N.Y. Times reporter Michael Cieply has broken the news that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ documentary branch members are basically looking to cut down the number of films they’ll have to watch in a given year, and so they’re about to announce a rule that a doc has to be reviewed by The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times to qualify for a Best Feature-Length Doc Oscar.

When the new rule goes into effect the non-theatrical riff-raff can be ignored like Semper Fi and the doc committee guys won’t have to watch as many films. Which indirectly means they’ll have more time to play tennis and eat long brunches and take walks with their wives and/or girlfriends and get to hang with their grandchildren in a more leisurely, open-ended way.

Ric Robertson, the Academy’s chief operating officer, confirmed to Cieply that the new rule “would be made public this week and would apply to films qualifying for the 2013 ceremony.”

Will SAG members understand and perhaps be swayed by James Franco‘s plea for respect and recognition (i.e., a Best Supporting Actor nomination) for Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ Andy Serkis? Franco’s thoughts appeared earlier this afternoon on Deadline.com, and they’re very well-composed. Franco sounds like an actor talking straight to other actors, explaining the technological facts without any b.s.

Andy Serkis, James Franco in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

“I, as much as anyone, can get anxious when I think about the future of movies and the possibility of the obsolescence of actors, or at least actors as we know them,” Franco states. “But after making Apes I realize that this is backward thinking.

“Performance Capture is here, like it or not, but it also doesn’t mean that old-fashioned acting will go the way of silent film actors. Performance Capture actually allows actors to work opposite each other in more traditional ways, meaning that the actors get to interact with each other and look into each other’s eyes.

“For years computer technology forced actors to act opposite tennis balls if a movie wanted to have CG creatures, but now the process has come full circle so that actors playing CG creatures can perform in practical sets, just like the ‘human’ actors. In acting school I was taught to work off my co-stars, not to act but react and that was how I would achieve unexpected results, not by planning a performance, but by allowing it to arise from the dynamic between actors.

“On Rise of the Planet of the Apes that’s exactly what I was able to do opposite Andy as Caesar. And Andy got to do the same because every gesture, every facial expression, every sound he made was captured. His performance was captured. Then what the Weta effects team did was to essentially ‘paint’ the look of Caesar over Andy’s performance. This is not animation as much as it’s digital make-up.”

I’ve already said if I was a Republican (which will never ever happen) I’d be for John Huntsman, whose disdain for the nutbag Tea Party right makes him a kind of 21st Century Nelson Rockefeller. But he really distinguished himself last night by slapping down Mitt Romney during the New Hampshire Republican debate. Big money: “This country is divided because of attitudes like that.”

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I’m being kicked out of the hotel so I have to pack the bags and then file a bit more from a Starbucks or someplace before driving back to Los Angeles. This day is a mess.

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I’ve been living an almost spartan life lately. By my standards at least. Nocturnally speaking. The no-hard-stuff rule (in force since the mid ’90s) plus mostly abstaining from wine, but when I’m so inclined I’ll have no more than two glasses. But it feels better the next morning when I don’t go there at all. Plus I’m riding my bike again and feeling better. But last night that all went south.

I was feeling sharp and attuned and really excited about having seen Jose Padilha‘s Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within. So I went to the Ace Hotel party and had three vodka and grapefruits over the span of two hours.

What was I thinking? I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking “I am the Lizard King…I can do anything.”

I slept badly and woke up at 4:30 am and crashed again at 6:30 am, and now the morning is shot and I’m supposed to be out of the hotel to make way for the maid. And I haven’t written anything yet. Well, I’m writing this. I’ve no choice but to blow off the Parker Hotel Variety brunch (11 am to 1 pm). And all because of Padilha and his excellent political action-thriller, which I forgot to see last November when it opened in Los Angeles. I’ve no rational excuse for having dropped the ball on that, let alone for last night’s lack of discipline. I feel badly, embarassed. I need to just file and not be social.

At least I wasn’t driving last night. The Ace is only a few hundred yards from the Travelodge.

Surely some HE regulars have gone to Devil Inside shows yesterday or today. Has anyone thrown up on the lobby carpet in response to the shitty ending? Or pissed on it? Has anyone pulled out a knife and slashed the screen from end to end? Has anyone thrown giant-size drinks at the screen? Has anyone seen any ushers get beaten up?

I tried to visit Frank Sinatra’s grave at Desert Memorial Park in Rancho Mirage or Cathedral City or wherever. The address is 31-705 Da Vall Drive. I found the cemetery but not Frank. I searched and searched but couldn’t find plot B-8, #151. I’m sure that if I’d succeeded and taken a snap with my iPhone 4S, the photo would look something like this.

Cheers and earnest respect for the National Society of Film Critics for handing Best Picture to Lars von Trier‘s Melancholia, Best Director to Tree of Life‘s Terrence Malick, Best Actress to Melancholia‘s Kirsten Dunst, Best Actor to Moneyball‘s Brad Pitt, Best Supporting Actor to Drive‘s Albert Brooks, Best Supporting Actress to Jessica Chastain for all of her 2011 roles, and their Best Supporting Actress runner-up distinction to Margaret‘s Jeannie Berlin.

These, at least, are interesting, commendable choices.

HE to Variety‘s Jeff Sneider: The Artist‘s Jean Dujardin still has the Best Actor Oscar in the bag, right? He’s a cinch!

If anyone is still scrambling for a reasonably-priced Sundance Film Festival rental I can steer you toward two deals at the Park Regency, where I’m staying from 1.18 through 1.27. There’s a one-bedroom condo available from 1.14 to 1.21 for just $600, and another one-bedroom unit from 1.21 through 1.28 for $950. Both units have fold-out couches in the living room.

Blu-ray.com staff reviewer Jeffrey Kauffman has received Fox Home Video’s West Side Story replacement disc and has personally confirmed that the fade-to-black at the end of the overture problem has been removed in a new printing. Fox is exchanging bad discs via a toll free number (1.877.369.7867) or by emailing their customer service department (support@foxcustomercare.com). I wonder if I can exchange my British Bluray version?

Remember that the bad guys in this episode appear to have been (a) HTV Illuminate CEO Jim Hardy, who may have inserted the fade-to-black problem during the high-def scanning phase, according to views posted by restoration guru Robert Harris, (b) MGM Home Entertainment vp technical services Yvonne Medrano, and (c) to a lesser extent MGM Home Entertainment senior vp publicity Michael Brown for his refusal to respond to calls and emails during my initial reporting about this incident last November.

The Devil Inside “wildly overperformed on Friday, taking $16.9 million and knocking Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol out of the top spot at the box office,” reports TheWrap‘s Joshua Weinstein.

“Considering the movie had a budget of less than $1 million, the number is stunning. Paramount had expected Devil would gross $8 million for the entire weekend. Outside box-office watchers put that figure at $12 million to $14 million. And BoxOffice.com predicted $23 million.

“The scary movie is on track to exceed even that, possibly closing the weekend with nearly $40 million.”

So a movie that people of all ages income levels and ethnic persuasions are openly booing dsuring the closing credits is the first big box-office winner of 2012…brilliant.

The fundamental reason that many critics and critics groups have taken leave of their senses and praised (and in some cases awarded) lightweight mediocrities like The Artist, War Horse, The Help (along with Woody Allen‘s fine, lightly amusingMidnight in Paris) is the financial collapse of 2008. So it’s not Harvey Weinstein‘s marketing swagger that has led to The Artist dominating the 2011-2012 awards season. You actually need to blame John Paulson, Henry Paulson and fucking Lehman Brothers for that.

Or so says Deadline‘s Pete Hammond in a just-posted analysis:

“Recent Best Picture winners like The Hurt Locker, The Departed, No Country For Old Men, Crash, Slumdog Millionaire and nominees like There Will Be Blood, Babel, Michael Clayton, The Reader and many others exploring our darkest moments seemed to be what the Academy, and the public for that matter, wanted in their entertainment.

“But then bad economic times hit, really bad times, and the result seems to have spawned a different kind of top Oscar contender. Last year was the turning point as a more traditional period film that promoted a better view of ourselves handily defeated a more cynical movie that defines our times. In the battle of The King’s Speech vs. The Social Network, good old fashioned entertainment won out over edgy and complex, if superlative, filmmaking.

“Now at the top of most pundits lists we are seeing a return to the kinds of movies that might have worked in the Great Depression of the 1930?s when pure entertainment ruled the roost and Shirley Temple and Astaire and Rogers were must-sees.

“With frontrunners and early award magnets like the black-and-white silent film The Artist, Martin Scorsese‘s love letter to the earliest days of the movies Hugo, Woody Allen‘s nostalgic and romantic Midnight In Paris, and the glistening film-about-the-making-of-a-film My Week With Marilyn (just longlisted for a leading 16 BAFTA awards) it is a different kind of race entirely .

“These are the favorites in many categories while darker fare struggles to compete on the same level. It’s as if people are trying to use movies again for escape from the harsh realities of living in this modern, difficult world.”