A sharp-eyed reader in New York sends along this photo taken earlier today, suggesting a Best Picture ace in the hole we pretty much assumed James Cameron has been holding on to all along. And why shouldn't he? God does probably owe him money.
Another day brings another stumbling block for The Hurt Locker in its express route to Oscar glory. But unlike the idiotic, Avatar-bashing e-mail campaign that got one of its nominated producers in deep serious with the Academy (and may cost him his ceremony tickets, eventual Academy membership and/or worse), this matter has the distinct smell of awards-season dirty tricks.
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Take the day off, America! It's the only appropriate reaction to celebrate the news that Tyler Perry has been enlisted to present at this year's Oscar ceremony. His category and possible co-presenter are not yet announced (it has to be Zac Efron, right?), but holy crap Tyler Perry is presenting an Academy Award. I can't wait to receive his next fan message and hear nothing else about this. [AMPAS]
The ongoing scandal surrounding a Hurt Locker producer and his ill-advised Oscar rallying cry has all of Hollywood on edge today. Fear, paranoia and loathing have gripped fellow nominees and Academy leadership in particular, with emergency meetings and various disciplinary measures dominating a period that should be marked by joy, celebration and unintelligible Adam Shankman tweets about the progress of his So You Think You Can Dance alums on the biggest stage of their lives. And now... this: Best Actor front-runner Jeff Bridges is said to have ordered two cases of high-end cigars in advance of the March 7 ceremony. Awfully confident there, aren't we? Does he know something the rest of us don't?
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In the early days of this Oscar season, there were all sorts of intriguing scandals, whether it had to do with Tobey Maguire's Blu-ray generosity or Mo'nique's innocent inquiries on the ability of a little gold man to affect her bottom line. Now, though, we'll have to make do with a misstep from The Hurt Locker co-producer Nicolas Chartier, who's in hot water for sending out a rule-violating email bashing Avatar: "If everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film, we need independent movies to win like the movies you and I do, so if you believe The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2010, help us!" The Hurt Locker awards campaign: officially spazzing out. [Gold Derby]
James Cameron may or may not have his Oscar speech drafted and ready for next month, but he'd do well to keep his eyes on the real prize: The blessing of the International 3D Society. The month-old organization honored Avatar as 2009's Most Astounding Achievement in 3D, or Best Picture You Can't See Without Glasses That Eff Up Your Brain, or whatever they decide to call it. (And really, the BPYCSWGTFUYB-ie is as catchy an award name as they're going to find; thank me later.) The blockbuster didn't stop there, either.
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The one thing that this year's Oscar producers intend to carry over from 2009's show is, ironically, also the one thing that has exasperated purists sobbing into their coffee this morning: A calculated appeal to tweens. The Academy disclosed Monday that Twicons Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner will debut as Oscar presenters alongside returning stars Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron. But, but... whither Robert Pattinson, last year's Twilight representative of choice?
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After The Hurt Locker triumphed at the BAFTAs last night, focus has again -- reasonably -- shifted to Oscar odds, namely the tumbling chances for James Cameron. But the BAFTAs have long proven themselves fascinating on their own. The British Academy of Film and Television's history bears just as storied a past as the Oscars (and Emmys), though they began a full 20 years after Wings won the first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1928. In fact, the scandals, contradictions, and anomalies in BAFTA's archives feel certifiably stranger than any of our stateside issues with Academy voting.
If we all really must go through the final 14 days of awards season with the winners already determined, then we're going to need some diversions to sustain our interest. And since Mickey Rourke's chihuahua-toting, groin-patting, and otherwise outrageous exploits of 2009 have been reduced to a few seconds on another continent, it's time to scour the wires. And I'm glad I did -- you'll never guess what Harvey Weinstein is saying now.
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When Mickey Rourke took the stage at this weekend's BAFTAs to present the Best Actress award, BBC executives no doubt flashed back to his BAFTA acceptance speech last year for The Wrestler, where he cursed up a storm and made icky overtures about a naked Marisa Tomei. So did he keep things under control this time? Basically! I mean, there was the matter of announcing that George Clooney was the winner instead of Carey Mulligan. Oh, and the moment where he asked the audience, "Do you want this bareback or with a raincoat?" For a moment, we were all Lisa Bonet on the set of Angel Heart. Clip below:
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But for the defiant tweets sure to come from Oscarcast co-producer Adam Shankman ("But weve got DANCERZZzzhflkjhaf"), awards season pretty much ended over the weekend when The Hurt Locker supplemented its Writers Guild Award for Best Original Screenplay with BAFTA wins for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Thanks for playing, Avatar and Inglourious Basterds -- you can quit campaigning now. Read on for a little more analysis, full lists of both organization's winners and an obligatory photo of BAFTA rising star Kristen Stewart looking bored as hell.
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As we've previously discussed, the preferential voting system the Academy adopted for this year's ten-nominee-strong Best Picture race can be terribly, terribly complicated, with even our best efforts to explain the process generating more confusion than clarity. It's not at all surprising, then, that some Oscar voters find themselves so flummoxed by the blank ballot in front of them that they'd rather open a vein with the nibs of their pens rather than puzzle out what, exactly, the Academy expects them to do with the poorly explained voting thingy before them. (Have a look at Pete Hammond's new Gold Derby piece for some firsthand accounts of the rampant voter confusion now gripping the electorate.) We at Movieline feel the pain of these uncertainty-plagued individuals, and so we're offering the Academy a helping hand by providing a simplified set of Best Picture voting instructions so that the members' collective will can be communicated as painlessly as possible to the soon-to-be-harried accountants of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Hit the jump for our helpful directions!
If there's one nominee that I'm really rooting for in the Best Costume Design category at the Academy Awards, it's Monique Prudhomme for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It isn't simply that she managed to channel Terry Gilliam and make iconic ensembles that could withstand an onslaught of special effects and hastily subbed-in actors, it's that she was nominated for outfitting a film set in the present day, and that happens so rarely. Does she have a shot at a win? If history is any judge, the odds against her are steep.
I certainly didn't see this one coming in Adam Shankman's mystery tweets. The gym rat/part-time Oscar producer revealed to NPR yesterday that his first choice to host this year's Oscars was professional provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen. Though the Academy immediately swatted the bold choice down, I wonder how you get from Cohen to the comfort food of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Something tells me that we were thisclose to Academy Awards host Russell Brand. [THR via Vulture]
New York-based Academy members will dine on an Oscar night themed menu, explained Palace Hotel executive chef Justin Bogle, including a Hurt Locker-inspired "fois gras bomb," an Inglourious Basterds-inspired "citrus-marinated kingfish topped with blood orange," and for dessert, an "inverted blueberry pie" lying at the feet of a "sugar-spun Na'vi figure." The pie is meant to resemble the "delicious contents of Col. Quaritch's crushed-open skull," Bogle explained. "Tell them Toruk Makto baked it! You eat now, with me! My brothers! Sisters! And we will show the Sky People... that they can not take whatever they want! And that this... this is our dessert! YAAARRRWHHH!!!!!!" [NY Daily News]
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