Police 'ready to arrest' Smith after Oscar slap: producer

LOS ANGELES, United States - Police officers were ready to arrest Will Smith after he attacked comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars, the show's producer said Thursday.

In his first public comments since the shocking episode that marred Hollywood's most important evening, Will Packer said he had sat with Rock when officers came to speak to him.

"They were saying, you know, this is battery.... They said we will go get him, we are prepared, we are prepared to get him right now, you can press charges, we can arrest him, you have -- they were laying out the options," Packer told ABC Television.

"Chris was -- he was being very dismissive of those options. He was like, 'I'm fine.'"

Los Angeles police "officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, 'You know, would you like us to take any action?' and he said 'No.'"

Police in Los Angeles said Sunday that Rock had declined to file a report.

Smith shocked the entertainment world by mounting the stage during the live broadcast of the Oscars and hitting Rock over a joke about the actor's wife.

Half an hour later, Smith was awarded the best actor Oscar for his role in "King Richard" -- the movie industry's highest honor for a male performer.

The announcement was greeted with cheers and applause from the crowd of industry insiders.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body that awards the Oscars, said Wednesday Smith had been asked to leave the ceremony after the assault, but had refused.

Conflicting reports emerged Thursday over that detail, including one that suggested Packer had asked him to remain in the Dolby Theatre.

In the brief clip, aired Thursday on ABC ahead of the full interview scheduled for Friday, Packer denied having spoken to Smith.

ZOOM MEETING

The Academy said Wednesday it was mulling punishment -- including possible expulsion -- for Smith, one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, and only the fifth Black man to win a leading actor Oscar.

"The Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Will Smith for violations of the Academy's Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy," the statement said. 

"The Academy may take any disciplinary action, which may include suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions."

Trade title Variety reported Thursday that Academy chiefs Dawn Hudson and David Rubin spoke with Smith on Tuesday, 24 hours before the organization issued its damning statement.

It quoted sources saying the Zoom meeting had lasted up to 30 minutes.

During the conversation Smith apologized for his attack on Rock, and said he was aware there would be consequences, Variety reported.

Smith issued an Instagram apology on Monday, in which he called his behavior "unacceptable and inexcusable."

"I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be."

Rock, whose US comedy tour began in Boston this week told audience members he was "still kind of processing" the incident.

He made no further comment.

Agence France-Presse

Celebrities react to Will Smith's Oscars outburst

LONDON — Best actor winner Will Smith shocked audiences when he smacked presenter Chris Rock in the face and shouted vulgarity at the comedian for making a joke about his wife's hairstyle in a moment overshadowing the Oscars ceremony on Sunday.

Below are some of the reactions from celebrities on social media.

RAPPER AND ACTOR, JADEN SMITH, SON OF WILL SMITH AND JADA PINKETT SMITH:

"And That’s How We Do It."

ACTRESS MIA FARROW:

"It was just a joke. Jokes are what Chris Rock does. Always has been edgy. This was a mild joke for him. And I love GI Jane"

COMEDIAN KATHY GRIFFIN:

"Let me tell you something, it’s a very bad practice to walk up on stage and physically assault a comedian. Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters."

ACTRESS SOPHIA BUSH:

"Violence isn’t ok. Assault is never the answer. Also? This is the 2nd time that Chris has made fun of Jada on the #Oscars stage, & tonight he went after her alopecia. Punching down at someone’s auto-immune disease is wrong. Doing so on purpose is cruel. They both need a breather."

TALK SHOW HOST CONAN O'BRIEN:

"Just saw the Will Smith slap. Anyone have a late night show I can borrow just for tomorrow?"

FILMMAKER ROB REINER:

"Will Smith owes Chris Rock a huge apology. There is no excuse for what he did. He’s lucky Chris is not filing assault charges."

AUTHOR BERNARDINE EVARISTO:

"What a thing to wake up to. Only the fifth black man in nearly 100 years to win an Oscar for male lead, and the first in 16 years, resorts to violence instead of utilizing the power of words to slay Chris Rock. Then he claims God and Love made him do it."

ACTRESS AND MODEL JODIE TURNER-SMITH:

"and as far as *that incident* goes….. i am still processing. I have second hand embarrassment for all involved."

ACTOR CARY ELWES:

The "vessels of love" I have known or admired never acted violently against another human being…"

-reuters

Beyonce, Jay-Z, Ariana Grande in Oscars race as shortlists unveiled

LOS ANGELES - Beyonce, Jay-Z and Ariana Grande are all in the running for the best original song Oscar, but French shock-fest "Titane" did not make the shortlist for best foreign film, as the Academy unveiled its annual shortlists Tuesday ahead of the formal nominations.

Pop superstar Beyonce's ballad "Be Alive" -- penned for the tennis biopic "King Richard," about the father of Serena and Venus Williams (played by Will Smith) -- was on a list of 15 tracks, which will be whittled down to a final five before March's Oscars.

She will compete against her husband Jay-Z, who produced Netflix Western "The Harder They Fall," and teamed up with Kid Cudi for the movie's track "Guns Go Bang."

Grande appears in satire "Don't Look Up," in which her pop star character sings "Just Look Up" to implore the public to take seriously the impending threat of a comet plummeting towards Earth.

Billie Eilish's 007 theme song "No Time To Die" also made the list.

So did "Dos Oruguitas" from Disney's animated film "Encanto," a song composed by "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who only needs an Oscar to complete the coveted EGOT collection of awards -- Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.

Fifteen contenders were unveiled for the international feature film Academy Award, from among 92 eligible movies. Each country is only permitted to submit one film.

France boasts the most foreign film nominations of any country in Oscars history, but will watch from the sidelines this year after its selection, Julia Ducournau's Palme d'Or-winning body-horror "Titane," failed to make the cut.

The ultra-violent movie about a female serial killer who has sex with automobiles, before tricking a firefighter into believing she is his long-lost son, may have proven too controversial for Academy voters.

The shortlist includes frontrunners such as Paolo Sorrentino's coming-of-age drama "The Hand of God" (Italy) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's "Drive My Car" (Japan), based on a Haruki Murakami short story.

Iran's Asghar Farhadi -- among a select group of auteurs to have won multiple foreign film Oscars previously with "A Separation" and "The Salesman" -- again makes the cut with morality drama "A Hero."

The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan is a step closer to its first Oscar nomination with "Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom," a comic drama about a reluctant young teacher who is sent to work in the world's most isolated school.

Denmark, which won the foreign film Oscar last year for "Another Round," again has a strong contender in the form of "Flee," which chronicles a gay Afghan refugee's perilous journey to Europe.

The animated film was also included in the shortlist for best documentary, which was also unveiled Tuesday.

"The Rescue," about the headline-grabbing 2018 race to save a Thai soccer team trapped in a cave, and Questlove's "Summer of Soul," about the huge but largely forgotten "Black Woodstock" festival that took place in 1969 Harlem, also made the cut.

The final list of Oscar nominations will be revealed on February 8, and the awards will be handed out on March 27.

Agence France Presse

LIST: Oscars 2019 winners in main categories

HOLLYWOOD — Here are the winners in key categories at the 91st Academy Awards, which were handed out on Sunday in Hollywood.

"Green Book" took home the best picture Oscar, while Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" won for best director, best foreign film and best cinematography.




Top acting honors were shared among four different films.


Best picture: "Green Book"

Best director: Alfonso Cuaron, "Roma"


Best actor: Rami Malek, "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Best actress: Olivia Colman, "The Favourite"

Best supporting actor: Mahershala Ali, "Green Book"

Best supporting actress: Regina King, "If Beale Street Could Talk"

Best foreign language film: "Roma" (Mexico)

Best cinematography: Alfonso Cuaron, "Roma"

Best animated feature: "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"

Best documentary feature: "Free Solo"

Best original screenplay: "Green Book" - Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly

Best adapted screenplay: "BlacKkKlansman" - Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott

Best original score: "Black Panther" - Ludwig Goransson

Best original song: "Shallow" from "A Star Is Born," Lady Gaga

source: philstar.com

Oscar nominations: all the fun facts

HOLLYWOOD, United States — Hollywood insiders and movie fans are eagerly waiting to hear the names of the Oscar winners on Sunday night.

But the statistical quirks that Tinseltown's biggest night of the year throws up can be as intriguing as tracking which movies get the most golden statuettes.

Here are some fun facts and figures about this year's list of nominees, and a bit of Oscars trivia:


Cuaron reigns supreme 

Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma," a black-and-white cinematic ode to his childhood in 1970s Mexico City -- and the mother and nanny who raised him -- earned a whopping 10 nominations to lead the contenders.

But the Mexican filmmaker himself scored an impressive feat -- four of those nominations are his personally: for best picture as a producer, best director, best original screenplay and best cinematography.

He joins illustrious company with his achievement: Warren Beatty did the same, scoring four nominations in four different categories -- twice -- for "Heaven Can Wait" and "Reds."

Joel and Ethan Coen did it for "No Country for Old Men."

Blockbusters galore 

For many moviegoers, the Oscars have become somewhat elitist, often rewarding art-house fare that not many have seen. But those fans cannot complain this year.

Marvel superhero blockbuster "Black Panther" -- the highest-grossing film of 2018 in North America at more than $700 million -- scored seven nominations including one for best picture, becoming the first movie based on a comic book to earn the honor.

Other mainstream box office hits nominated for best picture include musical romance drama "A Star Is Born" ($210 million in North America) and "Bohemian Rhapsody" ($213 million).

Heavy prize 

The Oscar statuette is solid bronze and plated in 24-karat gold. It stands 13.5 inches (34 centimeters) tall and weighs 8.5 pounds (3.8 kilograms).

It takes three months for Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry in New York to manufacture a batch of 50 statuettes. More than 3,140 statuettes have been handed out since 1929.

The trophy represents a knight holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes that refer to the five original branches of the Academy -- actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers.

Acting royalty

Meryl Streep holds the record for the most nominations in the acting categories, with 21. She and Jack Nicholson -- the most nominated male actor with 12 nominations -- each have two statuettes for lead acting and one for supporting roles.

The movie industry figure with the most Oscars is Walt Disney, who won 22, plus four honorary statuettes.

Katharine Hepburn won the most Oscars for a performer, with four. Daniel Day-Lewis is the only person to have three best actor Oscars.

Snubs and surprises 

Industry watchers were shocked that Bradley Cooper was snubbed in the best director category for "A Star Is Born" -- but earned three nominations for best actor, best adapted screenplay and best picture (as a producer).

They were thrilled to see Spike Lee earn his first directing nomination for "BlacKkKlansman" and first for best picture. The US filmmaker earned a lifetime achievement award at the 2016 Oscars.

But many expected "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" -- a critically acclaimed documentary about US children's show host Mister Rogers -- to make the cut. It did not.

A happy surprise was a best actress nomination for breakout "Roma" star Yalitza Aparicio in her debut performance.

source: philstar.com

Oscar nominations: All the fun facts

LOS ANGELES, United States — The nominations for the 91st Oscars were announced Tuesday, with "Roma" and "The Favourite" leading the pack.

But the statistical quirks that the annual event throws up can be as intriguing as tracking which movies get the most nods.

Here are some fun facts and figures from this year's list of nominees:


Netflix's big step forward

Streaming giant Netflix took a major step forward in its quest to be both a distribution king and a purveyor of quality original content with 14 Oscar nominations, including its first for best picture for "Roma."

"Roma" earned 10 nods, while "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" -- the latest from Joel and Ethan Coen -- scored three. The last Netflix nomination went to "End Game," which is up for best documentary short subject.


Netflix claimed a 15th nomination for another documentary short, "Period: End of Sentence," but it was not listed as a Netflix production in the Academy's press kit.

In 2018, the company earned eight nominations, half of them for "Mudbound." In the years before, Netflix had just a handful of nominations, all in documentary categories.

By comparison, Amazon Studios -- which had already broken through in the best picture category in 2017 with "Manchester by the Sea" -- earned three nominations for steamy Polish love story "Cold War."

"We are honored to receive our first Best Picture nomination and so many other firsts this morning," said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos.

Wakanda forever

For many moviegoers, the Oscars have become somewhat elitist, often rewarding arthouse fare that not many have seen. But those fans cannot complain this year.

Marvel superhero blockbuster "Black Panther" -- the highest-grossing film of 2018 in North America -- scored seven nominations including one for best picture, becoming the first movie based on a comic book to earn the honor.

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, who stars in the film, posted footage on Twitter of the cast celebrating when excerpts from the film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con.

"Seven #OscarNoms for #BlackPanther, including best picture!! This is our reaction the first time we saw footage from the film and we're feeling this way all over again today! Thank you @TheAcademy! #WakandaForever," she wrote on Twitter.

Beyond its best picture nomination, "Black Panther" earned nods for costume design, original score, original song (rapper Kendrick Lamar is a nominee in that category), production design, and sound mixing and editing.

Cuaron reigns supreme

Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma," a black-and-white cinematic ode to his childhood in 1970s Mexico City -- and the mother and nanny who raised him -- earned a whopping 10 nominations to lead the contenders.

But the Mexican filmmaker himself scored an impressive feat -- four of those nominations are his: for best picture as a producer, best director, best original screenplay and best cinematography.

He joins illustrious company with his achievement: Warren Beatty did the same, scoring four nominations in four different categories -- twice -- for "Heaven Can Wait" and "Reds."

Joel and Ethan Coen did it for "No Country for Old Men."

Snubs and surprises

Industry watchers were shocked that Bradley Cooper was snubbed in the best director category for "A Star Is Born" -- but earned three nominations for best actor, best adapted screenplay and best picture (as a producer).

They were thrilled to see Spike Lee earn his first directing nomination for "BlacKkKlansman." It was his fifth overall -- counting two others for the same film. The US filmmaker earned a lifetime achievement award at the 2016 Oscars.

Another major name left off the list was Timothee Chalamet, who had been seen as a likely contender for best supporting actor for his portrayal of a drug addict in "Beautiful Boy."

And many expected "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" -- a critically acclaimed documentary about US children's show host Mister Rogers -- to make the cut. It did not.

A happy surprise was a best actress nomination for breakout "Roma" star Yalitza Aparicio in her debut performance.

For Oscars watcher Sasha Stone, the new voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "really did show up and vote in ways we've not really seen in the Oscar race, just not in ways we thought they might...surprised. A little weirded out."

source: philstar.com

Kevin Hart out as Oscars host for anti-gay tweets

HOLLYWOOD — US comedian and actor Kevin Hart abruptly withdrew from hosting the Oscars Thursday night amid flack for past homophobic and anti-gay tweets.

Two days after announcing he had landed what he called a dream gig, Hart said that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had told him to choose between apologizing for the tweets or losing the job.

Hart said the tweets were from nearly a decade ago and that he has matured since then.

"I chose to pass on the apology. The reason why I passed is because I've addressed this several times," Hart, 39, said during a video posted to Instagram.

"I've said who I am now versus who I was then. I've done it. I'm not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I've moved on and I'm in a completely different place in my life," Hart said.


On Twitter, Hart apologized to the LGBTQ community for what he called "my insensitive words from my past."

"I'm sorry that I hurt people," he added. "I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love & appreciation to the Academy. I hope we can meet again."

The Academy must now find a new host for the 91st Academy Awards in February.

The "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" star was to have hosted the glitzy event after talk show host Jimmy Kimmel held the gig for two consecutive years.

Whoever hosts it will face pressure to boost audience ratings for the annual show that will be held on February 24 in Hollywood and which had an all-time low of 26.5 million viewers last year, compared to 43 million in 2014.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has said that it was introducing a number of changes to improve viewership, including shortening the show to three hours and handing out some of the awards during commercial breaks.

source: philstar.com

Red carpet filled with color for Oscars ceremony after tumultuous Hollywood year

LOS ANGELES | Stars arrived on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday under sunny but breezy skies for an Academy Awards ceremony filled with suspense over which will win the best picture, and whether the Hollywood sexual misconduct scandal will steal the spotlight on the movie industry’s biggest night.

“Get Out” actress Allison Williams,“I, Tonya” supporting actress Allison Janney, supporting actor nominee Christopher Plummer and “Spider-Man” star Tom Holland were among the early arrivals. Women sported flowing blue, lavender and white gowns often embellished with sequins and crystals.

Sandra Bullock,“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda,“Black Panther” star Lupita Nyong’o, Jane Fonda and Nicole Kidman are among an eclectic lineup of presenters due to take the stage on Sunday.

Hollywood has many issues on its mind, foremost is the sexual misconduct scandal that has brought down dozens of once-powerful men, and lingering questions over racial and gender fairness in the movie business.

The Time’s Up campaign against sexual harassment in the workplace, spearheaded by celebrities including Reese Witherspoon and Ava DuVernay, will be recognized in some form in Sunday’s ceremony, organizers say.


History could be made on Sunday’s ceremony.

“Get Out” director and writer Jordan Peele is vying to become the first black man in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 90-year history to win a directing Oscar.

“Lady Bird” director Greta Gerwig could be only the second female to take home that prize when the decision of the 8,000 academy members is announced.

“Every year, the discussion around the awards is less and less who will win, but how many women are nominated, or how many blacks and Asians lost,” said Tom O’Neil, founder of awards website GoldDerby.com.

Host Jimmy Kimmel has the task of navigating the wider political themes with the celebrations. He is also expected to turn into a running joke last year’s embarrassing best picture envelope mix-up that saw musical“La La Land” being declared winner instead of“Moonlight.”

No such suspense surrounds the main acting races, where Frances McDormand is heavily favored to win for her turn as an angry, grieving mother in“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” and British actor Gary Oldman’s performance as wartime leader Winston Churchill in“Darkest Hour” is widely expected to bring his first Oscar.

In the supporting actor categories, odds are on Allison Janney for“I, Tonya,” and Sam Rockwell for“Three Billboards” after they swept previous awards.

source: interaksyon.com

Harvey Weinstein ‘Casting Couch’ statue unveiled ahead of Oscars

LOS ANGELES | Harvey Weinstein won’t be going to Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, but the film producer’s presence is still being felt in Hollywood.

Los Angeles-based street artist Plastic Jesus on Thursday unveiled a statue called “Casting Couch,” depicting a life-size Weinstein, clothed in a bathrobe, sitting on a golden colored couch and holding an Oscar. It was installed near the Hollywood venue where the Academy Awards ceremony will be held.

More than 70 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, including rape. Weinstein has denied having nonconsensual sex with anyone.

His representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the installation.

The accusations against Weinstein triggered a flood of allegations of sexual impropriety by other celebrities that have rocked Hollywood and dominated this year’s movie awards season.


“Whilst many thought the ‘casting couch’ was a thing of the past it was clearly still a part of the Hollywood culture,” Plastic Jesus said in a statement on his Facebook page.

“Hopefully now in the light of recent allegations against many leading figures in Hollywood the industry will clean up it’s (sic) act,” he said.

Weinstein was one of the movie industry’s most influential men, powering independent movies such as “The King’s Speech” and “Shakespeare in Love” to Oscar best picture wins.

He was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last year and fired from his company, the Weinstein Company. The company said on Sunday it planned to file for bankruptcy.

The ‘Casting Couch’ statue followed the appearance in Los Angeles on Wednesday of billboards designed by street artist Sabo that accused the entertainment industry of staying silent about sexual misconduct.

Plastic Jesus said the Weinstein statue was a collaboration with the artist Joshua “Ginger” Monroe and took two months to produce. It was paid for by donations through their websites.

Plastic Jesus and Ginger were also responsible for producing naked statues of Donald Trump that appeared in various U.S. cities in 2016, before he was elected U.S. president.

Insurer Chubb Ltd is refusing to pay for Weinstein’s legal defense against 11 lawsuits that accuse the movie producer of sexually harassing or assaulting women over the past three decades, according to a court document filed on Wednesday.

Units of the insurer have together issued 80 policies to Weinstein and his family between 1994 and 2018, including coverage for personal liability, according to Chubb. That would normally cover legal costs to defend against claims of damage or injury caused accidentally, but the insurer said Weinstein’s conduct was intentional.

He faces many legal cases, including one brought by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accusing him of civil and human rights violations.

Chubb Indemnity Insurance Co and several other Chubb units asked New York State Supreme Court to issue a judgment declaring that the policies’ terms exclude defending charges in the lawsuits, specifically sexual assault, discrimination and intentional acts.

The Weinstein Co on Thursday reached a deal to sell assets to a group led by a former Obama administration official who plans to use a majority-female board to rebuild the Hollywood studio tarnished by sexual misconduct allegations.

In a statement, Maria Contreras-Sweet said she plans to launch a new company, save about 150 jobs, protect the small businesses that are owed money, and create a victims’ compensation fund that will supplement existing insurance coverage for those who have been harmed.

“This next step represents the best possible pathway to support victims and protect employees,” Contreras-Sweet, the former head of the Small Business Administration, said in the statement.

With reports from Lisa Richwine and Suzanne Barlyn

source: interaksyon.com

Tweeting accountant in spotlight over Oscar best picture blunder

LOS ANGELES | An accountant for the Academy Awards was at the center of a probe on Monday over how a meticulous procedure for announcing the Oscar best picture went disastrously awry, handing victory to “La La Land” before declaring “Moonlight” the real winner.

In a gaffe on Sunday that stunned the Dolby Theatre crowd in Hollywood and a television audience worldwide, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope for the movie industry’s top award.

The Wall Street Journal and celebrity website TMZ.com reported on Monday that one of the PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants responsible for handing out the sealed envelopes on Sunday had posted a backstage photo of actress Emma Stone on Twitter minutes before the mix-up.

The photo, from the Twitter account of Brian Cullinan, was later deleted but was still viewable on Monday on a cached archive of the page.

PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. chairman Tim Ryan told USA Today on Monday that Cullinan was the person who handed the envelope to Beatty.

PwC did not respond to requests for comment on Cullinan’s tweet, nor his role in the envelope fiasco. Cullinan could not immediately be reached for comment.

The mistake was not rectified until the “La La Land” cast and producers were on stage giving their acceptance speeches. It was left to the musical’s producer, Jordan Horowitz, to put things right.

“Guys, guys, I’m sorry. No. There’s a mistake,” Horowitz said. “‘Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.”

It took PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has been overseeing Academy Awards balloting for 83 years, three hours to issue a statement confirming that Beatty and Dunaway “had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope.”

“We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred,” the accountants said in a statement on Monday. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars, has made no comment.

An embarrassed Beatty carried the envelope in his hand to the glitzy Governor’s Ball after the show, with the writing clearly saying “actress in a leading role.” “La La Land” star Stone had been awarded that Oscar moments before.

Brand management experts said it could take years for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to recover.

“This is not advanced math. PwC had to get the right name in the right envelope and get it to the right person,” said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University, calling the blunder a “bit of a branding tragedy.”

DOUBLE PRECAUTIONS

Under a tried and tested PwC procedure, just two accountants know the names of the 24 winners after their names are placed in two sets of sealed envelopes. The two accountants also memorize the winning names.

Tradition has it that the envelopes are taken separately in two briefcases to the Academy Awards venue. The two accountants — in this case Cullinan and Martha Ruiz — are driven there separately in case an accident or traffic should befall them.

The pair then stand off stage at opposite sides and hand envelopes to the respective presenters as each category is announced.

Last week, Cullinan told the Huffington Post that the procedure for dealing with the hand-off of an incorrect envelope, other than signaling to a stage manager, was unclear.

“It’s so unlikely,” Cullinan told the Huffington Post.

Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St John’s University in New York, said that although precious minutes passed, the error was corrected quickly.

“It’s not as if we woke up this morning, or if it had been uncovered after the telecast was over. That would have really have been a black eye,” Sabino said.

Sabino said that compared to accounting fraud at other companies in the past, “this incident diminished vastly to a vanishing point.”

The “Moonlight” filmmakers were gracious about the error.

Director Barry Jenkins told reporters back stage that he was given no immediate explanation for the mix-up but that “it made a very special feeling even more special, but not in the way I expected.”

“Please write this down: The folks from ‘La La Land’ were so gracious,” Jenkins added.

source: interaksyon.com

#OscarsSoWhite to #OscarsLessWhite; diverse nominees stand out

LOS ANGELES | The Oscar nominations on Tuesday honored the largest ever crop of actors of color along with a diverse range of stories, a year after Hollywood was slammed for excluding minority talent.

The #OscarsSoWhite controversy last year was sparked when all 20 acting nominees were white for a second consecutive year. The hashtag highlighted a larger issue within the film industry, where talent and stories of diverse communities can be hard to get made or are not pushed for awards recognition.

This year, #OscarsLessWhite was trending on Twitter as each acting category featured actors of color: Denzel Washington and Viola Davis for “Fences,” Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris for “Moonlight,” and Octavia Spencer for “Hidden Figures.”

“Loving” star Ruth Negga, of Irish-Ethiopian descent, and “Lion” actor Dev Patel, who is British and of Indian descent, were also nominated.

“It shows that in front of and behind the camera, the stories are not homogenous, so I’m heartened that the faces and genres that’ll be in that (Oscar) room in 33 days’ time reflect a film industry that I work in, that isn’t a homogenous place,” “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins told Reuters.

Although whimsical musical romance “La La Land” led with a record-tying 14 nominations, “Moonlight,” about an impoverished black boy grappling with his sexuality landed eight nods.

The acting nods follow the success of “Hidden Figures,” about three black female mathematicians working for NASA in the 1960s. The film also landed a best picture Oscar nomination.

The film grossed $84 million at North American theaters and topped the box office for two weeks, dispelling industry notions about minority actors not drawing mass audiences.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, host of the annual Oscars, overhauled its membership last year, pledging to double membership of women and minorities by 2020 and stripping some older, non-active members of voting privileges.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said the aim this year was to “reach out to great filmmakers from around the world” and make the Oscars a global event.

The initiative also led to the Academy breaking tradition by live-streaming the nominations announcement instead of broadcasting a handful of key categories on U.S. television.

“I know that we have reached more people instantly than we ever had,” Boone Isaacs told Reuters.

Three explorations of black stories made the documentary shortlist: Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” about U.S. criminal justice and slavery, ESPN’s “O.J.: Made in America” on the infamous trial of O.J. Simpson, and “I Am Not Your Negro,” about civil rights leaders through the eyes of late U.S. novelist James Baldwin.

“It’s an honor … to be nominated in a year that truly embraces and celebrates inclusion within our creative community,” DuVernay said in a statement.

source: interaksyon.com

Chris Rock confronts race row head-on at Oscars

HOLLYWOOD | Oscars host Chris Rock hit early and hard Sunday on a race row overshadowing Hollywood’s biggest night, mercilessly ribbing both the movie industry and its critics.

The comedian wasted no time raising the controversy over the 88th Academy Awards’ lack of African American acting nominees, addressing the issue from his first words and discussing virtually nothing else in his monologue.

“Hey! Well, I’m here at the Academy Awards — otherwise known as the white People’s Choice awards,” he said, after joking that the introductory montage had at least 15 black people.

Rock questioned why the 88th edition of the Oscars drew so much controversy, guessing that black nominees were similarly absent most years.

African Americans did not protest most years because they were “too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer,” he said.

“You know, when your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short,” he quipped.

The energetic 51-year-old funnyman, sporting a white dinner jacket, shot down activists who urged him to boycott the Oscars in solidarity with black actors.

“They’re not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit, you know? And the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart,” Rock said in reference to a fellow black comic, suggesting he was selected as host due to his race.

Rock enjoyed consistent applause for his monologue, even as he savaged some big names in Hollywood.

He suggested that Jada Pinkett Smith joined the boycott by African Americans because her husband, actor and rapper Will Smith, was not nominated for “Concussion.”

“Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties,” he said, referring to the sultry singer. “I wasn’t invited.”

Yet Rock also made clear that there were true concerns for the community, pointing to the string of police killings of African Americans that have triggered the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

“This year, in the ‘In Memoriam’ package, it’s just going to be black people that were shot on their way to the movies,” he said, referring to the customary Oscars tribute to deceased cinema figures.

source: interaksyon.com

#OscarsSoWhite creator says she will not watch Oscars

NEW YORK | The creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag on Twitter on Saturday said she will watch and tweet about a 1999 coming-of-age movie featuring three black actors rather than Sunday night’s showing of the Academy Awards, joining a growing list of activists and entertainers snubbing the event for its lack of diversity.

April Reign, managing editor of BroadwayBlack.com, said she will watch “The Wood,” starring Omar Epps, Richard T. Jones and Taye Diggs on Netflix on Sunday night as the Oscars show airs on ABC.

Reign, the keynote speaker on Saturday at “The #BlackTwitter Conference” at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, is credited with launching the hashtag in January after last year’s nominees best actor nominees were published.

“What I’m doing is attempting to amplify the discussion,” Reign said at Saturday’s conference, hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists. “The Academy can only nominate quality work that is made, so the onus still has to be on Hollywood to put those films out there.”

Reign said she launched the tag initially as a joke, but it quickly went viral and has become a major venue for discussing race and Hollywood.

The furor over the all-white line up of best-actor nominees prompted several big-name boycott announcements. Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith all said they will not attend.

Directors Ava Duvernay and Ryan Coogler, who was snubbed for a best director nomination for his Rocky sequel “Creed” even as Sylvester Stallone earned a best-supporting actor nomination, are planning to host the #JusticeForFlint benefit concert in Flint, Michigan, in support of residents suffering from its water crisis.

Business mogul Russell Simmons has partnered with Fusion to launch the first-ever “All Def Movie Awards,” which aims to celebrate diversity in film.

#BlackTwitter16, the tag associated with Saturday’s conference at Columbia, was among the top-trending hashtags on Twitter.

“Black Twitter has gone from being seen as these frivolous conversations that black people are having at night,” said Sherri Williams, a post-doctoral fellow and professor at Wake Forest University who was among the panelist at the conference. “Now it’s an entity that people are taking seriously.”

source: interaksyon.com

Fox shares could get rare Oscars season boost

NEW YORK | Shares of 21st Century Fox — owner of the 20th Century Fox film studio and Fox television network — could be set for a rare Oscar rally if the global media conglomerate takes home gold at this Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony.

The Oscars, which draws some of the biggest audiences of any single annual television event, typically have little effect on share prices of big publicly traded companies with movies in the running, analysts said.

“Normally it’s not terrifically meaningful for stocks, but here and there you can get situations where it matters a little,” FBR Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett said. This time, it could matter to Fox, Crockett said.

That is partly because Fox fielded movies that not only fared well at other awards ceremonies but also at the box office, in a change from the last two years, Crockett said.

Fox led studios this year with a total of 26 Oscar nods, including 12 for best picture-nominated revenge drama, “The Revenant.” Other Fox films with nominations in top categories include “Brooklyn” and “The Martian.”

Filmed entertainment accounted for nearly a third of total second-quarter revenue at Fox, which also runs cable, television and other entertainment operations.

“The Revenant,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a bear-mauled and ice-battered explorer, blew away initial expectations and has grossed $383.6 million worldwide since opening in late December.

The movie, with a $135 million budget, is still in theaters, a big factor in how much a company will gain when its film is nominated for or wins an Oscar, said BofA Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen.

An Academy award nomination or win could extend the time a movie is shown in theaters, boosting a film’s box office proceeds.

“If DiCaprio wins … it could be a significant boost,” Cohen said.

A nomination or win also increases profit over the longer term by increasing movie rentals, DVD purchases and on-demand cable contracts, she said.

Shares of Fox gained nearly 4.5 percent on Jan. 14 after Oscar nominations were announced, but are little changed so far this year compared with a 4.4 percent decline for the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index. In 2015 Fox shares fell 26 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

Inarritu’s ‘Birdman’ soars to Oscars glory

HOLLYWOOD | Dark comedy “Birdman” soared to Oscars glory on Sunday, taking four Academy Awards including best picture and best director honors on Hollywood’s biggest night.

The film, a satire about a washed-up superhero film actor battling to revive his career on Broadway, was a grand triumph for Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who himself won three of the four golden statuettes.

Stylist crime caper “The Grand Budapest Hotel” also won four Oscars, several in technical categories, while jazz drumming drama “Whiplash” scored three, including best supporting actor for veteran actor J.K. Simmons.

Best actor went to Britain’s Eddie Redmayne as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything,” while veteran Julianne Moore took best actress as a professor suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s disease in “Still Alice.”

Inarritu, the second Mexican in a row to take the best director Oscar after Alfonso Cuaron won last year for “Gravity,” dedicated his award to his fellow countrymen.

Talking about Mexican immigrants into the United States, he said: “I just pray that they can be treated with the same dignity and respect as the ones who came before and built this incredible immigrant nation.”

Coming-of-age drama “Boyhood,” which had been going head-to-head for the best picture race, perhaps suffered the biggest disappointment, with only one Oscar on six nominations — best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette.

Disney’s “Big Hero 6″ was named best animated feature, while Poland’s “Ida” took the best foreign language film prize.

Host Neil Patrick Harris launched the three-and-a-half hour show with a song and dance routine about the movie industry itself — including a joke about the lack of any non-white actors in the four acting categories.

“Tonight, we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest … sorry, brightest,” he said, earning laughs from the star-studded audience at the Dolby Theatre.

POLITICAL NOTE FROM ARQUETTE

Arquette hit a political note in accepting her prize, giving a shoutout to “every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation.

“We have fought for everybody’s equal rights. It is our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America,” she said.

The biggest standing ovation of the night honored “Selma,” about civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

The film, while nominated for best picture, controversially failed to secure nods for British actor David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay.

In the end, it won for best original song for the rousing “Glory” — and the A-list audience rose to their feet after John Legend and Common performed the song.

Oyelowo could be seen with tears pouring down his face,

“We live in the most incarcerated country in the world,” Legend said as he accepted his Oscar.

“There are more black men under correctional control today than there were under slavery in 1850.”

A star-studded cast of presenters took the stage on Sunday, including Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Eddie Murphy, Liam Neeson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey.

Among the funniest moments of the night was when Harris appeared on stage naked except for his underwear, at the end of a backstage skit mimicking a scene from “Birdman.”

John Travolta also got his come-uppance for flubbing singer Idina Menzel’s name at last year’s show as he introduced her to sing “Let It Go,” the Oscar-winning song from “Frozen”.

Harris took a dig at Travolta, joking that Benedict Cumberbatch is how the Pulp Fiction star would pronounce Ben Affleck. Menzel then introduced him as “Glom Gazingo”.

“I deserve that,” Travolta said.

Lady Gaga almost brought the house down with a soaring medley of songs from the classic “The Sound of Music” to mark its 50th anniversary — before welcoming actress Julie Andrews onto the stage.

source: interaksyon.com

Could ‘American Sniper’ sneak up in two-horse Oscar race?

LOS ANGELES | With only a week to go before the Oscars, the all-important Best Picture prize appears locked in a two-horse race between dark comedy “Birdman” and coming-of-age drama “Boyhood.”

But as Hollywood counts down the days to next Sunday’s show, some are suggesting that controversial blockbuster “American Sniper” could yet surprise, and best the two indie films.

“‘Boyhood’ and ‘Birdman’ are the frontrunners, and ‘American Sniper’ is the dark horse,” Matthew Belloni, executive editor of industry journal The Hollywood Reporter, told AFP.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘American Sniper’ had a last-minute surge, because of how well it’s doing at the box office,” he added, referring to the movie’s $365 million-plus global box office haul so far.

The Academy Awards have traditionally favored more independent, art-house fare for Best Picture, handed out at the climax of Hollywood’s annual December-to-February awards season.

WASHED-UP SUPERHERO STAR

“Birdman” — about a washed-up superhero film star battling to revive his career on the stage — is definitely more along its usual lines, as is “Boyhood,” which took 12 years to make as the actors aged in real time.

Both have fared well in pre-Oscars shows, with “Boyhood” taking the Golden Globes’ best film, while “Birdman’ won a string of awards including top prizes at the Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild of America.

But Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” has unexpectedly stirred up the race, grabbing headlines both for its massive box office success and a row over its portrayal an Iraq war warrior.

Filmmaker Michael Moore claimed it hero-worships former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, while Tea Party firebrand and former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said leftists were “not fit to shine Chris Kyle’s combat boots.”

The question is, how many of the 6,000-odd voting members of the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the industry’s elite body, will be swayed at this late stage?

They began casting ballots on February 6, and voting closes on Tuesday at 5:00 pm (0100 GMT Monday) — after which only two PriceWaterhouse Coopers staff will know the results before the envelopes are opened on stage next Sunday.

While the Best Picture race is too close to call, several of the other key categories are seen as much easier to predict.

Julianne Moore is almost universally expected to win best actress for playing a professor suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease in “Still Alice.”

Patricia Arquette is the favorite for best supporting actress as the mother in “Boyhood.”

Best actor is between “Birdman” star Michael Keaton and Britain’s Eddie Redmayne as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything,” while J.K. Simmons is tipped for supporting actor for jazz drama “Whiplash.”

Belloni said his personal forecast for best director is Mexico’s Alejandro Inarritu for “Birdman” — with the best picture going to “Boyhood.”

“So the Academy will split… much like it did last year,” he said, referring to “12 Years a Slave” taking the best film prize in 2014, while “Gravity” helmer Alfonso Cuaron — also Mexican — took best director.

ALL-WHITE NOMINEES

Talking of “12 Years a Slave,” there was uproar last month when Oscar nominations were announced, over the fact that every single one of the 20 acting nominees are white.

While Martin Luther King Jr movie “Selma” is among the eight Best Picture nominees, eyebrows were raised that neither its British star David Oyelowo nor director Ava DuVernay were shortlisted individually.

“The real snub here is that David Oyelowo… I think a lot of people were surprised that he did not get a nomination for that,” said Belloni.

More broadly, he said, Academy members “feel bad” that only white actors were nominated this year, but added: “I think the problem goes deeper than that.

“The Academy nominates the films that are put up for contention, and other than ‘Selma’ there really weren’t films that featured minority actors in leading and hefty roles,” Belloni added.

“It goes to the kinds of movies that are getting green-lit in Hollywood, and the kinds of people who are making those decisions. Hollywood has made strides in recent years to rectify the diversity problem, but it still exists.”

source: interaksyon.com

Kate Winslet honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

LOS ANGELES | Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet was honored with a star on the storied Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday — hours after an earthquake jolted Tinseltown awake.

The “Titanic” star joked that the pre-dawn 4.4 magnitude quake, which was felt strongly across the Los Angeles area, occurred just as she was getting ready with a breast pump for her three-month old son.

“I had no idea that this was going to be such a well attended event,” she said, referring to the quake as she accepted the honor on Hollywood Boulevard, noting that the shaker “frightened me quite a lot actually.”

The 38-year-old Brit said she headed for a nearby doorway, said to be a safe place in the event of a quake, “with my breast pump in my hand”.

Winslet had a baby boy in December with new husband Ned RocknRoll. She already has a daughter, Mia Honey, with first husband Jim Threapleton and a son, Joe Alfie, with Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes.

Winslet has been nominated six times for Oscars, including for her role alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in 1998′s “Titanic,” finally winning in 2009 for playing a Nazi concentration camp guard in “The Reader.”

At Monday’s Hollywood ceremony, local councillor Mitch O’Farrell also quipped about the quake, saying: “The ground in Los Angeles literally shook in anticipation of Kate Winslet’s star today.

The British actress’s “Titanic” cast-mate Kathy Bates meanwhile made a more earthy joke, about the famous stars which honor generations of celebrities along a stretch of tourist-thronged Hollywood sidewalk.

“You deserve to have stars strewn at your feet,” she said.

“Even though stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame sometimes get a little dirty with a little poo or whatever, what will last is your wonderful beautiful films, characters that you’ve played that have stolen our hearts.

“Nobody can ever poo on those.”

source: interaksyon.com

Mexico fetes Cuaron’s Oscars, but filmmakers keep feet on ground

MEXICO CITY | As Mexico basks in the glow of its first best director Oscar for Alfonso Cuaron and his blockbuster film “Gravity,” a new generation of homegrown filmmakers wonders if the magic of the golden statuette will rub off on them.

Cuaron’s 3D space thriller scooped seven Oscars, the most of any film on Sunday, and was lauded for groundbreaking special effects conveying space and weightlessness, though it lost the best picture award to drama “12 Years a Slave.

The movie, which stars Sandra Bullock as an astronaut cut loose from her space shuttle, has already earned $700 million at the worldwide box office and Cuaron’s win is the first best director Oscar for a Latin American.

However, the 52-year-old Cuaron has spent most of his career outside Mexico, after he struggled to raise financing for projects back home, and fellow leading directors Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also both moved abroad.

Back in his homeland, a new generation of Mexican directors has been quick to point out Cuaron’s work has had little to do with the domestic industry. “Gravity” was made for an estimated $100 million by Warner Bros. Pictures, while directors in Mexico have to scramble to drum up just $2 million for a film.

Many Mexican independent filmmakers have had more commercial success abroad than in their home country, where filmmakers complain they can’t compete against the big budgets of Hollywood studios, whose films dominate screens at cinemas.

“The only place where you cannot see Mexican film is in Mexico,” said Ivan Avila Duenas, who debuted his fourth feature film at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s International Film Festival, FICUNAM, on Sunday.

Though Cuaron cut his teeth in Mexico, most of his best known works have been Hollywood-backed projects.

In the 1990s, he left Mexico to work in the United States, then Britain, and became more known for his movie adaptations of British authors, including the third installment of J.K. Rowling’s work, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” as well as P.D. James’ dystopian “Children of Men.”

Ironically, success abroad enabled Cuaron to direct with bigger budgets in Mexico, where his 2001 Spanish-language road trip film “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” helped launch the international careers of actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna.

When Cuaron scored his first hit in the 1990s, Mexican film output was anemic, with only 10 or so films a year. Last year yielded over 100, aided by tax breaks for corporate sponsors and co-productions between Mexican and foreign companies.

NOT MADE IN MEXICO

Cuaron’s fellow expatriates Del Toro and Inarritu, to whom he paid tribute in his Oscar acceptance speech, have also both been backed by big U.S. studios.

The fact is not lost on those still working in Mexico.

“These three do not make Mexican film. They do not make their film in the Mexican system and their themes do not result from living here in the society where the rest of us live,” said Julian Hernandez, whose brooding, homoerotic films have won international awards and foreign distribution, but which have seen little commercial success in conservative Mexico.

“This makes us all happy, to see a Mexican recognized,” Hernandez said. “But this doesn’t mean that it will get any better for Mexican cinema.”

Since the “three amigos” — Cuaron, Del Toro and Inarritu — rose to international fame, another generation of filmmakers has matured and won a string of international awards.

But the new crop have struggled to achieve the same level of box office success and support from Hollywood.

Mexico’s art-scene directors have won honors at the world’s top festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Venice, with gritty, personal visions that mix elements of fiction and documentary.

Mexican drama “Despues de Lucia”, or After Lucia, by writer-director Michel Franco, took the top prize in Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard category in 2012.

And the minimalist films of festival favorites Carlos Reygadas and Amat Escalante, who won the best director award in Cannes last year, star non-actors in fictional tales. Last month, Alonso Ruizpalacios won Berlin’s best first feature award with his debut “Gueros.”

Meanwhile, other directors like Eugenio Polgovsky and Juan Carlos Rulfo have pushed the boundaries of documentaries.

“The challenge is getting more of these movies actually distributed and released,” said Robert Koehler, a Los Angeles-based film critic with publication Cinema Scope, who argued that filmmakers should look at “Gravity” “as the Trojan horse for importing Mexican cinema into the United States.”

After more than a decade of growing critical success, the local industry is finally scoring some big commercial hits.

Last year saw two box office records for local films, first with “Nosotros los Nobles” (We Are the Nobles) a comedy that lampoons Mexico’s upper class, that made over $26 million.

It was followed by “Instructions Not Included,” which starred TV comic Eugenio Derbez as an Acapulco playboy forced to raise a baby dumped on his doorstep.

“Instructions” nearly doubled “Nobles” domestic take and went on to become the top grossing Spanish-language film in the United States, with a worldwide take of over $85 million.

Speaking backstage after winning, Cuaron said he hoped his success would spur more interest in other Mexican filmmakers.

“I don’t think there is enough attention paid to Mexican culture and what is happening in Mexico,” he said.

source: interaksyon.com

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres picked to host 2014 Oscars ceremony

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres will make her second appearance as an Academy Awards host next year, organizers said on Friday, in a move widely seen as a less provocative choice for Hollywood’s highest honors after a ribald performance by Seth MacFarlane.

DeGeneres, the star of her own daytime talk show “Ellen,” first hosted the Oscars in 2007, becoming only the second woman to fill that exalted role alone, after Whoopi Goldberg.

“I am so excited to be hosting the Oscars for the second time,” DeGeneres said in a statement. “You know what they say – the third time’s the charm.”

“I’d like to thank @TheAcademy, my wife Portia and, oh dear, there goes the orchestra,” the comedian added on Twitter.

The Oscars, which are broadcast globally, often look to a host’s star power to attract a larger TV audience. Recent shows have averaged 37 million to 40 million viewers domestically.

DeGeneres, 55, earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in 2007 in which she departed from traditional Oscar hosting decorum and ventured into the audience for spot gags, at one point handing director Martin Scorsese a script of her own.

“There are few stars today who have Ellen’s gift for comedy, with her great warmth and humanity,” said Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who produced the 84th Academy Awards show last year.

‘A DECIDEDLY DIFFERENT TONE’

The choice of DeGeneres suggests the Academy is turning to a more amenable host who has shown in the past to be skilled at poking fun at Hollywood without rankling its biggest egos.

Last year, MacFarlane, the creator of animated sitcom “Family Guy,” got mixed reviews for his song and dance routines, including one about on-screen female nudity, and jokes that were often aimed at the expense of the biggest stars in attendance.

“Choosing DeGeneres, known for her kindler, gentler humor, signals that the Academy’s next awards show will have a decidedly different tone than the 85th Academy Awards,” trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter wrote.

DeGeneres also earned praise for her performance as the host of TV’s Emmy awards in 2001, which was twice delayed because of the September 11 attacks, memorably lightening the somber mood by asking, “What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?”

The announcement of DeGeneres as host also comes on the heels of Hollywood marketing executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs being elected as the first African American president of the 6,000-member Academy, which has made an effort to diversify its ranks after coming under fire for being too male, old and white.

Trade publication Variety saw the choice of DeGeneres as a continuation of the Academy’s “Year of the Woman,” writing that the Oscars “will put women in the driver’s seat.”

Disney-owned ABC will broadcast the Oscars on March 2.

source: interaksyon.com

Rookie Oscar host Seth MacFarlane lives up to provocative image

LOS ANGELES - Rookie Oscar host Seth MacFarlane casually slung a string of zingers at some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including a musical tribute to female frontal nudity in the movies, as he launched the Academy Awards show on Sunday on a decisively provocative note.

In an opening monologue and package of song-and-dance numbers obviously calculated to live up to, and even lampoon, his own reputation for pushing the boundaries of taste, MacFarlane put his biting, edgy brand of humor front and center.

He started off joking that best-picture front-runner “Argo,” about a real-life clandestine CIA operation to rescue American hostages from Iran, was “so top secret that the film’s director is unknown to the Academy.”

The barb was a not-so-subtle jab at members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for failing to nominate Ben Affleck as best director for the critically acclaimed film.

“They know they screwed up,” MacFarlane added, as the camera panned to a shot of Affleck, looking somewhat uncomfortable in his seat. “Ben, it’s not your fault.”

The edgy quotient quickly escalated as MacFarlane described another best-film candidate, “Django Unchained,” as the slavery-era “story of a man fighting to get back his woman who has been subjected to unthinkable violence — or as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie.”

The punch line reference to the physical abuse involved in the relationship between the two R&B singers — Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna in 2009 — drew an audible groan from the star-studded Dolby Theatre audience.

“Oh, no, that’s what we were afraid he would do,” MacFarlane dead-panned.

More groans followed as MacFarlane went on to joke that the profanity-laced screenplay from “Django” was “loosely based on Mel Gibson’s voice mails,” an allusion to the public disclosure several years ago of ranting telephone messages the actor-director had left for his then-girlfriend.

MacFarlane’s performance should not have come as too great a surprise. The comedian, actor and singer made his mark as creator of the animated television series “Family Guy,” a show known for its ribald satire, much of it aimed at Hollywood conventions.

And MacFarlane, 39, wasted no time in sending up his own risqué persona, in a comedy bit with actor William Shatner, who joined the host on stage via a video screen in the character of Captain Kirk from the sci-fi TV and film series “Star Trek.”

In his fictional drop-in visit from the future, Shatner warns MacFarlane he is “destroying the Academy Awards” with jokes that are “tasteless and inappropriate.”

But the interlude segued into a song-and-dance number by MacFarlane showcasing his vocal chops to a tune called “We Saw Your Boobs,” in which he rhapsodically ticked off the names of various A-list Hollywood actresses who have bared their breasts in films over the years.

Admonished by Shatner to sing songs that celebrate the movies rather than mock them, MacFarlane proceeded to deliver a more respectful rendering of the showbiz standard, “The Way You Look Tonight,” joined on stage in elegant dance by actress Charlize Theron (“Snow White and the Huntsman”) and actor Channing Tatum (“Magic Mike”).

MacFarlane showed off his own dancing talents in a three-way soft-shoe number with actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Lincoln”) and “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe.

In the way that many cartoons, including MacFarlane’s own “Family Guy” series, operate on different levels for kids and their parents, this year’s Oscar telecast seemed especially designed to play to more than one TV audience.

MacFarlane’s more provocative turns were offset by some of the more traditional pomp typical of Hollywood’s biggest night, including a 50th-anniversary montage salute to James Bond films, capped by veteran singer Shirley Bassey, now 76, reprising her title song from the 1964 film “Goldfinger.”

Early reaction to MacFarlane’s performance was mixed.

In a Twitter message posted during the show, actor-comedian and former Oscar host Steve Martin commented, facetiously: “Congratulations to Seth Rogan (another comically risqué actor with the same first name as the host) on a great monologue. Old-fashioned is back! I’m in!”

CNN host Piers Morgan tweeted, “I doubt there will have ever been a more divisive #Oscars host than @SethMacFarlane – I’m loving him, others are hating it.”

source: interaksyon.com