You’re done gorging on turkey, which means only one thing: ‘Tis the season to be stuffed with Oscar punditry. Movieline ‘s Institute For the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics has awoken from its L-Tryptophan slumber to provide you with our latest Oscar Index , which evaluates the contenders for Best Director. The latest Index on Best Picture can be found here , and over the course of the long weekend, we’ll be weighing in on the Best Actor, Actress and Support Actor and Actress races. How The Oscar Index Works With each award category that we track, we’ll present four different rankings. Movieline Executive Editor Jen Yamato , Managing Editor Brian Brooks and myself will each provide our personal weekly rankings of the movies and actors in the running, and then those results will be weighted and averaged to determine an official Movieline ranking for each category. Let’s begin: Best Director In terms of perception, the Best Director category has been fairly static for a while now, but that should change next week as Les Misérables and Zero Dark Thirty screen for critics and reaction to them begins to flow through the blogosphere. Up to this point, the strong standings of the directors of those films, respectively, Tom Hooper and Kathryn Bigelow , has been almost pure buzz, so their positions could rise or fall sharply once actual scenes and performances can be scrutinized. Until then, Steven Spielberg remains the auteur to beat despite Lincoln ‘s at-times sloggy pace, and Ben Affleck is holding strong as his Argo continues to do well at the box office and on the word-of-mouth exchange. The Master director Paul Thomas Anderson could use a Harvey Weinstein-style reheating, and Ang Lee may need a different kind of PR campaign after he annoyed critics, including Movieline’s Alison Willmore and the New York Times’ A.O. Scott ,, by undercutting the often-breathtaking visual narrative of Life of Pi with a cliched journalist-interviews-story-subject framing device. That could result in Lee falling in favor harder than the zebra hits the lifeboat in his film. Frank DiGiacomo’s Picks Jen Yamato’s Picks Brian Brooks’ Picks 1. Steven Spielberg 1. Tom Hooper 1. Steven Spielberg 2. David O. Russell 2. Steven Spielberg 2. Ben Affleck 3. Kathryn Bigelow 3. Ben Affleck 3. Ang Lee 4. Ben Affleck 4. Kathryn Bigelow 4. Michael Hanecke 5. Tom Hooper 5. David O. Russell 5. Benh Zeitlin And the leaders are… Movieline’s Top 5 Best Director Contenders: 1. Steven Spielberg ( Lincoln ) 2. Ben Affleck ( Argo ) 3. Tom Hooper ( Les Misérables) 4. Ang Lee ( Life of Pi ) 5. David O. Russell ( Silver Linings Playbook ) Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Given the off-the-charts camp factor in the tantalizing prospect of Lindsay Lohan playing Elizabeth Taylor , Lifetime might prize descriptions of Liz & Dick as “trashy” or “awful.” So the network might harbor mixed emotions in reading that the movie about Taylor and her tumultuous romance with Richard Burton is actually pretty good, all things considered, despite an inevitably episodic nature and one glaringly unnecessary device. Such fact-based TV movies are rare these days, but this post-Thanksgiving telecast is just hammy enough to generate numbers rivaling the hordes of paparazzi that dogged the not-always-happy couple. The movie’s secret weapon, it turns out, isn’t Lohan at all, but rather New Zealander Grant Bowler (barely recognizable from a small part on True Blood ) as the dashing, often-drunken Burton, who classes up the movie in much the way Burton’s classically trained Shakespearean actor played off Taylor’s lifelong movie star. Directed by Lloyd Kramer from a script by Christopher Monger, the narrative is framed, somewhat unfortunately, by having the two speak directly to the camera against a stark black backdrop, in what approximates a kind of posthumous interview about their relationship. While it offers another means of getting inside their heads, it has a certain beyond-the-grave quality — exalting their epic love, yes, but feeling too much like something from one of the Mitch Albom movies Kramer helmed. “I fell for you the moment I saw you,” Burton tells her (and Bowler has the rich Welsh baritone down pat), one of several lines of dialogue — including “My heart is broken, and you have the smashed pieces” — seemingly calibrated to appeal both to those willing to embrace the romance and those eager to approach the movie like a screwball comedy. The first 30 minutes or so are devoted, appropriately, to the beginning of their torrid affair on the set of Cleopatra , where the two go a bit too quickly from squabbling to screwing, essentially under the noses of their respective spouses. In this case, the adage, “If the trailer’s rocking, don’t come knocking,” more than applies. After that, Liz and Dick engage in epic fights, spend money like drunken sailors, take refuge from the prying press by living on a yacht, and struggle through Burton’s bouts of melancholy over failing to win Oscars, including when she earned her second for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf while he was overlooked. OK, so there’s plenty of fun to be manufactured watching the movie — and even drinking games, like taking a swig every time a doctor or associate delivers bad news. Still, Bowler is quite good as Burton, and Lohan certainly is adequate, barring a few awkward moments, thanks largely to the fabulous frocks and makeup (courtesy of Salvador Perez and Eryn Krueger Mekash, respectively) she gets to model. Moreover, there is something strangely fascinating about a couple so madly hot for each other as to be unable to find equilibrium or peace, as well as how the Taylor-Burton pairing helped pave the way for a more aggressive (and intrusive) breed of celebrity journalism. The movie also benefits from the revelation about Taylor saving Burton’s love letters long after his death, which came more than a quarter-century before hers. In a sense, the producers shrewdly used Lohan — no stranger to the tabloids herself — as a publicity multiplier, but they needn’t have worried. Because while Liz & Dick is wobbly at times, the movie ultimately stands on its own. RELATED: Liz-aster! 5 Critics Damn Lindsay Lohan’s performance in ‘Liz & Dick’ − With Faint Praise And Sheer Scorn Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Lindsay Lohan is Elizabeth Taylor reincarnated? According to Grant Bowler, her Liz & Dick co-star, oh yes. Check out the new behind-the-scenes promo for the Lifetime film as Liz rolls in her grave right now: Lindsay Lohan Liz & Dick Behind-the-Scenes The new movie, starring Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor and Bowler as her on-again-off-again husband, Richard Burton, premieres November 3 on Lifetime. In the promo, LiLo says she can relate to Taylor. “I relate to her on a lot of levels,” says the 26-year-old. “Living in the public eye, dealing with the stress of what other people say, whether it’s true or not.” No word if Taylor was frequently investigated for stealing stuff or hauled into court for probation violations, or liked to send out ridiculous Tweets about Amanda Bynes .
Brand-new teaser clip also shows off song titles for first installment of Green Day’s three-album series. By James Montgomery Green Day’s ¡Uno! cover Photo: Green Day unveiled a teaser trailer on Thursday (June 14) for their upcoming
In this week’s Hobnobbing, we wonder if the new format is really worth the five extra bucks. By Amy Wilkinson Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games” Photo: We interrupt your regularly scheduled Finnick speculation to bring you this special announcement: “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” will light up IMAX theaters come November 2013! (OK, the news broke Wednesday, but I don’t write my column until Thursday.) Anyway, this is big (as in 70 feet tall) news … if you like that sort of thing. While “The Hunger Games” was re-mastered for IMAX screens, director Francis Lawrence intends to shoot entire “Catching Fire” sequences in the larger-than-life format. As my colleague Kevin P. Sullivan noted , this will be only the sixth major studio film to be partially shot in IMAX — news to which my reaction was roughly, “Okie doke…” See, I’ve never really understood the appeal of IMAX. Isn’t it just for people with poor eyesight who need to see things really large? And why should I pay roughly five extra bucks for the privilege? I have good vision! To wit, I’ve never purposely sought out an IMAX screening. One time on vacation in Seattle my friend insisted we see “The Lion King” (nearly a decade after its initial release) in IMAX, and since I didn’t want to be a chump, I went along. I’ve probably been to one IMAX movie since (it wasn’t “Avatar,” by the way, my hometown theater is lame), but I can’t help but wonder if I’m missing something. According to conventional wisdom and my previously mentioned colleague Kevin (who graciously humored my IMAX questions and concerns), the format is considered the height of immersive movie-going technology. (So much more worth the price than 3-D, he says.) Everything’s huge! Everything’s so detailed! Everything else in the theater just disappears! It’s like that guy in the front row wearing the bowler hat festooned with Christmas lights doesn’t exist! Fine, fine. I get it. And I’m willing to give it another try because Katniss and Peeta deserve as much. (It will also give me another ready-made column idea come next Thanksgiving!) And with speculation swirling that the IMAX-friendly filming will likely focus on the nifty new Quarter Quell arena, I’m simultaneously thrilled and sick to my stomach over the idea of being completely immersed in the bloody battle. Nonetheless, let the IMAX Games begin! “Catching Fire” hits theaters November 22, 2013. Are you excited to see “Catching Fire” in IMAX? Or is it much ado about nothing? Sound off in the comments below and tweet me @amymwilk with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns! Earlier “Hunger Games” columns: » “Hunger Games”: Five Things We Learned At Movie Awards » How “Catching Fire” Could Set Taylor Kitsch’s Career Ablaze » “Hunger Games” At The Movie Awards: Dos And Don’ts » “Catching Fire” Countdown: What to Watch While You Wait » Francis Lawrence’s “Catching Fire” To-Do List Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Hunger Games’ Related Photos ‘Hunger Games’ World Premiere Red Carpet The Hunger Games
Ninjas…SMH Howard University Suspends All It’s Athletic Programs For NCAA Rules Violations Howard University has suspended all of its intercollegiate athletics teams for what appears to be a violation of NCAA rules. University spokeswoman Kerry-Ann Hamilton issued this statement: It is with great regret that we have temporarily suspended intercollegiate athletic competition. This is a self-imposed action while the University conducts a review. We are working quickly to resolve this issue. More details have emerged throughout the day about the investigation UPDATE 3:21 p.m. Coppin State athletics spokesperson Roger McAfee tells us that he hasn’t haven’t been informed whether the school’s upcoming softball matches with Howard have been suspended. Howard lacrosse is also scheduled to play at Wesleyan next week. A rep at Wesleyan tells us, “I’m not aware that they have suspended our upcoming game.” UPDATE 3:27 p.m. Here’s the reaction from one Howard athlete, who didn’t want to be identified speaking publicly about the situation: “This whole situation is frustrating, and it shows how things within athletics need to be reformed and fixed. Many athletes have had their eligibility taken away and that has affected many sports dramatically. This needs to serve as a learning experience for both the athletes and the department.” UPDATE 3:44 p.m. A member of the Howard bowling team says a senior athletic administrator told the team the university is investigating problems with textbook vouchers given to athletes. According to the bowler, the university allowed athletes to spend money that they didn’t use on books on whatever they wanted, a possible violation of NCAA rules. The bowler says the university is demanding that any money spent improperly be repaid to Howard and that athletes won’t be able to register for classes until they clear up the matter. The university, which hasn’t yet responded to requests for detailed information, has not confirmed that account. UPDATE 4:32 p.m. An NCAA compliance officer at another school, who would only discuss the situation under condition of anonymity, tells us that while colleges expect to have some rule violations, their job is to self-police and then report to the NCAA for further recommendations, if any. The officer says Howard’s suspension suggests problems that go further than a book voucher problem with one team: “For [Howard] to self-impose complete suspension, they must not have been doing anything in compliance.” UPDATE 4:49 p.m. A former Howard football player says he, at least, never saw any unspent book voucher money. Branden Bufford, 24, who graduated in 2011, tells City Paper the athletic department used to forward his class schedule to the university bookstore, and books would be purchased for him. But Bufford did say he’d heard some student-athletes would register for extra classes, get the books, then drop the classes and sell the books. “It’s unfortunate that the athletes may have to miss games because of this,” he says. “I don’t know why they’re up in arms about something that happens all the time, and worse things have happened. I guess the new sports administration is trying to put their foot down early.” The NCAA has some real fawkin’ nerve! Imposing these petty rules on the players that makes them hundreds of millions of dollars every year! Source More On Bossip! Itty Bitty Waists: These Ladies’ Cakes Look Even Bigger Because Their Waists Are So Tiny/span> Must Be The Money: The Most Regretful Celebrity Advertisements Of All Time Shady Swirl Hookup Gone Horribly Wrong: Ashton Kutcher Is Beefin’ With RihRih Because She Let The Paps Catch Her Creepin’! Video Emerges Saying Beyonce’s “Blue Ivy Is A Doll And Isn’t Real” And Footage Of Her Being Swarmed By Paps! [Video]
New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma ( @JonVilma51 ) was in South Beach supporting his hometown hero DJ Irie at his seventh annual charity weekend. The Pro Bowler said that he has been practicing with teammate Drew Brees and hopes that the players and owners can come to a contract agreement that will end the current lockout . He also had some advice for athletes using Twitter . Watch our exclusive video.
Whenever a major concert happens in New York City, there’s always some random (slightly unnecessary) on-stage reunion. Last night, at that Diddy Dirty Money “Coming Home” show at the Hammerstein Ballroom, that Reunion came courtesy of the house that Irv Gotti built. Ashanti tweeted this pic of herself with her “bra’s” Ja Rule and Young Lloyd following her and Ja’s surprise appearance. First, she and Lloyd performed his debut single “Southside,” then she and Ja Rule took it back to the height of his pre-50 career with “Always On Time.” Click here for more of Ashanti’s twitpics.
Whenever a major concert happens in New York City, there’s always some random (slightly unnecessary) on-stage reunion. Last night, at that Diddy Dirty Money “Coming Home” show at the Hammerstein Ballroom, that Reunion came courtesy of the house that Irv Gotti built. Ashanti tweeted this pic of herself with her “bra’s” Ja Rule and Young Lloyd following her and Ja’s surprise appearance. First, she and Lloyd performed his debut single “Southside,” then she and Ja Rule took it back to the height of his pre-50 career with “Always On Time.” Click here for more of Ashanti’s twitpics.
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