Yes, he's here. More street art from Oscar nominee Banksy has appeared in Los Angeles (below). The Melrose & Fairfax blog has lots of photos. Unurth Street Art has a video that puts the image of Charlie Brown, cigarette dangling and gas can in hand, in context: it’s on the side of a building that has been damaged by fire. And David Poland says Banksy's publicist has confirmed that it is his work.
The Academy, meanwhile, makes a few announcements of its own. First: Cate Blanchett has been added to the roster of show presenters. The 2004 Supporting Actress winner has been in Australia lately appearing onstage in Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." Her co-stars include one of this year's nominees, Jacki Weaver. The day before, 2005 Best Actress winner Reese Witherspoon joined the presenter ranks as well. (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
But before the presenters can take the stage of the Kodak, they'll have to walk the red carpet. And there, said the Academy, they'll be greeted by the official quartet of hosts for "Oscar's Red Carpet Live," the expanded 90-minute pre-show. Those hosts are "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts, "Project Runway" fashion guru Tim Gunn, Vanity Fair editor Krista Smith and "Access Hollywood" correspondent Maria Menounos, who according to the press release has written a book that explains "how to make day-to-day life easy and efficient." If she can do the same for the Oscar pre-show, I'll be impressed. (AMPAS)
One final word from the Academy: New Yorkers will get the first chance to look at two of the Oscars that'll be presented on this year's show. The "Meet the Oscars" exhibition will open on Wednesday, February 23 at New York's Grand Central Terminal, with an opening ceremony hosted by Oscar-winning actress (and New York Times foe) Whoopi Goldberg. Fans can see the Oscars that'll be presented to this year's Best Actor and Best Actress winners (i.e., Colin Firth and Natalie Portman), and hold a real statuette as well. (It'll be the one secured by a heavy cable and watched over by a security guard.) There's also interactive stuff and giveaways. (AMPAS)
There are still a few other awards shows left to go, too. The American Cinema Editors' ACE Eddie Awards announced its host and presenters on Tuesday. Their show, which will take place on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton, will be hosted by actor Ken Jeong from "The Hangover," with presenters including Javier Bardem, Tobey Maguire, Aaron Eckhart, Amy Adams, Matthew Morrison and David O. Russell.(American Cinema Editors)
The same night, the Cinema Audio Society will present its CAS Awards across town, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. It'll mark an awards-season reunion of sorts, because "King's Speech" director Tom Hooper will be on hand to present the CAS Filmmaker Award to Taylor Hackford. Hackford serves as president of the DGA, which gave Hooper a huge win last month as his film began to assert its dominance in the awards race — and Hackford's wife, actress Helen Mirren, worked with Hooper early in the director's career and also presented "The King's Speech" with its prize at the Producers Guild Awards. Also on the CAS show, the group's Career Achievement Award will go to Jeffrey Wexler — while the run-up to the show included the announcement of the new CAS board of directors, along with a slate of officers including new board president David E. Fluhr. (Cinema Audio Society)
Looking back at last weekend's awards show, Tim Appelo links to a video of "King's Speech" director Tom Hooper, who seems curiously subdued as he speaks to a backstage interviewer. Appelo attributes the "fascinatingly contradictory emotions" to "the pain of 'Hooper's] loss to David Fincher" in the director race, calling out Hooper's for a "glum, dutiful monotone, with less thrill on his face than he's ever shown … on the campaign trail, no doubt because everybody won but him." I kind of think that Hooper is keeping his voice down because he's backstage while the show is going on, and he may be a bit glum because he realizes that the film that wins the award his movie has just been given, Outstanding British Film, almost never wins the big prize as well. But considering that Fincher wouldn’t beat him for the directing prize for another 45 minutes, I doubt that Hooper was prescient enough to be depressed about that. The director's big triumph – and his biggest loss – was yet to come, making his manner not quite so revealing. (The Race)
