Entertainment Today: Showbiz news

MOVIE AWARDS

The annual movie awards season gets under way this week when the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures announces its selections for the top 10 movies of 2001 -- a list that should provide some clues about which movies will compete for top honors at the Oscars.

However, the Board of Review selections have not always turned out to be the most reliable indicator of coming Oscar winners for best picture. The Producers Guild and Directors Guild awards for best picture and director have been much more reliable. Sometimes the board's annual list of its 10 best pictures does not even include many of the titles that will later be in the running for the Oscar and the Golden Globes.

Take last year, for example, when the Board named "Quills" best picture.

The costume drama about the Marquis de Sade failed to bag an Oscar nomination for best picture, and only two of the five Oscar nominees were also on the Board's Top 10 list, "Gladiator" and "Traffic." "Gladiator" -- director Ridley Scott's sword-and-sandals epic -- won the Oscar for best picture after finishing seventh in the NBR voting.

The best indicator of all for the best picture Oscar tends to be the Producers Guild of America's annual best picture award, which has a tendency to identify the eventual Oscar winner.

(Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)

'SINS OF THE FATHER'

Tom Sizemore, Ving Rhames, Richard Jenkins and Colm Feore head an all-star cast of the FX original movie "Sins of the Father," based on the true story of the emotional and complex relationship between Tom Cherry (Sizemore) and his father, Bobby Frank Cherry (Jenkins).

A lifelong member of the Ku Klux Klan, the elder Cherry was indicted in April 2000 for his participation in one of the most notorious hate crimes in this nation's history: the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four young black girls. Had his son not testified against him before a grand jury, Bobby Frank Cherry might still be free today.

"Sins of the Father" was directed by Robert Dornhelm, who captured an Emmy nomination for Best Director for the ABC miniseries "Anne Frank."

'JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS'

Patrick Stewart and Debi Derryberry are scheduled to attend the world premiere of their new movie "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" next Sunday at Paramount Pictures.

Other scheduled guests include Patricia Heaton, Roseanne Barr, Coolio, Robert Downey, Jr., Steven Bauer, Marilu Henner, Rachel Hunter, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jonathan Frakes, Genie Francis, Harry Hamlin, Holly Robinson-Peete, Blair Underwood, Marlee Matlin, Lisa Renna, and musical artists Aaron Carter, 3LW, Lil' Romeo, Master P and No Secrets.

The movie opens nationwide Dec. 21.

'STARGATE SG-1'

Fans of the syndicated TV series "Stargate SG-1" can look forward to two more seasons of the show. MGM Worldwide Television Distribution has inked a two-year agreement with the Fox owned & operated stations to run the science-fiction series for two more years.

"Stargate SG-1" --- now in its fourth season -- stars Richard Dean Anderson as Air Force Col. Jack O'Neill. The series, which debuted in national syndication in 1998, centers on the Stargate, an ancient portal that allows instantaneous travel across the galaxy. The series also stars Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, Don S. Davis and Teryl Rothery.

ROSIE O'DONNELL

Talk show host Rosie O'Donnell is hosting a fundraiser for Democrat gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno on Dec. 30. Tickets for the event start at $250 per person, although the location has yet to be determined. The vehemently anti-Second Amendment O'Donnell owns a home in Florida.

(From UPI's Capital Comment)