Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NICOLE KIDMAN Nicole Kidman has been given the prestigious London film critics award for best actress for her role in the musical "Moulin Rouge." According to the news provider filmreview.com, the glitzy "Rouge" was also given the film of the year honor by the London Film Critics Circle Awards. Advertisement Additionally, Kidman has been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an Oscar this time around, in the best actress category, again for "Moulin Rouge." Billy Bob Thornton was awarded a statuette for his role in "The Man Who Wasn't There." By the way, one of the great actresses of the age, Helen Mirren -- who first wowed American audiences for her many roles on the BBC -- won best British actress honors for playing the housekeeper in "Gosford Park" and her part in "Last Orders." Ewan McGregor was honored by his fellow countrymen as best home-grown actor, also for "Moulin Rouge." Advertisement (Thanks to UPI's Dennis Daily) ASC AWARDS Geena Davis, Sylvester Stallone, Warren Beatty and Steven Spielberg were among the presenters at Sunday night's American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards in Los Angeles. Roger Deakins won in the feature film category for "The Man Who Wasn't There." Thomas A. Del Ruth earned an award in the episodic television competition for "The West Wing" for the second consecutive year. It was the fourth time he has won. Denis Lenoir won in the TV movie (network) competition for "Uprising," an NBCc miniseries focusing on a band of Jewish freedom fighters who defied the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto during the early days of World War II. Steven Fierberg earned the award in the TV movie (cable) competition for "Attila," an epoch miniseries set in Europe during the fifth century that aired on the USA Cable Network. It was the first ASC nomination for both Lenoir and Fierberg. 'THE EVIL DEAD' REUNION "The Evil Dead" is back. A director-approved THX print of the horror flick, originally released in 1982, premieres this Friday at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, Mich. Advertisement The entire cast of the movie is scheduled to attend -- including stars Bruce Campbell, Betsy Baker, Ellen Sandweiss, Theresa Tilly, Hal Delrich and special FX/makeup artist Tom Sullivan. It's the first time these Michigan natives and former college friends have gotten together since the movie was made. The film launched the careers of Campbell as well as Michigan State University buddies Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi, who went on to create and produce such TV shows as "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess." The premiere celebrates the upcoming March 5 release of "The Evil Dead -- Book of the Dead Edition," the digitally re-mastered DVD. HOWARD K. SMITH DIES Pioneering television news commentator, anchor and reporter Howard K. Smith -- who started his career as a wire-service reporter and moved into radio during World War II -- has died at age 87. Following a journalism career that spanned more than five decades, Smith spent the last years of his life preparing projects for public television, lecturing at colleges and to business groups and writing. His autobiography "Events Leading Up to My Death, The Life of a Twentieth-Century Reporter," was published in 1996. Advertisement Smith went to work for United Press (now UPI) in London in 1939 and moved to CBS Radio in 1941, working as a radio reporter and war correspondent in Europe during World War II. He returned to the United States in 1957 to become Washington correspondent for CBS, but resigned and moved to ABC in 1961 after a dispute over editorial policy. He left ABC in 1979 at age 65. In the 1980s, Smith appeared as a TV news anchor on the NBC science-fiction miniseries "V." Smith died at his home in Bethesda, Md., last Friday night. He is survived by his wife and two children.
