By Shannonn Kelly
Ashley Pearson, a writer for the Daily Mail UK has built a great article on what Hollywood stars (mostly female) go through before appearing on the Academy Awards red carpet.
Tomorrow morning, the conversations will be about the Oscars, the wins, the wardrobe and the glamour. Beneath the glamour, writes Pearson, is where things really get interesting. Continue reading »
by Shannonn Kelly
As the Writers Guild of America has moved to end its three-month-old strike, Hollywood writers could be back behind their desks as early as Wednesday. Patric Verrone, president of the guild’s West Coast branch said membership meetings will be held Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles.
Since Sunday WGA membership maintained that there will be no picketing Monday or Tuesday, suspending all picketing until the WGA membership votes to either end or continue the strike. There will be lots of news this week about shows, deals and more. Click on the links below for more articles about the effects and chatter on the 3-month long Writers Guild of America strike.
by Shannonn Kelly
Too late for the Grammy’s but just in time for the Academy Awards, the WGA Writers Strike may end today.
According to Ireland On Line (IOL), a deal has been reached between the major media companies and the Writer’s Guild of America - whose members have been staging walkouts since November 2007 in an ongoing dispute over royalties. Continue reading »
by Shannonn Kelly
A deeply saddened Ang Lee speaks about his feelings on Heath Ledger and his unexpected death Tuesday January 22, 2008.
Heath Ledger’s death is ”heartbreaking” says director Ang Lee. In a statement relased to People.com, Lee says, “Working with Heath was one of the purest joys of my life.”
Many remember not only the stirring score but the unforgettable performance from Ledger as the aloof and tormented gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in the critically acclaimed drama, “Brokeback Mountain”, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Ledger was singled out for an Academy Award © nomination in 2005 for his performance. Lee describes Ledger’s performance as “miraculous”.
As many entertainment writers can attest, Ang Lee has always spoken admiringly of Ledger, often comparing him to a young Marlon Brando, describing the “Brokeback” performance as “miraculous.” “I think it’s not only remarkable, it’s almost like a miracle,” Lee said.
In the statement to people.com Lee goes on to say, “Heath brought to the role of Ennis (Del Mar) more than any of us could have imagined — a thirst for life, for love, and for truth, and a vulnerability that made everyone who knew him love him.”…
by Shannonn Kelly
The 80th Annual Academy Award® nominations
were announced this morning, Tuesday January 22, around 6:00 AM in Los Angeles.
The complete list of nominees are listed below. For a printable Academy Nominee Ballot for your Oscar® Party click here.
Click on the Category links to get bios and Oscar history tidbits. And now—the Nomineees…
1. Best Picture: “No Country for Old Men”, “Atonement”, “Juno”, “Michael Clayton”, “There Will Be Blood.”
2. Best Actor: George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”; Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”; Johnny Depp, “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”; Tommy Lee Jones, “In the Valley of Elah”; Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises”
3. Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”; Julie Christie, “Away From Her”; Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”; Laura Linney, “The Savages”; Ellen Page, “Juno.”
4. Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”; Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”; Hal Holbrook, “Into the Wild”; Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Charlie Wilson’s War”; Tom Wilkinson, “Michael Clayton”
5. Best Supporting Actress: Ruby Dee, “American Gangster”; Cate Blanchett, “I’m Not There”; Saoirse Ronan, “Atonement”; Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”; Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton.”
6. Best Director: Julian Schnabel, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”; Jason Reitman, “Juno”; Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”; Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”
7. Best Foreign Film: “Beaufort,” Israel; “The Counterfeiters,” Austria; “Katyn,” Poland; “Mongol,” Kazakhstan; “12,” Russia
8. Best Adapted Screenplay: Ronald Harwood, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”; Christopher Hampton, “Atonement”; Sarah Polley, “Away from Her”; Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”; Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”
9. Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, “Juno”; Nancy Oliver, “Lars and the Real Girl”; Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”; Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, “Ratatouille”; Tamara Jenkins, “The Savages”
10. Best Animated Feature Film: “Persepolis”; “Ratatouille”; “Surf’s Up”
11. Best Art Direction: “American Gangster,” “Atonement,” “The Golden Compass,” “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “There Will Be Blood”
12. Best Cinematography: “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “Atonement,” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood”
13. Best Sound Mixing: “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Ratatouille,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “Transformers”
14. Best Sound Editing: “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Ratatouille,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Transformers”
15. Best Original Score: ”Ratatouille,” Michael Giacchino; “Atonement,” Dario Marianelli; “The Kite Runner,” Alberto Iglesias; “Michael Clayton,” James Newton Howard;”3:10 to Yuma,” Marco Beltrami
16. Best Original Song: ”Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted,” Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; “Falling Slowly” from “Once,” Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova;”Raise It Up” from “August Rush,” Nominees to be determined; “So Close” from “Enchanted,” Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; “That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted,” Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
17. Best Costume: “Across the Universe,” “Atonement,” “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” “La Vie en Rose,” “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
18. Best Documentary Feature: “No End in Sight,” “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience,” “Sicko,” “Taxi to the Dark Side,” “War/Dance”
19. Best Documentary Short: “Freeheld,” “La Corona (The Crown),” “Salim Baba,” “Sari’s Mother”
20. Best Film Editing: “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “Into the Wild,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood”
21. Best Makeup: “La Vie en Rose,” “Norbit,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”
22. Best Animated Short Film: “I Met the Walrus,” “Madame Tutli-Putli,” “Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven),” “My Love (Moya Lyubov),” “Peter & the Wolf”
23. Best Live Action Short Film: “Il Supplente (The Substitute),” “At Night,” “Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets),” “Tanghi Argentini,” “The Tonto Woman”
24. Best Visual Effects: “The Golden Compass,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Transformers.”
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The HONORARY OSCAR AWARD will be given to Production Designer Robert Boyle who designed for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock among others.
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Beloved comedian, political satirist and The Daily Show host Jon Stewart makes a return visit to host the 80th Annual Academy Awards LIVE from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC at 8PM EST on Sunday, February 24, 2008.
One need only Google the words “Stone” and “Bush” to find plenty of the director’s critical comments about the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq. Despite that, the director said he’s not looking to make an anti-Bush polemic.
His goal is to use seminal events in Bush’s life to explain how he came to power, using a structure comparable to “The Queen.”
“It’s a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to ‘Nixon,’ to give a sense of what it’s like to be in his skin,” Stone told Daily Variety. “But if ‘Nixon’ was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone. People have turned my political ideas into a cliche, but that is superficial. I’m a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great.”
To read the full article by Michael Fleming click here.
by Shannonn Kelly
One our our favorite smokey-voiced actresses is dead. Suzanne Pleshette died Saturday in her Los Angles home of respiratory failure. She was 70.
Pleshette is best remembered as Emily Hartley the hot, smart school teacher and wife to stuttering, laid-back Chicago psychologist Robert Hartley, played by Bob Newhart on the Bob Newhart Show, from 1972-1978.
Married to former Bob Newhart Show co-star Tom Poston in 2001, who also died from respiratory failure in Los Angeles on April 30, 2007.
I only realized the parallel recently that she played yet another smart school teacher in “The Birds” directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Seeing the film last month, I was struck by Pleshette’s complex rendering of Annie Hayworth, the pining dalliance that over-stayed her welcome after being dumped by Mitch (played by Rod Taylor) in Bodega Bay. She probably out-acted Tippi Hendren in many fans eyes.
Sadly, Pleshette was scheduled to receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 31, 2008, which would have been her 71st birthday
To read the New York Times article on Ms. Pleshette, click here.
by Shannonn Kelly
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) –
Every year there are several book-club favorites that turn up at the multiplex. Perusing the list of Academy Award best-picture winners can feel like a trip to Barnes & Noble, from “Gone With the Wind” and “The Godfather” to “The Silence of the Lambs” and “The English Patient.”
But during this tumultuous, strike-hobbled awards season, at least a dozen movies with literary roots have real shots at winning the biggest prizes. Some of those novels, like Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” are beloved and readers feel proprietary about them.
Others, like Ian McEwan’s “Atonement,” which won best drama and musical score at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, and Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” which won the directing prize for Julian Schnabel and the foreign-language film honor, seemed impossible to adapt because they were too complicated, too internal.
The adaptations themselves range from the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” which maintained much of Cormac McCarthy’s rich Texas vernacular, to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood,” in which the writer-director merely used Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!” as a leaping-off point. Still others come from novellas (”Lust, Caution“), graphic novels (”Persepolis“), or are based on non-fiction works such as (”Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Into the Wild,” “A Mighty Heart”).
To read about screenwriter David Benioff and his experience while working on an adaptation of “The Kite Runner”, click Here.
by Shannonn Kelly
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Four major studios: Warner Bros. Television, NBC Universal, 20th Century Fox Television and CBS Paramount Network Television have canceled dozens of writers’ contracts in a possible concession that the current television season cannot be saved, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier today.
Studios typically pay $500,000 to $2 million a year per writer for them and their staffs to develop new show concepts.
With this latest development the studios save a lot of money, lose their new television season and writers, possibly, lose their homes, because really, this is a ploy for the studio executives to get rid of writers they no longer want. Really, this is all about cleaning house…
by Shannonn Kelly
Normally when a Hollywood award show is on the horizon, our televisions are filled with ads, entertainment news on the fashion and stars and a whole lot of Hollywood glistz and glamor.
Then, on award night you, the television viewer could watch the brightest stars from movies and television step out in their finery on the red carpet for all the world to see and gossip about on Monday.
For the first time since 1944 when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), started them as a fundraiser, the Golden Globes were starless!
The Golden Globe Awards are generally the third most-watched awards show after the and Grammys and the Academy Awards , and is one of the highest honors for actors and actresses from film and television.
With the WGA Strike still ongoing, the Golden Globes were faced with actors and actresses choosing to boycott the ceremony rather than cross picket lines. Striking writers threatened to picket the Globes.
So, on Sunday January 13, 2008 the Golden Globes were held in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel and broadcast live for a total of 31 minutes; leaving networks to fill the reamining 3 or so hours of programming with film clips and commentary and as if there were nothing better to run, an episode of —still can’t believe it: American Gladiators.
The winners of last nights Golden Globes can be viewed by clicking on this link at Variety.
I’m going to have that nap now…
Roger Ebert @ SunTimes NYT > Movie Reviews CBC News
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