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Quincy Jones Awarded Posthumous Oscar

Quincy Jones's daughter, the actress Rashida Jones, accepted the Oscar, telling the audience that the legendary hitmaker had been 'really excited to attend tonight'. Etienne LAURENT / AFP
Quincy Jones's daughter, the actress Rashida Jones, accepted the Oscar, telling the audience that the legendary hitmaker had been 'really excited to attend tonight'. Etienne LAURENT / AFP
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Quincy Jones Awarded Posthumous Oscar

Quincy Jones's daughter, the actress Rashida Jones, accepted the Oscar, telling the audience that the legendary hitmaker had been 'really excited to attend tonight'. Etienne LAURENT / AFP
Quincy Jones's daughter, the actress Rashida Jones, accepted the Oscar, telling the audience that the legendary hitmaker had been 'really excited to attend tonight'. Etienne LAURENT / AFP

The late Quincy Jones was posthumously awarded an honorary Oscar at an emotional and star-packed Hollywood gala on Sunday that also handed golden statuettes to the producers of the James Bond movie franchise.
US music industry titan Jones died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 91 just two weeks before he was set to receive one of the Academy's coveted lifetime achievement prizes at the Governors Awards, said AFP.
His daughter, the actress Rashida Jones, accepted the Oscar, telling the audience that the legendary hitmaker had been "really excited to attend tonight."
"He often said 'live every day like it's your last and one day you'll be right.' And he did that... the best, most beautiful life," she said, to a huge ovation.
Jones was best known for producing smash hit records for a who's who of music industry legends from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson.
"Truth is, the man had an equally powerful impact on the world of film," said actor Jamie Foxx, introducing his award.
Jones produced seminal Hollywood movies including "The Color Purple," and received multiple Oscar nominations for film songs and soundtracks including "In Cold Blood" and "The Wiz."
Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez and Zoe Saldana were among A-listers holding back tears in the audience as Jennifer Hudson sang a musical tribute.
Hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the swanky black-tie Governors Awards each year honor film industry veterans, many of whom are felt to have not received their dues at the regular Oscars.
The event also offers a chance for stars and studios to court Academy voters -- and size up their rivals -- as the next Oscars campaigns begin to take shape.
At Sunday's reception, "Succession" stars Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong -- campaigning for their news films "A Real Pain" and "The Apprentice" -- enjoyed a lengthy catch-up.
Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar ("The Room Next Door") conversed with his exiled Iranian counterpart Mohammad Rasoulof ("The Seed of the Sacred Fig.")
Bond, James Bond
Daniel Craig -- who stars in this year's William S. Burroughs adaptation "Queer" -- chatted with friends by the bar, his lips firmly sealed about the identity of his successor as James Bond.
Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the half-siblings who have controlled the beloved 007 espionage franchise since 1995's "Goldeneye," were among the honorees Sunday.
Passed the reins by Broccoli's film producer father Albert, the duo have overseen several of the Bond series' biggest-ever movies including the $1 billion-grossing "Skyfall" in 2012, in which Craig played the suave British spy with a license to kill.
Anticipation continues to swell for the announcement of who will next play the world's most famous fictional spy.
"Just to get something out the way, we came here this evening to find out who the next James Bond is," joked Craig, on stage introducing their award.
"Don't look at me. But he might be in the room," he added -- before insisting he was joking.
British writer and director Richard Curtis, 68, who created "Notting Hill,Bridget Jones's Diary, "Love Actually" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," received the Jean Hersholt statuette, which is specifically for humanitarian work by a film industry figure.
Curtis co-founded Comic Relief, a British charity that has raised some $2.5 billion over four decades by bringing together comedy and entertainment stars for zany challenges and wildly popular fund-raising telecasts.
A fifth honorary Oscar went to Juliet Taylor, the acclaimed casting director behind "The Exorcist,Taxi Driver,Annie Hall,Sleepless in Seattle" and "Schindler's List."

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Jeff Beck Was One of Rock's Greatest Guitarists. Now His Instruments are Up For Auction

Britain Jeff Beck Auction (AP 2011)
Britain Jeff Beck Auction (AP 2011)
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Jeff Beck Was One of Rock's Greatest Guitarists. Now His Instruments are Up For Auction

Britain Jeff Beck Auction (AP 2011)
Britain Jeff Beck Auction (AP 2011)

Musicians, collectors and fans have a chance to own guitar tools of the trade — instruments owned by the late Jeff Beck are going up for auction.
Christie’s announced Friday it will sell more than 130 items, including 90 guitars, from the collection of the Yardbirds and Jeff Beck Group guitarist, who died in January 2023 at age 78, The Associated Press said.
Valued at more than 1 million pounds ($1.3 million), the collection includes an oxblood 1954 Gibson Les Paul that Beck bought in Memphis in 1972 and played for the rest of the decade. The guitar, which is featured on the cover of Beck’s Grammy-winning 1975 jazz-fusion album “Blow by Blow,” is expected to sell for between 350,000 pounds and 500,000 pounds ($450,000 and $640,000).
Amelia Walker, head of Private and Iconic Collections at Christie's, called it “a really beautiful instrument, covered in grime and dust and signs of use.”
“I think it’s part of the appeal,” she said. “These are things that he used. They’ve got the indents of his fingernails on the fret boards. Some of them, the strings haven’t been changed for years. He played them hard. He didn’t see them as precious works of art -– they were his tools to ply his trade with.”
Beck came to prominence in the 1960s with hard-rock progenitors the Yardbirds and went on to a solo career that incorporated rock, jazz, blues and even opera. Twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — with the Yardbirds and as a solo artist -– he played with everyone from Rod Stewart to Davie Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner, and was known for his improvisational skill and the unique sound he got from the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.
“He had an unparalleled ability to bend entire tones” on the Strat, Walker said. The sale includes Beck’s 1954 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster, valued at between 50,000 pounds and 80,000 pounds ($65,000 and $100,000), and a white Strat that was his staple instrument for 16 years, played everywhere from Ronnie Scott’s jazz club to the Obama White House. It has an estimated value between 20,000 pounds and 30,000 pounds ($26,000 and $39,000).
One of a group of 1960s guitar heroes that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, Beck was revered by many peers as “the ultimate maestro,” Walker said.
As well as Beck’s beloved Strats, the sale features other models including a Telecaster-Gibson hybrid “Tele-Gib” valued at between 100,000 pounds and 150,000 pounds ($130,000 and $190,000).
“It didn’t really matter what he was playing, he’d always sound like Jeff Beck,” Walker said. “It didn’t matter what the amp was turned to or which guitar, he could still pick it up and make it sound incredible. It’s all in the fingers, and in his brain.”
The sale follows Christie's auction of some of Dire Straits’ guitarist Mark Knopfler’s collection, which raised more than 8.8 million pounds ($11.2 million) earlier this year, and memorabilia from model, artist and 1960s musicians’ muse Pattie Boyd, which sold for 2.8 million pounds ($3.6 million) in March.
Beck’s widow, Sandra Beck, said it was a “massive wrench” to part with the collection, but that “I know Jeff wanted for me to share this love.”
“After some hard thinking I decided they need to be shared, played and loved again,” she said.
A selection of the guitars will go on display at Christie's Los Angeles showroom Dec. 4-6, and the whole collection will be at Christie’s in London from Jan. 15 until the sale on Jan. 22.