The Oscar App, which debuted last year, is back. The Academy has the details. It's got a list of nominees, Best Picture trailers, and an interactive ballot where predictions are saved to a database that links to Facebook and Twitter. It's for iPad, iPhone and iPad touch. Sorry, non-Apple people. And it's at www.itunes.com/appstore.(Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
Kyle Buchanan focuses on the look of Monday's Oscar Nominees Luncheon, finding the "five best parts" of the annual Oscar class photo. They range from Annette Bening sitting on Jeff Bridges' lap to Helena Bonham Carter's black gloves to "Chin Beard Guy," which is his name for the oddly bearded man sitting at the end of the front row: "We're not totally sure who this nominee is, but he had better win and make a speech on Oscar night." For the record, his name is as odd as his beard: it's Geefwee Boedoe, a former Disney/Pixar animator who got a nomination for his animated short "Let's Pollute." (Vulture) (Photo: detail from AMPAS photo by Greg Harbaugh)
Here's another look at the luncheon's look … and considering that the questions in the pressroom often had to do with fashion rather than cinema, maybe MTV Style's coverage of the event goes straight to what's really important: who looked good. Ayren Jackson-Cannady lists the five best looks of the soiree, with three Best Actress nominees and two Supporting Actress contenders making the list. Is it a coincidence that the list is made up of the five youngest female acting nominees? No, I don't think it is. (MTV Style)
On the issue of age and actresses, Scott Feinberg weighs in on the controversy over the glamorous "consider" ads that Melissa Leo paid for last week. He comes down squarely, and with some vigor, in Leo's camp, decrying the fact that she was largely overlooked and underpromoted even after she began winning awards. "She’s a real person," he writes, "and I hope that people will give her a break and not punish her for getting excited about the prospect of holding an Oscar, as any of the rest of us real people would, too." (ScottFeinberg.com)
David Poland also has something to say about the Leo ads: "Melissa screwed up." He likes her ("one of the most passionate, lovely, been-through-it actors I have ever met"), but thinks the ads were "a horrible idea … especially as a frontrunner." And he thinks it may cost her some votes, though he has a particularly unkind epithet for anybody who might change his or her vote because of it. (The Hot Blog)
Is next year's Best Actress race already decided? Jeff Wells thinks so. Here's the evidence he offers: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" (Hollywood-Elsewhere).
