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BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- A Massachusetts correctional officer is being disciplined for showing the gay cowboy movie "Brokeback Mountain" to inmates at the state's largest prison because his boss determined that the film includes content inappropriate for a prison setting. Massachusetts Department of Correction spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said Saturday that the action was not related to the critically acclaimed film's plot involving a gay love affair. "It was not the subject matter. It was the graphic nature of sexually explicit scenes," Wiffin said. She said the officer, whom she declined to identify, failed to follow prison guidelines that require staff...

A by-the-book warden pulled the plug during a jailhouse showing of the controversial gay-cowboy movie “Brokeback Mountain” yesterday, fearing the film’s steamy scenes violated the facility’s no-movie-sex policy. Faster than you could say “I wish I knew how to quit you,” inmates at MCI-Norfolk found their afternoon matinee ended just 10 minutes before the Academy Award-winning movie’s ending. The cons were assembled in the gym yesterday afternoon to watch the film about a love affair between two gay cowboys and their trysts on an isolated mountainside - that is, until a prison official shut it off. However, the prisoners did...

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - A Bahamian government board's decision to ban the movie "Brokeback Mountain" has prompted charges of discrimination and censorship in the island chain. Gay rights groups and others have called on the Plays and Films Control Board to reverse its decision prohibiting theaters from showing the award-winning movie about a troubled love affair between two cowboys. "You have a group of people who are telling grown men and women what they can and cannot watch," said Philip Burrows, a theater director in the island chain. "I cannot understand denying people the right to make their own choices."...

Went to pick some things up at the local Wally-world today, and there, covering the theft sensors, it was. . . a movie poster announcing the release of "Brokeback Montain" on DVD. . .and curiously enough, the NEXT sensor had an ad for "Narnia". . . I was under the impression that Wal-Mart was trying to be family-friendly, at least in entertainment: they limit song lyrics, I'm actually surprised that they're selling "Brokeback" next week . . .

Annie Proulx, whose 1997 short story inspired the film Brokeback Mountain, has penned a scattershot blast in a British newspaper unleashing her anger over the film's best-picture Oscar loss, reports The Associated Press. Proulx criticizes Oscar voters and the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1,094-word rant, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily. The best-picture Oscar went to Crash, which focuses on race relations in Los Angeles. Academy members who vote for the year's best film are ''out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment...

The author of "Brokeback Mountain" is trashing the Motion Picture Academy and Best Picture Oscar-winner "Crash" in the wake of the film's upset loss at the Academy Awards. In a commentary piece titled Blood on the Red Carpet posted on U.K.'s Guardian online, E. Annie Proulx called out "conservative heffalump academy voters" for not voting the gay-themed "Brokeback" Best Picture, and called "Crash" "Trash." "Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest-homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment...

‘Brokeback' an Oscar? What about Ray Nagin? If you're like me, you've had it with all the hype about “Brokeback Mountain.” Practically every major media enterprise in the nation has proclaimed it the front-runner to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards program on March 5. Not that we needed them to tell us. It was loudly proclaimed - even before the film's release to theaters - that this picture, about two sheepherders who give new meaning to the phrase “on the back forty,” would take all the major Oscars. Even my editor - no cowboy himself, although some days...

WXYZ   Yong Sheng Zhu was being deported to China when he decided to jump from the plane while it was waiting at the gate at Metro Airport. Deportee Jumps from PlaneBy Anu PrakashWeb produced by Sarah MorganMarch 7, 2006A man being deported from the U.S. was at the center of a bizarre incident at Metro Airport. Police said he boarded a Northwest Airlines plane and then jumped out the emergency exit before the plane took off. Yong Sheng Zhu, a 26-year-old Chinese national, had over stayed his visa and was recently taken into custody to be deported. Around...

<p>OS ANGELES -- One of the mysteries of the 2006 Oscar season is the virulence with which lovers of "Brokeback Mountain" savaged "Crash." When the film about racism actually won the Oscar for best picture Sunday, there was no grace in their response. As someone who felt "Brokeback" was a great film but "Crash" a greater one, I would have been pleased if either had won.</p>

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Preliminary figures from Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast indicate ratings for the awards extravaganza were down versus the past two years' but still ahead of 2003's ratings. The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) network ABC said the awards show got a 27.1 household rating, reflecting the percentage of total households watching the telecast. It also attracted a 40 share, representing the percentage of homes with televisions on that were tuned to the awards show. On an inflation-adjusted basis, no field of best-picture nominees in years had done as poorly at the box office as this year's entries....

f all goes as expected at this Sunday’s Academy Awards, Brokeback Mountain will win in the “Best Picture,” “Best Director,” and perhaps even “Best Actor” categories. Even if it doesn’t do as well as expected, the film is already being hailed as a “breakout” event, a kind of cultural watershed of sorts—which it almost certainly is not. By “breakout,” I mean the idea, most famously advanced by New York Times columnist Frank Rich, that the movie would do well in the “heartland,” and that this, in turn, would signal an increased acceptance of same-sex relationships. As USA Today summarized it,...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Scores of semi-naked cowboys, a couple of Saddam Husseins and a handful of Kate Moss impersonators joined thousands of other people parading through Sydney's streets on Saturday for the city's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival. The glitzy street parade was launched in 1978 as a gay rights protest, but has since transformed itself into a vibrant festival celebrating all aspects of gay culture. Tens of thousands of people lined the route through Oxford Street, the center of the city's gay scene, to watch the colorful mix of 120 floats pass by. >>>> "Brokeback Mountain"...

WORLAND -- A crew from ABC World News Tonight interviewed area residents as part of a planned segment about the motion picture "Brokeback Mountain." The film about two ill-fated Cowboy lovers in Wyoming is considered the front-runner for the Oscars. The crew conducted short interviews with residents in Worland and Ten Sleep earlier this week. "They came in like a whirlwind," said Kathryn Moore, owner of Dirty Sally's in Ten Sleep. "They were pleasant but I was disappointed they were here for such a little time." Broken Back Ranch owner Terril Mills, who escorted the crew through Ten Sleep, said...

March 2, 2006 -- The makers of the gay cowboy flick "Brokeback Mountain" were too rough on sheep, an animal-rights group charged yesterday. In a letter to director Ang Lee, The Humane Society also complained about the way the horses and elk were treated. "The excessively rough handling of the sheep and horses leaves viewers questioning whether anyone was looking out for the safety of those animals," the letter said. "And many also wonder how the filmmakers got the elk to lose its footing and crumple to the ground 'on cue' after being shot." A spokesman for the producer of...

There are allegations that animals were mistreated during the filming of the so-called gay-cowboy movie, "Brokeback Mountain". In a letter filed to "Brokeback Mountain" director Ang Lee, the American Humane Association expressed dismay over reports that animal care and protection guidelines were violated during the Oscar-nominated movie's filming in Canada. The American Humane Association is the authority behind the "No Animals Were Harmed"(r) End Credit Disclaimer on film and television productions. Because "Brokeback Mountain" was produced in Canada, the production company was able to circumvent use of the Guidelines and oversight by the American Humane Association. "Filming abroad may be...

'Brokeback Mountain' sets off gay trend in Hollywood Mar 01 5:27 AM US/Eastern The awards success of a posse of Oscar hopefuls led by frontrunner "Brokeback Mountain" has made gay okay in Hollywood, where once-skittish filmmakers are embracing same-sex love. In what has been billed Oscar's "year of the queer," the romancing cowboys of "Brokeback" are joined by "Capote," the story of gay US author Truman Capote, and "Transamerica," the moving tale of a transsexual in the process of becoming a woman, starring Felicity Huffman. And as this year's pink contenders for Sunday's Academy Awards have been warmly embraced by...

The Oscars are Sunday. Do you plan to watch? No (74.4%) Yes (25.6%) Total votes: 1,965

'Brokeback Mountain' Leads Academy Awards With Eight Nominations By Stephanie Cole 'Brokeback Mountain' leads the 78th Annual Academy Awards this year with eight nominations. 'Crash' and 'Capote' will face off against the Ang Lee love story in the Best Picture category, along with 'Good Night, And Good Luck' and 'Munich.'

Caracas, Venezuela I haven't had much luck in the romance department lately, so I was thrilled to receive an invitation to visit probably the sexiest and smartest politician in the world, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez! Evidently, when things didn't work out with Peace Mother Sheehan, she told him about me and the rest is history. Imagine my surprise when I learned President Chavez's best friend and the all-time greatest freedom fighter ever, Fidel Castro, would also be visiting! I was so excited, I just about peed myself! I was off the next day. After arriving in Caracas, I was chauffeured...