Now that we’ve all had the chance to let last week’s Oscar nominations sink in, the general consensus of complaint (and that’s always what they boil down to) appears to have settled on the acting nominations — specifically, the rather shocking number of brilliant performances that were snubbed outright, against expectations. Tilda Swinton, for example, was presumed a shoo-in; same goes for Albert Brooks and, to a lesser degree, Charlize Theron and Kirsten Dunst. We won’t rehash everyone who got shafted; the point is, it happened, as it seems to every year. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has a long and storied history of shutting out great performances; after the jump, we’ve assembled ten iconic acting turns that we were stunned to discover weren’t even nominated for the Oscar.
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If you’ve been feeling as blah about next month’s Oscars ceremony as we have since boring old Billy Crystal was announced as the show’s replacement host, take heart. The Academy just announced that the cast of Bridesmaids has been added to its lineup of presenters! Sure, it’s not as good as an actual Best Picture nomination, but we’ll take what we can.
Will Kristen Wiig amd Maya Rudolph re-enact their hilarious Wilson Phillips-inspired choreography? Will Melissa McCarthy threaten to climb one of the evening’s other nominees like a tree? Will Rose Byrne share her favorite inspirational saying in Thai? Will Ellie Kemper and Wendi McLendon-Covey have another impromptu make-out session? It looks like we’ll just have to tune in on February 26th to find out. Exciting things could happen!
1. Perhaps in an effort to top last year’s strange decision to let James Franco and Anne Hathaway co-host the show, Brett Ratner (the Rush Hour series and X-Men: The Last Stand) has been chosen to co-produce this year’s Academy Awards. “This wasn’t even in my dreams, it’s so far out,” he said. “This is something I never could have imagined.” [via THR]
2. Speaking of Anne Hathaway, here’s your first official photo of her as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises — and she’s riding a really enormous motorcycle. Any thoughts on how she stacks up compared to Michelle Pfeiffer or Halle Berry?
3. According to Life & Style, famed fashion designer/sassy Project Runway judge Michael Kors and his longtime boyfriend Lance LePere are getting hitched. Kors’ official statement: “Lance and I are very excited to finally be able to have the opportunity to marry in our home state after many years together. We have no plans for a major party, but we will be getting married privately.” [via The Huffington Post]
4. In other fashion-related news, here’s an extremely rare photo of designer Karl Lagerfeld without his trademark sunglasses on. Spoiler alert: He has beady eyes.
5. Jesse Eisenberg has been cast as the lead in Richard Ayoade’s adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella The Double, which Vulture describes as “Fight Club for bureaucrats.” Based on how much we loved the former IT Crowd star’s debut feature, Submarine, we think this is really exciting news!
Bonus Buzz: Epic Hair Band Tattoo
Today at Flavorpill, we learned that you can use your Nintendo Wii console to throw a swinger’s party. We were stunned by this surreal footage that Logan McMillian shot just minutes after New Zealand’s catastrophic earthquake. We wanted to be half as cool as Winona Ryder’s 1985 yearbook photo. We realized how bad people used to be at explaining the Internet. We watched James Franco take a cat nap. We caught up with the bullies from The Neverending Story, 20 years later. We got schooled on the history of the Academy Awards. We found out it surprising that Eminem is now more popular than Lady Gaga is on Facebook. And finally, we wished that there was some truth to the whole “Dr. Dre started Burning Man” conspiracy theory, but we refuse to believe that Dre’s handwriting looks like that.
1. Interesting fact: only 13 percent of Wikipedia’s contributors are women, reports the New York Times. The Wikimedia Foundation vows to increase the number of women contributors to 24 percent by 2015.
2. After taking home top honors at last night’s SAG Awards, The King’s Speech is now considered the front-runner for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. [via Vulture]
3. Meet your next Superman: British actor Henry Cavill — who was previously cast as the Man of Steel in a JJ Abrams-scripted version of the film — will star in Zack Snyder’s franchise reboot. We were hoping for Jon Hamm. How about you? [via Slashfilm]
4. Bright Eyes’ forthcoming album The People’s Key — which comes out on February 15th — is now streaming in full over on NPR where they’re calling it “a career-defining work of art.”
5. We’re curious what Mayor Bloomberg thinks of this week’s Valentine’s Day-themed cover of the New Yorker, a drawing called Bloom in Love by Barry Blitt. Also worth checking out from a few issues back:Excerpts from Bloomberg’s snow diaries, a humor piece by John Kenney.
Bonus link: PS22 Chorus Covers Ariel Pink
“So glad they finally announced the Oscars,” our friend Eugene Mirman tweeted this morning. “I was getting worried that no one would give any awards to films this year.” No worries, Eugene! Hollywood’s season of self-congratulation will crash to a conclusion on February 27th, when America’s Secret Boyfriend James Franco and Secret Girlfriend Anne Hathaway host the 83rd Academy Awards. After the jump, we’ll take a gander at the surprises and snubs in this year’s noms.
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Amid the raft of film awards nomination announcements that have flooded in over the past month, why should we care about the relatively low-profile Producers Guild Awards? Well, as Vulture notes, the ten movies in the running for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures may well be the exact same group to score Oscar nominations for Best Picture on January 25th. Check out the films that made the cut and let us know who you think got snubbed after the jump.
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1. ArtsBeat is reporting that the opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Lights will now be pushed from January 11 until sometime in February. This will allow time for the creators to make several changes, including changing the final number, rewriting the dialogue, adding new music from the composers, U2’s Bono and the Edge.
2. Watch David Letterman’s hilarious tribute to Larry King, who hosted Larry King Live for the last time last night, complete with a Larry blooper reel. [via Gawker.tv]
3. Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman are pitching a new movie! According to the LA Times, “While the plot is being kept under tight wraps — it’s a pitch, so a script has yet to be written, and Kaufman movies are famously hard to describe in a few sentences anyway — two people familiar with the project said it has been making the rounds to independent financiers in recent weeks.”
4. Yesterday Anne Hathaway surprised the kids from the PS22 Chorus with the news that they’ll be performing at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony on February 27th. Watch a video of their reaction.
5. An anonymous LA street artist has put a new work in response to MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch’s decision to paint over another artist’s mural that he had commissioned: “The wheat-pasted mural depicts the face of Deitch on the body of an Iranian ayatollah holding an extension pole with a paint roller at the end — and it’s set against Italian street artist Blu’s now-controversial anti-war imagery.” [via Culture Monster]
Bonus link: Roger Ebert’s Top 10 Films of 2010
1. Lou Reed has directed Susan Boyle’s music video for her cover of his song “Perfect Day” — the same track that he was wrongfully accused of refusing to allow her to perform on America’s Got Talent. [via Vulture]
2. Hugh Jackman was asked to host this year’s Academy Awards, but he said no because he’s too busy preparing the Wolverine sequel. May we suggest Tina Fey instead? [via Deadline]
3. A newly-released Lil Wayne joined Drake on stage in Las Vegas over the weekend for a performance of “Miss Me.” (video) [via P4K]
4. Planters’ animated mascot Mr. Peanut is getting both a new vintage-inspired look (complete with a gray flannel suit) and a new voice courtesy of Robert Downey, Jr. [via NYT]
5. An upcoming Christie’s auction of the art of Playboy includes 80 photographs, more than a dozen contemporary works, and 24 cartoons, most of which have appeared in the publication. [via Yahoo!]
Bonus link: This Is Tom Cruise Jumping Off the Tallest Skyscraper In the World
1. There’s something weird happening on Twitter this morning that will cause you to auto-retweet the problem-causing code anytime you mouse over the page. We recommend that you use mobile.twitter.com until it’s fixed. [via Boing Boing]
2. In case you missed it, Pavement played “Gold Soundz” on last night’s episode of The Colbert Report. [via Arts Beat]
3. J.J. Abrams has cast Kyle Chandler (aka Friday Night Lights’ Coach Taylor) and Elle Fanning (Dakota’s little sis) as the leads in his super secretive film project, Super 8, which is being produced by Steven Spielberg. [via THR]
4. Catch Me If You Can is being adapted into a Broadway musical by many of the same creatives who worked on the Tony Award-winning production of Hairspray. It will open next spring. [via Playbill]
5. Focus Features has announced that it will be campaigning both The Kids Are All Right stars — Annette Bening and Julianne Moore — for Best Actress. Note: That has only been successful five other times in Academy Awards history. [via EW]
Bonus link: The 10 goofiest computer hacking scenes in cinema history
