Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Donate
Home Blog Page 2155

“The King’s Speech” Sweeps Awards Weekend, Heads to Oscar Coronation

Roger Friedman
-
3

Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” swept the awards weekend with wins at all the Guilds: Screen Actors, Producers, Directors.

Now this gorgeous film heads to a coronation on February 27th at the Academy Awards. I told you this would happen back in early September, when the other Oscar “pundits” had clearly decided for “The Social Network.” It’s amazing to me about all those blogs that concentrate on the Oscars, get almost everything wrong, and then stamp their feet about their importance.

If only all that punditry and “digging” for bits of information were applied to reporting in any other field besides the Academy Awards.

What happened? “The Social Network” is a great, exciting movie. The acting is fine. But it’s a writer’s movie–Aaron Sorkin is kind of the star of the movie. Sometimes we thought he was the director because David Fincher is so reticent in public. That’s not all: in the end, “The Social Network” doesn’t speak to a larger human issue. It’s about friendship gone bad, yes. But it’s also about billions of dollars being divided among young people. Everyone wins, no matter what happens.

“The King’s Speech” is big scale. It’s about family and honor and facing a challenge. It’s also about kindness. In the end, that will always win a Best Picture. Exuberance helps also. And “The Social Network,” while cutting edge, lacks those qualities.

But what about all those online critics polls, etc? They were all wrong. Now they’ll try to explain what happened. Of course, they knew all along!

PS Kudos this season to actors who were team players: Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, Max Minghella, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, Mark Wahlberg, and Matt Damon. They made their movies successful, and had to take backseats during awards season. They’re all great!

SAG Awards: King’s Speech, Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo

Roger Friedman
-
3

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are tonight. Refresh this page often.

The King’s Speech and Colin Firth win Best Ensemble and Best Actor.  This movie now heads to coronation at the Oscars.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman for “Black Swan. “Smart pro-SAG speech. Getting bigger. Annette Bening, et al still rock!

Christian Bale wins Best Supporting Actor for “The Fighter.”

Al Pacino wins as Dr. Kevorkian again. He’s in New York on Broadway in “Merchant of Venice.” HBO clean sweep of anything they were nominated for. Claire Danes also wins for HBO.

Ernest Borgnine is great. What a career. Tim Conway, still the best. But no mention of Ernie’s 2 minute marriage to Ethel Merman. TMZ woulda loved them!

Best Actor, Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin. Best Actress, Comedy Series: Betty White. Wow. Good for her! “Modern Love” is Best Comedy Ensemble.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter.” Gets a little political, pro-union. Good for her.

Best TV Ensemble: “Boardwalk Empire.” HBO is king. AMC loses focus on “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad.”

Best Actor, TV Drama: Steve Buscemi for “Boardwalk Empire.” Beats Jon Hamm, Hugh Laurie, et al. Wow. Second award for Buscemi this winter.

Best Actress, TV Drama: Julianna Margulies, for “The Good Wife.”

Read here for updates. Much of the Guild overlaps with the acting branch of the Academy, so the SAGs are the best barometer for Oscars. With “The King’s Speech” winning both the Directors and Producers Guild Awards, it could be that the Golden Globes are totally–as Sarah Palin might say–refudiated. Let’s see what happens tonight. The SAGs are live at 8pm EST.

DGA Awards: “King’s Speech” Director Tom Hooper Wins!

Roger Friedman
-
2

The Directors Guild of America has given its Best Director award to Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech.” It’s a total upset over David Fincher and “The Social Network.” Other awards were: for Best Documentary to Charles Ferguson for “Inside Job.” “Modern Family” won for Best comedy series. “Boardwalk Empire” and Martin Scorsese won Best TV drama. “Temple Grandin” got Best Mini Series or TV Movie with director Mick Jackson.

Hooper and “The King’s Speech” are now poised to take everything at the Academy Awards. Add this to their Producer’s Guild award. Yowza.

And this was quite a night anyway. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and spoofed himself with guest host Jesse Eisenberg, who plays him in “The Social Network.”

At Sundance, Drake Doremus’s “Like Crazy” won the jury prize for Best Dramatic film. “How to Die In Oregon” won Best Documentary.

Meantime, at the box office, 12 times nominated “The King’s Speech” is surging in ticket sales.

TheTony Awards (Glen Weiss) received DGA for Best Musical or Variety. “One Life to Live” wins Best Director for a soap (Larry Carpenter).

The DGA dinner was one of the longest of any awards show in history, it feels like. Almost six hours including cocktails. Yikes!

Gladys Horton, RIP: Sang Motown’s First#1 Hit “Please Mr. Postman”

Roger Friedman
-
2

Gladys Horton, lead singer of what was really Motown’s original group, the Marvelettes, died yesterday. She was 66. Among the hit records she sang  on: “Please Mr. Postman,” “Beachwood 4-5789,” “Don’t Mess with Bill,” “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game,” and so many more.

Horton was 15 when she and her high school friends, whom she’d dubbed “The Marvelettes,” had Motown’s first #1 hit in 1961. “Please Mr. Postman” was later covered by the Beatles, and in 1975, the Carpenters, each of whom had memorable recordings. But the original is the best.

I think the most shocking thing about Horton’s death is her age. Why is it that so few Motown artists have lived into their late 60s? It’s almost like a curse. Whether it was drugs or disease, the Motown label has the worst mortality rate in music history. Marvin Gaye, Florence Ballard, Mary Wells, Levi Stubbs, nearly all of the Temptations and Four Tops, Tammi Terrell, Michael Jackson– none of them have lived into old age.

But we do still have Stevie, Smokey, Diana, Mary Wilson, Gladys and Bubba Knight, and the Miracles.

Rest in peace, Gladys. (She’s on the right in this 1966 photo.)

Six Degrees Between Meryl Streep and Abraham Lincoln

Roger Friedman
-
0

Actually, there are fewer than three degrees between Meryl Streep and Abraham Lincoln.

Streep’s son-in-law to be, Benjamin Walker, signing on to play “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” The Broadway star of “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” is engaged to marry Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer. Gummer is currently in the cast of ABC’s “Off the Map,” which shoots on the “Lost” set in Hawaii.

Walker and I ran into each other on  Golden Globe night. At the time, he’d tested for the part of Abe Lincoln, who ages from 20 to 55. He asked me to keep it quiet — which I did– lest he jinx getting the role. It was an 8 month process.

It didn’t seem like much of a stretch for him to play the 16th president of the United States. Walker had just spent two years off and on Broadway playing crazy Indian killer prez Andrew Jackson. He is a versatile actor who will now emerge quite quickly as a star of his generation.

You may recall that I’d reported exclusively last year that Walker was all set for “X Men: First Class.”  He dropped out when he decided to take “Andrew Jackson” to Broadway. It worked out well: now he stars in his own movie and isn’t part of an ensemble. Good choice. Walker first met with the producers of “Vampire” when they’d seen his “X Men” test and thought he was a star. “Vampire” starts shooting in March.

By the way, at the Critics Choice Awards, Steven Spielberg got quite a laugh about “Vampire Hunter.” He’s making the real “Lincoln,” starring Daniel Day Lewis. But he wished this production well. “It sounds like great fun,” he said.

Is Ricky Gervais Coming to “The Office” For Real? Exclusive Flashback

Roger Friedman
-
2

Ricky Gervais visited “The Office” last night. On Golden Globe night, you may recall, he told me: “Watch the show on January 27th. It will give you a good idea who’s going to run The Office next.” Uh huh. It does seem from the clip (below) and Ricky’s comments, that Gervais’s original character, David Brent, may be replacing Michael Scott (Steve Carell) at Dunder Mifflin. It would be a coup for NBC and for everyone. The British “Office” only had a short run. And it does seem that Carell is leaving the American show four weeks before the end of the season–not in sweeps but in April–to give the show a cushion between stars. Who else would run the paper company? None of the existing characters, not Kathy Bates (who has her own show), not Harvey Keitel (rumored but just a rumor). Gervais told me he thought Will Arnett was the perfect choice, but he has a show on Fox. Is it Ricky? Barring complications from the ridiculous Golden Globes show (he was great), I’d say so.

Ricky: “Where are you working?”

Michael: “Dunder Mifflin”

Ricky: “Any jobs?”

Michael: “Not right now?”

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/ep-714-michaels-new-friend/1277371

Charlie Sheen Has Never Had an Intervention, “Has No Close Pals”

Roger Friedman
-
8

Charlie Sheen–now in the hospital after being rushed there with severe abdominal pain–is in a sad spot. Yes, he’s famous for partying with hookers and strippers and living it up. He’s been in rehab  several times and certainly is a drug addict. But a source close to Sheen tells me, surprisingly, that even with all that rehab Sheen has never had an intervention.

“I don’t know who his friends are,” says my observer. “He doesn’t seem to have any. An intervention can’t be your accountant and lawyer. It has to be with meaningful people in your life. I’m not sure who that would be.”

Good question. Sheen seems to have no wing men. Leo has Kevin. Ben and Matt used to have each other. Warren had Jack. But where’s the good buddy in this story?

What a strange, sad story. Sheen’s parents, actor Martin Sheen and his wife Janet, are two of the nicest people you could hope to meet. Emilio Estevez, Charlie’s brother, again, is charming, polite and talented. It’s a little weird that Martin Sheen, a political activist and a take charge guy, has never organized a family intervention. But you never know what goes on inside a family. Think of “Ordinary People.” No one can be judged, but still…

So far today, Sheen hasn’t gone in for any kind of surgery. Reports are that he partied hard last night, and an ambulance was called to his home in Los Angeles at dawn. He remains in the emergency room. TMZ, if you believe them, says he had a “briefcase full of cocaine” delivered to the house.

Sheen, 45, has a grown, married daughter who’s 26 years old. He has two kids with Denise Richards, and two more with Brooke Mueller. He’s been married three times. He once dated Kelly Preston, and accidentally shot her — with a gun– in the arm. The wound required stitches only, thank goodness.

Katie Holmes Non “Bomb” Sundance Flick Nears Deal

Roger Friedman
-
0

The movie that The Hollywood Reporter inaccurately described as a “bomb”– Dito Montiel‘s “The Son of No One”–is nearing a deal at Sundance.

I’ve heard that the Channing Tatum-Al Pacino-Katie Holmes police thriller should be sold, with announcement coming shortly.

Meantime, the Reporter’s Jay Fernandez–who wrote the story in THR–sent me an email today saying that no “smear” was involved and that THR’s Daniel Miller was in the screening room with me, Daily Mail journalist Baz Bamigboye, Harvey Weinstein, and about four dozen other buyers and journalists. Unattended? I don’t think so. I had to sit way in the back area of the press screening room because there were few seats available when I arrived.

But what Fernandez doesn’t get is that he wasn’t there, and we were. There was no “exodus” for the doors, no groans other noises indicating Holmes’s performance was no good, and that the room was full. In the email, he tells me, “The SONO screening didn’t go well.” Really? It went fine as far as we could tell.

But this is what’s happened to reporting in the age of the internet. And what Fernandez has done is turn Miller’s gossip into fact, and that nugget has spread like wildfire. That’s how a smear campaign begins.

Plus, Fernandez’s story also wrapped this item in with “The Kennedys” mini-series being dropped by the History Channel. This is to suggest that Holmes wrote and produced “The Kennedys,” and that her performance as Jackie Kennedy somehow killed the deal. How utterly ridiculous. Holmes is a minor player in the mini-series. She had nothing to do with its production. Like plenty of actresses before her, she simply played Jackie.

So that’s a smear, too.

“The Kennedys,” which few have seen, is poorly timed. This is the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy administration. This simply wasn’t the moment for a Kitty Kelly type treatment of the sex life of John Kennedy. To blame Katie Holmes for that is insane.

PS I’m adding this UPDATE: Pathetic Jay Fernandez of the Hollywood Reporter again is in error. I was not “let go” by the Hollywood Reporter. I had a contract with Nielsen Digital Media that ended on March 31, 2010. When the contract ended, I took this column and left THR. Get it straight, Jack.

Supremes Star Mary Wilson Narrowly Missed Russian Airport Bombing

Roger Friedman
-
8

Mary Wilson, legendary star of the Supremes, narrowly missed the Russian airport bombing on Monday.

Mary and her group were arriving in Russia on Monday just as Domodedovo Airport was bombed by terrorists. Thirty five people were killed.

“We were shaking in our boots,” Mary told me over the phone today from Krasnodar, near the Black Sea. She’s on tour for the US Embassy in Moscow via the Humpty Dumpty Institute, playing sold out shows and lecturing on the intersection of Morown and the US Civil Right Movement to sold out crowds. The boots she’s shaking in are pretty warm, too, considering it’s well below zero.

“Our plane landed at a different airport,” Mary told me, “and we had to take the train into Moscow. It was then that we heard about the bombing. We’re so upset for the families.”

Wilson frequently tours the world for the UN as an ambassador. She also tours a collection of her gowns from the Motown era; the exhibition is following her around Russia, heading to the Ukraine next. It would be a perfect installation at the Metropolitan Museum of New York’s Costume Institute.

Next Mary and her band head to Moscow for a series of dates.

James Cromwell May Take It With Him to Broadway

Roger Friedman
-
3

Happy Birthday, Oscar nominee James Cromwell–beloved star of “Babe.” He turns 71 today and celebrates with a big, big year: he’s directing his first film and he’s heading to Broadway.

I ran into the very tall Cromwell and his even taller son at a Sundance premiere last week. He told me that he’s just signed to star in the revival of the great Moss Hart-George S. Kaufman play, “You Can’t Take it With You.” The play starts an out of town run this summer and comes, hopefully, to Broadway in the fall.

In the meantime, Cromwell is directing his first feature. It will shoot this spring. For Cronwell–who also had memorable turns on “Six Feet Under” and in dozens of other TV shows and movies including “The Queen” and “Secretariat,” he never stops trying new things. His Broadway turn will be his third, technically. He was there twice with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Meantime–I asked James why he was written out of “All in the Family.” Back in the 70s, he caught on quickly as Archie Bunker’s best friend, Stretch Cunningham. But suddenly, just when Stretch could have turned into a supporting player, he was written out. The episode featuring his funeral–when Archie discovers that Stretch was Jewish–is classic TV. Cromwell isn’t even in the show, but he’s the star of it.

“Carroll O’Connor just didn’t want me on the show,” Cromwell conceded. Maybe he was getting too popular. “I was on set, and I told Sally Struthers I’d like to do more. She said, Carroll, we should get him to stay. He wouldn’t have it.”

Oh well: Cromwell’s been nominated for an Oscar, an Emmy, and four SAG Awards since then. His father, by the way, was the famed director John Cromwell (“Of Human Bondage”).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOMYVqnPKlo

1...2,1542,1552,156...2,326Page 2,155 of 2,326

Hollywood to the Hudson

Company

Trending

Categories

© Showbiz411.com