La La Land, which, in a record-breaking sweep

January 9, 2017

Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, which, in a record-breaking sweep, won Globes in all the seven categories it had been nominated: best motion picture, musical-comedy; best director and screenplay, Damien Chazelle; best actress, musical-comedy, Emma Stone; best actor, musical-comedy, Ryan Gosling (who visibly blushed when his name was announced, to the delight of audiences near and far); best original song, “City of Stars”, and best original score, Justin Hurwitz.

On the drama front the voters widened their choices. Director Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight won as best motion picture- drama (and was greeted by a standing ovation by the International Ballroom), but saw one of his strongest categories – best supporting actors, in which both Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris were favorites- go to other talent: Aaron Taylor-Johnson for Nocturnal Animals and Viola Davis for Fences. Favorite Casey Affleck took the Golden Globe for best actor-drama for his work in Manchester By The Sea, with Paul Verhoeven’s controversial Elle making a strong showing with two wins – best foreign language film and best actress-drama for Isabelle Huppert, who beat local faves Natalie Portman and Amy Adams. Zootopia won in the animated feature category.

On recognizing upcoming talent and trend, the 2017 Globes showered awards on FX’s Atlanta – best series, musical or comedy, and best actor in a TV series, musical-comedy for Donald Glover. Netflix’s newcomer The Crown beat a lot of heavy contenders, nabbing Globes for best series-drama and best actress in a drama series for Claire Foy, with Billy Bob Thornton taking the acting Globe in the category for another new series, Amazon’s Goliath. AMC’s limited series The Night Manager took almost all Globes in its category – with kudos to Tom Hiddleston and supporting actors Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman – with The People Vs OJ Simpson taking the rest: best limited series and best actress/limited series for Sarah Paulson.

Amidst all the festivities our recipient of this year’s Cecil B. deMille Award, Meryl Streep – introduced by Viola Davis with an eloquent, poignant speech about her multiple powers of observation and creation- took upon her to remind the gilded audience of what lies ahead. Streep’s passionate speech lambasted Donald Trump and its supporters and urged the creative community to band together to preserve freedom. In an elegant gesture, Streep reminded all of the need to support a free press – “they will need us, and we certainly need them.” Finally, in a voice overcome by emotion, Streep recalled her friend, “Princess Leia “, and one of her favorite sayings: “take your broken heart and make it into art.”

5.8 Magnitude quake hit vshakes Northern Canada

January 9, 2017

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck in Nunavut territory in far northern Canada, the US Geological Survey reported. The quake, originally measured at magnitude 6.4, hit at a depth of 19 km and was centered 89 km southeast of Resolute in the thinly populated territory, the USGS said.

Mulayam Singh Yadav faction likely to meet EC today

January 9, 2017

The ruling Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh seems to be heading towards a vertical split as party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has refused to accept Akhilesh Yadav as president of the party.

Mulayam Singh declared on Sunday that he continued to be the president of Samajwadi Party and described the national convention ‘illegitimate’ called on January lst by his son Akhilesh Yadav and his supporters. Mulayam claimed that the signatures of support from MLAs given by the Akhilesh camp to the Election Commission had no value as they ceased to be legislators after the model code of conduct came into force on January 4 with the announcement of the poll schedule. The Mulayam faction is all set to meet Election Commission panel in Delhi to make its claim over party and the symbol cycle.

AIR correspondent reports that with time running out and the Election Commission set to pronounce its verdict on respective claims by the Mulayam and Akhilesh factions to SP’s ‘cycle’ symbol, it could well lead to a quadrangular contest in the coming polls, leaving the two party factions to fight it out with BJP and Mayawati’s BSP.

Congress and the Akhilesh camp have already expressed their intent to tie up. The Mulayam camp is set to meet the EC today to question the genuineness of the affidavits submitted to the EC by his cousin Ram Gopal, the general secretary of the rival camp. Amar Singh also alleged that the signatures of support from MLAs and party office bearers, given to the EC by Ram Gopal, were forged and their authenticity was suspect.