“No one in Hollywood since Greta Garbo has had more mysterious allure than Sasha Stone, editor of Oscarwatch.com. In fact, let me shamelessly declare myself right here and now to be the self-appointed president of the Sasha Stone Fan Club. Not only is she a brilliant cyber-editor, but one of the savviest observers of the Oscar scene and, as every online Oscar nut knows, a great, gracious gal beloved by all who know her.

“But it’s hard to know her, frankly. She’s not a brazen, bugle-blasting self-promoter like me. As a result of her classy reserve — or shyness? — she’s become famously elusive and mysterious. A magnificent cyber-legend. Everywhere I hear, ‘Have you ever met Sasha Stone? I haven’t. Do you know what she’s like?’ Of course, being a fan, I sing her praises, but I’ve had to admit for many years, ‘Nope. Never met her. I only know Sasha via email and I keep trying to set up a dinner here, a cup of coffee there, but our plans always fall apart.’
“Alas, we haven’t pulled off that hookup yet, but we did manage a podcast chitchat today just hours after the New York film critics voted and one day after the L.A. media wags did the same.” — The Envelope‘s Tom O’Neil intro-ing a 12.11.06 audio interview.

“Happy Feet is going to beat Cars for the Oscar, if not the boxoffice. Why? Because [director] George Miller is an artist, just as [Cars maestro] John Lasseter is, but Miller is a respected live-action director working in a new medium, innovating, in fact, and he has fashioned a classic feel-good topical story. Cars, despite its boxoffice dominance, is not the best of all the fabulous Pixar movies. It’s wonderful, but it’s not the best.” — from Anne Thompson‘s 12.11 entry on Risky Biz blog.

The Broadcast Film Critics nominations have covered all the bases — too many, as usual, as far as the ten Best Picture noms are concerned. (Why not twelve? why not fifteen? Spread it around.) But their choices are tasteful and well-considered, for the most part. Seven nominations each for Babel (but no Best Director nom for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine and Dreamgirls… plus both a Best Picture and a Best Foreign Film nomination for Letters From Iwo Jima. What, they couldn’t decide? I guess they’re just trying to up the odds of Clint coming away with a prize.
Two Best Actor noms for Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed, Blood Diamond) either means a cancel -out factor (most likely) or that Leo has a shot at actually taking one from The Last King of Scotland‘s Forrest Whitaker.
There is, of course, one bizarre omisssion in the Best Foreign Language Film category: Florian Von Henckel Donnermarck‘s The Lives of Others . I can’t quite say this German-language film is “better” than Pan’s Labyrinth or Volver, my other two favorites in this exceptionally bountiful category, but it unquestionably delivers more, I feel, in the way of a symphonic, rock-your-world dramatic payoff. Either the BFCA nominators didn’t see it (inexcusable) or they’re playing political games for the sake of political gain.
This hypothesis seems not only credible but persuasive in light of the BFCA having included Mel Gibson‘s Apocalypto as one of its Best Foreign Film nominees. What is that…a sop to Disney along with a chance that they can get Gibson to attend the awards ceremony?
Of all the Best Young Actor nominees, Little Miss Sunshine‘s Paul Dano gives the deepest, funniest andmost expressive performance. This guy, for me, is easily as affecting and on-target as Alan Arkin and Steve Carell are in their Sunshine roles.

I’ve been meaning to link to Anne Thompson‘s 12.8 “Risky Business” column about Blood Diamond but the title — “Diamond is rough, for a bigger purpose” — made me delay reading it because it suggested a softball approach. Then I realized after reading it that it’s largely (if not entirely) about Anne buffing her relationship with Blood producer Paula Weinstein. That’s fine. I buff also; everyone does. But all the buffing in the world can’t change the fact that Blood Diamond is over. Too many withering reviews and a truly weak opening-weekend tally. The Best Actor headwind for Leonardo DiCaprio is the only thing fanning the flames at this point.

Schlubby-looking guy: “Face it — Martin Scorsese‘s going to get robbed again.”
Balding, open-shirt-tailed older guy: “Are you nuts? Consider this: Robert Altman died with one less Best Director Oscar than Kevin Costner. The Academy won’t let that happen to Marty.”
— a snippet from “Chatter: The Oscar Race” in this week’s issue of New York magazine (“A Year in Culture”).

“With so many titles showing long before their theatrical release, studio representatives were insistent that print journalists (anyone outside the online fanboy community, that is) keep their reviews to themselves. Suffice to say that Craig Brewer‘s Black Snake Moan, in which an aging black man (Samuel L. Jackson) chains a white girl (Christina Ricci) to a radiator to cure her of promiscuity, is as outrageous as advance word indicates. Those who viewed √ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√Ö‚ÄúHustle and Flow as little more than an exploitation flick cloaked in Sundance pedigree will have more new evidence than they know what to do with come February.” — Austin 360’s John DeFore, from a report on on Harry Knowles‘ Butt-Numb-A-Thon.

I sat down early this afternoon for a small round-table discussion with Letters From Iwo Jima star Ken Watanabe. Watanabe isn’t so much a smoothie as smoothly mannered, and very much the gentleman. He listens quietly and carefully to questions, and maintains good eye contact when replying. He occasionally uses dramatic pauses and deft body language to emphasize emotions. He was assisted by two translators, but his English sounded pretty good to me.

Letters From Iwo Jima star Ken Watanabe — Monday, 12.11.06, 12:55 pm — 18th floor of Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

He plays a compassionate gentleman-hero type in Letters — Lt. General Tada- michi Kuribayashi, a bright, independent-minded hardcase with an old soul and an easy rapport with the lower-level foot soldiers. As the leader of the defending Japanese troops on Iwo Jima, he stands up for the little guy, occasionally pisses off his fellow bigwig officers, orders an unconventional island-defense involving the building of miles of underground caves and tunnels instead of the usual beachhead strategy, and generally goes his own way.
In short, Kuribayashi is a dignified rebel and, by anyone’s standards, a humanist hero. It’s a far more stirring and satisfying role for Watanabe than the ones he played in Memoirs of a Geisha or (poor fellow) The Last Samurai.
Here’s a recording of most of the discussion. The L line was against me this morning and so was the IRT Lex, so I came in a bit late and missed the first five minutes or so.

If I were the presiding judge in the Nicole Ritchie driving-the- wrong-way-on-the-134 case, that dumb cooze would get 90 days in jail followed by a 60-day forced rehab under lock and key. No discussion …that’s it. If I’d been in L.A. I could have been been on the 134 and had a head-on collision; ditto one of my sons. I don’t care if I sound like a right-winger — she’s dangerous trash, a menace, a public enemy.

I would normally rewrite this just to rewrite it, but it’s pretty good on its own. Bilge Ebiri has quickly thrown together a piece about this morning’s New York Film Critics Circle voting — complete with catty Rex Reed comments, an Andrew Sarris bathroom break that almost threw the whole thing into chaos, and what happens when the Almodovar mob faces off against the 3-hour-Roumanian-art-film lovers.”

(l.) Rex Reed, (r.) Leah Rosen

Here’s a great description of what happened after the vote for Best Picture, which resulted in the prize going to Paul Greengrass’s United 93:
“First the room voted on whether or not to simply announce a tie in the category; almost nobody wanted to. Of the 22 critics who were physically present (proxy votes having dropped out after ballot #2), 12 went for United 93, giving it the squeakiest victory since Daniel Day-Lewis beat out Jack Nicholson in ’02. Lisa Schwarzbaum suggested that since even this 12-10 vote was a virtual tie, we really ought to award Best Picture to both films. Nobody really agreed (but no vote was taken).
A brief silence. Then, the voice of Rex Reed.
“So that’s it.”
Pause.
“The best film of 2006.”
Pause.
“According to the New York Film Critics Circle.”
Pause.
“Is United 93.”
Long, uncomfortable pause, plus some tittering.
“A film that no one in America wanted to see.”
At which point People critic Leah Rozen said, “And how did you vote, Rex?”

She tried and failed to be Lois Lane and needs to do something else fast…something fairly strong…if not piercing then at least provocative..to restore her industry cred. And so Kate Bosworth has bought the movie rights to Catherine Hanahan‘s Lost Girls and Love Hotels (Pengnuin) — a nocturnal Lost in Translation without a Bill Murray figure and/or an absentee husband, plus a lot sexier and more dangerous and not that many laughs (if any)…ache-y-breaky Tokyo nihilism and (I’m told) a fair amount of bleak-steamy hotel-room sex.

On her My Space page, Hanrahan has written that she’s “really pleased to finally be able to let people know that Kate Bosworth has bought the film rights to Lost Girls and Love Hotels. She’s a talented actress and she obviously has good taste in books.”