I don’t know if Maria Menounos was trying to sway the voters at the last minute or what, but here she is showing off her killer booty at the 3rd Annual Critics’ Choice Television Awards. I don’t care what Maria was nominated for, or if she was even nominated at all, if you ask me, that booty definitely deserves an award for its sustained excellence this year. Unfortunately I don’t have much pull at the Critics’ Choice awards, but I know they say you should vote with your wallet. And I’d be more than happy to slip some singles in there. » view all 14 photos Related Articles: Maria Menounos Booty Mania Maria Menounos Shows Off Her Puppies Maria Menounos Is Super Cute Maria Menounos Is A Good Workout Photos: WENN.com
I don’t know if Maria Menounos was trying to sway the voters at the last minute or what, but here she is showing off her killer booty at the 3rd Annual Critics’ Choice Television Awards. I don’t care what Maria was nominated for, or if she was even nominated at all, if you ask me, that booty definitely deserves an award for its sustained excellence this year. Unfortunately I don’t have much pull at the Critics’ Choice awards, but I know they say you should vote with your wallet. And I’d be more than happy to slip some singles in there. » view all 14 photos Related Articles: Maria Menounos Booty Mania Maria Menounos Shows Off Her Puppies Maria Menounos Is Super Cute Maria Menounos Is A Good Workout Photos: WENN.com
The Oscar season enters its last weekend, but one suspects it is far from over. Even if Academy members ultimately hewed to tradition and voted Lincoln and Steven Spielberg Best Picture and Director, respectively — as is the customary coronation for films with the most Oscar nominations — this outlier season will be studied and debated. For at least days to come. The Final Countdown To The 2013 Academy Awards The final week of voting saw pundits and bloggers get in their final shots, filibuster like Jefferson Smith for their lost causes (“the only causes worth fighting for”), issue their final predictions or revise earlier forecasts. Roger Ebert backtracked slightly from his self-described “cocky” “Outguess Ebert” boast that he had guessed every (contest category) correctly. “Every year it is the same,” Ebert wrote. “I came out of the gate filled with certainty, and as the deadline draws near I begin to falter.” Several enterprising writers persuaded some Academy members from various branches to share—anonymously—their Oscar ballots, and the results might give pause to anyone convinced that any of the major categories (except perhaps Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress) are locks. The Oscar Index views and duly notes these ruminations objectively. The reported (conjectured?) groundswells make for compelling Oscars storylines, last-minute cliffhanging drama and even, perhaps, better ratings for the telecast. The Index admits to a conservative risk tolerance here, but on Monday morning will probably say it knew De Niro would win Best Supporting Actor all along. Let’s look at how the Gold Linings playbook plays out on Oscars eve. Academy Award For Best Picture In Oscar season, as in war, the first casualty is truth. Three of the Best Picture nominees, frontrunners at various stages of Oscar season, took Battleship -like hits for remaking history. Critics of Zero Dark Thirty , said it was pro-torture — oh, for the days of the Orwellian Bush era and “enhanced interrogation techniques” — and heightened its role in the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Lincoln slandered the state of Connecticut by depicting its representatives as voting against the 13 th Amendment. And to read The New York Times ’ Maureen Dowd and Salon ’s Andrew O’Hehir this week, about the only things Argo got absolutely right was that there is a country named Iran and a CIA operative named Tony Mendez. I’m bracing myself for the eleventh-hour revelation that Quvenzhane Wallis is actually a 32-year-old psychopathic Russian dwarf pretending to be a child. Which opens the door for Silver Linings Playbook . Reconsiders Ebert: “( Argo ) was also my choice of the year’s best movie. Now, more and more, from many different quarters, I hear affection for Silver Linings Playbook . People tell me, I have a brother-in-law exactly like that. I sense a groundswell.” But just as those Iranian guards discovered as they chased the hostage-carrying plane down the runway (yes, I know; didn’t happen) there should be no stopping Argo ’s awards season take-off, lifted by wins from such major Oscar precursors as the PGA, DGA, SAG, BAFTA and, most recently, WGA (you know; the guild supposedly more terrifying than the Ayatollah). For awards bloggers, this Best Picture race has been all kinds of personal. Lincoln champion Sasha Stone at Awards Daily concedes the race to Argo , but will have none of it, diss-missing director Ben Affleck as “a movie star director…(who) finally made a movie people liked” and bemoaning the injustice suffered by “a film that good, that well intentioned.” Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells, too, picks Argo to win, but not before raging against the machine for the film he believes should win: “ Zero Dark Thirty , Zero Dark Thirty , Zero Dark Thirty , and I don’t care…going down with the ship.” The more journalistic pundits at Gold Derby and Gurus o’ Gold mostly favor Argo to win, but Anne Thompson sees echoes of last year’s race between The King’s Speech and The Social Network : “On the one hand, there’s recognition of what the older Academy goes for: quality, heart, period seriousness. On the other is a more youthful, ardent and in its way, au courant popular favorite. This year, both contenders are resonant and timely, but one seems more establishment while the other is the hip up-and-comer.” And the Academy, she notes, is more establishment than the guild members who honored Argo . As for the Academy members who shared their ballots with the media, they’re all over the map. Of the five ballots shared with Entertainment Weekly , Argo was the pick of the Executive and the Actor. The Director went with Silver Linings Playbook , the Actress, Life of Pi, and the Writer, Beasts of the Southern Wild . A Director sharing his ballot with The Hollywood Reporter went with Zero Dark Thirty. Apropos of nothing, the Oscar Index remembers vividly being in thrall to Argo . When it was over, I leaned over to Mrs. Index and said, perhaps facetiously, “Best Picture.” Like Lincoln , it celebrated America at its best. But it also celebrated Hollywood at its best. It was not a valentine to the movies like The Artist ; it was more of a “We love this country, too,” pat on the back. But with all the potshots that Lincoln has taken over the last few months, it should be noted that the film truly did make history. After seeing the film, inquisitive Mississippi moviegoer Dr. Ranjan Batra discovered upon further research that the state had yet to technically ratify the 13th Amendment. He got the ball rolling and on Feb. 7, the state’s ratification became official. So Lincoln ’s got that going for it. 2013 Oscar Nominations For Best Director Here’s one of the categories in which we are fending off a little Index remorse. Steven Spielberg edges out Ang Lee , according to pundits Gold Derby and Gurus o’ Gold. With Affleck out of the running, this might be the category in which Academy voters choose to acknowledge Spielberg’s achievement. But The Wrap’s Steve Pond posits: “…as much as voters admire and respect ( Lincoln ), they don’t seem to love it, and as a result I think he is going to lose. The huge Actors Branch could sway things in favor of David O. Russell , whose film has been coming on strong in a typical Harvey Weinstein-engineered surge. But I suspect that the rest of the Academy will lean toward the spectacle of Life of Pi , and give Ang Lee his second Best Director award without a corresponding Best Picture win.” What do those shared Oscar ballots in EW reveal? The Director went with Russell (“the heart of the job remains performances”), but the Actress, Writer and the Executive went with Lee. The Actor voted for Spielberg. Academy Award Nominees For Best Actor Raymond Massey couldn’t do it. Henry Fonda couldn’t do it. Rex Hamilton couldn’t do it (that’s for any Police Squad watchers out there). Daniel Day-Lewis will be the first actor to win the Academy Award for portraying Abraham Lincoln. Oh, and he’s poised to become the first three-time Best Actor Oscar-winner. On this, Oscar-watchers are near unanimous. He was also the pick of four of the five members who shared their ballots with EW. The Actress went with Bradley Cooper . If she’s available and she ever runs into Cooper, it will make a nice icebreaker. Oscar Nominations 2013: The Best Actress Contenders This is another category that seems to be in last-minute flux. Jennifer Lawrence has retained her frontrunner status among pundits, but several are noting the intangibles attached to 85 year-old Emmanuelle Riva, not the least of which is the “too soon” factor. In other words, Lawrence and Chastain will be back and this is Riva’s first, and presumably last, bid for an Academy Award. Then again, three of those five EW ballots went with Naomi Watts in The Impossible . Could enough votes divided among the top three contenders make that possible? 2013 Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor Nominees Former frontrunner Tommy Lee Jones has endeared himself to no one this Oscar season and stayed off the campaign trail. On the one hand, you’ve got to grudgingly respect that. On the other, he might get the Golden Globe glums again watching Robert De Niro pick up his first Academy Award since Raging Bull . De Niro can be as taciturn and intimidating as Jones, but he gamely put himself out there this season and revealed an emotional side that swings votes. Now that is acting, dear readers. Twelve vs. nine of Gold Derby’s experts are now on Team De Niro. The Gurus o’ Goldsters also now rank De Niro as the frontrunner, dropping Jones to No. 2. Two out of three of In Contention’s experts are also in De Niro’s camp. If De Niro does win, he owes it to Katie Couric to acknowledge her in his acceptance speech. But there is one Silver lining — for TLJ: Nate Silver , the breakout prognosticator in the last presidential campaign, predicts Jones (and Spielberg) will win. There has, too, been some late-breaking buzz for Christoph Waltz. That Director who shared his Oscar ballot with the Hollywood Reporter admitted that he did not vote for Jennifer Lawrence because he was offended by her Saturday Night Live monologue (on principle alone, can his privileges be revoked?). I wonder what he thought of Waltz on “SNL” as “Djesus Uncrossed”? Oscar Nominations 2013: Best Supporting Actress Nominees This Oscar has a first name; and it’s Anne. LAST WEEK IN THE 2013 OSCAR INDEX: OSCAR INDEX: Will Academy ‘Amour’ For Emmanuelle Riva Lead To Best Actress Upset? More 2013 Oscar Nominations: Academy Award Nominees Announced – ‘Lincoln’ Leads 2013 Oscar Noms Oscar Nominations 2013 — The Biggest Snubs & Surprises Of The Year 2013 Oscar Predictions By The Numbers: Which Nominees Are Hot (Jennifer Lawrence) & Not Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Biebs appears to do some clever counter-programming after 2013 Grammy voters famously snubbed him. By Rebecca Thomas Justin Bieber Photo: Alexander Tamargo/ Getty Images
After a momentary holiday lull, it’s back on! Or as Calvin Candie says in Django Unchained . “We got us a fight going on that’s a good bit of fun.” Academy voters were given one extra day to mull over their Oscar nomination ballots, thanks to a voting deadline extension necessitated by complaints and concerns over the Academy’s first-ever electronic voting system. They could use that 24 hours to digest the Producers Guild Award nominations , which were announced Wednesday, a day early. From here, the awards season proceeds at 48 frames per second , bringing the Oscar race into sharp focus. The Director’s Guild of America nominations for Best Director will be announced Jan. 8, with Oscar nominations announced on the 10th,in advance of the Golden Globes, which will be handed out on the 13th. The PGA ceremony will be held on the 26th, followed by the SAG awards the following night. Feb. 2 brings the DGAs, one of the most reliable Oscar indicators, followed by the Independent Spirit Awards (and the Razzies) on the 23rd and the Oscars on the 24th. This is the earliest Oscar voting in history, Variety’s Jon Weisman noted, and he feared for the “dark horse” candidates as voters race to catch up to the big ticket films such as Django Unchained and Les Miserables that were released at the end of the year. “We’ll never quantify the impact… on the coming Academy Award nominations, but I’m thinking negative,” he writes. The Best Picture race was most impacted this week. So, let’s consult the Gold Linings Playbook to see which films benefited from the PGA bump. Best Picture Since 1990, the winner of the PGA’s Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures -winner was denied on Oscar night only seven times, most recently in 2006, when The Departed took Best Picture honors instead of the PGA’s choice, Little Miss Sunshine . Its 10-film field included most of the expected nominees from A ( Argo ) to Z ( Zero Dark Thirty ). Django Unchained ’s n-word – nomination – only accelerated its momentum, while Beasts of the Southern Wild , a non-union production, deemed ineligible for SAG consideration, and also denied Golden Globe nominations, saw its own Oscar cred strengthened. (Apparently, Hollywood Foreign Press Association members would rather party with Nicole Kidman than Quvenzhane Wallis ) biggest surprise was the nomination of Skyfall , which may be poised to do for Bond films what Beauty and the Beast did for animated films; be the first to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. But Skyfall shouldn’t press its Oscar-night tux just yet. Last year, Bridesmaids , The Ides of March and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo did not parlay their PGA nominations into Best Picture bids. The Master , Flight , and The Dark Knight Rises , each snubbed by the PGA, have their advocates, and should not be counted out. 1. Lincoln 2. Zero Dark Thirty 3. Argo 4. Silver Linings Playbook 5. Django Unchained 6. Les Misérables 7. Life of Pi 8. Beasts of the Southern Wild 9. Moonrise Kingdom 10. Skyfall Ones to watch: The Dark Knight Rises, Flight, The Master Best Director The heat is still on Zero Dark Thirty , now officially the target of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation over alleged contact between the filmmakers and CIA officials, but Kathryn Bigelow’s nomination is inevitable. Quentin Tarantino is riding taller in the saddle with Django Unchained ’s PGA nomination, but it’s a tight field and Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook are safer, far less controversial films. Still, it helps to have Samuel L. Jackson in your corner. The PGA snub of The Master sees Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar hopes further recede. 1. Steven Spielberg ( Lincoln ) 2. Kathryn Bigelow ( Zero Dark Thirty ) 3. Ben Affleck ( Argo ) 4. Ang Lee ( Life of Pi ) 5. David O. Russell ( Silver Linings Playbook ) Ones to watch: Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained). Michael Haneke (Amour), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)
With the deadline for Academy Award nominations just two days away, perhaps it’s not the best time for Jennifer Lawrence to be talking about how acting is “stupid.” But that’s what she does in the new issue of Vanity Fair . The actress, whose performance in David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook should put her in the running for a Best Actress Oscar, is the cover girl for the magazine’s February issue in which she’s named “The Most Desirable Woman of 2013.” But her perspective on acting may not sound so desirable to actors casting their votes for the first stage of the Oscar sweepstakes. “Not to sound rude, but [acting] is stupid,” Lawrence says. “Everybody’s like, ‘How can you remain with a level head?’ And I’m like, ‘Why would I ever get cocky? I’m not saving anybody’s life. There are doctors who save lives and firemen who run into burning buildings. I’m making movies. It’s stupid.’” Okay, so Lawrence hasn’t pulled a Joaquin Phoenix and declared the awards race “the stupidest thing in the whole world.” The context of her comment is unclear because Vanity Fair has yet to release the full story in which this quote appears, but Lawrence sounds like she’s merely being self-deprecating in a safely provocative way. And yet, as much as I admire candor, if I was part of Lawrence’s management team, I’d be telling her to can the “acting-is-stupid” comments until after awards season. I have to imagine that there are a fair number of self-important Academy voters/actors who don’t want to hear their profession belittled, especially since they’re not getting the kind of sought-after roles that Lawrence keeps getting. [ Vanity Fair] RELATED: Oscars E-Voting Too Hard For Tech-Illiterate Academy Members, Also Get Off My Lawn Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Funny or Die tried to answer the question I hoped would never get asked this Oscar season: Who had it worse, slaves or poor, single mothers driven into prostitution? In a clever four-minute video, Samuel L. Jackson (Team Slaves) and Anne Hathaway (Team PSMDIP) campaigned for their respective sides in a “sad-off.” It’s a brilliant bit of movie promotion, with the actors selling their sad, sad movies ( Les Misérables and Django Unchained , respectively) through comedy. “My movie is literally called ‘The Miserable,’” throws down Hathaway. “Women get beaten in my movie,” boasts Jackson. “Same thing happens in mine,” Hathaway counters. “Guy gets his head blown off.” “Same.” “There’s a man ripped apart by dogs in my movie.” When Hathaway stays quiet, Jackson cackles in triumph. The two Oscar nominees eventually get into the yuletide spirit by cheerfully agreeing, “Nothing says Christmas like slaves and whores.” That’s cute and all, but it also smartly points out the paradox of the holiday movie season, that magical time of the year when, between maxing out our credit cards and stuffing our faces like it’s the Mayan apocalypse, we dutifully assign ourselves to watch “serious movies” about “important issues.” There seem to be way more of those this year, from the slavery-themed Django , the plebe-supporting Les Miz , the torture-approving Zero Dark Thirty , the dementia-sympathizing Amour , the insanity-forgiving Silver Linings Playbook , the FEMA-condemning Beasts of the Southern Wild , and the disability-sex-championing The Sessions . Looking at this group of politically weighty films, Salon film critic Andrew O’Hehir stated last week that he’s looking forward to a “meaty” 2013 Oscars because of the “ideological throwdown” promised by the likely award nominees, especially after the win of last year’s lightweight The Artist . It’s of course great that so many special-interest groups will have their issues heard throughout Oscar season. But given the fractured, us-versus-them nature of America today, it’s hard not to feel pessimistic that the run-up to the Academy Awards will turn out to be one interminable lose-lose game of Who Suffered Most? There’s certainly precedent for this. Back in 2005, the Best Picture race rapidly narrowed down to Crash and Brokeback Mountain . In a particularly ugly turn, the media narrative twisted the Oscars into a contest between racism and homophobia, as if declaring racism to be the greater injustice eased the pain felt by bullied gay teens. When Brokeback lost, some commentators exacerbated the situation by blaming the outcome on the homophobia of Academy voters, who are still mostly old, white men . (For the record, they probably just have really bad taste.) That’s why the best part of Hathaway and Jackson’s video is its preemptive mockery of the tendency to hierarchize different kinds of oppression. In a bit that recalls the 2008 Democratic primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the sad-off briefly veers into black man vs. woman territory. “You try being a black man in the South in the 1800s. I bet you couldn’t handle being a black in the South right now ,” taunts Jackson. “When there’s a French whore in the White House, then we can talk,” Hathaway challenges. “You say that like there’s never been a French whore in the White House,” says Jackson in the best line of the video. Let’s hope that’s the last round of sad-off we have to play this holiday season, because justice and equality doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Inkoo Kang is a film critic and investigative journalist in Boston. She has been published in Salon, Indiewire, Boxoffice, Yahoo! Movies, Pop Matters, Screen Junkies, and MuckRock. Her great dream in life is to direct a remake of All About Eve with an all-dog cast.” Follow Inkoo Kang on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
According to Bloomberg , Governor Christie got put on blast when Barbara Walter’s interviewed him for her “10 Most Fascinating People” special that airs today. The 50-year-old Republican, who plans to seek a second term as governor next year and hasn’t ruled out a 2016 White House bid, said he was “more than a little” overweight when Walters asked him about his size. Walters tells Christie that concerns about his health are the reason people raise questions about his weight. The governor said he was perplexed by those who say that his size should disqualify him from the White House. “That’s ridiculous,” Christie said. “I don’t know what the basis for that is.” Christie has said his struggle with weight began 30 years ago when he stopped playing organized school sports. He told Oprah Winfrey in January that he was working with a dietitian and exercising more regularly. The governor has shown a willingness to joke at his own expense, last month kiddingly refusing to answer questions about the bankruptcy of Hostess Brands, maker of Twinkies snack cakes. During the Walters interview, Christie highlighted his recent response to superstorm Sandy as proof that his size doesn’t slow him down. “I’ve done this job pretty well and I think people have watched me for the last number of weeks and Hurricane Sandy doing 18-hour days and getting right back up the next day and still being just as effective,” he said in a clip of the interview. “So I really don’t think that would be a problem.” Do you think the Governor’s weight means he has a lack of control??? Images via Bloomberg/WENN
Why yes, there are musical numbers in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , which hurtles into theaters this week. Alas, none of them are eligible for the Oscars’ Best Song category, though I’d love to see Richard Armitage, AKA Thorin Oakenshield, face off against Katy Perry and Adele on that Academy Awards stage. Listen to Thorin and his not-so-merry band of dwarves prepare for peril with a solemn ditty in a clip from The Hobbit . Verdict : It’s no “Bilbo Baggins,” but then again, what is? [via TheOneRing.net ]
By now you know that the list of songs eligible to be nominated for Best Original Song at the 85th Academy Awards is kind of mind-blowing. Not so mind-blowing is the generally risk-averse bent of the average Academy voter, which is why we should probably just send congratulations now to Brave , Les Miserables , and Adele , resting easy one of them will actually be the right recipient. But maybe not! Yeah, we all agree that Skyfall is the best thing to happen to our ears since the invention of the lobe massage, but does the winner have to be that obvious? Every now and then something crazy slips through the filter, like Elliot Smith in 1998, or Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova ten years later. Really, there’s so much about the list that is pure, wonderful bonkersness and they would all shake things up more than accidentally slurring a huge chunk of your audience and getting fired from Oscars-production duties. If we had our way, one of these cuts below would send its songwriter home with a clunky golden statue. * “Casa De Mi Padre” from Casa De Mi Padre ! Dios mio! The title track from the criminally underrated Will Ferrell comedy accurately nails tone of 1970s theme songs, a perfect fit for the film’s lightly mocking telenovella/grindhouse vibe. The only problem is that the other two songs from Casa that made this list, ‘Del Cielo’ and ‘Yo No Se’, are just as good. Let’s just make a mashup and get them all through. * “100 Black Coffins” from Django Unchained We don’t know why Rick Ross wants a honey baked muffin so much, or what that has to do with the title of this song (Kidding! Now try not hearing “I want a honey baked muffin” whenever you listen to the song), but this track from Django Unchained accomplishes the unlikely task of making Mr. Ross’ rapping bearable, (production and beats by Jamie Foxx help.) It would be awesome if the Teflon Don manages to win the same number of Oscars as Martin Scorsese, just like Three Six Mafia back in 2006. * “Ladies of Tampa” from Magic Mike Thank you, Magic Mike for making it possible for the world to once again rejoice in the sleazy musk that exudes from Matthew McConaughey like light from the tarnished halo of a fallen angel. This creepy ballad from late in the film should be required listening for anyone wondering if they have what it takes to strip for a living. You don’t. Period. McConaughey has that shit covered for life, as proven by this obviously Oscar-caliber track. * “Razors Out” from The Raid I hate myself for loving this song, because it kind of drips with over-processed drums and emo singing and oh god no it’s written by Linkin Park frontman Mike Shinoda. But then I remember that it’s really put to amazing use in The Raid , and since The Raid isn’t likely to get noticed even though it should be your current favorite movie , this song’s worthiness for the Oscar is self evident. So please, Academy voters, please let Sony Pictures Classics and Stage 6 Films slap a “nominated for an Academy Award” sticker on the The Raid Blu-ray. “The Baddest Man Alive” from The Man With The Iron Fists The Rza ‘s directoral debut might have suffered from being cut to shreds in the editing process, but the soundtrack is everything that makes us still weak in the knees at the thought of a Wu-Tang Clan reunion. Thus, “The Baddest Man Alive” is also the baddest track on this list. An Oscar nomination for this instant classic won’t make up for the death of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, but it definitely makes up for a Crash Best Picture win. RELATED: Oscars Name Rick Ross, Katy Perry & ‘Ladies Of Tampa’ Tracks Eligible For Best Song Do you have your own dark horse favorites from the Best Song contenders list? Leave ’em in the comments. Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow him on twitter (@rossalincoln). Follow Movieline on Twitter .
