ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

FILM/ LONDON CRITICS NOMS ANNOUNCED: Lone Scherfig’s "An Education" leads this year’s nominations for the 30th Annual London Film Critics’ Circle Awards. The film picked up 7 nominations including actress of the year and best actress for rising star, for Carey Mulligan, and the Attenborough Award for British film of the year. Jane Campion’s "Bright Star", Andrea Arnold’s Cannes title "Fish Tank," "In The Loop," Armando Iannucci’s political satire, and Duncan Jones’s debut feature and Edinburgh winner "Moon" have also been nominated for in the best British film category. In the best film category are: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "A Prophet," "Up In The Air" and "The White Ribbon". All 5 directors of those films have also been nominated. "A Prophet" and "The White Ribbon" have also scored nominations for foreign language film of the year alongside Swedish horror film "Let The Right One In," Laurent Cantet’s "The Class" and Andrzej Wajda’s "Katyn". The Critics’s Circle has also announced that it will award director Quentin Tarantino its highest honour, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Cinema. The awards will take place on February 18 at the Landmark Hotel. Full details can be found on the organizations website.

TV/ ALAINA REED HALL DIES AT 63: Alaina Reed Hall, the actress best known as Olivia on "Sesame Street" who later starred on "227," died last Thursday, December 17 in Los Angeles after a lenghty battle with breast cancer. She was 63. Beginning in 1976 and running up until the late 1980s, Hall was known to millions of children as photographer Olivia on the PBS show. She told the News-Sun in 2004 it was "the best job I ever had." In 1985, she was cast in the urban sitcom "227" as Rose, the go-to friend in the neighborhood. The cast also included the always-sassy Jackée Harry and ran for 5 seasons. After "227" left the airwaves in 1990, Hall made several guest appearances in shows such as "Blossom" before scoring a lead role on the short-lived sitcom "Cleghorne!" in 1995. Her film credits include "Death Becomes Her" and "Cruel Intentions". Hall began her career on Broadway in "Hair" and "Chicago," and released one single, "Bad For My Head" in 1972.