Culturite

Mark Leckey, 44, from Birkenhead, took the £25,000 first prize for his video “Industrial Light and Magic”. Leckey, who describes himself as a “modern day dandy”, combines film, sculpture and performance complete with clips from the film Titanic.

Part of the entry included a lecture, Cinema-in-the-Round, which features a voice-over by Leckey, and an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer registers his horror as he turns into a three-dimensional being. The winning artist has confessed to having a “slight obsession” with Felix the Cat.

The jury, which included Nicholas Serota, the director of London’s Tate Modern, commended the “intelligent, energetic and seductive nature of the work”, which was the runaway favourite at the bookmakers.

By contrast, only three bets were waged on the entry from the Glaswegian Cathy Wilkes, the least popular nominee, to be shortlisted for the prize. The highest bet was £7.99. The irony might appeal to the artist whose exhibition, which features a naked mannequin wearing horseshoes, sat on a lavatory next to half-eaten bowls of porridge on a supermarket conveyor belt, is called I Give You All My Money.

The Turner Prize has always thrived on controversy. Previous winners have included Martin Reed who exhibited an empty room with the lights going on and off, Chris Ofili who attached balls of elephant dung to canvas, and Damien Hirst, who displayed a cow and calf cut in half and preserved in formaldehyde. Tracey Emin was the best known loser with her soiled bed.

Critics have panned this year’s Turner Prize as the “worst on record” and likened the exhibition at London’s Tate Britain to an “afternoon spent in a Heathrow departure lounge”. Some are now questioning whether the competition has any future.

Blogging company Six Apart has acquired micro-blogging startup Pownce for undisclosed financial terms. It looks like one of those acquisitions where the buyer was more interested in the people than the product — the Pownce service will shut down in two weeks.

The Screen Actors Guild representing Hollywood actors will send out a ballot in December calling for a strike.

The news comes after four days of talks this weekend between SAG and Hollywood producers ended without any resolution.

SAG president Alan Rosenberg asked members to give the guild the authority to call a strike “only if it becomes absolutely necessary.”

That could set the stage for a strike as early as January, unless negotiations resume with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. SAG has been without a contract since June.

Rosenberg said the strike authorization is needed to protect “the art of acting” as new media platforms emerge.

“Our ability to make our livings as professional actors for decades to come is at stake,” he said in an e-mail to members. “New media is not an ‘experiment’ as the employers want you to think. It’s their future, and it’s our future.”

SAG has asked for an improvement in compensation for electronic rights, including residuals for DVDs.

Rock musician Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM will perform together for the first time since the duo survived a fiery plane crash in South Carolina in September.

The former Blink-182 drummer and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, will headline New Year’s Nation’s Los Angeles New Year’s Eve Party at The Lot in West Hollywood, Calif.

The performance will be streamed on the Internet and broadcast at other New Year’s Nation parties across the U.S.