the depiction of torture in their film.

"The film shows that no single method was necessarily responsible for solving the manhunt, nor can any single scene taken in isolation fairly capture the totality of efforts the film dramatizes," the statement said.

"One thing is clear: the single greatest factor in finding the world's most dangerous man was the hard work and dedication of the intelligence professionals who spent years working on this global effort."

Zero Dark Thirty has had limited release in New York and Los Angeles and is already being mentioned as an Oscar contender.

A special screening has been set up in Washington for Jan. 8. It will open widely on Jan. 11.

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William Shatner opens hailing frequency to Chris Hadfield

CBC News Community team, from left to right: Andrew Yates, Andrea Lee-Greenberg, Lauren O'Neil, John Bowman

If you're part of the CBC News community, you're likely to meet one of us: we're the folks working to produce and promote your stories. Read more about us.

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Utah school tweaks Elvis musical after parent gets All Shook Up

A parent who was All Shook Up about Elvis Presley songs in a high-school drama prompted educators to cancel the musical, deeming it too sexual. But, the decision was reversed Thursday by administrators at the high school south of Salt Lake City.

The administrators at Herriman High School received permission from the copyright owners of All Shook Up to edit some of Presley's songs and make scene changes in the American jukebox musical that borrows from William Shakespeare.

"The show will go on," said Sandy Riesgraf, a spokeswoman for the Jordan School District. "Our biggest concern early on, we wanted to make some changes to keep the play within community values. It's a win-win for all of us."

Presley warbles about a sweetheart whose "lips are like a volcano that's hot" in his song from 1957. "I'm proud to say she's my buttercup. I'm in love. I'm all shook up."

His song lyrics together with a scene suggesting cross-dressing were deemed offensive by a person the school is refusing to identify.

Initial cancellation criticized

Some think school administrators folded too easily at the start.

"I'm at a loss," Jill Fishback, whose daughter worked on the production, told The Salt Lake Tribune. "They're singing Elvis songs. A girl dresses up as a boy and kisses a boy... It's not promoting homosexuality. It was supposed to be a farce."

All Shook Up brings a modern twist to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which portrays a female castaway who dresses as a boy to evade detection in ancient southern Europe, said Martine Green-Rogers, a theatre fellow at the University of Utah.

"There's a misunderstanding about the plot of the play," Green-Rogers said. "It happens a lot in theatre. Artists push boundaries."

The female castaway dresses as a boy as cover to wander about, but reveals herself as she falls in love with a young man. "By that time, the genders have been righted," Green-Rogers said. "The audience knows it's not a homosexual relationship."

Nonetheless, Herriman High School, about 20 miles from Salt Lake City, will make some scene changes to the musical version of the Shakespeare play that Riesgraf couldn't immediately specify on Thursday.

"We weren't asking for a lot. It will not change the intent of the play. They gave us their blessing," she said of the musical's producers.

Rehearsals for All Shook Up had been briefly cancelled. The production is back on for a February run.

Parents balk at school plays

It wasn't the first time some Utah parents balked at a school drama. In August, the family values group Eagle Forum got Jordan School District administrators to cancel Dead Man Walking, a play about a Catholic nun who counsels a death-row inmate in Louisiana.

Dead Man Walking was scratched even though much of its profanity had been removed from the script. The backlash prompted policy changes that allowed administrators to swiftly suspend All Shook Up before the reversal.

Jordan officials gave parents a greater role over student plays. They required actors to secure a parent's permission and drama teachers to seek clearance for plays not on an approved list.

It wasn't immediately clear Thursday how All Shook Up got off the ground. It had been in rehearsal for months.

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Tech achievement Oscar goes to Canadian software developers

Two software developers from Canada are among the first Academy Award winners of the year.

London, Ont. native Doug James and Vancouver-based Nils Thuerey share a technical achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with international colleagues Theodore Kim and Markus Gross.

The quartet is being honoured for developing the Wavelet Turbulence software, a digital tool that makes it easier for visual effects artists to control the appearance of gas and smoke on film.

The German-born Thuerey says it's been used in more than 20 big Hollywood productions, including Monsters vs Aliens and Battleship.

Thuerey's Canadian connections are admittedly slight — he came here in June to work at the visual effects agency ScanlineVFX in Vancouver.

While there, he says he's using his ground-breaking tool on upcoming projects including Iron Man 3 and the Superman reboot Man of Steel.

He's among 25 recipients of academy plaques and certificates recognizing technical movie-making achievements. A ceremony in their honour will be held Feb. 9 in Los Angeles.

Portions of the Scientific and Technical Awards presentations will be included in the Feb. 24 Oscar ceremony.

Developed internationally

Thuerey says he developed the software in 2008 when he was a researcher at the Swiss university ETH Zurich and Gross was his supervisor.

It began when Thuerey met Kim, a researcher at Cornell University, at a conference the year before in Vienna. James was Kim's supervisor.

"We didn't really expect it to be that successful at the time," says Thuerey.

"We really liked the idea and it worked surprisingly well but the immediate goal was just to get a publication at Siggraph, which is a big computer graphics conference."

That conference was well attended by industry and got the attention of a friend at DreamWorks who put it to use on Monsters vs. Aliens in 2009.

Since then it's become the industry standard, says Thuerey.

"These effects take a long time to compute and our process makes it more controllable for the artist and much faster to use," he explains.

"It's a very simple thing in nature usually but it can develop very complicated motions."

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7 returning TV hits to watch

Season 2 of Girls, starring (from left) Lena Dunham, Zosia Mamet, Jemima Kirke and Allison Williams, begins Jan. 13, 2013 (HBO Canada)

For TV viewers, the new year brings a fresh wave of personal crises, romantic intrigue and ambitious scheming — whether they be set against a zombie apolocalypse in Georgia, the New York of privileged millennials or a sprawling English country estate after the First World War.

Plummeting temperature outdoors make it a perfect time to settle in on the couch and dig into a new batch of returning hits. Here's a few to catch up on.

Who'd have thought that a long-form, costumed British melodrama following an aristocratic family and its servants would enthrall millions of viewers worldwide? The acclaimed phenomenon returns in January with Oscar-winning creator Julian Fellowes delivering another addictive season about the Crawley family and the intricacies of life in the majestic, titular Yorkshire manor. For the uninitiated, Canadian broadcaster Vision is offering a prime catch-up opportunity by airing seasons one, two and three back-to-back, beginning Jan. 2.

Anticipated moment: this season will see the show's dowager countess, the incomparable Maggie Smith (Lady Violet), cross paths with the irrepressible and brassy Shirley MacLaine (heiress Martha Levinson).

Season three premiere: Jan. 6, 2013 on PBS; April 10 on Vision.

Comedian Gerry Dee is heading back to the prestigious halls of Xavier Academy in the sitcom Mr. D. By loosely tapping into Dee's own past as a private school teacher, the show has drawn a following for its laughable (and sometimes quite honest) portrayal of a supremely under-qualified teacher faking his way through the school year.

Anticipated moment: Though the staff room is already populated with a host of comedy world regulars (Naomi Snieckus, Mark Little and Darrin Rose), the show gets a hit of star power when Russell Peters turns up for a guest spot in the season opener.

Season two premiere: Jan. 7, 2013 on CBC.

Controversial, 26-year-old writer-director-actor Lena Dunham will test her staying power when her comedy series Girls — raw and cringe-worthy, while also strangely mesmerizing — returns for a sophomore season, following a quartet of 20-something women figuring out their place in the world.

Anticipated moment: Pretty much anything featuring the scene-stealing Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna).

Season two premiere: Jan. 13, 2013 on HBO Canada.

One of the most hotly anticipated network shows of 2012, Smash started off with a bang, boasting an impressive team of theatre world collaborators (playwright Theresa Rebeck, Tony-winning composers Marc Shaiman and Neil Meron and actors Megan Hilty, Brian d'Arcy James and Christian Borle, for starters) and a high-profile cast and producers (including screen veteran Anjelica Huston, former American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee and exec Steven Spielberg).

The big-budget NBC production was weighed down by a host of factors: several uninteresting story arcs, a few head-scratching song-and-dance montages (remember that Bollywood dream sequence?) and the distractingly dreary sweaters and scarves worn by Debra Messing's lyricist character. Still, a strong contingent is rooting for the show, which has undergone a significant overhaul for season two. Will a new show-runner (Gossip Girl's Joshua Safran), intriguing newcomers (Jennifer Hudson), even more original music and bigger plot lines give Smash the fresh injection it needs?

Anticipated moment: Will viewers be treated to a diva-worthy sing-off between Idol alums McPhee and Hudson?

Season two premiere: Feb. 5, 2013 on NBC.

Though it was just a mid-season break, AMC left its runaway hit The Walking Dead at a nail-biting cliff-hanger last fall. After killing off cast mainstays left, right and centre, the show's screenwriters left their motley crew of post-apocalyptic survivors scattered and facing a threat potentially more dangerous than waves of oncoming zombies: a maniacal, power-hungry zealot with a town of bloodthirsty folks behind him.

Anticipated moment: Just what kind of brotherly bonding will reunited siblings Merle and Daryl get up to — if they escape the horde of townsfolk screaming for their hides?

Season three return: Feb. 10, 2013 on AMC.

The epic cable fantasy saga Game of Thrones is getting even bigger for its third season, with producers recently announcing longer episodes — a few minutes added to each instalment amounting to almost an entire additional episode by season's end. Here's hoping it means a fresh wave of Wildings and Whitewalkers from beyond the Wall, some more of those fiery dragon scenes, another epic battle and the wonderful Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.

Anticipated moment: Daenerys, growing dragons in tow, finally taking charge of her own fate.

Season three premiere: March 31, 2013 on HBO Canada.

Though there isn't even an exact premiere date set, we're breathlessly awaiting what will most likely be the penultimate season of Mad Men, Matthew Weiner's impeccably detailed, hugely influential and utterly engrossing mid-century American portrait. After a shocking death and some long-awaited changes in last season's second-to-last episode, the finale appeared to set the groundwork for Mad Men's antihero Don Draper (Jon Hamm) to return to where we first discovered him: balancing a dual life on the personal front with his professional genius. Still, as proven before, one can never tell what's up Weiner's sleeve.

Anticipated moment: The inevitable marital breakdown between Don and Megan Draper (our delightful Canadian Jessica Paré).

Season six premiere: expected spring 2013 on AMC.

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Tennessee Waltz singer Patti Page dies at 85

Patti Page, the top-selling singer of the 1950s known for hits such as Tennessee Waltz and (How Much is that) Doggie in the Window, has died. She was 85.

Page died on New Year's Day in Encinitas, Calif., according to her publicist, Schatzi Hageman.

Page, known as the "Singing Rage," was popular in pop music and country and had television programs on all three major U.S. networks.

Page had hits with Mockin' Bird Hill, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Allegheny Moon and Confess, in which she dubbed her own background vocals behind the main track, a new innovation in music.

Never wanted to be a singer

Born Nov. 8, 1927, as Clara Ann Fowler in Claremore, Okla., Page said she never aspired to be a singer, but was told she could sing.

She got her stage name working at radio station KTUL in Tulsa, which had a 15-minute program featuring a singer named Patti Page sponsored by Page Milk Co. When the regular Patti Page left, she took over and the stage name stuck.

American popular music singer Patti Page is shown in the late 1940s. She died Jan. 1. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Jack Rael, a band leader who stopped in Tulsa in 1946, began managing her after hearing her voice on the radio in 1946.

A year later she signed a contract with Mercury Records and began appearing in major nightclubs in the Chicago area.

Her first major hit was With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming, with the same overdubbing of her own voice that she used on Confess, this time, in four-part harmony.

Tennessee Waltz a B side

The success of Tennessee Waltz, which was covered later by dozens of other artists, was a fluke. It was the B side to a recording of Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, a song Mercury urged her to record in 1950.

"Mercury wanted to concentrate on a Christmas song and they didn't want anything with much merit on the flip side," Page said.

"They didn't want any disc jockeys to turn the Christmas record over. The title of that great Christmas song was Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, and no one ever heard of it."

Page and Rael were convinced a pop version of Tennessee Waltz could be a winner among listeners and radio audiences soon agreed with them.

The song was on the pop, country and R& B charts for 30 weeks and sold more than 10 million copies, behind only White Christmas by Bing Crosby at the time.

Page a TV darling

Page toured internationally and became a TV darling appearing on The Big Record and her own variety vehicle The Patti Page Oldsmobile Show in 1958. More recently, her music appeared on the soundtrack of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

She later appeared opposite Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry and in Boy's Night Out with James Garner and Kim Novack.

In 1999, after 51 years of performing, Page won her first Grammy for traditional pop vocal performance for Live at Carnegie Hall — The 50th Anniversary Concert. On Feb. 9 in Los Angeles, she was to have received a lifetime achievement award from The Recording Academy.

Page and husband Jerry Filiciotto spent half the year living in Southern California and half in an 1830s farmhouse in New Hampshire. He died in 2009.

Page is survived by her son, Daniel O'Curran, daughter Kathleen Ginn and sister Peggy Layton.

With files from The Associated Press

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Justin Bieber-chasing paparazzo killed by car

In the world of paparazzi, one image of the rich or famous can be like winning the lottery, but the hunt for that shot can be dangerous — even deadly.

A photographer was struck by a car and killed on Tuesday as he darted across a street after snapping pictures of Justin Bieber's white Ferrari — and the teen heartthrob wasn't even in the car.

'I'm surprised this hasn't happened before.'—Giles Harrison, a celebrity photographer

The incident again brought the dangers of paparazzi's often aggressive work into harsh focus, prompting some celebrities to renew their calls for tougher laws to rein in their pursuers.

However, at least one previous attempt has been stymied in the U.S. by First Amendment protections.

Authorities have withheld the name of the 29-year-old photographer killed on Tuesday pending notification of relatives.

In a statement, Bieber said his prayers were with the photographer's family.

"Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves," Bieber said in the statement released by Island Def Jam Music Group.

Paparazzi accident 'bound to happen'

Much of Hollywood was abuzz about the death.

Miley Cyrus sent several tweets, saying paparazzi act like "fools," and the unfortunate accident was "bound to happen."

Canadian singer Justin Bieber was not in his white Ferrari when a paparazzo was killed by a car while crossing the street after taking pictures of the vehicle, say police. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

"Hope this paparazzi/JB accident brings on some changes in '13," Cyrus said on her Twitter page. "Paparazzi are dangerous! Wasn't Princess Di enough of a wake-up call?!"

Paparazzi roaming the streets of Southern California have been commonplace for more than a decade as the shutterbugs looked to land exclusive shots that can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Industry veterans recalled incidents where paparazzi chasing celebrities have been injured, but they couldn't remember a photographer being killed while working.

"Here in the state of California, I'm surprised this hasn't happened before," said Giles Harrison, a celebrity photographer and owner of London Entertainment Group.

Harrison is familiar with the backlash against paparazzi. He and another photographer were convicted of misdemeanour false imprisonment and sentenced to jail for boxing in Arnold Schwarzenegger and his family as they sat in their Hummer in 1998.

Paparazzi law called overly broad

Citing that incident and the death of Princess Diana, the state legislature passed its first anti-paparazzi measure a year later. It created hefty civil penalties that could be paid to stars whose privacy was invaded.

Six months ago, a paparazzo was charged with reckless driving in a high-speed pursuit of Bieber and with violating a separate, 2010 state law that toughened punishment for those who drive dangerously in pursuit of photos for commercial gain.

However, a judge last month dismissed the paparazzi law charges, saying the law was overly broad.

The judge cited problems with the statute, saying it was aimed at newsgathering activities protected by the First Amendment, and lawmakers should have increased penalties for reckless driving rather than target those who photograph celebrities.

City prosecutors said they would appeal the judge's ruling.

The law was prompted by the experiences of Jennifer Aniston, who provided details to a lawmaker about being unable to drive away after she was surrounded by paparazzi on Pacific Coast Highway.

Driver unlikely to be charged

On Tuesday, a friend of Bieber's was behind the wheel of the Ferrari when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled it over for speeding along Interstate 405, authorities said.

A roadside memorial for a paparazzo, who was killed by a car while darting across a street after taking pictures of Justin Bieber's Ferrari. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

"This photographer evidently had been following the white Ferrari," and when it was pulled over after sundown, he stopped, parked and crossed the street to snap photos, Los Angeles police Detective Charles Walton said.

The photographer stood on a low freeway railing to shoot photographs of the traffic stop over a chain-link fence, authorities said.

"The CHP officer told him numerous times that it wasn't safe for him to be there and to return to his vehicle," Walton said.

There were no sidewalks or pedestrian crossings along the street where the photographer had parked, so the driver of the car that struck him had no reason to expect a pedestrian, Walton said of the accident.

69-year-old driver

"It would have been very difficult for her to see him," the detective said.

It wasn't immediately clear how fast the motorist, a 69-year-old woman, was travelling, but she was not believed to be at fault and was unlikely to be cited, police said.

Harrison said he routinely tells his photographers to be safe when they are working.

"In any job, you have to exercise a degree of common sense and caution," he said.

Harrison hopes celebrities and paparazzi examine their actions to ensure a similar event doesn't happen again. No photo is worth someone's life, he said.

"Everybody wants to be the first one to get that shot, get that scoop," Harrison said. "But at the end of the day, you can't spend money if you are dead."

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Tax exile Gerard Depardieu granted Russian citizenship

Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has waged a battle against a proposed super-tax on millionaires in his native country, has been granted Russian citizenship.

A brief announcement on the Kremlin website on Thursday revealed that President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant following an application from the actor.

The former Oscar nominee and star of the movie Green Card has been vocal in his opposition to French President Francois Hollande's plans to raise the tax on earned income above €1 million ($1.29 million Cdn) to 75 per cent from the current high of 41 per cent. Russia has a flat 13-per cent tax rate.

"I have never killed anyone, I don't think I've been unworthy, I've paid €145 million in taxes over 45 years," Depardieu wrote in an open letter in mid-December to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who had called the actor "pathetic."

"I will neither complain nor brag, but I refuse to be called 'pathetic,"' the 64-year-old actor wrote in his response.

Actor moved to tax-friendly Belgium

A representative for the former Oscar nominee declined to say whether he had accepted the Russian offer, and refused all comment. Thursday was a holiday in Russia and officials from the Federal Tax Service and Federal Migration Service could not be reached for comment on whether the decision would require Depardieu to have a residence in Russia.

Depardieu said in his letter to Ayrault that he would surrender his passport and French social security card. In October, the mayor of a small Belgian border town announced that Depardieu had bought a house and set up legal residence there, a move that was slammed by the newly-elected Socialist government.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the French government spokeswoman, didn't comment directly on Depardieu's tax fight, but drew a clear distinction between people who have personal or professional reasons to live abroad, and "French citizens who proclaim loudly and clearly that they they're exiling themselves for fiscal reasons."

She said Putin's offer "is an exclusive prerogative of the Russian chief of state."

Depardieu has had increasingly high-profile ties with Russia. Last October he visited the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, to celebrate the birthday of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. And in 2011, he was in Russia's Arkhangelsk region to play the lead role in the film Rasputin.

'Depardieu is a star in Russia'

"You have to understand that Depardieu is a star in Russia," Vladimir Fedorovski, a Russian writer living in France, told the network Europe 1 on Thursday. "There are crowds around Depardieu. He's a symbol of France. He's a huge ambassador of French culture."

'There are crowds around Depardieu. He's a symbol of France.'—Vladimir Fedorovski, a Russian writer living in France

Though France's highest court struck down the two-year tax on Dec. 29, the government has promised to resubmit the law in a slightly different form soon. On Wednesday it estimated that the court decision to overturn the tax would cost it €210 million in 2013.

In an interview published Sunday, Depardieu told the Sunday Parisien that the court decision made no difference.

France's debt burden is around 90 per cent of national income — not far off levels that have caused problems elsewhere in the 17-country eurozone.

Depardieu has made more than 150 films, among them the 1991 comedy Green Card about a man who enters into a marriage of convenience in order to get U.S. residency. Most famously, Depardieu was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1990 film by the same name.

Putin sympathizes with actor

The Kremlin statement gave no information on why Putin made the citizenship grant, but the Russian president expressed sympathy with the actor in December, days after Depardieu reportedly said he was considering Russian citizenship.

"As we say, artists are easily offended and therefore I understand the feelings of Mr. Depardieu," Putin said.

'As we say, artists are easily offended and therefore I understand the feelings of Mr. Depardieu.'—Russian president Vladimir Putin

Although France and Russia disagree sharply about how to resolve the civil war in Syria, the two countries have strong commercial relations. In 2011, Russia signed a contract worth more than € 1 billion Friday to buy two French warships — the largest military deal between a NATO country and Moscow.

Depardieu is well known in Russia, where he appears in an ad for Sovietsky Bank's credit card and is prominently featured on the bank's home page.

Depardieu is not the only high-profile Frenchman to object to the super-tax. Bernard Arnault — chief of the luxury goods and fashion giant LVMH and worth an estimated $40 billion Cdn — has also said he would leave for Belgium.

France's Civil Code says one must have another nationality in order to give up French citizenship because it is forbidden to be stateless. Thursday's decision by the Kremlin appears to fulfill that requirement.

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Ewan McGregor, Kate Bush on Queen's honour list

Actor Ewan McGregor, fashion designer Stella McCartney and Scottish physicist Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the so-called "God particle," are among the hundreds being honoured by Queen Elizabeth II this New Year.

The list is particularly heavy with Britain's Olympic heroes, but also includes eccentric English singer Kate Bush, author Roald Dahl, illustrator Quentin Blake, and Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the royal aide who helped organize the watched-around-the-world wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton.

McCartney was honoured with the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, in part for her work creating the skintight, red-white-and-blue uniforms worn by British athletes as they grabbed 65 medals during the 2012 games hosted by London. McCartney is the designer daughter of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his first wife Linda, and has set up a successful business and a critically-acclaimed label.

University of Edinburgh physicist Peter Higgs' achievements examiine the nature and origin of the universe. (Fabrice Coffrini/Associated Press)

Higgs' achievements, which made him a Companion of Honour, touch on the nature and the origins of the universe. The 83-year-old researcher's work in theoretical physics sought to explain what gives things weight. He said it was while walking through the Scottish mountains that he hit upon the concept of what would later become known as the Higgs boson, an elusive subatomic particle that gives objects mass and combines with gravity to give them weight.

For decades, the existence of such a particle remained just a theory, but earlier this year scientists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said they'd found compelling evidence that the Higgs boson was out there. Or in there.

All of Britain's gold medallists from this year's games were on the list, with cyclist Bradley Wiggins and sailor Ben Ainslie honoured with knighthoods. Sebastian Coe, who masterminded the games as chairman of the London organizing committee, was made a Companion of Honour — a prestigious title also awarded to Higgs.

Honors lists typically include a sprinkling of star power, and this year was no different. Ewan McGregor, who came to public attention through his role as the heroin-addled anti-hero of British drug drama Trainspotting, was awarded an OBE. The 41-year-old actor is also known for his turn as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels.

Kate Bush out of public eye for many years

Babooshka singer Kate Bush said she was delighted to be made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, for a musical career which has resulted in a string of quirky hits including Wuthering Heights, Cloudbusting, and Man With The Child In His Eyes.

The 54-year-old singer-songwriter has been out of the public eye for almost two decades but recently released a set of new tracks.

Singer-songwriter Kate Bush, 54, has kept out of the public eye for much of the past two decades. Last year, she released an album of new tracks called 50 Words For Snow. (Trevor Leighton/Associated Press)

Other art world honorees included artist Tracey Emin and Quentin Blake, whose spiky, exuberant illustrations are best known through the work of his collaborator Roald Dahl.

Politicians, policemen, and spies got honours too. Scotland Yard chief Bernard Hogan-Howe was awarded a knighthood; former British foreign minister Margaret Beckett was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie was made a CBE for her charity work. MI5 chief Jonathan Evans was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Bath.

Also honoured was the man credited with helping pull off the wedding of the decade: Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, principal private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (as Prince William and his wife are formally known) was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order.

Britain's honours are bestowed twice a year by the monarch, at New Year's and on her official birthday in June. Although the queen does pick out some lesser honours herself, the vast majority of recipients are selected by government committees from nominations made by officials and members of the public.

In descending order, the honours are knighthoods, CBE, OBE, and MBE — Member of the Order of the British Empire. Knights are addressed as "sir" or "dame." Recipients of the other honours, such as the Order of the Companions of Honour given to Higgs and Coe or the Royal Victorian Order personally picked out by the queen, receive no title but can put the letters after their names.

The New Year's honours carried the usual batch of courtiers — even the royal household's switchboard operator got a medal — as well as senior civil servants, soldiers, charity executives, successful entrepreneurs, established academics, volunteers, and community workers.

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Douglas Leiterman of CBC's This Hour Has Seven Days has died

Canadian television producer and journalist Douglas Leiterman, who co-created the popular and controversial CBC public affairs show This Hour Has Seven Days has died.

He died at his winter home in Vero Beach, Fla., on Dec. 19, according to a death notice. He was 85.

The native of South Porcupine, Ont., got his start in journalism in British Columbia before going on to become a correspondent on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for the Southam News Service.

He then joined the CBC and worked on a number of documentary series, including Document, which he produced with Patrick Watson.

He and Watson would go on to launch This Hour Has Seven Days in 1964, a mix of hard-hitting news and interviews alongside comedy and satire. During celebrations of its 75th anniversary, the CBC called it "the most defiant and controversial program in Canadian broadcasting history."

Despite drawing millions of viewers, the edgy, unpredictable show was cancelled after just two seasons, which caused a public uproar that reverberated all the way up to the office of then-prime minister Lester B. Pearson.

Leiterman left the CBC after the show's cancellation and continued to work on documentaries through his company Hobel-Leiterman Productions.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Beryl Fox, his daughters Lachlan, Catherine, Julia and Barbara, and sister Phyllis King.

No funeral service is planned, but a celebration of his life is to be held in May.

22.19 | 0 komentar | Read More