Who Cares About Link?

God bless V Magazine for their latest issue, "Who Cares About Age". Usually when the media decides to celebrate older women, we're only allowed one. Like the recent Streep Mania... or 2006 when Helen Mirren was all the rage. I've always had a thing for actresses of a certain age so I applaud them for multiplying the enthusiasm. I mean check out these legendary cover girls: Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, and Sigourney Weaver. yesplease³.

And as if that weren't enough, you've got Charlotte Rampling on the inside! A whole huge photogallery of her... "Charlotte in Couture".

The average age of these women is 66. The average fabulousity of these women is ∞. Just saying.

More links...
Scott Feinberg interviews Halle Berry
The Evening Class Liza Minnelli interviews and TCM schedule
Deadline Hollywood Toy Story Best Picture spoofing FYC ads. The first is to your left. There's more to come as they campaign for the big prize. I'm really hoping they do Amadeus, The Hurt Locker and West Side Story. Which Best Pictures would you like to see spoofed by the toys?
Man About Town interviews Ryan Kwanten... naked. Ha.
Shadowplay proposes a mid December blog-a-thons about the last films from directors. What a fine idea. Any suggestions you'd like me write about?
Just Jared Anne Hathaway is awesome. She's already dreamt up her own role on Glee and picking songs before they've even invited her.
Moviefone If Lindsay Lohan needs to hit rock bottom to recover maybe this will do it? Malin Akerman of all people is now considered a suitable replacement.

offscreen
Gabby's Playhouse brilliant cartoon about the progression of all "sexism" discussions on the internet
The Post-Game Show on "beefcake" comic art and how it differs from cheesecake...

And finally... 
What's your take on Christian Bale's Oscar chances for The Fighter?

I was discussing this with some peers earlier today. Some people feel he's too disliked to win an Oscar (after all, many below the line players vote on Oscars and we all know that Bale has a temper on set) others that "likeability" doesn't matter so much in the face of a certain level of performance. Esquire just published a thorny profile piece. Some journalists think he's an ingrate. Others, like Kris Tapley appreciate his rough edges. My take is somewhere in the middle. Likeability does matter in awards season (a lot) and though I appreciate honesty and strong opinions, I do find that it's incredibly narcissistic when stars of a certain level bitch about their duties as stars... like doing press. Basically they wouldn't have those duties if they weren't hugely successful. If people want to talk to you that means you're more successful. All jobs come with elements that are less joyous for the worker ... but very few jobs have the rewards that star actors receive. Bitching about a tiny amount of drudgery within a life filled with extravagant reward (the only reason that tiny amount of drudgery even exists is because you're successful enough to have been extravagantly rewarded) seems very very petty. So I'm torn. I find it distasteful but on the other hand I believe art should be judged without interference from the personality of the artist.

Get Away Fom Ripley You Bitches

JA from MNPP here. If you consider Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece Alien a horror film (and you really should consider Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece Alien a horror film) (and even more specifically it should be considered it a slasher film, just a slasher set in outer space) then it becomes immediately clear that Ellen Ripley, the character immortalized by Sigourney Weaver in this and its subsequent three sequels, started out as a fairly straightforward Final Girl. She fits in right beside Jamie Lee Curtis in John Carpenter's Halloween and Heather Langencamp in A Nightmare in Elm Street - the smart girl who sees the encroaching horror and manages to outwit outplay and outlast the danger.


Ripley's not really the Action Hero we think of until Jim Cameron's sequel - make that Action heroine, THE Action Heroine; she made and broke and burned the mold up with a flamethrower. And even there Cameron does all sorts of interesting things with the idea of an Action Heroine that so many films today don't bother to even contemplate - Ripley, even when she's kicking ass, is a character that is always painted with as much femininity as possible, on top of her butchness.

When I say "femininity" I don't mean objectifying her as a sexualized, desirable woman (although those moments where Sigourney strips down to those tiny underpants are important, I'd argue, in that they stick that obvious physical facet of her womanhood front and center). Adding in the character of the uber-tough Vasquez in Aliens is a clear attempt to slide Ripley's character to the center of the femme-to-butch scale - she seems so demure and ladylike standing next to Jenette Goldstein in her red bandanna! - but great pains are made over and over again to code Ripley as a mother figure. Her protection of Newt and the introduction of the Alien Queen with her pulsing egg sac as the big villain - it's all a way of designating a space for a specifically feminine sort of rage within a heretofore male dominated film space.




Ripley's character only gets more and more complicated as the sequels progress and I think, even with the hit-and-miss nature of the last two films, it's clear that's what kept Sigourney coming back over and over again. Ripley becomes a broken martyr and then she becomes an infected experiment, half-human and half-something else - and as sloppy as Resurrection is I dare you not to get chills in the scene where she confronts the deformed other versions of herself. That scene's actually an interesting statement upon the fractured nature of Ripley at that point - the way the movies split her apart and built her up again in a different director's vision time after time after time.

Anyway that's a little history of who Ellen Ripley is, and what she became. We came for the monsters but we stayed for the lady. And now Ridley Scott wants to take us back there, only more back, as he's working on a prequel to his 1979 film. Names have been popping up like aliens out of rib-cages over the past few weeks. Everybody from Natalie Portman to Gemma Arterton to Noomi Rapace and now Anne Hathaway have been rumored for the lead role of "a female Colonial Marine general" in the time thirty-five years before the events of Alien.

I know a couple versions of the scripts have been around because some people seem to know more about the character then that, but I plan on keeping myself as spoiler-free as possible... and yet I still feel the need to contemplate! Shocking, that. I've been going back and forth over it in my head and I can quite decide what's the smartest route to go - should they even try to have this character be anything like Ripley? Or should they go in a completely different direction and have them be nothing like each other? Will it feel like an Alien movie without some vestige, even shadowed, of her there? Or does that shadow just swallow up all the light? I mean is it even possible to make a character that won't be seen through the prism of Ellen Ripley anyway?


It's really an impossible question and hopefully the team making the movie are just working on crafting a good story with not only an interesting character for the female lead but interesting roles for the entire cast, and not obsessing over this one facet like I seem to be. Yet I don't have a movie to make, and all the time in the world until the movie's sitting in front of me, so obsess I shall. What do y'all think?

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poll by twiigs.com

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Link Robot ♥ Actresses (Especially the Intimidating Leggy Kind)

Shock Till You Drop Sigourney Weaver interview involving all four Aliens movies and her other genre successes. She's a bit cagey in her answers -- see how she dodges the tough question. But it's Sigourney so we read. And...
Collider ...Robert DeNiro has signed on to play the object of her investigation in the psychological thriller Red Lights. He'll be playing a psychic, she's a paranormal activity expert. The role of Weaver's partner is yet to be cast. We hope it's a good chemistry fit.

In Contention Are Macy Gray and Kimberly Elise the standouts from For Colored Girls? We'll need more than just one anonymous source's opinion to find out. Stay tuned.
The Film Doctor 9 notes on I Am Love. I'm not going to read this now (I'm working on an I Am Love piece and want to be free of all influence) but I like these # notes pieces.
Birth of a Notion RIP Barbara Billingsley. She spoke jive.

Pussy Goes Grrr on cinema's love of combining the feminine with the monstrous.

Chuck & Beans "How To Break Bad News To A Movie Geek."
popbytes on the movie-turned-stage-musical Leap of Faith with music by Oscar winner Alan Menken. The musical stars one of our Broadway favorites Raúl Esparza. We hope they recast the female lead. Enough with the stunt casting, producers. Musicals deserve GREAT voices (like Esparzas).

Movie|Line Info regarding Oz: The Great and Powerful from Sam Raimi starring Robert Downey Jr. Boy did the producers of the Wicked musical biff their chance to be first. By the time that musical hits the screen people will be so sick of Oz with all these multiple movies greenlit; if you arrive AFTER the things you've influenced it's kind of problematic and potentially stale. They should have started on the movie the very moment they realized they had a mammoth hit on their hands. Like way the hell back in 2004 they should have been doing the first draft screenplay and searching for the movie cast. It takes years to get a movie on the screen and we could have been enjoying it for Christmas this very year.

 Just Jared Halle Berry presented Chris Nolan with an award at the Scream Awards. (It's a horror awards show.) I can't figure out why Nolan would have been honored but when people love you they will find any excuse. P.S. Berry looks sensational. But you knew that already. Beautiful woman.
I Need My Fix Anne Hathaway on the cover of the new Vogue. But excuse me, why does she look like Eva Mendes instead of Anne Hathaway? I hate it when magazine photo shoot tinkering does that.
Pullquote this is a month-old post on notes taken during a screening of Angelina Jolie's Salt. But it's new to me and it totally amused me. Trust that I can never understand my own notes after a screening.
Comedy Central Gay Robot ♥ Ryan Phillipe. teehee

Female Characters (In Two Dimensions!)

Have you seen this flowchart on female movie stereotypes in entertainment? It's created by the folks at Overthinking It. (You'll have to open that window to view it in readable size.)

It's dizzying, hilarious and depressing in equal masure. I'm reading it and I'm totally hearing Meryl Streep's voice in my head when Shirley Maclaine starts listing monster movie moms (like Joan Crawford) that she could have been born to instead in Postcards From the Edge

"These are the options?"

Meryl is awesome and it's tough to find her on this chart; she usually comes in three dimensions.

P.S. I love that Lt. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is still considered such a gold standard female hero. Where's Sigourney's major revival? She deserves better than You Again.

Crying with Juli M. Laughing with Jamie Lee. Casting of Chloe M.

Go Fug Yourself Jamie Lee Curtis & Sigweavie repeat their You Again joke on the red carpet: same dress.
Hollywood Reporter Speaking of JLC, she has...feeelings about this True Lies reboot for TV.
Coming Soon Chloe Moretz to play Emily Strange. She's the only young girl in Hollywood. The only one you're allowed to see in anything, okay?! Learn to love her. Or else.

...And my latest column at Towleroad covers Buried with Ryan Reynolds and has a lot more linkage too, including that hilarious 'Julianne Moore Loves to Cry' video that several of you have alerted me, too. I love to watch her weep but it's not because I'm a sadist. Find out my self-rationalizing theory over there.

Something else I need to find a rationalization for: I've had Atom Egoyan's Chloe --no, not Moretz! -- sitting on my TV for a week or more now and I still haven't watched it. Damn you time management issues. This is also why posting has been slim while I've been NYFF'ing. Apologies.

P.S. More Foreign Film Oscar Submission have happened and the charts are updated. But you know what's really weird. When I was looking up the info I found this article from the AP which says the craziest thing

"Lula, the Son of Brazil" will be among 95 titles from around the world competing to be chosen for the shortlist at the US Academy Awards ceremony on February 27, the culture ministry said

Apparently the culture ministry hasn't followed the Oscars much. I've been tracking this category extensively since 2001 and I've never seen a year that hit 75 titles, let alone 95!

Here's a music video from Andrius Mamontovas from the  Latvian Oscar submission Hong Kong Confidential. Andrius also co-stars in the romantic dramedy.

Flashback: Maggie Cheung and... Sigourney Weaver?

A very happy birthday to the incomparable and elusive Maggie Cheung who turns 46 today. We haven't seen her mysterious mojo onscreen in about six years -- since Clean and 2046 hit and she announced that unfortunate retirement -- but she did do a cameo earlier this year in the Chinese film Hot Summer Days (pictured left), an all star ensemble romance about a heatwave.

Here in this ancient clip from the Golden Horse Awards, you can see Maggie winning one of her four Golden Horse Best Actress awards for Comrades a Love Story (1996) aka Tian Mi Mi... good flick - rent it. And who is presenting this award but Sigourney Weaver herself! It's an Ang Lee connection since Sigweavie was doing The Ice Storm round about that time. They switch to English about a minute into the clip.



Leslie Cheung (RIP) is also in the clip. *sniffle*
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A Picture's Worth A Thousand Yesses

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JA from MNPP here. Have you guys seen the cast list for You Again? I mean sure it's made by the guy who made Race to Witch Mountain, but it co-stars those two firecrackers above along with Betty White, Kristen Bell, Cloris Leachman, Victor Garber, and Kristen Chenoweth! Will it be too much of a good thing? Will they all just stand around with nothing to do? I don't care, I could watch these people stand around with nothing to do. They'd do even that delightfully, I wager. More on the movie here. More pictures from it here. And here's the trailer:

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It's out on September 24th.

Sigourney Weaver Jamie Lee Curtis

"You're boring me."

"I have a husband. I don't particularly feel the need for another"

[Great Moments in Screen Bitchery #422, Sigourney Weaver, The Ice Storm]

Cape Link

cinema
stale popcorn is counting down the 00s in a comprehensively personal way. Love it
92nd Street Y are you going to the Grease 2 Sing-along?
serious film wonders what film might eventually throw Citizen Kane from its "greatest" throne
hot blog James Cameron discusses science in his science fiction. I love this bit

Asked whether the Alien or a Na'vi would win a fight, Cameron's answer was, "Sigourney (Weaver) would win."

Heh and duh!


/film Ang Lee and the Life of Pi in 3-D
thompson on hollywood talks with Annette Bening about her awards-contender roles in Mother and Child and The Kids Are All Right
natashavc young hollywood '98 fetal flashback: Reese & Ryan
movies kick ass talks up Oscar's 1964 Best Actor race with friends

small screen diversion
critical condition a great thinky piece on Glee's Madonna episode
i need my fix an evening with Glee
what's good... let's hear it for Jonathan Groff's agent
newnownext rich from fourfour visits the set of RuPaul's Drag Race. Lengthy interesting piece with wonderful photos

back to big
Finally, I just wanted to draw your attention to a great reunion pic: Juliette Lewis and Robert DeNiro at the Tribeca Film Festival!


DeNiro showed up at the party for Juliette's latest pic Metropia (she's not in it -- sigh -- just voicework). I mean seeing these two together again is just bananas. The last time I saw them together Juliette was sucking on Bobby's thumb. Which was also bananas. In both connotative senses of the fruit.


At the risk of embarassing one of my best friends, I must ask that if you ever meet Nick Davis you demand to hear his Juliette/Cape Fear voice. It's so unnervingly spot on that the first time he did it for me it made me love both him and Juliette more. And I didn't think I could in either case! So while I'm spreading the link love, please note that Nick is still on his best actress tear having recently written up performances by Ann-Margret, Jane Wyman, Talia Shire and, most controversially, Maggie Smith. Read 'em.

Why Do I Link?

Gold Derby talks to Robert Osborne about what went wrong with this year's Oscar ceremony
I Need My Fix Sharon Stone on 'Law & Order: SVU'? Are things really that dire for her? Sad.
The Independent Eye Gabby Sidibe can have a career, Howard Stern. Here are seven plus sized successes from Hollywood's past
Movie Marketing Madness looks at the promotional strategy on The Runaways


Coming Soon the first poster for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The Film Stage I'd somehow missed the news that Andrew Jarecki (Capturing The Friedmans) bought his Dunst/Gosling murder drama All Good Things back from the Weinsteins after they kept not releasing it (so typical). Sigh... the Weinsteins are basically like dragons who hoard shiny treasures (films) in dark caves (vaults).
Boy Culture attends the GLAAD awards. Lots of videos with the attendees! Here's one of Sigourney Weaver who starts out not wanting to give advice to closeted actors... but then does. Go Sigweavie

I think it's very important as an actor -- We can change into anyone but it's always very important to be true to yourself in the business. So I think it would actually be helpful and energy giving to absolutely be who you are.

The Independent looks at the topic Sigourney is speaking to. Playing gay is so great for careers, but few actors are yet willing to assume being gay will be.
Random Acts of Literary Vandalism discovers how endearing Drew Barrymore's Whip It is (more and more people will)
popbytes has details from that Glee promotional event we mentioned a couple of days ago.
Hollywood Reporter Jayma Mays (Glee) added to cast of The Smurfs

Sigweavie (With Fangs, G-String)

Remember when I told you about that dinner party when Amy Heckerling told me she wanted Michelle Pfeiffer for Vamps? Either Heckerling didn't get her or things changed or we don't know much about the fanged girls in New York plot.


It's apparently Sigourney Weaver who is on board as a vampire queen "Ciccerus" in Heckerling's new comedy with Alicia Silverstone (reuniting with her Clueless guide) and Krysten Ritter in the lead roles. Weaver is aces in genre pieces (The Alien franchise) and in comedies (Working Girl, The TV Set) and she's also adept at doing both at once (Ghostbusters, Galaxy Quest) so it's probably a smart choice.

Still, I wish La Pfeiff had Sigweavie's work ethic. The 51 year-old blond goddess has no future projects in the works whereas the 60 year-old amazon brunette has several projects lined up post Avatar including a handful of movies and one TV project. The TV project G-String Mother sounds great. We've seen a million tv, film and stage adaptations of Gypsy... but this particular Gypsy Rose Lee story isn't about the early vaudeville days leading to stripping but about the stripper quitting in the 50s and then continuing to shill her own legend (which caused those million tv, film and stage adaptations). I see winged Emmy in her future.

A lot of actors get plentiful work after appearing in a blockbuster (the wishful-thinking being that all the money magnetism will transfer even if the actor-in-question wasn't the lead) but in Weaver's case, you can't even blame Avatar for the steady simmer of her career. The actress hasn't stopped working since her film debut in Annie Hall (1977).

Cat Fights From Another Planet

There was reason to worry. What on earth was taking James Cameron so long anyway? It's been twelve years since Titanic, weighted down with Oscars and cash, sank into the ocean. For nearly a decade it looked like the reliable blockbuster director might never come back up for air. Was Titanic just too daunting to follow up? But, just as the negative buzz prior to Titanic's release evaporated when people actually saw the great big movie, Avatar dispels any doubts within minutes. The old saying "if you rest, you rust" does not apply to James Cameron. He may have spent years geekily perfecting yet more groundbreaking cinematic technology but thankfully he didn't lose his love of fierce women, action sequences laced with emotion or his storytelling instincts in the process.



Avatar bombards you with backstory in its opening scenes but it's never weighed down by all the fantastical exposition (for a director so fond of lengthy movies -- this one clocks in at 162 rousing minutes -- his movies sure fly). With a series of quick scenes we get the basics: Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is an ex-marine who has lost the use of his legs, he's been recruited by bossy plant-loving Dr Grace Augustine (Cameron stand-in and Aliens survivor Sigourney Weaver) for an elaborate scientific and diplomatic mission to the planet Pandora. There, he'll be animating an alien body created specifically to be compatible with his own genetic code.

Read the rest of my Avatar review in my weekly column at Towleroad

Click on any label below for more on these topics. I've been a Cameron fan for a long time. I recently reexamined and detailed the greatness of both Terminator and T2: Judgment Day
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Sigourney Is The Best Medicine

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JA from MNPP here. Earlier this week came the news that my beloved Sigourney Weaver would probably be joining the cast of Paul, the alien-comedy directed by Greg Mottola (director of Superbad and Adventureland) and written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (aka the stars of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) as well as co-starring the two of them plus Jason Bateman and Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen and Jane Lynch, and I wondered if there'd ever been a cooler thing ever. I still haven't found one.

But today comes word that besides officially joining that movie, Sigourney has also added another comedy to her upcoming roster (via):

"... [Sigourney] will then star in “You Again” with Kristen Bell for director Andy Fickman. Bell will play a young woman who returns home for her brother’s wedding and is horrified to find he’s marrying her high school nemesis. Weaver will play the bride’s filthy-rich aunt."

Okay, Sigourney and my beloved Veronica Mars together? My body has turned into goo, y'all. And from the director of She's The Man, no less! Okay, I kid on that last snark - Fickman brought a gloriously deranged performance out of Bell once before in the filmed version of Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical and perhaps he'll channel that side again.


But we're talking Siggy here, and I think we need to revel a lil' in her continued devotion to and excellence in comedies. The topic came up in the comments to my post on Paul and so it's something I've had on my mind this week. What's your favorite Sigourney performance in a comedy? We have bunches to choose from.

(Clockwise: Sigourney as Lenny in The TV Set, as Gwen DeMarco in Galaxy Quest,
as Max Conners in Heartbreakers, as First Lady Ellen Mitchell in Dave,
and as Katherine Parker in Working Girl)

And what about Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters or Chaffee the obscenely fertile surrogate coach in Baby Mama? I'd be hard-pressed to choose a favorite, but it'd probably be between Working Girl and Galaxy Quest, leaning towards the latter. Something about the way she delivers everything with exasperated amazement. "Ducts? Why is it always ducts?" And of course the immortal, "Whoever wrote this episode should DIE!" Love.

Which is your favorite?
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Top Ten: After Kate Winslet, Who?

Kate Winslet finally won her Oscar, delighting the bulk of fans who have been rooting for her since she dreamt of Hollywood in '94 -- 'they're desperately keen to sign me up!' -- or nearly drowned in '97. She never let go. So, who is next?

Or rather... who is most overdue?

Contrary to popular belief, it ain't easy to win an Oscar. It certainly wasn't easy for Kate the Great. You need more than an accent, a disability, a good or popular movie, old age makeup or mimicry skills. You also need star charisma, a role that compliments or complicates that charisma and media support. Above all else you need luck combined with surgically precise good timing. History is full of performers who never won the movie's top prize despite plentiful contributions to the art of acting.

For the following list I'm ignoring outstanding performers who have never been nominated because I already made that list. But, yes: Donald Sutherland, Mia Farrow, Christopher Plummer and Christian Bale would certainly have cause to hate the Academy for pretending they don't exist. This list only concerns itself with previously nominated actors who are still working.

Top Ten Nominees Who Are Really Overdue For an Oscar Win

Honorable Mentions: Albert Finney, Debra Winger, Helena Bonham-Carter, Joan Cusack, Laura Linney, Jude Law and Ed Harris. Peter O'Toole has an honorary and Glenn Close gave up so I'm skipping them.


10 Sigourney Weaver 3 nominations
Sigourney strikes me as a Holly Hunter type: not easy to cast but riveting / perfect when the role fits. Historians sometimes think of the Oscars as a movie culture time capsule but as such they sometimes fail miserably at capturing the larger picture of the careers of famous actors. Weaver's case is interesting because her three nominations (Aliens, Working Girl and Gorillas in the Mist) actually paint a compellingly accurate portrait of her whole career. Think about it. Those three represent all the things she does best: sexy amazons in genre films, bitchy women in comedies and intense almost scarily obsessive women in prestige dramas. Unfortunately none of these three types are what Oscar voters go for unless they're tricked into it by some other mitigating factor or completely unable to deny the skill involved. Since she turns 60 this year I think that her only hope for a statue is a killer comedic supporting part -- preferrably in a well loved Best Picture nominee. The kind of role Maggie Smith got in Gosford Park could win Weaver the elusive gold, couldn't it?

09 Annette Bening. 3 nominations
The Bening is in the unenviable position of (arguably) finishing in second place every time she's been nominated. Second at the Oscars isn't any different than fifth... the math flatlines. 1990's The Grifters, her first nomination, established her unique star persona: calculated erotic cunning, theatricality and twinkly eyed laughter. She lost that first Oscar to a famous comedienne who was anchoring a mammoth hit (Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost) and then she lost twice to someone she's twice as talented as (the first time was justifiable. We'll let it slide ;) ). When will it be her turn? Maybe never. AMPAS passed her over for Bugsy, The American President and Running With Scissors despite, respectively, 10 other nominations, popularity and a baity role all of which suggests that they're not always keen on her. Perhaps its the envy factor? It can't suck to be her. Mr. Annette Bening, never won for acting either and he's a true screen legend.

08 Joan Allen. 3 nominations
I used to joke that this great actress needed only two seconds of screentime to start Oscar buzz. Her presence alone is so commanding that you're glued to her. You're ready for every line reading, gesture and closeup from the moment the camera first spots her. But that was then. This is now and the now is not looking like an Oscar is coming. Which is very frustrating. She was arguably the best of the nominees on her first and second nominations (Nixon and The Crucible) but the films themselves weren't loved enough to bring that winning momentum. Her third nomination (The Contender, 2000) was one of those "I'm just happy to be nominated" situations since that was Julia Robert's Oscar to lose even before the previous year's Oscars were handed out (Erin Brockovich was released a week before the 1999 Oscars were held). Most agonizing of all is that in 2005, a very weak Best Actress year, the Academy missed a golden opportunity to give Ms Allen one of those career style statues for The Upside of Anger. Her sexy, funny, dramatic and film carrying star turn topped anything that any of the nominees that year were up to. The Academy didn't even nominate her.

07 Sir Ian McKellen 2 nominations
The Academy's anti-genre bias cock blocked his second move towards that naked gold man (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring). I still don't know WHAT THE HELL happened in 1998, the first time he was up for the prize (Gods and Monsters). I don't even wanna talk about that. Shut up!

06 Meryl Streep. 15 nominations / 2 wins
It's been twenty-seven years since her last win (Sophie's Choice, 1982) and she's the only previous acting winner working whose career since her last triumph completely justifies an additional statue. She's given at least three performances in those ensuing 27 years that would have won most other star actresses an Oscar and would stand as their all time best work. Raise your hand if you think she's winning on her next nomination.

05 Jeff Bridges 4 nominations
Some people actually think he's the greatest American actor of his generation. If you think about the range, depth, effortlessness and conviction displayed in performances like The Door in the Floor, The Big Lebowski, Fearless, Seabiscuit, Cutter's Way, The Fabulous Baker Boys and The Fisher King it's hard to argue with that assessment. And that's just the major performances he was NOT nominated for. Add his four nominations (The Contender, Starman, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Last Picture Show) into the mix and we're not talking 'overdue' so much as 'let's riot until he gets one!'


04 Ralph Fiennes 2 nominations
His performance in Schindler's List was not only the best of its category but in the running for best of its entire decade. Shame that they didn't hand him a statue right then. Now he's one of the biggest mysteries in Oscar land. He's British (extra points), he does lots of period pieces (big plus), he's regularly brilliant (that helps), he has no tabloid drawbacks (that sometimes distracts), he does prestige pics and stars in multiple Best Picture nominees (huge plus) he's great with other actors (lots of goodwill earned, presumably). Solve this mystery in the comments please. This man practically screams "Oscar winner" and yet he's only been nominated twice.

03 Julianne Moore 4 nominations
As noted before, winning an Oscar is about managing the tricky combination of star persona, role choice, luck and timing. Julianne has had trouble working all four of those elements simultaneously. It's frustrating. If a much lesser actress with a goody two shoes persona had stumbled into a performance as great as the one Julianne gave in Boogie Nights, they would have won --playing against type is a time-tested awards ploy (especially if you go from good to bad). Since Julianne was already considered a consummate, experiment-friendly and altogether brave actress, she was only considered to be doing her job if rather brilliantly. Sometimes the best actors have the hardest time winning because expectations are so high. There's no surprise factor when they knock us out. She also tends to be most magical in difficult films from true auteurs (think Paul Thomas Anderson and Todd Haynes) and Oscar doesn't reward those types of pictures with statues, just scattered nominations. What could she do to win? Give her great unsolicited advice in the comments.

02 Johnny Depp 3 nominations
If you ask young up and comers who their favorite actor is you'll hear his name pop up a lot. Trust me, I've tested the theory. It may have taken the Academy a long time to notice his gifts but certain pockets of the public (especially younger generations) and many critics were with him much earlier. As early as Edward Scissorhands and Cry-Baby (his very first leads in 1990) he was proving what an imaginative and committed actor he was, adept at spinning drama from comedy and the reverse, too. After that he excelled in biographical dramas (Oscar's favorite genre) like Ed Wood, Donnie Brasco, Blow and Fear and Loathing... and still they ignored him.


Perhaps he was too original. He was definitely too young (Oscar wants the men to have some years on them) and the performances themselves were sprung from weird or comedic impulses that don't resonate with stuffier aesthetics. But eventually everyone caught on to his gifts (Hello Pirates of the Carribean!). Now he can even get acclaim and nominations for performances that aren't any appreciably better than the ones he used to give (Sweeney Todd) or are way more boring than what he used to offer (Finding Neverland) which means that the Academy finally loves him. It also means he'll be winning real soon.

<--- Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeff Bridges in 2007

01 La Pfeiffer 3 nominations
The evidence: Scarface, Married to the Mob, Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Russia House, Frankie & Johnny, Batman Returns, Love Field, The Age of Innocence, What Lies Beneath and White Oleander. I rest my case.

Percentage of this list that I think WILL eventually win the coveted statue: 30% Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep a third time and Ralph Fiennes... and in roughly that order, too.

previous top ten lists
for past articles on any of these actors just chase the labels below
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We Can't Wait #4 Avatar

Directed by The King Of The World
Starring Sigourney effn' Weaver, and who the eff cares else. Okay, Sam Worthington is the star, and Zoe "Uhura" Saldana and Michelle Rodriguez are there too, in unknown quantities. Plus... aliens? Thingamajigs? Something.
Synopsis Something about a marine in the distant future recruited to lead an alien race... I'm purposefully keeping myself vague, yo. I don't wanna know more than I have to.
Expected Release Date December 18th, 2009


JA: Unknown is the buzzword. Most of us "plugged-in" types have probably seen the blurry images here and there of what these alien figures look like, and I've been keeping up with it myself despite my better intentions of keeping myself as pure as possible for what Mr. Cameron has in store for us... what can I say, the man is torturing me with the vacuum of information. Too secret, Jim! Too secret! I'm like a drug addict here just begging for something, anything, to keep me from scouring for more and spoiling it all for myself here.

The man has a legacy of blowing ur effing minds to live up too, and he really seems to be trying to do just that. He'd reinvent the wheel if he could. He'd teach us all to walk again! He wants to impress, and so far his record stands. I'm dyin here.

Whitney: And isn't Avatar supposed to change the face of cinema forever? Some kind of 3D-extravaganza that we'll never recover from?

Fox: OK. So, this is getting grittier as hit the final five. First I shrugged at Nathaniel & Whitney's beloved Jane Campion in the # 5 slot, and now I gag at seeing Sigourney Weaver's name (I can't "eff"ing stand her) ...

Nathaniel: Who are you? Sigweavie and Cameron make sacred pair! Do not diss.

JA: Who hates Sigourney Weaver? How is that even possible? That isn't even possible. You're just trying to get a rise out of me now Fox, with your crazy words and nonsense riddles. Ho ho ho, I just laugh heartily at such shenanigans and move along.

Fox: Still, I admit to buying into the hype over Avatar. JA is right that Cameron is one of those directors who can actually shoulder the expectations of a million blockbuster seeking maniacs. Who would want that? Who could succeed under that pressure? I can't think of many, but if I had to bet on someone, I would give James Cameron the best odds.

Joe: Cameron comes off like such an a-hole that I tend to want him to fail (bizarre considering all the other a-holes who I want to succeed), and I can't imagine how Avatar possibly lives up to the hype, but that's the same thing everybody was saying about Titanic only louder, and he shoved that one back in our faces too.

--- > Cameron with actor Sam Worthington, who will probably be a household name by the end of 2009. He's a crucial figure in would be summer blockbuster Terminator Salvation, the lead in sci-fi epic Avatar and Keira Knightley's husband in the romantic drama Last Night. And they all emerge this year.

Nathaniel: Have you bought into the hype yet, or are you to jaded to care? And do you think Cameron can unite the movie trifecta again: public/critics/Academy?

In case you missed any entries they went like so...
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We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
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Golden Globes:Best Red Carpet Moments and Quick Thoughts

I haven't been very coherent today so I'm not trying to type much at you. But here's a little 7 minute video I prepared with some fun Golden Globe arrival moments and subtitles to show you what I was thinking at the time. Just for... well, for no reason whatsoever.



I hope you're not Globed out yet. Here are a few thoughts on the wins at my Golden Globe category pages

Go Link and Multiply

Candy Kirby Madonna the Muppet Slayer
Burbanked the Wolverine photo you haven't seen yet. Hee
Black Book a big piece on James Franco. He sure has been getting around. Does ubiquity = Oscar nomination?
Lazy Eye Theater is celebrating another birthday with some very drunk guests
Bright Lights After Dark loves Daryl Hannah as much as I


Listen Eggroll Mike D'Angelo writes a letter to the other members of the NYFCC. They vote next week on the "best" of the year. He makes great points. I've often bitched about the various critical circles and associations never looking beyond Oscar suspects. What is the point of critics awards existing if they're just Oscar predictions?
Hollywood Elsewhere Wells weighs in on that controversial piece on The Reader I mentioned
IFC has observations on the Sundance lineup
MTV Movies Josh theorizes about a conversation with SigWeavey in regards to Aliens
In Contention Fox Searchlight is showing The Wrestler with both Raging Bull and On the Waterfront and calling it "Contenders". Indisputably a brave move but very savvy I think. At the very least it reeks of confidence rather than flop sweat.

And finally... Rain (Speed Racer, Ninja Assassin) performed this past week at the Korean Film Awards which you can watch below. The Oscars never get performances with this much hip thrusting. At least not since... since... I think I've blocked it out. Help me out here...


[src blog]

Oh yes, Rob Lowe and Snow White.

Only Rob Lowe didn't tear his shirt off at the end as far as I recall. In case you care the big winners of the night were The Chaser (Best Picture, Director, Actor ... being remade in English already) and Crush and Blush (two actress prizes)
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Hump Day Hottie, Sigourney Weaver

Happy 59th (!?!) birthday to filmdom's most beloved Amazon, Sigourney Weaver. Apparently the Film Experience has turned into MILF central this week. Or even GILF central what with that Grand Guignol post --not that obsessing on maturing divas hasn't always been an [ahem] ...preference. predilection. pleasure.

<--- To quote 30Rock's wicked MILF Island approval catchphrase

"You've kept it tight."

So here's to Ms. Weaver. May her reunion with James Cameron in 2009's Christmas offering Avatar (2009) reignite interest in both of their once titanic careers. In addition to that long awaited action flick next year, Sigweavie will also be co-starring in the Tim Allen (ewww) comedy Crazy on the Outside and she's got the lead role of a devout Christian mom in the adaptation of the non-fiction gay centered book Prayers for Bobby. She might even be doing a Gypsy Rose Lee film for television next year --not that that story is crying out for yet another film, stage or tv interpretation.

Even if these four projects don't amount to a lot it'll be nice to have her back in a fuller way. Streep and Dench can't really hog every role intended for older women, now can they? They aren't right for everything. Sometimes you've just gotta have a slightly intimidating, carnal, intelligent and statuesque brunette warrior in your film.


Sometimes nothing else will do.

Share your favorite Sigourney star turn in the comments. Or your second favorite if you're all going to scream "RIPLEYYYYYYyyyyyyyyyy"
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