Laura Linky

MovieFone records history: live blogging the midnight showing of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 3D.
Gawker and other outlets on the shocking appearance of Macauley Culkin. That's a lot of weight lost since the Mila Kunis days. Not that that breakup had anything to do with it. Sorry. My mind wandered.
ESPN Page 2 Rising actor Michael B Jordan on his color blind casting in Chronicle and his time with Friday Night Lights
Vulture Channing Tatum. The Cameron Diaz of Men?
24 Frames celebrities bitching about Oscar snubs
Playbill Lea Michele may reprise her breakthrough role for a Spring Awakening movie

Happy Birthday to 'The Face'
My New Plaid Pants celebrates the long strange enlightening career of Laura Dern, or "The Face" as we like to call her.
Nick's Flick Picks will also be celebrating her. But which movie? I keep refreshing my screen but nothing is there yet. Hurrrrryyyyyyy

... as soon as I typed the header up top, I realized you'd be thinking of The Lovely Laura Linney™ instead so, whaddya know, Nick provides there, too.  He wrote a provocative personal review of The Laramie Project, which features one of Linney's performances he hadn't seen. She's part of that telefilm's grand mosaic of real characters as a woman who can't comprehend the meaning of "hate crime". It's a must read if you remember where you were when you heard the news about Matthew Shepard all those long years ago.

Ten Lauras We Love ...

1. The Face
2. The Lovely Laura Linney
3. Laura Elena Haring whispering "Mulholland Drive" hypnotically
4. Laura (1944)
5. "Laura" by the Scissor Sisters,
6. "Laura Holt" on Remington Steele
7. "Laura" in Pariah
8. Lara Croft (what? that counts, right?)
9. Laura "Gloria" Branigan (*sniffle)
10. ...and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Sometimes. But she can be annoying.

No I don't know why we just went there either but go with it. We believe in following trains of thoughts especially when they spill right over into the c-o-m-m-e-n-t-s

Morning After. Three Globey Flashbacks, One Winners List

1. Miss Golden Globe y'all.

It's Andie Macdowell's daughter Rainey Qualley. She totally did a great job, directing traffic with those arms like she was born to work on a tarmac guiding 747s to their gates. I mean this in the nicest possible way because some Miss Double Gs totally shirk their navigational responsibilities. She was just not having people stand in the wrong spot.

2.  Uggie is Made of Ham

Not only was he pulling focus during the Best Picture speech, he was also working the red carpet, with or without Penelope Ann Miller as Vanna White. I hope he's being compensated well.

3. Laura Dern, a skinny Christmas Tree with THE FACE on top.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Complete Winners List in case you missed it... I know I missed a few of these during the live blog.

MOVIES
Picture, Drama: “The Descendants.”

Picture, Musical or Comedy: “The Artist.”

Actor, Drama: George Clooney, “The Descendants.”

Actress, Drama: Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady.”

Director: Martin Scorsese, “Hugo.”

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist.”

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn.”

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners.”

Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, “The Help.”

Foreign Language: “A Separation.”

Animated Film: “The Adventures of Tintin.”

Screenplay: Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris.”

Original Score: Ludovic Bource, “The Artist.”

Original Song: “Masterpiece” (music and lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry), “W.E.”

TELEVISION

Series, Drama: “Homeland,” Showtime.

Series, Musical or Comedy: “Modern Family,” ABC.

Actor, Drama: Kelsey Grammer, “Boss.”

Actress, Drama: Claire Danes, “Homeland.”

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Laura Dern, “Enlightened.”

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Matt LeBlanc, “Episodes.”

Miniseries or Movie: “Downton Abbey (Masterpiece),” PBS.

Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Kate Winslet, “Mildred Pierce.”

Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Idris Elba, “Luther.”

Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Jessica Lange, “American Horror Story.”

Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones.”

"I slept in a few dumpsters."

"Maybe I slept on some babies."

Red Carpet: "Women in Hollywood", The Event

In Red Carpet Convos, a rotating group of panelists looks at what people are wearing to events like The Emmys, film festival premieres, and various random events, and use it for an excuse to talk about actresses. Today's guest is Guy Lodge from In Contention. 

Nathaniel: The annual Women in Hollywood even took place this weekend -- or perhaps Monday? all the days be running together lately -- so let's start with the Household Names. You can just say "Pfeiffer", "Aniston", "Witherspoon" and "Heigl" and everyone knows who you're talking about. Even people  that don't go to the movies (strange strange people, though they be!)

the über famous

Guy: You know it's the Women in Hollywood event because This Is Serious and Serious Women Do Not Wear Color.
Nathaniel: Michelle has been serious her whole life. If she's feeling unusually frisky she'll throw a red at'cha but it's almost always, 90% of the time, black.
Guy: As if she needs its slimming effect.
Nathaniel: Right.

Guy: I realize that to say a word against Pfeiffer at the Pfilm Experience is a bit like pissing on the crucifix in a cathedral, but I"m... not crazy abotu this look on her? The mid calf length, combined with the severity of the black, is a bit schoolmarmy.
Nathaniel: Well, you're a good sport about my dissings of Aniston so I can take it.
Guy: It's interesting that her belt resembles a roll of film, though, since she seems to have so little interest in the medium these days.
Nathaniel: [sniffle] I do love that she's gone all out with the detailing though to make up for the absence of color.

Guy: Yes, Pfeiffer's always been good with the details -- the glasp on her purse -- CLASP not glasp-- on her purse looks a bit like the vial from Death Becomes Her.
Nathaniel: You were thinking "[gasp] NOW a warning?!?" which is totally understandable because Michelle is 53 years old so she's clearly been to see Lisle for that age-defying potion. 

We have to discuss the psychological profiling of their individualistic choices in cleavage, though. Immediately Reese is confusing me because when i first saw this i swear to god i was thinking "chest hair". it totally threw ‬me.
 

Guy: I'm glad I'm not the only one puzzled by it. I was wondering if she has a giant sunflower tattoo in progress on her chest -- just the petals haven't been added yet.
Nathaniel: Decolattage as character profile: Pfeiffer: angular, classic; Aniston: freewheeling California golden; Reese: .....; Katharine:" Look at me! No, don't look at me. Ack. What am I doing?" 
Guy: Still, I'm grateful for Reese's weird chest-lace. It's the only thing  keeping her from looking like she's abotu to sell me a house.
Nathaniel: Tell her the price is too high! Too high! 

poll by twiigs.com

Nathaniel: Another fun game we could play is "Which of these four women has the worst taste in scripts?"

More on these superstars and nine more actreses after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Enlinkened

TV|Line Madonna may be this year's halftime performer at the Superbowl
The Oreo Experience. An amusingly provocative (and depressing) look at fall movie trailers and what the white and black characters get to do in them. 
My New Plaid Pants on Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus... coming soon. I'll admit a lack of familiarity with this particular Shakespeare play, too. 
ioncinema Andrew Haigh, the writer/director of Weekend names his ten favorite films. I asked him a similar question (which I didn't include in the published interview) and he only mentioned three of these: Don't Look Now, Last Night and Some Like It Hot.

Natasha VC on best uses of music in a Martin Scorsese film
Movie|Line Netflix Ten Most Rented Movies. An Interesting and Irritating List.
Shock Till You Drop asks David Cronenberg about his future projects including sequels (?) to Eastern Promises and The Fly. I spoke with Cronenberg today (interview coming eventually) but I didn't have time to talk up future theoretical movies since my predilection is always towards actual existing movies. Crazy, I know. I feel so lonely sometimes since most people only seem to care about future movies... though obviously I would be quite happy to see either of those imaginary movies as I'm a fan of both originals.

New York Mag talks to Laura Dern (Enlightened) who is my new hero for saying this:

I’m becoming fluent in French so I can go to France and make French films when I’m 60."

I have been suggesting this to actresses since I started writing a decade ago and finally someone is smart enough to take my advice. (okay okay. Maybe Laura doesn't read The Film Experience but let me have my fantasies. Shut up!)

Finally, Sasha over at  Awards Daily sounds off on the old complaint/notion that talking Oscar sucks the air out of the film room... particularly during the fall when we should be talking about how good the movies are. I'm in complete agreement here about film advocacy being the thing people are missing when they bitch about the Oscars. I discovered my cinephilia through the Oscars (as have several other people I've been lucky enough to meet over the years through my writing). They're two separate things now -- as they should be but all things take time -- but I take no issue with them sharing space each year.