Link Man
Friday, January 28, 2011 at 12:30AM 
E! whaaaaa. No way. Natalie Portman doing "Don't Tell Mama" from Cabaret ... as a teenager!
Serious Film Tilda Swinton as "the Anti-Streep"
Inside Movies another look at how Oscar ballot counting works. Every time it's explained it sounds more complicated than the time before. But it's cool that EW staged a mock nomination with readers.
Towleroad me sounding off about the Oscars again. I can't shut up. I'm Unstoppable. I'm nominated for best Sound Editing, bitch.
Cinema Blend Saoirse Ronan joins The Hobbit (but the book supposedly has no female characters. I haven't read it since I was like 11 and it bored the shit out of me. But then, if it didn't have any female characters that's probs why.
Adrian's Film Music listens to Alexander Desplat's The Ghost Writer
Gold Derby more on the Burlesque snubbing in Best Song. I'm still so pissed about this. What I don't understand about the music branch's voting structure is why it's practically an invitation to sabotage potential nominees if you hate them. In what other Oscar category can you vote AGAINST a potential nominee? That voting system needs serious rethinking.
Montreal Gazette has a fairly well reasoned piece on the lack of people of color in this year's Oscar nominations. I was just discussing this on twitter. My basic feeling on this, though I realize it's not a popular one, is that the Academy is unfairly blamed for this year in and year out. Too many people view "The Academy" as interchangeable with "Hollywood". But in truth the Academy is a tiny minority of Hollywood reflecting Hollywood back at itself with some deep filtering (i.e. favoring dramas, message movies, biopics, period pieces,). When actors of any color get good roles in the types of movies that everyone understands Oscar will honor, then they end up fighting it out for nominations.
"It’s the role that wins the Oscar, not the actor."
-several smart people throughout time.
The problem lies in getting the roles in the first place. And that's where things gets complicated and worth arguing about. Too many great actors of color don't get the career opportunities their talent merits. But that's a different discussion than the Oscar nominations.
On a happier note to wrap up ~ the first Oscar Promo!
Alexander Desplat, Cher, Natalie Portman, The Hobbit, Tilda Swinton
Reader Comments (27)
Anne & James are so cute!
They're gonna be SUCH good hosts. Hahaha. I love them.
Hopefully next year we can have Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen. :D
The Hobbit's lack of female characters:
This is exactly why, in the sixth grade, I wrote a short story about my imaginary life with Cher instead of reading along with the class. I looked forward to reading time every day.
I 've always liked Natalie Portman, and still do, but this overexposiiton is getting ridiculous. What's next? A home video of her as a baby, playing with a puppy? It's like there're two Natalie Portmans, the discrete, low-key -I'm pissed by all the celebrity thing so I try to stay away- we liked, and this one now. And to think that there were people who thought that Kate Winslet's campaign for the Reader was a shameless cry at wanting the Oscar just because she had been in that Extras skit...
I don't know, could all this aggresive campaigning exploit in Portman's face and lose the Oscar to another much more quiet/reserved hot girl, like Michelle Williams? If Monique's win proved it wasn't necessary to kiss everyone to win an Oscar, maybe Portman can prove the opposite.
I saw Cabaret last year on stage and if it would have been a 15-year-old playing Sally instead of a twenty something, I don't think I would been able to enjoy it as much as I did. On top of that she has a preadolescent voice. A bit uncomfortable, isn't it?
I have the same general attitude on non-white Oscar nominees, and a lot of people frame the issue the wrong way. Whenever I complain that it was embarrassing for the Academy to wait 74 years to award a black woman Best Actress, they usually fire back with, "Well, who would YOU have given it to?" But that's not even my complaint.
It doesn't matter whether past nominated performances from, say, Cicely Tyson or Whoopi Goldberg should have beaten their competitors (though a great argument could be made for both of them); the issue is that Hollywood didn't cultivate a lead performance for an African American actress that was worthy of the industry's highest acting honor until the turn of the 21st Century...and hasn't been duplicated since.
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"...the issue is that Hollywood didn't cultivate a lead performance for an African American actress that was worthy of the industry's highest acting honor until the turn of the 21st Century..."
I completely agree with this and it's bewildering to see that there are still so many ignorantly arguing that, well, actors of colour are simply not as good as their white counterparts. Because that's what arguments like "who would you have given it to" boils down to.
When do the Film Bitch awards kick in again? I'm curious to see the Best Actress nominations!
Re: Blacks and the Oscars
The writer of this article astutely states what I've only been saying to people for the past forever. The dearth of minority representation with respect to yearly Academy Awards nominations is symptomatic of a broader issue -- the lack of minority representation at the major studios. Filmmakers (and by that I mean all involved in the process -- writers, directors, producers, actors, and artisans) have to be given the opportunities to prove themselves in high-profile, quality projects, and that can only happen when people in places of power are there to green light them.
On the race thing - what makes me really sad is the fact that Gabourey Sidibe came along last year, with a performance deserving of the oscar, but then politics came into play and they give it to Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side. I mean, come on. When a deserving performance from a black actress comes as far as to be nominated and then you just ignore it? Gr.
Iggy, maybe we'll all get her weekly obstetric ultrasound scans, so we'll all know exacly how much is the baby's weight, height, fetal position, crown rump lenght, abdominal circunference, blood pressure, how much weight is she gaining every week, how is her skin reacting to being pregnant, whether she has pimples or cloasmas, the results of every blood and urine test, her new bra size.....I'm pretty sure there will be countless interviews and profiles about her maternity style and maternity clothes...........ugh, I'm so tired of her already!!!!
Philip, out of the five nominees last year, Gabourey would be my win.
Gabby didn’t deserve to win. The nomination is fine as gesture of goodwill for a newcomer who has no future in this business as a star or a high profile character actor. She was always going to be “that girl” from Precious.
Maybe she'll always be Precious, but I liked her performance better than Mulligan's, I did not see Julie and Julia and while I LOVE Helen Mirren, I wouldn't give her another Oscar just a few years after The Queen for that performance, as good as it was.
Hmm, Gabby Sidibe has already been a regular on a successful show and has filmed 2 movies since Precious, so I think she's doing pretty well with her career so far !
It's not Portman's fault that the media is hooked into her impending marriage/pregnancy. If this wasn't happening at the same time as the "Black Swan" implosion (and "No Strings Attached" for that matter), I'm sure we might just get a few paparazzi photos and a People spread once the baby was born and/or wedding photos. This is one of those perfect storm media blitzes that don't happen everyday. She can't control when all of these films are opening, or when Oscar comes knocking, or when she meets the love of her life and gets knocked up. I get how the potential oversaturation can turn people on her, but at the same time, you're an adult that can turn the channel, not read the blogs on her, not listen to her acceptance speeches (until the Oscars I guess), not buy magazines with her on the cover, etc. At some point you have to take responsibility for how you perceive popular culture, especially the media's filters of it.
Rami,
Gab has a vocal online following. I saw her work on “The Big C” – she won’t be showing up to anymore awards ceremonies as a nominee unless it’s the NAACP Image Awards.
So? What does that have to do with her being deserving for Precious?
agree that Gabby totally deserved it for Precious (of the people nominated) though Tilda Swinton gave one o the best performances of the whole decade and got snubbed. But what can you do?
Rax,
The Supporting Category is designed for transients and overdue veterans.
The Lead Category is designed for movie stars and critically acclaimed Academy darlings.
/3rtfull -- well that's actually not what they're designed for. That's just what the Academy uses them for ;)
I respectfully disagree XL. Portman has been a star for quite a long time, she has already had peaks in her career when she could've been as exposed as now: when she got the leading part in the Star Wars saga (before we actually saw the movies), or when Closer and her first nominatinon happened. The video linked here, when she was 15 could've been leaked then, but it's only now when it happens. Bottom line: sure, the media and the paparazzi are well, the way they are, but she's put herself there because there's an important Oscar campaign going on. Just compare: Penélope Cruz whose husband Javier Bardem has also been in the Oscar talk for months and is now a nominee, gave birth a few days ago. We know nothing else. And they're as good target for paparazzi and the tabloids as Portman.
She has the right to campaign the way she wants? Certainly, but it can backfire. And it's almost impossible to read anything about movies online without knowing something new about Portman. It has stopped being a choice.
I also disagree with the point about "if you don't like it, don't look" which is so common online. With that line of argumentation, I could go out and walk around naked sporting a boner and say the same thing: if you don't like it, don't look. Literally, I could do it, there's no specific regulation forbidding public nudity where I live (only for areas where there're underage people). But then, there's common sense. But even without being so crude (sorry for the mental picture), you could publish online essays praising and encouraging murderers, rapists or just bankers, and still say: hey, you're an adult, if you don't like it , don't visit those sites. Would that make it right? No, imo.
I bet that Portman was really disliked at that summer camp...not least because theater types are viciously jealous. But mostly because I've seen many 15 year olds that could have sung the pants off of her, not to mention the acting (the accent, anyone?). No doubt there were plenty of kids at camp who could have done the role better--surely her "already in movies" status helped. It just goes to show that if you're pretty enough, Hollywood will always give you another chance (even if you can't speak convincingly, just ask Milla Jovovich...or Portman in Star Wars, for that matter). If Hollywood keeps you around then most of the arts are ready to follow suit. And if you appear to work hard enough and look really pretty while doing it, they might just hand you an Oscar.
Or one could compare her posture of advertizing her pregnancy with those of other pregnant nominees- and there were a few. Recently, Rachel Weisz and Catherine Zeta Jones both wo when heavily pregnant, more visibly pregnant than Portman is now- hell, Zeta Jones was huge. Streep was pregnant when she won for Sophie's choice. Annette Benning was eight a half monts and gave birth two weeks after the cerimony in which she was nominated for American Beauty. Blanchett and Marcia Gay Harden were both nominated -and lost- and attended the cerimony displaying their big bumps. Wasnt Amy Adams pregnant when nominated for Doubt? I dont remember.
God, compare Portman's idiotic Golden Globe speech to Weisz Oscar speech, and see how the latter is a lot deeper, sensible, has a lot more elegance, poise, grace, maturity, dignity and depth, approaching the subjects that really matter on the occasion and keeping private matters private:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UludWDxgmfk
With regards to the actors of colour (I include Asian actors also in this, like Ken Watanabe for example), I acutally was curious about this so I ran a spreedsheet of all nominees and winners since 2002-2010 (the 'breakthrough' year Halle Berry won to last year) and counted how many actors of colour were nominated or won in the four acting categories and I think this year was an anomoly.
In the last 9 years out of a possible 180 nominations, 25 went to minority actors, which is around 14%. Out of a possible 36 winners, 7 won (Berry, Washington, WHittaker, Monique, Foxx, Hudson, and Freeman), which is 11%.
The categories with most nominations are Actor (8 out of 45 nominees, 18%) and Supporting Actress (9 out of 45, 20%). The least is Actress (2 out 45, 4%, a shockingly low number) and Supporting Actor (6 out of 45, 13%).
It should be noted that this year is unusual as its the first year since 2001 with no minority actors in the running. A bit geeky of me I know but hope it helps.
Rami,
The Best Actress stats aren’t shockingly low. Halle Berry was telling the truth with her hysterics that it’s a big fucking deal. The fact that people made fun of her afterwards is sad when she was telling the truth. She’s not a consistent actress so there’s no surprise she hasn’t been back for another nominated performance.
I would like to point out one thing about Portman:
This video that has been "leaked" of her doing Cabaret? Was first "leaked" by Oprah over ten years ago when Portman was promoting either Anywhere but Here or Where the Heart Is. A recent interview just recycled it.
I have to agree about policing your own exposure. The reasons tv shows and online sites do this is because it gets them the numbers they want. Portman became popular with Black Swan, she got the usual media blitz that surrounds frontrunners. Unfortunately, the got pregnant and engaged and as baby-crazy as the media is at the best of times there was no way they weren't going to jump on this. Then the studio behind No Strings Attached decides to capitalize on BS's success and release the movie now.
It's unfortunate but people need to chill with the conspiracy theories. Same thing happened last year with Sandra Bullock. (Let's be honest; if the husband/baby thing had happened around Oscar time it would've been a 1000 times worse.) Now we have to deal with every hack on the web and entertainment "news" shows airing their made-up theories on how every.single.thing. will affect her career and life for the next five years. Learn to change the channel. I've been a fan for years and at least once a week visit the largest fansite for her and I've managed to avoid most of the media coverage of her; haven't watched an interview, read an interview, and fast-forwarded the dvr recording of the GG to only see the highlights and didn't even watch her acceptance speech.
Why does awards season bring out the bitchy paranoid child in people?
RE: the Cabaret video - she can't sing at all. Watching someone that young do Cabaret is a little uncomfortable.