Les Miz *WINNERS*

It's Reader Appreciation Month so I'm playing Santa with gifts.

I'm so sorry I didn't announce this sooner! I do get backed up here. I know those of you who entered the Les Miz contest are dying to just buy the new blu-ray/dvd combo pack if you didn't win. This contest had a great response. I asked interested Red & Black revolutionaries to answer three questions:

• Which kind of bread would you bake Valjean so he doesn't steal another loaf?
• Which movie hooker other than Fantine should've had a death bed song?
• Bring Him Home: Jackman, Redmayne, Tveit or Crowe?

I had much fun reading the often creative answers. But the three winners, chosen randomly, are...

ROB S in Palm Springs who writes:

1. BREAD: Pain de campagne, which I hope Hugh will stick around to enjoy as pain perdu.
2. HOOKER: Mildred, from Of Human Bondage....Bette Davis croaking it out as she croaks.
3. MAN TO TAKE HOME: Eddie Redmayne for sure. IMO the MVP of Les Misérables

'pain perdu'. teehee. Although I just realized that Rob is basically announcing with his answers that he's taking both Jackman and Redmayne home. Greedy!

JEREMY E in New York who writes:

1. BREAD: Gotta be pumpernickel for Hugh.  Hard on the pump, light on the nickel
2. HOOKER: Hands down, "Kit de Luca", Julia Roberts best friend in Pretty Woman---if only to hear her sing "Cinder-fucken-rella" in a tenor voice.
3. MAN TO TAKE HOME: Hugh

ROBERTA L in New Jersey who writes: 

1. BREAD: I would bake Hugh Jackman Sweet Buns, of course. Although Fruitcake is a strong contender. Because hello, he plays on your team, not mine. I don't care who his wife is.
2. HOOKER: So difficult! Barely-a-teen Brooke Shields? Jon Voight? What's-her-head in Risky Business? Nahh, it's obvious. Barbra Streisand in Nuts. 
3. MAN TO TAKE HOME: Fine. Jackman. I mean that's my type, isn't it?  

Roberta was one of only two contestants brave enough to sing her heart out for extra contest entries. So here she is in this audio clip doing her best Eponine for "On My Own". Nice job!

Roberta sings !

Thoughts I Had While Staring at the Cannes '13 Poster

• Does this mean Joanne Woodward is making an appearance at Cannes this year? If so... Yay!

• Not that it will matter to me as I never get to go. *sniffle*

• Rachel Rachel (1968), Paul Newman's directorial debut, is an awesome movie and it's kind of crazy that he didn't really catch the directing bug after it. It was nominated for best picture and it's probably his best (directed) movie... so maybe he knew it was downhill from there and we needed him as a movie star instead?

• Speaking of Rachel Rachel, Estelle Parson is SO much better in that movie than she is in her Oscar-winning role in Bonnie & Clyde.

• If God loved me he'd part the oceanic waters and let me get to Cannes... by which I mean he'd buy me round trip plane tickets and lux hotel accomodations. 

• I'm sure can buy this as a poster but forget that. I want it painted like a mural on my ceiling so I can fall asleep hypnotized by Paul & Joanne every night.

• Now I'm dying to see if there's any vintage photos of Paul & Joanne AT Cannes

• True story: I just finished a box of Paul Newman bran cereal the morning before this poster was released which is a really weird coincidence because I haven't bought a box in years before that one.

• It Newman's Own products helped you look like Paul Newman, I would eat nothing else. 

Curio: Oscar Food 2013

Alexa here. Every year the Oscars make me hungry. Maybe I'm feeling sympathy pangs for the starved nominees.  Or maybe it's because, as my husband puts it, this is my Super Bowl: all that time in front of the television gives one an excuse to snack it up.

Here's what we came up with this year:

  

 

• Hushpuppies in honor of Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Crabby Snacks in honor of Silver Linings Playbook (recipe here)
• Thirty Dark Chocolate Zeros
• Les Miserables Miseraballs
• Argo Fudge Yourself
• Chocolate Djmangoes unchained

More Oscar foods from 'round the web after the jump (plus Jennifer Lawrence)

Click to read more ...

Retro LOL to Usher in the Weekend

My mouth only waters for a nice, juicy, kosher pickle"

LOL. Joan Crawford 4evs.

(I know I know. Thursday night is not the weekend but brutal week! I'm starting early.)

5 Days Until Oscar Noms!

nom nom nom

Whenever someone uses the abbreviation "Oscar noms" it sounds like they're referring to snacks at a party.

— Scott Renshaw (@scottrenshaw) January 5, 2013

Scott Renshaw is right!

I have received edible swag in the mail before, generally in the form of chocolate or popcorn (though not, regret to inform, chocolate-flavored popcorn) but this is the first time cold cereal has arrived. And it's even the first time for movie-appropriate edible swag since Silver Linings Playbook has some choice Raisin Bran product placement in a key "not a date!" scene.

Each time when a tiny piece of FYC mail arrives in a matryoshka-style series of boxes within ginormous boxes, I weep for the trees that have been cut down to provide me with it. The Waste. The Waste. 

So I did not waste the raisin bran. I owed it to the dead trees and to the landfills where all the unused detritus of swag the world over will eventually reside. I ate it.

nom-nom-nom

This should no way be construed as an endorsement of Silver Linings Playbook, but it tasted good.