Over at
OscarWatch there's an interesting list up of 115 people who've been asked to join the Academy. It's by invitation only that film industry professional join the ranks of the voting body of the Oscars. Some interesting choices this year --one hopes that one day changing membership will learn to move away from middlebrow pap into the realms of mainstream pictures that might actually be worth something 20 years later. Bitch all you want about
Sideways being overrated, for example, but people will still be watching Sideways many years hence. Can we say the same about
Seabiscuit or
Finding NeverlandOn the actor front they're going for diversity --Excluding the diverse lineup of new nominees based on nominations they received last year --you already know about them --The Academy wants the following folks to fill out ballots each year: Jennifer Coolidge (great choice), Will Ferrell & Ziyi Zhang (for ubiquity's sake? perhaps), Gael Garcia Bernal & Paul Giamatti (it's a new way for making up for past slights -invite them to join!), Charlotte Rampling, Jean Reno, and Stellan Skarsgard (mighty, talented, oft-employed foreigners)
My favorite choice other than hilarious Coolidge and lusty Bernal is Mark Mothersbaugh (of Devo and Wes Anderson filmography fame) being asked to join the music branch. Good on the Academy. They're too boring to nominate him but maybe he can add one interesting voice to one of their least aesthetically adventurous branches. Change comes slowly.
