The instant I saw the below photo of Steven Soderbergh, allegedly taken during filming of The Argentine on or about 11.16.07, in Campeche, Mexico, I naturally said to myself, “Hey, Woody Allen in Bananas!” The Allen film, released in ’71, depicts a satirical version of the Cuban revolution in the make-believe country of San Marcos. Soderbergh’s The Argentine, one of two forthcoming dramas about Ernesto “Che” Guevara (being portrayed by Benicio del Toro), is a verite telling.

Steven Soderbergh on or about 11.16.07 (from a Benicio del Toro website); Woody Allen in Bananas.

“A continuing industry mess of labor strife (contracts with the directors’ and actors’ guilds expire June 30) probably threatens the future as much as it does the current [Oscar] telecast,” writes N.Y. Times awards-season columnist David Carr in today’s edition.
“The Oscar-viewing habit is no longer as ingrained as it used to be, and no one involved wants to give audiences a reason to tune out all the more. And if the writers’ strike goes on much longer (and the directors and actors join them), future Hollywood fare — blockbusters, Oscar hopefuls and little movies with big upsides alike — may never make it into production.
“There may be an unimpeded telecast in 2008, but will there be any movies in the coming years worthy of the ultimate tribute in entertainment?”

Variety‘s Dave McNary reported an hour ago that NBC “appears to be backing away from telecasting next Sunday’s (1.13) Golden Globes Awards — allowing the event to proceed without TV cameras.”
A guy who hears things told me this morning he’s “spoken to a person who knows NBC and says they’re definitely not going ahead with the telecast. It’s obvious…. nothing is going to happen if they broadcast it.”
“The network had not issued an official confirmation Sunday and there was no update from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. or show producer Dick Clark Prods. But industry sources said NBC appeared to be relenting on its previous insistence that it would telecast the awards, even with stars unwilling to cross WGA picket lines.
“The absence of a telecast would enable the HFPA to stage the Globes as a private party at the Beverly Hilton — with hopes that the full complement of stars would attend. WGA officials have indicated that the guild won’t picket a non-televised event.
“Chances of a televised show dimmed Friday when SAG president Alan Rosenberg announced that not a single one of the more than 70 actors nominated for a Golden Globe would attend the ceremonies because of the WGA’s plans to picket the event.”

Forget it, Alan Rosenberg! The Screen Actors Guild president’s request to publicists, made during a teleconference session two days ago, that they keep clients who’ve been nominated for a Critics Choice Award from attending Monday night’s awards ceremony, appears to be dead in the water. Or so I’ve been told.

I learned this morning that since Rosenberg made his request on Friday, not one single publicist has contacted officials of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which votes for the awards and stages the event, with news that their clients won’t be attending tomorrow night.
The Critics Choice Awards and the VH1 broadcast of the event are both going ahead as scheduled late tomorrow afternoon (red-carpet arrivals starting at 4:30 Pacific, the show itself starting at 6 pm Pacific) and the whole gang is coming, or so I’m told.

Why have the publicists ignored Rosenberg’s request? Because Bob Bain Prods. and VH1 aren’t WGA signatories and therefore there won’t be WGA pickets. The only thing that scares talent is the idea of crossing picket lines so the issue is moot, despite what Rosenberg has asked for. And because, as one insider speculates, “the publicists can see right through Rosenberg’s agenda in wanting the SAG Awards to be the only award show that comes off without a blemish or interruption.”
The insider says that “talent was always going to come anyway to the Critics Choice Awards” and that Rosenberg’s request for them to not attend has simply fallen on deaf ears.

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Joe Leydon has warned of severe consequences if I keep up with the Zodiac thing, but it would be cavalier of me to blow off this excellent 1.6.07 assessment by N.Y. Times critic Manohla Dargis, who also feels that this…uhm, you know, Z-film should be a Best Picture nominee and that David Fincher should be nominated for Best Director. Maybe it’s time for Leydon to get in touch, straighten her out, etc.

Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said something very cool today during a speech in New Hampshire that was aired on C-SPAN. I don’t have an exact transcript, but here’s the gist: “I think it’s great that the Democratic candidates look like America….that we have a woman, an African-American and a Hispanic candidate, all with a real shot at the White House. But the Republican candidates…look at ’em, they look like they’re right out of Dobie Gillis in the 50’s.”

Somebody has convinced Times Online‘s John Harlow that George Clooney has been a big influence in “persuading actors to boycott against film award ceremonies that threatens to reduce next weekend’s Golden Globe Awards to a shambles and is jeopardizing the most important event in the Hollywood calendar, next month’s Oscars.”
Harlow writes that “special ire” is felt for Clooney by producers of the Golden Globes and Oscar shows and the TV networks airing them. “We know Clooney is a major force” behind the decision to keep actors away from the Globes,” an NBC executive is quoted as saying. “He has been ear-bashing others who may have been willing to cross picket lines.”
Sources close to Clooney, writes Harlow, have laughed at the image of ‘Red George’ as a strike-organizer. “He does not ear-bash, he is far too easy-going for that,” said a “business associate” of Clooney’s.

Another snatch…’that’ll work.”

Cheers to the National Society of Film Critics for denying their Best Supporting Actress award to Gone Baby Gone‘s Amy Ryan, and instead handing it over to I’m Not There‘s Cate Blanchett. Somebody bucked the tide! Admire that backbone. On top of which Blanchett deserves.

There Will Be Blood took the Best Picture award, and Paul Thomas Anderson was named Best Drector. Blood‘s Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor, Away From Her‘s Julie Christie was named Best Actress, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford‘s Casey Affleck was named Best Supporting Actor, and Blood‘s Robert Elswit was named Best Cinematographer.
Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was named Best Foreign-Language Film of 2007, and Charles Ferguson‘s No End In Sight was named Best Non-Fiction Film (i.e., Best Documentary).
Here’s a backstage report on the NSFC voting from The Envelope‘s Tom O’Neil.

A discussion about the ending of No Country For Old Men on the official Miramax website. Moderated by Elvis Mitchell, it features Glenn Kenny (premiere.com), Harry Knowles (aintitcoolnews.com), Jen Yamato (rottentomatoes.com) and Jim Emerson (rogerebert.com). Thanks to Variety‘s Anne Thompson for linking to it earlier. Here‘s an mp3 of the scene in question.

Dr. Phil to the rescue of Britney Spears! What can a world- famous celebrity meltdown case like Spears do at this stage that’s in any way positive or clarifying? Her career is over. She can’t see her kids any more. She’s a total wreck, a symbol of profligate indulgence and self-ruin. She’s Norman Maine and beyond.
The only thing Britney Spears brings to the table of any value right now is that she’s made her life into a stirring cautionary tale. Hundreds of thousands of teenage girls the world over will hereafter say to themselves for decades to come as they decide whether or not drug or alcohol consumption is going to be part of their nocturnal lives, “I don’t want to end up like Britney Spears…please God, not that. I will not trash my dignity.”
So in the end, despite having ruined her life and her career, Spears will have done more to keep impressionable youths from a life of pathetic boozing than if she’d been alcohol-free and filmed a series of p.a. spots about the pitfalls of the disease. If her life was a movie she’d kill herself in a car crash of some kind, or she’d be found dead like Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison. Then she’d really be a cautionary tale.