An inspired Barack Obama endorsement piece by the stars of The Andy Grifith Show and Happy Days — Ron Howard, Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler. A brilliant piece, whoever dreamt it up and directed. (Original link on Funny or Die.)
Note: I haven’t used the word “Opie” to refer to Howard in many, many years, and I won’t henceforth ever again, but I figured it was okay in this context.
Variety‘s Anne Thompson is the latest convert to the view that I’ve Loved You So Long‘s Kristin Scott Thomas is not only a shoo-in for a Best Actress nomination but “leads the field.” But I have a slight disagreement or two with her assessments so let’s review.
Reason #1, she says, is that Thomas “wears no makeup, looks awful and moves from shut-down depression to life.” I don’t think KST looks awful at all in this film. She’s just not wearing makeup and therefore looks her age, and so what? The bottom line is that she’s an extremely beautiful woman, and no lack of mascara, eyeliner, base and blush can alter that fact. She had her “face on” when I met her about ten days ago, and I was thinking to myself (but didn’t say out loud) that she’s a tiny bit hotter and more intriguing in her plain-Jane mode.
Reason #2 is that Thomas is “a Brit who speaks French,” which Thompson says is “huge.” Hah! This speaks volumes about undercurrents of social insecurity (i.e., a certain nagging unease about L.A. and its denizens being perhaps a bit too provincial in this or that way and/or lacking in cultural sophistication) among Academy members and others on the scene.
Thompson’s reason #3 about KST having “done good work for a long time and is overdue” and reason #4 about Thomas earning raves on Broadway for The Seagull are completely accurate.
Thompson concludes by saying that Tom Tapp and Stephen Schaefer agree. And what is Hollywood Elsewhere’s opinion on this subject? Chopped liver?
A courtesy screening of John Patrick Shanley‘s Doubt is happening this evening for the original B’way cast (including the legendary Cherry Jones, who played Meryl Streep‘s role on stage). Not many columnist-critic types are attending. The Envelope‘s Tom O’Neil, EW‘s Dave Karger, Mark Harris, some ghostwriter for Liz Smith.
So what major Oscar-worthy feature will be chosen to open the AFI Film Fest on 10.30, now that The Soloist has been withdrawn from that slot? An announcement will be forthcoming later this afternoon, I’m hearing. If I were running the AFI show, I would get either Doubt or Nothing But The Truth. Or I’d shift the already-scheduled The Wrestler or Slumdog Millionaire into the opening-night position.
The Soloist was yanked due to stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx not being interested in doing the red carpet due to the general atmosphere of humiliation and embarassment stemming from Paramount’s decision to bump the Joe Wright-directed drama into Match 2009.
What does this seemingly legit Gran Torino one-sheet tell you? Here’s what it tells me: (a) Forget “sensitive” — this is a brass-tacks movie about one snarly old mofo; (b) The old Dirty Harry spirit and physicality is alive and well (that’s an enviably flat stomach for a 78 year-old!); (c) We’ll get into the racial-bigotry-and-animosity stuff in late November or early December — all we want to do now is send out those good old Clint vibes. Gran Torino now has a firm release date of 12.17.08. [Sorry for previous 11.17 typo.]
