Quips and Notes from the Oscars

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Quips and notes from the Oscars . . .

The host Chris Rock cursed on the third word out of his mouth. But that was it for the profanity, and his entertainment, for the night. I can't wait until they bring back Billy Crystal to host.

Chris Rock on actors: "The only acting you ever see at the Oscars tonight is when people act like they're not mad they lost. Like the year when Halle Berry won and Nicole Kidman was smiling so wide, she should have won an Emmy at the Oscars for her great performance. I was like, if you'd done that in the movie, you'd have won an Oscar, girl."

The fashions were great this year: Salma Hayek (pictured at left)in a Prada gown with a mermaid hemline, Johnny Depp, always on his own path, wore a blue shawl-collared suit, Chris Rock wore formalwear from Sean Combs' collection Sean Jean, Charlize Theron usually looks great but got lost in all the ruffles on her gown, Virginia Madsen looked tipsy with massive ear bobs that threatened to damage her lobes, Gwyneth Paltrow wor a chic-looking gown designed by Stella McCartney, while Renee Zielweiger looked cartoonish and her hair is way too dark.

And the Brad Pitt/Jennifer Aniston award for the Best-looking Couple goes to: Leonardo DiCaprio and his girlfriend, supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

, Hillary Swank (Best Actress): "I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream." (Hillary also actually thanked her LAWYERS during her acceptance speech . . .)

Class act: Chad Lowe told everyone at the Governor's Ball after the show that his wife (Hillary Swank) is a better wife than actress.

Cate Blanchett (Best Supporting Actress) in thanking Martin Scorsese: "I hope my son will marry your daughter."

Clint Eastwood is the oldest director (74) to have won a statutee in the history of the awards: "I figure I'm just a kid. I'm got a lot of stuff to do yet."

Robin Williams (presenter): "They tell me now that SpongeBob is gay. SquarePants is not gay. Tight pants maybe. SpongeBob Hot Pants? You go, girl!"

Funniest guy: the dude pretending to be asleep when they announced his name as one of the nominees for best short animated film.

And finally, the catty bad acting diva who never disappoints: For her 45-second stage appearance, Barbra Streisand demanded her own dressing room back stage. It's all about you, isn’t it Barbara? As you stalled about forgetting your glasses and couldn't read the damn name of the winner, did you forget that you were handing the Oscar for Best Picture to a former Republican mayor?

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Jamie Foxx, Eastwood Rock at the Oscars

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

The "it's not a boxing movie" movie, "Million Dollar Baby" was the heavyweight champ at the Academy Awards Sunday, claiming best picture and three top awards, including honors for director Clint Eastwood, lead actress Hilary Swank and supporting actor Morgan Freeman.

The night meant more heartbreak for Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio. "The Aviator" came away with the most Oscars - five, including the supporting-actress prize for Cate Blanchett - but Scorsese lost the directing race for an incredible fifth time.

But this isn't a news report so let's get to the highlights, lowlights and other observations:

Chris Rock (host): "It's a great night tonight -- we have four black nominees. It's kind of like Def Oscar Jam tonight."

Jamie Foxx: "Give it up for Ray Charles and his beautiful legacy. And thank you Ray Charles for living!"

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Amazing Race 7 Starts March 1

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

The 11 globetrotting teams are set to begin the 7th edition of "The Amazing Race" on Tuesday night (March 1) in Los Angeles.

This season's race is already attracting attention because of the addition of veteran reality show players from "Survivor." Amber Brkich scored a cool million as the winner of last spring's "Survivor All-Stars" competition, closely followed by her fiance and runner-up, Rob Mariano.

According to Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan: "There's a new kind of tension among the teams because Rob and Amber are now a part of the mix. They are obviously a threat to many people. I've never seen so much raw energy at a start line."

"A lot of time on 'Survivor' is spent sitting down and working out what you are going to do," Keoghan said. "There's no time to contemplate like that in 'The Amazing Race,' where you have to make decisions in the moment, on the fly, very, very quickly. To me, this is actually the very antithesis of their experience on 'Survivor,' so viewers will see them reacting to a completely different experience here."

Keoghan says this is the season to watch: "I know I said this before about race 5, but I honestly believe number 7 is the best race that we have ever had."

"That has a lot to do with the teams we have, and I can assure you that the show has moved back to its roots in terms of the things that made people fall in love with this show in the first place."

And the dance card reads:

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A Look at the Oscars for Sunday Night

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Could it really be that the biggest films of the year weren't that memorable?

The top nominated films are a shock since so few people have actually seen them. The overly long Howard Hughes bio,"The Aviator," has only done about $75 million at the box office, compared to just $50 million for "Million Dollar Baby." In Hollywood dollars, that usually spells bomb. On the other hand, hugely popular films like "The Passion" ($800 world-wide Box Office) -- weren't even nominated. Not only were none of the blockbusters considered for awards, this is the weakest field of nominated films at the Oscars in decades. In fact, the TOTAL box office take of all 5 nominated movies combined is the lowest in Academy history.

"Million Dollar Baby", the Clint Eastwood film that people think is "Rocky" with a Sports Bra and have no idea about the real theme of the movie, is the predicted winner by the likes of Gold Derby, Movie City News, the LA Times, Roger Ebert, and so on. The betting odds have it ahead as well.

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Ashlee Simpson's Unreal Reality Tour

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

Television brought her into our homes, now Ashlee Simpson, the pop-rocker with the over-hyped career is out on a 2-month tour and coming to a stage in your neighborhood.

The "Autobiography Live!" tour kicked off last week on February 18th in L.A. and will promote Ashlee's album, "Autobiography" which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart earlier this year (shocking but true).

Like her older sister, gummy-pop singer Jessica Simpson, Ashlee is the star her own MTV reality show. The second season of "The Ashlee Simpson Show," began airing in January.

Ashlee's got the look -- all dyed black hair, faux 'tude, and bee-sting size lips (and butt chin) -- and she's easier to deal with than her completely fake sister, Jessica. Okay, so Jessica sings better and her husband is pretty, but that airhead dumb blonde act is just barfulous. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Ashlee is the smart one in the family. (I'll bet she knows that Chicken of the Sea is tuna and not chicken.)

, Sure, she made a mess of the hoedown on SNL but it's tuff to sing live, as she proved again at the Orange Bowl Halftime Show. People should understand that it takes long hours to tweak a record and make it sound great in the studio. But live? Ashlee, you still need singing lessons.

"For me, rock is something I've always listened to -- Blondie and the Pretenders and whatnot," Ashlee told an interviewer recently. "Rock is something I've wanted to do because a lot of the women had a lot of power, and they always had something to say." That's EDGY, Ash. Like, Lite POP edgy.

Memo to Ashlee: Rock stars play their own instruments and write their own music. If the record company does it for you, then chances are -- you're going to be manufactured pop star. You are a product, that's all. A record company is NOT going to let YOU dictate to THEM how their money is gonna be spent. They are in charge, not you. It doesn't matter that you want to make a rock album, you'll make a pop album if that's what the company wants. Heck, if they thought they could make millions of dollars by making you sing polkas, then you're gonna oompa-loompa the 'Beer Barrel Polka' til you puke. Wise up, Ashlee, you can't be as stupid as your sister. Can you?

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The Simpsons Snow Sculpture - Awesome talent there, dude.

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

From the website strangecosmos.com

Christina Ricci is "Cursed" Craven-Style

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

I'm a huge Wes Craven fan so it will be interesting to how "Cursed" turns out. Craven, who directed "Scream" trilogy, and "A Nightmare On Elm Street," has teamed up again with Kevin Williamson who also wrote the scripts for other top scare flicks -- "Scream" trilogy, "The Faculty," and "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

This time, Christina Ricci had the lead in "Cursed," a classic werewolf tale, Craven-style. Think "Scream" but with werewolves.

"Cursed" takes place on a dark night in Los Angeles and centers around an estranged brother and sister dealing with the recent loss of their parents. Ricci plays a movie publicist who ends up in a car accident, and she and her teenage brother are attacked a werewolf.

It's going to be interesting to see this one because Craven had to re-shoot almost the entire film when the first version turned out to be uh, cursed, and most of the footage was tossed. The movie was delayed, retooled, rewritten, and then the cast brought back for an almost total reshoot.

, Moviehole is reporting that Collective Soul has been confirmed as the band behind the theme song to "Cursed." Soul also did the theme track to Craven's "Scream 2" a few years back. The track listing for the "Cursed" soundtrack also includes titles by Days Grace, Dashboard Confessional, The Crystal Method, Bowling For Soup, and composer Marco Beltrami.

Also in the cast: Shannon Elizabeth, Portia de Rossi, Michael Rosenbaum, and Scott Foley.

"Cursed" opens Friday, February 25, 2005. Meanwhile, Ricci's supernatural thriller, "The Gathering," is still gathering dust on a shelf somewhere with no sign of release.

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Reviews for "Alone in the Dark" More Entertaining Than the Movie

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

The Tara Reid Christian Slater pic "Alone in the Dark" received some pretty humbling reviews when it came out. In fact, the reviews are better reading than actually watching the film. Enjoy!

"So mind-blowingly horrible that it teeters on the edge of cinematic immortality. " -- Peter Hartlaub, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Anyone who spends 10 bucks seeing it ought to get 11 bucks change and a written apology from the director and cast." -- Peter Howell, TORONTO STAR

"No better than whatever you might pick up while wearing a blindfold at Blockbuster, even if you happen to reach into a trash can." -- Jack Mathews, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

, "Saying Uwe Boll’s Alone in the Dark is better than his 2003 American debut House of the Dead is akin to praising syphilis for not being HIV." -- Nicholas Schager, SLANT MAGAZINE

"Trying to rehash this plot is like trying to describe a Jackson Pollock painting while drunk" -- Pete Croatto FILMCRITIC.COM

"If you took the 100 worst ideas ever conceived for a science-fiction film, rattled them around in a Lotto tumbler and spilled them out onto the screen at random, you could not produce a more asinine hodgepodge." -- Colin Covert, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

"As video game adaptations go, even Pong: The Movie would would have a lot more personality." -- Michael Rechtshaffen, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"Slater narrates as if reading a restaurant menu. Reid seems to have learned each long sentence in segments, so she wouldn't be overtaxed." -- Lawrence Toppman, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

"Think of the lamest horror movie you've ever seen. Now think of Tara Reid in the lamest horror movie you've ever seen. See how much worse it could have been?" -- Janice Page, BOSTON GLOBE

"Proves that it's possible to 'dumb down' a video game." -- Philip Wuntch, DALLAS MORNING NEWS

"Alone in the Dark will be the worst movie of 2005. The idea that anything could be worse is the only genuine scare the movie has to offer." -- Chris Kaltenbach, BALTIMORE SUN

"Tara-ble. " -- Russell Scott Smith, NEW YORK POST

Even the studio's website is a long-loading, dark and hard-to-see mess. See it at Alone In The Dark.

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Lindsay Lohan's Dad Threatened a Whack Job on Family

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

According to the divorce papers, Lindsay Lohan's dad had threatened to kill his estranged wife and children. With a creep like that for a dad, is it any wonder that Lindsay is messed?

Divorce papers were filed last month by Dina Lohan, Lindsay's mom, and allegations in that were revealed in them were just published in today's edition of the New York Daily News. Dina Lohan is seeking full custody of the couple's children, alimony and $1 million in damages.

The documents also describe several instances in which Lohan allegedly beat his wife.

Lindsay, 18, who earns $mega-millions every year, has been in a number of films including: "Parent Trap," "Mean Girls," "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" and "Freaky Friday."

Jackson Gets A Jury

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Faster than you can say "It's a beautiful thing to share your bed" the Michael Jackson trial has a jury selected - weeks before anyone thought it was possible.

According to the report at msnbc.com the jury contains four men and eight women, seven of them are white, four Hispanic and one Asian. No blacks, which means Jackson will have a trial by his peers -- middle-aged white women.

Jackson has a few things going in his favor: the word is that the young 15-year-old accuser has been a horrible witness in the mock trial questioning done by the prosecution side (which means he might do the same and fall apart on the witness stand), plus the fact that the teen accuser once accused his own mother of abuse to the police.

And going against Jackson is that most of the jurors are parents themselves and immediately know its damn weird for a 45-year-old man to sleep with little boys. When a single rich guy trolls for little pre-teen dudes -- and not babes -- it's time to wonder.

, At least now if Jackson is convicted and has to go to prison (and I'm NOT saying he's guilty or anything), he won't have to worry about being allowed to wear his nose-tip prothesis to cover up that third nostril. His last surgery by Dr. Werner Mang, a German Plastic surgeon, took some cartilage out of his ear to give his beak a new tip and it looks pretty good. But he should leave the Mary Poppins umbrella at home.

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