Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - Movie fans are in for a treat as the American Film Institute airs its 11th annual countdown celebration Tuesday night. The show is a three-hour salute to the Top 10 American movies from 10 film genres.
Jessica Alba, Sigourney Weaver, Kirk Douglas and Gabriel Byrne are among the stars counting down the 10 greatest films in 10 different genres: animation; courtroom drama; epic; fantasy; gangster; mystery; romantic comedy; science fiction; sports and Western.
Each category will be presented by a separate star. Three of the biggest names are Clint Eastwood (Westerns), Alba (Romantic Comedy) and Quentin Tarantino (Gangster).
“AFI’s 10 Top 10″ airs Tuesday night at 8/7c on CBS.

allheadlinenews.com

In this image released by Bravo, "Top Chef" contestant Stephanie Izard is shown. Izard, 31, won the title of Top Chef during the season finale of "Top Chef", Bravo's reality cooking competition on Wednesday, June 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Bravo, Chuck Hodes)
By ADAM GOLDMAN – 5 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — It took four seasons, but a woman finally took the top spot on Bravo’s “Top Chef.”
Stephanie Izard, a 31-year-old, mild-mannered chef from Chicago, beat out 15 other contestants to win the popular reality show designed to test a cook’s mettle.
Izard, a former restaurant owner with a fondness for seafood and pork, was among the last three contestants to make Wednesday’s finale, along with Lisa Fernandes of New York and Richard Blais of Atlanta.
Going into the finale, Blais appeared to be the favorite, but it was Izard who impressed the judges in the end to capture the title and $100,000 that goes with it.
“I just made the best meal that night,” Izard told The Associated Press. “It came down to who brought their A-game.”
The last episode took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, following many culinary battles in Chicago.
The judges threw the trio a serious test. A four-course black-tie dinner for nine that had to include fish, poultry, red meat and dessert. The contestants did get a bit of help: each was paired with a big name New York restaurant chef.
Izard described the show — won in previous seasons by Harold Dieterle, Ilan Hall and Hung Huynh — as grueling, and said the pressure mounted with each cooking challenge, especially those that involved working with a team.
“It definitely took a lot to get to the finals,” she said. “It’s definitely one of the hardest things I’ve done.”

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For every foodie who clears the decks on Wednesday nights just to see what strange new challenge host Padma Lakshmi will issue contenders for the title of “Top Chef,” this cookbook is for you.
More than a compendium of recipes for some of the wildest dishes seen on television, “Top Chef: The Cookbook” (Chronicle Books, 2008, 256 pp., $29.95), is a yearbook for the first three seasons of the phenomenally popular Bravo reality show. With an introduction by head judge Tom Colicchio, it includes more than 200 photos, plus background on things like how the show is cast and what’s in the “Top Chef” pantry. The competitors for each of the first three seasons are profiled and their challenges described.
Best of all, for cooks who’ve been dying to taste some of the dishes, there are 100 recipes ranging from Elia Aboumrad’s wacky Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Waffle to Tiffani Faison’s super-simple mirin-glazed sea bass.

mercurynews.com

There are few leadership positions more challenging than high school principal, especially if the school has a history of underperformance. Molly Howard is the 2008 Principal of the Year selected by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and MetLife. Her Jefferson County High in small-town Louisville, Ga., has increased graduation rates, raised test scores and believed enough in students — 80% of whom live in poverty — to eliminate remedial courses. Howard, 52, spoke to USA TODAY corporate management reporter Del Jones. Following are excerpts, edited for clarity and space.
Q: There are 48,000 secondary school principals. What distinguishes you?
A: All finalists had similar strengths: passion and commitment to higher expectations for all. Every child who walks through that door is of value. Their social-economic background and previous educational success, or lack of, does not determine their performance at this high school.
Q: Passion and high expectations. Is that the sweet spot of leadership in general?
A: Yes. Passion and a can-do attitude. You can’t lead if you can’t see where you’re going.
Q: If a Fortune 500 CEO were lucky enough to have lunch with you, what leadership lesson could you teach?
A: Power does not emanate from position. It emanates from relationships that we develop with our stakeholders.
Q: What would you want to learn at that lunch?
A: I’d like to know what strategies they use to persuade and get commitment from people.
Q: I thought you might ask them how come they make so much more money?
A: (Laughs.) I knew what the salary range was when I started. There are a lot of perks to being an education leader. Taxpayers don’t pay theCEO’s salary. I want that money to go to funding schools.
Q: Many successful CEOs have suggested that schools adopt competitive practices such as school vouchers.
A: I can appreciate the business community wanting to strengthen schools, and they have a right to ask for accountability. But in competition there is a winner and a loser. If parents send their students to a higher-achieving school, what about the children left behind with the stigma of being the loser? It’s too simplistic of a solution.
Q: Losers must improve or go out of business. What’s wrong with that model?
A: Companies can pick and choose the raw materials. Public education accepts all. We are a zero-reject business. That’s a big, big difference.
Q: So business leaders should shut up about schools?

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With far less drama than previous weeks, Mulberry’s Amanda Overmyer will move on into the top-11 as she made the cut tonight on Fox’s “American Idol.”
Overmyer and her legions of fans in Greater Lafayette and beyond found out in the first half of the show that she will sing again at 8 p.m. Tuesday on the hit reality show.
The same could not be said for David Hernandez as he was the only elimination of the night.
Copyright © 2007, Federated Publications, Inc. A Gannett Site.

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