The Spielster » Award Shows

The OSCARS Bring It…….

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:45:42 +0000

Lets start at the beginning….

This weekend I managed to find myself on the island of no channel 7, aka ABC. Yes, you heard correctly. Thanks to an horrific who-has-the-bigger-balls and wants-to-make-more-money-while-laying-off-thousands battle between Cablevision (the local network here) and ABC/Disney kept me from watching the Oscars in the comfort of my in-laws home, so I ventured out to a sports bar (the only one in the neighborhood with satellite) with my mom-in-law to be. WE had to listen to BONGOS during the red carpet folks. BONGOS!!!! Cause as long as I have been alive and realized I love things, I have NEVER missed an OSCARS. NEVER. So, I found myself in a Long Island bar, that was actually chock full of lovely people who tried and tried to hook up the closed captioning so we could hear the witty banter between Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, but unfortunately, no dice. And then the Jack Johnson heavens opened up and ABC stopped sucking dick and we got to watch the Oscars on CABLE! With Chinese food and Pinot Grigio like respectable humans.

So let’s go from there. Christoph Waltz, as I had predicted in a lonely theater 8 months ago while my car got an oil change, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. And boy did he deserve it. I never fell in love with a Nazi as hard as I did with Christoph. We have a BINGO with that dude. And then there were a handful of awards that meant so much to many, but not me. And then we had to sit and watch the C team of the Alvin Alley company dance to nominated scores. And THEN FISHER STEVENS WON AN OSCAR. I repeat FISHER. STEVENS. WON. AN.OSCAR.

Ok, so you are paying attention now. Cause, I mean the rank dude from HACKERS won an Oscar folks. That can’t be undone. So then we raised hands with Mo’Nique, cause she won Best Supporting and doesn’t shave her legs and makes sexual and physical abuse look real. And then things got interesting…. well actually the Screenplay awards were given out before FISHER STEVENS WON and for Adapted Precious killed it and for Original The Hurt Locker confirmed its assault on Cameron’s career and genitals. Woohah (as blind Pacino would say). Ok so back to the awards we cared about. Best actor went to my first crush, Jeff Bridges, who repeated the same speech Ive heard since the Golden Globes, but still thanked his wife and kids and stand-in. LOVE IT. Also, he’s been doing various The Big Lebowski quotes and I will heart that forever.

Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for The Blind Side. I aint seen it, and I probably wont, but I am OK with her getting an award because she is pretty rad. She also looked beyond beautiful tonight, which cemented her win. Her mom was an opera singer in Germany and she had gum on her seat while Dennis Hopper was trying to blow her and the coach of Sparkle Motion up! Bullock deserved it as much, if more, as squinty eyed Zelleweger, frozen-face Kidman and hotties Berry & Theron – SO LETS MOVE ON.
And then the big one came. Since Barbra Streisand came out to deliver the Oscar for Best Director, I knew this was going to Kathryn Bigelow. ON A SERIOUS NOTE. I cried. I cried in a room with my mom and soon to be mom-in-law and felt what i feels like to wait for fucking evah for an award. Bigelow has been able to do what both men and women havent before her, deliver an action move with heart. And she has succeeded with it. She deserved it. And please don’t forget it.
Her acceptance speech thanked the powers that be that made the movie happen, as well as the troops that give up their lives and safety for us every day. So it was fitting that Tom Hanks ran up on stage and gave the award for Best Picture to The Hurt Locker. For its story, drama and feel, this move deserved to win. And I cant think of a better way to ringing in a monumental moment like this, with anyone else in the room.

More on the dresses, awards and whats to come tomorrow, but until then, thanks to Barbra, Bigelow, McDaniel and the rest of you amazing women, who have given me even a morsel of thinking this industry could welcome us with open arms. You made dreams official tonight. There are girls who will not question their motives, their love of cinema and will continue to provide America and the world with entertainment and dreams and comedy and fantasy and horror and anything that will make you forget your real life for 2 and a half hours.

Here’s the full list of the winners and we’ll check in with you tomorrow when the Pinot has wore off. I will get to the John Hughes/comedy respective tomorrow too. This needs my full non-snark attention.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:11:43 +0000

We are just a few days away (more on that later) from The Oscars. So to prepare yourself for the tears, off-the-cuff remarks and overall blandness that will come along with one of the most predictable ceremonies in recent memory, the internet (CopyRightHater) put together a lovely look back at some previous Thank Yous. Enjoy and don’t forget to thank your mom, God and that dang crew.

And the Nominations Go To….

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:19:05 +0000

Well this morning was a real snoozefest in regards to the Oscar nominations. With the field of Best Picture opening up to ten nominees this year, there was high anticipation in what would find its way into the coveting category along with shoo-ins Avatar, The Hurt Locker and Inglorious Basterds. Sadly, the opening of the category did not lend itself to a more varied or interesting competition, as fare like The Blind Side, virtually a Lifetime Movie, got a nod. Nominees after the jump.

Here is the Best Picture nominees:

Best Motion Picture of the Year!!!!!
“Avatar” A Lightstorm Entertainment Production
James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers (20th Century Fox)
“The Blind Side” An Alcon Entertainment Production
Nominees to be determined (Warner Bros.)
“District 9” A Block/Hanson Production
Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers (Sony Pictures Releasing)
“An Education” A Finola Dwyer/Wildgaze Films Production
Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Hurt Locker” A Voltage Pictures Production
Nominees to be determined (Summit Entertainment)
“Inglourious Basterds”
A Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg Production
Lawrence Bender, Producer (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures)
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)
A Lee Daniels Entertainment/Smokewood Entertainment Production
Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
“A Serious Man” A Working Title Films Production
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers (Focus Features)
“Up” A Pixar Production
Jonas Rivera, Producer (Walt Disney)
“Up in the Air” (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
A Montecito Picture Company Production
Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

For the full list, check out Oscars homepage. And I will be dissecting the nominees and all the implications they bring later today. Let the games begin!!!!

What So Funny About Funny Ladies?

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:13:21 +0000

The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Christina Applegate, Sarah Silverman, Mary-Louise Parker, Jane Krakowski, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Amy Poehler for a round table conversation with the 2009 Emmy nominees. The ladies discussed ageism in Hollywood, why people think its okay to ask them for weed or tell them they are fucking Matt Damon. The most interesting parts of the round table to me were Silverman discussing the need for viral videos during the writer’s strike and the women confirming what we already know – Hollywood is a cruel ageist beast. Applegate informs the group she lost a cover because the magazine will not put anyone over 35 on it, Poehler and Silverman laugh about being asked to play Jonah Hill’s mom in a new movie and we learn that a lot of these women are up for the same “hag” parts. It was sort like an all lady version of “Dinner for Five”, the IFC TV show that dug into the behind the scenes goodies only actors and directors can tell you about. I love all of these women and its sad to think that while they are celebrated on the small screen, the big screen is just waiting for them to play angry hags and moms to 25 year olds.

If You Missed The Tonys….

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:38 +0000

The Tony Awards, which has been awarding excellence within Broadway and theater for 63 years now, took place last night and from reviews was one of the more successful recent productions of the program. Unfortunately, I missed the show because I was busy rocking out to Jane’s Addiction and NIN (more on that later) at Jones Beach, but thanks to the darling Neil Patrick Harris, the host for last night’s program, and his closing number, you can now know who walked away with a Tony in less than three minutes.

The performance, which was an ode to last night’s winners and losers, was a late edition to the show and NY Times goes into detail about how the hilarious number came to fruition. As it goes with live shows, there was a non-planned part of last night’s program that is getting coverage today. Bret Michaels, who performed with the cast of “Rock of Ages” the 80′s hair metal musical, was injured when a piece of scenery fell on him after he reportedly missed his mark. As of now, no serious injury was reported and his publicist has said that he did not break his nose as originally reported. Other than that, the show went off without a hitch, was filled with celebrities and over a half a dozen awards for the Broadway production of “Billy Elliot”. The three young actors who play Billy in the American version of the British adaptation of the 2000 film of the same name, were the first to ever receive a shared Tony for three performers. Here’s the full list of winners of the 63rd Annual Tony Awards.

Can you imagine an actress showing up to the Oscars with this on their head?

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:57:26 +0000

No, I didn’t think so. Yes, Philip Seymour Hoffman is a spectacular and massively talented actor, but really? Apparently, Hoffman is wearing semi-dreads for the latest movie he is working on so he has been wearing this stupid cap everywhere. But come on dude, you are nominated for an Oscar and you couldn’t just comb them out?

Can you imagine any woman coming to a major award show with something so disrespectful on and live to tell the tale? I don’t think so.

The Oscars Came and Went…

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:59:49 +0000

So they came and they went, but the Oscars were surprisingly entertaining. I know I promised some liveblogging, but unfortunately, my party got off to a late start and I was fearful of just turning my computer on and finding out Cruz had won.

Hugh Jackman excelled as the host, with his song and dance routines, and his ability to find the humor in the performances. The presenters were quite good last night and I actually didn’t mind the theater in the round, previous winners giving the award to this year’s winners. I really enjoyed Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black’s presentation for Animation films and Natalie Portman telling Ben Stiller, while he was mocking Joaquin Phoenix, that he looks like he works in a “Hasidic Meth Lab” (which is the term that might take over for MC Bed Bugs). All in all, it was a bit too long, but much more entertaining than in years past. I prefer the skilled entertainer as a host, no offense Mr. Jon Stewart. So let’s get to the winners….

There were nearly no surprises this year in the best picture and actors categories, except for the possible toss up between Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn for Best Actor. Penn walked away with that prize and accepted the award with a candor that is not normally present. The actor started off his speech with “You Commie, homo-loving sons-of-a-gun” which meant Penn was enjoying himself and sort of shocked. He went on to thank the community and the academy explaining that he is aware how hard he makes it to like him sometimes. And he thanked Mickey Rourke for his bang up job in “The Wrestler”. Other winners were Kate Winslet for her performance in “The Reader”, Penelope Cruz for her work in “Vicky Christina Barcelona” and a posthumous award went to Heath Ledger for his portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight”.
Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up like expected, with 8 of 10 awards they were nominated for, including Best Director to Danny Boyle and Best Picture. Boyle’s speech was touching and humble and made me very excited that he took home the top prize. To see the entire cast on the stage accepting the award was quite magical and it was nice to see Hollywood opening their arms to a small movie made about a far off place. Apparently, backstage in the winner’s tent was interesting with Cruz still frazzled that she had won, Winslet continuing to have to answer for silly statements said an interview two months ago and Penn refusing to acknowledge the hateful protesters outside the theater carrying anti-gay signs. Oh and by the way, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie did not pull each other’s hair or attempt to claw at each other, so don’t worry.

All in all, it was a success. Yes there were fewer big names in attendance and not everyone stopped on the red carpet for pictures, but I think this was a much more entertaining show than in years past. My other two favorite moments was Shirley Maclaine speaking to Anne Hathaway during the Best Actress nomination (I got teared up when Anne told her she “loved her!”) and the Judd Apatow produced skit starring James Franco, who should have been nominated and Seth Rogen, who looked unbelievable svelt. Oh and Sophia Loren and her Peaches N’ Cream Barbie dress almost made me pee my pants! Ahh so let’s look forward to the race of 2009, since I am sure it’s already started! Here is the full list of winners for the 81st Academy Awards. What did you think of the awards?