Awards Watch: Grammy Nominations 2008

The nominees for this year's Grammy Awards were announced yesterday, and below you will find the four categories of most interest to fans of stage and screen:

Best Musical Show Album:

• Gypsy
• In the Heights
• The Little Mermaid
• South Pacific
• Young Frankenstein

Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television 0r Other Visual Media:

• American Gangster
• August Rush
• Juno
• Mamma Mia!
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media:

• The Dark Knight
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Iron Man
• There Will Be Blood
• WALL-E

Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media:

• "Down to Earth" from WALL-E
• "Ever Ever After" from Enchanted
• "Say" from The Bucket List
• "That's How You Know" from Enchanted
• "Walk Hard" from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Note that the cut-off dates for the Grammys are not by calendar year, thus why there are so many nominees from last year's films. The good showing of WALL-E in both score and song categories does bode well for future award prospects for Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel. However, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer's Dark Knight score has already been disqualified from the Academy Awards.

The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will be broadcast live on CBS February 8.

UPDATE: In a surprise turn of events, the Academy's music branch has reversed their disqualification of the Dark Knight score.

Bubble Wrapped

A Jake Gyllenhaal movie has been turned into a stage musical, and it's not the one we've heard so many rumors about.

Bubble Boy, based on the 2001 film comedy that has reportedly become a cult hit (anyone?), will be presented as part of the ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop this week. Wicked music man Stephen Schwartz helms the workshop.

In related news, Schwartz, who won Oscars for his work on Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt and most recently scored three nominations for Enchanted, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday.

Women We Love: Julie Andrews

Object of our affection: Julie Andrews, actress.

- She began her illustrious career on the stage in the original productions of The Boy Friend, My Fair Lady and Camelot; she made a triumphant return to Broadway years later with her Tony Award nominated turn in the stage version of Victor/Victoria.

- Her supercalifragilistic film debut was as the practically perfect title character in the Disney masterpiece Mary Poppins, the role she famously took on when Jack Warner passed her over for the screen version of My Fair Lady; she won the Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA Film Awards for her troubles.

- Poppins made her an instant movie star, and she capitalized on her newfound fame with a string of hits through the 1960's, including the eternal classic The Sound of Music (Oscar nomination), plus The Americanization of Emily, Torn Curtain, Hawaii, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Star!; she strived to change her "wholesome" image with such racier fare as 10, S.O.B. and Victor/Victoria (Oscar nomination), all directed by her husband Blake Edwards; most recently, she has co-starred in the popular Princess Diaries and Shrek movies and narrated Enchanted.

- On television, she starred in the first television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and several Emmy Award-winning variety specials, including three with Carol Burnett; she has also starred in such dramatic TV movies as the gay-themed Our Sons, a live version of On Golden Pond and two Eloise movies.

- Her first volume of her autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years(available April 1), covers her pre-Poppins years.

Trivial Pursuits: Enchanted Edition

Disney's romantic fantasy Enchanted (coming to DVD this Tuesday) was more then just inspired by the animated fairy tales that came before it ... it is practically a visual encyclopedia of iconic imagery from the studio's catalog of classics. Here are some of the best (slightly spoilerish) examples:

• The film opens with a storybook, as several Disney masterpieces have.
• The troll that threatens Giselle (Amy Adams) is wearing remnants of past Disney princess dresses as a loincloth; he also wears Ariel's shells as earrings.
• The rose bell jar from Beauty and the Beast can be seen in Giselle's cottage.
• Giselle's journey through the magic wishing well is similar to Alice's journey to Wonderland.
• Upon arriving in New York, Giselle mistakes a little person for Grumpy.
• The last name of Patrick Dempsey's character is Philip, as in Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty; the last name of Idina Menzel's character is Tremaine, as in Lady Tremaine from Cinderella.
• During "Happy Working Song" (a direct descendant of "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Giselle is seen reflected in soap bubbles, à la Cinderella.
• The bus driver's hair is shaped like Mickey Mouse ears.
• The name of Robert's law firm -- Churchill, Harline & Smith -- is an homage to Snow White songwriters Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, and Paul J. Smith.
• The couple seeking divorce is named Banks, as in the Banks family from Mary Poppins.
• Jodi Benson, who voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid, plays Robert’s secretary; during her scene in the law offices, "Part of Your World" can be heard playing on the Muzak system.
• When Nathaniel offers Giselle a poisoned caramel apple, it bears the same skull-shaped design as the Queen's apple in Snow White.
• The fellow in the yellow jacket during the "old folks" section of "That's How You Know" is Harvey Evans, who played one of the dancing chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins.
• Later during the same musical number, a children's theater is seen performing Rapunzel, soon (finally) to be a major motion picture from Disney Feature Animation.
• The hotel that Edward stays out is called the Grand Duke, à la Cinderella.
• During the hotel room scene, a soap opera is seen on the television; Paige O'Hara, who voiced Belle in Beauty and the Beast, plays the actress, and the Beauty theme song can be heard as the underscore; scenes from Dumbo and Fun and Fancy Free can also be heard on the TV.
• The Italian restaurant is named "Belle Notte", after the song from Lady and the Tramp; James Marsden (Prince Edward) singing "That's Amore" can be heard at the start of this sequence.
• The TV newscaster, Mary Ilene Caselotti, is named after the original voices of Princesses Aurora (Mary Costa), Cinderella (Ilene Woods) and Snow White (Adriana Caselotti).
• The harried mother who tells Edward that he is "too late" is played by Judy Kuhn, the singing voice of Pocahontas.
• The choreography and cinematography during "So Close" is reminiscent of the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast; Robert's costume in this scene resembles the Beast's as well.
• At different points in the movie, Queen Narissa transforms into an old crone, just like the Queen in Snow White, and a giant dragon, just like Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty.
• When Prince Edward puts the slipper on Nancy, it is a perfect fit, again à la Cinderella.
• The Lion King's Pumbaa makes a cameo appearance during the final montage, standing in line waiting for Pip's autograph.
• And finally: it all ends with a "happily ever after", courtesy of narrator (and Disney Legend) Julie Andrews.

Click here to pre-order Enchantedon DVD from Amazon.com.

UPDATE: Click here to read my full DVD review of Enchanted on LaughingPlace.com.

Women We Love: Idina Menzel

Object of our affection: Idina Menzel, actress/singer.

- She perfected her "moo" and nabbed her first Tony nomination as the militant bisexual performance artist Maureen in the legendary original cast of Rent, where she also landed her future husband, Taye Diggs; she reprised her role in the film version as well.

- The "Greenie" cult began with her iconic character Elphaba (a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West) in Wicked, a role that won her that Tony Award and a legion of avid devotees (see the latest MD Poll results for ample proof of that); she also played Elphaba in the London production.

- Other stage works include Summer of '42, Hair, Aida, The Wild Party, The Vagina Monologues and See What I Wanna See.

- Last year, she appeared in (but didn't sing) in Enchanted (out on DVDthis Tuesday) and sang the theme song for (but didn't appear in) Beowulf.

- Her third solo album, I Stand,was released earlier this year; to promote it, she will headline a concert tour starting next month.

Oscars 2007: A Post Mortem

Diablo Cody shows her appreciation

It's the day after the Oscars, so of course everyone is whining about how long it was. News flash, people: it's the Oscars. They are always long. Get over it.

Personally, I was impressed with the evening. Maybe they should wait until the last minute to do the show every year ... last night's telecast had just the right amount of sure things and surprise wins to make it interesting, and Jon Stewart kept the show moving along with just the right amount of mockery.

As for my predictions, I scored exactly 2/3rds correct, with 16 out of 24. I nailed the Tilda Swinton upset, but missed out on Marion Cotillard's (who had a great weekend, also picking up France's César Award). And I grossly underestimated the appeal of The Bourne Ultimatum in the tech categories; the hit movie also scored well at the Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Awards the night before. (In related news, it should come as no surprise that a fourth Bourne is in the planning stages now.)

Some random thoughts:

• With the four wins by two Brits (Swinton, Daniel Day-Lewis), a French beauty (Cotillard) and a Spaniard (Javier Bardem), this was the first time since 1964's Oscars that every acting category went to a non-American.
• Rob Marshall is a very happy man today: both Bardem and Cotillard are starring in his upcoming film adaptation of the musical Nine.
• And one last thing about Bardem: if you weren't madly in love with him before, you are now. And he's such a nice son.
• Poor Amy Adams looked lost on that huge stage without even a choreographed cockroach to interact with during "Happy Working Song" (she looked great later though).
• As for the other Enchanted numbers: I wonder how long before Disney Theatricals gets the idea to make the movie into a stage musical?
• Duane "The Rock" Johnson in a tux. 'Nuff said.
• Uh, why the hell is the Jerry Seinfeld bee here? Bee Movie wasn't even nominated!
• John Travolta looked like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
• Where was Brad Renfro in the "In Memoriam" section? Not to mention Alice Ghostley, Michel Serrault and, most glaringly, Charles Lane?
• Viggo Mortensen: awesome.
• And finally: loved the gay shout outs from No Country for Old Men's Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin (maybe he's the head of the gay mafia?) and Freeheld's Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth.

So this brings this year's awards season to a close. And just think: only nine more months until it starts all over again ...

UPDATE: Others left out of "In Memoriam": Robert Goulet, Merv Griffin, Marcel Marceau, Tom Poston and Charles Nelson Reilly. And one more thing: do you think the Academy is regretting giving an Oscar to Jennifer Hudson yet? Girl can't even convincingly read a teleprompter ...

Awards Watch: The Saturn Awards

The Oscars may have snubbed it, but 300 scored a field best ten nominations from the Saturn Awards, the kudos handed out to genre flicks by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street also did well, with nine and eight nods each. On the TV side, Lost leads with seven, and newbie Pushing Daisies scored three.

Most interesting is the appearance of Oscar favorites No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood in the mix (along with 300) for the group's Best Action/ Adventure/Thriller Film prize - as if these two haven't dominated this year's races enough. And three of the Best Actors (Blood's Daniel Day-Lewis, Sweeney's Johnny Depp and Eastern Promises' Viggo Mortensen) and one Supporting Actor (No Country's Javier Bardem) are also Academy Award nominees.

One thing puzzles me though: how exactly is August Rush a sci fi, fantasy or horror movie? Oh yeah, maybe it's because Robin Williams appears in it wearing a cowboy hat and sideburns and plays the guitar. Now that's horrifying.

The Saturns will be handed out June 24. For a quick look at the film nominees, see the comments section below.

And the Show Goes On: Oscars '07

Usually we get all this information in bits and pieces, but with the writers strike over, it looks like the Academy has been busy behind the scenes ... and keeping stuff from us ... until now.

In a press conference this morning, Oscar producer Gil Cates and Academy president Sid Ganis announced details for the upcoming 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast, including a host of presenters and the performers for all five of the nominated songs:

• Presenters will include all four of last year's acting winners returning for their final duties as reigning Best Actor (Forest Whitaker), Best Actress (Helen Mirren), Best Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin) and Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Hudson). And it looks like Martin Scorsese will be there to bestow the next Best Director.
• Others on hand to hand out the gold will be a few of our favorites, such as Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, Josh Brolin, Steve Carell, George Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus, Patrick Dempsey, Cameron Diaz, Colin Farrell, Harrison Ford, Jennifer Garner, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, Katherine Heigl, Jonah Hill, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Nicole Kidman, James McAvoy, Queen Latifah, Seth Rogen, Hilary Swank, John Travolta, Denzel Washington and Renée Zellweger.
• As for the Enchanted musical numbers, Adams will perform "Happy Working Song", but will let Broadway cutie Kristin Chenoweth take on "That's How You Know" with Marlon Saunders; "So Close" will be crooned by Jon McLaughlin.
• Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova will sing their own composition, Once's "Falling Slowly", while Jamia Simone Nash will perform “Raise It Up,” from August Rush with the IMPACT Repertory Theatre of Harlem. For the record (get it?) that means all but Chenoweth are the original singers.
• And keeping in the tradition of casting a nubile hottie to host the Scientific and Technical Awards the night before, Jessica Alba has the honors this year.

As you can see above, the set is all, well, set (don't you just love the little Nicole Kidman paper doll in that model? And what about those giant Oscars in the Star Trek teleporters?). Naturally, Jon Stewart is still onboard to host for a second time; also returning to help write his jokes will be Oscar writer perennial Bruce Vilanch. And finally, the whole shebang will air on ABC a week from Sunday.

UPDATE: Jack is back: Jack Nicholson has joined the list of presenters.

UPDATE 2: More last minute changes: Queen Latifah is out, Keri Russell and Owen Wilson are in, as is Nicole Kidman, who will present "a very special award" ... hmmm, interesting.

Awards Watch: Golden Tomatoes '07

And a rat shall lead them: Rotten Tomatoes has revealed their 9th Annual Golden Tomato Awards, honoring the best-reviewed films of 2007, with the Disney/Pixar hit Ratatouille landing in the top spot. Netting an overall score of a whopping 96%, the Oscar nominated animated comedy won director Brad Bird his second Golden Tomato; he received his first four years ago for The Incredibles.

Rounding out the top ten for wide release movies are No Country for Old Men, The Bourne Ultimatum, Sicko, Hairspray, Juno, Knocked Up, Gone Baby Gone, Enchanted and Zodiac. See the comments section below for the top ten films in limited release and the number one movie per genre.

Awards Watch: Coens Win DGA & More

No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood each added one more trophy to their respective cases last night.

Joel and Ethan Coen won the Directors Guild of America award for No Country, thereby more or less ensuring their eventual victory come Oscar night (in its 60 year history, the DGA and AMPAAS have only not matched 6 times). And Blood's Robert Elswit was anointed the best of the year by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers.

Also, the last of the guilds has chimed in with their nominations: the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Leading the pack are American Gangster and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End with three nods each. See the comments section below for a quick look at the nominees; winners of the Golden Reels will be announced February 23.

Movie Music: Oscars 2007

As far as the Oscars go, Tuesday morning's nominations brought a mixture of good news/bad news for Enchanted composer Alan Menken. Sure, he and co-songwriter Stephen Schwartz netted three of the five slots for Original Song (only the fourth time in history that has happened -- the first was Menken's own Beauty and the Beast). However, he was overlooked in the Original Score category. Seems the fickle Academy music branch decided the very songs they honored with nominations in one category made his work in the other ineligible (they give, they take ...).

At least Menken had those consolation nods. Eddie Vedder's Into the Wild score was discounted for the same reason, while his Golden Globe winning tune "Guaranteed" (which seemed, well, guaranteed for a nomination) was snubbed. And if you're wondering what happened to Jonny Greenwood's There Will Be Blood score (already hailed with several critic awards), it was dropped from the running for containing pre-existing music.

Back to the songs, the following links will take you to YouTube videos of the five nominees so you can judge for yourself which tune is tops:

• “Falling Slowly” from Once -- Music and lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; performed by Hansard and Irglova.
• “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted -- Music by Alan Menken, lyric by Stephen Schwartz; performed by Amy Adams.
• “Raise It Up” from August Rush -- Music and lyric by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas; performed by Jamia Simone Nash and the Impact Repertory Theater.
• “So Close” from Enchanted -- Music by Menken, lyric by Schwartz; performed by Jon McLaughlin.
• “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted -- Music by Menken, lyric by Schwartz; performed by Adams.

Awards Watch: Oscar Nominations 2007

The nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards are finally here, filled with the usual surprises and snubs.

No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood are neck and neck in the lead with eight nominations apiece. Fellow Best Picture nominees Michael Clayton and Atonement (proving that no guild support means nothing to the Academy) racked up seven nods each, with Animated Feature front-runner Ratatouille scoring five. And Juno edged The Diving Bell and the Butterfly out of the BP race, with both netting four nominations each.

Surprises include unexpected nods for actors Tommy Lee Jones, Laura Linney, Ruby Dee and director Jason Reitman. Among the notable snubs: Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Jonny Greenwood, Eddie Vedder, The Simpsons Movie, 300 and (tragedy!) Hairspray.

See the comments section below for the complete list of nominees. The Oscar winners will be announced, with or without the strike, on February 24.

MD Fearless Oscar Nomination Predictions - 2007

With or without the specter of the ongoing writers strike, 2007 will be remembered as an unpredictable year in Oscar history.

The tides have shifted within the Academy, and films that once would have been considered shoe-ins (Atonement, Charlie Wilson's War) might now find themselves on the outside looking in come nomination morning this Tuesday. On the other hand, edgier and darker fare (like No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, even Juno) are now the front-runners. And in the end, perhaps that is a good thing.

However, it doesn't make it easy for those of us who attempt to predict who and what has caught the Academy's fancy in any given year. So it is with deft caution that I reveal the Movie Dearest Fearless Oscar Nomination Predictions for 2007:

- Best Picture: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
- Best Actor: George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd), Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises).
- Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Julie Christie (Away from Her), Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose), Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart) and Ellen Page (Juno).
- Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson's War), Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild) and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton).
- Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There), Catherine Keener (Into the Wild), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton).
- Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), Sean Penn (Into the Wild) and Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
- Best Adapted Screenplay: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, Persepolis and There Will Be Blood.
- Best Original Screenplay: Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille and The Savages.
- Cinematography: The Assassination of Jesse James; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Lust, Caution; No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
- Art Direction/Set Decoration: Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood.
- Costume Design: Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Hairspray, La Vie en Rose and Sweeney Todd.
- Original Score: Atonement; The Kite Runner; Lust, Caution; Ratatouille and There Will Be Blood.
- Original Song: "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)" from Hairspray, "Do You Feel Me" from American Gangster, "Falling Slowly" from Once, "Guaranteed" from Into the Wild and "That's How You Know" from Enchanted.
- Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and 3:10 to Yuma.
- Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, Hairspray, No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd and 300.
- Animated Feature: Persepolis, Ratatouille and The Simpsons Movie.
- Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, 300 and Transformers.
- Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, 3:10 to Yuma, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Transformers.
- Make-Up: La Vie en Rose, Norbit and Sweeney Todd.
- Foreign Language Film: The Counterfeiters (Austria), The Trap (Serbia), 12 (Russia), The Unknown Woman (Italy) and The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (Brazil).
- Documentary Feature: Autism: The Musical, Body of War, For the Bible Tells Me So, No End in Sight and Sicko.

Those last two categories were selected by using my patented "dart and dartboard" method. I would have used it on the short subject categories, but I have no idea what is eligible, so ... there you go. We'll see how well I did come Tuesday morning.

Plus: Be sure to check out the extensive 2007 For Your Consideration gallery at Awards Daily and, if you've ever wondered just how the Oscar nominations are tabulated, Entertainment Weekly has a good rundown of how it is done (it's not as simple as you may think).

And finally: Click here to order the official poster of the 80th Annual Academy Awards, pictured above.

UPDATE: Fearlessly predicted correctly: 68 out of 99 total nominations, roughly 69% accurate.

Awards Watch: Costume Designers Guild

Keira Knightley's green dress from Atonement (recently named the "best film costume of all time" by In Style magazine) is among the nominees for the 10th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards, to be handed out on February 19.

See the comments section below for a quick look at the nominations.

Awards Watch: Sound and Fury

Critics loathed it, but the Visual Effects Society loved Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, at least enough to give it a field's best six nominations. Transformers and I Am Legend follow with five each, with all three competing with The Golden Compass and Spider-Man 3 for the top prize. See the comments below for a quick look at the nominees.

Meanwhile, the Cinema Audio Society sounds off with their picks for outstanding achievements in sound mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, 300 and Transformers.

The VES will hand out their awards on February 10, with the CAS following suit on the 16th.

Awards Watch: No Globes, No Glory

Helen Mirren displays her Golden Globes from last year.

The writers strike has taken down its biggest victim yet: the Golden Globe Awards. Instead of a glitzy affair with inebriated celebrities, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will merely announce the winners during a live "press conference". It will still be broadcast on NBC Sunday night -- as a 60-minute "news event", though how they'll manage to stretch out a reading off of names to fill up a whole hour is beyond me.

As for Steven Spielberg's already announced Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award, that will just have to wait until next year. No word yet if that holds true for Rumer Willis as well.

In other awards news:

• It's all drama with the Directors Guild of America award nominations. As expected, Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men) and Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) were recognized, as did three lucky directors who just saw their Oscar odds triple if not quadruple: Michael Clayton's Tony Gilroy, Into the Wild's Sean Penn and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's Julian Schnabel. Out of luck: romantic epics (Joe Wright for Atonement), musicals (Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd) and comedies (Jason Reitman for Juno).
• Speaking of guilds, the recent American Society of Cinematographers nominations are as expected: Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, There Will Be Blood and two nods for Roger Deakins, for both The Assassination of Jesse James and No Country for Old Men. Both the DGA and ASC awards will be handed out on January 26.
• The Broadcast Film Critics Association handed out their Critics' Choice Awards last night in front of a not quite so star-studded crowd. Notable no-show winners included the Coen brothers, Julie Christie and Amy Ryan. See the comments section below for a quick look at the full list of winners, including two for the Movie Dearest New Star of the Year, Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky.
• And finally, the Academy has revealed the short list for their Make Up category. Potential nominees include Sweeney Todd and the latest Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as well as the lucky bastards who got to rouge on all those Spartan six packs in 300. Alas, Hairspray was passed over; if you were looking for a cross-dressing man in a fat suit to get nominated, you'll have to settle for ... Norbit?

Links via Reuters.com, GoldenGlobes.org, DGA.org, ASCmag.com, BFCA.org and Oscars.org.

Toon Talk: A Critic's Work ...

... is never done -- that is, until they run their annual year-end "best of" list.

In lieu of a "top ten" this year, and with award fever all the rage of late, I have recently bestowed the first ever "Toon Talk Awards" over at my other gig at LaughingPlace.com. The "Toonies" (just like the Tonys, only not as ... tony -- that joke never gets old) honor the best in Disney movies and DVDs for the past year.

No big surprise that the "big cheese" in '07 was Ratatouille, which received four mentions, including Movie of the Year and Voice Actor of the Year for Peter O'Toole (as Anton Ego). Other multiple winners include Enchanted and High School Musical 2; click here to see all of this year's winners at LaughingPlace.com.

MD Awards: Woman of the Year

One would never expect to hear Oscar talk concerning a Disney Princess, but then, one has never been as effortlessly and joyfully portrayed as Enchanted's Giselle. Credit goes to our Movie Dearest Woman of the Year, Amy Adams, for bringing a fairy tale ideal into the real world (literally), and making us believe every minute of it.

Mixing wide-eyed wonderment with subtle degrees of melancholy, Amy creates a character that progresses from a pen and ink girl to a flesh and blood woman, with real emotions and desires. Of course, the latter isn't too hard when you have both James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey to play off of (talk about your Sophie's choice). And, let's not forget, she sings and dances ... and makes her own dresses to boot.

In addition to the recent Charlie Wilson's War, Amy has a slew of high-profile projects on the horizon, including the black comedy Sunshine Cleaning and not one, but two projects with Meryl Streep: the film adaptations of the Tony Award-winning play Doubt and the best-selling memoir Julie & Julia. No doubt, we'll be enchanted with her all over again.

For all the Movie Dearest coverage of Enchanted, including Amy's Women We Love profile, click here.

Click here to buy the Enchanted soundtrackfrom Amazon.com.
Links via Imdb.com.

Monthly Wallpaper - January 2008: 2007: The Year in Film

As 2007 comes to a close, it is time to look back on the year in film, and what better way then with the Movie Dearest calendar wallpaper for next month!

29 of 2007's most popular movies make up the collage, so you can spend all of January gazing at the likes of Anton, Bob, Edith, Giselle, Harry, Jason, Jesse, Juno, Lars, Leonidas, Marji, Michael, Nikolai, Remy, Sweeney, Tracy and all the rest. What a way to start off a new year -- which reminds me, don't forget to vote in this week's poll of the most eagerly awaited films of 2008!

Just click on the picture above to enlarge it to its 1024 x 768 size, then right click your mouse and select "Set as Background", and you're all set. If you want, you can also save it to your computer and set it up from there, or modify the size in your own photo-editing program if needed.

And a virtual Academy Award to the first MD reader who can correctly name in the comments section below all 29 movies pictured in the collage.

Awards Watch: Global Awareness

Those of us who were hoping that today's Golden Globe nominations would clarify the 2007 award races were dealt a mixed hand by the always fickle Hollywood Foreign Press Association: no less then seven films are up for Best Picture - Drama. Add in the five nominated for Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, and one thing is certain this year: nothing is certain this year. Which means it should be a fun (albeit possibly frustrating) next couple of months for movie fans and award pundits alike.

Atonement leads the pack with seven nominations, with Charlie Wilson's War following with five. This is good news for these two films, as they were pretty much left out of the last round of critics' kudos, who instead went for grittier fare like No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, both of which join Atonement in the Best Picture - Drama category here. Also nominated in the big race is American Gangster, Eastern Promises, Michael Clayton and The Great Debaters, which, in typical Globe fashion, received no other nominations. The same is true of Across the Universe, nominated for Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, along with Hairspray, Juno, Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson.

In the acting categories, both Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman netted two nominations each, with Blanchett joining John Travolta in the supporting categories for their gender-bending performances. And then there's Marion Cotillard, sticking out like a misplaced thumb in the nominees for Best Actress- Comedy or Musical.

On the TV side, a special shout out to Pushing Daisies, up for three awards (Best Comedy Series and acting nods for Lee Pace and Anna Friel), plus nominations for other favorites such as Brothers and Sisters, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty, which, although it won last year, is not nominated for Best Comedy; again, those fickle HFPA-ers.

The Golden Globes will be handed out in a live telecast on NBC on Sunday, January 13 ... that is, if the writers strike doesn't derail it. For a quick look at all the film nominees, see the comments section below.

Links via GoldenGlobes.org and LATimes.com.