Sean Penn is lobbying to get California to recognize Harvey Milk’s birthday (May 22nd) as a holiday.
State Sen. Mark Leno plans to reintroduce a bill Tuesday with Penn by his side designating Milk’s birthday a “day of significance.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the same bill last year. In his veto message, the governor said Milk should be honored in San Francisco but not statewide. Leno says Penn’s [Best Actor] award shows that Schwarzenegger’s argument about Milk being only of provincial interest no longer holds up. [THR]
Hmm, I’m not sure that argument holds up. Otherwise we’d have Ray Charles Day, Truman Capote Day, and Idi Amin Day. But f-ck it, I’m all for holidays. Plus it’s in May, so we could all wear speedos and run around pinching each other’s asses and saying “Happy Holigay!” What? You’d rather work?
The nominations for the 81st Academy Awards have been released. No best song for Springsteen? Nothing for Eastwood? Encounters at the End of the World over Gonzo? Have another chamomile, you pussies.
Best Picture: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor, Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon, Sean Penn, Milk, Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Really?], Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married, Angelina Jolie, Changeling, Melissa Leo, Frozen River, Meryl Streep, Doubt, Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, Milk, Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt, Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight, Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, Doubt, Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Viola Davis, Doubt, Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire, Stephen Daldry, The Reader, David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon, Gus Van Sant, Milk [MORE CATEGORIES AFTER THE JUMP…}
Wow. Nice to see Mickey Rourke on there, but The Wrestler is a hell of a lot better than any of their best picture nominees. Frost/Nixon? Milk? The Reader? Is this an award for great filmmaking or the IMPORTANT STORY FROM HISTORY award? And I’m sure you’ll all notice the Dark Knight snub. Even if you don’t think it deserves a best picture nomination (I’m on the fence, myself), Chris Nolan still deserves a best director nod (this dismissive wank is for you, Ron Howard). It’s much harder to make a believable movie about Batman than it is to make yet another holocaust masturbation. Do they realize what they’ve done? They’ve made us bored. With THE HOLOCAUST. At some point, they may have to recruit some members of the Academy who aren’t a million years old. Just a thought.
The Producer’s Guild of America has released their best picture nominations, and they are:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (trailer, my review)
Frost/Nixon (trailer)
The Dark Knight (trailer)
Milk (trailer)
Slumdog Millionaire (trailer)The PGAs are typically a blueprint for the Oscars, which makes today’s news bad news for Revolutionary Road and the likewise shunned. Last year, four of five PGA contenders went on to score Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards. [Yahoo]
I don’t know why we make such a big deal about this crap. You think it’s coincidence that four of the five nominees came out in the last month? The people who vote on this stuff just aren’t that smart, they probably vote for whatever they saw last. Which is why if I had a movie in contention, at the premiere I would serve popcorn laced with poison! My diabolical plan can’t possibly fail.
Scientists cautiously approached a screening of Four Christmases
The Day the Earth Stood Still took the top spot at the box office this weekend, earning $31 million, despite kinda sucking a lot. It’s not surprising considering it was the only film opening in wide release with any hype behind it. Meanwhile, all the award-season films performed well in limited release.
The biggest winner among openers on a per-screen basis was Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino,” …which grossed $284,000 on six screens for an average of $47,333. Also opening strong were Miramax’s “Doubt,” with $525,000 on 15 screens, and IFC’s “Che” with $60,000 on two screens. …“Slumdog Millionaire,” $2.2 million on 169 screens; Focus’ “Milk,” $2.6 million on 328 screens; and Universal’s “Frost/Nixon,” $630,240 on 39 screens. [LA Times] (full top ten after the jump)
So basically, every awards-nominated movie got a tiny release while most of the country was stuck with f-cking Keanu Reeves. Note to studio execs: if you ever want the film industry to become less of an insular circle jerk than it already is, STOP ASSUMING EVERYONE OUTSIDE OF NY AND LA IS AN IDIOT. Making it hard to see the good shit doesn’t “build buzz”, it builds a negative attitude towards moviegoing in general. Example? I tried to see Milk three times this weekend. Every time it was sold out. And I live in New York. Next time I’ll probably just wonder if I should even bother. Great marketing strategy. Go F yourselves.
