Miller takes artist of year at Americana Awards (AP)

By CHRIS TALBOTT, AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott, Ap Entertainment Writer – Fri Oct 14, 6:48 am ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The members of the Americana Music Association love Buddy Miller, and they reaffirmed that again Thursday night, naming him artist of the year in something of an upset over collaborator Robert Plant.

Miller also took instrumentalist of the year, making him the night's big winner at The Ryman Auditorium.

Miller, a beloved Nashville player, beat out the Led Zeppelin frontman for the artist award after the two co-produced Plant's "Band of Joy," which won album of the year. That award goes to Plant alone despite Miller's role in the sound booth and as band leader.

"This is not right ...," Miller said after winning artist of the year.

Plant got the night's biggest cheers, but the love for Miller was there throughout and should come as no surprise. He's now won or shared with his wife, Julie Miller, 12 Americana Awards, including two artist of the year trophies, and serves as the awards show's band leader.

"I love this awards show, but I think we should change the name to The Buddys," Emmylou Harris joked.

Plant was embraced by the Americana community, a loose confederation of roots rockers, alt-country players and wayward folkies, when he won album of the year for Raising Sand" with Alison Krauss. He reaffirmed his passion for the style of music when he released "Band of Joy" last year. With Miller's help, he put together a crack team of Nashville musicians and paid homage to early rock `n' roll, blues and folk music.

Plant and Miller were the night's top nominees with Elizabeth Cook at three apiece. Along with his work with Plant, Miller also teamed with guitarists Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot and Greg Leisz to release "Majestic Silver Strings" during the qualifying period.

Plant first encountered Miller during a Harris concert in Dublin, Ireland.

"I saw the consummate player of all the licks and the beauty and soliloquy of great American music that I'd ever heard in my life, all put together in one guy with a hat on, and I was flabbergasted," Plant told the crowd.

The two met again when Miller joined the "Raising Sand" touring band. Plant enlisted his aid with "Band of Joy" when a planned second album with Krauss fell through.

"I said to the forces that be, `We can't go anywhere without Buddy Miller," Plant said, "and I don't ever want to go anywhere without Buddy Miller."

Justin Townes Earle's "Harlem River Blues" won song of the year, Mumford & Sons won new/emerging artist and The Avett Brothers won duo/group of the year for the third time.

The AMA presented lifetime achievement awards to Lucinda Williams for songwriting, Gregg Allman for performance, dobro player Jerry Douglas as instrumentalist and famed Muscle Shoals producer Rick Hall as an executive. British broadcaster Bob Harris was honored as a trailblazer.

The night included several strong performances. Harris and Krauss began with a salute to the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack's 10th anniversary. They sang "I'll Fly Away" accompanied by Miller on guitar, Douglas on dobro and Don Was on standup bass.

Cook and Hayes Carll, the other two artist of the year nominees, performed their song of the year nominations — Cook's "El Camino" and Carll's "KMAG YOYO." The Civil Wars got a standing ovation for their breakthrough "Barton Hollow," Williams sang her newest song "Blessed" and Jessica Lea Mayfield performed "For Today" with the Scott and Seth Avett, who returned to play "Once and Future Carpenter."

Allman, who received a liver transplant last year, performed "Sweet Melissa" after a nine-week break from performing.

"I've been in the hospital for awhile, but I made it," Allman told the crowd.

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Online:

http://www.americanamusic.org

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Director plans Arab-American trilogy with Sienna Miller film (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – "Just Like a Woman," a movie starring Sienna Miller, is the first in Oscar-nominated director Rachid Bouchareb's planned trilogy about the changing relationship between Americans and the Arab world.

The French Algerian director, who has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film three times, told TheWrap that he has finished principal photography on "Just Like a Woman," a road movie set in America.

He plans to make two more American-set films with Arabic sensibilities, including a buddy comedy and a Mexican border drama starring Forest Whitaker. All three will be English language.

"I'm always interested in what happens between the Arabic world and the West," Bouchareb said this week. "I come from North Africa, I lived in Paris and I made North African and Algerian and French movies, and now movies in America. But the stories are universal."

Bouchareb's past work has frequently explored conflicts between Arabs and Europeans. His 2010 film "Outside the Law" ("Hors-la-loi"), which dealt with the Algerian struggle for independence from France after World War II, drew protests when it screened at Cannes last year, but went on to win an Oscar nomination.

The Academy had previously nominated Bouchareb's "Days of Glory" in 2006 and "Dust of Life" in 1995.

Although he maintains a home in Paris, Bouchareb said he will spend most of his time in Los Angeles for the next two years while he makes the three films. The trilogy will be produced by Taghit LLC, an American company founded by Bouchareb and partner Jean Brehat in 1999.

The films:

* "Just like a Woman," stars Miller and Golshifteh Farahani as two women who meet as they journey from Chicago to New Mexico, both escaping broken marriages. Iranian actress Farahani plays an Arab immigrant fleeing her marriage in Chicago, while Miller plays a woman who leaves her cheating husband to pursue a secret passion for belly dancing.

* "Belleville's Cop," with "Outside the Law" star Jamel Debbouze in a comedy about a French-Arabic policeman teamed with an LAPD policewoman. Larry Gross, the co-writer of the classic cop buddy comedy "48 Hrs.," has written the script with Bouchareb.

"It's a comedy like some of the American movies I like so much," Bouchareb said, "with a lot of character and dialogue instead of stunts and action."

* An untitled feature with Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker as a Muslim ex-con dealing with anti-Arab sentiment (and the sheriff's paranoia about terrorists) in a small town along the Arizona/Mexico border.

"It's a story about three characters, but I find it interesting to have the political story of the border in the background," said Bouchareb, who did a number of interviews and met members of the private "Minuteman" militia while researching the film.

Production will begin late next year on "Belleville's Cop" and in 2013 on the final film.

The relationship between Americans and Arabs, Bouchareb said, is notably different than the one between Europeans and the Arab world -- and a big change from what it was in previous years.

"Between America and the Arabic world after Obama, it's more open and more understanding," he said. "It's in progress, and the American reaction to the Arabic revolution in Tunisia and Egypt was very important.

"The questions I'm asking in my movies here in America are 'Where are we?' and 'Where are we going?' and 'Why do we need to have hope in this relationship?'"

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Plant, Miller lead Americana Awards nominations (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Robert Plant and Buddy Miller teamed up to top the list of nominees for the 2011 Americana Awards with three apiece.

Each was nominated Monday for artist of the year along with fellow three-time nominee Elizabeth Cook and teamed up for several nominations on their collaboration "Band of Joy."

The album earned the former Led Zeppelin singer a nomination for album of the year. His all-star group of collaborators, which includes co-producer Miller and is also known as The Band of Joy, earned a nod in the duo/group category at the Oct. 13 awards.

Miller is also up for instrumentalist of the year.

Cook also received nominations for her album "Welder" and her "El Camino." Hayes Carll, the fourth artist of the year nominee, is up for two awards.

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Online:

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_mu/storytext/us_music_americana_awards/41592348/SIG=10vc07k28/*http://www.americanamusic.org

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Actress Miller settles News Corp phone snoop case (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Sienna Miller will take a payoff to drop a case against a newspaper that snooped on her phone messages, a scandal that embarrassed Rupert Murdoch's News Corp while it seeks government blessing for a huge merger.

Miller, the on-and-off girlfriend of fellow Hollywood star Jude Law, was one of the main plaintiffs suing News Corp over allegations reporters at its News of the World tabloid illegally listened to voice messages to get scoops.

The scandal has already cost Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman his job and led to calls for greater oversight of Britain's ruthlessly competitive news media.

The newspaper said it would pay Miller 100,000 pounds ($160,000) as part of a settlement that would see her drop her case. The newspaper would also give her documents in the case.

Miller was one of more than 20 celebrities, including TV personalities, sports figures and even former cabinet members, suing the News of the World for hiring a private investigator to hack into the voicemail accounts of their mobile phones.

Her case was expected to be one of a handful of lead cases against the newspaper that will set compensation levels for other plaintiffs. The lead cases are expected to be decided at a case-management hearing next week.

"We are pleased that we have managed to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion. Several weeks ago we admitted liability in certain cases and offered a genuine and unreserved apology," News International said in a statement on Friday.

"We hope to resolve other cases swiftly."

Miller's lawyer had no immediate comment.

The scandal has damaged News Corp's reputation at a time when it has been seeking government approval for a proposed $14 billion takeover of British pay-TV firm BSkyB. Opponents want the merger blocked pending the outcome of a police probe.

One journalist at the newspaper was jailed in 2007 for illegally snooping on phone messages of a member of the royal household, but the paper maintained until this year that it was an isolated incident.

The police have since reopened the investigation, several journalists have been arrested and the newspaper has apologised. Cameron's media chief Andy Coulson, who had been the newspaper's editor at the time when the snooping took place, resigned.

Ex-member of parliament George Galloway, who also says his voicemail was hacked, has called cash settlements a legal trap that would allow News Corp to silence claimants by offering them compensation they cannot afford to refuse.

Claimants who refuse to settle and bring their cases to court could end up with huge legal bills.

(Editing by Peter Graff)

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