There are probably a few reasons why The Hurt Locker took the Best Picture Oscar over Avatar, but Notes on a Season columnist Pete Hammond believes it came down to one thing — i.e., “the actors branch, dummy.”

1,205 Academy members. Three times as many as any other peer group. Freaked by performance capture. Voted their pocketbooks. Said “hell no” to the Na’vi.

“With few exceptions, most of the actors I asked [about the Oscar race] thought that Avatar’s advanced performance capture technique was threatening their career future,” Hammond writes. “I remember sitting next to JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist) at a Lovely Bones lunch event in December, and she said she worried it had the potential to eventually put actors out of work.

“Heavily involved with the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, she said then that SAG was forming a committee to investigate the process.” What — like HUAC looking into industry-wide commie subversion?

“Avatar producer Jon Landau told Film Drunk shortly after the film was snubbed by the SAG acting nominations that ‘I blame ourselves for not educating people (actors). We made a commitment to our actors that what they would see up there on the screen is their performance, not somebody else’s interpretation of what their performance might be.’

“James Cameron said performers were confusing it with animation but that the ‘creator here is the actor, not the unseen hand of the animator.’

“That message clearly wasn’t heard by most of the actors I talked to last Sunday. Aside from sensing a heavy Hurt Locker vibe in the room, many, while acknowledging the technical prowess of the film, didn’t believe Avatar was their sort of film, at least when it comes to Academy Awards.”

The mood-style of this She & Him music video is similar to that much-loved Joseph Gordon Levitt musical number in (500) Days of Summer. Ironically kitschy, of course — a late 1950s sensibility but “in quotes.” It doesn’t embrace the schmaltzy flavorings of The Pajama Game, but it winks at this. So much of pop music these days has been feminized, lightened up — that classic Lou Reed guitar-bass-and-drums thing is out the window.

This is the first time I’ve really responded positively/favorably to Lady Gaga doing anything. I’ve been asleep on her until this moment. And I would have been totally down for this version rather than the one that Tim Burton chose to make. And so would the Hispanic Eloi, I’m betting, with whom I saw Alice last weekend.

Marshall Fine‘s primary complaints about Paul Greengrass‘s Green Zone (Universal, 3.12) are that (a) PG shaky-cam is starting to piss him off, and (b) Greengrass shouldn’t have taken the fictionalized chickenshit route but followed the lead of Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s best-selling book and followed the facts and named real names.

The result of Greengrass’s fictional approach is that Green Zone advances a bullshit notion that honest soldiers (like Matt Damon‘s Roy Miller) telling the truth helped the press raise public awareness and turn the tide of opinion against the war. The facts — including the press’ shameful performance and polls showing that a solid 50-plus percent of Americans still believe we actually did find WMD — would suggest otherwise.”

“Given a stronger sense of purpose, the film might have recounted exactly those failings and shown in stark relief how we were hoodwinked into war. Then again, there hasn’t been an Iraq war movie yet that found an audience by telling the truth about government mendacity. This one might because it’s essentially being sold as Bourne 4.”

Boxoffice.com’s Ray Greene has criticized Green Zone in a similar vein, but with the gloves totally off — he’s really torn it a new one. He calls it “an exercise in commercial cowardice masquerading as a thriller about political bravery…a kind of moral atrocity.”

Your Tron Legacy post is generating a lot of interest,” an industry friend remarks. “It’s safe to say that Disney is extremely bullish on this movie primarily because of its director, Joseph Kosinski, who is now on the short list for every tentpole project. He’s the next ‘real deal’ in that he’s got a Cameron-like technical knowledge, is responsible with budgets and operates on an even keel…overall a remarkably talented, well adjusted guy with actual story sense and actor readability as well. His website incudes some of his commercial work that put him on the map.”

Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski during last summer’s Comic-Con.

Reader Suppported News informs that John Cory’s 3.6 “I am angry” essay “drew such an overwhelming response from our readership, so many heartfelt comments, that we felt we should give everyone the opportunity to endorse Cory’s words and let the Democratic Party have the benefit of our leadership.” A petition form is at the bottom of this page.

“I am angry,” the essay began. “I’m tired of pundits and know-nothing media gasbags. I’m tired of snarky ‘inside politics’ programming. I am sick of the bigotry and hatred of ‘birthers’ and faux patriotic cranks and their GOP puppet masters. And I’m really pissed at the Democratic Party that confuses having a plate of limp noodles with having a spine.

“I’m going to vomit if I hear the word ‘bipartisanship one more time. I get nauseated every time the Senate explains how it takes a super majority to do anything for the American people. Tell you what Senate Bozos — if it takes 60 votes to pass legislation than it should take 60% of the popular vote to get you elected.

“When some Tea Party crank says, ‘I want my country back,’ I respond, ‘No madam, you want your country backward.’ When a deficit-mongering politician says, ‘How do we pay for this?’ Why not ask, ‘What did you Republicans do with the surplus [the Clinton administration] left you?’ When a compassionate conservative says, ‘Healthcare reform is socialism,’ why not answer, ‘No, sir — it is the moral and American way to care for people.'”

Joseph Kosinki’s Tron Legacy won’t open until 12.17.10. The trailer is rather beautiful in the quiet way it dusts off the past and doesn’t feel the need to rush things along. What scares me, of course, is that it’s a Disney film.

“The only reason anyone pays much attention to Variety, critically, is not because Todd McCarthy is the greatest critic in the world, but because studios, steeped in The Past, have continued to allow Variety to act as though they have a unique position in the industry and to review first. That has drawn much of the traffic they have had.

“And Variety — and Todd McCarthy — have held onto that long antiquated idea of how to handle review embargoes closely to their hearts. It has been their lifeblood, however absurd on its face, as ‘the trades’ have been published on the newswires and as consumer content on the search engines for years.

“So how, having fired McCarthy, slashing the number of reviews in the paper and online, and going all-freelance with reviews, how could any studio continue to allow Variety to own a space that it does not earn and for which it now shows clear contempt?

“In other words…it’s over.

“Variety will not go out of business. But it will be a brand, eventually sold off, still trying to figure out how to balance print and online in a way that gives the title any distinction at all in the marketplace. Same with The Hollywood Reporter. As such, the title may someday disappear completely. We’ll see. The discussion and ambition will continue. But for now, long live Variety, Variety is dead.” — from David Poland‘s 3.8.10 Hot Blog column.

It seems fair to say that NY Press critic and NYFCC member Armond White is not only a harsh critic of Greenberg director Noah Baumbach, but that he harbors an intense dislike for the guy. White doesn’t claim to know Baumbach personally, but believes that his films speak volumes about his character and personality. Or so he said 27 months ago.

In a 12.18.07 interview with Big Media Vandalism’s Steve Boone, White called Baumbach an “asshole.” One of his quotes state that “you look at Noah Baumbach’s work, and you see he’s an asshole. I would say it to his face. And, of course, he gets praised by other assholes, because they agree with his selfish, privileged, stuck-up shenanigans. I don’t need to meet him to know that. Better than meeting him, I’ve seen his movies.”

Because of these sharp remarks, 42 West honcho Leslee Dart, who represents Baumbach and Greenberg producer Scott Rudin, decided last Friday to prevent White from seeing Greenberg, Baumbach’s upcoming film, at earlyish screenings.

And yet Dart told me early yesterday evening that White wouldn’t be prevented from seeing the film in time to meet his weekly review deadline (Greenberg opens on 3.26) — just that he wasn’t welcome to see it presently. I don’t know what this accomplishes exactly, but that’s her call. She made this decision on her own, Dart says, and not at the behest of Rudin or Baumbach.

I’ve been on shit lists myself from time to time so I know what this feels like from White’s end. I think it’s almost a badge of honor to be occasionally disciplined or threatened by movie publicists. Call it an oblique tribute to your tenacity or toughness of spirit or perceived influence…whatever. But where’s the beef in this White-vs.-Dart thing? How bad can things be for White if Dart is only delaying his invitation to a Greenberg screening?

It does seem as if White exaggerated when he complained yesterday in an e-mail to a colleague (a copy of which was sent to me yesterday afternoon) that he had been “blackballed.” I spoke to Dart after being sent White’s e-mail, and asked if what he’d written was true. And she spelled out the above. And sent me a link to White’s Big Media Vandal interview.

White told the colleague that a Focus Features rep had “called to disinvite me from [a] press screening of Greenberg. I objected that they were infringing upon my First Amendment rights as a journalist. In a second phone call, [the rep] apologized but informed me that I was still blackballed. Feel free to share [this] information with the NYFCO members.”

To go by two group-mailed messages sent my way last night, White’s e-mail has led to murmurings from some critics (including Eric Kohn) that they need to stand arm-in-arm with White and that a Greenberg review boycott may be in order.

In an e-mail sent to critics last night titled “Support Your Fellow Film Critics,” it is claimed that White “has been blackballed by Focus Features at the request of Noah Baumbach and his producer Scott Rudin.” Again, to my knowledge this is untrue as White’s Greenberg access is only on hold, and because Dart, according to what she told me, made this call on her own and not at the behest of her employers.

“Some of you may think that Armond is a pretentious pompous fool who has no idea what he’s talking about, but he is still a fellow film critic,” the letter states. “I suggest we all do three things: One, do not review Greenberg. Two, complain directly to the president of Focus Features, James Schamus, who prides himself on being a writer and supporter of the written word. And three, write directly to Scott Rudin and tell him you will not review any of his upcoming films.”

Jesus — this is like The Ox-Bow Incident! “C’mon, boys…let’s ride out and string up the killers of Larry Kincaid!” I’m making this analogy because, as noted, Larry Kincaid to my knowledge isn’t dead, and White will eventually be good to go with a Greenberg screening. I don’t know how these things get started but they obviously do from time to time. Tempest in a friggin’ teapot.

Directed and co-written by Baumbach, Greenberg is an amusingly bent and emotionally downbeat character study of a neurotic 41 year-old carpenter and ex-band member (Ben Stiller) as he takes care of his brother’s Los Angeles home during an extended vacation.

For what it’s worth I love Greenberg. I’ve seen it twice, in fact. It’s not a conventionally commercial film, but what Baumbach film is? In a 3.1 posting I called it “easily the most intriguing film of the new year…[it] doesn’t exactly ‘entertain’ and yet it does — it’s just operating in a low-key way that’s almost entirely about observation, and without a single false note.”

Update: Village Voice columnist/bloger Michael Musto, who’s also seen and enjoyed Greenberg, called Dart to clarify about the White matter, and she told him the same thing — i.e., that White hasn’t been banned, that he’ll see the film eventually, etc.

Further Update: White will reportedly see Greenberg on Friday.

Roger Ebert twittered a little while ago about Variety‘s decision to lay off its chief critic Todd McCarthy, to wit: “Variety fires McCarthy and I cancel my subscription. He was my reason to read the paper. RIP, schmucks.”

Update: Late Monday night Ebert filed a story about McCarthy’s dismissal. Here are the last few graphs:

“Todd always had reasons behind his reviews. They were clear and potentially helpful to filmmakers. His prose was considered. It began in the closing days of slangy Varietyese and evolved into a style fresh and witty. He didn’t miss a thing.

“What I’m saying is that Todd McCarthy is not a man Variety should have lightly dismissed. He is the longest-serving and best-known member of the paper’s staff, and if they made such a drastic decision, we are invited to wonder if Variety itself will long survive.

“Variety used to cover everything. I remember a magical night in Rome in 1967, when I sat late at night on the Via Veneto and gawked at the last remnants of la dole vita. I held a copy of Weekly Variety, all black and white on newsprint and easily more that 100 pages thick. I became fascinated by the back pages, the items two paragraphs long about cabaret performers in Boston, dancers in Miami, magicians in Philadelphia, lounge acts in Las Vegas, jazz clubs in London. Variety got its name from variety artists, and for decades they lived off a favorable notice in its pages. The paper then truly was ‘the showbiz Bible.’

“Well, those days over with. The glory days of the famous Variety critics are finished. I knew one of them, Gene Moskowitz, who signed his reviews Mosk., and was the Paris bureau chief who directed coverage at Cannes. In the 1970s, dying of cancer, he came to what he knew was his last Cannes, bringing along his wife and the young son he was so proud of. Under an umbrella on the beach, he looked toward the old Palais and said, ‘I saw a lot of good movies there.’

“About Todd McCarthy I am not very worried. He’s one of a kind. I can think of no better candidate as the director of a major film festival. Or as a professor, or of course as a film critic. What I lament is the carelessness with which his 31 years of dedication were discarded.

“Oh, the paper cites its reasons. ‘It’s economic reality,’ Variety President Neil Stiles said of the move. Some ‘downsizing’ is necessary cost-cutting. Some symbolizes the abandonment of a mission. If Variety no longer requires its chief film critic, it no longer requires me as a reader.”

Everyone presumably knows the Extra Virgin story by now…right? After meeting last November with Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow at this cozy West Village restaurant, I asked three female employees if they’d seen The Hurt Locker. None of them had even heard of it. One of them asked, “Is it a documentary?”

Two of three current Extra Virgin waitresses who haven’t seen The Hurt Locker.

EV hostess Nadia Owusu, an actress and SAG member who’s seen Kathryn Bigelow’s film on disc.

So I returned late this afternoon to see if the EV crew was still clueless in the wake of Bigelow’s Oscar triumph — i.e., winning last night for Best Picture and Best Director.

I spoke to five Extra Virgin staffers — a bartender, a hostess and three waitresses — and can report that Hurt Locker awareness levels have definitely surged since last November.

Hostess Nadia Owusu, an actresss and a SAG member, has seen a DVD screener of Bigelow’s film, and the bartender said he caught it at the Quad last summer. (They both liked it.) The three waitresses haven’t seen it — one said she didn’t know what it was about, and another said she’s only recently arrived to Manhattan and therefore wasn’t up to speed — but they do know the title and so on, having watched the Oscar telecast.

So that’s that. Knowledge evolves, life moves on, the universe expands, etc.