Archive for the ‘Oscars’ Category

THEY JUST AREN’T BUYING IT

- March 19th, 2011

A $6 million opening weekend for Mars Needs Moms against a $160 mil budget – Pluto Nash territory bombwise. How much money does Robert (The Polar Express) Zemeckis have to waste before he realizes his dream – of completely “human” CG – is delusional? People are creeped out by it, and that’s not about to change.

When cameras were invented, artists realized they had to become more stylized, portray what a camera image couldn’t. That’s the future of CG, not spending hundreds of millions to create realistic humans when you could hire a real human for scale. Even in the Toy Story movies, the scenes with human characters are the ones that tend to pull you out of the story.

The Oscars red carpet in my camera…

- February 27th, 2011

Pictures Marie-Joelle Parent

CANUCK OSCAR NOMINEES

- February 27th, 2011

CDN OSCARS NOMINEESIf you are wondering what the Canadian-born Oscar nominees look like, here are most of them from the Academy Awards luncheon this week at the Consul General of Canada’s official residence in Hancock Park. Let’s hope we see some of them stride up on stage tonight.

Left to right: Luc Dery (co-producer of Incendies, up for the best foreign language Oscar), Adrien Morot (makeup artist nominated for Barney’s Version), Kim McCraw (co-producer of Incendies), Denis Villeneuve (director of Incendies) and Dean DeBlois (co-director of How to Train Your Dragon, up for best animated feature).

Missing from the luncheon, and therefore the photo, was Craig Berkey. He was nominated twice in the sound editing and sound mixing categories for the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit.

Best bet among all of them is Incendies, which would be another triumph for Quebec cinema. Last and only time Canada won in this competition was Denis Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions.

As for Morot, he expects Rick Baker and Dave Elsey will win for their flashy work in The Wolfman — and Baker is the god of Hollywood makeup now. Morot calls him “The Chosen One”.

DeBlois hinted he does not expect to win, either. Toy Story 3 is the odds-on leader for best animated feature, another win for Disney/Pixar, which seems to do no wrong. But the nomination itself has been great for Dragon, which is planning two sequels to create a trilogy.

83rd Academy Awards, the red carpet report

- February 27th, 2011

first red carpet pic

5:10 — Donald Trump, Natalie Portman, and Mark Wahlberg closed the red carpet. The last 30 minutes have been so intense I didn’t know where to look. The red carpet is almost clear, and the stars are heading inside. More picture coming up later. The rain never showed up. Mother Nature was good to stars this year.
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5:05 — Jeremy Renner (The Town) (below) is holding hands the whole time with his mother. Sweet.
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5:00 — Helen Mirren, always a sweetheart, tells me that for the first time she has proper shoes. She normally buys “stripper shoes” from a porn shop. So funny.
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MORE RED CARPET REPORT AVEC THE JUMP. Click on pictures to enlarge!
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SUN TEAM AT OSCARS

- February 27th, 2011

SUN TEAM @ OSCARSYour Sun Media Team at the Oscars is Bruce Kirkland and Marie-Joelle Parent. She’s the beauty. I’m the beast. But we will both be dressed up splendidly in formal attire for the event today.

She will be on the red carpet reporting, blogging and tweeting as the stars parade in the chill of unseasonable Hollywood weather. It hail-rain-snowed yesterday. Local forecasters did the Blame Canada routine. No wonder Americans have such a distorted view of the Great White North. They cannot even claim their own weather.

I will be warm and cuddly backstage in the print room. And I, too, will be reporting, blogging and tweeting as the winners come in. MJ gets them when they are hopeful. I get fewer of them but they’re happy (and often a little dunky-drunk from the libations backstage after they collect their hardware).

Follow MJ on Twitter @mariejoelle and you can find me @Bruce_Kirkland. Look for our stories on torontosun.com, canoe.ca and other Sun Media platforms.

And, yes, it will be all about The King’s Speech tonight.

The Sunset Tower pre-Vanity Fair party…

- February 27th, 2011

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The Sunset Tower is one of my favorite hotels in Los Angeles. First it’s and Art Deco paradise, second, as you can see from the pictures below, the view from the top floor rooms is amazing and third, this place is filled with old Hollywood history. During the “Golden Era” of Hollywood, many stars like Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo (you can see her picture hanging in the restaurant below), Mae West, Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe resided at the Sunset Tower. Actor John Wayne even had his own cow on his balcony so guests could have fresh milk with their coffee every morning. No joke. Howard Hughes even had several apartments for his various mistresses at the same time. Frank Sinatra had a bachelor pad right above Ava Gardner, and he used to lean over his balcony to scream her name.

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The Vanity Fair party set up from above.

This will be the third year Vanity Fair magazine is hosting its famous exclusive post-Oscars bash. Why there? The magazine editor, Graydon Carter (fellow Canadian), and the owner of the hotel, New Yorker Jeff Klein, are partners in the restaurant Monkey Bar in New York. There goes the connection.

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This place will be the Fort Knox of fame tonight right after the ceremony and the “obligatory” appearance at the Governors Ball. Some will also make a quick stop at the annual Elton John Aids Foundation gala at the Pacific Center. This one ends early and everyone then moves to the Vanity Fair to later finish the evening at Madonna and Demi Moore’s private house party. A very A-list group also attend the uber-private Dani Janssen’s (the widow of actor David Janssen) penthouse party in Century City where stars like Clint Eastwood, Barbra Streisand or Whoopi Goldberg feast on her famous monkey bread. The lady does all the cooking herself. To better understand the legend that is Dani Janssen in Hollywood, read this piece or this one about her legendary menu.

More pictures of the Sunset Tower and the Vanity Fair party set up after the jump, click to enlarge!
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Spirit Awards clips from backstage & the red carpet

- February 26th, 2011

Video Marie-Joelle Parent

The Spirit Awards

- February 26th, 2011

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The 26th Film Independent Spirit Awards are about to start in a few hours. Reporters are setting up in a white tent next to the Santa Monica beach. I have to say, it’s like working in a hurricane, the winds are so strong this morning that this structure will either collapse on us or blow all the way to Venice Beach. Stay tuned for pictures of the nominees on the “gray” carpet later…

UPDATE: Here are my pictures of this windy-chilly-to-the-bone day. Next year remind me to take my Canada Goose with me. It was the 26th edition of this celebration honoring independent films made for a budget under $500,000, far from Canada’s budgets…

Black Swan was the star of the day. The movie won Best Feature, Best Director (Darren Aronofsky), Best Female Lead (Natalie Portman), and Best Cinematography. James Franco won best actor for 127 hours. The King’s Speech won Best Foreign Film. Exit Through the Gift Shop won Best Documentary.

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Thierry Guetta aka Mr. Brainwash won for best documentary with his great “Exit Through the Gift Shop” film. “I really think I’m gonna win, they asked me to prepare a speech”, he told me on the red carpet. The real question now is: will Bansky show up on the Kodak Theatre stage if the movie wins best documentary at the Academy Awards? I doubt it, the British artist has never shown his face to the public.

More pictures after the jump!
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And now, the mominees…

- February 26th, 2011

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The Oscars are surfing the Twitter wave this year. Not only can you follow @TheAcademy for all the details about the red carpet and the winners throughout the night, you can also follow Oscar’s tweeting moms. They will offer a glimpse of their kids’ personal lives. Co-host James Franco’s mom (@Francosmom) (pic below) will be tweeting and so will his grandmom (@Grandmamitz)(pic above). “The Fighter” director David O. Russell (@Orussellsmom) and “Toy Story 3″ director Lee Unkrich’s mother (@EmilieUnkrich) will also comment the ceremony. Follow the hashtag #mominees in Twitter’s research tool to find more…
-Link to a piece about the Oscars social media curve.

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Oscar swag bag worth $75,000

- February 25th, 2011

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An anti-aging serum made of adult stem cells, a trip on a private island…sometimes, losing isn’t so bad after all. That is if you’re a star nominated at the Academy Awards of course. The non-winning Oscar nominees in the main categories will receive Monday morning, at their door steps, a gift bag containing $75,000 worth of free stuff.

With every major award ceremony comes the swag. It’s true for the Grammys, for the Emmys, for the Golden Globes, but during Oscar week, the gift swamp is taken to another level. I got a sneak peek at the eclectic basket put together by Distinctive Assets on Friday. This is the 9th year they spoil the non-winning stars the morning after the Oscars.

Here’s a few items the 22 actors will be getting. Actually, the only nominated actor who will get one even if he wins is James Franco, because he’s also co-hosting the show. Franco really has it all.

Let’s start with the trips. The most expensive gift is a $16,000 getaway to a luxury resort in the Maldives where you can enjoy treatments in the world’s first underwater spa. There’s also a $12,000 trip on a private island in Belize with a private houseman and the option to snorkel with sharks. Also in the bag: a germ-shield face mask to use aboard all these plane rides. The company XTI is also offering a $10,000 gift certificate to sterilize the stars’ movie set trailers with a green “nanocoating” product.

On the body-concious side, stars will receive a gift certificate for a one-week boot camp in Southern California to get in shape after this season of endless galas, cocktails and dinner parties. They also get a $850 fitness personal training package and Slimware portion-control plates.

On the beauty side, there’s an uber-expensive $325 skin regeneration serum not even in stores yet. “To avoid controversy, this cream is made of adult stem cells, not baby’s!”, specifies Lash Fary, the founder of Distinctive Assets. It’s supposed to make your skin look like a baby’s though. What’s it called ? “StemSational”. Of course.

More after the jump!
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