Most noteworthy magazine covers of 2016

After reviewing the most controversial magazine covers of 2016, it’s time to look at the most significant and noteworthy magazine covers of the year (excluding final issues and those with naked cover models).

Playboy, March 2016

The first nude-free issue of Playboy magazine featured Instagram-famous model Sarah McDaniel on the cover.
(See articles by the Daily Mail, the New York Times and AdAge.)

Variety, Jan. 26, 2016

Entertainment trade journal Variety covered the #OscarsSoWhite controversy with a whitewashed cover titled “Shame on us.”
(See articles by the Huffington Post, CNN and AFP.)

The New Yorker, May 2, 2016

The New Yorker magazine paid tribute to the passing of musician Prince with a cover that evoked his hit song “Purple Rain.”

Vogue, June 2016

Vogue scored a coup by getting Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, for her first magazine shoot, which landed her on the cover.
(See article by the Daily Mail.)

Attitude, July 2016

Kate’s husband, Prince William, was the first royal to appear on the cover of a gay magazine when he graced the July 2016 issue of U.K. gay lifestyle magazine Attitude.
(See articles by the Daily Mail, People and the Telegraph.)

Vanity Fair, Summer 2016

Continuing the royal theme, Queen Elizabeth II posed for photographer Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Vanity Fair.
(See article by the Daily Mail.)

Women’s Running, July 2016

Marathon runner and transgender woman Amelia Gapin broke barriers by appearing on the cover of Women’s Running.
(See articles by New York magazine and the Daily Mail.)

Harper’s Bazaar, India, October 2016

Tracey “Africa” Norman and Geena Rocero became the first transgender women ever to appear on the cover of Harper's Bazaar.
(See article by the Daily Mail.)

Sports Illustrated, July 4-11, 2016

Continuing the transgender theme, Caitlyn Jenner posed for the cover of Sports Illustrated 40 years after she won the gold medal for decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics as a man, Bruce Jenner.
(See article by the Daily Mail.)

Glamour, August 2016

Actress Mila Kunis started a craze when she posed (nearly) makeup-free for the cover of Glamour magazine.
(See articles by E! Online and the Huffington Post.)

V magazine, November 2016

Singer Alicia Keys followed Kunis by going makeup-free for V magazine’s cover.
(See articles by MSN and V magazine.)

Time, July 11-18, 2016

Time magazine covered Britain’s exit from the Europe Union, aka Brexit, as potentially the first domino to fall in the EU.

People, Oct. 10, 2016

People magazine had to scramble to cover the divorce of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year.
(See articles by CNN and the New York Post.)

Sports Illustrated, Nov. 14, 2016

Sports Illustrated featured the World Series champion Chicago Cubs on a winning cover.
(See article by Sports Illustrated.)

People, Nov. 28, 2016

People named Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as its “Sexiest Man Alive!”
(See articles by the Daily Mail and People.)

Sports Illustrated, Dec. 19, 2016

Sports Illustrated named NBA star LeBron James as its “Sportsperson of the Year.”
(See article by the Daily Mail.)

Sports Illustrated, Dec. 26, 2016

Sports Illustrated spotlighted Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps on the cover of its year-in-review issue.

Golden Globes no better than Oscars at picking memorable best movie songs

I’ve written before about how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences overlooks a lot of great original songs when picking the Oscar for Best Original Song.
The same can be said of the Golden Globes given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The Golden Globe nominations came out Thursday and the contenders for Best Original Song in a motion picture are pretty mundane. The front-runner has to be “See You Again” from “Furious 7.” Variety lists the song as a front-runner for the Oscar as well.
That’s fine. It’s a very popular song, having reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s also nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
But I wish the other nominees were as memorable. Of the remaining four nominees, only “Love Me Like You Do” from “Fifty Shades of Grey” is memorable. And it reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I was disappointed to see songs from the excellent soundtrack to the animated movie “Home” snubbed by the Golden Globe nominations this year.
In Variety’s list of Oscar contenders, only “Dancing in the Dark” from “Home” merits a mention. Pop star Rihanna co-wrote and sang several great songs for the underrated animated movie, including “Dancing in the Dark” and “Towards the Sun.”
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has awarded Golden Globes for Best Original Song since 1962. To date, it has agreed with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 55% of the time on the award for best original movie song of the year.
So maybe Rihanna will have a shot at an Oscar nomination this time.

Related reading:

Oscar snubs for Best Original Song in 2014 include Lorde and Fall Out Boy (Jan. 26, 2015)

Pop music stars who have won Oscars for Best Original Song (Jan. 27, 2015)

Memorable movie songs passed over for Oscars (Jan. 28, 2015)

‘Amy,’ other music documentaries in contention for Oscar

In July, I wrote that music documentaries are having a renaissance.
“Amy,” the documentary about late singer Amy Winehouse, is the frontrunner for an Academy Award for best documentary at the 2016 ceremony, according to Variety, Indiewire and AwardsCirc.
Other music-themed documentaries are listed as contenders for an Oscar nomination this year as well. They include “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” “Miss Sharon Jones!,” “Janis: Little Girl Blue” and “All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records.”
In two of the past three years, the Oscar for best documentary has gone to a music-themed film. Those recent winners include “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012) and “20 Feet from Stardom” (2013).
Meanwhile, other music documentaries are popping up.
On Sept. 18, Netflix debuted “Keith Richards: Under the Influence,” a documentary about the Rolling Stones guitarist.
On Sept. 23, “Arcade Fire: The Reflektor Tapes” was released in theaters. The documentary covers the making of Arcade Fire’s album “Reflektor.”
Also last month, Showtime premiered “Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church,” a documentary with previously unseen footage of his seminal performance at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival. It’s due out on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on Nov. 6.
Oct. 16 saw the DVD and Blu-ray release of “Rage Against the Machine: Live at Finsbury Park.” It includes the rock band’s famed June 2010 concert in London’s Finsbury Park and a behind-the-scenes documentary.
On Nov. 7, HBO is set to premiere a documentary about Irish rock band U2 and its recent Innocence + Experience Tour.
One highly anticipated music documentary is being withheld from release because of lawsuits.
Aretha Franklin has blocked the release of “Amazing Grace,” a documentary about the Queen of Soul and her album of the same name. It was directed by Sydney Pollack and is heavily comprised of footage from a legendary 1972 concert in Los Angeles.
But wait, there’s more.
Pop-punk band Green Day has announced a documentary, “Heart Like A Hand Grenade,” that chronicles the recording of its classic album “American Idiot.”
Pop singer Katy Perry’s halftime show at Super Bowl XLIX is the subject of an upcoming documentary called “Katy Perry: Making of the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show.”
Singer Justin Timberlake is working with director Jonathan Demme on film that captured the final date of Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience World Tour.

Related reading:

The best-reviewed music documentaries of all time (July 12, 2015)

Memorable movie songs passed over for Oscars

Many winners of the Oscar for Best Original Song aren’t very memorable. By contrast, there have been quite a few hit songs that have stood the test of time that were passed over by the Academy Awards.
A good number of those shunned songs are on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 songs in American cinema.
What follows is a list of great movie songs that didn’t win Oscars:

• “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon & Garfunkel from “The Graduate” (1967) shamefully was not nominated for an Academy Award. The winning song that year was “Talk to the Animals” from “Doctor Dolittle.”
• “The Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book” (1967) was nominated, but also lost to “Talk to the Animals.” And the terrific “I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)” from “The Jungle Book” wasn’t even nominated.
• “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney and Wings from the 1973 James Bond movie lost the Oscar that year to “The Way We Were” from the movie of the same name.
• “Nobody Does It Better,” performed by Carly Simon for the 1977 James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me,” lost to the lame tune “You Light Up My Life” from the movie of the same name.
• “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees from “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) wasn’t even nominated in the year “You Light Up My Life” won. Neither was a bunch of Bee Gees hits from the soundtrack including “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Night Fever” and “More Than a Woman.”
• “Rainbow Connection” from “The Muppet Movie” (1979) was nominated, but lost the Oscar to the unmemorable “It Goes Like It Goes” from “Norma Rae.”
• “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” by Phil Collins from the 1984 movie “Against All Odds,” was nominated but lost out to the saccharine Steve Wonder tune “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from “The Woman in Red.”
• “I Have Nothing,” performed by Whitney Houston for the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard” (1992), was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin.” “Run to You,” another classic Whitney Houston song from “The Bodyguard,” also was nominated that year.
• “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” performed by Aerosmith for “Armageddon” (1998), was nominated but lost to the forgettable “When You Believe” from “The Prince of Egypt.”
• “The Great Beyond” by REM for the 1999 movie “Man on the Moon” was not even nominated for an Oscar.

Photos: Promotional art for “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins (top) and “The Great Beyond” by REM.

Pop music stars who have won Oscars for Best Original Song

What do Bob Dylan, Eminem and Elton John have in common?
They’ve all won Oscars for writing songs for movies.
What follows is a list of pop music stars who have won Oscars for Best Original Song.

• Isaac Hayes, “Theme from Shaft”, “Shaft”, 1971
• Barbra Streisand, “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)”, “A Star Is Born”, 1976
• Stevie Wonder, “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, “The Woman in Red”, 1984
• Lionel Richie, “Say You, Say Me”, “White Nights”, 1985
• Carly Simon, “Let the River Run”, “Working Girl”, 1988
• Bruce Springsteen, “Streets of Philadelphia”, “Philadelphia”, 1993
• Elton John, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, “The Lion King”, 1994
• Phil Collins, “You’ll Be in My Heart”, “Tarzan”, 1999
• Bob Dylan, “Things Have Changed”, “Wonder Boys”, 2000
• Eminem, “Lose Yourself”, “8 Mile”, 2002
• Annie Lennox, “Into the West”, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, 2003
• Juicy J, Frayser Boy and DJ Paul, “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp”, “Hustle & Flow”, 2005
• Melissa Etheridge, “I Need to Wake Up”, “An Inconvenient Truth”, 2006
• Adele, “Skyfall”, “Skyfall”, 2012

Several pop stars also have won Oscars for Best Original Score. They are:

• The Beatles, “Let It Be”, 1970
• Prince, “Purple Rain”, 1984
• David Byrne, “The Last Emperor”, 1987

Oscar snubs for Best Original Song in 2014 include Lorde and Fall Out Boy

One of the most frustrating categories at the Academy Awards is for Best Original Song.
That’s because the most memorable movie songs, including those that are big hits on the radio, don’t usually win. In many cases, they aren’t even nominated.
Last year’s ceremony was an exception, with “Let It Go” from the Disney animated musical “Frozen” winning the trophy.
But this year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was back to form, skipping a number of popular songs in favor of a few obscure ones.
Entertainment Weekly readers cited two songs as Oscar snubs that really bugged them: “Yellow Flicker Beat” by Lorde from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1” and “Big Eyes” by Lana Del Rey for “Big Eyes.” They were among the 79 original songs short-listed for Oscar contention in December.
Both of those songs were nominated for a Golden Globe award, but lost to “Glory” by John Legend and Common from “Selma.” “Glory” is the front-runner for the Best Original Song at the 2015 Oscars.
To the list of snubs, I’d add “Immortals” by Fall Out Boy from “Big Hero 6.”
Some of the most significant songs from major motion pictures aren’t eligible for Oscars because they weren’t written for the screen.
For instance, “Boom Clap” by Charli XCX was a big hit from “The Fault in Our Stars,” but it wasn’t written for the movie. So it wasn’t eligible for an Oscar.
The 2015 Oscars will be awarded on Feb. 22.

Time to end the use of Roman numerals

Advertisers, marketers and designers are the only ones still using Roman numerals. Apparently they think it adds an air of class or an epic feel to their works. But using the numerical system of ancient Rome today is just stupid.
The National Football League uses Roman numerals to identify each new Super Bowl because the players are like gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. But the numbers are getting ridiculous and force readers to do math.
The 2014 Super Bowl is called Super Bowl XLVIII. Quick, what number is that?
It’s 48.
X is 10, but, in this case, you subtract it from L or 50 to make 40. Then you add V or 5 and III or 3 to make 48. Yeah, that’s a whole lot easier than calling it Super Bowl 48 or Super Bowl 2014.
Hollywood is one of the worst offenders for using Roman numerals. They use them to make their movies sound more important. So we have “Rocky V,” “Rambo III,” “ Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan,” and “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.” Etcetera etc.
Thankfully the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn’t use Roman numerals for the Oscars. Next year’s Oscars will be the 86th Academy Awards.
The matter of whether to use Roman numerals came up recently for me when writing about the video game “Grand Theft Auto 5” and several Samsung smartphones.
Take-Two Interactive Software calls its game “Grand Theft Auto V,” but the packaging also spells out “Five.” Gamers refer to the title as “GTA 5” for short.
As for Samsung, they’ve been inconsistent with product names. Sometimes they use Roman numerals in marketing and other times they don’t. The company was calling its latest smartphone the Galaxy S IV, before it wised up and renamed it the Galaxy S4. Presumably they realized that S IV looked too much like “Siv.”
Some hard-line editors will say that a name is a name and that’s it. I disagree when it comes to Roman numerals.
The AP Stylebook even says that Roman numerals should be used “sparingly,” primarily when referring to wars and to establish personal sequence for people. It also can cover some legislation and for Super Bowls, the reference guide says.
Personally I’d be in favor of changing all Roman numeral usage to today’s Arabic numbers.

Photo: Screenshot from “Grand Theft Auto 5.” 

Documenting my life on Twitter

Most of my posts on Twitter are to share weblinks to news articles. But occasionally I’ll tweet something personal or make a pithy observation.
In April 2011, I compiled a sampling of the latter from my first two years on Twitter. I wanted to see what parts of my life I was documenting on Twitter. With this post, I’ll cover the next two years of my Twitter posts.
Many of the personal posts included photos, but I won’t run those here.

Living in Connecticut 

Rainy day in CT, so took the family to see “Rio.” The kids liked it and that’s all that matters. $36 for 4 tickets, $20 for concessions. (April 16, 2011)

At New Canaan, CT, library to hear ESPN and ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer speak. (May 1, 2011)

Just plucked two ticks off my daughter. The scourge of Connecticut ticks continues. (May 14, 2011)

Moving to Virginia 

Stopped to see the Liberty Bell on the drive from Conn. to Va. Beautiful day in Philly. (Aug. 19, 2011)

Seeing Tysons Corner, McLean and Vienna, Va., for the 1st time in 12 yrs. I hardly recognized the area where I used to live. (Aug. 19, 2011)

Moving into new house in Vienna, Va., today. As usual, I think we have too much stuff. (Aug. 23, 2011)

5.9 magnitude earthquake in Va. Typical overreaction in DC. (Aug. 23, 2011)

Vintage Chicago Bears glasses survive another move. If only the team were as tough. (Aug. 27, 2011)

Glad I’m not in New Canaan, CT, now. 70% of village without power, many roads closed. Been there, done that too many times. (Aug. 28, 2011)

Porn parodies of Oscar-winning movies

In honor of the Academy Awards tonight, here’s a list of funny porn parody titles for Oscar-winning movies.

Actual porn parodies of Oscar-winning movies (and the titles they mock):

A Beautiful Behind (A Beautiful Mind)
American Booty (American Beauty)
Backside to the Future (Back to the Future)
Bitanic (Titanic)
Breast Side Story (West Side Story)
Bust Side Story (West Side Story)
Dances with Foxes (Dances with Wolves)
Diddle Her on the Roof (Fiddler on the Roof)
Dun-Her (Ben-Hur)
Forrest Hump (Forrest Gump)
Good Will Humping (Good Will Hunting)
My Bare Lady (My Fair Lady)
No Country for Old MILFs (No Country for Old Men)
On Golden Blonde (On Golden Pond)
Pump Fiction (Pulp Fiction)
Riding Miss Daisy (Driving Miss Daisy)
Saving Ryan’s Privates (Saving Private Ryan)
Whore of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings)

Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez figure in 2013 celebrity predictions

Hollywood watchers are predicting that Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” will win Best Picture at this year’s Oscars. But “Zero Dark Thirty” could pull an upset win, GoldDerby says.
Here are some more entertainment, pop culture and miscellaneous predictions for 2013.

Molly Chance, a writer at entertainment blog Zap2It, makes a bunch of interesting predictions:

• Anne Hathaway will win an Oscar for “Les Miserables,” and then go back to making terrible movies.
• “World War Z” will be a critical and box-office disappointment when audiences become fatigued by dystopias and explosions.
• Selena Gomez will dump the Biebs (Justin Bieber) for good.
• Someone in (boy band) One Direction will date someone else in One Direction.

Emily Hewett, showbiz reporter for U.K.’s Metro, weighs in with her predictions for the new year:

• Rihanna and Chris Brown tie the knot in Las Vegas.
• Harry Styles (of One Direction) goes solo.
• Taylor Swift dumps Harry Styles and writes a song about his cougar fantasies.
• K-Stew and R-Patz skulk off for secret wedding. (That’s Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson for the uninitiated.) 

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Rogowsky makes some Hollywood predictions, too:

• “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” will be the box-office hit of the year, edging out “Iron Man 3” and “Man of Steel.”
• “The Great Gatsby” will be a box-office bust.
• The Lone Ranger” will do decent numbers, but not enough to overcome its prodigious budget. 

InStyle U.K. predicts the break-out stars of 2013:

• British actress Holliday Grainger. Having acted in period dramas “Anna Karenina” and “Jane Eyre,” she’s set to star as Estella in “Great Expectations,” due out next Christmas. 
• Actress Alice Englert, who is starring in “Beautiful Creatures,” which is touted as the next “Twilight.” InStyle U.K. calls her “the next Kristin Stewart.” 
• Actor Sam Claflin, who last appeared in “Snow White and the Huntsman,” will play Finnick Odair in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” 
• Actress AnnaSophia Robb, cast as the young Carrie Bradshaw in the “Sex and the City” prequel TV series, “The Carrie Diaries.” 
• Music artists: The Staves, Disclosure, Angel Haze and Alt J. 

Super Bowl predictions: 

Bleacher Report writer Matt Schreiber thinks the New England Patriots will defeat the Green Bay Packers to win Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 in New Orleans.
“I just feel that Tom Brady has at least one more Super Bowl victory in him,” Schreiber says. “This will be an epic match-up and a shootout if it does indeed turn out this way. Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez will likely be healthy at this point. When that’s the case, the Patriots are nearly impossible to stop.”

Nick Dimengo, a featured columnist for the Bleacher Report, sees the Denver Broncos defeating the Packers in the Super Bowl.
“Peyton Manning has reestablished himself as the best quarterback in the NFL,” Dimengo says. “After a season where he’s led Denver to a mile-long winning streak (OK, just 10 games), while proving to be balanced on both offense and defense, we bet fans will be tapping the Rockies to celebrate the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the Elway days.”

Sports and other predictions: 

Dimengo makes a bunch of bold sports predictions for the year.

• Phil Jackson returns to coaching. With 10 NBA coaching titles so far, Jackson will get restless for more. He’s likely to return to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. 
• Notre Dame upsets Alabama in college football’s BCS National Championship Game.
• Indiana defeats Michigan in the NCAA basketball championship.
• Golfer Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament. 
• San Francisco Giants repeat as Major League Baseball World Series champs. 

The USA Today sports staff chimes in with its sports predictions for the year ahead:

• The NCAA announces that a future Final Four will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
• Tiger Woods wins the Masters. 
• Tennis star Serena Williams adds two majors, upping her career total to 17, one short of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. 
• Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant wins his first NBA MVP award. 

Bruce Krasting, a former hedge fund manager, makes some sports predictions and other prognostications in an article for Business Insider:

• Tiger Woods will win a major. Rory McIlroy will not have a good season due to new equipment. Jason Dufner will win the FedEx Cup. 
• Denver will beat Green Bay in the Super Bowl. 
• In the NBA, the Miami Heat will lose to Oklahoma. 
• In baseball, the California Angels will face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first-ever “All L.A.” World Series. The Angels will go on to win, but no one outside of SoCal will care, so the TV audience will be the lowest in years. 
• Several states will ban the sale of high energy drinks after more evidence the drinks can cause health problems.
• The Chevy Volt and the Tesla will not sell well. 
• The Mars rover will find carbon. 
• Apple will spend a fair bit of 2013 below $500, but will end the year close to $600. 
• Facebook will not trade above $31. This busted IPO will continue to be a drag on other tech IPOs. 

Thomas Frey, an editor at The Futurist magazine, sees the legalized marijuana movement continuing.

“As Napa Valley is to the wine industry, Colorado and Washington will be to the emerging marijuana industry,” he said. “While many will take a wait-and-see approach to how the industry develops, major fortunes will be won and lost starting with the early players in 2013.”

Photo: Rihanna from GQ. 

‘The Last Airbender,’ ‘Piranha 3D’ are big winners in pre-Oscar awards

Movie awards season reaches its climax tonight with the Oscars. But before the prestigious Academy Awards are handed out, two more notorious movie awards ceremonies were held. On Saturday, the Razzie Awards called out the worst movies and performances of 2010. The big loser was writer-director M. Night Shyamalan and his critically panned martial-arts fantasy “The Last Airbender.” It earned Golden Raspberry trophies for Worst Picture, Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actor, and a special award for “Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3-D.”
For the complete list of awardees, check out EW.com’s coverage.
Also awarded last week were the Anatomy Awards for best female nudity in the movies and on TV. The Anatomy Awards are the work of Jim McBride and his website MrSkin.com.
Campy horror movie “Piranha 3D” won for Breast Picture and Best Nude Parasailing. Check out the coverage by Creative Loafing and AOL.

Another year of slow progress for female movie directors

At last year’s Oscars, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director.
She was the only woman among the five nominees.
Two of the 10 Best Picture nominees last year were directed by women, including Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” and Lone Scherfig’s “An Education.”
At this year’s Oscars, to be held Sunday Feb. 27, no women are nominated for Best Director. But like last year, two of the 10 Best Picture nominees were directed by women: “The Kids Are All Right” by Lisa Cholodenko and “Winter’s Bone” by Debra Granik.
I recently watched two movies directed by women that I thought were excellent: “The Savages” (2007) by Tamara Jenkins and “Away from Her” (2006) by Sarah Polley.
That got me thinking about who the best female directors working today are.
So I posed the question to the Netflix community at Ning.
One member spoke of her fondness for the work of Julie Taymor, who did “Titus” (1999), “Frida” (2002), “Across the Universe” (2007) and “The Tempest” (2010).
But there wasn’t a lot of love for Bigelow, who also directed “Near Dark” (1987) and “Point Break” (1991), and Sofia Coppola, who directed “Lost in Translation” (2003). Both were described as “mediocre.”
In July 2010, Metacritic ranked the best women film directors by their critical reviews.

Sandra Bullock: A class act

It’s hard not to like Sandra Bullock, this year’s Oscar winner for best actress for “The Blind Side.”
She comes off as a down-to-earth, girl next door. She’s been in good movies and bad, but takes it in stride. She’s got a great attitude and sense of humor.
Her decision to show up at the Razzies on Saturday to accept an award for worst actress in “All About Steve” was brilliant. She took control of the event, handing out DVDs of the movie to attendees and asking them to reconsider.
“This is the deal we are going to make,” she said, according to EW. “You promise to watch the movie and really consider whether it was really and truly the worst performance. If you are willing to watch it, I will come back next year and give back the Razzie.”
The Razzies should take Bullock up on her offer and reconsider the decision to name Bullock as worst actress.
Let’s face it: the Razzies don’t have a lot of credibility anyway. Their main objective is to zing the biggest celebrities they can for bad Hollywood movies (some worse than others). They make up categories willy-nilly and seem to have it in for certain actors year after year.
Bullock’s competition for worst actress of 2009 included: Beyonce, “Obsessed”; Miley Cyrus, “Hannah Montana: The Movie”; Megan Fox, “Jennifer’s Body” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”; and Sarah Jessica Parker, “ Did You Hear About the Morgans?”
Certainly any of those other women deserve the award more.

Photo of Sandra Bullock at the 2010 Academy Awards (Reuters)

‘District 9’ best picture nomination shows the value of the expanded Oscar ballot

The decision by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to expand the number of Oscar nominees for best picture from five to 10 has successfully opened up the category to a broader range of movies.
The best example is the nomination of science-fiction drama “District 9.” Few expected it to get a best picture nod, especially with another sci-fi movie, “Avatar,” considered a shoe-in.
Usually science fiction, fantasy and horror movies are treated like second-class citizens compared with the usual Oscar-bait dramas. Last year’s snubbing of “The Dark Knight” is a case in point.
The expanded slate also allowed an animated movie, “Up,” to get recognized.
Of the 10 best picture nominees, four are already on home video, including frontrunner “The Hurt Locker,” according to Home Media Magazine. Other nominees on DVD and Blu-ray Disc are “Inglourious Basterds,” “Up” and “District 9.”
Three more have been scheduled for release on home video: “A Serious Man” (Feb. 9), “Precious” (March 9) and “The Blind Side” (March 23).
The other three nominees – “Avatar,” “An Education” and “Up in the Air,” are still in theaters, with no home video release scheduled.
The winners will be announced on Sunday March 7.

Related links:

Official list of nominees from Oscars.org.
The Academy Awards homepage.

Penélope Cruz: From worst to first

Movie critics reject the idea of giving acting Oscars based on career achievement instead of just the one performance an actor is nominated for in any given year.
As a movie fan, I don’t have a problem with the idea per se. There should be a balancing act. Both should be considered.
When Academy voters choose a relative unknown on the basis of one movie, their picks sometimes come back to haunt them. If only they could get back that best actor Oscar awarded to Roberto Benigni in 1998 or the best supporting actor Oscar given to Cuba Gooding Jr. in 1996.
Oscar voters sometimes find out later that an actor they thought at first was cute is pretty annoying or another actor they thought was talented was simply playing himself.
That brings me to Penélope Cruz, who won the best supporting actress Oscar at last night’s awards ceremony for her work in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
She’s great in her native Spanish language in the films of Pedro Almodóvar or movies like “Open Your Eyes.”
But for some reason she can be horrible in English language movies. Maybe she’s bad at picking Hollywood scripts.
She was nominated for worst actress by the Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies, in 2001 for three films: “Blow,” “Captain Corelli's Mandolin” and “Vanilla Sky.” She lost to Mariah Carey for “Glitter.”
When it comes to the Academy Award for best supporting actress another factor comes into play: looks.

The award these days often goes to attractive young starlets. (Rachel Weisz, Renée Zellweger, Jennifer Connelly, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angelina Jolie, etc.) Cruz certainly fits that bill.

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ Is This Year’s ‘The Last Emperor’

“Slumdog Millionaire” won the Oscar for best picture tonight, following in the footsteps of 1987 winner “The Last Emperor.”
Both films hold the distinction of winning the top prize at the Academy Awards without having any of their actors nominated. Voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apparently couldn’t tell if the acting was any good because they hadn’t seen the actors before. For all they knew, the Indians in “Slumdog Millionaire” were playing themselves.
It’s easier to pick English actress Kate Winslet doing a German accent for "The Reader." That’s ACTING!, as Jon Lovitz’s Master Thespian character on SNL would shout.
As usual the comedic actors stole the show at the 81st Academy Awards.
Ben Stiller riffed on actor Joaquin Phoenix’s recent bizarre appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Stiller wore a shaggy, unkempt beard and sunglasses and acted dazed and confused while co-presenting an award with Natalie Portman.
Steve Martin and Tina Fey were quite funny presenting the screenwriting awards.
And James Franco and Seth Rogen reprised their stoner roles from the movie “Pineapple Express” in a bit co-written by Judd Apatow. The segment was meant to spotlight comedy movies from 2008, but showed the guys sitting on a couch, laughing uproariously to serious films like “The Reader” and “Doubt.” Very funny.
Director Baz Luhrmann really needs to make another musical. After bombing with the epic drama “Australia” last year, he created a nifty musical and dance montage for the Oscars featuring Hugh Jackman and Beyonce Knowles. Luhrmann directed the modern musical masterpiece “Moulin Rouge!” (2001).
Speaking of musical numbers, the performances of two Bollywood songs from “Slumdog Millionaire” on the Oscar telecast were spectacular.

Oscar for worst dressed goes to … me

As part of its publicity campaign for this year’s Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been holding a “Meet the Oscars” exhibit in Chicago.
The exhibit lets movie fans hold an actual Oscar statuette and get their photo taken. The Oscars are made in Chicago at R.S. Owens & Co.
The one-of-a-kind exhibit features six of the Oscars to be presented at the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony. Also on display is the Oscar won by Clark Gable for his performance in “It Happened One Night” (1934). Gable’s estate sold the Oscar at auction in 1996 for $607,500 to director Steven Spielberg. He returned it to the Motion Picture Academy later that year.
The “Meet the Oscars” exhibit runs Feb. 13-22 at The Shops At North Bridge on Michigan Avenue at Grand Avenue.

I stopped by with the kids on Monday. Wearing an old pair of jeans and a University of Illinois sweatshirt, I proudly accepted my Oscar for worst-dressed visitor. My thanks to the Academy.
The Oscars will be presented on Sunday evening and televised on ABC.

Oscars catch the viral marketing bug

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is using some online viral marketing to drum up interest in this year’s Oscars telecast.
With a slate of nominees heavy on art films rather than Hollywood blockbusters, this year’s movie awards ceremony could be similar to last year’s low-rated affair. So the Academy has revamped its Oscars.com Web site and created a fun interactive marketing campaign to promote what it’s calling “the biggest movie event of the year.”
At one Web site, people can create a custom video where they are the subject of an Entertainment Tonight-style gossip story. You type in your name and it appears printed on screen, on tattoos, a license plate and even protester signs throughout the fictitious news report. (See photos above featuring yours truly as a bad boy Hollywood celeb.) You can then e-mail the video to friends and family.
Will this viral marketing approach get people to tune into the Feb. 22 show? We'll see. But the Academy has its fingers crossed that this year’s show, hosted by actor Hugh Jackman, does better than last year’s show, which was the lowest rated since Nielsen began using its “people meter” measuring system in 1983, according to the New York Times.

Low ratings ahead for 2009 Oscar telecast

The Oscar nominations are out and I’m like Bill Murray when he used to do his Oscar picks on “Saturday Night Live.”
Murray would have a board with the nominee names on magnets. He’d quickly toss most of them off, saying, “Didn’t see it … didn’t see it … didn’t see it.”
When I was younger I used to see most of the Best Picture nominees before the awards telecast. Now I’m lucky to see one or two beforehand and usually those are available on DVD. When you have young kids at home, it’s hard to get out and see movies targeted to adults.
I mostly use awards season now to fill up my Netflix queue with quality films to watch later, when they’re out on video disc.
I’m probably not alone. Perhaps that is why the Oscar awards show ratings have been declining. Fewer people are seeing the nominated films in the theater. And they’re not interested in the telecast because they haven’t seen many of the films yet, unless they’re out on DVD.
Based on that assumption, this year's Oscar telecast should be a low-rated affair. All of the Best Picture nominees are currently in theaters and only one would classify as a mainstream hit.
I’ve seen none of the five films up for Best Picture this year. I saw “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E,” but they didn’t get nods for the top prize.
I have little interest in seeing “Frost/Nixon” (stage adaptations usually aren’t very cinematic), “Milk” (I don’t like Sean Penn and I’m tired of bio pics) and “The Reader” (got the weakest reviews of the five – only 60% favorable reviews on RottenTomatoes.com. Another effective lobbying campaign by the Weinstein brothers).
I do want to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the only hit film of the bunch. It’s based on a story by my cousin F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Way to represent, Scott!) I also like the work of director David Fincher.
The final nominee, “Slumdog Millionaire,” is a must-see. I’m a fan of director Danny Boyle.

Even if I haven't seen many of the nominated films, I'll still watch the Oscar telecast Sun. Feb. 22 on ABC. It's the Super Bowl for film buffs.

(Above photo from Oscar.com)