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OSCARS 2008


How’d we miss the brown shoes?

Monday, February 25th, 2008
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Daniel Day-Lewis won for best actor, however his footwear left many of us miffed. Was I the only one frustrated that E! didn’t really show full-lengths of the clothes?

That must be why I was later told about Day-Lewis’ shoes. Sure, men can wear brown shoes with anything now. However, the red carpet seemed like the wrong place to wear work boots. It’s like his wife picked his shoes???

I’m not going to comment on her look–I leave that to the real experts.

Jeff Strickler: Tilda’s reaction + the Coens’ secret editor

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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Tilde Swinton appeared stunned when she was announced as the best supporting actress. And she insisted during back-stage interviews that she wasn’t faking it. She expected Rudy Dee to win. “I really just had a reverse ‘Zoolander’ moment when I think I heard someone else’s name and suddenly heard my own,” she said. “I’m still recovering from that moment, and I have no idea what happened after that.”

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Ever since they made “Blood Simple,” the Coen brothers have edited their films under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes. They had asked the academy, if they won, could they have two statues, but the academy said no because only one name was listed on the credits. It didn’t matter because Jaynes didn’t win, anyway. But had he * they * won, the Coens would have set an Oscar record by being the first filmmakers to win four awards for the same movie.

Colin Covert picks: Best picture

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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The nominees are:

“Atonement” (Focus Features) A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers

“Juno” (A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production) A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers

“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.) A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers

“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers

“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

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Covert picks: “No Country for Old Men.” A genre crime thriller executed with such flawless intelligence and craftsmanship that it becomes a work of art.

Colin Covert predicts: Best director

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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The nominees are:

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Julian Schnabel

“Juno” (A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production), Jason Reitman

“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.), Tony Gilroy

“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

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Covert picks: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, “No Country for Old Men.” After 25 years of making beautifully formed, commercially negligible outsider films, the Coens will be welcomed into the Hollywood establishment for their first modest hit.

Colin Covert predicts: Best actor

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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The nominees are:

George Clooney in “Michael Clayton”

Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”

Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah”

Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises”

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Covert picks: Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood.” As a power-mad, spiritually bankrupt oilman, the actor of his generation delivers the performance of his career. So far.

Colin Covert predicts: Best original Screenplay

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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The nominees are:

“Juno” written by Diablo Cody“Lars and the Real Girl” written by Nancy Oliver

“Michael Clayton” written by Tony Gilroy

“Ratatouille” screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird

“The Savages” written by Tamara Jenkins

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Covert picks: Diablo Cody, “Juno.” This prize often goes as a consolation award to a significant film that doesn’t quite measure up to the academy’s lofty standards in other categories. A fitting cap to freshman screenwriter Cody’s yearlong Cinderella story.

Amy Adams and the world’s most useless accessory

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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Didn’t Amy look amazing in her Proenza Schouler gown?

I also loved her little gold mesh bag. However, it was completely empty! Not even a lipstick in it. She fessed that much up to Ryan Seacrest. We could go into the psychology of what an empty bag might imply. However, I’ll let that go…especially those of us who believe it’s okay to do just about anything for fashion.

Jeff Strickler: The best sport of the year is…

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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There’s no Oscar for being the Good Sport of the Year, but if there were, Jack Nicholson would win hands down. His only official function was to be the butt of jokes. But he’s no dummy. He laughed at each one as if it was the funniest thing he’d heard all night. And, as a result, he was one of the few non-nominees who got to sit up front and center, right in front of the TV cameras.

Colin Covert predicts: Best actress

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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Biggest surprise of the night so far? It’s almost time for best actress. The nominees are:

Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”

in “Away from Her”

Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose”

Laura Linney in “The Savages”

Ellen Page in “Juno”

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Covert picks: Julie Christie, “Away From Her.” Christie’s luminous, unsparing portrait of an Alzheimer’s victim proves that she is more than an iconic and stylish beauty.

Jeff Strickler: Javier is nothing like a smurf!

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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Viva Cuba!

Javier Bardem, the winner of the best supporting actor award, is a fantastic performer. He has four Goya Awards * the Spanish version of the Oscar * to prove it. But most Americans who see their movies at suburban multiplexes couldn’t pick him out of a lineup of Smurfs.

So it’s easy to understand why the producers of the Oscra show, figuring that Bardem was pretty much a lock to win, tried to inject some famous faces first by showing a montage of previous winners, ending with Cuba Gooding Jr.’s classic hyper-gone-mad acceptance speech. After that, anything poor Bardem had to offer couldn’t help but seem lethargic by comparison.