You Better Werk... And Link
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 7:10PM 
Yahoo Movies! I talk Best Actress with a bunch of other internet peeps.
FourFour & The Daily "The Tao of Ru" and outtakes from Rich's week (!!!) with RuPaul, the world's most famous drag queen of all time.
EW Gary Ross gets ahead of himself saying Jennifer Lawrence should be Oscar nominated for Hunger Games. Er... shouldn't we see even one of her competitors first, let alone dozens. It's... February!
THR on Brad Pitt's Daily Show proposal for a new Oscar competition system "Hands on Oscar." This was fun last night. I ♥ Brad. I don't know if you know that about me. [Yes, I know you know that about me.]
You know what I think they should do? We should just put a trophy on the table, like one of those car contests, we should all just put our hands on it and see who can hold it the longest. And the last man standing takes the trophy! Hands on the Oscar”
Rope of Silicon Russell Crowe wanted for Noah in Darren Aronofsky's Noah's Ark. What's with Crowe being suddenly in demand again? He must have recently expressed interest in getting back to it.
Coming Soon reports that Viola Davis has signed on for two new roles, both book adaptations, Ender's Game and Beautiful Creatures. Strangely the latter is listed as a lead role but given the book description it sounds very much like a small role. Have any of you read the book?
IndieWire speaks up for "7 films you must see this February"
Playbill You'd think Broadway would eventually get tired of adapting hit films into stage musicals. I mean, many of them flop so it's nothing like a guarantee. But they won't quit. Next up: Back to the Future.
Kenneth in the (212) has an interesting reaction to Madonna's Superbowl interview
In Contention Kodak taking its name off the Theater O' Oscar?
Awards Daily reports on the Martin Scorsese tribute at Santa Barbara
Liz Smith is so right about how the Oscar nominees play the "no, no, I can't" game after their nominations
Reader Comments (14)
Brad's working it....he might be able to pull this out. He even caved and finally did Inside the Actors Studio, which I can't wait to see!
But I read Clooney is doing a home interview with 60 Minutes, so...these two keep trying to top each other while also pretending to be friendly rivals. Yeah, right...haha
I thought people were say Viola wasn't going to get any movie roles unless she won the Oscar.
^ Who said that? That sounds like a pretty silly thing to say. The Streep fanatics give me heart palpitations! /Minny
Bia, I know right. But it's okay, because Brad is way more likable, in my opinion. He doesn't thrust his "charm" on anyone like George...which doesn't even come off as charm, just arrogance, in my opinion.
I was just thinking about Crowe too. Weird how things just pop out of the subconscious, often at the same time as for other people. Subliminal connections may also get that going, as I was wondering about Christopher Plummer and which of his roles I found most deserving, which led my mind to The Insider and to Crowe, who also probably turned in his best performance in that one.
@Philip
It's all over the internet. It's part of the campaign. Dontyaknow?
Yes, brandz, I'm sure they've been saying just that (and it's officially part of the campaign!). Or, they've been saying that an Oscar win will help her get better (or at least more) roles. ;-)
Seems pretty uncontroversial to me (not that every actor can successfully turn that Oscar heat into more durable, career-length mojo).
And there goes viola's career :(
@Steve: Yes, that explains all those ads in Variety and along Sunset Boulevard where Viola Davis cries into her empty oatmeal bowl, beneath the block-letter caption, "For just one prize, this actress could work!"
Re: Back to the Future musical
I can't wait for the song "One Point Twenty-One Gigawatts"!
//Has the stodgy academy ever nominated or awarded an actress who was willing to portray a woman ruined by motherhood? I doubt it.//
This from the round table discussion (I couldn't comment there) Matt's comment immediately brought to mind Nicole Kidman in the Others, which she should have been nominated for IMO instead of Moulin Rouge - she carried the Others on her shoulders entirely; those final scene still resonate very strongly with me. But because she's a bad mommy, of course she doesn't get a nod. (Whereas Theron played a lesbian murderer and gets the award. I'm not saying she didn't deserve it, but I think Matt's right that "comfort" plays a big part to voters, who you would hope would be more discriminating, but generally aren't.)
Re: films made into Broadway plays, I heard an ad yesterday on the radio for a stage musical version of "Once". I guess it makes sense - it already has some great songs that help to tell the story and are essential to the emotional impact, but I really can't see a film as delicate and as "perfect" (yeah, I'm a fan) as that one making a successful transition to the stage. (And I'm not saying it's literally a perfect film, but its one that I have no desire to change a thing about it.) For one thing, the songs would have to be ramped up and amplified to fill the theater, and lose the very qualities that made me fall in love with them (and the film).
What next, a stage musical of "Before Sunset"?
On the other hand, if it's successful and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova get an income out of it, I guess I can live with that. (IF - assuming it's successful and the production and the producers and backers don't swallow up every penny.)
@Nick: Haha, EXACTLY.
Gotta love awards season and the heightened responses it engenders. Now, a simple industry truth (an Oscar, being positive recognition from the "elites" in the field, would be a career booster) must be reinterpreted and pitched to the rafters. ("Viola will never work again without her Oscar!!!")
(After I posted that first comment, I was sorta worried I hadn't made the tongue-in-cheekiness clear. But that's the risk one takes with sarcasm on the internets, I suppose.)
Sorry..but I have to agree with Brandz! There is the feeling that we have to award Viola now because she may never be nominated or find good films again.In fact we have to put her in LEAD as well. BUt again may not get a role like this again.
Which, sadly, may be the case. Her 2 next projects she lined up are clearly supporting..one is even a sci fi movie...and this with all the Oscar hype!
BTW... looks like August Osage County may be filming in September!
I love Pitt's hands-on-Oscar idea. I always thought the Best Director prize should be determined by a live cage match. It's much more fitting to what directors do, right? Last year, Fincher would have won, not because of how good The Social Network was, but because he would have strangled every one with one of those ridiculous scarves that Darren Aronofsky always wears.
Haven't you seen the "Game Change" trailer (Moore as Palin, Harris as McCain) yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IPhh7mch5zo