B2 The Malibu Times January 9, 2014

MALIBU SEEN

By Kim DevoreEntertainment Editor

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Carter Smith Acclaimed actress Julia Roberts joins locals for the beginning of festival season.

JULIA, MATTHEW, U2 AND MORELoads of locals are headed for the first major film festival of the

year. It’s all part of the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The star-studded fling is now celebrating 25 years.

Academy Award-winning actress Julia Roberts is the recipient of this year’s Spotlight Awards for her performance in the recently released “August: Osage County.” “Julia is a consummate actress with a range as vast as her talent,” says Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “Her ability to consistently give standout performances over the past 25 years is remarkable.”

The “Pretty Woman” is known for her memorable roles in favorite films like “Mystic Pizza,” “Steel Magnolias,” “The Pelican Brief,” “Runaway Bride,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Eat Pray Love.” She earned an Oscar for her title role in “Erin Brockovich.”

Her legendary “August: Osage County” co-star, Meryl Streep, is this year’s Icon Award winner. The divine Ms. Meryl began col-lecting her slew of Academy Awards early with 1979’s “Kramer Vs. Kramer,” 1982’s “Sophie’s Choice” and 2011’s “The Iron Lady.”

The festival has an uncanny knack for likely Oscar contenders. Others on the prestigious roster include “Gravity”’s Sandra

Bullock, “Nebraska”’s Bruce Dern, “Dallas Buyers Club” star Matthew McConaughey. Longtime local Tom Hanks is also being lauded for “Captain Phillips” along with Steve McQueen, the man behind “12 Years a Slave.”

Malibu’s The Edge joins fellow music makers Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen and Bono for the festival’s Bono Visionary Award, which was named after Sonny Bono as in “Sonny and Cher,” not to be confused with the U2 singer who was one of the many hon-orees.

U2 was an unlikely but well-deserved choice, according to festival chairman Matzner. “We normally present the Sonny Bono Visionary Award to a director, but for the 25th anniversary we wanted to take the occasion to celebrate U2, a visionary group and the world’s premier rock band, for their unparalleled humanitarian work against extreme poverty, disease and social injustice.”

U2 was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award for the song “Ordinary Love” from the film “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” The band also earned an Oscar nomination for the tune “The Hands That Built America” from Martin Scorsese’s 2002 drama, “Gangs of New York.”

Started by former pop star and Palm Springs mayor Sonny Bono, the event started out small and without a lot of fanfare. Today it has grown into one of the biggest international film festi-vals in the world.

The star spangled bash runs until Jan. 13.

Keynote inspiration

Local author and f i lmmake r L i s a

Cypers Kamen will give a keynote address a t Mal ibu Uni ted Methodi s t Church on Sunday, Jan. 26 from 4-6 p.m. Kamen, author of “Harvesting Happ ine s s ,” p l an s on speaking on “The H-Factor: How to Find it and Keep it.”

P e o p l e

Elite athletes

The Stewart Tennis Academy Elite lineup, left to right: Forrest Stewart, Wally Thayne, Alejandro Moreno, Kevin Bondnar, Gabriel Rapport, Lauren Louks, Doug Stewart

A group of heavy hitters from the local tennis scene

recently gathered to form the Stewart Tennis Academy Elite Lineup: Forrest Stewart, acad-emy founder and professional tennis player; Wally Thayne, nationally ranked in USTA Boys

12s; Alejandro Moreno, for-mer Pepperdine player who was recently named to the Mexican Davis Cup Team; Kevin Bondar, waitlisted at Harvard University; Gabriel Rapport, #1 on the Malibu High Boys Tennis Team, headed to the University of

Pennsylvania in the fall; Lauren Louks, #1 on the Malibu High Girls Tennis Team and attending Tufts University in September; and Doug Stewart, head profes-sional and director of tennis at the academy.

Stewart, a former nation-

al champion and ranked #1 in the juniors, played #1 at the University of Virginia for four years. Forrest Stewart has taught tennis in Malibu for more than 30 years after playing at UCLA and teaching in Bel Air for 20 years.

TEDxMalibu producer Lisa Cypers Kamen (far left at last year’s TEDx Malibu event that she organized) will speak Sunday at the Malibu United Methodist Church about her book on happiness.

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