Madonna is a Member of AMPAS. Pixar Wears Kilts. And Other News

In Contention "No Refunds" sign posted outside The Tree of Life. It's the crazies.
Towleroad gay pride, Cars 2, Bad Teacher, James McAvoy, etcetera
Twitter Look, it's one of the most amusing Official Tweets of the weekend. 

I mean, who knew? Madonna votes on Oscars?!? They haven't even deigned her worthy of Best Song nominations even though she totally has been. 
Boy Culture reminds us that Madonna has good taste in movies. 

Cineuropa I hadn't been following the Cloud Atlas screen adaptation story but talk about complicated. It's got three directors: Germany's Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski (of The Matrix fame though I wish they were more thought of as the Bound duo); four Oscar winners: Berry, Broadbent, Hanks and Sarandon; six different stories all set in different eras with the actors playing multiple characters.
Wesley Morris if you're looking for a surprisingly strong defense of Cars 2. I love Wesley but Cars 2? Blech.
Everything I Know... reviews the stage to screen concert of Company with Neil Patrick Harris 
The Wrap Taylor Hackford will serve another term as President of the DGA. Congrats to Mr. Helen Mirren.
Filmes do Chico top 100 gay films. One may quibble with the order but how many have you seen? 

Oh, remember that movie The Rocketeer? Wonder why they haven't rebooted that? Here's a fanmade short celebrating it... well, the character more accurately.

The Rocketeer 20th anniversary from John Banana on Vimeo.

Off Cinema
Guardian I'd been wondering why we haven't received any Missy Elliott music in so long. Turns out she's been suffering from Graves disease. But "Block Party" is coming in the near future. Yay. And get well soon, Missy.
fourfour Rich's night out during the gayest of gay nights after NY's historic decision. 
The Daily What "Yahoo 'answer of the day'" in regards to the gay marriage decision. Hee.

Third Looks
I hope it doesn't disappoint y'all that I am not one to rush at every "exclusive" that's posted across 203,001 blogs at once whenever a new anything arrives. But here are three newish ones from the past few days that people seem to like and I do, too. From, respectively:  The Hobbit, The Raven and Pixar's Brave.

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in "THE HOBBIT" coming December 2012John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe in "THE RAVEN" coming March 2012Princess Merida in "BRAVE" coming June 2012

Final Fun Fact: The Pixar animation department is wearing kilts every Friday while working on Brave (2012). Isn't that adorbs? (I learned that here.)

"Brave", We Need You

Behold the blurry teaser poster (courtesy of Pixar Planet) for Pixar's Brave an original story with their first female lead "Princess Merida"

I normally wouldn't post a blurry advertisement, but having just seen Cars 2, I'm going to rub this teaser all over me for soothing balm. I need this one to be great. Cars 2 stinks (more later) and the Toy Story short that proceeds it "Hawaiian Vacation" is also soul-crushing. Oh Pixar, you said farewell to these characters so beautifully last year. You had a whole world weeping under 3D glasses and then you bring the whole gang back instantly for such a disposable mediocrity? What are we going to do with you? We depend on you! Love - a concerned fan since that bootleg viewing of Tin Toy in the 1980s.

Baby Magneto and Other Links

Flickr the set of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is growing.
IndieWire seems there are two Jeff Buckley biopics in the works and the Penn Badgley version is not the one with the Buckley estate blessing.
Austin Translation "The Iron Grill" funny illustration to celebrate yesterday's finale of Game of Thrones (did you watch?)
I Need My Fix new Jason Statham movie The Killer Elite looks like every other Jason Statham movie.
Awards Daily just days after we covered that Dick Tracy event, in which Beatty said a sequel is in the works, comes news that the legend has another film nearly ready to start production. I'll believe these two films when I see them. But I loooooove my Beatty so I'm hoping both pan out.
vitorugo "Erik's first..." HAHA!

Illustration by Victor Hugo

Classic! (There's too much iron in his diaper.). Don't you now wish that Pixar had made X-Men First Class Mutant Babies instead of Matthew Vaughn?

OffCinema
Diesel Sweeties "The Herald of Deliciousness" one for you cat owners out there.
AV Club Meredith Blake is reviewing the first season of The Real World. you know back when it was trailblazing, experimental and "real" feeling ...and kind of awesome. MTV immediately fucked it up the following season but there's always season 1. It's kind of random that this review is happening but also awesome.
Raja "Diamond Crowned Queen" for you RuPaul's Drag Race fans

Introducing... Princess Merida

For what seemed like 17 weeks, I kept receiving 'character intro' emails introducing each new set of wheels for Pixar's Cars 2. That's Junk Mail! Even if you're one of those peculiar people who really loved Cars, could you possibly care enough to need weeks upon weeks of rollout images of sad descendants of Herbie the Love Bug (I'm sorry but Herbie > Cars) prior to release? I keep trying to pretend that Cars and its sequel don't exist so that I can enjoy the happy mass delusion that Pixar has never made a dud. Why do they have to make it so hard with the constant marketing. Don't make me think about Cars 2!

Here's a character worth getting a first good look at as seen at the Daily What. It's Princess Merida from BRAVE which will open on June 22nd, 2012.

Yay! She looks a bit like Lil' Orphan Annie but with pupils and warrior skills. And Sandy the dog is a big black horse.

Okay, they don't look a thing alike but we love the gingers at the movies. They're like one big feisty sorority with Julianne Moore as the head sister. Nicole Kidman is constantly having to go through initation and hazing all over again since she can't commit to the red.

Armie Hammer Can Fire A Machine Gun (And Other Linkables)

FilmDetail GASP. Terrence Malick actually photographed in Cannes this weekend. Or is it a cardboard cutout?
Vulture picks the best (and worst) performances from Glee Season Two now that it's wrapped. Sound choices throughout actually.
Austin Translation the latest Pixar short La Luna wraps production.

Dan Hipp 'I am Tetsuo!' (an Akira moment)
FourFour on Kate Bush's "Director's Cut"
Gold Derby Jane Lynch (Glee) may host the Emmys
IonCinema proves that it's not just Oscars that cajole people into ridiculous predictions: herewith predictions for Cannes May 2012 edition.
Pajiba imagines worst-cast baby names from the current crop of starry couplings.
Kenneth in the (212) Justin Bartha on Matthew McConaughey's McConaunuts. What the...

Oh and mark your calendars for March 8th, 2013 if you're so inclined. That's when they'll be releasing Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful, one of many Wizard of Oz themed projects that is stupidly not the mega-popular half a billion plus grossing Wicked. Alas.

Finally...
did Armie Hammer really need to compare kissing Leonardo DiCaprio to operating a machine gun in that you just have to pretend to know what you're doing even though you don't?

Excuse me Armie but you know what you're doing! Unless you're marriage is really unconventional. I'm constantly bemused by this topic. Hello world? Listen up. As someone who has kissed both men (duh) and women (what? I experimented in college) I'll break it down for you: both men and women are human [GASP]. Each human being has lips and a tongue whether or not they have a penis or a vagina. I know that's hard to wrap your head around, world, but it's TOTALLY TRUE. Have you ever met someone without lips or a tongue? Kissing is kissing and the  major variable, gender-wise, is facial hair. Otherwise the differences are pretty much person to person. It feels best when you're hot for each other. It feels dumbest when you're not which any professional actor is more than well acquainted with as kissing is a basic job requirement; more basic than firing automated weaponry! The end.