The Hollywood Reporter today has a piece about how Oscars co-host Alec Baldwin could wind up being the rare Oscars host who wins an Oscar during his own gig.  That’s cool, Alec Baldwin is a great actor.  What movie would he be nominated for?  Oh right, It’s Complicated.  Wait, what?

Thanks to his performance in Nancy Meyers’ marital comedy “It’s Complicated,” Baldwin may well prove a contender in the best supporting actor category. Playing Meryl Streep’s ex-husband — a man who has traded in his age-appropriate wife for a much younger model, only to find that marriage isn’t always better the second time around — Baldwin lets it all hang out.
He’s not a lock for a nomination for “Complicated,” which Universal releases Dec. 25. Christoph Waltz, who was named best actor at Cannes for his chilling turn as a Jew-hunting Nazi in “Inglourious Basterds,” has to be considered the front-runner in the category.

Hold on, Professor Obvious is whispering something in my ear… yeah, he says he’ll go ass-to-mouth in front of his own mother before Baldwin wins an Oscar for a rom-com named after a Facebook relationship status (Professor Obvious is very vulgar).  First the co-stars get picked to host, now the trades are calling them award contenders?  Are the Oscars shilling for a Nancy Meyers movie now?  I wouldn’t be surprised.  The Oscars are terrible.  The only thing they really have going for them is at least they’re not the Golden Globes.

The Academy recently released their shortlist of 15 feature documentaries which may compete for the Best Documentary Oscar in February, and out of 15 — FIFTEEN — Anvil! The Story of Anvil didn’t make it.  I’m not going to pretend I saw every movie this year, but I saw a lot, and out of all the movies I saw — not just documentaries — Anvil is easily in the top three.

Out of the 15 they picked, one was Valentino: The Last Emperor, about the fashion designer, which got a 7.2 from IMDB voters and a 78% on Rottentomatoes — compared to Anvil‘s 8.2 and 98%.  Another was… oh Christ, I’m not even going to go through the rest of these. Ninety-eight effing percent!  I don’t know anyone who saw Anvil! who didn’t leave the theater raving about how awesome it was.  How does that not get on the list??  And these aren’t even the nominations! It didn’t even get nominated to be nominated. Sadly, this isn’t the first or probably even the second or third time I’ve said this, but, THIS IS WHY THE OSCAR STATUE HAS NO BALLS.  Please jump in a volcano, you filthy, ox-touching, baby effers. <3 Vince

According to Nikki Finke, who as far as I can tell is the only source for this, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. were approached by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences about hosting this year’s Oscars as a duo, but turned them down.  Pretty disappointing, especially if RDJ was considering doing the whole show in blackface, as Billy Crystal used to do.  But you can hardly blame them for not wanting to take orders from this guy:

Read the rest of this entry »

Nikki Finke recently broke the news (accompanied by one of her always classy and humble ‘TOLDJA!’ headlines, of course), that Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic would be producing the next Oscars telecast.  Nikki writes:

I consider it a good choice that bodes well for AMPAS new president Tom Sherak. Both Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic are experienced movie people, and Shankman has the added benefit of current TV experience.

Is this bitch serious?  Let’s do a run through of the movies Adam Shankman directed and their accompanying rank on RottenTomatoes, shall we?

- The Wedding Planner, 16%
- A Walk to Remember, 27%
- Bringing Down the House, 34% (34%? Really?)
- The Pacifier, 21%
- Cheaper By the Dozen 2, 7%
- Hairspray, 91%
- Bedtime Stories, 24%

The one success is Hairspray, which was based on an already-successful play, which was in turn based on a cult-classic John Waters movie. And having seen the horrific nightmare fuel that is John Travolta in drag, I still wouldn’t watch that flick unless I got kidnapped by the Saw guy and it was either that or gouge out a testicle and eat it.  Oh, but he does have non-directorial credits, what were those again?

Read the rest of this entry »

(“DOES THIS HAVE CHOCOLATE IN IT?”)

Back in June, the Academy announced that the Best Picture Oscar category would expand to 10 nominees, in order to rob five more films when Slumdog Millionaire wins. Now they say they’re also switching to a “preferential voting” system.  It’s sort of complicated, but basically it’s like a sorority rush without “circle the fat.”

Voters will be asked to rank their preference from 1 to 10, with 1 being best. It’s the same preferential voting system that the Academy uses in its nominating process, but it hasn’t been used in best picture voting since 1945.
The Academy has opted to use the preferential system in the best picture race because with a field of 10 nominees, a winner could emerge with just slightly more than 580 votes out of the potential voting pool of 5,800 members.
…ballots are first separated according to first-place choices. If one film wins a majority among all first-place votes, it’s the winner.  If not, the film with the fewest number of first-place votes is eliminated and the No. 2 choices on those ballots are redistributed among the remaining films. The process continues until one film has picked up a majority of votes. [THR]

Read the rest of this entry »