oscars-related stories
Posted Nov 4th 2009 6:31PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
Allison told you yesterday that
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will host the Oscars in 2010. But you probably guessed that others were considered too, right? Three of the people below turned down the gig. Can you guess who they were?
- Tina Fey
- Robert Downey, Jr.
- Will Ferrell
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Jay Leno
- Ben Stiller
- Sean Combs
- Kristin Chenoweth
- Jerry Seinfeld
- me
Continue reading Here's who turned down the Oscars gig
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 10:17PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, 30 Rock, Awards, Reality-Free
The
Vegas oddsmakers were wrong about Billy Crystal. He isn't hosting the Oscars. Neither is Hugh Jackman. No, today it was announced that
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will serve as cohosts of the 82nd Academy Awards. Interestingly, Martin and Baldwin are costarring -- with Meryl Streep -- in the upcoming romantic comedy,
It's Complicated.
Choosing these two guys, however, is not complicated. It's actually pretty damn clever. Both men are very funny, very comfortable in the moment -- a necessity for a complicated show like the Oscars when anything can go wrong -- and they bring a lot of good will and star power to the proceedings.
Continue reading Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to host the Oscars
Posted Oct 30th 2009 6:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
So
Ricky Gervais has signed to host the Golden Globes, which means the pressure is on the Oscars to come up with a host or hosts equally as stellar. Or interesting. Or compelling.
One star who has removed himself from the running is last year's host,
Hugh Jackman. He will not return as Oscar host when the show airs on ABC, March 7.
He's currently on Broadway in a play -- with 007 Daniel Craig -- and he "quietly turned down the job" according to sources. It's not because he was a bomb emceeing the proceedings either. He didn't do the "Oprah, Uma, Uma, Oprah" joke nor did he trip on his shoelaces in the opening number. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Hugh Jackman was a perfectly fine host.
But he doesn't want to do it in 2010. Maybe he doesn't want to push his luck? Maybe he just doesn't want to work that hard.
Continue reading Hugh Jackman says 'no thanks' to Oscar repeat
Posted Oct 26th 2009 6:36PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
During the recent broadcast of the
Primetime Emmys, one of the funniest presenters was
Ricky Gervais. It's not surprising that Ricky was funny that night. He's a brilliant comic actor, writer and director. I say this even after suffering through
The Invention of Lying, a film that had a wonderful premise but was a crappy movie. Nevertheless, I still think he's fantastic. And I will watch the
67th Annual Golden Globes with Ricky Gervais as host.
The NBC censor's finger will surely be on the button January 17, the night of the broadcast, because you could imagine Ricky getting a wee bit close to the line of what you can and cannot say on TV. Although he's probably clever enough to say or do something that the censors wouldn't get till after it airs.
Continue reading Brilliant! Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes
Posted Oct 21st 2009 11:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free, So You Think You Can Dance
Maybe they'll change the name of this year's
Academy Awards to
So You Think You Can Win An Oscar? Or maybe it'll be
Oscar, You Should Be Dancing. What else can we expect now that
Adam Shankman has been assigned to produce the Oscar broadcast... with Bill Mechanic. The Bill Mechanic part is almost like fine print. (Or that cute kid Brick on
The Middle who whispers under his breathe in a funny, creepy way. "Mechanic...")
The story here is
Adam Shankman. He's a director/choreographer and dancer. He's a judge on the current season of
So You Think You Can Dance. His biggest credit is
Hairspray, one of the few movie musicals that has made it to the big screen and was a bit hit in the last decade. Shankman should bring movement, energy and -- perhaps -- dance to the
Academy Awards?
Continue reading Adam Shankman, the dancing Oscar producer
Posted Jul 14th 2009 2:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Friday Night Lights, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free, Mad Men
The actresses who have been competing for the Primetime Emmy award in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category these past few years are some of the top names in the business. Two-time Oscar winner
Sally Field for
Brothers & Sisters, multiple Emmy winner -- including last year's award --
Glenn Close for
Damages. Previous winner Mariska Hargitay for
Law & Order: SVU. Oh, yes, there's also
Saving Grace's Holly Hunter, another former Oscar winner, and Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick for
The Closer.
All these ladies are worthy of winning nominations again, and it wouldn't be surprising to see one or all of them nominated. But if I were to have a say, there are some other women I hope to see recognized when the Primetime Emmy nominations are announced this Thursday.
Continue reading Emmy Wish List: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Posted Jun 24th 2009 7:05PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Awards, Reality-Free
Today the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that they are
increasing the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten. Now this could mean that a.) the race will be more suspenseful because more quality films will be in the mix, and b.) Rob Schneider might finally get one of his pictures nominated.
But it could also make the telecast (airing on ABC next year) even longer than it is now, and every year we have speeches cut short by music and the show threatening to bleed over into local news. But beyond more Best Picture nominees, what else should they change?
Posted Feb 27th 2009 2:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
I think I saw the perfect commercial today. I mean it. It was quite simply the perfect marriage of product, production, message and entertainment. It was better than anything I saw during the Oscars or the Super Bowl, and that's saying something. So, have I whetted your appetite?
The commercial was for Nike and it celebrated Tiger Woods return to active competition (he's been off for over a year rehabbing from knee surgery, in case you're not a casual golf/sports fan).
Continue reading Tiger and the perfect commercial - VIDEO
Posted Feb 24th 2009 2:04PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Music and Variety, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Awards, Reality-Free
Well, it looks like rejiggering the format of the
Oscar telecast paid off; ratings for the 81st annual back-patting orgy were
up 13% from last year's record-low ratings. Maybe it was the
"faster-paced" ceremony, or maybe it was just that there were some intriguing storylines (
Slumdog, Heath Ledger, what kind of nutty stuff would Mickey Rourke have said if he won... that kind of stuff). Or it could have been a matter of more people being at home to watch because, uh, they don't have the money to do anything else. But at least the ratings are back to being semi-respectable.
One interesting aspect to these ratings numbers, though,
was brought up by Newsday's Neil Best: the total number of female viewers for the Super Bowl (38.3 million) surpassed the
entire audience for the Oscars (36.3 million). So, despite the conventional wisdom, it looks like the "Super Bowl for women" is actually... the Super Bowl.
At the very least, the ratings will probably earn Hugh Jackman and producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark a return engagement. Now if they can just get this thing under three hours, they're all set.
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 12:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Vs., Awards, Reality-Free
It was the best of Oscar it was the worst of Oscar. It wasn't the best show I've ever seen, but was it the worst Oscars ever as one friend emailed me? I think there were features that worked and features that tanked. There could have been more star power -- where were Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Jim Carrey, Sandra Bullock, Christian Bale, Tyler Perry (he had the biggest box office opening last week!), etc.? Forget about stars from the '70s...
Anyway, I had predicted that
the Oscars would stink. Well, I was wrong, or half-wrong. Separate from whether you agreed with the winners -- I did by and large -- or you didn't, what about the broadcast? I think if you had seen all the nominees (or at least the Best Picture noms), you probably had a rooting interest and were amused by most of the show. However, the other half was pretty bad. After the jump, what worked versus what did not.
Continue reading Oscars 2009: What worked vs. what didn't
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 10:43AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Awards, Reality-Free
It's the age-old question that comes up just about every year, but after last night's marathon Oscar ceremony, I need to ask it again: Is it about time for the Academy to award most of the technical prizes (for editing, art, costumes, makeup, visual effects, etc.) either another day or before the televised ceremony starts?
The reason why I ask is because of the way the producers formatted the show this year. They did a nice job of grouping those technical awards together, threading them through the life cycle of a film's production. Believe me, it helped; instead of dragging out new presenters for each and every category, one set usually presented a few at a times (poor Will Smith was out there presenting the post-production awards almost as long as host Hugh Jackman was on stage). But somewhere around 10:30, I was still looking at the clock and trying to count how many categories were left.
Continue reading Should the Oscars skip the technical awards?
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 4:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
FOX has the Sprint: Auto Club 500 NASCAR race all night.- At 7, ABC has The Barbara Walters Special, followed by The Oscars Red Carpet and The 81st Annual Academy Awards. After the awards (and/or local news), there's a special Jimmy Kimmel Live with Mel Gibson.
- CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then a new Amazing Race.
- NBC has a new, two-hour Dateline at 7.
- At 8, Discovery has three new episodes of Rampage!
- VH-1 has a new Confessions of a Teen Idol at 8.
- At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Classic.
- Food Network has a new Iron Chef America at 9.
- MTV has a new Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory at 9, followed by new episodes of The CollegeHumor Show, Nitro Circus, and How's Your News?
- HBO has a new Big Love at 9, then new episodes of Flight of the Conchords and Eastbound & Down.
- Showtime has a new episode of The L Word at 9, followed by new episodes of United States of Tara and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
- Also at 9: Sundance has a new Shameless.
- At 11:30, E! has 2009 Academy Awards After Party.
- At 12:30am, Cartoon Network has a new Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 1:08PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
Ricky Gervais
won't be hosting the Oscars tonight, but he'll be doing the next best thing. It looks like Gervais will be
writing some of the jokes to be used by host Hugh Jackman and company. If so, then I draw a few conclusions from this:
Tonight's jokes will be swipes at Hollywood and probably the entertainment industry in general. As one can tell from
The Office and
Extras (and even the BBC article itself), Gervais excels at self-deprecating humor. They will be nasty, but nasty in a funny and cute way that industry insiders and the audience will enjoy. He could even recycle jokes from
Extras.
Also, tonight's jokes will be extremely funny if Jackman can deliver them in a Gervais-like style. Hopefully he'll practice them beforehand. I wonder if Stephen Merchant was involved with the joke-writing as well?
If this works out, perhaps he'll accept that offer to host the event next year? Fingers crossed.
Posted Feb 13th 2009 6:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
A few weeks ago, I shared with you
my six reasons the Oscars will probably stink this year. Now I have another reason to add to the list.
Peter Gabriel has dropped out of the broadcast in protest. Gabriel, who collaborated with Thomas Newman on the song "Down To Earth" from
WALL-E, had been slated to perform the song during the February 22 airing on ABC. However, when the producers told Gabriel that his performance had be compressed to 65 seconds and fit into a medley of all the best song nominations, Peter opted out.
Continue reading Another reason the Oscars will stink this year
Posted Jan 27th 2009 10:33AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Dancing With The Stars
There seems to be an epidemic of blabbermouthing going around these days. First, Vice President Joe Biden's wife Jill lets it slip on
Oprah that Joe had his choice of VP or Secretary of State (snap Hillary!), then Steve Martin reveals that he and Tina Fey will be presenting together
at the Oscars (so much for secret presenters), now Donny's let the cat out of the bag.
While taping
The Bonnie Hunt Show,
Donny Osmond announced that he's doing Dancing With the Stars, the new edition that commences in March.
Oops! See, it wasn't Donny's job to make the announcement. He was supposed to let ABC decide the right time to reveal the lineup of celebrity dancers, although whether they can dance before the show begins is debatable.
Continue reading Loose lips? Swiveling hips? Donny's Dancing with the Stars
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