Selecting between a date

[eluser]E303[/eluser]
I was able to run this query in phpMySQLAdmin but when it comes to getting CI to run the query nothing seems to work.

Code:

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM `exhibitions` WHERE \'2008-06-27\' BETWEEN `date` AND `endDate`';

Where you see 2008-06-27 I want to place todays date...

eg

Code:

$today = date("Y-m-d");

I get errors either there is no column called '2008-06-27' or like at the moment I don't get any results back.

Thank in advance