Saturday, February 27, 2010

Random Recurrent Thought That's Bound To Lead To Disappointment

I was just innocently looking through movie photos this evening when it abruptly occurred to me (again). Adam Shankman, the man behind this year's Oscars, actually directed Michelle Pfeiffer quite recently for Hairspray. Why wouldn't he invite her deliciousness to present Best Picture at the Oscars?


And then I woke up.

I remembered that Shankman probably only reads J-14 and Teen People and keeps inviting people like Miley Cyrus and the Twilight cast to present Oscars (sigh). Just once I'd love Oscar to focus solely on true movie legends when it comes to the presenters. There are so many awards shows now. Shouldn't the Oscars be the ones with the most prestige in terms of who gets to do what?

I've bitched before about how actress-free the Best Picture announcement always is (They've never even asked Meryl Streep -- MERYL STREEP! -- to do it) so I shan't do so again. But if one of the Twilight kids get to do Best Picture instead of one of the hundreds of classic stars who have never been asked, I'm going to f***king kill someone. [/rant]

cooling down... cooling down...

Who do you think will present? Here's some otherstars that Shankman has worked with over the years whether as choreographer or director (not that they only invite people the producers are chummy with... I'm just sayin' -- he knows these people): Steve Martin, Zac Ephron and Queen Latifah (multiple projects all... and Steve's the actual host. So, maybe there's something to my sudden urge to type up all these names), John Travolta, Jennifer Lopez, Vin Diesel and Matthew McConaughey.

My Olive Branch
Whenever I freak out like this I remember that Adam Shankman has brought me much joy as a choreographer over the years. I mean, he's choreographed some moments on movie and TV that I just love. Like the Boogie Nights dance scene with Mark Wahlberg and Heather Graham (on skates!) and the Camp Chippewa hilarity in Addams Family Values and the entire musical episode of Buffy "Once More With Feeling" and Tank Girl's Busby Berkley'ish bit in the long lost era of Lori Petty and Nobody Knowing Who Naomi Watts Was...




So maybe it'll all turn out OK. Though it's very weird that a musical guy is the guy who decided to jettison those Original Songs from the broadcast.
*

34 comments:

Jude said...

I can see him getting John Travolta to do it. Ideally he would bring out the Honorary Oscar recipients (Lauren Bacall, Gordon Willis, Roger Corman, and John Calley) to present the Best Picture Oscar seeing as their bit was cut from the broadcast.

Derreck said...

Zac EFRON, darling. :)

and i'm already against Shankman, because i was sooo looking forward for Marion Cotillard to sing 'Take It All".

How can you direct Hairspray and then decide to not include the Best Song performances? Maybe he's bitter that Hairspray got shunned? haha..

mfan said...

These young actors like Miley Cyrus do bring prestige to the Oscars for the younger viewers. Without them, the Oscars would be irrelevant.

bill z said...

The fact that Robert Pattinson is waking up at 6am Oscar morning to get ready and prepare to present at the most prestigious movie event of the yeaar is kind of pissing me off.

Andrew R. said...

I don't think the Twilight morons will be asked to present anything big. They might have trouble reading any name with more than three syllables. BIG WORDS!

If Stewart presents Supporting Actress, for example, it'll go:

"Penelope (pronounced by them as penny-lope) Cruz, Nine. Maggie...uh...that's a big last name! For Crazy Heart. Vera Farm-EYE-Guh, Up in the Air. Mo'nique (pronounced the way you say a word with an accent) for Precious. And Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air...hey, wasn't she in Twilight with us? Oh yeah! She was the person who played my ugly friend. BUT I GOT AN ABUSIVE, SPARKLY, GAY, EMO VAMPIRE BOYFRIEND! Haha! Well, she might be Oscar-nominated, but I have a People's Choice Award!"

And so on and so forth. Did I mention I hate Twilight? How do you get a paper cut on wrapping paper?!?

Unknown said...

With Derreck about having wanted to see Cotillard perform *shakes angry fist at Adam Shankman*

I would love for Robert Downey, Jr. to present Picture, but I don't think it'll happen. I think they might let someone like Shirley MacLaine (total guess) present that.

I wouldn't be surprised if Shankman got one of the "dreaded four" (Cyrus, Efron, Lautner, Stewart) presented one of the big awards, but I'm not sure about Picture.

Anonymous said...

ohhh how orgasmic to have seen marion on stage with 'take it all'

par3182 said...

after all i've read about shankman's "ideas" i'm pretty much expecting best picture to be presented by a so you think you can dance winner

Jorge Rodrigues said...

I'm betting Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson or Tom Hanks.

Oscar presenters never change a lot, just like their preferences when they vote.

Nevertheless, I'm still hoping (sigh) for Meryl Streep to come up and anounce the Best Picture winner.

And what if it was a couple, like DiCaprio and Winslet? (that would mean Avatar would win, now wouldn't it? Meh, I don't know...)

The Pretentious Know it All said...

I don't know...I try not to think about who they're inviting to present. It hurts my head trying to figure out the logic behind the presenters they choose.

Cameron Diaz has always been a favorite of theirs for some reason. Granted, for a few years there in the early aughts it looked like it might happen for her...
I can see them asking her to present, which annoys me. Here's hoping that the combo of "The Box" and "My Sister's Keeper" has forced Cameron to lock herself in her bedroom and think about what she's done.

Bernardo S said...

Leo and Kate would be awesome! Except this year... It would just be tacky (if Avatar wins) or awkward (if Avatar doesn't win).

I still can't believe those 4 muppets are presenting. I mean, I'm 18, so I'm supposed to like them, Yet, I know I'll have the sudden urge to throw my shoe at the screen when Miley Cyrus appears, whilst Lauren Bacall was deemed too unimportant to be part of the broadcast.

For the person who said that "young actors like Miley Cyrus do bring prestige to the Oscars for the younger viewers"

a) Don't generalize. Some of us have a brain and good taste.
b) I wouldn't call Miley an actress, more like a product of marketing.
c) The Oscars are not meant to be "hip"; they're supposed to be about glamour and recognizing talent, two things that Miley lacks.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

I'm 20 Bernardo and about Miley Cyrus, I couldn't agree with you more.


She's yet another product of Disney Corp. that really paid off, but she's a terrible, terrible actress.

M said...

I agree 100%, I hate how they are inviting these youngings who haven't done anything remarkable great and shouldnt' really be there. I always thought of Oscars being the prestige but now it is turning into mtv movie awards or something. Shows how desperate for ratings they are also.

Heck if you want to invite a young person, then invite Dakota Fanning, at least she can act and has done a lot of movies. I also find it terrible that the twilight cast are invited but Harry Potter cast has never been, why is that? cause they are british?

Hopefully overrated Taylor, awkwart Stewart, boring Efron and the other one present together so that will be that.

liz said...

I don't have anything against any of the younger presenters as actors or people, but I agree with those who are disappointed by this course of action. Why make the Oscars indistinguishable from the VMAs? It's insulting to Oscar fans of all ages.

When the NAACP Image Awards were airing Cicely Tyson showed up as a trending topic on Twitter, mostly due to people exclaiming about how fabulous she looked. The Oscars could prompt a night full of those moments if its producers weren't so enamored of this mythic youth audience.

My biggest concern is that if the telecast gets big ratings, they'll point to all this tweaking as the cause instead of the box-office successes among the major nominees.

NATHANIEL R said...

Derreck -- as soon as Zac does anything worth remembering, I will start spelling his name correctly. Until then, I can't be bothered learning it.

mfan -- people who think the oscars are irrelevant are not going to watch anyway.

Jorge -- don't remind me of how limited their imagination is there. At this point I don't care who it is so long as it is a) someone who has not done it before. they repeat way too often for such an honor. b) someone who is actually important to the movies. I just want it to be someone who is important to the movies... and that's not too much to ask since plenty of household names are.

amir_uk said...

Have they announced the list of presenters yet? I'm dying to know!

jimmy said...

who would i love to see / some thoughts: Lauren Bacall would be great & it would be very appropriate. Or....Shirley Temple. Leslie Caron & Louis Jordan (best picture leads from 1958). Dunaway & Beatty. Woody & Diane. DeNiro and/or Streep. DeHavilland. Kim Novack. Portier. angela lansbury.
done to it death: Nicholson, speilberg, hanks, hoffman, streisand. please no tom cruise: creepy/creepy.

jimmy said...

btw - there is no reason fro jennifer lopez to be a presenter.

Flock said...

Jodie Foster + Anthony Hopkins would be great presenters

Aaron said...

The thought of Miley Cyrus walking onstage and the orchestra playing "Party in the USA" will probably make me projectile vomit onto my tv screen...

...god help us if they have her present Best Foreign Language Film...the thought of her attempting to pronounce some of the titles would be horrific...

NATHANIEL R said...

If they worry about the under 20 crowd not recognizing some classic performers, couldn't they introduce them with giant clips of their most iconic work and have them walk out to present that way. Even if people don't know who, say, Kim Novak is... A clip from Vertigo and she walks out? Magic.

And even if they wanted to go populist, there's no reason why they can't go populist AND Oscary... why not take some of the most successful films of all time that were also nominated: like DR ZHIVAGO, STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, THE EXORCIST or whatever and have the lead stars trot out together. I know everyone thinks that the answer is the tween audience but it's not like the people who made hits from earlier decades mammoth hits, are not still alive and watching the Oscars, you know? And it's not like those of who didn't experience those movies first hand when they were out (because we weren't born yet), wouldn't enjoy seeing those kinds of stars from those kinds of classics movies come out on stage?

I guess i just don't get why people are

a) always assuming nobody can remember anything -- even if they loved it before
b) always perpetuating the lack of history by assuming nobody else can remember it.

I'm pretty sure that if you have ELLEN BURSTYN and MAX VON SYDOW come out under a huge clip of THE EXORCIST or JULIE ANDREWS and CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER come out with THE SOUND OF MUSIC PLAYING or PACINO, CAAN, DUVALL and KEATON come out with THE GODFATHER on the screen, its' going to get a response you know? And it'd sure as hell be more satisfying that watching Taylor Lautner who we can see every other day of the week on every other awards show.

i'm frustrated because i always have ideas and they are always movie related but they prefer MILEY CYRUS.

I'm pretty sure if you have all the JAMES BONDs come out to present together: connery, moore, craig ... That's a bigger bang for your buck.

KEEP IT ABOUT THE MOVIES

Peter said...

Of course, it's possible Streep has been *asked* to do it, we just know that she has never actually done it.

The obvious time would have been a few years ago when Nicholson and Keaton presented it, with Streep sitting in the audience. Why wouldn't they have Nicholson and Streep instead? They're only the most-nominated actors in Oscar history. Oh, right, because of a stupid Nancy Meyers movie.

Claude Medwenitsch said...

I think it would actually be a pretty cool idea if they would only let actors and actresses under 30 present all the awards.
Kind of like, hey, it's 2010, this is the new generation of people working in the industry.
I would love that!

Jorge Rodrigues said...

I thought Streep because, well, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are presenting.

Is it too much if I think they would pick 3 actores that worked together this year?

Jorge Rodrigues said...

I just noticed I wrote ACTORS in Portuguese ;)

Anonymous said...

The big award should be reserved for veteran stars to present. I would love to see Gene Hackman or Olivia Dehavilland present.

Derreck said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Derreck said...

I love the idea of all the Godfather stars presenting. Plus, don't they all have awards themselves? Perfect.

But Jude's probably got it with John Travolta. It'll be more like a 'comeback' after that accident with his son.

and Nat, Efron's not THAT bad. I watched 17 Again (leave me alone, it's constantly on HBO) and he was pretty decent in the role. Plus, i did like him in Hairspray. But, I've never seen any of the High School Musicals (and never intend to) so two knows.

NATHANIEL R said...

Derreck... i didn't say he was "bad" but 'pretty good' shouldn't get you the kind of attention he gets.

I guess i just feel like massive fame should be earned. But in the days of Paris Hilton when on actual achievemnets are necessary anymore for global name recognition, i guess he's done A LOT. ;)

jimmy said...

i'd be happy w Julie Christie alone....or christie w omar sharif. anyone but tom hanks or cruise or eastwood....they've had their turn. it might be kinda fun to see ali macgraw / ryan o'neal - 40th anniversary of love story.

or liza & joel grey.

i love the james bond idea & godfather idea.

jimmy said...

ugh.....yuck.....ben stiller, jason bateman, i guess kim novack julie christie won't be making the cut....i like tina fey, but i've kind of had enough....

Oscar is clearly looking for laughs this year, with comedic performers Sacha Baron Cohen, Jason Bateman, Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Ben Stiller joining as presenters for the 82nd Academy Awards Sunday evening.
Baron Cohen and Bateman are making their first appearances on the kudocast. The others are repeat performers -- Stiller has presented on five previous shows and Carell on three, while Fey made her debut on last year's show. Show's producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced the presenters, who join co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin

NATHANIEL R said...

i had totally calmed down about this and then today i saw a commercial for the oscars and after the hosts and blockbuster movies they said "AND THE HOTTEST STARS" and literally the only names that came up were the tween sensations like EFRON, STEWART and LAUTNER.

not Meryl Streep. not even Sandra Bullock!

ugh.

i am SO going to hate Sunday.

It's going to be a nightmare for me. I'm not 14. I like to see movie stars of all ages. But i need them to be movie stars. Not tv sensations, pin up boys or ... ok... well maybe Stewart is an actual movie star. She can stay. that's generous cuz i don't even like her. at all. but i'm not going to pretend she hasn't been in movies for quite a while and earned being considered to be a presenter on an awards show.

i still don't get how Taylor Lautner earned that spot at the Hurt Locker table at the BFCAs. UGH.

Anonymous said...

Who was it that said they couldn't wait until the Harry Potter series is over???? Yeah Twillight is ten times worse than the HP series and I've had it with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The media frenzy for Twilight and its stars is sickening.

Lucky said...

You're right about the Harry Potter actors, and besides, you know, the Academy actually nominates that saga for Oscars! It's got to be the British thing, because they are pretty popular.

And although I do not approve of them inviting Efron and Cyrus and Lautner, I do get why they're doing it.

Think about the average viewer. Or people who weren't planning on watching the show. They'll be much more interested in it knowing that Miley Cyrus is presenting and that Avatar is nominated. It's all about the ratings this year, apparently.