The Not Grammys Experience

John Waters, Grammy Nominee !This isn't The Music Experience but we should glance toward the Grammy nominees. Among the "record" and "song" of the year categories, which are kind of like the actress and actor to "album of the year"'s best picture --it's a tortured analogy, just go with it --  my votes would go to... no, I can't do it. No preferences. I like most of them but, frankly, they all remind me of other better songs especially "Chandelier" which is like "Umbrella: The Sequel" and "Fancy" which is like a weaker and more annoying Stefani track. Plus I thought "All About the Bass" was a two-for-one Novelty Song download deal with Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" -- I had no idea it was respectable music! What would the Best Picture equivalent be at the Oscars?  I can't even imagine... 

But, again, not a music guy. Outside of movie music as an extension of a my cinephilia and musical theater as an extension of my inner soul (Proud Show Queen and I don't care who knows it... Haters gonna hate hate hate. Shake it off!) I don't think about music that much except to think "What should i put on my gym playlist to help motivate the exercize that I'm not going to do no matter how great the playlist is?!?"

Actors or Directors among the Grammy-nominated this year

• James Franco (Spoken Word nominee for "Actors Anonymous")
  I think it's worth noting that Franco has yet to win a major prize beyond a Golden Globe but he has now been nominated for the Oscar, the Emmy, and the Grammy Clearly has his sights set on a Tony at some point, too.  
• Cheyenne Jackson (Principal Soloist for San Francisco Symphony's version of "West Side Story" nominated for Musical Theater Album)_
• Neil Patrick Harris (Principal Soloist for "Hedwig" revival nominated for Musical Theater Album)
• John Waters (Spoken Word nominee for "Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America")

MOVIE RELATED CATEGORIES which are always a curious mix of Oscar years given differing eligiblity periods are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

The Link World

Gilt City contest to see IF/THEN the wickedly talented one and only Idina Menzel's new Broadway show
The Wire is documenting the Kevin Spacey / Rob Ford feud
Instagram Madonna dresses up as Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons
Coming Soon 3D retrofitting continues for animated films and The Incredibles and Ratatouille are in process
i09 another "Let it Go" cover (they never end) this time using famous Disney cartoon voices 

Cinema Blend rumors circulating that Halle Berry has been cut from X-Men Days of Future Past. Less bad wigs in a movie is always a plus
In Contention Guy Lodge on the winners of the Miami Film Festival includeing the Brazilian thriller A Wolf at the Door. Could it be their Oscar submission this year?
Variety talks to Scarlett Johansson about Woody Allen and like Cate Blanchett she's level-headed about it

Ongoing Controversy
Felicia Day is upset, like we are, about the casting of a white actress as Tiger Lily though I'm linking up to this because even in the pro-ethnic casting majority people keep perpetuating the notion that it would be a risk and no such famous actors exist because they don't get the opportunities and in all of this so few people ever mention the fact that there IS a Native American actress who is beautiful, not completely obscure, and the right age for it who has already carried a movie. How can people have forgotten Q'Orianka Kilcher from The New World this quickly? She is 24 and talented and beautiful and this is ridiculous.  Obviously I missed my calling to be a casting director and slap sense into everyone.

I had already posted this on Twitter but just to remind everyone this is the movie she starred in and this is what she looks like now.

Q'Orianka in The New World (2005) and last year at an Oscar Party

In Development
Variety because there hasn't been enough film and television related to Silence of the Lambs, a new possible biopic of a psychiatrist who treated the man who inspired Buffalo Bill 
Variety casting on Greta Gerwig's sitcom continues. Adorable Nicholas D'Agosto from Masters of Sex on board
Coming Soon it's tough to keep track of Clint Eastwood's projects but after Jersey Boys he's doing American Sniper and it looks like Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller will star as man and wife in the true story about a legendary Navy SEAL.
Empire Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat) is working on an original film musical !
Cinema Blend Jon Hamm and Zach Galifanakis will headline the comedy Keeping up with the Joneses about a suburban couple whose neighbors are undercover agents. No word yet on the casting of the wives

And FYI... our own Amir Soltani is launching a new podcast called "Hello Cinema" with a focus on Iranian Cinema. Here's the teaser...

And the Link Goes To...

Mashable "12 Ways June Squibb is the New Jennifer Lawrence"
Kenneth in the (212) Indiewire article on The Normal Heart appears to be outing Taylor Kitsch. Typo? Weird punctuation? Odd sentence structure?
Yahoo Movies premieres the Paddington teaser. But don't get too excited Nicole Kidman is nowhere to be seen
/Film The Avengers Age of Ultron scrambling to rethink shooting schedule. They start shooting next month when Scarlett Johansson will totally be showing (4 months pregnant at the moment)

MNPP do dump or marry: two Hemsworths, one Ben
Dark Horizons Hugh Jackman planning to hang up the Wolverine claws soon. YES! I 100% co-sign everything my friend JA says about this one on his blog:

Honestly at seven films down I'm kind of ready for Jackman to do something else, too. As long as he keeps taking his clothes off, of course! But the bulging vein Wolverine look has gotten to be too much. Smaller and sleeker but still naked - that's what he should do.

Oscar Hangover
Self Styled Siren a must read on Kim Novak's industry history and her Oscar appearance
LA Times a Memo to Hollywood on Lupita Nyong'o's future. (Her slate is pretty much free now -- Who's going to sign her to what?)
MNPP is this the best picture from the Oscar after parties? The expressions!
The Wire "We All Have To Get On The Same Page Of What Oscars Year This Is" I'm so happy Joe Reid has joined me on this lonely battlefield  
Variety 5 brands that deserve an Oscar for marketing. Arby's certainly made a brilliant move on Oscar day

Today's Watch...

Idina Menzel remembering to have fun with the third defining song of her career on Jimmy Kimmel. (If you haven't been paying attention -- her two other huge cultural moments were "Defying Gravity" in Wicked and Maureen in general in Rent & "Take Me or Leave Me")