Chatterbox: Big Day Out serves rock with generous dollop of art

The first batch of confirmed acts for next year's Big Day Out is in and the verdict is good, particularly if you like your rock served with a generous helping of art.

Sure, there's Metallica. But there's also avant-pop bastions the Flaming Lips, brilliant prog-punk newbies the Mars Volta and not-so-newbies A Perfect Circle, garage goofs the Strokes, glam bohemians the Dandy Warhols, electroclash sex-kitten Peaches, weirdo tech whiz Aphex Twin (vs tech-house DJ Luke Vibert), and offbeat genre-busters Gerling.

On the hip-hop and dancefloor stages will be Basement Jaxx and the Black-Eyed Peas and the Kiwi line-up so far includes D4, King Kapisi, Scribe, goodshirt, the Datsuns and Salmonella Dub. More acts for the Ericsson Stadium show on Friday January 16 are to be announced in the coming months. Watch this space.

AND CUT!: Celebrated New Zealand director Jane Campion is turning her back on her film career and taking four years off to spend time with her 9-year-old daughter. Campion says her decision isn't due to the stresses of making her latest film In the Cut or its reception so far - at the Toronto Film Festival the explicit thriller polarised opinion with some critics hailing it as Campion's best film since The Piano, while it left others unimpressed by its sexual frankness and its thriller aspects. The film, due on local screens next year, is creating headlines for star Meg Ryan, her nude and sex scenes a departure for the actress best known for her chaste Hollywood romantic comedies.

IF IT'S TUESDAY: Alanis Morissette might be able to write a song but don't trust her with map reading. The singer recently ended her first gig in Peru before 14,000 fans by shouting: "Thank you, Brazil!" She was criticised by some Peruvian newspapers, but the paper Ojo said: "We have already forgiven her thanks to her magical performance in which we witnessed a true rock star. It was the first time something like that happened over here, but it must have been the emotion she felt for being in Peru." Or maybe she was being ... ironic?

RING THINGS: The coming-of-age film Second-hand Lions is getting a first-hand box-office boost in the United States from the final Lord of the Rings movie. New Line Cinema is debuting the first theatrical trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King this weekend exclusively before showings of the family comedy, which stars Haley Joel Osment as a boy raised by two eccentric uncles, played by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall (suggested poster line: "I see old people"). The two-and-a-half-minute trailer will then debut online and at www.lordoftherings.net on Monday - Tuesday NZ time.

RIDING HIGH: As if Whale Rider hadn't won enough praise, two of the film's stars are up for awards at the Hollywood Film Festival. Keisha Castle-Hughes has been nominated for the Actress of the Year Award against film veterans Diane Lane and Charlotte Rampling, and Rawiri Paratene has been nominated for Supporting Actor of the Year against the likes of Robert Duvall, William H. Macy and Geoffrey Rush. Go our side!

THE NOMINEES ARE: The American Film Institute has created the inaugural Charlton Heston award to acknowledge people who have made distinguished contributions to movies and television and the AFI itself. And the winner is ... Charlton Heston. True. The Alzheimer's-afflicted 80-year-old received the award at his home on Tuesday.