Regis Philbin retiring from "Live with Regis and Kelly!"

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:15pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Regis Philbin said on Tuesday he was retiring from his morning TV show "Live! with Regis and Kelly" after 28 years with the program.

"There is a time that everything must come to an end," Philbin told viewers, in a surprise on-air announcement.

Philbin, 79, said this will be his last year with the show, and that he will leave sometime between the end of the U.S. summer and fall. He did not say who would replace him.

"We'll have a lot of fun between now and then," he said.

Philbin is the Guinness World Record holder for most time on camera, with more than 16,500 hours accumulated over his entire career.

The TV personality has co-hosted "Live!" with Kelly Ripa since 2001, after previously appearing on the show with Kathie Lee Gifford. The show began in 1983 when Philbin created "The Morning Show" for WABC in his native New York City. Gifford joined him in 1985 and in 1988 the program gained national syndication.

He also hosted the hit gameshow "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" when it debuted in the United States in 1999.

Philbin is known for his Bronx accent and quick wit. Early on in his career, Philbin appeared in the 1960s talk show "The Joey Bishop Show," as a sidekick to the show's star.

In 2001, he won a Daytime Emmy for his work on "Live! with Regis" and another Emmy for outstanding game show host for "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." He also received a lifetime achievement Daytime Emmy award in 2008.

"Live! with Regis and Kelly" is distributed by Disney-ABC Television Group, a division of Walt Disney Co.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, editing by Christine Kearney)

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King's Speech leads field with 14 BAFTA nominations

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON | Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:22am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - "The King's Speech," in which Colin Firth plays the stammering King George VI, won 14 BAFTA nominations on Tuesday, ahead of ballet drama "Black Swan" which garnered 12.

"Inception," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was the next most popular movie at Britain's top film honours with nine nominations, ahead of climbing story "127 Hours" and Western remake "True Grit" with eight apiece.

"The Social Network," which tells the tale of the founding of the Facebook website and one of the films widely tipped for Oscars glory this year, won six nominations.

The BAFTAs are followed closely as the awards season gets into full swing, although they have only a patchy record in identifying future Oscar winners.

Firth, who recently won a Golden Globe and is considered one of the frontrunners for an Academy Award, was shortlisted for a BAFTA best actor prize.

He is up against Spain's Javier Bardem (Biutiful), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and James Franco (127 Hours).

Firth's co-stars in The King's Speech -- Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush -- were nominated for best supporting actress and actor, respectively.

Natalie Portman is contesting the best actress award, with both Annette Bening and Julianne Moore nominated for lesbian family drama "The Kids Are All Right."

Rounding out the category are Sweden's Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and teenaged star Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit).

POSTHUMOUS NOMINATION FOR POSTLETHWAITE

Pete Postlethwaite, the Oscar-nominated actor who died earlier this month, received a posthumous supporting actor nomination for his performance in "The Town."

British urban artist Banksy, who has kept his identity a secret, received a British debut BAFTA nomination for directing "Exit Through the Gift Shop."

Also contesting the award was Chris Morris, who wrote and directed suicide bomber comedy "Four Lions" which is also nominated for the best British film prize.

Italian movie "I Am Love," "Of Gods and Men" from France and "The Secret in Their Eyes" (Argentina) were nominated for best foreign language film alongside Spain's "Biutiful" and Sweden's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

And the animated feature award shortlist comprised "Despicable Me," "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Toy Story 3."

The Orange British Academy Film Awards winners are announced on February 13.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban welcome new baby girl

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:48pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman and her country star husband, Keith Urban, announced on Monday they were parents of a new baby daughter born with a surrogate.

"Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret," the couple said in a statement.

"No words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude that we feel for everyone who was so supportive throughout this process, in particular our gestational carrier."

The statement said Faith Margaret Kidman Urban was born on December 28 in Nashville and is the couple's biological daughter. A gestational carrier, or surrogate, is a woman who carries the baby to term for the biological parents.

Kidman, 43, a top Hollywood star whose movies include "The Hours" and the currently playing "Rabbit Hole," and Urban, 43, were married in 2006 and have another daughter together, Sunday Rose, born in 2008.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Golden Globe audience up, Gervais' hosting panned

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:18pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Host Ricky Gervais may have turned off the audience members and critics at Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards, but viewers seemed turned on, watching the show in larger numbers than one year ago.

The Golden Globes, an annual film and TV awards show in Hollywood, drew just under 17 million total viewers to network NBC, which was up slightly from 2010 when British comedian Gervais, who is known for his acerbic sense of humor, hosted for the first time, according to audience figures released on Monday.

Last year's ceremony was up 14 percent from 2009's roughly 15 million viewers, and the upward trend shows the telecast is recovering somewhat from the 2008 Hollywood writers strike which reduced the Globes to a news conference.

Still, this year's viewership of 16.99 million show is down from 2007, when some 20 million viewers tuned in to watch Hollywood's A-list stars parade up the red carpet in their finest gowns and tuxedos and, for the lucky few, accept awards for movies, TV shows, performances and music.

Gervais' hosting duties on Sunday night brought some often harsh criticism from reviewers. During the show, the comedian took shots at Charlie Sheen's drinking and partying, Robert Downey, Jr.'s years-ago issues with drugs and alcohol, the critically panned movie "The Tourist" that was nominated for best comedy, and even the organizers of the show.

His sense of humor on the ceremony's center stage was so caustic that Downey, Jr., remarked on stage that Sunday's ceremony was "unusually mean-spirited."

Many critics seemed to agree. Los Angeles Times TV critic Mary McNamara wrote on Monday that "it quickly became clear that his material wasn't just falling flat, it was making many audience members and presenters uncomfortable and even angry."

Washington Post reviewer Hank Stuever wrote, "Somehow Gervais has lost some of his ability to be funny about being true."

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Golden Globes exec: Ricky Gervais "crossed the line"

By Bryan Alexander

Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:19pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Add Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk to the chorus of those who believe that Ricky Gervais went too far as host of the Golden Globes on Sunday night.

The head of the group responsible for the awards show says that while he felt the show itself was "terrific," he too felt that Gervais' jokes about specific celebrities were too much.

"He definitely crossed the line," Berk told The Hollywood Reporter. "And some of the things were totally unacceptable. But that's Ricky."

"Any of the references to individuals is certainly not something the Hollywood Foreign Press condones," he added.

Robert Downey Jr. - the butt of one of Gervais' jokes - said the show was "hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones."

Gervais went after Berk personally with this joke when introducing him saying, "I just had to help him off the toilet and pop his teeth in."

While Berk traditionally vets every word of the Globes' script, he says that Gervais does not allow that pre-show scrutiny as host. "That's not how Ricky works," he said.

"I had absolutely no idea what Ricky was going to say so anything I heard was at the same time you heard it," Berk said. "When you hire Ricky Gervais, you expect the unexpected."

As for widespread rumors that Gervais was lectured during the show or kept from reappearing at key moments, Berk dismissed them as "ridiculous."

"It was always planned that in the section of important awards he was not going to be part of (the show)," says Berk. "He was never called on the carpet, or given a warning or anything else."

Berk would not comment whether he would recommend to the membership to have Gervais back next year as host.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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