Swedish news agency TT says Le Clezio on Saturday accepted the Stig Dagerman Prize, worth $8,000 Cdn, at a ceremony in Alvkarleby, a small village 150 kilometres north of Stockholm. Le Clezio was awarded the prize for his ability "to fill the book's white pages with the most delightful combinations of words," the Stig Dagerman jury said. The award is named after Swedish author Stig Dagerman, who died in 1954. The prize was established in 1996 and honours efforts to promote the freedom of expression.

There was one question in particular of interest to us book lovers, and that came from a woman who asked what Obama would say to young writers. He was surprised by the question, which he admitted was one he hadn't heard before, but didn't hesitate to answer. He referenced his two books, and specifically mentioned how he wrote them himself, along with many of his speeches. With a light inflection, he said, "In terms of getting a job, knowing how to write is a good thing."

He talked about how he kept a journal, and how it was important for teaching him not only how to write, but also how to think. But my favorite part was when he said, "Over the course of four years I made time to read all of the Harry Potter books out loud to my daughters. If I can do that and run for president, then you can find time to read to your kids. That's some of the most special time you have with your children."

At least two universities have picked up Suzette Martinez Standring's "The Art of Column Writing" book for use in their opinion/column-writing courses.

That's according to "The Columnist" newsletter from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, of which Standring is a former president.

The two universities are DePaul in Chicago and the University of Southern Maine.

As for the song itself, it adds credence to the argument that "Idol" viewed Cook as a way to make amends for Chris Daughtry's early ouster in season five. Which is to say that it sounds like a candy-coated version of Daughtry's "Home" crossed with Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You," its 6/8 time signature giving it an arm-waving sway as one last gift to the annoying pit girls in front of the stage.

Then again, Daughtry never had to sing about a magic rainbow. Cook barely flinched, which seems about right for a guy who may have chuckled at the cheese that "Idol" served up twice weekly but who always embraced it with "what the hey!" enthusiasm. Sure, the lyrics to the single that introduces him to the world is a jumble of mixed metaphors (one of which, running along a river's edge and failing to fly, is a little more literally earthbound than the typical coronation song), but Cook certainly knew what he was getting himself into, and he was ready for it.

As coronation songs go, "Time Of My Life" is a middling entry. Cook would have actually been better served by his Tuesday selection, "Dream Big." Emily Shackelton's original is a moderately sparky (if generic) country-pop number that has the unprecedented advantage of not being mind-numbingly dumb, but the word "stars" in the chorus seems to have inspired Cook to rearrange it as a Switchfoot knockoff. Making it sound like the quietly Christian band not only fit the singer, it suited the second verse's veiled religious references, though Cook was smart enough to edit out the part with the line "I loosed the reins, then let them go." One "Jesus Take The Wheel," it seems, is plenty.

Hopes for a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations between Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild were dashed Tuesday when contract talks ended on a bitter note, fueling anxiety over the prospect of another strike. After three weeks of talks, studios walked away from the table, saying that negotiations were "thrust into reverse" by what they called "unreasonable demands."

SAG accused the studios of turning their backs on the guild to focus on contract talks with the smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. "It's deeply troubling because we said we wanted to stay in the room and make a deal and our pleas were ignored," SAG President Alan Rosenberg said Tuesday night.

Actors are considering the studios' offer to resume talks May 28, about a month before their contract expires. Although they made some headway in negotiations, the parties could not bridge significant differences over how much money actors would receive from shows streamed online, the types of Web programs that would be covered under the contract and the use of clips on the Internet without actors' consent. Studios also balked at SAG's demands for higher pay for guest stars and other performers and for improved DVD residuals.

The Union-Guilde des Scenaristes (UGS) has teamed up with the Ile de France Film Commission to launch the Script Market, a website aimed at selling French scripts to international producers, directors and actors. Project was unveiled before an audience comprised mostly of European and American producers during a breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Monday. "We want to develop our talents and develop them with overseas producers in order to (make) films that are local stories rooted in France with an international appeal," said Jerome Soubeyrand, UGS co-president.

The website fits the commission's agenda to attract more overseas productions to shoot in France. The Gallic organization is also planning to team with the French Alliance Marseilles Provence to centralize its marketing strategy and coordinate shoots, since so many foreign productions are filmed in both regions.

*****

Luc Besson's project to build a full-service production facility in the Parisian suburb of Seine St. Denis is also expected to attract international productions. The commission hopes their push to get the French government to offer foreign shoots bigger tax breaks will help them compete globally.

The Lebanese-born 24-year-old, who looks certain to get a Best British Male nod in next week's BRITs nominations, is a songwriting powerhouse. The singer told me: "I don't necessarily write things to meet quotas on albums."

"It's part of the plumbing of my daily life."

"Then I curate a few songs into an album."

"I was working on my second album before I had even finished making my first."

Dan Fogelberg, the singer and songwriter whose hits "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" helped define the soft-rock era, died Sunday at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. He was 56. His death was announced Sunday in a statement released by his family through the firm Scoop Marketing and also posted on his Web site.

Mr. Fogelberg learned he had advanced prostate cancer in 2004. In a statement then, he thanked fans for their support. "It is truly overwhelming and humbling to realize how many lives my music has touched so deeply all these years," he wrote. "I thank you from the very depths of my heart." Mr. Fogelberg's music was powerful in its simplicity. He did not rely on the volume of his voice to convey his emotions; instead, they came through in his soft, tender delivery and his poignant lyrics. Songs like "Same Old Lang Syne," in which a man reminisces after meeting an old girlfriend by chance during the holidays, became classics not only for his performance, but also for their engaging story lines. Mr. Fogelberg's heyday was in the 1970s and early '80s, when he scored several platinum and multiplatinum records fueled by such hits as "The Power of Gold" and "Leader of the Band," a touching tribute he wrote to his father, a bandleader. Mr. Fogelberg put out his first album in 1972.

Mr. Fogelberg's songs tended to have a weighty tone, reflecting on emotional issues in a serious way. But in an interview with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 1997, he said it did not represent his personality. "That came from my singles in the early '80s," he said. "I think it probably really started on the radio. I'm not a dour person in the least. I'm actually kind of a happy person. Music doesn’t really reflect the whole person.

Other demonstrations are taking place on Wednesday in New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Mexico and France, supporting the strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). WGA members began their strike on November 5 over payment for work broadcast on new media platforms. Writers want more money when TV shows and movies are sold on internet sites such as iTunes, or via mobile phones. Wednesday's rallies in Australia coincide with re-opened contract negotiations in the US aimed at settling the dispute. The executive director of the AWG, Jacqueline Woodman, said Australian scriptwriters shared the concerns of their US counterparts.

"The independent film and television industry in Australia needs to fight hard to preserve an Australian screen culture," Ms Woodman said in a statement. "Standing up for the principle of sharing the massive profits of multinational media conglomerates with the people who create the products they profit from is an essential part of that." Speakers at the Sydney rally, to be held at 4.30pm (AEDT) at Town Hall, will include Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jan Sardi (Shine, The Notebook), Craig Pearce (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge) and AFI-nominated writer Rick Kalowski (Comedy Inc, The Honourable Wally Norman).

Warner Bros. called off a February production start on "Shantaram," the Mira Nair-directed adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel that was to star Johnny Depp. The Weinstein Co., meanwhile, postponed "Nine," the Rob Marshall-directed musical that was slated to start production in March with Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard starring. Delays were caused because the scripts weren't ready. Sony previously delayed the Ron Howard-directed "Angels & Demons," and United Artists halted the Oliver Stone-directed "Pinkville," citing the same reason.

In all four cases, the sponsoring studios decided they couldn't overcome logistical and script problems exacerbated by the Writers Guild strike that is preventing rewrites, along with the looming expirations of the Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild contracts in June. Other films are struggling to avoid the same fate.

Depp, who is producing "Shantaram" with Graham King, planned to spend the winter in India, playing an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison, reinvents himself as a doctor in the slums of India and eventually uses gun-running and counterfeiting skills to fight against the invading Russian troops in Afghanistan. Abhishek Bachchan was also set to star.

Carrie Underwood is used to seeing crowds at the Ryman Auditorium. For three days in February, though, she had the former home of the Grand Ole Opry pretty much to herself, as she and a dozen Nashville songwriters worked on new tunes. "We just ruled the Ryman for a little bit," the 24-year-old singer says. "We kind of hung out there. We ate on the stage. We thought it would be a nice place to get inspiration from."

After the release of her 2005 debut, Some Hearts, which has sold nearly 6 million copies, Underwood committed to developing her songwriting skills for her new album, Carnival Ride, out Tuesday. "I'm the kind of person that, if I got in there and wrote and it was bad, I'd be, like, 'I'm not a writer; I'll let the professionals handle this,' " she says. "But it was something I definitely wanted to see if I could do."

*****

The three-day retreat at the Ryman offered Underwood such a pause. In a place where Hank Williams and Patsy Cline once sang, where Johnny Cash taped his ABC variety show, Underwood got to write with such top tunesmiths as Craig Wiseman, whose credits include Tim McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying.

"The goals were twofold," says retreat organizer Chris Oglesby, who runs OWM/19 Entertainment, the Nashville office of the company that manages Underwood's career. "One was to continue to get Carrie more comfortable writing and writing with different writers. The other was to create an environment where we could build some camaraderie, as well as find some great songs to put on a record."

The publisher is forming a multiyear alliance with Hart Sharp Entertainment offshoot Sharp Independent called Sharp Independent at HarperCollins. The division will acquire film rights to existing and future HarperCollins adult titles to create new films, housed in HarperCollins offices and overseen by Harper/Morrow president and group publisher Michael Morrison.

The move makes sense for HarperCollins, which has had big success with film adaptations from such titles as "The Chronicles of Narnia" series and "The Pursuit of Happyness." But SI head Jeff Sharp's screen adaptations in recent years have been disappointments at the box office.

Sharp's reported $13 million all-star adaptation of the novel "Evening" earned $12.5 million this year. His reported $20 million adaptation of the Broadway hit "Proof" took in $7.5 million in 2005, his $6.5 million adaptation of "A Home at the End of the World" earned just $1 million in 2004 and his reported $10 million 2002 adaptation of "Nicholas Nickleby" grossed $1.6 million. Sharp's 2006 adaptation of HarperCollins' book "The Night Listener" grossed $7.8 million on a reported $10 million budget.