Around the Arts

Copolla's 'The Godfather' tops survey for greatest movie\nNEW YORK -- "The Godfather" -- not "Citizen Kane" -- is the greatest movie of all time, according to a new Zagat survey.\nThe "Zagat Movie Guide," which comes out this week, is a collection of the top 1,000 movies, as rated and reviewed by 5,338 movie fans.\n"Casablanca" is No. 2 on the list, followed by "Star Wars," "Gone With the Wind" and "The Shawshank Redemption." "Citizen Kane," which film critics and historians often proclaim as the best movie ever, came in eighth.\nThe book follows the same format as Zagat's guides to restaurants, shopping and nightlife, with ratings broken down in terms of acting, story, production and overall quality.\n"The most popular entertainment is still dinner and a movie -- now we can finally say we have both activities covered," said Tim Zagat, the chief executive officer and co-chairman of the Zagat Survey.\n"Lawrence of Arabia" was voted the best action film. "Psycho" is the best horror flick. "High Noon" is the favorite Western, and "The Wizard of Oz" is the top musical.\n'Monsters, Inc' sets sales record\nLOS ANGELES -- The Disney/Pixar animated film "Monsters, Inc." set a one-day sales record of 5 million DVD and video copies on its first day of release, the studios reported Wednesday. \nThe one-day figure breaks the previous record of 4.5 million units set by Disney's "The Lion King." \nFewer than 1 million of the "Monsters, Inc." sales came from pre-orders. Most sold at retail stores and over the Internet on Tuesday, Disney said. \nThe film is available in the double-disc DVD edition at a suggested retail price of $29.99, and the VHS tape with a suggested retail price of $24.99. \nThe one-week sales record is held by the Warner Bros. film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which sold 10 million units earlier this year.\nU.S. defends artists' visa holdup\nHAVANA -- Cuban Latin Grammy nominees who planned to attend Wednesday night's awards ceremony in Los Angeles didn't get their visas in time because of new U.S. security rules, American officials said. \nCuban officials had complained on Tuesday that 22 artists nominated for this year's awards never received U.S. entry visas that would have allowed them to travel to Los Angeles. \nBut a U.S. official based in Havana, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that the American government had not denied visas to the Cubans. \nRather, he said, those requests were still being processed this week under new tougher procedures adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. \nThe official said a new U.S. national security law that took effect on Aug. 1 requires more rigorous procedures, including interviews, for visa applicants from countries listed on the U.S. State Department's terrorism watch list, which includes Cuba. \nThus, he said, a process that once took two to four weeks now takes six to eight weeks -- not enough time for Cuba's Latin Grammy nominees to get their visas. \nAlthough it was unclear when the Cuban nominees applied for their visas, it evidently was after the new procedures took effect on Aug. 1. \nVives wins 2 Latin Grammys\nLOS ANGELES -- Colombian singer Carlos Vives and Mexico's Ramon Ayala y Sus Bravos del Norte led early winners at the Latin Grammys Wednesday night with two victories each. \nVives won the best contemporary tropical album award for "Dejame Entrar," which also earned him a Grammy in February, and shared the best tropical song honor, a songwriters' award, for the album's title track. He entered the competition with a leading six nominations, including record, album and song of the year for "Dejame Entrar." \nAyala and his group were honored in both categories in which they were nominated, best norteno album for "El Numero Cien" and best regional Mexican song for "Del Otro Lado Del Porton." \nSpain's Alejandro Sanz, nominated for four awards, won song of the year for "Y Solo Se Me Ocurre Amarte.