3-25-11

It's Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down On Friday. Let me say once and for all that I am well aware of the attack that the entire world has suffered. Internet viral-video star, Rebecca Black, is making ample moves to slowly destroy us all via our ears. Her song, "Friday," which explains in great details such ideas as "fun, fun, fun, fun," and the order of the days of the week, has officially become one of the most popular songs on iTunes and cannot be escaped from in the form of hearing friends and peers constantly humming or singing the tune. I'm not quite sure what is more catastrophic... the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, or this song! Either way, this is why the "World Is Coming To An End."



On a more solemn note, (well a relatively more solemn note, as the last one is pretty hard to beat) this week marked the passing of the great, Elizabeth Taylor. The actress was known for her starring roles in such films as "Cleopatra," and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe." Furthermore, she taught the world the concept of celebrity-indorsed perfumes with her White Diamonds collection and stunned us all with her unusual purple-shaded eyes. Combined with this, she was known for her great humanitarian work for the prevention and ending of HIV/AIDS. As one of the last true Hollywood Icons of the Golden Era of film, she will certainly be missed.

3-18-11

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day everybody! I can honestly say that I had a lovely holiday that seemed to have all kinds of four-leaf clovers surrounding me, as it reached seventy degrees in the Illinoisan tundra I call home on Thursday. Therefore, the Luck of the Irish was on my side.
However, this luck seems to have not extended to all of our celebrity brethren. This week, sister of socialite and (at least one-time) celebrity, Paris Hilton, Nicky Hilton, was pulled over by the Los Angeles police for use of a cell phone while driving. For this offense, the filthy-stinking-rich heiress will pay the state a $100 fine.
Another celebrity friend who may not be having the greatest week of his life is... surprise, surprise: Charlie Sheen; except this time it has nothing to do with him doing anything stupid... well directly that is. Rather this week, his life has gotten worse due to the constant ridicule of his peers. This week beach-tune songster,  Jimmy Buffet, bought the legal rights to producing a vodka and energy drink with the name "Tiger's Blood," a play on Sheen's words in an interview regarding his health he conducted in the past few weeks. Therefore, it seems that since Sheen will now not even be able to capitalize on the new craze surrounding his own craziness, he truly is up the creek without a paddle and things have just gone from bad to worse.

3-11-11

This week, the inevitable finally occurred. Charlie Sheen has been fired from Two and a Half Men once and for all. This of course, follows weeks of outbursts (not even to mention brushes with the law) from the highly-paid actor which have landed him in the same club as such Hollywood elite as Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, the Tragic Meltdown Club. What does this mean for the hit sitcom? Most likely, there will be a replacement for Sheen which will garner huge audiences for the replacement's first episode, followed by terrible ratings due to fans of the "real show"leaving the series to protest their hero's loss. Although, I must admit that I can only hope that the latter of these two instances comes sooner rather than later as I hated the show to begin with.
This week (I'm on vacation, so I'm writing a short post) I'll leave you with a segment of "Why the World is Coming to an End." Early Friday morning, reports erupted from Japan shouting of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hitting the northern portion of the island nation. This monstrous quake caused buildings to shake in Tokyo and could be felt (along with its seven aftershocks) all the way to Beijing. Furthermore, this earthquake caused a tsunami to threaten Japan, Australia, Hawaii, and even the West Coast of the United States. All of this tragedy has caused hundreds of lives to be lost in Japan, and even worse... has caused Lindsay Lohan to evacuate her Venice condominium in Los Angeles to reach higher ground. Therefore, the poor dear is now slumming it in Beverley Hills. As the French would say, "Quel Heurrer!"

3-4-11

The Oscars were held on Sunday and despite showing a decrease in viewership 9% from last year's show, (attributed by many to the slow pace of the evening) I thought this year's Oscars was one of the better ones and Anne Hathway did a wonderful job as co-host. (Notice I refuse to mention her counterpart- mostly because I'm a huge Anne Hathaway fan and think she should have the spotlight.) Either way, for those of you who were hiding under your rocks on Sunday, here the results from the evening:

Actor in a Leading Role

• Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
• Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
• Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
• Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
• James Franco in “127 Hours”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
• John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
• Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
• Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
• Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
• Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
• Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
• Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
• Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Animated Feature Film

• “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
• “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

Art Direction

• “Alice in Wonderland”
  Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
  Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
• “Inception” 
  Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
• “The King's Speech” 
  Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
• “True Grit” 
  Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Cinematography

• “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
• “Inception” Wally Pfister
• “The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
• “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
• “True Grit” Roger Deakins

Costume Design

• “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
• “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
• “The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
• “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
• “True Grit” Mary Zophres

Directing

• “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
• “The Fighter” David O. Russell
• “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
• “The Social Network” David Fincher
• “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)

• “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
• “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
• “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
• “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
• “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)

• “Killing in the Name” Jed Rothstein
• “Poster Girl” Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block
• “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
• “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
• “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing

• “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
• “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
• “The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
• “127 Hours” Jon Harris
• “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film

• “Biutiful” Mexico
• “Dogtooth” Greece
• “In a Better World” Denmark
• “Incendies” Canada
• “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Makeup

• “Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
• “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)

• “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
• “Inception” Hans Zimmer
• “The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
• “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
• “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)

• “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
• “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
• “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
• “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Picture

• “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
• “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
• “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
• “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
• “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
• “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
• “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
• “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
• “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

• “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
• “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
• “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Confession” Tanel Toom
• “The Crush” Michael Creagh
• “God of Love” Luke Matheny
• “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
• “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing

• “Inception” Richard King
• “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
• “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
• “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing

• “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
• “The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
• “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
• “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects

• “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
• “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell
• “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
• “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
• “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
• “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
• “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
• “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
  Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
• “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
• “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
• “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

*By the way, has anyone reading this post seen The King's Speech? I've heard great reviews from everyone that I've talked to it about but have yet to be able to see it for myself.

The most important celebrity news of the week has been Charlie Sheen's continued outbursts that are bound to land him in the looney bin. This week not only did he lose custody of his children, but he was also quoted as saying that he can take large quantities of powerful drugs and be fine because he is superhuman and has, "tiger's blood."

Lastly, I wanted to make sure that everyone had the chance to see the new, highly anticipated, Lady Gaga video for her recent single, Born This Way, that premiered this week. While, I have to say the video is a masterpiece, it's not my favorite of hers. (I particularly am not sure how I feel about the birth scene.) Please, leave comments about your reaction to the video.