NYFCC: Annette's Eyes, Darren's Humor, Kerry's Deliciousness
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 3:43PM Yesterday you probably read some purposefully sensationalist headlines about notorious contrarian self-publicist Armond White making Annette Bening cry at the NYFCC ceremony Monday night. I wasn't going to say anything and I'm not going to link to any of the articles but I'm just going to get two things off the chest.
One, When Annette tears up, be assured that you will feel it. You will find it impossible to be so unmoved as to write snarky misleading headlines about it.
The Bening is All Right
Case in point: Her Majesty's quite awesome and NYFCC award-winning performance in The Kids Are All Right. When she tears up, only non-carbon-based life forms don't feel it.
Her acceptance speech went, according to the Post, something like this.
"Actors are like gardenias-very fragile and sensitive to criticism. Critics feel very vulnerable to criticism as well. We have a symbiotic relationship. We need each other. We need you to write thoughtfully. We need you to keep a close eye on us. We want your approval desperately. That's just in our very nature. We're devastated when we're told we're not good and we're thrilled when we're told we are." She thanked costar Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, who won the Best Supporting Actor honors last night, saying, "Julianne fell in love with Mark onscreen. I fell in love with him offscreen, and my husband knows that because I would go home and talk about Mark."
Given what sounds like a strange evening -- supposedly Darren Aronofsky dissed Armond White and White (who hated Black Swan but then it's a popular film so he's required to) dissed back -- anyone might make a crack about "let's all get along."
Bening, Beatty, Ruffalo and Sunrise Colgney at the NYFCC Event
I've met Darren Aronofsky once myself and though I would never claim to know his personality from one brief exchange he was, in point of fact, joking around with the critics he was talking to (including myself). So I doubt there was true acrimony. I'm guessing it was but friendly barbs and the media reports of the evening are just amping everything up and distorting them.
Anyway... today I am really sour about attention-grabbing assholes. Sensationalist extreme statements and sensationalist headlines and blah blah blah. Everyone falls for it every time and writes about it (OOPS). I'm just hyper sensitive about it today due to Sarah Palin's typically insensitive typically sociopathic typically dangerous response to the Arizona tragedy. BLARGH.
In better news, Kerry Washington was at the NYFCC looking incredibly delicious.
But then, does she ever look any other way? She probably rolls out of bed each morning looking better than 99.9% of the population does after hours in a salon.
Reader Comments (19)
La Bening needs to deliver a hell of a Golden Globe speech on Sunday so that, unlike 6 years ago, she can convince people that in case a win might happen, it would be a fun thankyou moment on Oscar night.
I wish her best of luck in preparing something catchy and honest.
The whole write up of that event I've been reading makes Armond White sound ridiculously pompous and lacking in, say, social graces, and also makes me REALLY wish I had been there to see it.
@Will - seconded. I tried to find a taping of the event on youtube (a few clips from last year's event popped up) but none yet. You know that an intimate, untelevised dinners like these are probably 19348223x more interesting than gaudy award shows.
Kerry always looks delicious, LOL. I really wish she was in the running for getting an Oscar nomination this year (especially with 3 films released), but at least she's still creating wonderful performances.
"She probably rolls out of bed each morning looking better than 99.9% of the population does after hours in a salon."
Ha, I know! God, I want to marry that woman.
And this NYFCC business should be subtitled "Return of the Bening." You just know Darren's added fuel to her campaign fire. Natalie must be pissed!
As someone who isn't a critic (internet or print) but who does lament the slow fading of criticism, it never ceases to amaze me how many critics seem to have no trouble jumping into the pond of cynical sarcastic internet trolls that does nothing but set back that profession's struggles.
That being said, there are some really truly great critics (and fan voices too) who are champions of movies. So I choose to think about that... and Kerry W. as well.
Annette Bening > Armond White.
But you all knew that already.
Armond White and Pete Hammond should do a movie review show together. Every movie they do would get a thumb up and a thumb down.
PETE: GREATEST MOVIE EVER! IT'S SO AMAZING! DVD COVER QUOTE!
ARMOND: WORST MOVIE EVAH! NO BLACK PEOPLE IN IT! SUCKS BECAUSE I'M A TROLL!
I feel your frustration, Nathaniel. If there is a more self-absorbed, oblivious brat in American politics than Sarah Palin, I have not heard of them.
@Robert Hamer -- Her name's Bachmann, Michelle Bachmann. But Sarah's awfully close.
Let's just not mention *her* ever again, shall we? I can't believe she still gets people to take notice...pro or con!
That's a very frank and honest quote by Annette Bening. Thanks for sharing it! Actors take a lot of heat for being thin-skinned and self-absorbed but let's be honest, everyone is sensitive to criticism, but not everyone has a profession where their performance is subject to public scrutiny.
Heck, I get nervous and thin-skinned just anticipating how people will respond to this very post of mine. Ha!
I never knew gardenias were sensitive to criticism. Gardening tips from The Bening!
par -lol
rick -- i know. i was surprised she said it but i so agree. I think actors (and fimlmakers) do need critics to write thoughtfully. too bad more don't.
mark -- it's true. you should not feed the trolls. But she is so successful at trolling.
Kerry Washington is so gorgeous. I'm amazed that she isn't an A-list Hollywood actress with the beauty and talent she has. She's incredibly underrated.
And supposedly Annette and Aronofsky weren't the only ones targeted at the awards ceremony. White supposedly made a jab at Michelle Williams, which if true is a big no-no. No one takes a swipe at my girl Michelle! LOL!
And, I'm sorry to be grumpy and argumentative but I have to say something about Sarah Palin since it was brought up in the article. I've never been a fan of this woman and have never understood the bizarre obsession people have with her. She's totally inept to run any public office, let alone as president of the United States....BUT, I find it totally unfair and slanderous that the media is blatantly pointing the finger of these horrible, horrible murders in her face. Yes, the cross hair targets on her website were totally tacky and inappropriate, but do people really realize the magnitude of what they say when Palin should take the blame for these senseless murders? I actually think that is C-R-A-Z-Y! The man who killed these people was undeniably a disturbed human being who had no value for human life. There's not even proof that he was aware of the map on her website. It sickens me as an American that during a tragedy like this the media has to make political conclusions in order to bring a public figure down. Senseless blaming like this makes me cynical that there will ever be a time in the near future when people from different political affiliations can sit down humbly and come to an agreement. I'm so sorry for my rant, I just needed to let that out!
Aaron, I understand and appreciate your point of view on this, but to me, this isn't anger towards Sarah Palin in particular (though, being as narcissistic as she is, made it all about her), but rather the violent and psychotic rhetoric that stoked the fears of paranoid wackos everywhere. Is it really so hard to believe that a guy with mental problems wouldn't feel the need to "take action" after seeing Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin talking over and over again about Obama literally being the next Hitler on a crusade to dismantle the very foundations of our democracy?
Plus, this "poor me" attitude from her is also just childish and hypocritical. As Michael Moore observed, "If a Detroit Muslim put a map on the web with crosshairs on 20 politicians, [and] then 1 of them got shot, where would he be sitting right now? Just asking."
hi all,
i'm in uk and don't quite get usa politics but all i know is i have seen both bening's and portman's and portman's moved whereas portman left me cold although both were fantastic but when bening finds out mooore has had an afffair yes those eyes had me and moore's look of horror and realisation.
Kerry Washington was great in "Mother and Child." The movie itself is an underrated gem. You should make a list of the top 10 movies forgotten at the end of the year. "Mother and Child," "The Ghost Writer," "Rabbit Hole"...
God, no kidding Nathaniel but now I'm tearing up thinking about Annette tearing up in The Kids Are All Right. That moment still just gets me. Aaah,. And yes, Kerry Washington is fabulous.