Muppets And Puppets Descend On D.C. To Save PBS; Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave Lead British Independent Film Awards Noms: Biz Break

Also in Monday morning's round-up of news briefs, Michael Douglas' And So It Goes proves popular with buyers; Argo heads to Doha Tribeca Film Festival; and Cafe de Flore shines at the Specialty Box Office.

Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Terrence Stamp Lead Noms at British Independent Film Awards
Stamp, 74, and Redgrave, 75, are cited for Song for Marion, in which they play members of an amateur choir. Dench, 77, is nominated for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as is her co-star Dame Maggie Smith, also 77. Broken, starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy, has nine nominations for the awards, which take place December 9th, BBC reports.

D.C.'s Million Puppet March to Save PBS
1,000 people took part in a 'Million Puppet March' in the U.S. capital in a bid to keep PBS funding. Republican nominee Mitt Romney pledged to de-fund public television in a 'Big Bird' reference that became a key catch phrase of this election season, Deadline reports.

Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton's And So It Goes Sells Around the Globe
Douglas plays a self-centered eccentric realtor whose life is turned upside down when his estranged son drops off a granddaughter he never knew. But his determined and lovable neighbor (Keaton) enters the picture and unexpectedly helps him to love again. The film is selling well around the world at the American Film Market currently underway, THR reports.

Argo Heads to Doha Tribeca Film Festival
Robert DeNiro will also be feted with a special event at the festival organized in part with the Tribeca Film Festival. Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist will open the event in the Gulf state of Qatar, taking place November 17 - 24, THR reports.

Specialty Box Office: Cafe de Flore, A Late Quartet Lead Pack of Newcomers
Specialty movies openers bowed mostly middling at at best, and a couple of pictures may have suffered residual Hurricane Sandy trauma. Adopt Films’ Cafe de Flore took the per-theater-average crown with $10K in one location. Entertainment One’s A Late Quartet bowed in 9 theaters with a fairly solid average of 8,433, although the distributor suggested the figure was lower than it might have been if The Sunshine in Manhattan’s Lower East Side had been able to re-open sooner, Deadline reports.