Day: February 23, 2014

The basic assumption is that the odds of Jennifer Lawrence‘s taking the Best Supporting Actress Oscar have dropped and that Lupita Nyongo‘s odds have been rising. Is this incorrect? Another view, shared earlier today, is that Lawrence shouldn’t get a second Oscar in a row and that the obliquely racist irritated-by-12 Years A Slave crowd feels a corresponding distance about Lupita Nyong’o and that Nebraska‘s June Squibb is something of a comer as a result. It’s just an observation, but this, at least, would be a huge defiance of conventional wisdom. I think Nyong’o is the most likely winner but I just want a surprise…any surprise.

You know what I feel oppressed by? I’m sure I’m not the only one to feel this. The Oscar race and particularly award-season advertising are HE’s bread and butter, but Lord in heaven the incessant articles about Oscar contenders are turning my brain into cheddar cheese. This angle, that angle…this interview, that interview…over and over and over and over and over and over. One more week and it’ll be over.

Earlier today I spoke with Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone about….what did we talk about? Oh, yes, the Oscar race. We kicked it all around the hockey rink…again. The fun part began when I started reading portions of Michael Musto’s Daily Beast discussion with “Pat,” the Academy voter. Key remark: “Isn’t it true that the Academy is made up of five thousands ‘Pats’?” Again, the mp3.

Boris Kachka‘s New York article about the L.A. Oscar-blogging fraternity (i.e., myself, Sasha Stone, Scott Feinberg, Pete Hammond, Steve Pond, David Poland, Tom O’Neil, Kris Tapley, Anne Thompson, et. al.) will appear online around 6 pm Pacific/9 pm Eastern this evening. (The print edition is on stands tomorrow.) On the page the piece is called “For Their Consideration“, but the cover slug says “The Oscar Whisperers.” Which is curious given that Stephen Rodrick‘s January 2007 Los Angeles piece about the same subject was called “The Blog Whisperers.” (On the first or second page of the article, that is — the cover slug proclaimed “Oscar Wars!“) Kachka and I did a Los Angeles sitdown after Sundance, and then we met up again (along with Sasha) during the Santa Barbara Film Festival. He seemed like a nice, focused, responsible guy. 10:20 pm Update: Kachka’s story is AWOL — four hours and 20 minutes late. Monday, 5:00 am Update: I think we have to at least entertain the possibility that New York‘s tech staffers are, no offense, a bunch of disorganized fuck-ups. The story STILL isn’t up. 5:45 am: The piece is finally available for New York iPad subscribers, but not on the web. I’m told by someone who’s read it that Kachka slaps me up a bit but not too badly. It’s mostly about myself, Tom O’Neil and Sasha Stone.

Read more

Three and a half years ago I posted some You Tube clips of a visit that pre-Mothers of Invention Frank Zappa made to the Steve Allen Show on 3.27.63. Zappa was there to demonstrate the musical “playing” of a bicycle. Now the complete visit is viewable on a single clip. Zappa mentions to Allen that he’d recently composed the music to Timothy Carey‘s World’s Greatest Sinner, which he called “the world’s worst movie.” Here’s a YouTube assessment of Carey’s film and Zappa’s contribution. Zappa also mentions that a new single, “How’s Your Bird?“, will be out the following week.

In an early Manhattan scene Woody Allen‘s character, Isaac, asks his friends if they possess real courage. He says something like “if you were walking along a bridge and you saw someone drowning in the river, would you jump in after them and bring them to shore?” I’m asking myself a similar thing after watching this video of peak moments from the Kiev/Ukraine revolution. I’m wondering how many cozy, comfortable denizens of the Los Angeles film industry would have the balls to engage with hostile armed troops in a scenario like this? How many Hollywood Elsewhere regulars would be man enough? I’d like to think of myself as brave but I’m not so sure. I’ve taken part in demonstrations that included beatings and tear gas canisters, and I’m telling you that the impulse to run like hell and save yourself from harm is very powerful.

Investigating magistrate Alfredo Mondeja to his boss: “I am unable to prosecute Sir Sean Connery for fraud charges regarding the long-ago sale of his Costa del Sol estate. I’m sorry but I can’t. I don’t have the horses. But I did my best.” Boss to Mandeja: “Your ‘best’? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.” Mondeja: “I might, however, be able to prosecute Connery’s wife, a.k.a. “Lady Connery” or Micheline Roquebrune. That might pan out.”

(l. to r.) Sean Connery in 1962, 1991 and fairly recently.

I spoke to Connery only once, during a roundtable at a 1982 New York press junket for Richard Brooks‘ Wrong Is Right. I wasn’t much of a fan of the film (nobody was) but it was thrilling to absorb the vibe and smell the aroma of the manly Connery. He wasn’t much of a kidder but he had an engaging smile. Every answer he gave was straight from the shoulder, bordering on blunt.

Read more