Teenage Jezebel!

Oscar... Now With More Spirit Fingers

Shankman's got spirit!

Do you follow the Oscar show news in the way you follow the Oscars? I don't so much, despite this life I lead constantly writin' about the awards themselves. I care who hosts to some degree but I tend to ignore the rest. But I found it interesting this week when director Adam Shankman (Hairspray) was named as one of the producers and his choreography skills were noted as a reason to be enthused about this assignment. At least he has a sense of humor about his, um, limited history with the big event

I was one of Paula Abdul's 'Under the Sea' pirates," Shankman said. "The last time I was at the Oscars, I was in Lycra, with a pirate hat on.

Shankman's presence must mean more musical numbers. I'm all for musical numbers provided they rehire Hugh Jackman as host. He was so fine last year.

But Shankman's involvement suddenly had me worried that John Travolta would present Best Picture or something. If any Shankman connected star gets that honor, it sure as hell better be Michelle Pfeiffer (look how cute they are together).

I am so sick of the lack of imagination the AMPAS producers have when it comes to the Best Picture presenters. They don't give directors the honor all that often but even if you're an actor it's not even a matter of being a legendary A lister. Some people, for what we assume must be insider reasons, have a stranglehold on this particular honor on Hollywood's High Holy Night.

Seriously, this is how it's gone done in the past 20 years:

2008 Steven Spielberg
2007 Denzel Washington
2006 Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson
2005 Jack Nicholson
2004 Dustin Hoffman & Barbra Streisand
2003 Steven Spielberg
2002 Kirk & Michael Douglas
2001 Tom Hanks
2000 Michael Douglas
1999 Clint Eastwood
1998 Harrison Ford
1997 Sean Connery
1996 Al Pacino
1995 Sidney Poitier
1994 Robert DeNiro & Al Pacino
1993 Harrison Ford
1992 Jack Nicholson
1991 Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Newman
1990 Barbra Streisand
1989 Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson

Yes, Jack Nicholson has had the honor 20% of the time in the past twenty years. 20%! I love Jack as much as anyone. It's great to see him sitting in the front row with his shades on each year ... but there are other legends in the house. Let's show some imagination, not to mention respect. Once you get past Jack (7 times altogether) you're still stuck with Spielberg, Streisand, Douglas or Pacino lately, you know? Enough.

In 81 Years of Oscar Nights...

Minorities (all 4 of them) who've had the honor
Akira Kurosawa, Eddie Murphy, Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington

Actresses (all 14 of them) who've had the honor
3 times: Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn
2 times: Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand
Once: Ethel Barrymore, Mary Pickford, Janet Gaynor, Ingrid Bergman, Olivia de Havilland, Lillian Gish, Loretta Young, Carol Burnett, Diane Keaton and Cher

Important actors and/or mega stars who have not presented Best Picture and wouldn't any of them be fine choices (hint hint... things I'd most love to see in red)?
Meryl Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vanessa Redgrave, Julia Roberts, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Bette Midler, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Maggie Smith, Goldie Hawn, Jodie Foster, Sissy Spacek, Christopher Plummer, Will Smith, Mia Farrow, Liza Minnelli, Drew Barrymore, Joan Fontaine, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Sally Kirkland*, Joanne Woodward, Peter O'Toole, Glenn Close, Jessica Lange, Julie Christie, Mickey Rooney, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Susan Sarandon
_____________________ ... and a little nobody named Jane Fonda.

Breathe deep Oscar. Be brave. Envision a world beyond Jack. Spread your golden wealth.


This post is a few months too early, yes. I hear you. But please stop interrupting my lucid fantasy that Shankman and other movers and shakers read this blog daily, poring over its every awards culture command. 'Yes, Nathaniel, yes. We shall obey!'

Who would you love to see close out the 82nd Oscars with an enthusiastic line reading of "and the Oscar goes to..."

*just wanted to see if you were paying attention
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I've Linked You So Long

popbytes Grace Jones licks Joseph Fiennes. Whaaaaa?
My New Plaid Pants new pics and new new on Spike Jonze Where the Wild Things Are
ModFab declares undying love for Kristin Scott Thomas
People Hugh Jackman: Sexiest Man Alive
The Wicked Stage Desplechin A Christmas Tale collects another fan
Twitch thinks Star Trek is relevant again. It is? I guess I missed the part where people are excited for this one. Or maybe it's just my lifelong teflon like resistant to the franchise
Kenneth in the (212) "Face Dances" with Ethan Hawke
Fire of Spring HBO is finally doing a fantasy series. Yay!
Voynaristic more on the Prop 8 fallout at the Los Angeles Film Festival
Buzz Sugar a new Pinocchio (Just how many hours does Guillermo Del Toro cram into one day... 42?)
Out in Hollywood Both original stars are coming back to Hairspray for its final weeks on Broadway. Yay. I saw Marissa and Harvey in previews years ago and I wasn't "Without Love". In fact it was pouring out of me. Joy.


And Reports From the Edge shared this Fine Bros 4 minute video which "spoils" 100 movies. You've been warned.


Watch 100 Movie Spoilers in 5 Minutes - NAKED VERSION in Funny Videos, Entertainment Videos, and Webisodes | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Good Morning Baltimore

...and other cities!

at some point in the next 24 hours I leave DC and head back to NYC. I'm so happy I feel like singing. Not that DC wasn't lovely... it's just time to go home.
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TTT: Movie Posters of 2007

tuesday top ten: For the list lover in you and the list maker in me

I know I'm supposed to be thinking about 2008 by now, but I've been extremely busy with corporate work and freelance work. The annual film experience awards jamboree is suffering from the slow crawl. My apologies but I'm only one man. So let's throw out one more category ... or two.

Top Ten Movie Posters of 2007

If I had seen Hannah Takes the Stairs (left) it would have made the list (for my own awards I don't allow myself to nominate films I haven't seen. Even for categories that don't require the seeing. Like "best poster" and "tag line") I really love the color, the composition, whatnot. DIY movies, mumblecore, what have you...these movies aren't supposed to have advertising budgets and terrific posters. How'd they afford it? Was there a crew member involved with a cobweb gathering BA in design?

10 Tease it up! I wrote about the Michelle Pfeiffer Hairspray poster previously. The trend of individual "introducing..." posters is now old hat but I thought this joyous musical was an appropriate one to work that widespread marketing angle. And in Hairspray's case the "who's who behind the do?" poster made punny use of the very idea of a 'teaser' poster

09 Question: Why are international posters so regularly superior to their American counterparts? Have they done research to determine that Americans really like to stare at photoshopped movie star faces that have been awkwardly forced into a frankenstein group candid? It sure seems like they have. Anyway, I like the puzzle / symbol Zodiac poster much more than the vague dark bridge version that we got in the States. It shouldn't be creepier (bright white and all) but it is.


08 The one thing 300 had going for it was the visuals, inspired by and faithful to comic giant Frank Miller. Dig that odd thrusting composition, forcing your eye diagonally up left to a jutting cliff (will a Disney heroine be singing up top?) Then, just as violently, it lets your eye fall with the doomed warriors and a spray of blood. Now I technically know that this is a battle sequence and these are the losers of said battle. But I like to think that it's just an honest depiction of 300's masochism (machismo? just scramble the letters a bit). Watch beefy anthropomorphic lemmings march off a cliff together. Apparently that dinner in hell is tasty.


07 There were some busy posters that tried to convey the collage / multiple identity thesis of Todd Haynes Dylan biopic but the best ones were the near silhouette portraits of the film's stars. The "...is Bob Dylan" and "...are Bob Dylan" tag lines were pleasant complications to ponder while settling into the simple images.

06 It's easy to hold grudges against Bug's marketing campaign for foisted the big lie that a generic horror movie was opening. This secured the movie an OK opening weekend but a lot of walkouts, too... and disgruntled audiences means no word of mouth for future weekends. But away from the commercial (the true fraudulent culprit) the first poster is still a pretty accurate snapshot of Bug's psychological disturbances. And it's memorable too. This is a movie that gets under your skin.

and for the top 5 (i.e. the nominees) "Posters of the Year", you'll have to click over to the FB Awards.
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Naked Gold Man: Song and Dance

He's 13 1/2 inches tall. He wears only a sword. He's shiny. Everybody wants him. This is a weekly Sunday series --keeping the Oscar discussion corraled in the weekends until the precursors begin.

Previously: Early Birds and Phoenixes

As daily readers of the blog know, I’ve been in a sour mood lately. In trying to shake it and perusing possible topics for this week’s naked gold column I had a flash of inspiration: musicals! Is there any surer over-the-counter remedy for a bad mood? Just pop one in and thrill to a little song and dance. Suddenly instead of waking up on the wrong side of bed and glowering into your coffee, you’re singing in the shower. Musicals = better moods. It’s a fact. Even depressing ones lift spirits … on account of all the serotonin locked inside of showtunes.

This year three musicals are in the mix: Once, Hairspray and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Before we consider each, let’s take a quick trip back through Oscar history. Do the Academy voters love musicals? Certainly a lot of musicals have been nominated but this was a fairly common movie genre for many decades. Just how much does the gold man prize singers and dancers?

Read the Rest for more on...
If John Travolta is nominated could he be a threat to win?
Can Once's musical affect bring it gold?
Why the quality of Johnny Depp's singing won't affect his Oscar's chances
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ReIntroducing: Velma Von Tussel

Here are your first images of Michelle Pfeiffer in next summer's musical Broadway-to-screen transfer Hairspray [click to enlarge]


For those of you who aren't familiar with Hairspray: a) what's wrong with you? and b) get thee to the John Waters 1988 classic immediately. It's so great. I always wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to play Debbie Harry in a movie (a job for Kiki apparently) but it looks like reinterpreting Harry's role in a movie is the closest that Pfeiffer will get to that.

I'm more than a little worried about this movie. In it's previous incarnations as a cult comedy classic and as a hit Broadway musical it's been endearingly goofy, a touch perverse and wildly entertaining. But this film replaces the queer genius of Divine and Harvey Feirstein with (gulp) John Travolta. The new typeface at the official website doesn't help instill confidence either. Instead of the Broadway musical's bright airy logo, this one is all garish with black outlines and darkened colors. Ewww.

Plus it's directed by Adam Shankman. Now he knows from choreography, his credits there are abundant and that helps in dance musicals a genre to which Hairspray> easily belongs. In addition to numerous movies he also choreographed one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's finest moments ever: the musical episode "Once More With Feeling." You know how I feel about Buffy so it's really hard to hate on him. (here is Shankman with Buffy herself --->)

But so far as a helmer... unless you count Shankman's The Wedding Planner, A Walk to Remember, Bringing Down the House, The Pacifier, or Cheaper by the Dozen 2 as classics, ...er... you're probably thinking that Hairspray just might suck. Or at least it will be closer to the Rent school of mismanaged musical properties and far from the land of the Chicago bullseye.

But: Michelle Pfeiffer is in it!

Tags: movies, cinema, Hairspray, moviemusicals musicals, animation,film, Michelle Pfeiffer, Divine,John Waters, hairspray

ReIntroducing: Velma Von Tussel

Here are your first images of Michelle Pfeiffer in next summer's musical Broadway-to-screen transfer Hairspray [click to enlarge]


For those of you who aren't familiar with Hairspray: a) what's wrong with you? and b) get thee to the John Waters 1988 classic immediately. It's so great. I always wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to play Debbie Harry in a movie (a job for Kiki apparently) but it looks like reinterpreting Harry's role in a movie is the closest that Pfeiffer will get to that.

I'm more than a little worried about this movie. In it's previous incarnations as a cult comedy classic and as a hit Broadway musical it's been endearingly goofy, a touch perverse and wildly entertaining. But this film replaces the queer genius of Divine and Harvey Feirstein with (gulp) John Travolta. The new typeface at the official website doesn't help instill confidence either. Instead of the Broadway musical's bright airy logo, this one is all garish with black outlines and darkened colors. Ewww.

Plus it's directed by Adam Shankman. Now he knows from choreography, his credits there are abundant and that helps in dance musicals a genre to which Hairspray> easily belongs. In addition to numerous movies he also choreographed one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's finest moments ever: the musical episode "Once More With Feeling." You know how I feel about Buffy so it's really hard to hate on him. (here is Shankman with Buffy herself --->)

But so far as a helmer... unless you count Shankman's The Wedding Planner, A Walk to Remember, Bringing Down the House, The Pacifier, or Cheaper by the Dozen 2 as classics, ...er... you're probably thinking that Hairspray just might suck. Or at least it will be closer to the Rent school of mismanaged musical properties and far from the land of the Chicago bullseye.

But: Michelle Pfeiffer is in it!

Tags: movies, cinema, Hairspray, moviemusicals musicals, animation,film, Michelle Pfeiffer, Divine,John Waters, hairspray