Oscars 2012: Let Anticipation Commence

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2011/06/are-you-nauseous-yet-showbiz-pundits-are-already-hyping-oscar-season.html

I hate the oscars - the fish AND the ceremnoy

No Contagion, no credibility.

Nothing very insider-y in that article for it being from the Hollywood Reporter, alas.

Zookeeper to sweep

Interesting rule change.

There will no longer automatically be 10 Best Pic nominees; movies will only be nominated if they receive at least 5% of first-place votes. (In past years, this rule would have resulted in anywhere from 5 to 9.)

these ppl are roughly as clueless as Major League Baseball

Yeah, what's this I read this morning about Selig wanting to do away with divisions?

well, that's one of many ideas, and hardly the worst being bandied about

The only thing more annoying than 5 extra best picture nominees is 2 more best picture nominees.

This is like FDR trying to pack the Supreme Court.

in terms of what's had theatrical runs in NYC, this year kicks 2010's ass, but somehow I don't see Film Socialisme and Certified Copy getting nom's

so, Eddie Murphy.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/09/06/eddie_murphy_2012_oscar_host

DEMAND THE CARDIGAN
(actually one of the most refreshing host outfits ever)

http://cdn3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/186/262/238/mtv-video-music-awards-1985-vmas-2nd-annual-second-9ad38.jpg

Eddie Murphy...(checks calendar)...because Gabe Kaplan was busy, presumably.

Weird choice.

so, saved from Brett Ratner

I hadn't realized that Gil Cates had kicked it.

Was going to hate to have to boycott for reasons not related to shitty nomination choices.

Eddie's out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/09/eddie-murphy-out-as-oscar-host_n_1084419.html

Wasn't looking forward to rehearsals i guess

omen of a bad Oscars (maybe Harry Potter the Last will win BP)

Resignation is for fags.

Murphy should've offered to do the whole job as Mama Klump.

He probably demanded to do it as Norbit.

"Best Oscars Ever"
-Armond White

Was looking forward to the hoodie + black tie ensemble.

This just keeps getting better.

On Tuesday evening, (academy president) Sherak tried to salvage something by casting Mr. Ratner’s resignation as a teachable moment. “It is our sincere belief — as well as Brett’s — that this terrible event may ultimately raise awareness and yield some good,” Mr. Sherak wrote in an e-mail sent directly to the academy’s approximately 6,000 members.

"this terrible event"

Sherak thinks the Penn State football staff just quit the Oscars.

Joe Paterno for Oscar host.

This whole thing is slouching toward the return of Billy Crystal. Would prefer Albert Brooks.

Crash for Oscar host.

Would prefer Albert Brooks.

^ THIS

Someone has apparently started a "Muppets for 2012 Oscar Host(s)" group on fb. I could get behind that.

Statler & Waldorf, like Ricky Gervais, too edgy

Liked.

If not the Muppets themselves, at least Joanna Newsom and Chris Cooper.

The entire Oscars telecast should be claymation. Live claymation. It would be a seven week telecast.

Let anticipation shrivel up.

hey, we haven't even mentioned the new producer.

The only time I ever want to see BC in an Oscarcast again is as part of the in memorium segment.

(yes, I just SB'd myself for that.)

It's Crystal.

I am listening to Crystal sing about "Seabiscuit" to the tune of "Goldfinger" atm

Oh, it's about Pete Rose now.

He just scatted about Master and Commander.

*sigh*

Oscars 2012: Back to the Catskills

Can someone tell me why The Descendants is being rated so highly by all the Oscar prognosticators? Payne's record at the Oscars is mixed, and I wouldn't necessarily think that a family dramedy like this is an automatic lock with voters. I've seen the trailer. Is it just because of golden boy George Clooney?

Same reason every Major Autumn Clooney Star Vehicle is promoted.

xp (Although your description seems basically OTM.)

Has anyone read The Help? People I trust say it's much less saccharine.

I don't know any men that have read the book, but many women I know have, and they all thought it was great.

I read it and it is significantly less saccharine than the movie, but equally troublesome wrt "white people save the black people" disease.

I noticed in the end-credits that Bennett Miller director those Erroll Morris-type interviews with actors about movie memories. Thought those were good.

Also thought it was interesting that everything basically could have been done very similarly in the 1920s: comic scene with cymbals, trapeze act, and the rest. This really was the least eye-rolling Oscars I can think of.

Oh yeah, I was wondering if those were Morris.

It was an awards ceremony more than a variety show or a reality-TV competition, and that's really saying something.

Blackface is always kind of NAGL, but I felt somewhat more sympathetic toward Billy Crystal's shticky impressions of 90-year-old blues musicians when I learned that his dad ran a jazz label, Billie Holliday once babysat him, etc.

"my dad employed african-americans, so it's cool when i say 'CAN YOU DIG THAT?' in an exaggerated voice"

coincidentally, i just heard tom scharpling's smackdown of crystal's "jazzman reflects on hurricane katrina" a few days before the oscars.

blackface is gross but davis seemed pretty willing to be involved in the blackface jokes in oceans 11

xp Yeah, I mean, it's not excusable exactly, but it seems like it's at least rooted in nostalgic affection.

i was rereading the snl oral history book recently and crystal comes off as very much a "i've got to give the people want they want!" kinda guy but in a way that is myopic about what the people actually want (ie he was one of the few cast members who seemed perfectly happy to do recurring characters over and over, because "that's what the public wants"). so he probably thought the audience was going to be really disappointed if he didn't do his famous sammy impression.

was rooting for 'jodie dallas' to show up somewhere

Ocean's 11 was what, '62? Davis played along with the Rat Packers' crappy race jokes as a tradeoff for having a pioneering career. If Alec Guinness was uncomfortable doing an Indian character in '84, Crystal should know what's up, but he's got a comic's ego.

I'd say it's more that he has a hack's myopia.

it's hard to do what Crystal does even if we don't like it, but he's got the "I know what's funny" certainty comics tend to hang onto after 60, usu w/ dire results.

now Mr. Saturday Night makes sense

All this controversy wouldn't have happened if they put Gregory Hines in the back of the carriage.

so he probably thought the audience was going to be really disappointed if he didn't do his famous sammy impression.

― congratulations (n/a), Monday, February 27, 2012 4:32 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is kinda how i read it

Gregory Hines as Sammy, Michael McDonald as Hemingway, Robert Guillume as Faulkner.

iirc there was zero laughter after the bieber/sammy/killing hitler mashup (among others)

he didnt even get a laugh for 'have fun storming the fuhrer'

so he probably thought the audience was going to be really disappointed if he didn't do his famous sammy impression.

― congratulations (n/a), Monday, February 27, 2012 5:32 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

true, and that's what's awful about it, like he's so out of touch that he thought it was the least offensive thing he could've done. he seems like the kind of guy who's always loved old vaudeville traditions except no one ever told him that some of them were racist. he's like an old racist grandparent but 30 years too young.

Meanwhile:

http://gawker.com/5888687/the-celebrity-gifting-suite-people-are-unhappy-with-our-coverage

The spelling in those emails is making my brain cry.

he shoulda stuck w/ his famous Fernando Lamas impression

he's got the "I know what's funny" certainty comics tend to hang onto after 60, usu w/ dire results

Too easy.

I was a bad comic when I was 30 so... I don't even try w/ you wastrels.

No ...

http://www.darrowart.com/blog/images/jerry.jpg

http://www.darrowart.com/blog/images/jerry.jpg

I find you very trying fwiw, Morbs!

ba dum

at least Lewis finally stopped doing ... well, most things.

weirdly enough i ended up watching the oscars last night with jerry's granddaughter!

Glaven!

Other names left off the memorial reel: James Arness, Charles Napier, Dana Wynter, Harry Morgan, Tura Satana

Also swordsman/fight choreographer/Darth Vader light-saber double Bob Anderson.

i think satana died before last year's oscars happened (because i remember being pissed that she was excluded that year too). nice of them to mention kuchar tho!

Other names left off the memorial reel: James Arness, Charles Napier, Dana Wynter, Harry Morgan, Tura Satana

― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Monday, February 27, 2012 10:41 PM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and theo angelopoulos

!

Tura Satana! JERKS

and ryan dunn

Best Picture=
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K802nZ4KL._SS400_.jpg

Hoberman postmortem (Artinfo layout kinda all fuct up?):

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/761210/hoberman-the-wrong-margaret-got-the-oscar

the Academy considered voting for Thatcher as a dry run for re-electing our authoritarian prez

I understand you nearly got ejected from the Oscar party for this little gem.

― dead-trius (Eric H.), Monday, February 27, 2012 7:24 AM

Still my best line in years, as proven by the fine reception it got this weekend at a party full of teachers and labor activists. (Straight People Who Know What's Up. I wish there were more of them, so the Oscars would be an hour on PBS.)

Feel free to join them.

my week with marilyn was fucking awful. this was like lifetime made for TV movie crap. I love michelle williams but she only succeeds here because her hair is done very well. I think the only person who seemed real and believable in the whole thing was the girl from the harry potter movies.

my week with marilyn was fucking awful. this was like lifetime made for TV movie crap.

that just means it's "british"

plz let this thread die, we can always have one more dedicated to another lousy film

lol