The Movie Empress

I am so ashamed.

Yes, yes, yes.  I know.  Cate Blanchett is Australian, and Brenda Fricker is Irish, and Anthony Hopkins is Welsh.  For that matter, Nicole Kidman was born in Hawaii (and Keith Urban was born in New Zealand) and Christopher Plummer is Canadian.  While I'm at it, were you aware that Helen Mirren - I mean Queen Elizabeth II - is the head of state of Australia and Canada (and New Zealand?)  It's true.  Look 'em up in the CIA World Factbook if you don't believe me. 

Kindly pardon my brief descent into levity with my previous post.  I shall never again toy with the facts in my quest to apply meaning, logic, and reasoning to a thoroughly capricious process.  In the future, I shall restrain myself from speculations based on meaningless attributes such as country of origin.  Instead, I will muse upon the eternal question of What Matters Most at Awards Season?  Is it talent, a good agent, or simply a nice set of hooters?

It's the stiff upper lip.

I've developed a corollary to the theory of the curse of the supporting actress Oscar.  (And really, it's hard not to believe in it.  Look at some of the most recent winners, let alone the Tomeis and the Sorvinos.  Jennifer Connelly?  Getting thinner, dressing worse, and picking up generally "meh" reviews in movies that other people get nominations for.  Catherine Zeta-Jones?  Commercials, Zorro, and Michael Douglas.  Renee Zellweger?  Kenny Chesney, squints, and twee British ladies.)  The curse is real... unless, that is, you're British. 

Really. 

Judi Dench?  Indefatigable.  She's on nomination number six.

Cate Blanchett?  It's a little soon for a definitive answer, but the nomination this year has to be seen as a plus.

If Rachel Weisz beats the curse, then I say we've found the corollary.   

Which, come to think of it, bodes very poorly for Jennifer Hudson's post-Dreamgirls life.

Thoughts on the Nominees

I should have trusted my gut.  Somehow I knew the remaining aged in the Academy would nominate Letters from Iwo Jima.  I just couldn't decide whether to bump Dreamgirls or Babel in its favor.  Classic musical or trendy pc castorama.  I suspected the former, and I should have gone with it. 

Ah, well.  I got 30.5 out of 40 nominations - 76%.  I can't say there were any real surprises.  Every nomination was out of the suspected pool of possibilities.  I think, come awards night, that the only really interesting races are going to be in the leading actor, director,  and best picture categories.  I see these as Peter O'Toole vs. Forrest Whitaker, Martin Scorsese vs. Clint Eastwood, and The Departed vs. Letters from Iwo Jima vs. (possibly) Babel. 

I still loathe Salma Hayek, her inappropriate outburst, and her stupid-looking bangs.  Oh, and yes, her dream.

Personal score:  Picture 4/5, Actor 3.5/5 (Leo yes, Departed no), Actress 5/5, Supporting Actor 3/5, Supporting Actress 3/5 (I'm very sad about Emily Blunt), Director 3/5, Screenplay 5/5, Adapted Screenplay 4/5. 

And the nominees might be...

I love eleventh-hour guessing games.

Best Picture

Babel

The Departed

Dreamgirls

Little Miss Sunshine

The Queen

Best Actor

Leonardo Di Caprio, The Departed

Peter O'Toole, Venus

Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness

Ken Watanabe, Letters from Iwo Jima

Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress

Penelope Cruz, Volver

Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal

Helen Mirren, The Queen

Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

Djimon Hunsou, Blood Diamond

Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

Jack Nicholson, The Departed

Michael Sheen, The Queen

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal

Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada

Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine

Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration

Best Director

Bob Condon, Dreamgirls

Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima

Stephen Frears, The Queen

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel

Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Original Screenplay

Babel

Letters from Iwo Jima

Little Miss Sunshine

Pan's Labyrinth

The Queen

Best Adapted Screenplay

Children of Men

The Departed

Little Children

Notes on a Scandal

Thank You for Smoking

Tally Ho

Golden Globes Score: 13 right, 12 wrong

Truly terrible, but then, most of the wrong ones were in tv, so The MOVIE Empress shall not sulk.

drama - The Departed
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
comedy/musical - Dreamgirls
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Sacha Cohen - Borat
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
animated - Cars
foreign language - Volver
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
screenplay - Babel
score - Babel
song - Dreamgirls
tv drama - 24
Edie Falco - The Sopranos
Kiefer Sutherland- 24
Ugly Betty
America Ferrera - Ugly Betty
Steve Carell - The Office
Elizabeth I
Helen Mirren - Elizabeth I
Michael Ealy - Sleeper Cell
Katherine Heigl - Grey's Anatomy
Jeremy Piven - Entourage

/snark

There's something to be said for not having a host. It makes the show shorter. Now we'll hold out for the SAG Awards, where there are no troublesome music or directorial awards. Good night!

Would the HFPA storm the stage and take Arnold down?

The Governor just called them the "Gordon Globes."

Ah, yes. Another culturally relevant, ethnically sensitive, multiple-storylined picture wins. Unless, of course, Arnold actually said Bobby and it was just obscured by his accent. Now that would be interesting.

An absence of horrid fashion on which to comment.

It's amazing to think that the same guy wrote both The Queen and The Last King of Scotland.

And Forrest Whitaker seemed totally floored.

And now she has matching orbs!

Courtney Cox nee Cox-Arquette nee Cox is wearing another yucky brown dress.

How I love Grey's Anatomy.  And Chandra Wilson can rock that red carpet garb.   As can Sara Ramirez.

Please, PSH.  Shave the 'stache.  And wash your hair. 

And the dress is, thankfully, fixed. 

Oh, that's Stephen Frears.  Not Tom Sizemore.  Or an unfortunately pointy-haired Robert De Niro.

Oh. There's the band.

The Royal Consort suggests that J.Lo is wearing a garment from the Apocalypto collection.

Oh, a best picture award winner can't finish his speech, but S.B. Cohen gets to revel in rectal humor ad nauseum?