While there may be fierce competition for this year's best actor Tony among previous winners Brian Dennehy & Christopher Plummer (co-stars in the upcoming revival of "Inherit the Wind"), Kevin Spacey ("Moon for the Misbegotten"), and Nathan Lane ("Butley"), next year's winner may already have been decided — filmdom's Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe has so wowed West End critics with his daring performance in "Equus" that the show is almost certain to transfer to Broadway.
After all that talk about Harry Potter dropping his invisibility cloak, Radcliffe picked up the kinds of raves an actor can only dream about for playing a troubled teen who blinds six horses. The Daily Telegraph called him a "brilliant actor of unexpected range and depth" while The Independent said he "cut a compelling figure." The Daily Mail found him to be "equal to the stretching role" and The Guardian decided he was "no flash in the magic pan."
Photo: "Brilliant Radcliffe throws off Harry Potter's cloak," cheers London's Daily Telegraph. "He is a thrilling stage actor of unexpected range and depth." (Gielgud Theater)
Believe it or not, some Oscar fans are furious that Anna Nicole Smith wasn't hailed in the Im Memoriam salute during the telecast? In our forums, there is a lively yearlong discussion over which deceased stars will make the cut — and which won't — for the annual segment. Poster seanflynn provided an analysis of the dead certainties as well as the likely, possible and longshot candidates. Join in this ongoing debate HERE. One of our hardworking forum moderators, Boomer, mentions an official AMPAS list of Academy members who have passed away, which can be found HERE.
And over on The Huffington Post, documentary filmmaker and journalist Gabriel Rotello weighed in with his thoughts on the omission of Oscar winners composer Malcolm Arnold (best score, "Bridge Over the River Kwai") and Louis Edemann (best sound, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit") as well as nominees screenwriter Leonard Schrader ("Kiss of the Spider Woman") and costume designer Donfeld. His analysis revealed 16 of the 33 honorees were actors (though surprisingly not Yvonne DeCarlo) and he argues that, at five seconds a person, adding another half dozen would stretch the 3-hour plus show by a mere 30 seconds.
Photo: Was Anna Nicole Smith snubbed again by the academy? Perhaps a few of her fans will never get over how cruel Oscar voters were not to nominate her for "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult." (Paramount)
Kate Winslet may have made Oscar history by becoming the youngest actress, at age 31, to be nominated five times but unlike the previous recordholder, Olivia DeHavilland, who was 33 when she scored her fifth nod, and second Oscar, for "The Heiress," Winslet has yet to win one. And her shipmate from that big boat movie, Leonardo DiCaprio, has had three nominations but has always gone home empty-handed. Do you think an Oscar awaits for either of them? Join in the discussion in the forums CLICK HERE.
Photo: Doomed love on a doomed ship = no Oscar love for doomed nominees? (Paramount)
Variety reports: "Web surfers will no longer be reliving the magic moments of the 2007 Oscarcast via YouTube. The vid-viewing site complied with a Tuesday request from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to remove all unauthorized clips of the kudocast. Several segments of the show, including host Ellen DeGeneres' opening monologue and musical numbers featuring Will Ferrell and Beyonce, had been among YouTube's most-viewed content this week."
I give the Broadcast Film Critics Association so much grief on this subject that I deserved the nudging phone message I got yesterday from John De Simio, one of its directors. BFCA likes to strut about what a great Oscars forecaster its Critics Choice Awards are, but then I quibble about this-that-this and its chiefs take it in good stride. Well, John phoned yesterday to call attention to the parallels this year, which, yes, are striking since BFCA was the only major award group to cite "The Departed" as best pic before the academy did.
Here's where they agreed:
Best Picture: "The Departed"
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland"
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, "The Queen"
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"
Best Writer: Michael Arndt, "Little Miss Sunshine"
Best Documentary: "An Inconvenient Truth"
"Every morning after the Oscars, from Tom Shales to David Poland, many people often have many nasty things to say — the pacing is bad, they'll say the writing is clunky. I didn't find this year's show that difficult to watch," says Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere.com in our podcast chat. "I thought it was OK. (Ellen DeGeneres) was kind of TV-talkshowish, but that's what she does. I was waiting for something to really irritate me and nothing did.
"After over-analyzing and over-predicting for — what? — four or five months or longer, when it finally happens, what you'd like to see is any surprise," he adds. "I would really have loved to see Peter O'Toole win. Forest Whitaker didn't need another win. He didn't need to win the Oscar after all of the other accolades. He could easily have survived emotionally and he would've been fine. Peter O'Toole's life would've been a little sweeter and finer." Hear the full chat: CLICK HERE(Note: You may need to hold down your computer's Control key while clicking, then wait a few moments for the file to download.)
Ah, poor "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Babel" rooters. If only they'd known about a secret new formula to determine which movie will win best picture, they may not have bet the chicken farm on "The Departed" losing. Oscarwatch.com has a nifty link to the page of data by a pundit who claims that he's unearthed the winning formula to predicting the top Oscar outcome.
David Hanks says: "When the Director's Guild (DG) winner AND one of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) winners AND one of the Writers Guild (WG) winners are ALL given awards for the same film, that film has been named Best Picture 6 of 6 times (100%) during the last 46 years (1961-2006).
"When the Director's Guild (DG) winner AND one of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) winners AND one of the Writers Guild (WG) winners are ALL given awards for the same film, that film has been named Best Picture 6 of 6 times (100%) during the last 46 years (1961-2006).
The Envelope's newly revamped video gallery is booming and bursting with gotta-see clips from backstage at the Oscars (Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson), red-carpet fashions, celebs dishing at the swanky Vanity Fair party and even Elton John himself dishing at his own Oscar bash for hipsters. CLICK HERE to go to the gallery and make sure you use the slide-down button on the right side to dip down and see the wealth of choices.
DON'T MISS scrolling down a bit to see the special video interviews I did backstage at the Indie Spirits with winners Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps (best actor and actress), director of "The Lives of Others" (best foreign film) and producers of "Little Miss Sunshine" (best feature) and "Sweet Land" (best first feature). They're gems. CLICK HERE & SCROLL DOWN.
Photo below: On the eve of his big Oscar win, Michael Arndt talks about the Indie Spirit Award he'd just won for writing "Little Miss Sunshine."
(Indie Spirit videos camerawork: Manuel Quinttanilla)
Here's what "Dreamgirls" star Jennifer Hudson plans to do with her new Oscar statuette: "I'm going to put it in my house along with my Golden Globe and my SAG award and everything else, near my bathtub."
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