New Rules for Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to limit the number of original songs from a single film that can be nominated for an Oscar to two.

The decision should come as a complete relief to anyone who watched the telecast this year. The cheese-factor of the ceremony was exponentially increased by the fact that three of the five nominated songs being performed were from Enchanted. I loved Enchanted, and the music was cute and catchy, but, no matter how much I love Kristen Chenoweth, the Oscars is not the place for this.

Giggly Americans Confuse Me

On the red carpet at the Oscars a few weeks back, James McAvoy mentioned during his interview with Ryan Seacrest that American audiences seem to laugh more during Atonement than British audiences. Having seen the film in the states twice (and not at all in England), I can say that this alarmed me very much in the theater. It was interesting to hear that McAvoy noticed a difference in audience reception.

So, what is it about the American audience that made so many chuckle? My guess is that less Americans had read the source material, Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel. The novel was my main reason for going, compounded by the fact that I’d spent the two months preceding the film’s release working pretty intensely on a paper about it, and the people I saw it with had read the novel as well. None of us were laughing. I think it’s pretty hard for anyone who has read the novel, and knows (without me giving anything away here) the devastating conclusion in store, to summon more than a smirk or two. The book did pretty well on the NYTimes bestsellers list, though, so maybe this theory doesn’t hold water.

Perhaps I simply underestimated the reading tastes and practices of the American public, and there is some other simple reason for the giggles that I’m just overlooking. I don’t think it can be explained away by different tastes in humor, because there is a lot of successful crossover with comedies from both countires.

Maybe the audience drawn to a Kiera Knightly film in the states (there did seem to be an inordinately large number of teenage girls in the audience at both screenings I caught) is simply a lot different than the audience a the same film, which stars many of Britain’s best-respected young actors (Knightly, McAvoy, Romola Garai, etc.), draws across the pond.

Whatever the case, the discrepancy will continue to confuse me and give me something to ponder for some time. If you have any theories that may enlighten me, please share them.

Friday Links

Justin Timberlake is set to cameo in the video for the Gnarls Barkley song “Run.” It’s the first single from their new album, slated for an April 8th release. Can’t wait.

Five Year Engagement is in the works, a new collaboration between Judd Apatow and Jason Segel who also teamed on the upcoming release Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Recent Best Song Oscar winners Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard have been signed to Warner/Chappell Music, a division of Warner Music Group.

EW has a video sneak-peek of the new Lego Indiana Jones video game.

HuffPost blogger Jeremy Axelrod defends the now defunct Quarterlife. (Thanks to Michelle for the cancellation link!)

A Taste of SNL

I plan to come back to this at some point today and talk about SNL's post-strike return Saturday night. For now, enjoy my two favorite sketches from the evening.

First, Tina Fey does a spot-on impression of Daisy (The Trainwreck) from Rock of Love.

Next, SNL manages to pull off the only "I drink your milkshake" (from There Will Be Blood) parody I've found at all original. Also, I've had the theme song (surely sung by Will Forte) stuck in my head all weekend.

More later...

Post Oscars Wrap-Up

I’m not sure what the cheesy, amusement park introduction was all about, but overall the Oscars were not bad last night. The main thing keeping my attention throughout was trying to spot James McAvoy, but hey, the Oscars aren’t really known as the most entertaining night of television.

The fashion was pretty spectacular overall. My favorite for the evening had to be Kristin Chenoweth. Even the night’s worst dressed were talented folks, so we’ll forgive them their fashion faux pas.

Jon Stewart started out the evening strong with a nice Vanity Fair Oscar Party joke. The actors seemed happy, Stewart didn’t seem too nervous. He threw a few too many political jokes in there at the end of his opening monologue, but he still got some laughs. All was well.

My favorite win of the evening was Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for the song “Falling Slowly” from the film Once. The actors wrote the song themselves, the film had a shoestring budget, and the entire soundtrack is just gorgeous. Cutting the mic before Irglova had a chance to say her piece? Not cool, sound guy, not cool. Jon Stewart bringing her back out to speak after commercial? Awesome. Major props to the academy for the pick.

No Country for Old Men took the Best Picture award. I’ve read the novel but haven’t seen the film yet. I still want to see There Will Be Blood more, so I’ll probably just make sure No Country is at the top of my Netflix queue when it comes out on DVD. Check out the full list of the night’s winners over at EW.

Friday Links: Oscars Edition

Before the telecast Sunday, take a spin through Entertainment Weekly’s countdown of the 25 Biggest Oscar Snubs Ever.

Variety reports that the Best Picture nominees are doing better than usual at the box office this year.

Defamer rates the Best Male Actor nominees fashion pasts and forecasts their fashion futures.

Pop Candy led me to this collection of all the posters for the Best Picture winners. In all, there are 79!

It’s Official: Scribes Back to Work Tomorrow!

After three months and six days of picketing writers (and 88 days with no new episodes of The Office) the WGA and the AMPTP have struck a deal and officially ended the strike. The deal comes just in time to squeeze a few new episodes of our favorite shows out before the end of the TV season.

The major concessions in the agreement? Writers will get a percentage of the distributor’s gross on permanent downloads. The agreement also defines what “promotional use” is, which was cited as the reason the writers were not previously getting residuals on downloaded material. The new arrangement states that if a clip is being used to refer viewers to methods of renting, downloading, or watching the program, it’s promotional; if it is just to archive old footage, it is not promotional and the writers are entitled to compensation.

The good news won’t be immediately evident. It may not be until early April that we see any new episodes on the air. In the meantime, we’ll get The Daily Show back to its normal levels of hilarity (not that I think Jon Stewart is doing so bad on his own, he’s just better with his writers behind him), and in a couple of months we can put this whole mess behind us.

The best thing about all of this? All of the people in Hollywood who do the hard work and get none of the glory (writers, crew members, food-service workers, etc.) will get their jobs back.

To find out the status on your favorite scripted shows, keep checking here for updates.

Let's hope...

this is good news.

Friday Links

Found this video (watch out, NSFW) over at The Huffington Post (and just about every other site I looked at today). Just another reason to love Matt Damon and Sarah Silverman.

Interesting article from The Independent (via Huff Post) about two things I find insanely interesting: Daniel Day-Lewis and method acting.

Pop Candy led me to Spinner’s fun list of the 20 Meanest Love Songs.

The possible fate(s) of the Oscars this year.

For anyone looking to update their music collection, EW gathers all of the new releases they've given A reviews to in the past three months.

Please hold your applause until all nominees are announced...

The Oscar nominations are in! There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men both grabbed eight nominations, including best picture, which is exactly what everyone expected them to do. Both films have earned their lead actors (Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem, respectively) individual nominations as well. From what I’ve heard about Bardem’s performance, his nomination is well-deserved, and Day-Lewis can always be counted on to really bring the drama.

My hopes that James McAvoy would receive a best actor nomination for his wrenching turn in Atonement were dashed by the surprise nomination of Tommy Lee Jones (The Valley of Elah). Not so surprising and disappointing is the absence of McAvoy’s costar, Kiera Knightly, from the best actress list. She showed new depth in Atonement, but her limited screen time made her a weaker choice than other contenders. Young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan did earn a best supporting actress nod for her work in the movie.

A fun Oscar surprise was teen-pregnancy flick Juno, which got recognized in the best picture and best original screenplay categories, as well as the best actress category, with 20-year-old star Ellen Page earning a nomination for her funny and earnest performance.

Now that the nominations are in, all that remains is to wonder whether there will be an actual ceremony to watch on February 24th.