At the 80th annual Academy Awards last night, there were a few upsets: Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose) was named Best Actress, taking the honor from the heavily favored Julie Christie (Away From Her); similarly, Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) took home Best Supporting Actress, despite conventional wisdom holding that the award belonged to Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone). Kudos to Swinton, it must be said, for managing to reference George Clooney’s hugely embarrassing, be-nippled turn as Batman in her acceptance speech.

Elsewhere, as expected, the Coen brothers took home Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country For Old Men. Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Javier Bardem took Best Supporting Actor for his role as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. Overnight success-story Diablo Cody won Best Original Screenplay for Juno. And Daily Show host Jon Stewart kept the evening’s proceedings running smoothly, gently cracking wise at the audience’s expense.

There were very few stand-out moments, but our favorite had to be Stewart’s dissection of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama’s name (Hussein recalling Saddam Hussein; Obama recalling Osama). When he referenced the ill-fated 1944 presidential campaign of Gaydolph Titler, we laughed. A lot.


Tags: George Clooney•Javier Bardem•Gone Baby Gone•Jon Stewart•Marion Cotillard•No Country for Old Men•Michael Clayton•Away From Her•Juno•There Will Be Blood•Daniel Day-Lewis•La Vie En Rose•Tilda Swinton•Amy Ryan•Joel Coen•Ethan Coen•Diablo Cody•Movies•oscars•Television•Video

As you’ve probably heard by now, the Writers Guild of America went on strike last night, the first time television’s wordsmiths have walked out since those halcyon pre-Seinfeld days of broadcast greatness. How does this affect you? Well, if you’re a fan of soaps, talk shows and the fake news, let’s put it this way: You’re not going to be happy. It will take a little longer for lovers of scripted sitcoms and dramas to feel the bite, but it’s coming — those shows tape farther in advance, but if this continues, they’re going to run out of material, too. (Maybe the producers will fill in, or maybe YouTube will pick up the slack, or maybe we’ll all just take breather and go, you know, outside.) The blogosphere is abuzz with all the latest developments. NYMag.com, for instance, printed a wonderful pic of Tina Fey on the picket line outside Rockefeller Center, and The Los Angeles Times ran a handy chart as to which shows would suffer and when. Here are two of the more interesting items:

Read the rest of this entry »


Tags: Amy Winehouse•Tina Fey•The Rock•Jon Stewart•Music•Television