New York, U.S.A. — CNN, the worldwide leader in news, announced on October 8, the creation of CNN Films to secure feature-length documentaries for air on CNN and CNN International, alongside theatrical distribution. The move is part of a wider strategy to acquire original non-fiction content to complement CNN’s award-winning news programs; it was announced by CNN Worldwide Managing Editor Mark Whitaker.

‘Girl Rising’, the first documentary acquired by CNN Films, will air in spring 2013. The film, which inspired a global action campaign to promote girls’ education called 10×10, tells the extraordinary stories of several girls from around the globe fighting to overcome impossible odds to realize their dreams. The film includes voice performances by Academy Award Winner Meryl Streep, Academy Award Nominee Anne Hathaway, Kerry Washington, and Selena Gomez.

‘Girl Rising’ is directed by Academy Award Nominee Richard E. Robbins (“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”) and executive produced by Tom Yellin and Holly Gordon of The Documentary Group and Paul G. Allen of Vulcan Productions.

CNN Films has also signed development deals with Academy Award Winning Director and Producer Alex Gibney (“Taxi to the Dark Side,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” and “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer”) and Director Andrew Rossi (“Page One: Inside the New York Times”).  Both will develop original documentaries to air on CNN.

“CNN Films will bring distinguished, thought-provoking documentary programming to our global audiences on all our television, online, and mobile platforms,” said Whitaker. “We want these documentaries to tell compelling stories and stimulate important discussions across CNN’s other programs and websites.”

The original feature-length documentaries will examine an array of political, social, and economic subject matters. The films will premiere in primetime and will re-air in order to increase exposure. Surrounding the premiere of each documentary, acclaimed CNN programs will run dedicated programming that sheds light on the topics and issues discussed in each film. In-depth interviews, expert commentary, roundtable discussions, debates, and behind-the-scenes footage will be featured across all of CNN’s broadcast and online platforms.

Amy Entelis, senior vice president of talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, and Vinnie Malhotra, senior vice president of development and acquisitions for CNN Worldwide, will oversee the acquisition strategy of documentaries under the CNN Films banner. Malhotra will manage the day-to-day operation of CNN Films, and work directly with filmmakers to develop original projects.

CNN Films also plans to bring the documentaries beyond the small screen by developing strategic partnerships to leverage distribution opportunities at film festivals and in theaters.

To learn more about “Girl Rising” and to view the trailer, please visit: http://10x10act.org/presenting-girl-rising.

For more information on CNN, please visit www.cnnpressroom.com.

Image Courtesy of  arindambanerjee / Shutterstock.com

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Washington, U.S.A. — In an exclusive interview with AARP The Magazine, Hollywood legends Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones discuss the often taboo subject of mid-life sexuality. It’s the theme or their new movie, the highly anticipated ‘ Hope Springs,’ which focuses on a couple embarking on an entertaining yet poignant adventure to regain their sexual passion. The indomitable icons speak about their upcoming project, finally learning to live for the moment and why “nobody can tell [them] anything.”

The following are excerpts from the upcoming AARP The Magazine cover story featuring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, available in homes today and online at www.aarp.org/magazine.

On being “bored” in a relationship:

Streep: “If you’re bored with somebody, it’s because you’re bored with yourself. If you have a problem with somebody, often it’s something in yourself.”

Jones: “I always told my children when they whined….Only the boring are bored.”

On finding passion at any age:

Streep: “I find the older I get, the more intense my appetite for living and for appreciating life gets…You realize you’ve got just seconds.”

Jones: “I don’t do anything that is not fun. I just don’t do it. I’m a hedonist.”

On making marriage work:

Streep: “You live through all sorts of stuff when you’re in a long marriage: real highs and lows, and things that strain—and solidify—your relationship.”

On their fellow sexegenarians:

Streep: “I don’t think it’s unusual for my friends and people my age [to feel the way I do]. I only see bored 20-year-olds. I don’t see any bored 60-year-olds.”

On what drew them to ‘Hope Springs’:

Streep: “I like things that seem like they have a problem…Built into it was something really funny but lodged in something very real.”

Jones: “At long last, I had a chance to work with Meryl, so there was no question in my mind that I wanted to do it.”

On their prolific careers:

Streep: “I think there’s not a sell-by date on actors…But you also understand what a crapshoot it is and how serendipity plays a huge part. It’s not a piece of cake by any means.”

Jones: “I’ve been lucky and happy. I’ve made some bad movies. And I really enjoyed it!”

On passing the acting torch to their children:

Streep: “I’m delighted that we can share some things and that I have some experience that can be of comfort to her.”

Jones: “It makes you feel good when your kids choose to do the thing that you do even as much as you come home and complain about it.”

On endlessly pursuing their passions:

Streep: “I like everything. There’s just not anything I don’t like to do. That’s the problem. It means I’m very distractible.”

Jones: “I like being a director, and I’m never going to stop being an actor.”

The complete interview can be found online now at www.aarp.org/magazine.

Image Courtesy of   cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

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Carslbad, U.SA. – He may be leader of the free world, but little did anyone know President Barrack Obama was also a natural vocalist. This year, President Obama claimed the number one spot in NAMM’s annual survey on America’s favorite “Unexpected Musician,” a personality not primarily known for playing a musical instrument, with a majority of 29%.

Since crooning a few lines of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at a New York fundraising event in January, the president has captured America’s heart with his surprising talent. In an interview with Barbara Walters one month prior, he revealed that he deeply regrets not having learned a musical instrument in school.

Seasoned Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep (violin) tied with actor Robert Downey, Jr.(piano, vocals) for second-place, both securing 24% of votes, while funnyman Steve Carell came in fourth place (10%) for his flute-playing skills, over “The Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence (5%), who plays the guitar.

The National Association of Music Merchants created the Unexpected Musicians Database in 2010 in response to a Gallup Poll that found 85% of Americans who do not play a musical instrument wish they did in an effort to encourage aspiring musicians by helping them find further musical inspiration from celebrities they already admire.

The extensive list includes professional athletes, actors, politicians and more. From Julia Roberts’ skills on the clarinet to Clint Eastwood’s hidden piano talent, the detailed database offers fans the opportunity to find out just how talented their favorite celebrities really are, demonstrating that anyone can become a musician despite age, experience or profession. The Unexpected Musicians Database can be found at wannaplaymusic website.

This year, as part of NAMM’s National Wanna Play Music Week (May 7-13, 2012), the association commissioned a survey to learn which Unexpected Musicians Americans favor most. Key survey findings include:

• More women (28 %) than men (23 %) were excited to discover that President Obama is a vocalist, while 20 % of women and 27 % of men were excited to learn that Robert Downey, Jr. sings and plays the piano.
• Millennials were most excited to learn about President Obama’s (30 %) and Robert Downey, Jr.’s (30 %) musical talents.
• Meanwhile, survey-takers aged 65-plus were most excited to learn about Meryl Streep’s musical abilities, with 37 % voting for the actress. Streep was also the Baby Boomers’ celebrity of choice at 34 %.

The findings are the result of a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,000 adults ages 18 and over, living in the United States, conducted by KRC Research, April 19-22, 2012, on behalf of NAMM. The margin of error for this study is +3.1 % at the 95 % confidence level. The data was weighted by demographic variables to ensure the sample accurately reflects the U.S. adult population.

Image Courtesy of  cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

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Leading online betting firm Sky Bet has updated its full list of Oscars betting [http://www.skybet.com/betting/tv-and-film-specials/oscars/t10003442.html] markets ahead of the 84th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. Black and white silent movie ‘The Artist’, which picked up the Producers Guild Award and also won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical, looks a shoo-in to win Best Picture at 8/1 ON, with the odds having been cut from a pre-Christmas 2/1.

The French tribute to the silent movie received ten Oscar nods, although it was beaten by Scorsese’s 3D charmer ‘Hugo’ (25/1), which received 11 nominations. ’The Artist’ dominates several other categories, with its helmsman Michel Hazanavicius, looking certain to win Best Director at odds of 1/10 after being hailed as outstanding director of the year at the Directors’ Guild of America Awards last month.

The film’s leading man Jean Dujardin shot to favouritism in the Oscars Best Actor betting after winning the BAFTA and now heads the betting at 8/11 (from 2/1). George Clooney was relegated to second favourite to take home the lead actor gong for his performance in comedy-drama ‘The Descendants’ and may now be backed at 11/10, having drifted from 2/5. Gary Oldmanis bidding for his first ever Oscar and is quoted at 20/1 to win for his performance in ‘Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy’.

The lead in the Best Actress race has also changed over the past fortnight, with double Oscar winner and 17-time nominee, Meryl Streep, having been usurped at the top of the betting by ‘The Help’ star, Viola Davis. Davis is odds-on at 4/6 to prevent Streep (out to 11/10 from 1/2) claiming a third Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’. It looks a two-horse race between Davis and Streep, with ‘My Week with Marilyn’ star, Michelle Williams, their nearest rival at 18/1.

Sky Bet’s Oscars betting expert, Helen Jacob, said: “The Artist seems way ahead of its rivals in the race to win Best Picture and Director but the lead acting categories are closer, with the favourites having flip-flopped in recent weeks.”

For Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer (‘Beginners’) looks all but home and hosed at 1/33 and Octavia Spencer at 1/25 (‘The Help’) looks certain to land what could be the best actress double for ‘The Help’.

Sky Bet is also offering a number of novelty special bets on the Oscars ceremony itself, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 26th.

Veteran actress Meryl Streep accidentally swore onstage at the Globes and Sky Bet go 7/2 that the Oscars best actress winner turns the air blue again in her acceptance speech. It’s even money that the best actress cries during her speech and 10/1 that any recipient’s address consists of a single ‘Thank you!’

 Sky Bet Odds: Oscars Betting

Best Film

The Artist 1/16

The Descendants 10/1

Hugo 25/1

The Help 25/1

War Horse 40/1

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 80/1

Moneyball 80/1

Midnight in Paris 80/1

The Tree of Life 100/1

  Best Director

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist 1/10

Martin Scorsese – Hugo 6/1

Alexander Payne – The Descendants 22/1

Terrance Malik – The Tree of Life 33/1

Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris 50/1

Best Actor

Jean Dujardin – The Artist 8/11

George Clooney – The Descendants 11/10

Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 20/1

Brad Pitt – Moneyball 20/1

DemianBichir – A Better Life 50/1

Best Actress

Viola Davis – The Help 4/6

Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady 11/10

Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn 18/1

Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs 40/1

Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 50/1

Best Supporting Actress

Octavia Spencer 1/25

Berenice Bejo 8/1

Jessica Chastain 25/1

Melissa Mccarthy 25/1

Janet McTeer 40/1

Best Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer 1/33

Kenneth Branagh 14/1

Max Von Sydow 22/1

Nick Nolte 33/1

Jonah Hill 40/1

Oscars specials

Lead or supporting actress to cry during acceptance speech Evens

Lead or supporting actor to swear during acceptance speech 9/4

Lead or supporting actress to swear during acceptance speech 7/2

Lead or supporting actor to cry during acceptance speech 6/1

Any recipient’s speech to consist of single “thank you” 10/1

Streaker to run on stage and interrupt ceremony 16/1

Any of the 6 major award winners to drop the statuette 16/1

Any winner to fall over on stage 20/1

George Clooney win best actor and Meryl Streep win best actress 6/4

George Clooney win best actor and The Descendants win best picture 9/1

George Clooney to win an Oscar No 8/11 Yes Evens

For the full range of Oscars odds from Sky Bet, click here [http://www.skybet.com/betting/tv-and-film-specials/oscars/t10003442.html]

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With her nomination for The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep extended her record for having the most Academy Award nominations by any single actor. Her portrayal of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher earned her a place on the shortlist for the 17th time. However, Streep has won an Oscar on only two occasions, and her last victory took place 30 years ago at the 55th Academy Awards, when she was named Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice.

In fact, out of 79 major industry nominations (14 from BAFTA, 3 from the Emmys, 26 from the Hollywood Foreign Press, 5 from the Grammys, 13 from the Screen Actors Guild, 1 from the Tonys, and the aforementioned 17 from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences), Streep has managed to take home just 16 of those titles since her first Tony nomination in 1976. Considering her status as “the most critically acclaimed actress of the modern era,” this tally seems somewhat surprising.

Yet, 2012 could prove to be the year that Streep breaks her three-decade run of Oscar losses. Already this awards season, she has been the recipient of a Golden Globe, the Berlin International Film Festival’s Homage and Honorary Golden Bear, and – most notably – her first BAFTA in 31 years.

Streep’s one significant loss so far for The Iron Lady has been at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which took place on January 29 and saw her lose to Viola Davis, who won for The Help. Davis is likely to be Streep’s main competitor at the Academy Awards, in a category which also includes Glenn Close, Rooney Mara, and Michelle Williams, who cannot be counted out after her win for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at this year’s Golden Globes.

Still, it appears all but certain that the Academy Award’s Best Actress title will be a two-horse race between Davis and Streep. Counting in Streep’s favour is the fact that she both defeated Davis at the BAFTAs and broke her own 31-year gap between BAFTA wins, last winning in 1981 for The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

Counting against Streep is the fact that she was awarded by British voters for her role as a well-known British figure in a film shot entirely in Britain. The same acknowledgement by American voters cannot be counted upon after The Iron Lady failed to be nominated at the Academy Awards for any other category except Best Makeup.

The Help, meanwhile, is in the running for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, with two nominations alone in the latter category. Also counting against Streep’s favour is the fact that the Screen Actors Guild Award, which Davis won, has proven to be the most indicative of who will be triumphant at the Academy Awards.

Taking the last decade as an example, here are a list of women who won the Screen Actors Guild Award and went on to win the Academy Award that same year:

• Natalie Portman (2010).
• Sandra Bullock (2009).
• Helen Mirren (2006).
• Reese Witherspoon (2005).
• Hilary Swank (2004).
• Charlize Theron (2003).

Streep, therefore, cannot count out Davis just yet, but she is certainly going into this year’s Oscar race with her strongest case for success in many years.

Image Courtesy of  Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

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When I first heard that they were making a movie about Margaret Thatcher, I was worried. Even though it has been more than 20 years since she stepped down as Prime Minister, she remains a hugely controversial figure. To the right, she is a goddess; the woman who almost single-handedly put the ‘Great’ back in Great Britain and turned back the tide of socialism.

To the left, she is a demon; the woman who brutalized striking miners and drove the country to riot over the unpopular poll tax. I was afraid that ‘The Iron Lady’ would portray her as one of those two caricatures. Although that was not the case, the film ultimately proved to be something of a disappointment.

The Iron Lady begins in the present day, as a frail Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep) goes to buy a pint of milk. When she returns home, she proceeds to sit down to breakfast with her husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent). They talk and joke, but it soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems.

When one of Thatcher’s caretakers enters the kitchen, we are shown a POV shot from her perspective, which reveals that Thatcher is actually sitting alone. Throughout the rest of the film, Thatcher will interact with her dead husband, and although her caretakers believe this is a side-effect of her dementia, it is strongly implied that this is actually a conscious coping mechanism Thatcher has created to deal with her grief.

Thatcher starts to reminisce about her past, and we see her memories in the form of flashbacks. At first, they are merely a disconnected series of vignettes, but they eventually run together and form a continuous narrative. We watch as a young middle-class grocer’s daughter tries to break into the aristocratic, male-dominated Tory party.

When she eventually wins a seat in Parliament, we see her struggle to fit in as one of the few female MPs. Eventually, she gains her footing, and rises from Secretary of State for Education to Leader of the Conservative Party to Prime Minister. Along the way, she is motivated by an apparently earnest desire to “do something” and change Britain for the better. But her passion turns to dogmatism, and her relationship with her Cabinet, and the British people, steadily deteriorate.

The intertwining of these two storylines, past and present, could make for incredibly compelling cinema, but in this case, it falls flat. The political storyline is probably the weaker of the two. Because it is told as a series of flashbacks, it never really develops into a satisfying narrative.

Instead, we see a series of vignettes: Thatcher on the steps of Number 10 Downing Street after winning her first term as Prime Minister, Thatcher deciding to go to war over the Falkland Islands, Thatcher humiliating her deputy, Geoffrey Howe (Anthony Head) and causing a chain of events that leads to her own downfall. But these episodes are often presented without context, which greatly lessens their impact.

The most striking example of this is the scene where Thatcher’s close friend Airey Neave (Nicholas Farrell) is killed by a car bomb. Because the two of them only shared a few scenes together, the emotional impact of his sudden death is greatly diminished. The scenes with Geoffrey Howe are also curiously bland. His resignation would have been much more powerful if the viewer had realized that he had been in Thatcher’s Cabinet since the very beginning, and had been one of her most trusted lieutenants.

The film does deserve praise for its even-handed treatment of Thatcher’s politics. She is portrayed as neither the savior-goddess of the right or the vicious harridan of the left. It would have been easy to resort to caricature, but The Iron Lady does a nice job of emphasizing Thatcher’s humanity in both storylines.

Meryl Streep definitely deserves praise for her performance as Thatcher. She has done an excellent job of copying Thatcher’s voice, a feat made even more incredible by the fact that Streep is not a British actress. The makeup department was similarly adept at making her look like Thatcher.

Streep’s performance has garnered her an Oscar nomination, and it’s richly deserved. Jim Broadbent also did a fine job portraying Denis Thatcher. He captures Denis’ bombast and irreverence quite well. Anthony Head is sadly underutilized though. He deserved a much bigger role.

The Iron Lady could have been an excellent film had it focused on either Thatcher’s political story, or her personal struggles as she copes with old age and the loss of her husband. But by trying to do both, it bites off more than it can chew.

OVERALL GRADE: B

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Leading online betting firm, Sky Bet, has unveiled its full list of Oscars betting markets following the announcement of the 84th Academy Awards nominations on Tuesday, January 24.

Black and white silent movie, ‘The Artist’, which last week picked up the Producers Guild Award and also won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical, is Sky Bet’s clear favorite to win Best Picture at 2/7, with the odds having been cut from a pre-Christmas 2/1.

The French tribute to the silent movie has ten Oscar bids, although it was beaten by Scorsese’s 3D charmer ‘Hugo’, which received 11 nods. This augurs well for its Best Picture hopes as the most nominated film has taken the top prize 15 times in the last 20 years, and Sky Bet makes ‘Hugo’ a 10/1 shot behind Golden Globe Best Drama champion, ‘The Descendants’ (4/1).

‘The Artist’ dominates several other categories with its helmsman, Michel Hazanavicius, as an odds-on favorite (8/13) to win Best Director and its leading man, Jean Dujardin, second in the Best Actor betting at 2/1. George Clooney is a hot favorite at 2/5 to take home the lead actor gong for his performance in the comedy-drama, ‘The Descendants’. Gary Oldman picked up his first ever Oscar nomination for ‘Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy’ and is quoted at 33/1.

Double Oscar winner and 17-time nominee, Meryl Streep, is the short-priced favorite at 1/2 to scoop a third gong for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’. Viola Davis is her nearest rival for Best Actress at 9/4, with ‘My Week with Marilyn’ star, Michelle Williams, another threat at 11/4.

Sky Bet’s Oscars betting expert, Helen Jacob, said, “The Artist seems way ahead of its rivals in the race to win the top Oscar. ”Other categories, however, are not so clean-cut, with the battle for best actress between Meryl Streep and Viola Davis looking particularly close.”

For Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer (‘Beginners’) is at 1/12, and Octavia Spencer is at 1/8 (‘The Help’) and looks to have the Best Supporting Actress category sewn up.

Sky Bet is also offering a host of novelty special bets on the Oscars ceremony itself, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 26.

Veteran actress, Meryl Streep, accidentally swore onstage at the Globes and Sky Bet goes 7/2 that the Oscars best actress winner turns the air blue again in her acceptance speech. It is even money that the best actress cries during her speech, and 10/1 that any recipient’s address consists of a single ‘Thank you!’

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The nominations for the 2012 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Film Awards have been announced, and French silent film The Artist leads the field with twelve nominations including one for Best Film.

BAFTA’s announcement of the nominees comes just days after The Artist and The Descendants swept the board at the 69^th Annual Golden Globes Awards, and it seems likely that both films will experience similar success at Britain’s equivalent to the Academy Awards.

The two aforementioned films will go head-to-head in the categories of Best Film and Best Leading Actor (for Jean Dujardin and George Clooney), while their screenplays will each compete in the Original and Adapted Screenplay categories, respectively.

Other Golden Globes winners are included in this year’s nominations, namely: The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn for Best Animated Film; Meryl Streep for her leading role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady; and Octavia Spencer for Supporting Actress in The Help.

Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese, has been nominated for his directorial job with Hugo and will also be the recipient of this year’s BAFTA Fellowship, placing him in such Academy ranks as, Sir Charles Chaplin, Steven Spielberg, Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Dame Judi Dench – all of whom have received the Fellowship since Alfred Hitchcock’s special recognition in 1971 for “outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image. It is the highest honour the Academy bestows”.

Unsurprisingly, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the conclusion to the most successful film series in box office history and one which helped elevate the British Film Industry during the 2000s, failed to pick up any nominations for its acting, directing or screenplay; however, it did earn a place on the shortlist for Best Make Up & Hair, Sound and Special Visual Effects.

The Harry Potter film series has had mixed success during awards season in the past, but it was thought that a last-minute promotional push from Warner Bros. might help Deathly Hallows Part 2 achieve some recognition from the major award voters this season.

Nevertheless, the BAFTA voters have acknowledged one British cinema hit: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the 1974 espionage thriller novel of the same name. Cast member Gary Oldman has been nominated for Best Leading Actor, while the film itself will vie for: Best Film, Best British Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Music, among several others.

The awards will be held on Sunday February 12 at London’s Royal Opera house, airing on BBC One, and will be hosted by Stephen Fry for the first time since 2006.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.mtv.co.uk

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Are you simply born to be charismatic, or is it a learnable skill – as Meryl Streep showed the world this past weekend in the nationwide release of the movie “The Iron Lady” in which she portrayed Margaret Thatcher, who transformed herself from a smart woman with little presence into a powerhouse of a Prime Minister by changing her voice, her style and her way of carrying herself.

“Charisma is a learnable skill, not simply a gift for the favored few, and is a way of focusing your behavior and attitude for greatest impact and connection. Charisma is also what separates the merely competent from the supremely capable,” says Cynthia Burnham, America’s #1 Charisma Coach, and author of ”The Charisma Edge: A How-To Guide For Turning on Your Leadership Power”. “Margaret Thatcher did it, and so can leaders and managers in companies.”

Ms. Burnham’s step-by-step system on how to be charismatic is based on 30 years of successful business experience with corporations including SVP for the Wall Street firm UBS, and various senior positions with Gillette and Duracell, as well as independent executive presence coaching and training for Sony, Booz Allen Hamilton, Northrop Grumman, Illumina and others.

This system shows how anyone can become more authentically compelling and powerful by using “nine levers of charisma,” including such things as voice, word choice, posture, and gestures, and how you can use them to look, act and become more charismatic, all based on natural human wiring and the neuroscience of confidence.

Among the powerful first impression tips she provides in her consulting, speaking and in her book are:

• Reduce extraneous nodding. Nod decisively, or not at all. Stillness is powerful.
• End your words. Put the final consonants back on your words. Most Americans drop them, which makes their speech sloppier and less compelling.
• Lower your pitch. Low voices for both men and women are considered stronger, wiser and more believable (and also sexier).
• Pause three seconds for dignity. Wait before answering any question – from “What do you want for lunch?” to “Will you accept [e.g. three times your normal rate]” to “Will you marry me?” Waiting makes you appear more thoughtful, and also gives your brain time to formulate a powerful response.

Burnham’s coaching services will help people who want to be seen as powerful leaders who have executive presence, including:

• Corporate executives (and high-potentials) who want to move to the next level
• Leaders who want to have a bigger “voice” and a greater impact
• Leaders & managers who are great technicians but are dead in the water when it comes to being inspirational
• Leaders who want to know how to stand in front of the room and be dynamic, compelling, and unafraid
• Individuals who want to make a powerful first impression for networking or internal/external career path reasons
• Women who are struggling to be heard

Ms. Burnham will be speaking in public and private events about executive presence and the power of charisma.  Public events include:

• Speaker, January 19th, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association of Southern California, Brandman University, Irvine, CA.
• Group sessions facilitator, February 2nd, Executive Next Practices Institute “Valued Leader” Branding Summit, Brandman University, Irvine, CA.
• Book Signing, March 18th, “Weekends With Locals,” Warwick’s Books, La Jolla CA
• Speaker, March 21st, Women In Defense San Diego Symposium, Coronado, CA
• Guest lecturer, April 30th, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, UCSD, La Jolla, CA

“When you know how to be charismatic, people want to listen to you and follow you. They say ‘Yes, I could work for her. She has a larger vision that I want to be part of,” said Burnham, who had been Senior Vice President, Director of Employee Relations & Development for UBS, the global financial services firm.

“Margaret Thatcher wasn’t always charming and she was called bossy, but she was a woman who was able to get people to follow her when there were extremely few women in power or in government. That’s charisma.”

Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

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The time for deliberation is almost over. The voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have begun mailing out the nomination ballots for the 84th Academy Awards, scheduled to take place on Sunday February 26 and to be hosted by Billy Crystal.

The ballots themselves, which are to be completed by the 5,783 voting members of the Academy, must be returned by January 13 and will be announced on January 24, at which point firm-favourites and critics-choices will learn if their hopes of award-season glory have been warranted or wasted.

Some of those favorites include Meryl Streep and George Clooney, whose roles in “The Iron Lady“ and “The Descendants”, respectively, have already garnered them nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

Other actors expected to receive Academy Award nominations based on prior accolades this season include: Michelle Williams for “My Week With Marilyn”, Ryan Gosling for “The Ides of March” – for which, incidentally, Clooney has received a Golden Globe nomination in the directing field -, Leonardo DiCaprio for the biopic “J. Edgar”, and Viola Davis for Dreamworks’ adaptation of “The Help”.

Statistically, the Golden Globes and SAGs have been shown to be the primary indicators of who will achieve success at the Academy Awards. For example, the 2010-11 awards season saw David Fincher’s “The Social Network” compete against Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” in many of the major categories, with Fincher’s film triumphing at the Golden Globes, Hooper’s film triumphing at the SAGs, and each film ultimately walking away with a handful of Academy Awards.

This ceremony is in fact the last in Hollywood’s award season, so if this year’s voting replicates last year’s, it may go down to the wire as to who will indeed succeed in the Academy’s Best Picture and Acting categories. Therefore, while there may be little in the way of surprises awaiting the Hollywood press on January 24 when the nominations are announced, there will be no doubt added anticipation over whether the voters will sway away from favoring the abundance of high-profile biopics making waves this season.

These are namely: “The Iron Lady”, a study of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; “My Week With Marilyn”, a week in the life of Marilyn Monroe; and “J. Edgar”, a study into the FBI director’s personal life and debated sexuality. Each film has already received multiple nominations from other major award bodies, but this may be a case where there are too many releases from the same genre which ultimately cancel each other out.

Aside from their acting nominations at the Golden Globes, none of the films managed to make the final cut into the Hollywood Foreign Press’ Best Motion Picture selection, so there may still be some spots up for grabs in the final Academy Award shortlist.

Whatever happens, it won’t be long until the public finds out.

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The Iron Lady, a movie directed by Phyllida Lloyd was released last week; it stars Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, England’s first and only female prime minister. The Iron Lady is the first feature film about the former prime minister, where she is depicted as an old lonely woman with dementia, reminiscing on past experiences while having imaginary conversations with her late husband and businessman, Dennis Thatcher, portrayed by Jim Broadbent.

Thatcher earned the nickname the “Iron Lady” due to her strict conservative policies and opposition to the Soviet Union. However, instead of focusing on her political career, the filmmakers focused more on her personal life, saying that they never meant to make a film biography about politics. According to Jill Serjeant from Reuters, British director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan mainly “relied on her published memoirs, input from 1980s politicians, and hours of TV footage and speeches” in order to represent her as a regular woman who rose to great power only to lose it in 1990, “after losing the support of her cabinet.”

As a response to the biopic, Rob Wilson, a Conservative legislator said, “I just wonder why the filmmakers had to go so heavily on the mental illness, the dementia side, when Baroness Thatcher has had a very important life in the politics of this country and the world.” Norman Tebbit, a government minister under Thatcher, also criticized the film, saying, Thatcher was not like the “half-hysterical, overemotional, overacting woman portrayed by Meryl Streep.”

The Iron Lady begins with a frail Thatcher wandering unrecognized into a small grocery store to buy some milk. The former prime minister occasionally goes down memory lane, where she sees herself as a young girl sheltering under a table at her father’s grocery store; the biopic always returns to Thatcher in the present.

One of the most painful scenes was when her daughter Carol sat by her bed and told her that her husband was dead, her son, Mark was in South Africa and that she was no longer the prime minister. The film focuses on Thatcher’s human side, where she remembers events of the past and forgets those that are very recent. The elderly Thatcher evokes sympathy that a lot of people may relate to with their own mothers.

According to The Telegraph, a friend of Thatcher’s family said “Sir Mark and Carol are appalled at what they have learnt about the film; they think it sounds like some Left-wing fantasy. They feel strongly about it, but will not speak publicly for fear of giving it more publicity.”

StarTribune reported that Lloyd discards the criticisms, though, she says she is not shocked by them. “It is a Shakespearean story about power and loss, and the cost of a huge life, and letting go” Lloyd told Reuters. According to the Los Angeles times, the director also said, “The Iron Lady is not a political film, except it’s political in wanting to put an old lady at the center of it.”

Image Courtesy of  Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

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Brad Pitt has been voted the Top Money-Making Star of 2011 in Quigley Publishing Company’s 80th Annual Poll of Motion Picture Exhibitors. This is Pitt’s sixth appearance in the Poll, but his first win. Exhibitors felt Pitt was responsible for more traffic to theatres than any other Hollywood star based on his performances this year in “Moneyball,” “The Tree of Life,” and “Happy Feet Two.”

The Quigley Poll, conducted each year since 1932, is an annual survey of motion picture theatre owners and film buyers, which asks them to vote for the ten stars that they believe generated the most box-office revenue for their theatres during the year. It has been long regarded as one of the most reliable indicators of a star’s real box office draw because the selections are made by professionals whose livelihood depends on choosing the films and actors that will bring audiences to their theatres. The Quigley Poll lists the results of all the Polls since Marie Dressler, Janet Gaynor, and Joan Crawford took the top three places in 1932.

George Clooney placed second this year based on “The Ides of March,” where he was also the director, producer, and co-writer, and “The Descendants.” Johnny Depp, last year’s winner, made it to number three this year with 2011 roles in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “The Rum Diary.”  Depp has placed in the poll seven times, as has this year’s number four, Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in “J. Edgar.” Matt Damon, number five, had a very busy year with “Contagion,” “The Adjustment Bureau,” “Margaret,” and “We Bought a Zoo.”

Sandra Bullock, winner of 2009, placed number six, which marks her fifth appearance in the poll. She first placed in the survey in 1995. There were two first-timers this year, Bradley Cooper number seven and Ben Stiller number ten. Bradley Cooper was in “The Hangover Part II,” and Ben Stiller was in “Tower Heist.” Robert Downey, Jr. was number eight on the strength of “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” and Meryl Streep was number nine as ‘The Iron Lady” and is in the Top Ten for the fourth time.

Tom Cruise has not placed in the Poll since 2006, but he has been in the Top Ten 20 times since 1983 and has been voted number one the most of any actor – seven times. Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, and Bing Crosby have all won five times. Clint Eastwood has been in the poll 21 times starting in 1968. Currently, exhibitors appreciate him more as a director that brings audiences to their theatres. John Wayne, Doris Day, and Shirley Temple each finished first four times, but John Wayne was voted one of the Top Ten Money-Making Stars an astounding 25 times from 1949 to 1974.

Exhibitors were also asked to name the Stars of Tomorrow for 2011, one actor and one actress who they feel will be Top Money-Makers in the years to come. The 2011 winners are Rooney Mara, who played Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” and Jonah Hill, who had a breakthrough performance in “Moneyball” and starred in “The Sitter.”

Top Ten Money-Making Stars of 2011

1. Brad Pitt
2. George Clooney
3. Johnny Depp
4. Leonardo Di Caprio
5. Matt Damon
6. Sandra Bullock
7. Bradley Cooper
8. Robert Downey, Jr.
9. Meryl Streep
10. Ben Stiller

Stars of Tomorrow:

Rooney Mara
Jonah Hill

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