The Oscars
Though we don’t tend to pry too much into actors’ personal lives at Movieline, we couldn’t help but notice a striking trend in the wake of Kate Winslet’s divorce from Sam Mendes and the recent infidelity rumors that have rocked Sandra Bullock’s marriage to Jesse James. Namely, why have so many Best Actress winners from the last decade seen their relationships implode shortly after?
Crime and Punishment
After an extraordinary awards season when Kathryn Bigelow could do no wrong, she ran into a little bit more trouble during a brief stint this week at L.A. Superior Court. There, the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director could not break through the jury pool for a drunk-driving case.
We all have an idea of what an “Oscar-winning film” is supposed to look like, but after last Sunday’s awards show, it may be time to throw the old paradigm out the window. The Hurt Locker is only the latest Best Picture winner to flout the conventions of what kind of film takes home the top prize; in fact, it closed out a decade that was full of such wins. Here are six Best Picture winners of recent vintage that prove there’s no such thing as a typical Oscar movie anymore:
Yes, another Oscar story, but you’ll like this one! I promise. Guru-ish awards reporter Pete Hammond viewed Sunday’s Oscarcast at the “Night of 100 Stars” Party — which usually turns out more like the “Night of 12 Stars, 58 Character Actors, 17 Has-Beens, 12 People You Secretly Expected to See in the ‘In Memoriam’ Montage, and Pete Hammond” Party, except this year there was news. And it may be the Rosetta Stone to help decode where Avatar went wrong on its march to Best Picture.
The most awkward moment from Sunday night’s Oscar telecast was the acceptance speech hijacking from one Music by Prudence key player, Roger Ross Williams, to another, Elinor Burkett, or as Jon Stewart ID-ed her, “the woman who runs the snack counter at my synagogue’s Purim festival.” But there is only one person in Hollywood who could present Roger Ross Williams with the opportunity to re-do his speech on live television and then, miraculously, make the moment only more awkward. And that person is Larry King.
After the jump, Movieline breaks the awkwardness down into seven cringe-worthy components.
In a skin-crawlingly mean-spirited rant delivered on his radio show yesterday, Howard Stern, egged on by sidekick Robin Quivers, laid into Oscar-nominated Precious star Gabourey Sidibe. Calling her “the most enormous fat black chick I’ve ever seen,” Stern predicted that “she’s never going to have another shot. What movie is she going to be in? Blind Side 2? She can take out the whole front line…Listen honey, now you got a little money in the bank, go get yourself thin. You’re going to die in like, three years.”
Audio, and delicious comeuppance, after the jump.
In a skin-crawlingly mean-spirited rant delivered on his radio show yesterday, Howard Stern, egged on by sidekick Robin Quivers, laid into Oscar-nominated Precious star Gabourey Sidibe. Calling her “the most enormous fat black chick I’ve ever seen,” Stern predicted that “she’s never going to have another shot. What movie is she going to be in? Blind Side 2? She can take out the whole front line…Listen honey, now you got a little money in the bank, go get yourself thin. You’re going to die in like, three years.”
Audio, and delicious comeuppance, after the jump.
The Oscars
I don’t know quite what to make of this shot of James Cameron meeting Kathryn Bigelow at the 2010 Oscars — whether it was before or after Bigelow’s Hurt Locker defeated Avatar for Best Director and Best Picture, or whether this was just an unfortunate angle on the ex-spouses’ convivial Oscar-night embrace. At least two things are certain: If anyone is going to establish “strangratulation” as a new awards-season tradition, it’ll be Cameron. And Harvey Weinstein is going to frame this. If he hasn’t already. [Guardian via IW]
When two-time Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell took home her third trophy for The Young Victoria, the 49-year-old stunned even before she finished her walk to the dais. Her sheeny floral dress and shock burgundy hair were the first indicators of a rogue in the house, but her speech forced us to let out our corsets for a long, queenly guffaw. Furthermore, she was the night’s sole British winner. Hear Powell’s sly, yet sweet speech after the jump.
An Alan Smithee Column
Now that our shared Academy Awards hangover is starting to subside, and the champagne-blunted memory of heaving your novelty Oscar statuette through a window after El Secreto de Sus Ojos’ Foreign Language Film win wrecked your pool has come into sharper focus, we can begin to reflect upon last night’s events. Though the list of winners played out almost exactly according to the narrative established during the interminable, brain-smoothing awards season (Geoffrey Fletcher’s huge Precious adapted screenplay upset being the notable exception), there were still many important lessons to be learned from the ceremony if you just clear your mind, open your heart, and try to really hear what Oscar was gently whispering in your ear in the magical, fizzy moment before that tenth flute of Chandon finally did you in.
More reviews, scored
After four previous tries at Oscar glory and even more seminal roles the Academy overlooked (seriously, how did The Dude ever miss the cut?), Jeff Bridges is finally the presumptive front-runner for this year's Best Actor prize. His turn in... continued
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