Awards

James Earl Jones, who is getting a lifetime achievement award Sunday from the Screen Actors Guild, still radiates wonder at being part of the acting profession. "What fascinates me is that every actor is given a charge, a task -- no matter what your motive was in taking the role, even if it's just to pay the bills," the 78-year-old performer said in an interview. "You're the only person who will be able to present to an audience what that character is all about. You're the public face of all the other work that's gone into it. Your job is to create a performance that no one else would have thought of. "And that," Jones summed up with a boyish grin, "is fun!

Neil Gaiman on Monday won the top prize for children's literature, the John Newbery Medal, for "The Graveyard Book," about a boy raised by a vampire, a werewolf and a witch. The Randolph Caldecott Medal, given to the illustrator of the best picture book, went to Beth Krommes for "The House in the Night," written by Susan Marie Swanson. The Coretta Scott King Award for best author was given to Kadir Nelson for "We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball." The illustrator award went to Floyd Cooper for "The Blacker the Berry."

"Slumdog Millionaire" won the USC Libraries 22nd annual Scripter Award on Friday evening. The Scripter honors both the author and the screenwriter of the year's best book-to-film adaptation. This year's award went to Vikas Swarup, the author of "Q&A," and Simon Beaufoy, who adapted Swarup's book for the screen as "Slumdog Millionaire." The other four finalists were "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Reader," "Revolutionary Road" and "Iron Man." "Slumdog," which swept the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards, has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and is considered a favorite to win the best picture Oscar at the awards ceremony, to be held Feb. 22 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Two authors of books on Abraham Lincoln's military leadership have been named winners of the Lincoln Prize and will share the $50,000 cash award. James M. McPherson, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War history, "The Battle Cry of Freedom," was cited for "Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief." The other winner was Craig L. Symonds for "Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War." The award, given for outstanding Civil War scholarship, was founded in 1990 by businessmen-philanthropists Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman.

"Slumdog Millionaire" added yet another accolade to its award coffers with Suttirat Larlab winning the honor for excellence in contemporary film at the 11th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards on Tuesday evening. Michael O'Connor earned the award for excellence in period film for "The Duchess" at the gala ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, which was hosted by actress Debra Messing. Lindy Hemming won the guild's fantasy film award for "The Dark Knight." On the television side, Donna Zakowska won for outstanding made-for-television movie or miniseries for her costume work on "John Adams."

Spanish tenor Placido Domingo on Friday won the first $1-million Birgit Nilsson Prize for his "unrivaled" contributions to the world of opera, the award foundation said. The late Swedish soprano picked Domingo as the winner of the inaugural award -- billed as the biggest prize in classical music -- before her death in 2005. Prize officials said the name had been kept secret for nearly a decade. Nilsson, considered one of the greatest Wagnerian sopranos, sang with Domingo several times, the foundation said.

Artists John Baldessari and Yoko Ono will be awarded Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement at this year's Venice Biennale. Cited as "two of the most important artists of our time," they will be honored June 6 at the opening of the 53rd edition of the international contemporary art exhibition in Italy. In a statement announcing the news Tuesday, Daniel Birnbaum, director of the Biennale, said that the artists' "groundbreaking activities have opened new poetic, conceptual and social possibilities for artists around the globe working in all media."

Joseph O'Neill's "Netherland," an acclaimed post-Sept. 11 novel bypassed for the National Book Awards and the National Book Critics Circle prize, has received the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, the PEN/Faulker foundation announced Thursday. O'Neill, whose book is narrated by a man who lived in downtown Manhattan at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, will receive $15,000.

Four of Google Inc.'s top executives each received 2008 bonuses of more than $1.2 million. The bonuses disclosed in a regulatory filing were less than the awards doled out in 2007 when Google's profit rose 37%.

Book prize: Historian and Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust has won the fourth annual American History Book Prize from the New York Historical Society for "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War."