In this morning’s roundup of Oscar news ‘n’ notes from around the web, are bloggers the bane of the Oscar race, or the main attraction?
I was having a conversation the other day with a publicist about how the Oscar season has gotten frantic earlier than usual this year, and she said (nicely, mind you) that it was the fault of all the bloggers, and of studio execs taking them too seriously. Jeff Wells wasn’t part of that conversation, but he’s unwittingly added to it with his contention that Oscar night is usually anti-climactic (unless a big upset like “Crash” or a historic moment like Kathryn Bigelow happens), and that the interesting and exciting part of awards season is “us” – i.e., the conversation that takes place with “filmmakers and distributors and the general community of film lovers repped on this site … and others like it.” It’s the conversation, he says, not the TV show that takes place when all the talking is done. Which may be true, but would the conversation be taking place without the show? (Hollywood Elsewhere)
Veteran character actor Eli Wallach (left), who’ll receive his Honorary Oscar at Saturday night’s Governors Awards, tells Randee Dawn that he never joined the Academy and “would never allow my name to be on the floor,” which is to say the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Many of his answers don’t really match the questions, but at 95 the guy has got some good stories. (The Envelope)
The meatiest article in the second weekly edition of the Hollywood Reporter, which hit newsstands on Wednesday, is Stephen Galloway’s lengthy profile of producer Scott Rudin, who’s in the thick of the Oscar race with “The Social Network” and, everybody assumes, “True Grit.” But what you’ll see of that piece if you look on the THR website is downright comic: the headline (“The Most Feared Man in Town”), subhead, and exactly one line from the article: “The stories are legion.” Followed by this: “Subscribe now to read the full article.” 200 bucks will let you read the rest. (The Hollywood Reporter)
“He made only five films and all were nominated for Best Picture. Who is he?” That’s question number 20 on David Thomson “stump-the-film-buff” movie quiz – and if you answer all the questions correctly and send your answers to Anne Thompson, you could win an autographed copy of Thomson’s “Autobiographical Dictionary of Film.” (Autographed by Thomson, not Thompson.) Question 20 is also one of the easier queries on a list long on asking for links between seemingly disparate figures – say, James Jones, Michael Ondaatje and Colette, or Shirley Temple and Francois Truffaut’s “Day for Night.” I suspect a couple of the questions might have more than one right answer: for instance, “When did two people tie for an Oscar, and who were they?” has at least two technically correct answers, and perhaps as many as five. (Thompson on Hollywood)
Has Tim Appelo stumbled on a new, heretofore unknown way of affecting the Oscar race? I don’t think so, but he does attempt to argue that the Best-Of lists compiled by Amazon.com’s editors “could conceivably help worthy indies” like “The Kids Are All Right” or “Winter’s Bone.” (He swears that when he worked at Amazon, his picks influenced the New York Times Bestseller List.) It doesn’t exactly help his case, though, when he asks a co-president of “Winter’s Bone” distributor Roadside Attractions about the possible effect, and the exec says that his company already sent out screeners to key guild and Oscar voters, because “you don’t wait for ‘em to buy it on Amazon.” In other words: never mind. (The Race)
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
