LONDON (AFP) –
Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz scooped a top prize at Britain’s Laurence Olivier theatre awards for her role in the classic play “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Weisz was named best actress Sunday for playing fading southern beauty Blanche DuBois in the Tennessee Williams work.

“It means an awful lot. I never thought I would be holding one of these in my lifetime,” said Weisz as she accepted the prize.

“Most of all this is for Blanche DuBois, I love her, Tennessee Williams, and all the other messed-up genius poets out there,” added the actress, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2006 for “The Constant Gardener.”

The surprise winner of the night was US playwright Katori Hall, 28, whose work “The Mountaintop” won the best new play award, beating off stiff competition from popular shows “Enron” and “Jerusalem.”

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) –
Pay-cable network Starz has green-lighted “Camelot,” a contemporary retelling of the Arthurian legend.

Slated to premiere in first-half 2011, the 10-episode “Camelot” uses Thomas Malory’s 15th-century compilation “Le Morte d’Arthur,” often considered the definitive work on the legend of King Arthur, as a starting point for an updated take on the tale.

“The story of Arthur isn’t history, it’s mythology, and Camelot isn’t a place but an idea of hope that has resonated at different times throughout history,” Starz president and CEO Chris Albrecht said.

The goal is “to tell the universal story of Camelot on a global scale,” he said.

The project will have a producing team that encompasses four countries — the U.S., U.K., Ireland and Canada — and is led by Oscar-winning producer Graham King (“The Departed”) and “The Tudors” masterminds Morgan O’Sullivan and Michael Hirst.

Described as a romantic adventure series, “Camelot” is being written by British TV scribe Chris Chibnall (“Torchwood“).

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DOHA, Qatar – Tanzania and Zambia are requesting a U.N. conservation meeting approve one-off sales of their ivory stocks, despite criticism from conservationists that they are not doing enough to crack down on poaching which has intensified in recent years.

A counter proposal presented Monday at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES by Kenya and six other African countries called for halting the limited international trade in African elephant ivory that is currently allowed and a 20-year moratorium on any proposals to relax international trade controls on African elephants.

A global ban on ivory in 1989 halted widespread poaching but it has steadily worsened since 2004, mostly going to Asia to be carved into chopsticks, statues and jewelry.

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