Actress Red Carpet Lineup

Combine all of this year's Best Actress Nominees into one woman and you've got a 5'7" American beauty (maybe she's a wiz at a British accent?) who is about to turn the big "4-0". She's involved in some sort of sketchy situation involving a young boy of indeterminate age --either he's dead, abused, missing, resentful or she's sleeping with him! Maybe more than one of those things. The trouble this composite actress gets into! Such a Drama Queen.

Hand her an Oscar.


That Academy will arguably choose only between SAG winner Meryl Streep in Doubt and Double Globe Girl Kate Winslet in The Reader. But you can choose between all five in the new Best Actress Poll. It's not a prediction, it's your preference. You'll also find statistics and 'how'd they get nominated?' conjecture, there.

For the other three the pressure is probably off. They just have to look good @ the Kodak. Melissa Leo cleans up really well from her screen self -- a dirt poor trailer park girl with a dream (that sounds soooo familiar in the context of the Oscars. Who could I possibly be thinking of?) . In the fictional narratives that we favor here in the Red Carpet Lineup series, it looks like Anne Hathaway and Angelina Jolie are BFFs now... they made up after that unfortunate death glare situation @ the BFCAs. Oscar dreams no longer divide them.

Fun Oscar Quiz

Over at MSNBC courtesy of Erik Lundegaard. I scored 87%. Can you beat that? Let us know how you did in the comments.

Breakfast With... Vincent and Jules

A quiet morning at the Hawthorne Grill. Typical diner food served.

Pulp Fiction

Vincent chows down on pancakes and bacon. Jules tears pieces from his muffin. He refuses a bite of Vincent's bacon.

Vincent: Are you Jewish?
Jules: Nah, I ain't Jewish. I just don't dig on swine that's all.
Vincent: Why not?
Jules: Pigs are filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals.
Vincent: Yeah, but bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good.
Jules: Hey, sewer rats may taste like pumpkin pie but I'd never know cuz I wouldn't eat the filthy motherf***ers

Jules and Vincent, motor mouths both, chat philosophically for our amusement until a shout of "Garçon. Coffee!" pulls our focus -- Oh, riiiiight. This is also...

Breakfast With... Pumpkin and Honey Bunny


They're not really there to eat.
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for more "breakfast with"s... click the label below

"I don't like her for you, I don't trust her"

How do you say "diva" en español?

Vicky Cristina Barcelona arrives on DVD tomorrow. Will you finally see it?
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We Have Nothing to Link but Link Itself

DListed Sophia & Daniel on location for Nine
A Room of One's Own "youth" in cinema
Coraline I love this new teaser with author Neil Gaiman (if you've never read his books, start doing so now. That's an order!)
/Film "extra pulp" t-shirts. I love
In Contention Oscar Race. Phase Two.


Trust Movies appreciates Michael Sheen (well, someone has to)
Buzz Sugar Sundance awards roundup
Defamer Michael Cera is the lone holdout for the Arrested Development movie?
Out in Hollywood talks to the producers of Milk

off cinema (just cuz it needs to be shared)
fourfour and the entitled homeless woman
i09 interesting piece on Battlestar Galactica. Is it still relevant in Obama America? (Though, isn't it a little early to be defining the Obama era? He's only been in office a few days)

You Gotta Give Em Hope Time

Bless Awards Daily for looking at a uniquely embarrassing problem over @ the IMDb. They posted a chart of the fall Gus Van Sant's Milk took from the small but dedicated group of homophobes who troll mainstream web destinations.

Note the immediate drop in ranking, as soon as the film is
nominated for Best Picture on January 22nd

Apparently this same form of sabotage happened to Brokeback Mountain in its year post nomination day. Anti-gay feelings are still the most accepted and enduring kind of prejudice in America endorsed as they are by many politicians, funded and spread by some religions (they're still working on that "love one another" thing. Admittedly, it's a toughie) and embedded in our common vernacular, so it's not surprising to see this pattern reflected in popular entertainment polling. Though something about seeing it in chart form still packs a punch. I love IMDb for research purposes, and I'm enjoying being a news desk partner but I don't follow the top 250 charts as some sites do because

1. It's obvious that there's too much tampering by people with agendas
2. You don't have to see a movie to vote on it -- same problem with all awards bodies ;)
   
3. You can actively vote AGAINST something. That's no way to do awards or "favorites" lists. I suspect this is also what happened to Bruce Springsteen's nomination for The Wrestler. Get enough people in the room with something against a particular nomination happening and it's easy to sabotage. The Original Song category uses a 1-10 point system like the IMDb's and if enough people score something really low to weigh the averages down (you need an 8.25 or higher to qualify for a nomination), sabotage accomplished.
   
4. It's so slanted to whatever is out now that it's useless for any sort of real snapshot of What People Love. It's more like "What People Are Obsessed With Right This Second Even If They Haven't Seen It" but that's less catchy than "Top 250".
   

Milk is currently # 223 on the IMDb chart. Brokeback Mountain, inarguably one
of the most passionately loved movies of the Aughts, is not in the top #250.

I suppose it could be worse. Had Milk won Best Ensemble last night (as it definitely should have given the films nominated) you'd probably have even more haters coming out of the woodwork and before long the movie could be in Razzie territory, average vote wise.

But, let's take a cue from the great man honored by Van Sant's film and be optimistic. "You gotta give em hope" One day in the distant future the majority of the populace will want to live in a Post Homophobe world. Notice the widespread jubilation at the mere idea/fantasy/hope that we're entering a Post Racist world. It'll just take more time, that's all.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
-Abolitionist Theodore Parker, c. 1850's

Breakfast With ... Claire Niveau

What are you having for breakfast, Claire?

Dextramphetamine resin. Dosage form capsule 7.5 milligram.
Use: short term treatment of obesity.
Minor side effects: dry mouth, palpitations, restlessness, unpleasant taste in mouth.
Major side effects: sleeplessness, rapid heartbeat... euphoria.

Claire ignores the marmalade and butter. Never touches her croissant. She just swallows the pill down with hot coffee (you can do that?). Claire is kind of a sick f***. The Physicians Desk Reference is her favorite bedside reading.

for more "breakfast with"s... click the label below

Geneviève Bujold in Dead Ringers

SAG Live Blogging (Part 2)

continued from part one

9:03 One thing I should mention about Sally Field. I love that she referred to her fellow nominees (i.e. the losers) as "the cable girls." Heh. Whoever chose the clips for the TV Drama Actress category (which also included the great Holly Hunter looking ravishing as always) defines great acting as screaming. Every clip was pitched to the rafters. Is the editor a member of SAG too.

It wouldn't surprise me. They're such suckers for the BIG moments.

9:04 Forrest Whitaker loves James Earl Jones's "mesmerizing deep valley voice". That's great. Maybe Whitaker should do this live-blogging because my descriptive powers have failed me. Jones is accepting a lifetime achievement award (the name I forget). Apparently Jones moved to Michigan at age 5 and his life changed after winning a poetry contest. (I won a spelling bee contest in Michigan but it did not change my life).

9:14 James Earl Jones is comparing actors to God. The camera cuts to Meryl Streep.


This might be the best single reaction shot decision ever made at an awards show and I think the director or the editor or whomever was responsible really should win a prize. Maybe they could remove Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon director nomination and replace it with this guy because that's genius.

9:24 Laura Linney won for John Adams again. Her fiancé told her not to fondle the statue. Ha! Oh you know Laura Linney has a great sex life. Think of how hilarious and relaxed she is as an actor in those sex scenes in Love Actually or The Savages. She just announced that she's moving to Chicago. Someone just freaked out.

9:30 Paul Giamatti won for John Adams. Can you believe there's only half an hour left of this show and they have given out only one movie award?

9:31 "In Memoriam" always make me so sad. The Cyd Charisse moment make-a my heart go boom. I love Van Johnson, too. sniffle. Pat Hingle. He's so loveable but remember that intense scene in The Grifters where he's threatening Angelica Huston with the bag of oranges? Jesus Christ that was frightening. What an actor. Eartha! Nina Foch. Paul Newman... "pure hard gold" to quote Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth... "pure hard gold"


That montage killed me. If there are no further updates you'll understand.

9:43 From the "In Memoriam" we move into Best Supporting Actor which is certainly no mistake if a bit... er... why am I always so uncomfortable with all the Heath Ledger tributes? Is it because I feel proprietary having recognized his worth before he died unlike so many voting peoples [cough * Capote * cough] . I don't know. Maybe I'm just not comfortable with public grief but it sure does hurt still.

Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger as "The Joker" in The Dark Knight. Well deserved.

9:49 On a totally superficial note I feel it's important to note that Kristin Scott Thomas announced that award and she was smoking hot in her French/British ice queen way. I bow down (and tremble in fear). She's been working a kind of a goth look this awards season and she's way more convincing than Evan Rachel Wood ever was at it.

Will Marilyn Manson be calling?

9:50 Best Actress in a Leading Role MERYL STREEP in DOUBT
As per usual La Streep brings down the house with her speech. Damn this woman rocks. She alone (or at least with very little company) understands that awards shows are for the audience watching. She mugs for the camera. Who me? No way! She kisses people. She runs around so much in the audience I half expected her to start singing. It's a lost scene from Mamma Mia!

She does clever shout outs to co-stars and makes them laughs. (Viola Davis is the happiest person in the room tonight. She was even joyful losing Best Supporting Actress). And she tops it all off with a hilariously self referential/deprecating speech "there is no such thing as 'The Greatest Living Actress'"

I think Meryl Streep's birthday should be a Federal Holiday. Or maybe it should coincide with a week long arts festival all across the globe.

9:57 Best Actor in a Leading Role is presented by Katie Holmes. Why? Why does she get to do this?The Boyfriend says "that's like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth". It's Sean Penn for Milk. He gives a confused speech with a gay joke (he's noticing the package on the statue. Perhaps Laura Linney's fiancé should have words with him afterwards). He also alludes to all the scuttlebutt surrounding his and Mickey Rourke's supposed animosity. He isn't pleased. He seems genuinely moved to win though which is nice.

10:02 Ensemble. Sir Anthony Hopkins introduces the movies and when he says Slumdog Millionaire the last few syllables are super rushed like it's Milinair. That's probably how I should say it to get Oscar season over with quicker. Save me 2009! Take me away from all of this.

And yeah, they win. You weren't surprised, were you? Nah, didn't think so. Their acceptance speech is a weird list of names (though it's cute and wonderful to name the child actors) and lots of "we deserve this". This is like when I do affirmations in the mirror. One of these days I'll convince myself!

SAG Live Blogging (Part 1)

7:03 or thereabouts. The first star I see is The Lovely Laura Linney so I know this night is going to be special. [and by special I mean bearable]


Her dimpled cheeks are so wholesome they're hypnotic. The mere mortal she speaks with probably doesn't feel condescended to at all when Laura drops the name of her friends.

What is TLLL looking forward to?

I'm thrilled to be able to grab Kate Winslet for a second, grab my friends, say 'hi'

If you were close enough to grab KATE WINSLET, would "hi" be your first choice of words? Something less intelligible would spill out, I suspect.

7:15 Melissa Leo looks super happy and the dress is great. But I'm already worried for Princess Anne (Hathaway), who, didn't look so cheery when the camera caught her. She walked with head down. Did that Golden Globe Kate fest crush her Oscar dream?

Maybe "hi" wouldn't be the first thing she said to Kate Winslet, either.

7:18 Evan Rachel Wood is really proud of her shoes. If I were a drag queen I totally would be too. I was Once a major ERW cheerleader and I hope to be so Again. Did you catch that wordplay. yuk yuk. I'm on fire tonight. (special = bearable! remember it. It'll help you get through, too)


7:32 My favorite moment of the night has already occured. It shan't be beat, I swear it. The E! girl (I can't be bothered remembering her name Guilisomething?) is trying to "connect" to Angelina Jolie who has deigned to descend from the heavens to speak with her. So she's nervous and so she's going on and on about how amazing Brad Pitt is and she says to Angelina, and I quote:

There's nothing sexier or more heartwarming than seeing a man who is good with children. Would you agree about that?

Angelina -- and this wouldn't even be worth capturing in a screen shot it's so tiny and perfect -- says... nothing. She merely almost imperceptibly nods and lets out a little hum/sigh.

Perhaps she's wondering why the reporter hasn't yet spontaneously combusted.

7:50 Every actor who ever plays gay needs to take lessons from James Franco about how to handle the inane media questions about it. The reporter is trying to ask him which is harder, pretending to be high onscreen (Pineapple Express) or to pretend to be in love with Sean Penn (Milk). Franco's reply...

I... I don't know. In life I am in love with Sean and I don't smoke weed.

I love it. Franco is like this year's James Marsden right? He was once kinda not really ascending as a star and then, in one year, he just proved there was so much more charisma and A list within him. I love him. Love him with me in the comments. Free Love!

8:05 They just finished that "I am an actor" part. It wasn't as good as that time (last year?) when Jane Krakowski said "I'm Johnny Depp and I am an actor". But then few things are as good as the time when Jane Krakowski did them.

8:06 Tina Fey won "Only Actress in a TV Comedy". There's only her right? She's the only thing I remember about 2008. She even ran for public office. Her co-star Alec Baldwin won the corresponding award for people with penises.


8:09 Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto are trotted out to introduce Slumdog Millionaire. They didn't waste any time. Dev & Frieda both look really cute and the crowd loves them and I'll be TOTALLY nice to them tonight.

unless they win
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8:21 There's a montage now. I'm glad I'm recording it because I need to watch it again to understand properly. It's called "trailblazers" which seems to be another word for famous people in famous movies. And that's not what I thought that word meant so I need to be schooled.

8:26 The Boyfriend says "we're half an hour into the show and only 30 Rock has won anything" Unfortunately Jane Krakowski spoils my 8:05 compliment above with a bad joke. Yeah, the Ally McBeal cast was emaciated. We remember. I don't think Sally Field at the Brothers & Sisters table thought that was funny. Neither did I.

<--- 8: 28 Marisa Tomei jostled by someone's mink.

Hey, it doesn't happen every day.

8:30 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS is... Kate Winslet in The Reader. I'm not including a picture because Marisa Tomei's fur collision was more interesting.

Ponder that for a moment.

I love Kate Winslet so much. How did I ever become so jaded that I wouldn't enjoy seeing her win awards? Is it her dully sincere speeches or the inevitability of awards season?

8:53 House won Best Actor. Sally Field won Best Actress for Brothers and Sisters but the most important thing that happened in the past 15 minutes is that the camera went to Michelle Pfeiffer.
I imagine cameras are drawn there like moths to a flame. That's my cliche of choice. I couldn't think of a funny.

I'm spent (special!)

Sometimes I hate David E Kelley from stealing her away from her career to such an extent but then I remember that without him we'd probably never see her at these events and she's always there as the dutiful wife. Now if only he would make good television again instead of [shudder] Boston Legal. I hope she made him sleep on the couch on Monday nights.

8:55 Mad Men wins Best Ensemble for TV. Damn straight. Now if only the SAG voters will choose as well with the cinema. The correct answer is Milk people. Don't let me down at 10:00 PM

9:00 end of part one. here's part two.

They Go Together (Like Rama Lama Lama Ke Ding a De Dinga a Dong)

One of the great falsehoods of movie awards season, eagerly promoted by each year's precursor awards groups, Oscar and most movie fans too, is that if a movie is the Best it is the Best. Period. In every way! This is why you hear the annual gripe "Did this movie direct itself?" when a best picture nominee misses a directorial nod (it didn't happen to any film this year but it generally does) and it's also why a great many adequate to good performances have been Oscar nominated over the years in place of actually great performances that had the misfortune of being in not-so-great films or simply less beloved films.

Viola Davis, Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman
The double nominees of Doubt

This 'all or nothing' mode of awardage is especially aggravating when it comes to the annual Screen Actors Guild awards and their "ensemble" prize. They treat it exactly the same as a Best Picture prize... which it shouldn't be. This year they were especially unimaginative nominating their cast members individually in every case as well. It's especially silly in the case of Doubt. The SAG honor actually only includes the four principles -- none of the nuns or the schoolchildren are part of the nomination -- who are then each nominated individually. It's stingy and repetitive. What's more, I don't personally think Doubt is much of an ensemble. It's more like a duet, most of the big scenes involving just two actors, battling it out or letting the other showboat for that particular scene. A fine cast? Yes. A great ensemble? Er...

Anne Consigny, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni and Emmanuelle Devos
Just one third of the bril' cast of A Christmas Tale

Give me bigger, messier, more interactive acting any day before I start talking "Best Ensemble". I had so many goodies to choose from this year and only 1 of SAG's nominated films is in my top 12 ensembles. That'd be Milk which I don't think will win. (I'm guessing its a three way race between Doubt if they're thinking about acting or Benjamin Button vs. Slumdog if they're thinking in terms of Best Picture as they sometimes do). In addition to Milk, I wish SAG had stopped to at least consider Burn After Reading, A Christmas Tale, Happy-Go-Lucky, Rachel Getting Married, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Stop-Loss or Synecdoche New York among others...

Click to see new FB Award nominees: Best Ensemble, Breakthrough and Body of Work
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Slumdog Gajillionaire

Last night Slumdog Millionaire won the PGA Award. Who knew that golfers would love it so much? ;) I kid, that's the Producer's Guild of America one of the many film guilds that people think have the exact same membership as Oscar. Pssst, they don't. The PGA has almost 4000 members and there are under 500 in the Academy's corresponding branch. In the past 10 years the Producers have agreed with Oscar's selection of Best Picture exactly 50% of the time. This'll be another agreement.

thanks to TFE reader Michael for this "I was there" photo

For Slumdog Millionaire is no little underdog movie but the juggernaut. Perhaps that's why perceptions of the movie have become so skewered in both positive and negative ways. [editor's note: speaking of which, here's a fairly balanced piece on what Slumdog is and what is isn't -- and why it's gotten out of hand in both directions. Here's another piece that disagrees, saying the film's depiction of India is not fantasy but reality]. The Danny Boyle 'feel good' picture is also the second biggest box office grosser in the race (after Benjamin Button) which is usually a strong position to be in statistically.

Crowds continue to cheer for Slumdog, which is now big box office, too

I fear that there's no interesting "who will win?" scenarios left beyond maybe Best Actor and we're in for a dull preordained ceremony. We knew that Jamal was going to get the girl (Latika) and we know which movie is going to win. But then, the public at large loves it when the outcome is set ahead of time. I've never understood this at all -- I don't have that typical gene anywhere (freak!) preferring stories wherein it feels like the plot might swerve off into any direction whatsoever -- but it's a very well documented thing, from the success of trailers which tell you endings and twists, to the appeal of destiny stories like Slumdog, to Oscar ceremonies themselves which can get an uptick in ratings when there's an obvious sweeper in the Kodak.

I'll be live blogging the SAG Awards tonight right here. Will Slumdog's mini multiple Jamals and Latikas win this prize, too? Stay tuned.

Seen Any Good Movies Read Any Good Books Lately?

From mid January to mid February I rarely go to movies. Oscar season is, oddly enough, my only real break for moviegoing (though I'm still busy writing). I've been in a reading mood. Any suggestions?


I'm planning to read Chéri before the Pfeiffer movie arrives. I've already read Coraline (l-o-v-e-d) and The Lovely Bones (good book but I worry about the movie) which will both be hitting screens in 2009. I usually like to read books before I see the movies adapted from them.

I'm currently three books into this Vampire Earth series. Though my favorite books are usually the critically acclaimed /classic sort (some all time favs: The Great Gatsby, Beloved, The Road, Animal Farm, The Body Artist, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Le Petit Prince) more often than not I end up reading any old scifi / fantasy paperback. This particular series is a post-apocalyptic yarn. It's not vampires in the typical sense at all but I like it. I suppose my reading habits are quite like those mainstream moviegoing habits that I bitch about. Unless I've heard great things about a particular book I just stay in my comfort zone. I'm like those people who only go to big action movies or bad comedies with household name stars. Isn't that terrible?

How about you? What are you reading right now?
And what one book do you think everyone should grab and read immediately?

Supporting Actress Lineup

If you combine all of this year's Best Supporting Actress nominees into one Imaginary Oscar Bait Woman -- why wouldn't you? All the crazy people (i.e. me) are doing it -- you get a 5'5" thirty-eight year old struggling single Catholic mother who moonlights as a stripper and occasionally engages in menage à trois with her ex-husband. And yes, my friends, she has a heart of gold.

They always do.


The Supporting Actress page is updated with info, statistics and "how'd they get nominated?" snark for these five lovely actresses: Taraji P Henson, Penélope Cruz, Viola Davis, Marisa Tomei and Amy Adams. Plus: You can vote in the poll to choose the reader favorite. Make sure to be right here Sunday night for the SAG Live Blogging when four of these women (minus Marisa + Kate) square off for that particular statue. Consider it a warm up to the big show.

Now Playing: Mickey Rourke and Michael Sheen, Twice Over

Limited
Dog Eat Dog Colombia's Oscar submission is a drama about two criminals who break unwritten rules and suffer the consequences
Donkey Punch a supposedly sick and nasty horror flick aboard a yacht. At least it looks like the victimized girls fight back
Kill Shot I had no idea that Mickey Rourke had another movie out. He's traded in the long blond metal hair for a brunette braid as a killer. Gorgeous Diane Lane isn't safe after witnessing a hit.
Outlander Let's talk Jim Caviezel. He got famous for and was completely amazing in an existential Terence Malick WWII film (The Thin Red Line) and then made lots of weird acting choices and then starred as Jesus in that Mel mega-hit and now he's doing low budget sci-fi viking movies. How weird is this career?

Wide
Inkheart Does Brendan Fraser have the tiniest but most lucrative typecasting niche (dad in children's fantasy adventure movies) in the business? In this one he can bring characters to life out of books. But some of those characters shouldn't be let out. Didn't they make this movie twice in the 1990s and call it Jumanji and Cool World?
Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans You know... (sigh) I have a thing for vampires. I'll see a lot of crap films if there are bloodsuckers. But I'll skip this one. Three films in and I still don't understand what the point of making Werewolf vs Vampire movies are if the beasties fight with guns and swords? That's what happens in other action movies! Give me fangs and claws and things appropriately supernatural. And without the previous film's eye candy of Scott Speedman (delicious even with sickly blue skin & solid black eyes) & Kate Beckinsale (ridiculously tight vinyl costumes? Yes, please!) this is a pass for me.

Enraged by his Frost/Nixon Oscar snub, Michael Sheen becomes a "LYCAAANNNNN!"

Oscar Films Let Out of Their Cages...
Not one, not two, but 5 Oscar nominees are finally in hundreds of theaters, six if you count The Dark Knight's rerelease. Now that the Academy has deemed them worthy of your eyeballs in ways either major or minor, their distributors have reluctantly signed off on their release. You may commence buying tickets to: Frost/Nixon, Rachel Getting Married, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. If you do, please report back as the films move from the theoretical to the real for you.

Actress Psychic: Gold, Silver and Bronze Winners

This Actress Psychic game takes soooo long to play. We'll switch up the rules for 2009... so you'll want to be here in early April when we start playing again. But, yes, with yesterday's Oscar nominations, we have to wrap up this year's game. I've added +1 point for anyone who had predicted Nicole Kidman (Australia) on their ballot -- I forgot her box office points -- and I thought I'd have to add a +1 box office point for Meryl Streep for Doubt but she's just shy of the $ requirement prior to the nominations... so, nope.


I must reiterate again that I'm amazed at how well so many people did this year guessing the Actress Oscar race a whole year in advance. Many contestants guessed 3 nominees and a few even guessed 4 correctly. The collective April prediction --all your guesses pooled -- ended up going 2/5 with the eventual Oscar nominees for Best Actress or 2.5/5 if you allow for the Winslet goof (most candidates chose Revolutionary Road as her prime Oscar pony)

New Points
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married + 35 points
+25 Oscar nom + 5 first time nominee + 3 appears on less than 25% of the submitted contest entries + 2 her film's only nomination
Angelina Jolie, Changeling + 23 points
+ 25 Oscar nom -2 previous winner
Melissa Leo, Frozen River + 37 points
+25 Oscar nom + 5 first time nominee + 2 early opening + 2 nominated for a film that grossed less than $3 million + 3 appears on less than 25% of the submitted contest entries [Editors note: Only one contestant predicted this Frozen River nomination back in April so a huge round of applause for Daequan please.]
Meryl Streep, Doubt + 18 points
+25 Oscar nom -5 appeared on more than 75% of your ballots -2 previous winner
Kate Winslet, The Reader + 26 points
+25 Oscar nom + 3 appears on less than 25% of the submitted contest entries -2 fifth nomination or higher

THE WINNERS ARE...

Which means the winner of the contest and our Gold Medalist Actress Psychic is... (drumroll please) Rich Aunt Pennybags who guessed 4 nominees correctly (and the fifth was a near miss). The Silver Medalist is KiYe (who only guessed 3 Oscar nominees but had not one dud candidate on the psychic ballot, in other words: all five choices were in the race till the very very end, collecting points) and there's a tie for the bronze between Ben F & Patrick T. who each guessed 4 correctly but had a dud spot on their ballots. Click here for more details of the contest (like which Actresses were worth the most points all told), how your point totals stack up and what these four winners win.
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And The Link Goes To...

Oscar Stuff
Movie City News collects some nominee reaction quotes
Carpetbagger looks at the green (box office) of the gold (nominees)
Nashville Film Festival "I was Slumdog when Slumdog wasn't cool"
AWFJ thinks the two best female performances weren't nominated at all
In Contention Tapley thinks that The Reader's nomination is a tragedy and that the movie is pornographic. Who knew that he'd never seen a porno before? ;)


In Contention also shares a typical egotist quote from Harvey Weinstein. He's aiming for a win for The Reader. We all know it won't but the clever strategy thing about this sort of 'we can beat Slumdog!' cock waving is that it really does damage Slumdog Millionaire which Fox Searchlight has always been positioning as the "little film that could" In order to maintain its scrappy underdog charms they need the illusion that it's not the 300 pound gorilla of Oscar season. Which it is. Anyone think its vulnerable at all?
Time on the Best Actor race. Preference: Penn
Welcome to LA on those 2 nominations for Wanted
The Playlist on the web reactions to The Dark Knight snub including some homophobic ones of course (figures since Milk made it. How would the world spin without scapegoats?). Sigh. Would that moviegoers understand the history of Oscar better. Eight nominations is A LOT. I realize it's not in best picture but that is a huge haul as movies go. I keep hearing words like "shut out" which is a laughable description of what happened. 8 nominations is a ringing endorsement. Only Best Pictures and just-miss Best Picture hopefuls ever reach nominations numbers that high.

Off Oscar (in case you need the break. you need the break)
Low Resolution makes a funny with Pfeiff
Fabulon "art appreciation with Julianne Moore"
Lazy Eye Theater come back Billy Bob!
Club Silencio picks its five favorite films of 2008. There's only 3 Oscar noms among them
i09 on the Watchmen's rape scene. I really loved the remake of Dawn of the Dead but after 300 I do not trust the base panderings of this Zach Snyder fellow
Coosa Creek Cinema a review of Gran Torino that actually helped me understand why people love the movie

Off Cinema altogether. (Whaaaa?)
<-- two badass blonde chicks 2 love: P¡nk & Katee Sackhoff

The Post Game Show 80s pop music vs. 00s pop music. Funny
Braniac shares conservative anger (and sour grapes) over Starbuck and Battlestar Galactica. Apparently women should only be birthin' babies! Ugh. Serious question: How do such rabidly anti-woman right-wingers end up finding women to marry and impregnate, anyway?

Breakfast With... Jack & Ennis

If you squint reallllllly closely and look to the far right you can see that they've got something smoking on the fire...


I'm guessing it's going to burn.

Their boss is looking on with binoculars and he does not approve of the way they scramble their eggs.

previous "breakfast with..."s
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Good Night, and Good Luck.

Not the movie, just the well wishing as you head into Slumberland. What a looooong day it's been. I hope to sleep like a baby. Not a wrinkled old man baby abandoned on the step of old folks home. Like a regular sleeping baby. Let my dreams be unburdened by shiny statues and Springsteen snubbings.

All the Oscar pages are updated if a bit sparse. More info to come everywhere. Tomorrow I'll announce the winners in the Actress Psychic Contest and if you're just joining us for awards season please note that this place is hopping all year long and we don't always talk about that naked gold man. Just a healthy amount of th...well yeah, OK, we talk about him too much. But there's general movie stuff, too. Stick around. Lots of fun to come as we head toward Oscar Night and beyond.

Soon: More episodes of the podcasting, SAG live blogging, Brad Pitt, Kristin Scott Thomas, Melissa Leo, more interviews, some final "awards" for 2008, classic movie retrospectives, theme weeks and this year's edition of the "We Can't Wait" countdown for the films of 2009. Don't go anywhere.

Taste Test

Each year when we throw an Oscar party we whip up food (mostly hors d'oeuvres and desserts) that relate to the Best Picture nominees. We're still working on the menu this year so I marvel at the speed with which TFE fan BBats (Alex Barbatsis) worked up his latest sick and silly "Taste Test" on YouTube. I thought I'd share since I'm a little loopy after this long ass day.

"smoky tabasco sauce because Kate Winslet is hawwwwwwwt"

Hee. I love the internets.

Sally, Meryl, Michelle, Emma, Holly, Helen... and Sally!?

What follows is a note I received from a reader (thx Scott!) about the rather shocking Sally Hawkins omission this morning from Oscar's Best Actress list. As you may or may not know, Ms. Hawkins, who is a hundred kinds of terrific in the latest Mike Leigh picture Happy-Go-Lucky, has received the most Best Actress prizes this year (she went into the double digits of precursor prizes). I think the enormity of her snub should be understood. Here's the note and statistics:

This whole Sally Hawkins debacle is totally unprecedented. In the last 34 years, since the National Society of Film Critics, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, The New York Film Critics Circle and the Golden Globes have co-existed (kind of the big 4 non-Oscar events for me and for everyone else I'm sure), only 7 women have won all 4:


Sally Field (Norma Rae, 1979), Meryl Streep (Sophie's Choice, 1982), Michelle Pfeiffer (The Fabulous Baker Boys, 1989), Emma Thompson (Howard's End, 1992), Holly Hunter (The Piano, 1993), Helen Mirren (The Queen, 2006) and Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky, 2008). Five of them won the Oscar and the other, Pfeiffer, should have (as we all know). So for Hawkins to miss a nomination altogether, even though we knew it was a possibility (and I grant you that the 6 other women won the Golden Globe Drama so she's not a perfect comparator), is still a massively surprising and altogether unusual, not to mention unjust, outcome

First Michelle and now Sally?! It's official: Being loved by Nathaniel R. means certain doom for your Oscar prospects. Movie goddesses beware! If you hear Nathaniel's heart quicken from the wonder of your actressing run far away from him --far far away... run like the wind. He's a Cooler.

If you missed my interview with Sally Hawkins, it's here. She was so humble about this Lucky success and all of the attention. Hopefully her awards haul up until this point will mean that we'll see more of her onscreen soon. Perhaps that political biopic (The Roaring Girl) will help. The Academy likes those.