...and the Oscar for Best Actresss goes to.....

* sigh *

And to those of us in Ohio, we can only hope this movie even plays around us.

It wasn't a stellar year for knockout performances on the female front though, so it's not like she has a huge amount of competition. With the possibility of Nicole Kidman snagging a double nomination (Cold Mountain and Human Stain, though she doesn't deserve to be up for either) and Scarlett Johanssen doing the same (Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring), there might only be 3 people in the running. And I don't mean that to detract from what I hear is an absolute knockout of a performance in Monster by Ms Theron.

Supporting Actress has to go to Renee Zellwegger for Cold Mountain. She's outstanding.

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Which will make her the Julianne Moore of 2004. Nominated in leading and supporting, winning neither. Shame.

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"If you're willing to glug a few hundred cans of Ensure, wear prosthetic teeth, conjure terminal impairment/homosexuality, and dredge up an OxyContin-slurred drawl that would scare the banjo off the inbred 'Deliverance' boy, importance can be yours. And thus, with an Oscar-angling performance that swings from muscularly sympathetic to pre-'Extreme Makeover'crass... Theron is poised to ride the tribulations of state-executed Florida prostitute and john-snuffing serial killer Aileen Wuornos straight to Slingbladin' Hilary Swankdom.

"It's in these moments that Theron's empathetic victim-wrath and elemental female outrage almost trump the otherwise cartoonish gender-bending and award-grubbing po' folk put-on." -- The Village Voice

I'll tell you what I am sick of. This kind of crap. I am so over the whole E! Network cycle of awards and pre-awards and post-awards and I'm sick of the "important" movies coming out after Xmas with all of these performances just designed to win awards so they can sell you the dvd version with deleted scenes. It's just garbage.

I'm getting to be like Dollypop, I'm coming to loathe movies. Unless an actor is IN FRONT OF MY FACE on a stage doing his or her job, I'm just going to assume that it's all smoke and mirrors, which is all the movies have ever been but I have grown sick of it and the hype and the breathless reportage. I don't need Ann Curry to tell me in the Today news on Monday mornings what the top box office gross was over the weekend. I DO NOT CARE.

And most importantly, I am sick of this formula like the one described above. "Ohh she gained weight for the part, how brave and unglamorous." Frig it. Do it on stage Charlene and all you other Oscar grubbers and maybe I'll pay attention.

Link

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Oh, no no no no no no no. Non!

I certainly didn't mean to imply that. BROADWAY? No! Good lord. However, I'll travel a couple hours to see the upcoming Hartford Stage Company production of Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep starring Jeffery Roberson (a.k.a. Varla Jean Merman). Or something small and interesting, Off-Broadway, like that latest Kushner.

As for movies, I'm talking negatively about this "serious Hollywood" stuff, the TROLLING for Oscars and all that. The Farrah Fawcett in The Burning Bed phenomenon. Take a glamorous model type and make her look crappy and put her through hell. Hello, accolades. It's just as much a formula as anything else nowadways and I am surprised people are still falling for it.

Gimme an Iranian film festival and I'll be happy at the movies. But Paycheck? Lord of the Rings? Anything with a steam roller of hype? NTY.

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Updated On: 12/30/03 at 12:55 PM

Since we are talking about movies, I have to say that I think film can be very good. Sure there is plenty of crap out there that I would never pay 10 bucks to see, but if you live in a big city like New York, there are always films with very talented actors and directors that are worth seeing . You may have to go to the smaller and less glamorous art house instead of the 25 screen stadium-seating muti-plex, but who wants to sit in a movie theater with people who were counting the days until "The Fast and the Furious 2" came out? When you go to the smaller venues to see the smaller films, not only are you seeing great work, but you are surrounded by like people who want to see the same things you do. I am on my way now to see the animated film The Triplets of Belleville which has made the top ten list for several critics this year. Supposed to be wonderful animation, a great score and story and not for children. If I can't see Caroline, or Change today then why not see a great movie?

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Ah, Varla Jean...quite a talent, truly a child of stars who sets off sparks herself.

Bulldog.

Oh, right right right. I forgot you're Voiceanth, the man who is always sensitive to the needs of the regular people in Fly Over Land! The champion of the regular Joes!

What I thought was funny was you falling for the Oscar grubbing. And that you were pulling quotes as if there weren't people like the Voice critic who sees thru all that crap.

And, no, I'm not constipated, am very much regular, thank you very much.

Of course it's just talk, of course it's just movies. And sure, let's get her on stage (she probably ought not to start out with Broadway, let's see if she can hold her own at LaMama) and see if she's worthy of the hype that has been heaped on her (and reheaped by your post).

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The proof is in the pull quotes, oh he who can't help but mention that he went shirtless in his profile pic once. NINE pull quotes absolutely, positively counts as a heap. NINE.

Face it, now that you have joined The Entertainment Industrial Complex (that makes sure that box office and hype and awards is all that really matters to the citizens of our Entertainocratic culture), you are now a tool more than ever. Not that that's a bad thing at all. It's just that you are now part of the machine.

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Updated On: 12/30/03 at 02:07 PM

The first thing the photo did was crack my monitor, which was a bummer but at least I got a groovy new flat screen. My insurance didn't cover it, they called it and I quote, "An Act of, well, Not God, That's for Sure, But An Act."

Now, WHEN do you think E! will do their How to Host an Oscar Party special?????

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"I can understand people having an affinity for the stage, but movies are such garbage."

...THE BOYS IN THE BAND

*snarf* "The Entertainment Industrial Complex" !*snarf*