ASCAP Honors Top Film and Television Music Composers at 22nd Annual Awards Celebration; Marc Shaiman Receives the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award

LOS ANGELES, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 18, 2007 -- The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) presented its Henry Mancini Award to Marc Shaiman at the 22nd Annual ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards held last night (April 17) at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. In addition to honoring Shaiman, ASCAP also honored the composers and songwriters of the top box office film music and the most performed television music of 2006. Over 850 members of the music industry attended the invitation-only event, which was hosted by Academy-Award winning lyricist and President and Chairman of ASCAP, Marilyn Bergman.

One of the many highlights of the evening was the special tribute to Marc Shaiman who was honored with the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contributions to the music of film and television. Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal joined Marilyn Bergman onstage to present the award to Shaiman. Many other friends and collaborators paid homage by way of video tribute messages, including Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Martin Short and Robin Williams, as well as John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Allison Janney and other cast members of the upcoming movie, "Hairspray." Broadway actress Marissa Jaret Winokar performed "Good Morning, Baltimore" from the musical, "Hairspray," accompanied by Shaiman on piano. Shaiman also performed "Fifty Checks" from his new musical, "Catch Me If You Can."

Marc Shaiman has received five Academy Award nominations, a Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award. Irreverent, witty, energetic and optimistic, Shaiman is currently in the midst of a dream movie assignment -- completing the film adaptation of his own Tony Award-winning musical, "Hairspray," which was a smash reworking of John Waters' original film. Though he's best-known for composing scores for mainstream Hollywood comedies -- among them "Sleepless in Seattle," "Sister Act," "The Addams Family," "Patch Adams," "City Slickers," "George of the Jungle" and "In & Out" -- Shaiman's credits also include science fiction ("From the Earth to the Moon" for HBO), military drama ("A Few Good Men"), a baseball film ("61*" for HBO) and outrageous animation ("South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut"). He has worked frequently in films and TV with Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal and Bette Midler. Shaiman is primarily a composer and lyricist, but has also enjoyed success as an arranger, record producer, music supervisor and actor.

Past recipients of the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award, which was established in 1996, include: John Debney, Mark Isham, Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand, Randy Newman, James Newton Howard, Johnny Mandel, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer.

ASCAP's Todd Brabec, Nancy Knutsen, Sue Devine and Mike Todd presented awards in four categories -- Most Performed Themes, Most Performed Underscore, Top Television Series, and Top Box Office Films -- to several veteran film and television music composers as well as to the best and brightest of a new generation of writers. Those in attendance included John Adair, Erran Baron Cohen (PRS), Joel Beckerman, Sean Callery, Jeff Cardoni, Adam Cohen, Lisa Coleman, Catherine Dennis (PRS), Ramin Djawadi, Rob Duncan, Marc Fantini, Steffan Fantini, Steve Franks, Grant Geissman, Scott Gordon, Alex Greenwald, Andrea Guerra (SIAE), Matthew Hawkins, Reinhold Heil, John Keane, Johnny Klimek, Russ Landau, Michael Levine, Wendy Melvoin, Blake Neely, David Nichtern, John O'Brien, Daniel Pinnella, Douglas Pipes, David Porter, John Powell, Mark Snow, David Vanacore, Franz Vonlichten, Helmut Vonlichten, Mark T Williams, and John Robert Wood. Ginny Mancini collected an award on behalf of her late husband, Henry Mancini, for the original theme to "The Pink Panther."

Also in attendance were: actor, director, writer, musician, and composer Christopher Guest; actor, writer, producer Sacha Baron Cohen and actress Isla Fisher; actress Nikki Blonsky, who stars in the new film version of "Hairspray," along with the film's director Adam Shankman, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and music supervisor Matt Sullivan; singer/actress Jenifer Lewis; E! Entertainment's Debbie Matenopoulos, director Peyton Reed and TV actress Arlene Sorkin.

For the complete list of winners, please visit http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/awards/filmtv/2007/

MEDIA, PLEASE NOTE: High-resolution photos of the 2007 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards will be available for downloading from ASCAP's Press Room http://www.ascap.com/press/pressroom/filmtvawards/

The 22nd Annual ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards is part of an entire week of events planned by ASCAP to celebrate the voice of the music creator. Los Angeles City Council has issued a proclamation to declare the week of April 15 - 21, 2007 as "ASCAP I Create Music Week" in Los Angeles, California.

About ASCAP

Established in 1914, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is the first and leading U.S. Performing Rights Organization representing the world's largest repertory totaling over 8.5 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than 285,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members. ASCAP also represents the repertories created by the international affiliates of 90 foreign performing rights organizations. ASCAP protects the rights of its members and foreign affiliates by licensing the public performances of their copyrighted works and distributing royalties based upon surveyed performances. ASCAP is the only American Performing Rights Organization owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. www.ascap.com