Other academy awards

[blpurdom]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "mjollner" <mjollner at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "moongirlk" <moongirlk at y...> wrote:
> Random thoughts: even though Helen Hunt had that messy hair thing 
> going, too, I thought she looked pretty for once.  

But what was Cameron Diaz thinking?  Did she get entirely too used 
to being represented by an animated character after making Shrek?  
Did she forget she'd be on-camera?

> The repeated tributes to New York annoyed me after awhile.  Yes, 
> it was nice that Woody Allen showed up for his first Academy 
> Awards show to pay tribute to New York, and certainly that city 
> has suffered a lot since September 11.  But a plane crashed into 
> the Pentagon down here near DC, too, and let's not forget the 
> plane that was on its way to DC that crashed in Pennsylvania.  Not 
> to mention that the dead were not just New Yorkers, nor just 
> Americans, but citizens of many nations.  9/11 left plenty of 
> grief to go around.  

I thought the NYC stuff hit just the right tone, and I was shocked 
and pleased to see Woody Allen, and thrilled that they started off 
the montage with an excerpt from "Manhatten."  (I also loved the bit 
with him and Tony Roberts from "Annie Hall.'  One of my favorite 
moments in the movies.)  In retrospect, it would have been nice if 
there had been some mention of DC, but I can certainly understand 
how it happened, since the folks in the entertainment industry only 
actually beleve in the existence of two cities, LA and NY. ;)

> > And there was a bit of secret glee on my part that Russel Crowe 
> > didn't win.  I mean, I was really happy for Denzel - he's done 
> > such great work over the years that even though I didn't see 
> > Training Day, I'm sure he deserved it (althought I was torn 
> > between him and Sean Penn), but some little part of me was happy 
> > specifically because Crowe didn't win.  I'm so wrong.  

When Jack Nicholson won for "As Good as It Gets" it was pretty much 
acknowledged that people wanted to give him an Oscar for SOMETHING, 
as he'd been woefully overlooked and had made many excellent films 
since he won for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."  This seems to 
happen a lot, when the best actor doesn't just ride the wave of a 
popular movie, as Crowe did with "Gladiator."  Many people believe 
(and by many, I mean "me") that Washington SHOULD have gotten the 
Oscar for Malcolm X, just as Spike Lee was egregiously overlooked 
for directing and producing that film.  The problem was--Malcolm X 
is a very controversial person, and a film about him was not going 
to earn the people involved top honors, despite being nominated for 
awards.  It's nice that Washington has finally been recognized (if 
memory serves, he also received the Oscar for "Glory" after he was 
also overlooked for a previous film that SHOULD have earned him his 
first Oscar).  However, if there was justice in the world of Oscar, 
he should have received it already for "Malcolm X."
 
> (Wasn't it funny during the tribute to the movies when Gorbachev 
> said he liked that film?  I laughed out loud!)

And I also loved the clip of Daniel Radcliffe (did they film him on 
the set of CoS?) saying how much he liked "Twelve Angry Men," the 
first black and white film he'd ever seen!  What a great choice, and 
totally not what you'd expect a twelve- or thirteen-year-old kid to 
say!  Perhaps now that he's in films, he's boning up on some of the 
classics, planning to make a career of it.  TAM really is a fabulous 
character study which also deals with issues of justice with which 
our society is still unable to come to terms.

> >And Halle Berry is always beautiful, but that dress was gorgeous. 
>  
> Halle was stunning.  Even in "Monster's Ball," emotionally damaged 
> and with seemingly no makeup and flat hair, she was lovely.  Life 
> just isn't fair. :)

Have you ever seen her NOT look good?  I've seen old photos of her 
in beauty pageants (which she won) and you have to wonder why all of 
the other girls didn't just drop out in despair once they saw HER...

> Gwynneth 
> > Paltrow on the other hand... I'm worried about her.  Clearly she 
> > has no friends.  Even a casual friend would surely have talked 
> > her out of that dress, or at least reminded her that support 
> > *can* be beautiful.
 
She looked great when she won; perhaps she figured she wouldn't be 
in the limelight much, not being a nominee.  It looked like she got 
the make-up artist from "The Royal Tenenbaums" to do her eyes.  
Ick.  When your mother is Blythe Danner, you HAVE to go out of your 
way to look ordinary, is that it?

> And I loved the tribute to Sidney Poitier, who is a 
> prince among actors and among men.

I just had this funny thought today, because of the "Six Degrees of 
Separation" mention I put in an earlier post.  They kept showing 
Will Smith a lot during Poitier's intro (and he was in the film 
about Poitier, as well) and I remembered that in "Six Degrees," for 
which Smith received an Oscar nomination, IIRC, he was playing 
someone pretending to be--wait for it--Sidney Poitier's son!  His 
scam was discovered only when someone did their homework and figured 
out that Poitier didn't have a a son, only daughters.  I loved the 
irony.  (I also thought Smith should have won for that film, as 
Stockard Channing should have also, but it was such a little film I 
wonder whether many people actually saw it.)

As far as the appearance of people at the awards, I think that 
Sandra Bullock was a complete class-act and showed Gwyneth Paltrow 
that you don't have to be nominated to show up at the Oscars looking 
like you care about not looking like a frump...

--Barb