Steven Tyler, Joe Perry join Songwriters Hall of Fame

The Songwriters Hall of Fame is saluting 1970s and 80s rock 'n' roll with its 2013 induction class.

Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner will join the hall of fame this year along with the writers of iconic rock hits Love Is a Battlefield and Heartache Tonight. The ceremony will be held June 13 in New York.

Aerosmith and Foreigner will get the attention here, but inductees Holly Knight, JD Souther and Tony Hatch also have distinguished careers that helped define the sound of rock 'n' roll.

Knight wrote anthemic hits Love Is a Battlefield and Invincible for Pat Benatar and The Warrior for Patty Smyth. She also wrote several songs for Tina Turner, including The Best and Better Be Good to Me, that became standards for the star.

Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, shown here on stage in Switzerland, wrote the song's most successful single, I Wanna Know What Love Is. (Peter Schneider/Keystone/Associated Press)

Souther, who has a role on the music-inspired television show Nashville, had a partnership with The Eagles that spawned several hits, including Heartache Tonight, Victim of Love, New Kid in Town and Best of My Love.

Hatch made his mark during the British invasion, teaming with Petula Clark on hits like Downtown and My Love that helped shaped the future of pop music.

Perry and Tyler have survived a sometimes contentious relationship to become one of rock's most successful songwriting teams over the last 40 years. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, staples of classic rock radio and pop culture icons, are known for hits like Sweet Emotion, Dream On and Livin' on the Edge, and released their 15th studio album last year.

Jones and Gramm are contemporaries of Perry and Tyler who also ruled radio for a time, but they sometimes came at it from a different angle. They could lay down a straight-up rocker like Jukebox Hero or Feels Like the First Time. But they also could slow it down with hits like I Wanna Know What Love Is and Cold as Ice that helped foreshadow the ballad-driven rock of the late 80s.

Canadian music legend Gordon Lightfoot, whose repetoire includes the songs Early Morning Rain, Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, and Beautiful, was among last year's inductees.

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Buzkashi Boys Oscar nod boosts hopes for Afghan film

Jawanmard Paiz, one of the young stars of Oscar-nominated short Buzkashi Boys, says he hopes the film will help change attitudes about his home country of Afghanistan.

Paiz complains that people outside the country think it's all conflict and violence. He'd prefer Afghanistan to be known for its culture and especially its films.

Paiz worked with Halifax-born producer Ariel Nasr on Buzkashi Boys, which follows a group of boys from different backgrounds draw to Afghanistan's national sport, buzkashi.

The sport is played from horseback, like polo, with the goal of gaining control of the carcass of a headless goat and moving it past the goal line.

"With Buzkashi Boys you have a film that is not about the war. It's about people," Nasr told CBC News.

The producer, whose mom is American and dad is Afghan, worked on the short film with the Afghan Film Project, an organization devoted to rebuilding Afghanistan's film industry.

"It's Afghanistan. No one had done it before. We didn't know if we could do it," he said, explaining that it took a year to set up the two-week shoot. There were hurdles to getting permits, hiring local police for security and scouting locations in a war zone.

Director Sam French plucked Fawad Mohammadi, the boy who plays a blacksmith's son who wants to become a buzkashi star, from the streets of Kabul.

Paiz comes from a middle-class family with acting roots, and joined Mohammadi and Nasr Thursday at a luncheon in Los Angeles celebrating Canadian Oscar nominees.

Nasr said the Afghan Film Project is intended to train cast and crew members in the country, paving the way for a local film industry.

An Oscar win Sunday night would really boost chances for film in Afghanistan, he said.

"So whatever it would mean to us, it would mean so much more to those filmmakers in Afghanistan, audiences in Afghanistan, who can now say here's a film, shot in Afghanistan that's world class, certifiably world class," he said.

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Julia Roberts in Valentino voted most iconic Oscar look of all time

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Composer Mychael Danna ideal for Life of Pi

Once the movie version of Yann Martel's Life of Pi got the green light for production, director Ang Lee had just one composer in mind for the film: Toronto's Mychael Danna.

Toronto composer Mychael Danna, left, and Taiwanese director Ang Lee have become friends and regular collaborators. (Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

The two men first met on Lee's 1997 drama The Ice Storm, but have become friends as well as collaborators over the years.

"We were friends, creative partners for a long time," noted Lee, but given Danna's specialty in artfully blending orchestral elements with South Asian and other non-Western instruments and voices, "this is right up his alley."

With Danna having already won a Golden Globe for his Life of Pi score, and earning two Oscar nominations this weekend (original song for Pi's Lullaby and original score), the film industry seems to agree.

Danna is known for creating distinctive and layered musical palettes. Other top filmmakers he's worked with over the years include Bennett Miller (Moneyball, Capote), Deepa Mehta (Water) and Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). Atom Egoyan is one of his most frequent partners: Danna has scored many of the fellow Torontonian's movies over the past two decades, including The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica, Where the Truth Lies, Ararat and Chloe.

Danna is obsessed with authenticity, Egoyan said, citing Ararat as an example.

"He was insisting on going to Armenia to record the authentic instruments, and I was saying, 'We can also find them in Los Angeles,'" Egoyan told CBC News.

Toronto director Atom Egoyan has worked with composer Mychael Danna for many of his films over the past 20 years. (Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

"He is such a perfectionist when it comes to finding the right instrument, and he'll go anywhere in the world to find that."

With Life of Pi, that drive and determination was present from the very start.

"We knew from the beginning that the musical requirements were going to be as rich as the visual requirements," Danna said.

Given his longtime fascination with India, his study of South Asian music and his having read Canadian author Martel's novel more than 10 years ago — "like a good Canadian," he quipped — Danna was the ideal musical candidate to help shape Lee's story onscreen.

"I think Canadians are good storytellers because I think there is a certain objectivity and a certain openness that we have here," he said.

"When you travel around the world, [you realize multiculturalism] works really well here, compared with other countries …. As Canadians, we are good at collaborating."

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Quebec's Robert Lepage wins Glenn Gould Prize

Canadian theatre actor, writer and director Robert Lepage has been named the winner of the 10th Glenn Gould Prize.

Sometimes referred to as the "Nobel prize of the arts," the award is presented biennially to "an individual for a unique lifetime contribution that has enriched the human condition through the arts," according to the Glenn Gould Foundation.

"I am deeply honoured by this prestigious and generous accolade," Quebec native Lepage said in a written statement. "As I know Glenn Gould did, I believe there is such a thing as a culture of the North and as I was walking to work this morning trying to fight my way through the heavy blizzard that had invaded my fair city, I could somewhat sense his presence in the howling wind and the vanishing footsteps I was clumsily following in the snow."

Spirit of innovation, idealism

Lepage is one of Canada's most renowned theatre directors and producers. A noted innovator who has experimented with elaborate staging and technology for opera and theatre through his Ex Machina production company, he is currently in the process of mounting an epic, multi-year, 360-degree play to be staged at theatres-in-the-round in Canada and Europe.

In 2001 he won a London Critics Circle Theatre Award as well as a London Evening Standard Theatre Award for his production of The Far Side of the Moon at the Royal National Theatre.

Lepage gained international attention a quarter of a centry ago with his play Dragon's Trilogy about a Québécois artist fascinated with China. In 2009 he directed a follow-up, The Blue Dragon.

'Robert Lepage is an artist whose dreams have expanded the realm of possibility and whose work transcends all boundaries.'—Brian Levine, Glenn Gould Foundation Executive Director

His high-profile projects include Cirque du Soleil's Ka and Totem, as well as the widely hailed opera The Nightingale and Other Short Fables.

Last year Lepage directed a new production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

"Robert Lepage is an artist whose dreams have expanded the realm of possibility and whose work transcends all boundaries," said Brian Levine, executive director of the Glenn Gould Foundation. "His work illuminates the human condition in that same sprit of innovation and idealism that motivated Glenn Gould."

The Glenn Gould jury, which included legendary music and entertainment producer Bob Ezrin, award-winning author and essayist John Ralston Saul and screenwriter and director Deepa Mehta, announced the winner Thursday at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.

Lepage will receive $50,000 and his work will be honoured through a series of public events throughout the year. He will also get to select a young artist to receive the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé prize of $15,000.

Past Glenn Gould laureates include Leonard Cohen, founder of El Sistema Dr. José Antonio Abreu, Pierre Boulez, Yo-Yo Ma, Oscar Peterson and Yehudi Menuhin.

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Smithsonian, Joel Grey mark 40th anniversary of Cabaret

Broadway legend Joel Grey is visiting the Smithsonian to donate items from the film Cabaret to the National Museum of American History.

Liza Minnelli, left, and Joel Grey attend the Cabaret 40th anniversary screening last month in New York. (Andy Kropa/Invision/Associated Press)

Grey won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Cabaret. The show tells the story of a nightclub entertainer and her encounters with two men set in 1930s Berlin.

On Friday, he will donate a hat worn by a gorilla in the film's well-known musical number If You Could See Her to the museum.

The donation and a screening of Cabaret will mark the film's 40th anniversary.

The hat from the film will join other objects from Grey's costume —which include a wig, cane, pink satin vest, shoes and special makeup box — that he donated to the museum in 1989.

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Canadian choir to get early audience with new pope

More than 180 children from St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto are scheduled to have an audience with the new pope in Rome in April, one of the first after he is elected.

The students, in Grades 5-12, may also have the opportunity to sing for the new pope, but plans for a performance are awaiting confirmation by the Vatican.

The boys-only choir is confirmed to sing a mass in St. Peter's Basilica, to an audience of Vatican officials and the senior choir of 25 boys is to sing at an evening prayer service or vespers in St. Peter's the same day.

"It's a huge honour," says Stephen Handrigan, director of St. Michael's Choir School. "Very few choirs get the opportunity to sing at a mass in the Vatican."

The mass involves intense training for the boys, who must sing a cappella in the Gregorian tradition. One boy will also perform a solo. They will not get an opportunity to rehearse in the huge, cavernous space of St. Peter's, Handrigan told CBC News.

"The challenge is the sense of awe you have when walking in because really you feel like a speck of dust," he says.

The Archbishop of Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins is to accompany them on their trip to Rome.

St. Michael's Choir School is a semi-private boys' school that trains the choir for Toronto's St. Michael's Cathedral and regularly supplies cantors and other musical talent for churches throughout the city.

As part of celebrations for the school's 75th anniversary, an 11-day trip to Italy has been planned that includes stops in Florence and Rome. The choir travels every year, but the trip to Italy has been in the works for the past two years.

More than 300 people, including parents and teachers, are travelling together on the ambitious tour, which will cost about $1.2 million. Money has been raised through donors and fund-raising.

Originally the choir was scheduled to meet and sing before Pope Benedict XVI, but his surprise resignation earlier this month meant a change of plans. The Vatican aims to select a new pontiff by Easter, so the choirboys will be among the earliest to meet the new pope.

Their audience with the pope is scheduled for April 10, just a little more than a week after Easter. It is one of two planned audiences that week in which people may meet the pope and takes place in an audience hall just off St. Peter's.

The choir also had made plans to sing in the Sistine Chapel, but that part of their itinerary is awaiting Vatican approval. The Sistine Chapel will be closed off for the conclave and the boys may not know if they are to perform there until they arrive in Rome.

The choir school will be in Rome from April 7-11.

The trip to Italy also includes:

• A performance at a festival in Florence.
• A mass at St. Patrick's Church in Rome, the parish associated with the Archbishop of Toronto.
• A mass at the Canadian Martyr's Church in Rome for Canadian priests studying in Rome.
• A concert at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music.

St. Michael's Choir School is one of six international organizations affiliated with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. School founder Father John Edward Ronan studied at the institute in the 1930s.

School alumni include actor and singer Michael Burgess, tenor John McDermott, opera star Michael Schade, concert pianist Stewart Goodyear and keyboardist Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies.

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War Witch actress granted visas to attend awards shows

Rachel Mwanza, the young actress who plays a child soldier in the Oscar-nominated Canadian movie War Witch, has been granted visas that will allow her to attend the Academy Awards and other awards ceremonies.

Mwanza, now 16, is living in the Congo, but has been cleared to enter Canada and the U.S. at awards season.

The young actress, who was plucked off the streets of Kinshasa for the role, has been nominated for Quebec's Jutra Award and a Canadian Screen Award for her performance. She previously won the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin Film Festival and was declared best actress at the Tribeca Film Festival.

She plays a 12-year-old who is stolen from her village, forced to kill her parents and then becomes revered by other soldiers because of the visions she has in the jungle. A teen romance helps her survive her ordeal and she is able to escape.

Rachel Mwanza stars in War Witch. She will be allowed into Canada and the U.S. for the Academy Awards, Spirit Awards, Canadian Screen Awards and Jutras. (YouTube)

Kim Nguyen, the Montreal director of War Witch (Rebelle in French), had hoped to have her with him as the cast and crew celebrate their journey to the Oscars in Los Angeles, where the film is vying for best foreign-language film. War Witch is also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, with a gala in Santa Monica the day before the Academy Awards.

As a citizen of the Congo, Mwanza needed visas from both Canada and the U.S. and an exit permit from the Republic of Congo to attend the awards ceremonies.

The filmmakers continue to provide Mwanza with a caregiver and oversee her education.

War Witch is nominated for best international film at the Independent Spirit Awards, has 12 nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards on March 3 and nine nominations for Quebec's Jutras on March 17.

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Talk Oscar predictions with CBC's Zulekha Nathoo at 1 p.m. ET

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Argo screening in D.C. deemed PR win, 'Canada love-in'

A screening and reception for the Hollywood film Argo at the Canadian embassy in Washington last fall was such a hot ticket, people complained afterwards about not getting invited.

The star-studded, $23,000 affair appeared to be well worth it for film execs and embassy officials, who considered the event a success both for public diplomacy and marketing purposes.

Argo, which spotlights role of the CIA during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, heads into this weekend's Academy Awards with 7 nominations, including best picture.

But the movie has attracted criticism in some quarters for appearing to give short shrift to the role Canadians played in hiding six U.S. citizens for just over two months and helping ensure their passage out of the country.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press reveal the film company Time Warner considered the October event a "Canada love-in" which helped mitigate some of the bad press the movie had received.

Time Warner, Canadian government cover costs

They covered $13,000 of the cost, which included movie theatre and shuttle bus rentals, as well as the price tag associated with getting the film's stars, including Ben Affleck and John Goodman, to attend.

The Canadian government picked up the rest of the tab.

A guest list originally estimated at 100 people swelled to more than 300, the documents said.

About 240 showed, including several senior U.S. journalists, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's deputy chief of staff and the then-director of the CIA, David Petraeus.

"Our initial target audience was VIP contacts from media, culture, Iran file, State Department and key trade contacts," said a debrief on the screening event sent to Canadian missions around North America.

'We could go on but the amusing side is the script writer in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about.'—Ken Taylor, former Canadian diplomat

"Suffice to say we hit influencers and decision-makers, drawn no doubt by the celebrities in attendance! Big scores." Most of the guest list for the event — released under the Access to Information Act — was censored.

Media coverage of the event was extensive, with many paying attention to Affleck's remarks on the role — or lack thereof — for Canadians in the film.

"This is a story through one man's perspective, through the perspective of the CIA," Affleck reportedly told the crowd. "But one of the more beautiful aspects of it is that this is about the Canadians who stepped up."

He also singled out Ken Taylor, who was Canada's man in Tehran at the time and who co-ordinated the hostage escape efforts.

Taylor was invited to the D.C. event after being left off the guest list for the Toronto premiere.

In a speech to university students last week, Taylor noted the film took a few liberties with history.

"After I saw the movie I decided that I did bring one particular skill to this movie: That was opening and closing a door," Taylor said, referring to the relatively small role he seems to play in the film.

"We could go on but the amusing side is the script writer in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about."

Clearing up misconceptions

The October event came ahead of the embassy's well-received inauguration day bash for U.S. President Barack Obama in January.

Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer noted at the Argo premiere that there's a misconception the building was given to Canada in connection with the government's role in the hostage crisis.

In fact, it was purchased the year before.

While events in Washington often capture a great deal of attention, budgets for such displays of public diplomacy have been slashed heavily in recent years.

In 2006, the newly elected Harper government pulled back $12 million in planned increases to public diplomacy funding and the cuts have continued.

For example, in 2004-2005, the Canadian embassy in Japan had a public diplomacy budget of $186,000, according to a 2008 evaluation of the mission.

In 2007-2008, it was less than half that, at $65,000.

Data published on the department of Foreign Affairs website suggests the "diplomacy and public advocacy" component of their budget is being cut by $65 million this year.

The result is embassies making corporate connections with private partners for marquee events, like Time Warner for the "Argo" premiere and RIM, among others, for the inauguration day party.

The department has also been encouraging diplomats to try out newer forms of outreach, permitting ambassadors to use social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

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