I Don't See Dead People

"There Will Be Blood": title for an award winning movie or the thought that women around the world would have about the prospect of meeting George Clooney's girlfriend in a dark alley? Discuss.












I wanted Julie Christie to win but I'm sorta glad that French chick won for Splash La Vie en Rose only because, well, upsets are fun.















Katherine Heigl's tool-ness grows exponentially every time I hear her speak. She was a presenter and announced that we should forgive her because she was 'really nervous'. Um, relax you phony, there are no Oscars in your future for "27 Dresses".


So my pet peeve with the dead people montage THIS YEAR had to be the music choice. Did they really need to build to a triumphant crescendo on Heath Ledger? I'm not sure what was more inappropriate: that or the glaring omissions. What was worse was that they put DATES after the In Memoriam (do they usually do this?) as if to say, "If you inconveniently die after our Jan 31st deadline, ROY SCHEIDER, we are NOT gonna re-edit this montage for you." This gets them off the hook for Roy, but Brad Renfro totally made the dead people deadline so I'm not sure what's up.

Memo to producers for next year: double check the obits and stick to the somber Forrest Gump theme for your montages. No need to get creative when it comes to the dead.

Go Diablo Cody...from Blogger to Oscar winner!

Pushing the (possibly only) Envelope

Is it wrong that I loved almost every second of the S.A.G. Awards? Is it because I haven't seen an awards show in awhile or was it really good?

Feel free to weigh in. Maybe it's because I agreed with (almost) every award. I knew it was going to be good when they started off by getting it right and giving the Sopranos the recognition they deserved.

I was so giddy from the speeches and all I decided to give out some awards of my own...

Missed opportunity of the night award: Alec Baldwin won for 30 Rock, but was MIA, so we didn't get to see him accept his richly deserved recognition by his peers and give (what I'm sure would've been) a great speech.

Which of course gave way to the...

Fakest smile of the night award: Jeremy Piven, who, right after LOSING to MIA Alec Baldwin, flashed those pearly whites only AFTER he realized the camera was on him.

Guy who made the girls (or at least, this one) swoon award : Javier Bardem, who for some reason can pull off that open shirt thing without looking cheesy. His genuine speech just made him hotter.

"I am definitely the only person on the planet who noticed this" award: THAT goes to me, for noticing that the very first clip in the Charles Durning Lifetime Achievement Award montage was from giant 1983 flop Twist of Fate, the ill-conceived John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John post-Grease re-pairing. Seriously? That's your choice to kick off the showcase of this talented actor's body of work, editor-person? Not Dog Day Afternoon? Not The Sting? Um, o.k., Twist of Fate. Whatever.

Speaking of Charles Durning...The "It's never too late to get it right, so get off your ass " Inspiration Award: It's a tie between both of these gentlemen who appeared at the awards:
1. Charles Durning - who didn't appear on screen till he was FORTY!
2. Mickey Rooney - who was married SEVEN times before meeting his current (and eighth) wife...who he's been married to for THIRTY years!

The "sure wish we'd submitted a different clip" award: people from Weeds, whose clip included Mary-Kate Olsen, less than a week after her name was splashed all over the headlines in connection with Heath Ledger's death.

And while we're on THAT subject...the "I guess we're not going to bother to re-edit the dead people montage in any respectful way and instead we're just gonna shove the Heath Ledger clip with no audio at the end after the fade to black when the music has stopped and the audience is wondering 'where's the Heath Ledger clip?' " award: editor-person that edited this montage...perhaps it's the same genius that cut together the Charles Durning piece? At least Daniel Day-Lewis paid tribute to Heath in his speech in a respectful way...even though I hate myself a little for letting the teeny-tiny cynic in my soul wonder a little bit if this was fake, especially since Daniel also talked about Heath on Oprah...and has said he didn't know him.

As Tom Cruise presented the last award of the evening, I longed for the days when I thought he was a hot movie star and not a crazy alien. I wonder if I will ever again be able to see him as anything other than a punchline.

Not to be, ya know, glib.

Over His Dead Body

Like most people, I reacted with sadness at the news that Heath Ledger had died.

Then I became sadder as the (expected) throngs of media vultures descended on the scene. It's sad but true to think of all the people that will profit from his death. Next week's issues of US Magazine et al will have him on the cover with headlines like "His Secret Life" and networks like E! will produce shows like "The Last Days of Heath Ledger".

So maybe it makes me a hypocrite since, admittedly, I'm watching this stuff too...but I felt a little better about myself that I was watching CNN, and not "The Insider".

That is, until Anderson Cooper had on Dr. Drew Pinsky to 'weigh in'.

Dr. Drew is starting to veer into Dr. Phil territory.

It's just a little too...icky that by commenting on Ledger's possible overdose, Dr. Drew is helping to promote his show, Celebrity Rehab. While I'm sure Dr. Drew wouldn't wish this ill on anyone, between Brad Renfro and now Heath Ledger's passing...it just smacks of some type of Faustian bargain for the benefit of Dr. Drew's career.

And I could kind of get past it until Anderson asked him if celebrities have a higher propensity to suffer from depression. Dr. Drew was just a LITTLE too self-congratulatory proclaiming that he had published the only data (data?) about celebrities because he had administered some type of personality questionnaire to celebs that were on his radio show.

Very scientific. Does this make James Lipton a medical expert, too?

Sigh.