The Weekly Poll
Results
The 81st Annual Academy Awards Prediction Edition
Hey Poll-fans! It's Heart vs Mind i.e.
Who d'ya want to win as opposed to who d'ya think is gonna win
.
DC Madman votes...
To go with my gut or follow the hype the eternal struggle.
Best Picture - Slumdog Millionare - hype and gut winner, enjoyable engaging
movie without the flash and crash.
Best Actor - Sean Penn - gut, a heterosexual macho dude in a convincing gay
role incessantly hyped at Bartcop Entertainment.
Best Actress - Meryl Streep - gut, the screwed up inner workings of a
catholic school, hope it scares parents away. Meryl's always a winner if
only a nominee.
Best Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger - hype wins this one and he was pretty
good.
Best Supporting Actress - I'll defer the win to Marisa Tomei. Gut says
Viola Davis. Her brief conflicted performance made me churn inside but it
was too short for a win.
Director - Gut and hype says Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire.
Adam the Cine-Sound Pro goes with...
Best Picture/Director
I've read that Academy members have sort of colluded to give it to Danny
Boyle and 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Mostly because Eastwood didn't make it
into the running and the other choices are too iconoclastic for the
conservative Academy. (A Beautiful Mind'? Has anyone watched that since it's win? No. Neither will anyone be watching 'The Reader' or '...'Button', and 'The
Reader' has a good chance of taking this in an upset.)
Best Actor
Sean Penn playing gay (and an overreaching do-gooder in real life), or
Mickey Rourke who's always weird?
Richard Jenkins should win in an upset, but it will likely go to Penn in a close vote.
Best Actress
Kate Winslet will get it (see her in Ep. 1 of Ricky Gervais's 'Extras'
to find out why
It's all gold, but the relevant bit is about 3 min in).
Anne Hathaway should get it because she is that good in 'Rachel Getting
Married', and showed she could be that good in 'Brokeback Mountain'.
Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger in a sympathy vote, but consider it late payment for
'Brokeback Mountain'
Best Supporting Actress
Tomei will get it unless Academy voters decide to show a little love for 'Doubt' for some reason and give it to a black actress out of guilt.
Marty said:
The best actor should go to Sean Penn, but Mickey Rourke is the sentimental favorite. However, between his bad behavior at the BAFTAs and his WWE posturings, his chances dimmed in the last couple of weeks. Maybe if Loki had died a week earlier. OTOH, Penn & Rourke could cancel each other out, and then Frank Langella will swoop in as the ultimate darkhorse.
Best actress boils down to Meryl vs. Kate Winslet. Kate hasn't won yet, and Meryl has twice. OTOH, it's been over 25 years since Meryl was last acknowledged.
Best Picture: 'Slumdog Millionaire'
Actor: Sean Penn
Actress: Meryl Streep
Supporting Actor: Robert Downey, Jr.
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz
Director: Gus Van Sant
Foreign Language: Waltz With Bashir
New Question Tuesday, 24 February.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
CATHERINE O'SULLIVAN: Perhaps reintroducing Neanderthals to planet Earth could keep the human race from becoming too boring (tucsonweekly.com)
We used to be interesting, but now we're not.
Roger Ebert: Blackie come home
Every time I see a dog in a movie, I think the same thing: I want that dog. I see Skip or Lucy or Shiloh and for a moment I can't even think about the movie's plot. I can only think about the dog. I want to hold it, pet it, take it for walks, and tell it what a good dog it is. I want to love it, and I want it to love me. I have an empty space inside myself that can only be filled by a dog.
'Art is just something for your eyes to look at' (guardian.co.uk)
In this exclusive preview Ricky Gervais and friends discuss the arts - from cave paintings to Ken Dodd.
British pop's new golden age (timesonline.co.uk)
Grammys, Brits... It's gongs galore. Ignore the prophets of doom, British pop music is great again, says Ben Wardle.
Hardeep Phull: Tour managers tell wild tales of bands on the road (timesonline.co.uk)
Those who made the rock 'n' roll fantasy for Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Red Shoes, Radio 4, REM, Mudhoney and others reveal all.
Walter Tunis: Fans haven't forgotten rockabilly's Wanda Jackson (McClatchy Newspapers)
For the past 25 years, Wanda Jackson has found rockabilly fans even when she wasn't looking for them.
Mark Stryker: Widely recorded conductor John McLaughlin Williams is a man without an orchestra (Detroit Free Press)
A conductor based in the Detroit area was up for a Grammy Award last week. It was Leonard Slatkin, the high-powered new music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, right? Wrong.
Twice in a lifetime (guardian.co.uk)
Rocker and actor Steve Van Zandt has made two careers as sidekick to the Boss - with Bruce Springsteen in the 70s, then with TV mobster Tony Soprano. But now, finds Ed Pilkington, he's calling the shots.
Roger Moore: Melissa Leo is all dressed up, for a change - and with some place to go (The Orlando Sentinel)
The decades of "dressing down" have finally paid off for Melissa Leo. Now she gets to dress up for one big night. A woman who has made a name playing unglamorous in "Frozen River" will put on the ritz and hope her name is called when the best actress trophy is awarded on Oscar night.
Luaine Lee: Eliza Dushku soberly assesses her new role in 'Dollhouse' (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
When actress Eliza Dushku treated her former boss to lunch it turned out to be the best investment she'd ever made.
wrote:
Reader Comment
Re: Alaska
Hey Vic in Alaska,
I read with interest the article you submitted yesterday about the double homicide up there. I especially enjoyed the snippet noting: "The two victims, bloodied from the apparent gunshot wounds, remained inside as a tow truck arrived to remove the pickup. They were still inside when the tow truck drove off."
I wonder if they will be buried in the truck as well - thus solving the dual dilemma's of burial of the human remains AWA disposal of the totaled vehicle? You guys (up yonder) are making NYC look positively civilized little buddy!
Keep on sledding my young friend.
Sally P :!
Thanks, Sally!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunnier and warmer.
Radio Network Files for Bankruptcy
Nova M
Liberal talk network Nova M Radio has filed for bankruptcy liquidation, according to the company's co-founders Anita and Sheldon Drobny. Established in 2006, Nova M had been struggling financially since last fall due to a weak ad market. To make matters worse, talk host Randi Rhodes disappeared from the network and its 34 affiliates last month.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nova M was supposed to have promised to cover certain legal costs for Rhodes. But she disappeared after after discovering that her contract didn't offer such indemnification.
A message on Rhodes's web site blames her disappearance on Nova M's failure to correct "an unspecified problem" and that she's seeking a new home for her show. Rhodes was ousted from rival Air America last year for comments about Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton during a stand-up comedy routine.
Nova M's night host, Mike Malloy, heads to Phoenix-based start-up On Second Thought Radio Network, headed by Dr. Mike Newcomb, who was Chairman/CEO of Nova M until last year. On Second Thought will air on former Nova M affiliate KNUV-AM/Phoenix as its flagship.
Nova M
First Guests Announced
Jimmy Fallon
If Jimmy Fallon is nervous about the premiere of his new gig as "Late Night" host, he'll have show-biz heavyweights Robert De Niro and Van Morrison to lean on. They'll be the guests for Fallon's March 2 debut hosting the NBC late-night show.
Fallon replaces Conan O'Brien, who has his final show Friday before heading out west to take over the "Tonight" show in June.
Morrison will perform material from his critically praised "Astral Weeks" album.
NBC says Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Donald Trump and Serena Williams are among other guests scheduled for Fallon's first week on "Late Night."
Jimmy Fallon
Pulls Out Of Dubai Fest
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood has pulled out of an international Dubai literary festival after organizers banned a forthcoming novel by a British author because it contains references to homosexuality.
In a letter addressed to the festival's director, Atwood said she could not attend Dubai's inaugural International Festival of Literature next week because of the "regrettable turn of events surrounding" the book "The Gulf Between Us."
Atwood was referring a novel by British author Geraldine Bedell who said the festival banned it because of references to homosexuality. The book, set in the Persian Gulf, is scheduled to be published in April.
"I was greatly looking forward to the festival, and to the chance to meet readers there; but, as an International Vice President of PEN - an organization concerned with the censorship of writers - I cannot be part of the festival this year," Atwood said in the letter, posted on her website.
Margaret Atwood
New UNESCO Atlas
Languages
Only one native speaker of Livonian remains on Earth, in Latvia. The Alaskan language Eyak went extinct last year when its last surviving speaker passed away.
Those are just two of the nearly 2,500 languages that UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, says are in danger of becoming extinct or have recently disappeared. That's out of a total of 6,000 world languages.
In a presentation Thursday of a new world atlas of endangered languages, linguists stressed the list is not restricted to small or far-flung countries. They also sought to encourage immigrants to treasure their native languages.
The atlas says 200 languages have become extinct in the last three generations, and another 199 languages have fewer than 10 speakers left.
Languages
Fishy Fire
Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan says a faulty fish tank light apparently sparked a fire in his New York City apartment, but no one was hurt - not even the fish.
Firefighters were called to the comedian-actor's Manhattan apartment Wednesday morning. It's unclear whether the "30 Rock" star or anyone else was there.
In a statement, Morgan says the fire was contained to the area around the aquarium. He says sprinklers went off, and "even the fish are OK."
The Fire Department says the blaze was brought under control in less than half an hour.
Tracy Morgan
Explains Actions
Muntadhar al-Zeidi
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George W. Bush did not apologize as his trial began Thursday, and instead struck a defiant tone - telling the judges he wanted to hit back at the humiliation Iraq had suffered at U.S. hands.
It was Muntadhar al-Zeidi's first public appearance since he was arrested in mid-December for hurling shoes at Bush during a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The act turned the obscure 30-year-old reporter into a cult hero throughout much of the Middle East.
"What made me do it was the humiliation Iraq has been subjected to due to the U.S. occupation and the murder of innocent people," al-Zeidi told the court. "I wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart from using weapons."
He also said he had been tortured with beatings and electric shocks during his interrogation - allegations the Iraqi government has denied. The trial was later adjourned until March 12.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi
Bad Gaydar
J. Edgar Hoover
Longtime Hollywood lobbyist Jack Valenti was among the Washington figures whose sex lives were secretly investigated by the FBI in the 1960s.
Valenti, who died in April 2007, was a special assistant and confidant to President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 when J. Edgar Hoover's FBI investigated rumors that he was gay, the Washington Post reported Thursday, based on agency files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The FBI records show that the Republican Party carried out a similar investigation.
Valenti had been married to Johnson's personal secretary for two years at the time. But he was suspected of having a gay relationship with a commercial photographer friend.
J. Edgar Hoover
Displays Dignity
Argentina
The traditionalist bishop whose denials of the Holocaust embarrassed the Vatican was ordered Thursday to leave Argentina within 10 days.
The Interior Ministry said it had ordered Richard Williamson out of Argentina because he had failed to declare his true job as director of a seminary on immigration forms and because his comments on the Holocaust "profoundly insult Argentine society, the Jewish community and all of humanity by denying a historic truth."
Williamson's views created an uproar last month when Pope Benedict XVI lifted his excommunication and that of three other bishops consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as part of a process meant to heal a rift with ultraconservatives.
The flap led the Vatican to demand that the British clergyman recant before he can be admitted as a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church. It also prompted the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Lefebvre, to dismiss Williamson as director of the La Reja seminary in Argentina and to distance itself from his views.
Argentina
Legal Battle Over Film Rights
Tupac Shakur
Film production company Morgan Creek is in a legal turf war with the estate of Tupac Shakur.
The Rick Nicita-topped production house has sued Amaru Entertainment, the company run by Afeni Shakur, the late rapper's mother and executor, alleging in a Los Angeles Superior Court filing that the company has backed out of an agreement to sell his life rights for a film adaptation.
Life rights and collaboration with an executor are not always necessary with a public figure like Shakur, though they would be essential if the filmmakers hope to include music, as they would in this case.
According to the complaint, a written contract was in place for life rights, with Morgan Creek claiming that Amaru is "refus(ing) to honor and perform a contract of a production of the film based on the life of Tupac Shakur." The company seeks damages and other relief.
Tupac Shakur
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Feb. 9-15. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. NBA All-Star Game: East vs. West (Sunday, 8:25 p.m.), TNT, 5.12 million homes, 7.62 million viewers.
2. "NBA All-Star Saturday Night" (Saturday, 8:30 p.m.), TNT, 4.46 million homes, 6.55 million viewers.
3. "2009 NBA All-Star Post-Game" (Sunday, 11:23 p.m.), TNT, 4.12 million homes, 5.7 million viewers.
4. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 4.11 million homes, 5.43 million viewers.
5. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.59 million homes, 4.84 million viewers.
6. "Monk" (Friday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.58 million homes, 5.11 million viewers.
7. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.44 million homes, 5.37 million viewers.
8. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.28 million homes, 5.09 million viewers.
9. "NBA All-Star Tip-Off" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), TNT, 3.18 million homes, 4.58 million viewers.
10. "NCIS" (Tuesday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.11 million homes, 3.93 million viewers.
11. "President Obama News Conference" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.09 million homes, 4.26 million viewers.
12. "NCIS" (Monday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.08 million homes, 4.12 million viewers.
13. "Psych" (Friday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.02 million homes, 4.26 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.95 million homes, 4.01 million viewers.
15. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.91 million homes, 3.86 million viewers.
Ratings
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