LOS ANGELES (AP) — These were supposed to be the younger, hipper Academy Awards, the ones that shook up the ceremony’s conventions with popular, great-looking emcees in actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway, who were unlike the middle-aged comedians and TV talk-show hosts of years past. (more)
Back in December, when critics everywhere were lavishing praise upon Natalie Portman’s performance in “Black Swan,” she appeared to have a lock on the best actress Oscar. But then the trailer for “No Strings Attached” was released, and a chill wind blew through Hollywood. Suddenly, pundits everywhere were calling this Ivan Reitman-directed romantic comedy “Natalie Portman’s ‘Norbit’ ” and predicting that Portman’s award season fate would parallel that of Eddie Murphy in 2007, when the “Dreamgirls” star had his award dreams shattered by the trailers for him in drag and in a fat suit. (The double death!) (more)
In the lead-up to the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes are usually a pretty good indicator of who is on the road to Oscar glory. While the prizes are handed out by two entirely different voting bodies — the Globes come from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a collection of foreign journalists who cover the American movie industry, and the Oscars are awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a collective of over 6,000 film professionals (actors, directors, writers, etc.) — more often than not, if an actor or actress wins the Globes’ lead dramatic acting prize, they go on to score the Oscar. (more)
“Personally I wouldn’t advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out.” — Richard Chamberlain, a gay actor (more)
Oksana Grigorieva faces up to three grueling interrogations this week alone, and the first of what are expected to be marathon depositions will ironically fall on Mel Gibson’s 55th birthday Monday, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned. (more)
The story of True Grit is as simple as a classic western and as iconic as a Greek drama — a tale of revenge and redemption, told with wit, grit, and a dash of cathartic poignancy. (more)
As I do at the end of each year (which usually elicits many e-mails, but I am going to do it again anyway), here is my look back at 2010. (more)
The resounding win by the Republicans in November holds the promise of getting some control on spending in Washington. It seems, for the moment, that Congress is focusing on this goal, thanks to its members’ feet being held to the fire by the Tea Party. (more)
Over about two decades in movies, primarily as an Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor on films such as “Men in Black,” “Total Recall” and “Pearl Harbor,” Eric Brevig has worked with many big names in Hollywood. But his latest film gave him a unique chance to direct a childhood idol: Yogi Bear. (more)
In the span of less than a day, independent film cognoscenti on both coasts have declared the teeny drama “Winter’s Bone” a top film of the year. The bleak tale set in the Ozark Mountains grabbed seven nominations Tuesday for the Spirit Awards including best feature, just hours after taking home the best-film crown Monday night at the Gotham Awards in New York. (more)
A nightclub owner mentors a young dancer. With Cher, Christina Aguilera. Director: Steve Antin (1:54). PG-13: Sexuality, language, partial nudity. At area theaters. (more)
(Via Ricochet.com) The American Federation of Teachers is very, very pleased with three stories appearing in liberal publications that purport to debunk aspects of the excellent documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” a movie by “An Inconvenient Truth” Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim that exposes the sorry state of many public schools, particularly in poor urban districts, and pleads for more charter schools. This week the AFT sent out a press release happily including links to a would-be Diane Ravitch takedown of the film in The New York Review of Books as well as pieces in the Columbia Journalism Review and on a New York Times blog.The Times blog posting is a particularly substance-free attack on the film and an implicit defense of the status quo; it says that an impoverished Bronx mom who visited a dynamic Harlem charter school with her child then returned to the school with Guggenheim’s cameras in tow to recreate the experience of her first visit. Quel scandale! The Ravitch piece makes only the mildest murmurs of protest about teacher tenure, which as the film demonstrates is essentially awarded to any pedagogue who can remain breathing. Ravitch says tenure amounts merely to giving teachers “due process.” Well. It’s a process that leads to three out of 55,000 tenured New York City teachers getting the sack. Maybe all the others are doing a fine job. (more)
You want tears? You want convulsive sobs, weepy remorse, pleadings for forgiveness? Well, look elsewhere, because Eliot Spitzer isn’t going to give them to you. (more)
NEW YORK (AP) — He was a small man who dreamed big, hit the highest heights and failed like few others. (more)
Mel Gibson reportedly has been ordered to fork over $60,000 in back child support to his baby mama — and to let her live rent-free in his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home with their year-old daughter. (more)
LOS ANGELES — Late last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was still coming to terms with that most deeply confounding of European filmmakers, Jean-Luc Godard. (more)
Arthur Penn, the stage, television and motion picture director whose revolutionary treatment of sex and violence in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde” transformed the American film industry, died Tuesday night, the day after he turned 88. (more)
The Toronto International Film Festival is famous for its star-studded, Oscar-caliber lineup, but it showcases films featuring stellar turns from lesser-known performers too. Before the festival’s conclusion Sunday, The Times’ film staff caught up with some of the players poised to break out of this year’s pack. (more)
