LOS ANGELES – The numbers were in Sandra Diaz-Twine’s favor again on “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.”
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The brazen bank teller from Fayetteville, N.C., overcame fellow villains, sneaky ex-boxer Parvati Shallow, 27, and sinister oil company owner Russell Hantz, 37, to win the CBS reality competition’s $1 million grand prize Sunday. Diaz-Twine also claimed the ultimate bragging right: She’s the first person to win “Survivor” twice.
“It makes me the queen,” Diaz-Twine, 34, said of her two-time win.
The 20th season stranded 20 veteran contestants, divided into tribes of good guys and baddies, in Samoa.
Diaz-Twine (“Pearl Islands”), who never won a physical challenge, maneuvered into the final three after her catty alliance on the villains tribe had been previously dismantled by partners Shallow (“Cook Islands,” “Micronesia”) and Hantz (“Samoa”).
“If she can win the game twice, there is a flaw in the game,” said a disgruntled Hantz.
The lone hero left standing, 35-year-old former rancher Colby Donaldson (“Australian Outback,” “All-Stars”), was quickly dispatched to the jury by the four villains at the beginning of the finale when the proud Texan failed to win immunity.
Hantz won the final immunity challenge, which required the final four to navigate blindfolded through a maze.
Hantz, Shallow and Diaz-Twine picked off 38-year-old original “Survivor” villainess Jerri Manthey (“The Australian Outback,” “All-Stars”), securing themselves a spot in the final three. However, Hantz received no votes from the nine-person jury.
Conan quips about new digs
NEW YORK – Conan O’Brien will host his new TBS talk show from a California studio that most recently housed “America’s Best Dance Crew.” But it does have a rich movie history.
His show begins in November and will be recorded on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. That’s close to where O’Brien did the “Tonight” show at NBC, a job he held for a little more than six months.
Warners’ Stage 15 was where “All The President’s Men,” “Batman Returns,” “Ghostbusters,” “The Perfect Storm,” “The Music Man,” “Gremlins,” “Blazing Saddles” and many other films were made.
O’Brien quipped: “I can’t wait to interview the cast of ‘Jersey Shore’ on the same lot where they filmed ‘Casablanca.’ “
Bjork, Morricone recognized
STOCKHOLM – Italian composer Ennio Morricone and Icelandic singer Bjork have won the 2010 Polar Music Prize, the prize committee said Monday.
They will be invited to accept the award, which includes $130,000 each in prize money, at a ceremony in Stockholm later this year. The Polar Music Prize, Sweden’s biggest music award, is typically shared by a pop artist and a classical musician.
Prize committee Chairman Alfons Karabuda said Bjork personifies the border-breaking attributes sought by the committee.
Bjork, 44, rose to international fame with her solo album “Debut” in 1993. She has since released five more solo albums as well as film soundtracks and compilations. She also won the Cannes Film Festival’s 2000 award for best actress for her role in Lars von Trier’s “Dancer in the Dark.”
Morricone, 71, has composed more than 400 film scores, including the iconic theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and other spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone.
The prize committee said his “congenial compositions and arrangements” make “the mundane feel like dramatic scenes in full Cinemascope.”
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