Viola Winning. Quvenzhané Accepting. Kerry Collecting.

I didn't want to let this little awards factoid get lost in the hubbub surrounding this year's Oscar nominees but here this: Viola Davis, last year's shouldawon Oscar casualty who handed Daniel Day Lewis his SAG trophy for Lincoln last weekend, just won her second consecutive Best Actress prize at the NAACP Image Awards. She was, of course, the big winner last season for The Help which also took the Picture and Supporting Actress trophies. This year her prize is for the far less heralded Won't Back Down. Residual affection from The Help or just another PSA that Viola is among the world's great screen actors and deserves those leading roles? (It's a surprising win when you realize that she beat both Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis from Beasts of the Southern Wild and breakthrough player Emayatzy Corinealdi from Middle of Nowhere to take that trophy again. (The other nominees were Halle Berry in Cloud Atlas -and Loretta DeVine in In The Hive)

Hushpuppy gets to give acceptance speeches even when she loses!

While the NAACP often goes in odd directions that make their awards a little hard to take very seriously (Red Tails over Beasts for Best Picture? Middle of Nowhere not even nominated? What the what now?) they can grab attention nonetheless. Away from the glare of the SAG/GLOBE/OSCAR spotlight odd detours abound: Viola Davis didn't show so Samuel L Jackson invited Quvenzhané Wallis (who lost) to accept the award on Viola's behalf!

Could you imagine that happening at the Oscars? 'I'm sorry you lost to this person but come on up and give a speech anyway!' ...the mind boggles considering the possibilities of acceptance speeches that coulda been any time Katharine Hepburn or Woody Allen won. (In fact, I wouldn't mind at all if they bring Quvenzhané up to accept on Jennifer Lawrence's behalf on Oscar night.)

Kerry crowned, thrice.Django Unchained lost Best Picture but was the defacto champ oanyway with an Entertainer of the Year prize for Jamie Foxx and both supporting acting trophies. Kerry Washington, the true queen of the event, tripled the win factor with additional prizes for her public service and for Best TV Drama Actress for "Scandal".

Curiously the NAACP doesn't update their site well so they only have this year's prizes as the nomination list still and the only photos are from other years. So I've had to scour the web for photos but the LA Times comes through with the complete winners list. (Don't they have interns at the NAACP to update their site immediately following the ceremonies?)

Reunions from the Edge

Meryl Streep has been out and about celebrating co-stars this week including Postcards from the Edge mom Shirley Maclaine who was honored at an AFI celebration.

Meryl, who turns 63 next Friday, is older now than Shirley was back when she played her mom in that great showbiz comedy. Stop spinning so fast, world! Excuse me... stop twirling so fast.

And just this past Tuesday, Meryl was all smiles on the red carpet posing with friend/co-star/rival* Viola Davis at the Women in Film Awards who she handed an award to.

From EW

Davis returned the love as she accepted the award. “I have a confession,” she said, sharing how touched she was when Streep sent her a card after [Doubt] wrapped.... “Okay Meryl, I framed the card,” Davis said. “So you can never come over to the house.” 

So cute.

*honest to god when I first saw the press room photo I thought Viola's award said "WTF" but that was just my image-altering fear of the Great Streep vs. Davis Oscar Debates Resurging To Destroy My Sanity again.

The Link is Doomed

How Are You I'm Fine Thanks has an adorkable crush on Hawkeye from The Avengers but thinks he's going to get Jossed. Yeah, he's evil that way.
Coming Soon Yep, Barbra Streisand is still trying to get Gypsy remade. They've now hired Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, Downton Abbey) for the screenplay.
Salon hung with Peyman Moadi (A Separation) during his Oscar trip and recounts all the star meetings (Streep, Pitt, etcetera). Note: Salon spells it Payman Maadi.
In Contention Viola Davis settling into leading-lady status. Will she avoid Angela Bassett's fate?

Rope of Silicon listens to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo audio commentary. I love that David Fincher talks about Scotty the cat! The best part of a movie is always the cat...if it has anything to work with, that is.
24 Frames examines the reasons John Carter may have failed and one of them -- too complex for the Transformers crowd -- is way too depressing for me. Yikes.
Stale Popcorn makes a case for the beaten-down Best Original Song category.
My New Plaid Pants smacks our face with "Moments of Awesomeness" in the Golden Trouser awards
Wow Report "my theory about Elizabeth Banks and this dress"
MUBI the SXSW winners

Must Read!
Pajiba our friend Joanna who you've met on a few episodes of "red carpet lineup" right here shares 115 reasons to love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show just celebrated it's 15th anniversary. Can you believe it?.

I loved this visual countdown so much I almost read it twice in a row. Let me know your favorites of her 115.

Must Vote!
Vanity Fair is hosting a "sexiest animated character" March Madness bracket (i keep wanting to do a tournament and I never settle on one topic. grrrr). You need to go and vote because clearly people are voting not on sexiness but just on which movie they like. I'm sorry but how is Belle (Beauty & The Beast) sexier than Pocahontas (Pocahontas) even if her movie is way better!

Must Watch!
It's only 11 days until MAD MEN returns! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... it's the only show post-Buffy that we've ever obsessed over as much. Can't wait to see which movies they'll reference this year... and which year they're even in for that matter.

The Linking Cure

Incredible Suit is on the Goswatch to detail four upcoming chances for Ryan Gosling to continue his awesomeness into 2013.
Collider Great news for Viola Davis fans - a second lead role cometh. (Of course she had to make it happen herself.) She'll produce and star in a biopic about the first African American elected to the Texas senate. It's based on the Mary Beth Rogers book Barbara Jordan: An American Hero.

Vanity Fair has a gallery of backstage photos of film/theaters stars in their dressing rooms by Simon Annand including beautiful shots of Rachel Weisz, Tom Hardy, Daniel Craig and Cate Blanchett.
Flavorwire 40 of the best lines from Mad Men's Don Draper (Jon Hamm) or his writing team, rather. Someone make this into a super cut please. One my my all time favorites is:

You don’t cover for me. You manage people’s expectations."

In Contention on the ongoing success and controverseries surrounding Asghar Farhadi's amazing Oscar winner A Separation.
Kenneth in the (212) thinks Rosie's interview show on Oprah's new network is great. Apparently she and Sandra Bernhard talked King of Comedy quite a bit. Ugh, love that movie. (Damnit does this mean I have to DVR another show?)
Boston Review a former president of the American Psychiatric Association reviews A Dangerous Method. Interesting review and it takes time to detour into the theatrical production of "The Talking Cure" (the play that preceded the movie) wherein Ralph Fiennes starred in what became the Michael Fassbender role.
ioncinema oooh, the first photos I've seen from Laurence Anyways the new Xavier Dolan picture. This one stars the wonderful Melvil Poupaud as a man who decides he wants to be a woman.

Today's Must Read
Moviefone's Mike Ryan calls a "John Carter" in 50 states to see if they're seeing John Carter this weekend. Insane, funny, awesome.

Podcast: Spread the Wealth, End the War

I couldn't let the postmortem on Oscar's 84th close without inviting my ol' podcast pals Katey, Nick and Joe to join me for one last conversation of the season. We ended up talking for over an hour. See we all share this "can't stop talking Oscar!" addiction and none of us will ever go to rehab. So you get the podcast in two parts. Part two late tonight.

Here's part one where we start goofy with Octavia Spencer's ubiquity and end all serious like (well, mostly) with Viola and Meryl. Join the conversation in the comments.

Topics include but are not limited to...

• Octavia Spencer, Angelina Jolie
• "Cut To Camera 3. No, Camera 4. Wait, Back to 2!"
• Spreading the Wealth. What Did They Actually Love?
• Billy Crystal's 9th Go-Round
• Emma Stone vs. Anne Hathaway with a side of Jonah Hill
• Red Carpet Reveals and Lead Actor Presentations
• CLIPS! Commercial Breaks
• Meryl & Viola and the Narrative vs. Performance Problem

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post.
UPDATE: PART TWO NOW AVAILABLE AS WELL.

Post Oscar Part One